The RPG space has seen a deluge of incredible titles in the past two years, each resounding with the public live. Open world epics like Elden ring to classics remakes like Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D remakeEach RPG adapts to a specific niche and strikes its audience with magnificent visuals and an innovative gameplay. But Clear obscure: Expedition 33 was ambitious, straddling the line between Western RPGs and JRPGs to exploit a new audience.

Clear is an entirely new IP published by Kepler Interactive and developed by Sandfall Interactive, a studio composed of former members of Ubisoft. The main argument for the sale of the game is its turn -of -turn JRPG turn -by -turn combat, strongly inspired by games like Lost Odyssey,, Legend of the Dragoonand the Character series. However, to look at it, one could be forgiven to think that it is a Western RPG – and technically, it is developed by a French team and the world based on France of the beginning of the century (known as the peaceful era of Belle Époque). This mixture of Western RPG and JRPG made waves among the live broadcast community … But for the right reasons?

Clear obscure succeeds as original RPG IP on live streaming

First of all, let’s put in perspective how much ClearThe launch was. In his first week, Clear generated 13.6 million hours looked at, with a 191K cutting edge – for the prospect, a recent RPG version Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 brought 25.1 million hours viewed during its first week, but this match was a continuation. This high audience coincides with impressive sales figures, with Clear Sell ​​1 million copies in its first 3 days (may be helped by its relatively low price at $ 50 USD). The game is also an essential success, with scores in the 90s main points of sale and buzz circulating around a Game of the Year Prize at The Game Awards of this year.

With so many RPG franchises already running, how Clear come out? As mentioned earlier, the game is based on a turn -by -turn, but it also has active elements with paras and stronger blows for synchronization button pressures appropriately (think of the Mario and Luigi series, or Mother 3). Although this mechanic is not new, seeing him in a Western RPG is rare and brings an element of challenge of the Soul type to the title thanks to tight windows on reaction times (the chances of showing are always welcomed by the audience live). In addition, criticisms praise the sense of wonder caused by ClearThe story: The All -Star Cast (Andy Serkis, Ben Starr, Charlie Cox, Jennifer English) really sells the characters, and the game is already planned for a film adaptation in the coming years – strengthening the trend of transmedia franchises.

The game also had a wide appeal. To start, Clear Attracted the attention of the usual heavy banks like Alanzoka and Cohhcarnage with 236k and 187k hours of the first week, respectively. However, the game also drew the attention of Korean streamers on Chzzk, including the most watched streamer for the match of his first week 풍월량 (Poong Wol-ryang) with 310,000 hours of gaze. Most of the other streamers have shared a uniform distribution of the audience, corresponding to people preferring that their own favorite RPG streamers. Xqc remained the main drawing card for viewers on the kick, coming in 6^th With 143,000 hours of surveillance.

Twitch chat likes clear obscure, beaten media for banners

To get a clearer image of Why The banners and the public cling to a particular game, it can help watch Twitch Chat and see what people say. Naturally, there was an explosion of discussion mentions for “Clear Dark” leading to the exit of the game, with 4K chat mentions on the day of exit and an initial peak of 12,000 cat mentions two days later. But looking back, you can see the rumors of the media threw for the title during the games of the game, such as the Xbox game window in June 2024 (a 30x jump in cat mentions) and a recent wave of interest when the game publications gave their positive reflections on the demo in March of this year (a 7x jump in cat mentions).

This critical praise was taken up by live viewers after the game released. Clear managed to bring double the number of positive chat messages compared to negative chat messages in its first 6 days after the release, 29% of all the mentions being positive. Whether positive or negative, most of the comments were centered on the combat system and the aesthetics of the game. In particular, viewers quickly discussed Clearis the similarity with the JRPG. The negative comments rejected the lack of originality of the title, a commentator qualifying him as “persona 5 rip off without the artistic style”, while positive comments praised the capacity of the game to make the combat mechanisms JRPG accessible: “Clear obscure is of wild quality, I do not even play the JRPG but I love”.

Clear obscure prosperous by bringing Western RPG fans to JRPG mechanics

These comments relate to an interesting idea: was Clear Capable of reaching a wider audience by Trojan horses in unknown game mechanisms to a new potentially receptive segment of live viewers? To try to nail it with difficult figures, we have taken a look at the overlap of the public between viewers of Clear During its first six days and viewers of 10 other notable RPGs in the last six months. The most overlap has been observed with recent Western RPGs, especially Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 And The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remaster, which experienced a overlap of 58% and 40%, respectively. In other words, 58% of people who looked at Clear had also watched Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 On Twitch. This high overlap was even observed for older versions, as Dragon Age: The Veilguard (29%). None of this is surprising: if you are an RPG fan or a streamer fan playing new RPG versions, you will probably have watched the two games.

Here is where it becomes interesting, however: Among the games examined, the JRPGs all came last with rides of 14% or less. This has been true for outings in the last six months (for example, Metaphor: refantication) as for older versions (Final Fantasy VII: Renaissance). Considering frequent comparisons made between Clear and the Atlus JRPGS (Metaphor: refantazio, persona 3 recharging), it is surprising that fans of the sub-genre are less likely to connect to flows (on Twitch at least, anyway). An explanation seems the most obvious: viewers have been more led by aesthetics than by gameplay. Clear It looks like a Western RPG, so Western RPG fans connect. And when they are greeted by an in -depth turn -of -turn fight which was under tension with active elements – something they have never seen in Western RPGs before – they respond with praise for the innovations of the game.

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RPG demand remains strong on live streaming, as we can see in our 2024 backup report. But if live popularity is mainly determined by aesthetics, this has serious implications for studios freeing new RPG. Attractive audiences with dazzling visuals or new worlds seem simple, but this requires high production value. A more informed lesson than even the Indies could take Clear The value in the remixing of game concepts: what interest can you arouse by taking the aesthetics of a sub-genre and by applying it to the conventions of a different sub-genre? This tactic paid for Clear obscure, But another peak of live interest will most likely have to wait for the potential DLC to be released in the future.

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