Next video will be "Was it Good? King's Field" as Josh mistakenly played king's field instead of king's field so the footage of king's field doesn't go to waste.
Nah since Josh can not go any video without Dark Souls, he should go with the strange "Demon's Souls is a sequel to this game if you squint hard enough" classic, Lost Kingdom for the Gamecube.
Dude to this DAY its stupid. I spent an hour straight trying to play FF6 and i kept downloading the japanese version or FF3. For those who dont know, the U.S. got FF6 instead of 3, but was still called ff3 because i guess it was still the U.S.'s third game idk. So to some americans who werent aware, the ff3 game they played was actually ff6.
If you want to play this today on a modern PC, get "Sword of Moonlight: King's Field Making Tool" (from the Internet Archive, for instance). It's a dungeon creation program that From Software published in 2000, and it includes a recreation of King's Field in that new engine. It's vastly superior to the Playstation version, while staying completely true to the original, and you can play it right now on a modern Windows PC with a controller without any difficulty.
@@pseudosanct5253 my favourite are his darkseed videos. the way his style of humor and commenting vibes with that goofball protagonist is just chefs kiss
I saw this title and went: "Oh wow I remember King's Field! This should be great!" Then I realised that I hadn't actually played King's Field, for this was in fact King's Field, and not King's Field.
45:25 "They wanted to make Elden Ring, so they started with King's Field and slowly improved." This is genuinely inspirational and goes to show that you gotta start somewhere, anywhere, if you want to eventually make your masterpiece.
What Josh didnt say, or doesnt kmow is that FROM was making offimatic programs just before this. Whatever demon possessed a respectful software company to shift gears and start making games is unknown. But Sony basically asked them to showcase they could finish a game before granting them a license. This is them HALFASSING EVERYTHING.
True. He used the evolution of King’s field’s/shadow tower’s gameplay and expanded upon it more with the souls series. But the original games had nothing to do with him.
What intrigues me, in seeing the very first King's Field having nearly all the hallmark characteristics of its successors... Is that THEY'VE ALWAYS BEEN HERE. Players will happily name Miyazaki. All the time. Like Miyazaki made any of this. No. This is FromSoftware at its core in its entirety. Miyazaki comes much, much later. Yes, he refined everything into Demons' Souls, a much superior product, but he isn't the brains of the operation that we make him to be. He keeps giving it better directions, but the soul itself has always been there.
My first From game was Lost Kingdoms. You can also see proto-elements of Demon’s Souls in there as well, since the plot is all about an evil mist flooding a kingdom and causing monsters to appear, with a wicked king being the one responsible for the whole mess.
I think you're the first reviewer I've seen really encapsulate what makes this game special in a succinct and palatable way. The conclusion of the video really sums things up well. I enjoyed this a lot was very well done
Oh god the aspect ratio of this video is hiding his health bar. I wonder if Josh is just doing this to fill the video up with as much screen as possible or he's just protesting 3:4...
King's Field 4 is the true masterpiece in my opinion. One thing you left out is that there's a full remake of the original King's Field with new graphics included with Fromsoft's official "King's Field maker" called Sword of Moonlight. Meaning that there are actually 4 different King's Fields (OG, english retitled KF2, rerelease, remake on SoM). Should note also that Martin Ramirez likely wasn't Martin's real name, as an NPC in KF4 is named Ramirez Martin.
One thing that was very apparent to me is that most all of the enemies I see you fighting in Kings Field exist in some form in Dark Souls. It's actually quite remarkable. Heck, the skeleton you encounter in the first secret are the exact skeletons in visual concept that you see at Firelink Shrine. The lizard man with the single armor piece is a staple of Sen's Fortress and became the magic shooting ones and the big sword boys. The big slow moving skeleton with the knife arms resembles the ghosts in New Londo, which hey! This game has the ghosts minus the knife hands. The plant creatures arguably got split into at least two enemies. The plant dudes in Darkroot Garden, the weird crystal clam things in the Duke's Archives, there's a linear progression from King's Field to Dark Souls in almost every conceivable way.
@@Fedorchik1536 Hell yeah! I remember seeing that as a kid (it was old then) and being fascinated with the stop motion animation. That cemented my love for all things fantasy.
@@S0ulGh0st It's a joke about a Brazilian Computer Server being only able to function if it doesn't turn off, so the responsible for it marathons Josh's channel to keep it on.
Kings field as a series was an important part of my gaming growing up, I loved trying to puzzle together the world in each of the games. The third game introduced a really cool mechanic with the Excellector, a crystal sword that grew as you used it. A lot of nostalgia here.
30:40 hey josh... you know what might be the best example of a game using negitive space in this series of videos? tomb raiders dive into the water temple. nothing around you, untill the giant creature shaped statues loom out of the gloom... wonderful. and scary as hell.
45:15 this speech right here, if I ever needed something to feel inspired and start working on my plans for the future, this right here is what would’ve started that, kudos
It should be said that Dragon Fruit's aren't the only way to continue after dying. Those golden crosses you see on the wall are save points, and dying without reviving will restart you there, instead of at the start of the game. You can also load these saves from the games pause menu, where you can change your equipment and use items. Under "System" you can press load, and see your 3 save slots. This is also where you can quit the game without turning your console off, aside from the credits screen. You are actually stuck there as far as I know.
