Eh, I'm only gonna use the emulator for the one game anyways, I don't think it's that big a deal. I won't mind a funky framerate or anything too much.
Lazer wrote: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.
I'm not sure about Eternal Ring but I know it cannot be changed in KF4, or I would have done so long ago. The up/down look controls are inverted.
Actually, upon reading your post again, apparently that's what you're looking for? Congrats, lol.
I feel old when talking to anyone my age yet too inexperienced to effectively talk to anyone older. Life is grand that way.
Lucky me! Unlucky you, though, eh? I hate playing first person games with y-axis not inverted. It's probably the same you feel about playing them with it inverted.
Like the informed folks are saying, Free McBoot is easy to use and is obviously more compatible than the PS2 emulator will be.
nullPointer wrote: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.
This is only true if you're running the ISOs off the native harddrive. And that adds a layer of complexity that isn't totally necessary (though is more convenient). For those who don't know, if you patch an ISO with ESR, you can then burn that ISO to a DVD, and load that DVD in the PS2 using Free McBoot, it's super easy. And it doesn't modify anything other than soft modding the memory card, and if you format the memory card it's back to normal anyway. The best way to go about doing this is to just watch some Youtube videos. It's really not hard at all. And it will make playing fan translated PS2 games like Shadow Tower Abyss, Beserk: Millennium Falcon, Front Mission V, Namco X Capcom, ect. so much easier.
Lazer wrote: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.
You can't change the controls. But take it from someone who's beaten both of those games; it doesn't take long to get used to those less than ideal controls.
Finally started playing my first Kings Field game, Kings Field II. I just played my first two or so hour session. Kind of wishing I had Kings Field I to play instead as an introduction to the series, but I do hear great things about the second one, so I'm cool with it. I love these types of RPG's and am looking forward to sinking some hours into it. I'm having a hard time getting used to the controls (they just feel painful), and really wish the game utilized the dual shock controls. I'd really like to get the PS2 titles and give those a go.
Well, after doing a bit of research I think I have a pretty good idea of how to get PCSX2 running.
I looked into the possibility of using Free McBoot like you guys said, but it's all a bit over my head to be honest. I'm gonna try the emulator first, and if that ends up not being suitable then I'll see about soft modding.
For now, anyone mind pointing me in the right direction to find the best source to download the game from, and some laymans directions on how to patch it to English?
I feel old when talking to anyone my age yet too inexperienced to effectively talk to anyone older. Life is grand that way.
Alright, better late than never I suppose. I finished King's Field: The Ancient City several weeks ago, and I'm happy to give my final thoughts on it now.
First of all let me say, I really liked it over all. I think it matches up quite well to the quality of the other FromSoftware games I've played until now (being Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Dark 2, and Bloodborne).
The atmosphere is something I've really enjoyed about all these games, and I think Ancient City does that better than all the rest. All of them have a different degree of loneliness. Demon's Souls has a very dead feeling world, but you meet/rescue several NPC's along the way and slowly populate the Nexus until it ends up feeling like a very welcoming and comfortable place. Dark Souls and Dark 2 are much the same way, except the NPC's never stick around permanently. Also the story of that game set's the world up to be much more in a state of "dying" rather than already "dead." Bloodborne is largely devoid of NPC's, and they never stick around for long, so it's more lonely than the rest, but it's world is actually the most normal and "safe" feeling of all. Yarhnam isn't dead, it isn't dying, it's just going through a bit of a rough patch right now (in comparison to the literal world ending events of the other games) and it more feels like your character is just the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time. They're all good, but not completely 100% lonely. That's where Ancient City shines to me. It has NPC's for sure, but they're extremely rare. Some of them don't seem very trustworthy, and others end up dying. Only a small handful really stick around to aid you, and even then they never directly help in combat or anything. They act more like guides, giving vague clues on where to go and how to progress. On top of that, the world set up in KF:AC is very much a fallen kingdom, long dead and almost entirely forgotten by the world which surrounds it. At one point when I was getting close to finishing the game, I had to genuinely wonder why the big bad generic demon of darkness (can't remember the antagonists name unfortunately) was so obsessed with taking over the world. It didn't seem like there was much left to take over. So, basically speaking, the atmosphere was perfectly nailed.
