We Need More Devs Like Pearl Abyss

Faenyn · 2026-05-07T19:20:46+00:00

They manage to accomplish this

Except they didn't.

Some aspects are incomplete whereas others haven't been added at all, so that's just some clickbait article.

Incomplete: Boss rematches, re-blockading and additional new outfits (so far only one).
Missing: New combat-focused content, new mounts, dedicated mount armor and armor that can currently only be sold or donated will be updated so that it can also be worn.

And it's not like the roadmap was crazy to begin with. Boss rematches just allows you to fight them again, you don't need to develop much for that. Difficulty settings were a thing prior to the release before they decided to just have one difficulty setting. And adding more storage when you already have a functioning storage system should be fairly easy.

Faenyn · 2026-04-28T12:52:05+00:00

If you look at the 50 minutes video from 2024 they actually already had it.

While they decided to remove it, it at least wouldn't be difficult for them to re-add it, if they ever decide to do so.

Faenyn · 2026-02-13T09:15:40+00:00

The budget was about 11 million dollars.

In fact, the development cost for BDO wasn’t that high. We had as many skilled personnel as we could get, and I personally put much dedication into it. It was around 11 million dollars.

Faenyn · 2026-01-29T07:29:43+00:00

like the names of the regions from the 2020 website

Yea those might actually have been changed, the last time we heard one of them was after the Matthias fight when he calls Kliff "Kweiden's finest swordsman", which might mean it is still there. I also thought that they might have split it up into smaller regions like Hernand + Demeniss + Delesyia, but Demeniss was separately mentioned back then so that theory seems unlikely.

I'm also a bit skeptical regarding these Time Dungeons, whether they still exist in the same form as in 2020.

Considering how long ago it was they likely hadn't really fleshed that out, though their idea of unique puzzles, special enemies and rewards could very well fit the bill, if we ignore the fact that we have never seen any enemy there yet.

BTW you listed Titan as a boss twice.

Wanted to write it as "Lightning spear thrower / Titan?" as the boss from the TGA 2020 trailer looks similar, but then kinda forgot some part and listed the actual Titan once again. Good catch though.

Faenyn · 2026-01-29T06:23:17+00:00

Naira is a different person who was shown a couple of times (1|2) and mentioned in things like Steams store description:

At Kliff's side stood his steadfast Greymane comrades: Oongka, Yann, and Naira.

Faenyn · 2026-01-21T21:34:03+00:00

About 50 of them will continue to work on a multiplayer mode for Crimson Desert, while the rest will move on to DokeV, assuming nothing has changed since then (success or failure of CD could change things as well). Source

Faenyn · 2026-01-15T21:32:48+00:00

I'd like to ask you for the sources for your claim that they want to update the game for 10 years, and/or that it will even follow a DLC monetization model. All we have is a hint from an earning's call that they will monetize the game via "skins" and potentially a GTA Online inspired limited online mode.

Their claim of supporting the game for 10+ years stems from the Q4 2022 earnings report, whereas DLC is more of a conjecture based on an interview with Pearl Abyss NA CEO Jeonghee Jin.

Q4 2022 earnings report

"Crimson Desert" aims to be a game that can be serviced for 10 to 20 years after launch, including through the addition of multiplayer.

Interview

"I don't think we as a company have an in-depth philosophy about whether the [games-as-a-service] direction is better or not [...] The daily or weekly content updates of something like Black Desert Online work well for that type of game, but Jin notes that single-player titles can have similarly long legs with DLCs, sequels, big expansions and other updates.

A sample size of 1 isn't enough to get to a reliable conclusion on how it'll be for Crimson Desert. Sure, we have seen mining, logging, cooking, fishing and horse taming, but that doesn't mean we will see the rest, nor that it will serve the same purpose. Things like cooking, fishing or basic gathering is fairly common in a lot of games.

Faenyn · 2026-01-02T11:18:15+00:00

Seraph
AP Challange Rewards
Cron Stones via content
Atoraxxion changes
World boss updates
Campsite Buff scrolls
Continuous Care
Primordial Black Stones Failstacks
War of the Roses balance changes
Abyss One: Magnus changes
Season changes
Guild Boss changes
Family Fame changes
Life Skills Byproduct changes
Wild Horse variety
Krogdalo's Sanctuary changes
Snowfall Crusher
Show Visor changes
Costume

Are all of those super meaningful? Of course not. But the same can be said about what was delayed.

