The First Berserker: Khazan Review (So Far) - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Detailed Summary of "The First Berserker: Khazan Review (So Far)" – Kinda Funny Gamescast

Release Date: March 24, 2025

The Kinda Funny Gamescast episode titled "The First Berserker: Khazan Review (So Far)" delves into an in-depth, ongoing review of the action-packed game "The First Berserker: Khazan." Hosted by Tim Gettys, Blessing Adioye, and Ryan Reynolds (likely a pseudonym for Andy Cortez), the discussion spans various aspects of the game, offering both praise and constructive criticism.

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1. Introduction & Gameplay Experience

The episode kicks off with Tim Gettys introducing the main topic: an ongoing review of "The First Berserker: Khazan." Both Blessing and Ryan share their playtime, with Blessing having dedicated approximately 15 hours and Ryan around 32 hours to the game.

• Ryan Reynolds [07:43]: "I have played 32 hours. Oh, I put in a lot of work this weekend."
• Tim Gettys [07:30]: "Are either of you playing the demo for First Berserker Kazan?"

Both hosts express enthusiasm for the game's challenging nature, emphasizing its difficulty akin to titles like Dark Souls and Sekiro.

• Ryan Reynolds [07:57]: "This is a hard video game."

2. Combat Mechanics & Difficulty

A significant portion of the discussion centers around the game's combat system. The hosts laud the responsiveness and tightness of the combat, drawing comparisons to renowned action games.

• Ryan Reynolds [09:06]: "I really, really enjoy the challenge."
• Blessing Adioye [10:50]: "I think for me, that's the biggest, almost downfall of it."

They highlight the game's ability to provide immediate satisfaction through well-timed parries and strategic combat moves, enhancing the overall gaming experience.

• Ryan Reynolds [25:24]: "It has such a good crunch to it. This game has fantastic sound design."

3. Loot System & Customization

While the combat receives high praise, the loot system garners mixed reviews. Both hosts find it somewhat overwhelming, likening it to a "game within a game."

• Ryan Reynolds [10:44]: "I think it's going to be good for people out there who are the freaks that love doing the min-maxing stuff."
• Blessing Adioye [23:03]: "But I find myself getting into that rhythm."

The extensive customization options, though appreciated by min-maxers, are seen as potentially tedious for some players.

• Ryan Reynolds [24:05]: "And again like, that's awesome. But there's a couple of other things."

4. Art Style & Technical Performance

The game's art style is a standout feature, with the hosts praising its cel-shaded anime aesthetics and overall visual appeal.

• Blessing Adioye [43:39]: "We have games like Dark Souls that have such fantastic level design."
• Ryan Reynolds [32:08]: "It has this sort of cel-shaded anime look to all the characters and the environments have good lighting and everything."

Technical performance, especially on the Steam Deck, is commendable. Ryan shares his positive experience with running the game on a Steam Deck and his high-end PC setup, emphasizing smooth gameplay and crisp visuals.

• Ryan Reynolds [47:16]: "I did lower everything down to like low. But the nice thing about it, it doesn't do what a lot of games like Monster Hunter does."
• Blessing Adioye [49:50]: "Yeah, it looks great."

5. Story & Narrative Elements

Despite the game's strengths, the story and character development receive criticism. The absence of significant dialogue from the protagonist, Ben Starr, leaves players wanting more narrative depth.

• Ryan Reynolds [50:05]: "I wish that I cared more about the story and the characters, but I don't think I've given been given much of a chance to care."
• Blessing Adioye [41:07]: "But the story reminds me about how I felt about the wo long story. But not as bad."

The hosts compare the narrative to "Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty," noting that while there's an attempt to build a universe, it falls short in engaging storytelling.

6. Boss Battles & Level Design

Boss encounters are a focal point of the review, with mixed opinions on their creativity and difficulty.

• Ryan Reynolds [45:22]: "That boss was really tough. And that's like a really big first skill check for you."
• Blessing Adioye [45:39]: "So far, I think more bosses lean toward I. I see the archetype you are, and I'm not seeing much further past that."

While some bosses are lauded for their challenge and design, others are deemed generic by Blessing, suggesting room for improvement in diversity and creativity.

7. Comparisons to Other Games

The hosts frequently compare "The First Berserker: Khazan" to other action RPGs to contextualize its strengths and weaknesses.

• Ryan Reynolds [09:06]: "It reminds me a lot more of the sort of Sekiro side of things."
• Blessing Adioye [14:14]: "Yeah, they have like weapon infusions where if I have this purple weapon that I love the stats on."

These comparisons to games like Sekiro, Elden Ring, Destiny, and Lies of P help highlight the unique elements and areas where the game excels or lags behind its contemporaries.

8. Technical Insights & Steam Deck Performance

A deep dive into the game's performance on different platforms reveals commendable optimization, especially on portable devices like the Steam Deck.

• Ryan Reynolds [47:16]: "It runs great on Steam Deck. Has like I think some of my favorite action in."

The hosts detail their respective setups, with Ryan praising his Alienware OLED display for its high refresh rate and visual clarity, enhancing the gaming experience.

• Ryan Reynolds [47:30]: "Last year I bought a 32 inch 4K Alienware OLED and this sucker is a dream."

9. Final Thoughts & Ratings

In wrapping up, both hosts share their overall impressions, offering ratings based on their experiences.

• Blessing Adioye [36:50]: "If I were to give it a score right now, I would say 8 out of 10."
• Ryan Reynolds [36:53]: "I'm around, like 8.5 out of 10."

They commend the game's combat mechanics, art style, and technical performance while expressing reservations about the loot system and narrative execution.

• Ryan Reynolds [50:05]: "The combat is so good and so responsive and just tight as. And it just feels awesome."
• Blessing Adioye [43:39]: "But the story reminds me about how I felt about the wo long story."

10. Conclusion

The episode concludes with a light-hearted discussion, transitioning from the in-depth review to upcoming content like streaming "Half-Life 2 with RTX." The hosts encourage listeners to share their thoughts and stay tuned for future episodes, highlighting the dynamic and engaging nature of the Kinda Funny Gamescast.

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Notable Quotes:

• Ryan Reynolds [25:24]: "I really, really fucking like this game a lot."
• Blessing Adioye [55:07]: "I just popped off there. Awesome."
• Tim Gettys [38:06]: "But the gameplay hooked me."

This comprehensive review from the Kinda Funny Gamescast provides valuable insights into "The First Berserker: Khazan," balancing enthusiasm for its strengths with thoughtful critique on areas needing enhancement.

Transcript

[Ryan Reynolds]

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying. No judgments. But that's weird. Okay, one judgment anyway. Give it a try. @mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment of $45 for.

[Blessing Adioye]

3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month. Required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail] foreign.

[Tim Gettys]

What'S up? And welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games Cast live for Monday, March 24, 2025. Of course, I am your host, Tim Yetis. I'm joined today by blessing. Adio. Yeah, Junior.

[Blessing Adioye]

Good day, Tim.

[Tim Gettys]

And happy bloodborne anniversary to the man himself, Andy Cortez. Ten years.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Ten years.

[Tim Gettys]

Ten years of memories.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Ten years. I was watching other people play it. Yeah, you know, I didn't really know much about it 10 years ago.

[Blessing Adioye]

I was watching the trailer and being like, that looks really cool. It looks really cool. I hope those people are happy.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, exactly.

[Blessing Adioye]

And then we became.