Backlogs once covered the entire king's field series and his words still remain in my mind Welcome to Demon Souls, Prepare to die Welcome to Dark Souls, Prepare to die Welcome to King's Field, **** You
5:15 There was a way to run: I noticed when pressing interact to look for hidden walls and secrets in barrels that it would prevent my stamina from recharging. Eventually, I connected the dots and realized that holding down the interact button would deplete stamina and allow you to move faster, essentially being a sprint button.
the idea that kings field was what they improved on to make the souls series makes a lot of sense when you know that miyazaki joined from later and his sole reason for joining was that he loved the kings field series
King's Field, Armored Core, Eternal Ring, Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Echo Night... And then there's The Adventures of Cookie & Cream. A very colorful and charming puzzle/platformer game. A bit quite the oposite of what their other games are. lol Great video as always, Josh. Kudos!
My only memory of that is some dude harassing me on the dark souls wiki to force me to become an admin on his cookie wiki, annoying me to the point I used my unconsensually given admin powers to ban him from his own wiki
That outro, my lord, you just won over every literal FromSoft fan that will watch this, i subbed just from that outro alone. Amazing video and loved the thoughtful hindsight approach on all these design choices that grew into what we're so amazed by today.
The Mind-Boggling Effects were the adorable low-poly enemies we befriended along the way. This makes me wish there was some kind of elaborate mod to turn all of Elden Ring's graphics into these low poly ones.
I want that mod for a _lot_ of modern games. I would honestly rather look a duplo with legs and _imagine_ how horrifying the monster is, than have a 500mb jpg of "pale guy with big mouth and tentacles #3407".
Josh should totally do a WIAG of Ultima Underworld I The Stygian Abyss. You can find a whole load of themes and ideas that would find their way into pretty mich every fantasy game since
Believe it or not, the Moonlight Greatsword is also in Sekiro. It's the weapon used by the Divine Dragon. Same color, same blade beam attacks, and the sword he uses is in the shape of a legendary godlike weapon known as the seven ponged sword.
This was such a great video, gotta join your patreon man, really resonated with me! The bit about having hidden doors that are literally vital for progressing the story, insane.
Dark Souls 2 is basically King's Field remake. Has similar zones and enemies if you pay close attention to those golems and spider skeletons are from DS2.
Dark Souls 2 is great for just how deep some of its RPG elements go. Plethora of items, spells, abilities and special gimmicks. It is kind of unfortunate that after Bloodborne (a fantastic game) FromSoft has began to do away with these mechanics to focus instead on pure combat. Elden Ring has more depth than DS3 for sure, but perhaps they might still make something akin to their older games again. :)
@@chromasus9983 i really hope they do. the older titles, specifically demon's souls and ds1, have such an amazing magical atmosphere that just doest exist in any other games. honestly? demon's souls might be my favourite fantasy game ever. its so simple yet so effective, and perfectly matches what i had imagined i looked like whenever i picked up a stick to use as a sword and wore cardboard boxes as armor as a small kid. its so increadbly nostalgic yet so somber, truly a masterpiece in every aspect. remake kinda sucks tho.
@@demonwind5030 completely ignoring the original art direction in favor of fancy graphics that recontextualize the story that is told through the environment. Take for example the first archstone, canonically Boletaria has been in ruin for a couple of years so in the original, there are just some stray weeds growing here and there, the streets and living quarters are a bit messy but you really feel like the citizens are grasping at straws, trying to cling on and preserve what is left. In the remake, however, literally every building is covered in moss and vines, the streets are absolute chaos, living quarters are filthy and messy. Does it look amazing? Absolutely. Its a gorgeous game, one of the best looking games to have ever been released. But the story it tells through the environment is vastly different, and makes no sense in the context of the game. So it’s an amazing game, and a bad remake.
King's Field is a hard look at what happens when business software development staff slowly comes into their own as a game developer, with an enormous batch of creative ideas coming through in an overall unrefined experience. SirTech (of Wizardry) and (if my understanding of events is correct) Squaresoft were similar success stories. From Software arguably had it worse, because they had to hit the ground running in an industry where established veteran companies at the time were themselves spinning their wheels to figure out this whole 3D console game thing.
@@Chinothebad I myself have just become a fan by way of Armored Core, and seeing the rich history this developer team has is just... wow. massive respect to these guys. I see why people love their games to death now. I've played the Armored Core series from Gen 1 thru to Gen 4. what can I say, I'm addicted!
I still hope he eventually does a video on 4/The Ancient City. The sound design alone in that game was great for setting the mood for each environment.
Ultima Underworld 1992 is most likely the first full 3D world RPG and immersive sim. You can tell the Kingsfield devs absolutely played Ultima Underworld
You have no idea how fast I clicked when I saw you'd made a video on King's Field. I really hope you'll follow up with the rest of the series! Also, one minor correction: you can actually full heal using the dragon fountain on the first floor, so the one on the third floor isn't the ONLY heal spot.
Nothing like spam watching a bunch of someone's videos and having a shiny new one drop! Brilliant video as always, can't wait to see if we get to see the second game!
I've been watching the main channel for a long time and I only recently found out about this one. I love essays about old/obscure videogames so it's like a goldmine! I'm binging all the videos ahahah
Watching Josh's first combat experience in this game as someone who's played it and read up on it is hilarious. And an accurate portrayal of what new players go through.
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss came in 1992 for PC, the same year when Wolfenstein 3D, but it was much better looking with height differences. It was unbelievable at the time. Seems like this game was also very good at the 90's.
