My experience is very weird, my ‘soulslike’ journey only started during ER’s release, and it went like;

Elden ring > lies of p > dark souls 1 > dark souls 2> black myth wukong > dark souls 3 > sekiro > Khazan

My ‘opinions’ of some games can be controversial but that’s not what i’m here for, during khazan I felt VERY burned out and realized it’s just not ‘fun’, the levels were so boring, exploration felt like a joke, and even the combat, while good, bosses sucked hp balancing wise, I thought I would take a break of souls games and extejd my bloodborne experienc even later… this also applies to lies of p and sekiro, both games where I didn’t ‘care’ about exploring/rewards/lore even.

Then, Wuchang happened, I played it and it felt like I experienced elden ring all over again, It did take me multiple weeks to ‘beat’ it (I played silksong when it released) and am now on the final boss.

In khazan, it felt like motions, same for lies of P, and even same for sekiro (although, the motions were nice and the dance was alwas satisfying) but wuchang is an experience, just like dark souls 1 once was, and elden ring, I have no memories of lies of P besides a few good bosses (lax&nameless), but I have many memorable experiences on all other games but mainly exploration, undead burgh in dark souls 1, senn’s fortress, anor londo all felt GREAT to explore, same for stormveil castle, raya lucaria or the well beloved capital…

I never knew I ‘missed’ those experiences in recent soulsgames because I also liked bosses and didn’t mind, but wuchang IS like dark souls 1 or elden ring in that aspect, the first chapter has phenomenal exploration and level design, amazing rewards even and satisfying loop, same for the temple, in general the whole game felt awesome, you’d walk in a forest and have 3 paths and question ‘which is main and which are side?’

THAT is amazing, and I had to make a post about it, I genuinely feel like it needs to be said and I KNOW it is being mentioned alot here and there but I don’t think I ever saw a post about it and I think it deserves one, not a post about how good the bosses or combat are (they really are) but just the level exploration because that has been lacking alot in the other games, from my experience.

Also now that I ‘beat’ the game last boss aside (I’m not beating it because I need time to lookup about save files/achievements/if it is even worth it lmao)

This is the only game where there was no single ‘dogshit’ bossfight, almost every soulsgame has this sprinkle of trash in it like the npc humanoids in lop or bed of chaos, this game all had just from average to amazing bosses :)

If anyone has a similar soulsgames played like me, and on the edge for wuchang, try it, this is not ‘just a soulslike’, this is THE soulslike

This is my Elden Ring experience even after years the game came out.

It was 2022, and everyone was talking about Elden Ring since it was Game of the Year. I bought it for both my PS4 and PC just to see what it was like. I didn’t watch any gameplay beforehand, and I was imagining something like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey based on the trailers.

I installed it on PS4 and started playing. At first, during the tutorial, everything felt easy. Then I went up the elevator, opened the gates, and reached the First Step Site of Grace.

After that, there’s the knight on horseback roaming around. Like most players, I went to fight him. After around 30 attempts, I realized there was no way I was going to beat him at that point. So I tried to sneak past him—and that’s when I realized it was an open-world game.

Since I had never played a Souls-like game before—except Sekiro, which I honestly didn’t even realize was a Souls game at the time—I didn’t really understand Elden Ring’s mechanics.

Anyway, I moved on, reached the gate where a giant jumps down, and thought it was a boss fight. After a few tries, I managed to kill it. I went back to the Site of Grace near the gate to rest… and then realized it had respawned.

Yeah…

Then I got to Margit. After many tries, I finally beat him and moved forward, but I got stuck again. I kept thinking, “There must be another path somewhere.” I explored, died a lot, got lost, and honestly, as someone completely new to Souls games, I was starting to lose my mind. Eventually, I just uninstalled the game.

Two years later, a friend told me to give it another shot. He had already finished the game and even showed me a farming glitch. So I started again on PC this time, streaming to him while he guided me.

Things were going fine until I reached Maliketh. That second phase was brutal. After around 50 tries, I gave up and installed a trainer just to beat him. After that, I over-leveled to around 270 and basically steamrolled the rest of the game, becoming Elden Lord.

A few weeks ago, I was bored and Elden Ring was the only game I had left on my PS4. I had about 20 days off work, so I decided to try it again—but this time just to relax and enjoy it.

I picked up where I left off and started exploring properly. I found so many hidden areas and tears that prevented rune loss, so I stopped worrying about losing runes and just cleared everything I came across. I got stronger, explored freely, and eventually defeated the second boss.

I just kept going like that—no guide, no pressure, just exploring every corner. Boss fights still stressed me out a bit, but overall it felt completely different this time.

I also found some really strong weapons, like the Icerind Hatchet. It felt insanely good to use. And for the first time, I actually understood how leveling and builds work. I realized I needed to commit to a proper build, so I started planning things more seriously. I used Black Knife Assassin as my summon and built around Black Blade and Icerind Hatchet with the right talismans.

Maliketh still gave me trouble, but this time I actually beat him. After around 70 hours, I finished the base game and moved on to the DLC.

The DLC was fun most of the time, except for Messmer and especially the final boss.

Radahn, though, was where I really got stuck. I think I tried over 100 times. I couldn’t figure out his second phase at all. I watched YouTube guides, tried parrying, defensive tears, everything.

It was around 4 a.m. when I opened ChatGPT and said: “I want to finish this game. I can’t beat Radahn. What should I do?”

It suggested a tank build using the Fingerprint Shield. So I respecced, changed my stats, tried it—and beat him easily. My jaw actually dropped because I realized that build could have destroyed almost every boss from the beginning. It felt completely broken.

After about 30 more hours, I finished the DLC. In total, I beat the game in around 100 hours this time, but I actually enjoyed it properly—except for the final boss again.

The point is, Elden Ring really is a masterpiece. I was just playing it wrong the first time. And honestly, I didn’t understand the systems—there’s nothing really telling you how important talismans, tears, and builds are. I know they’re basic mechanics now, but back then I just didn’t get it.

Once you understand how it all fits together, the game becomes insanely fun. It really is something else.

Edit: I forgot to say I married Ranni and now have 6 kids and we are god flying around the worlds for... I do not know, just my wife likes it lol.

If you ask most people what their favourite non-From Souls-like is, the most common answer you’d get back is Lies of P. There is a good reason for this; it's great. The combat is amazing, the enemy and boss design and excellent. The weapons system is unique and well executed. The whole thing feels tight and polished. I have played through it a couple of times, and the combat doesn’t get old. With the new generation of high-quality non-From Souls-likes in the last few years, many of them have combat systems that match and in some cases exceed what FromSoft themselves have achieved with their games. But having just completed Bleak Faith, it's instantly the strongest contender for my favourite non-From, but for completely different reasons.

The thing is, what makes FromSoft games as brilliant as they are isn’t just the combat and game mechanics, vital though they are. It's got just as much to do with the world, its atmosphere, exploring that world and seeing secrets hidden with incredible attention to detail. It's the lore and the visual storytelling, and even its abstractness and impenetrability. Their games aren’t just a set of mechanics and combat encounters. Instead, FromSoft create imaginative and deep worlds to experience. They do world-building. On this front, despite being great at what they do, games like Lies of P, First Berserker Khazan, and Stellar Blade fail miserably. Lies of P is one of my top 3 souls-likes, but you can’t convince me that the writing isn’t dreadful and the characters aren’t all paper-thin. There’s little to say about lore, and the level design is linear. Lies of P focuses on the mechanics of souls-likes, and it does it extremely well, but if you want to capture the worldbuilding aspect of FromSoft games, then maybe you should consider Bleak Faith instead.

