Crimson Desert: Not a Soulslike, but Expect a Tough Challenge, Says Pearl Abyss
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Pearl Abyss’ upcoming open-world action-adventure, Crimson Desert, is definitely “not a Soulslike,” according to its marketing director, but “does that mean the game’s easy? Hell no.”
In a recent episode of the Dropped Frames podcast, Will Powers, the director of marketing and public relations at Pearl Abyss, highlighted the appeal of Crimson Desert’s open-world design, stating, “There’s no progression gating in the sense of, ‘I just need to get good in order to do this.'”
While players will encounter some bosses that are essential to the main storyline, Powers reassures that “you can just leave, you can do something else, you can upgrade your weapon, you can do side quests, you can find different things to make that fight easier for you,” meaning you should never feel trapped in a cycle of repeated attempts if you choose not to.
“That’s something that I think is really interesting, because when people see the boss fights in this game, they immediately think Soulslike. This is not a Soulslike game,” Powers emphasizes. “Because Soulslike has specific definitions, like narrow dodge windows. This is much more combo-driven, and you dictate the pace of the fight. So there is no ‘get good’ moment.”
While “there are definitely skill checks,” he adds, if you find any of them challenging, “you can get additional buffs from food and camp, grind for consumables to ease the fight, find blueprints for items that let you revive during battles for a second chance […] and you can craft multiple of those. So you can overprepare and make any fight accessible to you.”
“Does that mean the game’s easy? Hell no,” he laughs. “But I think it allows for a layer of accessibility so you’re never hard stuck, which is really important in a single-player game.”
In the same podcast episode, Powers confirmed that Crimson Desert will not feature any microtransactions since it’s a premium title, stating, “that is the transaction. Like, full stop.” While we’ll have to wait to see how the game performs, the launch is just around the corner on March 19.
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
With a map twice the size of Skyrim and larger than Red Dead Redemption 2, the promising open-world game Crimson Desert is impressively expansive – yet still “incredibly interactive.”
