The Relic First Guardian Review: Brutal Combat, Broken Foundations

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Store links: The Relic: First Guardian on Steam

A brutal pitch arrives with a damaged launch picture

The Relic: First Guardian launches July 31, 2026, according to publisher Perp Games details reported by Console Creatures and platform information listed by Worthplaying, and the tension around it is already clear: this is a boss-heavy dark fantasy action adventure being sold on scale, severity, and atmosphere, while early reviews describe a game fighting its own camera, traversal, readability, and technical stability.

Project Cloud Games and Perp Games have framed The Relic: First Guardian around a cursed land, a shattered Great Relic, and a Guardian trying to restore a ruined world. Console Creatures reported that the late pre-launch “Meet The Brutals” trailer focuses on boss battles and shows a sample of the advertised 80 bosses, with “soulslike combat” and a broad armoury of weapons. Worthplaying lists the game as an RPG/action release from Project Cloud Games and Perp Games for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch 2, while Console Creatures specifically cited PC via Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation 5 for the July 31 launch window. That leaves a platform-detail gap in the supplied sources: Switch 2 appears in Worthplaying’s listing, but not in Console Creatures’ launch rundown.

The better question for a The Relic First Guardian review is whether the game earns the weight of its pitch. Across the supplied reviews, the answer is uneven at best. GamingBolt found a haunting opening, effective vocal despair, and a compelling breadcrumb approach to environmental storytelling. GameGrin was more charitable toward the combat loop once its systems open up. IGN and GamingTrend, however, describe serious execution failures across visuals, controls, camera behavior, world readability, and bugs. The result is a dark fantasy action adventure with a real sense of tragedy, but one that too often feels assembled around promising ideas rather than sharpened into a dependable action game.

The world has a strong hook, especially when it tells small tragedies

The most consistently praised part of The Relic: First Guardian is its premise and local storytelling. The setup, as described by GameGrin and IGN’s preview, takes place in Arsilthus or Arsilutus, depending on the outlet’s spelling, after the Great Relic that protected the kingdom is destroyed and the land is swallowed by the Void. You play the First Guardian, awakened to gather fragments and restore the world.

That is familiar dark fantasy architecture, but the supplied coverage points to a stronger technique underneath it. GamingBolt’s review describes an opening that begins after a cave tutorial, leading into a burning farmhouse, cries for help, corpses, blood, and orchestral strings that sell the hopelessness of the scene. IGN’s preview described the same early sequence as a story built through fragments: a woman trapped in an engulfed cottage, notes and relics around the site, and environmental clues that gradually reveal a family destroyed after refusing entry to attackers. GamingBolt similarly praised glowing narrative nodes that reveal short, voiced pieces of recent tragedy, including villagers deceived by Looters and a survivor consumed by guilt.

That format gives The Relic its strongest identity. Rather than relying only on a central prophecy, it scatters smaller losses through the world. GameGrin notes that players who read lore and compendium entries, including boss entries, will get more from the story, and some boss backstories are described as tragic. IGN’s preview called the structure closer to quick voiced snapshots than long exposition dumps, with stories reportedly inspired by Asian folklore.

The weakness is that atmosphere and delivery do not always align. GamingBolt praised the voice performances for portraying despair, but criticized NPC animation loops and faces that lack enough detail to match the emotion in the voices. GamingTrend went further, saying voiced dialogue can trigger while moving through the world and, in its reviewer’s experience, can lock out player inputs until a monologue ends, even during danger. That claim is severe, and it changes how the storytelling lands. A voiced memory trail can be elegant when it invites curiosity. If it interrupts control in combat, it becomes a pacing hazard in a game built around reaction.

Combat has rhythm, but the Soulslike label is contested

The Relic: First Guardian is being discussed as a Soulslike action game, but the supplied reviews disagree on how useful that label is. Console Creatures reported that the Brutals trailer emphasized soulslike combat, and IGN’s preview compared the game’s blessing stones to bonfires or Sites of Grace because they restore health, refill the healing item called Breath of Esser, serve as respawn points, and sometimes act as fast-travel anchors. The broader structure also fits the neighborhood: harsh world, bosses, stamina management, environmental lore, and a semi-open map with ruins, caves, towers, and side paths.

