The First Berserker: Khazan - Reviews Thread
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TheDarkPhantom
Member
Execution ftw:
Think I hit another roadblock boss, this game has more than Sekiro
Think I hit another roadblock boss, this game has more than Sekiro
The artful mincer
Member
Downloaded the demo last night.
This games combat is excellent really enjoying it. I've seen some mention the level design is visually uninteresting but I at least think it better than Niohs lol.
BUUUT I'am really starting to think that souls mechanics are holding some of these games back.
A huge pet peeve of mine is the souls healing mechanic. This was unique and interesting in 2010 and made sense when souls was slower and had more methodical combat.
In 2025 it's old, played out, frustrating and counterproductive. It completely breaks the fast paced flow state this game game is trying to get you in. It made Nine Souls combat worse as well.
This games combat is excellent really enjoying it. I've seen some mention the level design is visually uninteresting but I at least think it better than Niohs lol.
BUUUT I'am really starting to think that souls mechanics are holding some of these games back.
A huge pet peeve of mine is the souls healing mechanic. This was unique and interesting in 2010 and made sense when souls was slower and had more methodical combat.
In 2025 it's old, played out, frustrating and counterproductive. It completely breaks the fast paced flow state this game game is trying to get you in. It made Nine Souls combat worse as well.
Yoshichan
And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
I’m just an old danked out warrior now a days bro, RIPThe game has grown on me but it took a LOT of time compared to say lies of p which I was sold right within the demo how amazing it is.
I beat Macula or whatever his name was. Every boss up until then was 1-5 tries, including viper. Macula took about 20. Well done boss.
The bosses here have yet to feel bull shit like stuff you get in a Soft title. It’s fair, easy to read, but still provides challenge. My issue is a lot of bosses feel far too “samey” in approach. Parry parry parry, hit window for player, repeat. It’s not as demanding as Sekiro so it feels less thrilling.
I’m also unsure if they intended this but very early in the game (level 12 or 16) blue weapons are given to you that have B+ and B scaling. I have never outgrown them. The B+scaling in your main stat will always override a new weapon with B C scaling. I’ve used the same weapon since the first few hours of the game. Major design flaw on their part.
I suggest new players never get rid of these as you can also augment aka level them up later to make them even more fucking OP than any current level purple weapon or set weapon you can get.
I imagine once the game drops B+ or A scaling weapons this will change but that’s likely close to end game I’ll see those.
Edit: Also why the fuck isYoshichan not playing this and posting in here?
Nocty
Gold Member
opinions on this seem to be all over the place on Steam. Some saying it's the best Souls like since Nioh, others saying it's the easiest game ever and does not deserve the soulslike monicker at all, like wtf..
I guess it comes down to if you like destroying endless trash mobs to build up your character and take on hard bosses? is that the gist?
I guess it comes down to if you like destroying endless trash mobs to build up your character and take on hard bosses? is that the gist?
Freeman76
Member
Never listen to ppl who say these games are easy. They are full of shit.
I have completed every game in the souls series apart from DS2, and this is on par with all of them imo, i would even say the combat is better than anything From have done. The game is far from easy, try the demo if you want a taster, took me more than 10 tries just to beat the demo boss lol
In terms of it being the best soulslike since Nioh, I would go further and say its the best soulslike full stop. Its a great game and the loot system where you can gain skills from wearing whole sets is so well done you want to farm everything to find out what moves are best. Something it does a LOT better than souls games, where the vast majority of loot was novelty stuff, in this everything is useful and you need the full set to unlock super powerful combo moves.
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Arsic
Loves his juicy stink trail scent
Pick up the game and come shit on it or praise it.
We need a man of culture to show us the truth.
Seyken
Member
The game has grown on me but it took a LOT of time compared to say lies of p which I was sold right within the demo how amazing it is.
I beat Macula or whatever his name was. Every boss up until then was 1-5 tries, including viper. Macula took about 20. Well done boss.
The bosses here have yet to feel bull shit like stuff you get in a Soft title. It’s fair, easy to read, but still provides challenge. My issue is a lot of bosses feel far too “samey” in approach. Parry parry parry, hit window for player, repeat. It’s not as demanding as Sekiro so it feels less thrilling.
