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The Relic: First Guardian keeps the familiar soulslike mix of third-person action, exploration, difficult fights and bosses, but its clearest mechanical difference is that attacking does not use stamina. Stamina is reserved for dodging and blocking, while progression comes from equipment and Relics rather than character levels. Its Korean folklore setting and story-framed bosses give it a distinct identity without making it unlike every other game in the genre.
What makes The Relic different from the usual soulslike formula?
“Soulslike” is a useful label here, not a claim that The Relic: First Guardian copies every convention of FromSoftware games. Steam tags it as soulslike and describes it as a dark action RPG rooted in Korean mythology. The most clearly documented differences are its attack-and-defense stamina split, gear-led progression, and folklore-driven story framing.
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Attacks do not spend stamina
Inhyuk Park, creative director at Project Cloud Games, said in a PlayStation Blog post dated 18 December 2025: “Stamina is never consumed when attacking.” The Steam listing likewise says the stamina gauge is reserved for dodging and blocking. That puts the resource pressure on defensive choices and survival windows: attacking does not drain the same gauge, but mistimed defense can still leave you exposed. The developer describes the intended contrast as freedom in attack and intensity in survival.
Magic follows a separate system: Steam says high-power magic uses cooldowns and a dedicated meter. This is a specific design distinction, not evidence that every other soulslike makes attacks consume stamina.
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There are no character levels
Park also wrote, “There are no character levels in this world.” Instead of building a character through conventional level-based stat growth, the game emphasizes weapons, armor, crafting, and Relics or runes that provide passive effects. The Steam listing advertises more than 70 unique passive effects. The developer says these choices can alter skill behavior and combat tempo, so growth is expressed through equipment and build decisions rather than a character-level number.
The available official descriptions do not establish the exact cost of changing a build or every possible final combination, so those details should not be assumed from the no-level system alone.
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How do weapons and builds shape combat?
Project Cloud Games describes five weapon styles. Steam names them as Sword & Shield, Battle Staff, Daggers, Two-Handed Weapons, and Longsword. Each offers a different combat rhythm, with weapon skills and passive effects contributing to how a build plays.
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What are the world and boss stories like?
Korean folklore shapes the setting
The game draws on Korean folklore and mythology for its dark fantasy world. Steam describes a semi-open, interconnected setting of ruins and dungeons, with artifacts and hidden encounters. This gives the game a cultural and narrative identity distinct from a generic medieval-fantasy pitch; it does not, by itself, establish that the exploration structure is unlike other action RPGs.
Bosses are presented as tragic stories
Official descriptions frame encounters as stories about the people and memories left behind in a ruined world. The creative director’s 18 December 2025 post says the game has more than 70 bosses; the Steam listing advertises up to 80. Those are differently worded developer claims, not an independently verified count. The stronger distinction is the intended framing: bosses are presented as tragic, self-contained folktales as well as combat challenges.
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What remains familiar—and what the comparison can establish
The game still fits the broad action-RPG frame suggested by “soulslike”: third-person combat, exploration, challenging encounters, and bosses. The available official information supports a precise comparison of its own systems, but not detailed claims about how it stacks up against named competitors. Individual games handle stamina, progression, and world structure differently, so there is no single formula shared by every soulslike.
| Comparison point | The Relic: First Guardian | How to read the difference |
|---|---|---|
| Stamina | Official descriptions say attacks do not consume stamina; dodging and blocking use it. | Defense and survival are the stamina pressure points; this should not be generalized to every soulslike. |
| Character growth | No character levels; progression emphasizes equipment, crafting, and Relics or runes with passive effects. | Build shaping is gear-led rather than based on level-ups. |
| Weapons | Five styles are described by the developer: Sword & Shield, Battle Staff, Daggers, Two-Handed Weapons, and Longsword. | Weapon skills and passives affect combat rhythm; no broad weapon-count comparison is established. |
| World | Semi-open and interconnected, with ruins, dungeons, artifacts, and hidden encounters, according to Steam. | This describes the game’s structure, not a demonstrated difference from every competitor. |
| Setting and bosses | Korean folklore and mythology inform the dark fantasy world; bosses are framed as tragic stories. | The narrative framing is a notable identity marker alongside the combat systems. |
What should PC players know about reviews and performance?
Steam’s listing, accessed in 2026, showed 44% positive from 175 all-time user reviews and 50% positive from 12 reviews in the last 30 days; both ratings were categorized as Mixed. These are dynamic storefront snapshots, not a representative performance study, and may change over time.
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Project Cloud Games’ Steam description says it had released 18 patches and was continuing to focus on technical issues and performance. That indicates active PC-side work, but does not establish frame rates on a particular system or performance on console. Check recent reports for hardware and platform similar to yours before buying if performance is a deciding factor.
Release dates vary by platform listing
Store dates are platform-specific and the available listings do not support collapsing them into one universal launch date. Steam lists the PC release as 30 July 2026 and identifies Project Cloud Games as developer and Perp Games as publisher. The Xbox store lists Xbox Series X|S, PC, and handheld play, with a release date of 28 September 2026. A PlayStation Blog post dated 18 December 2025 announced a planned PS5 release for 26 May 2026; that announcement alone does not establish the final PS5 release date or current availability.
Sources: Steam store listing; PlayStation Blog, 18 December 2025; Xbox Store listing.
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