The First Berserker: Khazan Review – Stranger of Pell Los – Wccftech

Dungeon & Fighter, or Dungeon Fighter Online, is one of the most played video games of all time, having managed to even surpass massively popular games like League of Legends in terms of gross revenues at times, but it is not a well-known game in the West. Starting with the fighting game DNF Duel, Korean developer Neople, however, has decided to try and bring in more people to their franchise with multiple titles set in the Dungeon & Fighter Universe, such as The First Berserker: Khazan, an extremely competent action role-playing heavily inspired by the first few entries in FromSoftware’s Souls series and Team NINJA’s most recent ARPGs like the Nioh series and Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin.As I was told a few months back during Gamescom by game director JunHo Lee, The First Berserker: Khazan has been created as a starting point for newcomers to the Dungeon & Fighter universe, and in this regard, the game does an excellent job making players interested in the harsh world where the MMO is set. The First Berserker: Khazan stars the titular Khazan, once the Great General of the Pell Los Empire who, in the 89th year of the Empire, is accused of treason and exiled to the Stru Mountains to live out his days in shame. The war-hardened veteran, however, is not an easy man to kill, as he manages to survive an avalanche that struck the carriage that was carrying him into exile. A fateful meeting with a crazed spirit called the Blade Phantom completely heals the Great General, whose tendons were severed as punishment for his treason, and grants him the power to exact vengeance on the emperor that exiled him. Power, however, comes at a heavy price, and Khazan will have to help this emissary of Charon restore balance in the universe by banishing the undead back to the Netherworld and finding the reason for this unbalance, all the while furthering his own vengeance. A bloody journey that will eventually turn him into the first Berserker of the Dungeon Fighter Online world.The First Berserker: Khazan’s story isn’t particularly deep or anything, but it does its job of getting players interested in the Dungeon & Fighter universe rather well, introducing the setting slowly without overpowering newcomers with terms and convoluted concepts. It also does a great job keeping players engaged, with some unexpected twists here and there and multiple endings that provide more information on the events that led to Khazan being branded a traitor and some of the game’s central characters. The way the story is delivered, much like the gameplay, is definitely in the Souls series fashion, with some nicely choreographed short cutscenes, environmental storytelling, and dialogues with characters met during missions in The Crevice, the main hub, which is very reminiscent of Demon’s Souls’ The Nexus. All in all, the story provides a decent backdrop for all the action, of which the game features quite a bit.Right from the very first mission, it’s very clear how The First Berserker: Khazan is a Soulslike game through and through. The game ticks all the boxes of the ARPG subgenre spawned by FromSoftware’s series: stamina-based combat with light and heavy attacks, dodging and blocking, hard-hitting enemies, and tricky enemy configurations scattered all over a multitude of different locations sporting a few secrets, shortcuts and bonfire-like checkpoints, Lacrima experience points that can be used to level up Khazan’s stats but also craft and purchase gear and consumable items and so on. When the game doesn’t tick the Souls series boxes, it more closely resembles Team NINJA’s Nioh series, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty and Final Fantasy series spin-off Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin with its focus on parrying, enemy stamina depletion and more complex moveset, which is expanded via different skill trees, for a limited number of weapon types that seem more to act as different playable characters with plenty of nuance and depth, rather than weapons with similar movesets and only a few remarkable differences like in FromSoftware’s games.The level and world design are also closer to Team NINJA’s games rather than FromSoftware’s, as the game is comprised of a variety of main and side missions set in linear stages which are accessed via a main hub, and each location is a separate stage with no direct connection to the others. The ability to fight Spirits using Khazan’s moveset and the ability to summon a Spirit of Assistance before boss battles, and the Phantom System, which allows Khazan to equip one among many different Phantoms that provide beneficial effects like increased stamina recovery, Spirit regeneration to allow the Great General to use powerful skills more often, have also been clearly lifted from the Nioh series.Considering how The First Berserker: Khazan doesn’t even attempt to try something different in an established gameplay formula, is it a game worth playing? It most definitely is, in my opinion, as I have found the game to be one of the most accomplished recent soulslike, alongside Lies of P. For starters, Khazan feels very good to control, thanks to amazing animation work and very responsive controls. The three weapon types available – Dual Blades, Greatsword, and Spear – all have some very different movesets and heavily determine how the player should approach combat, and all feel very satisfying to use. The defensive options, which include blocking, evading, and their perfect forms, a parry called Reflection with very strict timing and a Counterattack that can be unleashed when stronger enemies are about to use some powerful attacks, similar to Nioh 2’s Burst Counters, not only all have their uses, but synergize well with some passive skills and attributes attached