As you know, Japan is no longer the only country in Asia that you can count on to enjoy magnificent AAA video games, there is China now, but also South Korea. By the way, you should know that Malaysia is also coming, I witnessed things a few years ago when I went to Kuala Lumpur to see the birth and emergence of certain video game studios, but we’ll talk about that again, believe me. So yeah, Korea, we can now count on it to send us missiles… Well, when I say Korea, I’m talking about South Korea, not North Korea, because when Kim Jong-un sends a missile, it’s ballistic, not artistic. And precisely, the other madness that will arrive from the land of the morning calm, it’s called Crimson Desert. It’s a game that was announced in 2017, and which has gained momentum over the course of its presentations. As usual, at the beginning, a lot of reluctance, people who didn’t believe what they saw on video. Too ambitious they said these people, that it couldn’t run on our consoles, that it was bullshit. I can’t blame these people. The video game industry has oversold its demos so much, we’ve seen so many crazy downgrades (thanks Ubisoft, thanks EA), that in the end, well, people have become suspicious. It’s a completely normal reaction. Except that a few weeks ago, in the middle of gamescom, the Korean studio Pearl Abyss came with a copy of its game to have Western journalists test it and since then, everyone seems to be unanimous: not only is it visually amazing, but also, the gameplay is described as being incredibly deep. Crimson Desert is the perfect mix between Zelda Breath of the Wild, Dragon’s Dogma and Assassin’s Creed and here, there is 50 minutes of gameplay that has just been released.
Crimson Desert is a project that has been announced for a while. It was announced in 2017 and at the time, the South Korean developers of Pearl Abyss intended to make it an MMORPG, but with a larger narrative component than expected. And then, over the years, things and desires have evolved and today, we are on an open world single-player narrative Action-RPG with even greater ambitions. Moreover, since last year, we know more about what to turn to in terms of proposals, because before, it was going a bit in all directions, but you will quickly understand that the Pearl Abyss studio was inspired by everything that works best in today’s modern games, digested them in order to offer a well-crafted and above all mastered experience. So yes, seeing these new gameplay images of Crimson Desert, we see Assassin’s Creed for the Action-RPG aspect, but especially Zelda Breath of the Wild for its combat system that allows you to easily switch between sword-shield and bow + arrow, without forgetting this parasail that we will use a lot, both in exploration but also in combat. There is a lot of verticality in Crimson Desert and its open world seems to have been designed so that we can have fun with its relief. But Crimson Desert is also a game that understood that enemies must have a response and that they also impress. We will therefore measure ourselves against tough mobs, but also bosses and mid-bosses with substantial life bars. Some bosses will be colossi with this feeling of gigantism, while others will be human-sized, but with extremely worked and especially very devious patterns.
4 BOSSES TO CONVINCE THEM ALL
This is what was highlighted during the hands-on demos offered to journalists who went to gamescom last month: testing both the combat system, its many possibilities, but also taking a beating from impeccable technique and a real sense of staging, with a camera that is capable of getting close to the action, as well as moving away from it to give scope to what is happening on the screen. This is what emerges from the previews, it is one of the rather successful points of the game: the management of this dynamic and especially automatic camera, as soon as we are in lock mode. No matter the previews that we can read here and there, whether it is the French, European or American press, what emerges from the gameplay of Crimson Desert is its generosity. The game is a profusion of possibilities, so much so that it is preferable to go through a tutorial to understand all the mechanics and subtleties offered by the scope that the South Korean developers want to give.
The hero we’re going to control is called Kliff, he’s a mercenary who is capable of many things, you’ll quickly understand. Basically, the gameplay provides light attacks, heavier strikes with his sword, while allowing him to protect himself behind his shield. Classic so far. Except that the devs of Pearl Abyss have added a notion of melee much more advanced than classic Action-RPGs. Not only can Kliff give really badass front-kicks to attack and destabilize his enemies, but he can also do sweeps and perform wrestling holds, but kind of in different ways, to then plant his blade to execute them. What’s even crazier is that Kriff can also lower his opponents’ guard with his shield and thus open their guard to destroy them in the process, or it is even possible to grab an enemy from behind, hold them to make a human shield, or plant his blade in their liver. It’s so deep in possibilities that it feels like a fighting game or an evolved beat’em all. Better yet, and listen carefully to what I’m going to tell you, Kliff can blind his enemies with the reflection of his sword, haha, it’s incredible, they thought of everything. Imagine once we master all the mysteries of the gameplay the crazy sequences we’ll be able to do in the game, and then share that on social networks. I can’t wait. And that was precisely one of the leitmotifs of the creators of the game, to develop things, mechanisms that we don’t find in the usual Action-RPGs, and they claim to have worked hard not to disappoint players with these promises.
