Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 did not just nod to classic JRPGs. Sandfall Interactive CEO Guillaume Broche says one of the anime that inspired the game for its story was Attack on Titan, and the influence shows up in a specific place that matters for players: uniforms.

Broche explains the design logic in plain terms. When you see a character from Attack on Titan, you instantly know it is an Attack on Titan character because of the uniform. That is exactly “something I really wanted to bring over into Expedition 33,” he says, aiming to make the game recognizable “just from its uniforms.” In other words, the studio is building an instant identity system, so players can recognize the world at a glance, not after an hour of exposition.

That might sound like marketing window dressing, but it lines up with how game audiences actually experience RPGs. A JRPG lives and dies by how quickly players form attachment. They have to understand who the heroes are, what the faction identity feels like, and what kind of threat looms over them. Broche ties Attack on Titan’s influence to the show’s existential themes and its cast facing a life-ending threat that seems inevitable. The creative throughline is not subtle: the uniform becomes a shorthand for tone and stakes.

There is also an execution advantage here. Uniforms are one of the few character design elements players see constantly. They show up in screenshots, trailers, menu portraits, party selection screens, and in the rhythm of combat where characters repeatedly reappear. That means design readability can compound. The “I instantly know” effect Broche describes is basically a low-friction onboarding strategy. You do not need to remember lore or names to feel oriented. You recognize.

The anime influence does not stop at Attack on Titan. Lead character and concept artist Alan Reynaud says he “has to mention Bleach” because the character designs in the series are “spectacular.” Reynaud points to something executives love because it is measurable in practice: “designs that are super simple yet incredibly memorable.” The team claims it pulled designs that follow a “rule of cool” approach, and they wanted something like Bleach’s simplicity married to memorability.

That matters for teams making expensive, narrative-forward games. Budgets are finite, and attention is even more so. The more your visual system does the work of storytelling, the less you rely on players to decode every detail under pressure. Even without changing mechanics, stronger character readability can improve word-of-mouth quality because people describe what they see. And when communities discuss a game, screenshots and clips become cultural currency. Characters that pop visually earn more of that currency.

The studio’s broader design philosophy also fits the market reality that competitors are crowded. Broche says he prefers JRPGs to games like Skyrim, Fallout, and Baldur’s Gate because their linear narratives allow for “a stronger story” and “more memorable characters.” That is a direct statement about how structure supports emotional impact. In a world where open-ended sandboxes can scatter attention, linear narratives concentrate it. Concentration makes character design matter more, because the story is designed to deliver character impressions at moments that stick.

Now zoom out to the strategic stakes for anyone funding, building, or evaluating narrative RPGs. The obvious takeaway is creative, but the second-order impact is operational. When a studio chooses recognizable uniforms and simple memorable character designs, it reduces the risk of “visual confusion,” where players like a game but cannot summarize it. That can hurt conversions from trailers to sales, and it can slow community growth because discoverability depends on shareable specificity. The more distinctive the visual language, the easier it is for audiences to categorize the experience, which can be the difference between a passerby and a buyer.

There is also a product positioning implication for boards and investors. The development story here is not only “we loved anime.” It is “we translated anime readability into game systems of identity.” Broche is even midway through a series rewatch and calls Attack on Titan “an absolute masterpiece for me.” That is personal taste, but it connects to a business principle: directors and creative leads often pick references that are recognizable, repeatable, and immediately communicable. For peers managing similar projects, the question is simple. Are your characters and your world designed to be understood fast, or only appreciated after immersion?

If Clair Obscur succeeds, this approach could be part of why. In an era where players can switch games in seconds, instant recognition is not vanity. It is a competitive moat, built out of uniforms, simplicity, and a narrative structure that aims to make characters stick.