Out of all of Crimson Desert's baffling design decisions, its playable trio might be the worst offender

I'm over 100 hours into Crimson Desert now, and I still do not understand why Pearl Abyss felt the need to give us three playable characters. I was surprised enough that the developer didn't put the reputation gained from Black Desert Online's stellar character creator to use. Instead, my first time booting up the game saw me emerge from several minutes of cube void limbo to a semi-generic gruff Scottish lad.

Then, dozens of hours later, I'm handed Demeniss swordswoman Damiane. Then dozens of hours after that, fellow Greymane and giant axe-wielding orc Oongka joins the fray. Normally, this would be something I looked upon fondly. The more the merrier, right? But the way Crimson Desert handles its playable trio feels like either an afterthought, or an initial concept that failed to manifest in a meaningful way as development slogged along.

That's not to slight Damiane and Oongka as actual playable characters. The three feel distinctly different to wield, and Damiane in particular is an absolute joy to play as. Her swift movement and light-aspected ranged attacks make her feel wonderfully nimble in ways that would simply feel wrong on the bigger, burlier Kliff and Oongka. She feels snappier, more responsive than her male co-warriors, and I would have undoubtedly spent most of my playtime with her if the game didn't make that so bloody difficult to do.

Because Crimson Desert is clearly, first and foremost, Kliff's story. When I unlocked Damiane I instantly switched to her. I've always preferred characters who are a little lighter on their feet, and as a woman I naturally gravitate towards characters who feel more representative of me. Except, as soon as I tried to do a quest, I was forced to switch back to Kliff. Again, and again, the game would fling my camera up in the air, Grand Theft Auto 5-style, to take me back to the Greymane.

At one point, the story rips Damiane away as a playable option entirely, for what could be hours upon hours of gametime if you're not torpedoing your way through the main story quests. What's the point in presenting me with options, if only one of them is a consistently viable choice?

Oongka, meanwhile, arrives so late to the party that if this was some frat joint, half of the college revellers would already have gone home or passed out in a puddle of their own vomit. Thankfully I have little desire to take control of heavier, harder-hitting characters in videogames. But if that was my preference, I'd be pretty miffed that it's easily a good 50 hours or so before you even have the chance to do that.

Three's a crowd

Their role as mere substitutes for Kliff is presented in more than just mission capabilities. Both Damiane and Oongka's skill trees are significantly smaller than Kliff's. Their lack of abilities that Kliff possesses makes certain puzzles or traversal methods impossible, forcing me to switch back and forth just to utilise a Force Palm here or an Axiom Force there. Armour and weaponry for the other two are far sparser, conservatively peppered in between Kliff's comparatively mountainous arsenal.

The game makes very little effort to weave the narrative between all three. I've so far encountered two scenarios in the main story where Pearl Abyss hoists me off Kliff and forces me to go and play with Damiane and Oongka for an encounter or two. What should have been a nice little change of pace instead felt like a punishment—a duo foisted upon me, their untouched skill trees and lack of upgraded gear lashing at me with every too-hard hit a boss dealt me.

But pumping skill points and precious materials into strengthening them felt like chucking money down a drain. Skill points are shared between all three characters, which means using them on Damiane or Oongka took away from the ability to build Kliff up. Upgrading gear felt less egregious as a short-term solution, but that too eventually needs the same currency as obtaining and upgrading skills and stats, and I couldn't help but feel like dividing up my power was making my unit weaker as a whole.

I'm still struggling to tell whether Pearl Abyss thought a playable trio would be a great idea and then forgot how to make that work in the vast, winding maze of Crimson Desert; or whether an executive told the developer close to the finish line that all the cool games had an ensemble cast, and gamers would tire of being stuck with Kliff for hundreds of hours. Oops, better quickly knock together another couple people to play as!

It's a bummer, because I would argue that Damiane in particular is a far more compelling character. Her background as one of the surviving members of a fallen house, taken in by a swordmaster who has since gone missing, is a wonderful premise that I was desperate to wade through Crimson Desert's disjointed narrative to learn more about. And I would have killed to have Kliff and Oongka's close relationship explored in more detail, supported by the ability to play as both of them.

Crimson Desert is a game that is full of odd and fascinating design decisions, and this half-in half-out execution of a playable trio may be one of the most baffling of them all. I wish Pearl Abyss had either gone all the way to weaving their existences together more coherently, or left Kliff to stand as a solo protagonist.