“I wish I had a time machine”, I murmured during an online call with some friends. I could feel their anticipation of what I was about to say next. Give up on writing to become a woodcutter? “So I could see fewer ‘Khazan has fallen’ screens”, most burst into laughter followed up by “Lucas, you should stop playing those games”. They are not wrong. “First Berserker: Khazan” was the next one in a long line of “souls likes”, “Nioh-likes”, “punishment machines”, however you want to call it. Yes, dear reader, it is one of those games. Yeah, you know the one. The type of action RPG that had a massive surge in the past decade. Stamina meter, punishing bosses, character customization, learning attack patterns and—hopefully—beating a boss after 30 or 40 attempts. The thing is, “First Berserker: Khazan” is both this type of game, and isn’t.
Neople’s debut title takes a lot of inspiration from multiple games that paved the way to the subgenre (if you can even call it that) to become what it is nowadays. You have the usual “enemies behind a door” trap, bosses with long-winded attack patterns or odd timed ones just to throw you out of the loop. Status ailments are plentiful. You’ll get poisoned, plagued, frozen, the list goes on. What I didn’t expect was that “First Berserker: Khazan” doesn’t shy away to put its story on the forefront. I shouldn’t be surprised, though — this is another attempt by NEXON to expand the Dungeon Fighter Online universe. The MMO that’s turning 20 this year with a lot of ups and downs already had a spinoff back in 2022 with DNF Duel, but Khazan is more aimed at “fleshing out” the universe. Fleshing out as in, “Look, if you played Dungeon Fighter Online, you might recognize a name or two, maybe a tribe that shows up early on, some enemies and a nod here and there.” It can be played on its own, and I’m relieved about that. I do not want to relieve my early college period with that MMO.
That said, the game has a bit of an unexpected plot. These types of action RPGs usually have you either as a nameless hero or someone without a memory that ends up joining the “good side” to get rid of an evil entity, or something along those lines. Not Khazan, though. The disgraced general, framed and sentenced to death, wants one thing: revenge. It doesn’t take long for him to agree — or, well, be forced to agree — with a Blood Phantom that has certain… uses for him. This Phantom was sent by Charon, an evil deity that rules the Netherworld (not to be confused with the Netherworld from the Disagea franchise). It’s part hell, part where souls go when they leave a person’s body. So, I guess it’s like the DMV. Point is, the Netherworld is being targeted by a more evil entity that, somehow, stopped the flow of souls. And if there are no souls, that means the Netherworld will dwindle. Charon surely doesn’t want that. Although not award worthy, the plot goes in interesting directions and Neople’s great use of cinematics and art style elevates what could’ve been a middling story. It’s one thing to fight a boss, another entirely when you get a grand opening and you think “oh, I’m screwed” even before the battle starts. And that happens a lot.
Between Khazan’s revenge and the overarching plot of “what is happening to the Netherworld”, Neople opted for a more mission based approach rather than the typical “you go to this biome, and then the next one, and oh here’s a swamp”. It is structured rather similarly to the first Nioh. You have your primary missions, secondary missions and a hub that is used to level up, craft armor and weapons, and NPCs that show up to help you on your revenge journey. Be it selling weapons, improving your gear, or just vibing in case you want more exposition to the games universe. But before I even reached that point, Khazan put me through “trials”, or, well, Neople’s idea of a tutorial. The first two missions acts as a training ground of sorts for you to grasp some of the game’s core mechanics. Mainly parrying, precise dodging, using the three types of weapons available — a spear, a great sword and an axe / sword combo — and reinforcing the idea that I will die, a lot.
This is one of the first amongst many “First Berserker: Khazan” slip ups. At first, it teaches you to play rather defensively. Wait for the enemy to come to you, exhaust their stamina gauge, use executions, don’t overextend a combo, or don’t get into that “one more hit” mentality. Truth is, this is an extremely layered game with multiple systems that link to one another in a (mostly) majestic way. By the point I reach the first act’s last mission, I had four to five skill trees, multiple ways to attack my opponent, and barely any idea of how to make good use of it. Playing defensively wasn’t an option, and even the most basic enemy could obliterate me in seconds. “Khazan has fallen,” “Khazan has fallen,” “Khazan has fallen”, “Khazan has fallen”, “Khazan has fallen.” I was already tired of seeing the same screen over and over again. I understand that onboarding is hard, but “First Berserker: Khazan” does so in such an odd way that it wouldn’t surprise me if people dropped the game by reaching the third boss or even unlocking all skills. To give an example, blacksmithing only becomes available upon reaching the second region.
Locking basic systems behind progress and arbitrary requirements is one thing. “First Berserker: Khazan” is the equivalent of doing your homework just to arrive at the exams and be presented with something 10 times harder. And if you ask why the discrepancy, the teacher will say “didn’t you read the footnotes or the appendix?”. In Khazan’s case, the appendix would be its giant encyclopedia and enemy codex. While I wished that Neople went for a more amicable approach to tutorializing, I am more than willing to cut some slack due to the sheer amount of mechanics the game has. And if there’s someone I love, it is a game with a lot of systems that I can interact with. As I mentioned earlier, “First Berserker: Khazan” is very layered in systems. At first glance, you have three skill trees — one for each weapon. A fourth one regarding spirit and the usage of special parries that become available later in the game. A fifth one is unlocked once you reach a crucial point in the story. On top of that, you have gear that grants bonuses to stamina and other attributes, gear sets that can change your play style, items that boost your stamina, health regeneration and add special ailments to your weapon. I know it might sound a lot like another “souls like” or action RPG like Nioh, but trust me on this one, it’s not. There’s a good reason Neople chose to focus on only three major weapons — using each of them turns “First Berserker: Khazan” almost into another game entirely.
