I'm always skeptical when a series tries to westernize itself, but for the first time I really don't think that's what broke the experience for me here.
It's definitely an upgrade from KF1 in almost every way, but somehow loses a fraction of its charm in how convoluted the map design and objectives are (in all my searching, I couldn't find a map that was both comprehensive and legible, the one I was mainly using seemed to leave out entire areas and didn't show items, and the others were so layered and hard to read I couldn't find where I was even with important landmarks nearby).

I was trying to go in authentically (with save states still, of course), but I genuinely think my playthrough would have been improved if I'd started off with a guide, as I found myself doing full circles for an hour at a time, wandering into areas I wasn't supposed to be in yet, and inevitably getting locked in an area that literally has no exit and losing 3 hours of progress. I hesitate to say open-world fatigue got to me here, since this is still a relatively small world, but it really did feel like I was just wandering aimlessly for 90% of my experience. I didn't even find a new weapon until hour 4, let alone magic, and passing by bosses that you have to return to later is an interesting idea, until you start to feel like you're missing something -- because when you think about it, you've literally just been grinding exp this whole time while wandering, and it still doesn't feel like you're advancing at all.

It's a shame it didn't click for me, because there's a lot of FASCINATING stuff here, but it's just lacking the simplistic charm of KF1 and feels like some amount of quantity over quality. Even the world being designed as one full space with no loading screens is a good idea as a sales pitch, but it makes it impossible - or at least less fun - to navigate and map anything due to the intricacy. Most of the time, it felt like the only reward for exploration was more monsters to grind exp, and my performance was tanking pretty bad in any larger areas where combat is necessary, so even that aspect lost a lot of its allure.

i’m COUNTING this as completed
i got to the actual final question on the html5 version on poki
i had every skip because i knew what the last question was
weeks of grinding weeks of training my muscle memory i could get to the epic ten in under ten minutes
final question
all my skips are gone
just gone
i didn’t use them
i had them all on #109
i’m counting that

I bought a PS3 for this game a few years ago, caught up in the mania of excitement around From Software's award winning game format. It seemed fascinating, I loved DS1 and was used to the early-game jank that was rustled out by the time DS3 or Elden Ring came out. And janky this game is, but charming it is as well. As with Pikmin, this was the spark for the series. It's a rough draft, but is my favorite because of what it was able to progenate. Demon's Souls stands on it's own atmosphere, offbeat music, and bleak story of a dying medieval realm.

King's Field IV is straightforward and fun! It doesn't quite do what I want a King's Field game to do but it looks great, plays pretty well, and has some cool environments.

I love the look of KFIV. The Playstation 2 is the perfect platform for this aesthetic, with enough detail to look great but enough chunky polygons and crunchy sprites to keep the ambiguous King's Field style.
Environments are evocative and interesting and the NPCs approach Dark Souls and King's Field 1 levels of haunting presence and disturbing ambiguity.
There is a ton here that you can see directly referenced by future Dark Souls games, which is awesome. A group of ancient giants, battles against dragons, etc... It is fairly generic fantasy, but I can't help but feel that From is making nods to these games in their current stuff.
The framerate issues that sometimes plague this series are gone, though the movement (especially the turning) is very sluggish and can feel restrictive. I never truly got used to it, but most of the enemies don't stress this flaw too badly.

This is combat you recognize from past games and it doesn't mix things up too much. Getting down the cadence of attacking, dodging and shooting spells is satisfying and like past games, you are extremely powerful by the end. As usual I was able to brute force my way through the end game without too much trouble.
KFIV takes the crystal gathering from King's Field II, where each crystal offers a spell for you to use, and applies the advancement directly to the spells (rather than the general magic type as in KFIII). I like this system the most out of all the King's Fields. I am encouraged to explore to gain power and encouraged to use the spells I like to power them up. It can be a bit grindy for some of them, but it isn't a huge issue.
This usage advancement also applies to weapons, but it doesn't work as well because the curve is much too steep and you are likely to switch weapons throughout the game. I never got one to level 3 (the max) and so I also, unfortunately never got to use Sword Magic, which is locked behind this leveling system. This is just a strictly worse system, especially in a game where most new weapons are straight upgrades. This could have been something like a weapon-type (swords, maces, greatswords, etc...) leveling and it would have worked much better.
This is all on top of your advancement in base level, physical power, and magical power, that just happens as you kill things. Though it isn't super compelling, it is fun to see stats go up.

The narrative here didn't do a ton for me. It takes more from Shadow Tower than the previous trilogy of King's Field, unfortunately. There is a strange idol you receive in the opening cutscene and you are to take it into the Ancient City for some unexplained reason. As you play, there are a number of factions and species you learn about that have been living and dying in this dungeon, but it doesn't feel very connected to your journey or anything outside of the Ancient City's walls. I did like the different environments each group has built up and it is a cool reason for these different architectural styles and varied visuals.
The level design is almost understandable, with a central tower piercing downwards through the city, which you open paths through and explore outwards from -- returning again and again to deeper portions of it as you go. This is very much like Shadow tower, though the multitude of entrances and exits and the general sameyness of the tower itself meant I found navigation and orienting myself basically impossible. I never had a clear idea of where I was or where things were in relation to each other and the central tower itself. The idea is cool, it just stumbled very hard in the execution for me. We need an elevator to easily travel between levels and motifs on each of the four coordinate directions of the tower to allow them to organize themselves thematically.
There are a couple of cool sidequests and optional areas, with the Moonlight Sword being the largest reward for pursuing a satisfying key collection and a cool extra area with some evocative environments.

I like this game, but it definitely doesn't reach the heights of King's Field II for me. It plays well and looks great though, so you could definitely do worse as a starting point for this series if you are interested.