Pearl Abyss’ bashing of their massive open-world into a more palatable shape continues, with Crimson Desert‘s latest patch packing a bunch more tweaks to controls and adding some new animals to ride around on. It also looks to have begun swapping out those AI paintings the studio previously claimed were accidentally left in it on release, though the patch’s wording around this change is fairly vague.
“As part of ongoing visual improvements, replaced select 2D visual assets to better align with the game’s art direction,” reads the line in patch 1.01.00’s notes which appears to reference AI generated art being switched out. The opaque wording and there not being too many examples players reckon they’ve spotted yet makes it tough to tell just how much of the AI art has been removed with this patch and what exactly it’s been replaced with. Fair play to Pearl Abyss if they have swapped it all for human art in one fell swoop, but a bit more transparency might have been handy in helping assuage the doubts of folks who’ve been keen to see the offending paintings go.
Beyond that, the patch adds five new mounts to the game. You’ve got to do certain spoilery things to unlock them, which you can glean if you click a dropdown menu in the notes, but once you’ve done so, you can ride your new steeds through towns without upsetting the locals. In terms of controls, dashing around on foot and by horse should now cause less pain for your fingers, flying around uses up stamina less rapidly, and the “Aerial Stab”‘s been revamped. “Because there was an unintended issue that allowed the skill to be used repeatedly in midair,” Pearl Abyss wrote of the latter. “Aerial Stab was adjusted so that it can still be used as a fun movement mechanic without disrupting overall game balance.”
In terms of quests, the studio say they’ve added some extra tips “where guidance was previously lacking”. There are also a few wackier or snigger-worthy fixes throughout the notes, such as:
- Fixed an issue where attacking NPCs with trees was not considered a crime
- Added sound effects when certain animals eat meat
- Fixed an issue where falling onto shallow water could occasionally cause the character to dive to an abnormal location
- Made the Abyss more convenient to play
While Pearl Abyss might be making all of these changes to their tower-filled expanse of red pudding, one element they likely won’t be able to totally rework is the story, which the studio’s CEO recently admitted they could have done a better job with.
