King's Field Thread?
After playing a bit of Dark Souls I decided to check out the original Japanese only release. When you start out it's a bit confusing, but once you get going the game books it at a rapid pace. I'm already on the third dungeon and I can't wait to finish up and go onto the second game.
What of you /vr/? Have you played King's Field? What did you think of it? Any games like it you'd recommend?
>>3110973
LoL yeah we've played King's Field. How are you liking those controls? Slow enough for you? I personally catch a lot of grief for this opinion but King's Field and its bros Shadow Tower (best) and Echo Night are all much better when played on an emulator than on real hardware so you can remap controls and overclock. Made a big difference for me and I had seriously attempted to get into them back in the day.
Aside from those two other series I mentioned that use the same engine you should really check out Severance: Blade of Darkness if you want to get the full proto-Souls perspective.
>>3111050
I actually don't mind them too much. I did use Xpadder to map the analog sticks to what would be considered standard FPS controls though. Would have used the in emulator mapper, but didn't feel like juggling controls for other games.
Not having a run button kind of sucks, but the dungeons and game don't seem particularly long so it's not so bad. Also, apparently it's in the next game. First game I tried a long time ago was the fourth game, so I know it gets considerably slower as far as combat is concerned.
Never heard of Severance, but it looks pretty neat. Shame From didn't keep going with the first person perspective thing. Definitely adds to the atmosphere.
i tried playing this game for the first time recently
honestly it just feels like a worse ultima underworld
>>3111050
You're basically modding the game when you do that. It wasn't meant to be Hexen.
You are cheating yourself on the relaxing, atmospheric adventure.
>LoL
Now you've crossed the line, out.
![37072-King's_Field_[U]-5.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/nvb6q21.jpg "37072-King's_Field_[U]-5.jpg")
Played the first one (second in Japan), got stuck somewhere and never finished it. Somewhere after the queen insect boss I believe. Amazing game, it's the aesthetics mostly that get me. Fun to play alone at night.
Also anyone who likes early 3D games should check out Total Eclipse or Castle Master
>>3111070
but you do have a run button. yes, even in the first (our first) king's field.
the sequel was better and improved too many things for me to not be spoiled by it, though.
>>3111363
whoops, i should pay attention. you're talking about the real first one, released only in japan!
n/m i am dumb
>>3111113
HURR LIKE I'M GONNA LISTEN TO A FUCKING NERD TO FIT IN
No, YOU get out.
>>3110973
Fuck the hell off with your bullshit. Old games seem confusing because they don't tutorialize the fuck out of you. Try reading the manual you fuck. Delete this thread.
>>3110973
I'm trying to play the first western release at the moment but I just have no idea what to do. At the beginning you seem too weak to take down more than one or two of the weakest enemies, are you just meant to leg it past them all?
>>3111637
Just finished it a few days ago. Patience and learning enemy attack patterns is key. I'll admit I did have a guide for when things got real confusing, but things do eventually pick up.
>>3111637
You start out weak as fuck, crap weapon with no reach, hardly any health, no spells, can't refill your MP yet, only a couple healing herbs around, so basically you have got to find resources to fix that. This isn't Souls where starting gear can stand you in good stead for the whole thing, you start out with Pointy Stick-1 but do endgame dungeons with Ungodly Spiked Fuckblade of Smiting+10. You can kill things with the dagger if you try, but there's not really any point and its tiny reach makes it hard to hit with, which is already a problem if you don't have a firm grasp of KF combat yet. So, time to find a better weapon.
There is a short sword lying around the beaches, but it's past the giant kraken, so you'll need to run past him -- he will be too powerful to kill for a long, long time. Also, just take a run around the area and see what you can find -- there's also some armor and your first spell, though you probably shouldn't start slinging it around until you have some way to refill your MP. Once you've gotten some means of attack and defense you should head back to where you started out and start looking around inside the island's caves, that's where you will find a renewable source of healing and a save point. Once you know where these things are, you can go on all the wildlife-murdering excursions you like, but until then you should probably restrict yourself to killing things that get in your way.
ya we talk about this game every couple months. it's pretty rad and definitely difficult as fuck. i need to give it another try but it kicked my ass in the sense of being confusing as fuck to navigate.
>>3112231
Yeah. It's a game where I feel no shame using a map and guide for the first floor, just to get my bearings. After that I'll only turn to a guide/map when I need it.