I’m also unsure if they intended this but very early in the game (level 12 or 16) blue weapons are given to you that have B+ and B scaling. I have never outgrown them. The B+scaling in your main stat will always override a new weapon with B C scaling. I’ve used the same weapon since the first few hours of the game. Major design flaw on their part.
I suggest new players never get rid of these as you can also augment aka level them up later to make them even more fucking OP than any current level purple weapon or set weapon you can get.
I imagine once the game drops B+ or A scaling weapons this will change but that’s likely close to end game I’ll see those.
Edit: Also why the fuck is
Really happy to hear that you stuck with it and came around on the game
And the thing you're mentioning about the weapons, it's a bug. You got those weapons from playing the demo, where the scaling was different from the final game. You won't get higher scaling weapons in the normal difficulty.
I'd say Maluca himself was a boss that forced you to avoid parrying sometimes, because some of its attacks can inflict chaos, even if you parry. I've faced other bosses with similar incentives, where just parrying won't be ideal.
MagiusNecros
Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
It's more Nioh then Sekiro IMO.Think I hit another roadblock boss, this game has more than Sekiro
Scary_Larry
Member
You all doing great sword or spear in this?
Hollywood Hitman
Gold Member
So how is the difficulty overall, I'm seeing alot of varying opinions and just curious before I fully dive in soon. I've seen some say it's way harder than Wukong, is that true? I platinumed Wukong but not sure I'm ready for something of that caliber right yet or is that a bit of a stretch to say it's way harder than wukong? Or is it in line with Souls?
coachmcguirk91
Member
There is a normal and easy mode. I have only played normal, but it's quite hard. Easy mode is supposed to be marginally easier, but not crazy easy. The hardest parts of the game are boss fights, but you can summon allies if need be. I haven't played Wukong, but Khazan is harder than most souls games. If you plan on getting the platinum, you can't summon allies
Shubh_C63
Member
Boss battles are difficult but you can farm them. More further you beat their health bar more free souls you are awarded at every death alongwith more Weapon proficiency which unlocks actual powerful abilities.
Means if you just keep at them they will go down eventually. The Gameplay is so solid and satisfying.
Arsic
Loves his juicy stink trail scent
You can “break” this game to be easy.
You’ll get the ability to summon a mimic at bosses. That mimic can be leveled up a lot by easily farming red summons. Find a bonfire that has a red summon spot right by it, then just kill it, rest to respawn, and loop.
You can out level the game easily if you start using the bard gear set once you have it for every new map you run. You’ll get 25% more exp souls and pretty soon you’ll be 10+ levels ahead of everything.
Rock the nomad gear set for bosses and you’ll get 500 extra HP and plate gear has naturally highest defense. If you invest a little into STR you’ll have no issue with it being B scaling for agility so you can not be slow in heavy gear.
Next up run bosses with the water rune item and you’ll “freeze” bosses after a bit where they move extremely slow and attack slow. Makes it super easy to avoid attacks and parry.
Last up, you can set the game to easy if you want instead of normal, and if you use spear like I do, you’ll be able to destroy anus.
I’m on normal and have yet to need the summon for any single boss. Only one boss has been hard and I’m on chapter 10.
Hollywood Hitman
Gold Member
So basically can do like a normal run with summoning, and then do an easy run without any summons?
Hollywood Hitman
Gold Member
Excellent info man, good shit... I'll be putting it to good use
Arsic
Loves his juicy stink trail scent
What souls games have you completed? This is easier than any soul game I’ve ever played by a large margin.
Just go normal and keep the tips above in check and you’ll blaze through the game.
Arsic
Loves his juicy stink trail scent
Spear. It’s the best weapon in the game for sure. Moonlight stance , a parry you can’t miss, stun lock loops, dodge for practically free, and a 3 hit ability you spend spirit on to deal tons of damage.
Hollywood Hitman
Gold Member
Oh I've done em all platted them all pretty much, same with wukong etc... I just was meaning sake of making time but if it's fairly easier than souls than yea I'll do normal with no summons.
Arsic
Loves his juicy stink trail scent
Try the demo if you haven’t. Data Carrie’s over.
