Pearl Abyss’ Crimson Desert captured the imagination of many gamers with the sheer promise of the amount of stuff they will be able to do inside the game. Exploration, combat, epic storyline, tough bosses, and even a pilotable mech.
So there’s a reasonable question of the progress and power scaling. For many games, progression systems make or break the entire experience: when and how you get the most powerful abilities, or how long it takes to research and get the most fun-to-use skills. So…
Is Crimson Desert an RPG?
Short answer is: no. Pearl Abyss markets Crimson Desert as an open-world action-adventure, not a traditional RPG. In simple terms, this means that there’s no traditional leveling and skill system, where you get experience and unlock new abilities by leveling up.
However, it still features skills, equipment upgrades, and character growth, which are common RPG ingredients.
And therein lies the crux of the issue. A lot of players use “RPG” as shorthand for any big single-player game where you grow stronger over the course of the story. But the simple reality of this is that games nowadays freely borrow mechanics and systems from various genres. God of War’s Norse duology features levels, unlockable skills, and upgradeable equipment. But no one calls them “RPGs,” because the core concept is that of an action-adventure game.
What is Crimson Desert?
Crimson Desert sits somewhere between God of War and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Pearl Abyss announced before the release that the way you get new abilities is by exploring the world and completing quests. The freedom to go and tackle different content and get skills and equipment for it brings the game close to what Nintendo managed to achieve with its newest Zelda games, yet the action roots and build variety within set rules put it back into the God of War territory.
In other words, it’s safe to say Crimson Desert has RPG elements, just like many games do. But it’s also evident that they will not be in any way, shape, or form a focus of the game.
Crimson Desert is coming out on March 19, for PlayStation, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Unfortunately, it will not be available in Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription service.