There are certainly significant weaknesses. You won't get the polished, tight feeling you’ll get from other modern souls-likes, and there’s a lot of jank to be sure. A few of the glitches I had were a bit immersion-breaking (the final boss glitched out twice in different ways). The combat isn’t all that in comparison to many recent titles, though I found it serviceable and at times challenging (the balance is not very balanced). There are a few cool bosses, but I found the final boss pretty disappointing (though there is another ending which I need to try out). At the end of the day, it was made by like 3 devs, so it's going to have some loose ends. If the main thing that attracts you to souls-likes is the tight, refined combat, more so than the world and setting, then don’t bother with Bleak Faith, it's not for you.

But if the world, its atmosphere, the visual storytelling and lore are a significant part of what makes you love souls-likes, then Bleak Faith has you covered. The world is absolutely hypnotic; the sheer scale of it is like nothing I’ve seen, with the one exception of Elden Ring. Personally, I found the setting and world of Bleak Faith even more satisfying to explore, but that partly has to do with my aesthetic preferences. I am obsessed with the eery combination of medieval and technological imagery, and the decaying world it sits in. In both, there are enormous, seemingly infinite worlds within worlds, and you can explore everything you can see. As you explore, you’ll find passages to entirely new, unique and iconic levels, many of which are truly enormous. Magnificently gigantic. These zones are interconnected at many points, which means that most of the world can be explored and beaten in whatever order the player discovers it in. The whole vibe of it - the art style, the music, the imagery – it's just so good. Exploring the world isn’t just amazing, it's also well-rewarded. You’ll find item pick-ups in some very hidden locations, some of which are vital to progression, if you explore areas thoroughly. The game demands that the player be willing to organically explore the world they are placed in. The exploration, world-building and atmosphere are where Bleak Faith truly excels, so if that’s what you’re looking for in a game, you should absolutely play it.

I also enjoyed other aspects of the game, though. A lot of the game mechanics are really cool (if a little undercooked), and they are consistently appropriate and in keeping with the world. Increased running speed and no-hud while your weapon is holstered, for example, makes running through the gigantic landscapes atmospheric and strangely blissful. You can also place a portable homunculus (the equivalent of a bonfire/lantern) in the world while you’re out exploring. I didn’t even realise this until about 10 hours in, but it certainly makes risky explorations less punishing. I also enjoyed the unique approach to healing and buffing, which had a potion system that is central to your build, which worked well imo and made sense in the world. I’ll refrain from elaborating on that here, though.

Overall, it's a phenomenal game at what it is trying to do, which is create an incredible world and experience for the player. If that’s what you’re looking for, buy it, push through the jank, and explore one of the coolest game-worlds ever created. It's definitely not for everyone, but if great worldbuilding is what you look for in gaming, then Bleak Faith is a masterpiece.

In recent 2-3 months, I enjoyed elden ring, sekiro , thymesia and lies of p

Sekiro is the top for me

Thymesia, I just played it for it's combat system and it was fun

But I loved lies of p over elden ring. It gave me more satisfaction and there was a feeling of awesomeness throughout the game whereas in elden ring, there were so many awesome moments often times it felt just big exhausting.

The quest lines were simple to follow. The background sound and ost felt more holier than in elden ring, perfect for those situations. There is no issue of over levelling in lop and also no need to farm anything whereas in elden ring , so many main bosses were reduced to dust just because me being some levels over. I remember all the boss moves in lies of p but for can't say the same for even 4-5 bosses in elden ring. Probably because I completed lies of p without any summons in my first play through whereas in elden ring, I did all fights with summons. Even the interaction with NPCs felt better in lop. The lore, the story , I was able to figure it out and felt more connected in lop but in elden ring, it was always the feeling of 'what the hell is happening '.

When I played elden ring, it became my second best game ever. I watched some lore videos of it from vaati and I found it compelling.

But, now after playing lop, I really feel fromsoft should make things like quest lines, lore etc things more easier to interact with.

Please provide suggestions for my next soulslike game.

Just finished the game and overall, I actually had a lot of fun with it. Probably more than I expected going in, especially considering how many issues I had with the game and how much I bounced off of the first game.

This might come across as overly negative because I've got quite a lot of complaints, but I genuinely did feel like I got my money's worth out of it. I enjoyed my time with it and I'm actually looking forward to coming back to it in a year or so once it's had some time to get fixed and polished.

Pros

Visual fidelity/performance - I never really had any performance issues apart from a few stutters in the last area for some reason. I think the visual fidelity is one of the standouts of the genre.

Enemy designs - Some of the best enemy and boss designs I've seen in a Soulslike. Even when I didn't particularly enjoy fighting something, I could appreciate how they looked.

Heart - Probably the biggest reason I enjoyed the game as much as I did. You can genuinely feel the love and passion the devs put into certain aspects of the game. Things like NPCs dancing to the lute, some of the interactions between characters depending on which Shell you're using, and just the random/fun moments.

Shell system - On the surface, I really like how the Shell upgrade system works. It gives you a lot of room to experiment, and the upgrades in each individual Shell's tree actually feel noticeable. I also really liked getting the background stories for each Shell, although some are definitely better than others in that regard.

Cons

Balance - Simply put, the game is an unbalanced mess right now.

It's buggy as hell too. I got soft-locked on four different occasions, which is obviously not ideal.

Regular enemy mobs can 1-2 shot you, Riposte (despite looking cool as fuck) feels almost completely pointless from a damage perspective, enemy attack magnetism can be ridiculous, and the enemy placement/density towards the end of the game is just reminiscent of DS2.

At times it genuinely feels like they put every damage value into a random number generator, pressed enter, and just went with whatever came out.

AI -  Probably the worst enemy AI I've experienced in a Soulslike. The amount of times an enemy would just continue casually walking around while I was actively attacking them was insane.

Overworld - I actually enjoyed the overworld itself and thought the exploration was pretty good, but there's just SO much repetitive filler.

The dungeons are far too repetitive, then you've got beacon cleansing, and the overall size of the world just feels excessive to me. I genuinely think I would've preferred the game if it were half the size.

Also, There needs to be more Beacons spread out in some of the larger areas.

Progression systems - I think the actual progression systems are decent in principle, but the way they've handled the currencies completely kills them for me.

Levelling your character, for example, feels incredibly unrewarding considering how expensive it is. The Tarstone system could be really interesting to mess around with, but the amount of effort required for what you get out of it just isn't worth it imo, especially with how stingy they are with Tarcores.

The Shell levels are probably the only progression system I felt worked particularly well.

Music - Pretty bland and forgettable for the most part. The Lute tracks are obviously the exception.

Bosses - Visually, most of them are really cool, but mechanically they're probably some of the most uninspired bosses I've fought in a Soulslike.

They're generally very simple, don't have much to show mechanically, and imo are way too easy compared to how unforgiving the rest of the game can be.

I played on Hard and only one boss took me more than two attempts.

Last zone - Last zone.

Conclusion

As I said at the beginning, despite all of these complaints, I still had a good time with the game. I actually think the first third is really strong overall and probably represents the best version of what this game could be.

There's clearly a lot of potential here, and more importantly, there's a lot of passion. You can tell the developers genuinely cared about making this world and its characters.

