The First Berserker: Khazan

Khazan had its hooks in me so deep that I kept throwing myself at the game, pushing myself to get better. When playing most of the games in this genre, I would just grind until I was powerful enough to overcome the boss fights. Not this time. I had to get better. I had to win. And there is no better feeling than conquering that mountain.

Another triumph in the soulslike genre from South Korea, The First Berserker: Khazan blends the best elements of Nioh and Dark Souls while forging its own identity. Standout boss battles and a deep, refined combat system ensure it leaves a lasting mark on the genre.

The First Berserker: Khazan from developer Neople is a different and more accessible take on the action role-playing game Souls blueprint. It’s difficult most of the time but brings a good story, great enemies, and a hefty and well-executed backend system. While mostly a great game, its downside is that it is a linear journey that will test a gamer’s frustration limits.

The First Berserker: Khazan is a masterclass in action combat, delivering thrilling boss fights, diverse level design, and tight mechanics that rival the genre’s best. While the narrative and side characters falter in depth, the fluid progression, customizable skill trees, and satisfying difficulty curve make this a standout soul-like experience—even for players unfamiliar with the Dungeon Fighter Online universe.

The First Berserker: Khazan stands out in the crowded Soulsborne-inspired genre by delivering relentless, weighty combat and immersive world-building.

The First Berserker: Khazan has a massive focus on rewarding the player’s perseverance, whatever their skill level.

The First Berserker: Khazan is a brutal, beautiful delight. Its elegant parry system, demonic boss battles, and flexible yet approachable take on character development have come together to create a package that may pull directly from many sources in the genre but ultimately delivers a standout experience that easily stands amongst the stiffest competition the genre has to offer. Its early hours may suffer from linearity, and its parry-heavy combat system may not sit well with everyone, but if you’re up for the challenge and willing to adapt to how The First Berserker: Khazan requires you to play, then you’re in for an absolute treat.

The First Berserker: Khazan combines an excitingly directed revenge story with lots of customization options and brutal action to create a souls-like highlight.

The First Berserker: Khazan delivers an excellent Soulslike experience that most of the fans of the genre will enjoy. The parry system might not be everyone's cup of tea, but the game still delivers an excellent gameplay experience sprinkled with amazing boss fights.

The game offers incredible boss battles, satisfying combat, and a strong identity within the "niohlike" genre, although the level design is overly linear and visually repetitive, yet the overall experience remains highly rewarding and addictive.

The First Berserker: Khazan doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it is a soul-like experience worth the time of any fan of the genre. It features frantic combat, stunning aesthetic and visual design, and a challenging yet satisfying difficulty that will fill you with excitement as you embark on this journey of vengeance.

The combat, gameplay structure and presentation appears very recognizable as it is in line with other games in the genre. The lack of variety in environments is a shame in this regard, but in return you get a strong visual style, engaging different fighting styles, exciting boss fights, strong audio and much more. Recommended.

Neople blew us away, demonstrating an unexpected level of experience and awareness in the soulslike genre. The First Berserker: Khazan is, despite some flaws, an extraordinarily competent soulslike, built for veteran players who want a serious challenge. Sure, there is still room for improvement, it's not very original, and there were some excessive choices here and there... Still, this is a great "first try"and deserves recognition.

Much like the titular protagonist having to restore his name and save face, The First Berserker: Khazan overcomes doubt that there is room for new, great big beasts in the Souls-like space. It may not be the most original experience and may be overflowing with too much loot, but despite that, it provides incredible play variety, meaningful character progression, spectacle, and exciting boss encounters to boot. Bathed in blood and dripping in metal-as-hell edge and angst, The First Berserker: Khazan is another unbelievably fun and great action RPG for the books.

The First Berserker: Khazan may be the best non-FromSoftware soulslike yet. Its anime-inspired visuals, soaring orchestration, and frenetic combat make for an unforgettable experience. With a brutal, personal story and rich world-building, every battle carries weight. The skill floor and price may be steep for newbies, but greatness comes at a cost—and this one’s worth every blood drop and penny.

For a hardcore action RPG, The First Berserker Khazan doesn't lie about the goods. But, beyond a very high - and almost caricatured - difficulty, the Neople studio demonstrates very impressive know-how (especially for its first project of the genre), and this throughout the 60-70 hours that the adventure lasts. Frankly, despite a structure already seen and a slight lack on the technical and artistic direction side, it's difficult to expect more from a demanding action role-playing game. The fights are top-notch, the bosses too, there are even little "twists" that constantly punctuate the progression. What do you say again? Oh yes... first attempt, masterstroke!

