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[John Harker]

I've been feeling nostalgic lately (can't you tell?).

I missed the boat on this one, but did anyone pick up The Dark Side Box?

To comemerate the 20th year anniversary of King's Field in Japan, From Soft released this compiliation box a few months ago (Sorry, I'm late). I'm curious to see if anyone picked it up - or if anyone picked it up at all - sales update, does anyone know?

I'm a huge King's Field fan; it's easily From Software best franchise - what ever happend to Ascii? Bought out or just rebranded? - but I don't think they have any plans on ever releaseing another one

Any other KF fans here?

Too bad they wont release that in NA
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King's Field
In the original game, you play as John Alfred Forrester who is searching for his missing father, Hauser Forrester, who disappeared along with his soldiers while exploring a dead king's underground graveyard. Shorter than the others in the series, and released only in Japan, King's Field includes just five floors. The main aspects of gameplay consist of first-person battles, puzzle solving and exploration. Fans have written a full English translation patch.


King's Field 2
After the success of the first King's Field in Japan, King's Field II became the first in the series to be released in the U.S. (under the name 'Kings Field'). In this sequel, we play the role of Alexander, the lone survivor of a shipwreck who at the behest of King Alfred tries to fulfill his duty to find and retrieve a mysterious sword from the dangerous island of Melanat.

This time around, the game has a much more ‘open’ feel than the first since a large portion takes place above ground, but the main aspects of gameplay remain unchanged: first-person battles, puzzle solving and exploration.


King's Field 3
In King’s Field III (released in the U.S. as King’s Field II), you play the role of Prince Lyle (son of King Alfred) as he struggles to uncover the reasons behind his father’s sudden descent into madness and restore peace to the suffering kingdom of Verdite.

Overall gameplay remained very similar to the other King’s Field games and entails first-person battles, puzzle solving and exploration. This installment is the most sprawling of the first three and has a significant number of tweaks which streamline controls and gameplay compared to the first two games in the series.


King's Field 4 (King's Field: The Ancient City)
A cloaked stranger appears at your door and presses a small stone statue into your hands. This stone idol from a once sacred land has brought the kingdom of Heladin to ruin, and you are tasked to return it to the place of its origin. As a prince from the neighboring kingdom of Azalin, you cannot let anyone else suffer the idol's terrible curse. With a cursed statuette and a naïve heart, Prince Devian begins his journey.


Kings Field: Additional I
First game of the series that released for PSP console. The "Additional" series uses a step-by-step dungeon crawling style of gameplay, rather than free-roaming. Not released in U.S. However, the game itself came with a mini-instruction manual in both English and Chinese for import buyers.

Kings Field: Additional II
Sequel to Additional 1. Not released in U.S. This game featured the ability to bring your character from Kings Field: Additional I into the Kings Field: Additional II Universe. This included all equipment and level ups.


Don't count the "Additonal" ones though, those are a PSP joke compared to the originals.

King's Field 1, 2, and The Ancient City were all really enjoyable for me, I can't even tell you which one I liked the best.

King's Field, to me, is like the Metroid version of Oblivion.
Makes sense, if you think about it.

 

[Lonesome_Raod]

I have played the first one on ps1 and 4 on the ps2. flawed games but fun. Unsure how many made it here in PAL land.

 

[onadesertedisland]

I loved the two PS versions, Never played any of the others

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

To comemerate the 20th year anniversary of King's Field in Japan

20th? Where were the pre-PS1 games?


EDIT: Searching for this info myself, here's the product page about it. It says King's Field 1994-2007, but the 20th anniversary is for From Software.

 

[Mango Positive]

I loved (American) King's Field 1 and 2. They primed me up nicely for Morrowind. I can't imagine that a revisit would do anything but taint the memory, especially after finishing Bioshock.

 

[John Harker]

The mod on the offical site forums said this last year:

Hi all,

Just wanted to clear up a few things:

1. Agetec will not publish King's Field PSP and as far as I know, it has not been picked up by a different publisher.

2. As of right now there is ZERO plans for a new King's Field for any system.

3. There is nothing being devolved that resembles anything like King's Field, Shadow Tower, ect... i.e. First Person RPG.

Any other questions, please post here - will do my best to answer them.

Mark

Guess that answers that question
Site

 

[TreeFrog78]

Yep, I bought the Dark Side Box. It's a nice package but somewhat unwieldy - you basically have to take everything out of the box in order to extract the game discs.

