Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won’t include a minimap for its exploration, though a compass will be added to the explorable world map for release.
The game’s producer, and developer Sandfall Interactive COO Francois Meurisse confirmed this to me at an Xbox event during this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC), following some criticism during previews that environments were hard to navigate.
“There won’t be mini maps in the levels,” said Meurisse. “When there’s a mini map, you can end up relying on it. And we want players to discover the world as the expedition does it. They don’t have a map because every previous expedition failed. So yes, sometimes it can be difficult to find their way.”
He continued: “What we added on the world map that wasn’t in the preview demo is just a compass, so you can find north easily and get your direction more easily.” There will also be an overview map of the entire game world.