KICK, SWEEP
Crimson Desert wants to be deep in its game systems, but it wants to offer the player a show, a big show and from the studio’s mouth, they thought of the game as a big spectacular action movie. The studio Pearl Abyss wants each fight to be brutal, challenging and to get real satisfaction, immediate pleasure. And in-game, all this is felt with brutal impacts, well-thought-out camera movements, and equally impressive staging, without ever forgetting to give the player the freedom to evolve in these suddenly restricted spaces, but large enough to give space to the fights. This is also why the gamescom hands-on demo allowed journalists to face 4 bosses, totally different: the Deer King, the White Horn, the Reed Devil and the Rockcrab Queen. Even the bosses’ names, they put a pressure of 10 tons! Moreover, the boss who has left quite a mark on people who have tested the game is the reed devil, a boss found in the middle of a sort of dried wheat field and who will take advantage of this tall vegetation to surprise the player. He will therefore play on his speed, his ability to disappear under a thick cloud of smoke like a ninja, but also to create decoys, multiply and charge certain attacks. All this is accompanied by particle effects that flood the screen, between the sparks that are created when the blades clash, the pieces of grass that fly, the traces of powerful blows, the smoke, the visual spectacle is sublime, especially since the staging has not been forgotten, nor even the verbal exchanges between the two characters.
There was also a more massive human boss, the Deer King, also more classic in its patterns, but that will have to be fought in a more restricted space, which will obviously complicate things, especially with its violent attacks that can empty 1/4 of the life bar. As for the Whitehorn boss, it is a large creature, halfway between Big Foot and a raging deer and that we fight in the middle of a snowstorm. Here too, it is visually super impressive, especially since the monster does not hesitate to use this storm that limits visibility to surprise Kliff. Moreover, this boss is the opportunity to highlight the climbing on massive enemies, something that was invented by Shadow of the Colossus and that Dragon’s Dogma took up. And in truth, this mechanic must become mandatory in all games so much it gives body and an organic side to the fights.
THE SUN IS SHINING IN THE EAST
In any case, it’s something that will be essential to master in Crimson Desert, since most of the massive bosses require climbing, like this Queen Crab where its only weak points are located high up and whose blade blows reveal jets of black blood. It’s Fumito Ueda who will be happy to see that finally his genius is finally copied. Moreover, this boss facing the Queen Crab has another importance, that of highlighting the use of the Parasail, an element taken from Zelda Breath of the Wild, but with a more epic and especially more stylized dimension. Just look at the face of this damaged cape which gives a tired Batman cape side, it’s sublime. So the particularity of this boss is that he will eject Kliff into the skies many times and it will be necessary to master the free fall therefore, but also the grappling hook swig, another mechanic that Crimson Desert has. Like Spider-Man and his webs, our mercenary can swing his grappling hook to hang on and perform spectacular swigs to go around the boss in question. All this is intended for Pearl Abyss to show the diversity that Crimson Desert is full of, its multiple ways of approaching a fight, a confrontation and to prove that we are going to have fun.
It remains to be seen how the open world will behave, but according to the developers’ promises, exploration and storytelling have not been done lightly. We learned that Kliff will be able to form his team of mercenaries, that each member will have their own backstory, whether it’s an escaped slave, a young mother, another who lost his parents, people will come together to survive. Moreover, Pearl Abyss explains that it will be possible to follow Kliff’s life guided by the scenario, but also to experience your own story. In fact, what they meant by that is that the world of Crimson Desert is full of possibilities to shape your personal experience in order to obtain different knowledge, skills and objects. The world promises to be massive and a fantastic aspect is integrated into the game to give another dimension to this medieval world where we will also find dragons. Moreover, for the story, the South Korean studio specifies that it mixed genres, was inspired by many myths from around the world to create a separate and above all living universe. And all this was carefully divided between main and secondary quests. Suffice to say that these promises are enormous and that what awaits us with Crimson Desert may go even further than what Game Science offered us with Black Myth Wukong and its evolving structure. If the developers manage to do everything they want, there is a good chance that current Action-RPGs risk becoming outdated…