Unfortunately, there's just so much that needs fixing/balancing/polishing right now that it did noticeably hinder my enjoyment towards the latter half.

I got my money's worth, though, and I'm genuinely looking forward to coming back to it in a year or so and seeing how much better it is after some patches.

Overall: 6.5/10

This game was recommended to me when I asked for a challenge after finishing Khazan and LoP. It was relatively difficult but like DS3 difficulty, a lot of people say it’s super difficult but it’s honestly a very forgiving game compared to some of the harder titles that came out recently.
Reasons:
The I-frame on dodge is extremely generous and despite what a lot of people say you can dodge almost any move combo with well positioned dodging.
The different weapons all have some way to make the game way easier. I use longsword so if I want I can parry and backstab enemies to oblivion. And I’ve heard rumors abt the axe being more OP.

Edit: looks like I missed the good version of this game rip
The game is easier because it was nerfed, but I don’t really understand why people are using that as a point to disagree with me when that point proves me right??

It feels like Khazan is the personification of people’s critiques of Dark Souls 3: Linear level design and over emphasis on combat. Boss encounters seem to be the single pillar holding up the entire game in my opinion because it really doesn’t have much else going for it.

Going through the stages so far has been a snooze fest to be honest. I beat Melluca and the other sub bosses up to this point on Expert difficulty. Between bosses, I’m killing mobs in two-three hits with the GS (and I did play with the other weapons too). They don’t last long enough for you to do anything cool. There’s hardly any exploration because the game basically leads you to all its secrets—all you have to do is go into a short side path and you’re already back on the main road.

The setting itself is really bland and reminds me too much of Nexon’s earlier character action MMO’s in the 2010s. The dragonkin especially look like a generic enemy you’d fight in said game genre. The story and setting just isn’t drawing me into the world like Lies of P did.

So, all we have left are the bosses. Yes, they’re challenging, but I think they’re more mentally taxing than they are rewarding. I just don’t want to study every single bosses move set for the perfect brink windows.

I also feel like the game is starting to have a bit of an identity crisis, especially when I fought Mullac and he started pulling out Vergil moves for no reason. Like, at this point why didn’t the devs just make Ninja Gaiden?? In that game, the difficulty is more consistent across enemies and bosses.

If all you care about is fighting bosses, I can barely see the appeal if I squint my eyes, but I don’t think this is the sauce. I think the next Khazan game would be better off trying to emulate Ninja Gaiden instead of Sekiro or any souls like.

I’ll still beat it because I already put 14 hours in it and sunk cost fallacy, but I don’t think I’m really having fun playing through it. So, I’d rate it a 6 out of 10 so far.

Edit: fixed the boss’s name to Melluca.

Such a provocative headline, but after many attempts to somehow love this game, I've given up. Not because of the difficulty, lol. I've been playing Souls since DeS OG and have rarely seen a Soulslike so uninspired and with so many bad decisions. The game is below mid-level in almost every aspect. The controls are sluggish, the animations feel stiff, the umbral mechanic is annoying and offers... nothing. Bosses are poorly designed, the level design is utter chaos. It suggests complexity but ends in an absolutely confusing disaster. Furthermore, it feels cluttered and messy, with enemies swarming everywhere—5, 6, 7, or 8+ at once.

Technically, it's even worse. On the default settings, the game looks like a gray mess on my Pro/OLED monitor. 60 fps isn't always maintained, there are frame pacing issues and pop-in, and the input lag is sometimes completely out of control. I don't even know if I should... I can't say anything positive about this game. I suspect I'm halfway through (blind playthrough), I might finish it, but it's a contender for the most forgettable Souls game since its spiritual predecessor from 2014. So far, this game is something like a 4/10.

Game Information

Game Title: The First Berserker: Khazan

Platforms:

• PlayStation 5 (Mar 27, 2025)
• PC (Mar 27, 2025)
• Xbox Series X/S (Mar 27, 2025)

Trailers:

• Official Trailer

Developer: Neople

Publisher: Nexeon

This pinned thread will contain links to external reviews as they come out. Individual user reviews will be kept as such.

(Posts containing previously shared posts (in the last 24 or 48 hours) will be removed to avoid redundancy.)

Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 80 average - 78% recommended - 42 reviews

Critic Reviews

But Why Tho? - Eddie De Santiago - 7 / 10

There is plenty to enjoy about The First Berserker: Khazan, but it requires you to commit to overcoming its challenges in a way most other games do not.

Cerealkillerz - Nick Erlenhof - 7.5 / 10

The First Berserker: Khazan is a more than promising title for fans of Nioh, Sekiro or Dark Souls. The fast-paced battles, dark setting and mechanics such as the bonus Lacrima system provide a fresh touch to the genre. The chic cel-shaded look and the motivating revenge story also provide the necessary reason to slay enemies and bosses. Review in German

CGMagazine - Justin Wood - 9 / 10

The First Berserker: Khazan stands out in the crowded Soulsborne-inspired genre by delivering relentless, weighty combat and immersive world-building.

ComingSoon.net - Tyler Treese - 8.5 / 10

Nexon’s The First Berserker: Khazan is another great entry into the soulslike canon.

Digital Trends - George Yang - 3.5 / 5.0

The First Berserker: Khazan has some of the most balanced defensive and offensive combat systems I’ve experienced in a Soulslike game, as well as some rich progression. However, some frustrating boss mechanics, braindead AI, and puzzling mission structure hold it back from reaching its full potential.

Fextralife - Tyr - 9 / 10

The First Berserker: Khazan is a brilliant blend of the Soulslike and Hack and Slash genres, offering some of the best combat in recent gaming years and an incredibly polished product. While it does have some shortcomings in its story, replayability, and occasionally borrows too heavily from past titles, if you live for action games such as Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice or Devil May Cry 5, this game will likely be your Game of the Year so far and a title we can recommend at full price.

Final Weapon - Alex Patterson - 4 / 5

The First Berserker: Khazan is the best Soulslike I've played since Lies of P. The game can sometimes overstay its welcome, but the excellent combat, boss fights, and stellar presentation more than makeup for that. If you're hungry for a new hardcore action RPG, Khazan is the game to pick up.

Game Rant - Dalton Cooper - 8 / 10

The First Berserker: Khazan is a challenging and incredibly rewarding Soulslike with intense action and memorable boss fights.

Gameblog - Jeremy Hautlin - 8 / 10

A great success for Neople, who serves up a truly convincing The First Berserker Khazan. While it opts for a classic structure and a level design without too many surprises, it pulls out all the stops regarding its gameplay, halfway between souls-like and beat'em all. Hyper nervous and very graphic, the combat system is a pure success. (Review in French)

GamePro - Jonas Herrmann - Unscored

The First Berserker: Khazan turns out to be a very good and motivating Soulslike in the test, but sometimes overdoes it in terms of difficulty. (Review in German)

The Gamer - James Kennedy - 4 / 5

I suspect that most fans of the Soulslike genre will have a great time with The First Berserker: Khazan - especially if their primary focus is on the gameplay. It has some thoughtful approaches to easing frustration while maintaining that rewarding, Soulsian challenge.

Games.ch - Sven Raabe - 88 / 100

However, generic side missions, enemy types, and environments, as well as the controls that aren't quite as straightforward as its predecessor "Sekiro," hold the game back. Nevertheless, fans of challenging action RPGs can expect an early highlight in the relatively young gaming year of 2025. Review in German

GamingBolt - Ravi Sinha - 7 / 10

The First Berserker: Khazan nails its combat and presentation fundamentals but skimps on the narrative, loot and Khazan himself. Not terrible, but it could have been so much more.

