While there’s still a lot of uncharted territory in the soulslike genre, it’s still not exactly an easy one to break into. Even if the gameplay is solid, something else is often needed to draw players’ attention.Black Myth: Wukongdid it with a combination of production value and putting well-polished twists on otherwise familiar gameplay and it seems thatPhantom Blade Zerois taking a similar approach.
TGS 2024: Phantom Blade Zero Offers a New Challenge
Hardcore Gamer got hands-on time with Phantom Blade Zero at TGS 2024, and found it contained an exciting new take on the ol' soulslike formula.
There are other methods, though.Code VeinandLies of Pstand out in part because of their art direction and this is the avenue that developer Neople seems to be taking with the newest Dungeon&Fighter game:The First Berserker: Khazan.After spending hands-on time with the game and speaking with its creative and art directors, it looks like a strategy that could very well pay off.
Unlike most soulslike games out there today,The First Berserker: Khazanhas a cartoon aesthetic rather than one that’s more photorealistic. There are elements that look realistic in the game, the environments in particular. Most of the characters and enemies, however, are rendered in something akin to an anime style.
It’s not a typical anime look; there don’t appear to be many (if any) characters with the exaggerated facial features typical of such a style. Rather, they look more like normally proportioned game characters rendered with either cel-shading or a similar technique. In any case, the result look good and it does succeed in catching the eye. One would imagine that it’ll be enough to draw out some curiosity from soulslike fans. It’s not necessarilyjustsoulslike fans that Neople is trying to appeal to, though.
“If we had wanted to develop a [pure] soulslike kind of game, we would have gone for the realistic approach, right? But instead, we went for the cartoon rendering art style, because we first of all wanted the Dungeon & Fighter universe to be convincing to the 3D action gamers out there.” - Lee Kyu-Cheol, Art Director - The First Berserker: Khazan
Of course, good art direction can only take a soulslike game so far. If the gameplay winds up feeling average or worse, then the game will most likely only see moderate success at best. Such was the case withCode VeinandSteelrising,after all. Fortunately, forThe First Berserker: Khazan,it appears to have enough gameplay and character-building meat to avoid that particular pitfall. Not everything was apparent in the TGS 2024 demo, but it combined with some of the creative director’s comments painted a hopeful picture. There’s a lot to like here, but a lot of it is going to take some getting used to.
The first thing most players will likely notice is thatThe First Berserker: Khazanis a hard game, very unapologetically so. This writer is no stranger to tough soulslikes, having cleared the likes ofBloodborneandWo Long: Fallen Dynastyin the past and clearing bothElden Ring: Shadow of the ErdtreeandBlack Myth: Wukongover the summer. Even thePhantom Blade Zerodemo, with its one-shot capable bosses, was doable. Even so, the defeat handed byThe First Berserker: Khazan’sdemo was decisive.
As the titular Khazan, players have access to all the basics: light/heavy attack, dodging, sprinting, parrying, and blocking, as well as special abilities tied to the gear they acquire. Just like in other games, just about every action requires stamina inThe First Berserker: Khazan;it’s just that stamina seems to be a much more precious and limited resource. Where one could get away with just blocking or just parrying in other games, here that’s a good way to get stunned and killed.
Bigger enemies aren’t going to go down easily. Players better prepare for a struggle.
The demo had a mix of normal enemies, a sub-bosslike bear and an actual boss encounter with something that looked a lot like a giant yeti. Normal enemies went down easily enough with proper crowd management, but the bear and boss fights were more drawn out than expected. Both had large health pools and brutally punished attempts to combo them.
Their attacks also tended to hit hard regardless, so well-timed dodges, blocks and parries were paramount. Khazandidhave the ability to heal, but it was limited to three uses, could be interrupted and didn’t actually heal all that much. It wasnotsomething that could be relied upon to keep Khazan in the fight for long. Careless actions were often heavily punished as well, since using the “wrong” method to avoid damage (i.e., parrying instead of blocking) resulted in stamina being depleted more quickly.
According to Creative Director Lee Junho, many methods for dealing with enemies are possible depending on Khazan’s equipment and build. This is believable based on what was observed from the menus and combat, but the experience with the demo seems to indicate that players will have to be pretty deliberate with their builds in order to see continued success over the course of the game.
While it might become more forgiving as players progress in the full game, here combat was unforgiving. During Hardcore Gamer’s discussion with creative director Lee Junho and art director Lee Kyu-Cheol, Mr. Junho did indicate that players will have options.
“When you’re playing, your game plan might be more towards [one approach], but I would say that there are different ways to tap into different skills. […] We have different designs and different mechanisms that people can tap into and use that to customize [their] game plan.” - Lee Junho, Creative Director - The First Berserker: Khazan
So, after having spent some time withThe First Berserker: Khazan,the main impression is that this is going to be a game for soulslike fans who are looking for a little more of a challenge afterBlack Myth: WukongandElden Ring.While there could be different difficulties available in the full release since Neople’s aim is for this game to broaden the audience of Dungeon&Fighter, the base difficulty level appears to be high for a reason.
We tried to make a story that speaks to the users and the wider [audience of] users and also that is immersive enough for them to enjoy the game. You know, with the vengeance, challenges and betrayal, the themes of the game, we believe that different [things] speak to different users. […] We wanted the battles to be very intense [and also for] the story to be very intense. - Lee Junho, Creative Director - The First Berserker: Khazan
There’s more to be had here than tough boss fights, though. Once again, the art style is rather appealing, and the game itself is part of an established world. So it’s likely that there’s going to be a decent story and interesting characters to enjoy as well.The First Berserker: Khazanmay not immediately seem like a slam dunk, but it’s one to keep an eye on nonetheless.
The First Berserker: Khazanlaunches in 2025 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
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