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    The First Berserker: Khazan Demo Review – Anime Radness

    Mark March 27, 2025, on your calendars because you’re in for a treat. The First Berserker: Khazan releases and if this Action RPG demo is to be believed, it’s going to be something special. Imagine you’re watching your favorite fantasy anime on Netflix or Crunchyroll and now you get to live it out in all its 3D cel-shaded glory. That’s what The First Berserker: Khazan, developed by Neople and published by Nexon, feels like. It’s also on my short list for one of the most generous and engaging demos I’ve ever played (something I haven’t really put much thought into before). The overall satisfaction I felt while playing was similar to what I experienced with Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown in 2024. Are the games similar in genre? No. Do they feel very well thought out and intuitive? Absolutely.

    Imagine you’re watching your favorite fantasy anime on Netflix or Crunchyroll and now you get to live it out in all its 3D cel-shaded glory.

    You play as Great General Khazan, a badass warrior brutally tortured (they severed homeboy’s tendons in his arms…) and banished from the empire after falsely being accused of treason. As Khazan is being transported to live out his days in the snowy mountains, there appears to be a demonic entity spying on him from afar. Quickly thereafter a mountainside accident occurs allowing Khazan to escape his captors with the help of said demonic entity possessing his body, effectively bypassing his debilitating injuries, of course. That sets off Khazan’s quest for revenge.

    It should be noted that The First Berserker: Khazan is based on the Dungeon Fighter Online (DnF) universe, which is apparently Nexon’s flagship IP, boasting more than 800 million players worldwide. It’s set 800 years before any events occuring in DnF, so take that for what you will as I have no experience with the franchise. Regardless, it felt like a complete story and it didn’t seem to matter that I had no background within that universe.

    Love the 3D Cel-Shaded Graphics!

    Gameplay Elements

    The First Berserker: Khazan is touted as an Action RPG and I’d liken it to Dark Souls or Elden Ring with tighter controls for blocking and dodging. In battle, there’s your usual health bars to chip away at, but you’ll find that a very important gauge to pay attention to is the stamina of your enemies. Striking them can cause their stamina bar to go down, but so can well-timed blocks and parries. If you deplete their entire gauge, that opens them up to satisfying brutal attacks that take out a significant chunk of their health. So while you may be tempted to hack and slash your way through, you’ll also have to manage your own stamina and leave enough left over for blocking or dodging or launching counter offensives. Otherwise, you’ll be in a compromised state and open to the same brutal attacks yourself. It’s a nice system and makes individual battles with lesser enemies seem more meaningful.

    There’s a copious amount of weapons and armor in the form of loot drops, all of which change the look and feel of your character, something I’m always a fan of. The weapons available in the demo consisted of a dual wield, great sword, and spear, all feeling quite different and versatile. There’s an associated skill tree tied to their actual use and the various skills I was able to unlock made them extremely satisfying to use in battle. You could respec them at any point in time too, which was nice. The skill tree itself looked like it allowed for many different build setups but unfortunately I couldn’t unlock the higher tiers in the demo. Very promising system, though.

    Some of the rarer armor drops offered were actually 5-part sets, whereby additional stat modification benefits will be given to Khazan the more pieces you accumulate. That led to some interesting decisions where a single piece of armor could offer a high defense but maybe it was wiser to utilize a lower level set where you had 3 of the 5 pieces. Makes the armor drops more important and not just slight stat modifiers.

    Traversing the environment felt very similar to Dark Souls or Elden Ring, resembling your push forward to find the next waypoint to regain all of your health. Much like the aforementioned, resting at any of these points respawns all the enemies again so you can farm to your heart’s content. Additionally, this may just be the demo, but I noticed with the epic boss battles that experience was still given despite having died…a lot. Nice touch if you end up stuck somewhere.

    You will probably see this screen quite a lot…

    Graphics & Sound

    The 3D cel-shaded art style is phenomenal. That’s readily apparent from the opening cutscenes. Voice acting and musical score is filled with intrigue and gravitas. It’s a really compelling experience and I’m wanting to see more.

    Pacing

    One thing that really stands out is how sizeable this demo actually is. It legitimately takes hours to get through. As the story was progressing, I kept thinking to myself “Surely, the demo will end here. Is this the actual full game and someone screwed up?!?” Not that I’m complaining, though. There’s plenty of plot points and ability unlocks where you think The First Berserker: Khazan will just leave you with a taste but there’s inevitably more meat on the bone. Makes me wonder what the full retail release will feel like by comparison?

    Conclusion

    From what I witnessed in the demo, I can’t imagine The First Berserker: Khazan this isn’t going to be a gem this year. The art style, combat, loot drops, extraneous skills and combos, epic battles, voice acting; it’s just a treat. I know I’ll be paying close attention in March and you should certainly consider playing the demo to see for yourself.

    Nathan Wertz
    Nathan Wertzhttps://www.ThisAndThatTech.com
    Self-proclaimed Internet Sensation and owner of ThisAndThatTech.com. You may have also seen him spearheading the "Vets in Tech" interview series over at Military.com.

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