Seyken
Member
If you want to really have the true experience though, don't use the demo weapons, those have bugged scaling and are making the game significantly easier for those who use them.
You'll find that the stages themselves are on the easy side, but the bosses can be varying degrees of hard.
Giallo Corsa
Gold Member
I'm actually happy to be eating crow right now :
While i loathe cell shaded animU bullshit, man, the production values in this game are just so good - cutscene direction is fucking amazeballs with some exquisite hyper kinetic and stylish cuts, characters are actually nice, music is spot on and as for the gameplay... Everything is so fucking clean and actually readable (i.e, enemy animations/movesets) that it just becomes a joy to play - a stark contrast to shit like lies of P where the enemy animations are so bullshit and the parry window so small that you can't parry to save your life (It was the game's biggest problem in my opinion).
I know that there's been a beta and a demo (Played them both) but, playing the full release, somehow, it feels like this game came out of nowhere - what initially seemed like yet another Souls clone with an animU coat of paint, It proved to be way more than that, what a nice surprise...
While it absolutely*ahem* borrows from that typical souls formula, the attention and love poured into this is very tangible, from the fonts used for everything, to the amazing cutscene direction, to the intro title and "thump" sound whenever you enter a new area, to the nice and readable enemy animations, the actual nice voice acting... everything feels just "right".
Instead of fighting for one week straight over bullshit like Assassin's Creed, people should actually spend both the time and the money to play a good game like this one.
While i loathe cell shaded animU bullshit, man, the production values in this game are just so good - cutscene direction is fucking amazeballs with some exquisite hyper kinetic and stylish cuts, characters are actually nice, music is spot on and as for the gameplay... Everything is so fucking clean and actually readable (i.e, enemy animations/movesets) that it just becomes a joy to play - a stark contrast to shit like lies of P where the enemy animations are so bullshit and the parry window so small that you can't parry to save your life (It was the game's biggest problem in my opinion).
I know that there's been a beta and a demo (Played them both) but, playing the full release, somehow, it feels like this game came out of nowhere - what initially seemed like yet another Souls clone with an animU coat of paint, It proved to be way more than that, what a nice surprise...
While it absolutely*ahem* borrows from that typical souls formula, the attention and love poured into this is very tangible, from the fonts used for everything, to the amazing cutscene direction, to the intro title and "thump" sound whenever you enter a new area, to the nice and readable enemy animations, the actual nice voice acting... everything feels just "right".
Instead of fighting for one week straight over bullshit like Assassin's Creed, people should actually spend both the time and the money to play a good game like this one.
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coachmcguirk91
Member
Khazan had pretty shit marketing. Even the demo was not a great representation of the full game. I don't really blame gamers calling it another souls clone if they stopped playing the demo within an hour. The first two levels are probably the weakest in the game and the skill tree doesn't open up until level 2
Yoshichan
And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
You know what I might very well just do this then!
Hayabusabruh
Member
The dude that jumps on the top area?
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Northeastmonk
Gold Member
Yea if you liked Wo Long and Lu Bu, this might be right up your alley.
coachmcguirk91
Member
If you like waifu mage fights, there are a couple more in next few hours. Strong disagree with bosses overall quality, though. Maluca, Viper, and Blade Phantom are fantastic in the first half of game. The only boss I thought was a bit of a letdown was the spider, so far. I have 4 more main bosses remaining.
Overall, for me, this game has the most consistent quality boss fights of any souls game I have played
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FeralEcho
Member
Full playthrough is about 80 hours long (as per dev)
80 hours is a bit too much for my taste but I do love a good soulslike.
TheDarkPhantom
Member
Super Khazan
El Ravaca level might be the best yet, from the eerie opening area to everything you discover below after...top-tier stuff. If I have any real criticisms after 20+ hours it's lack of enemy variety, other games in the genre have a definite advantage here. The action feels so good though, loving every minute of it.
El Ravaca level might be the best yet, from the eerie opening area to everything you discover below after...top-tier stuff. If I have any real criticisms after 20+ hours it's lack of enemy variety, other games in the genre have a definite advantage here. The action feels so good though, loving every minute of it.
Hayabusabruh
Member
I want to play as Elamein. She is so cool.
