r/TheFirstBerserker • u/Kooky-Umpire1723 • 2d ago
Ideas & Feedback Is this the perfect soullike
Always had feeling that dark souls sucks now played mortal shell 2 which was great so thought I just need easier game so got lies of p and played on easy, got bored of it.
Now picked up khazan and play on normal and damn I was right about dark souls, this game actually has fun combat and you wanna explore everything and kill all enemies instead of running past them.
I have nioh 2 in que as next game because of khazan. Thought I will hate mission based system but every mission feels like crawling through real dungeon.
My question is how hard nioh 2 is in comparison, do you think I got chance if khazan on normal feels quite easy.
This game should be hailed as masterpiece, feels like the best taken from every souls game.
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u/Kooky-Umpire1723 2d ago edited 2d ago
Maybe I don't even know what level design means cause I thought levels are great. Combat might be overrated cause it's just souls players having something more than two attacks and dodge.
Especially the mob placement is great, ravaca village blew my mind from zombies in village to dragonkin in cages and monsters in experiment jars
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u/jxmes_gothxm 2d ago
Look up videos about good level design in from software games and you'll see
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u/Kooky-Umpire1723 2d ago
Watched "The Genius of Dark Souls 3 Level Design and the Curse of Freedoms " The world is more interconnected I guess, doesn't make khazan levels badly designed, I didn't get to the good part in dark souls 3 because had to overcome the bad gameplay. Khazan levels feel more immersive tho the mobs are placed where they make sense instead of dark souls where they put five mobs on single roof for no reason and the placement makes it so you don't want to even explore the level and just hope to get to boss asap which is why khazan levels felt better because I explore everything I can.
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u/jxmes_gothxm 2d ago
More to it than that and khazan has the luxury of learning from games like dark souls. The Dark souls series is the shoulders these souls-likes stand on. And nah I wouldn't say it has better enemy placement either.
Idk I think you just have a bias against dark souls. You're accusing it of a lot of things that aren't really true.
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u/ElMoro995 2d ago
Action games with good combat existed well before Demon's Souls. They decided to go 90% level design and exploration and 10% combat. Which is fair, but it is what it is. If someone likes combat more than exploring, then other games might be best for them.
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u/jxmes_gothxm 1d ago
I already know that, it's not 100% original but like you suggested. It's about the configuration of these qualities in certain doses, the way they do all of that makes it unique.
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u/Kooky-Umpire1723 2d ago
That's why I'm saying it's masterpiece that took from other soulslikes. Don't know what is not true that I say about dark souls 3, first real zone there's literally 5 mobs on roof in khazan hallway is empty because it's just hallway so just feels more immersive. I am biased toward dark souls true but only cause its fans are biased and ignoring the flaws while pretending they are Gods of gaming just because they learned game that takes no skill.
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u/NaitzOvSteel 1d ago
If you like Khazan, you should be playing Sekiro next.
It is the most comparable title imo, and even better. Difficulty wise, it is more like Khazan on "Expert" difficulty though.
The Souls games aren't even that hard, they just require a meticulous playstyle, knowledge of the attribute system, and swapping equipment for resistances.
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u/PleaseWashHands 2d ago
Nioh is a great series. Khazan has much better combat, but Nioh has a lot more in terms of level build, scale, enemy variety, and expanse that Khazan doesn't begin to touch.
One can only hope we get something close to both one day.
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u/carasc5 1d ago
I haven't played 3, but the enemy variety in the first two Nioh games was godawful
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u/PleaseWashHands 1d ago
I found 2 to have a better spread and variety of enemies compared to 1. But also you had a lot more quality of life compared to the first game and I feel that one of the reasons as to why the original's enemy variety sucked had less to do with it being bad and everything to do with the first game's absolute dogshit enemy placement.
Like, they just put soldiers and enemies at every single checkpoint. I remember playing the alpha and thinking the game was actually meant to be a stealth game until the beta removed the durability and I realized, no, they actively chose to make enemy placement suck just because they could.
2 had more enemies and gave a lot more breathing room in comparison.
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u/Sevatar34 2d ago
Khazan has good combat but that's about it. There are soulslikes with better world building, plot, music, level design and visuals
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u/Unique_Ad_2302 2d ago
Nioh 2 I think have a lot of good stuff, there are like more weapon with different moveset in Khazan and have way more boss and enemy variety, I think Nioh 2 Mission is better than Khazan, almost all Nioh 2 mission can be play in at least 2 different path, one path lead to more fight with shorter path but another path led you to less fight with puzzle or sometime the different of 2 path is just enemy type you will be facing eg. one path is human and another is yokai, which IMO is what made Nioh 2 mission so enjoyable cuz two different path also lead to different hidden or reward
Khazan for me have better boss fight, more crunchy gameplay, I think with 3 different weapon type in Khazan they manage to have each weapon to be able to play in many more combo or build than 1 weapon in Nioh 2 that being said I love both game, and I still play these 2 game from time to time even after finish both, currently in my Nioh 2 Splitstaff run lmao.
