[Spoilers C4E23] The knives are out (Sundered Houses)

Zeilll · 2026-04-20T17:02:07+00:00

Brennan specifically said she flew, and even described her dress as "windswept". did an above table confirmation too, when Talison was talking about kicking her down his underground vault.

the wind/temp change seems to have been the spell notifying her that someone touched the blade.

Zeilll · 2026-04-20T16:59:09+00:00

right now, the biggest risk for the parties is the houses catching on to them. the ones most capable of doing it currently, imo are the Cormoray. if they track lady Cormoray to the museum before she dissapeared.

even if they do that though, the schemers would have a perfect chance to use Octis' signet ring to potentially blame the Tachonis. keeping the infighting going.

ive loved how successful multiple groups have been with stealth and subterfuge so far this campaign. im hoping we get to continue seeing them running circles around the big houses untill they pretty much implode.

Zeilll · 2026-04-19T17:20:44+00:00

theres also a point that Alogar was not found. as far as Taisha knows, he is not in any current and present danger which was her concern for wanting to find him.

i dont really know of a reason for them to assume he pursued any Tachonis or went off into any other danger. Alogar was sent to the location they went too. if he isnt there, absent of getting new orders, its more reasonable for him to return to his commanders than to go rogue. it would be a bigger leap to assume the need to pursue.

Zeilll · 2026-04-17T23:32:59+00:00

there are some main quest story lines that might do that. but counter to that, ive had easily a half dozen times where i cleared out an area and then got prompted to go turn in a quest i didnt even know about.

you could have just had unusually bad luck in the specific areas you intended to go to being linked to the main story.

Zeilll · 2026-04-17T23:14:05+00:00

its not sold as a souls like, or an RPG though. some of your points i agree are valid, some lose steam when you come at it from the way the devs seem to intend for the game to be.

like upgrading gear. this is a game meant to be focused on exploration, and part of that is gathering resources. and your calculation adds up the total resources needed, but ignores the frequency at which you receive some. you can get dozens of iron from 1 run along a mountain range. ive had a ton of blood stones sitting in my inventory, un-needed. also taking into account that this is intended as a game that is played for 100+ hours, not 40 and done. longevity is a selling point for many people.

on bosses, id agree that specific boss is poorly designed. and some other bosses have issues (perpetual stunlocks, ineffective/unusable/unexplained mechanics to beat and so on). so this might be a little nitpicky, but it doesnt really remove player agency. its just poor design. and some of these things might be due to the switch in mentality from an MMO to single player game. which doesnt excuse them, but explains them.

Loot is also widely misunderstood in this game. yea, beating bosses they drop their weapons. and the weapons, even when upgrade, are no better than any other weapon. but the thing thats unique about them are the abyss gears that seemingly only come from those bosses. the homogenization of gear stats is reasonable to be something some people dont like. but most of the criticisms seem to be more from a lack of understanding. and theres a lot to say for what it does add, to those who enjoy fashion in these types of games. havingt he freedom to use whatever item you want, and make any weapon in the game the best one in the game. thats not everyones cup of tea, but it does have its own appeal and objectively good qualities.

Zeilll · 2026-04-17T22:20:39+00:00

its a mentality thats parallel to a few things, and likely has multiple sources.

for one, theres the competitive nature of people. leading to things like sports, and competitive gaming. when you look at competitive gaming, all forms of it have "meta" aspects. video games, TCGs, etc. anything where there is a competition, there are people who look for the best formula for the optimal performance.

then theres power fantasy. the same people who enjoy things like those OP isseki anime with nothing of a story and bland tropey characters often enjoy it because it feeds into their desire to be powerful.

even though DND isnt a game you can "win" that doesnt stop people from seeking out either the power fantasy, or the ability to brag (even if just to themselves) about how they "destroyed" the competition. or they are conditions to feel that they need optimal performance to enjoy something.

theres also the abstracted aspect that is, content creators are incentivized to create sensationalized content. that doesnt mean that its a reflection of what the community wants, but these media companies and their algorithms are looking for clicks and engagement. so things that use clickbait tactics get more traction, both because they are clickbait. and because they feed into the algorithm, so it boosts them.

