Crimson Desert, the fantasy game that both impressed and annoyed me the most last year, has gone gold

Boasting a gorgeous fantasy world, a huge combat and traversal sandbox, and one of the best protagonist names I’ve heard in a while, I’m extremely keen to get my hands on Crimson Desert. Putting you in the shoes of Kliff Macduff, leader of the Greymanes (told you it was good) you’ll be out for revenge, hunting down those that ambushed and slaughtered members of your clan. A Crimson Desert release date of Thursday, March 19 was locked in following its delay from a late 2025 window last year, and while an exact date is always encouraging, further pushbacks are never out of the question. Well, it looks like we’re definitely on track this time, as developer Pearl Abyss has confirmed that the open-world game has gone gold.

Of all the upcoming projects I got to preview last year, Crimson Desert was actually the one that rattled me the most. Why? For 99% of the time I was playing it, I was in absolute awe. But thanks to one brain-melting mechanic, I couldn’t stop ranting about the 1% of the time it bugged me to hell. It’s this unusual combination of feelings that’s making me incredibly excited to play it again when it fully launches. Will it still manage to impress and piss me off simultaneously, and which emotion will win out over all? Or have the developers potentially made some tweaks to reduce my stress levels?

But what’s the issue? Well, Crimson Desert is taking the fighting game approach to its combat system, with loads of different attacks and abilities tied to dozens of button combinations. That’s an exciting thing to master, and it also gives you such a broad range of options, not just in the heat of battle, but in traversing the world of Pywel as well. I’ve got no problem with that side of things – in fact, the combat was one of the main aspects that wowed me – but this button-combo philosophy leeches out a bit too far for my liking. You can read my full preview from Summer Game Fest here to get a proper sense of why I lost my mind a bit with Crimson Desert, but in a nutshell: it took at least eight different inputs to pick up and plant a flag. Yes, really.

However, leftfield control schemes aside, this is an incredibly ambitious game, and thankfully, that March 19 release date is as set in stone as it can be. Pearl Abyss has confirmed gold status for Crimson Desert, which means that development on the base experience is complete and it’s ready to be rolled out to retailers.

“We’re thrilled to announce that Crimson Desert has gone gold!” the studio says in a post on social media. “On behalf of the team at Pearl Abyss, thank you to our fans around the world for your support and for reaching this milestone with us.”

So, I’ll be seeing Kliff again in just a few weeks’ time. I really love an open-world adventure that keeps pulling me off the main path, forces me to search for deeply buried secrets, and creates a memorable atmosphere. From the small slices I’ve played, and from the footage I’ve seen, I think Crimson Desert has those ingredients, and alongside that incredibly deep combat system, I have high hopes for it. Let’s see how things shake out in March.