Played the first(Japanese) one. Excellent level design and that idea with several maps with different levels of detail works great for a dungeon crawler. I wish it was harder though, after that difficulty spike on the 2nd floor it only gets easier. Also, would be cool to have more than one boss fight to throw resources at, by the end of the game I was swimming in gold and healing items.
>>3111637
Circle and stab in the back just like Souls. It's a lot easier if, like I said to begin with, you can remap the controls.
>>3112262
>Why am I always hungry.
>>3110973
>When you start out it's a bit confusing, but once you get going the game books it at a rapid pace.
Really noticed this with KF2. Once you reach the graveyard area and get the katana on that little island, the game really starts sliding into easy mode territory.
Still, I found KF1 about even difficulty until the end. Still need to play 3.
>>3111050
Severance is MILES above Souls games in the combat department.
>>3112354
Severance doesn't really play anything like Souls games, I'd say it's much more similar to something like the combat in Jedi Knight
Semi-related, has anyone messed with the Sword of Moonlight tool? Any thing made with that that's a must play?
>>3112381
I'd like to try out the KF1 remake and see how that runs. It's older software, so I like to see how compatible it is with modern OSes before I'd be willing to spend more time with it.
I know some people made a King's Field prequel and some other stuff that you can find on the Sword of Moonlight site. It's such a niche thing that it's hard to really find too much on it.
>>3112364
Basic concept is about the same. Execution is miles ahead, and no, it is nothing like Jedi Knight, are you mad? JK is much more fast-paced and frantic and relies much more on maneuvre and force powers combined with constant saber swinging.
Severance (And Souls by extension) rely on timed blocks and dodges, while attacking enemy at the right time in the right way.
Found an English manual translation for the japanese original King's Field if anyone is interested.
http://s.imgur.com/a/lBqor/#0
Just beat King's Field 1 (Japan). The final boss is easy once you learn lighting bolt. Apparently you can also cast it with the Moon Sword, but I could never pull it off, maybe didn't have the right strength or whatever.
I tried the English King's Field 1 and I got discouraged because of the slow turning speed and how many hits it took to kill the first enemy type (some kind of shellfish things).
Was I doing something wrong or is that stuff I have to get used to?
Also, I see there's a free English version of the Japanese King's Field 1 that was made in this engine called Sword of Moonlight. What is /vr/'s opinion of that version?
>>3114506
So the big thing in King's Field is that it forces you to explore to find better loot. The dagger they give you at the beginning is dog shit, but if run past the big Kraken and cross the bridge you'll find a sword near the waterfall. Explore a bit more of the beach and you'll find a fisherman. In front of him is shallow water that you can follow to your first magic spell. After that you can begin exploring the cave you started in front of getting more armor along the way. In one of the barrels inside of this cave is a helmet. As a callback to the original game near the first fountain is a trap wall that has a skeleton guarding a shield in a chest. If you're brave you can run past him, get the shield and leave. There's also a breastplate somewhere on and island but I can't remember where.
Anyway, once you get your basic armor and weapons you'll be far more prepared for the game.
Also when you get poisoned try running inside a green slime.
>>3114521
You can get the breastplate after following the shallow water to the north on an island.
>>3114534
North of your first fire magic.
>>3114521
>So the big thing in King's Field is that it forces you to explore to find better loot.
>The dagger they give you at the beginning is dog shit
Shit, I feel dumb. Thanks.
>>3114557
I just finished the Japanese original and even I'm gettin my ass kicked by this game's opening so don't sweat it. Basically here are the things you need to really start the game off proper:
> Short Sword - past big Kraken on beach near waterfall
> Fire Ball - Across the shallow water near fisherman on Fire Shrine
> Breast Plate - North of Fire Shrine
> Iron Mask - In Barrel at begining of the cave
> Leather Shield - In chest past skeleton at hidden fountain wall
Once you get these things and find your save point and fountains the game really opens up.
>>3114573
King's Field was really the peak of not giving you shit. Before that, games were limited enough in scope they basically forced you to experience the majority of their content before allowing you to move on (been playing Crystalis myself lately) then in the 6th gen the hand-holding began in earnest.
>>3114671
Not to mention RPG dungeon crawlers often made you grind for hours before you could actually begin playing properly. It's nice to see a rough game reward exploration instead.
