Connect with us

Technologies

The First Berserker’s Ben Starr and Studio CEO Speak: Tough Games, AI and More

I sat down with Khazan’s voice actor Ben Starr and Neople CEO Myeongjin Yun to chat about their new game in the Dungeon & Fighter universe.

I’ve been enjoying The First Berserker: Khazan, the Souls-like dark fantasy action game that was released on March 27. During this year’s Game Developers Conference, I sat down with some of the development team to chat about the latest game in the Dungeon & Fighter series — and much more, from difficulty in Souls-like games to AI in the industry. 

I spoke to Myeongjin Yun, CEO of developer Neople, and Ben Starr, the voice of the titular character Khazan and many other iconic gaming roles including Clive, the protagonist of Final Fantasy XVI.  

We talked about where the game fits in the larger Dungeon & Fighter universe, how they tackled making a new entry in the crowded souls-like genre and where AI fits within their respective fields. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Sean Booker: What is Dungeon & Fighter and how does it relate to The First Berserker Khazan? 

Myeongjin Yun: So basically Dungeon & Fighter is an action RPG, it’s been in service for 20 years as of this year in Korea. And Khazan actually plays a very core part of the story. So there is this iconic class in Dungeon & Fighter called the Demon Slayer, and they have a cursed red arm. It’s part of the lore, and basically Khazan is at the core of like, how that came to be, why all Demon Slayers have that red arm.

Then with The First Berserker: Khazan, we wanted to go a little bit deeper into the story and into the universe about, like, you know, what role does Khazan play in setting up the Dungeon & Fighter universe. How does his story expand? 

SB: Ben, what drew you to this project? 

Ben Starr: Cool, cool project. I remember seeing the first ever glimpse of it, I think in The Game Awards a couple of years ago, and I just thought it was the coolest looking game and I’m such a huge fan of this genre of games, like hardcore action RPGs is something that I have a deep, deep love on. After I did a blind audition for this game, but I knew exactly what it was because I’d already kind of been keeping tabs on it as a fan. And then I just saw what they were doing with story — I think with most actors, all they want to do is tell good stories and be good characters and it was just really, really fun. And I love, you know, a brooding protagonist who’s on a path for revenge, but this just felt really different and cool and I adore the art style. 

And I really love that the key of this story is the dynamic with Blade Phantom, and I’m really great friends with Anthony Howell who plays Blade Phantom, and I think he’s such an amazing, amazing actor. To get to work alongside him is just this incredible gift.

SB: Would you say people need to be familiar with Dungeon & Fighter in order to play The First Berserker, and if not, and they wanted to, where in the IP would you point them? 

MY: You could definitely play and enjoy Khazan, even if you did not know the Dungeon & Fighter IP at all. The setting, the learning curve, and even the story was all made with people who are new to the Dungeon & Fighter IP in mind. Of course, if you know the original story, you would have a lot more fun like, oh, here’s an Easter egg here and there. For example, in the original Dungeon & Fighter, when Khazan gets exiled to the mountains, the story kind of ends there, and we don’t really go that much into detail about what happened to Khazan after that. But here it kind of expands on the what if setting, so what if Khazan didn’t die in that exile snowy mountain? What if he stayed alive? What if he just continued his revenge? 

SB: Dungeon & Fighter games are typically beat ’em ups, and there’s also a fighting game. Now with Khazan we’re going into a Souls-like action game. Why the transition to this new genre? 

MY: We wanted to find a way for everyone to get immersed in the story, for them to really experience what it means to play Dungeon & Fighter. But then if you look at the original game, it’s a pixel game. It’s also side scrolling and that’s not the most popular genre as of right now. And so we were thinking, if we think about genre, what would be the best way to reach these players?

And of course, you know, we want 3D and we have this specific art style. We did take inspiration from games like Dark Souls, Sekiro, and Nioh because I actually personally love those games as well, but then, it does play a lot closer to the original Dungeon & Fighter, which is a hardcore action RPG at its core. So we really just wanted to emphasize, you know, that feeling of playing the original and being true to that, and so that’s what kind of ended up being Khazan. 

SB: There’s an ongoing discussion about difficulty settings in these more hardcore action games. Not only does Khazan have an easy mode option, but it also has this lacrima system, where you can keep going against a boss and still progress. What were your thoughts on difficulty?

MY: That’s a funny story because last year at Gamescom I was asked if we planned to add difficulty settings, back then I said no, we’re not gonna do that. But then winter, like in December last year, we actually did add an easy mode, right? And when we first thought about the difficulty settings and keeping it hard, we wanted players to really just feel the hardships that Khazan was going through, all the difficulty that he was going up against, but then we really thought to ourselves, like, what do we want from this? Like, what do we want the players to feel at the end of all this? 

