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GameSpot: FromSoftware Before Dark Souls | King's Field

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


FromSoftware, Dark Souls, and Hidetaka Miyazaki are now revered names in the gaming community. Ever since Demon's Souls, and subsequently, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro, Miyazaki has become touted as one of video games' greatest designers. But, you might be surprised to learn many of the building blocks for Dark Souls success, and much of its foundation comes from King's Field. Join Dave as he breaks down the masterful design of King's Field in preparation for Elden Ring.
 
FromSoft before Dark Souls

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shoplifter

Member
The tech is absolutely there now to bring back King's Field, the old ones were immensely enjoyable in spite of the plodding pace of the game
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I go back and play King’s Field II (NA) every now and then. There’s a lot of potential in the series. It could come back very strong. It does suffer from having long travel distances, but it comes together once you figure it out. A bit obtuse, even for the time, but that was when being obtuse meant something good was in the payoff at the end. It takes some appreciation for that generation of games to truly see it. I also thought Eternal Ring was decent for what it was.
 

Trogdor1123

Member
Just an awesome series. It didn’t hold your hand at all. If you haven’t played it I highly recommend it. I started with 2 (today he norh American 2) and loved it. Finding the weapons was fun. The ps2 one was decent too.

This needs to come back
 

Beardsalt

Member
Bring it back
Amen brother, these are the games that started it all. People that never played the series wouldn’t understand what made them so good and watching these vids I would totally understand why lol!

The games looks shite now but trust me, they were fun!
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Tried the PS2 one some time ago and, while it had great things like the exploration and atmosphere, I really wasn't able to enjoy the gameplay.
 

wipeout364

Member
Hilarious watching people trying to act like Kings Field is better than Dark Souls
I don’t think people think the kings field games are better, as in graphically or mechanically; they absolutely are not. Gaming is not just mechanics and graphics, it’s also the experience, the time of your life when you play something and what’s going on in your life when you play a game. The more games you have played the less impact they start to have.

I would never recommend someone play these games without giving serious caveats as they are old, slow, and mechanically clunky. But that doesn’t mean I can’t have incredibly good memories of playing them which honestly dark souls and demons souls never gave me. I have more fond memories of armored core than From Software newest games, but I recognize their new games are amazing as well.
 

Wildebeest

Member
People who rave about games like King's Field but don't know about Ulitma, Might and Magic, Gold Box, or Dungeon Master are straight up philistines.
 

shoplifter

Member
People who rave about games like King's Field but don't know about Ulitma, Might and Magic, Gold Box, or Dungeon Master are straight up philistines.

Why can't we like all of them? King's Field was doing something in the console space that pretty much no one else was doing at the time. For all their technical inadequacies (though KF4 and STA were pretty much just fine), the games evoked a hugely oppressive and claustrophobic sense in the player and were incredibly immersive, which was no small feat at the time. Frankly, these games (King's Field/Shadow Tower) deserve to have their moment in the sun considering they truly are the prototypal Demon's/Dark Souls, and were essentially reviled 'niche in a niche genre' games at their release.
 
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Wildebeest

Member
Why can't we like all of them? King's Field was doing something in the console space that pretty much no one else was doing at the time. For all their technical inadequacies (though KF4 and STA were pretty much just fine), the games evoked a hugely oppressive and claustrophobic sense in the player and were incredibly immersive, which was no small feat at the time. Frankly, these games (King's Field/Shadow Tower) deserve to have their moment in the sun considering they truly are the prototypal Demon's/Dark Souls, and were essentially reviled 'niche in a niche genre' games at their release.
Why can't we like all of them? You answered yourself as you are only interested in them because they have a direct link to the souls games and don't really care to talk about anything similar that doesn't despite whatever value they have.
 

shoplifter

Member
Why can't we like all of them? You answered yourself as you are only interested in them because they have a direct link to the souls games and don't really care to talk about anything similar that doesn't despite whatever value they have.

Cute, I got laughed out of EB by the register monkey for buying King's Field at release. They deserve recognition now (and did then) because despite their technical inadequacy they were still masterclasses in game design. The fact they led to later benchmark From games is icing on the cake. The KF games were criminally underappreciated by critics, and while I'm happy From are getting the credit they deserve, it was largely deserved all along.

Hell, I played the shit out of UU, Dungeon Master, EotB, Azure Bonds, and Wizardry, so I'm not going to say that KF didn't take some cues from those either but to claim that King's Field isn't special on it's own is just wrong.
 

Wildebeest

Member
Cute, I got laughed out of EB by the register monkey for buying King's Field at release. They deserve recognition now (and did then) because despite their technical inadequacy they were still masterclasses in game design. The fact they led to later benchmark From games is icing on the cake. The KF games were criminally underappreciated by critics, and while I'm happy From are getting the credit they deserve, it was largely deserved all along.

Hell, I played the shit out of UU, Dungeon Master, EotB, Azure Bonds, and Wizardry, so I'm not going to say that KF didn't take some cues from those either but to claim that King's Field isn't special on it's own is just wrong.
This is why I accuse of philistinism. It is all about celebrating the material success and recognition of from software. Why not bring yourself to say one small pleasant thing about the art and design of one of these other games instead of hitting me again with the current commercial success of fromsoft. Live a little.
 

shoplifter

Member
This is why I accuse of philistinism. It is all about celebrating the material success and recognition of from software. Why not bring yourself to say one small pleasant thing about the art and design of one of these other games instead of hitting me again with the current commercial success of fromsoft. Live a little.
Because this thread isn’t about any of those games, it’s about King’s Field.
 

stranno

Member


Thousand Land is, by far, the weirdest game developed at FS. A semi-broken strategy game with some ideas from Populous and Black & White.

I had a hard time with it, since there was zero information on internet about it when it was translated.
 
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