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[Jonneh3003]

I don't often hear much about the King's Field series other than it's the spirtual predecessor to Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. It seems the first King's Field game was only released in Japan but we got King's Field 2 and 3 on PSX and King's Field 4 on Playstation 2. Knowing very little about the franchise and the PSX games having rather high retail prices I'm not really sure where to jump in, is there a clear definitive King's Field game?

 

[Chronospherics]

I'd be interested in this too.

 

[alex_tetra]

You don't hear about it because it's not very good frankly

 

[Dylan]

I think popular opinion suggests they should only be played for academic purposes and not so much for 'enjoyment'.

 

[Vincent Grayson]

I only ever played one of them on PSX back in the day, and it was easily one of the least enjoyable RPGs I'd ever played. Only Beyond the Beyond was worse, IMO.

 

[Doom_master1122]

Be aware these games are very hard to get into. Combat and the over all pacing of the game is painfully slow. It takes a lot of patience and dedication to play them.
Around 3 or 4 years ago I sat down and marathon'd the whole series. I fully enjoyed them.
It's a first person RPG mixed with some metroidvania elements. Your character levels up and you get new gear and magic. You explore the game world picking up keys, finding switches and secrets, and unlocking new ways to explore. (Like to a metroidvania)
If you want the "easiest" to get into, Kings field 4 is your answer. The game isn't extremely long, mechanics have been refined from the first 3 entries, and the frame rate isn't hot garbage.

If you are willing to play the others Kings field 1 (Japan) as well as Kings field 2 (KF1 in the west) are worthy to try next. However I would completely avoid Kings field 3.
3 has a horrible frame rate, has very questionable level deisgn, and the game over stays it's welcome. It's the slowest and hardest one to play.

Edits: why do you hate me mobile? Autocorrect is having fun today

 

[Faiz]

You don't hear about it because it's not very good frankly

Yep. I was so excited for it on PS1. It was one of first PS games. Didn't really deliver. It's interesting from a historical perspective of what they were trying to do but not something I would recommend to anyone to actually try playing.

 

[Jonneh3003]

Be aware these games are very hard to get into. Combat and the over all pacing of the game is painfully slow. It takes a lot of patience and dedication to play them.
Around 3 or 4 years ago I sat down and marathon'd the whole series. I fully enjoyed them.
It's a first person RPG mixed with some metroidvania elements. Your character levels up and you get new gear and magic. You explore the game world picking up keys, finding switches and secrets, and unlocking new ways to explore. (Like to a metroidvania)
If you want the "easiest" to get into, Kings field 4 is you answer. The game isn't extremely long, mechanics have been refined from the first 3 entries, and the frame rate isn't hot garbage.

If you are willing to play the others Kings field 1 (Japan) as well as Kings field 2 (KF1 in the west) are worthy to try next. However I would completely avoid Kings field 3.
3 has a horrible frame rate, has very questionable level deisgn, and the game over stays it's welcome. It's the slowest and hardest one to play.

I just ordered King's Field 4 for £15 on ebay, I'll let you know how I find it! I'm not expecting anything perfect but it'll be cool to play none the less.

 

[120v]

for what it's worth a Not-King's Field just released on steam. pretty barebones and rough but i played through the demo, not half bad all things considered ... http://store.steampowered.com/app/479990/

 

[Tizoc]

If you have a PC, there's an indie King's Field inspired game that got released recently-
http://playism-games.com/game/296/dungeons-darkness
Dungeons and Darkness
It's available on Steam too if you want to wishlist it

 

[Jonneh3003]

for what it's worth a Not-King's Field just released on steam. pretty barebones and rough but i played through the demo, not half bad all things considered ... http://store.steampowered.com/app/479990/

If you have a PC, there's an indie King's Field inspired game that got released recently-
http://playism-games.com/game/296/dungeons-darkness
Dungeons and Darkness
It's available on Steam too if you want to wishlist it

Snap!

It looks pretty cool, I'm more interested in playing From's games first but if I enjoy King's Field 4 I'll take a look at this.

 

[MikeDip]

King's Field is incredible, don't listen to the people saying otherwise.

The best one is 4, the ancient city. For ps2. The sense of exploration and atmosphere is fantastic. Secrets, challenging, beautiful.

If possible you should also look into Shadow Tower abyss. It never got an English release but there is a great fan translation

 

[Ordinaryundone]

The King's Field to Damon's Souls jump is one of the few instances in RPG history where devs ratcheting up the focus on action and combat actually made the game a lot better.

 

[Doom_master1122]

I just ordered King's Field 4 for £15 on ebay, I'll let you know how I find it! I'm not expecting anything perfect but it'll be cool to play none the less.

