King's Field: The Ancient City – Review

Patience is a virtue. A disappearing virtue soon to be extinct, but a virtue nonetheless. In this age of instant gratification and sensory overload, its easy to see why the King's Field series has been so consistently overlooked and under-appreciated. The gaming industry has been chronicallyf ill-suited to promote the appreciation of subtle, atmospheric titles. As a result, players don't know what to do with these types of games when they arrive. King's Field is not the kind of title that leaps out at you from the shelves, nor does it grab you bombastically with excess. Frankly, its never going to be a top ten game or one that gathers a huge following. However, for those select few who can enjoy games offering true alternatives to the current selection of me-too titles, King's Field is not without considerable charm.

The game is best summed up as a first-person RPG (Role-Playing Game) taking place in a fully realized 3D world. Heavy emphasis is placed on exploration, with secret items tucked in nearly every corner. Movement is handled by the D-Pad or the left analog stick. Looking around and sidestepping are accomplished by skillful use of the four shoulder buttons, and the right stick has a limited view function as well. There is an amazing variety of armor to find and equip, along with a healthy selection of swords, axes, hammers and projectile weapons. An especially nice touch is that your characters appearance changes on the main menu each time you put on something new. Magic spells for both offense and defense also play a role, although the emphasis is clearly on the real-time melee seen through the eyes of the main character.

The games story begins with a simple quest: return a cursed idol to its altar deep within the heart of an abandoned city. After watching the opening cutscene, you walk through a gate and start your adventure from absolute zero. Within seconds, you know that King's Field is not like other games. While staying within the framework of fantasy entertainment, its approach is about as realistic as you can imagine. Picture yourself entering a strange and otherworldly realm with no weapons, no guidebook, no companions, one basic goal and no idea how to go about achieving it. Welcome to King's Field. Make no bones about it... its tough. The game hands you absolutely nothing, never holds your hand, and leaves you to sink or swim based entirely on your own ingenuity. In fact, the developers place such a strong emphasis on player independence that its quite possible to die within five steps after walking through the first gate (provided you're careless enough). I like to think of it as FromSoft's way of saying that the gauntlet is thrown.

Don't let me scare you, however..I love this game. The wide-open, exploratory nature of the quest can be a bit intimidating, but once you understand how the world works and whats expected of you, the level of immersion is incredible. The huge areas are designed excellently, and unfold as one continuous land. There are no loading screens and no discernible breaks except for music changes. Going from open woodlands to castle ruins, and then down to a dusty tomb or a giant insects lair all feels completely natural and believable. Its very easy to buy into the illusion that FromSoft has created.

The graphic quality of the environments is outstanding as well. There are several places where the mood and atmosphere are so present that you forget youre even playing a game. After making my way through some catacombs and graves, I found a door that opened onto a flooded subterranean cavern. Just beneath the placid surface, I could see the magnificent underwater spires of a long-forgotten castle rising form the bottom like obsidian coral. Moments of such sheer awe—such feeling of discovering something so breathtaking and fantastic happen so rarely in games that its a crime most players wont ever experience it.

Not all of the games appeal is on such a large scale, however. While making your way through the Ancient City, there are so many small touches and nearly unnoticeable details that most players wont even get close to seeing all that's there to be seen. Searching underneath rubble, poking and prodding shadowy alcoves and trying unorthodox strategies will unearth a great many things. You literally never know what will work in order to reach a seemingly unreachable treasure or dangerous precipice until you try, and the results are often surprising. Keeping your eyes open and getting involved in the environments will reveal the small flashes of brilliance embedded throughout the lonely, consuming atmosphere.

The reward of succeeding at a game like King's Field is similar to the feeling of accomplishment a person might get after making their way through a vast wilderness, or from standing atop the summit of a mountain after an arduous climb. So much of the players persona gets involved that it becomes more than a simple game—Its a challenge of your very mettle. By the time the ending credits roll (IF they roll) you'll feel that you've proven yourself against countless obstacles and emerged stronger for it. However, with all of my glowing praise in mind, the fact remains that King's Field: The Ancient City is most certainly not for everyone.

Snapping out of my reverie, I know for a fact that the biggest complaints people will have about King's Field will be the same issues that have been present since its beginnings. The control scheme is the most obvious rough spot. Its embarrassingly clunky to use the shoulder buttons so much when you've got two analog sticks left un-optimized, and the dated setup is badly in need of a complete overhaul. Cruising down the corridors of the game comes second nature to me since I'm a veteran of nearly ALL the FromSoft games. However, its going to feel extremely awkward to most people. Things are slow and deliberate, and the turning speed is especially vexing. It doesn't feel anything like a first-person shooter game at all (a good thing, since its not), but the calm pace and unorthodox control can hinder the feeling of immersion for new players. Quite honestly, I think it would definitely be in FromSoft's best interest to simply bite the bullet and provide players with a true analog setup for all future discs. You'll probably end up mastering the digitals despite the halfhearted attempt to implement the sticks, so expect a bit of a learning curve here.

