We don’t precisely have a scarcity of Soulslike motion games- if something, that could be one of the crucial lively and crowded genres within the business proper now. Intermittent releases from FromSoftware itself aside, a number of different studios within the business have additionally stepped ahead with efforts of their very own. Latest in line is The First Berserker: Khazan, a revenge-driven Soulslike motion RPG spinoff set within the long-running Dungeon and Fighter universe from Neople and Nexon, which is out now.
The First Berserker isn’t precisely an ideal sport. As our personal overview right here at GamingBolt identified (as have many others), the slick and bloody motion title is dragged down in a number of methods, fairly a couple of of which really feel fairly significant- which is to say Neople’s debut within the style doesn’t precisely scale the heights of one thing like a, say, Lies of P, which many have come to simply accept as among the best non-FromSoftware Soulslikes on the market. However although The First Berserker isn’t fairly on that stage, it’s nonetheless received its strengths, which, as our overview talked about, make it price a search for followers of Soulslikes or motion video games basically.
Let’s get these pesky flaws out of the way in which first, as a result of there are a couple of to be talked about, they usually’re not the form of points that you could simply sweep beneath the rug- that’d be an awfully bumpy rug. One of many extra outstanding ones is its story and storytelling- which could really feel like a foolish factor to be complaining about in a Soulslike at face worth, if not for the truth that it is a sport that does attempt to place a better emphasis on conventional storytelling than has often been the case with this style over time.
The First Berserker: Khazan is a revenge story targeted on the mysterious and brooding character Khazan. The titular protagonist finds himself severely bodily mutilated, betrayed, and forged down, his service to the empire towards the Berserk Dragon all however successfully forgotten, after which he decides, with the assistance of a phantasmal companion often known as the Blade Phantom, to embrace newfound supernatural powers and embark on a quest for vengeance. With a reasonably respectable setup (on paper, a minimum of) and a protagonist voiced by Ben Starr of Last Fantasy 16 fame, The First Berserker: Khazan had the weather in place to inform a minimum of a reasonably enjoyable, if tropey, revenge motion story. It fails on all counts, with a bog-standard plot, predictable twists and turns, and a disappointingly flat protagonist.
On the gameplay entrance, The First Berserker stumbles with issues equivalent to enemy repetition and bland aspect quests, however maybe its largest problem is its ultra-linear design philosophy and the influence that that has on exploration. The sport adopts a hub-driven linear construction like Demon’s Souls, however every space that you just go to feels a bit of too restrained. With not an excessive amount of by means of exploration and little else to maintain you engaged past what the sport itself desires you to interact with, The First Berserker is a sport that feels significantly prone to repetition and monotony, and positive sufficient, when you get deep sufficient into the sport, you do really feel these issues starting to set in.
Happily, when The First Berserker: Khazan is at its finest, it’s completely implausible. Additionally happily, the factor that it’s best at is what it neatly focuses on firstly, and the factor that will may argue is probably the most essential in a sport equivalent to this one- the fight. The fight, the problem, the sense of development, and the boss fights are what nearly all of folks come to Soulslikes for above all else, and in just about all of those areas, The First Berserker is one thing of a slam dunk. It takes bits and items from various different comparable titles on the market, borrowing from the likes of Darkish Souls, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Nioh, and even a bit of bit from Black Delusion: Wukong, and delivers, in the long run, a grueling and satisfying motion sport with slick and difficult fight that’s persistently enjoyable to grasp, particularly once you’re arising towards its spectacular roster of boss fights.
The fight nails all the basic parts of a Sekiro-coded Soulslike system- you’ve received your blocks, your dodges, your parries, you’ve received your excellent dodges and excellent parries, you’ve received unblockable assaults (which might additionally be parried with particular, riskier parries). You could have a stamina and stagger system, the place accumulating stagger by efficiently blocking and parrying flurries of assaults will ultimately make your foe break their guard for a second, a second by which to deal heavy injury and dole out vicious assaults of your individual.
Aggressive parry-based fight techniques may help ship a number of the finest and most thrilling gameplay when executed proper, and The First Berserker: Khazan undoubtedly does it proper. Although it fails to sufficiently seize the themes of rage and vengeance in its story that it claims are so central to it, it does a superb job of imbuing its fight techniques with precisely that form of desired aggression. As you’d think about, the sport’s enemy design helps considerably contribute to that as nicely. Regardless of how tight the mechanics are, you’re not going to have any enjoyable with them if the enemies you’re taking up don’t compel you to correctly interact with them, and boy does The First Berserker knock the ball out of the park on this space.
Nothing exemplifies that higher than its bosses, which we’ve already touched on. Every boss forces you to be taught and grasp a distinct reality of gameplay and presents a face-smacking ability verify that you just’re not going to have the ability to overcome except you concentrate – and, sure – get good. The excellently designed boss fights sport memorable visible design and, maybe far more importantly, unimaginable combat design, with distinctive movesets which can be a blast to determine and take care of, and stiff and numerous challenges which can be extremely satisfying to come back out on high towards on the finish of a harrowing combat.
Surprisingly, The First Berserker additionally offers gamers better freedom in development than you’d count on at first look, with fairly a couple of choices accessible that allow you to tailor the gameplay to your wants. Every of the three fundamental weapon varieties feels considerably completely different to make use of and, by extension, grasp, whereas separate and devoted ability bushes for every may even allow you to discover new choices in combat- equivalent to relying extra on dodges if getting the parry timing proper isn’t one thing that you just’re utterly assured you’re going to have the ability to do always. There’s additionally attributes to improve, gear to minmax, ability factors to summon, allies that may be summoned, and extra. The First Berserker by no means appears like an simple sport (although it does have a straightforward mode, for individuals who desire a comparatively extra forgiving expertise), however the shocking flexibility it affords with its development mechanics does allow you to surmount stiff challenges in numerous methods.
Given the sheer wealth of Soulslike video games on the market, it’s by no means simple to confidently advocate one over all the things else except the sport in query simply occurs to be that particular. The First Berserker: Khazan is possibly not that particular – Lies of P or Nioh it isn’t – nevertheless it’s an aggressive, fast-paced, difficult motion sport with wonderful fight, memorable boss fights, and compelling development mechanics. It has its flaws, sure, and never essentially insignificant ones- however for style followers, it’s nonetheless nicely price testing.
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