While FromSoftware’s famous Soulsborne games are known for their brutal difficulty, Soulslike games that draw inspiration from this studio’s iconic games often play it safe by offering a much more forgiving and accessible approach to difficulty. Such is the case for The First Berserker: Khazan. While the opening moments and early boss fights in The First Berserker: Khazan will naturally be quite brutal, thanks to a handful of accessibility features, the game’s difficulty is generally much more manageable compared to the Soulsborne games and other Soulslikes.
With the increased popularity that Elden Ring has brought to Soulsborne and Soulslike games, the difficulty of the games within this subgenre has recently become quite a divisive topic among both longtime gamers and newfound fans. One of the most divisive aspects of Elden Ring’s difficulty, in particular, is the ability to summon NPCs to help players overcome difficult encounters. While debates about this feature have since died down, The First Berserker: Khazan has reignited this controversial topic by introducing its own version of NPC summons, along with a ‘no-summons’ achievement for completing the game without them.
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The First Berserker: Khazan’s ‘No NPC Summons’ Achievement Reignites Elden Ring’s Difficulty Debate
FromSoftware’s Soulsborne games have always been known for being some of the most difficult action RPGs, though the most recent Soulsborne games have come a long way toward making this subgenre much more accessible with a more customizable difficulty. Naturally, some of the most recent Soulslike games inspired by FromSoftware’s famous IPs have followed suit by adapting some of these recent developments in accessibility for their own benefit.
Spirit of Advocacy Summons Come With a Catch
Compared to Elden Ring and other Soulsborne games, The First Berserker: Khazan is generally a far more forgiving game when it comes to difficulty. Among some of the many ways players can customize the difficulty of The First Berserker: Khazan is through the use of optional Spirit of Advocacy NPC summons, presumably inspired by Elden Ring’s Spirit Ash NPC summons. However, unlike most of the other accessibility features and customizable difficulty settings in The First Berserker: Khazan, players who use the Spirts of Advocacy NPC summons have to face some hidden consequences. More specifically, using NPC summons will lock players out of earning the Standing Alone achievement for an entire playthrough, publicly marking their online gaming profile with their decision to call upon help during boss fights.
Despite the addition of countless new accessibility features throughout the subgenre, like The First Berserker: Khazan’s Spirit of Advocacy summons, some fans of the Soulsborne and Soulslike games still argue that the “true experience” of these games is one that embraces their raw difficulty, namely by using as few accessibility features as possible. Otherwise, relying on features that reduce the game’s difficulty won’t allow players to hone their skills as much and thus hinder their experience.
The First Berserker: Khazan Is in the Same Boat as Elden Ring
If not for the recent debates about Elden Ring’s difficulty, the NPC summons in The First Berserker: Khazan and the Standing Alone achievement might not have been a big deal, or the feature and related achievement may not have existed in the first place. In hindsight, though, as a public way of tracking whether players utilize Spirit of Advocacy NPC summons during their playthrough, The First Berserker: Khazan’s Standing Alone ‘no NPC summons’ achievement feels like a controversy waiting to happen.
Ultimately, it’s rather unfortunate that The First Berserker: Khazan‘s achievement perpetuates this debate that has alienated and gatekept fans from experiencing Soulsborne and Soulslike games. Especially considering that The First Berserker: Khazan gives players several other ways to customize the difficulty of their playthrough, associating the Spirit of Advocacy summons with an all-or-nothing achievement will once again beg the controversial question of how Soulsborne and Soulsike games should balance difficulty with accessibility.
- Released
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March 27, 2025
- Developer(s)
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Neople