The First Berserker: Khazan [Xbox Series X] | REVIEW

The First Berserker: Khazan doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but with its brutally satisfying combat and beautifully stylish world, it doesn’t need to. In an era where nearly every action game borrows from Dark Souls, this game embraces the formula and delivers a punishing yet rewarding experience that’s sure to keep players captivated from start to end.

Check out some screenshots down below:

It’s worth noting from the get-go that The First Berserker: Khazan takes place in the Dungeon Fighter Online universe, but you need no prior knowledge at all to appreciate the storytelling. I haven’t played Dungeon Fighter Online and I never felt out of the loop at all, and whilst I’m sure there are nods here and there, having background knowledge never felt significant.

Set 800 years before Dungeon Fighter Online, The First Berserker: Khazan introduces players to its tortured protagonist, General Khazan. Once a revered warrior, he has now been branded a traitor and sentenced to death. However, fate – or perhaps something more sinister – intervenes, with a mysterious entity known as the Blade Phantom fusing with his body and granting him the strength to seek vengeance on those around him. And who knows, maybe Khazan will uncover a greater mystery lurking in the Netherworld on his journey…

Whilst The First Berserker: Khazan’s narrative won’t win any awards for originality, it still provides a compelling backdrop for the relentless action. The world is grim and drenched in misery, but this dark tone stands out as one of the world’s most compelling features, and whilst it might feel hopeless, I always wanted to see everything it had to show me. Maybe I’m just a sicko… who knows?

At its core, The First Berserker: Khazan is an action-focused souls-like that demands precision, patience, adaptability, and a hell of a lot of skill to thrive at. The game offers three distinct weapon types to utilise (Dual Blades, Great Swords, and Spears), with each catering to different playstyles that might either suit the player’s needs or the type of foe that you’re facing off against. Dual blades emphasize speed and agility, spears offer a balance of reach and power, while great swords hit like a truck but require precise timing – each completely changes how Khazan feels in-combat, but with each offering their own strengths and weaknesses, they all bring something to the table.

Combat is fast, fluid, and deeply satisfying, with every encounter feeling like a high-stakes showdown where a single mistake can lead to disaster. Dodges and parries are essential – perfectly timed dodges increase the damage of follow up attacks and perfectly timed parries minimise your stamina depletion – whilst performing counterattacks and reflections allow the player to exploit their foes’ attacks and use them against them (albeit with a higher risk). Managing your stamina is imperative to your success too, with players having to balance out their attacks and defensive manoeuvres to maintain the energy to stay on top of their foes, but with enemies having a stamina meter of their own, it’s also something that can be exploited and used to your advantage.

“The First Berserker: Khazan doesn’t revolutionize the souls-like genre, but it still delivers thrilling combat, challenging encounters, and a rewarding sense of progression that will keep hardcore fans engaged from start to end.”

A familiar features comes with the summoning of AI companions to help out in battle, which is something I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve done across Dark Souls, Elden Ring, and even Lies of P in recent years. However, whilst those aforementioned titles utilised them in a balanced manner that complemented the battle without making things too easy, their use in The First Berserker: Khazan was a lot weaker. They often died within moments of a boss fight starting, making them a minor distraction as opposed to a strategic addition that give players a helping hand in some of the tougher encounters. Sure, they’d have their moments where they might be marginally useful, but if the game really wants to have them help players, they need to be balanced out to put up a bit more of a fight.

Players can unlock new abilities as they progress, upgrade existing moves, and continually tailor their fighting style to suit their preferred weapon. Multiple skill trees are utilised to help finesse your capabilities across each type of weapon used, whilst general skills can be shared across all playstyles to ensure the player is continually developing to keep on top of the ever-growing threat. And, of course, the game’s equivalent of Souls (known as Lacrima) can be spent to increase your attributes, leading into a sense of familiarity for fans of the genre. They also need to be recovered from your body each time you die, which is par for the course at this point.

