Tokyo Game Show 2024

I Beat The First Berserker: Khazan Demo and Feel Euphoric

At Tokyo Game Show 2024, I was able to get 45-minutes with upcoming Soulslike The First Berserker: Khazan. Going in, even as a veteran player—or at least a person who has beaten almost all the core Soulsborne games and more than a few third-party Soulslikes—I was worried. Word of mouth from those who played at Gamescon earlier this month said the game was punishingly hard—harder than any of those titles. However, by the end of my time with The First Berserker: Khazan, I found this to be a massive exaggeration.

The demo takes place in a snowy, mountainous area. You start at the game's equivalent of a bonfire where you can level up and heal/reset the enemies in the area. Ahead is a path with several normal soldier enemies and a mini-boss—a giant bear. Behind is another path, one with monkey enemies and a soldier mini-boss. Off to the left is the boss of the area, a giant white ape.

I began by learning the basic controls, fighting normal enemies and the mini-bosses—and getting absolutely stomped by the boss when I accidentally wandered in for the first time. Defeating the mini-bosses awarded me a stronger weapon and a stronger chest piece. All this took about 20 minutes. The remaining 25? Those were spent throwing myself against the ape boss.

In my first few attempts, I got absolutely destroyed—barely took off 10% of its life bar. It was then I figured out the trick to playing this game: parrying is everything.

You see, The First Berserker: Khazan is all about stamina management. Everything takes stamina—and if you run out of stamina you become paralyzed, standing in place and unable to do anything for around 2 seconds. Attacking costs stamina. Blocking hits costs stamina. Dodging costs stamina. But parrying is the exception to the rule; parrying costs nothing.

If that weren't enough, parrying also damages an enemy's stance bar. (Attacking does too but not near as much.) Once it's depleted you do much more damage on the boss for a limited time. Thus, the trick to this game is parrying all the boss' attacks while getting in a few hits whenever you can—always making sure you have enough stamina in reserve to dodge a grab (i.e., one of the rare attacks that can't be parried) or do a normal block instead of a parry (if your timing is off).

In general, the parry window feels more forgiving than in Sekiro—and the boss' attacks are all incredibly well-telegraphed. The giant ape boss only has around 10 attack patterns in total and by the time I won, I knew them all. Truthfully, however, I knew some of the patterns even before fighting the boss. In an inspired touch, some of the normal enemies in the surrounding area use attacks that the boss also uses. This introduces you to the boss' moves subconsciously—preparing you for the boss battle without you even realizing it.

Mastering the parry dance also has another effect. Besides the stance bar, there is also a hidden stamina bar. Do enough parries or attacks in a short time and you will knock it over and can wail on it regardless of its stance bar.

I felt a supreme amount of satisfaction when I downed the boss. It took me around 10 tries to win—and with every attempt, I felt like I was progressing. Nothing the boss did felt unfair. If I lost, it was only because I hadn't fully learned the parry dance yet. Better still, I was left feeling that this was a game that respected my time; the save point was right next to the boss so the runback took just a few seconds.

All in all, I had a blast with this demo and can't wait to play more of The First Berserker: Khazan when the full game comes out next year.