I’m exhausted after taking part in The First Berserker: Khazan over the previous week and a half. My arms ache, my mind is fried, and I’ve usually needed to step away in frustration. It’s a brutally tough game, one usually anticipating near-perfection in its hardest encounters. I’m slowly working my method by way of this Soulslike extension of developer Neople’s Dungeon & Fighter universe, and it’s an understatement to say it’s given me bother – which is an element of why I nonetheless have a bit more to go earlier than I’m in a position to call this review completed. But like a new navy recruit, it’s damaged me down and, over time, constructed me into a deadly weapon that’s ready to tackle no matter hellish nightmares wait forward. Even although I’ve hit seemingly insurmountable roadblocks for hours at a time, I’ve in some way discovered myself having fun with and reveling within the battles that take me to the brink of my skills.
The First Berserker: Khazan is a traditional revenge story. Khazan, a celebrated common, is betrayed by his empire and labeled a traitor. After being gravely injured whereas apprehended, he’s revived and possessed by a melded legion of vicious warrior spirits who antagonize him into doing their bidding. The Blade Phantom, because the ethereal symbiote is understood, is more involved with advancing the aims of the underworld from which it hails, whereas Khazan is out for the blood of those that wronged him. The setup offers lots to build on, tying grounded medieval politics to the occult forces leeching their method into the world, however the story after has principally been skinny and underwhelming past that.
Khazan meets varied characters as he ventures forth into the world, however in addition to including some minor connective tissue to the continuing plot, they don’t contribute to the story in a method that makes me care about actually something that’s occurring. Distressed villagers, otherworldly advisors, former navy cohorts, and more begin to fill out a sparse hub space generally known as The Crevice. Outside of being visually attention-grabbing as a floating stone sanctuary with mysterious damaged staircases and far-off platforms that I’d wish to get to and discover, there’s not a lot to do in The Crevice aside from managing my stock from time to time or urgent onto the following mission space. There’s shockingly little to glean from the larger world regardless of being the proper place to gradual issues down and foster an atmosphere for additional taste. Instead, it’s more a mechanical necessity to choose up non-compulsory quests or craft, improve, and increase gear for Khazan than an space to discover and improve the general story.
Being a well-honed instrument of battle, Khazan has a handful of instruments at his disposal to slaughter his enemies – though it took a long time earlier than I felt like I used to be on his perceived stage of functionality. An early mission launched me to The First Berserker’s three sorts of weaponry: You can select to make use of the highly effective however gradual and defensive greatsword, a nimble stamina-draining spear, or the whirling assault of the twin blades. I get pleasure from how distinctive every weapon sort is from the others, offering transformative transfer units starting from defensive and methodical to all-out aggressive.
Each weapon is additional expanded with a full ability tree that enhances Khazan’s effectiveness in battle. Nodes on these timber modify your primary assaults, like altering how your charged Potent Blow (or heavy assault) works, altering the stamina depletion for actions like dodging and blocking, or offering new strikes completely by spending a useful resource referred to as Spirit Points in fight. My Khazan at the moment feels method totally different to play than he did at first roughly 40 hours in the past. There are a lot of choices to equipment out Khazan with as you stage him up, and it’s been fairly enjoyable to determine which strikes and perks contour finest to my playstyle to help me slice my method out of its hardening conflicts.
The First Berserker permits you to swap between your three weapons freely, however with little overlap between their varied skills, what’s usually a fast change is definitely a dramatic change and a trouble. For occasion, in Dark Souls, most weapons boil down to having gentle and heavy assaults, with possibly a particular capability out there when switching to a two-handed grip. Weapons in The First Berserker, then again, enable for up to 6 of the beforehand talked about Spirit assaults and additional optimization of the ability tree. It’s a lot to deal with when equipping what is basically a bespoke class. That’s why I’ve devoted myself to the twin blades during my playthrough, which I’m nonetheless tweaking and studying about with each massive fight I decide. Thankfully, If I ever needed to make the large bounce to the greatsword or spear, you may reallocate ability factors freely. However, the method is simply obtuse and annoying enough to do on the fly that I’ve caught with one form of weapon all through.
Upon embarking on The First Berserker’s mainline missions, the construction is extraordinarily much like what’s anticipated in a soulslike. Each stage includes slaying harmful enemies patrolling the world, determining how to outlive with restricted therapeutic objects, gathering spoils of the useless, and utilizing them to stage up at this game’s model of a bonfire, referred to as a Blade Nexus. It’s an overly acquainted system that’s definitely inoffensive in its design, with ranges neatly constructed to weave back to prior respites through shortcuts. The First Berserker sadly doesn’t add something that you just haven’t already seen in FromSoftware’s video games, but it surely recreates that loop properly enough.
