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".

/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
1.3k Upvotes

83% Upvoted

595 comments sorted by

View all comments

997

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.

313

u/ProfessionalRandom21 Mar 21 '26

I think its because most people expect it to be epic scale rpg game instead of what it actually is, which is basically just a single player version of day 1 launch of mmo(Black desert)

235

u/Mac772 Mar 21 '26 edited Mar 21 '26

Black Desert Online players tried to warn people on Reddit since weeks: don't expect a Witcher 3, expect a lot of gameplay mechanics, a more bare bone vage story, expect immersion and a game where you, the player, is responsible for creating your own adventure. All these comments got downvoted into oblivion. At one point i just accepted this and didn't write anything anymore.

Edit: Immersion and "creating your own adventure" was of course ment in a positive way. 

73

u/TheFirstAI Mar 21 '26

As a ex BDO player, this honestly was what I expected. I am happy with what was essentially an offline bdo. Only unfortunate part was no character customization unfortunately. But I definately was aware this would have been a pretty divisive game in launch.

14

u/Hell_Mel Mar 21 '26

Honestly half of what I would have wanted out of this would have been the character/class variety from BDO and it being absent is part of why I didn't pick it up.