{"id":1855649,"date":"2026-03-30T15:49:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T12:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1855649"},"modified":"2026-03-30T15:49:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T12:49:37","slug":"turns-out-crimson-deserts-lead-voice-actor-was-as-confused-by-the-games-disjointed-story-as-some-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1855649","title":{"rendered":"Turns out Crimson Desert&#8217;s lead voice actor was as confused by the game&#8217;s disjointed story as some players"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/crimson-desert\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Crimson Desert<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">Turns out Crimson Desert&#8217;s lead voice actor was as confused by the game&#8217;s disjointed story as some players<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">Ever-shifting priorities.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/Kliff-from-Crimson-Desert-during-a-sword-fight.webp?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"Kliff from Crimson Desert during a sword fight\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"Kliff-from-Crimson-Desert-during-a-sword-fight.webp\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Pearl Abyss<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Fran Ruiz avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/fran-j-ruiz-author.png?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Fran Ruiz avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"fran-j-ruiz-author.png\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/fran-ruiz\">Fran Ruiz<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Contributor<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-03-30T15:49:37+00:00\">March 30, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<div class=\"comments\">\n      <a class=\"comments__link comments-bubble\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/crimson-desert-kliff-voice-actor-on-creative-process-and-struggles?view=comments\" rel=\"nofollow\"><br \/>\n          19 comments<br \/>\n      <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"10cf2e53-bea5-44e6-bc6c-98d8a341d473\" data-name=\"Crimson Desert\" data-follow-text=\"Follow Crimson Desert\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following Crimson Desert\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow Crimson Desert\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following Crimson Desert\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow Crimson Desert\" title=\"Follow Crimson Desert\"><br \/>\n  Follow Crimson Desert<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>It&#8217;s safe to say <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/crimson-desert\">Crimson Desert<\/a> is a success with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/crimson-desert-sells-another-1m-as-pearl-abyss-pledges-more-fixes\">3 million copies sold<\/a> (so far) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/crimson-deserts-pearl-abyss-regains-investor-confidence-as-it-continues-to-move-beyond-launch-day-woes\">substantial patches coming in hot<\/a>. But it&#8217;s hard to fix a narrative and quest structure that was described as &#8220;fatally undercooked&#8221; by Lewis Gordon in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/crimson-desert-review\">Eurogamer&#8217;s own review<\/a>. Now, we&#8217;ve learned the voice behind &#8220;stoic&#8221; protagonist Kliff, Alec Newman (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/cyberpunk-2077\">Cyberpunk 2077<\/a>), was as confused by its nature as many players.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"Crimson Desert - Official Launch Trailer\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qQPKLncs7Og?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/qQPKLncs7Og\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">Crimson Desert &#8211; Official Launch Trailer<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><a class=\"button video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qQPKLncs7Og\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figure>\n<p>His words on the creative process behind the character, the story, and the journey of making sense of it all come from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=EO0LyJqZh-E&amp;t=3640s\">29th March&#8217;s Friends Per Second podcast<\/a> (the sister program of <a href=\"https:\/\/thisweekinvideogames.com\/news\/crimson-desert-story-and-characters-changed-significantly-during-development-says-lead-actor\/\">This Week in Videogames<\/a>). There, the actor didn&#8217;t shy away from expressing his frustrations while working on the gigantic game: &#8220;Nearly two years into recording, they sort of said, &#8216;Well, we&#8217;re going to start recording in earnest now.&#8217; And I went, &#8216;what the hell do you mean? We&#8217;ve been doing this for ages!'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Newman is no stranger to working on both huge and small video games, and last year, he won a BAFTA Games Award for his performance in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/still-wakes-the-deep\">Still Wakes the Deep<\/a>. While he didn&#8217;t outright criticize the writing or creative process in Crimson Desert, he admitted the experience was &#8220;very different&#8221; before pointing out the developers kept &#8220;changing the goalpost,&#8221; only giving him &#8220;cards of the different parts of Pywel&#8221; before they became serious about the direction they wanted to take the story (and Kliff) in. &#8220;I kept just saying, &#8216;Yes, but what is happening?'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This lines up with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/new-report-claims-crimson-deserts-development-was-plagued-by-a-hodgepodge-of-features-crammed-together-and-leaders-who-dont-acknowledge-anyone-who-doesnt-share-their-exact-mindset\">recent reports of claims from anonymous sources<\/a> linked to the development of the game. Those also pointed to the story and other key elements not being locked &#8220;until right before release.&#8221; Moreover, internal power struggles and leadership changes greatly altered the game over the course of development. If all that was true, it&#8217;s a miracle the game shipped at all and found this level of success.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Kliff in Greymane Camp in Crimson Desert.\" height=\"720\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/crimson-desert-greymane-camp-guide-00.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7777777777777777\" width=\"1280\"><\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Kliff in Greymane Camp in Crimson Desert.\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-lightbox data-uri=\"crimson-desert-greymane-camp-guide-00.jpg\" height=\"720\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7777777777777777\" width=\"1280\"><figcaption><span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Eurogamer \/ Pearl Abyss<\/cite><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Even the Greymanes and the &#8220;idea of family and trying to bring something back together,&#8221; which is essentially the backbone of the story, weren&#8217;t completely defined in Crimson Desert&#8217;s early days: &#8220;After about two and a half years, they decided they really wanted that to resonate&#8230; I don\u2019t want to say they started panicking, but they were like, &#8216;Oh yeah, we really want this. We really want Kliff to care about his comrades,&#8217; and I said, &#8216;Well, he does, but you haven\u2019t written that monologue.