Last Updated on Jun 30, 2026 @ 16:03:00 PM.
For all my Soulslike fans out there, I have some good news for you, as over the past few days I have had the opportunity to get a hands-on preview of the upcoming dark fantasy soulslike RPG The Relic: First Guardian, as I explored its hauntingly dark and gruesome world, cutting down monsters and humans alike with all kinds of magic powers and unique weapons.
During my playthrough I was granted the opportunity to play through the early portions of The Relic: First Guardian as I explored the intro of the game as well as a large portion of the game’s story and world, which for obvious reasons I will not spoil, while also being able to try out the various weapons that are available, the skills that accompanied said weapons, and even the magic abilities that I could wield.
These are but some of the gameplay features I was able to try out during my time with the game, so for those who have been waiting for a new Soulslike experience, we’ve got you covered.
The Relic: First Guardian’s World is Full of Monsters and Decay, With Plenty of Hidden Secrets and Quests
The first thing any player will notice upon loading up The Relic: First Guardian is its dark fantasy world that is filled with all manner of threats towards the player, both small and large, that are looking to send you to your death.
However, these monsters aren’t the first thing the player will notice; it is instead the actual game world, as the player loads in with little to no information as to what is happening around them, except a faint idea that the world around them is in disarray and it is their job to try and bring it back to a sense of normalcy.
During my hands-on preview, I spent a lot of my time exploring the world of The Relic: First Guardian in search of everything that I could, and it is safe to say I wasn’t disappointed.
By using the in-game map, I often found myself exploring numerous points of interest in search of quests, secrets, and loot that I could use on my journey, and I was very pleasantly surprised that each of these locations supplied me with just those things, maybe not all, but at least some.
What made exploring within The Relic: First Guardian fun was the fact that not everything was on the map either, so for players who are looking to follow certain paths and quests, there are icons that will guide their way, but for players who like to explore every nook and cranny of a game, you will be pleased to know there are some secrets and hidden locations for you to find.
In terms of the game’s enemies, The Relic: First Guardian has quite a mixed bag; even in the hands-on preview that I played, I was still able to come across quite a few different enemy variations that kept the game fun and interesting.
The biggest and most fun aspect of these enemies within The Relic: First Guardian was simply how no matter what enemy you faced, whether it be human or monster, each had an equal amount of opportunity to kill you, and for a big Soulslike fan like me, this made the game a fun challenge, as I never felt overconfident, but I also wasn’t afraid of encounters either.
I won’t spoil too much regarding the enemies’ design, so players can see for themselves when the game releases. I will say that for me, I found that each of the enemies was quite interesting in the way they were designed, as they each look rather grotesque in their own way while also being threatening, but nothing compared to the bosses you encounter.
When it comes to any Soulslike game, the bosses are important, whether it be their designs, their attacks, or even their rewards, and The Relic: First Guardian managed to tick all these boxes and more, as each boss is entirely unique, with no boss being similar.
Just like the game’s enemies, the bosses themselves are not overly problematic to fight, as there is no leveling system in the game, causing you to rely on weapon builds and abilities to get the upper hand, so each new boss is a potential threat with very little chance of it being a cakewalk even for veterans of the genre.
Although I only played the early sections of the game and wasn’t able to create an overly overpowered build (yet), there are ways that the player can get an upper hand on the enemies, and those are the various weapons and magic you can acquire throughout the game.
Flashy Skills and Devastating Magic are Only a Few of the Combat Features in The Relic: First Guardian
As I said above, a big part of The Relic: First Guardian is the ability to build your character your own way through various methods. This can be done by swapping to one of 5 weapons, altering your magic abilities, using weapon skills to add an edge in combat, or even altering your armor to help boost your stats.
Each of these features plays a large role in the world of The Relic: First Guardian, and especially during the later stages of my hands-on preview, I was having to rely on swapping these methods in order to take on various bosses and enemies, which is something I am not overly used to.
During my time with The Relic: First Guardian, especially the early stages of the game, I massively relied on one weapon, which was the standard sword and shield the game gives you, as I had managed to get a good selection of skills that could aid me in defeating enemies, but there were a few different weapons I had acquired and tried throughout my time in the game.
