The Relic: First Guardian Review: An Ambitious Korean Souls-Like Falls Short of Its Promise

When indie developer Project Cloud Games announced The Relic: First Guardian, the gaming community took notice. The small Korean studio, comprised of just twelve developers, promised to deliver a fresh take on the action RPG genre while weaving elements of Korean folklore into a dark, atmospheric world reminiscent of FromSoftware’s acclaimed Souls series. The concept was intriguing: nearly 80 bosses, parry-focused combat, and deep lore embedded within every enemy encounter. However, after extensive hands-on time with the game, it becomes painfully clear that ambition alone cannot carry a title when fundamental execution falls short at nearly every turn.

A Promising Premise Buried in Confusion

The Relic: First Guardian transports players to Arsiltus, a medieval realm once protected from monstrous threats by a powerful artifact known as the Great Relic. When this protective device is destroyed, darkness consumes the land in the form of a shadowy Void that corrupts even the most virtuous humans, transforming them into fearsome creatures called “Brutals.” Players awaken as an amnesiac guardian, guided by a mysterious dark maiden who hints at a forgotten relationship and a shared history. This setup draws obvious inspiration from the cryptic storytelling methods popularized by Dark Souls, where narrative breadcrumbs are scattered throughout the world for dedicated players to piece together.

The Souls-like subgenre has exploded in popularity since FromSoftware’s Dark Souls revolutionized action RPGs in 2011. Games like Lies of P, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, and Lords of the Fallen have all attempted to capture that lightning in a bottle, with varying degrees of success. The formula demands precise combat, challenging but fair difficulty, atmospheric world design, and environmental storytelling that rewards exploration and observation. The Relic: First Guardian attempts to check all these boxes while incorporating Korean cultural elements, a relatively unexplored territory in the Western gaming market that could have distinguished it from countless imitators.

Open World Design That Works Against the Player

One of the most frustrating aspects of The Relic: First Guardian is its open-world structure, which seems deliberately designed to confuse and exhaust players. Unlike more polished open-world titles that clearly differentiate main story quests from optional side content, this game leaves players wandering blindly through fog-covered landscapes. Shimmering barriers block progression until mysterious, unstated criteria are met, forcing players to hunt down every available boss encounter without knowing which battles will advance the plot and which will merely yield a handful of gold coins and a narrative dead-end.

The open-world format has become increasingly popular in gaming since titles like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt demonstrated its potential for immersive storytelling. However, implementing open-world design requires careful attention to player guidance and reward structures. The Relic: First Guardian fails spectacularly in this regard, presenting an endlessly repetitive landscape of nearly identical farm villages, reused environmental assets, and enemies that cycle through the same three types per zone. The world feels procedurally generated rather than handcrafted, with objects like trees and barrels placed haphazardly throughout the environment with apparent disregard for player accessibility or visual coherence.

Combat and Boss Design: Occasional Brilliance Amid Mediocrity

The combat system in The Relic: First Guardian draws heavily from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Lies of P, centering on parrying with a generous timing window. Players must fill invisible stagger bars through repeated parries before unleashing devastating special attacks mapped to face buttons. The game offers several weapon styles, including two-handed longswords, sword-and-shield combinations, and magical battle staves, each with unlockable skill trees that can be swapped for minimal cost. When the system works as intended, the combat feels quick and punchy, offering satisfying rhythmic exchanges with aggressive enemies.

Among the advertised 80 bosses, a handful genuinely impress. A cursed knight evokes memories of Artorias of the Abyss from Dark Souls, while a thunder-wielding warlock in a graveyard creates genuinely tense moments. However, many encounters devolve into forgettable man-on-man duels with single-phase bosses featuring only a handful of attack patterns. Worse still, certain fights rely on cheap one-hit-kill mechanics that create artificial difficulty spikes. One boss could curse players with an unavoidable attack, then instantly kill them regardless of health with a simple finger snap. Another battle took place in burning crops, forcing players to parry while simultaneously managing fire damage and curse effects—a frustrating combination that feels more unfair than challenging.

Technical Problems and AI-Generated Disappointments

Beyond design issues, The Relic: First Guardian suffers from crippling technical problems that render portions of the game nearly unplayable. Frame rates regularly plummeted to sub-10 frames per second during testing, transforming parry-based combat into guesswork rather than skill expression. Boss fog walls occasionally refused to lower after victories, trapping players and forcing them to repeat encounters. One boss became stuck outside his own arena, creating an absurd standoff that could only be resolved by reloading. Voice lines and subtitles frequently failed to match, sometimes completely contradicting each other.

Perhaps most disappointing is the game’s writing and localization, which the developers positioned as a major selling point. Item descriptions read like pseudo-poetic drivel that neither entertains nor provides useful gameplay information. Quest dialogue is delivered through obviously AI-generated voiceovers that strip any potential emotional impact from the narrative. Characters with incongruously Western names like “Taylor” and “Gus”—supposedly drawing from rich Korean folklore—meet predictable fates as transformed Brutals. The environmental storytelling that FromSoftware executes with such subtlety becomes heavy-handed and lifeless here, telling rather than showing at every opportunity.

The indie development scene has produced remarkable Souls-like experiences in recent years, from the Metroidvania-influenced Hollow Knight to the sci-fi stylings of The Surge series. These games succeeded by understanding what makes the formula work: precise controls, fair challenge, meaningful rewards, and worlds that invite exploration rather than demanding it. The Relic: First Guardian demonstrates ambition but lacks the polish and design coherence necessary to compete in an increasingly crowded market. Even dedicated Souls-like enthusiasts would be better served looking elsewhere for their next challenging adventure.

Editor’s Note: This review is based on an early review copy provided by the publisher. A major patch is scheduled for release before the game’s public launch on Friday, though it will render existing save files unusable. While this update may address some technical issues discussed here, the review accurately reflects the version supplied for review purposes.