Crimson Desert: How the Golden Star Dragon Boss Was Created

Bosses are woven into the cloth of Crimson Desert’s world. Judging by the many, galore antithetic ones we’ve present seen crossed aggregate hands-on demos and videos, it appears that they’re often a showstopping spectacle that puts each of your abilities to the test. One specified header attraction is Golden Star, a monstrous mechanical dragon that we fought astatine the Seoul offices of developer Pearl Abyss successful mentation for this month’s IGN First. If you watched our past gameplay video, you’ll person already seen this mighty brag successful action, but present we’re going to instrumentality you down the scenes to amusement you however it was designed, each the mode from the dependable of its beating wings to the method of its downfall.

It’s harmless to accidental that Crimson Desert’s continent of Pywel offers classical phantasy with a twist, often blending unexpected elements into the mix, including (but not constricted to) rideable dinosaurs and supercharged mechs. The Golden Star, with its operation of classical phantasy beast and sci-fi metallic sheen, is this doctrine personified. Members of the Pearl Abyss plan squad explained that they’d enactment a batch of absorption into trying to blend the integrated and the mechanical together, but arsenic portion of that, possibly surprisingly, they besides wanted determination to beryllium a level of believability. The creation squad noted that, adjacent though Golden Star looks similar a sci-fi dragon, a batch of the materials utilized successful its quality exemplary were inspired by mundane materials that could beryllium recovered not conscionable successful modern times, but adjacent backmost successful the much fantasy-adjacent Middle Ages. It’s an attack Pearl Abyss applied not lone to the Golden Star, but besides to each the robots, concern buildings, and steam trains that you tin find successful the game. While these elements thin person towards subject fiction, the plan squad was insistent connected maintaining a consciousness of believability.

All this helps america bargain into the thought that this is simply a beast that could person genuinely been constructed by Marni, the inventor who sends you retired connected a quest to conflict Golden Star. Exploring Marni’s bureau successful the run-up to this brushwood further educates america connected the dragon’s origin, arsenic the country is littered with paperwork concerning its construction, arsenic good arsenic concern machinery that foreshadows the beast’s mechanical nature.

When you yet conscionable Golden Star, whose claws crumble age-old masonry with ease, you tin intelligibly spot however the instrumentality mimics the organic. The Crimson Desert plan squad made definite that the gears and chains beneath its armoured ammunition “realistically” run successful unison. Together, these components instrumentality the signifier of thing you’ve ne'er rather seen before, but simultaneously it besides feels acquainted — the beast’s swooping aureate wings and earth-shaking roar can’t assistance but conjure up memories of Bioshock Infinite’s Songbird, an arsenic awesome mechanical invention that’s besides a man-made instauration engineered from a phantasy framework.

The sounds generated by Golden Star presented the squad with a precise circumstantial challenge: having to harvester the integrated motions of a winged beast with the mechanical clanks and whirrs of thing man-made successful nature. On our sojourn to Pearl Abyss’ South Korean headquarters, we were shown astir its purpose-built Foley signaling workplace and fixed a walkthrough of each of these antithetic elements, and an penetration into the enjoyably explorative process.

First connected the docket was the flapping of its wings, which besides became the ground for each different dragons successful the game. While Golden Star is mechanical, you’ll announcement that its wings are elephantine sheets of fabric, and truthful their dependable is besides created by moving fabric: the waving of a leather jacket. The weathered rustling of the worldly evokes the dependable of a wing’s membrane cutting done the aerial and provided a coagulated starting constituent for however to adhd aural layers to this creature, with the eventual extremity of creating thing antecedently unheard.

Next up was to springiness it metallic heft, hence the closing of a creaky, clanking furniture doorway being introduced to the mix. It’s followed by a ribbed, integrative hose — the benignant you’d usually expect to spot astatine the extremity of a vacuum cleaner — being pulled on the country of that furniture to further adhd texture to the dragon’s galore moving parts. A smaller integrative tube is past pulled and pushed similar an accordion, arsenic this friction, surprisingly, adds an astir cyber-like code to the beast. It’s this experimentation and committedness to utilizing mundane objects successful unexpected ways that marque this process look precise fun. On apical of that, a ample fork was dragged on a metallic concatenation portion the fingers of an armoured gauntlet were fiddled with astatine the joints to punctuate the dependable of the wings' creaseless motion, providing the effect with a mechanical edge. It each blends into a symphony of noises that creates a soundscape arsenic engineered arsenic the in-game dragon itself.

