Crimson Desert’s hit the public and, as I suspected, has buckled a bit under its own weight. It’s a charming but messy complex of systems in dire need of some quality-of-life brushups—and while some of Pearl Abyss’ design choices going into launch are a little baffling, it’s at least fixing some of them.
The full patch notes go into it, but here are some of the highlights: More fast travel points have been added across the world map, you now only have to observe skills once, food restores more health across the board (and the starting tavern has some more food to buy).
Jumps should be more responsive, you now only have to observe skills once to use them, and the UI should feel less sluggish—on the balancing side of things, “specific enemies and bosses” have been nerfed, and “stamina consumption for blocking attacks” has been improved. Parrying bosses should increase their stun gauge more, too, and your horse should actually come to you after being called.
The biggest QoL bump is by far the “private storage”, a chest you can find at base camp where you can dump all of your crap (and Crimson Desert is a game with a lot of crap). I personally experienced this when I decided to tame a pet to help with the frustrating loot controls, only to quickly realise my inventory was woefully tiny, leading to a permanent “hey, did you know villagers can give you more slots?” message while I was trying to clean out that dang quarry.
While Crimson Desert occasionally has what I can only call moon logic spread through its design, I do think Pearl Abyss’ reactiveness is to be praised, here. Within reason mind—it’d be better if the game didn’t have these issues to begin with, but the next best time to plant a tree is today and all that.
Still, the studio’s aware—about the demanding and fiddly controls especially. In a blog post on the game’s Steam page, Pearl Abyss writes: “Since launch, we have been listening closely to your feedback and doing our best to make improvements to the game.
“In particular, we are aware of the discomfort many players have experienced with the controls, and we are currently preparing a patch to address this. We also want to apologize for not providing keyboard and mouse players with a satisfactory gameplay experience.
“We’re following your experiences across issue reports, videos, livestreams, and community discussions. Every report and shared experience helps us make the game better, and we truly appreciate the time you take to share them with us.”
There’s every chance that if given a month or two, Crimson Desert will smooth out the edges and become a better game for it. Though there is a part of me that worries there’s such a thing as too much—part of what makes the game so deeply fascinating is its jaggedness, similar to Dragon’s Dogma 2.
Crimson Desert characters: Unlock each
Crimson Desert Abyss Artifacts: Level up
Crimson Desert respec: Swap your skills
How to steal in Crimson Desert: Pilfer some loot
How to find keys in Crimson Desert: Open doors
How to fast travel in Crimson Desert: Going places