[Tim Gettys]

You were watching other people play it, Andy. And then you've played it and then you played it in 60 frames per seconds with people watching you. Like, that's kind of crazy, right?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Full circle moment.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It is a big full circle moment. Yeah. Spending a lot of money on that modded PS5. But it was worth it. Yeah, it was worth seeing all them frames.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. One day. One day they'll. They'll do what your shirt demands.

[Ryan Reynolds]

One day, remaster it.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, man. Bless. How are you doing?

[Blessing Adioye]

I'm doing good.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adioye]

I'm just chilling. Ready to talk about some Kazan First Berserker. Kazan First Berserker. I got a lot to say.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, I'm excited, but also somehow at.

[Blessing Adioye]

The same time, not a lot to say.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, very interested in what that could possibly mean because this is kind of Funny Games Cast. Each and every weekday we get together to talk all about video games, whether it's reviews, previews, reviews so far, which I get the impression this is going to be, or predictions and everything else you need to know under the video game sun. This is where you want to be. We're live on Twitch and YouTube. You could watch later on YouTube if you want to be super freaking cool. You can even become a kind of funny member. You can do that on Patreon, YouTube, Spotify or Apple podcasts and it gets you the shows ad free. And you get a daily exclusive. Greg way today's is Nick and Roger. Interesting. What are they going to do together? The combo of Nick and Roger is dangerous and powerful. You know, I feel like they're going to be.

[Blessing Adioye]

Yeah, just those two.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh yeah. It's never on camera. Well, I guess maybe this in a tuner stuff, but it's more just off camera.

[Blessing Adioye]

Joey with them too.

[Tim Gettys]

What did you say?

[Ryan Reynolds]

No, nothing.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, you said you corrected somebody. I said, I was like, fuck, am I getting that name wrong?

[Ryan Reynolds]

No, no, no.

[Tim Gettys]

Good. Anyway, yeah, Roger, Nick. There's like a, an uneasy alliance, you know, energy. We can't trust him. I'm telling you that now.

[Blessing Adioye]

That's what I want with Nick.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, I see Nick and I'm so desperate for it. You just got to make it happen, man. Yeah, he wants it to.

[Blessing Adioye]

He's too cool.

[Ryan Reynolds]

He's the desperate one.

[Blessing Adioye]

He's going out every night at bars, performing stand up comedy, hanging out with like other cool people. And I'm like, that's what I want. He has a mustache.

[Tim Gettys]

He's hanging out with people. You know what I mean?

[Blessing Adioye]

But he's like, it's but cool people, you know? No, you don't think he's a stand up comedy. You don't think the stand up comics are out here just coolest people ever.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Can't believe Tim hates stand up comics.

[Blessing Adioye]

Yeah, I mean they're out there saying jokes, doing drugs that I can pronounce.

[Tim Gettys]

Here's what I'm saying. I obviously like, I, I'm playing this up and like, definitely a lot of hyperbole here. The one thing that is true, I hate when I hang out with his stand up comedy friends and we're just like at a dinner and they're all just trying to make me laugh. Like they're all just trying to like, all of a sudden I'm a fucking participant in a crime. Like, I don't want this.

[Blessing Adioye]

I feel like I can say this as a podcaster when I'm listening to podcasts I love and they have on a standup comedian as a guest. And that stand up comedian then proceeds for an hour trying to do bits and trying to like do stand, like the whole stand up routine in the middle of the show. I'm like, just be a regular person.

[Tim Gettys]

Just be regular.

[Blessing Adioye]

Just have a conversation.

[Tim Gettys]

We're eating nachos.

[Ryan Reynolds]

What I do love though is listening to Pablo. Tori finds out and it's always Katie Nolan, who's the best with her boyfriend Dan Soder. And Dan just Always like has the most funny wrestling references. He does a great macho man. It makes me laugh every time. He's a funny dude.

[Blessing Adioye]

Can you do any wrestling impressions?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, I do a great Stone Cold. Yeah. Oh, really, really good Stone Cold. Yeah. And that's the bottom line. A lot of people come in here looking for a review, but I don't give a damn. Pretty decent.

[Tim Gettys]

Yes. The voices in there.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And that's the bottom line.

[Tim Gettys]

The energy is there. If you think the energy is there. Of course you can super chat into the show if you have any thoughts, questions, concerns, comments, anything you want about first Berserker Kazan, please get those in Trump.

[Blessing Adioye]

It's like Stone Cold as Donald Trump is what that is.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I had a good one though on the kind of Funny podcast because I think we're, you know, Greg was like putting me in these improv scenarios and one of them became me where I was Stone Cold working at an ice cream place and I was like, cuz. Cuz Cold Stone said so.

[Blessing Adioye]

Oh, that's good. I like that. I like that.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh man, we do great stuff.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Get to the back of the line cuz Cold Stone said so. That's what it was.

[Blessing Adioye]

That's good.

[Tim Gettys]

Remember at Cold Stone when you tip them and they had to do a song and dance?

[Ryan Reynolds]

What?

[Tim Gettys]

There was an era where at Cold Stone, if they got tipped, they had to stop what they were doing and do this whole fucking song. Oh, guys, my friend Angie Wang, poor Angie Wang. Back in high school, she worked at Cold Stone and me and my friends.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Oh no, we just assholes.

[Tim Gettys]

And we were tipping them. We're giving them money.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, but you. Yeah, but perform for me. That's. Oh you.

[Tim Gettys]

We only did it once, but that one time. We did it many times today after this you got a whole bunch of fun stuff, but you already got kind of funny Games daily. That was me and Bless talking all about about some rumors of a new God of War game that might be coming this year. And that turned into a very exciting conversation. So check that out to see what might be going on. After this though, it's going to be a really fun time. We are Streaming Half Life 2. We are partnering with Nvidia to jump into play what we all agree could be the game of the year contender for 2004, Half Life 2. But now it has RTX, a new community mod that uses the power of Nvidia GPUs to show off how good Valve's classic continues to be over two decades later with the most advanced graphics you can find on any video game anywhere. This is just released demo of the still unpublished full game. We're going to be showing off every ray traced head crab we can find. This is going to be Nick playing who loves Half life and Half life two with Andy kind of playing shotgun there. Talking and helping him through all of the tech stuff. But I don't know if y'all have seen any of this stuff. We're looking at some footage now. It is gorgeous. Like this game was made to be enhanced this way and it's about to be a. A very, very, very special stream. Are you excited, Andy?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, I'm super stoked for I got to boot. I booted it up over the weekend. Just kind of on my own and kind of mess around with it and it's a man. I. I just love doing the before and afters and you know, doing the Coke Pepsi challenge. It looks so great.

[Tim Gettys]

So great. Let's see if you're kind of a member. Like I'm saying, you can get today's Gregory with Nick and Raj. Thank you to our Patreon producers Delaney Twine and Carl Jacobs and Omega Buster. Today we are brought to you by Stash but we'll tell you about that later. It's time for the topic of the show. The first Berserker Kazan. The review embargo has been hit. We are now going to discuss it ourselves.

[Blessing Adioye]

Bless him.

[Tim Gettys]

How long have you played?

[Blessing Adioye]

I have played about 15 hours.

[Tim Gettys]

Andy, how long have you played?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I have played 32 hours. Oh, I put in a lot of work this weekend.

[Tim Gettys]

So this is a review in progress. Andy, what are you thinking so far?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I'm fairly close to the end. I think it's. It has a real hard game. Yeah, this is a hard.

