Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s animations are powered by an anime game plugin dubbed ‘KawaiiPhysics’, and its creator was completely surprised by its use

Sandfall Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has some fantastic animation work across its stunning 30-hour story. As it turns out, all of the game’s animations are powered by an Unreal Engine 5 plugin designed for use in anime games.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s KawaiiPhysics

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s animations are all powered by KawaiiPhysics, an open-source tool for Unreal Engine 5 that was made to boost stylised anime physics on 3D characters. Designed by Kazuya Okada, the plugin focuses on swaying skirts and bouncing hair, and is predominantly used by gacha games and anime-themed titles.

KawaiiPhysics has been used in a number of Unreal Engine games including Persona, Stellar Blade and even Tekken 8. But when Okada’s creation was used for the development of the dreamlike, western game Clair Obscur, took him by surprise.

Via Automaton, Okada took to social media to point out that the brilliant turn-based RPG used his creation. As a developer who keeps a running list of every major game to use the tool, the French-made RPG marks the first Western game to use the tool.

“It looks like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 uses KawaiiPhysics! Thank you so much!!!” the plugin developer said on social media.

While KawaiiPhysics may be focused on allowing game developers to “easily and cutely animate things that sway, such as hair, skirts, and breasts”, it does seem to be used very effectively in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Even in the game’s opening Gommage scene, you can see the poofy French dresses flow in gorgeous ways.

It just goes to show that every tool has countless uses depending on the developer’s needs. While KawaiiPhysics may have been designed purely for use in anime-themed games and gacha titles, it’s used incredibly effectively in the dreamlike world of Lumière.