LucidNightmare
My honest answer is that the combat isn't the highlight for me, personally. I think it is fine, and it can feel really good at points, but there is.. like this disconnect between button presses at times. I feel like it has improved since release, and it really is hard to put my finger on it, but I can say that Souls/Dragon's Dogmas combat feels better. While in Crimson Desert, it feels off at times.
To try and put it more clearly for those interested:
I feel (in my own playthrough, I could be an outlier since combat isn't something I go out of my way to do in this game and actively avoid it for now) that during combat, my character doesn't follow where I'm leading with my analog stick on my controller. Say I'm surrounded fully on all sides (happens often enough in this game, sometimes causing a Warriors-esque feeling as I'm actively hitting 4-6 people at the same time with my blades) and I want to attack the bigger guy who does more damage behind me. Sometimes I'm sitting there pulling the analog stick towards that guy, but my character will hit a different guy off to the side of that bigger guy. This leads me to getting hit by the big guy who does the most damage, seemingly against my own wishes since I was actively pulling the analog stick to attack that specific guy.
And some more info for those interested in the combat, sometimes when I'm in the middle of combat and with how the controls are (they were pretty complex at release, but they have been fixing those issues alongside other pain points I've mentioned in my previous posts) it leads to a lot of "wrong" actions being taken. If I try to get complex with the combat (which I'm sure is a ME issue since I'm nowhere near the level a more seasoned Souls player would be), I make a mess of the whole thing and get hit more often than I would like.
TL;DR:
If you are expecting to be in the middle of a heavy attack and want to be able to cancel the attack animation for a dodge roll, that will not be what you get. Once you commit to the attack (as of right now on 3/31/2026) you aren't going to cancel the animation and dodge. What normally happens is that I roll AFTER the attack.
I will also do some combat when I get home today to be able to answer these types of questions in more depth and detail. :-]
To add on to the post without cluttering it, the fact that I found the train and rode it for at least an hour or so, watching it turn to night, and then eventually finding the only city/village I've seen so far with electricity and lights at night instead of torches or braziers? What are the odds? haha
Fixed! Thank you for commenting! :-]
It’s been getting improvements here and there as the days go by. Just earlier there was a 1.9GB update that fixed some issues like having to pick up the ore that’s dropped from mining. It goes straight into your inventory now instead of having to find the ore chunk that came out of the recently mined rock (sometimes they could fly off the face of the cliff you were mining on, which obviously isn’t ideal)!
I'd say it does have elements of Souls/Dragon's Dogma/Witcher 3.
The problem might be that they are not as tight as Souls/DD would be. I'm playing right now and just got out of a pretty good boss fight, but again, the controls can be VERY iffy at times.
That's been my takeaway the whole time, basically. The bones are truly there, but the gameplay isn't as tight as I would like at all. For example, when I go to use the Double Jump skill you can unlock, it takes 3 presses of my X button to actually get it to go, which isn't ideal. Alongside that, the downward momentum your character has from falling seems to balance out the momentum from the double jump which makes it feel like you didn't get as much height as you would expect from such a skill.
All in all, it's a great game, with very good bones, but definitely has a lot of general improvements that would make it a much more enjoyable experience all around!
I had this same exact thought as you while playing the opening of Crimson Desert. Then, in all honesty, the writing got better. It was weird when things actually started to make sense, but at least it makes sense now. lol
Now it just needs WIZZARD stitched with sequins. ;P
Like adding big boobies on to the Nazis?
/s :P
Made me chuckle in these dark times. Cheers!
Gotta get that agenda through!
Sorry for the double comment, but I don't want to clutter the original more than it is!
The itch that I get in most video games that have it, is the sense of exploration. If I walk 50 feet that way, will there be something interesting to find? In Crimson Desert, the answer is usually a resounding YES. :-]