Is The First Berserker: Khazan now a soul-like or not? -This is one of the questions that Meinmmo author Ody wanted to pursue. After spent days to fight the third boss in the game, he can say with great certainty: The action RPG made him sweat early like hardly any other game in the genre.
Since a buddy showed me the remaster of Dark Souls on the Switch on a vacation together a few years ago and I was allowed to play it myself, Souls-Likes have not let go. One could almost speak of fate that the Dark-Souls trilogy was on Steam at the same time. In the meantime I have already spent over 500 hours in the Souls games. The time I have invested in other Fromsoftware titles such as Sekiro and Bloodborne as well as Souls-Likes such as Nioh 2 and Code Vein has not yet been counted.
When I started with The First Berserker: Khazan, I still thought that I shouldn’t have any big problems with it. In any case, the discussion in the room was whether the game would go through as a soul-like at all or rather a classic action role-playing game. But if the demo of the game has sown initial doubts, the finished game has completely destroyed this illusion.
A dark, but rather useful revenge campaign
The dark action role-playing game is shared by its universe with the colorful and bright action-mmorpg dungeon Fighter online. But you don’t have to have played it to follow the story. You are Khazan, a powerful general of the Pell Empire.
Khazan is wrongly spoken of betrayal and narrowly escapes death. He is saved by an alliance with the “blade phantom”, which gives him supernatural powers. Khazan, strengthened by this demonic alliance, opens up to take revenge on those who have declined him – and become the first berserk.
From the first four missions that I played, I can say that the story is well staged. She would not win Oscar up to here, but was more than sufficient to motivate me to continue playing. In combination with the anime look, the design of opponents and the dark atmosphere, the game has repeatedly reminded me of Berserk, the Dark Fantasy manga by Kentaro Miura. For me this is a big plus.
You can already get a first impression of this mood in the intro:
The First Berserker: Khazan-The Dark Opening Cinematic of the Action RPG
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Nioh meets Sekiro, but with some fresh ideas
The gameplay is a mix of various souls games mechanics.
The first berserker: Khazan reminded me especially of Nioh and Sekiro. The game uses soul mechanics, but wants to be less frustrating. So you collect Lacrima through fights, which, like souls in Dark Souls or Runes in Elden Ring, serves as a currency for the level climb. At every death you let your unpaid lacrima fall on the spot, but at Bossen you will recreate this again in front of the entrance to your arena.
If you do certain boss challenges, you get additional lacrima. It doesn’t matter whether you defeat the boss in this round or not. So even failure brings your character ahead as long as you are doing well enough.
With weapons, Khazan rely on class instead of mass, because there are only three weapon types: double weapons, large sword and spear. I have slapped most of the game like Guts from Berserk with the large sword through enemy groups, but every weapon type feels unique and powerful in its own way.
Parieren is everything in Khazan
Although the developers themselves want to develop an action game and avoid frustration, I have to say: The game is one of the toughest chunks on the normal level of difficulty that I had to knock through as a soul fan.
This high level of difficulty does not always have good reasons: I often had the feeling when playing that inputs were not executed as reliably as they should. Especially in a game that sets high value on parades, it is annoying if I seem to have pressed the button for it at the right moment, but Khazan still takes the blow. And you won’t be around it to parry opposing attacks in this game. On the one hand, this is because endurance works:
Only when blocking perfectly, i.e. a parade, you do not use endurance. With large groups of opponents you can’t parry every attack. Even standard opponents such as the dragon -like have long attack chains and appear in larger groups from the third level.
The first berserk is also at healing: Khazan surprisingly mercilessly: If you take damage, you heal through items or underworld energy. The latter fills up again with every rest on the Nexus. You can only heal four times from that – even Dark Souls is more spacious when it comes to that. Items that you can heal with are also quite rare.
Even the third Khazan boss is as hard as a soul-end opponent
What The First Berserker: Khazan describes as a “normal” level of difficulty feels more like an optional hardcore mode: Even with a completely over-level character, it took me 2 days to see that the third boss “Viper” has a second phase with a new health beam. I was level 40 at this point, the area is recommended, according to the developers from level 18.
You can use bossen ghosts of intercession as reinforcements, but they often die much too early to really be useful. And does not even think about facing a boss alone if his movement pattern does not master her perfectly.
As much time as for the Viper, I needed the first attempt against Gwyn from the first Dark Souls or the Soul of Cinder from Part 3. But these are the final bosses of their respective game. The third boss couldn’t be that difficult, I thought and first looked for the mistake with myself:
After a lot of frustration, the third boss kept on his knees
It would have been pretty embarrassing if my test had already come to an end at this point. Especially since this is also my first allusion report.
Fortunately, my rather low frustration tolerance in such games is compensated for by bare stubbornness: So I have thrown myself on the boss until I was able to memorize its attack pattern at some point.
When the Viper finally eaten dust after 3 days, the relief about it quickly gave way to another thought: Will the rest of the game not be too easy with my high level now?
One would think that the rest will be a walk – but it wasn’t. And again The First Berserker surprised me: Khazan with the fact that it feels like a game that didn’t want to be a real soul-like, after the toughest soul-like that I have played so far.
I also tried the simple level of difficulty for test purposes. It is still challenging, but noticeably easier. There you cannot unlock all the achievements and if you have changed the difficulty, you can no longer go back with this character.
The First Berserker: Khazan is a game for masochists
The First Berserker: Khazan missed me within the 20 hours that I have played so far, Dark Souls 2 and that is less of a compliment: his “Scholar of the First Sin” edition is known to be unnecessarily frustrating and I have thrown the game from the hard drive several times.
Nevertheless, I repeatedly crawled back because I just didn’t want to give up the game. Today I have a strange love relationship with Dark Souls 2: I still hate playing it, but that doesn’t stop me from doing it every now and then and even having fun with it.
The First Berserker: Khazan has the potential to become another game: a game for masochists like me who get it behind me out of pure stubbornness and then may still learn to love in a few months (or years). It is also a game for everyone who is looking for a real hardcore experience. If you are not a fan hard soul-like, Khazan shouldn’t be for you.
If you have always wanted to plunge into a soul-like meat with friends, then Nightreign, the spin-off to Elden Ring, could be more like your taste. Meinmmo author Caro has already been allowed to play the game at an event. You get your first impression here: After 8 hours of play, I can say: With Nightreign, Elden Ring becomes a completely different game