@@cattysplatah yes, RPGs used sprites for very long after the first fully 3D role playing games most people played was either Morrowind or Neverwinter Nights, both almost a decade later... Or MMOs, I think World of Warcraft popularized actually drawing everything with polygons instead of pre-rendering either sprites or Bg.
ahhh Kings Field my beloved. i may have stumbled on you entirely by mistake after falling into the souls rabbit hole around when Dark Souls 1 came out but my god you are still amazing. you and Shadow Tower
@@stolensentience Elden Ring was a bit too ambitious, a bit too big, and as a result there are holes in the design. Reused bosses, dead space, terrible run-backs... there's still space to improve, and I have every reason to believe that there will be another take on open world Dark Souls. There's always room to climb higher.
To be fair most games are made in an odd (but understandable) order where the first level is one of the last actually designed in order for a game to put its best foot forward.
No, this game was a test to prove to Sony that they could actually FINISH a game. Before this FROM was making office software. Sony was impressed enough that King's Field was published as a launch title for the PS1. Kings field 2 was their actual first game game and is basically a remake of this one, and then they made Armored Core. Armored Core was one of the first "greatest hits" titles, back when selling a million copies was an actual feat.
I would argue that the first 3D RPG (i know of) would be Alternate Reality (1985). Totally blew my mind when i saw that "run" on a C64 back then. Not sure if it would be worth a video checking that out.
i played and beat the first kings field a few years ago and was absolutely blown away by practically everything, the atmosphere and design was absolutely fantastic and to this day i have it easily in my top list of games of all time. it made me try 4 and that was a whole journey i adored
25:15 i wish fromsoft would go back to contextualizing the lore dumps like this. They did it with dark souls 1, whereby all of the lore you know was picked up from the stories you heard in the prison you were rotting in. So when you pick up a Glove Of Dudebro, you know from the prison a fleeting piece of lore about where he came from and what his story was. Every other game has simply relied on the trope of delivering the story through item descriptions, so the perspective of the lore descriptions is suddenly just The Narrator.
Honest question, it’s not that I don’t believe you but where is that particular bit of info from? I haven’t heard that explanation for the item descriptions before.
The funny part is, I've played most of FromSoft's games when I was younger. I could not speak English at all and did not notice the logos until way later. And then I put in 14k hours in Dark Souls.
Brooo that little speech at the end. Hitting exactly what I think makes these games so special. They’re like archaeological finds for Souls enthusiasts. Please do KF 2!!
We never got a western release of King's Field 1 (KF2 was called KF1 in the west) so it's interesting to look back on a game that not many people have nostalgia for, and would also be the game that forms one half of FromSoftware's identity.
@@iamravenous_ If we're just talking game formula then I don't think they're separate at all. In each series it's the same formula but in Armored Core's case the formula just looks different due to faster overall gameplay (at least for many of the AC titles).
It is funny how common that was, to use different titles and numbers. Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy had the same treatment all over, with strange numberings and all. Like it made sense, but certainly became confusing later on.
From Soft did what it seems like almost no other devs do. They continued to build on their original idea without drastic changes to gameplay or overall style. They perfected their first idea for decades. THATS how you can get the closest to making the perfect game. That's why elden ring is a masterpiece and won game of the year. So many other companies think they need to completely change the style and gameplay to succeed. Using metrics to make games that try to appeal to everybody. That's why we've gotten so many good awful games recently. Or at least a big part of the reason.
I feel that Monster Hunter is in a similar boat. Having played the games for over a decade, the feel and overall gameplay loop has hardly changed, yet they've really honed in and perfected many aspects. One thing I respect Fromsoft for over Capcom, however, is sticking close to their hardcore reputation by constantly increasing difficulty as their player's skill increases. Some of Capcom's recent "quality of life" decisions for MH don't quite agree with the spirit of the hunt.
Larian did the same. I played original Divine Divinity until memory leaks on bloated game state made it unplayable. Same with BG3 lol, they both have that gimmick that every item in the world is movable and you can bring crates and barrels into your home. And NPC reaction system, writing style and even atmosphere in Baldur's Gate 3 is closer to older games by same team than original Baldur's Gate. speaking of that, Bioware used to be that dev who made the same game but more streamlined every few years, you can easily see how Mass Effect or Dragon Age are still following BG2 formula with NPCs and a base, tons of dialogue to solve quests without sacrificing gameplay... Hell, Elder Scrolls have he same pattern, Arena was trying to make Skyrim wig sticks and stones.
@@operator8014you're comparing it to modern games. were you even alive in 1995? let alone playing videogames? if you grew up on SNES, playing Kings Field and Shadow Tower were mind-blowing experiences for 1995, it's just the way it is
Theres no way! I remember playing this as a kid, and remembering how hard it was for me. I had no idea what to do, or even what the game was about. All i did was run around trying to figure out what to do, and dying to everything. I forgot the name of it, and surprised to see Josh, of course, randomly playing it. XD
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
Next video will be "Was it Good? King's Field" as Josh mistakenly played king's field instead of king's field so the footage of king's field doesn't go to waste.
Ngl this would go hard
Nah since Josh can not go any video without Dark Souls, he should go with the strange "Demon's Souls is a sequel to this game if you squint hard enough" classic, Lost Kingdom for the Gamecube.
This makes more sense than I'd like to admit.
"Yo dawg, he heard you like King's Field..."
[Laughs in Xzibit]
Omg. I thought the same thing lol. He's gotta do it.
Can't help but smile at the idea of a dad and daughter mapping out the whole game together.
