When I first ideated this list of features Crimson Desert needs in order to reach its full potential, the entries looked a tad different. In the space of a few days, Pearl Abyss has already implemented numerous changes, fixes, and new mechanics that I felt were necessary for the game to be great. Indeed, much of Crimson Desert’s post-launch support has addressed its biggest issues and tweaked its handful of underbaked ideas. While the core experience remains just as phenomenal as it was at launch, its myriad of minor and major changes have made a world of difference.
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That being said, there is still room for improvement. To be clear, I do believe that Crimson Desert is already one of the best games of 2026, and even if it were to be left exactly as it is at the time of writing this, I would be happy. Of course, we can always dream a little bigger and hope for a few tweaks here and there to meet our own personal desires. Pearl Abyss has been pretty receptive to feedback, and so I hope that, should it believe these features to be as necessary to the core experience as I do, they have a chance of making it in.
5. Kliff Needs A Pair Of Binoculars
Crimson Desert may have one of the largest open worlds ever crafted. It is ridiculous how much time one can spend in the starting region, Hernand, simply due to not just how large it is, but how much there is to do and see there. I personally spent close to 50 hours riding around Hernand and its surrounding areas, completing side quests, solving the game’s unbelivably obtuse yet ultimately satisfying puzzles, defeating waves after waves of bad guys, and, naturally, stabbing my way through every waterfall imaginable.
Considering just how big Crimson Desert’s world is, it is rather baffling that there isn’t some form of binoculars or telescope for Kliff and his compatriots to use. It is a feature that I feel should be a necessity in every open-world game of this scale, as it allows you to not only better see what is awaiting you in the distance, but also where you should venture off to next. It is a great way of tantalizing the player with remarkable sights just out of reach, without artificially adding map makers like in a Ubisoft game.
4. Pets Need More Of A Purpose
I, like everyone who has played Crimson Desert, adore the ability to tame animals and have them as your pet. It is a completely unnecessary feature that nevertheless elevates the overall experience and further deepens both the player’s connection with Pywel and with exploration itself. There’s nothing quite like having a dog clad in armor by your side as you stride across rolling fields and up snow-capped mountains. That being said, it doesn’t really feel like Pearl Abyss went far enough with the pet mechanic.
I’m not trying to be greedy here, as, like I previously mentioned, this mechanic didn’t need to exist in the first place. However, it wouldn’t hurt to allow players to name their pets in order to further deepen their bond. Additionally, it would be good if the pets actually did something. Sure, they gather loot from defeated enemies, or at least, they’re supposed to. Yet, beyond that, they feel a tad useless. They could lead players to interesting locations off the beaten path, akin to the golden birds or foxes in Ghost of Tsushima. Alternatively, they could at least carry some of the loot they gather, or dig up hidden treasure now and then. Really, it would be nice if they contributed more to the player’s journey across Pywel.
3. Kliff Needs Guns
One of the most frustrating experiences I had in my early hours of playing Crimson Desert, aside from jumping every time I wanted to loot an enemy, was discovering I couldn’t use guns with Kliff. You can buy them, which I did accidentally, believing Kliff would become the slickest gunslinger in all of Pywel, but you can’t equip them to him. Only Damiane, the practically useless companion, can wield them, and while they are fun to blast foes with in her hands, it would be nice for Kliff to use them once in a while.
The difficulty is that most players, myself included, will play as Kliff for the majority of their playthrough. As fun as Damiane is, there’s little reason to switch to her at any point beyond the times when you’re forced to (more on that later). So, while it is understandable to limit guns to her to both differentiate her from Kliff and incentivise players to actively engage with her combat mechanics, it ends up meaning that you’ll likely rarely actually use a gun in Crimson Desert. That’s a shame, especially as the steampunk-esque aesthetic of Crimson Desert helps set it apart from its fantasy contemporaries.
2. Companions Need More Quests
As aforementioned, Damiane and Oongka are a little useless in Crimson Desert. I was, initally, going to request that Pearl Abyss give them some of Kliff’s abilities, as, without them, they feel like inferior characters even despite their unique combat mechanics. However, Pearl Abyss has now done that, much to the delight of fans, and so it feels like the next step would be to give them more to do with said abilities. As it stands, both Damiane and Oongka have little to do in Crimson Desert beyond helping with battles.
While they have a handful of their own quests, it really isn’t enough. They can’t do the majority of side quests as they’re specific to Kliff, they can’t do main missions, or even some puzzles. It just makes them feel completely redundant, despite Pearl Abyss having clearly devoted a lot of time to crafting them. If they were given more unique quests or even the ability to do some of the existing missions, they’d feel a little more worthwhile. At the very least, it would give players a distraction from Kliff endlessly saying “Yes” and “Alright” to every questgiver, even in the most inappropriate times.
1. The Introduction Needs To Be Reworked
Crimson Desert’s atrocious introduction is easily my least favorite part of the game. While it is short-lived, it is so bad that I almost quit playing entirely. I’m not sure what Pearl Abyss was thinking when they crafted it, as its disjointed quests and nonsensical plot feel as if they were stitched together by AI, but what I do know is that it absolutely needs to be changed. That wouldn’t even necessarily be hard to do, as it is only Chapter 1 and the very beginning of Chapter 2 that need to be reworked.
The mindbogglingly bad missions in Hernand, such as arm wrestling and unclogging a chimmney can be cut completely, as too can Kliff returning to Pywel and then going back up to the Abyss. Instead, Kliff can die, do all of the Abyss content from Chapter 1 in one go, return to Pywel, travel to Hernand, and immediately fight Matthias before being asked by Middler to help Hernand in exchange for information on the Greymanes. That then leads rather nicely into the series of quests involving the Goldleaf Merchant that then results in you getting the Greymane camp. It feels like an obvious solution that would fix Crimson Desert’s weakest element and wouldn’t require Pearl Abyss to create any additional content.
What features do you think Crimson Desert needs? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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