Fantasy RPG "Crimson Desert" lets you stab your way up to space, showcasing a remarkably detailed cosmos

If you follow gaming at all, you've likely heard of Crimson Desert by this point. The open-world fantasy RPG came in hot, riding a tidal wave of hype generated by developer Pearl Abyss and a variety of preview events, promising to be the next great "Everything Simulator".

It landed with somewhat more mixed results: some reviewers praised its openness and seemingly infinite ocean of content, while others took issue with its bizarre control scheme, stunted story, and pervasive jank. With that said, the game has managed to rack up an impressive five million sales in under a month, developing a dedicated fanbase that's been probing and prying at the game's engine, with delightful and sometimes unexpected results.

Given the fantasy setting, we weren't expecting to cover Crimson Desert here on Space (we stick to the sci-fi and space games), but a recent post over at Reddit showcases one of the game's more bizarre features, the ability to stab your way up to the edge of space. In the video, user Jogatina uses a combination of skills to stab their way upwards, eventually piercing the cloud cover and revealing a breathtaking blanket of stars, complete with constellations and other galaxies.

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And to think NASA just wasted all that time and money on the Artemis 2 mission, when all they needed to get into orbit was a short sword and a dream.

Now, there is a little bit of trickery being employed here. While it is possible to get some pretty gnarly hang time using a combination of the Aerial Stab skill, which lets you lunge upwards, and Force Palm, which, for some reason, can also be used to propel yourself skyward, you're normally constrained by stamina. To pierce the heavens like the player in the video, you'd need to lean on some mods or other workarounds that unlock infinite stamina.

Two things stood out to us here: Firstly, it's weird and kinda neat that you can get to space at all, but more importantly, why did the developers make space exist in their fantasy RPG? It's not like you're ever supposed to get there.

As it turns out, Pearl Abyss has some built-in motivation to provide a better-than-average skybox. Not unlike The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (and its sequel, Tears of the Kingdom), Crimson Desert features a massive floating plane above its sprawling open world to explore. Called the Abyss, it's a series of interconnected floating islands, from which the player can leap to go gliding down to destinations on the ground; while you're up there, however, you're given an uninterrupted, "close-up" look at the vast expanse of space spreading above you.

There's also gameplay dependent on those aforementioned constellations. Donning an item called the Constellation Helm allows you to hunt down 13 constellations dotted throughout the night sky, each of which counts as an Exploration Challenge. Find all 13 of them, and you'll be rewarded with the Navigator of the Stars trophy/achievement.

Pearl Abyss has been aggressive with post-launch patches, so it's possible that experiencing the stars this way may be a limited-time engagement. With that said, the company has been largely very player-oriented with its patches thus far, adding stuff like additional fast travel points and more storage, so there's a reasonable chance they'll let us continue having our fun.