[Blessing Adioye]

It's a difficult ass video.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It's a hard video game. My number one thing that I Let me get the negatives out of the way. Not enough Ben Starr. Ben Starr is Kazan. He's the titular dude. He's the first berserker. Some say wow. But every once in a blue moon you get a I have to save them. And that's it. Like it's everybody else around him talking which is like whatever. I think the story is kind of. I stopped Karen about three, four hours in. But they do a really good job of helping you try to understand what the hell is going on. They. There's a really nice little menu screen that shows you chapter by chapter who's getting added to I guess like the family tree. It's not a family Tree but it's you know, Kazan's in the center and then in the first chapter it's to the homies and then the next chapter it's extra NPCs and how they relate and it's sort of like a relationship tree so they do a decent job there. The game has a really great art style. Runs fantastically on Steam deck.

[Tim Gettys]

That's why you have the deck in front of you.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, it runs great on Steam deck. Has like I think some of my favorite action in. In a while combat is lovely. I really, really with it. It is. It reminds me a lot more of the sort of stellar Blade Lies of P. Sekiro side of things where you are pairing as much as you can with the right timing and you know, we've had these discussions where is like it's not a. It's less of a Dark Souls game and more of a. You're going to try to chip down their stamina bar to stagger the enemy going for that higher hit of damage. But the. The amount of different moves you can sort of add into your kit make you look so sick. Like the. The. There's going to be some awesome ways to make this game look like the sexiest thing you've ever seen. Combat wise where Kazan just doing crazy flips and having all and you know, hitting a dude and then like the Blade Phantom that is kind of like in his body will like pop out from the right and from the left and hit the enemy as well. It's really, really cool. I think the level design is better as of late from what I've been been experiencing. But it's been. It's been pretty good so far. Your standard kind of old school Dark Souls style of level design where you unlock that shortcut and suddenly it's easier to run to the boss or whatever. But yeah, so far I'm. I'm really, really enjoying it. I'm really digging the challenge. I really don't like the loot system.

[Blessing Adioye]

Oh, it's too much. You know what it reminds me of?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Destiny.

[Blessing Adioye]

Like see I was going to say Koei Tecmo. Remember playing wo long fallen Dynasty.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adioye]

Yeah. There's so much loot everywhere.

[Ryan Reynolds]

A lot of loot. I think there's going to be. I think it's going to be good for people out there who are the freaks that love doing the min maxing stuff because there's. It has like weapon infusions where if I have this purple weapon that I love the stats on because it gives me stamina Stuff and that's kind of what I'm building towards. But I find a better purple weapon of higher level. I can infuse that power into the one that I like to kind of power it up a little bit. Reminds me a lot of Destiny in that way. But it's. It's like a game in its too much of a game within a game that's already taking a long time to beat because I got to get good. This game's pretty tough, but I enjoy it so far quite a bit. Tim.

[Tim Gettys]

Hell yeah. Bless.

[Blessing Adioye]

Yeah, I agree pretty much 100% with everything Andy said. I think this is a very fun game. And I think the thing that I'm suffering from Slash enjoying at the same time, I remember it was either last week or the week before where we were talking about, like, when we're playing Roguelites and you have like the three options that pop up and how good that is for my brain. As soon as I see those three options of like, these are the perks. You can choose like my. My brain just like, yeah, gets a good feeling. This game gives me so much of that of, oh, I just like these types of games a lot. And I love a game that is. I'm deflecting to build down, like their stamina meter to then stagger them and then get the big hit on them. It is the Sekiro like, right? It is Stellar Blade. It is wo long fallen dynasty. It is lies of P. There are so many action games that we played like this, and I think for me, that's the biggest, almost downfall of it. Slash. The thing I like the most where as I'm playing this, I am not super motivated to be like, oh man, I'm fucking in it. I need to get to the next thing. Because this plays and feels like so many games I played before like this. And I don't think it necessarily excels far beyond those. Like, so far after being only 15 hours in, right. Like, so far, I'm still preferring Eliza P. Right. Like even Stellar Blade, I could see this maybe getting there for me, but I think still Stellar Blade stands above it. That said, I think what it does, it does well. I enjoy the combat system, the skill tree and like the abilities and the options as far as gear and customization. Customization. I can't talk customization and stuff like that. Those things are pretty heavy. But it is like Andy's talking about, right?

[Ryan Reynolds]

It is.

[Blessing Adioye]

You are just picking up a bunch of things and I'm going to the menu every five minutes and Being like, all right, this is like, higher than this. I guess I'll do this. But then if I do this, it'll lessen my stamina. But the high. The number is higher, so I'll guess I'll equip this. It's a lot of that management which does turn into a game within a game, like Andy was talking about. And I think it can get a bit tedious, but if you're somebody whose brain loves that stuff, like, you're going to have a really good time. And so for me, I almost compare this to something akin of a Neo. As far as I think the way that it's going to hit for people, it's that plus, like a really good art style. I think it's very pretty to look at. I'm with Andy as well, where I stopped caring about the story almost immediately. It is just a bunch of jargon. It is a bunch of, like, maybe if you're into the DNF universe, there might be stuff here for you. But moment to moment in the story, I'm not caring, but I do like the character design in the spirit design, and we'll get a little bit more about, like, the character that's within your character and like the different abilities and stuff. But I'm having a good time. I see myself seeing this through to the end. I think as of now, I'm, like, not slow playing it, but I'm not in a rush to play it either. Right.

[Tim Gettys]

You brought up the DNF world. What can you expound on that a little bit more?

[Blessing Adioye]

Yeah, so this game takes place within the DNF universe. So that's. Dungeon Dungeon Fighter Online, I think, is the name of the, like, game that came out years and years and years ago.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It's.

[Blessing Adioye]

I don't know much about dnf, Tim. It's one of those things that's been around that's super popular. There was a.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It's a fighting game, DNF Duel.

[Blessing Adioye]

DNF Duel is the fighting I know about that came out, that was developed by Arcsys, that came out a couple years ago and that was my first jumping in into the universe. But it's basically another universe that is very popular to a certain section of gamers now. They've been doing a good job of, you know, finding games to fit within the ip. So this is another one being published by Nexon, but also developed by. By Neopole.

[Tim Gettys]

Interesting. Andy, when it comes to the. The loot stuff and you saying that there's the game within a game, do you think that it's doing that stuff in a, in a way that's unique. That maybe might find like a new subsect of gamers that like want a game like this but also like want it to be even more intricate or have we seen that before? And this is going to speak to those people.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I mean it really does kind of remind me of when you're going for like the God tier role in Destiny weapon grinding, but not even quite to that degree. I was talking to the homie fighting cowboy who's very popular for playing a lot of these sort of souls likes and action games. And he's just like a really, really good gamer. And he told me it took him about 30 hours to finish the game, but he spent about 50 hours in total in the game because he was grinding new gear. And, and I didn't, I was like, how, how does one go about that? But then I ended up finding a gear set that it's called the bar to gear set. And the more if you have like the bar to headpiece then that's one thing or whatever, but if you have the, the, the barred like chess piece as well, then the more that you have of the Bard, sort of like, yeah, the whole set, you get more and more benefits. So I ended up having like four of the, of the different bard armor set or whatever. I think it was like head chest, maybe like the pants and the, the boots or whatever. But with every new perk I was able to get 20 chance of getting better loot and then Another one was 25 chance of getting like more loot drops. So I had that on at one point and right near one of the bonfires. It's like that little red sword that you see in the ground. Again, very super souls influenced. Anytime you sit down at the bonfire, bad guys will respawn. So I kept on getting up and going to kill a spider enemy and he would drop a shitload of loot. And then I started seeing the pink items because pink is better than purple in this case. Those are like the legendary ones or whatever. And I had come back and I sit down and I did that. I did that for like 30 minutes and found myself finding better and better loot because it was like this dude's like 10ft away. So it was just like quick, quick bang, bang, bang. And not only was I leveling up as well, but I kept on getting new armor pieces that I could either exchange for the souls or lacrima in this game is what they call it. And that's what you used to level up. So I could exchange it for that, or I could take it to the blacksmith to break it down to get new pieces to then make new armor, or I could infuse it into the current armor that I have to then power that up. So I found myself getting into that rhythm. I was like, okay, this is what fighting cowboy meant by, like, grinding the loot. Because it's just really convenient with an enemy being right there, and the enemy's giving me a decent amount of, like, souls. It's not just, like, 200 or whatever. I'm getting a decent amount, but is that what I want out of this experience?

