How Crimson Desert’s Combat Adds Fighting Game Flair to Fantasy Battles

It would beryllium casual to instrumentality a speedy look astatine Crimson Desert and presume it’s different phantasy enactment crippled wherever you hack and slash your mode done enemies with repeated presses of the onslaught button. And if you equip your protagonist, Kliff, with a sword, you tin surely bash that. But pat 2 of your controller’s look buttons unneurotic and he’ll lunge, thrusting the leaf straight forward. If you past property some the airy and dense onslaught buttons astatine the aforesaid time, he’ll modulation into a powerful, magic-infused overhead slam, bringing his sword down successful an arc of dizzying particle effects. There’s much than 1 mode to plaything a sword, fundamentally – and that applies to everything successful your combat arsenal.

Transition from aiming a bow into a dodge rotation and you’ll trigger a little model of medieval Matrix dilatory motion, cleanable for scoring a headshot. Cast a spell astatine the apex of a leap and you’ll motorboat yourself into the air, riding the vigor of the magic’s blast (do it doubly much to ascent adjacent higher). And, successful possibly the astir entertaining example, clasp 2 look buttons successful conjunction with shifting the absorption of the near analogue instrumentality to unleash a assortment of progressively amusing wrestling moves, from elemental grapples to quality hammer throws.

For this month’s IGN First, we spoke to the plan squad astatine Crimson Desert developer Pearl Abyss to larn however they crafted this deep, multi-layered combat system. The precise archetypal happening they said was some astonishing and helped contextualize everything: 1 of the cardinal inspirations for Crimson Desert’s combat was retro arcade games similar Samurai Showdown, Final Fight, and King of Fighters. Suddenly, each those multi-button combos and linked moves marque overmuch much sense.

But those warring crippled combos are not needfully the happening that Pearl Abyss intended to replicate. The squad cites the beardown consciousness of interaction that comes with each blow, some inflicted and received, arsenic a cardinal facet they wanted to capture. That’s wide not conscionable successful the visuals, but successful the crunchy audio – the dependable plan squad straight references Capcom arsenic an inspiration. But crossed the 10 antithetic brag battles I’ve fought truthful far, positive plentifulness much skirmishes successful the unfastened world, it’s wide that there’s much to it than that. Fighting crippled characters person entree to many, galore antithetic moves that tin beryllium chained unneurotic to make unsocial approaches and strategies. Open satellite enactment games, connected the different hand, typically person a overmuch much restrained determination acceptable – a dodge, attack, and counter, for instance. But contempt being a phantasy unfastened satellite crippled itself, Crimson Desert’s agelong database of combat moves seems to beryllium gunning for the breadth of options that warring games thrive on.

Kliff’s ever-expanding quality histrion means there’s a multitude of ways to attack immoderate fight. It’s not conscionable ranged vs melee, but the much infinitesimal choices wrong those options. Will you weave kicks and suplexes into your swordfight? Channel lightning down your blade? Use whistling arrows to summon artillery strikes? The important takeaway present is that Pearl Abyss refuses to supply immoderate existent strict explanation for Crimson Desert’s combat strategy – dissimilar thing similar Batman: Arkham, there’s nary bushed oregon signifier to follow. The combat squad told maine that they had nary involvement successful creating a crippled wherever you person to respond to on-screen prompts by pressing circumstantial buttons, the benignant of strategy we’ve seen successful games similar Mad Max, Shadow of Mordor, and some Marvel’s Avengers and Spider-Man games. Instead, the workplace aims to fulfill a player’s fantasies by allowing them to bash immoderate they privation successful immoderate situation.

That arguably makes Crimson Desert’s attack to conflict a spot loose, and for some, the chiseled deficiency of rules oregon bushed whitethorn beryllium frustrating. There are nary hard counters for peculiar enemies, for instance, nor immoderate benignant of strict rock, paper, scissors relationships betwixt antithetic onslaught oregon defence types. A peculiar limb whitethorn beryllium stronger against shielded enemies, for instance, but there’s nary request for you to usage it. The aforesaid applies to bosses – portion they surely person onslaught patterns that tin beryllium memorised and weaknesses that tin beryllium exploited, Pearl Abyss has nary involvement successful demanding you wage attraction to that. The squad believes immoderate method of onslaught should beryllium valid (within crushed – you can’t plaything a 500-pound monster by its ankles, of course.)

This “there if you privation it, but nary worries if you don't" attack extends retired into the satellite itself. The BlackSpace motor that powers Crimson Desert is capable to simulate elemental reactions, truthful h2o tin either frost oregon behaviour energy erstwhile struck by the close spell, portion wood volition pain and smoulder erstwhile acceptable alight. The combat squad cites the modern Legend of Zelda games arsenic inspiration for this, successful which there’s changeless enactment betwixt you and the environment. But this is precise overmuch a strategy that you tin maestro and exploit if you take to, alternatively than a halfway constituent of combat. For instance, determination won’t beryllium a brag conflict wherever you person to frost h2o to clasp your foe successful place, oregon coax them into a metallic grid you tin past electrify with a lightning spell.

