Sometimes, you just need a game that’ll make you feel like a total powerhouse. Korean developer Neople’s The First Berserker: Kahzan offers that in spades — though, with the kind of brutal difficulty that’ll have you questioning your life choices every time you get wrecked.
But fear not, this anime-inspired souls-like set in the Dungeon and Fighter universe isn’t about making you cry (well, not too much). Rather, it’s about rewarding your patience, skill, and your ability to persevere through frustration — and doing it all with style.
Audio And Visuals That Hit Hard (In The Best Way)
Let’s talk about The First Berserker’s art style first because, honestly, it’s one of the game’s biggest highlights. The anime visuals don’t just look great — they practically pop off the screen.
The character and enemy designs are some of my favourite in a souls game (I’m a weeb at heart) — while environments are simple, varied and striking.
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One grotesque spider/human hybrid actually made my partner freeze and cry from fear! Thankfully, the game features an arachnophobia mode for those that require it — just one of it’s many accessibility settings.
The animations during combat and cutscenes are reminiscent of your favourite Shonen series; whether you’re witnessing the chaos or executing a stunning move, each action seems crafted with precision for maximum impact.
The style isn’t just in the visuals, the audio matches perfectly. Characters are well voiced, with Ben Starr giving a stellar performance as the games titular character, Kahzan — who isn’t as frenzied or blood thirsty as you would assume from the title. Kahzan is level headed, kind, compassionate and fearsome when needed — Starr excels at conveying all of these emotions.
Predictable, But Serviceable
Alright, let’s get this out of the way — the story is fine. It’s your classic revenge tale, and let’s be honest, we’ve seen it before. Hell, in my opinion the opening cutscene gives it all away immediately.
The hero, Kahzan, after defeating the Berserk Dragon, was labelled a traitor by the Emperor. His punishment was to have the tendons in his arms severed and exiled to the snowy mountains. It’s here that he narrowly escapes death after an avalanche, and forms a pact with a ghost called ‘The Blade Phantom’. After a test of strength, the two promise to lend each other their power to enact revenge and solve the problems of the netherworld, the place where the phantom is from.
The plot follows a predictable path; while it won’t make you rethink storytelling, it’s effective enough to keep you engaged. Sometimes, that’s all a game needs: a solid foundation to let gameplay shine.
A True Showcase of Drip
On the bright side, the armour designs are an absolute showstopper. If you’re the type to obsess over every piece of gear your character wears (guilty as charged), The First Berserker won’t disappoint.
The armour sets range from sleek designs to monstrous, bone-covered suits, embodying the berserker you’re meant to be. They’re not just eye candy — they also enhance combat, with each set offering unique perks. Equipping a full set can also add extra flair to armour, such as glows, extra bits of cloth or even wings.
The set perks are generally tied to a specific playstyle, with some unlocking new abilities for Kahzan. From the start, I found myself swapping out sets to best suit the situation. However, later in the game, I stuck with one set that worked best (but mostly looked dope AF).
Change On The Fly
The First Berserker’s skill system is intuitive and streamlined, perfectly suited to the game’s combat-heavy focus, allow players to avoid getting bogged down in a sea of confusing skill trees. There are three skill trees, one for each weapon type and a common skill tree for skills that affect everything outside the three weapons. The three weapons are Dual blades, Great Sword and Spear and while that may not seem like a lot, each offers a variety of abilities and play styles within.
What’s really cool is the ability to respec your skills at any time. That’s right! You can change your build on the fly to adapt to whatever challenges you’re facing — perfect for those times when you’re stuck on a tough boss or just want to mix things up.
Attributes on the other hand require an item to respec, luckily they can be purchased and aren’t too expensive. It’s flexibility at its finest, and it keeps things fresh throughout the entire game.
Brutal, Flashy, and Totally Satisfying
If you love flashy, high-octane, brutally satisfying combat, this is your jam. Every sword swing, special attack, and dodge feels weighty, rewarding, and well, downright anime! It feels like a blend between Darksiders 3 and Final Fantasy: Stranger of Paradise.
