There is certainly no shortage of brilliant indie games on the market, and yet they keep coming. Just a little over four months into 2025, the gaming industry has seen a decent number of indie titles surfacing that have stolen the show, with two of the most recent titles to accomplish that being Blue Prince and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Currently, these two games are not only two of the most successful indie games to launch in 2025, but also the two highest-rated games of the year in general. To call it surprising is an understatement, but not everyone has been so surprised by their success.
The Best War Games recently attended Gamescom Latam in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where we interviewed Shuhei Yoshida, former President and Head of the Indies Initiative at Sony Interactive Entertainment. During the interview, Yoshida spoke about his experiences with both Blue Prince and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 ahead of their respective launches, and strongly intimated how he had a good feeling about each one of them. Needless to say, he wasn't too surprised at their success.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Review
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a rare RPG that feels mechanically bold, emotionally grounded, and unforgettable long after the credits roll.
Shuhei Yoshida Saw the Success of Blue Prince and Expedition 33 a Long Way Off
Even with so many indie games hitting the market each year, only a handful manage to leave the kind of impression that Blue Prince and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 have. For Shuhei Yoshida, though, that recognition often happens long before a game even launches. As someone who has long backed independent developers through PlayStation's Indies Initiative, Yoshida has had the privilege of playing dozens of games in their earliest stages. Yet even among the many promising titles he's seen, Blue Prince stood out almost immediately. Yoshida said of his pre-release experiences with Blue Prince,
I challenge anyone to tell me if they've ever played a game like Blue Prince. I don't think I've seen a game like that. It's amazing game design. I was lucky because I was with PlayStation and indie publishers and developers would bring their games in development to show in their early stages. So, I was able to play Blue Prince last year, and I thought it was amazing. That's the reason I said earlier this year that Blue Prince is going to be one of the Game of the Year candidates. After the game released, a lot of people were saying, "Shuhei was right!" And it was because I had the privilege of seeing the game very early on.
From very early on, Yoshida saw Blue Prince as something unique. Its offbeat puzzle design and immersive atmosphere made it something special, and even in its unfinished state, he believed it would achieve something only a small selection of games have. That early confidence is what led Yoshida to even go public with a prediction about Blue Prince's success months ahead of its release — something that the public would then reflect on soon after the game launched to critical acclaim. Even so, for Yoshida, it wasn't just a guess. It was the result of getting some hands-on experience with Blue Prince ahead of schedule.
While Blue Prince might have caught attention for how abstract and experimental it is, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 captured Yoshida on an entirely different level. From its visuals to its many unique combat systems, Yoshida saw a project that aimed to bridge the gap between modern storytelling and nostalgic RPG mechanics. Regarding Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Yoshida continued,
In terms of Expedition 33, it was three years ago, and I was at GDC in San Francisco where I met with the Sandfall team. They were in the very early stages of development and were pitching the game to publishers and trying to find the funding, but the game was already playable at that stage. I played the game and saw the graphics — they were beautiful — and its RPG systems and the real-time combat. They were talking about their inspirations, like Super Mario RPG and The Legend of Dragoon, which I was the producer of. I was like, "Oh, these guys are borrowing the legacy of this battle system," so I became a fan of the project.
What made Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 even more compelling to Yoshida was the ambition behind it. Sandfall Interactive, a brand-new studio at the time, came to Gamescom with an early build and a clear vision of the game's narrative and mechanical direction. However, it wasn't just the art design and captivating visuals that caught Yoshida's eye, but their respect for classic RPGs, one of which he even produced. That respect didn't result in imitation, though, and instead explored ways to expound on classic systems, modernize them, and even innovate beyond what might have been thought was possible.
Yoshida's early instincts have proven right more than once, but Blue Prince and Expedition 33 aren't just points on his track record. Rather, they're reminders of how much ground indie developers continue to break when given enough room to dream and innovate. With both titles now sitting at the top of 2025's highest-rated games, Yoshida's quiet confidence in their success has become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 92 /100 Critics Rec: 97%
- Released
- April 24, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Sandfall Interactive
- Publisher(s)
- Kepler Interactive
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Genre(s)
- Turn-Based RPG, JRPG, Fantasy