GamingTrend argues plainly that it is not a Soulslike in the way many buyers may expect. According to that review, stamina applies to dodging and sprinting rather than normal attacks, death does not drop currency, and there is no corpse-run tension. GameGrin similarly says stamina is used for dodging, blocking, or parrying, while attacks do not consume it, with special attacks on cooldown. That makes the combat closer to a hack-and-slash action RPG with defensive stamina pressure than a strict Soulslike.

That distinction matters because it shapes expectations. Players coming for deliberate stamina economics, death penalties, and high-stakes retrieval runs may find The Relic looser than its marketing suggests. Players who want aggressive melee pressure, stagger bars, dodges, parries, and weapon variety may have a better time, especially later. GameGrin says combat becomes more interesting once special moves and five weapon types begin to appear, though it also notes that the early game delays experimentation: the reviewer had defeated two of the advertised 80 bosses before finding a different weapon or armor piece.

There is some promise in the bones. GamingBolt called combat rough around the edges but identified patterns in enemy behavior, and GameGrin found “pretty solid” action with satisfying dodges and parries. The problem is that multiple sources describe enemies, cameras, effects, and controls cutting against the rhythm. GamingBolt cites limited enemy archetype variety, with one axe-wielding enemy repeating a predictable pattern. GamingTrend criticizes the dash dodge for throwing the character excessive distances, sometimes past enemies or off ledges, and says controls cannot be remapped, with some prompts allegedly listing the wrong buttons. IGN’s review says the game is “barely propped up” by engaging combat while most other parts fall short. That is the central tradeoff: there is impact here, but the surrounding design does not consistently protect it.

World design invites curiosity, then fights clarity

The Relic’s semi-open world is one of its better ideas. IGN’s preview describes areas that are freely explorable but tighter than a fully open world, boxed by cliffs and arranged around forward movement with branches. That design can suit an action adventure well. It keeps the journey legible while still leaving room for caves, towers, side quests, and narrative trails. IGN’s review also found occasional intrigue in exploration, particularly when a cave mouth, tower staircase, or side path suggested a story or encounter nearby. GameGrin says the world is compact enough that walking around can feel good, and GamingBolt was pulled forward by narrative breadcrumbs deeper into the forest.

The trouble is visual and technical communication. Several outlets describe a world that is thematically dead but visually repetitive. IGN’s review criticizes settlements, fortresses, and crumbling structures for blending together, with region identity leaning on heavy color filters: mint-green forest, yellow hills, green swamps, orange-red burning villages, and dark cave vignetting that narrows peripheral vision. GameGrin says the game is very dark in both tone and literal visibility, with thick fog that can obscure approaching enemies and attacks, and a bare-bones settings menu without the brightness adjustment the reviewer wanted.

That matters in an action game because world design is choreography. A ruin can be bleak, but the player still needs to read silhouettes, pathways, threats, and exits. If fog, filters, darkness, and smudged image quality hide the stage, the game’s atmosphere begins to sabotage its combat rhythm. IGN also reported getting stuck on random geometry, loading waist-deep into the ground at a checkpoint, and finding a fast-travel point embedded inside a wall and unusable. GamingBolt cited foliage pop-in, disappearing NPCs, inconsistent collision detection, and a fleeing villager running through the player character.

When The Relic works, its world sounds like a chain of grim short stories connected by roads and ruins. When it fails, the same world becomes a haze of repeated architecture, unclear routes, and unreliable collision. For a First Guardian review focused on action-adventure pacing, that is a serious strike. The game wants the player to push into darkness. Too often, according to the supplied reviews, the darkness makes the push less legible than tense.

Presentation sells despair, but the craft breaks the illusion

The Relic: First Guardian clearly understands the mood it wants. GamingBolt’s description of the opening frames fire, strings, bodies, and helpless cries as a statement of tone. GameGrin points to fallen lands, crumbling ruins, and dark fantasy lore as part of the appeal. The audiovisual ambition is obvious: a ruined kingdom, whispered relic fragments, despairing villagers, and bosses carrying tragic lore.