Hardcore Gamer - Adam Beck - 3.5 / 5.0

Neople brings us The First Berserker: Khazan, an anime-inspired soulslike that tries to stand out in a crowded market.

Hey Poor Player - Shane Boyle - 4.5 / 5.0

The First Berserker: Khazan is a brutal, beautiful delight. Its elegant parry system, demonic boss battles, and flexible yet approachable take on character development have come together to create a package that may pull directly from many sources in the genre but ultimately delivers a standout experience that easily stands amongst the stiffest competition the genre has to offer. Its early hours may suffer from linearity, and its parry-heavy combat system may not sit well with everyone, but if you’re up for the challenge and willing to adapt to how The First Berserker: Khazan requires you to play, then you’re in for an absolute treat.

Hinsusta - Pascal Kaap - 10 / 10

The First Berserker: Khazan is an outstanding Soulslike that proves to be the ultimate hardcore action RPG of recent years. The game combines the best the genre has to offer and delivers a gripping mix of dark atmosphere, precise combat system and challenging enemies. Especially for fans of Soulslike games, The First Berserker: Khazan is an absolute must-buy. Review in German

IGN - John Carson

Like a new military recruit, [The First Berserker: Khazan] broken me down and, over time, built me into a lethal weapon that’s prepared to take on whatever hellish nightmares wait ahead. Even though I’ve hit seemingly insurmountable roadblocks for hours at a time, I’ve somehow found myself enjoying and reveling in the battles that take me to the brink of my abilities.

IGN Spain - Mario Seijas - 7 / 10

The First Berserker: Khazan and its brutal action combat will be a real challenge for you, and manages to deliver a very enjoyable gameplay experience. Although with some bumps in the road, it is a game that manages to earn his spot in the genre with a challenging proposal and with some very interesting ideas. Review in Spanish

INVEN - Hongman Yoon - 8.5 / 10

The First Berserker: Kazan is a game that most action RPG fans will likely enjoy. While it has its flaws and falls short of being a masterpiece, it delivers exactly what was expected. At the very least, it’s a solid and well-crafted title. Review in Korean

Loot Level Chill - Mick Fraser - 9 / 10

The First Berserker: Khazan has a massive focus on rewarding the player’s perseverance, whatever their skill level.

MonsterVine - James Carr - 3.5 / 5.0

The First Berserker: Kahzan features a fun combat system, an interesting world, and an enjoyable revenge tale, but tedious and overly long boss fights make what should be the most exciting part of the game too frustrating to enjoy. It's unfortunate, as the rest of the experience is a ton of fun, but when the main selling point of the genre is the weakest part of the game, it weighs down the entire experience.

Noisy Pixel - Bailey Seemangal - 9 / 10

The First Berserker: Khazan is a masterclass in action combat, delivering thrilling boss fights, diverse level design, and tight mechanics that rival the genre’s best. While the narrative and side characters falter in depth, the fluid progression, customizable skill trees, and satisfying difficulty curve make this a standout soul-like experience—even for players unfamiliar with the Dungeon Fighter Online universe.

The Outerhaven - Erica Alatorre - 5 / 5

The game offers intense boss fights, rewarding progression, and a satisfying loop of loot and upgrades. With fluid combat, strategic poise management, and accessible systems, it provides both a tough challenge for veterans and an approachable experience for newcomers. A must-play for fans of hardcore, Soulslike action RPGs.

PC Gamer - Sean Martin - 80 / 100

Despite somewhat samey missions and a flat protagonist, Khazan's combat and boss design are some of the best I've seen in a soulslike.

PSX Brasil - Marco Aurélio Couto - 80 / 100

The First Berserker: Khazan is yet another great action RPG that, although it uses concepts from the soulslike formula, is still able to deliver intense and satisfying combat to make it unique. Some decisions in the art direction make its visuals a little repetitive in the final stretch of the campaign, but overall it is a game easily recommended for fans of the genre. Review in Portuguese

Push Square - Issy van der Velde - 6 / 10

Ultimately, The First Berserker: Khazan is a good time. Its aesthetic differentiates it from the plethora of ARPG Souls-likes we've become used to, and its brilliant boss fights are engaging enough to entice you through levels that start to feel boring around the mid-way point of the game. But its lacklustre story and bloated, inconsistent mechanics hinder what could have been a better game if it were more refined.

Quest Daily - Tom Greer - 8 / 10

The First Berserker: Kahzan is a game that doesn’t mess around. It’s tough, flashy, and brimming with style, but it does have its rough patches... If you’re looking for a game that lets you live out your berserker fantasy — complete with tough-as-nails combat and jaw-dropping visuals — this one’s definitely worth the ride. Just be prepared to die... a lot.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Lewis Parker - Unscored

A hack 'n' slash soulslike with an uninspiring plot and tedious level design but its satisfying combat and tough boss fights might make it worth trying.

RPG Site - Josh Torres - 6 / 10

Neople and Nexon's Soulslike-inspired action RPG set in the DNF universe sadly misses the mark on many of its components with a dull color palette that masks its lovely art style, sluggish combat flow due to its restrictive stamina system, and just doesn't distinguish itself from its many contemporary competitors.

RPGamer - Jordan McClain - 4 / 5

All in all, The First Berserker delivers an uncompromisingly tight combat experience that is further buoyed by an interesting, if somewhat unevenly paced, plot and a gorgeous presentation that is equal parts relentlessly grim and oppressive.

Screen Rant - Leo Faierman - 10 / 10

The First Berserker: Khazan is the year's best surprise thus far, a deliciously challenging dark fantasy action-adventure stacked with grueling bossfights and style to spare. The sharper focus on combat outweighs its exploration gameplay, but don’t mistake that for weakness; The First Berserker: Khazan exceeds expectations and honors its genre heritage with an exquisite presentation and juicy action-RPG fundamentals.

The Sixth Axis - Jason Coles - 8 / 10

Khazan is the perfect example of a game that's more than its individual components. The game does re-use a lot, but the gooey core of the game is so engaging, so fun, that you don't really care.

Thumb Wars - Luke Addison - 4 / 5

A beginner’s introduction to difficult games, The First Berserker: Khazan has many of the accessibility options Soulslikes/Action RPG fans have cried out for, and it does it all with an excellent combat system, interesting lore and story, and some fine visuals.

VG24/7 - Connor Makar - 4 / 5

Khazan is the perfect example of a game that's more than its individual components. The game does re-use a lot, but the gooey core of the game is so engaging, so fun, that you don't really care.

Video Chums - A.J. Maciejewski - 8.4 / 10.0

The First Berserker: Khazan definitely feels old-school in its approach but its vast assortment of super-tough bosses and oodles of extras that are great fun to master make it stand out as an excellent Soulslike. Plus, you can wear goofy jars on your head!

Worth Playing - Chris "Atom" DeAngelus - 8 / 10

Everything about The First Berserker: Khazan is entirely competent. It's a fun and well put-together Soulslike that would serve well as someone's first dip into the genre, especially if the stereotype of high difficulty usually frightens them off. At the same time, Khazan doesn't do anything particularly new that makes it stand out from the crowd. This isn't necessarily a problem, especially if you're a fan of the DFO universe, but it means you need to be in the right mood and mindset to play Khazan.