The First Berserker: Khazan delivers a brutal and versatile combat experience, blending the best elements of the soulslike genre into a fast-paced and intuitive gameplay. While the story lacks originality, the game compensates with its challenging encounters and extensive campaign, offering over 50 hours of engaging content.

The First Berserker: Khazan definitely feels old-school in its approach but its vast assortment of super-tough bosses and oodles of extras that are great fun to master make it stand out as an excellent Soulslike. Plus, you can wear goofy jars on your head.

A classic Soulslike with refreshing ideas that you shouldn't take lightly.

The First Berserker: Khazan is an interesting representative of the Soulslike genre, offering its own original ideas and a very strong plot. The game is able to break a person even on an easy difficulty level.

The First Berserker: Khazan is a competent soulslike, featuring a unique universe full of personality. It hits the nail on the head with the core mechanics of a game of this genre, featuring brutal and dynamic battles that manage to maintain that much desired fine line between sharp difficulty and fun. Although a little more innovation and variety could elevate the title to unmissable status, it is undeniable that we have here a great action RPG, especially for fans of the genre.

The First Berserker: Khazan is a fantastic game that has some of the best bosses of any Soulslike ever created. It's a game that will test patience and demand the utmost attention from the player, or else they'll meet the game over screen time and time again. This Soulslike is absolutely brutal, and yet, it remains fair throughout its 40-hour runtime. While the levels begin to blend in with one another aesthetically and the overwhelming amount of loot can become exhausting, The First Berserker: Khazan is a welcomed addition to the subgenre and I can't wait to see what developer Neople has planned next for this new IP.

The First Berserker: Khazan is a standout title that successfully blends challenging gameplay, stunning visuals, and atmospheric audio to create a compelling experience for fans of the Souls-like genre.

While it may not be a masterclass of the genre, The First Berserker: Khazan is a thrill that improves the more you play. It has unique mechanics that differentiate it from other soulslikes, while never losing sight of what it sets out to be. While the story may not be the most entrancing, there's certainly enough there to compel players to get to the end, no matter how many controllers or keyboards lost their lives in the process.

Where The First Berserker: Khazan stumbles in its crashes, surface-level narrative and overabundance of loot management, it more than makes up for with sensationally satisfying combat, wonderfully moody atmosphere, exceptional dark fantasy visuals and a gauntlet of brutal yet empowering bosses to overcome. Khazan may not be the most powerful of all Souls-like protagonists, but through sheer perseverance and rage, he's not far off joining the highest echelons.

Neople's The First Berserker Khazan is a success. While it opts for a classic structure and a level design without too many surprises, it pulls out all the stops with its gameplay, halfway between souls-like and beat'em all. Hyper-energetic and highly graphic, the combat system is a pure success. Despite the difficulty, which is not always well balanced, the game is not punishing, but rather rewards the slightest action. The build-up of power coupled with the feeling of accomplishment make The First Berserker Khazan a truly enjoyable and exhilarating experience. Not to mention its masterful, eye-popping art direction and, above all, its talent for staging boss battles, which spares nothing. An excellent surprise for the start of the year, and an excellent hardcore action game.

The First Berserker delivers an uncompromisingly tight combat experience that is further buoyed by an interesting, if somewhat unevenly paced, plot and a gorgeous presentation that is equal parts relentlessly grim and oppressive. The bosses are epic, enthralling, and even elegant at times, and even in easy mode, players are sure to get a tough but fair adventure. Its commitment to this identity is both impressive and formidable, and The First Berserker is sure to deliver thrills to players willing to meet its challenges.

Everything about The First Berserker: Khazan is entirely competent. It's a fun and well put-together Soulslike that would serve well as someone's first dip into the genre, especially if the stereotype of high difficulty usually frightens them off. At the same time, Khazan doesn't do anything particularly new that makes it stand out from the crowd. This isn't necessarily a problem, especially if you're a fan of the DFO universe, but it means you need to be in the right mood and mindset to play Khazan.

I suspect that most fans of the Soulslike genre will have a great time with The First Berserker: Khazan - especially if their primary focus is on the gameplay. It has some thoughtful approaches to easing frustration while maintaining that rewarding, Soulsian challenge. The First Berserker: Khazan may not be on the level of a Bloodborne or a Sekiro, but in the midst of combat, it can feel shockingly close.