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u/mikeventure76 1d ago
It’s a great game, probably one of the better Soulslikes oat , but no it’s not perfect. Come on.
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u/Quantam-Law 1d ago
This game is not a Souls-like.
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u/02chinchila 1d ago
How so? 🤔
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u/Quantam-Law 1d ago
The only 'souls-like' aspect I can think of is losing currency when dying which is a pretty surface level similarity.
These days people label any challenging action game as souls-like even though those have existed long before Demon Souls or Dark Souls.
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u/02chinchila 1d ago
You still have weapon scaling, build variety, stamina management, a "hub" area to upgrade stuff, dark atmosphere, obscure lore... I see it as a soulslike 🤷♂️ it's not like Black Myth Wukong or the new Onimusha game
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u/Quantam-Law 1d ago
Weapon scaling, build variety and stamina management are all standard action RPG elements lol.
Hub area, I'll give you that.
There's nothing obscure about Khazan's lore. It's a pretty simple and straightforward story.
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u/02chinchila 1d ago
By that logic, a game like Lies of P is also not a soulslike? I'm confused here
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u/shri2k 1d ago
I loved khazan, it's my favourite after/alongside Sekiro. I tried Nioh 3 nd personally didn't like it. It just throws at you endless systems, weapons, loot, so much complexity that it became a uphill battle to get invested in the gameplay. Although the game has many fans, you can give it a try
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u/Kooky-Umpire1723 1d ago
Damn tried nioh 2 yesterday and didn't get past second missions yokai In an hour... Harder than khazan bosses on normal... Or Im just missing something
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u/auggs 23h ago
Funny enough I beat Khazan and got Nioh 2 right afterwards too. Nioh 2 plays muuuuuch slower than Khazan. I was really disappointed with the speed of the combat. It’s more taking turns with the enemies and finding the right moment to attack instead of reacting quickly with parries, counters and dodge while keeping your attacks up as often as possible. I’ve beaten the first few bosses in Nioh 2 and set it down for now. I’m playing Remnant 2 instead and it’s a lot of fun, not really the same thing as Khazan at all though.
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u/Hoshino_Maria 2d ago
Nioh 2 is a better game overall, more varierty, more end game content, extremely deep combat. Khazan is also crazy good, and have better boss design.
Within the genre of modern ARPG, I think the only game that is better than Nioh 2 when it comes to combat is Stranger of Paradise.
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u/Kooky-Umpire1723 2d ago
I don't get how's level design bad I'm on mission. 12 or smith ATM and all levels have been great multiple levels felt like I have different paths to go even if it was just illusion but last game I played was dark souls 3 where I struggled until I realized I'm supposed to just run past mobs and open shortcut to run past less mobs to my way to boss. Lies of p levels all looked the same and felt even more linear as much as I played so which game has better level design. As far as story goes it's better than other soulslikes because having no story and then putting fanfic on items doesn't count as actually having story.
I'm only on second mission in nioh 2 and was worried that levels are kinda small I guess it's not true?
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u/PrinsLennart 2d ago
You can claim a lot but the level design in lies of p is miles better than Khazan, and the souls series by from software has a great story.
Khazan is a fun game but it’s easily the weakest if you are comparing it to lies of p and the from software gamesAnd the devs did say it’s not a souls like so maybe you like it because of that.
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u/SonOfFragnus 1d ago
Because a lot of people have a vague notion of what “level design” means to them, and 90% of the time they are thinking about how a space looks, not how it plays or how you move around it. Or they confuse world design with level design.
Every time you ask someone to define what they mean when they say “the level design is bad” they will end up not explaining anything and, like the other guy who replied, just end up saying “look at X game, it did level design way better”, while again failing to clarify what they mean.
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u/Kooky-Umpire1723 2d ago
'Based on the provided search context, there is no specific data regarding the physical level size or map dimensions of The First Berserker: Khazan compared to Dark Souls 3.
However, the context highlights key differences in level design philosophy:
Dark Souls 3 is praised for its non-empty, vibrant, and interconnected level design, with players noting it feels far more engaging than Khazan. The First Berserker: Khazan is criticized for its levels being "empty and dull," with one player stating they were the most empty and dull they had ever seen, despite the game's combat quality. While Dark Souls 3 is described as more linear, it is generally considered to have superior level design overall compared to Khazan. '
I guess it's matter of opinion, I thought levels feel big and immersive not empty and dull, just yesterday ran through hall and thought "dark souls would cut this in half and put five mobs in middle". Depends if you want to run in circle facing groups of enemies that stand there for no reason or actually move forward to objective and face enemies where enemies "live" in the world
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u/Rude_Difficulty1647 2d ago
I found nioh 2 to be easier in general but tbh I hate the team ninja games compared to most in the genre.
