VG_Addict wrote:How about a Dante Must Die Mode: Make a list of 10+ classic games you've never beaten.
Try to finish all of them before the summer's end.
They must all be RPGs.
That would be too easy…They all have to be SPORTS games!
prfsnl_gmr wrote:Bionic Commando (Arcade)
Contra (Famicom)
King’s Field a/k/a King’s Field II (PS1)
Metal Gear (NES)
Mysterious Murasame Castle (Famicom)
Shinobi (Arcade)
Summer Carnival ‘92 Recca (Famicom)
Super Baseball 2020 (Neo Geo)
Super Meat Boy (XBLA)
Vampire Killer (MSX)
One more down!
Some trivia…King’s Field is actually the second game in the King’s Field series. The first game was released only in Japan, and in Japan King’s Field is titled King’s Field II. Still, it is the first From Software game released in North America, and it is the first RPG released for the PSX in North America. (Coincidentally, the first game in the series was the first RPG released for the PSX in Japan, and Eternal Ring, another From Software first-person ARPG, was a launch title for the PS2 in both Japan and North America.)
Like it’s predecessor, King’s Field is a first-person ARPG with an oppressive atmosphere and an incredibly steep difficulty curve. You can die within a few steps of your starting location; the most basic enemies can kill you with just a few strike; healing items are rare; and save points are rarer. Moreover, the game doesn’t hold your hand at all. Clues are cryptic at best, and goals are frequently unclear. The game consists, largely, of a labyrinthine series of indistinguishable corridors and bland textures. Accordingly, it’s easy to get lost, even after you’ve played the game for hours, and many of the game’s design choices are infuriating and actively player unfriendly.
Still…there was nothing else quite like it available for consoles in the 1990s, and many of the things people love about From Software games today is on display here. The game delivers its remarkably compelling narrative through environmental cues, gameplay, and a series of unreliable narrators. (In my opinion, this is the best way video games tell stories, since no other medium can do it this way.) Once you get accustomed to the gameplay (and very awkward controls), the game is remarkably immersive, and conquering its challenges and uncovering its secrets is very rewarding. Accordingly, while it’s easy to get literally lost in the game’s roughly textured corridors, it’s also easy to get figuratively lost in the game’s immersive atmosphere and shockingly deep gameplay.
While the first game in the series (and spiritual successors Eternal Ring and Shadow Tower) required some backtracking, King’s Field fully embraces first-person, metroidvania game design (and only 13 months after Super Metroid launched on the SNES!). Over the course of the game, you’ll crisscross Melanat Island dozens of times, hunting down new clues, items, keys, and weapons. Different enemies have different weaknesses; different armor combinations affect your stats in drastic ways; and whether you rely more on physical or magical attacks affects your stat growth. Despite the rough exterior, there’s a lot going on under the hood, and the game’s rough, low-poly graphics do a disservice to the game’s deep, complex gameplay. (So do some of the game’s most baffling design decisions, but that’s another topic…)
King’s Field is definitely not a game for everyone, and it definitely wasn’t the RPG people wanted on the PSX in 1995. With its rough graphics, awkward controls, and baffling design choices, it isn’t the RPG most people will want today. The game had a fierce cult following, however, even before From Software became one of the world’s most popular game developers, and From Software’s recent popularity has contributed to a lot of people discovering this series for the first time. If you enjoy From Software’s recent output, and you can tolerate dated graphics, awkward controls, and a few terrible design choices, you might find one of the era’s most challenging and immersive RPGs.