The Relic: First Guardian

I went in cautiously optimistic: a small Korean studio, a Souls-adjacent action RPG drawing on Korean folklore, and a combat system that deliberately breaks genre convention. What I found is a game that has real ideas, executes a handful of them well, and then fumbles most of the surrounding infrastructure badly enough to make the good parts feel like a hostage situation. The setting is the world of Arsiltus, where a protective artifact called the Great Relic has shattered, flooding the land with a corrupting force called the Void. The humans it touches become Brutals, which is the game's term for its boss roster. That roster is the headline number: close to 80 of them. The more interesting mechanical hook is what happens when you beat one. Each boss carries a tragic personal story, and on defeat you inherit it alongside their gear and upgrades. It is a genuinely affecting idea, and when the boss design is strong it gives those fights emotional weight that most Souls-adjacent games skip entirely. Combat itself is the area where developer Project Cloud Games made the boldest call. Attacking costs zero stamina. Your stamina bar is reserved strictly for blocking, dodging, and parrying, while special abilities run on cooldowns. The intended loop is to break enemies' stamina gauges through sustained offense and well-timed parries, stagger them, then deal bonus damage with face-button specials. On paper, that is a clean idea that separates aggression from survival management. In practice, the parry timing window is generous, which keeps things approachable, but enemy stagger bars can require so many repeated parries that fights overstay their welcome. Multiple weapon types, each with its own unlockable skill tree, including two-handed longsword, sword and shield, and magic battle staff, add some variety. Progression ditches XP levels entirely in favor of collecting Relic runes with over 70 passive effects that reshape combat tempo, plus unique one-of-a-kind gear found through exploration and boss drops. Here is where the optimism runs out. Across virtually every review at launch, the same catalogue of problems surfaces: late-popping textures, blurry visuals, erratic voice lines that lock your inputs mid-fight, loading screens that eat real time, and progress-blocking bugs. The open world structure compounds things because main quests and side content share no clear distinction, and fog gates block paths based on unstated criteria. The voice acting, mixing human performers with apparent AI-generated voices, landed poorly with almost everyone who commented on it. The developer pushed patches immediately post-launch and has signaled more, which is something, but the launch state reviewers tested was rough by any measure. Who is this actually for right now? If you have a high tolerance for technical roughness and genuine curiosity about the boss-story inheritance mechanic and the stamina-free offense system, there is something here worth watching. Souls veterans who enjoyed Sekiro's parry focus will recognize the rhythm under the noise. Everyone else should wait for a few more patches and a sale before committing hours to a game that currently spends too much goodwill on problems it should have fixed before shipping.

Alex · Scout Team

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