The First Berserker: Khazan Review
THE FIRST BERSERKER: KHAZAN REVIEW IN PROGRESS
(codes came in a little later than hoped and by all estimations The First Berserker: Khazan looks to be somewhere between 60-80 hours to mostly mainline and we are around 40-50. There likely wont be anymore surprises and expect the score to remain the same, but should things change, we will update accordingly)
Hardcore action RPG’s of the highest quality used to be reserved for Dark Souls, Demon’s Souls and other FROMSOFTWARE titles, hence the moniker souls-likes. However, in the past 5-10 years, which equates to one or two development cycles, we have seen other studios create compelling experiences. Titles like Lies of P, Remnant, Nioh and Star Wars Jedi not only have high levels of quality, but also fresh ideas.
The First Berserker: Khazan earns its place alongside these other genre standouts. It has flaws, which are likely due to the inexperience the studio has with creating a game of this size and scope, but a compelling storyline about treason aided by excellent voice acting, rewarding combat and enough fresh ideas make this an easy recommendation to genre veterans and newcomers alike.
WHAT IS THE FIRST BERSERKER: KHAZAN?
The First Berserker Khazan is a hardcore action RPG from Neople, the studio behind Dungeon Fighter Online or as it’s known in South Korea: Dungeon & Fighter, which is a free to play 2D Anime, Side Scrolling Beat Em Up that just passed it’s tenth anniversary and has a 61% all time on Steam.
If you’re wondering why The Last Berserker: Khazan would be based on a ten year old franchise with average reviews, it’s because it’s supposedly been played by over 850 million and generated over 22 billion dollars as of 2023.
If you’re like me and you’ve never heard of it, don't worry, your enjoyment wont be affected in the slightest. I’m sure someone with prior knowledge of the source material would likely find more enjoyment, but there is no prerequisite requirement. The First Berserker: Khazan tells the story of The Great General Khazan, who is revered for saving his empire from the Berserk Dragon, however he has now been charged with treason, imprisoned and sentenced to death.
Through a twist of fate, after being tortured and on the brink of death, Khazan must make a pact with an evil otherworldly entity and form a bond that will give the The Great General powers beyond the mortal realm on his quest for revenge. In every story there is a hero, a villain and a victim. In The First Berserker, Khazan occupies all of these roles at different times as you try to piece together what has happened
WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT IT?
The First Berserker: Khazan is a souls-like and there is no hiding the inspiration. Core staples are here such as demanding combat, a heavy attack, a light attack, upgrading core stats through lacrima which comes from fallen foes, mobs that can quickly overwhelm you, bosses that will live inside your head rent free and of course checkpoint bonfires where you can rest and enemies respawn. However, The First Berserker goes beyond just trying to fit in, as it also tries to stand out.
The First Berserker makes a strong first impression with its anime inspired, 3D, cel shaded art style, but it get’s amplified with a strong cinematic feel. The world is equally as impressive to admire as it is to explore its verticality. The voice acting across the board is spectacular, especially Ben Starr who voices the lead role of The Great General Khazan. All of these elements create a cohesive sense of style and confidence.
Combat and Loot
Combat is extremely satisfying, precise and is strongly focused around a parry system requiring damaging stamina or posture before truly being able to deal great damage. You might find success early, but to fully succeed further on you will be required to master counter-attacks and reflection, which require precision timing during very small windows of opportunity. However, combat always feels fair and as such even more rewarding.
Part of the reasons combat feels as good as it does is because of the three classes: The Dual Blades, Greatsword and Spear. All of these weapons feel extremely viable and drastically different. The Dual Blades have a quick attack speed that do balanced physical and stamina damage, but require close range. The Greatsword is very slow, but does heavy physical damage, but can withstand a lot of attacks and also requires close range. The Spear, which is the weapon I settled on, has a very fast attack speed that does lower physical, but high stamina, which gets the bosses into the fatigue state where you can deal massive damage and it also works best from range.
You have a weapon specific skill tree, a shared skill tree no matter the weapon of choice, in addition to the character levelling that includes genre essentials like vitality or strength as well as unique skills to learn and bind to keys.
A true RPG is only as good as its loot and there is plenty of loot to find. One of the great parts of The First Berserker is the gear system. There are plenty of different gear sets to find or craft, assuming you have found the blacksmith and the blueprint for that set. Each set comes with different perks and the more gear per set you equip, the more bonuses stack and they are meaningful. Before you know it, your inventory will be full of gear and while some look unique it would have been great if all the sets had a bit more personality or stronger visual identity. There is also the ability to upgrade gear, augment it and transmogrify it.
Accessibility
Despite being a hardcore action RPG, The First Berserker has plenty of quality of life features and accessibility options. For instance, it’s easy to reset your core stats, by using primeval regression orb which are fairly common. You can also at any time, without penalty unlearn skills on your skill trees. This is great when you think you might want to use a different weapon or you discover a skill isn’t as good as it sounded. It also comes in handy when you are having a tough time with a boss and need just a small tweak.
Bosses are an area where hardcore action RPG’s demand the most from players. One great feature is that you are still awarded a small amount of lacrima or souls after dying at the hands of a boss, which means that after ten or so tries you could have enough to level up one stat. It’s not much, but this little incentive is enough to keep players from eventually giving up and possibility walking away permanently. If anything, it’s more of a mental reward.
Finally, there is an easy mode, which purists might argue against, but it allows more people to play the game, which is better for the developers and provides higher chances of success, which leads to a higher chance of a sequel. I tried on both modes and easy is still a challenge, it allows for minor mistakes, but it’s not relentlessly unforgiving like normal.
WHAT’S NOT SO GOOD?
Criticisms for The First Berserker Khazan fall into two catergories: Repetition and Frustration. As unique and at times, awe inspiring as the visuals can be, they lack of variety and can begin to feel monotonous. Although you do travel from snow covered mountains, to burning villages, cathedrals and many other locations, they all feel similar thanks to a reliance on a gray and brown color palette. The monotonous feeling is continued with familair enemies, which could have avoided if The First Berserker was a little shorter. A longer game didn’t equate to a better experience.
Khazan was littered were invisible walls, but more problematic was so many areas where you could easily, accidentally fall to your immediate death, at times without any cues from the game. Khazan also required a fair bit of platforming across precarious areas, which was never satisfying and almost always led to frustration.
Finding loot in video games is a very satisfying and Khazan has plenty for you to discover around the world, but I have a hard time thinking of a treasure chest opening animation that felt as lacklustre as this one did. It didn’t explode with color when it got opened, it was bursting at the seems with a glowing aura, the hero didn’t punch through it with his fist to open it like God of War, it just opened uneventfully.
Finally when it came to enemies, more specifically bosses, the difficulty curve was too sporadic, as it was always unknown whether the challenge was going to be greater or less than the previous boss.
VERDICT
When looking at the checklist, Khazan checks all the boxes of an essential hardcore action RPG, but isn’t a lazy attempt to capitalize on the two massive audiences of Dungeon Fighter Online and Souls-likes. Instead, there is enough proof evident that this team not only did the research about what the best in the genre do well, but also what is missing.
The First Berserker: Khazan is a very strong debut that stands out from the deluge of FROMSOFTWARE facsimiles.