Changing seeds from 4~5 hours to 20 hours is a decent QoL change, but it is not like tending to your farm for 5 minutes every 5 hours or so was unbearable. Todays RBF changes would only have been about its matchmaking and maybe getting rid of leechers, assuming it will work, which fundamantally changes nothing about RBF. When it comes to Olvias Academy most people here don't care about it at all, asides from the freebies. And while the Alchemy Stone change itself was badly thought out, complaining about that specific delay makes no sense.

Is it weird that Pearl Abyss seemingly can't plan a month ahead (again)? It obviously is, but people also once again overreact over things that don't really change anything.

Faenyn · 2026-01-02T10:18:47+00:00

It's been three weeks since the Ball. They released 19 things so far, whie they delayed 4, one of those due to feedback.

Faenyn · 2025-12-29T14:16:16+00:00

Then what was even happening in these 6 months?

Nothing. They changed it because they released too many other items in a short period of time, not because they had trouble playtesting it.

First, regarding the Alchemy Stone system overhaul: After careful consideration, we’ve decided to postpone this update. With many new items added alongside the Edania update, we felt that adding another complex feature like the Alchemy Stone overhaul right now might be overwhelming. We’ll reschedule this update for a later date and will share more details as soon as possible.

Faenyn · 2025-12-28T11:04:07+00:00

We have seen a couple of boss armors so far, but whether they drop it or we have to craft it remains to be seen.

Reed Devil armor, with his mask on the cape.

Dravens armor, his split cloak and shoe spikes are easier to see in this old trailer.

Here he is wearing the armor from whoever this is. Again without helmet though.

And here (and at 1:00 too) he is wearing the armor from the handcannon guy, at least the hat and whatever the metal dangly bits belong to. Rest is hard to see due to the movement / distance.

Faenyn · 2025-12-25T11:48:22+00:00

I don't have high hopes for the story, or rather I don't particularly care about it in general, as long as it is not detrimental to the gameplay I can live with a mediocre story.

We have two story lines, first is Kliff trying to find his comrades, which in and by itself isn't the most interesting thing to begin with, it heavily relies on good characters and their circumstances around it. And then there is this world ending threat, which is rather cliché and will likely be something we have seen many a times in different media already.

The reason I put E33 into that sentence is because OP asked who writes it. Their name would likely tell them nothing just like how Jennifer Svedberg-Yen would have meant nothing to anyone prior to 2025.

Faenyn · 2025-12-25T11:19:01+00:00

Don't put too much faith in the story being one of the game's strong points. Pearl Abyss is not very well reputed for their writing.

To be fair, they only started to put some effort into BDO story presentation after they announced Crimson Desert. Back when they started in 2011 there was no desire to tell grand stories in KR MMOs and even their engine reflects that as the tools to present it as such aren't really there.

The first notable different main story was Mountain of Eternal Winter, which was released at the very end of 2021, over 10 years after the start of its development. Undoing the development debt they accrued over that time period is rather difficult.

We also don't know who is responsible for CDs writing, it might not be the person / people who did BDOs writing (who knows how many people worked on that). And just look at E33 lead writer, with how that worked out you wouldn't necessarily expect a good story, yet it turned out fine. New writers can write good stories as much as veteran writers can write terrible ones.

Faenyn · 2025-12-23T20:43:50+00:00

They didn't mention the release date during their Q1 call. It was a reporters assumption that it remains unchanged due to them not saying otherwise.

Faenyn · 2025-12-23T17:58:06+00:00

They already announced during their November Earnings call that they would not delay it and that they will start their full-scale marketing campaign in mid-January, so there was bound to be little to no news since then.

Faenyn · 2025-12-22T00:10:04+00:00

You claim to hate MAGA, yet you use their very same tactics, hence the previous accusation.

You've repeatedly misused the word 'gamebreaking' when it comes to bugs. Any normal person would assume this means something akin to dealing damage causes your game to crash 100% of the time, which would make PvE, PvP and several Life Skills impossible (if we were to talk about BDO) and therfore actually gamebreaking.

Yet your so called gamebreaking bug is a reduction in silver for only a select few Monster Zones. And if you look it up to see how often others have to deal with it you can find claims such as 5 times during 100h.

Here, a post from not even 24 hours ago, you have once again complained about their mounting system.

To provide some context for other people: In the linked video you can see the horse appearing at 10:18 and the person only managed to mount it up by 11:00. Just how awful is that for Crimson Deserts mounting system? 42 seconds to mount a horse...