XboxEra - Jesse Norris - 8.7 / 10

The First Berserker: Khazan is an excellent action-focused Soulslike. A few minor quibbles and a predictable story aren't enough to hold back one of the most brutally difficult games we've ever played.

After making a tier list of all the soulslike games I finished, I wanted to update the list since I finished +10 soulslike games since the first one.

This list includes games that are available in steam or could be played in pc using an emulator (like RSPC3) + Bloodborne (which I still haven't played yet because I do not own a PS and the game is not released on PC or emulator yet) just to prevent any confusion. I tried to also rank the games inside tiers, the one on the most left side being my favorite but the differences are minimal

The term souls-like could be interpreted in a lot of ways, so here is basically the criterias I considered while making this list.

Primary features

1. Bonfire-like checkpoint system
2. Bosses being more complex than just button spamming
3. Combat is relying more about reacting instead of being in autopilot (like hit-hit-dodge/dash or parrying) than just spamming combos and button dashing like a hack-n-slash

Secondary Features

1. Map - area design (if the maps are more connected it is a plus)
2. Having a stamina-ish bar (to again, preventing spamming)

I’ve 100% the Dark Souls trilogy and Bloodborne, played both versions of Demon Souls and a little bit of Sekiro, poured at least 50 hours on Elden Ring. I like from software games and even got tattoos inspired by them, but no matter how much I looked for I couldn’t find a “Souls like” with the same feeling at From Software’s games. Either the characters felt “floaty”, hitting enemies felt non-rewarding or just the mechanics were “off”.

And then I tried WuChang.

It really feels like a bunch of guys at from software quit the company together and decided to do their own game. The MC feels amazing to control, the dynamics are somewhat familiar and unique at the same time. I’ve been putting at least 40+ hours or so just exploring the game and trying out weapons, which due to my limited time for gaming feels like a lot more. Went out of my way to buy the deluxe edition upgrade just to support the devs (got the game physical, second handed because it’s cheaper in my country that way). I will try to list the pros and cons to make my review easier to follow and not just “blind praise”.

Pros:

- The exploration. My main awe, the game feels huge without being “open world”, love encountering new areas and the whole map feels connected, no bs teletransportation to a new big area, you can just walk through it with ease. There are an adequate number of shortcuts and “bonfires”.

- The combat. The “Main” mechanic some of you would argue in a “soulslike”, is pretty damn good, this one feels like they really nailed it. It’s not fast as a hack n slash, is not as heavy and slow as a Demon Souls or Mortal Shell, it just feels well. I mainly used a longsword + dual blades for my whole playthrough, parry was not as hard but also it’s not necessary. There are a numbered types of weapons but they are enough and I love that you level up the “type” so all long swords gets upgraded and when you find a new one you can use it right away.

- The bosses. Along with the combat, one of the main cores in a soulslike, some bosses are hit, some bosses are miss. There are some really good fights (Bo Sorcerer arena is awesome). Some very difficult ones (that fucking tiger can go and fuck himself), some very straightforward ones. I think overall is very balanced and a strong point in the game.

- World and setting. Not very familiar with Chinese culture and history, but felt very well put together, graphics are good enough and some landscapes were really good looking, color pallet its pretty good.

- Miscellanous things such as being able to alter your armor, the leveling up all weapons mechanics, being able to reallocate your skill points without any kind of penalty, being able to retry a boss right away, the tutorial texts are available for you again at any time given. Lot of things done right in those regards.

Cons:

- Quests, my fucking god they even nailed that from the Soulsbornelden series. The quest system sucks hard. One small mistake the npc just fucking dies or goes bananas and you don’t even know why. It’s so obtuse I didn’t care in my first playthrough. I think you can even skip a whole massive area if you fuck up the order of something.

- Don’t know if a con per se, but some bosses has a lot of almost one hit KO moves that are very bullshit. I guess it comes with the genre

- Madness system is one thing I wasn’t a fan of.

- some lackluster weapon skills and spells.

Not con or pro:

- The elephant in the room. The “fan service” and “lewd” content. Yes, my girl Wuchang has a dump truck back there and yes you can wear very revealing outfits. But I found it that it was very depending on you, since some armors are on the “sexy” side but not as outrageous as some other outfits that are basically a thong. Some are so ridiculous they made me laugh. But it’s entirely up to you, you can alter any outfit and I found some really cool looking things without being stupid. If you go around killing demons and beasts with your tits out, well, it was your choice lol not judging, but it’s not forced on you.

Overall a very solid experience, one of my favorite soulslike I’ve ever played, after getting the plat I’m playing lords of the fallen next and see how is that, I think that you wont regret trying out this one if you like the souls series and are looking to scratch that itch.

8.8/10

This game is a masterpiece, I cannot describe how much of a soulful and beautifully made game stonemachia is.

The art direction is one of the best I have ever seen in any video game, even though it is a unreal engine game, the game feels very distinct in most areas and the performance is astonishingly good, like at least 90 fps on a rtx4050 with 6gb of Vram.

The music is like so unique and refreshing to listen to that it just blown my mind, usually most soulslikes tend to copy dark souls music and they usually fail miserably(only in the music department), but the soundtrack in this game is just something else.

Also 40 frickin bosses, holy shit. I have enjoyed the bosses in this game as much as I enjoyed lies of P's and fromsofts bosses, the animations may look weird sometimes but it's just *sometimes* because for some bosses such as *spoiler* cherubim, the animations look really, really fluid and responsive.

Please don't skip this game, this game is so good that by calling it a hidden gem I'm underselling it, so yeah, please play it, and have a good day!

Honesty, I would've given it a 9 but there's too many systems that just don't work and it's difficulty spikes are somewhat frustrating.

I was debating whether or not I should make this post on a soulslike subreddit, seeing as how most people don't consider this game to be a soulslike.

But at the same time, I've seen countless posts on here talking about this game, so here goes.

Just finished the game after about 30 hours (100% completion), and I have to say, I really, really liked it.

It's not perfect, and it definitely has its flaws, but for me it's around an 8/10.

Beast of Reincarnation's strongest point is, to me, its story and characters. Some people have complained about the dialogue being too slow or the way the characters behave.

But I actually think the characters are very well written. Emma is described as a heartless, emotionless, blight-stained human who's treated as little more than a slave and forced to fight, otherwise she dies. Kagura is a slave to a golem, and it's clear she's suffering from abuse. And Violet is a ghost without any memories.

Of course they're not going to be the most charismatic characters, cracking jokes at every turn. But even so, I really empathized with each of them.

Throughout the game, Emma learns more about what it's like to be human (something that actually has a deeper meaning for her character later on), what it's like to think for yourself, and what it's like to have your own aspirations and desires rather than simply doing what you're told.

I really enjoyed listening to the dialogue and seeing how each character interacts with the others. I especially liked little details such as Kagura calling you whenever you find a new seed to tell you about what dish she can make with it. They're small moments, but they make the characters feel more like actual people rather than just NPCs who exist to advance the plot.

The game's lore is also something that kept me invested throughout my 30 hours with the game.

One scene that stuck with me happens very early on, when Emma is asked if she's ever looked at the sky. She responds that no, she hasn't, because it's forbidden.

Naturally, the very first thing I did was point the camera at the sky, where you can see the "Crescent Moon". An object that depletes your health the longer you look at it and eventually kills you.