Freeman76
Member
I dont think the demo weapons are bugged, I think the rest are. Why would they stop at B scaling? Not only that, bosses take a hell of a beating if you arent using the demo weapons. I wouldnt be surprised if the game is intended to have A or even S scaling. The demo weapons would have been intended to stop at B+ so that you can improve them in the main game. Literally makes no sense to only have B and C scaling in the full game
Giallo Corsa
Gold Member
Unfortunately, it's still there even in the PS5 version and I don't get it, no one likes burn-in ffs
coachmcguirk91
Member
There is a side mission fight with her where she is completely OP with additional movesets. One of the hardest fight so far for me
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Gaiff
SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
The art of berserking:
Word to the wise: using the NPC summons (unique twist to this system btw) locks you out of the plat trophy, wish I checked sooner, there is a trophy for never summoning an NPC
Having a trophy/achievement for never using a mechanic is beyond retarded.
Boo Who?
Member
Yup. Another reason I pretty much stopped caring about Trophies and Achievements. I may start caring again if Nintendo adds them to the Switch 2 and they make them fun again.
Fabieter
Member
I mostly see them as what the game has also to offer kinda thing.
Seyken
Member
Because I think they are going the Nioh route. They're going to introduce new difficulties as updates and in those we'll probably get higher scaling weapons.
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Bartski
Gold Member
Bit of a roadblock on the viper. Blasted through the level leading up to it with no issues, same goes for the demo earlier. I refuse to use summons but honestly, I might cave as 99.9% of the times I get destroyed is by getting immobilized by the exhaustion. I fucking hate it and it ruins the game for me.
This is an action game. It should be hyper responsive and all about reacting to your enemy. Here is an idea - how about a mechanic to punish the player for getting hit by making the character stop responding to his controller inputs!
What happens at this boss in particular - I know his combos, got things more or less figured out, I make one mistake and then get hit 2-3 times and die because I can't move. Especially infuriating if what kills me is some kinda basic bitch attack like the throw. I could normally parry or dodge it with ease. I see it coming my way. But no, I get hit anyway because I'm stuck. Yes git gut don't get hit yadda yadda, and I like so much about this game I might persevere, but holy shit this is such a insanely horrible idea for a mechanic in a game like this it boggles my mind why is no one talking about it
This is an action game. It should be hyper responsive and all about reacting to your enemy. Here is an idea - how about a mechanic to punish the player for getting hit by making the character stop responding to his controller inputs!
What happens at this boss in particular - I know his combos, got things more or less figured out, I make one mistake and then get hit 2-3 times and die because I can't move. Especially infuriating if what kills me is some kinda basic bitch attack like the throw. I could normally parry or dodge it with ease. I see it coming my way. But no, I get hit anyway because I'm stuck. Yes git gut don't get hit yadda yadda, and I like so much about this game I might persevere, but holy shit this is such a insanely horrible idea for a mechanic in a game like this it boggles my mind why is no one talking about it
Arsic
Loves his juicy stink trail scent
Nah. There should at least be orange tier tier giving access to B+ or A- or some shit.
There’s no power scaling on weapons in its current state. You will never use anything outside of the demo weapons. Just keep augmenting them to infinity. 200+ damage is too much to give up lol.
Arsic
Loves his juicy stink trail scent
Tips:
-Use ashen wolf set for an extra heal
-Use spear to have the auto parry twirl ability
-Get phase one down without using a heal or one at most
-Dodge big one hit leap attacks, don’t parry them. They eat into a LOT of your stamina so you can’t respond.
-If you want to parry then do the triangle button version with a smaller window but will stagger the boss and eat their stamina bar.
Arsic
Loves his juicy stink trail scent
The combat in hand and how the bosses are designed.
Combat has a very nice back and forth flow, and is flashy when you unlock more into a skill tree.
The bosses are fair and challenging. They give proper feedback of when they attack and when it’s your turn. Very little bull shit non stop destroying your anus bosses.
Bartski
Gold Member
Made it. I use only the spear anyway, no particular approach just played better. The autoparry move is way too short but could come in handy for later bosses I guess that likely will have some lethal flurries. 2 phase was just spectacular, likeI said lots to love here, I just don’t understand how the exhaustion doesn't make the game worse.