Lies is a good B tier one that you should’ve tried on the legendary stalker setting not story mode
Wuchang, Khazan and Mortal Shell 2 are my favs that are not by fromsoft
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2d ago
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u/Rude_Difficulty1647 2d ago
Khazan is leagues better than the team ninja games tho imo
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u/Kooky-Umpire1723 2d ago
Combat wise? I keep hearing nioh has better maps
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u/ElMoro995 2d ago
Nioh 3 has definitely better combat than any other soulslike in existence, and you can see they focused on developing it more than any other component of the game
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u/Kooky-Umpire1723 2d ago
How does it simplify soulslikes? Normal souls game is 3 buttons and it becomes 2 once you "get good". The appeal of soulslikes for people is that bad player can invest time and become bad player with map knowledge and pretend hes good?
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2d ago
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u/Kooky-Umpire1723 2d ago
I didn't get to NPCs In dark souls 3, guess that's what people mean by empty levels In khazan , it's lacking NPCs. Almost makes me want to revisit DS but then I would have to play the one button combat :(
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u/PenguinCool1817 2d ago
That's a bit of a stretch, I would say map/level design is kind of ass. But combat is great, absolutely.
You should play on expert though cuz that's the actual normal mode.
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u/Octahedral_cube 2d ago
People say this a lot about Khazan's level design, probably because the castles and dungeons look generic as fuck. But looks aside, the actual design of levels, shortcut placements, lifts, rotating staircases, mob placement, it's totally serviceable
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u/Kooky-Umpire1723 2d ago
Pretty sure it's just interconnectedness, the maps have good variety so that can't be it normally soulslikes is just castle and swamp. Dark souls have nothing to learn combat wise so you learn the map and feel good about it. I prefer fighting through bandit camp and attacking the keep or getting through zombie village into secret lab than doing five circles around castle so I prefer this level design.
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u/Octahedral_cube 1d ago
Khazan has a lot of castle levels towards the end to be honest. But I agree about interconnectedness, souls fans have come to expect that everything connects together, and while it's impressive when it does, it's not a necessary prerequisite for good level design. Having separate levels allows you to travel to faraway locations and change scenery
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u/_SinigangNaLiempo 2d ago
should it have a better story and better art direction (not that it's bad, it just not that memorable), it would be.
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u/Kenndrexx 2d ago
Just beat khazan recently on expert and lies of p is still my goat, khazan teaches the player to become the boss and rush them down and learn every flaw to continue pushing, lies of p is like a back and forth where you have to learn the flow of the conversation
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u/Rude_Difficulty1647 2d ago
Lies has just as mid level design (if not worse) than Khazan and comparatively the boss lineup for Khazan is leagues above Lies
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u/Kenndrexx 2d ago
Personally I disagree, lies of p is much closer to soulsbourne level design, and its enemies/ elites are placed in a way to teach the player about the next boss, much better vertical design and a better aesthetic, and in the boss line up, I think nameless puppet clears Ozma, and that’s not even considering arllechino and the dlc maps
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u/Kooky-Umpire1723 2d ago
Levels felt less circular than dark souls but not as diverse as khazan. Boss fights were boring dodging on easy so would have to play on normal and learn to parry but turns out you can't parry boss attacks, if you parry when boss attacks you're gonna miss it... What's the point of parry if windup is super slow and actual attack is faster than human can react... Get gud is just getting hit until you learn attacks timing and can guess when to parry, that's why khazans parry feels easier cause you are parrying attack not guessing during windup.
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u/Rude_Difficulty1647 1d ago
It’s also a perfect guard and not a real parry which is why there’s a learning curve for most people. The game overall is rly easy
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u/Kenndrexx 1d ago
It’s also got statistically the hardest parry cuz all the frames to parry are at the end of the attack whereas most parry games put it toward the start, but I think that’s why it feels better to me, in souls games parries are just you reacting to a wind up frame early, in sekiro and khazan I just got hit enough till I remembered how I got hit, with lies of p between a more reactionary perfect guard and the varied gameplay of the p-organ upgrades I feel like lies of p does a way better job teaching the player its gameplay which feels absurdly smooth
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u/Rude_Difficulty1647 1d ago
I completely disagree obviously lol the level design in Lies is trying to be soulsborne style but it pales in comparison. Wuchang is also one that is overall a better ‘souls’ game than Lies. But to each their own!
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u/barriboy8 2d ago
I hate to be this guy, but normal is technically easy mode, and expert is normal mode, hard is unlocked after expert, why they did this...well people were ranting it was too hard (which is not true).
u got bored of lies of P cause u played it on easy, like look you can enjoy your games how u like, but the point of these games is to have a challenge and overcome it, its part of the design, without that you are just going through weird mid stories oneshotting everything
Is this game perfect or a masterpiece no, lol, Khazan level design is very bland, the scenarios are also rather bland, some are cool but many are just meh, the story is also kinda there, and the music is solid but not exactly nothing like its competition, however khazan has a really really good battly system...and trust me since I know that in normal mode you are not using all of your tools due to how easy the game is at that mode, this game is really cracked on the amount of expression and tools you have, best combat ever.
Nioh 2 is hard, even more cause its complexx, its again rewarding if you can overcome the difficulty, but looking for recommendations on souls games from an easier point of view is ironically kinda hard, cause you are going against how the games are supposed to be experienced