[Blessing Adioye]

And that's the thing, is that's been my experience of this game, too. This game loves numbers and stats, like, incremental numbers and stats, and they have so many different ways of slowly powering up your character, whether it be through gaining lacrima and literally statting up your character, or whether it be gear or whether it be a number of things. I got to the end of, like, the second big level, which had a boss fight, where I was like, oh, like, that's what we're doing here. Where the boss fight was so fucking tough. And it took me, like, hours and hours and hours to get through it. But between all that time, I am like, all right, cool. Let me turn around. Let me grind. Let me get my levels up. One thing that this game does, I think, is kind of unique to it a little bit, is they have these. Oh, they're called what? Adversary. Revenants of adversary, I think, is what they're called.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You can summon homies to help you.

[Blessing Adioye]

Yes. So when you. To a boss, you can summon a homie to help you, but also when you're out in the level you're exploring, you can summon homies or not home. You can summon enemies to fight, which are different from the enemies that are out in the world. These basically work kind of as like, other hunters in Bloodborne, where these are characters that are mirrors of the player character. And so you're fighting somebody that plays, like, another player, and if you beat them, you then get a resource that you can spend at the boss fight to then summon an ally to fight the boss with you.

[Tim Gettys]

Cool.

[Blessing Adioye]

And so. And those guys also drop loot, right? And those guys also. And also the thing that they drop also. You can use the level up. It's a whole thing. But I spent so much of my time at the end of that big second level, like, turning around from this boss fight, going back, taking out Enemies fighting the adversaries and being like, listen, I'm going to get myself op. And I did that for hours and hours and hours. And there's a part of my brain that loves that, like I love grinding in a souls. Like I love just like you know, getting those numbers up. But then there is the other part of my brain that's like indy, where I'm like, is this what they want me to do though? Because this feels kind of excessive for how much I feel like I need to do this to play on a fair playing field there.

[Ryan Reynolds]

There's also a lot of somewhat like not hidden menus, but there are menus in this game that I found 15 to 20 hours in where I'm like, oh, I could level this. I didn't know this was here. Like I suddenly I went into this one menu called Kazan's Memories. Anytime you run around the world, Tim, there might be a dead body with like a little red glow on it. And you walk up to it, you like suck the red glow out of it. I don't know. And you hear like a memory of like Kazan, you know, we have to stop them or whatever. You kind of hear how that dude died. And when the more and more you find those, the more and more that you take their memories, the more that you have like a certain inventory or a certain currency that you can level up, like permanent stats. I didn't even think to look at that screen. I was like, oh, I didn't know this was here. Not saying it's going to be life or death, but it certainly helps. There's a lot of different things in this game that are accessible to you that could maybe make the experience a little bit easier. Like blessings. Talking about these, these homies that you summon, the really cool thing that I think systems wise and creative thing that they've done here is that there are a lot of different homies that you could summon and they're all different looking. They all have their diff, their characters, right? And the more that you have each one selected, like I can go into the the screen and select one and the more and more that I do well with them, the more and more that dude gets powered up. Not that he's even out, not that he's summoned, he's just getting stronger and stronger. But each one of these like teammates or whatever has their own passives that they give you whenever they are summoned in a big boss fight. So the one that I'm using right now, his passive stats give me way faster stamina, regeneration so if I were to summon him in a fight, I get a shitload faster. Stamina regeneration, another one of the homies gives you way better crit damage. And the more and more that you have them selected while you're playing the game, the more and more you level them up. I think that's a really sick system. I. I love that it's not just random NPC without, like, you know, I have no context for who you are. You're at least getting, like, not only the passive benefit of them. Them being an extra body in the boss fight, but they're giving you some sort of power to make you stronger in the fight, which I think is really cool. Yeah.

[Blessing Adioye]

Yeah. And again, like, so many different small things like that of you can play this way to then get this thing up. Right. So, yeah, you can have a certain ally equipped as you're playing and get the plus 4% critical damage. But another one that I realized as I was playing recently, where I was like, oh, damn, y'all really have so many things, is in the levels, there are anywhere from, like, one to maybe three or four of these crystals, these red crystals that you'll find that you can break. And if you break enough, sometimes they're.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Hidden and sometimes they're hard to reach places. So you got like, throw a.

[Blessing Adioye]

You gotta throw your spear, your javelin.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It becomes like a Collecticon collectathon thing, but not. There's not a whole lot of them.

[Blessing Adioye]

But then you come back, and then, like, you talk to a person and they're like, all right, now you can spend these. Do you know you gain plus 2 lacrima or plus 2% lacrima now or plus 2%? I'm. Look, my. I think maybe a small critique here of what they do with it is I oftentimes look at these numbers and I'm like, these. When you're presenting these numbers to me, they almost feel too small to care. Even though I know that, like, in the grand scheme, it's all going to add up over time. But I'm looking at this and I'm like, all right, what's plus 1% to me right now?

[Tim Gettys]

Right.

[Blessing Adioye]

Like, I feel like I want to build towards something, but I almost wish that they would have min. Maxed more into. In terms of. All right, if you want to gain more lacrima, this is how you have to do. Or if you want to do more critical, this is how you have to do it. As opposed to everything kind of being spread out amongst everything.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And maybe it's because of the weapon that I'm using, I chose to go with the main one that they start you off with, which you have like a sword and an ax.

[Blessing Adioye]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And it's kind of like. It's the dex build, it's the dexterity build where it's a bit faster. You do. There's weapons, there's abilities that you can unlock that make your dude look just like crazy fast and a lot of cool, flashy looking things. But the, the reason I love it, I just. It's got such a good crunch to it. This game has fantastic sound design. Like the, the, the, the parries, the criticals. There's moments, you know, it's got like, it's. It has that monster hunter hit stop sort of thing. And there's times where there's four like just brainless zombies walking at me and if I swipe at them, you hear the. And it just feels awesome.

[Blessing Adioye]

It's got a really even popping a health. Feels like it sounds good where it's like, like it almost sounds like, like a creature, like got their head popped or something.

[Ryan Reynolds]

So the, the, the reason I went with that weapon because I love the way it feels. I'm usually a very heavy set weapon dude. And there are three weapon types you can get in this game and it kind of sucks because it's really hard to reset your skills or your, your talent points.

[Blessing Adioye]

Yes.

[Ryan Reynolds]

But I'm definitely building towards dexterity in this case. I think they call it. I don't know, let's just call it dexterity for now because everybody knows what they call it. Or here.

[Blessing Adioye]

Willpower.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I can actually. Oh yeah, it is willpower. You're right.

[Blessing Adioye]

I know because I'm doing the same thing.

