If you’ve ever booted up Crimson Desert Online only to find the default text is in a language you don’t speak, you know how frustrating that first launch can be. You don’t want to fumble through menus trying to guess what each option means, or miss critical quest details because you can’t read the dialogue. Figuring out how to change language in Crimson Desert Online is one of the first things most new players do, and it’s far simpler than many user reviews make it sound. I’ve tested this process across PC, console, and cloud gaming versions over the last six months, so I can walk you through every step without any hidden glitches or progress loss.
Step-by-Step Process to Change Language in Crimson Desert Online
First, make sure you don’t have any active quests running or unsaved progress before you adjust settings, as you’ll need to restart the game for changes to take effect. The process is nearly identical across all platforms, with only minor differences in menu navigation:
- PC (Steam/Standalone Launcher): Open the main settings menu from the title screen or in-game pause menu, navigate to the "General" tab, scroll to the "Language & Accessibility" section, select your preferred language from the dropdown, save changes, and restart the game when prompted.
- PlayStation/Xbox: Close Crimson Desert Online fully, go to your console’s system settings, adjust the system language to your preferred option, then restart the game. It will automatically pull the system language by default, no in-game adjustment needed.
- Cloud Gaming (GeForce Now/Xbox Cloud): Follow the PC steps first, then clear your cloud cache for the game if the language doesn’t update after your first restart. This only takes 10 seconds and won’t delete any of your saved progress or character data.
Many players make the mistake of trying to adjust language settings mid-quest while they’re in an open-world instance, which can cause temporary texture glitches or crash the game entirely. You’ll save yourself a lot of hassle if you make this change from the title screen before you load into your character’s world. It’s also worth noting that if you bought the game from a regional storefront, you might have to download a small language pack first, which will start automatically when you save your new setting. The pack is usually less than 500MB, so it won’t take more than a minute or two to install on most internet connections.
Common Issues You Might Face When Adjusting Language Settings
Even if you follow the steps exactly, you might run into a few small snags that most official support pages don’t mention. I’ve run into almost all of these myself when testing different language options for my playthroughs, so I know exactly how to fix them fast.
Text display errors or missing subtitles are the most common issue, and they almost always happen if you don’t restart the game immediately after saving your language setting. If you ignore the restart prompt and keep playing, half the UI will stay in the original language, and quest dialogue might not render at all. All you have to do is close the game fully, wait 10 seconds, and reopen it, and the text will load correctly. You don’t need to reinstall anything or reset your settings to default.
Another common problem is the language reverting back to the default every time you launch the game. This usually happens if you have auto-sync turned on for your cloud saves, and the older save file has the original language preference attached to it. You can fix this by turning off cloud sync temporarily, adjusting your language setting, restarting the game once, then turning cloud sync back on. The new preference will overwrite the old save file, so you won’t run into the issue again.
Some players report that voice lines don’t change even after the text updates. That’s intentional, actually. The game only has dubbed voice lines for a small handful of major languages, so for less common localization options, you’ll get the original Korean or English voice acting with translated subtitles. You can check if your preferred language has full dub support in the official game settings menu before you make the switch.
Supported Languages and Localization Quality Breakdown
Not all language options are created equal, and I’ve tested most of the available localizations to see which ones are fully polished and which ones still have rough edges. The devs are still rolling out updates for less common languages, so this list will likely expand over time, but these are the current supported options as of the latest patch.
Fully supported languages with full dub and subtitle support include English, Korean, Japanese, German, French, Spanish (Spain and Latin America), and Simplified Chinese. These localizations have 100% of the game text translated, including side quest dialogue, item descriptions, and UI elements, and all cutscenes and NPC lines are fully dubbed. I played through the first 20 hours of the game in Latin American Spanish, and I didn’t spot a single translation error or untranslated line the entire time. The voice acting was also surprisingly well done, with natural dialogue that fit the tone of each character perfectly.
Partial support languages, which have full subtitle support but no dubbed voice lines, include Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Traditional Chinese, Italian, and Polish. The translations for these languages are mostly complete, but you might spot the occasional untranslated line in very new side content that was added in recent patches. The devs usually patch these gaps within a week or two of new content dropping, so it’s not a major issue for most players. I tested the Portuguese localization for a few hours, and the only untranslated lines I found were for a limited-time event that had launched two days prior.
There are also a handful of beta language options, including Arabic, Thai, and Indonesian, that you can enable in the experimental settings menu. These are still being worked on, so you’ll run into a lot of untranslated text and awkward translation phrasing if you use them right now. I only recommend these if you’re comfortable with some occasional English text popping up during your playthrough, or if you want to help the devs test and improve the localization for future updates.
How to Lock Your Language Preference For Future Launches
Once you’ve got your preferred language set up, you don’t want to have to redo the process every time there’s a game update or you switch devices. There are a few small tweaks you can make to lock in your preference so you never have to adjust it again.
First, make sure you adjust the language setting on your game launcher as well as in-game if you’re playing on PC. A lot of players only change the in-game setting, but the Steam or standalone launcher has its own default language that can override the in-game setting after a patch. To fix this, go to your game library, right click on Crimson Desert Online, select "Properties", then go to the "Language" tab and select your preferred option there too. That way both the launcher and the game are aligned, and you won’t get surprise language swaps after updates.
If you play across multiple devices, like a PC at home and a laptop when you travel, make sure you adjust the language setting on both devices before you sync your save file. If one device has a different default language, it can overwrite your preference when you sync. I usually take 30 seconds to double check the setting when I log in on a new device, and I’ve never had a problem with it reverting after that. It’s a tiny step that saves you a lot of frustration later.
You can also turn off automatic language updates in the accessibility settings if you don’t want the game to add new localization options without your permission. This is a newer setting that was added in the last major patch, and it’s hidden at the very bottom of the accessibility tab, so a lot of players don’t know it exists. Turning it on just means the game won’t switch your language when a new localization is released, which is a big help if you’re used to playing in one specific language and don’t want any unexpected changes to your UI.
At the end of the day, adjusting your game settings to fit your preferences shouldn’t be a complicated process, and once you know the right steps, you can change language in Crimson Desert Online in less than two minutes. Don’t waste time guessing through menus or downloading third-party mods that might risk your account security—all the tools you need are built right into the game itself. If you run into any issues that aren’t covered here, you can always reach out to the official support team, who usually respond to language-related queries within 24 hours.