Of course, there’s a sense of achievement from going through all these challenges and just getting better, but then we also wanted to make this experience a lot more accessible to players and for more people to know what it feels like to be immersed in Dungeon & Fighter.

There was a lot of internal discussion on whether we should be adding the difficulty settings or not, but then in the end, we decided to do so. Personally, I like Souls games, but I wouldn’t say I’m an expert master player in Souls games. Keeping that in mind, we wanted players who may not be that good at controlling or dodging to also be able to progress through repetition, and for them to really feel a sense of progression so that they can enjoy the game also. 

BS: I’ve just been massively impressed with the way the team has constantly engaged with players and interfaced with the team. Considering this is a single player hardcore action RPG, the fact that you as a team have constantly gone, here is a version of the game to play, please go and play it, give us feedback — that kind of really great conversation you’ve had with the public and how you’ve listened to people and what they want and what they don’t want, is really interesting.

When you think about how we use the word hardcore, instantly what you think is «this game isn’t for me.» But actually going, «it can be, and actually you can choose to play the game however you want» [has] been really lovely. 

SB: As someone behind the scenes, what are your thoughts on AI growing in the games industry? 

MY: Definitely we’re aware of what AI can do and also the ethical arguments that we’re having around it, and definitely around voice acting and all that as well. Personally, I feel that in the space of game making, in the space of developing games, AI definitely increases accessibility and allows smaller teams to come up with great ideas and develop new games in many different genres and just really bring their ideas to life.

But then we also need to be very aware of the fact that we’re in this very chaotic middle ground here. There are a lot of arguments about whether this is ethical. We see a lot of cases of copyright infringement, so we really need to learn where to draw the line and how we need to operate within a safe boundary. So definitely it has a lot of potential, but then it also involves a lot more discussion as well. 

BS: Yeah, it’s kind of the same thing, which is that AI isn’t inherently bad, it’s what the human fingerprint that holds it does with it. AI is also a very toxic word to use because it’s almost like it is no longer about AI, it’s about all of the things around it. You walk around GDC right now and you will hear many conversations about the importance of machine learning and how valuable that is. 

I’m an actor and obviously it’s a very hot topic right now for what we are doing. I think what SAG-AFTRA are doing right now, what the actors are fighting for is incredibly important, and it’s very good that they are elevating the importance in the public sphere. Ultimately AI isn’t the problem. AI can be a wonderful, wonderful tool for people to use in the right hands, but it’s like every single dystopian apocalyptic movie from the 90s. It’s like Skynet, man, is it coming? And it needs to be in the right hands. In the right way it can be used and useful and wonderful, but as you said, there has to be regulation. 

Technology is moving so fast that regulations cannot keep up and we need to make sure that we are putting things in place so when this technology does advance to a level where it’s doing some kind of crazy things, we already have those regulations in place and we are not reacting [by] preventing those things happening in the first place.

SB: When you’re not working on Khazan, what are you playing right now? 

MY: As a developer, I first came into the industry because I love games and I love playing games, but then it’s been ironic because I haven’t been able to play much. You hear a lot of other developers say «oh, I love to play games,» but then nowadays like gaming is actually more research, and so you would hear a lot of developers saying that. I don’t want this comment to sound too businessy, but I actually have been playing Khazan, and it’s wonderful. 

BS: I recently bought myself a Steam Deck. I have been a PlayStation kid since I was very, very young and that was my primary and still is my primary gaming machine. But I found myself traveling so much that I was like «I need to get a Steam Deck.»

On the way here I did 4 hours of Vampire Survivors. I did about 3 hours of Half-Life 2, which still holds up. My word, does that game hold up. And I think they’ve got like RTX there that just came out. The game series that really caught me in the past couple of months are The Case of the Golden Idol and The Rise of the Golden Idol. 

I just think they are wonderful, and even in those three games that I’ve listed they are in the same idea of video games, but they tell stories in completely different ways. Vampire Survivors doesn’t really tell a story at all, but it’s just wonderful how we can interface with that and stories can be revealed to us in all of these ways, and I think the Golden Idol series is really, really, really special.

Related Topics:

Technologies

Zelle App Is Gone. Use These Alternatives to Send Money Digitally

You still have lots of free ways to send money to friends and family electronically.

If Zelle has been your go-to app for sending money digitally, it’s time to find a new method. The digital payment app shut down on April 1.

