The Relic: First Guardian Preview Shows a Soulslike With Serious Problems Before Launch

The Relic: First Guardian has several promising ideas, including flexible weapon builds, relic-based abilities, elemental magic, and a combat system that does not spend stamina on normal attacks. However, its current playtest build reportedly suffers from major visibility, combat, progression, and world design problems that could make it difficult for the game to stand out when it launches on July 31.

Developed by Project Cloud Games, The Relic: First Guardian is a dark fantasy action RPG inspired by the Soulslike genre. It is set in the ruined world of Arsiltus and aims to offer a mix of exploration, gear upgrades, skill trees, and difficult enemy encounters.

The concept is interesting, but the early hands-on impression suggests that many of the game’s core systems need more work than a short pre-launch period may allow.

Heavy Vignette and Camera Shake Hurt Visibility

One of the biggest complaints is the game’s visual presentation. The preview build reportedly uses an aggressive vignette effect that darkens the edges of the screen, along with frequent camera shake during enemy attacks and combat actions.

These effects may be intended to create a darker atmosphere, but they can make combat harder to read. In a Soulslike, positioning, enemy tells, attack timing, and dodge direction are essential. If the camera does not clearly show the battlefield, the difficulty can feel unfair instead of challenging.

The early build apparently did not include settings to disable or reduce either effect.

Issue	Why it matters in a Soulslike
Strong vignette	Reduces visibility around the player
Camera shake	Makes enemy attacks harder to read
Poor combat camera	Limits awareness during close fights
Dark environments	Can hide enemy movements and hazards
No visual toggles	Gives players less control over comfort settings

Adding accessibility options could improve the experience, but visual settings alone may not solve the deeper design concerns.

Combat Looks Unresponsive and Too Restrictive

The Relic: First Guardian uses a stamina system that focuses on blocking and dodging rather than normal attacks. That could have created a faster and more aggressive combat loop, but the preview says the execution currently feels awkward.

Weapons reportedly have only one main combo string, and players may need to repeatedly press the attack button to complete it. Attacks can also feel delayed, while enemies are aggressive enough to interrupt longer sequences.

Dodging is another major issue. The dodge appears to cover too much distance, which can reset the fight rather than create a chance for a quick counterattack.

Combat element	Reported problem
Attack combos	Limited variety and difficult to complete
Attack input	Can feel delayed or unresponsive
Dodging	Covers too much distance
Parries	Hard to time due to unclear attacks
Skills	Difficult to fit into normal combat flow
Boss fights	Problems become more noticeable

The game may want players to rely more on blocking and parrying, but inconsistent enemy timing and hit detection can make that approach frustrating.

Progression Removes Some of the Genre’s Core Tension

The game reportedly avoids the traditional Soulslike experience-point system. Instead of earning currency from enemies and risking it after death, progression focuses on finding relics, collecting materials, upgrading equipment, and unlocking skills.

That approach is different, but it may weaken the tension that normally comes from deciding whether to push forward or return to safety with valuable experience points.

If normal enemies mainly drop gold and upgrade materials, players may feel less motivated to engage with regular combat. That could make exploration less rewarding and death feel like a simple interruption instead of part of a larger risk-and-reward system.

The Game May Struggle Against Stronger Soulslike Competition

The Relic: First Guardian has some potentially interesting ideas, such as relics that shape character builds, permanent elemental magic, and different weapon options. However, the preview suggests that the game’s basic combat, camera, world design, and visual clarity are not yet at the level players expect from the genre.

The dark fantasy setting is also described as familiar rather than distinctive, while the world design appears to rely on small connected areas with limited visual variety.

The game may still improve after launch through patches and updates. However, with many polished Soulslike games already available, The Relic: First Guardian will need more than its ideas on paper. It will need smoother combat, better visibility, and a stronger sense of identity to build an audience.