Crimson Desert is almost here. So, here are 10 games to keep you busy, sharpen your instincts, and set the right expectations!
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Crimson Desert is shaping up to be one of the most ambitious open-world releases in years, and Pearl Abyss has locked in a March 19, 2026, release date that feels both close and painfully far away.
So, while the wait winds down, here are ten games worth revisiting or picking up for the first time, each one scratching a specific itch that Pywel is clearly gearing up to satisfy:
| Game | Why It Makes the Cut |
|---|---|
| 1. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom | Gliding, climbing, and environmental puzzle-solving that Crimson Desert clearly studied. |
| 2. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | The gold standard for a grizzled protagonist navigating a war-torn world with a found family. |
| 3. Dragon’s Dogma 2 | Large creature climbing, a dangerous open world, and an ecosystem that ignores what level your character is. |
| 4. Red Dead Redemption 2 | Pearl Abyss’s own benchmark for world reactivity and environmental storytelling. |
| 5. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II | Grounded combat timing and the feeling of earning every fight the hard way. |
| 6. Ghost of Tsushima | The current high bar for cinematic, stance-based swordplay and atmospheric traversal. |
| 7. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor | Warband management with real emotional stakes, courtesy of the Nemesis System. |
| 8. Where Winds Meet | The closest thing to Crimson Desert’s feature density and open-world ambition available right now. |
| 9. Black Myth: Wukong | Boss fight preparation for encounters that reward pattern recognition and composure. |
| 10. Black Desert Online | Same engine DNA, same combat philosophy, and the best preview of how Crimson Desert will feel to play |
1 The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Anyone who has seen Crimson Desert footage will notice the skydiving, the gliding, and the puzzle-solving almost immediately. Pearl Abyss didn’t exactly hide their inspiration, and Tears of the Kingdom is clearly one of the core references.
The Sky Islands, the object manipulation, the sense that curiosity is rewarded rather than punished: all of it exists in Crimson Desert in some form. If you somehow skipped this Nintendo masterpiece, now is the time.
2 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Kliff is a grizzled mercenary leader navigating a war-torn world with shifting loyalties, a fractured crew, and more political chaos than anyone signed up for. Sound familiar? The Witcher 3 covered this exact emotional territory over a decade ago and still arguably remains unmatched.
We recommend playing it before Crimson Desert drops, not just for nostalgia, but also to recalibrate your expectations for what a lead character in this genre can be when the writing actually commits.
3 Dragon’s Dogma 2
The moment in Crimson Desert where Kliff scales and fights a massive creature mid-air is not borrowed from nowhere. Dragon’s Dogma 2 practically owns that loop, and Capcom’s cult classic also shares the same philosophy of a world that feels dangerous after dark.
This is a game where the ecosystem ignores your level, enemies don’t scale, and wandering too far without preparation is a recipe for disaster. If that excites you, Dogma 2 is required reading.
4 Red Dead Redemption 2
Pearl Abyss has openly cited Red Dead Redemption 2 when talking about their world-building ambitions, and it is more than clear that Pywel is being built with that same attention to environmental reactivity.
A replay before launch is worth it for one reason: this is the level of immersion Crimson Desert is trying to reach.
5 Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
Crimson Desert may have dragons and magic, but the combat is more grounded than most of its fantasy peers. Reading attack timing, committing to parries, and understanding your own stamina limits all matter here more than raw stats.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is the best recent game for building that instinct. It makes you feel every kilogram of your armor and every mistimed swing, which is exactly the kind of attentiveness that will pay off in Pywel.
6 Ghost of Tsushima/Yōtei
The word most commonly used to describe Crimson Desert’s swordplay is “cinematic,” and both Ghost of Tsushima and Ghost of Yōtei remain the clearest reference points for what that actually means in practice.
Also worth noting here is what can be called the minimalistic traversal mechanics of the series. Crimson Desert’s continent looks to carry that same sense of a world that communicates direction through its own visual language rather than a cluttered HUD.
7 Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
The Greymanes are not just Kliff’s backstory. You recruit them, fight alongside them, and lose them to choices you made or did not make quickly enough. Shadow of Mordor’s Nemesis System is still the best mechanic ever built for making you actually care about individual soldiers in a warband.
Given the patented nature of this mechanic, no other game has replicated it properly since 2014, which makes it mandatory context for anyone going into Crimson Desert expecting faction management with real emotional stakes.
8 Where Winds Meet
This one does not come up enough in the Crimson Desert conversation. Where Winds Meet is a wuxia open-world game that runs on the same design philosophy of doing everything: you play instruments, build structures, participate in large-scale battles, and traverse the world with acrobatic freedom, sometimes all in the same hour.
If feature density is what pulled you toward Crimson Desert, then Where Winds Meet is the closest available match right now.
9 Black Myth: Wukong
Crimson Desert has made it clear that its boss fights are built to challenge. Massive enemies. Tight dodge windows. No margin for error.
Black Myth: Wukong is the kind of game that trains you for that. The Destined One’s journey teaches pattern recognition under pressure, and it’s exactly the kind of instinct you’ll want when Pywel throws something huge at you.
10 Black Desert Online
The most direct entry on the list, Black Desert Online runs on an earlier version of the same BlackSpace Engine, and the combat shares clear DNA with Crimson Desert: fast, combo-driven, visually expressive, and satisfying in the particular way that Pearl Abyss has been refining for years.
If you want a preview of how Crimson Desert will actually feel in your hands, BDO is your best bet. It won’t give you lore, but it will give you muscle memory. It has also been claimable for free at various points over the past year, and for anyone who missed those windows, it is currently sitting at just $0.99 on Steam.
Which of these are you already working through before Crimson Desert drops, and is there a game you think belongs on this list that we left out? Let us know in the comments below!
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