The First Berserker: Khazan Review (PS5) – Standing With The Best In The Genre

The First Berserker: Khazan PS5 Review. Third-person action-RPGs have significantly changed in the last decade. There is always that one game that defines the genre and sometimes even creates its own for a new generation, and many developers take their stabs at trying to replicate what made that game great.

Demons Souls was the game that propelled FromSoftware to new heights and created its genre, which people dubbed “Souls-like.” Though many have tried to replicate their fantastic success with titles like Elden Ring and Dark Souls, few have succeeded, and even fewer have expanded on the type of game.

The First Berserker: Khazan is one of those games. It doesn’t reinvent this new Hardcore Action-RPG genre, but it borrows from the best to provide quests, possibly my favorite Souls-like of all time.

The First Berserker: Khazan PS5 Review

Vengeance Best Served Bloody

TFB: Khazan tells the story of General Khazan, who was accused of betraying the Emperor and sentenced to death. While on his way to his execution site amid a prison convoy through treacherous mountain terrain, a mysterious ghostly phantom creates an avalanche that brings the convoy down.

Khazan, who survives the avalanche, encounters a mysterious sword that awakens as he approaches it. This allows the Phantom to inhabit his body, heal him, and provide mysterious superpowered strength.

The two strike a deal with his newly acquired strength and an internal battle with the Blade Phantom. Khazan will use the Blade Phantom’s power to exact revenge on those who betrayed him, while the Blade Phantom will use Khazan’s body to find out and stop what is causing the human world and the Netherworld from bleeding into each other.

There is a story here, but it’s not something we haven’t experienced before. I did enjoy uncovering the conspiracy that led to Khazan’s betrayal at the hands of his Emperor, but you may have already experienced it in a dozen anime or mangas.

Build Your Playstyle With New Skills And Abilities

The bread-and-butter of Khazan, as it is with most Hardcore RPGs, is its combat. Where does it stack up compared to others? It comes down to your preference. Like Elden Ring and Dark Souls, Khazan follows a slower, methodical combat system.

Combat is visceral and violent. Though the game is a Hardcore RPG, for the most part, I didn’t have much trouble in the first 60% of the game. There were roadblocks with bosses, but it becomes much more manageable once you figure out the boss’s patterns.

Khazan relies heavily on parries, or Blinks, as the game refers to them. Timing your Blink deflects, and enemies attack and drain their stamina. It also allows you to essentially block an attack and not take any damage from it. Timing is everything, and thankfully, enemies telegraph their attacks with plenty of time to prepare for the attack.

You can even upgrade your skills to cause damage to enemies with a Blink Block as well. You can also Blink Dodge if you dodge an attack right as it is about to strike you, creating an afterimage of Khazan.

Thankfully, Blink Block and Dodge aren’t something you have to master to enjoy TFB. You can build Khazan to sustain himself by simply blocking attacks and surviving that way or a quicker build that relies on fast movements to avoid attacks.

Build Your Playstyle With New Skills And Abilities

Khazan can equip one of three weapons: A dual-wield sword and axe, a greatsword, and a spear. Each has pros and cons, so it comes down to your build. There isn’t magic for Khazan to wield, so Melee is your only option.

Each weapon also has its skill tree that allows you to take control of the battles you’re up against. As usual in these games, I went with the Greatsword build to focus more on defense and single-powerful charged attacks.

The skills benefitted the Greatsword with skills that stop you from being interrupted by most attacks when charging attacks and allow me to charge powerful attacks in the middle of a combo. Most skills can be improved to consume less stamina, which again benefits a greatsword build that consumes a lot of stamina with every attack.

Each skill tree has four different tabs to focus on. Common skills also help improve how much Lacrima you can collect in the environments or even upgrade your one long-range attack. A magical javelin that Khazan can throw. Later on, you will unlock a transformation that you can also upgrade.

Everything Found Is Useful, Nothing Is Wasted

One thing that Khazan does well is utilize everything you find. No item goes unused, and Skill Points, thankfully, are one of those things you unlock simply by using the weapon. Each skill point features its own EXP bar.

As you explore, you’ll run into crystal Lacrima that you can break. You may wonder what these are for besides simply being collectibles for a trophy. These crystals are worth breaking and collecting in every mission as they allow you to upgrade the maximum health Khazan heals from potions, or they can be used to upgrade how much Lacrima you earn from defeating foes.

Those are two options; you can also use these crystals to upgrade Khazans Damage, Stamina Damage, and Damage multiplier. The choices are yours, but the supplies are limited, so you must decide what to upgrade.

