Screenshots & trailers
Review sentiment over time
Weekly positive-review rate (green) and review volume (bars). Dashed lines mark significant patches; the amber line is the start of the current scoring window. Hover the dots to see what drove a dip or a jump.
How this score was computed
The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.
| Component | Positive | Quality (0-100) | Weight (pseudo-reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Press reviews (OpenCritic) | – | 58 | 44 |
| All-time Steam reviews | 48% | 50 | 105 |
| Metacritic user ratings | – | – | 0 |
| Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted) | 37% | 43 | 4 |
| Calibration prior (typical game) | – | 72 | 50 |
Scoring window: since the last significant patch (Aug 27, 2026) · 3 reviews sampled · 4 total reviews in window · weighted 1 up / 1.7 down · computed 2h ago · full methodology →
Press & Creators reviews (21)
Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.
- 45
“Unfortunately, The Relic: First Guardian disappointed us. It has plenty of ideas, quests, and bosses, but everything feels a bit slapdash and poorly polished. You can sense the passion and dedication, but productions of this scale require more structured teams and a significantly larger budget. It would have been better to lower the bar a bit, reducing the quantity of content in favor of higher quality, both in terms of the combat system (the game’s core) and the technical aspects. We hope this first project will serve as a learning experience for the developer to understand where they went wrong, because there’s no shortage of ideas, passion, and love for the genre.”
read full review ↗ - 76
“The Relic: First Guardian is best described as an action RPG that blossoms despite its clear limitations. It is far from a perfectly well-rounded game, with awkward animations, imprecise controls, and underwhelming character models standing out as obvious flaws. Even so, its stylish combat, built around carefully timed attacks and defenses, delivers a thrilling sense of catharsis that keeps you coming back.”
read full review ↗ - 40
“The Relic: First Guardian is not only one of the worst Soulslikes I have ever played, but a prime candidate for the worst game of 2026. It's a game that crumbles under the weight of its own ambition, aiming to be the next Elden Ring and missing the target wildly. Not one aspect of this game warrants praise, and in its current state, it is an affront to the Souls genre as a whole. It's time I will never get back, but hopefully through my suffering, you won't suffer the same fate.”
read full review ↗ - 55
“The Relic: First Guardian is ultimately a game full of promising ideas that rarely reaches its potential. Its departures from the traditional Souls-like formula initially make it stand out, even if its relentlessly bleak atmosphere won't appeal to everyone. Unfortunately, those innovations are undermined by frustrating boss encounters that highlight weaknesses in the core combat. Throw in inconsistent presentation, sparse PC options, and missing quality-of-life features like key rebinding, and the result is a game that's difficult to recommend in its current state. With enough patches and thoughtful refinements, it could eventually carve out its own place alongside the genre's best, but for now, it remains an ambitious experiment that falls short of its goals.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“The Relic: First Guardian is a solid addition for Soulslike fans, offering fast combat, engaging lore, deep weapon skill trees, and great boss design. However, weak visuals, unstable PS5 performance, and a generic art style drag the experience down significantly, preventing it from reaching greater heights.”
read full review ↗ - 64
“The Relic: First Guardian is a game that dared to be different and suffered for it. In the pursuit of challenging what has been tried and tested, it put forth a plethora of great ideas: equipment-based tactical combat, non-respawning enemies as progression, and genuinely great boss battles. Unfortunately, it also revealed why those ideas weren’t the norm. Poor animation implementation, questionable camerawork, and forgettable narratives all end up making this a much lesser product than the sum of its parts. In fixing what wasn’t broken, it only revealed the cracks within itself.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“The Relic: First Guardian's unpolished edges almost undermine the experience, but atmospheric exploration through a haunting world will pull you through.”
read full review ↗ - 45
“Relic: The First Guardian has the foundations of a solid action RPG, with an impressive roster of over 70 unique bosses and a respectable variety of Relic-based abilities that keep major encounters engaging. Unfortunately, those strengths are constantly undermined by shallow combat mechanics, clunky animations, inconsistent voice acting, poor audio design, technical issues, and surprisingly amateur translation errors. Rather than a true Soulslike, this is a straightforward action game weighed down by an overwhelming number of avoidable flaws. With more polish, it could have been a pleasant surprise. Instead, it ends up as a frustrating experience that rarely allows its best ideas to shine.”
read full review ↗ - 40
“On paper, The Relic: First Guardian has a lot going for it: the promise of Korean mythology, fast-paced and fluid combat, and the varied and numerous Brutals. Unfortunately, I don’t feel the impact or that special something that makes Korean mythology interesting, while the gameplay has many shortcomings as well.”
read full review ↗ - 40
“The true dark fantasy of The Relic: First Guardian is all of the potential it squanders; an energetic action game marred by its own shambolic state and broken in too many inexcusable ways.”
read full review ↗ - 40
“After trying to give The Relic a fair shot I just could not continue. The bosses are unbalanced, and combat is just too janky to really enjoy it. Statues effect are very punishing with some of the first few bosses you will encounter. I’m not sure why the game decided to riddle the world with notes, and make them right next to each other at that. With me even counting 11 notes exactly one after another, that just led to a boss fight. An empty, lifeless world with side-quest that end up feeling like just filler. But honestly from the 8 hours I spent with The Relic, the whole time has felt like useless padding. A very large amount of my frustration comes from just how bad the hit boxes are. Tie that with the severe dropping in frame rate over nothing going on in the world. And even worse when you actually fight one enemy let alone a group or boss. Everything is just a chore, and I just couldn’t push through. I really don’t have any praise for The Relic: First Guardian. It’s definitely the Thumb Culture Bronze Award.”
read full review ↗ - 45
“The Relic: First Guardian is a purgatory of tedium and glitches dressed up to look like a heavy-hitter action RPG.”
read full review ↗
STWGames Italia
INVEN
The GameSlayer
Worth Playing
Just Play it
Game8
GamingBolt
Gamefa
Gameliner
IGN
Thumb Culture
RPG Fan…and 9 more tracked reviews.
Patch history
- Patch 15 is Now LiveAug 27, 2026significant · resets scoring window
- Patch 14 is Now LiveAug 21, 2026significant · resets scoring window
- Patch 13 is now LiveAug 21, 2026significant · resets scoring window
- Patch 12 is Now LiveAug 17, 2026significant · resets scoring window
- Patch 11 is Now LiveAug 14, 2026significant · resets scoring window
- Patch 10 is Now LiveAug 12, 2026
- Patch 9 is Now LiveAug 11, 2026significant · resets scoring window
- Patch 8 is Now LiveAug 7, 2026significant · resets scoring window
- Patch 8 - UpdateAug 7, 2026significant · resets scoring window
- Patch 7 is Now LiveAug 7, 2026significant · resets scoring window
- Patch 6 UpdateAug 5, 2026significant · resets scoring window
- Patch 5 is now liveAug 5, 2026
- Patch 5 UpdateAug 4, 2026
- Patch 4 is LiveAug 4, 2026
- Patch 4 Update & NotesAug 3, 2026significant · resets scoring window
- Launch & Developer UpdateJul 31, 2026significant · resets scoring window
- Patch 3 Coming Later TodayJul 31, 2026
- Patch 2 Out NowJul 31, 2026
- Patch 1 Incoming for The RelicJul 30, 2026