That doesn’t mean you can’t use Zelle altogether, however. Zelle has only discontinued its standalone app. You can still send money using Zelle if your bank belongs to the Zelle network. You’ll just need to do it through your bank’s app or website. You also have other services to choose from. Here’s what you need to know about this change and your options moving forward.

TAX SOFTWARE DEALS OF THE WEEK

Deals are selected by the CNET Group commerce team, and may be unrelated to this article.

Why the Zelle app is shutting down

When Zelle launched in 2017, only about 60 US financial institutions offered the service by the end of that year. Today, that number exceeds 2,200. As a result, less than 2% of Zelle transactions occur through the standalone app. Zelle has been phasing out the ability to make transactions on its mobile app since October 2024.

«Today, the vast majority of people using Zelle to send money use it through their financial institution’s mobile app or online banking experience, and we believe this is the best place for Zelle transactions to occur,» Zelle said in an October 2024 press release. 

In December, Zelle was in the spotlight when the Consumer Financial Protected Bureau sued the company and three of the largest US banks for failing to protect consumers from widespread fraud on the peer-to-peer payment network. The lawsuit has since been dropped.

Other ways to send money digitally

You can still use Zelle through your bank’s app or website if it belongs to the Zelle network. You can also switch to another digital payment app, such as:

  • Apple Wallet
  • Cash App
  • PayPal
  • Venmo

Take some basic precautions when using Zelle or any other digital payment service. These apps are a frequent target for scammers, and Chase Bank has started blocking some Zelle payments it believes could be fraudulent. Only send money to people you know and trust, and watch for red flags like an urgent message claiming to be from your bank or an online ad for concert tickets that seem impossibly cheap.

Continue Reading

Technologies

Marvel Rivals Season 2 Starts Next Week, Devs Drop Big News

Emma Frost and Ultron are joining the Rivals roster in season 2, and developers are upping the pace to one new hero per month starting with season 3.

After surviving the endless night in New York City with the Fantastic Four, Marvel Rivals players are getting invited to the shores of Krakoa for the start of season 2 on April 11. The game dropped the first trailer for the new season, giving us our first official look at the new heroes, and a developer vision video dropped major news about the future of hero releases. 

The trailer features the former foe and sometimes-leader of the X-Men, Emma Frost, inviting people from across Rivals’ various timelines to the mutant nation of Krakoa, where everyone gets dressed up for a fancy gala — even Wolverine puts on a white tux. The event, however, is unceremoniously interrupted when Ultron shows up preaching extermination. 

We also got a look at some of the cosmetics in season 2, though it’s unclear which are from the shop and which might be in the battle pass. In addition to the dressed-up Wolverine, we also got looks at Magik and Psylocke in the traditional X-Men blue and yellow. Nonmutant guests are also getting in on the fun, with fancy attire for heroes like Cap, Widow and Luna Snow. 

New Heroes and balance changes in Marvel Rivals Season 2

Emma Frost joins the roster as a Vanguard. We don’t have detailed information about her abilities yet but expect that information to drop ahead of next week’s season launch. Ultron is coming in the season 2.5 update, which should be in late May. 

Some team-ups are changing in season 2, including three new team-up abilities that were previewed in the newest developer vision video. 

  • Emma Frost allows Magneto and Psylocke to create illusions of themselves.
  • Doctor Strange teams up with Scarlet Witch allowing her to use small portals to seemingly increase her damage output via a rapid-shooting alternate fire.  
  • Cap finally teams up with Bucky, allowing the Winter Soldier to leap to allies.

A few existing team-ups are getting adjustments, with Psylocke, Winter Soldier and Doctor Strange being removed from older team-ups in favor of new ones, and Namor moving from working with Luna’s anchor to Hulk’s to empower his ultimate with gamma energy. Two team-ups are being removed entirely: Magneto can no longer team up with Scarlet Witch, and Thor is no longer anchoring Cap and Storm.

The developers vaguely teased other balance changes, including buffs to Peni, Mister Fantastic and Moon Knight, with Strange trading offensive pressure for more survivability and Rocket getting more utility while Loki and Adam Warlock receive nerfs to their Regeneration Domain and Soul Bond abilities.

Future seasons will be shorter, which means more new heroes

One of the most surprising moments in the developer video was the announcement that, beginning with season 3, seasons will be two months long instead of roughly three. There has been a lot of discussion online about whether Rivals’ pace of new heroes (about eight per year based on three-month seasons) was sustainable. Well, apparently the Rivals devs took that personally and are cranking up that pace to a new hero every month, meaning 12 new heroes per year. 

