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.

Technologies

Kohler Wants to Put a Tiny Camera in Your Toilet and Analyze the Contents

The company’s new Dekoda toilet accessory is like a little bathroom detective.

Some smart litter boxes can monitor our pets’ habits and health, so having a camera in our human toilet bowls seems inevitable. That’s just what kitchen and bathroom fixture company Kohler has done for its new health and wellness brand, Kohler Health.

The $599 Dekoda clamps over the rim like a toilet bowl cleaner, pointing an optical sensor at your excretions and secretions. It then analyzes the images to detect any blood and reviews your gut health and hydration status. Depending on the plan you choose, the subscription fee is between $70 and $156 per year.

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At toilet time, you sign in via a fingerprint sensor so that the device knows who’s using the facilities. (Please wash your hands before signing out or tracking your progress.) Then, check in with the app for the day’s analysis and trends over time.

Wait until you’re off the pot, though, before you start doomscrolling your health. The device has a removable, rechargeable battery and uses a USB connection.

Kohler says it secures your data via the aforementioned fingerprint scanner and end-to-end encryption, and notes that the camera uses «discreet optics,» looking only at the results, not your body parts.

«Dekoda’s sensors see down into your toilet and nowhere else,» the company says.

Kohler warns that the technology doesn’t work very well with dark toilet colors, which makes sense. I’m sure there could be an upsell model with a light on it. Maybe the company could add an olfactory sensor, since smell reveals a lot about your gut health too. It could track «session» length or buildup under the rim to alert whoever has responsibility to clean it.

Kohler must have been straining to find appropriate lifestyle photos to include with the publicity materials. Many of the images are hilarious, featuring fit-looking men and women drinking water and staring off into space contemplatively — probably thinking about gas.

Technologies

Who’s Up to Fight Mega-Corporations in the Outer Worlds 2 on Xbox Game Pass?

Save the universe by fighting one CEO at a time in The Outer Worlds 2, plus play other great games coming to Xbox Game Pass in October.

Space is the final frontier, and it’s packed with some devious mega-corporations who are out to make a buck in The Outer Worlds 2. Xbox Game Pass subscribers can fight them in the highly anticipated sequel starting on Oct. 29.

Xbox Game Pass offers hundreds of games you can play on your Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Amazon Fire TV, smart TV and PC or mobile device, with prices starting at $10 a month. While all Game Pass tiers offer you a library of games, Game Pass Ultimate ($30 a month) gives you access to the most games, as well as Day 1 games, like Hollow Knight: Silksong, added monthly.

Here are all the games subscribers can play on Game Pass soon. You can also check out other games the company added to the service in October, including Ninja Gaiden 4.

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PowerWash Simulator 2

Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can start playing on Oct. 23.

If you’ve ever spent hours watching people on YouTube clean dirty rugs, cars and other grimy objects, you should check out PowerWash Simulator 2. As the name suggests, this sequel is all about blasting away dirt and filth from pools, homes and other objects around town. You have a furry kitty companion, and yes, you can pet them when you’ve finished cleaning.

Bounty Star

Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can start playing on Oct. 23.

The American Southwest has devolved into a lawless, post-apocalyptic desert called the Red Expanse in this game. You’re out to clean the place up in this game by taking down major bounties issued by the government, and the best way to do that is by piloting and customizing a giant mech, of course. When you want to nurse your wounds, head back to your run-down garage to rest, grow and cook food and raise animals. It’s like a cozy Armored Core game.

Super Fantasy Kingdom (game preview)

Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can start playing on Oct. 24.

After returning from a hunting trip, you find your 8-bit kingdom wrecked in this game. You must rebuild your domain in this roguelite, city builder. But as night falls, hordes of monsters emerge to tear everything back down. Build, mine, cook and grow your home, and prepare to defend it from all dangers.

Halls of Torment

Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass subscribers can start playing on Oct. 28.

Get ready to descend into the deadly Halls of Torment in this retro, horde survival game. You can choose between 11 playable characters, each with their own playstyle, and equip various items and abilities to survive waves of enemies. This game is like Vampire Survivors, so if you like that game give this one a shot.

The Outer Worlds 2

Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can start playing on Oct. 29.

Clear your calendar for this sequel to the award-winning sci-fi adventure, The Outer Worlds. This time, you’re an Earth Directorate agent investigating the cause of devastating rifts that could destroy humanity. You have a new ship, new crew, new enemies and mega-corporation goons standing between you and the answers.

1000xResist

Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass subscribers can start playing on Nov. 4.

One thousand years in the future, humanity is hanging on by a thread after a disease spread by alien occupation forces people to live underground in this sci-fi adventure game. You play as Watcher, and you fulfill your duties well, until one day you make a shocking discovery. This game won a Peabody Award in 2024, and it was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Game Writing that same year, so get ready for a story like no other.

Football Manager 26

Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can start playing on Oct. 29.

Get ready for a more immersive matchday experience in the latest installment of the Football Manager franchise. You can build a star-studded squad with new transfer tools, and this entry features official Premier League licenses and women’s football for the first time in the series’ history.

Game Pass subscribers can play the standard or Console edition of this game.

