Sadly there is evidence that 'Pearl Abyss Korea' (where the dev team is located) were asked to do some "modernisation" for this game from 'Pearl Abyss America' (Los Angeles, California). The Head of Marketing (not even going to go into his online attitude towards customers here) for the game at the time of writing (also from California), previously worked on God of War (2018), another case of removing actual diversity to what they refer to as "diversity"

Kliff being referred to as "they" and "them" by the Shai while unconscious (Localization team shenanigans as usual), "representation" sprinkled here and there despite never existing in their previous games, Damiane (main female character) showing absolutely no skin, covered neck to toes, and heavily masculinized, a R&D chart from Pearl Abyss showing that they used "neutral and masculine animations on female characters"

The above was part of a steam discussion post (although heavily edited), below is more details that I added as we've discovered more or that I wanted to talk about more

For anyone that is curious on the before/after of Damiane's masculinisation/design change: https://imgur.com/a/new-damiane-vs-old-damiane-WHThxoQ

////// (17/03/26) Not to mention due to new leaks, it has been revealed that they've now added some lenghty "fuzzy" facial hair to Damiane (which wasn't a thing neither in BDO nor her previous versions) that was also added controversially to Alloy in Horizon: Zero Dawn.
Thing that we gamers have notoriously been asking for in gaming, as it wouldn't be "realistic" otherwise, she wouldn't be attractive without it and this is what was really missing to the game and gaming in general /s https://imgur.com/a/8gYALop //////

If you know BDO, or any of their other games (or any Korean company for that matter), you'll know all of the above wouldn't have been an internal (Korean) decision and is external (American).
Trying to escape to Korean, Chinese and Japanese video games and entertainment is for a reason, and it's not to get more of what we are trying to escape from, the fact that Americans (or rather a certain group of) were able to influence (once again) outside entertainment saddens me. And it seriously needs to stop.

The above about Damiane (armor or looks) also applies to every other female NPCs, going from what we had in BDO and their other games to this gave me whiplash

////// (12/03/26) From the release trailer we have now seen Damiane with armor that reveals thighs, the above about her not having armor showing skin being now partially wrong, although her default armor doesn't (I have a feeling they weren't allowed to "sexualize" her in her default armor by the American publishing team, but were allowed to be more free with the later game content), and this armor is only 1 of 4 armors (so far as of writing) that reveals any skin, a very far cry from BDO //////

There is a side quest involving an older couple, the man falls down the roof while trying to clean the chimney and instead of the wife being worried, she berates and insults him the whole time while he's there suffering on the ground, him doing the job while she has metaphorical higher ground for no reason, the conversation and situation makes no sense, not only in the real world, but this being set in medieval fantasy times, makes even less sense, especially in a Korean game, and you can see the Americanised "powerful woman" idea bleeding through

////// On their official website, it is written "We are ready to uproot our previous ways of thinking for the sake of better results. We are destructive creators." and "Pearl Abyss welcomes diversity. At Pearl Abyss, everyone has an equal opportunity to show what they're capable of bringing to the table." //////

For those who don't know, although both Pearl Abyss, the dev team and the publishing team are two different departments, and do not share the same office

Pearl Abyss (dev team), or the publishing team, whichever or, has decided to listen to people from the West complaining a little too much, removing 90% of the particles to existing attacks and movements, they've also removed the particles of about 3/4th of attacks (such as the leg sweep not having particles anymore and the elemental overhead slashes having particles only for half the move duration), if you want to see this for yourself, look at the 2023 trailers. They've also removed pickup animations because a tester complained of not being able to easily loot while being in battle, even though enemy drops are rare and can be acquired anyways from pets (which he had no idea about when he made said complain, but Pearl Abyss followed anywways). So much for the creator's vision. They've done this for the controls being totally remade because people were gatekept by the "difficult controls" and durability for weapons and armors were completely removed, but most will see this as a positive. We can only hope they haven't done this for the puzzles because Western testers weren't able to solve the 2 step puzzle in the tutorial area and the following easy ones.

