If there's one nigh-universal point of criticism early Crimson Desert players have with the open-world game, it's the controls. They're weird, they're awkward, and they're liable to give you fits – at least at first. Pearl Abyss's marketing head asserts that it's like riding a bike, and according to the veteran dev that led Dishonored, there are some advantages to an oddball control scheme.
Responding on Twitter to a player who suggests that Crimson Desert "just needs simplified controls," marketing director Will Powers suggests that you "think of it like riding a bike, it comes naturally after you learn it. just takes a minute." In a follow-up post, Powers also acknowledges that "it takes time to learn."
It definitely does take time. I spent about three hours with Crimson Desert last night, and even by the end of that time, I was still living in constant fear that I'd push the wrong combination of buttons and just annihilate some poor townspeople. I definitely sent some poor beggars flying when I first picked up the Force Palm ability.
In an unrelated tweet, Dishonored, Deathloop, and Blade lead Digna Bakaba also weighed in on the notion of oddball control layouts. "I like learning a control scheme to play: it's a rewarding mental gymnastic," Bakaba says. "Makes you pay attention to the game differently too. I remember discovering Demon's Souls and having to develop new coordination for it. I hope this doesn't disappear in the profit of standardization."
It might seem natural now given all the influence other developers have taken from FromSoftware, but when Demon's Souls was first unleashed on the world many players had a hard time wrapping their heads around the notion of using triggers and bumpers for normal attacks. The Soulslikes that followed have certainly proven that there's something to that control scheme, and it feels natural to most gamers nowadays.
Maybe the same will be true of Crimson Desert, but I'm still on the fence trying to decide if these controls are "weird" or merely "bad." Like, using a PlayStation controller, sometimes you can just walk up to a person and press square to talk to them, while other times you instead have to hold L1 to point at them before pressing square to talk. One special move requires you to use both the right bumper and right trigger simultaneously. After you jump, you can use the Force Palm for a mid-air boost – by taking your thumb off the face button and quickly clicking R3.
It's not just that Crimson Desert's buttons are mapped in odd spots, it's that there are so many odd functions and specific interactions buried under weird combinations of inputs. Maybe it will, indeed, be like riding a bike, and we'll all be laughing about how much trouble we had in a few weeks' time, but for now, I'm afraid the poor NPCs of Crimson Desert will be paying the price.
For just one example of those esoteric controls, just look at our guide to stealing in Crimson Desert.