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>While Newman seems grateful for the opportunity to work on such a huge game and he&#8217;s happy about it resonating with people, he underlined that &#8220;those moments were fewer than they could have been&#8221; in reference to the opportunities given to Kliff as a character beyond his stoic attitude. &#8220;As a Scotsman myself, I know what that means. But it&#8217;s very, very hard to play 150 hours with somebody who doesn&#8217;t give anything away ever.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>It&#8217;s safe to say <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/crimson-desert\">Crimson Desert<\/a> is a success with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/crimson-desert-sells-another-1m-as-pearl-abyss-pledges-more-fixes\">3 million copies sold<\/a> (so far) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/crimson-deserts-pearl-abyss-regains-investor-confidence-as-it-continues-to-move-beyond-launch-day-woes\">substantial patches coming in hot<\/a>. But it&#8217;s hard to fix a narrative and quest structure that was described as &#8220;fatally undercooked&#8221; by Lewis Gordon in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/crimson-desert-review\">Eurogamer&#8217;s own review<\/a>. Now, we&#8217;ve learned the voice behind &#8220;stoic&#8221; protagonist Kliff, Alec Newman (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/cyberpunk-2077\">Cyberpunk 2077<\/a>), was as confused by its nature as many players.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"Crimson Desert - Official Launch Trailer\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qQPKLncs7Og?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/qQPKLncs7Og\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">Crimson Desert &#8211; Official Launch Trailer<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><a class=\"button video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qQPKLncs7Og\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figure>\n<p>His words on the creative process behind the character, the story, and the journey of making sense of it all come from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=EO0LyJqZh-E&amp;t=3640s\">29th March&#8217;s Friends Per Second podcast<\/a> (the sister program of <a href=\"https:\/\/thisweekinvideogames.com\/news\/crimson-desert-story-and-characters-changed-significantly-during-development-says-lead-actor\/\">This Week in Videogames<\/a>). There, the actor didn&#8217;t shy away from expressing his frustrations while working on the gigantic game: &#8220;Nearly two years into recording, they sort of said, &#8216;Well, we&#8217;re going to start recording in earnest now.&#8217; And I went, &#8216;what the hell do you mean? We&#8217;ve been doing this for ages!'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Newman is no stranger to working on both huge and small video games, and last year, he won a BAFTA Games Award for his performance in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/still-wakes-the-deep\">Still Wakes the Deep<\/a>. While he didn&#8217;t outright criticize the writing or creative process in Crimson Desert, he admitted the experience was &#8220;very different&#8221; before pointing out the developers kept &#8220;changing the goalpost,&#8221; only giving him &#8220;cards of the different parts of Pywel&#8221; before they became serious about the direction they wanted to take the story (and Kliff) in. &#8220;I kept just saying, &#8216;Yes, but what is happening?'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This lines up with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/new-report-claims-crimson-deserts-development-was-plagued-by-a-hodgepodge-of-features-crammed-together-and-leaders-who-dont-acknowledge-anyone-who-doesnt-share-their-exact-mindset\">recent reports of claims from anonymous sources<\/a> linked to the development of the game. Those also pointed to the story and other key elements not being locked &#8220;until right before release.&#8221; Moreover, internal power struggles and leadership changes greatly altered the game over the course of development. If all that was true, it&#8217;s a miracle the game shipped at all and found this level of success.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Kliff in Greymane Camp in Crimson Desert.\" height=\"720\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/crimson-desert-greymane-camp-guide-00.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7777777777777777\" width=\"1280\"><\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Kliff in Greymane Camp in Crimson Desert.\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-lightbox data-uri=\"crimson-desert-greymane-camp-guide-00.jpg\" height=\"720\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7777777777777777\" width=\"1280\"><figcaption><span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Eurogamer \/ Pearl Abyss<\/cite><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Even the Greymanes and the &#8220;idea of family and trying to bring something back together,&#8221; which is essentially the backbone of the story, weren&#8217;t completely defined in Crimson Desert&#8217;s early days: &#8220;After about two and a half years, they decided they really wanted that to resonate&#8230; I don\u2019t want to say they started panicking, but they were like, &#8216;Oh yeah, we really want this. We really want Kliff to care about his comrades,&#8217; and I said, &#8216;Well, he does, but you haven\u2019t written that monologue.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>While Newman seems grateful for the opportunity to work on such a huge game and he&#8217;s happy about it resonating with people, he underlined that &#8220;those moments were fewer than they could have been&#8221; in reference to the opportunities given to Kliff as a character beyond his stoic attitude. &#8220;As a Scotsman myself, I know what that means. But it&#8217;s very, very hard to play 150 hours with somebody who doesn&#8217;t give anything away ever.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News Crimson Desert Turns out Crimson Desert&#8217;s lead voice actor was as confused by the game&#8217;s disjointed story as some players Ever-shifting priorities. Image credit: Pearl Abyss News by Fran Ruiz Contributor Published on March 30, 2026 19 comments Follow Crimson Desert It&#8217;s safe to say Crimson Desert is a success with 3 million [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-1855649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1855649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1855649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1855649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1855649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1855649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1855649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}