There are two endings you can get in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, creating a dilemma for any potential sequels or further installments in the universe. Well, that's what you'd think anyway: developer Sandfall Interactive is refusing to choose, regardless of whatever else emerges from the setting.
Jennifer Svedberg-Yen, a lead writer on the JRPG-inspired blockbuster, explained the studio's perspective to IGN. "We are not going to pick one," she says, definitively. "Never say never, but there is no canon ending there. It is a Schrodinger's ending."
I'll keep this vague if you haven't finished Clair Obscur, but the finale contains a fork in the road. You can pick between two sides, and neither offer a huge amount of closure or neatness. They're both well-written, nuanced and provide some satisfaction, but clearly constructed for us to draw our own conclusions emotionally and narratively, and that makes them all the better, at least in my view.
This is all intentional, and Svedberg-Yen is extremely comfy on her fence when it comes to discussing how the narrative finishes. "We never even considered really a true, happy ending," she explains.
"I think there was maybe a happier one possibly," she continues. "You can see also in the way that the endings are edited, that one has a slightly more uplifting tone and one has a slightly darker tone. That was a choice that Guillaume made in terms of just having a little bit of shading there. But from my perspective, narratively, both are equally valid."
I must say, this kind of resolute refusal to take a side or canonize something is refreshing. It encourages discussion and pushes players to sit in the subjectivity of their perception and beliefs.
That said, this is definitely a conundrum for Clair Obscur 2, or whatever else Sandfall does in the universe. However the developers go about this issue, my hopes are high, and I'm, sure it'll give me much to ponder.
