The developers behind Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 have pulled back the curtain on one of the RPG's most distinctive qualities: its thunderous, bass-driven combat audio. At a GDC post-mortem panel, Sandfall Interactive's audio team revealed that the anime adaptation of Fire Force served as a foundational reference point for the game's entire sound direction.
The Fire Force Connection
Audio lead and music designer Raphael Joffres, principal sound designer Maxance Playez, and technical and cinematic sound designer Olivier Penchenier spoke candidly at GDC about what shaped Expedition 33's audio identity. The panel was attended by GamesRadar+.
Playez explained that he discovered Fire Force, the anime produced by David Production and based on the manga by Soul Eater creator Atsushi Ohkubo, through combat highlight clips during production. The series features fantasy firefighters wielding fire-based attacks against flame-born monsters, with hits accentuated by slowdown and heavy bass. That energy matched exactly what Playez was chasing.
"When I started sound design with electronic bass music influences, I found a video about the sound design of Fire Force," Playez said. "And at this moment, I was like, it's exactly the same energy."
He brought the reference to creative director Guillaume Broche, and the response was immediate. "Guillaume was like, let's do more of that, and it shaped the direction of the game," Joffres recalled.
info
Fire Force's sound design was handled by Jin Aketagawa and Yasumasa Koyama, whose approach treats audio as a musical element designed to impart power, rhythm, and impact rather than realism.Bass as a Design Language
Here's the thing: the Fire Force influence wasn't just aesthetic. It became a functional design tool that helped the team differentiate between attack types in Expedition 33's combat system.
Playez broke down how the team applied this thinking in practice:
- Standard attacks use powerful but grounded sound design
- Gradient and counter attacks receive sub-bass distortion to signal their increased impact
- The contrast between normal and powerful sounds gives players an audio cue that reinforces the visual feedback of each hit
"When Guillaume asked me to do some sound design, he always was pushing me to do something more powerful, more bass, more and more and more," Playez said. "I thought I couldn't do more powerful."
What most players miss is that this layered bass approach wasn't just about making the game sound cool. It was a deliberate communication strategy, using sound to tell players when they had landed a meaningful hit.
GDC audio post-mortem panel
From Joke to Blueprint
Joffres noted that the Fire Force reference started almost accidentally. "I think it kind of got started as a joke, just showing some stuff from Fire Force," he said, "but they started to do it as a reference."
Playez also admitted he hadn't even watched the full series. He found it through clips specifically highlighting its combat scenes, which speaks to how targeted and intentional the team's research process was. They weren't fans first; they were sound designers hunting for a specific energy.
The key here is that Expedition 33 is a French-developed RPG drawing heavily from JRPG traditions. The team was deliberately trying to blend Japanese and Western sound design sensibilities, and Fire Force gave them a working proof of concept.
"Because it was a JRPG, we tried to find a mix between Japanese sound design and European or American sound design," Playez explained. "Somebody already did it. So I think it was more confidence to go in this direction."
The result is a combat audio identity that feels distinctly its own, built on a foundation that players would likely never guess without this kind of behind-the-scenes transparency.
Source: Tech Yahoo
Make sure to check out our articles about top games to play in 2026:
Best Nintendo Switch Games for 2026
Best First-Person Shooters for 2026
Best PlayStation Indie Games for 2026
Best Multiplayer Games for 2026
Most Anticipated Games of 2026
Top Game Releases for January 2026
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What anime influenced Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's sound design?
The anime Fire Force, adapted by David Production, was a key reference for the game's combat audio. Its sound designers treated audio as a musical element emphasizing power, rhythm, and bass rather than realism.
Who handled audio on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33?
The audio team at Sandfall Interactive was led by audio lead and music designer Raphael Joffres, alongside principal sound designer Maxance Playez and technical and cinematic sound designer Olivier Penchenier.
Why does Expedition 33's combat sound so heavy and impactful?
The team intentionally built a bass-heavy audio identity inspired by electronic bass music and the sound design of Fire Force. Different attack types, from standard hits to counters, use varying levels of sub-bass distortion to communicate power to the player.
