Khazan’s Length Compares to Other Soulslikes

The general consensus on The First Berserker: Khazan is that it’s both one of the better Soulslikes and one of the harder games in the genre, but that hasn’t stopped plenty of players from already rolling credits on the game’s main quest. The First Berserker: Khazan offers players a fairly sizable campaign without needing to tackle any optional side content, which only extends the experience if players are hoping to squeeze every possible moment from the experience. It begs the question, then, of how The First Berserker: Khazan stacks up against other games in the genre when it comes to both main story completion and a full, 100% run of the game.

Soulslikes tend to be lengthy, typically lasting anywhere from 30-60 hours for a single playthrough, depending on player skill and the need to replay certain sections. What traditionally takes much longer, though, is putting in the work to perfect a build through grinding and hunting down obscure equipment pieces, which The First Berserker: Khazan leans into with its gear drops and loot rarity. A typical single pass through Khazan‘s main story sees it land where most Soulslikes do, but investing time into a completionist playthrough extends that length into territory normally reserved for the most mechanically rich games in the subgenre.

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Why Players Shouldn’t Skip The First Berserker: Khazan’s First Optional Boss

The first optional mission and boss in The First Berserker: Khazan serves as an important stepping stone that players shouldn’t skip and come back to.

Comparing The First Berserker: Khazan’s Campaign to Other Soulslikes

The time to complete The First Berserker: Khazan largely depends on a few key factors. If players are hoping to simply complete the main missions and clear the game’s story, most playthroughs average between 30–35 hours. That total time extends to 45–50 hours if players opt to try and complete all the optional side content, including tackling The First Berserker: Khazan‘s optional bosses. To fully complete The First Berserker: Khazan, though, players should expect to spend upwards of 60 hours, which doesn’t even take into account the time that one could spend grinding out encounters to earn very specific gear drops for a build.

Compared to many other popular Soulslikes, The First Berserker: Khazan offers similar gameplay length, even extending beyond the length of some entries while falling short of the length of some of the more lengthy campaigns in games like Nioh 2. For reference, here are some other prominent Soulslikes and their completion times:

At 30-35 Hours for a Single Playthrough, The First Berserker: Khazan Encourages Repeat Runs

In terms of the average length to complete a single run of the main story, The First Berserker: Khazan falls squarely into the genre average. Similar titles like Lies of P also take around 30 hours for a single playthrough but encourage repeat runs, eventually creeping up past the 50-60 hour mark depending on how deep into New Game+ runs players get. The biggest exceptions are games on the lower and higher ends of the game-length scale, with newer Soulslikes like AI Limit (which released on the same day as The First Berserker: Khazan) running only 20–25 hours, and games like Nioh 2 potentially lasting well over 100 hours if players get deep into that game’s impressively complex buildcraft.

Comparatively, The First Berserker: Khazan is fairly standard, providing a 30-35 hour experience that, should players desire, can easily be attempted again on subsequent runs. Considering how much variety there is in the game’s gear and builds, as well as how satisfying many of its boss encounters are, The First Berserker: Khazan‘s length is a sort of “best of both worlds” approach that offers players looking for a single playthrough plenty of bang for their buck while also encouraging repeat runs to squeeze every last bit out of the experience.

Released

March 27, 2025

Developer(s)

Neople