Public sentiment surrounding Crimson Desert was not especially favourable in the early days following launch. Players pointed to a number of shortcomings, including a difficult-to-grasp control scheme, a scattershot story, and a somewhat inconvenient interface (UI) and user experience (UX). As a result, the game got off to a somewhat disappointing start with a Metacritic score of 78, while user reviews on Steam remained at “Mixed” shortly after release.

Pearl Abyss turned the mood around beginning with patch 1.00.03 on the 23rd. The company made sweeping improvements to the game’s controls — the single biggest source of user complaints — and also refined many aspects of convenience, including the addition of a storage system. Gamers responded immediately to the studio’s swift acceptance of feedback, and the game’s rating, which had risen to “Mostly Positive,” finally entered “Very Positive” territory on the 29th.

According to the Steam store page, as of the 29th, Crimson Desert had accumulated more than 88,000 user reviews, with 80% of them being positive.

A closer look at the detailed metrics shows that overwhelming support from Western users drove the rise in the overall rating. English accounted for the largest number of reviews at roughly 31,500 and continues to hold firmly at “Very Positive.” It is followed by other major European languages — including German (roughly 1,500 reviews), Spanish (roughly 1,300), and French (roughly 1,000) — where “Very Positive” likewise predominates. Russian is also performing steadily, recording a “Mostly Positive” rating across roughly 5,200 reviews.

While the overall global indicators are drawing a clear upward curve, recovering sentiment across East Asia remains a task Pearl Abyss still has to solve.

Unlike the praise seen in Western markets, users in East Asia, including South Korea, have been comparatively harsher in their assessment. Both Simplified Chinese (roughly 6,500 reviews) and Korean (roughly 6,100) still remain in “Mixed” territory, while Traditional Chinese and Japanese reviews have likewise yet to move beyond “Mixed.”

As gamers in Asia tend to respond more sensitively to system convenience and optimisation in premium packaged games, more detailed refinements appear necessary to meet expectations in those regions. Having turned Steam’s overall review rating to “Very Positive” through continued updates, Pearl Abyss’s remaining challenge is to engineer a similarly successful reversal in public sentiment across Korea, China, and Japan.

This article was translated from the original that appeared on INVEN.