Crimson Desert is receiving the best single-player post-launch support we have seen in a long time, with the release of weekly patches that add more content to the game, including fulfilling the community's requests, while addressing some of its shortcomings. This week, we learned that Pearl Abyss is planning to address the game's biggest sore point, its disjointed story, and while this is not ideal, veteran developer Josh Sawyer praised the initiative.
“I think this is fine / good even if it isn’t ideal - like patching anything,” the Fallout: New Vegas director said on Bluesky in reply to a user lamenting story getting treated in the way of a balance patch. “It’s better to patch story content to make it better than to say ‘We fucked up on release but we won’t do anything about it because story is different from everything else.’”
Considering how many games launch with very middling stories that never get improved, with their issues sometimes only getting addressed in expansions or DLC, Crimson Desert's story getting patched was definitely unexpected, as, like Josh Sawyer points out, most developers seem to consider the narrative in a different way than the gameplay, likely because it is way more challenging to patch them compared to introducing balance changes or new gameplay content.
For this reason, it will be very interesting to see how Pearl Abyss improves the story, as the announcement did not include any details. While a complete rework is likely unreasonable, I expect, at the very least, to see Kliff react more appropriately to the main story events, and the story as a whole to be better connected to some of the revelations included in some post-story content that contextualize the state of Pywell and some otherwise unexplained events.
Regardless of the extent of the story improvements, I am really looking forward to experiencing Crimson Desert again once the game gets further patches. At launch, I scored the game 9/10 for effectively being, in my opinion, above many experiences powered by Unreal Engine 5, saying: “Crimson Desert is among the best fantasy open-world games in years. While the narrative is thin and the controls complex, the incredible world density, sandbox mechanics, incredible combat and stunning visuals make Pywell a continent worth visiting for anyone looking for an experience to lose themselves in for hundreds of hours.”
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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