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One of the big upcoming souls games is The First Berserker: Khazan. I got some hands-on time with the title at Tokyo Game Show 2024. I also got to sit down with the game's creative director, Junho Lee, and art director, Kyuchul Lee, to discuss the connection. of the game for nearly 20 years.-running Dungeon Fighter Online, the art style transitioning from 2D to 3D, and the game's brutal difficulty.
Like 2022's DNF Duel, The First Berserker: Khazan is a Dungeon & Fighter franchise game. However, instead of being a 2D beat 'em up or Arc System Works' 2D fighter, Khazan is a soulful 3D action game. “This is our first console game as developers. We have made mobile games before, but Khazan is our attempt to expand the IP to the console market as a 3D action game,” Junho Lee began. “We are action game lovers, you know? So we looked at a lot of games and thought about how to incorporate all these great features into our game, Khazan.”
But what specific titles inspired Khazan? “There are a lot of games, 3D action games—hunting games like Monster Hunter—that were the inspiration.” Junho Lee told me. “Fromsoft Dark Souls series, Sekiro, Nioh, Bloodborne—you name it. Ghost of Tsushima was also an inspiration.”
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Of course, the biggest inspiration is not the gameplay but the lore. The First Berserker: Khazan is more than just a side story to Dungeon Fighter Online. “We won't just call it a simple 'crossover'. It's about exploring the original game's story in a little more detail. Khazan's narrative concept is that the story is set 800 years ago [Dungeon Fighter Online]. The character Khazan is a legendary character only mentioned in the original game,” Junho Lee explained. “In developing Khazan, we had the opportunity to dig deep and talk in great detail about these untold stories—and expand the world of Dungeon & Fighter.”
Of course, switching from 2D to 3D is not a simple task. “With landscape games, you are only allowed to move from side to side. Your safe space is limited if you think about how the characters move, but with a 3D game, you're using all three axes for movement and action,” Junho Lee continued. “The camera tracks Khazan and asks the player to look where Khazan is looking—this is also a device that helps better immersion in the game. […] We also wanted to create more advanced action in the Khazan project, and wanted dodging and other game actions to be more realistic.”
On the surface, the 3D update is a love letter to classic Dungeon Fighter Online fans. “The original game was depicted using pixel art,” Kyuchul Lee explains. “Players have seen the illustration [của các nhân vật yêu thích của họ] but at the same time, players also have a high demand for raids and 3D battles in the game. That is a constant request from our current players.”
“We did a lot of testing to make that happen,” Kyuchul Lee continued. “Our previous project was before Khazan [DNF Duel]was another attempt at creating 3D battles and 3D graphics [mặc dù được trình bày trên nền 2D] and we thought a lot about how to portray the tone and style of the Dungeon & Fighter series in 3D. —but at the same time meet the quality and detail needs of our current players.”
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That said, with its realistic gameplay and recent success among games like Elden Ring and Lies of P, The First Berserker: Khazan has attracted a lot of fans beyond those who have played Dungeon games & Fighter. After industry events like gamescom, where players try the game for the first time, even veteran soulborne players are surprised at the difficulty they encounter. Junho Lee agrees that it is, but the demo may be painting an unfair picture.
“It's a difficult game, but the word 'difficult' as well as feeling is quite relative, I believe—and especially with the demo you played,” the creative director explains. “It has limited gameplay. […] In the full build of Khazan, we have a leveling system, a farming system [trang bị] and a skill tree that players can use to overcome any difficulties or situations that would otherwise be a dead end. […] So without this content, the game would be quite harsh and in some ways the difficulty might not be entirely unreasonable — or even much more unreasonable.”
However, it is not like Junho Lee and his team expected the player to “git gud”. They constantly balance the game, looking for the perfect sweet spot. “We watch the gameplay a lot. We have also received a lot of feedback from players [tại các sự kiện công cộng] and we realized that maybe some parts of the game have difficulty levels that may not be very suitable for our target players,” he continued, “Finally, some of our players will get used to playing action games. Some of them won't be. We need to let all players overcome challenges and feel a sense of accomplishment when overcoming these difficulties—and we're talking a lot about finding the right difficulty for every player meet Khazan.” Of course, this is easier said than done. Currently, the team is internally discussing whether or not to put a difficulty selector in the game.
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I personally spent about 45 minutes with the game. While it took me about 25 minutes and dozens of tries, I managed to defeat the boss (a giant white ape). Once I discovered parrying was the key to the fight, it all came down to pattern recognition—and each time I faced the boss, I gradually got closer to victory. It seems like this is the only way to fight as normal dodging and parrying will quickly destroy your stamina bar and leave you defenseless and immobile for a few seconds after it's depleted exhausted.
“You need to find the right moment with the block. Timing is very important,” Junho Lee agreed. “But at the same time, we thought this would be a good starting point for defense for players to learn how to defend against monsters [trùm]. […] That's why we included it in the demo. As you progress through the full build—the release version of the game—you'll have different ways to defend. You will have the options to dodge, counterattack or find a suitable position to respond [cuộc tấn công].” And if all that wasn't enough, Junho Lee assures me that there will be some ranged attack options in the final game—which should allow for some additional playstyles if nothing else. other.
The First Berserker: Khazan is scheduled to release on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC sometime in 2025. The closed beta test will take place in mid-October.