Good luck! Hopefully you enjoy it. 15 bucks is pretty good. For a while the game was around 30-35.

 

[ponpo]

If you've played Souls games, KF is sometimes fun just to see where some things came from, but I don't think the games are that good on their own. Never a fan of first person melee combat.

https://a.pomf.cat/wdjtdb.webm

 

[TheYanger]

Honestly, I rented the first Kings Field (2 I guess?) in the US cause, why not. It always looked like the most generic has been junk at the time (And that's saying something, to look like homebrew shovelware in the early ps1 days was quite a feat), and frankly it wasn't a very fun game. You certainly could wind up enjoying it, it wasn't like terrible, but don't go in expecting a particularly souls like experience. If you just want challenging dungeon crawlers there are significantly better ones out there. If you want a good classic 'from' game, check out Otogi and Otogi 2 imo.

 

[KainXVIII]

Play KF2 (King' Field 1 in US) and KF4 on PS2 (one of the best PS2 games, yes, i said it), skip the rest.

 

[Parakeetman]

I don't often hear much about the King's Field series other than it's the spirtual predecessor to Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. It seems the first King's Field game was only released in Japan but we got King's Field 2 and 3 on PSX and King's Field 4 on Playstation 2. Knowing very little about the franchise and the PSX games having rather high retail prices I'm not really sure where to jump in, is there a clear definitive King's Field game?

Just play the PS2 one.

As the PS1 version has not aged well unless you are a hardcore fan.

 

[Morfeo]

Very interested in the answer to this question too.

 

[Omegasquash]

King's Field was the first PSX game I played, and I still have it (big box and all). I enjoyed that game heavily, and I enjoyed King's Field 2 just as much. Same with Shadow Tower.

Bluntly, they're much easier to play if you're able to play it on an emulator. I have played through them in my RetroPie, and the speed feels *much* better. They're not easy games to get into, and they're not entirely forgiving. You can screw up and fall in a pit with no way out but to reset, for example.

I think much of the criticism you could lay on the KF series is based in the fact that it's old, slow, big, and hard. That said, the first time I saw 1:1 in Demon's Souls, I knew it was heavily influenced by KF. They didn't even try to hide it in Dark Souls.

I don't believe they're up on PSN, but I'd buy them if they were. I play through the first two each once a year or so, just to scratch that itch. It's about that time again, too.

Very interested in the answer to this question too.

My vote is on King's Field - that's KF 2 if you're importing it. It's not as big as 2, but it does have lots of things to do. Some things that you think you can't do, you can. And it's very, very cool that you can.

 

[linko9]

I really liked the PS2 game. Played it on an emulator, and was able to remap the controls to be reasonable. KF1 is kind of a mess, it runs at 15 or 20 FPS and looks pretty bad, but I haven't played it. 2 and especially 3 look ok, but again, can't say anything personally. I would definitely check out 4 though.

 

[Jonneh3003]

I really liked the PS2 game. Played it on an emulator, and was able to remap the controls to be reasonable. KF1 is kind of a mess, it runs at 15 or 20 FPS and looks pretty bad, but I haven't played it. 2 and especially 3 look ok, but again, can't say anything personally. I would definitely check out 4 though.

I'm ok with frame rates like that, as long as it's fairly consistent I don't mind how low it is. That being said I am starting with the PS2 game mostly due to it being the cheapest.

 

[Opa-Pa]

I only know about this series because From Software fans get really pissy if you dare imply Souls games are revolutionary or original around them haha, but I've been wondering the same for some time and gave up on getting into the series when I found out we missed some games in the west. Hearing that the PS2 games are a better starting point changes things tho.

I did try Shadow Tower, and I don't know if it's a predecessor, spinoff, or whatever but it's been pretty interesting and insightful as a taste of FromSoft roots. It's on the US PSN as a PS1 Classic and plays very similar to these games.

 

[Doom_master1122]

I only know about this series because From Software fans get really pissy if you dare imply Souls games are revolutionary or original around them haha, but I've been wondering the same for some time and gave up on getting into the series when I found out we missed some games in the west. Hearing that the PS2 games are a better starting point changes things tho.

I did try Shadow Tower, and I don't know if it's a predecessor, spinoff, or whatever but it's been pretty interesting and insightful as a taste of FromSoft roots. It's on the US PSN as a PS1 Classic and plays very similar to these games.

The only games in Kings Field and Shadow Tower that never made it to the west were Kings Field 1 on PS1 and Shadow Tower Abyss on PS2. Both of which have fan translation available. If you own the game, you can go ahead and patch it up.

 

[QuantumBro]

I only ever played two and it was more of a Metroidvania than Dark Souls. It's pretty short, but you will die a lot. You should get used to the gameplay within an hour, but you'll be dieing every few minutes while you're figuring shit out.