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The combat never felt stale, even as you face wave after wave of enemies — there’s always something new to learn, a new combo to master, or a new flashy move to pull off. The game practically demands that you look as good as you feel while wrecking your foes. It’s fast, it’s furious, and it’s incredibly satisfying.
Speaking of combos, Kahzan has a multitude at his disposal, light and heavy attacks can be chained together seamlessly and you can block, parry, dodge and reflect attacks. On top of this you have a spirit gauge that fills which gives Kahzan access to flashy command abilities, again which can be chained into all of the above. It’s clearly inspired by DNF’s fighting game roots and it works exceptionally well.
Tough But Fair
If you’re the kind of gamer who loves a challenge, The First Berserker will have you hooked. The difficulty is punishing, but there’s an unspoken fairness to it. Every enemy you encounter feels like an uphill battle, but it’s always clear why you failed — and always clear how to get better.
We all know the souls-like system by now — you spawn at a Blade Nexus (similar to Dark Soul’s bonfire) when you die, resetting all enemies in the area. Lacrima is this game’s souls equivalent and is used to level Kahzan’s attributes, purchase some items and they’re lost on death.
Sure, you’ll die a lot (and I mean A LOT), but each death is a lesson in not what to do. Learning boss move sets is the key to success, with some throwing new moves at me on my fifth or sixth try. It kept me on my toes, always pushing me to perfection. Not to mention every boss fight is a visual spectacle — a joy to die in!
The great thing here is that the game rewards you with Lacrima based on how long you were in the boss fight for. Meaning that you are always advancing, always inching closer to that next level. Unlike Elden Ring, lost Lacrima during a boss fight can be picked up before heading back in, saving you hunting it down during a fight.
These simple changes made a big impact on progression, and I welcomed it.
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Nobody’s Gonna’ Know? They’re Gonna’ Know...
Here’s where things get a little less shiny again: side quests. Let’s just say side quests are not winning any awards for creativity. I had high hopes initially, especially after meeting a peculiar jar man who sent me on a mission to find his jar friends. Collecting them across all levels earns you rewards — and basically gives you a reason to go all Hyrule on jars. However, other side quests started to feel repetitive, mostly revolving around the usual “kill this” or “collect that” tasks.
Side quests are a decent way to level up, and a couple unlocked new home base services. Beyond this, they’re just rehashed environments you’ve already been through, just backwards or with a new filter over everything.
They also reuse bosses, breaking up phases across multiple quests or adding a minor tweak. They’re fine to grind out some XP and items, but if you’re looking for depth or anything truly memorable you won’t find it here.
A Hub Across Realms
Home base is where the heart is, and you have two of them. The Crevice is home and is a border realm — somewhere between the realm of the living and the Netherworld. For this reason there are two versions, like two sides of the same coin.
The realm of the living houses your fellow human companions, providing shops, engaging conversations, and skilled blacksmithing services to aid your journey.
The portal to the Netherworld is home to your otherworldly companions. It’s here you’ll find portals to travel across the realm — essentially a ‘mission select’. The denizens here offer alteration services for gear and a training ground to practise your skills against enemies you’ve fought before. The latter is a great way to sharpen your reflexes.
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Ghostly Aid
The Blade Phantom, your ghostly companion, is made up of countless ghosts — all vying for more strength. Kahzan is able to harness this power through their pact to enhance his skills; different ghosts offer different buffs when selected.
The ghosts also level up as they accompany Kahzan, increasing their effectiveness. As the game progresses you unlock further ghosts for use. Unfortunately, only one can be selected at a time.
The Blade Phantom is also able to be summoned as a remnant, either to assist Kahzan in boss battles or to do battle. Defeating remnants rewards Kahzan with the items required to summon them — using them in battle with them is often key to success.
Missed The Perfect Parry
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. The repetitive side quests might leave you feeling a bit drained, and the predictable story is nothing to write home about.
Luckily the anime inspired combat and customisable skill systems more than make up for these flaws. 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.
The First Berserker: Kahzan is available globally on March 27th on PC via Steam, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Quest Daily Scores The First Berserker: Kahzan:
8/10
A review copy of The First Berserker: Kahzan was supplied to Quest Daily for the purpose of this review.
