With the immense success of From Software over the past decade, I was wondering what /vr/ thought of their back catalogue?
The only game I played was Eternal Ring for PS2 and I admittedly hated it and probably still would if I tried it again (although maybe less so).
Shopping Cart Returner Shirt $21.68 |
Older From Software dungeon crawlers are amazing. Too bad the Soulsgay ruin everything they touch.
>amazing
How?
Amazing level design and atmosphere.
Some don't enjoy the gameplay, but I really like it.
>Amazing level design
Righty
it's fun to get lost in, this is just the map of the first level of king's field 1
lol. The gameplay and level design is some of the worst out there. It managed to be worse than Morrowind, which now is finally being called out for shit gameplay 20 years later.
I'm actually going through their games right now. I've played most of the ACs, KF1-3 and Shadow Tower. I'm playing KF4 now. They're all really good, especially King's Field 3 and Shadow Tower
I heard Eternal Ring is one of their worst games
Looking back, they made a lot of first person games for a japanese dev
>Eternal Ring
Is there a machine gun in this game?
Confused with Shadow Tower: Abyss
Souls stuff wasn't even that popular at first, DeS got quite a few harsh reviews, something like 25/40 from Famitsu for example. Only thanks to Namco's "if you don't like this, you are not hardcore" marketing and people began to worship From
I see yr point but man it was fun actually talking about the game when it was new. Doesn't seem like games have secrets now.
That's because DeS is a Playstation exclusive, the cult hype around it is responsible for Souls' later success because it gave a lot of people that didn't have PS3s high expectations for Dark Souls. There was even that one Sony exec that said Demon's Souls was a horrible game, one of the worst he played until Dark Souls got popular then he suddenly started to praise the series for the reasons he criticized it for in the first place.
It was an interesting game that deserved the word of mouth. I wouldn't have heard about it otherwise, so I'm grateful.
>There was even that one Sony exec that said Demon's Souls was a horrible game, one of the worst he played until Dark Souls got popular then he suddenly started to praise the series for the reasons he criticized it for in the first place.
>sony dev displaying bad taste meaning anything
I think it made a substantial difference that Dark Souls was actually a lot better put together than the previous games.
Spriggan is a decent licensed game and Lost Kingdoms 2 got a fun multiplayer, otherwise it's molasses of at best average games.
sovl
>the studio that greenlit this is now heralded as the best developer ever because of some meme games where you clobber zombies by mashing the R button for 30 hours
You don't get it! There's so much symbolism behind him not having any facial features!
>a 3 hour video essay link
>a literal launch title
and their first game at that
That barely excuses it
Did you even play King's Field?
King's Field is actually impressive for a 1994 PS1 game.
Yep, they make the best games now, get mad at everybody else for making shit instead of at From for making good games.
it's a fully 3d first person game that came out two years before Quake
But not before Ultima Underworld.
UU still used sprites for items and npc's, King's Field is the real deal. UU is the better game tho
>it doesn't have a single town and a place with friendly npcs for worldbuilding; but instead they're all glued to one random spot outside next to zombies and giants, including hot bimbo girls and blind people somehow
which dark souls game are you describing because it sounds like all of them
This isn't a Dark Souls hate thread bro
i was genuinely asking. everyone knows NPCs are fromsoft's weakest link
There's a reason they weren't famous before Miyazaki. Their early games have a lot of good ideas but sloppy execution.
I think the impact of Miyazaki is vastly overstated by people. KF games were literally Dark Souls long before he joined the company, short of the Zelda-like combat and camera
If he hadn't taken over the project it would have been another clunky first person dungeon crawler that appealed to nobody.
Is there literally any proof or confirmation, though? To me it just looks like they wanted their own "rockstar" because they know this is what sells Japanese games
>Miyazaki started there as a coder in 2004. After working on the Armored Core robot-combat series, he heard about a game in development elsewhere in the studio. “Demon’s Souls wasn’t doing well,” he says. “The project had problems and the team had been unable to create a compelling prototype. But when I heard it was a fantasy-action role-playing game, I was excited. I figured if I could find a way to take control of the game, I could turn it into anything I wanted. Best of all, if my ideas failed, nobody would care – it was already a failure.”