 

[Kientin]

King's Field 1 (JP) was the first and only King's Field game that I've played so far. I personally loved it and played it to completion blind with the fan translation, but I'm willing to admit I'm a special kind of person. It's clunky definitely shows it's age (it takes 4 seconds to turn 180 degrees IIRC!). However, it has great atmosphere that you can get sucked into. While the gameplay is clunky I found it serviceable and enjoyable enough. Ledges, like the Souls series, are still public enemy #1. When I beat the final boss, I did a fist pump, grabbed the controller, turned around, and accidentally fell down a hole to my death.

I'm planning to go through the series (Shadow Tower included) in order slowly as I don't have a whole lot of time and I have backlogs, but the series only looks like it improves so I'm excited. Also that music on #4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFr7AyT17sI

While there are better games to play today, I still think they are worth going through if you want a little more of that From Software magic (jank?). They definitely aren't bad games.

 

[takoyaki]

I'm a big Souls fan since DeS and tried to get into Kings Field multiple times. I even got the collectors box and tried out all the games chronologically for an hour or so.

The game that still holds up the best is King's Field IV: The Ancient City on PS2. It's still pretty playable today, very atmospheric and it doesn't explain anything to you. You can clearly see the similarities to the Souls series in KFIV. I'd recommend a guide for moments when you get stuck; the game can be pretty obtuse.

There's also the Shadow Tower series on PS1/2 which is similar to the Kings Field games. The PS2 game (Shadow Tower: Abyss) would be my other recommendation, it's Japan-only but there's an English fan-patch.

 

[spliced]

Didn't you just make a topic about DS2 being too tedious lol.

DS2 is roller coaster thrill ride compared to King's Field.

 

[Lumpy Onion]

I actually think KF1 (2 in JP) holds up the best. Your move speed and overall game frame rate is smooth. KF2 (3 in JP) has sloppier production values and the frame rate is choppy. The PS2 one has awfully slow moving/turning speed but production values best.

The journey in KF1 is memorable. It's all on this one island and is chocked full of interconnecting passageways which makes it kinda like Dark Souls 1 in that regard. It isn't overly long either. There is some great exploration to be had. KF2 (3 JP) reminds me of Dark Souls 2, and is a quantity over quality situation with sloppier production values in comparison to its predecessor.

So yeah, play KF1 US and follow up with KF4 on PS2. Skipping KF2 is ok.

 

[Haganeren]

Woah, so negative impression from people, hopefully i didn't listened to any of you when i asked the same question as OP.

I played them in chronological order very recently, King's Field 1 (JP with a fan translation) was really good with a great complex labyrinth i had to map out. King's Field 2 is even better and i absolutly loved every part of it. From an atmosphere perspective "it's dark", it's not really that good but it gets things done. If you want very good battle it's not there either.

But the exploration ? Oh boy, i didn't played a good game about exploration like that since Super Metroid i think... Yeah it's been a while ! It was reeeeallly good.

Then there is King's Field 3 which was... Okay i guess ? The Level Design is a lot more boring and only show that the other aspect of the game is not really great.

I'm playing King's Field IV right now but oh god is it SLOW, it's really an incredible slow game, even more than the first one. I did a break from the serie after that because i couldn't stand the speed it's impressive how much people like this game despite that. I never played Dark Souls beside a little bit of Demon's Soul which i liked without thinking too much about it so hey, maybe i'm different from you all. The fact the difficulty of King's Field is more in the exploration and not the battle is actually very good on my book.

If you had to play only one, just play King's Field II (King's Field I in US)

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

King's Field: The Ancient City is the best one, followed by King's Field 2 (part 1 in the West). The PS2 game is the least aged, but KF2 has a great sense of exploration and pacing, once you get past the graphics and frame-rate.

KF3 is kinda annoying and takes forever to get started. It also pulls some annoying stunts early on.

Spoiler

One of the very first secret doors you discover is actually a trap that insta-kills you. Even for a series with lots of insta-death, this is a dick move.

 

[radios shipping overview]

KF4/The Ancient City, Shadow Tower, and Shadow Tower Abyss are fantastic. Eternal Ring is kinda okay and short, but possibly worth a play. It's easy to get into.

I have not made it very far in any of KF1-3, but I will certainly check in again here if I do. They are difficult to get into because of their high difficulty, lack of explanation, abstract world design, and just a general sense of being inexplicable. But they nailed the bleak atmosphere in an open-world RPG waaaaayyy before Souls, and they made do with the technology that was available at the time.