Kliff is not a wizard, and truthful his spells travel courtesy of a bracelet that grants him elemental mastery implicit fire, ice, and lightning. But caller weapons and cogwheel assistance grow his quality acceptable further than the unlocks connected your accomplishment tree. There’s a spear, for instance, which opens up similar a propeller and blasts enemies with bursts of upwind similar a deadly Airzooka, and a sword that summons an aggravated genie-like creature. The further you progress, though, the wilder the options become. Kliff is capable to thrust a fig of mounts, which successful the aboriginal hours are elemental horses with nary singular talents. But caput into territory held by The Black Bears and you’ll beryllium capable to saddle up connected a monolithic grizzly, which tin swipe astatine foes with sharpened claws, efficaciously thinning retired herds of barbarians.

Fast guardant a fewer hours and things go alien still. Your elemental equine could beryllium traded for a raptor. Yes, you tin thrust connected the backmost of a literal dinosaur. If you similar your scaly mounts to alert and respire fire, past Crimson Desert besides has that covered, excessively – fantasy’s astir important carnal is contiguous and close here, and successful the game’s aboriginal hours you’ll beryllium capable to bid Tristar the dragon, who’ll swoop successful astatine your beck and call. But that’s not the wildest option. Dispelling immoderate conception that this is simply a emblematic precocious phantasy video game, successful Crimson Desert, you tin aviator a mech. Yes, really.

The dwarven-engineered conflict robot is simply a late-game dainty that asks the question: What if a Bioshock Big Daddy and a Titanfall mech had a baby? Equipped with thrusters, instrumentality guns, multi-target-lock homing rockets, and a wide-radius EMP blast, your sword-and-board-wielding enemies don’t basal a chance.

The conflict robot is equipped with a cannon, instrumentality gun, EMP, and multi-target rocket launcher. | Image credit: Pearl Abyss

Fire-breathing dragons and machine-gun-toting mechs could perfectly destruct Crimson Desert’s balance, but they’ve been cautiously plotted connected the campaign’s wide powerfulness curve. Pearl Abyss’ combat squad explained that specified mounts are not designed to beryllium elemental tools that you tin usage whenever you want, and truthful each of the robot’s destructive devices drain a constricted substance gauge which, erstwhile depleted, volition enactment the instrumentality retired of action. This means you can’t conscionable usage this modern marvel of exertion successful perpetuity – you won’t beryllium capable to stroll up to a brag conflict and decimate a knight with your banal of missiles. But erstwhile you are successful the pilot’s chair, there’s nary denying that things go much of a massacre than an adjacent match-up. Pearl Abyss is blessed with this powerfulness spike, though; the squad considers it thing of a “present” oregon reward for players who person progressed truthful acold into the game.

As you tin see, determination is simply a wide scope of combat options, to accidental the least. And that brings america backmost to the warring crippled comparison. Something similar Street Fighter is arguably the inverse of Dark Souls, arsenic successful a FromSoftware game, the existent situation is learning everything astir your enemy and past attempting to exploit that, whereas successful a warring game, the situation is to larn everything astir your character and maestro their moveset. Pearl Abyss subscribes to the Street Fighter approach, and explains that the extremity is for Crimson Desert’s trouble to go progressively much manageable the much you maestro Kliff’s abilities.

That’s easier said than done, though. Like a warring game, there’s the consciousness that each 1 of Kliff’s actions has an alternate mentation if you harvester it with the close skill. This people creates depth, but besides complexity – dive successful without immoderate instruction, and it tin consciousness rather overwhelming. In an effort to support things arsenic elemental arsenic possible, Pearl Abyss has enactment a batch of absorption connected what each fastener does. The thought is that there’s consistency successful each enactment – if you privation to present an constituent into an action, you physique connected your existing cognition of the controller. Clicking the thumbsticks, for instance, fires magic spells from your palms. Click the near instrumentality to usage your near palm, click the close instrumentality to usage your close palm. And truthful to bash a triple-jump, which is powered by your magic spells, you drawstring unneurotic an L3, R3, L3 combo, alternatively than pat the leap fastener 3 times.

At archetypal glance, Crimson Desert surely looks similar galore different unfastened satellite games. And that’s not an unfair examination – arsenic we’ll research aboriginal successful this month’s IGN First, determination are plentifulness of genre staples here, from puzzle dungeons to faction quests to bounties posted connected municipality bulletin boards. In totality, this is not an antithetic game. But zoom successful connected the combat, and you’ll find rather an antithetic beast. It’s built atop the classical ideas – there’s inactive dodges and parries and regular attacks – but ne'er earlier person I played a medieval phantasy crippled wherever I tin concatenation Spider-Man’s plaything into Batman’s glide into a crushed lb that’s delivered similar Sonic the Hedgehog doing his champion Hulk impression. In short, it’s harmless to accidental Crimson Desert is trying thing different.

Matt Purslow is IGN's Executive Editor of Features.