////// (19/03/26) They've actually added YELLOW paint, like actual yellow paint, in the game, for puzzles, I can't https://imgur.com/a/EHMjnsp //////

As a result of particles being removed so much, the 0 and 100 in the particles options has almost no difference.

The dynamic weather system was also downgraded, and the temperature gauge was changed, although these two aren't related to complaints (from what I know at least, and hope they weren't) and are just related to game development changing

////// (12/03/26) They've now added Denuvo a week before release with no prior warning (or even announcing it was added)//////

////// (15/03/26) Extra thing I've learned of as per GamingBolt: "It has been suggested that brown chickens can be gently held in your arms, whilst white chickens can only be carried by their feet", they're not even trying to hide it //////

All of the above, but mostly and especially the American team interference, had made me wonder several times if I should have canceled my purchase or not, as I do not wish to monetarily support the current cancer that has overtaken gaming for a little bit more than a decade now (not to mention the excitement I had for the game that was snuffed), but I wanted to reward the devs as I've played 4.7k hours of BDO without spending a single cent and my purchase was my way to thank them for that game and the non affected parts of this one

This negative review only exists so that there might be a chance (however small) that Pearl Abyss Korea sees that not everyone ((or most, rather) unlike what they've been lied to about, which is what is allowing these things to happen)) wants their games (or entertainment as a whole) taken over, and that catering to "everyone" isn't necessarily a good thing and may revert certain changes that were only done due to interference, and that these changes might not be done for future products. Please make your product for the Koreans first, and the people outside Korea that are interested will come on their own, it worked with BDO, and it worked for everything else Eastern, do not do the mistake of changing things for the "modern/global audience" that a certain group are trying to sell you on.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////

This section is for things after launch

They've removed the ability to freely zoom in and out on keyboard and mouse, you're now stuck with the 5 camera presets

Green haired woman in the first minute of the game

They've reduced the darkness of the nights due to complaints that the nights were "too dark", the nights are now blue

Remember what I've said about them possibly making puzzles easier because testers found them "too hard"? Well, they did, for story puzzles there is a step by step at the top left of the screen, and most puzzles I've encountered have text at the bottom telling you exactly what to do for the step you are in