This feels borderline ludicrous compared with other hero shooters that average about three new heroes per year, or even MOBAs like League of Legends, which has averaged about four new champions per year over the past five years. Rivals benefits from having an overflowing stable of Marvel characters to pull from rather than inventing their own hero concepts, and compared with Overwatch, the developers seem less worried about mechanical overlap in their heroes, as seen with many support ultimates. Still, a new hero every month feels unheard of for a hero shooter.

New Krakoa map and competitive changes

A new Krakoa-themed domination map is being added in season 2, and Yggsgard: Royal Palace (domination) and Tokyo 2099: Shin-Shibuya (convergence) will rotate out of the map pool for ranked modes, though they’ll still be available in quick play and custom games.

The threshold for competitive picks and bans, which currently only happen in diamond-ranked lobbies, will be lowered to gold 3. Players in Eternity or One Above All ranks will only be able to duo queue, instead of queuing with larger groups — a measure that’s likely intended to keep high-level teams from stomping lobbies. 

Speaking of ranks, season 2 will drop everyone by 9 divisions, which is equal to 3 ranks. That means players in Eternity will drop to diamond, and any players at platinum 3 or below will start their climb from bronze 3 again. (AGAIN… AGAIN.)

Rivals developers also announced that individual player performance will be weighted higher when determining competitive progress after a match, meaning if your stats outperform your team’s, you’ll earn more for winning and drop less for losing. This change can help elevate smurfs and other high-skill players in lower-ranked lobbies by getting them into their appropriate ranks faster. However, it can also lead to players stat-farming, instead of playing in a way that is most effective for winning games. Overall, given that Rivals doesn’t use any sort of competitive placement matches, this should be a net positive for the game.

Other announcements

Rivals is adding new skin recolors to certain hero skins and (finally) giving players the option to gift costumes to their friends so they can surprise someone for their birthday, which you definitely did not forget about.  

Missions are changing a bit, with the addition of weekly missions and a redistribution of where battle-pass-progressing chrono tokens are earned. The devs framed this as creating a «smoother expectation» of how to earn chrono tokens, but the surface-level description sounds like they’re just making it harder to earn battle pass progress over the season by tucking away more progress under missions with shorter time limits.

The developer vision update also gave us our first look at the competitive distribution, showing how many Rivals players are in each tier as of season 1.5. 

The Hellfire Gala trailer says season 2 will start on April 11. While it doesn’t give a specific start time, expect the between-seasons maintenance to finish sometime in the middle of the night in the US.

For more on Marvel Rivals, check out which heroes and roles you should play and how to get free skins.

Continue Reading

Technologies

Nintendo Switch 2 vs. Switch 1: Every Detail Compared

The Nintendo Switch 2’s official specs aren’t too different, but the new console has a lot of upgrades on the original Switch.

The Nintendo Switch 2 may look like its predecessor, but there’s been a lot of changes to its features and under the hood. The new console has «10x the graphics performance» compared to the original Switch, says Nvidia, which built the custom processor powering the Switch 2.  

The Switch 2, with a release date on June 5, is priced at $450 alone or $500 in a bundle with Mario Kart World, the headliner of the console’s launch games. Here’s all the info on how to preorder the Switch 2.

Note that we’re mostly comparing the Switch 2 to the original Switch 1 released in March 2017, because looping in the Switch Lite and Switch OLED gets complicated.

Design

Broadly, the Switch 2 is a larger version of its predecessor, with everything looking slightly inflated: bigger footprint, bigger screen, bigger Joy-Cons. 

Original Switch: The original Switch, with Joy-Cons slotted into the side rails, is a little over 9.4 inches wide, 4 inches tall, a little over half an inch thick and weighs about 10.5 ounces (297 grams). The Joy-Cons slide into place from the top of the device’s sides, while a thin wedge of plastic pops out of the back of the console to serve as a kickstand.

The Switch also came with a dock, which the console could slot into to for recharging and outputting to a TV or large display via HDMI port.  

Switch 2: The new Switch 2 is bigger in every way, but it has the same overall shape and layout as the original. The new Joy-Cons will indeed be held in place on the console magnetically, and connect to the console via pins. The new console also sports a wide U-shaped kickstand that spans almost its entire rear width, which can be moved around to prop up the Switch 2 at a variety of angles. Nintendo says the console has more powerful speakers, which we’re looking forward to testing.

The Switch 2’s dock is largely similar in function though it has rounded edges and an internal fan to cool down the console during long game sessions. More importantly, it can output games in 4K to TVs, but only for select games. 

Joy-Cons

The Joy-Cons were a marvel when they arrived on the first Switch, and while they’re functionally similar in its successor, there have been upgrades in the Switch 2’s controllers.

