The First Berserker: Khazan will soon be hitting shelves, and that’s not just a big deal to those excited for the title. The game will be a major addition to the Dungeon and Fighter canon, granting The First Berserker: Khazan a vast universe to serve as backdrop.
Releasing March 27, The First Berserker will follow the exiled general Khazan, former military hero of the Pell Los Empire. After being falsely accused of treason by the land’s jealous Emperor, he is exiled but escapes thanks to an avalanche. Slowly succumbing to his injuries, he makes a pact with the Blade Phantom, allowing the specter to possess his body and grant him strength. The game will contain action RPG and soulslike elements as it follows Khazan’s warpath to revenge.
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How The First Berserker: Khazan Plays Into The Dungeon and Fighter Canon
Khazan’s path of revenge is actually a divergence from Dungeon and Fighter, the series The First Berserker spins off from. He dies in the original timeline and canon, but in this upcoming game, Khazan escapes. Whether this divergence lines back up with the timeline or not remains to be seen, but The First Berserker: Khazan is a multiverse story. In a Q&A, the dev team told us,
“The First Berserker: Khazan is a multiverse story. The story gets a similar arc until Khazan gets expelled from the empire. However, in this world, the expulsion doesn’t go as planned. The path was interrupted by a sudden avalanche, letting Khazan escape the process. On the brink of death, he meets the mysterious presence of Blade Phantom and comes back to conscience”.
In Dungeon and Fighter canon, Khazan is raised from the dead as a god shortly after his execution. However, despite the divergence in The First Berserker, there’s still a great deal of commonality. While it’s good to brush up on Khazan lore, it’s worth adding that players do not need to know the original story (thanks to the multiversal aspect). As the dev team explained,
“While Khazan is based on a specific narrative within the DNF Universe, we’ve made efforts to ensure that players who are not well-versed in this expansive world can still enjoy the game. The story is designed as a standalone narrative focusing on Khazan’s personal life and his journey for revenge, allowing players to immerse themselves in the experience without prior knowledge of the original lore. However, one key difference from the original story is that, in Dungeon & Fighter, Khazan is exiled and ultimately meets his end, whereas in The First Berserker: Khazan, the entire storyline is reconstructed so that Khazan dramatically survives the expulsion process.”
The Origins of Khazan
The First Berserker continues from the origins of Khazan established in the Dungeon and Fighter series, where he and his friend Ozma become heroes of the Pell Los Empire. Just like in the mainline story, the Emperor grows jealous of the duo and exiles Khazan following merciless torture. It’s unclear whether Ozma will rise as God of Chaos as he does in the main Dungeon and Fighter narrative, but it’s still a possibility that this timeline will converge with what is established in that series.
The Arad Continent
Just like with Dungeon Fighter Online, The First Berserker takes place on the continent of Arad, which covers much of the planet (also named Arad). The First Berserker takes place in Arad Year 157, 800 years before the story of Dungeon Fighter Online, at a time when the Pell Loss Empire reigned. However, thanks to the onslaught of the resurrected Ozma in DNF canon, the Empire was ravaged by the Curse of Blood, which created impostor humans with an insatiable bloodlust, turning those they killed into other impostors.
Ozma’s plot to destroy humanity was, for a time, thwarted—but it led to the Pell Los Empire being severely weakened. After a failed war with a neighboring state, it was split into smaller vassal states. Eventually, in the contemporary era of Dungeon and Fighter, the De Los Empire rose as a successor to the fallen Pell Los. Ozma would also return in the Arad Year of 1002, but would be thwarted again. As stated prior, it’s unclear whether these events will play out in the same way; with Ozma being raised as a god soon after his execution. It’s possible that his machinations will be present somewhat within The First Berserker, though that’s just speculation. It’s easily the biggest franchise question going into The First Berserker: Khazan, but of course, Khazan is the star of this show.
The Blade Phantom
Back in Dungeon and Fighter, the Blade Phantom is the name of an ability that the Soul Bender class can access. However, this character has taken on a far larger role in The First Berserker, both as a boss and a character that Khazan can strike up a Faustian bargain with. Nonetheless, the Blade Phantom’s shadow clones are present in both Dungeon Fighter Online and The First Berserker, tying the two together (even if loosely). The Netherworld, which the Blade Phantom references in the latter game, is also present in Dungeon Fighter Online.
- Released
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March 27, 2025
- Developer(s)
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Neople