>>3114705
Yeah it's great. Have you played Shadow TowerAbyss? There's so much hidden stuff that you end up beating on every suspicious wall but it's super bad for the durability of your weapons so you end up carrying a wall-beater around with you but the encumbrance mechanics are tight. There's very little wiggle room anywhere in its numbers. I ended up using equipment that could fast regenerate my health then saccing health for other stuff. Required a lot of standing around but I'm a patient guy.
>>3114749
Is that another From game? I've been going through their back catalog in anticipation of the new Souls game. It's been a fun journey so far. I'll have to check that out.
There's a lot of stuff in these games I'd like to bring into a first person dungeon crawler I've been itching to create.
>>3114831
Yes Shadow Tower and Echo Night are both series that use the same engine as King's Field. Echo Night is a horror game but Shadow Tower is fairly similar, just more tightly a dungeon crawler I actually prefer it.
>>3114972
Dungeon Crawling
> King's Field I-IV
> Shadow Tower and ST: Abyss
> Eternal Ring
Horror
> Echo Night 1, 2, and Beyond
Are these all of their first person games?
>>3111372
look at this
what the fuck is happening to this board
>>3114506
Gave the SOM remake a go. Honestly after just beating the original I wouldn't bother with this one. Graphically many things are improved but I don't really like the enemy art style and the look of the environment. Also it just feels off.
>>3115029
Yup that's all of them. Even though it's now been some months I should mention that Echo Night 2 was that recently fan translated to English for the first time so it still might be considered a "new release" if that kind of thing matters to you.
>>3115915
I'll have to see when I get there which may be a while. I have alot to get through.
>>3115984
Working your way up from the bottom. Good Man.
>>3115068
He was being facetious in his reaction to the type of hyper-elitism that's actually been dividing the board.
I know that Kings Field is loosely tied in with Dark Souls with Seath and the Moonlight sword, but is there any connection with other early From games like Shadow Tower and the like? Total lore fag here and would love to read up on this shit.
>>3114749
you know you can just hit things with your fists right?
anyway, out of all the king's field games and shadow tower games, Shadow Tower is my favorite, and King's Field IV is second, with Shadow Tower Abyss coming right after.
They're all really good though.
>>3116234
Priscilla has the same scythe as Rurufon
>>3116234
The main link between Shadow Tower, King's Field, and Souls is the concept of scary magical trees and the horror of becoming an immortal godling with dominance over all life on Earth and the sense of absolute isolation and desperate boredom and listlessness that follows as you surpass mortality and gradually lose your own soul in the process, with supernatural power and omnipotence roughly being equated with the loss of sanity and erosion of personal identity
By the time things roll around to DS2, the concept is evolved to the point that it's heavily implied your player character actually has full control over all life and undeath on the planet and the events of the games are mainly a gigantic ruse orchestrated against himself just so he can continue to relive his original adventures and fight shit, because there is literally nothing else to do when all other living things are his thralls
at least Shadow Tower dude gets a waifu tho
>>3116261
....whoa.
>>3116264
DS3 should bring back Rurufon as a character that breaks the established rules of the Souls series, moving around independent of your respawns and world invasions and shit, generally pranking the shit out of you with the final choice in the game being to either kill her or fuck her and give birth to a new humanity, leading into the rise of a new king in the next game
the final boss literally being the souls hero from the previous games, Elite Knight armor and all
>>3116234
Shadow Tower's MC becomes a king and it's show to become the owner of the crown, considering all the ill omens related to that artifact it wouldn't be surprising if he was loosley related to the undead curse, maybe he went mad after using the crown like the previous owners.
The talking mole in Shadow Tower was probably the inspiration for Alvina in Dark Souls and it also says that demons in the Shadow Tower use Souls as a form of currency, so there's that.
>>3116008
Thanks. I'm thinking about going through them by order of release rather than series by series. I'd love to see the progress in game design over time and also to break up the monotony.
I really enjoyed the first one and was going to marathon through the series, and started KFII but something about it didn't really catch me coming off of KFI, why is that do you think?
>>3117176
Are we going by American or Japanese numbering? JP1 to JP2 (American 1) is incredible.
I hear that America 2 / JP 3 has a world that's too sparse and not as claustrophobic.
>>3111376
dude chill the fuck out. what's with the unwarranted vitriol?