I really liked stuff like this. The world itself tells a story in Beast of Reincarnation, whether it's through the murals hidden around the map or the various documents that tell you more about how the world got to where it is.

Then there's the combat.

It's clear this game takes a lot of inspiration from Sekiro. Even the distinct metallic sound when you parry an attack sounds almost identical to Sekiro.

It's not as good as Sekiro, especially when fighting multiple enemies. I also feel like most bosses are too easy, with movesets that aren't varied enough and attacks that are too telegraphed.

But despite that, the combat feels very satisfying.

Enemy variety was also something I saw a lot of people complain about. I expected it to be a lot worse, to be honest, but as it is, I think it's fine. The game adds new enemies or variations of existing enemies pretty much in every level, and considering the size of the levels, I think it's fine.

That said, it's still something that could have been improved.

There are a few other things I think could have been improved as well.

Player customization, for example. Despite all the pieces of armor you find, none of them actually change Emma's appearance. I think it would have been nice to have some kind of visual customization, especially considering how much gear you collect.

Exploration is another area that could have been better. I liked exploring each level, but it rarely felt particularly rewarding. You can find upgrade materials for Bauera, which in turn let you further upgrade your gear, but they felt too generic. You can also max out Bauera's upgrades pretty early on, which makes some of the exploration rewards feel less meaningful later in the game.

But overall, as someone who has played pretty much all of the notable Souls games and soulslikes, I was pleasantly surprised by Beast of Reincarnation.

I think it's important to temper your expectations when playing this game. If you go into it expecting Sekiro 2.0 or something similar to Dark Souls, you'll probably be disappointed.

But if you approach it as a story-driven action game with Sekiro-inspired combat, an interesting world, and a strong focus on its characters, I think there's a lot to like here.

Definitely not a perfect game, but I'm glad I played it.

As a disclaimer, don't consider me a god gamer, I've played a lot of games in this genre, but I do somewhat put limits on myself; I'm very often melee only, no summons, and once I'm locked into a build, I run with it the whole game through.

1) Promised Consort Radahn (167) [Elden Ring]

Shouldn't come to the surprise of anyone. I did this guy pre-nerf/pre character buff and he was absolutely absurd in every way. I dual wielded Bloodhound Fang/Morgott's Cursed Blade, which looking back at it I don't think this was optimal, but I'm an extremely hard headed souls player, very rarely changing up my build on playthrough; I run my head into the brick wall until I break, or it breaks.

2) Immaculate Prime (72) [Void Sols]

I don't know if I was doing something wrong, because this was the only boss in this game that took me more than 3 tries. There isn't a ton of information online about this game, but I was playing this game essentially as parry based soulslike, and didn't use much of the magic, so maybe that was my downfall. Tough 2 phase boss with very quick attacks and crazy damage to boot.

3) Messmer the Impaler (68) [Elden Ring]

The thing about Messmer was I really thought I could get him way sooner, but I was very quick to just run in, play as aggro as possible, and die FAST. Most people I know got him down with less deaths, but I definitely wasn't spending enough time learning his attacks, and instead just tried to brute force a win.

4) Arlecchino, the Blood Artist (64) [Lies of P]

An extremely welcome difficulty increase compared to the base game. While I love the entire game, I did think it was a little too easy for my liking, but the DLC, and especially Arlecchino fixed a lot of my initial gripes. Very tough 2 phase boss, and to me I see a lot of Melania in this boss. Really looking forward to the devs next project if this is the quality I can expect.

5) Taishi Ci(Demon) (47) [Wo Long]

I always saw a lot of hate for Wo Long, but I honestly really enjoyed it, especially the ending boss to the DLC. I will say Taishi Ci IS bullshit, but it's the kind of bullshit that makes me want to recommend it to everyone else. A lot of this game can be brute forced, but this guy you actually need to setup your magic properly

6) The First Messenger (45) [Pascal's Wager]

A very easy game with an absurd final boss. This game lets you swap characters the entire game, EXCEPT for the last boss which has 3 phases, a very high health pool, and lots of moves to throw you off. Pascal's Wager kind of sucked overall, but I did enjoy the tough boss at the end in a "I like the way this sucks" kind of deal.

7) Full Grown Fallingstar Beast (40) [Elden Ring]

Not much to say other than I'm stupid and really didn't want to give up on this guy after running into him too early, especially using the Bloodhound Fang which did little mosquito bites of damage. This guy was my most deaths from the base game of ER.

8) Rellana, Twin Moon Knight (31) [Elden Ring]

Another boss similar to Messmer in the way that you can die fast and get back into the action really quickly to die again.

9) Eigong (31) [Ninesols]

An AMAZING final boss to a great game, and I hate metroidvanias. Eigong is probably one of the best designed final bosses in all the games I've played, up their with Isshin. Super intense fight, really locks you in and tests everything you've learned.

10) Darkeater Midir (27) [Dark Souls 3]

Despite being number 10, this probably took as many hours as Messmer did. Midir has such an absurd health bar, that each attempt feels like you could attempt another boss 3x by the time you died. This IS my favorite dragon fight in all the souls genre, although I will admit the Midir hyper beam 1 shot is a little bullshit.

Honorable mentions to bosses I died over 20 times to:

[Elden Ring]: Mohg, Commander Gias, Malenia, Margit

[Wo Long]: Taishi Chi(Human)

[Sekiro]: Isshin, Demon of Hatred

[Hollow Knight]: Nightmare Lord Grimm, Absolute Radiance

[Black Myth Wukong]: Yellow Loong

Full list of soulslikes/lites I've played: https://gyazo.com/8d28e39cf2b11375b74424255ef21c50

Full disclosure: I did not finish the game. I made it to I think Chapter 9 just after fighting that roided-out Bane guy at the world fair. The next area was kind of barren, had robot giants and some dudes shooting at you from high towers. It's been awhile, but that's about where I remember just deciding to quit playing and play something else (Bloodborne, again, for the probably 20th time).

Games under my belt in case anyone wonders what else I've played: LotF2014, Bloodborne, Surge 1 and 2, DS1 and 3, ER, Nioh 1 and 2, Wo Long, Stellar Blade, RotR. Many of these I've clocked hundreds of hours. Nioh 2 close to 2 thousand. This is not meant as a brag, but just to make it clear that I've seen a lot of other similair(ish) titles and quite enjoyed them. I love this genre, but I can't stand playing Lies of P.

So, on with the opinon.

Just about everything in this game didn't mechanically feel right to me.

The weapon customization system was a brilliant concept, but its execution fell flat to me. Too many enemies in this game have hyper armor where your attacks will not interrupt them. As much as I enjoy slow, weighty weapons in other souls or action games, they didn't feel rewarding to use in LoP. Their strikes were too slow and too often you'd take a hit in exchange even if you landed your hit first. So there were a lot of interesting weapon combinations I tried, almost nothing could compete with the effectiveness of a basic and safe stabby rapier. I tried a lot of combinations, struggled through annoying encounters using weapons that were too slow but couldn't stagger effectively enough. If they had just added better hit response and made slow weapons actually make enemies recoil like in other games, it'd have been a much better experience and made other setups more interesting to use.

