Crimson Desert

Pearl Abys

Among all the complaints about Crimson Desert, even with dozens of gameplay, quality of life and content additions, a common refrain is, “Well, they can’t patch the bad story.” To that, Pearl Abyss says, “Oh yeah?”

Pearl Abyss has revealed yet another Crimson Desert roadmap, set to span from June to September. I don’t believe that timeline, namely because Crimson Desert’s last roadmap was more or less finished two months early due to the insane pace Pearl Abyss puts these updates at now. It’s still not supposed to be done as of right now.

One thing they’re patching, in fact, is Crimson Desert’s story, somehow. Here’s what they said in the new roadmap post:

“We have been carefully reviewing the story-related feedback you have shared with us. To further strengthen the narrative flow of Kliff’s journey and to make it more engaging, we are working to refine and improve the coherence of key scenes. We hope these improvements will offer something new even for those who have already experienced Pywel.”

How exactly this will play out is unclear, and I have no idea how these story changes would impact people who have already beaten said story, as no New Game Plus mode has been announced here, or anything like that. A frequent complaint about the story is Kliff himself as a rather dull lead, but I’m looking forward to seeing what they’re actually going to do here.

As for other planned updates?

• Re-Blockade - They’re making changes to the new Re-Blockade system to make it more dynamic, including the ability to defend Strongholds from invasion, rather than have them instantly taken over. They are also giving more rewards for liberating Strongholds, which currently give no real loot or bonus XP, just the combat XP from fighting.
• New Combat Content – New “combat-focused content” will be added, which sounds to me like some sort of challenge system that is beyond the Re-Blockade, boss replay and difficulty settings changes. Maybe some sort of arena mode, but they say they’ll share more later.
• Cross-Save – They’re going to implement it across PC, PlayStation and Xbox.

• Damiane and Oongka Gameplay Improvements – This does not seem to just be more combat moves like they’ve already gotten, but adjustments so that “all three playable characters can get a share of the spotlight.” I’m not sure if this means integrating them into story sequences more or more skill-based things like letting them share Abyss Points with Kliff, but the way these alternate characters were handled, who are quite fun to play as, is one of the biggest misses of the game.
• Quality of Life – Changes will be made to non-combat content, including somewhat annoying systems like trading and farming that players find “inconvenient.” In 330 hours, I have never once done trading outside of the quests that made it mandatory. I don’t expect that to change, given that I don’t need any of the rewards it gives you at this point.

They also talk about how, yes, they are developing Crimson Desert DLC, as previously stated, but there is no timeline or elaboration for that yet. I would expect the next update to go live this week or next, as again, they push these out very, very quickly.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.