Crimson Red: The Crimson Court DLC Thoughts

 

Here we go! As promised previously, I'm ready to post my thoughts about Darkest Dungeon's first big DLC 'The Crimson Court'. A pretty meaty offering of new content that added new bosses, a brand new area, new interactable elements aka curios, a whole new sect of enemies and a brand new hero, the Flagellant.

Straight away, the mood of Darkest Dungeon is actually enhanced by this add-on. The new area 'The Courtyard' added its own challenges and most of enemies range from challenging to down right annoying. Previously the Weald area might have had my least favorite enemies to face but they have been eclipsed by the new class of enemies the 'Bloodsuckers'. These annoying foes are quick, have 2 forms which they change to after drinking your blood and most annoying, inflect you with an uncurbable disease (at first) called 'The Crimson Curse' that makes you a bloodsucker like them. It was a big annoyance but once you conquer the area you can actually get cure it and even funnier, some characters actually benefit from some of the buffs the Crimson Curse provides. Some heavy hitters for example with the Curse can hit even harder so its an infliction you can deal with... most of the time.

Now, if the regular enemies are annoying, imagine the pain the bosses will inflect. Most of the bosses have massive sprawling areas to explore to the point where 'The Crimson Court' is the only area where you can quit mid mission and come back. Its that long some times that you need that break. Speaking of the main bosses are all pretty good, the Baron whom loves to play hide and seek and you need to find him, the Viscount (whom I only know how to say thanks to Bridgerton lol) who eats bodies which you can poison so he can harm himself and the big bad, the Countess. Wild enough, I was able to beat all of them first try because I did my research and built strong teams to take them on but the Countess was definitely the biggest pain, especially with her ability to constantly move my team around.

Next we have 3 mini bosses, two kind of meh in terms of quality in the from of the Crocodilian whom loves to go into stealth and come back with a very damaging attack and the rather sturdy Garden Guardian, just a big tank whom is immune to status debuffs like bleed and blight which makes him even more tankier and you need to kill it multiple times to get all the Crimson Court trinkets (more on them in a bit). The final mini-boss is actually a wandering boss called the Fanatic and boy, he deserves his own paragraph.

I read someone described the Fanatic as Van Helsing from Dracula lore gone completely insane and it fits. Old guy is packed to the nines with tons of trinkets, visually and only attacks you when you have a member with the Crimson Curse. He is a souped up Hag (a boss in the main game whom kidnaps a party member and you need to save them) but he moves much faster and hits a lot harder. I prepared for him but I personally feel I still got very lucky when I beat him. Out of all the Crimson Court bosses he may have been one of the hardest and his item drop after you killed him was rather meager tho he does drop the 'Cure' for anyone with the Curse before you can cure of it permanently as mentioned before.

A lot of fan commentary call The Crimson Court a bit too challenging and some of the enemies a bit too OP. Whilst I do agree it definitely is a set up in terms of difficulty and constantly seeing your team inflicted with The Crimson Curse was annoying and before you beat the Countess the 'infection' level means these enemies spill over to other areas which is also annoying, I do not think it ever made me not want to continue with the challenge. Maybe it was because I tackled the area super late and after I've levelled up a lot of really strong characters. However the DLC does have a 'Mixed' rating on Steam which is surprising cause all the other DLCs have mostly positive reception. Some folks even say after doing it, they disable it which is kind of wild because you paid for this and you don't want to use it to its full potential.

The Courtyard is also unique in how you no longer rely on torches but the game is in a perpetual challenging state called 'Bloodlight' which increases stress and bleed (yay when 90% of your enemies love to bleed you) and that up the challenge too especially if you play in high torch like I do (and I don't think I'll ever stop). I guess for some folks this extra challenge on top of a already very up-hill battle may have been too much.

However I feel the balance is the cool stuff you also get from the Crimson Court completion. First you are given some cool trinkets that effect if you are under the Crimson Curse and gives you slight benefits, you are also given anti Bloodsucker artilleries but the biggest pulls are the Crimson Court trinket sets for each character. Each character gets at least one decent to really good trinket and some characters get two really good trinkets when combined become even better and gives you extra bonuses. I've already experience a trinket set previously thanks to the Shieldbreakers one but some CC trinkets sets are my new favorite tools. The Arbalest one for example may her a great healer and a great sniper where previously you had to pick one or the other. This set alone makes her my new favorite 4th position character. Finally the biggest appeal of the Crimson Court DLC is the brand new class/ character The Flagellant.

The blood obsessed Flagellant is one of the most unique classes in a game with a lot of cool choices. The Flagellant ability to bleed enemies but also heal himself and his team with some unique skills makes him one of the most craziest things. A healer whom you can have on the front line ALL the time. Most healers like to stick to position 3 or 4 (Vestal and Jester are both excel when they are back liners) but with the Flagellant, he can tank the hits, survive, heal himself crazy amounts, gives over time healing to others AND can punish front and back line enemies with no issues. Flagellant also is the only character who can't get a positive virtue but always get Rapturous. Now this is still a Affliction which is never fun cause sometimes he refuses to play nice and still inflict stress on his team but his power level gets ridiculous and he even has trinket sets that help fuel this 'all or nothing' playstyle. Overall he is a fun character and now I'm used to using him I think he is actually OP. Mind you he is the only hero I've buried many times in the graveyard cause his playstyle is so on the knife's edge. Some of the haters of the Crimson Court content still love the Flagellant to the point where they enable him but not the content he came with LOL.

Overall, The Crimson Court is definitely worth your time if you enjoy the base Darkest Dungeon. The new toys and enemies you get give you a whole new way to play and sure some of the enemies feel a bit OP, its all the more fun when you beat them. My only real gripe is something I believe I also have with the main game now I've played it so much. Once you kill these bosses, they and their areas are gone and you can not access it again. Even the Fanatic whom is a wandering boss like Shambler and The Thing from the Stars disappears once you beat him. After you 'conquering' the Courtyard, it becomes a regular randomly generated area like the others in the main game and once you get all the Crimson Court trinkets from the same tanky enemy mentioned above, the area becomes even less appealing because beating him now drops generic trinkets. Now I've finished all of its content, I feel less inclined to do any more in that area which is a shame because I do not mind re-doing content in the other main game areas (with the possible exception of the Weald... FUCK the Weald). So unlike the main game which I'm still playing and enjoying, I only see myself doing Courtyard quests if I have nothing else better to do. At the very least, I got some good to great trinkets, a cool new character (who probably rate in my top 10 favorite characters to play in this game) and some challenges for awhile.

Now the red blood has run cold, its time for a different color. The Color of Madness.

AV