Aug 11, 2026 · 5 min · 6 segments
The true dark fantasy of The Relic is all of the potential it squanders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
From a distance, The Relic: First Guardian looks like it could be a solid addition to the growing ranks of B-list action games that punch above their weight.
The sort of recommendation you drop your friends who are looking for something to scratch that itch between big games to let them know you're into this action game lifestyle for real.
It's clearly inspired by bigger games within and around the From Software lineage, but doesn't even come close to meeting the high bar as they set.
Shoddy and broken throughout, barely propped up by its engaging combat, and let down by how lackluster or straight up unacceptable every other piece of it is.
Visually, The Relic does not make a good first impression, nor does it make a great impression at any point afterward.
Most character models are bland, either run-of-the-mill medieval European fantasy peasants, knights, and preachers, or designs bizarre enough to be curious, but feeling incomplete like your Bloodborne doll stand-in, Elisa.
Faces, and especially your protagonist's mug, seem to have no actual detail on them, short of eyes that glow sometimes.
And they all have a sort of low-res fuzz surrounding them akin to the infamous bloom effect from the old Fable games.
The lands you explore have the mood of a dead world with how most of its settlements are ghost towns and all of its fortresses are ruins, and yet they all look nearly identical from one crumbling building to another.
The few towns that do still have people in them feel almost indistinguishable from one another.
The mix of geography and whatever hazy color filters fogging everything up is the biggest indicator of which of the three main regions you're in.
The side stories and dungeon bosses are the best way to get loot of any meaningful value in The Relic.
The rolling hills, deep forests, and dank dungeons of its world have hundreds of shiny little loot markers scattered into every nook and cranny, and almost all of them are just a scant pile of 30 to 50 gold.
You'll sometimes find chests guarded by bad guys or tucked at the end of a divergent path in a cave, and almost all of them have about 600 gold.
If you're thinking, "That's weirdly specific," well, so did I for about 20 hours, until I stopped touching any of those altogether since I was already carrying more gold than I could responsibly spend by the third act.
Fighting the looters and monsters that roam the land is where The Relic is at its most cohesive, but that's a relatively low bar that it barely clears.
While each one only has one combo string, you can't just mash it out since each subsequent swing requires the proper timing.
The sluggish responsiveness from the controls make this rhythm a chore to lock down in the early game, and I found myself dropping strings that felt right even after some practice.
Only your defensive options cost stamina, encouraging you to be aggressive more freely.
From a distance, The Relic: First Guardian looks like it could be a solid addition to the growing ranks of B-list action games that punch above their weight.
The sort of recommendation you drop your friends who are looking for something to scratch that itch between big games to let them know you're into this action game lifestyle for real.
It's clearly inspired by bigger games within and around the From Software lineage, but doesn't even come close to meeting the high bar as they set.
Shoddy and broken throughout, barely propped up by its engaging combat, and let down by how lackluster or straight up unacceptable every other piece of it is.
Visually, The Relic does not make a good first impression, nor does it make a great impression at any point afterward.
Most character models are bland, either run-of-the-mill medieval European fantasy peasants, knights, and preachers, or designs bizarre enough to be curious, but feeling incomplete like your Bloodborne doll stand-in, Elisa.
Faces, and especially your protagonist's mug, seem to have no actual detail on them, short of eyes that glow sometimes.
And they all have a sort of low-res fuzz surrounding them akin to the infamous bloom effect from the old Fable games.
The lands you explore have the mood of a dead world with how most of its settlements are ghost towns and all of its fortresses are ruins, and yet they all look nearly identical from one crumbling building to another.
The few towns that do still have people in them feel almost indistinguishable from one another.
The mix of geography and whatever hazy color filters fogging everything up is the biggest indicator of which of the three main regions you're in.
The side stories and dungeon bosses are the best way to get loot of any meaningful value in The Relic.
The rolling hills, deep forests, and dank dungeons of its world have hundreds of shiny little loot markers scattered into every nook and cranny, and almost all of them are just a scant pile of 30 to 50 gold.
You'll sometimes find chests guarded by bad guys or tucked at the end of a divergent path in a cave, and almost all of them have about 600 gold.
If you're thinking, "That's weirdly specific," well, so did I for about 20 hours, until I stopped touching any of those altogether since I was already carrying more gold than I could responsibly spend by the third act.
Fighting the looters and monsters that roam the land is where The Relic is at its most cohesive, but that's a relatively low bar that it barely clears.
While each one only has one combo string, you can't just mash it out since each subsequent swing requires the proper timing.
The sluggish responsiveness from the controls make this rhythm a chore to lock down in the early game, and I found myself dropping strings that felt right even after some practice.
Only your defensive options cost stamina, encouraging you to be aggressive more freely.
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