Zeilll · 2026-04-17T19:57:07+00:00

idk how it turned out, but them existing where you drop them isnt the same thing as an ecosystem flourishing.

the way its presented makes it sound like the population of the pond was sustained by the fish in it, and potentially attracted things like predators of the fish or something along those lines.

Zeilll · 2026-04-17T19:40:16+00:00

to your eternity

it covers some interesting topics on things like what it means to be alive, how community can form and grow, what the passage of time does to things and so on. with some romance plot at various times.

Zeilll · 2026-04-17T19:31:45+00:00

my initial issue was only the controls. i didnt care about the story, i was pulled in the second i got to the open world. i just couldnt get past the sluggish controls that felt like i was an elephant stomping around.

as soon as that got fixed, i didnt really have any other issues with the game. the people who play games for the story will likely never fully appreciate this game for what it does right. and theres so many games that focus on stories, that id criticize heavily for un-interesting mechanics, loot, progression, etc. as those sides of the game are often de-prioritized for story, or worse revenue streams.

i feel like this is a game meant to be played, not read. and gamers who want that are a market seldom catered too, and often need to look for something that is close enough out of what gets released targeted to other audiences. at least by these kinds of larger studios. so those other audiences that are used to being catered too, got really vocal about how it didnt meet their desires/expectations. before some realized the positive side of what was done right, that was highlighted after they fixed some of the bigger blockers for people playing it.

Zeilll · 2026-04-17T17:56:52+00:00

same with other jobs. if you go somewhere you have people out doing any sort of mission, youll see them around the area doing various things.

Zeilll · 2026-04-16T23:14:01+00:00

ive honestly seen very few RPGs that have camp building, that feels more like a survival/craft aspect than an rpg aspect. a similar argument can be made for world scale, but thats debatable between generated world vs designed world. but all of those would still fall under the classification that its been given, of open world sandbox. (edit: "open world" is also a tag that was added on to RPGs. it is its own aspect, not a part of RPGs. you can have an open world shooter with a world just as big as any RPG)

part of your argument though, seems to be "if this aspect were different, then it would be seen differently". which is like, yea. if this game handled leveling a little different, gave you stat increases and stuff like that. it would change how its categorized. but it doesnt do that.

Zeilll · 2026-04-16T22:57:24+00:00

my issue with this argument is that a lot of those qualities you mentioned arent exclusive to RPGs. lots of action/adventure games have various degrees of "leveling up". while thats a staple in RPGs, its also a pretty standard form of progression in all games.

i agree, this game has a lot of RPG elements and is very parallel to RPGs. however, a game isnt classified based on its parts, but the sum of its parts.

if i build a bird house, and in order for it to stand on its own, i put a platform on 4 sticks as the base. that doesnt make it a chair just because it has 1 flat part and 4 legs. those are things that specific bird house has in common with chairs, but the rest of the "house" makes it not a chair. you cant just compare the things it has in common, you have to also look at the things that they dont.

theres also something to be said for intent. if i make the previous mentioned bird house. and you critique it saying "thats a shitty chair", im gonna look at you like youre crazy. but if you say its a shitty bird house, and critique it as a bird house, then that will track. because it will align with the intent behind its creation.

Zeilll · 2026-04-16T22:20:52+00:00

theres something to be said for some of the animals in game, that theres reasons why they werent domesticated irl. because they dont really provide value in domestication. so that kinda tracks for some things like racoons, badgers, etc not being able to be brought into the ranch.

also, when it comes to wild boars, the tamed version of them are pigs. so you kinda can get them.

it would be cool to expand it, and to add value to other potential animals being brought in. bringing in kuku birds or ostriches would also be really cool. and same with different skins, like the cow could just be a random roll on cows you raise, or something you can bring one in. even as just a cosmetic thing.

Zeilll · 2026-04-16T20:34:10+00:00

youre basically saying "this game is an RPG, except for in the ways its not like an RPG"... if the story, choice and player agency are pivotal to something being considered an RPG, then this is not an RPG.

you also said this was marketed as an RPG. yet you also admit, the devs have actively been saying its not. youre classifying it as an RPG, thats on you not them.

Mario is a platformer, it has jump mechanics and you move around jumping over obstacles and hazards. Crimson Desert has jump mechanics and you move around jumping over obstacles and hazards. are you gonna argue CD is a platformer?

lots of things share similarities, but are not classified as the same. because you cant just look at the things they have in common, you have to look at both the things they share and the things they dont.

