The First Berserker Khazan review - a bloodthirsty homage to Sekiro

The First Berserker Khazan is a brutally hard soulslike and a grimdark spinoff from Nexon's Dungeon and Fighter series. It's also a well-executed hybrid that snaps up and plays with the genre's strongest ideas and mechanics from the past decade.

You take on the role of the disgraced General soulslike's plot twists and turns as the political machinations that led to his fate grow clearer with each encounter. Though the storytelling is often predictable, the voice cast does what it can to bring things to life.

The First Berserker leans into a clean anime art style, but it's nevertheless an astonishingly grim-looking game. Its cell-shading effect gives every character and background a clean finish, yet the environments you explore include dilapidated towns, crumbling temples, and dank caves. When outside, there is either a blizzard obscuring your vision or just a sea of brown as far as the eye can see. Some may like its foreboding atmosphere, but even games like Sekiro Shadows Die Twice have moments that stun you with beauty, only to reveal the darkness below the facade.

Speaking of Sekiro, The First Berserker's combat is heavily inspired by FromSoft's ninja soulslike. Enemies have a poise meter that, when depleted by attacking their guard or deflecting their hits, leaves them open to damaging burst attacks. Later on, you'll encounter humanoid creatures able to recover poise by backing off, or certain monsters that rage to give them a knockback immunity. This helps keep the combat fresh in the latter hours, but the rage mechanic in particular is used too sparingly.

Your foes can also use their own burst attacks, with an icon flashing on-screen to signal your brief window for a counterattack. Much like Sekiro, timing and moveset memorization are paramount here. Unlike Sekiro, Khazan's enemies are too often generic zombies, beasts, and warriors, even if they can still offer a FromSoft-level challenge.

Khazan uses three weapon types: the swift dual blades, the heavy greatsword, and the nimble spear. You'll likely decide which one to specialize in early on, determining which attributes to increase upon leveling up and which skills you should attempt to learn.

While the combat is Sekiro-inspired, Khazan's mission-based structure and gear system clearly hail from Team Ninja's Nioh series. Semi-randomized loot erupts from fallen enemies and treasure chests, offering improved stats and buffs. The First Berserker improves on Nioh's formula by featuring named sets of armor, weapons, and accessories that, when equipped, grant additional bonuses. This is the game's best original idea, as it encourages thoughtful build crafting over simply equipping the highest-level gear you have to hand.

The First Berserker features ~hour-long main missions and a selection of snappy side quests that reward you with new trinkets and upgrades. Unfortunately, the side adventures are weak, amounting to slightly rejigged segments of areas you've previously seen, culminating in a fight against a variant of an already defeated boss or – duller still – regular enemies with buffed health.

You'll return to a hub area after every mission where you can organize your inventory, craft gear at the blacksmith's, purchase items from a store, and reroll buffs at a transmutation cube. Again, it's nothing we haven't seen before, but these facilities synergize well with the game's gear system.

While The First Berserker is mechanically strong, its simplistic and repetitive level design holds it back. Sure, there are hidden soulstones in each area that you need to destroy, or pottery you need to break to rescue jar people, but the levels are nowhere near as challenging or engaging as their concluding bout. You may occasionally struggle with early fights against elite enemies (status-inflicting variants of regular foes that permanently perish upon their defeat), but the levels are otherwise a disappointing breeze.

Bosses are where The First Berserker Khazan shines, with their outwardly overpowered arsenals and dastardly tactics. Some rely on sheer power and speed to overwhelm you, while others use status ailments to keep you on your toes. Occasionally, they might seem nigh-on impossible, but the sufficient depth of the game's ability and gear systems means you'll always find a way to overcome the odds.

As much as I loved these climactic face-offs, I still wish The First Berserker Khazan wasn't so reluctant to try out new ideas. It nails its core combat and offers enough depth to let you create distinct ways to play, and its inventive boss battles will truly test your skills. Still, a few more risks here and there, rather than playing it safe with the tried and true, would have made this an unmissable soulslike.