Your explanation of the titles at 2:40 just gave me flashbacks of trying to figure out the Final Fantasy titles when I was a kid. Thanks, Josh.
You think that's bad, look into the titles of Kingdom Hearts!
@@majorkhajiit kh's titles are weird, but they have absolutely none of the problems of final fantasy or king's field
We didn't have this problem in Europe 😎
Because we didn't get any FF before VII 😢
Mystic quest?
Dude to this DAY its stupid. I spent an hour straight trying to play FF6 and i kept downloading the japanese version or FF3. For those who dont know, the U.S. got FF6 instead of 3, but was still called ff3 because i guess it was still the U.S.'s third game idk. So to some americans who werent aware, the ff3 game they played was actually ff6.
Fun fact: King's Field was named after the Director's favorite Golf Club.
I can‘t wait for the follow-up „Was it good? - King‘s Field“
"No not that one"
But... I thought this one was King's Field... o_O
@@minecreeper98 nah, this was King's Field, not King's Field
@@fulnaz3164 Ah ok, thanks for clarifying ^^
Ta-da! He made it lol.
"He is Dead" appearing right when you say "Let's be real, he's probably dead" was really good lol
Was about to say how excellent that was.
The PlayStation can produce mind-boggling effects.
It has always been more about the quality and creativity of the developer over the actual hardware.
@renmcmanus
It's a meme, you dip
@nickoliekeyov746 sorry I'm not brain rotted. Wait... I'm not sorry. Sorry not sorry.
I've never seen such realistic skeletons since.
can confirm, my mind was boggled
If you want to play this today on a modern PC, get "Sword of Moonlight: King's Field Making Tool" (from the Internet Archive, for instance).
It's a dungeon creation program that From Software published in 2000, and it includes a recreation of King's Field in that new engine. It's vastly superior to the Playstation version, while staying completely true to the original, and you can play it right now on a modern Windows PC with a controller without any difficulty.
my god.... an entire field of kings....
You have to be careful when growing kings, one revolution and you can lose the whole crop...
I wonder if each of these kings has a throne of their own. If so, that means theres a Thronesfield out there somewhere
@Tarso333 do the kings bloom from them like flowers
@@RandallMiller-eh6wm Wouldn't crowns be the flowers?
Shockingly, there are no fields until KF3.
"the furtive pygmy so easily forgottten"
oh man I just got chills..
Majuular does a great 3hr video on this game series. I'd never heard of it before and it was an interesting watch.
I was like "Again, josh? I'm sure I heard Josh review this..." and check'd history, and it was Majuular, to my surprise.
I love Maj's ultima series
@@pseudosanct5253Yes same. He said Ultima 6 video will likely be out around mid september !
Majuular is the man. So is ofc our josh ❤
@@pseudosanct5253 my favourite are his darkseed videos. the way his style of humor and commenting vibes with that goofball protagonist is just chefs kiss
I saw this title and went:
"Oh wow I remember King's Field! This should be great!"
Then I realised that I hadn't actually played King's Field, for this was in fact King's Field, and not King's Field.
"So behold, combat!
- Strife, Josh
i would buy such a shirt
45:25 "They wanted to make Elden Ring, so they started with King's Field and slowly improved." This is genuinely inspirational and goes to show that you gotta start somewhere, anywhere, if you want to eventually make your masterpiece.
Hidetaka Miyazaki has said he is not quite done. He still has ideas to make, in his opinion, the ultimate RPG.
What Josh didnt say, or doesnt kmow is that FROM was making offimatic programs just before this.
Whatever demon possessed a respectful software company to shift gears and start making games is unknown.
But Sony basically asked them to showcase they could finish a game before granting them a license.
This is them HALFASSING EVERYTHING.
@@louieberg2942 Let the man cook.
@@louieberg2942 Hidetaka Miyazaki didn't join From when they made this series.
True. He used the evolution of King’s field’s/shadow tower’s gameplay and expanded upon it more with the souls series. But the original games had nothing to do with him.
wow i hope martin and his daughter are doing ok today. that map is seriously awesome!
Me too, what a legend for making that map!
From Softwares first software made was for agriculture. It was used to calculate feed for pigs.
Wait,really?
I choose to believe this!
What intrigues me, in seeing the very first King's Field having nearly all the hallmark characteristics of its successors... Is that THEY'VE ALWAYS BEEN HERE.
Players will happily name Miyazaki. All the time. Like Miyazaki made any of this. No. This is FromSoftware at its core in its entirety. Miyazaki comes much, much later.
Yes, he refined everything into Demons' Souls, a much superior product, but he isn't the brains of the operation that we make him to be. He keeps giving it better directions, but the soul itself has always been there.
That's the power or narratives for you. The guy was enshrined as the sole responsible for Demon Souls and later Dark souls.
Ya. That's why I always say.miyazaki is a wild story crafter... But it's the devs themselves that have crafted the frame it's built on.
My first From game was Lost Kingdoms. You can also see proto-elements of Demon’s Souls in there as well, since the plot is all about an evil mist flooding a kingdom and causing monsters to appear, with a wicked king being the one responsible for the whole mess.
Nah they almost forgot it during ninja blade but thank god Miyazaki is also making demon souls at that time.
Hes like a really good filter
I think you're the first reviewer I've seen really encapsulate what makes this game special in a succinct and palatable way. The conclusion of the video really sums things up well. I enjoyed this a lot was very well done
Oh god the aspect ratio of this video is hiding his health bar. I wonder if Josh is just doing this to fill the video up with as much screen as possible or he's just protesting 3:4...
