The Relic: First Guardian arrives on July 31, 2026, and if you’ve landed here you probably want three things: a confirmed date, a straight answer on what the combat actually does differently, and whether it’s worth your money in a year already stuffed with action RPGs.
Here’s the short version. Developer Project Cloud Games and publisher Perp Games are shipping a dark fantasy action RPG that borrows the Soulslike skeleton heavy bosses, deliberate swings, a ruined world told through fragments and then quietly breaks one of the genre’s oldest rules. Attacking costs you nothing. Below is everything confirmed so far, including platforms, the Relic progression system, the boss count, and the honest case for and against pre-ordering.
The Relic: First Guardian Release Date and Platforms
The game launches July 31, 2026 on PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam.
Ports for Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2 are confirmed for “later this summer,” but Perp Games has not committed to a specific day for either.
A physical PS5 edition follows on September 4, 2026, sold through retailers including Amazon UK and GAME.
This is the second date the game has held. It was originally announced in 2021 as Project Relic, a multiplayer action title, before the studio rebuilt it as a single-player RPG. A launch was then set for May 26, 2026, and pushed. The July 31 date has now been repeated across the official Steam store page and multiple publisher posts since June 15, which is about as firm as pre-launch signals get.
Pre-Order Bonus and Editions
Perp Games revealed a pre-order bonus DLC on July 12, 2026, alongside a new trailer. Pre-orders are live on PlayStation Store, Xbox, and Steam.
What Is The Relic: First Guardian?
The setting is Arsiltus a continent that prospered until the great relic at its center shattered, opening a void that swallowed the land and turned it into what the studio calls a land of death.
You play the last Guardian. Your job is to recover the scattered fragments of the great relic and seal the void.
What separates the pitch from a hundred other dark fantasy games is the framing. Creative director Inhyuk Park has described the goal as an old folktale told by a grandfather to a child gentle, lingering, quietly sad. You’re not a legendary hero. You’re the person who restores fading memories. In the PlayStation Blog breakdown, Park describes small human artifacts scattered through the world: a child spinning a pinwheel, waiting for a father who never came home. A short letter left for someone unreachable.
The art direction and mythology draw on Asian folklore, which is why coverage keeps grouping it with the recent wave of Korean-developed action RPGs.
The Relic: First Guardian Gameplay: What’s Actually Different
Three systems carry the whole design. All three are unusual enough to matter.
1. Stamina Is for Defense Only
This is the headline change. Attacking never drains your stamina bar. The bar exists purely for blocking and dodging. Skills run on cooldowns, not resource costs.
Why it matters: in most Soulslikes, one meter governs offense and defense, so every swing is a bet against your own escape budget. Project Cloud Games has split that decision in half. You can be aggressive without mortgaging your ability to survive the counterattack but your defensive stamina is now the only thing standing between you and death, so panicking gets punished harder than in a standard Souls loop.
Whether that makes the game easier or just differently tense is the open question every preview has flagged.
2. There Are No Character Levels
Relics (Runes) replace leveling entirely. Each Relic is a fragment carrying the emotions and wishes of someone who died in Arsiltus, and each carries one of over 70 unique passive effects that can reshape how a skill behaves, change combat tempo, or amplify a specific weapon style.
You don’t grow by numbers going up. You grow by accumulating memories and choosing which ones to carry. Two players finishing the same boss can walk away with meaningfully different Guardians.
3. Every Weapon Exists Exactly Once
There is no loot table. Each weapon and armor piece in the game world exists as a single unrepeatable artifact with its own history the last blade of a knight who defended hundreds, a shield made from a family’s vow.
The game ships with five weapon types and twelve exclusive skill trees, and weapons are designed around emotional themes rather than damage brackets. When you equip something, you inherit its story.
The practical effect: no farming, no duplicates, no vendor trash. Finding a weapon is a narrative event, not a drop.
Up to 80 Bosses, Each With a Story
Perp Games has confirmed up to 80 bosses, internally called Brutals.
The design rule is that no boss is just an obstacle. Each one is a self-contained folktale about a person who became a monster:
- A father who starved and turned
- A rage left behind by a broken promise
- A soul consumed by the void that has forgotten its own name
Their stories only complete when you kill them. It’s a clean loop the combat is the storytelling, rather than a gate in front of it.
Eighty is a large number for a genre where fifteen is typical. Expect some to be variants or lesser encounters rather than eighty fully bespoke setpieces; that’s the realistic read until reviews land.
Should You Pre-Order The Relic: First Guardian?
Reasons to wait. The game has slipped once already and carries a five-year development history that included a full genre pivot. Xbox and Switch 2 dates remain unconfirmed.
The reasonable position: wishlist it, watch for the review embargo lift in the last week of July, and buy on day two instead of day one. Nothing about the pre-order bonus is worth eating a launch-window technical mess.
FAQ
When does The Relic: First Guardian release?
July 31, 2026 on PS5 and PC (Steam). Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2 versions arrive later in summer 2026, dates unconfirmed. The physical PS5 edition ships September 4, 2026.
Is The Relic: First Guardian a Soulslike?
It’s marketed as one and carries the Souls-like tag on Steam, but the label is loose here. Free attacks, cooldown-based skills, and a semi-open world push it closer to a traditional action RPG. Several outlets have made the same point.
How many bosses are in The Relic: First Guardian?
Up to 80, called Brutals, each attached to its own tragic backstory.
Is The Relic: First Guardian multiplayer or co-op?
No. It’s single-player only. The original 2021 version was planned as multiplayer, but the studio changed direction during development.
Who is developing The Relic: First Guardian?
South Korean studio Project Cloud Games, with Perp Games publishing.
Does it have character levels?
No. Progression runs entirely through Relics collectible runes carrying 70+ passive effects that reshape your build.
The Bottom Line
The Relic: First Guardian is the rare Soulslike-adjacent RPG making a real mechanical argument instead of a visual one. Splitting stamina away from offense, deleting levels in favor of inherited memories, and making every weapon a one-off artifact are three ideas that reinforce each other and they’re pointed at the same goal: making the world’s grief the actual system you play with.
Two weeks out, the case is strong but unproven. July 31, 2026, PS5 and PC.
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