The First Berserker: Khazan review: Parry, die, repeat

The First Berserker: Khazan is an unusual Soulslike. Most Dark Souls imitators don't quite get what makes FromSoftware's formula work or they tone down the difficulty to be more approachable. Developer Neople made Khazan more demanding and, at times, even more rewarding than the games that inspired it. It's a shame the rest of Khazan didn't get that level of attention, though.

My demonic kingdom for a body

Neople intended Khazan's story as an origin tale for the Dungeons and Fighters franchise, but there's not a lot to work with here. A celebrated general, praised for his ruthlessness in war and his role in conquering other nations for his emperor, is brought low as part of a scheme to remove him from the imperial court. The army tortures him and leaves him for dead, but a malevolent spirit from beyond decides Khazan would make a nice host and revitalizes him for less-than-altruistic reasons. 

There's a bit of potentially interesting parallelism between Khazan's demon and the biblical allegory of the demon Legion. In that, a horde of evils attracted by dark emotions possessed one man and made him exceptionally powerful, and the name "Legion" was meant to represent Roman military might, a mirror of Khazan's role as head of the empire's military. It never goes much further than that, though. The story is a simple one about a man with demon powers seeking vengeance, with little attempt at making it more personal or, frankly, doing anything interesting with the tired vengeance trope at all.

Dodgy moves

The First Berserker: Khazan copies the usual ideas from Dark Souls that you find in most Soulslikes. You level up using items gained from defeating enemies, – Lacrima, instead of Runes or Souls – most opponents revive when you rest or save, and the main idea of Khazan's journey is getting through hordes of basic enemies and challenging much more dangerous Guardian-class enemies, or bosses, in normal video game-speak. Where Khazan tries to innovate is how it handles evasion and parrying in combat. 

Dark Souls and Elden Ring let you get by without parrying, which is handy, if you're particularly bad at timing like I am in those games. Khazan expects you to parry and dodge and, moreover, to figure out which is best for a given situation depending on what's happening at that specific moment – and how well you've fought up to that point. Stamina is Khazan's most important stat, and you don't get much of it for the first several hours. 

Running out of stamina in combat leaves Khazan helpless for a few seconds while he recovers, which is almost a guarantee of getting killed. However, if you perform a perfect dodge or parry at exactly the right time, the move consumes no stamina. The emphasis is more firmly on learning an enemy's precise timing than in some other Soulslikes, and it almost feels like Shadow of the Erdtree in that regard, though Khazan's bosses are far less brutal than the likes of Messmer. 

You also have stats that influence how much of an enemy's stamina Khazan reduces with his attacks. Exhausted enemies are open to critical hits, similar to when you break an enemy's stance in Dark Souls. Battles in Khazan are an unrelenting balancing act where you're weighing the best way to survive, hoping you get your timings correct, and deciding if it's worth the risk to press your attack to wear a foe down. It's demanding and exhilarating, one of the more enjoyable attempts in recent years to adapt FromSoftware's combat philosophy to a different format.

Modern games with skill trees, and especially action-RPGs, have a dreadful habit of stocking those trees with filler skills. When you level up or spend a point, you might unlock a negligible stat boost that should've happened when you leveled up anyway, or you'll get a skill that adds an extra hit to a basic combo chain. Khazan's skill trees are actually exciting, with one exception. The Dual Wield tree transforms the basic, starter weapon into one capable of tearing into standard foes and bosses alike while letting you dash around and evade incoming attacks. Upgrading the spear feels like playing an introductory fighting game, with different inputs kicking off different kinds of chain attacks and unique effects depending on the enemy's status at the time.

The caveat is the greatsword. It's your usual heavy weapon – slow, powerful, awkward to use in boss fights. Its skill tree exists primarily to cover for the weapon's weak spots, such as by letting you deal increased damage if you get hit during a charge or having you charge attacks more quickly. These skills are covering gaps – not giving you new ways to play or challenging you to learn new combat styles.

Still, you can ignore weapons you don't vibe with and just focus on the ones you enjoy using. As demanding as Khazan is, it's forgiving enough to let you create a build you think is fun and run with it. It's also more flexible than your usual Soulslike. If you fall in a boss fight, you can get your Lacrima back without entering the fight arena, and you even get a consolation prize of a few additional Lacrima. It's not enough to let you level up and make a noteworthy difference in the upcoming fight, but it does, at least, give you something. If nothing else, it makes the grind feel less intense and repetitive.

Nothing but the void

Most Souls imitators are good at adapting FromSoftware's structure without its style, and Khazan is one of them. All the mechanical fundamentals are here, but what's missing is the attention to the environment all these battles happen in. Dark Souls might be a lot of gloomy castles and terrible swamps, but they're impressive gloomy castles and atmospheric gloomy swamps. Bloodborne's twisted city of Yharnam uses light, field of view, and even sound in fantastic ways to create atmosphere. 

Neople's highly stylized art direction looks brilliant in cutscenes and gives much-needed personality to its otherwise-bland characters. Yet most of the settings are empty – grim caves, dark castles, empty snowfields – with little personality or even atmosphere in most of them. These places just exist for you to run through and kill things, nothing else.

It's easy to write Khazan off as just another Soulslike at a glance, and it would be refreshing to see Neople create its own style and structure instead of just imitating a popular convention. However, Neople went further than most Soulslikes and actually innovated with its take on the genre's combat. That's a big positive, seeing as there's not much else to Khazan outside of battle, but at least all the time spent in combat is enjoyable.

This review is based on a copy of The First Berserker: Khazan that the publisher provided. The First Berserker: Khazan is available now for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.

Josh Broadwell

Contributing Editor

Josh is a freelance writer and reporter who specializes in guides, reviews, and whatever else he can convince someone to commission. You may have seen him on NPR, IGN, Polygon, or VG 24/7 or on Twitter, shouting about Trails. When he isn’t working, you’ll likely find him outside with his Belgian Malinois and Australian Shepherd or curled up with an RPG of some description.