The First Berserker’s Failure Is a Warning Sign for Every AA Soulslike Trying to Compete With Elden Ring

Credit: Neople

FromSoftware’s Elden Ring, which came out in 2022, did not just leave an impact on the players; it set a standard for developers to match. Standards that might have proven to be a bit too toxic for the Soulslike genre, and possibly, for The First Berserker: Khazan. While the game, made by Neople, was welcomed with positive feedback that still remains to this day, its commercial performance tells a different story.

As reported by IGN, the game’s performance has fallen short of what the brains behind the game initially predicted, and this is where we break down how a well-reviewed soulslike still failed to capture its market share, and what smaller studios need to understand if they want to survive post-Elden Ring.

How The First Berserker: Khazan Lost the Market Despite Strong Reviews

The First Berserker: Khazan developers are being relocated | Credit: Neople

According to reports, the very developers behind The First Berserker: Khazan are now being reassigned under Nexon, the publishing company behind the game, with lower-than-expected sales numbers being the reason why. It’s important to note that just about 100 developers had their hands on the game, and it’s unclear how many of them are now being reinstated.

The First Berserker came out just over a year ago in March 2025, and even welcomed up to 30,000 concurrent players at first, but faced an ultimate fall off later on, aided by the delay of the game’s release in China. (As reported by GamesRadar.)

The worst blow to the game’s potential success, in my view, came from the very timing of its release. Released on March 27, 2025, the game came just a week after the much-awaited Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and before it could have recovered, Elden Ring Nightreign, a fresh mix of co-op Soulslike and Rogueslite, stepped in, ruining any chance at success for The First Berserker.

Why Making a “Good Enough” Soulslike Is No Longer Good Enough

Hidetaka Miyazaki is no doubt a genius, and who would’ve thought his innovations would eventually snowball into one of the most enjoyed video game genres ever? Unfortunately, it is also one of the most repetitive genres as well, thanks to the core formula staying the same. Include hard, but cinematic bosses, and a high level of difficulty that will make the players run everything back again quite a few times before they remember the enemy’s moves enough to dodge and punish them.

Subjectively, this has allowed for easy entry into the Soulslike market, and while that might have worked for the first few years, in recent times, it needs a better hook to capture the already saturated market.

While not particularly targeting The First Berserker: Khazan, the whole genre is now left to the few big, established franchises. Widening the gap between what is well-received and commercially hit is supposed to be like.

Do you think AA soulslikes can still compete, or has Elden Ring permanently raised the bar too high? Drop your take in the comments