The First Berserker: Khazan Review

Betrayed, tortured and left for dead, the once mighty warrior Khazan awaits his death at the hands of those he once risked his life for, but it isn’t his time quite yet.

The First Berserker: Khazan is an action-RPG set within the Dungeon Fighter Online universe. I’m not too familiar with this, beyond fooling around with DNF Duel for a few hours, but after playing The First Berserker: Khazan, I’m incredibly curious to see it expand.

You take the role of Khazan, once a Great General of the empire, who has been betrayed and tortured. He’s then possessed by the ghost of the Blade Phantom, an amalgamation of the souls of great warriors, working to keep the balance of the Netherworld in check. The General’s willpower reigns supreme, though, and instead of taking over his body completely, they form a pact: The Blade Phantom provides Khazan with his power to get revenge on those who wronged him, and Khazan helps the Blade Phantom figure out what’s causing issues in the Netherworld and set it right. It’s not a complex setup, nor is the story itself, but it’s more than sufficient.

The voice acting and characters are pretty strong across the board, but it’s not out of this world. I was interested in the NPCs and their stories, but it wasn’t my main point of interest. The core is strong, though: Khazan’s revenge plot feels realistic, and it works as a strong motivator.

There’s some pretty clear soulslike inspiration at play with the gameplay and level design, but it does a good job setting itself apart from the more traditional soulslike formula. This is primarily in its character progress and buildcrafting, which is more in line with a more traditional action-RPG. The combat is a more methodical action game initially, with a deflect mechanic similar to Lies of P, which really amps up the combat. Getting hit or blocking normally while out of stamina leaves you stunned, allowing enemies free follow-up attacks, and this is often deadly. Brink Guard (guarding at the last second) not only reduces the enemy's stamina a small amount but, it also stops you from being stunned, meaning it’s a great risk-reward tool for those more tense moments. Reducing an enemy's stamina also allows you access to a Brutal Attack, a high-damage attack which restores your stamina when done from the front, or deals more damage and staggers the enemy longer when done from the back.

There’s a myriad of upgrades for Brink Guard, too, which can help define a more aggressively defensive playstyle. You’re also able to dodge, which also has a perfect dodge mechanic. This is far less risky but leads to less reward. Dodging isn’t worthless, though, as you’ll need to dodge grab attacks, and even Brink Guarding attacks with Status Effects leads to a small amount of damage and status buildup. Finally, as far as core defensive mechanics are concerned, you have Counterattack. This is a system that you’re required to use to counter specific strong moves. The timing can be awkward, but it leads to high damage, making it imperative to engage with.

Offensively, Khazan is something of a powerhouse, but not from the start. Right out of the gate, your moveset is pretty limited, to the point where I was concerned. Light and Heavy attacks — labelled Swift Attacks and Potent Blows in the game — didn’t chain into each other all that well, making the combat feel somewhat stilted. This is alleviated as soon as you begin earning Skill Points. These can be spent on both weapon-specific Skill Trees, for the three weapon types (Dual Wield, Greatsword, and Spear) and a common tree, having skills which can be utilised by all of them. Once you start to unlock more, the movesets become vast, with a lot more moment-to-moment decision-making than many of its contemporaries.

There are also Skills, which are active abilities that can be used by spending Spirit, a resource gained through combat. Khazan also can access Phantom Form later on in the game. This transformation grants additional boosts to his moveset, along with new skills. These systems, combined with the defensive mechanics, make for some surprisingly deep options in combat.

I found fights in most of the main levels to be a tad underwhelming, though: the enemies themselves aren’t all that interesting to fight, but the boss encounters and core level design make up for this. The bosses are incredibly capable and are pretty damn difficult in their own right. I never found myself at a complete loss with some of these fights, but I wasn’t breezing through them, either; they often have a couple of unique gimmicks to keep an eye on, meaning you really have to interact with each fight differently, making good use out of your whole toolkit. These encounters also always have a checkpoint right outside, meaning there are no tedious runbacks, making attempts quick and efficient.

The mission locations themselves are a lot of fun to explore. They’re all relatively non-linear, filled with loot and minibosses around. It’s not breaking new ground, and most of the enemy encounters aren’t all that interesting, but the level design at least makes it fun to explore. There are some bonus missions too, which take you back to areas from the main story with some alterations; different enemies, bosses, and changed layouts. Despite the nonlinearity, though, I never found myself getting lost, which was nice.

The RPG mechanics and player progression are a bit of a mixed bag, ranging from fantastic to functional but uninteresting. There’s a multitude of options to improve Khazan's abilities, from the previously mentioned Skill Tree to levelling up stats, upgrading gear, using the Soulstones to increase other stats, and unlocking and upgrading new Phantoms. I like the Skill Tree, as I mentioned prior, it lets you open up your movesets, allowing for a lot of creativity. Stat boosts I also don’t have an issue with; it’s boring, but it helps define builds more clearly, so I don’t mind it. You retain all Skill Points and progression to the next, even after death, so your progression isn’t completely hampered by repeated failure. It makes even failed attempts at bosses feel rewarding.

Soulstones are items you can find around each mission and destroy, which can then be spent to increase a couple of your stats by a very small amount; it doesn’t feel necessary or particularly noticeable, either. I’m also not all that fussed about the Phantom upgrades: you can equip one at a time, and they’ll provide small buffs to a single aspect of Khazan, such as increased stamina or increased damage from specific attacks. These can also be upgraded just by using them or awakened by giving each one a specific item, granting additional effects. It’s simple and provides a nice boon to your builds.

The biggest progression mechanic is arguably the gear system. Khazan can equip weapons, armour and two accessories. These have a few random stats, such as additional attack, defence, and stamina. The biggest part of the gear system, though, comes with the Set Bonuses. Certain gear is part of a specific set, and equipping multiple pieces of a set grants Khazan bonuses and effects. It’s a great system, allowing the player to focus more heavily on the playstyle they like. So much gear doesn’t belong to any of these sets which makes it feel pretty useless, and finding gear for sets you don’t intend on using is also pretty common and makes looting oftentimes feel underwhelming. The Blacksmith can craft Gear from specific sets, but you need the recipe first, so it doesn’t help if the set you want to craft doesn’t give the recipe until later on in the game. I began to lose touch with this system pretty early, but it finds its footing much more as you progress.

I adore the presentation with The First Berserker: Khazan. It’s visually fantastic, and while it isn’t the highest raw fidelity, the art style is gorgeous and really works for the game’s atmosphere. The music and sound effects complement this, too. One of the biggest things I noticed was the performance: it’s absolutely flawless. In the modern age, finding a game that runs so smoothly on launch is an absolute blessing, and Khazan is the gold standard.

As a whole package, The First Berserker: Khazan is genuinely fantastic. While some systems are a little bloated, and the story isn’t breaking any new ground, it’s a more than worthwhile package.