A discussion on From Software's first person action-RPGs.

[Exhuminator]

Gonna do it the old school way.

I'm very happy you're going to be playing the game. I look forward to your thoughts on it. But please do not use that guide the first time through. Half the fun in King's Field games is exploring and discovering things for yourself. I'd hate for you to have any surprises ruined. I beat KF IV without a guide, I'm sure you can too.

[MrEco]

I'm kind of surprised it's taken me this long to get around to it, but I recently jumped into King's Field IV: The Ancient City. It's a lot of fun. I love exploring around this bleak desolate world. There's a lot more focus on puzzles or finding the right items to progress, similar to a metroidvania game, rather than straight up combat like in Souls.

I have to say there is one thing that bums me out though. A lot of the miscellaneous items have very vague descriptions that don't accurately explain what they do. I recently got an item called the Purity Amulet, and it's description say's something like "Increases the cleansing ability of ones body." I had to look up online and eventually found out that the amulet makes a spell called Earth Heal (which I don't even have yet) more effective.

And unlike Souls, there doesn't seem to be a comprehensive wiki to explain these things. I also have a ton of "Monster Bones" in my inventory and I have no idea what they do and couldn't find that anywhere online.

[jay_red]

I remember playing King's Field (first US PS1 release) at a friends house during a sleep over when we were kids, we played for hours and didn't really know what we were doing. I had completely forgotten about the game until recently I saw it mentioned in another thread and decided to look into it.

I read the Hardcore 101 article on it, and found this thread and decided to give it a shot. I fired it up on an emulator last night and after getting used to the controls and dying a few times, i was able to slowly make my way into a dungeon. I got the hang of the combat alright, just strafe the enemies and hit them from behind (a little harder when multiple enemies are in the same room) and actually gained a couple levels. Excited to get back into it tonight and see what else I can find.

[Exhuminator]

A lot of the miscellaneous items have very vague descriptions that don't accurately explain what they do.

It's a shame I missed this post back in September. Yeah there's a lot of intentional ambiguity in The Ancient City. I think the developers wanted to invoke what it would really be like to be a stranger in a strange place finding strange items. In reality the only way you could figure out how those things work is if you experimented with them after all. There are some seriously powerful hidden items to find in the game though. My favorite is one that lets you view the entire world around you in a 3D map within a magic sphere. I actually didn't find it all that useful for navigation, but it was fun to explore the architecture of the environment in that way.

Excited to get back into it tonight and see what else I can find.

So you're talking about King's Field II it seems. Yes, I beat that one for the first time earlier this year. I quite enjoyed it, very immersive and challenging. Actually I found KF 2 to be more challenging than KF 1 simply because it was far less linear. KF 2 is very "metroidvania" in comparison. I hope you get properly hooked and see it to the end, the final area and final boss are pretty damned impressive.

Of the three KF games I've finished, I'd rank them like this:

KF1 = 9/10
KF2 = 8/10
KF4 = 10/10

I haven't played KF3: Pilot Style, KF3, or the Shadow Tower games yet. Looking forward to getting into them sooner rather than later. I also own all the Souls games, but I haven't tried them yet because I want to finish the classics first.

The very first King's Field (the one that didn't leave Japan) is incredibly impressive for its time. For me it really held up well and was super fun to play. The fan translation available for it is quite well done too. In all seriousness the From Software first person RPGs are freaking amazing. I wish more people would give them a shot beyond the initial "WTF this sucks" thirty minutes. These games are growers, but they grow on you pretty fast if you give them a proper evening.

[MrEco]

Real life interruptions have meant I wasn't able to play KF4 for the last few weeks, but I've been getting back into it the last couple days. I just cleared out the fort surrounded by water.

I'm still having an amazing amount of fun with this game. I don't think I can get over how perfect the atmosphere feels. Some of these later area's have really confusing map layouts though, geez.

I'm also pretty well convinced that I want to give the other games in the series a try sometime after finishing 4. I've already downloaded the fan built version of King's Field 1, the Sword of Moonlight Edition, which is all nicely translated for my slow Western brain to understand.