I used a spear during my first 20hrs. It’s a formidable weapon if you want to obliterate your enemy’s stamina completely while still doing some decent damage. It’s overly reliant on dodges and quick attacks to amp up your spirit — a special resource that’s used to unleash certain skills. But even if you don’t manage to master dodging, your play style will change because even most basic skill unlocks new combo moves. That one point where I didn’t know what to do with the whole skill system? Yeah, it wasn’t fun at all. But once I locked in my favorite skills, messed around with the skill tree and tried them on the training grounds — one of the excellent additions that, somehow, the game does not mention properly — I was blasting through enemies. I went from “that one person who always plays defensively” to interrupting full attacks from enemies. I was dodging, doubling my damage, exhausting an enemy stamina before they could even get a hit on me. The best part? I don’t even have to worry about messing up my build, at least most of it. Every skill can be unlearned with the touch of a button; stats respec items — while not plentiful — are more than enough for you to, at the very least, change your archetype over 10 times. And, reader, when I got to the latter half of the game, I sorely needed that.
“First Berserker: Khazan” gets hit with I like to call it the “Nioh”-flu. In short, most enemies during the latter half of the game have more health, stamina and learn one or two new moves. It wouldn’t be annoying if it wasn’t for them ganging up on you at every opportunity. At this point, Neople followed Team Ninja playbook a bit too closely, and I’m not talking only about enemies. My major complaint about Khazan is the level design. It starts strong, with a wonderful variety of locations, multiple shortcuts, it encourages exploration. I felt excited to just jump into a new mission and figure out what would be expecting me. Most of it evaporated when I reached the third region. While I won’t call it hasty, a lot of the final missions felt like interconnected rooms with small arenas for you to fight in. “Here’s an elite enemy, and a bunch of other small mobs to annoy you” was the M.O. Sometimes I fought them, sometimes I ran past to get to the next checkpoint or to what is “First Berserker: Khazan” main meal. Its boss fights.
If there is one thing that Neople does well are boss fights. Even the simplest has at one good entry showcase. Kind of the one I mentioned at the beginning of this article, in which I look at the boss and go “Oh, I’m screwed”. And yes, I was. Every boss in “First Berserker: Khazan” is out for blood. I can imagine them saying, “Do you want to play defensively? No, you don’t”. They will mock you, they will obliterate you during your first 5, 10, or even 20 tries. “Khazan has fallen”, “Khazan has fallen”, “Khazan has fallen”, “Khazan has fallen”, “Khazan has fallen”. Yeah, I understood that already, but thanks for letting me know I died to a boss, again.
I will not pretend that I enjoyed every single one of them. Some of them have questionable mechanics (curse you, Viper). Others have small arenas or very hard to read move sets. Some times it felt like I was climbing a steep hill, others that I was free hand rock climbing with a weapon on my back, while people threw eggs at me. Once you get past the first hurdle, notice openings, ways to parry, ways to punish the boss. It’s… It’s beautiful, really. It’s been a good while since I turned off a game and said “No, I can’t beat this guy” just to boot up again five minutes later “Yeah I can kick his butt”. Neople’s boss fights are pure spectacle, absolute “top 10 anime fights” style. Sparks fly during parries, the environment changes, you get a mid battle cutscene and the boss shows up with a second form just to give you that “oh crap” moment. New moves throw you off guard and keep you on your toes. Heck, I don’t think I celebrated beating bosses this much since maybe Nioh or even a couple of ones in Demon’s Souls. I’ve been playing these games for more than a decade. It’s hard to find one that makes me stay awake until 4:30am. That’s how good the bosses are in Khazan.
But, as a seasoned veteran, I can’t help but point out a couple of odd design choices by Neople. Take gear sets, for instance. Certain bosses have a chance to drop either a piece of its gear or a blueprint to craft the entire set. The kicker? It’s all random. Sometimes you get it during your first run in with them, sometimes you need to fight them 10 or more times. Thankfully, the game has a good fast travel system which allows me to go instantly to the boss arena, but was it really necessary to lock these sets behind RNG? Isn’t defeating the boss itself enough? The same goes for gear transmogrification. You can only get it once you hit New Game+. Why? Reader, I have no clue. So, unless you’re willing to suffer through the bosses again, get used to either stick with a set or look like you just threw a bunch of clothes because someone unexpectedly knocked at your door. In the grand scheme of things, these are minor gripes. Also, it is something the dev team themselves are looking into it. Sure, it hurts build variety in the long run, but not something worth losing sleep over.
You know what is worth losing sleep? That’s right, fighting another boss in Khazan on New Game +, that’s what I’ll be doing soon. Probably as soon as wrap up this article. Care to guess what I’ll see? “Khazan has fallen”.
A Steam code was provided by the publisher for review purposes