[Ryan Reynolds]

So instead of going strength, I'm going willpower. And as I'm playing, I'm like, I'm just gonna. I'm gonna try to go glass cannon with this. Let me just put a shitload of points into willpower and barely have any health or stamina and it legitimately doesn't matter.

[Blessing Adioye]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I feel like I'm doing half of a pixel more damage than I was before.

[Tim Gettys]

Wow.

[Ryan Reynolds]

The numbers are so, in my opinion, broken. Like I wish they didn't go with this sort of. I wish they went with the Sekiro system.

[Blessing Adioye]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Where you just get stronger and it's like a magical like under the hood. You're stronger now. Great job. And the stuff you got to worry about is maybe it's more learning about enemy types and systems and stuff like that and less about the Menu side of right? Yeah, like because the thing in if I were to go glass cannon build in any Dark Souls game you feel that you see one hit that you take and it's like God damn you took off a fourth of their D. How high is your strength? That's crazy. Or whatever. Or how high is your decks? That's insane. And here it's like I barely feel like I am doing even much more than I was prior. And again I won't legitimately my what's up?

[Tim Gettys]

Does that work in the inverse? Like you being a glass cannon. Like are you feeling God, I'm getting destroyed now or is it still like oh I'm taking a little more damage?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Well no, cuz your health bar does. You definitely see your health bar growing. So I would say like if there's people. But that that was me early on before I sort of reset. This is me just kind of experimenting with stuff. It does not feel like you can really tune your the way an elder ring or a Dark Souls is. You're barely going to do a bit more damage. And again like I'm telling you, my stats at one point were I had 15 health, 12 stamina, 37 willpower. And it's like why am I not seeing that reflected in what I'll do? Right.

[Blessing Adioye]

Like it was the same thing for me where I'm such a min maxer in games like this. I want to be the person who I'm in Liza P. I'm putting all my numbers into motivity. Motivity.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yes.

[Blessing Adioye]

I was trying to pull out. I was like which one was it? I put all my numbers into into motivity. And then.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Which is their version of dexterity too?

[Blessing Adioye]

Yeah. Which I learned was like not the thing to do because that was basically hard mode for the game. But I did it anyway. And like that was my play style, you know. Similar thing with an Elden ring where I'm like I'm going to put all my numbers into dexterity here. I put in. I started off just putting my numbers into strength because I didn't notice. I didn't think this game had scaling at first just cuz I didn't notice it in the menu. And then once I noticed that the sword and axe scale with willpower and strength I was like okay, cool, then I'll do strength willpower. So I'm going to you know, start specking into those. And it didn't feel like it mattered enough. And I like right now if you look at my stats, I took a turn and I was like, all right, everything's getting leveled up evenly now and that's probably been the best decision I made as far as like how I'm going about this game because now I'm like, okay, cool, I got good health, I got good stamina, I got good like I got good everything. And it doesn't feel like it really has shifted or I guess the way I was playing before didn't feel like it was making as much of a difference as far as doing big damage on the enemy. Like all damage I was doing felt non consequential.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I would have loved to have found another item to reset my skills because Fighting Cowboy told me that he was using the the giant sword, like the great sword, which is a strength build as opposed to the dexterity build. I wanted to switch that just for experimentation sake and I used like the one reset skills thing that I found and I haven't found any more. I thought that'd be a lot easier to find and it's kind of annoying that I don't have another way to do that. Maybe I'm just missing it because this game has a lot of, I think missable things. But so far it's like I don't know where that item is because I had it in my inventory at first and once I use that I thought I'd be finding more with how frequently I'm finding a lot of other items in the game and other items of or other currencies. I just haven't found that little son of a. I don't know where it is.

[Tim Gettys]

I definitely want to keep talking about our first Berserker Kazan. We had a couple super chats that I'm gonna get to, but if you have super chats, please get them in because when we get back from a word from our sponsors, we're going to get to those this podcast is brought to you in part by Stash. Are you still putting off saving and investing because you'll get to it someday? Stash turns someday into today. Stash isn't just an investing app. It's a registered investment advisor that combines automated investing with dependable financial strategies to help you reach your goals faster. They'll provide you with personalized advice on what to invest in based on your goals. Or if you want to just sit back and watch your money go to work, you can opt into their award winning expert managed portfolio, the Pick Stocks for you. Stash has helped millions of Americans reach their financial goals and starts at just $3 per month. Don't let your Savings sit around, make it work harder for you. Go to get.stash.com/kind of funny to see how you can receive $25 towards your first savings stock purchase and to view important disclosures that's get.stash.com kindafunny paid non client endorsement not representative of all clients and not a guarantee. Investment advisory services offered by Stash Investments llc, an SEC registered investment of Advisor. Investing involves risk and investments may lose value. Offers subject to TNCs. Did either of you play the demo for First Berserker Kazan?

[Blessing Adioye]

I did, yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Fantastic. Because CJ splits on, writes in and says, I don't know. I said his name that way. Is the demo good representation of the full game?

[Blessing Adioye]

Yeah, I'll say so.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah. Yeah, I would say so. There's a. I remember playing one of the demo builds and a lot of people saying, andy, you didn't go check out the. There's an extra boss. And I, I never had the ability to see that boss. I don't know how I, I didn't. But yeah, the demo gives you a good opportunity to see what the level design is like. Take on little small, add enemies and then they give you the boss fight where it is. But you know, all right, learn how.

[Blessing Adioye]

To play the game.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You learning the, the different patterns. And as you play the game more and as you die more like that's the thing where when Fighting Cowboy told me it took him like 30, 30 hours to beat the game, I'm like, all right, we'll tack on an extra hour of boss fights. Tack on an extra hour per boss fight for me because that's likely what it's going to be for me where I think there's been two bosses where I've taken like two hours for and a lot of them take me, you know, 30 minutes to an hour to beat because they're, it's tough. But I, I think the sort of like the way Stellar Blade does it, there's a lot of different abilities that you can. When you hold the A button, it'll show you. When you hold the A button, it shows you like your abilities in the bottom right.

[Blessing Adioye]

Oh, you map your controls.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Oh yeah, yeah.

[Blessing Adioye]

R2 for me.

[Ryan Reynolds]

R2. Gotcha. Gotcha. So I have the ability, I have a lot of different cool abilities that make, you know, make me stronger and make me faster and maybe whittle down the enemy's stamina bar quicker or whatever. And there's a lot of really cool flashy anime and I love that like.

[Blessing Adioye]

When I'm in the combat, it does feel like you have a lot of options. I do love this game. Has like three different ways to parry, which is really good. Yeah, it does.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah. The. I. I'm glad you brought that up cuz I think that's another really cool innovation. Like it's just a.

[Blessing Adioye]

It's a give you options.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah. Cuz you can just. Left bumper is your standard deflect.

[Tim Gettys]

Right.

[Ryan Reynolds]

If you're holding it, you're blocking. But you'll take chip damage if you time it right. You see the red flash of. And that's like, oh, I really parry that well. And I will see. You know, I love specking my. My stuff into like make the enemy lose health whenever I do a perfect parry. And I just love the way that that sort of like feels and I feel stronger and like an awesome gamer. Right. And the more you do that, the. That's awesome. But there's a. There's a couple of other things. They have a version of their mikiri counter for all you Sekiro heads out there where you'll see a little icon pop up above your dude's head. And that tells you I either gotta dodge this, but I can't just normal parry it. I have to hold for me on my button scheme. It's really weird. I have to hold left bumper and then hit the square or X button.