I hope he notices how it looks for viewers
He's hiding his invulnerability😁
yeah the weird zoom-in is driving me insane lmao
Yea i noticed this too and it was driving me crazy!!!
He's doing it just to mess with us.
1:32 "The Playstation can produce mind-boggling graphics"
I have fever dreams about PS1 games like the army guy helicopter game and there was one with a pirate ship stuck in rivers that gave me PTSD.
It did
@@FumblsTheSniper Army Men Air Attack?
@@arciks11 yeah that one was a good time. The final boss was my crucible.
Forgot i played and beat this game back when it came out on the playstation. This video held my hand as i took a little walk down memory lane.
Thinking about beating this game without a guide, like a TON of other games at the time, seems impossible.
in japanese?!
@@disturbownzall took me & my friend like 500 hours to figure it out & beat it.
King's Field 4 is the true masterpiece in my opinion. One thing you left out is that there's a full remake of the original King's Field with new graphics included with Fromsoft's official "King's Field maker" called Sword of Moonlight. Meaning that there are actually 4 different King's Fields (OG, english retitled KF2, rerelease, remake on SoM). Should note also that Martin Ramirez likely wasn't Martin's real name, as an NPC in KF4 is named Ramirez Martin.
Seeing the mic in a cup gets me everytime.
Lol yea I love it
But it really is very pragmatic if you're going to do a standing setup.
32:26 i dont know is this was an accident in the editing but thats way too funny having the game respond to josh like that
that was almost certainly intentional
One thing that was very apparent to me is that most all of the enemies I see you fighting in Kings Field exist in some form in Dark Souls. It's actually quite remarkable. Heck, the skeleton you encounter in the first secret are the exact skeletons in visual concept that you see at Firelink Shrine. The lizard man with the single armor piece is a staple of Sen's Fortress and became the magic shooting ones and the big sword boys. The big slow moving skeleton with the knife arms resembles the ghosts in New Londo, which hey! This game has the ghosts minus the knife hands. The plant creatures arguably got split into at least two enemies. The plant dudes in Darkroot Garden, the weird crystal clam things in the Duke's Archives, there's a linear progression from King's Field to Dark Souls in almost every conceivable way.
And don’t forget that the final boss is pretty much The Bed of Chaos
The one eyed dragon as well being inspo for kalameet is so cool!
The "Ice" Golems becoming the Crystal Golems too.
I just want to remind that skeletons with swords and small shields are a cinema classic from Jason and Argonauts
@@Fedorchik1536 Hell yeah! I remember seeing that as a kid (it was old then) and being fascinated with the stop motion animation. That cemented my love for all things fantasy.
the kings field games are spooky as hell even in ways that are probably unitentional, i love it
Oh thank God, Brazil keeps running for another day.
At least for 46 minutes more
kkkkkkkkkkkkk koéééé
Quê??
Brazil mentioned 🎉🎉
@@S0ulGh0st It's a joke about a Brazilian Computer Server being only able to function if it doesn't turn off, so the responsible for it marathons Josh's channel to keep it on.
not gonna lie that skeleton looks pretty cool
the ps1 was capable of producing mind boggling effects after all
@@morsintus8323😂
Kinda looks like a undead version of Zan from Monster Rancher. Its the back wing claws that make me think of it.
Thank you for not lying
Kings field as a series was an important part of my gaming growing up, I loved trying to puzzle together the world in each of the games. The third game introduced a really cool mechanic with the Excellector, a crystal sword that grew as you used it. A lot of nostalgia here.
king's field is my favorite fromsoft creation, thanks for covering this.
30:40 hey josh... you know what might be the best example of a game using negitive space in this series of videos? tomb raiders dive into the water temple. nothing around you, untill the giant creature shaped statues loom out of the gloom... wonderful. and scary as hell.
45:15 this speech right here, if I ever needed something to feel inspired and start working on my plans for the future, this right here is what would’ve started that, kudos
"Emboldened by the flame of ambition" out of 10.
God, I love this channel.
It should be said that Dragon Fruit's aren't the only way to continue after dying. Those golden crosses you see on the wall are save points, and dying without reviving will restart you there, instead of at the start of the game.
You can also load these saves from the games pause menu, where you can change your equipment and use items. Under "System" you can press load, and see your 3 save slots. This is also where you can quit the game without turning your console off, aside from the credits screen. You are actually stuck there as far as I know.
the skeleton labeled "he is dead" is the most fromsoft thing in the game
RIGHT WITHIN LIIKE WHAT THE FIRST MINUTE OF THE GAME.
Backlogs once covered the entire king's field series and his words still remain in my mind
Welcome to Demon Souls, Prepare to die
Welcome to Dark Souls, Prepare to die
Welcome to King's Field, **** You
Is this video deleted? Can’t seem to find it.
that challenges channel? He did one? Might be one of those deleted reviews on my saved playlist...
Wasn't that mr. Iron Pineapple who did the video you mentioned? More specifically the video about King's Field: The Ancient City.
@@SolarSAG This is correct. It was Iron Pineapple, not Lemon.
@@TheKrangled aww man I wanted to watch lemon suffer... I mean play this
5:15 There was a way to run: I noticed when pressing interact to look for hidden walls and secrets in barrels that it would prevent my stamina from recharging. Eventually, I connected the dots and realized that holding down the interact button would deplete stamina and allow you to move faster, essentially being a sprint button.
That's in King's Field 2.
