King's Field General? Why not. We have a dozen other useless generals clogging up the board. May as well try a different subject for a change of pace.
>What is King's Field?
KF is a medieval first-person RPG series by FromSoftware. The series is known for its hellish difficulty, complex dungeons and murky atmosphere, which players either love or hate.
>FromSoftware. Isn't that the same company behind Dark Souls?
KF is often considered a spiritual precursor to Demon's Souls / Dark Souls, and there are some references to KF to be found in the Souls series.
>Which games are available in English?
The first and second KF games for PS1 are actually the second and third games in the series, due to the first KF game never being (officially) localized. There is nonetheless a complete fan translation patch of KF1 for those interested: http://agetec.yuku.com/topic/1827
>>2881568
Which one is considered the best to play first?
>>2881572
The plots seem fairly independent from one another, so I guess it doesn't really matter where you start with the series. The gameplay elements are also generally the same, including the selection of spells and equipment available. You're more or less just exploring different environments in each game.
KF1 (Japan) is more of a dungeon crawler, and comparatively short. KF2 (KF1 outside of Japan) takes place in an isolated island region. You spend a fair bit of time exploring underground labyrinths, but occasionally explore the outside of the island or various above-ground villages. KF3 (or KF2 outside of Japan) seems to take place mostly above ground, although there are a few dungeons to explore.
>>2881568
Are the PS1 games worth playing? I love the concept and the art style, but it seems to run at a low FPS
>>2881590
They are pretty slow-paced, so if that puts you off, this series may not be for you. King's Field for PS2 replicates the pacing of the PS1 games as well.
I don't think it would hurt to give it a chance though. Despite the pacing and low-detail style, the environments tend to draw you in after a while.
I love that these games have exactly the same enemy rendering bugs From games have had all the way up to Bloodborne, I.E. enemies moving at a slower framerate as they get farther away
>>2881572
Might as well start with the first game (Japanese KF 1 with the translation). It's not very difficult and will get you up to speed with how the game controls, atmosphere etc.
Not that big of a time investment. KF 2 is really good though, so if you enjoy it, you'd have that to look forward to.
How necessary is a guide while playing for a noob? I've been meaning to give this a shot. Always thought it'd be cool to see the origins of the Souls games. Demon's Souls is one of my all time faves
>>2881613
I'm pretty certain that's not a bug. From what I understand, that's a commonly used technique to save on CPU usage, just like using lower res textures for something farther away.
>>2881692
For first playthroughs I'd recommend it. Very little sense of direction and from what I remember non of the items have explanations.
>>2881692
I read a guide for my first playthrough of KF2 and I regretted it. I felt like the game would be insurmountable and that I'd get lost extremely easily, so thats why I used a guide, but it really wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I could mentally map out the levels easily enough.
>>2881572
Japanese KF2 (as distinct from the game which released in NA as KF2, which is Japanese KF3).
The original KF is kind of fun but not a great advert for the series, it's much gamier and feels like a dry run for KF2 in a lot of ways with minimal exploration, loot variance, etc.
KF2 is a full on great game, anyone interested in dungeon crawlers should play it. It's pretty in a lo-res way, has an extremely satisfying power curve, massively improved map design over the first, and lonely bleak atmosphere that it maintains pretty well despite a bizarre last-dungeon genre shift.
KF3 is kind of the Dark Souls 2 of the series, introduces a lot of quality of life, graphical, and general feel improvements while losing the essence of what made the first game(s) cool. It also has a bit more of an "overworld" which the engine really isn't suited to at all. There are still some fun dungeons but there are also some that will make you want to rip your fucking eyes out.
KF4 is an attempt to recapture the methodical, atmospheric dungeon crawl vibe of the 90s games long after it had fallen out of favor in the rest of the industry. It's not a literal retro game but I feel like it belongs here because a lot of it is so backwards-looking in design. It's also a really good game in its way and I might recommend it if the oldness/cheapness of 90s games put you off, but I'm not sure I'd say start with it because it is SSSSSSLLLLLLLOOOOOOWWWWWW. Substantially slower than KF2/3 and they were not fast paced games to begin with.
Are there any missables in these games? Like areas that you can't return to later in the game, or unique treasures or equipment that can't be reclaimed after you've sold or discarded them.
I hear there are limited quantities of some keys needed to open chests or doors. Do the games force you to choose some things to the exclusion of others?
>>2882275
I recently played KF1 (JP). I had a good time, but it was honestly pretty rough.
It was a bunch of narrow corridors, arranged in a completely nonsensical manner. Thank god I found a map online on a mostly-dead fan website, or I would've constantly gotten totally lost.
Plus when I finally got the moonlight greatsword, the game bugged and didn't let me use sword magic with it (I could use sword magic with other weapons -- apparently this is a common bug). So I had to defeat the final boss without it, which was intense but fun.
I'm looking forward to KF2 (JP). I don't have a map, but apparently it's easier to navigate. I hope there's more low-fi SPOOKY SKELETONS.
>>2882621
It's language important in KF1?
You can play it with little knowledge of japanese?
>>2882650
I used the fan translation patch, which is near-perfect.
I just said "KF1 (JP)" so that people would know which game I was talking about, as American KF1 is actually KF2 (JP).
It's pretty short, so if you don't like it you'll be done in 6 hours anyway.
>>2882664
I know there's a translation but i would like to play the original, thanks anyways.
>>2881692
Don't use any guides until you're really stuck. It will seem very confusing and overwhelming at first, but that's part of the fun. Makes it more satisfying when you finally make sense of the samey, convoluted environments. The games aren't all that punishing anyway even though they seem like they might be.
>>2881568
>The series is known for its hellish difficulty
>KF
>Hellish difficulty
Hella slow movements you mean.
Also
>No mention of ST
Before calling out on other generals being useless you should have a bit of self respect and general humility.
>>2881590
Most of them came out fairly early in the PS lifetime so they're very simplistic and barren, don't expect the same level of care they put in later games like Shadow Tower or Armored Core, which are still very barren compared to other games.
Most people would say that the atmosphere is what draws you in but what I personally liked was the classic old style RPG gameplay and the open worlds.
They're not bad games, but definitely not the greatest stuff you can get, if you do like them try Shadow Tower, it fixes a lot of general design flaws in KF and plays a lot better than its predecessor.
Also prepare for dickass skeletonsEVERYWHERE.
>>2882548
Off the top of my head I can't think of any absolute points of no return in KF1 or 2. I think that you can't leave the castle in KF3 once you enter though I could be wrong on that. Ditto for the final dungeon of KF4 but on the whole the games are pretty good about keeping early game areas open to you.
KF2 and 3 both have key systems in the early game where you need a key to be placed on your side of the door to open it. It is probably possible to strand yourself irretrievably by being a total retard about this, but even a blind playthrough shouldn't run into any problems as long as you always keep at least one door key on you. You get warp pretty early in KF2, which is the only one game where I remember being frustrated by the amount of rhombus keys, so even if you do fuck up you can always return to the save point and try again.unless you ran out of mp and mp recovery items too, in which case haha fuck you
There's very little forced specialization in the games, though in KF2 at one point you have to trade healing flasks for a plot key. No way around it afaik and you'll pretty much never be short for flasks if you explore anyhow.
>>2882938
>It is probably possible to strand yourself irretrievably by being a total retard about this
iirc you can remove the keystones in KF2 to open other doors, but I could be wrong about it, been years since I've played them.
>>2882954
You can and should, that's the only way to have enough, but many doors won't have a key placed on the inside of the door. So you can go through, but you can't go back without another key.