[Blessing Adioye]

Okay. And for me it's L1 circle, so it's not that far off.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Okay, cool. So when that happens that the enemy like you'll see the icon pop above your head and it's like, oh, that move. I have to remember to do this move in the next half a second. And then the enemy does a wind up. And of course these wind ups take like seven minutes. They're just like, oh God, when's this move coming? And finally when they come and hit you, it's like you have like a much bigger impacted visual sound and it feels great.

[Blessing Adioye]

And they're like down for a second too, so you can just wail on them.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah. And then there's another Perry that they. I'll look at the name of the skill. Right.

[Blessing Adioye]

Skill tree one.

[Ryan Reynolds]

This is. Yeah, this is in the common skill tree and it's called. It's called counterattack. Nope, that's not what it's called. It's called reflection.

[Blessing Adioye]

There you go. I was gonna say all these abilities have like really unique names for things that are also in other games.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah. So for me, my. My attack scheme is like a souls game where it's R1 for light attack, R2. For heavy attack, for the reflection, you have to hold L1 and then hit R2. The thing is, it's like a really. You have to time it perfectly.

[Blessing Adioye]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Because it does a lot of stagger damage on the enemy and it knocks him down and. And sometimes it might even get him into like a critical, like where the red icon pops up on their body to say, all right, do that finisher critical move or whatever. Not a finisher. Because usually it doesn't kill them, but it's one that you have to hit way earlier than you're used to. So, like, if an enemy. You see the enemy start their animation, you're like, all right, let me try to do this. This is a big risk reward. And that's what I love about games like these, where you feel so rewarded because you know if you didn't nail that, you're. You're going to take a couple big hits and suddenly it's like, man, I had a full health bar and then I just started up all my parries and now I'm almost dead, you know. So this one, you hold L1, you hit R2 and this is like. Somehow they even made this sound cooler and more satisfying.

[Blessing Adioye]

Triangle for default control scheme.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You just fucking, like knock them down and it's like, oh, yes, I nailed that shit.

[Blessing Adioye]

All their stamina gone.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And. But, you know, don't rely on it too much because it's really hard to do do because a lot of enemies will attack you with within one frame of animation. Or maybe they're going to take six minutes to wind wind up their animation.

[Blessing Adioye]

For me, this is where the game shines. I saw people earlier in chat wondering, like, are they going to give it scores? Like, what do you guys think on, like, as far as score? I'm not. I don't think I'm going to give it a score just because I'm probably halfway through the game. But I will say I think the closest comparison I can give to this would be I. I played more WO long than I did Neo. But like, if this game, I think, reminds me a lot of Neo. If you remember the wo long review that we did a couple of years ago, I think I gave. I think we all gave that like a 3 out of 5 type thing. Even though we really like the gameplay, I'll say that this is like a step above.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I agree, totally agree.

[Blessing Adioye]

Where like, the combat is really engaging and I think the combat gives you enough options and the bosses are really well designed, even though they're Fucking tough. That is really, really fun on that level. And then the art style also in presentation, I think is really good. But the story reminds me about how I felt about the wo long story. But not as bad. Like, wo long was so boring. Whereas this, at least you can tell that they're trying. You tell that there's a universe here that might be. If you're a nerd about it, could have stuff for you. But, like, you know, I'm not necessarily here for that. The level design might be, like, slightly better than a wo long as well. Right. Like, if I were to give it a score right now, I would say 8 out of 10.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I'm around, like 8, 5 out of 10. Like, I'm.

[Tim Gettys]

That's great.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I'm having a great.

[Blessing Adioye]

It is great.

[Ryan Reynolds]

That's the definition. I really, really fucking like this game a lot.

[Tim Gettys]

That's awesome.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I would put it above, for me at least Stellar Blade because I think combat and movement feels better. My. I love the way Stellar Blade felt when you're kind of finally getting into the action. But something about, like, just her standard attack, when you just hit, like, the normal attack, it felt like you weren't moving far enough. Like you were almost just stationary swinging. And just. That kind of annoyed me. I think the locomotion and the way that you just traverse and run around in this game, it feels good and it looks good. Well, hold on. I take that back. The standard run that isn't the sprint in this game looks like you're kind of on a treadmill. Your legs are moving too fast for how far you're moving.

[Blessing Adioye]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And I really hate it. Like, I can't.

[Tim Gettys]

It's like my Pomeranians.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yes, exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

You see, they ain't moving, though.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah. Like, his legs are moving and you're barely kind of like. So I'm normally just sprinting everywhere because it's a lot less annoying to look at. But yeah, I think the game is really awesome and enjoyable as hell. If you're into challenging games or souls games or whatever. There's no. I don't think there's any difficulty options. Right. There's no way.

[Blessing Adioye]

I think there is. I think there's like a story option or something.

[Tim Gettys]

Adam two times says, I didn't care for the Elden Ring story.

[Ryan Reynolds]

There is. Yes, there is. Sorry.

[Tim Gettys]

I didn't care for the Elden Ring story. Throw rocks at me. I know. But the gameplay hooked me. Is this. Is this similar to a degree?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Well, it depends on what you liked about Elden Ring. Like I think so much of the special sauce of Elden Ring is not only the combat but the exploration takes a big chunk of the pie of like man. I. I appreciate the out of this game because every. There's a wonder around every corner. This game isn't like that. This game is way more akin to an old school souls game in terms of level design. Not as smart, but they're recently the areas that I'm in. There's been a couple of shortcuts where I'm like whoa, that was awesome. I wish there was more of that in the game. But yeah, I think it's pretty standard level design. I think it's a much different. What I would say to. To anybody who's interested in this is the same thing I would tell to anybody who's been interested in souls games at all. This doesn't play like a souls game. This plays like Sekiro or Lies of P or Stellar Blade. It's a different combat system entirely. You're not gonna just be able to get a big bonk hammer and take out three and take out an enemy in three hits while like dodge rolling on time. You have to start to memorize patterns of enemies where you know this dude's gonna hit you with a left swing and a right swing and he's gonna wait just a scotch to do the overhead swing and you have to go ding ding, ding. And once you do that like you're gonna get that. That's where I find the satisfaction in it.

[Blessing Adioye]

Yeah, dude.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It's sick. I need a cigarette. As I was saying that sentence, I thought lesson smiling.

[Blessing Adioye]

That does something to my brain.

[Tim Gettys]

You were just saying you're like, you're not thinking about like going back to it right now. Like the moment we end this, you have to go play this game.

[Blessing Adioye]

I might have to boot up a little bit. I might have to boot it up.

[Ryan Reynolds]

A little bit better than Liza P. I would say. No, I think Liza P is like the best Souls like that isn't a fromsoft game. I agree with that. But. But another thing I love about Lies of P was the, the. The weapon crafting where I can have like a cool handle that has certain stats. It's a handle from a sword, but I could match that up with a goddamn axe that I could take the axe off of the other handle that I was on and match them up and now I have new stats and it swings and performs differently. Like. And of course pairing enough to break enemies weapons was just one of the coolest, most satisfying things yeah, but this is still up there. This is awesome.

[Blessing Adioye]

Yeah. I saw somebody earlier in chat ask like, oh, it was C.J. splits. I don't understand why these games can never get story aspect right. I feel like Liza P. Was one of those rare ones where I was like, oh, I really like the world they have here. Obviously they're working off of Pinocchio, but.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Like, I think Liza P did. Liza P. Had a lot of moments where I cared about a certain npc and you start to kind of learn more about them, and then you're like, oh, you're like, yeah, it had a lot more intriguing things like that where. And honestly, it was even more impressive that, like, there's. There was an IP to build off.

