Saros has references to Returnal, the last game by developer Housemarque, tucked away in its ever-changing world, which is cool but not necessarily a huge surprise. However, one game I didn’t expect the roguelike bullet hell shooter to nod toward was Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. You won’t find an homage to Sandfall Interactive’s RPG in the environment, but you will find one on your PS5 when you install the game.
One of Saros’ trophies is called Carcosan Cartographer, and to unlock it, you’ll have to use the game’s Carcosan Modifiers which let you tweak the difficulty settings to your liking. These can be as straightforward as minimizing incoming damage and maximizing outgoing damage, or they can be more specific to the game’s various mechanics, like increasing corruption you take when hit or turning off your “second chance” that revives you after you die. If you flip any of these switches and successfully survive a run to the end, it will count toward the trophy, which requires you to “survive 33 expeditions.” Seems like an odd number, but the phrasing makes it clear this is a reference to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Beyond that, there’s not really much connective tissue between both games, as they’re invery different genres and not developed by studios under the same umbrella. I guess Housemarque must just be fans. Saros does have more overt references to games like God of War, Death Stranding, and Ghost of Yotei with in-game costumes for protagonist Arjun, but there might also be some less obvious ones hiding in Carcosa.