By that point he had already worked on the writing for Last Raven and directed For Answer, which features a ending choice similiar to the one in DS1
moron
I don't agree, the first King's Field is a rough, tedious, and meandering game to play. I agree with the other guy, good ideas but insufficient execution, there's enough value to gleam in it that it had some appeal, that it was worth making sequels, but there's pretty good reasons why they were never runaway hits.
The first game of a bunch of office software programmers on the Playstation in 1994 isn't actually that great to look at? It's a primitive depiction, and I'm not gonna say that King's Field is a real classic, because it's not, reviews were very mixed at the time, lots of people thought it was no good, but this was a first person 3D game with an open world, on console, in 1994, so it stood out, especially being one of the Playstation's launch titles, meaning it got to be one of the few choices available at first.
That last part damns it with faint praise, but there's enough which is compelling about it that there were people interested in sequels which turned out to indeed be better. Like so many other Japanese games, it was influenced by the Wizardry series, which was well liked by Japanese nerds, so King's Field was already vying for some of that audience, evidently appealing enough to them that they were willing to give them another shot.
They do get better with time, the later games are remembered more fondly for a reason, but mind also that Demon's Souls caught fire BECAUSE the formula saw a number of alterations to make it much better and much more appealing. It wasn't just King's Field but with 2009 graphics, it's a more ambitious and well thought out game. There's plenty of devs of great titles who have far more embarrassing shit in their early careers.
It doesn't, but it explains how they got their foot in the door. Sometimes you get advantageous opportunities.
That kinda stuff usually comes from one specific individual who's still bitter about petty schoolyard bickering built by marketing
Their first game was King's Field, their second game was King's Field II, their third game was King's Field III and then Armored Core. That's a good track record of progress.
You can actually see their games increasing in scope with each AC game on PSX, it's great
OP and all the other morons ITT still don't understand that it's not From Software's success but it's director.
You are all adult human beings and still don't get this basic fricking concept that the whole world is build upon the minds of certain individuals, not groups, not teams, not masses.
Miyazaki pulled from a long history of From games. It's not like he barged into the studio and shat out Demon's Souls out of nowhere.
Of course not, he recognized what they had which was good and had potential, but he also recognized what wasn't and what needed to change.
Directors don't actually build the games themselves, though.
I used to be obsessed with them, but when I started learning how to make games I didn't care anymore about directors. Same for movies.
They become spokespeople.
and get all the credit.
I am sorry to tell you but you are wrong with everything you say. Without directors there is no vision or concept and the game ends up as a pile of shallow-, unoriginal- and boringly ordinary ideas.
I don't want to discuss this with you because there is nothing to discuss. If you cannot see this as a fact then it's a you-problem, not my-problem.
Of course the director doesn't do everything by themselves, but what they do, is to DIRECT, hence the name, their job is to steer the game in the desired DIRECTION, and this isn't a trivial aspect. The director being good or bad can vastly change the outcome of a game.
Youre correct that Miyazaki is to be credited for their success but youre insane if you dont think he pulled anything from the King's Field games, Demon's Souls was a spiritual successor to King's Field IV in every way.
It would be like saying he made Armored Core IV independently, just nonsense.
Cookie and Cream might be one of the most fun co-op games of all time
I liked all king's field games. I tried shadow tower but got filtered by weapon and armor durability, going to the shop to repair them every few minutes was bullshit, otherwise it's a good game.
As a huge fan of lost kingdoms 2 growing up, I still think it was a massively underrated game. I don't remember how I even got it.
Nice
I thought shadow tower was great, it starts off pretty tough at first but then you become so overpowered eventually.
I still need to try the sequel I heard you get a gun
kings field was one of the worst psx games I ever played as a kid
Probably because you were a dumb kid.