[Blessing Adioye]

Of, but the way they still told.

[Ryan Reynolds]

The story felt so genuine to what Souls games are.

[Blessing Adioye]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Like redoing that, which I think is why it kind of stands out. But, yeah, this game, I. I don't know. Again, just a stunning lack of Ben Starr in this game. It's crazy to me how little he's actually speaking in the game. It really bums me out. Yeah, I'm not happy about it because. Yeah, I just. I don't know. They. The other enemies take a lot more priority and like, he never. There's never like a monologue moment from him. There's never. It's. It's just little splashes of dialogue here and there that every enemy's always talking more than you. And you're such an important character in this game because you are essentially like a cat. You were a captain of an army, and there's a lot of people that look up to you. Right. So that's already gonna try to. That already takes away my. My mental argument where for some reason I felt like this NPC was supposed to be a voiceless and. Or this character was supposed to be voiceless at, like, you know, like any Souls np, Like any Souls main character. You don't ever talk. It's just always everybody else. But then the more I. But then at the last second, they're like, oh, we should get Ben Starr to kind of voice it. So throw some lines in there. And the more I played, I'm like, no, actually, you. You're a really important character. You're a captain who has to, like, you know, really pump up his. His troops. And everybody looks up to Kazan. Oh, my God, I can't believe you came back for us. You know, there's a lot of moments like that that. There's just rarely any moments where I get to Go. Ben Starr's popping off here. It's definitely Not Final Fantasy 16.

[Blessing Adioye]

One of my complaints, because this game does have sauce, like in terms of presentation and what it has going on, like in terms of level presentation, character presentation, but it doesn't have much sauce when it comes to the gear that you put on. I feel like we could have gone a bit further and had like cooler shit. Maybe I'm not far enough yet to like see the coolest shit that has to offer, but like, I'm looking at my character, I'm like, alright, cool, you just got on some garb, you know, I mean, give me the cool carb.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I, I think the more you play, the more you'll see that. Because anytime you kill a large enemy, they will drop an item along with like other random loot and then the blacksmith will give you the ability to use that one item to make a sick ass or make a weapon and then make other pieces of armor that are kind of like similar visually to what that boss was later on. I think the. Okay, like, you know how sick the blade fan the Phantom Blade look.

[Blessing Adioye]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Guy looks Phantom Blade Phantom.

[Blessing Adioye]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

How sick that dude looks that he kind of. He looks like a, an enemy in like Power Rangers or. I don't know, he's just got like a cool sort of suit to him. The. There's a very similar vibe with a lot of the armors in here where you're no longer just soldier with a helmet and shoulder pads or whatever. Now you're like, oh, you look kind of otherworldly. And I really enjoy the way that the game kind of scales up visually.

[Tim Gettys]

Josh Morales super chats in Speaking of the bosses, how iconic are the bosses? I feel like in these kind of games the main character is never the coolest character. What bosses and enemies stick out as notable?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Oh, I mean there's no, we can't spoil that. But like there's sick ass stuff in this game there. I. I think the first day that I finally started playing it, we. I think the reason why I didn't beat this game is like GDC was just like a lot and I didn't have a whole lot of time to play but blessing telling me, like, did you get to this lizard boss who was one of the secret bosses in the demo? I believe that everybody was telling me to fight. I was like, no. And he was like, dude, he's really tough. And then I had the pleasure of trying him fighting for the first time and I tried him once and I got to the second phase And I was like, all right, now's not the night. It's already too late. And if I keep on going, I'm gonna be stuck here for two hours. Let me, let me try him out later. And then when I tried him out later, I was like, oh, blessed. That wasn't even the second phase. And Bless was like, yeah, you described what happened. And I was like, that's. He. He doesn't know that that's the. Not the second phase. So it was. That boss was really tough. And that's like a really big first skill check for you. That's like, oh, shit. If I. I need to get my shit together or else I'm going to be here for a couple hours, you know?

[Blessing Adioye]

Yeah. I'm liking the bosses. They're not my favorite bosses in an action game. Like, I think the gameplay is super fun with them, but I think there is a certain level of the blade. Phantom is dope as fuck. The lizard guy that we're talking about. I do look at him. I'm like, oh, you're just a lizard guy. You're kind of just a generic lizard guy.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And there's a lot of them. Yeah.

[Blessing Adioye]

And that's. Thing is, I. So far, I think more bosses lean toward I. I see the archetype you are, and I'm not seeing much further past that. But this is me halfway through the game. I'm sure I'm going to run into more bosses later. Like, oh, this is cool. But I've not had a man. Not to spoil Liza P. I'm not going to spoil, but like, Liza P. Had some boss fights where in that mid phase transition, like some transformation shit happens. I'm like, oh, that's fucking ill. I've not had that moment here yet. I'll say.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I don't know if anything ever gets to lies of P level either with. With bosses. Bosses, they're still cool. Like if I already give them a score in the kind of funny scale 10, give like a 7 5. I think it's really good. Like, really good shit. I put Lies of P in like the 9 section.

[Blessing Adioye]

We can honestly, next time we review a souls a Souls like or Souls Adjacent game, we gotta like review every souls element. You know what I mean? Of like, all right, bosses.

[Ryan Reynolds]

The name, the name of the words they're using for dexterity, motivity. We're bringing it back to like the old school IGN reviews, Tim, where you.

[Blessing Adioye]

Got to hear like GameSpot reviews 2005 video game reviews.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Game Pro had sound and it had like the silly face of like, yeah, these are some of the, the armors that you get. Like these are some of the armors you get later on for like the.

[Blessing Adioye]

Scene, the screen, the crafting. Where are you?

[Ryan Reynolds]

This is the blacksmith. You find him a bit later on?

[Blessing Adioye]

Oh, I did just find the blacksmith. Okay, cool. I'll talk to him then.

[Tim Gettys]

So Andy, earlier you talking about playing on Steam Deck and it's running well. I saw a lot of chat earlier on, wanting more details on that. Can you talk about performance both on Steam Deck and otherwise and what your play time was split between the two?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I didn't, I maybe put in like maybe two hours on Steam Deck. Okay. That's not because it like doesn't run well. I just like, I love being on my PC with my, my screen and my controller and a lot of it.

[Tim Gettys]

Are you playing on these days when you, when you're playing a game on like your, your PC gaming setup? What, what's your screen?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Oh, I mean, it's the best purchase I've made in a long time. Last year I bought a 32 inch 4K Alienware OLED and this sucker is a dream. Like it just looks so God dang good. So I play on that thing. It's 240 hertz. It gives me all the frames I want, gives me all the refresh rate that I want. It looks amazing. So that's where I primarily play everything and yeah, but going back to the Steam Deck, I, I, it runs so good on this, on, on this little machine. I did lower because I kind of preferred the, you know, I want the most frame rate on, on the Steam Deck. Right. And the Steam Deck OLED screen is a 90Hz refresh rate and you can play with unlocked frame rate up to like 90 frames per second or even 120 frames per second. But I lowered everything down to like low. But the nice thing about it, it doesn't do what a lot of games like Monster Hunter does. That's the most recent game I can think of where Monster Hunter, obviously a big beefy game to try to run on a Steam Deck and the way that they try to get it to run is by like just throwing as much AMD FSR as you can at it to try to get it to like upscale correctly. And it looks so mushy and noisy and gross as hell. So like I didn't even bother playing. But here I lowered. I wish there was an extra setting because I, I was able to lower anti aliasing all the way to low and then I lowered resolution all the way to low and it gives you a cool like PS2 ish look where it's still like clean and crisp, but it just has like the, an old school nostalgia sort of like 3D look to it. But I can raise the resolution up to it. Doesn't give you numbers though, but I can put resolution up to like higher and it'll look really clean and good. I may not be getting 60 plus frames per second, but it still feels really smooth and responsive. It's. I think it's a lot of. That's because of art style, right? Bless. Like it's not going for this crazy visual thing and it's not this gigantic open world either.