Another thing that's mildly problematic is the ease with which you can miss crucial items. Since you are left to your own devices in the deep, dark depths there's no real way to tell what items or areas are optional and which aren't. At a few points, I wanted to rush ahead into new areas or skip some I didn't care for, but there is absolutely nothing more painful in a King's Field game than passing up a vital item and having no idea where to find it. As a consequence, you have to comb every inch of the land to avoid problems later. It can be doubly tough since you don't get any kind of useful map to aid your search until at least three quarters of the way through the game. In hindsight after completion its quite clear what the key events are, but lapse in your systematic search the first time through and you'll sorely regret it. Do yourself a favor and take notes.

Lastly, something that has been requested from the developers several times and never implemented is the addition of more interactions and side-quests with the games peripheral characters. While one of the games most unique qualities is the powerful feeling of solitude while probing the mysterious ruins, it wouldn't hurt to decrease the aura of loneliness by just a hair. I wouldn't want things to be overdone and turned into a series of fetch-quests like practically every other RPG out there, but a little socializing between dungeon dives would be appreciated since the monsters you encounter don't make for very good company.

I think there's really something to be said for the slow, moody and incredibly involving approach to adventuring that King's Field: The Ancient City takes. Its substance and sensibility are so unique and so far removed from the normal content of what the term "Role-Playing Game" has come to represent that I think most people simply don't know what to do with it. Therefore, very few people give it the chance it so richly deserves. This game comes with my highest recommendations if you have patience and are willing to take an open-minded attitude toward what the game has to offer. The experience you'll have is quite unlike anything else on the console market. This game is rated 8 out of 10.

King's Field: The Ancient City – Second Opinion

I personally feel that no review of a King's Field title would be complete without describing the injustice that has plagued the series since its inauspicious beginnings. Brad has done an admirable job of defending the honor of the King's Field games and I'll add that I share in his love of these wonderfully misunderstood gems.

I think the misperception largely stems from the meteoric rise and overshadowing popularity of first-person shooters like Doom and then later Quake that were produced in the same era. In mid 1990s, if a game utilized a first-person perspective, it was expected to be balls-out action thrills with unrelenting twitchy violence. King's Field was none of those things. It incorporated a first-person perspective for its own reasons and many critics sought fit to judge it for what it wasn't rather than what it was. Criticisms that the games were too slow and poorly paced were more common than one's that recognized its subtle yet unique approach to the role-playing game genre.

The true stars of the King's Field games have always been the landscapes afforded to the player to conquer and roam. The Ancient City chapter is no different. I can play through the game almost entirely without the use of maps. Considering the games massively sprawling environments, how is this possible? The designers are great about creating interiors and exteriors with distinct personalities. This makes exploration and navigation as natural as it would be for a person to get to work in the morning. Recognizable markers, walls with distinguishing textures, and different music selections playing in the background helped to set characteristic tones and ambience for each environment. Brad is correct in noting that quite often some of the locales can be rather breathtaking.

It is true that From Software has done very little to update the marooned-on-an-island-survival formula over the course of several sequels. As Brad already noted, the difficulty can often be uninviting and the controls are in desperate need of an update. The old bait-and-switch hand-to-hand and spellcasting combat never seems to tire on me and is still fun due to the primitive, but still dangerously effective pattern behaviors of creatures and monsters. However, I do think that more progress should be made in the non-playing character socialisation, artificial intelligence and combat gameplay.

It's also interesting to note that while there has been very little innovation through out the series, there still remain few if any games that are quite like the King's Field titles. Without oversaturation from clones and sequels, playing Ancient City is surprisingly refreshing and yet strangely comfortable at the same time.

One thing that I do disagree with in Brad's review is that he indicates that Ancient City will never gather a huge following. I believe that the series already has a sizable international following. How else can you explain the numerous sequels and why King's Field continues to be one of From Software's cornerstone franchises? Like its predecessors, King's Field: Ancient City is one of videogames best kept secrets. Rating: 8.5 out of 10

King's Field: The Ancient City – Consumer Guide

According to ESRB, this game contains: Violence

Parents have nothing to fear. There is no gore or blood to be seen, nor any nudity, sexual situations or questionable language. The player will be killing lots of monsters that disappear by slowly fading out of existence, but otherwise its totally harmless. Be aware that the game has a SIGNIFICANT difficulty, and is not at all approachable by anyone younger than the early or mid teens.

Gamers in general will want to avoid this game since the requirements for completion are the patience and meticulousness of a dungeon crawler combined with the brainpower and creative problem solving of a free-thinker. You'll also need tolerance for the games control quibbles. In all honesty, this game is not for the gamer in general. Role-Players will be in for a treat unlike any other, as long as they can read my comments for Gamers in General and not run away screaming.

Fans of Final Fantasy will want to look elsewhere. Kings Field: The Ancient City is probably the closest a game can possibly come to being the complete and utter opposite of what the big blockbuster RPGs are like. No flashy explosions, no turn-based battles, no movie-like CG and no cute anime girls are in this game.

Fans of Kings Field will be treated to the best-looking, most well-crafted and most immersive Kings Field ever. Its shorter and more linear than the previous games, but only in the best ways. Most of your favorite equipment returns as well—Yay TripleFang! However, be aware that the game is merely a more polished version of the previous ones, and does not offer a significantly new experience.

Deaf and hard of hearing gamers will have no problems here. The game offers full text for the entire game, and there is almost no spoken dialogue throughout the disc.