Powers calls Crimson Desert an action game, not an RPG

On the Dropped Frames podcast, Will Powers repeatedly called Crimson Desert an open-world action adventure with a fixed story, not an RPG. Dialogue has no line choices. The player changes a scene by acting: sneak into a camp or walk through the front gate. The conversation.

The project started as an MMO prequel to Black Desert and became a separate single-player series with no microtransactions. There are no levels or skill trees. Growth is gear upgrades and newly unlocked skills. Durability is off, so weapons and armour do not break.

Weather and time of day change, and cutscenes run in real time, so the same scene looks different for different players. Character switching is still unannounced, and a short demo is still not promised. Before the 19 March 2026 launch on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, the studio wants to publish PC performance guidance, with no date for that note.