In a move that could be seen as trying to replicate a Barbenheimer effect among soulslike fans, 2 games realised on the same day in March 2025: First Berserker of Khazan and AI Limit. While I definitely intend to play them both eventually, I decided to give priority to the latter - and, to spoil thing a little bit, I am very happy with that decision.
I'll start with the presentation, as this is what stands out the most when first looking at the game. It is very much anime both in terms of aesthetics and story. Typically, I am not a fan of anime (to put it mildly) and for me it was a huge minus in games like Code Vein. Here, however, I'd say it is... inoffensive. The game avoids typical anime tropes like overly emotional characters by focuing on non-human Bladers, who are typically rather stoic. The story does eventually escalate things into an absurd scale in a fashion typical for the genre, but is rather enjoyable until then, thanks to engaging setting and intriguing lore. The only real issue I have with the presentation is the color pallete, which is extremely drab, mostly using grey and brown - I understand that this matches the post-apocalyptic setting, but is just very pleasant to look at.
The most emphasized part of the game is exploration and it is done really, really well. In terms of structure, I'd say it is closest to Dark Souls 3, with mostly linear world design with a few branching paths into optional areas, but there are also some really cool shortcuts between the zones - although they dont have as much utility as in Dark Souls 1, since you have fast travel unlocked from the start. Like in Dark Souls 3, what really shines through is the design of each level. These are just straight up excellent, with tons of secrets, well fought-out encounters and obstacles and, crucially, unique ways of dealing with them. Much like From Soft, the devs were not afraid to hide entire areas and bosses behind obscure secrets - although you usually get enough hints to find them. I was quite proud of myself for getting almost everything required for the true ending on my own, even if I had to look up one hidden area that I missed.
Combat and systems are quite standard for the genre, the devs played it quite safe. What is most important to me is the feel of the combat - and I am happy to report that AI Limit also excels in that regard, attacks have proper weight to them and dodges and parries are really satisfying.
One unique system the game has is called "sync gauge". It replaces stamina and is spent on things like special attacks, spells and parries and you refill it mainly by regular attacks. Additionally, you lose it when you get hit. You deal more damage when your sync is high and get incapacitated when it drops to 0 (fortunately, the game won't let you spend it further below certain treshold). On paper it might seem like a "win more" mechanic, either making you unstoppable or punishing mistakes too harshly, but it is balanced well enough that it didn't feel this way.
This system has another very pleasant consequence - while it isn't possible to play as a "pure" caster (since you need to attack to get sync), the battlemage archetype is done extremely well here, kinda similarly to Code Vein, which had a mechanic similar to sync gauge. I build my character into strenght and magic, intending to play as a sort of palading with buffs, but by the end of the game I was also blasting enemies with offensive spells. I know that some people were bugged by there only being one spells slot, but it was fine for me, as you can change it very easily.
Now, to tone down the praise a little bit, the bosses are mixed bag. While a few were truly excellent, there were more than I didn't like, fortunately not a single one that I'd consider completely terrible. 2 most common categories of bosses were meele focused, that were fun, but trivialized with parries and casters that often had frustrating mechanics. The game also makes a rather strange decision to end with a boss rush - for true ending you fight 8 bosses in a row, not counting multiple phases (fortunately there are checkpoints). This would have been fine as a concept, but out of those 8 bosses I'd only consider 1 to be really good. All that being said, it's clear that bosses were not the main focus here and they were still decent enough, thanks to being rather easy they never became really frustrating.
This brings us to difficulty - overall, the game is definitely on the easier side of things, especially if you utilize parries, that make most meele bosses almost trivial. There were a few difficulty spikes here and there, especially with 1 boss that I struggled the most with - it's a caster boss that has a massive healthbar, 2 phases and a ton of hard to avoid attacks. I tried a ton of different mechanics against her (spells, parries, perfect dodges etc.) and nothing helped. Finally, I checked a guide online and it turns out that the best way to beat her is to just dodge behind her and spam regular attacks - with that knowledge, I got her 2nd try. Not sure if it's brilliant or obnoxious design.
Much of the difficulty comes from traversing the levels and over the first half of the game most of my death definitely came from that - but it is never frustrating (like in new LOTF), because all the encounters are really well though out and varied. Overcoming a tough level is incredibly satisfying, I can't recall feeling like that in any 3d soulslike not made by From Soft.
To finish things up, I'll just mentioned that I didn't have any issues with performance and that the game works well with keyboard and mouse, which is a big plus for me.
Overall, this was a really great experience, that was in places slightly held back by focus clearly being placed in other areas. Still, a very easy recommend for any soulslike fan and a 8.5/10 rating from me.