Games leaving Game Pass on Oct. 31

While Microsoft is adding those games to Game Pass, it’s also removing three others from the service on Oct. 31. So you still have some time to finish your campaign and any side quests before you have to buy these games separately.

Jusant
Metal Slug Tactics
Return to Monkey Island

For more on Xbox, discover other games available on Game Pass now and check out our hands-on review of the gaming service. You can also learn about recent changes to the Game Pass service.

Technologies

Does Charging Your Phone Overnight Damage the Battery? We Asked the Experts

Modern smartphones are protected against overcharging, but heat and use habits can still degrade your battery over time.

Plugging your phone in before you head to bed might seem like second nature. That way by the time your alarms go off in the morning, your phone has a full charge and is ready to help you conquer your day. However, over time, your battery will start to degrade. So is keeping your phone plugged in overnight doing damage to the battery?

The short answer is no. Keeping your phone plugged in all the time won’t ruin your battery. Modern smartphones are built with smart charging systems that cut off or taper power once they’re full, preventing the kind of «overcharging damage» that was common in older devices. So if you’re leaving your iPhone or Android on the charger overnight, you can relax.

That said, «won’t ruin your battery» doesn’t mean it has no effect. Batteries naturally degrade with age and use, and how you charge plays a role in how fast that happens. Keeping a phone perpetually at 100% can add extra stress on the battery, especially when paired with heat, which is the real enemy of longevity.

Understanding when this matters (and when it doesn’t) can help you make small changes to extend your phone’s lifespan.

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The science behind battery wear

Battery health isn’t just about how many times you charge your phone. It’s about how it manages voltage, temperature and maintenance. Lithium-ion batteries age fastest when they’re exposed to extreme levels: 0% and 100%.

Keeping them near full charge for long stretches puts additional voltage stress on the cathode and electrolyte. That’s why many devices use «trickle charging» or temporarily pause at 100%, topping up only when needed.

Still, the biggest threat isn’t overcharging — it’s heat. When your phone is plugged in and running demanding apps, it produces heat that accelerates chemical wear inside the battery. If you’re gaming, streaming or charging on a hot day, that extra warmth does far more harm than leaving the cable plugged in overnight.

Apple’s take

Apple’s battery guide describes lithium-ion batteries as «consumable components» that naturally lose capacity over time. To slow that decline, iPhones use Optimized Battery Charging, which learns your daily routine and pauses charging at about 80% until just before you typically unplug, reducing time spent at high voltage.

Apple also advises keeping devices between 0 to 35 degrees Celsius (32 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit) and removing certain cases while charging to improve heat dissipation. You can read more on Apple’s official battery support page.

What Samsung (and other Android makers) do

Samsung offers a similar feature called Battery Protect, found in One UI’s battery and device care settings. When enabled, it caps charging at 85%, which helps reduce stress during long charging sessions.

Other Android makers like Google, OnePlus and Xiaomi include comparable options — often called Adaptive Charging, Optimized Charging or Battery Care — that dynamically slow power delivery or limit charge based on your habits. These systems make it safe to leave your phone plugged in for extended periods without fear of overcharging.

When constant charging can hurt

Even with these safeguards, some conditions can accelerate battery wear. As mentioned before, the most common culprit is high temperature. Even for a short period of time, leaving your phone charging in direct sunlight, in a car or under a pillow can push temperatures into unsafe zones.

Heavy use while charging, like gaming or 4K video editing, can also cause temperature spikes that degrade the battery faster. And cheap, uncertified cables or adapters may deliver unstable current that stresses cells. If your battery is already several years old, it’s naturally more sensitive to this kind of strain.

How to charge smarter

You don’t need to overhaul your habits but a few tweaks can help your battery age gracefully.

Start by turning on your phone’s built-in optimization tools: Optimized Battery Charging on iPhones, Battery Protect on Samsung devices and Adaptive Charging on Google Pixels. These systems learn your routine and adjust charging speed so your phone isn’t sitting at 100% all night.

Keep your phone cool while charging. According to Apple, phone batteries perform best between 62 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit (16 to 22 degrees Celsius). If your phone feels hot, remove its case or move it to a better-ventilated or shaded spot. Avoid tossing it under a pillow or too close to other electronics, like your laptop, and skip wireless chargers that trap heat overnight.

Use quality chargers and cables from your phone’s manufacturer or trusted brands. Those cheap «fast-charge» kits you find online often deliver inconsistent current, which can cause long-term issues.

Finally, don’t obsess over topping off. It’s perfectly fine to plug in your phone during the day for short bursts. Lithium-ion batteries actually prefer frequent, shallow charges rather than deep, full cycles. You don’t need to keep it between 20% and 80% all the time, but just avoid extremes when possible.

The bottom line

Keeping your phone plugged in overnight or on your desk all day won’t destroy its battery. That’s a leftover myth from a different era of tech. Modern phones are smart enough to protect themselves, and features like Optimized Battery Charging or Battery Protect do most of the heavy lifting for you.

Still, no battery lasts forever. The best way to slow the inevitable is to manage heat, use quality chargers and let your phone’s software do its job. Think of it less as «babying» your battery and more as charging with intention. A few mindful habits today can keep your phone running strong for years.