The First Berserker Khazan Review: Gameplay Impressions, Videos and Features

The First Berserker: Khazan from developer Neople and NEXON doesn’t shy away from its Soulslike trappings and the obvious comparisons sure to pop up. 

Khazan is, after all, a third-person RPG hack-and-slash experience with Dark Souls and Elden Ring vibes, from its combat right on down to many of its systems. 

But Khazan also sprinkles its own personal touch in visuals and focuses on story and greater customization over the experience, to name a few examples. 

Whether Khazan can stand out or fade into the Soulslike group will hinge greatly on how it all comes together and whether a broad enough playerbase sinks enough time into what is a refreshingly deep package to truly see all that it has to offer. 

Graphics and Gameplay

Khazan’s almost anime-styled look is striking right at first sight. Shying away from an uber-realistic look removes the hurdle of realism expectations at every turn and really lets the world and action pop off the screen. 

The result is a colorful, varied experience that impresses in its large variety of locales (dark caves, formerly illustrious palaces, snowcapped mountains, etc.) and especially in combat. There, flashy weapon strikes, bloody gashes inflicted and big damage numbers narrate the action in captivating ways. 

It certainly helps that sound design is outright fantastic, especially when weapons clang together. Ambient noise out in the world and quality voice-acting are present, too, but it’s the sound of combat that really stands out.

In no great surprise for the genre, players can rest at checkpoints and in doing so, in fact, trigger a respawn of all enemies in the area. 

Exploration includes fast-travel points, though levels can often be linear in nature. Not that there aren’t things to do and optional side paths to explore, but it’s pretty apparent that while beautiful, the world is a backdrop to the star of the show—combat.

That combat loop that features blades, greatswords and spears will feel familiar, with a stamina bar to manage. Attacking, blocking and dodging depletes it and triggering a fatigued state leaves the player vulnerable to big damage. 

General movement plays into the stamina bar too, with walking and running not impacting it, but sprinting draining it. Choosing the when, how and where to use the three movement options within combat plays into the overall general strategy, too. 

There are two types of skills in combat, with one set activated through combos in a fight and the other assigned to specific button presses. That latter one requires managing a spirit skill (aka mana) bar, which exhausts through usage.

A stun system plays a role, too, putting poise and stagger stats against one another. Break the poise and it stuns an enemy, leaving a big opening. 

Players have a wealth of defensive options. Parrying enemy attacks at just the right time rewards the player with a far less dramatic impact on their own stamina bar and stagger chance. Dodging includes I-frames like a fighting game, letting them skirt all damage and get in a position for a big counterattack. 

All of the above within a fight can lead to gory, satisfying “brutal attacks” that are simply flashy finishers.

As if all that weren’t enough, players can also transform into a phantom form once a transformation gauge is charged. It’s a fun, strategic overpowered state that clears both negative status effects received and the fatigue meter.

All of this is housed within a lock-on targeting system that does a generally good job of helping players keep track of encounters. It’s not perfect, but envisioning the game without it is nearly impossible. 

It wouldn’t be a Soulslike without some of the obvious surrounding elements, such as the ability to go back and pick up lost experience on the ground at a point where players died. 

Khazan has a very refreshing way of tackling difficulty against bosses. Players struggling with a particular big bad will eventually have a way to earn experience during the battle, regardless of outcome. The idea is to let players keep honing their skills for the specific encounter while progressing, rather than needing to run off and farm lesser enemies for experience points. 

Story and More

The First Berserker: Khazan takes place in the popular Dungeon & Fighter series, but those unfamiliar can still pick it up, understand it, and have fun with the ride.

It helps that the narrative is effectively an origin story of sorts for protagonist Khazan, who finds himself accused of treason at the start of the game to really kick things off with a bang.

This isn’t to suggest players should expect some world-beating narrative. The story and characters hit on some expected notes and like the world itself, it’s all in service to the combat loop. 

But players who want to know more about everything can find lore drops found throughout the world while exploring, too. There’s also a nice bit of environmental storytelling for those paying attention, too. 

Khazan also follows the Elden Ring model with the ability to summon allies or engage in PvP with other players. Like other games, it might end up being a niche thing, but simply having the option to do so is nice.

Overall progression mostly feels similar too, though the game does strive to be friendly in this regard. 

Players level skill trees for characters and weapon types and skill points can be reset at any time. This enables players to mix and match and try new things.

Beyond the expected looting for gold and upgrades, there’s also a crafting system that lets players tinker with specific sets of gear, never mind the daunting list of consumables.  

Along the way, players can mix and match gear sets to change up boosts provided. Beyond those bonuses, players must also consider the weight of said gear, which impacts how fast they can move out in the world and when in combat.

Khazan goes deep on the options and accessibility features, too. There’s an outright easy mode for players who don’t want to grind difficult combat. Otherwise, an expected suite of accessibility and general options are tucked into the menus. As a whole Khazan runs well, too, rarely hitting hitches or visual hiccups.

Conclusion

Khazan is going to hit a sweet spot for fans of the genre. There's a little bit of Nioh, Sekiro and others in there with a flashy style that grabs attention and doesn't really let go.

That said, games like Elden Ring become pop culture hits that expand beyond a niche for many reasons—with a dash of luck, too. Khazan might not become that, in part, because it isn't first, and two, it can be incredibly difficult right from the start.

Even so, the tweaks to progression and handling of things like boss sticking points are welcome wrinkles that hopefully make it to other games in the space.

In a niche that doesn't get that many releases annually, Khazan stands tall as enjoyable and one of the best action RPGs out there.