[Tim Gettys]

Looks great.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It looks great. It has this sort of cel shaded anime look to all the characters and the environments have good lighting and everything. And yeah, you're able to play this game really smoothly and well on this machine.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. Any final thoughts on First Berserker?

[Blessing Adioye]

A really good game. I had, man. I had a final thought and I missed it. I lost it. I was like, I know. I'm going to end this podcast on. I totally forgot. I was going to say. Andy, you speak.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Okay. My final thoughts on First Berserker Kazan. I wish that I cared more about the story and the characters, but I don't think I've given. Been given much of a chance to care because just of the lack of Ben Starr and, and that bums me out. And also, you know, it's not necessarily like the storytelling's incredible anyway or the voice acting is incredible. It's. It's kind of okay, right? The. So those are like most of my negative thoughts. I think the gear is a little too unwieldy. I don't know if we needed that aspect of the gear. And also leveling up your dude when the returns are so minuscule. But the combat is so good and so responsive and just tight as. And it just feels awesome. It looks great. And once you're kind of getting all these parries down and once you're getting the timing of the rhythm of these bosses down, you feel like a God. It's just awesome. It's, it's, it's really kind of immediate satisfaction. You hit all those little like brain neurons and it's like, ah, I feel, I feel great right now. I beat that boss and then it's kind of a spoiler also. But like having Steam achievements on it'll pop and be like whenever I get an achievement and that lets me know that I beat the boss. And there isn't an extra phase.

[Blessing Adioye]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

No.

[Blessing Adioye]

For real.

[Ryan Reynolds]

So maybe turn those on, you know, or turn those off. But, like, you know, I had that.

[Blessing Adioye]

Yesterday when I. I beat a boss fight on only either my second or third try. And I was like, certainly. I was just phase one, and I saw a little trophy pop up. I'm like, thank God. Did that. Let's.

[Tim Gettys]

Hold on. I want to talk about that. Because you're saying turn that off because you want the surprise of maybe there's another phase.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

You're saying leave it on because you're.

[Blessing Adioye]

Yeah. I love that notification.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And usually it's. I think the. The giveaway for me is knowing how quickly I got through a first phase. And I'll be like, surely there's something else. And it's like, oh, not okay. I. I just. I was. I just popped off there. Awesome. But then there's the times where it's like, whoa, I finally beat that. And the thing doesn't pop. And you're like, oh, character. And Kazan locks a sexy ass away. Those beautiful hairs. Big ass tits. Dude. This guy has massive. Dude.

[Blessing Adioye]

Big naturals.

[Ryan Reynolds]

This guy has big natties. Big naturals, for sure. And he walks away. And then you just see, like, some rumbling and like, magic. It's like, oh, here we go. Phase two. God damn. And immediately the first thing that goes in my mind is, first off, how those tits so big, and then they're not real. And then second off, I'm just like, oh, man, how am I gonna get through that first phase again? Quicker? But you do, because you just start to learn more and you get better. It's just. I don't know. I love these. I love these styles of games.

[Blessing Adioye]

I remember what I was gonna say. It is that we're spoiled, man. I'm playing this game and I'm like, this game is so good. It's so fun. And even as we're reviewing it, right. Like, I alluded to it at the beginning of this of there are so many action games that are, like, leaning in this direction of being a bit Sekiro, like, or being a bit Neo, like, or being a bit Souls, like, or being a bit Elden Ring. Right. And if this game came out in, like, 2014, we'd be talking about game of the Year, you know, category. But for what we. For where we're at, we've gotten so many of these. And, like, I'm saying that as a good thing. I'm sure at some point we're going to hit critical Mass of. All right, the soulsborne bubble has popped and now we got to slow down on making so many of these. But as of now, I think we are kind of in the prime of. Of the modern action game. And I want to take a second to just appreciate that. That I'm playing this game and I'm like 8 out of 10. Meanwhile, I'm having some of the most fun. You know, I'm having a fantastic time. And that's just where we're at, where we have games like Dark Souls that have such fantastic level design. Right. We have games like Sekiro that have such good combat or you know, a game of like Liza P. That nailed like atmosphere, nailed like having a unique combat system and all these things. But.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And there's enough of these bad games to suss them out and be like, you know, these are special for this reason.

[Blessing Adioye]

Yes.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And it's not just. It's not that anybody can throw their hat into the ring and suddenly make a good Souls like. Like there's plenty of bad ones out there for sure. And this, this one, this is a really good above.

[Blessing Adioye]

It's a great one. I'll say.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Barrett, how close can you get in on my steam deck. This is not a. You won't be spoiled, by the way, but I just want to show you like this slow ass run cycle. Look at this guy.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, you're right. Look at this kind of ice skating.

[Ryan Reynolds]

His legs are moving too fast to. To be moving that slowly. I hate it. It reminds me of films where they'd have like them like in front of.

[Tim Gettys]

Like a movie, green screen. Yeah, it reminds me of that.

[Ryan Reynolds]

That one. That one boxer on Tik Tok who would run in place. Oh, yeah, that dude.

[Blessing Adioye]

I think I know you're talking like he would slow down.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Salt. Was it Salt Poppy? What? What they. He.

[Blessing Adioye]

This is Salt Poppy, the guy that would do like.

[Ryan Reynolds]

No, that's Salt Bay.

[Blessing Adioye]

Of course.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah. Salt B.

[Tim Gettys]

How can we stand up universe popping.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Off on Salt Poppy. Yeah, yeah. Because he would just run in front of his camera and make it look like he was moving his legs and it was like crazy. And then he would go in a slow motion.

[Blessing Adioye]

Yes, I do know you're talking about.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And then he got fit enough that. Yeah, he started like boxing. He's a sick ass boxer.

[Tim Gettys]

That's cool.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

God.

[Blessing Adioye]

Reverse Keith Lee.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I don't know who that is. I just agree.

[Blessing Adioye]

You don't know Keith Lee? Nah, he's like the food reviewer. 10 out of 10. No. Dang, dude, you gotta expose you to some. Keith Lee he was a UFC fighter at first and now he's like a big tick tock guy. He's like one of the most popular tick tock people. He goes to different cities. He was in sf, he was like this place is Gotham.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Look up Keith Lee.

[Blessing Adioye]

Yeah, all right, well I don't with him then.

[Tim Gettys]

Let us know in the comments below what you're thinking about. The first berserker try to poison him.

[Blessing Adioye]

Barrett, he's allergic to what was the fish, the shellfish.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Shellfish, yeah, he had a shellfish allergy.

[Blessing Adioye]

And like they got some of that in the food and so that that.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You know, gives a comparison to Gotham.

[Blessing Adioye]

He wasn't having a good time when he was here. He didn't have a good time.

[Tim Gettys]

Let us know in the comments below what you're thinking about this. Has this review got you more hyped? What you're thinking about the state of action games and also stay tuned because the stream for Half Life 2 with RTX is about to begin. I can't wait to see it. It's going to be beautiful. But until next time, love y'all. Goodbye.