As much as I was having fun with the sword and shield, I did allow myself to swap weapons now and then and try different things to see how they worked and what they acted like in combat, and I was not disappointed. My favorite weapon visually was the magic staff, especially with the abilities I could unlock further, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy using weapons like the great axe or the daggers.
When it came to using each of these weapons, I was quite pleasantly surprised by how each of them played out within the game, as often when players use new weapons, it takes a large amount of time to get used to them, whether it be the attack combos, the timing on the swings, or just generally the damage they do, but I found for me it was quite easy to get used to these weapons, and this allowed me to swap quite often, especially later on in my preview.
The biggest draw for me when using the different weapons was just how powerful the skills could be in combat; for example, one of the skills I had while using a sword and shield was one of the earliest skills, which allows my character to slash at the enemy, then jump into the air and do a ground pound, essentially.
While using this ability, I often found myself killing basic monster enemies in one activation, but the risk of this ability and any of the abilities you can use in the game is that it is easy to be staggered out of them. I found this to be the case a lot in my time with the game, which was understandable but annoying, as it would also put the ability on cooldown, meaning I had to fight enemies normally, which, when they are in groups, is a challenge in more than one way.
All of these features combined ensured that the combat within The Relic: First Guardian was a lot of fun to enjoy, and with more abilities locked to further in the game due to the preview only covering the first few sections of the game, I am more than excited to see what I will do later on.
The Story of The Relic: First Guardian is Unique in How it’s Told
Throughout the Soulslike genre, gamers have always had to piece together a game’s story by using all manner of methods, one of the main methods being item descriptions, providing background lore that players wouldn’t normally get. This method has always been a popular one within the genre, and The Relic: First Guardian continues this tradition, but it also leans into other methods as well that I found to be really fun and intuitive.
Now, as always, we won’t talk about anything spoilery in terms of the actual story, but we will talk about how this story is showcased to the player and what they can expect as they venture through this dark world.
One of the biggest and most prevalent examples of storytelling within The Relic: First Guardian is simply the conversations and cutscenes that take place throughout the game. Just like other Soulslike games, there are some situations in which a character talks to you and provides information for the area you are exploring or even background information for what is happening around you, but as always, this information can be very vague and will leave you with more questions than answers.
Another example of how The Relic: First Guardian showcases its story and information is through messages left throughout the game world, and no, I do not mean messages like the ones left by players in Dark Souls, providing both information and misinformation; I mean general notes and information left by the developers to help guide the player through this game’s open world.
Throughout the world, the player can come across drops of information that can be picked up that tell them a little bit about what is going on, so one example is how a set of notes guides the player through a village to discover what has happened there from the writings of one of the villagers. For me, this was a unique way to showcase the story, as each note was fully voiced by the villager as if they were reading it to the main character to help them understand what had happened there, even leaving clues for side content like chests and hidden locations.
To add to this, these pieces of information aren’t just from the characters within the story, but they can also be observations from the main character to a situation taking place, so one situation is when the player is hunting down an injured villager and they search through a disturbing scene, finding clues to help guide them on their way in which the main character finds clues and, with fully voiced dialogue, explains what has been found and how it correlates to the situation.
For me, this was an interesting inclusion from the developer along with the general storytelling and item descriptions, as it helped paint an even bigger and better picture of the game world that The Relic: First Guardian inhabits while also enticing me to look at each item with further scrutiny and to follow each clue path I could find in order to see what secrets lay on the other side.
At the time of writing, The Relic: First Guardian is set to release on PlayStation 5 and PC on July 31st, 2026, with release dates for the Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2 to be revealed at a later date.
For more Thumb Wars Gaming coverage, check out our article talking about Guns of Eschaton a new Wild West FPS Soulslike that has just been announced, or check out our article talking about the recent gameplay trailer for Turok: Origins.
Liam is a Senior Editor, Writer, and Critic for Thumb Wars and has been working with the team since day one. Liam is a big fan of all things gaming, as you will catch him playing all of the new releases from every genre you can imagine. Whether you find Liam gaming just for fun or spending his free time streaming, you will always find a smile on his face when it comes to all things gaming.
