After receiving so many awards and becoming the darling of the gaming industry, Chiaroscuro: Expedition 33 almost destined to influence future games. You'd think it would be nice if there were more games based on the famous game. Remake instead Legend of the Sword and the Fairy 4 caught in the crossfire of online discourse.
Legend of Sword and Fairy is a long-running and iconic Chinese mythology role-playing game series that debuted in 1995. Now, more than a decade and a number of sequels and spin-offs later, the fourth installment in the turn-based RPG series is being remade in Unreal Engine 5. Remake trailer circulates in Western media, largely because some aspects of the game resemble Chiaroscuro: Expedition 33. The fact that it is a Chinese language game has made it easy for some to disparage this RPG as nothing more than a clone.
“The original 2007 game looks like a Suikoden game, and now the remake looks like[s] like E33” reads one YouTube comment on the trailer upload.”Expedition 44“- writes another.
It could be argued that there are notable similarities between the two games. Both are turn-based fantasy RPGs with flashy attacks and an obvious parry system. But as Sandfall Interactive reminded people during one of many acceptance speeches at The Game Awards, Chiaroscuro this is not a project that just appeared out of thin air and took shape. Chiaroscuro owes a lot to Final Fantasy, known for its dramatic storylines, flashy spells, and sheer number of attacks. The Sword and the Fairy series also precedes Chiaroscuro. If you look at the gameplay of the original game being remade, it becomes obvious that both Clair Obscur and Legend of the Sword and the Fairy 4 owes a lot to Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. Most role-playing games have it! I can't be the only one who thinks that the main character of the Sword and the Fairy remake looks like Cloud Strife, right?
It also seems dismissive to simply write down a negative reaction to Legend of the Sword and the Fairy 4 as yet another iteration of Western anti-Chinese sentiment. After all, the original Legend of the Sword and the Fairy 4 had a much more distinctive user interface that players navigated through to make their next move, as you can see in “Let's Play” above. New version Legend of the Sword and the Fairy 4 imitates features that people associate with Expedition 33User interface, such as the live zoom that occurs when the player highlights attack options and turn order, displayed in the top left corner. People also point out other aspects, such as a move away from purely turn-based combat, but this is actually an observed trend in RPGs in general. Even Final Fantasy continues to find different ways to make the action more exciting.
Did Chiaroscuro invent QTE mini-games for attack and defense, moving menus or battles with fantastic creatures? Of course not. As commentators obediently note in the comments of any upload Legend of the Sword and the Fairy 4, these are elements that you can find in such broad series as Nintendo's Mario and Luigi RPGs. However, it seems disingenuous to say that there is zero Chiaroscuro influence in the remake of The Sword and the Fairy. Chiaroscuro It may not be the progenitor of many of its ideas, but what people are comparing here is the particular style in which the French RPG implements these ideas. It's not like the internet is comparing every JRPG imaginable to Persona 5 because it's the only game in the genre they know.
Ultimately, however, influence is the cross that any popular or iconic game must bear. Good ideas are replicated. The best ideas become their own genre – just watch Surviving Vampires, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildor Dark souls. At their best, new games still find a way to implement existing ideas in ways unique to the experience.
But let's not kid ourselves here. The likes of Clair Obscur are coming. Legend of the Sword and the Fairy 4 just happens to be the first one people can point to.
