The Relic: First Guardian is a difficult game to review because there were times when I genuinely enjoyed what it was trying to do, and others when I wondered why I was still playing it. I’m glad I persisted, but this is definitely a game where the ambition is considerably greater than the polish.
You play as the First Guardian, exploring the ruined world of Arsilthus after the destruction of the Great Relic. It’s very obviously influenced by Souls games, with a bleak fantasy world, difficult enemies, huge bosses and a story that you largely piece together yourself. However, it does have enough ideas of its own to avoid feeling like a complete copy.
The combat is probably its biggest success. Unlike most Soulslikes, attacking doesn’t use stamina. Instead, stamina is mainly something you must manage when defending, blocking or dodging. It sounds like a small change, but it makes combat much more aggressive. You are not punished for going crazy with strikes, and instead ensuring that your defence is more considered when you brace yourself for the onslaught of the enemies.
There are five weapon types, and I enjoyed experimenting with the different skills and relics as I progressed. There are also no traditional character levels but rather your strength comes from the equipment and relics you find, with relics providing different passive effects that allow you to shape your build. This shifts the typical Soulslike approach somewhat and moves it more akin to ‘looter-shooter’ territory. I actually liked this system because it meant exploration felt directly connected to becoming stronger rather than simply collecting a lot of experience points just to up my dexterity by one click.
Bosses are a huge part of the game – and there are an enormous number of them. However, this is both a strength and a weakness. Some encounters are excellent and gave me that familiar Souls feeling of repeatedly getting destroyed before finally learning the attacks and winning. Others are nowhere near as memorable, and eventually the sheer number of boss encounters makes them feel less special and you are more engaging with a boss-rush style game.
There are some quite beautiful and atmospheric locations, and I enjoyed heading away from the obvious route to find caves, equipment and smaller stories. The game also has an interesting approach where many of the enemies and bosses have tragic stories behind them. I actually found these individual stories to be more interesting than the main plot.
Unfortunately, exploration can also feel surprisingly empty. There are large areas where I spent quite a while wandering around without discovering anything particularly worthwhile, and the lack of useful map features occasionally made returning to something I’d discovered earlier unnecessarily frustrating.
Then there are the technical problems. It doesn’t really ever feel completely polished. The camera can be a nightmare during certain fights. Animations occasionally look awkward and the performance isn’t as consistent as I’d expect from a modern PS5 game. The voice acting and presentation can also feel noticeably lower budget. None of this completely ruined the game for me, but there were definitely points where I died due to what I felt I had been due to me fighting the controls or camera rather than the enemy.
It’s a shame because underneath all of that is a surprisingly enjoyable action RPG. Once I had become more comfortable with its systems, and I had a build that suited the way I wanted to play, I was enjoying exploring the world far more than I had at the beginning.
I’m left with mixed feelings. There is too much repetition, the story never completely grabbed me and technically it needs more polish. But I also spent time enjoying exploring its world, developing my character and I had some genuinely satisfying boss fights.
It’s certainly not one of the best Soulslikes I’ve played, but it’s also more interesting than a number of others out there. If you can tolerate some rough edges, there’s a good action RPG buried underneath them.
Reviewed on Xbox Series X
Leave a Reply