People talk about Hidetaka Miyazaki as they talk about all sorts of video game directors, describing him as visionary and prescribing all the Souls' series success to him. Playing King's Field reveals that it's not the case at all, and while Miyazaki is definitely talented, From was doing effectively the same thing before him.

King's Field games are slow 3D dungeon crawlers where everything looks kinda crappy, but they do have that secrety Souls atmosphere and the same feeling of danger that you've come to expect from From titles. Weird items, game lying to you, cryptic NPCs, missable secrets - it's all here! Granted, you have to put up with this game's battle system to enjoy what it offers. Your movement is slow, your magic is slow, your swings with most weapons are slow, and most of the time in battle you'll just be approaching the enemy, swinging your weapon and pressing back as soon as possible (sometimes strafing a bit with enemies that have ranged attacks). It's not a good system, but I've never had issues with it. Thankfully, the monsters in the world seem to suffer from the same issues player does.

This game is the biggest KF game on PS1 and also adds some necessary features in the form of actually telling you what items do and a conversation log so you can browse what people have said to you at any time, so it's probably the best starting point out of PS1 games unless you'd like to guess what Blood Stone does and use it in every situation before you figure out its effect.

The game is as funny as the Souls games with how mean it can be: the first area has three illusionary walls one of which is going to kill an unsuspecting player. There's also a chest that's required for progression that's effectively a Mimic who's also going to one-shot you on early levels. And of course there are a poisonoius swamp, ledges too narrow for walking on them, really weird platforming (for a game with no jump button of any kind) and other Souls staples. It's also fairly witty with its dialogue. While it is dark fantasy, quite a few NPCs can be fairly humorous which stands at odds with the atmosphere and only adds to the weird vibe of this game.

The game isn't as hard as the Souls titles and even playing normally you'll get pretty strong in the backhalf with tons of magic at your disposal and an array of weird weapons some of which might have secondary effects, so a few mean tricks feel more like friendly jabs rather than something out of I Wanna Be The Guy. I loved my time with it, and while Souls games have effectively made its formula obsolete, I wouldn't mind seeing a King's Field V eventually.

Not sure if this is my favorite out of the verdite trilogy or my least favorite, There is a ton of cool stuff in this game, I think the narrative is really neat, the atmosphere and music are great but damn, the forced grinding section kinda blew and the forced wait kinda blew as well.

I am curious if Dark Souls 2 took a lot of inspiration from this game between the Petrified obstacles, the way some NPCs work(I guess this is universal in all Souls games), the way some shit doesn't even flinch. It's really interesting. I will say out of all the King's Field games I've played and if you just wanted to play one of them I think 3 is the way to go. It's just linear enough but not too linear and the balancing doesn't seem too crazy.

Easily the most well-rounded of these first three King's Field titles, really broadening the scope both narratively and physically. The environs blend into each other naturally and each area has a more distinct feel than areas in previous games. The combat remains unchanged, but the model work on enemies, weapons, armor, and spells are improved which gives it more weight. I've really loved the scores and this is no different. Each area has its own theme, giving you a better sense of its history or pumping you up for battles to come. A very solid RPG all around with the best sense of exploration so far. It was neat revisiting a couple of floors from the first title, a slightly nostalgic stroll for anyone who played that one and a nice interlude for those who had only played the US releases. One of my favorite aspects of playing these is seeing that From's design principles have stayed true for decades.

Holy shit, really the perfect culmination of all of the best parts of KF1+2. Playing this one specifically feels like taking a FromSoft art history class, there's so much here to pick apart and trace into the future, down to what I think is the studio's first ever poison swamp,
This time the game follows my favorite kind of open world design, being one giant map that's segmented up into smaller open areas that connect in clear ways. I rarely found myself getting lost like I did in the previous games. It really helps that you receive an automapper as soon as the world gets more convoluted, which I expected would take the fun away from mapping the areas myself but instead made it a little easier to focus on the rewards of exploration. The exploration was one of my biggest complaints with KF2, as it always felt like the reward was just XP, and no area was clearly delineated from other ones, so any exploration felt like a neverending tangent. The way the levels are formatted here feels a lot more like future souls games, where you're very aware when you've crossed a boundary into a new area, and you have a clear line to go back and keep exploring if you feel like you missed anything.
I'm really enchanted by these games, it feels like no matter what my final "rating" is they still have a really special grip on me. I'm more excited than ever to play Shadow Tower and KF4, I can feel a tangible edge between KF3 and Shadow Tower and I'm anticipating that everything after this is going to have a huge impact on me as an artist and an enjoyer of art.