>kings field was one of the worst psx games I ever played as a kid
Have you revisited it? Some games just don't click with you until decades later. I hated Winback and Top Gear Rally on the N64 as a kid, but coming back to them, they are really fun.
Winback became a favorite of mine recently, what a great game. Nice to have a game where aiming is a mechanic beyond look at the thing to win, plus the timed story sequences give a great incentive for replays and mastery.
He's a contrarian trying to deflect any praise for fromsoft games because they take attention away from something he cares about. Shit, give from more credit, they did a ton of pioneering work in the industry.
It is genuinely bad. Don't let From drones and people who didn't even know what From Software was before Dark Souls tell you otherwise
Kings Field I and II (the ones that got localized to the US, which are actually II and III) are genuinely great. Especially II/III. You just need to be able to accept the game on its own terms for what it is. Calling people drones with opinions different that yours just demonstrates that you ascribe to identity politics and your takes aren't nuanced.
I actually prefer the very first one with the translation patch
The map and music are fantastically simple and the item design + lore had a wonderful naivety to it
why does King's Field games make people so angry? Notice how no one is even talking about their most popular pre-Souls series, Armored Core, but they're just shitting on King's Field instead and you can feel their anger.
It really feels like it's the soulsgays but I don't see why they would be in this board
I wish it was people, it's literally just nintendo fans someone they see as competition today was making 3D games of significance before Nintendo was.
Anyway, Cookie & Cream is my favorite fromsoft game.
Yeah this is actually true, I've seen "people" randomly posting King's Field to shit on PSX in Ocarina of Time threads more than once
Critical contrarianism. Same with AC by the way, even if less so.
Everything before Demon's Souls was 5/10 or below. Very shit developer who should be thanking god Miyazaki saved their asses. King's Field is a slow as shit walking sim that has nothing in common with Souls.
>Eternal Ring
This game is the worst RPG experience I ever had. The bosses are so lame and easy. The NPC feels like they don't even exist
the game becomes fun only when you unlock the secret labyrinth.
You need to forge an offensive Light or Darkness ring and then you can open the door to the beach where the fisherman died at the beginning of the game.
Is also fun when you are enough powerful to explore the lizardmen forest.
>unlock the secret labyrinth
W-what secret labyrinth?
The only one I remember was some kind of frozen or dark cavern with a couple rooms and a strong humanoid creature at the end .
I've only played the Echo Night series which I loved. Actually I never beat EN2, I should do that one of these days.
If their prior games were remotely good you wouldn't hear the end of it from fromdrones. Their prior vidya are not good, Souls is just a nice rehash of metroidvania style of vidya for the modern age.
fromdrones don't play games
Oh shit, Lost Kingdoms was FromSoft? Never knew that. My copy was in one of those generic Gamestop cases.
Anyway I haven't played it yet but I got a physical copy of Evergrace for cheap. I uh, really like the OST.
I like this song more and more the more I hear it. There's something I really love about the melody starting at 0:33.
Yeah it's pretty great. It's like 3 schizo tunes played at once
Sounds like schizo brazilian funk
I genuinely adore the soundtracks to Evergrace and Forever Kingdom, but hated both games when I tried to get into them. I feel that now that I've gotten more into their back catalog I should give them another shot. I love the aesthetic of those games so much
Miyazaki didn't direct any of these "early" games and they all suck ass.
They're slogs even by japanese Wizardry-knockoff standards.
>Miyazaki didn't direct any of these "early" games
Why would you even care?
Play shit because it's fun/interesting/unique/whatever, not because of a cult of personality.
I care because all of the non-Miyazaki FROM games are literal shovelware tier.
Maybe you're into that and that's fine but he elevated a fourth-rate company into an industry leader.
There's a reason why no one gives a shit about them before Demon's Souls other than like 100 AC fans. King's Field looks and plays like shit.
>I was wondering what /vr/ thought of their back catalogue?
I really like the Armored Core series. King's Field is really fun too. Those are the only Fromsoftware games I've ever played, though.