It's hard as nails and has some balance issues that perhaps need to be addressed, but on the whole The First Berserker: Khazan is an impressive Soulslike that's very easy to recommend whether you're familiar with the Dungeon Fighter Online series or not.

The First Berserker: Khazan is yet another great action RPG that, although it uses concepts from the soulslike formula, is still able to deliver intense and satisfying combat to make it unique. Some decisions in the art direction make its visuals a little repetitive in the final stretch of the campaign, but overall it is a game easily recommended for fans of the genre.

The First Berserker: Khazan establishes itself as a good soulslike within the immense amount of games that the genre already treasures. It doesn't stand out in some areas, but its addictive combat system makes you forget its stumbles and deeply enjoy its successes.

The First Berserker: Khazan is a Souls-like with excellent combat and striking anime-style visuals, but its quest system and limited weapon variety may not appeal to everyone. Fans of Nioh will likely feel right at home.

Heavily inspired by Demon's Souls and Nioh, The First Berserker: Khazan may lack depth in its narrative and feel somewhat uninspired in terms of level design, but it still leaves a mark thanks to its great combat system and some fantastic boss fights. Despite a few excessive difficulty spikes, it remains enjoyable for the most part.

The First Berserker: Khazan is intense for better or worse. When the game is immersed in its combat, creating builds and a few boss battles, it shines brightly, almost reaching the shelf of great soulslikes. However, the poor level design, repetition of enemies, drowsy story and inconsistent difficulty make it fall down the ranks and be just another soulslike, although it still ranks among the good titles of the genre, no more than that. Lovers of Nioh and difficult games will find plenty of fun in the more than 35-hour campaign.

It's easy to write Khazan off as just another Soulslike at a glance, and it would be refreshing to see Neople create its own style and structure instead of just imitating a popular convention. However, Neople went further than most Soulslikes and actually innovated with its take on the genre's combat. That's a big positive, seeing as there's not much else to Khazan outside of battle, but at least all the time spent in combat is enjoyable.

A very competent Soulslike, with excellent combat and an attractive art style – it’s just a shame it barely even tries to do anything new.

Khazan sorts out what he wants to keep from the Souls formula, rounding off the edges. It's a shame, though, that some elements that have little to do with the genre have managed to creep in.

The First Berserker: Khazan is a solid Soulslike that just doesn’t do anything special. Even though the developers do a good job creating skill trees to match each weapon, there’s a serious lack of variety when it comes to the arsenal and attributes. On top of that, while the bosses are a treat to fight, being a significant challenge that evolves with the story, the same can’t be said about the mission structure. These are lacking functionally and artistically in their design, creating less-than-compelling locales to fight through. Despite all of our issues with The First Berserker: Khazan, it still scratched an itch that many Soulslikes haven’t been able to.

The First Berserker: Khazan is an interesting Soulslike that focuses on dark anime, high difficulty and playful freedom. But the wow effect fails to materialize.

The First Berserker: Khazan and its brutal action combat will be a real challenge for you, and manages to deliver a very enjoyable gameplay experience. Although with some bumps in the road, it is a game that manages to earn his spot in the genre with a challenging proposal and with some very interesting ideas.

The First Berserker: Khazan is one of the toughest action games and soulslikes in recent years. It's relentlessly punishing, with challenging spectacle fights and bosses to overcome. However, each challenge you do topple leads a sense of satisfaction that harkens back to the genre’s origins when everyone was less experienced at these games. That combat is only let down by a somewhat overwhelming story for newcomers to the Dungeon & Fighter (DNF) universe, a lack of accessibility options besides an easy difficulty, and a gear crafting system that feels unnecessary.

The First Berserker: Khazan nails its combat and presentation fundamentals but skimps on the narrative, loot and Khazan himself. Not terrible, but it could have been so much more.

The end-of-stage bosses remain something of a saving grace. [Issue#410, p.112]

The First Berserker: Khazan is frustrating – not necessarily because it's really hard. By far, it’s at its best when it wavers in its dogged quest to imitate the Souls games, yielding a distinct combat system that truly stands on its own. Although its level design and story felt unfortunately esoteric at times, I still had tons of fun butting heads with Khazan’s challenging, tight combat. Thanks to its gripping, tactile fights and surprisingly flexible metagame, Neople has delivered on bringing a more action-focused spin on the otherwise well-worn formula that doles out punishment and satisfaction in a measured drip feed – when everything else is working as intended.