You’ll also find Soul Stones and Glowing orbs to activate to battle with an Advocacy. These battles are fights against a Blade Phantom. These battles are worth doing because they provide more Soul Stones and rare gear drops.

Soul Stones are used to summon a Soul of Advocacy to help you in boss battles. The other use of Soul Stones is upgrading the Advocacy’s stats. Much like Khazan, with the Lacrima Crystals, you can increase their damage, health, and stamina to help them last longer and be more helpful during boss battles.

Being A Completionest Finally Pays Off

Khazan is through and through a Soulslike, but it borrows more from Koei Tecmos Nioh franchise than from FromSoftware titles. TFB: Khazan follows a mission-based structure where you select your next mission from the Crevice, a hub world between humans and the Netherworld. In this area, Khazan’s allies that he makes reside: a shopkeeper, a blacksmith, and the Blade Phantom itself.

Interacting with these allies is beneficial to crafting new gear or buying crafting materials and may provide side quests for you to challenge. Some of these side quests are a must-do as they open up even more tools to customize Khazan and make his journey more manageable.

One such side quest will unlock a new shopkeeper that uses Lacrima (Khazan’s version of level-up souls) to buy exclusive crafting material to build specific armor and weapons. Another quest will unlock your ability to level your armor or change the equipment’s passive stats.

Changing passive stats is random, so you may not get what you want. However, you don’t have to leave it behind if you have great stats but under-leveled armor. Instead, you can level it up using equipment you have no use for that is of equal or higher level than the game you want to level up.

Crafting And Upgrading Are Your Path To Success

Crafting new gear is necessary to survive long enough to get to the next boss. Taking another note from Nioh, TFB has a loot system where you’ll find a lot of armor, weapons, and accessories from defeated foes and treasure chests.

Each piece of gear comes with various stats, such as increasing your stamina or health, but also unique passives, such as Khazan taking less damage when his health is below 30%. There are also Armor Sets that provide crucial benefits the more of the same armor set you have equipped. These sets can be life savers, especially if you want to defeat a boss who causes status ailments.

An armor set with high resistance to that status aliment will go a long way in the boss fight, and at the actual level, it may be infested with enemies that also cause the ailment.

Varied Locations Each Stand Out In A Violet And Bloody World

The levels are linear, but the environments are a joy to explore. Even my most hated locations, like sewers and mines, were a joy to explore in Khazan. There are many locations to visit, from snow-peaked mountains, blood-ravaged villages, towns overrun with undead, and underground laboratories where grotesque alchemic experiments are conducted.

The world of TFB is dark, violent, bloody, and decrepit. All of it is gorgeous and fun to explore. Hidden paths lead to rare gear, and Lacrima Crystals are hidden Elite Enemies to defeat.

Once an Elite enemy is defeated, they will never respawn on the map, but they provide a lot of Lacrima to level up and some guard new blueprints to acquire to hand over to the blacksmith to craft new armor sets.

A Visual And Audioable Feast For The Senses

I love the anime cell-shading in TFB. It provides a unique visual look for the characters and the environment. The cell shading pops in combat, making the various effects and blood splatter stand out.

Character and monster designs are also top-notch. The variety of enemy designs and variations is impressive, and you’ll always find something new to face off against. Bosses, in particular, are unique and a blast to go up against.

All this is brought to you with exceptional voice work, particularly from Ben Starr, who voices both Khazan and the Blade Phantom. Other characters also provide excellent voice work, and the soundtrack, tho lacking for most of the game, comes into play during the boss battles.

More Entertainment, Less Stress

Though Khazan is a challenging game, it’s much easier than most others. There is a lot that developer Neople has done to ease things for players. The first and most welcome addition is changing the game’s difficulty to Easy mode. You can only do this after defeating the Blade Phantom, but be warned, easy mode does lock you out of a couple of Trophies.

The game also puts all the Lacrima you acquired outside a boss room if you fall during a boss battle, something that Lies of P introduced last year, allowing you to collect your Lacirma and even earn some more for the boss fight, allowing you to level up still and earn without being locked to the boss fight to retain your Lacrima.

I loved playing through The First Berserker: Khazan so much that it may have taken the reins as my favorite Souls-like. From its visual style, accessible approach to combat, and world, so much clicked for me. There just wasn’t much that didn’t interest me.

Though these games tend to turn off many people, those looking to scratch that Souls-like itch with an anime feel or someone looking for something a tad easier than others in the genre, The First Berserker: Khazan deserves to stand among the best and deserves your attention.

The First Berserker: Khazan releases on PlayStation 5 on March 27, 2025.

Review code kindly provided by PR