Legend of Zelda, believe it or not, does not have individual good stories.
Great games, love me some LoZ — stories are consistently weak across all entries. Robust lore, poor individual narratives— see Dark Souls if you want another example.
That all being said: the game (Crimson Desert) very strictly establishes rules regarding the Abyss. Kliff is the only one who’s allowed to go up there — because reasons! He’s the hero!
I spoil something here so be warned - >!To reiterate, the game is very strict about letting anyone but Kliff up into the Abyss throughout the entire game. You’d think there’d be some overarching reason for it, right? No, Oongka practically instant transmissions to save you at the end of the game. No explanation for why he’s there, no explanation for why he couldn’t go there before — nope he just pops in and saves you from… it’s still not clear.!<
Like I’ve beaten the game. The bit I mentioned up above literally made me burst out laughing. If it weren’t for how cool and alternative the unarmed system is, I’d have put the game down right then out of boredom.
Bottom line: you’re allowed to like whatever you want, but Crimson Desert would have been a better experience with a custom character and less narrative. I mean for fucks sake, Kliff literally has a canned goofy ass ‘Yes’ response for random NPC dialogue — it literally would have been better if they just made him not speak.
Edit: oh, that’s to say nothing of fucking Yann. When one of the only memorable characters in your story (because yes, everyone involved in the narrative is simply forgettable) is only memorable because the character routinely pisses you off — I’m sorry but your story is cheeks.
My feelings on the Last of Us are complicated. Last of Us in isolation is good, TLoU and TLoU2 together are bad. Way better story than Crimson Desert’s, though.
Mass Effect… I’m sorry but everything past 1 was bad, and 1’s story was good because of the expectations set up for future games. Like Kliff, Shephard is a nothing character — only there’s an actual narrative driven by him/her and the rest of the cast + the events from the previous game.
We’ve discussed Zelda and Dark Souls, but I think Valheim is actually a point against what you’re saying — yes you’re reacting to the world but Valheim has next to no story (I’d say no story but I haven’t played it in a while).
Kliff could have been anyone. You could replace Kliff as the main character with Damiane and the story literally wouldn’t change (only you can’t because the Abyss can only be accessed by Kliff).
Only for >!this to mean absolutely fucking nothing because Oognka goes where he pleases.!<
I think the world is beautiful and you could subtract the entire beginning of the story and filled the game with only side quests and side stuff in the world — it would have been a better experience. Simply deleting the dogshit Yann and Naira quests would make it a better experience. If a game’s story would be strictly better with half of it deleted, I’m sorry but the story is just bad.
Edit: not a huge spoiler but I’m sorry, I meant to be spoiler free.
There is a story. Is it the best? No. But it exists and isn’t as bad as it’s generally stated.
I want you to tell me a singular storypoint that requires Kliff to be Kliff.
I would argue that main character being some what plank canvas is more a design thing than anything else.
Player is experiencing the world themself and its not filtered trough the protagonist morals.
Zelda games, especially Breath of the wild does things similary.
Legend of Zelda, believe it or not, does not have individual good stories.
Great games, love me some LoZ — stories are consistently weak across all entries. Robust lore, poor individual narratives— see Dark Souls if you want another example.
That all being said: the game (Crimson Desert) very strictly establishes rules regarding the Abyss. Kliff is the only one who’s allowed to go up there — because reasons! He’s the hero!
I spoil something here so be warned - >!To reiterate, the game is very strict about letting anyone but Kliff up into the Abyss throughout the entire game. You’d think there’d be some overarching reason for it, right? No, Oongka practically instant transmissions to save you at the end of the game. No explanation for why he’s there, no explanation for why he couldn’t go there before — nope he just pops in and saves you from… it’s still not clear.!<
Like I’ve beaten the game. The bit I mentioned up above literally made me burst out laughing. If it weren’t for how cool and alternative the unarmed system is, I’d have put the game down right then out of boredom.
Bottom line: you’re allowed to like whatever you want, but Crimson Desert would have been a better experience with a custom character and less narrative. I mean for fucks sake, Kliff literally has a canned goofy ass ‘Yes’ response for random NPC dialogue — it literally would have been better if they just made him not speak.
Edit: oh, that’s to say nothing of fucking Yann. When one of the only memorable characters in your story (because yes, everyone involved in the narrative is simply forgettable) is only memorable because the character routinely pisses you off — I’m sorry but your story is cheeks.
There are games where you watch how protagonist reacts to the world. (The Last of Us)
There are games where you decite how protagonist reacts to the world. (Mass Effect)
Thete are games where player reacts to the world (Zelda, Dark Souls, Valheim)
I feel like Crimson Desert is more of the last category.
My feelings on the Last of Us are complicated. Last of Us in isolation is good, TLoU and TLoU2 together are bad. Way better story than Crimson Desert’s, though.
Mass Effect… I’m sorry but everything past 1 was bad, and 1’s story was good because of the expectations set up for future games. Like Kliff, Shephard is a nothing character — only there’s an actual narrative driven by him/her and the rest of the cast + the events from the previous game.
We’ve discussed Zelda and Dark Souls, but I think Valheim is actually a point against what you’re saying — yes you’re reacting to the world but Valheim has next to no story (I’d say no story but I haven’t played it in a while).
Kliff could have been anyone. You could replace Kliff as the main character with Damiane and the story literally wouldn’t change (only you can’t because the Abyss can only be accessed by Kliff).
Only for >!this to mean absolutely fucking nothing because Oognka goes where he pleases.!<
I think the world is beautiful and you could subtract the entire beginning of the story and filled the game with only side quests and side stuff in the world — it would have been a better experience. Simply deleting the dogshit Yann and Naira quests would make it a better experience. If a game’s story would be strictly better with half of it deleted, I’m sorry but the story is just bad.
Edit: not a huge spoiler but I’m sorry, I meant to be spoiler free.
Edit: Forgot Shephard is unisex.
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