Khazan in Review/Recommendation

Finished Khazan The First Berserker, no summons, and it will go down as one of my favorites of all time. I thought I should write the pros and cons based on my likes/dislikes in the game for those that are picky and share similar taste. Again, this is based on my taste and if I talk about not liking a game in comparison, it is purely opinion and understand people like different things.

Pros

1. Quality of Life - Respawn points very close to bosses with no real enemies inbetween. Very quick load times between dying, respawning, auto skipping the cinematics, and loading the boss battle. I'm looking at you Dark Souls and ER.

2. Balanced - The bosses are hard, but your character is also very strong, throwing down big combos. That doesn't make the game easy. It makes you feel like like you can go blow for blow, while still retaining a challenging difficulty. I really didn't enjoy Elden Ring bosses as much because it felt like I had to evade until I had time to slap them once or twice and then repeat dodging a wild ass combo against a boss with insane stamina and hyper armor.

3. Great for people who seek out challenging bosses, aggressive action, and little patience - This might be a lengthy portion. It's a boss rush game and it was slightly intimidating at first because historically, the entire process of getting to a boss, dying, runback, etc is very frustrating and mentally taxing. Plus taking minutes to get back to a boss only to get 2 shot because you haven't figured out a move...psychotic. But in Khazan, together with points 1 & 2, it makes the bosses 1000x more enjoyable. I think I averaged 1.5 hrs per boss and many runs, but it didn't feel like a slog because you can get right back into each fight almost immediately.

4. More like 3b, I loved parrying. Not a big dodge/roller. My other 2 favorite games are Sekiro and Stellar Blade. It makes me feel engaged in the fight and even with your opponent. And compared to other games, the key to Khazan are the combos, so there's another level of skill that can make or break your fight with a boss. Figuring out the best usage of moves in a combo to chunk away at a boss at the right time is peak action.

5. More like 3c, Little Patience is both QoL and the fact the game is linear. I'm not a huge open world guy. It overwhelms me because I like to cover every corner, and I get frustrated when I find out I missed a ladder or stairs because it blended in so well with the background (happens often). In Khazan, it's pretty damn linear and things are hard to miss. Also a bit of a Con, but I'll cover it there. The levels aren't super long so the Con part isn't a deal breaker.

6. No Gank Boss Fights - AMEN. I can never understand why anyone thinks these are fun or good to have. All main story bosses are 1v1. Some side mission bosses are ganks, but it's nothing unreasonable. I love Lies of P, but I can't get myself to replay it because I have never been closer to punching my screen or smashing my keyboard than the times I had to fight the Black Rabbit Brotherhood.

7. No BS Bosses and enemies - I never felt like a boss had a BS moveset. Okay, to be completely fair, there are like 2 lame-ass enemies, but 1 I found out by end-game a certain skill trivializes them.

Cons

1. Linear - Because level design is so linear and enemy variety is lacking, by end game, it's a bit tedious but not awful. I learned in Khazan I value high quality bosses over an average story, and not so very inspiring levels and enemies. But I have to note again, it's not awful, it just gets a bit stale. The tradeoff was done just well enough.

2. Enemy Variety - Explained in point 1, but fair to break it out explicitly. Atleast they're fun to fight?

3. NPC's - Trying to think of more cons. Uhh the NPC's don't really do anything. You find them, they move to base, some give you side missions...that's kinda it lol

4. Lack of Utility - I guess this is a con. By late-mid to end game, there are only so many actually usable skills and items. You have a lot of unused things.

Neutral

1. Non-Memorable Story - For some a major con, but I'm not a huge in-game lore guy. I like lore, but I prefer to watch a youtube video explaining it at the end lol I prefer to just immerse myself in the fighting when I'm playing.
2. You get XP after each boss run - I thought it was a bit corny at first, but it makes sense. Early game, it's a bit rough because you can't chain as many moves together yet, so the early xp compensates. By mid-endgame, it's only giving you a level or 2 which is kinda trivial overall. And since levels are kinda short, the xp per boss run also compensates. The pros of this, you never really have to farm. Just try again, except do better (the longer you last, the more xp you get).
3. Anime Styled Art - It doesn't pull you in as much as something more realistic, but this aspect is quickly overshadowed by the fun you have.

TLDR; I highly recommend this game for people that like parrying and challenging boss fights, but don't like the downtime (death/load screens/runback) and rolling of the souls/ER series.

The game is faaaaaar from perfect. I'd say Elden Ring is a far superior game, but in terms of enjoyment, Khazan ranked at the top of my list.