Crimson Desert has frequently been called a Soulslike game, and even I’ve been guilty of making the connection during some of the preview events that had me tackling enormous bosses, managing a stamina bar, popping potions, and remembering attack patterns. While there is a lot here that resembles a Soulslike, I imagine that’s because all we’ve seen are small slices of boss combat and very little about the open world.
It seems like this is the case, because in a recent interview with creators Luke Stephens and Luality, Director of PR at Pearl Abyss, Will Powers, insisted that Crimson Desert is not a Soulslike game, it’s an “open world action game.”
More PlatinumGames Than FromSoftware
The interview covers a few interesting tidbits about Crimson Desert, including the explicit comparison of the map being twice as large as Skyrim, as well as info about the game’s narrative and open-world activities. However, it’s also the first time that we’ve heard a developer really come out swinging in terms of the game’s comparisons to Soulslikes.
“Crimson Desert presents itself as if it were a Soulslike, but that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Powers says. “Crimson Desert is this open-world action game that has very, very deep systems, almost akin to Breath Of The Wild, systems layered on top of each for exploration, traversal, and generally lots of options. But from a combat standpoint, you’re looking closer to like a PlatinumGames sort of game.”
I think these are interesting comparisons. Bayonetta is all about slick, combo-based combat that puts more emphasis on flashy style and pure action than it does fighting the same boss for three hours until you have the attack patterns blazed on to the back of your eyeballs. Having played Crimson Desert, I understand this comparison completely: once you start to suss out the game’s combo system, combat should make you feel powerful, and you should look good doing it.
Powers goes into a bit more detail regarding the team’s philosophy around how it has built the combat system in Crimson Desert. “It’s about giving players tools and letting them express themselves through combat,” he explains. “We don’t want to force players into one way of approaching combat.”
I think this really doubles down on the sandbox elements of the game. We’ve already seen how you can use the environment to your advantage (toppling pillars, setting things on fire, etc.) and this reminds me more of players coming up with unique methods to kill enemies in Tears Of The Kingdom rather than Elden Ring.
Much of the confusion around what sort of game Crimson Desert is has originated from the fact that we’ve really only seen boss fights so far, and Powers does comment on this in the interview, “A lot of what people have seen so far has been very early or very controlled slices.” If that’s the case, when will we get our open-world showcase? The game is out in just a couple of months and we still don’t know much about the narrative, world design, faction system, or any of the other meatier details of the game.
Crimson Desert
- Released
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March 19, 2026
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Strong Language
- Developer(s)
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Pearl Abyss
- Publisher(s)
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Pearl Abyss
- Number of Players
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Single-player
