The First Berserker: Khazan

This looks pretty decent.

8/10 average ratings on metacritic. Looks like a souls like with a manga feel.

Steam page.

I hadnt heard of this until today, saw Cohhcarnage playing it, looked decent (I like Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Lords of the Fallen), so I decided to try the demo. Did the demo, enjoyed it, so immediately bought it, will start proper tomorrow :)
 
I hadnt heard of this until today, saw Cohhcarnage playing it, looked decent (I like Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Lords of the Fallen), so I decided to try the demo. Did the demo, enjoyed it, so immediately bought it, will start proper tomorrow :)

Let us know your thoughts on the game when you have time to play it. It's on my list.
 
been watching the development of this for a while... also has a lot of FF16 and elden ring voice actors in it..
 
Last edited:
Started it yesterday ; love the anime, cel-shaded art style. Very much a souls-like, and can be quite tough at times, although it does have an easy difficulty level if required. The controls and combat are very fluid and responsive. Will get into it more at the weekend, once I've 100% completed the game I'm currently playing ( Ender Magnolia ).
 
Gave the full game a bit of a spin this morning before work, will carry on this evening.

First Impressions -

  • LOVE the cell shaded characters, they look great, gives me Castlevania (the tv show) vibes.
  • Runs VERY well, I'm getting well over 100fps with everything on max in 1440
  • Combat feels really good, very weighty, movement and animations are fluid
  • Difficulty seems fine so far, trash mobs are trash mobs and the bosses are quite a big step up from the trash mobs but are interesting with a good array of varied attack mechanics
  • I like that Parry and Dodge are both a thing in the game, quite often games in this genre tend to be very Parry orientated or very Dodge orientated, its nice that this has both as viable systems
  • Its VERY heavily stamina based so far, I've piled all my points so far into stamina
  • I'd like to see more interactivity with the environments, I do like games where there's lots of stuff to smash up as I run about exploring, I'm not asking for RPG levels of loot - that wouldnt be right for the genre - but I'd like to see more stuff for me to break open and get some bits of loot from, perhaps this will pick up a little the further I get in
  • I like that you get bonuses for wearing items from the same "set" quite early on, makes even the early gear feel special
  • Theres only 3 weapon types, still early so that hasnt felt limiting yet but will see how it feels later in the game, I'd prefer a full range of weapon types (sword, 2h sword, axe, mace, spear, shield, polearm etc) but I guess its easier to balance just 3 weapon types
  • Good variety of mobs so far

Overall, very impressed, I'm told that the game is around 60-80 hours in length which seems ideal, I also believe its these devs first attempt at a "souls like", if thats the case then they've done very well with their first crack at it. Its not had much in the way of marketing and its not very present in the minds of gamers, so this may end up being one of those games which goes under a lot of peoples radars

Oh and I highly recommend that anyone who is interested in the game try out the demo, you dont have to restart in the full game and can continue from where you left off in the demo so its a great way to check the game out
 
Last edited:
also fully 32:9 support aswell am few hours into now and the voice acting is spot on!

prefer this kinda combat to wukong aswell.. the parry mechanic is so satisfying.
 
I had a quick blast with the demo last night and immediately wishlisted the game. The combat is so satisfying and the sound design is great too - adds well to the impacts of the combat which is something that a lot of these types of game miss out on.

Didn't think I'd like the graphical style having initially just seen some screenshots. However, now I've played the demo for a bit it's actually really good and fits the theme well.

Will definitely be picking it up soon.
 
Last edited:
God knows why my brain decided you were then. Maybe I just assumed because you said about having loads of time to game before.
Yeah I have vast swathes of time to game, more than at any time in my life tbh, now that all the kids are grown up, long since left home and gone off on their own lifepaths but not quite yet retired, still got to do some work, got to fund all these games that I buy :)
 
5 hours in now, killed the first 3 bosses, the 2nd guy was a bit of a pain until I unlocked the Moonlight Stance skill on my polearm and he was much easier then, I've just passed the place which is your sort of "base" and have now received the 2 suits of armour that you get for buying the game now rather than at release and those 2 suits of armour and weapons are WAY better than anything you have had drop by then (one of the suits gives you a 30% stamina regen buff and an extra heal which is nice)

I see the game is sat at 94% currently on Steam, will be interesting to see how that rises or falls come Fridays release
 
Last edited:
Jesus the 4th boss in is insanely hard, its like an endgame boss from other games. Burn through all my heals to beat him down and then he enters a new phase and gets all his health back, damned hard this early on when you only have 4 heals
 
Jesus the 4th boss in is insanely hard, its like an endgame boss from other games. Burn through all my heals to beat him down and then he enters a new phase and gets all his health back, damned hard this early on when you only have 4 heals
Yup, it's pretty tough. But at least there is the option to choose easy difficulty if you get stuck.
 
Lol, typical, that particular boss (Viper) is getting a little nerf in Fridays patch, if I had waited til the weekend I might have had less hassle with him !

We have slightly reduced the difficulty of Viper and Maluca.

Viper has already earned nicknames like "newbie crusher" from many players. While there are several reasons for this balance adjustment, the primary factor was our intentional design choice to present a slightly higher challenge during the difficulty tuning process. However, we realized that this posed an excessive burden on players adapting to the game. Additionally, the extended duration required for immersive combat, although providing a definite sense of accomplishment, led us to question whether it offered an appropriate level of challenge for players reaching Mission 3 for the first time. The answer leaned towards "no." Despite the possibility for many players to simply give up, you provided us with valuable feedback through various channels. Some mentioned that Viper felt like a "final boss-level challenge," yet clearing it brought a thrilling satisfaction reminiscent of past experiences, sparking curiosity about "what comes next if the third boss is this challenging." The required skill level to face Viper was significantly higher than the proficiency players had developed up to that point and the prolonged engagement and the punitive nature of mistakes could have led many to abandon the challenge, yet you chose to share your precious insights with us. Once again, we sincerely thank you for your invaluable feedback
 
Last edited:
Really enjoying this so far, it’s not easy but it’s also not frustrating hard. Runs and looks amazing too. Think the spear is my favourite weapon, the sword is good but too slow for me, the dual is great but not at distance until you can spec it more
 
Back
Top Bottom