Sadly there is evidence that 'Pearl Abyss Korea' (where the dev team is located) were asked to do some "modernisation" for this game from 'Pearl Abyss America' (Los Angeles, California). The Head of Marketing (not even going to go into his online attitude towards customers here) for the game at the time of writing (also from California), previously worked on God of War (2018), another case of removing actual diversity to what they refer to as "diversity" Kliff being referred to as "they" and "them" by the Shai while unconscious (Localization team shenanigans as usual), "representation" sprinkled here and there despite never existing in their previous games, Damiane (main female character) showing absolutely no skin, covered neck to toes, and heavily masculinized, a R&D chart from Pearl Abyss showing that they used "neutral and masculine animations on female characters" The above was part of a steam discussion post (although heavily edited), below is more details that I added as we've discovered more or that I wanted to talk about more For anyone that is curious on the before/after of Damiane's masculinisation/design change: https://imgur.com/a/new-damiane-vs-old-damiane-WHThxoQ ////// (17/03/26) Not to mention due to new leaks, it has been revealed that they've now added some lenghty "fuzzy" facial hair to Damiane (which wasn't a thing neither in BDO nor her previous versions) that was also added controversially to Alloy in Horizon: Zero Dawn. Thing that we gamers have notoriously been asking for in gaming, as it wouldn't be "realistic" otherwise, she wouldn't be attractive without it and this is what was really missing to the game and gaming in general /s https://imgur.com/a/8gYALop ////// If you know BDO, or any of their other games (or any Korean company for that matter), you'll know all of the above wouldn't have been an internal (Korean) decision and is external (American). Trying to escape to Korean, Chinese and Japanese video games and entertainment is for a reason, and it's not to get more of what we are trying to escape from, the fact that Americans (or rather a certain group of) were able to influence (once again) outside entertainment saddens me. And it seriously needs to stop. The above about Damiane (armor or looks) also applies to every other female NPCs, going from what we had in BDO and their other games to this gave me whiplash ////// (12/03/26) From the release trailer we have now seen Damiane with armor that reveals thighs, the above about her not having armor showing skin being now partially wrong, although her default armor doesn't (I have a feeling they weren't allowed to "sexualize" her in her default armor by the American publishing team, but were allowed to be more free with the later game content), and this armor is only 1 of 4 armors (so far as of writing) that reveals any skin, a very far cry from BDO ////// There is a side quest involving an older couple, the man falls down the roof while trying to clean the chimney and instead of the wife being worried, she berates and insults him the whole time while he's there suffering on the ground, him doing the job while she has metaphorical higher ground for no reason, the conversation and situation makes no sense, not only in the real world, but this being set in medieval fantasy times, makes even less sense, especially in a Korean game, and you can see the Americanised "powerful woman" idea bleeding through ////// On their official website, it is written "We are ready to uproot our previous ways of thinking for the sake of better results. We are destructive creators." and "Pearl Abyss welcomes diversity. At Pearl Abyss, everyone has an equal opportunity to show what they're capable of bringing to the table." ////// For those who don't know, although both Pearl Abyss, the dev team and the publishing team are two different departments, and do not share the same office Pearl Abyss (dev team), or the publishing team, whichever or, has decided to listen to people from the West complaining a little too much, removing 90% of the particles to existing attacks and movements, they've also removed the particles of about 3/4th of attacks (such as the leg sweep not having particles anymore and the elemental overhead slashes having particles only for half the move duration), if you want to see this for yourself, look at the 2023 trailers. They've also removed pickup animations because a tester complained of not being able to easily loot while being in battle, even though enemy drops are rare and can be acquired anyways from pets (which he had no idea about when he made said complain, but Pearl Abyss followed anywways). So much for the creator's vision. They've done this for the controls being totally remade because people were gatekept by the "difficult controls" and durability for weapons and armors were completely removed, but most will see this as a positive. We can only hope they haven't done this for the puzzles because Western testers weren't able to solve the 2 step puzzle in the tutorial area and the following easy ones. ////// (19/03/26) They've actually added YELLOW paint, like actual yellow paint, in the game, for puzzles, I can't https://imgur.com/a/EHMjnsp ////// As a result of particles being removed so much, the 0 and 100 in the particles options has almost no difference. The dynamic weather system was also downgraded, and the temperature gauge was changed, although these two aren't related to complaints (from what I know at least, and hope they weren't) and are just related to game development changing ////// (12/03/26) They've now added Denuvo a week before release with no prior warning (or even announcing it was added)////// ////// (15/03/26) Extra thing I've learned of as per GamingBolt: "It has been suggested that brown chickens can be gently held in your arms, whilst white chickens can only be carried by their feet", they're not even trying to hide it ////// All of the above, but mostly and especially the American team interference, had made me wonder several times if I should have canceled my purchase or not, as I do not wish to monetarily support the current cancer that has overtaken gaming for a little bit more than a decade now (not to mention the excitement I had for the game that was snuffed), but I wanted to reward the devs as I've played 4.7k hours of BDO without spending a single cent and my purchase was my way to thank them for that game and the non affected parts of this one This negative review only exists so that there might be a chance (however small) that Pearl Abyss Korea sees that not everyone ((or most, rather) unlike what they've been lied to about, which is what is allowing these things to happen)) wants their games (or entertainment as a whole) taken over, and that catering to "everyone" isn't necessarily a good thing and may revert certain changes that were only done due to interference, and that these changes might not be done for future products. Please make your product for the Koreans first, and the people outside Korea that are interested will come on their own, it worked with BDO, and it worked for everything else Eastern, do not do the mistake of changing things for the "modern/global audience" that a certain group are trying to sell you on. ///////////////////////////////////////////////// This section is for things after launch They've removed the ability to freely zoom in and out on keyboard and mouse, you're now stuck with the 5 camera presets Green haired woman in the first minute of the game They've reduced the darkness of the nights due to complaints that the nights were "too dark", the nights are now blue Remember what I've said about them possibly making puzzles easier because testers found them "too hard"? Well, they did, for story puzzles there is a step by step at the top left of the screen, and most puzzles I've encountered have text at the bottom telling you exactly what to do for the step you are in