to gear, providing plenty of depth to the combat experience while also giving players a reason to go with gear other than the one providing the highest defense or stat increase.All of the offensive and defensive mechanics The First Berserker: Khazan offers wouldn’t mean much with bad or average enemy design, but that is not the case here, as the game fully delivers in this regard, sporting a decent amount of regular enemies sporting different movesets and weapons, including plenty of ranged fighters, more powerful enemies that require a bit more effort to take down, Elite enemies that essentially function as mini-bosses, and proper bosses located at the end of each mission. Unsurprisingly, bosses are the stars of the show in The First Berserker: Khazan, coming with memorable visual and combat designs, effective movesets, and multiple phases that require players to always be on their toes to win. Unlike the current tendency FromSoftware has shown in its boss designs, with movesets with absurd range and areas of effect that are extremely unfair, I have found The First Berserker: Khazan’s bosses to be quite challenging but also very fair. If you know when to attack and how to properly defend against their varied movesets, fighting bosses will be, for the most part, a frustration-free experience. In addition, every time Khazan dies while attempting to take down any of the bosses, the game not only rewards the player with some Lacrima but also allows the lost experience points to be recovered before entering the boss arena once again, which is a nice touch that reduces the need for grinding for Lacrima, although dying in the game is most often due to having used the wrong strategy, rather than being under-leveled.Even so, if anyone finds The First Berserker: Khazan too difficult but still wants to play through the game to experience the Great General’s tale, they can decide to play the game in Easy Mode, which is considerably more approachable than the regular difficulty setting. Once Easy Mode is selected, however, there’s no turning back, and some achievements will no longer be unlockable, so think hard before jumping to the reduced difficulty mode the game offers. While not as effective as picking the easier difficulty mode, it is possible to make The First Berserker: Khazan slightly easier by taking full advantage of the gear system. Like in more traditional action role-playing games and the Team NINJA Souls series-inspired games, gear comes in different rarity levels, which determine their stats, and has different random attributes and set bonuses, which not only grant significant advantages but also include skills not available on the regular skill trees. A few hours into the adventure, it becomes possible to increase the level of gear and alter its random attributes, so the game definitely provides everything a player may need to bring difficulty down a bit. Make no mistake, however. As much as the developer says that they didn’t want to make a challenging game just for the sake of it, The First Berserker: Khazan is still a challenging game. Perhaps not when fighting the vast majority of mobs, but when fighting bosses, you will probably die a lot as you try to figure out their attack patterns and how best to deal with them using any of the numerous defensive options available.With its well-animated cel-shaded character models, detailed environments featuring a rather oppressive atmosphere that well suits the game’s story, and all sorts of flashy special effects for even regular combat maneuvers, The First Berserker: Khazan is as great to look at as it is a joy to play. The performance is solid on my PC, as the game had no trouble running at high frame rates on my machine (i7-13700F, RTX 4080, 32 GB RAM). Locking the game to my monitor’s max refresh rate, 120 Hz, the game had no trouble running at solid 120 FPS most of the time at 4K resolution with NVIDIA DLSS in Quality mode and max setting. A system configuration like mine can even push beyond the 120 FPS cap, as the game ran at an average of 152 FPS, 85 1% low during a benchmark session conducted in the Nadin Quarry stage. These numbers, however, don’t tell the whole story, as there’s some light traversal stuttering in certain areas, but thankfully it is not major. Before the release of the latest patch during the review period, the game also suffered from some massive shader compilation stutters during boss battles every time the enemy performed a special move for the first time, but the issue seems to have been fixed, as I have not experienced it again after the game was updated.The First Berserker: Khazan is one of those games that gets better and better the more you play it. What in the beginning feels only like another Soulslike becomes a very engaging experience with deep combat, lots of complementary gameplay systems, and a great visual style that make it a game worth playing for all those who are looking for an engaging, combat-focused action role-playing game and are not too bothered by the almost complete lack of innovation. In the 40 or so hours required to complete the main campaign once, I know I wasn’t.PC version tested. Review code provided by the publisher.With its excellent combat system, complementary mechanics, solid level and enemy design, and engaging story, The First Berserker: Khazan stands out as one of the best action RPGs in recent years. While its heavy inspiration from FromSoftware and Team NINJA’s latest titles is a little too evident, and PC performance issues occasionally impact the experience, the tale of Great General Khazan is a compelling one that makes for a great game and the perfect introduction to the world of Dungeon Fighter Online.Some posts on wccftech.com may contain affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC
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