Yet the craft is repeatedly called out as underpowered. IGN’s review says character models are bland or incomplete-looking, with faces that lack detail and a low-resolution fuzz around characters. GamingBolt makes a similar point about NPC faces failing to carry the desperation heard in the voice acting. Animation is also a recurring issue: GamingBolt describes a rescued merchant repeating a short looping gesture during conversation and villagers cycling through limited behaviors.

Camera work appears to be one of the biggest practical problems. GamingBolt says the camera frequently catches against trees, fence poles, and stone walls, with the issue worsening in lock-on combat. GamingTrend calls the camera “atrocious” and says particle effects can smother the screen. GameGrin’s visibility complaint overlaps with this, since attacks can be missed or unseen because of darkness and fog. In action terms, that is not a cosmetic issue. If a boss-heavy game cannot reliably show enemy windups, space, and recovery windows, brutality becomes noise instead of tension.

Performance and polish concerns are also broad enough that they cannot be treated as isolated anecdotes. GamingBolt mentions pop-in, disappearing NPCs, and collision issues. IGN reports checkpoint and geometry problems. GamingTrend says the game was delayed from May for polish, but argues that polish is absent in the review build it played. Worthplaying’s page confirms the July 31, 2026 release date and identifies the developer and publisher, but the supplied excerpt does not provide performance metrics. None of the provided sources offer stable frame-rate targets, PC requirements, or console mode details, so buyers should not assume those pieces are settled from the material available here.

Launch details, preorder caveats, and the audience question

Perp Games is publishing The Relic: First Guardian, with Project Cloud Games listed as developer by GamingTrend and Worthplaying. Console Creatures reports a July 31 launch on PC via Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation 5, while Worthplaying lists PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch 2. Because the supplied sources do not fully align on Switch 2’s launch status, the safest reading is that PC, PS5, and Xbox are clearly named in the publisher-focused launch coverage, while Switch 2 appears in at least one public game listing but is not confirmed across the provided launch reporting.

Console Creatures also reports that preorders were open exclusively on PlayStation 5 at the time of its article, with a “Night of Unextinguished Flame” bonus pack. That pack is described as including an additional Brutal dungeon, a unique relic, and a legendary exclusive weapon and armor set available from the start. The supplied sources do not include a price, PC system requirements, physical edition details, or upgrade information.

That preorder bonus raises a buyer’s-guide concern. If early gear and an extra dungeon are available immediately, players who care about balance may want to know whether those items distort the opening hours. The sources do not answer that, so the practical advice is simple: do not buy early for the bonus unless you already know you want this specific game despite the review concerns. The action may appeal to players who can tolerate rough AA design in exchange for oppressive mood, boss density, and lore fragments. Anyone sensitive to camera problems, poor visibility, control rigidity, or technical bugs should wait for patches and post-launch player reports.

The Soulslike question should also guide expectations. If you want a strict stamina-and-death loop, GamingTrend and GameGrin’s descriptions suggest The Relic may not deliver that exact structure. If you want a dark fantasy hack-and-slash action RPG with parries, cooldown skills, stagger pressure, and a heavy boss count, the design premise is closer to your lane. The issue is whether you can accept the roughness around it.

Verdict: a world worth wanting, not a game easy to recommend

The Relic: First Guardian has the outline of a stronger game. Its opening image is sharp: a Guardian steps out of darkness into fire, grief, and a land already half-lost. The narrative-fragment approach gives the world texture, and the idea of 80 bosses in a semi-open cursed kingdom is immediately attractive for players hungry for another dark fantasy action adventure.

But a brutal game needs clean brutality. Across the supplied reviews, The Relic’s combat rhythm is repeatedly compromised by camera obstruction, murky visibility, control complaints, delayed weapon variety, repetitive enemies, and technical faults. Its world pulls the player toward tragic stories, then risks losing them in fog, color filters, geometry problems, and undercooked presentation. Its Soulslike identity is also muddled, with marketing and preview comparisons pointing one way while review descriptions of stamina, death, and attack flow point closer to hack-and-slash action RPG territory.

For players who forgive rough edges when a game has mood and ambition, The Relic: First Guardian may still hold curiosity after updates. As a launch recommendation, it is much harder to defend. The strongest material here is atmospheric and narrative. The weakest material is the material an action adventure most needs to trust: camera, clarity, feel, and polish.