@@arciks11 I just relaunched both of them to check, and I believe that you're right on that. I probably conflated the two.
the idea that kings field was what they improved on to make the souls series makes a lot of sense when you know that miyazaki joined from later and his sole reason for joining was that he loved the kings field series
That windows 95 Screensaver brought out some nostalgia I'd almost forgot about, thank you good sir for the blast from the past there lol.
King's Field, Armored Core, Eternal Ring, Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Echo Night... And then there's The Adventures of Cookie & Cream. A very colorful and charming puzzle/platformer game. A bit quite the oposite of what their other games are. lol Great video as always, Josh. Kudos!
And also Ninja Blade, a shitty and absolutely ridiculous ninja game.
My only memory of that is some dude harassing me on the dark souls wiki to force me to become an admin on his cookie wiki, annoying me to the point I used my unconsensually given admin powers to ban him from his own wiki
@@THEPELADOMASTER I mean, video game companies aren't perfect. Not every single game they make is gonna be great.
@@historicflame972 That serves him right, hopefully.
Don't forget about Thousand Land, an RTS featuring 🌰s as your soldiers
That outro, my lord, you just won over every literal FromSoft fan that will watch this, i subbed just from that outro alone. Amazing video and loved the thoughtful hindsight approach on all these design choices that grew into what we're so amazed by today.
The Mind-Boggling Effects were the adorable low-poly enemies we befriended along the way.
This makes me wish there was some kind of elaborate mod to turn all of Elden Ring's graphics into these low poly ones.
I want that mod for a _lot_ of modern games.
I would honestly rather look a duplo with legs and _imagine_ how horrifying the monster is, than have a 500mb jpg of "pale guy with big mouth and tentacles #3407".
Damn shawty wasn't lying, the playstation really can produce mind boggling effects
For those interested in a modern Kings Field: Lunacid was heavily inspired by KF and Shadow Tower, and made by the people who did Lost in Vivo.
lunacid was amazing!
Love it!!
I will second this. Grew up loving King's Field. Lunacid is it's own beast but theres enough KF inspiration to give me the happy chemicals.
Love lunacid but the final boss is super dissapointing.
@@sirrealism7300 The Secret Boss is very difficult.
The maps were made based off the 2006 English patch, you say?
Sgt. Foley: "Ramirez! Map out the entirety of King's Field!"
I absolutely love your game reviews, and I literally count the days until you upload again. Keep up the great work man!
When you talk about the harp and map design, is when I realized this game had the potential to be a 3D Symphony of the Night
We're practically there as soon as he talks about the sequel.
Josh should totally do a WIAG of Ultima Underworld I The Stygian Abyss. You can find a whole load of themes and ideas that would find their way into pretty mich every fantasy game since
Second that, he's always pointing out design choices and it's interesting what was already working in Ultima Underworld and what wasn't.
Believe it or not, the Moonlight Greatsword is also in Sekiro.
It's the weapon used by the Divine Dragon. Same color, same blade beam attacks, and the sword he uses is in the shape of a legendary godlike weapon known as the seven ponged sword.
Does that really count?
except its not
that's a reference to the seven branched sword it has nothing to do with MLS
@@garadak7.two things can be right at the same time lil bro
@@garadak7. exept it is, the Sakura Dragon is a form of King's Field Seath, and his seven-branch blue sword shoots Moonlight magic
Moronic take.
HECK YEAH. I love seeing an in depth review of FromSoft's origins. And there's still King's Field-likes coming out to this dsy.
I tried King's Field, though I never got to the end because I got lost, but I've played King's Field and finished that game.
This was such a great video, gotta join your patreon man, really resonated with me! The bit about having hidden doors that are literally vital for progressing the story, insane.
I just finished watching Josh's Morrowind playthrough and I am in love with his narration and humor :) more Josh is always good :)
Dark Souls 2 is basically King's Field remake. Has similar zones and enemies if you pay close attention to those golems and spider skeletons are from DS2.
Naotoshi Zin (From founder) was lead game designer on DS2 which was why I’m a DS2 stan and understood it instantly, his fingerprints are all over.
Dark Souls 2 is great for just how deep some of its RPG elements go. Plethora of items, spells, abilities and special gimmicks. It is kind of unfortunate that after Bloodborne (a fantastic game) FromSoft has began to do away with these mechanics to focus instead on pure combat. Elden Ring has more depth than DS3 for sure, but perhaps they might still make something akin to their older games again. :)
@@chromasus9983 i really hope they do. the older titles, specifically demon's souls and ds1, have such an amazing magical atmosphere that just doest exist in any other games. honestly? demon's souls might be my favourite fantasy game ever. its so simple yet so effective, and perfectly matches what i had imagined i looked like whenever i picked up a stick to use as a sword and wore cardboard boxes as armor as a small kid. its so increadbly nostalgic yet so somber, truly a masterpiece in every aspect. remake kinda sucks tho.
@MichaelK_ How does the remake "suck", exactly?
@@demonwind5030 completely ignoring the original art direction in favor of fancy graphics that recontextualize the story that is told through the environment. Take for example the first archstone, canonically Boletaria has been in ruin for a couple of years so in the original, there are just some stray weeds growing here and there, the streets and living quarters are a bit messy but you really feel like the citizens are grasping at straws, trying to cling on and preserve what is left.