Now as for the gameplay, again, I think it was great. Obviously the combat was quite simple, and over all not a great part of why I enjoyed the game. There was also a bit too much of it for my taste. But luckily, the game had enough non-combat to keep me interested. I've never really noticed it before playing Ancient City, but the Soul's games are pretty much all about combat. All of those games' mechanics are centered around making a powerful character and going through area's where tough enemies are the only real obstacle. There are no real puzzles to speak of, not very much of a "collect item to unlock door" aspect to it, and the exploration is a fair bit more limited. Now to be fair, there is still plenty of exploration, especially in Dark Souls. Those games do have optional area's which are often very well hidden. But for the most part once you're in those new area's, it's just a matter of killing everything in your way to reach the end. I was super impressed by KF:AC's way of making the game more of a 50/50 split between exploration and combat. With the games "open" world and tendency to make you collect items to progress it feels like a more honest interpretation of what a metroidvania game would be like in 3D than the Soul's games do. Like I said, I still think the game could have used a bit less combat and more exploration, but that's more of a nitpick than anything. And I think if the game had more interesting combat then that might not have even been a problem. Most fights in that game were solved through the clever strategy of "stepping backwards," a skill passed down the Armstrong line for generations. Ah well, nothing is perfect.
Now finally, the story. Unfortunately I'm gonna have to say this is the weakest part of The Ancient City for me. Even the combat, while not great, was still just fine. It worked. But the story seriously failed to grab me. There just wasn't enough of it to go around. Lore was very rare to come across. When I did find a new NPC to spit a bit of story at me it, it often took a bit of imagination just to understand what they were saying. I think the translation of the text could use a bit of touching up. And even then, from what I could gather, of the little bit of story I got, seemed to be rather standard fantasy stuff. The gist of what I understood was "Elves and humans use to live together. Big bad evil demon comes along and starts killing everyone. Elf king sacrifices his kingdom and most of his people to seal away the evil demon. Now the seal is weakening and the big bad is gaining power, he's gonna escape soon. Go our hero and collect the great ancient sword to kill him once and for all. The end." Not enough to really go on, a bit hard to understand, and not very imaginative. I was a bit let down by The Ancient Cities story, not gonna lie, but I still thought the game was amazing. A+ material right there.
And as a final little verdict, here's how I would rank the games if I were to make a zero-context list of best to worst: Demon's Souls > Dark Souls > King's Field: The Ancient City > Dark Souls 2 = Bloodborne
As for the rest in the series... well, I recently picked up a copy of King's Field USA (KF2) and King's Field 2 USA (KF3) for the original Playstation. Also I have King's Field 1 and Shadow Tower Abyss flawlessly emulated on PC, and translated into English of course. Now I just have to pick up the original Shadow Tower for Playstation and the whole collection will be complete. As for actualyl getting the time to play them, that's a bit of a different story. I'm only just now getting into Fallout 4 at the moment, and that's gonna take a while before I finish it, or get bored of it. So it'll be a while at least before I play the others. But it will happen, eventually.
I feel old when talking to anyone my age yet too inexperienced to effectively talk to anyone older. Life is grand that way.
I super enjoyed reading your review MrEco. And the fact you not only played through the entirety of Ancient City, but also gave it an A+, says volumes about your gaming chops in my book.
I totally agree that Ancient City's atmosphere is its strongest asset. Its OST helps a lot in the regard. There were a few enemies in the game that I think took more finesse than simply stepping backward though. Once you have the right magic crystals everything pretty much is toast anyway. Combat is not the main challenge here, but rather as you said the exploration and puzzle solving.
