The First Berserker: Khazan is a game I initially was interested in for two main reasons:

1. I love a good souls-like game
2. I am familiar with the Dungeon Fighter Universe (I regularly played DFO around 15 or so years ago and really enjoyed it)

Full disclosure, I have not completed the entire game yet, but I absolutely intend to. However, I do believe I have experienced virtually all of the game's core mechanics and I am confident I can speak to them without missing any major components.

So for the sake of my opinion and this review, let's talk about how this game differentiates itself from a Souls-like published by FromSoftware.

Let's be a bit more specific when we say "Souls-like" as far as The First Berserker: Khazan goes. If you have played multiple FromSoftware titles, you know that, although similar, they each have elements that set them apart from each other mechanically. Dark Souls and Elden Ring cover scaling and deep build variety, while Bloodborne focuses more on aggressive gameplay. Sekiro, on the other hand, deals with a very deflection/parry-based combat system, which works very well for it. So where does Neople's game here fall closest to in comparison? Well, I would say it takes elements from all of these aforementioned games in some capacity. It has "brink guarding" which is a great parallel to Sekiro's deflection system, "brink dodging" which is simply leveraging i-frames to avoid damage, and is very rewarding of aggressive onslaught-focused combat, like Bloodborne.

All that being said regarding how it compares to the souls-like genre, there is something that Khazan does exceptionally well that I have not seen much of elsewhere; despite only having three main weapon types (dual wield, spear, and greatsword), the skill tree depth and skill cohesion is phenomenal. There are many skills that can be learned per weapon type that are chainable into or out of other skills, so the game's combat offers a sort of "closed loop" system wherein many available maneuvers synergize with others--this is, in my opinion, what really makes this game's combat shine. You can find so many interesting ways to find new combos using different moves in different orders, or optimizing how you want to dish out that DPS when fighting certain enemies you might have to change tactics for. It's an overall excellent design.

In-combat sound design. When it comes to the importance of timing and reflexes in general in a heated action game like this one, it's crucial that the audio cues and visual information are in lock-step with one another, offering the player unmistakable stimuli that you've either done something right or wrong. You'll be spending a lot of time parrying (brink guarding) and dodging enemy attacks in this game, so I greatly appreciate the developers' commitment to delivering a sound design both satisfying and conducive to understanding the flow of battle as it unfolds in often chaotic fashion that requires the player to really lock in and pay attention to the successes and failures of executing precise maneuvers to hone those critical skills necessary for this game.

The style. The game has a cel-shaded anime inspired style, and it is done extremely well. It brings a lot of color, life, and emotion to the surroundings and environment, so I certainly can appreciate the artistic approach here.

As far as style and atmosphere goes, there is one particular moment I'd like to mention that was extremely memorable for me, which was the Viper boss fight. Everything about that fight was thematically incredible to me. The arena you fight in was an open space, covered with interactive snow that tracked every step and movement during the fight, under a grim sky with a massive moon which cast mysterious, ominous light onto the set. Additionally, in the second phase of the boss fight, upon the boss using a specific move, the arena becomes extremely dark with the only part of the boss visible are the creature's bright yellow reptilian eyes, which struck a menacing, daunting, chord into the fight. Flashes of intense lightning erupted at the exact moments the creature leaped to strike, illuminating the entire arena for brief moments--it almost felt like a movie. And to top it all off, the soundtrack that played added an incredibly tense otherworldly atmosphere, with its choir singing notes of doom and struggle. All of this combined with the on-screen blizzard effects of snow and wind made for, in my opinion, one of the most breathtaking and exciting boss fight experiences I have ever had in a video game. It was truly remarkable and I would hope everyone could experience at least that in this game. Just incredible presentation.

A couple criticisms:
- I have spent much more time than I would like to admit sifting through gear dropped by enemies. You receive gear from defeating enemies extremely frequently, and, as someone who wants to ensure I have the best possible gear equipped as I progress, I found myself spending so much time stopping the action between fights to check out what gear, weapon, or accessory I just picked up to know if it had better rolls or was a higher level than what I currently had on, which disrupted the pacing of the game. Of course, doing what I did is not necessary, but I knew that if I didn't do this, there would eventually be hundreds of items to look at just to get rid of 99% of them, as I would only keep what's optimal. I am aware the game has a dismantling system and upgrading system for these gear pieces which ties into resource management for crafting etc, but I believe the incentive to constantly check what you are picking up from enemies every minute is too prevalent.

- I know I said fantastic things about the combat system and the skill trees, and the synergy exhibited between all those skills for each weapon type (and I still maintain all this!), but I eventually reached a point in which I found myself frequently returning to the skill tree page just to kind of refresh my memory as to which skills I had equipped at the moment. Also, some of the explanations for the skills (exactly what they did or how they triggered) seemed poorly worded, or simply not explained concisely or simply enough. When the game's core mechanics rely so strongly on the player executing these skills cohesively and gracefully, I think it would serve well for the development team to put extra effort into the skills' descriptions to make comprehension extremely clear, and straightforward. I'm not saying it's overly complicated, I just believe it could have been a bit more refined; perhaps a heavier reliance on visual iconography in the skill page would be beneficial.

In conclusion, I have been thoroughly enjoying The First Berserker: Khazan, and will continue to do so as I finish the story, and I also plan to experience the boss rush modes afterwards.

Neople, thank you for this amazing game, and for creating something that has allowed me to recollect and remember some of the things I experienced in Dungeon Fighter Online when I used to regularly play. Encountering the Bard in the Forgotten Temple for the first time and realizing he is strumming his instrument to the tune of the original Dungeon Fighter character select theme was a heartwarming easter egg.