The First Berserker: Khazan, the action role-playing set in the Dungeon and Fighter universe, will launch in late March on PC and consoles.
The latest cinematic trailer, shown during today’s The Game Awards Show 2024, confirmed that the game will be released on March 27th, 2025, on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S. In addition, a playable demo will be released in a little over a month, on January 16th, to allow players to get a taste of the experience before release.
The First Berserker: Khazan will be an action role-playing game that will be worth the time of those looking for a challenging experience with some similarities with the Souls series. In the past few months, I had the opportunity to try out the game, and I was thoroughly impressed by it, especially by its combat mechanics, so much so that it has become one of my most anticipated games launching in 2025.
The longer playtime of The First Berserker: Khazan Technical Closed Beta Test also allowed me to appreciate combat more. While it is undeniable that the stamina-based combat system is very reminiscent of the Souls series, the Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Nioh series influences are more prominent. For starters, the evade maneuver doesn’t have a whole lot of invincibility frames, making it a little risky to use in close-quarter. The parry, called Brink Guard, on the other hand, is a much more effective defensive technique as it is generally easy to pull off and allows Khazan to stay on the offensive since there’s a small cancel window at the end of each move that allows going into the guarding stance immediately, and it restores stamina while depleting the enemy’s. An instant evade technique called Brink Evade, is also in, but it seems to interrupt the flow of combat when used to avoid attacks that could be parried.
The First Berserker: Khazan launches on March 27th on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.