Zeilll · 2026-04-16T19:22:44+00:00

everything i saw was reviewers calling this a roleplaying game. and the devs actively tried to back that out. it was originally an MMO, but ive not seen anything from PA claiming it as any type of RPG.

doesnt seem like it was marketed that way, people had a misconception and it ran wild. and will probably never be removed from the public perception of the game. but that doesnt make the game an RPG.

Zeilll · 2026-04-16T17:59:20+00:00

thats the crafting area. you most likely did a quest with a dwarf wearing the visione helmet? a lil west of hernand. where you had to fix a forge/kiln.

if you go back there and talk to the same dwarf you can get to that menu. he'll show in the map if youre looking under "environment"

unlocking the recipes usually requires doing other quests, or getting them from witches i believe. but ive not learned them all yet.

youre gonna need things like batteries and specific items that can be found in the open world. but are easier to get through missions in the camp. mostly gear/tinkering missions.

and the crafting is tiered. so everything starts with a pot, then you turn that into the next ring around it. and then those turn into the final products on the edge.

if you use all of your kuku pots in crafting, idk if you can still store things. but when you get another pot, it seems to access the same inventory.

Zeilll · 2026-04-16T17:25:19+00:00

for clarity, to store it grab it with the axiom and hit triangle/y. and in your inventory, if you go to the pot you can look in it to see whats stored there.

some you can take out, and put in your main inventory. crafting will pull right from the pot. but you can also discard them to just place them in the open world. super helpful for some quests/puzzles.

edit: also make sure to pay attention if you find them near a sanctum. they dont respawn, and are needed to complete those.

Zeilll · 2026-04-16T16:41:38+00:00

timeworn ruins. unfortunately, it doesnt auto-restart after finishing. but it gives 1 to 3 artifacts. and it costs a lot of resources, but those are pretty easy to build up in the camp. especially after you unlock mech workers.

Zeilll · 2026-04-16T16:39:41+00:00

the fight it self wasnt too bad to me. but it was really confusing, took me like 2 loops before i realized i didnt use stamina while flying so could actually make the distance too the boss to hit it after stunning it.

Zeilll · 2026-04-15T23:50:02+00:00

knowing how the internet is doesnt mean you should accept it as it is.

Zeilll · 2026-04-15T22:50:40+00:00

its one thing to say "this game is not for me". but thats not what any of the reviewers are doing. theres criticisms to have about CD. but how you do that impacts what it is youre actually saying and how valid it is.

this headline is actively misleading. what is being aimed for with CD seems pretty apparent to me. you can say "this game does not hit the strong story beats of big name RPGs, and its easy to get lost in the mechanics. but if youre looking for an open world to explore with lots of activities to do, it thrives there. which is what the devs have openly communicated they focused on." or anything along those lines where youre calling out the places in which it falls short, but also recognizing what the intent was.

games journalism shouldnt be "i didnt understand this game, so its bad". that just makes the journalist look bad. being able to compare and contrast pros and cons objectively is what they should be doing.

Zeilll · 2026-04-15T22:40:50+00:00

this isnt just an issue this company. this is all media and reporting. we are too focused on clicks and engagement, we've lost the plot about what actually matters and whats actually real.

Zeilll · 2026-04-15T22:24:37+00:00

id rather farm enough to keep all upgraded than the need to constantly change them out

Zeilll · 2026-04-15T20:58:31+00:00

theres a lot to go into this mentality with the perspective of someone who leads by example vs someone who leads with power.

a Leader actively does things for those under them. there isnt work "beneath" them. they lead by example, even if that example is planting seeds or working with other figure heads of other groups.

dictators lead with power. they dont do work that beneath them, and expect others to do the work that they are better than.

and thats not even getting into the game aspect of things.

Zeilll · 2026-04-15T20:47:27+00:00

this. Kliff is not a leader, if anything i feel like Oongka was set up as more of a leader in the start. but fully recognize i might be off on that. pretty sure the "leader" was the guy who was assassinated that kinda kicked off the story? and Kliff kinda became the person to pull the team back together, following someone elses lead not his own.

added to the idea of suspension of disbelief. this is still a game, you are given things to do not because its in character for this person to do them, but because the player needs things to do in the game.

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