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.
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.
Worst game ever
While I'm not a From Software/Soulsborne guy in any way, I totally adore this random PS1 game from From, despite its 1996 graphics, slow as molasses movement speed, and meandering storyline. Still, I love making my way across the kingdom killing monstrosities and sliding along dungeon walls looking for secret entrances. My respect for From Soft began here and that's why I still buy their games even if I can't see myself ever playing their more recent output.
I came into King's Field 3 with quite some expectations and most of them have been flushed down the toilet, it looks good and it plays good but then it starts falling apart, the level design is simply not very good, the maps are full of corridors that offer no actually smart or interesting setpieces, the game is long but not interesting, relying on mostly map that have nothing going on or maps that are actually annoying, with a couple maps being quite offensive, the souls just isn't there and I kinda think this is because the game is trying do correct things that were never an issue in the first game, the towns looked silly, yeah, but they were at least full of stuff, now they are mostly empty lots with 2 houses and some mobs bring in a lot of corridors for making the game load, in the old games the statuses were mostly just there, so now almost every mob inflicts some annoying status if he has projectiles, which sadly is more common than ever with mobs that looks purely melee having one or more annoying status, so the experience gets dragged down by the fact that this bloat is really making the whole game, which is based on KF2, a great game, feel sluggish and empty, a shame.
ooh skeleton
This review contains spoilers
With KFIII, the Verdite kingdom trilogy comes to an end and hooly shit, it's amazing how good the story is in each game.
While in the previous game you would discover that the moonlight sword from the first game was made to revive one of the dragons who basically have the roles of demi-gods, in this one, the first game's protagonist goes insane and it's the second game's protagonist who gives his life to seal the castle with him inside, leaving the son of the first game's protagonist to fight his old man which wouldn't carry as much weight if it weren't for the fact that you literally played as each of these characters, and at the same time it's ironic since your old man in this game basically had a similar mission in the first game. Still, it's a bummer that it's more stilted than Dark Souls because unlike DS, King's Field has nothing but the main theme. While in Dark Souls if they tell you about a cult, you can also find out what they did in that cult, read stories about it and so on, here it's just reading items to know the existence of the cult and say "oh wow, this bug was created by this wizard" which is lowkey leatdown because they don't end up taking advantage of a story that is already very rich, but to be honest, all the old games were like that and it wasn't until Dark Souls came along that people started to worry about filling in the parts of the story where everything felt half empty, because before games were bought mostly for the gameplay because they didn't make the jump between arcades and home consoles very well.
And while we're here, I wanted to take advantage and talk about the gameplay since for me it's like peak King's Field since I don't like dungeon crawlers and the level design of this game is not as confusing and labyrinthine as the first two, which I understand that King's Field fans don't like, since it's a step-down of the first two, but in my case it's what made me enjoy it more. The third game basically takes place on the outskirts of Verdite Castle, not on another island or inside the cemetery, but in the surrounding villages, forests, etc. and it really felt refreshing to me. The textures and mapping also has a lot of things, it's no longer flat-ground flat walls like in the first two (especially the first one), there's more variation and it's harder to get lost, which made the experience much better.
The combat is still the same as in the first two games, with some slight improvement, I mean basically you have to turn around the enemies and use all your money on drugs and I found it super funny because while in the other two games the final bosses are terrible in the sense that they do too much damage, here they literally give you a spell that gives you godmode for like 5 minutes at the cost of nothing lmfao but yeah, I don't know, I really liked that at one point you go to the graveyard of the first game and you're like "yoooo", and especially seeing the appearance of the protagonists of all the King's Field
While in the previous game you would discover that the moonlight sword from the first game was made to revive one of the dragons who basically have the roles of demi-gods, in this one, the first game's protagonist goes insane and it's the second game's protagonist who gives his life to seal the castle with him inside, leaving the son of the first game's protagonist to fight his old man which wouldn't carry as much weight if it weren't for the fact that you literally played as each of these characters, and at the same time it's ironic since your old man in this game basically had a similar mission in the first game. Still, it's a bummer that it's more stilted than Dark Souls because unlike DS, King's Field has nothing but the main theme. While in Dark Souls if they tell you about a cult, you can also find out what they did in that cult, read stories about it and so on, here it's just reading items to know the existence of the cult and say "oh wow, this bug was created by this wizard" which is lowkey leatdown because they don't end up taking advantage of a story that is already very rich, but to be honest, all the old games were like that and it wasn't until Dark Souls came along that people started to worry about filling in the parts of the story where everything felt half empty, because before games were bought mostly for the gameplay because they didn't make the jump between arcades and home consoles very well.
And while we're here, I wanted to take advantage and talk about the gameplay since for me it's like peak King's Field since I don't like dungeon crawlers and the level design of this game is not as confusing and labyrinthine as the first two, which I understand that King's Field fans don't like, since it's a step-down of the first two, but in my case it's what made me enjoy it more. The third game basically takes place on the outskirts of Verdite Castle, not on another island or inside the cemetery, but in the surrounding villages, forests, etc. and it really felt refreshing to me. The textures and mapping also has a lot of things, it's no longer flat-ground flat walls like in the first two (especially the first one), there's more variation and it's harder to get lost, which made the experience much better.
The combat is still the same as in the first two games, with some slight improvement, I mean basically you have to turn around the enemies and use all your money on drugs and I found it super funny because while in the other two games the final bosses are terrible in the sense that they do too much damage, here they literally give you a spell that gives you godmode for like 5 minutes at the cost of nothing lmfao but yeah, I don't know, I really liked that at one point you go to the graveyard of the first game and you're like "yoooo", and especially seeing the appearance of the protagonists of all the King's Field
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.
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.
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.
This is how I felt when I moved into a house with a yard that the previous owners didn't maintain, but presented in the form of the Encarta Maze.
This review contains spoilers
Feels good to kill Seath in other realities.
I'll follow that bitch anywhere he runs, Moonlight Greatsword in hand.
I'll follow that bitch anywhere he runs, Moonlight Greatsword in hand.