Summary
- The First Berserker: Khazan emphasizes hardcore difficulty to give players a sense of achievement.
- The developers admit to drawing inspiration from FromSoftware games, but also emphasize Dungeon & Fighter influences.
- The team aims to appeal to a wider audience through an in-depth story and unique artistic direction.
The First Berserker: Khazan is an upcoming hardcore action role-playing game with a major emphasis on the ‘hardcore.’ Published by Nexon and set in the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeon & Fighter universe, Khazan is attempting to carve its place in ෴an increasingly popular, increasingly competitive genre.
FromSo🐟ftware Should Le🍌ave The Soulslike Genre Behind For A While
Before the soulslike genre picked up steam, FromSoftware was k🐽nown for a much wider variety of genres than we're used to seeing.
Ahead of its release next year, we sat down with Creative Director Junho Lee and Art Director Kyuchul Lee at this year’s 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Tokyo Game Show to discuss the game’s difficulty, its FromSoft inspirations, and its links to the DNF universe.
Hardcore, Hardcore, Hardcore
It’s hard to read any piece of The First Berserker: Khazan materi✨al without seeing the word “hardcore” written somewhere. Its calls it a “hardcore action RPG,” and its warns players they will engage in “hardcore and challenging boss fights.”
“We put a lot of thought into [the use of the word hardcore],” Junho tells me. “We nailed down the very important values in terms of dev꧃elopment, giving players a challenge and giving them a sense of achievement by overcoming those challenges was one of them. We really wanted to make the contents and systems to be extremely hardco༒re and have a very high difficulty, so they can feel a sense of achievement as much as they can. That’s where hardcore comes from.”
We really wanted to make the contents and systems to be extremely har꧃dcore.
An found that 29 percent of early players found The First Berserker to be too difficult, something which the developers were aware of but felt that changing it would be antithetical to the game’s design. When I questioned Junho about this, he says, “What we think is importa🎃nt, as I said earlier, is the challenge and the achievement.”
The problem with such brutal difficulty is the risk of alienating your potential audience, up to almost a third in Khazan’s situation. While developer Neople was unsure wh⛦ether it would go as far as adding difficulty settings, the team has been considering ways they could make the game♐ at least a little more approachable for players.
“We didn't want a linear type of difficulty level. At the very beginning of the development, we wanted the users to customize their difficulty level by tapping into different contents we talked about, like build systems, skill trees, and different it🐻ems, and farming,” the creative director says. “We are in discussion about providing a way to lower the difficulty for th♔ese types of users, and maybe reflect that into the system of the game. But very importantly, we don't want players to just breeze through the game and see the ending, right? We just want to make sure we have a device for players who aren't familiar with high-difficulty games so that they can challenge and build a sense of achievement through playing Khazan.”
The FromSoft Factor
After spending some time with The First Berserker: Khazan, its FromSoftware inspirations were clear. My journey was segmented with bonfire-like checkpoints, in between which were brutally tough enemies that dropped Lacrima, a currency I would use to level up or lose if I died. Many of the game’s systems and mechanics were starkly similar to those in the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Soulslike genre.
The game'ಞs creative director admitted that, while the game does have similarities, the Souls games weren’t Khazan’s only stimuli. “I guess that's the way a player can actually feel [that it’s a Soulslike], especially for the very first session of the game,” he says. “But at the same time, are the From🃏Software games the biggest inspiration? We probably say no.”
He continues♒, “For cons𒁃ole action game lovers, yes, the beginning of the game that you played is somewhat similar to those games. However, as you progress through the game, into the late game, different contents like gear and item builds, and skill trees, add different ways to develop the game and players. Then you’ll feel the game shift in genre and style and see the differentiating elements to Soulslike games.”
You’ll feel the game shift in genre and st✤yle and see the differentiating elements to Soulslike games.
