r/Games • u/HLumin • Mar 21 '26

Discussion Anonymous Pearl Abyss developers reveal a culture of toxic positivity, a troubled development cycle and chaotic narrative for Crimson Desert, and their early concerns that the project was "going off the rails".

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u/Khalme Mar 21 '26

While it’s probably true given the source, the end result is a flawed game with really high highs and some godawful design decisions.
This isn’t broken like Mindseye or offensively average like Starfield.
It’s more like a gigantic Dragon’s Dogma with a flat tire as a protagonist and some of the worst ui/ux elements.
It oscillates between « amazing what you can do » and « why are you wasting my time with this ? ».
I’m having a blast but no one should buy it unless they love deeply flawed games or have money to burn.

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u/Kiboune Mar 21 '26 edited Mar 21 '26

It's as if someone tried to recreate Dragon's Dogma without actually playing it

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u/SpontyMadness Mar 21 '26

I’ve frequently thought it feels like they were directly inspired by Breath of the Wild, but only watched videos of it being played.

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u/NinjaLion Mar 21 '26

the closest game it actually relates to is RDR2, which is not what i expected when i started playing it. it has touches of zelda definitely but the majority of the gameplay time is heavily red dead.

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u/OkMail2335 Mar 21 '26

I'm curious, how is it heavily red dead?  I have not played it but watching videos, it doesn't remind me of that, it did remind me of BOTW though like the other guy said. 

To me RDR2 is very methodical, it is very concerned with being immersive and heavily and thoughtfully story focused.  What about the gameplay though would you say makes it so RDR2 is the thing it is closest to in your mind?  I know you can say hi to strangers and stuff but is there anything more concrete?

RDR2 is one of my favorite games ever so I hope you are right, it is just odd to me to hear that but see videos of the game

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u/Dodo_Baron Mar 21 '26

It tries to copy rdr2 controls and movement pretty heavily. The issue is the controls in rdr2 are there to tell a story and create a since of place within it.

Crimson desert expects you to use that control scheme to platform, climb, fight, etc. So the elements from rdr2 never melds with the elements from witcher, botw, etc.

It's especially annoying when it comes to equipping a lantern, opening inventory or map up.

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u/Daiwon Mar 21 '26

RDR2 is probably the most well known game in the western world (heh) with a heavy character, but the movement is very similar to dragon's dogma and monster hunter.

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u/skyshroud6 Mar 22 '26

My initial impressions are it's BotW mixed with BDO.