If you can play imports, I'd suggest you have a go at Shadow Tower Abyss - It's not up there with King's Field IV, but it's probably the next best thing.

Also, the first two games are now available on Japanese PSN, and I expect the 3rd to follow.

Too bad there's no sign of From continuing to make games like this though - I'd really like another

 

[Victrix]

I *love* King's Field. I really enjoyed Ancient City. Hell, I even had fun with Eternal Ring.

I'd be really happy to see them working on a new KF, but I haven't heard a peep about it in ages.

 

[BlueTsunami]

Great slow First Person View Dungeon Crawler

<3 King's Field

I hate how this is primarily a Japanese game in that, it seems like it will never touch the states again

 

[John Harker]

Yep, I bought the Dark Side Box. It's a nice package but somewhat unwieldy - you basically have to take everything out of the box in order to extract the game discs.

If you can play imports, I'd suggest you have a go at Shadow Tower Abyss - It's not up there with King's Field IV, but it's probably the next best thing.

Also, the first two games are now available on Japanese PSN, and I expect the 3rd to follow.

Too bad there's no sign of From continuing to make games like this though - I'd really like another

Was Abyss in the Dark Side Box?
I enjoyed Shadow Tower - though it was a bitch to find at launch, and the clerk actually snickered at me when I bought it. I alwas wanted to play Abyss, but of course, it never came here....

I was really dissapointed with Eternal Ring for some reason. It felt lifeless to me; it was leagues below The Ancient City.

 

[arcader]

I have the first and third game for PSOne, and the 4th game for PS2.

I tried Kings Field Additional I but couldnt get around the language barrier.

Great series tho!

 

[Angelo]

This screenshot kinda reminds me of Castlevania 64. To be honest though, this is the first time I've ever heard of this game. Hope I'm not missing something big.

 

[PistolPete]

I played the US versions of I and II. These were great games for their time. The first one for PS one really sucked me in.

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

Oh man I love love love Kings Field it was the first game I got with my PS1 and I have loved the series ever since despite all its flaws.

Do you guys remember when the PS2 was getting ready to come out and Sony was releasing all those demo videos showing what it could do and one was by From Software showing all the skeletons coming out of the ground and running at you...ahhhh man that game alone made me buy a PS2.

I would have to say out of all of them Kings Field 2 is my favorite just because it had more of a story going on.

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

This screenshot kinda reminds me of Castlevania 64. To be honest though, this is the first time I've ever heard of this game. Hope I'm not missing something big.

I think if you jumped into the game now it would probably be hard to appreciate.
It came out at the exact right time for a lot of playstation owners and the feeling of solitude and exploration was one of the best oh and of course the voice over guy for Kings Field 2:
"LYLE PRINCE OF DARKNESS!"

 

[John Harker]

Oh man I love love love Kings Field it was the first game I got with my PS1 and I have loved the series ever since despite all its flaws.

Do you guys remember when the PS2 was getting ready to come out and Sony was releasing all those demo videos showing what it could do and one was by From Software showing all the skeletons coming out of the ground and running at you...ahhhh man that game alone made me buy a PS2.

I would have to say out of all of them Kings Field 2 is my favorite just because it had more of a story going on.

2's probably my favorite too, but its really hard to decide.
I can't forget how 1 made me feel first playing it for PSX, it totally amazed me the size and scope of the world, all the hidden walls... that giant kraken...

2 was even more expansive, and I liked the story. I felt lost so much of the time, I was really immersed in the game world, it felt alive to me.

The Ancient City, of course, had the bset graphics and some of the best battles; solid transition to PS2, unlike Eternal Ring which felt hollow to me

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

2's probably my favorite too, but its really hard to decide.
I can't forget how 1 made me feel first playing it for PSX, it totally amazed me the size and scope of the world, all the hidden walls... that giant kraken...

2 was even more expansive, and I liked the story. I felt lost so much of the time, I was really immersed in the game world, it felt alive to me.

The Ancient City, of course, had the bset graphics and some of the best battles; solid transition to PS2, unlike Eternal Ring which felt hollow to me

Yeah nothing in this world beats the feeling you get when you boot up the game for a first time and as a 2d gamer for so many years you realize that you can look up and see the stars and moon and if you look down you see fish in the water and you can just slightly hear a waterfall somewhere to the left. Games kick ass I remeber them scoring horribly in every publication but PSX magazine they always gave it 9's and 10's.