Instead, the developers at Neople cite Dungeon & Fighter, the universe in which Khazan is based, as the game’s biggest source of inspiration. “The whole development𒐪 team are huge lovers of the original DNF universe. We’re servicing and developing the original at the same time, and we’re thinking of releasing ☂more content based on the IP like comics, anime, novels,” Junho says.
Art Director Kychul Lee was keen to point out that the game’s artistic direction is also a core differentiator from the Soulslike formula. “Instead of the typical photorealistic graphic app😼roach that a lot of 3D games take these days, we've gone for the cartoon rendering graphic because it's more evocative. People can look at that and connect to the game even better because it's more evocative, it's more emotional.”
The Reach Of Dungeon & Fighter
The Khazan team was well aware that DNF isn’t t🥃he mos🎐t far-reaching IP in the world, something which only spurred them on.
“We started development with the premise that there will be more users who don’t know about Dungeon & Fighter than do,” Junho says. “So, at the beginning of development, our goal was 𒅌to have more people enjoy it as much as we do. The whole idea was to appeal to more users and people who like console action games.”
Alongside its genre, the team sees the game’s story as a core way to win new fans. “By expanding the story, we believe that it will definitely have the users enjoy it more deeply and appeal to even more users who aren't familiar with the original Dungeon & Fighter title. With this really in-depth story, they can really connect to the character Khazan and develop ꦚaffection for him. We've chosen the theme of revenge or betrayal or treason, which are universal themes that people can connect to without having to have a background story or background knowledge of the content.”
♋It kind of📖 feels like you're watching an animated film in a theater.
During my time with the game, the art style stood out to me, with cel-shaded characters traversing slightly more true-to-life landscapes, something that Kyuchul elaborates on. “Different technology was used for the background and the characters. With the cel-animation, we used a watercolor painting first, and then we put on a cellophane paper that has the different elements of the game. Because the landscape, spaces, and different details are really important in Khazan, we chose the semi-realistic approach with the overall background design and the cel-animated character on top of that so that it kind of fe♎els like you're watching an animated film in a theater.”
It’s clear that the team places a lot of stock into the IP they’re ✤working with, but whether that’s a help or a hindrance remains to be seen. What is certain, though, is the team has an unwavering vision to make a truly ‘hardcore’ action game, and all of the components are in place for them to achieve this goal.
The First Berserker: Khazan is a hardcore action role-playing game. The player will become Khazan, the great general of the Pell Los Empire, who overcame death, and sets out to reveal the incidents that led to his downfall and seek vengeance on his enemies.
Khazan and Ozma, the heroes who saved the Pell Los Empire from Hismar the Berserk Dragon and the Dragon Legion. However, General Khazan, falsely accused of treason, becomes a wretched outcast as he is condemned to exile beyond the empire through brutal torture.
YOU MUST PREVAIL
Survive the relentless pursuit of imperial forces, navigate conspiracies aimed at killing Khazan, and overcome the harsh environments you encounter.
YOU MUST REMEMBER
You were once a hero in the history of Arad, a once-in-a-lifetime figure. Recall the forgotten skills of battle learned through brutal torture and slay the enemies who defame and stand against you.
YOU MUST RECLAIM
Find all potential enemies, reclaim everything that was taken from you, seek revenge, and regain the honor and glory that rightfully belong to you.
Story
The First Berserker: Khazan is a game that adapts the universe of DNF (one of Nexon's globally known intellectual properties), dealing with the story of Ozma and Khazan.
The player will become the hero "Khazan," the ancestor of all Slayers and the one who defeated Hismar the Berserk Dragon, proceeding to uncover the truth of his downfall within the empire.
Action
The First Berserker: Khazan is a hardcore action role-playing game.
Experience DNF's frantic hack and slash style mixed with hardcore action as Khazan's devastating battles await you.
Growth
The First Berserker: Khazan is an RPG with various equipment and perks to customize your own way of growth.
Play as the protagonist "Khazan," upgraဣdi🏅ng not only character abilities but also combining different types of weapon and armor abilities to match your playstyle.
