Why Crimson Desert is Not a Soulslike Game

Crimson Desert has been one of the most-discussed upcoming games of 2026. It’s from Korean developer Pearl Abyss, which previously developed the successful Black Desert Online MMORPG. Black Desert has been praised for its visuals and gameplay, particularly its surprisingly satisfying combat, and Crimson Desert looks to be kicking things up a few notches.

The first important distinction to understand between Crimson Desert and Black Desert Online is that the former is not an MMO—it doesn’t feature multiplayer of any kind, actually. Rather, Crimson Desert is trying to provide a traditional, single-player role-playing experience built around freedom and customization, similar to something like Skyrim. But unlike Skyrim, Dragon Age, and so many other massive single-player RPGs, Crimson Desert puts a premium on dynamic, intense real-time combat.

Inevitably, the game has drawn comparisons to soulslikes, the dominant RPG subgenre of our time, but this is most certainly not what the game is. The soulslike comparison was actually raised by Pearl Abyss’ own director of marketing, Will Powers, in an interview with the Dropped Frames podcast. He was quick to shut it down, unequivocally declaring that Crimson Desert is doing something different from the bevy of FromSoft-inspired ARPGs that have preceded it.

Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.

Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)

What Separates Crimson Desert from Traditional Soulslike Games

When it comes to the core differences between Crimson Desert and, let’s say, Elden Ring, they are illuminated best by Powers himself: “This is not a soulslike game… soulslike has connotations and has specific definitions of narrow dodge windows, things like that. This is much more combo-driven, and you kind of dictate the pace of the fight. So there is no ‘get good’ moment.”

While Powers’ statements are a little broad, his meaning is clear. The “dictate the pace of the fight” is a particularly elegant description: in a soulslike, the player needs to constantly react to the enemies’ movements and strikes. The enemy dictates the fight, and the player is forced to adapt and build their strategy around these much more powerful entities. While Powers has made it clear that Crimson Desert will not necessarily be an easy game, it seems like players will be more in control of certain encounters, able to dominate enemies with ease or at least with confidence.

“Does That Mean the Game’s Easy? Hell No” Crimson Desert Will Still Be Challenging

It’s definitely possible to turn the tables and become “Goliath” in most soulslikes, but not without some hefty grinding and, depending on who you want to be your “David,” one or a few NG+ cycles. This sense of progression and eventual success won’t be lost in Crimson Desert, which still features “skill checks,” as Powers calls them—enemies, bosses, areas, or other challenges that might prompt the player to further explore the open-world in search of consumables, upgrades, or other advantages to use in battle:

“You can get additional buffs from food and camp, you can grind a bunch more consumables to make the fight easier for you, you can find a blueprint for an item that lets you revive in a fight to get an extra, second shot […] and you can craft multiple of those. So you can overprepare and make any fight accessible to you. Does that mean the game’s easy? Hell no. But I think that it allows that layer of accessibility so you’re never hard stuck, which I think is really, really important in the single player game.”

This certainly sounds promising and kind of similar to Elden Ring’s progression loop, which usually involves encountering difficult challenges, grinding in the open world, and then returning to those challenges with a new sense of competence. It’s this see-saw of difficulty, balanced by player freedom and strong ARPG design, that promises to make Crimson Desert a meaningfully engaging game, regardless of its genre classification.

Crimson Desert NOT Being a Soulslike Is a Good Thing

I’m a big soulslike guy. FromSoftware is easily my favorite major developer, and I think you can point to any game between Demon’s Souls and Elden Ring and yell “masterpiece” without being wrong. However, the genre has been extraordinarily oversaturated and weighed down by a lot of mediocre projects. Ironically, the soulslike, which first emerged in bold opposition to the generic 3D melee-action combat games of the 2000s, has now become a bit of a cliché itself.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with soulslikes in general, and I don’t think that FromSoftware is the only studio capable of making a good game in the genre. But for every Lies of P, there are several Lords of the Fallen. The genre is simply bloated.

Crimson Desert’s combat promises to be far more explosive and fluid than the average soulslike, supported more by combos and “button skill” than trial-by-fire pattern recognition. Based on what’s been revealed about the game’s combat so far, it looks quite a bit more like a character-action game (e.g. Devil May Cry, Bayonetta) than a soulslike, though with clear elements of RPG build-crafting and playstyle flexibility. This kind of combat formula in a massive open-world game, complete with character customization and settlement-building, sounds like a much-needed breath of fresh air at this point in the RPG genre’s life.