King's Field IV has made me question the idea that FromSoftware only started being great from Demon's Souls onwards. Hidetaka Miyazaki has become the head figure for this now beloved style of oppressive, dark fantasy RPG, but the roots of it can be traced to a point far before his involvement.
King's Field IV is unmistakably a progenitor of Souls, from its surreal, dreamlike environments to the bizarre and often terrifying creatures that lurk throughout its dead world. Everything from NPC interactions (and their disturbing quest lines) to the little stones you use at a blacksmith to upgrade weapons has convinced me that Miyazaki’s contributions to FromSoftware do not come from the same places I thought they did.
Yes, the excellence of Demon’s Souls and the first Dark Souls were never the sole result of Miyazaki. FromSoftware has been doing this years and years before he was even an employee, and although I always knew Demon’s Souls was meant to be a King’s Field successor, I never realized that the thing I truly love this series for—its thick, unforgettable atmosphere—can contributed to the brilliance of the development team as a whole.
Yet no one remembers King’s Field IV. How could a game that features a world on par with what FromSoftware is acclaimed for receive no love from critics? It’s likely that the crux of its mediocre reception is the result of an audience that wasn't quite ready to make heads or tails of its abstract, dreamlike nature. It could also be due to its unforgiving gameplay or difficult controls.
No one believed in Miyazaki’s project when Demon’s Souls was in development, not even its publisher (Sony). Its launch in Japan was met coldly, and in an alternate timeline, it would have never been brought to the states. If it wasn’t for Atlus publishing Demon’s Souls due to its understanding of the game’s brilliance—effectively forcing it into the West’s hands with admirable enthusiasm—it would have been forgotten.
This is exactly what King’s Field IV is: FromSoftware’s forgotten masterpiece. If you’re a fan of early Souls, particularly the worlds of Demon’s Souls/Dark Souls, and can bear a fair bit of mechanical jank, do yourself a service and experience it for yourself. You will not regret it.
King's Field IV is unmistakably a progenitor of Souls, from its surreal, dreamlike environments to the bizarre and often terrifying creatures that lurk throughout its dead world. Everything from NPC interactions (and their disturbing quest lines) to the little stones you use at a blacksmith to upgrade weapons has convinced me that Miyazaki’s contributions to FromSoftware do not come from the same places I thought they did.
Yes, the excellence of Demon’s Souls and the first Dark Souls were never the sole result of Miyazaki. FromSoftware has been doing this years and years before he was even an employee, and although I always knew Demon’s Souls was meant to be a King’s Field successor, I never realized that the thing I truly love this series for—its thick, unforgettable atmosphere—can contributed to the brilliance of the development team as a whole.
Yet no one remembers King’s Field IV. How could a game that features a world on par with what FromSoftware is acclaimed for receive no love from critics? It’s likely that the crux of its mediocre reception is the result of an audience that wasn't quite ready to make heads or tails of its abstract, dreamlike nature. It could also be due to its unforgiving gameplay or difficult controls.
No one believed in Miyazaki’s project when Demon’s Souls was in development, not even its publisher (Sony). Its launch in Japan was met coldly, and in an alternate timeline, it would have never been brought to the states. If it wasn’t for Atlus publishing Demon’s Souls due to its understanding of the game’s brilliance—effectively forcing it into the West’s hands with admirable enthusiasm—it would have been forgotten.
This is exactly what King’s Field IV is: FromSoftware’s forgotten masterpiece. If you’re a fan of early Souls, particularly the worlds of Demon’s Souls/Dark Souls, and can bear a fair bit of mechanical jank, do yourself a service and experience it for yourself. You will not regret it.