is crimson desert's combat hard in a good way?

mostly yes, but the first few hours are rough. there are a lot of inputs and it doesn't explain them well, so early on it feels clunky rather than hard. what changed it for me was using the grabs and kicks between sword strings instead of just mashing attack. bosses punish mashing hard. if you liked learning a combo system in other action games you'll probably enjoy it. if you want simple souls-style dodge and hit, it might annoy you.