The Relic: First Guardian

A world that kept pulling me forward

In my time with The Relic: First Guardian, the atmosphere was the main reason I kept going. The game builds a bleak, almost mythic world of ruins, broken sanctuaries, and dark open spaces that constantly suggest something larger just out of sight. What stood out to me is that the environments are often stronger than the systems trying to support them: I kept wanting to push deeper into the map simply to see what waited around the next corner, even when the game did not always reward that curiosity cleanly.

The premise helps a lot. You are the last guardian, gathering pieces of a great relic to seal a void of darkness, and that fantasy gives the journey a clear shape. I found the setup compelling enough to carry the early hours, even if the storytelling itself never fully matched the strength of the world design. The game feels bigger and more interesting than its execution sometimes allows.

Combat and exploration: promising, but uneven

The combat is where I felt the most conflict. When it clicks, it has a satisfying directness: attacks carry weight, dodges demand attention, and the rhythm of a fight can become genuinely engaging. I noticed that the game wants you to stay aggressive and keep momentum, and there is a real tension in that approach. At the same time, I kept running into awkward responsiveness, odd timing, and a sense that not every encounter plays by the same rules.

Enemies are often aggressive, but not always in a way that feels smart or memorable. In several fights, I felt less like I was reading a well-tuned system and more like I was wrestling with clunky controls and inconsistent feedback. That is a shame, because the foundation is there for something sharper. Instead, the challenge too often comes from friction rather than from elegant design.

Exploration, by contrast, was the part I enjoyed more consistently. I found myself taking detours for hidden paths, small rewards, and bits of lore, because the game does a good job of making the world feel worth searching. That sense of curiosity matters, and here it is one of the game’s best qualities. Even when the combat stumbled, I still wanted to see what was beyond the next gate or down the next broken corridor.

Progression and equipment give the game structure

One of the stronger surprises for me was how the progression and equipment systems fit together. The game does not bury you in inventory clutter, and I appreciated how quickly I could understand what a new piece of gear or an upgrade would actually do for my build. That clarity made me more willing to experiment, and it gave the RPG side of the game a useful sense of momentum. It also fits the lore nicely, which helps the whole package feel more coherent than I expected.

Still, I think the game leaves too much unexplained at times. I often felt that it was presenting deeper systems than it was willing to teach properly, which made some of the progression feel more opaque than it needed to be. I like the underlying structure, but I also think it could have used a lot more polish in how it communicates itself. The result is a system that is good in concept and only partly satisfying in practice.

Presentation and technical issues hold it back hard

The biggest obstacle is the technical state. On Xbox Series X|S, I ran into stutters, noticeable frame drops, and bugs that interrupted the flow of play. In a game that relies on timing and readability, those issues are especially damaging. I also found the voice acting and narrative delivery underwhelming, which made the emotional side of the adventure land with less force than it should have.

Visually, the game has personality, but not always the finish to match its ambitions. I could see strong art direction in the environments, yet the animation quality and overall roughness often made the game feel a generation behind. That contrast was frustrating, because I wanted to take the world seriously and the game kept reminding me of its limitations. The ambition is real, but so are the shortcomings.

Conclusion

The Relic: First Guardian has a clear identity, but it is weighed down by too many rough edges to become an easy recommendation. I had enough good moments with the exploration, world design, and progression to see what the game is aiming for, but I also spent too much time fighting technical problems and awkward execution. If you are especially tolerant of jank and drawn to atmospheric action RPGs, there is something here to salvage. For most people, though, the flaws are hard to ignore.