While Ancient City's plot isn't its strongest asset, it has a LOT of tie-ins with the older KF games. If you had played them through from beginning to end, you'd see that. But I'm not chastising you on this, I also played Ancient City first. It's okay though because the biggest common thread between all the games is the Moonlight Sword. I think it even made its way into some of the Souls games.
I have not played it yet, but people have said Shadow Tower is the loneliest From Software game. It doesn't even have an OST. Just you and darkness and demons.
As for playing the other KF games, I hope you do. KF1 I totally loved. KF2 I enjoyed a lot, but it is the MOST metroidvania of the bunch, very open ended and recursive. I haven't played KF3 yet but I plan to shortly next year.
I'd like to recommend not skipping over Eternal Ring on PS2. Granted it wasn't as good as KF, it's still a pretty solid From Software first person dungeon crawl that I definitely enjoyed. It's not as dark and dreary by any means as KF, but it's still got that unique unsettling feel to it that only From Software can produce.
I can't remember the name of the item, but did you find the magic orb that let's you see the environment as a 3D rotating map? It's the rarest item in the game, and I actually found it without a FAQ somehow. (Actually I've heard the item is so hard to find that most walkthroughs don't even list it.)
Exhuminator wrote:I totally agree that Ancient City's atmosphere is its strongest asset. Its OST helps a lot in the regard.
Oh man, I forgot to even mention the music in this game. Yeah, it was amazing as well. Really helped set the tone of the game during the calmer moments. I just had a somewhat funny thought, but is there something about a game with a lonely atmosphere that makes the sound and music (or lack there of) stand out even more? I remember being really impressed by the music in Metroid Prime as well, which is another game that leaves the player alone to explore around a relatively large world inhabited by violent flora and fauna while solving puzzles. And of course, the music in the Souls games is great as well.
Exhuminator wrote:While Ancient City's plot isn't its strongest asset, it has a LOT of tie-ins with the older KF games. If you had played them through from beginning to end, you'd see that. But I'm not chastising you on this, I also played Ancient City first. It's okay though because the biggest common thread between all the games is the Moonlight Sword. I think it even made its way into some of the Souls games.
Ah yeah, I suppose I would miss those then since I haven't played the other King's Field games yet. But I can confirm for you, the Moonlight Sword does appear in all of the Souls game. If you don't mind my asking, out of curiosity, which of the Souls games have you played?
Exhuminator wrote:I'd like to recommend not skipping over Eternal Ring on PS2. Granted it wasn't as good as KF, it's still a pretty solid From Software first person dungeon crawl that I definitely enjoyed. It's not as dark and dreary by any means as KF, but it's still got that unique unsettling feel to it that only From Software can produce.
Hah, I completely forgot to mention that. I actually bought Eternal Ring while I was halfway through my playthrough of Ancient City. It's surprisingly cheap on Amazon, about $30, and I pretty much bought it right on the premise that it's another first person RPG by Fromsoft. Haven't played that one yet either though.
Exhuminator wrote:I can't remember the name of the item, but did you find the magic orb that let's you see the environment as a 3D rotating map? It's the rarest item in the game, and I actually found it without a FAQ somehow. (Actually I've heard the item is so hard to find that most walkthroughs don't even list it.)
Yes, actually, I did find that. I think I actually found that one on my own, but I can't quite remember. I didn't want to miss any items, or at least key items, so I would look at a walkthrough occasionally while playing through the game. Basically I would clear an entire area first, then glance over a spoiler free walkthrough to see if I missed any important sounding items. If it turned out I missed any, I would go back and try to look for them on my own a bit, and if I still couldn't find them then I would read the walkthrough in more detail to find exactly where to get them.
As for that specific magic orb thing, I thought it was a really cool idea, but I honestly never found a use for it. Feels like you get it too late in the game to use as a reliable map.
I feel old when talking to anyone my age yet too inexperienced to effectively talk to anyone older. Life is grand that way.