I didn't even know that the Armored Core developer was the Dark Souls developer when I first started playing the AC games.
the made mediocre nipjank games. The kings field games are just painful to play
echo night was neat
It and the ac games were the only games aynone knew them for before the souls series
Holy shit it smells like Ganker in here... Anyway, Fromsoft is a true top dog retro developer. Only Eternal Ring is a stinker.
Eternal Ring is basically a rushed, unfinished game, that was really more of an learning experience for From.
Even still I enjoyed it overall but had my expectations set for such an experience, love the music though.
Damn shame the Souls series got so popular; makes it impossible to discuss on Ganker now due to the site's innate contrarianism. The initial DeS and DaS1 threads were great, was a lot of fun discovering things with other anons.
There are generals on /vg/ though?
they're all morons though, do you really think a thread full of people like this
would be good
King's Field Ancient City is excellent, its just not for everyone. Personally i dont mind the molasses movement/turning speed. Its just a different style of game that takes some getting used to. The level design is just so great, it feels so satisfying descending into the Ancient City and exploring all the nooks and crannies and looping paths. And the visuals, atmosphere, and music are top-notch.
I was hoping for a similar experience from Shadow Tower Abyss, but sadly the level design is heavily simplified. The game is front-loaded, the first few areas make you think it's going to look and play amazingly, but after that pretty much every aspect devolves quickly. Simple linear levels, boring visuals, unbalanced combat, endless enemy reskins, etc.
>The level design is just so great, it feels so satisfying descending into the Ancient City and exploring all the nooks and crannies and looping paths. And the visuals, atmosphere, and music are top-notch.
This. It's the closest game to give you a similar feeling of Frodo and his friends walking through Moria.
How "slow" is Ancient City, exactly? I heard that the PS1 King's Field games were slow, but they're not really as bad as people like to exaggerate.
It's the slowest game in the series, really. You turn especially slow.
Doesn't even have a run button?
You can run but the actual aiming is very slow.
Yes, but the run button doesn't make you rotate faster.
Why did Murakumo get so shit on back in the day? Like I get it if it was $50 MSRP but I don't think it was, game's pretty frickin fun for what it is.
Most "smaller" Japanese titles brought over got shat on by reviewers. AC used to get shat on, TXR used to get shat on. God knows why.
Because they're shovelware-tier games.
plants vs monsters is shovelware you bozo
Don't reply to obvious bait
Thank you
Did you know this game features most of the SH3 voice cast? It's the only other role for most of them and it was released before SH3.
Completed Kings Field: The Ancient City for the first time last year and it was PURE KINO. I've thought about it a lot since.
kings field iv is their best game overall
i mean this sincerely
try it out, the atmosphere is actually unreal once you get a handle on how it plays. nothing else realizes the sensation of slipping further and further into an unknown place than KFIV
the way its interconnected and loops back on itself, their later games are just a more approachable design ethos of this idea
I played Ancient City for the first time like a year ago, and I wouldn't say I enjoyed it but there was one aspect of the game that really stuck with me.
The game mentally engaged me in a way that very few games. I actually felt like I had to use my brain when playing this game. Holding onto a mental map of places I've been and characters I've seen. Keeping in mind things that I need to do and where to go next. It actually felt like I had to figure things out, and get a grip on this world that I've been thrust into, using my own mind and not some homosexual journal entry or NPC telling me what to do. Also, the atmosphere is tremendous and the game really manages to impress it's mood/feeling onto you.
That being said, the game did start to drag on at about the half way point for me, and I had some frustrations with it so I wouldn't say I liked the game but it was a worthwhile experience.
The slow movement makes you want to throw the controller to the wall early on but once you get used to it there is a great game to explore. The atmosphere is a very bleak fantasy but quite engrossing and the map is very well designed, the way you go to varied zones and end up getting to different levels of the central area is great.
Lost Kingdoms 1 and 2 are fun. They're outdated now but I enjoyed them alot when they were new.
