The Relic: First Guardian

The Relic: First Guardian is an undeniably ambitious title, but it heavily suffers under the weight of expectations, ultimately trying to do too much and doing it poorly. There are certainly positive aspects: excellent environmental design, dynamic and intuitive gameplay, and an equipment management system that integrates seamlessly with the lore. However, these qualities are not enough to offset a series of poor game design choices. Enemies prove to be ultra-aggressive, while the 80 bosses—supposedly the flagship feature of the game—turn out to be flaw-ridden "damage sponges" that are often mere copies of one another. The game world is vast, varied, and boring—immersed in a cosmic void, with design decisions that destroy any sense of discovery. A visually well-crafted technical presentation is undercut by frustrating camera management and visibly dated NPCs. So many times in my reviews I find myself writing that "more could have been done," but The Relic: First Guardian is the first game that made me think that, perhaps, less should have been done.

There are things about The Relic: First Guardian that I absolutely loved. The game's exploration also leaves something for you to find, and the game's combat is satisfying and rewarding. It's just a shame I had to suffer through major bugs that kept me from progressing or finishing quests.

The Relic: First Guardian* is certainly an ambitious debut project from the studio Project Cloud Games, promising a vast open world, eighty unique elite enemies, and a simple yet conceptually strong story. However, that ambition ultimately hindered development, resulting in a product that fails to deliver on any of its initial promises in a polished state. This forces those who have already purchased the game to wait for numerous fixes before it reaches the level of quality promised by the trailers and promotional material.

I think I could write about 4000 more words of complaining about The Relic: First Guardian, but I’m eager to simply wash my hands clean of this game and forget it ever existed. If you love Souls-likes or action RPGs, there are dozens of other experiences you’re better off playing. This one’s not even worth your curiosity.

The Relic: First Guardian feels like a case of a smaller developer overextending itself. It brings an aggressive twist to combat and features a host of bosses to battle, but that's not enough to overcome the game's flaws and weaknesses. A flurry of patches have arrived since launch, but you're currently still better off waiting to see if they can address more of the core issues.

The Relic: First Guardian has plenty of promising ideas on paper, from its Korean mythology setting to its fast-paced combat and variety of Brutals, but few of them truly stand out in practice. The fragmented storytelling, uninspired voice acting and lack of meaningful combat depth make both the lore and the battles feel less engaging than the trailers suggest. Despite being marketed as a soulslike, its challenge comes more from clunky controls than memorable encounters, leaving the overall experience feeling underwhelming.

The Relic: First Guardian is one of the worst games to come out in 2026. With so many other titles worth your time and money, this one is an easy skip.

The game tries to be innovative in the souls like but: - Have very few customizable options; - Bosses feel like are reused every time; - A bunch of bugs including ones that makes harder to get trophies; - FPS drops; - Reused mobs; - Balance is awful for the fights and for the weapons (two handed weapons lose a lot of mobility and light weapons lose too much on block) they thought it would be fun but the enemies weren't balanced around that.

Give them a chance the updates so far have proved the game is moving in the right direction. It’s not all bad hopefully they get it right sooner rather than later. Look at mortal shell another ok game and look now with MS2 coming wow totally different with a budget imagine what these guys can do with continued updates and support moving to their next game with a bigger budget. All roads lead to a better quality product I put it down for now to give the devs a chance to fix their mistakes but I do support their team and game.

This is the first game I ever refund on PS5. It has so many issues, performance issues are the least of your problems. - Exploring is mainly looting tiny amounts of gold scattered everywhere. - Combat is clunky and the character feels like its skating everytime you run or parry. - Whatever you see in the trailer is NOT what the game actually looks like on PS5. It is painful to look at. You can't release a game like that, guys, let alone at that price

It's a shame to release the game in this condition. I'll give you a chance to fix it!

Habe zum Glück noch vor Release meine Vorbestellung storniert — das war die beste Entscheidung, die ich in diesem Fall treffen konnte. Mich hat vieles stutzig gemacht und bereits in den ersten Videos und Reviews hat man deutlich gesehen, dass das Spiel mehrere Schwächen hat. Was hier aber am Ende wirklich herausgebracht wurde ist eine absolute Schande. Ich würde es demnach also auch als absoluten Scam bezeichnen. Das Spiel ist überhaupt nicht fertig, es fehlen an einfachsten Dingen (zum Beispiel Markierungen auf der Karte, Beschreibungen von Orten etc.) sowas sollte heute absolut selbstverständlich sein. Viel schlimmer ist aber die sich immer wiederholende Welt. Alles ist immer wieder das gleiche, es sind immer wieder die selben Gegner, immer wieder dieselbe Sounds und Geräusche, absolute Katastrophe. VoiceOver von Bossen und NPC würde ChatGPT besser hinbekommen. Atmosphäre ist komplett für die Katze, ich hab selten sowas schlechtes erlebt. Und ehrlich gesagt bin ich froh, dass ich es nur stundenlang in einem Livestream erlebe (Jack Fromsoft), statt es auch noch selbst spielen zu müssen. Ich hätte mich über jeden Euro geärgert, den das Spiel gekostet hätte. Das Spiel ist absolut nicht fertig und dafür 50 € zu verlangen gehört rechtlich bestraft. Das Spiel könnte so gut sein, weil es auch gute Ansatzpunkte liefert — aber in dem Zustand einfach nur Katastrophe. Von den ganzen Performance-Problemen fange ich jetzt gar nicht erst an (Memory Leak) das ist einfach nur ein totaler Witz, zumal die Grafik nach PS3 aussieht. Nicht mal die "Story" zieht einen in seinen Bann, denn sie existiert einfach nicht. Man ist nur wild am suchen, weiß nicht wo man schon war und wo nicht, hat einfach keinerlei Durchblick. Das wirkt alles total billig zusammengewürfelt ohne jegliches Konzept. Da können die nun patchen, was sie wollen. Das Spiel hätte direkt fertig auf den Markt kommen müssen und nicht in einem solchen desaströsen Zustand. Ein Armutszeugnis und eine Frechheit für jeden Gamer, vor allem in diesem Genre. Amen.