Make no mistake, The First Berserker: Khazan can be a brutally difficult experience, and the game does not hold back in throwing players into relentless encounters where mastery of its mechanics is the only way forward. Boss fights are especially punishing, often requiring flawless execution and little room for error when facing off against them, with these encounters easily rivalling the toughest battles you might have seen across FromSoftware’s repertoire of releases. That being said, I’d be remiss not to mention just how expertly designed these encounters are, with each boss not only epic in scale but also offering wonderfully executed battles where neat mechanics are tied with versatile move sets that the player will have to fully learn and predict before they’re able to succeed. They’re brutal, but in that satisfying kind of way where your eventual success feels all the more rewarding.

One thing worth noting in the boss battles is that whilst they’re hard, it does feel like the game is rooting for you to succeed. Sure, each boss is relentless, but the game does you a favour with each death: it leaves the Lacrima that you’d have left behind with your death at the entrance to the boss encounter whilst also adding some additional Lacrima based on your previous performance. It might sound like a small benefit, but it’s one that shows the game doesn’t want to just keep beating you down but instead encourage you to succeed. I really liked it, and it shows that whilst The First Berserker: Khazan isn’t the most original of games, it does change up the formula in its own little ways.

Another way in which The First Berserker: Khazan varies from its contemporaries is with its structured, mission-based format. Players progress through sixteen main missions, with each offering a linear but well-designed path filled with branching routes, collectibles, and hidden upgrades to find along the way. Side missions provide additional challenges and rewards across the adventure too, giving players some worthwhile bonuses whilst hashing it our with previous foes. If I’m being honest, it felt refreshing to play a souls-like with a more traditional structure – whilst I’ve always loved exploring open-environments where one wrong turn can take you to a deadly encounter that you might not be ready for, the mission-based structure format utilised here felt genuinely refreshing and made the game’s tough difficulty a little easier to settle in to.

Check out some screenshots down below:

The game’s hub area in-between missions offers a welcome moment of solace too, with players able to manage gear, upgrade weapons, and prepare for the next battle. Naturally, your equipment plays a crucial role in survival, with various rarity tiers and set bonuses encouraging players to find the best loadouts for their playstyle. Vendors and a blacksmith offer ways to craft and enhance gear too, though be warned: most of the best equipment requires significant resource grinding to unlock, so be ready to put the hours in if you really want to power yourself up for some of the game’s more daunting challenges.

This is where exploration throughout missions is rewarded the most though, and whilst resource gathering can be seen as an incentive, nothing beats finding a new piece of gear or an extra healing charge that you might have missed out on the first time around. Sure, it might mean replaying missions that gave you a hard time before, but with the player continually growing their capabilities as they progress through the game, the tasks became less arduous and more satisfying each time.

Visually, The First Berserker: Khazan adopts a gorgeous cel-shaded art style that gives its characters and world a unique anime-inspired look. The world is dark and oppressive, but it’s also packed with beautiful vistas that truly help it shine, whilst the character and enemy designs are packed with wonderfully crafted details. Again, this is where the bosses stand out, with the game introducing some mesmerising yet horrific creatures to vanquish that always kept me in awe with each encounter. Technical performance on consoles is also strong, offering both 30fps and 60fps options for players (as well as an unlocked frame rate providing smooth gameplay for those with VRR-capable displays).

While The First Berserker: Khazan excels in many areas of its design, it isn’t without flaws. The camera can become an issue in some locales in the game, making it difficult to keep track of enemies and maintain defensive positions in battle. It isn’t a problem for the most part, but there were some encounters in more confined spaces where I found myself frustratingly dying simply because I couldn’t keep a close eye on everything that was going on. Some of the side missions could feel repetitive too thanks to the re-use of boss fights, and whilst it is satisfying to face some foes again (especially with minor changes introduced), it would have been nice if it sprinkled in a few extra ideas just to offer a bit more variety.

Developer: Neople
Publisher: Nexon
Platform(s): Xbox Series X|S (Reviewed), PlayStation 5, PC
Website: https://khazan.nexon.com/en/main