The First Berserker: Khazan uses recognizable Soulslike pressures—stamina management, punishing enemies, checkpoints and timing-based defense—but gives players an aggressive arsenal of weapon combos, Spirit-powered skills and build choices. “Soulslike” is a useful shorthand, not the whole design: Neople CEO Myeongjin Yun said the core inspiration was Dungeon & Fighter, while the team also enjoyed Nioh and Sekiro.
Is The First Berserker: Khazan a Soulslike?
Yes, in the sense that it asks you to manage combat resources, learn enemy timing, use checkpoints and accept consequences for dying. GameSpot’s March 2025 review describes familiar Soulslike conventions, including enemies returning at checkpoints and experience being at risk when you die. But Khazan is also a mission-based action RPG with weapon-specific skills and gear-driven builds, not a seamless open-world adventure.
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Neople CEO Myeongjin Yun put the comparison in context in a March 2025 interview: “The best inspiration – the core inspiration – was the original Dungeon and Fighter.” He added, “We have heard that Khazan sort of feels like a Soulslike, and the development team loved playing Nioh and Sekiro.” The distinction matters: Soulslike comparisons help explain its pressure and defense, but the developer identifies Dungeon & Fighter as the foundation.
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How does Khazan combat work?
Combat revolves around two resources with different jobs: stamina supports ordinary actions, while Spirit fuels weapon skills. PC Gamer’s 2025 review reports that attacks and deflections build Spirit, which you can spend on skills; those skills do not consume stamina. That separation creates a tactical choice: preserve stamina for attacking and surviving, while using Spirit skills to sustain or intensify pressure.
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Stamina remains a constraint, especially when a fight demands repeated offense and defense. PC Gamer also notes that boss stamina behavior varies between encounters, so the same approach may not work uniformly across every boss.
Do you have to parry in Khazan?
Parrying and deflecting can reward precise timing, but Khazan is not a game where every incoming attack can be parried. PC Gamer describes reflection as a way to parry normal attacks and says some attacks are not parryable. Certain red, unblockable attacks can instead be answered with a counterattack; timing it is tricky, but it can inflict substantial stamina damage.
Those options make defense active without making parrying a universal answer. Read the attack, then choose an appropriate response—such as a deflection, counter or dodge—rather than assuming one timing technique works against everything. The cited reviews do not establish exact parry windows or frame data.
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What weapons can you use in Khazan?
PC Gamer’s 2025 review describes three weapon groupings, each with a dedicated skill tree:
- Dual-wield sword and axe: a paired-weapon style built around using both weapons.
- Spear: a glaive-like weapon with its own skills.
- Greatsword: a large blade with a separate skill tree.
Weapon choice changes more than the look of an attack: each family has distinct skills to unlock and use. The developer also describes mixing gear, selecting skills and shaping a build around a preferred play style. Yun said the aim was to preserve “that sense of building your own gear, building your own build, playing your own way, and progressing your own way in Khazan.”
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How does Khazan compare with Sekiro and Nioh?
The comparisons are helpful when treated as reference points rather than claims that the games play identically.
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| Design axis | What Khazan does | How the comparison helps |
|---|---|---|
| Defense | Uses stamina-oriented defense with timing-based deflections and counters; some attacks cannot be parried. | The deflection and counter emphasis may recall Sekiro, but Khazan also makes stamina and attack-specific responses part of the equation. |
| Combat resources | Separates stamina from Spirit-powered weapon skills; PC Gamer reports that skills do not consume stamina. | This gives skills a distinct resource role rather than making every offensive action draw on the same pool. |
| Structure | Mission-based, closed-level design; GameSpot describes linear levels. | Think discrete, directed stages rather than a seamless open world. |
| Build choice | Offers three weapon families with dedicated skill trees, alongside gear and skill customization. | The developer’s emphasis on player-built gear and play styles is central to Khazan’s identity. |
Is The First Berserker: Khazan difficult?
Expect demanding fights that reward learning enemy behavior and managing stamina, but be careful with blanket claims about the game’s difficulty settings. In an August 2024 pre-release interview, creative director Junho Lee said, “We pursue the seamless integration of difficulty levels into the content rather than offering them as system options.” That was an earlier design comment, not a definitive description of the released game: GameSpot’s March 2025 review later refers to an easy mode.
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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →The release-era evidence therefore does not support saying that Khazan has no easier option. Nor does it establish a current, 2026 patch-specific difficulty configuration. For platform context, PlayStation’s official page lists the game as a PS5 title: The First Berserker: Khazan on PlayStation.
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