>>3117196
Yeah US release of two, maybe that was it. I liked the atmosphere of US 1, constantly felt like my space was being encroached and I had to keep on guard or there was something I could find.
>>3112434
In severance your own sword can actually hurt you. It's really funny if you try to swing a bihander as a dwarf in a narrow halway and immediately cut your own head off
>>3116015
>elitism
>bad
No man. Elitism is what keeps out the facebook/9gag retards.
If we have to be asshat chodes every once in a while to keep out the Retron 5 "me and my wife's son" crowd, then get your head fitted for a brand new fedora anus.
>>3117578
Elitism is why /v/ raids us with such gems as "Playstation vs PSX" and "Zelda is an RPG" that makes the self-appointed guardians of the gates go into autism-spectrum tier hysterics on new users that would probably be happy to learn where they're misinformed if it didn't take the form of "You, a 25 year old adult with your own gaming area and a job to support it are a child" so off they go back to /v/ with hate for us.
t.gramps
>>3117474
Reminds me of the whole run into a wall and take damage from Dungeon Master. Hilarious and paper, but was annoying as fuck in reality. I'd guess it doesn't happen too often in severance?
>>3117662
No, only if you hadnt learn the lesson the first time (Use large weapon in a tight corridor as a character with short arms).
Your weapons have actual hit detection there and if you hit a wall with it, it recoils back a bit (same happens if you hit enemy shield or armor plate in certain instances) - unlike DarkSouls however, your character can use a very wide variety of attacks, comboes and specials, so you can adapt, avoid hitting walls and make aimed strikes at enemy's vulnerable parts - for instance as a Barbarian you can decapitate most enemies right away if you pick the right weapon+combo.
Later same system was implemented in the Sword of Berserk, but there it was way more of a hindrance due to the size of the Dragonslayer.
Dwarf has small arms and his head is low, so if you try making a right swing with a big weapon when there's a wall directly to your right, it will recoil right away into his head. This kills the Dwarf.
If you hadnt played Severance yet - be sure to try it out - imo THE greatest slasher ot there. No magic, no bullshit, fair difficulty - you fast if you play dumb, but if you are skillful you can kill enemies just as quick as they can kill you. For instance Barbarian can chop off all the limbs off a zombie before it hits the ground. Also you can kill enemies by throwing bodyparts of their bretheren at them. At some point you can throw a guard off a wall by throwing a chair at the back of his head. Great game.
>>3110973
I've always wanted to play these games. I assume the first game is the best place to start. Hope to pick up a copy one day.
>>3118173
https://www.gog.com/forum/blade_of_darkness/removal_of_blade_of_darkness_from_the_gogcom_catalog/page1
Dammit.
>>3118181
https://kat.cr/severance-blade-of-darkness-2-0-0-5-en-fr-it-es-gog-t9996041.html
>>3118194
IDK. Plays well enought with a keyboard+mouse.
>>3116261
Damn son, that drips.
>>3118692
I cannot figure out what what you said means. What is that terminology?
>>3118816
maybe he means drips with atmosphere or lore?
>>3118173
>If you hadnt played Severance yet - be sure to try it out
I did and I dropped that garbage after an hour and half.
>>3110973
For some reason, I didn't really care for King's Field 1j or 2/3j. But King's Field (2j) and The Ancient City (4j) are absolutely fantastic. I remember going into The Ancient City and being warned about the slow turning speed, but honestly it's not that bad. I mean, really no worse than the other games with the same controls. I haven't yet finished it, though.
Shadow Tower looked really nice, but the weapon degradation happens way too fast for my taste, so I never got far.
As for Eternal Ring, I've not tried it yet.
Is it possible to configure The Ancient City to use dual analog controls?
>>3121863
Not on the game itself. I just use Xpadder on PCSX2 as to not fuck up the normal controls for other games.
I just beat King's Field 1 and 2 (Japanese) and what is up with that sudden twist at the end withGuyra and his mecha demons? Is it ever expanded upon why there's a demon factory, robots, teleporters, and cyberspace at the bottom of a medieval castle?
How playable is Shadow Tower: Abyss for someone with only a rudimentary understanding of Japanese? There doesn't seem to be any translation patch.
>>3123532
>There doesn't seem to be any translation patch.
What? Yes there is:
http://www.romhacking.net/translations/2042/
>>3123548
Thanks, I guess I'm just crap at finding this stuff.