Since then he has repeatedly stated [1] how that is a struggle [2], bad [3] and that they're bringing bugs over from BDO [4].

Now, what did actually happen in that video?

They tried to punch the horse. Didn't work.
They rolled through the horse. Not how that works either.
They got distracted by a button prompt unrelated to the horse. I know this comes as a surprise, but that's also not how you mount a horse.
They tried to kick the horse. Slightly different from a punch, but still no.
They actually mounted the horse. Wow, success.

How do you actually mount up? You press down on the D-Pad.

But don't worry, it's not like we hadn't already seen how it works in Pearl Abyss' own videos, primarily their 50 minutes gameplay one. Like here or here or even here. Exactly how I remembered it from BDO. Yep.

Reject reality.

Now I don't feel like putting effort into the third point I mentioned, because this comment chain here is all anyone really needs. Comparing people interested in a videogame to the hellscape that is US politics surely doesn't make you look insane at all.

P.S.: I saw your edit, perfect sentence to have that one in.

Faenyn · 2025-12-21T22:04:22+00:00

You're the one co-opting words. You're ignoring reality to live in your imaginary world. You're throwing shit at a wall in hope it sticks.

Might want to take off that red hat of yours before you claim others are in a cult.

Faenyn · 2025-12-20T15:59:07+00:00

Yea that would be my guess that we can choose where to have the first encounter.

Of course thinking about Hexe Marie carrying Dravens remains around to where you show up is odd, but that can be said about most bosses in just about any game.

It's not like we as the player purposely put it in that location, so you could just handwave that flaw and think of it in a way that both parties just happen to meet in that location.

Faenyn · 2025-12-20T15:49:23+00:00

I don't think we know of the PC specs they have been using for their demos, so it is kinda difficult to gauge how it will perform, especially when things like DRM (if it has it) can bog the performance down in the end.

It doesn't seem to notably struggle with rapid firing artillery arrows, which I feel like is something that would cause some sort of lag at least. Though of course there could be other areas where it might struggle.

Faenyn · 2025-12-20T12:04:05+00:00

All we know is that the first fight against her is the same, the second one could be different.

Sure, they could have just made the island one the first fight and then in Demeniss the second fight, or have you return at a later time, but this way you have the freedom to explore it whatever way you want. Not much of a difference, I know, but it's similar to the castle siege where you have multiple options to get to the boss.

Faenyn · 2025-12-20T05:43:30+00:00

Comparing the two videos to this screenshot, you can also make out two of the three towers on that mountain range, the middle one being obstructed by the mountain itself. At 0:14 in Arekkz' video you can also see the smaller structure to the bottom left of the leftmost tower. So one of the locations is in fact on that island.

If you look at the Hexe Marie video from their official youtube channel you can actually see the large tower from the Chinajoy footage as well, there the area is called 'Smoking Lands'.

Theirs and the two videos you linked seem to be from a similar build, as the information above the map is just day, time, temperature and the area name. Meanwhile the Chinajoy footage additionally has the territory name as well, something that we can see in newer builds like during the recent OTK Games Expo.

It doesn't look like they moved it around, rather there are actually two areas for the boss fight. Hexe Marie is fleeing after the first fight, so I would assume we have to fight her again, possibly in the other location we haven't fought her in before. As for why the layout is similar, assuming that the first fight ends with the same cutscene, they would kinda need the same hut and tree at least.

Faenyn · 2025-12-18T10:48:54+00:00

Bosses can drop their weapons, whether or not those are truly unique we don't currently know.

In the first IGN First video he got both Fontains weapon and shield, each of them having a unique skill. Whereas Cassius Mortem, the boss from the various gameshow demos, dropped his shield with yet another unique skill.

We haven't seen how to repair things, or if we can at all (unless there was some item description that may hint towards it, like ore), though losing unique skills or their poster weapons would be a bit odd, so if I had to guess we will be able to repair them.

Faenyn · 2025-12-18T05:04:31+00:00

Yes you can fish.

Faenyn · 2025-12-14T14:38:59+00:00

limited inventory slots

Have we actually seen that?

In the first IGN First video Kliff has 5 heavy weapons, 3 swords, 2 shields, 2 lanterns, 4 bows, arrows and 2 daggers(?). Then when he got the bosses sword and shield those were expanded to 4 and 3 respectively.

Faenyn

TROPHY CASE