In the remake, however, literally every building is covered in moss and vines, the streets are absolute chaos, living quarters are filthy and messy. Does it look amazing? Absolutely. Its a gorgeous game, one of the best looking games to have ever been released. But the story it tells through the environment is vastly different, and makes no sense in the context of the game. So it’s an amazing game, and a bad remake.
before Dark Souls, before Armored Core, there was... King's Field
Not to be confused with king's field
or more affectionately called, King's Field. ❤
King's Field is a hard look at what happens when business software development staff slowly comes into their own as a game developer, with an enormous batch of creative ideas coming through in an overall unrefined experience. SirTech (of Wizardry) and (if my understanding of events is correct) Squaresoft were similar success stories. From Software arguably had it worse, because they had to hit the ground running in an industry where established veteran companies at the time were themselves spinning their wheels to figure out this whole 3D console game thing.
Everything the Souls gamds had from snake people and the moonlight sword to a stamina bar and all, traced back to King's Field.
@@Chinothebad I myself have just become a fan by way of Armored Core, and seeing the rich history this developer team has is just... wow. massive respect to these guys. I see why people love their games to death now. I've played the Armored Core series from Gen 1 thru to Gen 4. what can I say, I'm addicted!
This was such a great review. I enjoy your recognition of what they wanted to make, and all the games, lessons, and routes they took to get there.
What the hell? I've been playing King's Field IV recently and wished that Josh did a video on the series. And here we are, thanks for this.
I still hope he eventually does a video on 4/The Ancient City. The sound design alone in that game was great for setting the mood for each environment.
Ultima Underworld 1992 is most likely the first full 3D world RPG and immersive sim. You can tell the Kingsfield devs absolutely played Ultima Underworld
10:35 So that's where Fromsoftware got their inspiration from for Irina's questline in Elden Ring
the bit at the end about fromsoft starting from this to eventually make Elden Ring really made me feel empowered for some reason
Men will really watch Josh play King's Field rather than go to therapy
Therapy is for therapists, duh.
His voice IS therapy
Im just waiting for the king's field IV video
You have no idea how fast I clicked when I saw you'd made a video on King's Field. I really hope you'll follow up with the rest of the series! Also, one minor correction: you can actually full heal using the dragon fountain on the first floor, so the one on the third floor isn't the ONLY heal spot.
The actual title of this video should have been "Was it good? King's Field 0 (1994)"
There's really nothing I love more than a youtube video about Kings Field. that sounds specific, but ive watched em all
Nothing like spam watching a bunch of someone's videos and having a shiny new one drop! Brilliant video as always, can't wait to see if we get to see the second game!
This man is responsible for many well slept nights in my home. Thank you for your work and your patreons.
Holy fuck, those skeleton effects are mind-boggling.
I see you
The ending monologue really got me. Thank Josh, great video!
New Video this quick?? I love this Friday already :o
I've been watching the main channel for a long time and I only recently found out about this one. I love essays about old/obscure videogames so it's like a goldmine! I'm binging all the videos ahahah
I listened to this while painting my bathroom. You got me through the blocking in! Thanks, man.
Watching Josh's first combat experience in this game as someone who's played it and read up on it is hilarious. And an accurate portrayal of what new players go through.
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss came in 1992 for PC, the same year when Wolfenstein 3D, but it was much better looking with height differences. It was unbelievable at the time. Seems like this game was also very good at the 90's.
Those were both 2D sprites using trickery to look and feel 3D. King's Field has everything rendered in engine as 3D.
@@cattysplat True! I didn't remember that.
@@cattysplatah yes, RPGs used sprites for very long after the first fully 3D role playing games most people played was either Morrowind or Neverwinter Nights, both almost a decade later... Or MMOs, I think World of Warcraft popularized actually drawing everything with polygons instead of pre-rendering either sprites or Bg.
ahhh Kings Field my beloved. i may have stumbled on you entirely by mistake after falling into the souls rabbit hole around when Dark Souls 1 came out but my god you are still amazing. you and Shadow Tower
The field is right there. 43:00
15:34 Shoutout to Martin Ramirez and his daughter! So great to see such lovely work of art!
That ending was one of the most brilliantly written pieces of youtube content i've ever seen!
except it falls flat when it’s silly to say Elden Ring is “the game they were always trying to make” as ds1 and bloodborne execute the formula better.
@@stolensentience Elden Ring was a bit too ambitious, a bit too big, and as a result there are holes in the design. Reused bosses, dead space, terrible run-backs... there's still space to improve, and I have every reason to believe that there will be another take on open world Dark Souls.
There's always room to climb higher.
The conclusion actually gave me goosebumps.
Well done.
They probably put more effort into the early monsters because they knew most people wouldn't get very far.
The plant ones remind me of OOT plants sticks monster. Crazy.
@@SockMalone Both are inspired by the venus fly trap plant of real life.
To be fair most games are made in an odd (but understandable) order where the first level is one of the last actually designed in order for a game to put its best foot forward.
No, this game was a test to prove to Sony that they could actually FINISH a game. Before this FROM was making office software.
Sony was impressed enough that King's Field was published as a launch title for the PS1.
Kings field 2 was their actual first game game and is basically a remake of this one, and then they made Armored Core.
Armored Core was one of the first "greatest hits" titles, back when selling a million copies was an actual feat.
This series is my favourite on RUclips - love it!❤
Lets go! I love looking into kings field playthroughs and stuff. Glad your covering it!
I am going to take my time here and say thank you for making awesome videos whenever you find the time to do so. You are appreciated
I would argue that the first 3D RPG (i know of) would be Alternate Reality (1985).
