r/CrimsonDesert

From the looks of it, the original concept looked like:

1. Core focus on only Kliff, Oongka and Yan as the three main characters
2. These three seem to have a much much tighter bond back then
3. Kliff looked like he had a real personality, being somewhat of a depressed drunkard
4. Yan still looks like an asshole but more of an accomodating-best buddy-to-Kliff kind of asshole, similiar to Trevor in GTA V
5. The woman looked like a major side protagonist and likely who Damiane replaced
6. Setting is very medieval-grounded. There's no whacky floating Abyss islands, magical witch stuff, trains, mechs, jetpacks.
7. There is a lack of any other Greymanes shown anywhere, leading me to believe most actually just perished in the beginning
8. The bosses/monsters we see here are mostly the same ones we see in the final game but you can see the side characters are all very much involved in all these scenes unlike in the final game where Kliff is solo-ing everyone himself

From my insight, I theorized the story was somewhat similiar to what we have but a far far more grounded, realistic but darker and substantial take on the characters:

Kliff, Yan, Oongka and that 'Damiane' woman are probably the last remnants of the Greymanes who got killed off from some antagonist. I don't think it's the Blackbears as the villains since they're never even shown, but that king we see in the trailer repeatedly, probably Caliburn. You can also see a noble boy with them so I assume that young boy is the true heir but the villain Caliburn stole his place to the throne instead. So somehow the protagonists found themselves with this special boy and realize he needs be restored to the throne to save the kingdom or whatever. They then journey in the world of Pywel together but alone as one small bunch while, trying to make a living or something. It's mentioned by Kliff here also that they're being 'hunted' and shunned against for some reason, so maybe they've been ousted by the king as outlaws or something.

If so, it's such a wasted story shelved by PA's top management. On the bright side, I do appreciate that the final game gives so much more freedom now. I think with a tighter story, PA probably wouldn't have been able to fit in 70+ bosses or expanded the world as big as it became and let players go batshit crazy doing whatever fun stuff like flying mechs and shooting out lightning. Given this trailer came out 6 years ago, PA had only that period of time after that to quickly overhaul the entirety of the story and game structure so at least kudos to them for putting together this final game with a messed up half-written story in the end.

This also explains why our protagonists (Oongka, Kliff, Damiane) have so little dialogue lines and have to in fact share the dialogue lines for all the side quests with one-liners. In many cases, they dont even have any dialogue responses to NPCs. The voice actors probably weren't hired for enough time since they spent so much on the first concept story already

This really annoying sealed artifact challenge sucks. The easiest solution is to hold square on PlayStation to get back on the cannon asap. Don't fight back.

If you arrive here and the soldiers or cannons are missing, just teleport back, rinse and repeat. Good luck. 👍