You've probably seen the trailers. The cel-shaded, anime-inspired aesthetic looks like something straight out of a high-budget OVA, but don't let the "pretty" graphics fool you. The First Berserker Khazan gameplay is a goddamn meat grinder. If you walk into this thinking it’s just another Elden Ring clone where you can over-level your way past a brick wall, you're going to have a very bad time.
Honestly, it’s more like Sekiro and Nioh had a baby that was raised in a basement and fed nothing but raw aggression and spite. It is brutal.
The Core Loop: Aggression Over Survival
Most Souls-likes teach you to wait. You watch the boss, you dodge the big swing, you poke, you retreat. That's a death sentence here. In The First Berserker: Khazan, both you and the enemies have a stamina bar (or "Stance" bar, depending on who you ask in the forums). If you play passively, the bosses recover. They heal their posture. They basically laugh at you while you're waiting for a "safe" opening.
The game uses something called Brink Guard. It's basically a perfect parry that feels crunchy as hell. If you time it right, you don't just negate damage—you destroy the enemy’s stamina. When that bar hits zero, you get to perform a Brutal Attack. This is the bread and butter of the combat. If you do it from the front, you get your stamina back. Do it from the back? You deal massive damage and extend the stagger.
But here is the catch.
Perfect guarding a three-hit combo might leave you with zero stamina to actually retaliate. It's a weird, frustrating balance that players on Steam and Reddit have been debating since the March 2025 launch. Some people say it’s overtuned; others say you just haven't put enough points into Stamina yet.
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The Weapon Mastery Problem
You get three main weapon types:
- Dual Wield (Axe and Short-sword): The fastest, most reliable for building "Spirit Points."
- Greatsword: Hits like a truck, but if you miss a swing, you might as well go make a sandwich while Khazan recovers.
- Spear: Range is nice, but it feels niche in some of the tighter arena fights.
The game forces you to try all three in the opening hours, which is a smart move by Neople. Most people end up sticking with Dual Wield because the combat flow is so dependent on fast hits and building up that Spirit Gauge to unleash skills. These skills are essential because they don't consume stamina. They are your "free" damage window.
Those Bosses Are Absolute Health Sponges
We need to talk about the HP bloat. It’s the biggest point of contention in the community right now.
You’ll get a boss down to 50% health, you’ve played perfectly, you haven’t missed a single Brink Guard, and you realize you’ve been fighting for eight minutes already. Even a successful Brutal Attack—which feels like it should be a finisher—often only chunks away maybe 5% of a late-game boss's health. It makes every encounter an endurance test.
One specific fight, the "Fire Boss" (no spoilers, but you'll know him when the floor starts turning into literal lava), is notorious. He switches up his timings mid-combo. He inflicts burn even if you block. It’s a lot.
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"It’s not just about learning the moveset," one player noted on the soulslikes subreddit. "It's about having the mental stamina to not mess up a single parry for twelve minutes straight."
Level Design: A Bit of a Mixed Bag
While the combat is 10/10 in terms of feel, the levels can be... bland. You spend a lot of time in snowy mountains (Mount Heinmach) or caves that look remarkably similar to the last cave. It’s very linear. You move from Blade Nexus (the bonfire equivalent) to Blade Nexus, opening shortcuts.
It’s functional. It works. But it’s not Lordran. You aren’t going to find some mind-blowing architectural loop that connects the final area back to the tutorial. It’s a series of combat gauntlets. And watch out for the spiders and archers. Seriously. Neople loves putting archers on high ledges while three exploding spiders roll at your face. It’s cheesy, it’s annoying, and it happens constantly.
Updates and Post-Game: What’s New in 2026?
Since the initial release in March 2025, Nexon and Neople have actually listened to the "it's too damn hard" crowd. They added an Easy Mode, but even that is a bit of a lie. It lowers damage taken, but it doesn't really fix the boss health issues. If a boss was a sponge on Hard, he’s a slightly softer sponge on Easy.
However, the Ultimate Challenge updates (May/June 2025) added some serious legs to the game:
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- Great General’s Crucible: A boss rush mode with preset builds. It’s pure skill. No over-leveling allowed.
- Berserker’s Bloodshed: A 16-boss gauntlet where you earn upgrades as you go.
- QoL Fixes: We finally got teleportation between any Blade Nexus and items to fast travel back to the hub, The Crevice.
The technical side is solid too. If you’re on PC, you definitely want an SSD. The game requires 70GB of space, and those load times on a standard HDD are ancient history. Running it at 1080p/60fps usually requires something like an RTX 2070, but the cel-shaded style scales pretty well if you need to drop settings.
Is It Worth the Grind?
If you like Sekiro but wished it had more RPG loot and a deeper skill tree, then yes. Absolutely. Khazan’s journey 800 years before Dungeon Fighter Online is dark, oppressive, and gorgeous. Ben Starr (the voice of Clive from FF16) kills it as Khazan, bringing a raw, gravelly desperation to a man betrayed by his own empire.
But if you get frustrated by bosses that take 15 attempts and 10 minutes per attempt, you might want to wait for a sale. This is a game that respects your skill but hates your time.
Actionable Insights for New Players:
- Prioritize Stamina: Put your first 10-15 levels worth of Lacrima into Stamina. You cannot play the game without it.
- Learn the Counterguard: Some "Burst Attacks" (red glow) cannot be dodged or blocked normally. You must learn the counter timing or you will get one-shot.
- Don't Fear the Respec: You can reset your skills at any time for free. If a boss is killing you, change your passives. Maybe swap from Greatsword to Dual Wield just for that fight.
- Farm the Boss, Not the Mobs: You get a portion of Lacrima (XP) even when you die to a boss. It’s often faster to just keep throwing yourself at the boss and leveling up from the "failure" than it is to grind trash mobs in the levels.
The First Berserker: Khazan is a rare case of a game that knows exactly what it wants to be: a punishing, rhythmic, high-action brawler. It’s not perfect, but it’s one of the most mechanically satisfying games in the genre if you have the patience to master its "Brink Guard" dance.