It’s no secret that Relic: The First Guardian flopped. It was janky, filled with AI content in any language other than Korean (with no way of having Korean voice and English text, so you’re stuck with the slop) and ran at between 15 and 55 FPS. Every frame might have looked like a marketing screenshot, but it isn’t called “Marketing screenshot simulator”. What was the idea behind this absolute travesty? Honestly, a surprisingly sound one…
After reading some text for ants and a typically dramatic cutscene we’re dropped into a frankly beautiful world. You haven’t moved yet, so the clunkiness and framerate haven’t made themselves known. Opening the menu (as one does when beginning a new game) reveals dossiers on three different biomes, totalling 77 bosses. It’s like if Titan Souls was a 3D Korean Action game. At least, that’s what you think at first.
Out of the frying pan…
The first major enemy camp is perpetually on fire, which makes your framerate vary wildly while exploring or in combat as the camera turns. Any other area would probably have been a better opener. Having said that, the performance is only marginally better as the game continues. I stuck with it for two reasons:
- I’d only seen 3 of the 77 bosses and they are by far the most interesting part of the game
- I adore Bloodborne, a game that frequently drops to sub 30 frames. I braced myself to just get used to the choppiness and jank in the hopes that the game delivered some incredible boss fights in return…
Having mentioned Bloodborne I feel compelled to let you know that Relic: The First Guardian is not a souls-like. It’s barely even souls-adjacent. The exploration log should’ve been my first clue that this wasn’t going to be a traditional souls-y experience. Enemies stay dead, items and currency aren’t lost on death, and the world is pretty much a series of linear paths. This is a game you are meant to chip away at, slowly defeating more bosses, uncovering more relics and filling out your journal. Progress is permanent and you leave your mark on the map, clearing enemies and loot locations as you go.
That’s no bad thing, and the design lends itself to this boss rush idea that the devs are going for. So long as you go in knowing what to expect then I could see that idea, this game, being really quite good.
…and into the fire
If you stick with it long enough to beat the first couple of bosses and get to the slightly wider linear path, you’ll encounter all the other fun inconsistencies that Relic has to offer. For one, they made the animations flashier than the mechanics can support. The catchment range for combos is abysmal, with your chance to decide on a follow-up lasting barely half the time of the actual animation of the swing. You have a pre-set window after an animation starts to decide whether to queue the next, regardless of how long that animation actually is. This can leave your character standing aimlessly after attacking, despite not being out of stamina, and then getting absolutely minced by the enemies’ retaliation.
After exploring and finding some places of power, you’ll have enough souls / runes / v-bucks to afford a skill! Skills are accessed via the face buttons whilst blocking / holding L1, which is a system that I came to appreciate in God of War. My first skill launched me into the air for a follow-up slam, and was certainly visually appealing. The question remained, would it actually work in gameplay? Was the tracking good enough, did the height mean you could use it to avoid attacks, does it deal enough damage to feel meaty? I’m sure you can ascertain those answers from my tone.
There’s limited respec items, as well, so if you invest in a weapon or tree that you don’t get on with then have fun being stuck in that build for the foreseeable future. “Ah well, I’ll just grind some early enemies to try out different weap-” enemies don’t give you exp, souls, or any levelling currency. You only obtain Relic power through specific bosses and locations on the map which are all one-time use. There is no grind, there is no farm, there is no player choice. You’ll use Sword and Shield and you’ll like it.
Captivating stories completely butchered by delivery
What hurts most about the sloppy presentation of the lore is that these stories and folktales could be exactly the sort of intriguing insight into a new culture that a game needs to stand out. If it communicated these stories in engaging, visceral ways rather than relying on AI-recited dialogue notes there would be actual content here. Every one of the 77 bosses is tied to some sort of folklore or demon or representation of some earthly failing. Even the weapons you later find to add to your arsenal are themed around specific characters.
On paper, they marry the idea to the execution perfectly. For example, defeating an early optional boss whose story involves a Sweeney Todd-esque food situation rewards you with a Relic of “The Left Behind Meal”. This raises your max HP, but also leeches life when you get a kill (I.e, you cannibalise enemies). It’s a helpful early-game ability to encourage exploration for longer periods, and it’s narratively sound. The design is there, the mechanics are there, I just wish it was bearable to play.
Developer interviews have shown how much the team wanted story and narrative behind every fight, for bosses to feel contextualised and meaningful. It’s a great vision, but the execution is the antithesis of that very ideal. Quality of writing and quality of delivery is what matters to that ideal, and the English version butchers both. I’d rather have had to read subs than be ripped out of the world by slop. I don’t understand how a developer can claim to care so much about the artistic vision behind the boss-rush design and yet still rely on teeth-gratingly bad AI voices. If your game uses the same voices as I Am Jesus Christ, you’re not making a good game.
Relic: The First Guardian is a conceptual gold mine ruined by lazy execution
There’s a lot to Relic that I want to enjoy. I actually quite like the map and exploration. It’s simple, but not having names and tags everywhere on the map made exploring feel more authentic, and each location is modelled and placed into the world seamlessly and beautifully. As I said at the start, every single frame of this game looks like a marketing screenshot, I just would’ve liked more of them per second.
Flashy combat skills, permanent world state and narrative-laden boss-rush gameplay is all right up my alley, but there’s just too much wrong with how this game was made, marketed and executed. I love the idea of Relic: The First Guardian, and that’s perhaps even worse than it just being straight up mid.
We played Relic: The First Guardian on PlayStation 5, and it’s also available on Xbox and PC
