Ever since its first major content DLC in 2022, Paradox Interactive has updated its medieval grand strategy and roleplay game Crusader Kings III with new major expansions, which greatly add onto the existing game and are often seen as must-have DLC by the community. With the announcement of the Crusader Kings III: Chapter IV season pass, the game is once again set to be greatly expanded upon with a series of upcoming DLC, including another so-called major expansion. This time, however, the scale of these combined DLCs is so big that one might essentially call the season pass Crusader Kings IV, especially as we get the game’s first ever map expansion.
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Crusader Kings III: Chapter IV is a season pass containing four separate Crusader Kings III DLC. Gradually releasing one after the other over the course of the year, Chapter IV starts out small but eventually ends with what is perhaps the biggest expansion to Crusader Kings III yet, expanding the game’s already large map to include all of Eastern Asia for a total of 30% more playable area and vastly new cultures to explore.
This major expansion, called All Under Heaven, is the last DLC in the season pass and is set to release sometime in Q4 of 2025. In addition to the larger map, All Under Heaven expands your Crusader King III roleplay opportunities with new bookmarks and vibrant cultures. Some of these changes, as described by the Steam page, are:
China: The Mandate of Heaven
- Ascend to the Hegemony, a tier above emperors, and manage the Dynastic Cycle.
- Use the Imperial Treasury and Meritocracy systems to maintain power or exploit instability to reshape the empire.
Japan: Rise of the Shogunate
- Lead a clan to power as Shogun, Kampaku, or Emperor.
- Choose diplomacy or strength to unify Japan under your vision and guide the nation into a new era.
Southeast Asia: God-Kings and Empires
- Rule as a Devaraja with the Mandala Government, uniting tributaries into temple-centered empires.
- Pay tribute to the God King by performing Tributary Missions as a Tributary ruler, increasing favor with your subjects.
This expansion alone greatly increases the scope of Crusader Kings III, but when paired with another big DLC in the season pass, Khans of the Steppe, things get even bigger.
This part of the season pass focuses on adding some much-needed flavor to Crusader Kings II, that being the story of Temujin (also known as Genghis Khan) and the Mongolian empire. It also adds a full list of new mechanics, decisions, and flavor for playing as the DLC’s new factions and characters, comparable in size to the new content added by All Under Heaven.
Alongside these two major expansions are a minor event DLC and a cosmetic pass, almost not worth mentioning alongside the scale of the others.
As standalone content, these new additions to Crusader Kings III are pretty satisfyingly expansive. However, as a season pass, they’re all tied together pretty thematically well, to the point where using either of the pass’s two major DLCs alone might feel kind of empty without the other. It kind of begs the question: Should this just have been Crusader Kings IV?
The season pass is already priced essentially as a full release, costing players $43.99 as a discount to buying each DLC individually. With so much content being added to Crusader Kings III at once, it feels as though Paradox Interactive could have simply waited a little longer and released all of this at once as a new Crusader Kings game, alongside some new events, quality of life changes, and perhaps graphical improvements.
The decision to add season pass content to Crusader Kings III was one that was controversial for players, and may be one of the decisions that led to Paradox’s CEO leaving over strategic differences some years ago. Many players view the season pass system as a way to charge them over the promises of content before it has a chance to be analyzed by critics, and often artificially delays content that might already be finished.
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Choosing to release all of this content as expansions to Crusader Kings III rather than using it to create a new entry in the franchise can also be seen as a way to do less work while still charging players for essentially an entire new game. For such a huge map expansion, shortcuts surely had to be made somewhere along the line when it came to portraying East Asia and all of its many cultures.
Consider the fact that Crusader King III’s base map, comparable in size and diversity to East Asia itself in the real world, still feels underwhelming in places at launch, with the Middle East and Africa feeling as though they have far less content than Europe. The game is now still adding complexity to these regions five years after launch.
While a little more content, the combined Crusader Kings III: Chapter IV season pass feels worthy of a new game, however choosing to divide it up as DLC to an existing game, one which is now pushing its fifth year since release, feels sort of like Paradox Interactive is taking a shortcut, something that feels more true when you consider the constant delays with its other games.