Eternal Ring was the game my dad bought for himself when we got a household PS2. I didn't like it back then but recently beat it right before Elden Ring (I thought there might be some hearkening back to Eternal possibly I didn't want to miss). I actually enjoyed Elden Ring well enough and I definitely felt like I was playing a game in the lineage of the Souls games. I think the ring system was a really neat idea (left hand attribute rings and physical attack, right hand active spells) but it could be much more polished in a current gen game with more impressive range of abilities and better graphics.
Does Kings Field (2) have known technical issues? I started replaying it and had 2 random crashes while loading new areas and one sound bug and another where only half of a 2 sided door loaded and nothing beyond it had loaded properly. Its probably just my disc being janked up, but i wouldnt put it past having problems naturally.
No, none.
I don't remember it happening in King's Field but the same thing happened to me a lot when I played Shadow Tower recently, so it's possible
That happened to me on emulator once but it was fine when I restarted
is kings field 4 comparable to arx fatalis?
I loved kings field 1 on the ps1. There is no map, so I kind of rendered it all in my mind. Loved it. It's old and janky, but was an absolute blast. It's definitely from, they have a really particular vibe about them. Armored core 1 was great as well, just played that a couple of weeks ago. Playan a non retro game atm, but once I finish that I'll go for kings field 2. I didn't like how it was more 2d feeling when I played it last year, but I'll give it another shot.
Also, the first kings field did fast travel better than any other game I have ever played. It's a shame from didn't use it again (that I know of)
Frick bonfire teleports lol
I grew up on the Armored Core series and that will always be From Software for me. Also really enjoyed 3D Dot Game Heroes back on the PS3 - great meta sense of humor and also a fun little Zelda tribute. I have Eternal Ring and some Kings Field games but never tried them.
Quick embarassing question: in King's Field IV, there's a huge tower connected to a multitude of bridges on every floor and surrounded by a body of water.
On the top floor of this door there's a wall/door lighted with candles. From what I recall, I needed something to open it, but I never figured out what. Any idea?
Sorry for the foggy memories, it was 10 years ago.
It actually never opens. I wonder if there is a way to clip the camera through, I bet it was originally going to have a secret behind it if you got all of the magic...everyone asks or wonders if you can do anything with it.
Well, thanks. I'm sure there's still hidden stuff.
The King's Field series and derivatives were always pretty shit.
Only have played Kings Field IV and its fantastic. The only bad part is how slow it starts so Im greatful that From's newer games exist to motivate me to push through it, the first hour or two is frustrating and awful but once youre past that it reminds me a lot of Metroid Prime. Really good game and makes me happy Fromsoft eventually got their time to shine later on, since all their games before Dark Souls only had niche sales at best.
>The only bad part is how slow it starts
I played King's Field 1-3 then played 4 and almost quit because of how slow it plays, it's the slowest one in the series and consistent improvement the series showed I thought had failed this time but thank god I persevered because it's clearly the best designed one in the series and the atmosphere is fantastic.
PoopSoftware
The first Shadow Tower game is really underrated.
Really interesting mix of survival horror resource management and shitty dungeon crawling.
I liked this game when I played it on the PS4. Unless I'm remembering wrong, the movement was a lot slower in the NA PS2 release but I heard the Japanese version had some item that increased movement speed and it was added as the default movement speed in the PS4 version.
Not that it was accused of being the most modern franchise around in the late 00s, but it's still honestly amazing how close Armored Core 1 is to Armored Core 4 for a 22fps PS1 action game. Like the first game in particular is a bit too heavy on corridor shooting jank but when you get out in the open that game has unfathomably better realized movement and combat than crap ass modern robot games like Daemon ex Machina or Gundam Battle Operation.
First gen AC is still incredibly fresh, most fun I've ever had using a d-pad and shoulder buttons.
It helps that it has the lightest ACs in any of the old style games. I went 1>3>LR recently and they get slower with every installment.
Pure kusoge dev
Name your top 5 games.
King's Field games are all awesome I'm sick of the slander from filtered gays
They're not worthless, but the first one especially is rough and slow, like Ultima Underworld with half the production value and half as good pacing.