I also took a look at the Shadow Tower games. Anyone know if Shadow Tower Abyss was ever translated by modders perhaps?

[Exhuminator]

I just cleared out the fort surrounded by water.

It's a testament to how memorable the game is that even years later, I remember exactly what you're talking about, the Ocean Fort. I remember walking out of the dark caves with water streaming from them, having the caves open up onto a shore line, and there nestled against the sea lay the dark ruins of a long forgotten fortress.

I'm still having an amazing amount of fun with this game. I don't think I can get over how perfect the atmosphere feels.

You haven't even gotten to the best parts yet!

I've already downloaded the fan built version of King's Field 1, the Sword of Moonlight Edition, which is all nicely translated for my slow Western brain to understand.

I strongly do not recommend that you play the PC remake, it has a bevy of issues.

You would be better off playing the fan translated PS1 original using a PS1 emulator and PS1 controller with USB adapter. I used ePSXe to do that and it went well.

There's also a really nice version of ePSXe for Android that works incredibly well.

Anyone know if Shadow Tower Abyss was ever translated by modders perhaps?

Yes, Shadow Tower Abyss was translated 100% into English a few years ago. You could play it using a PS2 emulator, or use a modded PS2 to do it. The easiest way is to get an ISO of the fan translated version, patch it with ESR, and then use the Free McBoot memory card exploit to run the game on your PS2.

If you need help finding the translated versions of King's Field or Shadow Tower Abyss just let me know.

[MrEco]

I've already downloaded the fan built version of King's Field 1, the Sword of Moonlight Edition, which is all nicely translated for my slow Western brain to understand.

I strongly do not recommend that you play the PC remake, it has a bevy of issues.

Hmm, what kind of issues are we talking about? I don't mind some glitches as long as they're not game breaking.

Anyone know if Shadow Tower Abyss was ever translated by modders perhaps?

Yes, Shadow Tower Abyss was translated 100% into English a few years ago. You could play it using a PS2 emulator, or use a modded PS2 to do it. The easiest way is to get an ISO of the fan translated version, patch it with ESR, and then use the Free McBoot memory card exploit to run the game on your PS2.

If you need help finding the translated versions of King's Field or Shadow Tower Abyss just let me know.

I'm not really comfortable modding my PS2, so I guess it's about time I learn how to use a PS2 emulator. Tips on where to start?

[fastbilly1]

I'm not really comfortable modding my PS2, so I guess it's about time I learn how to use a PS2 emulator. Tips on where to start?

If I remember correctly, Free McBoot is just a memory card file that lets you load burned discs. No console modifications needed.

[nullPointer]

I'm not really comfortable modding my PS2, so I guess it's about time I learn how to use a PS2 emulator. Tips on where to start?

If I remember correctly, Free McBoot is just a memory card file that lets you load burned discs. No console modifications needed.

Yeah I'm speaking as someone who is "pro-emulation" and even I would recommend going the soft-mod route is there's any way you can swing it. PCSX2 is an amazing piece of kit in terms of emulation but it's far from perfect. If you care about maintaining the fidelity of the original game, you're going to have a lot more satisfaction playing on the original hardware. The softmod is not terribly difficult at all. You can find plenty of nice tutorials on YouTube, and SKS Apps is also a really good place to start. As fast points out FreeMcBoot is an ELF file that loads to your PS2 memory card, and subsequently serves as the boot ROM / "OS" of your PS2. Actually loading FreeMcBoot to your memory card will likely be the trickiest part of the operation, but once you've got that part the rest is a breeze. After you load up FreeMcBoot you'll also need a game loader to actually play your games. I think OPL is probably the best one out there these days but HDLoader is another decent (albeit much older) option.

[Lazer]

Question about King's Field IV and Eternal Ring: can the x-axis and y-axis controls be changed? I like the x-axis to be regular and the y-axis to be reversed.