Totally blew my mind when i saw that "run" on a C64 back then.
Not sure if it would be worth a video checking that out.
Wizardry was 1981 on the Apple II, but true 3D would be Ultima Underworld in 1992.
@@resetsurvivordidn't they all use 2D sprite enemies? Full 3D is Morrowind or NWN, or earlier games with Quake graphics not Doom but with swords.
i played and beat the first kings field a few years ago and was absolutely blown away by practically everything, the atmosphere and design was absolutely fantastic and to this day i have it easily in my top list of games of all time. it made me try 4 and that was a whole journey i adored
25:15 i wish fromsoft would go back to contextualizing the lore dumps like this. They did it with dark souls 1, whereby all of the lore you know was picked up from the stories you heard in the prison you were rotting in. So when you pick up a Glove Of Dudebro, you know from the prison a fleeting piece of lore about where he came from and what his story was. Every other game has simply relied on the trope of delivering the story through item descriptions, so the perspective of the lore descriptions is suddenly just The Narrator.
Honest question, it’s not that I don’t believe you but where is that particular bit of info from? I haven’t heard that explanation for the item descriptions before.
Funniest part is how Josh either never registered the “random dying dude” blocking the save cross is the PC’s dad, or did a bit of comedic sociopathy.
The funny part is, I've played most of FromSoft's games when I was younger.
I could not speak English at all and did not notice the logos until way later.
And then I put in 14k hours in Dark Souls.
Dude that is a year and a half of your life.
@@andrewnicon I regret nothing
“Beating the Asylum Demon for the 49,772nd time never gets old. Ahhhh.” 🤔🤔🤔
With all due respect, I have to ask, do you work for a living? How did you find the time!?
Brooo that little speech at the end. Hitting exactly what I think makes these games so special. They’re like archaeological finds for Souls enthusiasts.
Please do KF 2!!
Shadow tower abyss next!
I get more excited for a new Was It Any Good than I do for my favorite show. Thanks for the great content as usual Josh
46:49 Remember what? What Josh?!
We never got a western release of King's Field 1 (KF2 was called KF1 in the west) so it's interesting to look back on a game that not many people have nostalgia for, and would also be the game that forms one half of FromSoftware's identity.
You're right, Armored Core is pretty damn good but I think it's unfair to leave out the entire Soulsborne saga when talking about FromSoft
@@iamravenous_ If we're just talking game formula then I don't think they're separate at all. In each series it's the same formula but in Armored Core's case the formula just looks different due to faster overall gameplay (at least for many of the AC titles).
It is funny how common that was, to use different titles and numbers. Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy had the same treatment all over, with strange numberings and all. Like it made sense, but certainly became confusing later on.
Moonlight Sword is also in that forgotten Fromsoft published classic, 3D Dot Game Heroes.
King's Field has the best skeletons
they're mind boggling
KF2 skeletons were the first Fromsoft Mimic traps!
Great video👍.
That ending monologue was Perfect. Indeed, the FromSoftware didnt go hollow, but became the elden lord of video game industry.
From Soft did what it seems like almost no other devs do. They continued to build on their original idea without drastic changes to gameplay or overall style. They perfected their first idea for decades. THATS how you can get the closest to making the perfect game. That's why elden ring is a masterpiece and won game of the year. So many other companies think they need to completely change the style and gameplay to succeed. Using metrics to make games that try to appeal to everybody. That's why we've gotten so many good awful games recently. Or at least a big part of the reason.
pretty much...
I feel that Monster Hunter is in a similar boat. Having played the games for over a decade, the feel and overall gameplay loop has hardly changed, yet they've really honed in and perfected many aspects. One thing I respect Fromsoft for over Capcom, however, is sticking close to their hardcore reputation by constantly increasing difficulty as their player's skill increases. Some of Capcom's recent "quality of life" decisions for MH don't quite agree with the spirit of the hunt.
Larian did the same. I played original Divine Divinity until memory leaks on bloated game state made it unplayable. Same with BG3 lol, they both have that gimmick that every item in the world is movable and you can bring crates and barrels into your home. And NPC reaction system, writing style and even atmosphere in Baldur's Gate 3 is closer to older games by same team than original Baldur's Gate.
speaking of that, Bioware used to be that dev who made the same game but more streamlined every few years, you can easily see how Mass Effect or Dragon Age are still following BG2 formula with NPCs and a base, tons of dialogue to solve quests without sacrificing gameplay... Hell, Elder Scrolls have he same pattern, Arena was trying to make Skyrim wig sticks and stones.
The rating at the end landed really well. Great video.
Yes. YES IT WAS.
Oof... As someone without nostalgia goggles who has recently played through, it had DEEP flaws.
@operator8014 for its time its a great dungeon crawler.
@operator8014 NOOOOO my nostalgia!!! For real you are right, but damn nostalgia forgives so much.
@@operator8014you're comparing it to modern games. were you even alive in 1995? let alone playing videogames? if you grew up on SNES, playing Kings Field and Shadow Tower were mind-blowing experiences for 1995, it's just the way it is
@@joesaiditstrue I finished KF4 after Sekiro was out, and it still holds up. It's not for everyone that's for sure, but it's a fantastic game.
Theres no way! I remember playing this as a kid, and remembering how hard it was for me. I had no idea what to do, or even what the game was about. All i did was run around trying to figure out what to do, and dying to everything. I forgot the name of it, and surprised to see Josh, of course, randomly playing it. XD
hooo thats nostalgia to me, thanks for your stuff ! !