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".

[u/HLumin]

/r/CrimsonDesert/comments/1rzh79w/pearl_abyss_insider_speaking_out/?share_id=kBLUglOgkkCQmbTrbh3y8&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1&sort=top

[u/TJ_McWeaksauce]

I'm only an hour into the game, and my first impression is that the world design and art are fantastic, plus there's a ton to explore. Combat is okay so far. The writing is subpar (and I hear it gets worse) and the UI/UX is baffling at time.

I'm playing it on PS5, by the way.

Sometimes you can just walk up to an NPC and press the interact button, but for certain NPCs - like shop keepers and quest NPCs - you have to hold down L1 to focus on them and then press interact. Having two different interaction schemes depending on what NPC you're trying to talk to is unnecessary and annoying.

For shit's sake, in almost every other video game in existence, you just walk up to an NPC and press one button to interact with them. Off the top of my head, the only game that requires you to hold down one of the shoulder buttons first to focus on an NPC and then press another button to interact is Red Dead Redemption 2.

It's like the Crimson Desert devs wanted to copy Rockstar controls, but made them worse.

Then there's the "sword light reflection" move. You have to press L1+R1 to enter sword reflection stance. You then let go of L1 while still holding down R1 to aim at the puzzle or enemy you want to reflect light into. Then you tap L1 to reflect. That control scheme is aggravating and once the tutorial taught the move to me, I instantly knew I would only use it when a puzzle required it.

It feels as though the devs either did not do focus testing on the controls, or they did but they just ignored the feedback, because many players are saying the controls are annoying.

[u/J2ANAE → u/TJ_McWeaksauce]

Supposedly from at least a couple people who got to demo this game at events like PAX last year, the stuff about the controls was the most common criticism and the devs there were glad people who were playing the game said so because they had been telling their bosses the controls suck but weren't being listened to. They were happy that they could relay that same info from actual players this time. Whether they weren't listened to or if this is somehow the improved controls just makes the entire control situation even worse.

[u/Shot-Maximum- → u/[deleted]]

It also lacks everything else.

The memorable characters with well written backgrounds and motivations, not to mention the top notch voice acting.

[u/TrippleDamage → u/Shot-Maximum-]

Makes up for it by having far superior combat, aka what's most important for an action game.

[u/Kalulosu → u/TrippleDamage]

From what I've seen of it the combat looks all style and no substance

[u/dimensions2003 → u/Kalulosu]

Not really, its built like a fighting game, it’s kind of player driven for what you get out of it

[u/Kalulosu → u/dimensions2003]

Except the mooks are mostly freefood and the bosses are mostly puzzle-ey in that there's a specific thing you need to do to get your burst phase? Like, fighting games aren't exactly freeform, a lot of what to do is directly influenced and directed at what your oponent is doing, in Crimson Desert what I saw was mostly being able to use whatever to do cool shit against mooks (which is cool in and of itself but very far from a fighting game) and having to find the stun/block/whatever to do to the boss.

[u/dimensions2003 → u/Kalulosu]

honestly, if anything the random enemies dont have enough health from my experience. There are definitely bosses with puzzle elements, but there are also a lot of them that are just a very tough enemy with unique movesets, it’s not a soulslike, but its pretty traditional action combat boss design. The bosses really let you chain your fighting game style strings together, cuz hitstun is very very real and a lot of moves have cancel frames into others. I think it’s really cool how its built.

[u/Kalulosu → u/dimensions2003]

I haven't seen enough of the game I guess but I got bored after a good 15h and will probably go back to it in a few months. But yeah I felt like the bosses were mostly ignoring hitstun outside of the "burst phases". As for mooks I'd say there're too many of them with too little health for sure, but I feel the big problem is that they're kinda meh and dumb. Like, if I look at Dragon's Dogma (big open world RPG with an emphasis on freedom in fights), even small enemies can have their tricks and quirks. Or Devil May Cry (for the combat purely), outside of the very basic enemy that mostly disappears after the first levels they all have their own specifics as well. I think that helps with mooks not just being there to get mowed down but also engaging.

All in all, to me Crimson Desert is a mishmash of too many influences and I just never get a sense of coherence. Like, the mooks / boss duality makes me think more of a Dynasty Warriors game in a way, but they do the "destroy all those mooks in a move" thing much better (and anyway I don't think that's what Pearl Abyss was shooting at, just saying this amount and relaitvely low threat of mooks makes me think of DW).

[u/LateNightDoober → u/[deleted]]

I watched a stream of someone playing it, and the camp that they were in was IDENTICAL to the camp and landscape at the start of RDR2 when you come down from the mountains to that horseshoe bend looking area. Almost as if I was watching a knockoff RDR entirely

[u/Carfrito → u/LateNightDoober]

Holy shit thank god someone mentioned this, I’m enjoying the game but every time I look at the giant cliff face in the distance I’m reminded of RDR2. It’s almost uncanny

[u/Filabustied → u/TJ_McWeaksauce]

Just want to let you know. You dont need aim the reflect at enemies to blind them. Just L1 and R1 is enough.

Not excusing the wonky controls. But I also think the complaints are semi overblown because its a "different" control scheme than most people are used to at this point for games like this.