 

[TheFNEffecT]

There's also the Shadow Tower series on PS1/2 which is similar to the Kings Field games. The PS2 game (Shadow Tower: Abyss) would be my other recommendation, it's Japan-only but there's an English fan-patch.

I literally was just playing this a few weeks ago with the English patch. That game is very strange, I love that you just straight up have a handgun to use haha. I should revisit it.

 

[Mugaaz]

They are really good, but the pacing is slow in them, molasses levels of slow. Can be too much for people not used to it.

 

[adversarial]

Very slow game, but I loved King's Field 2. Oozes atmosphere and I liked the music a lot.

 

[LookAtMeGo]

I played Kings Field 2 when it first came out. I dont remember much about it but I do remember enjoying it.

 

[Hippopuncher12]

Play them in order honestly. I can see why people don't like them. They are slow and even for the time don't look great except maybe The Ancient City. But damn did I love them. The atmosphere is fantastic and exploration is fun. The 2nd one in the US is probably my favorite PS1 game of all time.

 

[Shadylunchbox]

Scribe does a great Let's Play of Ancient City I recommend it to anyone who doesn't wanna bother playing, the game isn't great but it seems to be the best one.

 

[Rezae]

One of my favorite series and perhaps the most atmospheric games ever.

Definitely not for everyone though. I'd go in order.

 

[Jonneh3003]

Didn't you just make a topic about DS2 being too tedious lol.

DS2 is roller coaster thrill ride compared to King's Field.

Yeah that was me, just because I don't like DS2 doesn't mean I won't like King's Field, no harm in trying at least.

 

[jay]

I will not say the PS1 games are good exactly, but if you are a Souls fan there are definitely a lot of cool echos from the KF series to Demons and beyond. I'd describe them as bad but interesting games worth checking out at least a little. I'd say just start with the western release of KF1 (aka KF2).

 

[Register]

KF 4 on PS2. Don't bother with the rest.

It has a great atmosphere and is very mysterious and intriguing and you can definitely see that the Soul series was greatly inspired by it.

That said, it's very terrible to actually 'play' the game. From hidden button commands to the slow-speed-from-hell of turning yourself and no quick turn around, it's probably better to just watch a LP of it.

 

[Jonneh3003]

KF 4 on PS2. Don't bother with the rest.

It has a great atmosphere and is very mysterious and intriguing and you can definitely see that the Soul series was greatly inspired by it.

That said, it's very terrible to actually 'play' the game. From hidden button commands to the slow-speed-from-hell of turning yourself and no quick turn around, it's probably better to just watch a LP of it.

Never seen a Let's Play in my life but I'll give the game a fair shot, if I don't like it then at least it can go in my From Soft collection.

 

[Foffy]

King's Field I - The Japanese release, not the one named that internationally - is actually an incredibly easy game for most of it.

But holy shit, is II hard. <3

 

[jimboton]

Like others are saying, best one is probably 4, but there's also something to be said for 2. Both are great 3d metroidvania rpg adventures if you can stomach the slow movement.

 

[Jonneh3003]

I see what you guys mean about slow movement, everything looks like its in slow motion, still eager to give it a try. I can imagine backtracking to be a little tedious at this speed.

 

[MrDoctor]

Shadow Tower Abyss is the most refined and interesting of them, being the last game in the series prior to Demon's Souls. However, Sony denied the english localization from release(much like Demon's Souls before Atlus stepped in) and you'd need to play with the fan patch in an emulator. The Ancient City would be your second choice for something official.

Edit: Oh, I do want to put in a recommendation for the original King's Field just to see what might be the strangest and hilariously low budget game From has ever made. It's also the foundation of the studio.

 

[cuilan]

I've been a big King's Field fan ever since the 2nd one came out in the US, and my recommendation is to play them in reverse-chronological order. Out of all of them, I'd say that only 3 and 4 are must-plays. Though 2 is still good, it hasn't aged quite as well imho, so I think it's best to play it if 3 and 4 have left you wanting more.

 

[The Mageling]

Eternal Ring is kinda okay and short, but possibly worth a play. It's easy to get into.

Seconding some Eternal Ring once you've had your fill of King's Field proper. King's Field 1 and 2 (using JP numbering) are the ones I enjoyed the most. I haven't beaten 4, I should probably do that at some point.

King's Field 2 is a good example of how the now-familiar From level design template was started. Lots of shortcuts and connecting areas that makes your mental map meet up in interesting ways. It's also a fun game to draw maps for!

 

[natsuyasumi]

I would describe PS1 King's Field as a shitty Doom with horribly clunky, slow action, and I say that as someone with a fondness for the series. It's basically a bad FPS with RPG stats laid on top. It can be fun despite its obvious shortcomings.

Also like Doom, you'll want to hump every wall with your X button to check for the numerous secret doors.