Capping off every mission is a tooth-and-nail fight with that space’s boss, every of which represents a doubtlessly substantial roadblock earlier than you may proceed to get pleasure from The First Berserker, however these encounters have begun to win me over. The first massive encounter I struggled with was the tip boss of Mission 2, a manifestation of souls like those inhabiting our newly possessed hero. Its aggressive melee assaults would shortly kill me, and after a number of unsuccessful makes an attempt and unexpected weapon swaps from my adversary, I needed to attempt one other strategy to lastly break by way of. Another early boss, a bipedal goat demon wielding a flaming spike and hammer, precipitated lots of grief by hitting onerous and infrequently, sometimes lighting the battlefield ablaze with a carpet of flames. At first, I attempted to grind weaker enemies across the stage to gather Khazan’s model of souls, referred to as Lacrima, to spice up my stats and provides myself a higher likelihood of residing. It helped, however in the end didn’t do enough to tip the scales. I then took a close have a look at my gear and opted for a tankier build. Still no cube.
Khazan’s bosses are simply painfully robust, and the early ones are like a brick wall. Some of the smaller enemies main up to a boss will considerably train you how to deal with sure features of them, however there’s little to ramp you into what’s regularly requested of you shifting ahead. There’s no straightforward approach to smash your method by way of these partitions in The First Berserker, like discovering an overpowered merchandise or excessively juicing your stats. Even in a brutal game like Elden Ring, a infamous early boss like Margit might be overcome more simply in the event you spend some time getting stronger within the areas earlier than him, however that’s not likely an option right here. In flip, this speedy issue spike genuinely made me need to stop taking part in after the primary few ranges – however I’m glad I caught with it.
The course of of studying every oppressive bosses’ strikes and tells, determining when it’s splendid to dodge or block, is additional important in The First Berserker. It’s how I in the end found out how to benefit from the expertise within the face of overwhelming odds. Honing these skills was mind-numbing and shredded my will to play early on. There’s no method across the need to execute well-timed harm blocks or rolls after which strike back at opportune moments. Some bosses within the first half of the marketing campaign burned upwards of 5 hours of my time alone, usually leaving me questioning if possibly I ought to simply contemplate dropping down from the default Normal issue to Easy to avoid wasting myself the stress. These enemies examined my persistence, however after overcoming that initial barrier, building the muse of my response choices, and adapting my plan of assault, I grew to become a lot more profitable at determining those that adopted.
What was as soon as a peak level of frustration has change into my favourite half of The First Berserker; the bosses are in the end what make it price taking part in. While they’re extremely onerous to take down, each one can finally be learn like a guide, telegraphing the strikes they’re about to make and predictable methods they’ll use all through the fight. Every loss of life that was as soon as met with confusion and irritation has change into a studying expertise I stay up for absorbing. Every restart is a renewed likelihood to land my assaults and survive with newfound information. Yes, there are lots of low-cost assaults, one-hit kills, and groan-inducing errors, however I’ve been having fun with learning every massive boss I come throughout as a lot because the catharsis of lastly taking them down.
I’ve additionally been in a position to obtain these insurmountable feats thanks to 2 great quality-of-life selections Neople has applied into The First Berserker. First, dying repeatedly at a boss isn’t for nothing, however fairly grants valuable Lacrima primarily based on how far you took their life down. Each improve that helps you afford will get you a little bit additional the following time, and gaining ranges by grinding the boss you need to beat is way more beneficial than breaking away to farm elsewhere. Second, ability factors are awarded individually from the degrees you get from cashing in Lacrima, and are as a substitute earned by way of a more conventional expertise bar that’s stuffed just by being in battle. While not essentially an increase in stats, unlocking new strikes to make use of or enhancing your favorites might be simply the factor needed to beat a cussed encounter.
After lastly discovering my footing with what’s being requested of me on the conclusion of every mission and gaining skills that make me really feel like I can stand a likelihood in opposition to something, I’ve come to get pleasure from Khazan’s devastating bosses. They’re what’s holding me trudging by way of largely uninteresting ranges and hordes of enemies. It’s been a steep and typically demoralizing climb to really feel efficient with my abilities and stats – however there’s additionally the exhilaration of executing split-second guards and dodges to flee relentless assaults and hit my foes with my own flurry of metal. If I weren’t reviewing it, there’s a excellent likelihood I’d have taken a long break early on, and who is aware of if I’d ever go back. But now that I do know I’m succesful of taking over the worst Khazan has thrown at me (thus far), I’m wanting ahead to seeing it to the tip.