FromSoftware's First-Person Dungeon Crawlers - Personal Ranking
A personal ranking of all of FromSoftware's PS1/PS2 first-person dungeon crawlers, the precursors to their much more widely-known Soulsborne games.
7 Games
Pure insanity pressed onto a PS2 disc. The alien atmosphere and much-improved combat make this my favorite.
A melancholic journey through a city lost to time. Returns to the interconnected level design of King's Field II (JP) to great effect, with sublime exploration making for a great experience.
King's Field goes survival horror. The oppressively quiet atmosphere and challenging early game make this my favorite of the PS1 titles. The combat (and performance...) are also notably improved over the original King's Field trilogy.
(King's Field 3 JP) The continent-spanning adventure and the varied dungeons make this the most engaging of the original trilogy, and that voice acting in the ending cutscene is hilarious.
(King's Field 2 JP) A landmark achievement in 3D interconnected level design, and the soundtrack is unforgettable. Despite the importance of this game, I found that the lack of visual variety between the locations made the exploration feel like a slog.
A good first effort, but I wasn't a fan of the cryptic design, particularly with regards to using sword magic to beat the final boss. I had to rely on a walkthrough for most of my time with this one, unlike the other games.
Feels like a weak, low-budget spin-off that FromSoftware was using to learn how to develop for the PS2. I hated my time with this one.
3 Comments
@NovaNiles Cheers! I'd definitely recommend starting with The Ancient City since it's the most well-rounded and accessible of any of these games, and branching out to the Shadow Tower games or PS1 King's Field games from there if it clicks for you.
@Watermalloc Yeah from what I seen Ancient City looks the most appealing to me, then Shadow Tower games. Thanks for the recommendations, cheers.
NovaNiles
21 days ago