The best part of the first game is once you start you have to just figure everything out by yourself through trial and error there are no tutorials no hints you have to just kind of wander around getting stronger and stronger.

 

[TreeFrog78]

Was Abyss in the Dark Side Box?

Nope - it just contains KF I,II,III,IV and nothing more. I guess Abyss won't be that easy to find now...

I enjoyed Shadow Tower - though it was a bitch to find at launch, and the clerk actually snickered at me when I bought it. I alwas wanted to play Abyss, but of course, it never came here....

I haven't played the original Shadow Tower - guess I should hunt a copy down at some point.

I was really dissapointed with Eternal Ring for some reason. It felt lifeless to me; it was leagues below The Ancient City.

I didn't get on with Eternal Ring at all (and I never got used to being shot through walls either - I mean, what were they thinking? )

 

[BlueTsunami]

Eternal Ring was a bit fun for me. I really like the feeling of being put in some environment and figuring shit out for myself (like in King's Field). But King's Field trumps Eternal Ring in the gameplay department (and level/dungeon designs).

In Eternal Ring, it was mainly the Ring-collect-a-thon that strung me along (I also did the secret dungeon at the end of the game).

 

[madara]

Wait no more KF? Dang that unbelievable as s Wii version might actually make that series hot again.

 

[Flo]

Since Etrian Odyssey I've been craving for a good first person RPG... I would've bought this collection if I could read moonspeak...

I wish I could find the Wizardry PS2 game that was published in NA... that was pretty decent I hear?

 

[TreeFrog78]

Since Etrian Odyssey I've been craving for a good first person RPG... I would've bought this collection if I could read moonspeak...

If you just want to play the games, all of them except 1 are out in the US (and 2 & 4 are even out in PAL-land)
If you haven't played any of them, IV is probably the best starting place, as all the PS1 games looked weak and ran slowly when released, so they might be harder to get into.

I wish I could find the Wizardry PS2 game that was published in NA... that was pretty decent I hear?

"Wizardry: Tales of the forsaken land" (J title: "Busin: Wizardry Alternative") is pretty good as a classic-style first person dungeon romp. There's also a sequel (Busin 0: Wizardry Alternative Neo) but that was unfortunately never released outside Japan (and it's got loads of text in)

 

[John Harker]

Wait no more KF? Dang that unbelievable as s Wii version might actually make that series hot again.

The Wii interface + popularity boom of Oblivion, I thought, was a shoe-in for a King's Field revisit.

Doesn't look good though, I think they went on record saying no, no one wants a King's Field anymore

 

[BlueTsunami]

Doesn't look good though, I think they went on record saying no, no one wants a King's Field anymore

I think it would be perfect for the Wii too. I mean, I want my nextgen King's Field (Visually) but the Wii's controls would make the King's Field world much more immersive (when the game is pretty ambient and immersive to begin with). It would seriously suck if they don't do anything with the IP.

Though, I think that statment (no one wants King's Field anymore) is a contradiction in itself when you've got some mega boxset like that being released.

Heres to hoping they do something new with the IP within my lifetime though :lol

 

[John Harker]

I think it would be perfect for the Wii too. I mean, I want my nextgen King's Field (Visually) but the Wii's controls would make the King's Field world much more immersive (when the game is pretty ambient and immersive to begin with). It would seriously suck if they don't do anything with the IP.

Though, I think that statment (no one wants King's Field anymore) is a contradiction in itself when you've got some mega boxset like that being released.

Heres to hoping they do something new with the IP within my lifetime though :lol

Yea, well, how much did it sell?
I never even heard of it when it launched, so I imagine not too well

I think the quote I was using came from the NA office, not the Japan one. So i guess its possible for someone to dev one, but it doesn't look like From is interested in localizing anymore. Hence us not getting King's Field: Additonal for PSP

 

[BlueTsunami]

I think the quote I was using came from the NA office, not the Japan one. So i guess its possible for someone to dev one, but it doesn't look like From is interested in localizing anymore. Hence us not getting King's Field: Additonal for PSP

Argh, I guess thats the problem area . I remember when the original KF: Additional was announced it was pretty much stated that it won't hit the US, felt like a bad sign for the series in general (as far as localization). Totally sucks.