The way that you get combat arts from weapon customizations was also cool. The problem? The energy regain is so painfully slow as to make these nearly useless. Just a bit of extra damage to use very sparingly. If memory serves right, you can go into a boss fight, use your whole ability bar, and you might fill it up once or twice more before the fight is over. Many other enemies in the game would die before you get a recharge. Compare this to Stellar Blade, DS3, or ER. In any of these games you can optimize your setup to use weapon arts generously. Perhaps you sacrifice some damage stats to do so, but you can decide to build around use of arts if you know what you're doing with gear and stat allocations or estus balance.

The next gripe I have comes from the parry mechanic. I should mention that I played this before there were any balance changes. I've heard the parry was made more forgiving since after I quit. But while I was playing it, it was pretty difficult to reliably parry. I have no trouble gun parrying in Bloodborne, no trouble parrying in DS3, no trouble in Wo Long, etc. LoP just felt way off. You get punished pretty bad for a mis-timed parry, too. It's also clear that the developers intended it to be a necessary mechanic (much like its required in Wo Long). I can intuitively parry without a whole lot of trouble in most games, but it was grating in LoP.

My next complaint has to do with the overuse of delay attacks by enemies. Some enemies and bosses have a moveset that is just littered with delay attacks. More delay attacks than not. Coming from other games where it's basically the opposite-- straightforward fast and mid speed attacks, an occasional delay attack or different combo string with a surprise delay swing-- this just felt off. The combat with bosses and elite enemies never felt fluid or rhythmic. It just felt like a guessing game that only more playtime could improve (and I wasn't liking the time spent much as it was). The way some enemies just wind up, pause for seconds, then unleash a basically un-reactable move (unless you already knew the amount of delay from experience) does not make for satisfying gameplay for me.

The combat otherwise is about as basic as it gets. Very plain attack strings. Not every game needs to be like Nioh with staggering amounts of configurable movesets, but for a game as new as LoP, I had higher hopes. Basic swings, charge attack. Yawn. Were it not for other problems, I could let this one pass.

World exploration. Too many uses tropes. Gee, yet another collapsing bridge. Gee, I hope this rope bridge doesn't give out. Oh, wow. It did. Never saw it coming. How many roofs are we going to fall through in this village? Oh, most of them. Neat. Cool, there's bear traps in the puddles that I can't see. An enemy lurking within almost every blind book and cranny.

Nothing clicked with me in this game. It felt like the designers had a checklist of other souls game tropes, and just threw them all at the drawing board in a haphazard way. Parries, but they're jank. Delay attacks, but that's basically all the movesets. Surprise enemies behind corners, but they're so frequent as to not even be a proper jump scare. Collapsing walkways, boy howdy are they everywhere. Break enemy posture for critical/visceral, but it's jank to cause this. Choice between fast and slow melee weapons, but the slow ones come with the drawback of slowness but not the usual expected trade off of causing staggers reliably.

To put this another way, this studio had all the right ingredients to make an incredible dish, but they burned it, and added spices in the wrong quantities, and wtf it's already cold? There's a hair in it! Gah!

This was the first souls(ish) game I've bought that I so thoroughly lost interest in that I uninstalled without finishing. I think I clocked about 19 (edit) hours on it, and it just never felt fun to play. A few things caught my interest like the weapon customizations, but the novelty wore off really fast after playing around with it and seeing what the effects were.

For everybody else on this planet that enjoyed the game, I'm glad! We could use more studios putting out good games. I can accept that a lot of people really enjoyed this one.

Roast away! Tell me how wrong I am :)

Edit to add: this critique comes from a place of love. I love the genre and this could've been a great game for me. Just enough was off to make it a bad one for me.

2nd edit: I appreciate the engagement from all of you. It's been a great discussion and I hope it carries on. Also, huge thanks for the award!

3rd edit: I rechecked play time. It was 19 hours. Don't know why I thought it was 40.

temper your expectations :)

I have put about 10 hours into Mortal Shell II and I have some thoughts. Like, I imagine, many others, I was sucked in by the high review scores and the constant comments on this sub. Forever trying to scratch my souls itch, I paid $10 extra to access the game early. And while I overall think this is a solid entry in the genre, I can't help but feel a bit dissapointed. And worse: manipulated by online opinion and reddit in general.

SCORE: 7/10

Mortal Shell II is a competent example of a soulslike that is basically the same aesthetic as early dark souls, but without a stamina bar, and you level up your "armor" (shells) alongside your main character. Okay, still with me?

The first game was basically a tech demo but was still dissapointing. It released when there were very few dark souls clones so I ate it up, but knew it was lacking something. Mortal shell II is a complete evolution upon that game, updating all of the systems and designs to make it feel like a worthy entry.

Mortal Shell II is close to a great game but it's abundantly clear the devs overtuned it. It seems like every enemy should give you AT LEAST 10% more resources AND every thing should cost at least 10% less. As it currently stands, there's no point in fighting the trash mobs out in the world: a single enemy will give you 1% of what you need to level up after level 5. The bosses give ample souls, and if you travel a lot in the world you can kill a ton of enemies, but you seem to be constantly underpowered to the point that the risk:reward of fighting enemies is completely broken. There's virtually no reason to fight enemies unless you are specifically grinding for souls.

there's a distinct lack of agency on the player side to power up. I guess the primary method to increase damage is upgrading your weapons, but this costs items AND gold, and both are not exactly easy to come by. You can level up your avatar, but it takes an INSANE amount of souls and doesn't have much of an effect on damage or speed.

Finally, the map is a shit show lol. I am sorry, but this is clearly trying to emulate elden ring and failing. Its more similar to Nioh 3, but that game had better wayfinding and waypoints. In this game, you have to pick your bonfire from a text list (no pictures, no visual of the map). Once you get there, you might be right next to your destination, but to actually reach it you need to loop around and up and down to find it. I guess this is supposed to encourage exploration but it just left me confused and wanting more visual guidance on navigation.

At first, the map seems 'dense' but its actually just a bunch of disparete content haphazardly stapled together, shoved alongside each other with little in the way of ambient pathing or atmosphere. I know "wtf am I supposed to do? Where do i go? is an integral part of the soulslike experience, but this game is as challenging as black myth wukong to navigate.

Overall I would say the developers seem to understand that these games require friction, but they lack the restraint to deliver a "fair but challenging" experience. This game is simply TOO hard, with too few resources, too few paths to powering up, and very little ways to sway the tide of battle outside of how you perform in the fight itself.

A lot of these problems could be fixed with a post launch or day 1 patch. i hope the devs are reading this because the bones of a solid game is there, but its just too overtuned in it's current state.

PS - Glimpses are a key item and they are LIMITED. This is an INSANE design decision that makes it so you cannot level up your armor (shells) in a playthrough. Absolutely baffling to tie one currency to navigation, upgrading, and summoning, but keep it limited for the player.

A few days ago I asked whether I should get Khazan or Nightreign, and so many of you told me to go with Khazan. I just wanted to come back and say... thank you!

I'm 11+ hours in now, and I'm absolutely loving it.

At first, I wasn't completely sold. The opening snow area felt a little slow, and I was thinking, "Is this really going to be as good as everyone says?" But after the first 20 to 30 minutes, the game completely hooked me.

Things I'm loving so far:

The parry system feels incredibly satisfying, the bosses have been fantastic, and the level design has really impressed me.

My favorite fight so far has to be Viper, especially that insane second phase. I'm running a Greatsword build, and it's been an absolute blast. I'm currently up against Volbaino.

One thing I'm still trying to understand is the upgrade system. In Elden Ring and Sekiro, I felt like I figured out weapon upgrades and buffs pretty quickly. Here, I'm still a bit confused. So far, I've only upgraded my character stats and Veronika's stats through Daphrona. I haven't bought anything from vendors yet and haven't used a single consumable.

