The First Berserker: Khazan Deluxe Edition

I went in expecting a competent Nioh clone with a NEXON logo slapped on it. What I got was one of the tightest non-FromSoftware action RPGs in years, wrapped in a cel-shaded art style that genuinely earns its anime influences. The story of Khazan, a great general of the Pell Los Empire condemned as a traitor and resurrected through a pact with an underworld phantom, is not breaking any narrative ground. The revenge arc is functional rather than profound, and the supporting cast in the Crevice hub largely exists to sell you upgrades and dispense lore. If you came for Disco Elysium-tier writing, look elsewhere. But if you came for a combat system that rewards obsessive study, Khazan delivers something close to revelatory. The mechanical core revolves around three weapon classes: Dual Wield, Greatsword, and Spear. Each has its own dedicated skill tree with active skills and passive buffs, and the gulf between picking one up cold and mastering it is genuinely wide. Dual Wield pushes an aggressive, frenzy-oriented playstyle with skills like Whirlwind and Ruthless that let you chain into relentless combos and stun-lock smaller enemies into oblivion. The Greatsword hits slow and hits hard, rewarding patience and punishing greed, though its skill tree is more about patching the weapon's weaknesses than opening new creative avenues. The Spear is the jack-of-all-trades: long range, posture-shredding stamina damage, crowd control through moves like Crescent Strike, and late-tree skills that shift your entire attack pattern depending on whether you've broken an enemy's stance. Stamina management runs under everything. When you strip an enemy's stamina bar, they stagger into an exhausted state and you can land a Brutal Attack that refills your own gauge. It's a mutual stamina war, and reading that rhythm is what separates a clean boss kill from the forty-seventh reload screen. The structure borrows heavily from Nioh rather than the open-world FromSoft template. You operate out of the Crevice hub, deploying into discrete missions with multiple Blade Nexus checkpoints that double as fast-travel points. Missed a chest three rooms back? You can warp to the right checkpoint and grab it without replaying the whole level, a genuinely merciful concession the genre rarely makes. The spirit system adds another layer: damage builds spirit charges that fuel special moves, from quick stabs to ranged magic javelins, usable even when you're stamina-depleted. It rewards aggression rather than defensive camping, which is exactly the design nudge this kind of game needs. Boss difficulty is steep and occasionally feels tuned past fair, and some reviewers noted certain gameplay systems arrive frustratingly late in the campaign. The early hours in particular demand more patience than the combat's eventual frenetic peak would suggest. Visually, Khazan commits hard to its cel-shaded aesthetic and mostly succeeds. Enemy and character designs are distinctive, bosses are elaborate and readable mid-fight, and the anime-inspired art keeps the palette vivid even in cave-heavy early environments. Those early environments are the low point. A lot of the first act runs through underground corridors and generic forests before the level design opens up into more memorable spaces. The voice acting leans cheesy in a way that suits the over-the-top tone, and the soundtrack, while orchestrally competent, fades into the background more than it should. With 85% positive Steam reviews across over 31,000 ratings, the community verdict is clear: this one earned its reputation through craft, not marketing spend. The Deluxe Edition bundles additional cosmetic and gear content for players who want to start with an expanded wardrobe. DFO universe familiarity adds some texture but is nowhere near required reading.

Monika · Scout Team

RPGs

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