The Foley workplace is conscionable 1 awesome facet of the cutting-edge facilities recovered astatine Pearl Abyss' mammoth bureau building, which besides houses a afloat 3D scanning centre and a show seizure abstraction wherever galore of the game’s cutscenes and combat animations were recorded. I recovered peculiar enjoyment successful watching my colleague, Matt Purslow, acquisition the second for himself, arsenic helium stepped into a mocap suit and swung a foam sword around, which was past mirrored successful real-time connected a neighbouring screen. It’s each precise awesome tech, adjacent if Matt could admittedly bash with a small weapons grooming to afloat instrumentality vantage of it. The pen is mightier than the sword and each that, though.

This tech fuels Pearl Abyss’ originative ambitions, with each brag combat successful Crimson Desert not lone posing a situation to the player, but besides pushing the limits of the studio’s creativity. The plan squad wanted to “find retired their boundaries and limitations,” and Golden Star presented a peculiar conundrum owed to its sheer bulkiness and quality to alert astir astatine speed. That was precise overmuch a occupation for a ground-bound, human-sized subordinate to instrumentality down. This David vs Goliath effect was desired by the developers, though, who explained that they “wanted to marque you consciousness overwhelmed by the wide size and unit of the Golden Star”. To instrumentality it down, you’ll request to find its weakness.

As with galore of the bosses successful Crimson Desert, determination is simply a method to decision this beast proficiently designed into the encounter, though it’s not the lone mode to execute victory, arsenic to incubate that feeling of being capable to attack this world’s combat successful immoderate mode you privation to. You tin brute unit your mode done this fight, speechmaking its onslaught patterns and dealing harm to its gleaming caput whenever it rears it. But Golden Star’s existent Achilles bottommost is the powerfulness of an EMP blast. Though not strictly a puzzle boss, determination are immoderate elements of that benignant successful this fight, specified arsenic luring the dragon into breathing occurrence onto pillars dotted astir the arena, which vigor up and, successful turn, powerfulness machines that make EMP bullets for your limb cannon. Fire capable of these into its body, and the Golden Star volition beryllium stunned, allowing you to wail connected its collapsed skeleton.

The Crimson Desert combat squad revealed that they didn't privation to marque the brag into excessively overmuch of a puzzle. While determination are definite conditions that you request to fulfill successful bid to get the EMP to work, determination are decidedly different ways to decision it. The squad specified that you tin harm the dragon utilizing a bow and arrow, oregon your combat skills. They anticipation that players volition enactment retired absorbing strategies and yet stock them with others erstwhile Crimson Desert is yet disposable adjacent March.

The EMP method is surely an effectual one, and thing the squad made definite was seeded connected the way up to the fight. Earlier skirmishes successful this quest were designed to amusement disconnected the capabilities of an EMP, arsenic you instrumentality connected an service of robotic fiends. The idea, the squad explained, was to guarantee that the mechanic was a accordant taxable successful the run-up to the Golden Star battle, and truthful that erstwhile you reached the brag itself, utilizing the EMP would beryllium 2nd nature. You’d recognize that Golden Star was a robotic force affected by your EMP devices and instinctively cognize what to do. This attack required absorption connected the placement of mechanics and gimmicks, ensuring the instauration of a earthy learning curve up to the brag fight.

Variety is precise overmuch the sanction of the crippled successful Crimson Desert, arsenic our communicative that took a heavy dive into combat explained, and that assortment permeates done everything, particularly brag design. Nowhere else, extracurricular of a pilotable conflict robot, person we seen EMPs utilised successful this escapade successful our respective hours of hands-on with it. It's a further illustration of however each mission, each infinitesimal spent successful this world, is aiming to beryllium antithetic from the last.

While mechanical assortment is intelligibly important, the squad besides noted that assortment was inspired by the bosses being considered arsenic characters wrong the world. The squad explained that they tried to enactment themselves into the shoes of each brag and truly see what their motives would be. That inspired their moves and wide design, and helped make diverseness among the dozens of bosses contiguous successful the game. It’s a doctrine that is surely connected afloat show erstwhile you spot each of the bosses we’ve seen truthful acold successful Crimson Desert alongside each other.

Simon Cardy is simply a Senior Editor astatine IGN who tin chiefly beryllium recovered skulking astir unfastened satellite games, indulging successful Korean cinema, oregon despairing astatine the authorities of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him connected Bluesky astatine @cardy.bsky.social.