In Defense of the First Berserker: Khazan’s Limited Weapon Variety

After the long wait since it was first revealed at Gamescom ONL 2024, The First Berserker: Khazan has finally been released. The First Berserker: Khazan is a new Soulslike action RPG with a striking art style and a satisfying, combat-driven difficulty that both veteran and newfound fans of FromSoftware’s famous Soulsborne subgenre shouldn’t sleep on.

At first glance, The First Berserker: Khazan has a seemingly limited weapon variety when it comes to the player’s primary melee weapon, especially compared to games like Elden Ring, which sport a massive variety of weapons for players to experiment with. However, The First Berserker: Khazan arguably makes up for its relatively limited weapon variety with its several layers of unique and interchangeable abilities, ultimately taking a quality approach over quantity.

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The First Berserker: Khazan’s Weapon Types Are Special Where It Counts

Shortly after players begin their journey in The First Berserker: Khazan, players will encounter a series of combat trials that introduce players to the three and only types of primary weapons in the game: the dual-wield, greatsword, and spear. At first, each of these weapon types will only have a limited variety of attacks available, mainly light attacks, heavy attacks, and a block. However, players can rest assured that each of these weapon types will eventually gain access to a variety of additional offensive and defensive abilities that build upon each of the three melee weapon types in The First Berserker: Khazan in unique and satisfying ways.

Skill Trees Can Provide a Wide Range of New Abilities for the Player and Their Weapons

Aside from the typical Soulslike attribute-based progression system, any time players engage in combat in The First Berserker: Khazan, players will slowly progress their character’s overall level until eventually earning skill points. These skill points can then be spent on upgrading players’ natural abilities and the performance of their weapons, either providing small stat boosts to existing abilities, or unlocking additional offensive and defensive maneuvers.

Between the three primary weapon types, there are generally around ten unique abilities that players can unlock via the skill trees in The First Berserker: Khazan that can be added onto each weapon type’s default movesets. Each of these abilities typically provides a significant upgrade to the player’s arsenal, allowing for powerful combinations of offensive and defensive abilities in one swift execution.

The First Berserker: Khazan Chooses Quality Over Quantity When It Comes to Weapons

In any modern action RPG that involves melee-heavy combat, especially Soulslike games like The First Berserker: Khazan, what arguably matters more than a wide variety of weapon types is a wide variety of combat skills. So, despite there only being three types of primary weapons in The First Berserker: Khazan, this shouldn’t be a cause for concern since players will have no shortage of both offensive and defensive abilities to utilize as they continue to progress throughout the game, allowing combat to be either as simple or as complex as players desire.

Ultimately, while the weapon variety in The First Berserker: Khazan is nowhere near the weapon variety of games like Elden Ring with dozens of weapons and spells that players can dual-wield for a seemingly infinite combination of possibilities, The First Berserker: Khazan’s limited variety of melee is still special where it counts. Through the various additional abilities that players can unlock for their character’s natural abilities and each of the three weapon types, The First Berserker: Khazan arguably strikes the perfect balance between quality and quantity.

Released

March 27, 2025

Developer(s)

Neople