Original Switch: The Switch Joy-Cons are simple but powerful controllers that slid on and off the console via plastic rails, connecting and recharging via pins on the side. Detach and they become their own micro-controllers, with little shoulder buttons to boot.

Switch 2: The new console’s Joy-Cons are larger to fit the Switch 2, and lock into the side of the console via powerful magnets — there are small inward-facing buttons to the side of ZR and ZL to detach the controllers from the console. The larger-size Joy-Cons have longer L and R outside shoulder buttons, as well as much wider SL and SR internal shoulder buttons, which are accessible when detached from the console. 

And yes, you can use the Switch 2 Joy-Cons as mice by placing their inner edges flat on a surface. During the Nintendo Direct, we saw it being used to control active action games like the wheelchair basketball-simulating DragXDrive and strategy games like Civilization VII. 

Display size

Original Switch: The original Switch has a 6.2-inch LCD screen with 1,280×720-pixel resolution, which was reasonably impressive at launch in 2017 but has been outclassed by newer handhelds with sharper displays. The Switch OLED upgraded this with a larger 7-inch display showing deeper blacks and colors, but no upgrade in resolution. The Switch Lite has a 5.5-inch LCD screen.

Switch 2: Unsurprisingly, the Switch 2’s larger size means a larger display. The new console has a 7.9-inch 1080p LCD screen that can get up to 120Hz refresh rate in handheld mode, or up to 4K when docked and outputting to a TV. 

Why no OLED display? Possibly to save on costs… or possibly to give Nintendo room to release a Switch 2 OLED version down the line.

CPU/GPU

Original Switch: The original Switch runs on an Nvidia custom Tegra X1 processor split into four ARM Cortex A57 CPU cores, and according to Hackaday, there are four extra A53 cores that aren’t used. 

Switch 2: Once again, Nintendo hasn’t released any official info on the Switch 2’s specs, even after the Nintendo Direct reveal stream — and they most the company reveals is that it has a «custom processor made by Nvidia» on the Switch 2’s official specs page. Nvidia confirmed it also has a custom GPU, claiming that the new console has «10x the graphics performance» of the Switch 1, and the custom processor’s AI-powered features include Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), face tracking and background removal for video chat and real-time ray tracing.

We do still have more supposed details from previous leaks. Months ago on X (formerly Twitter), leaker Zuby_Tech posted that the Switch 2’s CPU will be an eight-core Arm Cortex A78C. They also suggested that the GPU will be an Nvidia T239 Ampere, aligning with years of similar rumors reported on by Eurogamer and others about the custom chip, which derives from Nvidia’s Tegra line of chips for smartphones and mobile devices.

RAM and storage

Original Switch. The Switch has 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 32GB of onboard storage, expandable up to 2TB via microSD cards in the slot beneath the kickstand.

Switch 2: Even after the reveal stream, Nintendo didn’t release official specs for RAM. Leaker Zuby_Tech posted on X back in September suggesting the Switch 2 will have 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB of onboard storage. That leak also suggested the new console will have two internal fans, up from the single one in the original Switch. 

Nintendo did confirm that the new console will have 256GB of onboard storage, which can be expanded with special microSD Express cards — sorry, your old Switch-compatible microSD cards won’t work on the Switch 2.

Battery life

Original Switch: The original Switch packs a 4,310-mAh battery, which gives between 4.5 and 9 hours of battery life depending on screen brightness and other factors.

Switch 2: Though Nintendo didn’t release details on the Switch 2’s capacity in the reveal stream, the company does list specs on its website, showing it packs a 5,220mAh battery. While that’s notably larger than the one in its predecessor, Nintendo estimates this will only get players between an estimated 2 and 6.5 hours, depending on games played.   

Ports

Original Switch: The first Switch sports a single USB-C port out the bottom, a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top and Wi-Fi 5 plus Bluetooth 4.1 connectivity. On the top is a slot at the top for Switch game cartridges as well as the microSD slot beneath the kickstand on the rear of the console.

Switch 2: The Switch 2 retains the original’s USB-C port on the bottom and 3.5mm jack on the top while adding another USB-C port topside, and now we know what it’s for: to connect with accessories like the Nintendo Switch Camera, a webcam-like camera on a stand to let you do Nintendo’s version of FaceTiming while you play games with your friends.

Nintendo hasn’t clarified the console’s connectivity options, and rumors are scarce on the subject. 

As for cartridges, Switch 2 will play some original Switch games in physical versions. The cartridge slot is to the right of the headphone jack in the above image, which is where the slot is on the original Switch. You can tell game cartridges from the two console generations apart by color: ones for the new Switch 2 are red, while older Switch 1 games are black.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © Verum World Media