Summer Games Challenge 2015

[prfsnl_gmr]

BTW...what do the shoulder buttons do in King's Field?

The King's Field games do not use analog controls, not even King's Field IV on PS2 does. So that means to look up and down, you have to use buttons. That's what L2 and R2 do. L1 and R1 make you strafe left and right. The d-pad moves you forward and back, and turns you left and right. Square melee attacks, triangle magic attacks, X button investigates, circle button opens up your menu. Select button is mappable to whatever item you want, and the start button also opens up your menu.

Those controls are the same through the whole series from what I've played. Eternal Ring uses those same controls as well. Shadow Tower Abyss on PS2 actually uses the analog sticks for movement and camera control though.

Got it. I think I can work around that.

[Exhuminator]

Got it. I think I can work around that.

I'm excited that someone else around here is going to try the series other than me.

Just keep this in mind; the first hour is going to suck for three reasons. I have found these reasons to persist across all three KF games I've played, thus they are universal to the series IMO. I'm going to list those reasons here for anyone who's interested in playing these games:

1. The speed of the game is slow compared to a normal action-RPG. I used to think this was a technical issue, but KF IV is slow too, so this is intentional. I think From Software did this to find a happy medium between a turn based dungeon crawler and a faster action game like Zelda. The speed is slow enough to give you tactical decision making time, but fast enough to keep you on your toes. A brilliant compromise when you think about it.

2. You will have all the fortitude and offense of an inchworm starting off. The first hour is going to be brutal and it will be very easy to die. Search for better equipment (it's around) and use that equipment to kill low level enemies. You level up fast in King's Field, and it doesn't take long before you can start to hold your own.

3. The controls are not optimal. It's true, you should be able to use the analog sticks to play these games, at least post-KF I. But tradition was tradition I suppose. I don't think it takes long to get used to the controls however, and it will all be second nature before long. And once you learn this control setup, you're good to go for the rest of From Software's first person RPGs.

I'm convinced people who don't like this series never played it more than 15 minutes, certainly not for an hour. Because after that first hour, you're either hooked or you're just not the kind of gamer this series was intended for. The one hour learning curve is so totally worth the experiences these games will bring to you.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I have KF I & II (yes I know they are really II & III). I'll attempt to roll through them someday when I have a chance. They were realized before 1997, which bodes well for me.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I do own a copy of KFIV. Shoudl I start with that one?

[Exhuminator]

They were realized before 1997, which bodes well for me.

What happened in 1997?

I do own a copy of KFIV. Shoudl I start with that one?

It's the ne plus ultra of the series. If you only play one, make it that one. If you plan to play the whole series though, save it for last. (No joke though, KF IV is in my top 10 games of all time.)

[BoneSnapDeez]

What happened in 1997?

Well, several things.

- Madeleine Albright became the first female Secretary of State, after confirmation by the United States Senate.
- After at first contesting the results, Serbian President Slobodan Milošević recognized opposition victories in the November 1996 elections.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 7,000 for the first time, gaining 60.81 to 7,022.44.
- President Mobutu Sese Seko was exiled from Zaire.
- I began to grow epic facial hair.
- JRPGs started to get crappier, generally speaking.

[Exhuminator]

So if you shave your beard off, you could enjoy modern gaming?

[Ack]

- After at first contesting the results, Serbian President Slobodan Milošević recognized opposition victories in the November 1996 elections.

And this right here explains why all video games since have sucked.

Insert genocide joke here.

[Key-Glyph]

So if you shave your beard off, you could enjoy modern gaming?

Do it, Bone. For science.

[Ack]

Well, my next game has apparently ended up being Descent, as I seem to love pain for some reason.

I got DX-Rebirth up and running last night and then plowed through the first seven levels to demolish the first boss. This puts me through where the shareware version of the game ended. Shareware is how I got into Descent back in the mid-90s, and I was surprised that I remembered portions of the game. Not much necessarily, but every now and again a specific architectural element or room design would bring on waves of nostalgia, and I found myself thinking about other games I played around the time, in particular Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. It's funny how the mind works.

Anyway, the first few levels of Descent are a nice lead in without too much of a challenge. The game makes sure to offer up a decent amount of weaponry and upgrades, and by the end of level 2, I had the base laser at max power. I did switch out for the spread gun for a while once I got it, but then finding quad lasers in level 4 brought me right back to the base gun, and I haven't found a reason to switch off it since then. I also didn't start using missiles until the bigger missile launcher robots started showing up, but I ended up beating levels 1-5 with shields and energy above 100.

That changed at level 6, where the game throws a curveball in a new enemy design that comes armed with a chaingun and screams like a banshee. I don't know what that thing is, but it tried to eat me alive. Level 6 is the first major hurdle, and I found it tougher than level 7 and the first boss, a massive behemoth who fires off missiles, cloaks, and is surrounded by smaller robots armed with homing missiles. I've also started to dread the enemy respawners but thankfully have found ways to mitigate their effects through avoidance, since enemy robots can't seem to figure out how to open doors.

Overall, I'm getting the hang of the controls well enough. I'm using a mouse and have modified the keyboard so that W is accelerate, S is reverse, and A and D slide(not strafe) left and right while I use mouselook to adjust my heading. Entering a big room full of crazed mining robots and unloading with my lasers while I slide around the room at an angle is actually quite rewarding.

With level 7 done, it's time to move on to the real game.