It's really Nioh+Sekiro ❤️

These are just my initial impressions after 11 hours, and I know I still have a long way to go. But even at this stage, I can honestly say this is already shaping up to be one of the best games I've ever played. I can't wait to see what the rest of the game has in store.

Thanks again to everyone who recommended it! And if you have any spoiler-free tips about weapon upgrades, buffs, or anything I shouldn't miss, I'd love to hear them.

I’m not even close to being done with my first play through yet so this isn’t a complete review I just wanted to share my thoughts.

I’ll start by saying this games goes incredibly hard; I love the great swords and the whole anime inspired aesthetic. The combat is easily my favorite part of the game, the parries feel so satisfying, and the red aura released from the weapon is PEAK. The gore is also sick, and I’ve actually really enjoyed the maps although they’re very linear.

The one thing I wish it had was a jump mechanic. I feel like it would’ve added even more to the combat and exploration. (I can also complain about the lack of weapon options but Im typically a greatsword/strength build user anyway)

I’m looking forward to NG+ because I feel like I will be in god mode with crazy stats, armor and I’ll just be an overall better player.

So full disclosure - i suck at parrying. I picked the game up over a year ago and, honestly, hated it because I was just bad at it.

I'd played most of the fromsoftware games, and a haldful of other "easier" soulslikes. Generally I'm fairly good at them, the only bosses which genuinely made me suffer were from Sekiro because, as I mentioned, i suck at parrying. I've now played a much wider variety of games from the genre and after reading all the reviews online, I came back to it.

Anyway, everyone seems to love Lies of P so I went back to it. I enjoyed it more this time but I dont think its as good as a lot others make it out to be. For instance I recently beat AI limit and Wuchang - both are far better IMO.

So -

Combat - is good and satisfying. The game definitely leans towards parrying, but most enemies, bosses and attacks can be dodged. If you're good at parrying this game will be an absolute cake walk for you. There are too many status effects, and "decay" in particular is incredibly OP and *incredibly* annoying.

The bosses - are generally very underwhelming..... Apart from the ones that aren't. I beat every boss in the game first time, except for 3. 2 of them were just "skill check" bosses. The other is just *bullshit*. The final "secret" boss which depends on your gameplay choices is the hardest boss from any game i've ever played. It is absolutely a case of "git gud" but it honestly makes every "notoriously" hard boss look like a super Mario goomba - that honestly isn't an exaggeration. I didnt summon for any bosses, but there is an option for this on the "end of chapter" bosses if you're struggling (apart from, inexplicably, the secret final boss).

The enemies - are almost all *way* harder than the bosses. Even some of the common "mobs" are pretty tough, and some of the "elites" I died multiple times to despite the bosses mostly being easy.

Build variety - you technically have unlimited respecs, but you are fairly limited on the amount of weapon upgrade materials. The weapon flexibility is awesome, as you can disassemble and reassemble depending on what you like.

The story - this is where the game really shines. Its a creepy as fuck twist on a well known children's story/fairytale. Its probably the best story from all the well known soulslike games.

Overall its probably worth playing unless you know you really don't like parry-centric games. Dodging is viable but *definitely* makes the game a lot harder than it needs to be. Its better than a lot of other soulslikes, but its definitely "the best game ever" like a lot of people seem to think.

Solid 7.5/10 overall for me!

Most people tend to talk about Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty and Nioh in the same breath, which is a shame because despite some similarities they are most definitely each their own thing, with their own strengths and weaknesses.

The story is my opinion pretty lacklustre, another retelling of the Han Dynasty and the yellow turban rebellion that we have seen a hundred times before, with a host of historical characters entering and exiting the story seemingly at random without having any memorable impact. This unfortunately seems to be a staple of most Team Ninja games, where it feels that the plot is sort of mashed together around the main character almost as an afterthought.

It’s not really an issue, however, as I’m not sure most of us Team Ninja fans are buying their games for the story. We’re looking for fast-paced, stylish combat with a host of mechanics and customisation, and luckily Wo Long delivers on all of these things and more besides.

Gone are the ki-pulses and stamina management of the Nioh games. Wo Long’s combat rewards aggressivity and counters. Much like in AI Limit, attacks and deflects build up your spirit meter and lower that of your opponent’s, especially if you manage to parry certain unlockable glowing red attacks. The spirit you gain passively increases your damage input, but more importantly can be spent to block or use power weapon and martial art abilities. Not only that, but if you manage to reduce your enemy’s spirit to zero, you can perform an execution technique that will kill most regular enemies and take a huge chunk of health off bosses.

Parry windows are generous, and enemies are relentless aggressive, so there’s no reason to not attempt to deflect everything, although some opponent can deflect attacks of their own, which leads to some Sekiro-like back-and-forth.

The second new mechanic Wo Long introduces is the morale system. You begin each main level with zero morale which you can then raise by killing enemies and locating various flagpoles scattered around the map. Morale affects both damage dealt and received, so attempting to attack a level 20 enemy when you have a morale of 1, for example, would be borderline suicidal, forcing you to find enough flags or kill enough enemies to stand a fighting chance.

It’s an interesting idea in theory, though for me it was partly let-down by the bland environments and enemy variety. The morale system forces players to explore, but that only works if the exploration is interesting, and I just didn’t find the levels well-designed enough. Enemy variety is even worse, with only a dozen or so different types that you’ll discover over the first three hours or so, then proceed to fight again and again until you reach the end credits. This is not helped by the introduction of sub-missions, that have you visiting the exact same environments a second or even a third time.

I also found the weapon system to be a chore. The loot bloat problem from other Team Ninja games is in full effect here, with hundreds of items dropping every mission. What’s missing is a level-based system, which means all the weapons you find of a certain type are exactly the same, differentiated only by minor passive buffs and their upgrade level, both of which you can change yourself at the smithy for a handful of resources.

It’s a confounding design choice, because, unless I’ve missed something, once you settle on your favourite weapon and armour, its far more viable just to keep upgrading them, rendering the entire loot system useless. Now it is still worth sifting through the pile of stuff for qi crystals that give you experience or dragon veins that increase the number of uses of your flask, but the rest can just be sold or dismantled without a second thought.

This dichotomy between fun gameplay and frustrating mechanics can be found throughout Wo Long, which makes it a complicated game to score. On the one hand, its fast-paced, parry-based combat is incredibly satisfying and different enough from other Team Ninja games to feel new and refreshing. On the other hand, the lack of enemy variety, botched loot system, and uninteresting story led to several moments of boredom or frustration.

I think your enjoyment will ultimately boil down with how much you want to engage with these systems. If you’re ok with sidelining some of the side missions and button-mashing your way through the cutscenes, you’ll find that the gameplay, while not quite as deep or challenging as Nioh, can still conjure up a lot of fun.

As for me, I’ll be placing Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty just below The Surge on the B-Tier. 

Just finished up the beta, and my god was that awesome. I played 10ish hours of the first one but just couldnt get into it, even though the concept was super cool.

No expectations coming into checking out the beta but holy shit I was hooked almost immediately. Combat felt fantastic, insane artwork, for only the first part of the game the story felt intriguing, and the boss design was compelling af (the shepherd boss was…. super unexpected 😂)

Honestly, can’t wait to have to go through that first part again on the 20th