The First Berserker: Khazan review — Unbridled retribution

After the slaying of Hismar The Berserk Dragon, General Khazan and his best friend Ozma were revered by the people of the land as heroes. However, after a mysterious plot by the Emperor, the two become marked as exiles and are ultimately put to the sword. Fueled by his hatred and lust to slay those who have wronged him, Khazan cheats death by making a pact of revenge with an otherworldly servant of Charon known as the Blade Phantom. Together, the two set off on a path laden with blood to achieve their goals in service to their masters: one to the lord of the underworld, the other to vengeance.

We join Khazan as he has just escaped from his captors during an avalanche, and shortly thereafter binds himself with the Blade Phantom. Essentially an amalgamation of warrior spirits, the phantom provides Khazan with the necessary strength to continue on after nearly dying from his torture in exchange for assisting them with Charon's mission. It’s easy to pick up on the souls-like influence in this hardcore action RPG, with bonfire facsimiles, estus-esque healing and more. The First Berserker: Khazan quickly makes a name for itself though, with much more fast paced combat and a focus on unrelenting combat. Do you enjoy parry mechanics? How about three different parries that can be used in different ways. Maybe you prefer weaving in between enemies with dashes instead? Then you’ll love the brink dodge mechanic and dash chaining gameplay on offer. Beyond just defense though, there are two main things to focus on during combat: the enemy health bar, and their stamina bar.

If you’re familiar with Lies of P or Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, you’ll feel right at home with this system. As you wear down an enemy’s stamina bar, they will become stunned and be vulnerable to a brutal attack, which is a follow up move that does significant damage. You’ll need to manage your own stamina as well though, as getting caught blocking with no stamina will also stun you in turn. While most of your fights might start out with simple light attacks and heavy attacks, you’ll quickly discover a plethora of combos, charged moves, attack variations and more. I can’t emphasize enough how much fun the combat in this game is, as it becomes a brilliant dance of clashing steel, splattering blood, crunching flesh and perfect parries. I was always looking forward to my next enemy encounter to see how I would be challenged next.

As for armaments, there are three weapon variants that Khazan has mastery with, those being the nimble dual wielded sword and axes, the slow but powerful greatsword, and, my personal favorite, the spear. Each of these weapon classes comes complete with their own branching skill trees that allow you to learn new moves or adapt special qualities to your playstyle. The spear for example has access to the Moonlight Stance, allowing you to gain after-image attacks after completing a light-attack chain. This stance can be extended and augmented by other moves in the skill tree, meaning you can really get into the buildcrafting and synergies as you level up. Unlike your character stats, skill points can also be freely refunded at any time, meaning there’s no downsides to exploring different abilities and weapon paths which is a huge plus. 

There’s plenty of RPG systems to interact with in The First Berserker: Khazan, and while it can be initially overwhelming, it’s actually quite simple to understand. You’ve only got five main character stats, two of which govern your health and stamina respectively, with the last three governing weapon scaling. If you favor the greatsword, you’ll want to juice the Strength stat; if you’d rather use the spear, go for Proficiency. If you decide halfway through the game that you want to make a big pivot, there’s also a resource that will allow you to refund all the points you’ve spent so far, so you don’t have to worry too much about making a mistake when build-crafting.

I would say that the biggest hurdle to overcome is the armor system, as it can be a bit confusing at times. You’ll be flooded with gear quite often as you progress through the game, and for the early portions, it’s easy to just slap on the new gear with a higher armor value. When you get later into the game however, you’ll want to pay more attention to set bonuses and randomly rolled attributes. The set bonuses can give you big stat or ability upgrades for wearing multiple pieces from a set, like increased lightning damage from wearing the Crushed Dreams set or granting increased item and weapon drop rates from the Bard set. Attributes are typically small percentage stat increases, and can actually be rerolled at a specific vendor to fine tune them to your build. After experimenting with the system, it can be easy to catch on, but I can admit it’s a lot to take in all at once. Thankfully, The First Berserker: Khazan also has an encyclopedia in the pause menu that details every single ability, consumable, status effect and attribute; huge props for that.

While there isn’t any multiplayer, the game does feature a system that allows you to summon a companion to assist during boss fights called the Spirit of Advocacy. Similar in a way to the summon system found in Lies of P, you spend a resource before a boss fog wall that will bring in a computer-controlled cooperator. This resource is gained by defeating optional bosses called Revenants of Adversity that can be found scattered throughout every level awaiting to be challenged. I loved this system, and would often challenge every revenant I came across as fighting them was not only fun, but provided a great way to up the challenge of any level I found myself in. These enemies mirror Khazan, touting similar weaponry and skills meaning you’ll need to be prepared to take them on. The currency you earn from defeating them can also be used to upgrade the strength of the Spirit of Advocacy, meaning the more revenants you defeat, the stronger your summoned ally will become. 

On the topic of bosses, these boss fights are incredible. Oftentimes these big-baddie moments will make or break an RPG, and thankfully most of the bosses I fought were not only challenging powerhouses, but also fun to fight. One creative boss I fought dual wielded a giant hammer and nail, and would ignite their weapon and the surrounding area by striking it into the ground, sending a reverberating ringing sound throughout the arena. Plenty of bosses also have a secondary phase, where they perform a limit break to explode with newfound power and abilities. These fights were some of the most memorable moments in The First Berserker: Khazan, and you can actually revisit the boss arenas to fight them again to farm additional loot or just to vanquish them for your own amusement.

When you finish off a boss or complete an area, you’ll be transported back to the main hub area. This is known as The Crevice, a place where the Netherworld overlaps with the land of the living. It’s here where NPCs will gather, along with their shops and sundries, providing a place of respite from the battle. As you progress through the story, this zone will expand to allow you entrance to new regions as your quest for vengeance continues. It’s not just Khazan taking on his mission though, as the Blade Phantom will have requests of their own as well. This creates a dyadic quest system, where half the time you’ll be pursuing Khazan’s hitlist in the mortal realm while also assisting Charon with orders from the Underworld. I appreciated how this often led to a variety of mission objectives along with providing multiple enemy factions to take on as you explore.

Whether you’re traversing the frozen peaks of Stormpass, the oppressive and bleak quarries of Nadin or clashing swords in the burning cities of Palemion Citadel, the environments are equally beautiful to take in and engaging to delve into. Areas in The First Berserker: Khazan are more akin to levels than what you find in a traditional souls-like, and are accessed through monoliths similar to those found in Demons Souls’ Nexus rather than something like the Firelink Shrine. This isn’t to say that the game doesn’t use these areas creatively though, as sidequests and optional missions will often alter the areas in unique ways. The Spider’s Tomb for example becomes the Dead Spiders Lair upon revisiting the area, complete with an overhaul of loot to find and new enemies inhabiting the area. These quests essentially revamp an area, expanding the region further and allowing you to learn more about the different locales. 

While I was initially worried about not being familiar with Khazan’s source material (Dungeon & Fighter), the game takes place 800 years before the events of D&F, so it’s more of an expanded universe scenario. Even if you’re like me and don’t know much at all about the lore, I still found the story of the bonded Berserker and Blade Phantom to be bombastic and entertaining. What really captivated me from the start was the stellar combat systems and engaging gameplay mechanics, so the fact that the story is great to boot is just another plus in my book. I had so much fun slashing through my enemies, crushing the bones of demons and obliterating dragonkin on my warpath to the truth. If you’re a fan of souls-likes or action RPGs, this is a MUST play that solidifies itself in blood as an early contender for 2025’s game of the year.