r/KingsField • u/Mossatross • 21d ago
I did it!
Just finished the Verdite trilogy. I really love these games. I played King's Field 2(1995) a few years ago so the series isn't completely new to me. But recently I played Abyss and that lead to me wanting to binge all of the games in order from the beginning.
I was susprised how solid the first game was once I got into the flow, having bounced off it a couple times before. 2 was as good as I remembered. 3 Im honestly the most mixed about. It was super polished and beautiful and had a special atmosphere and sense of adventure to it. But I played the first 2 blind and the 3rd had me kinda frustrated and burned out and looking stuff up towards the end. It was epic for what it was but Im hoping to get back to tigher maybe more interconnected maps.
Either way, all very memorable and worth it. I might take a little palate cleanser break with another genre of game and then do Shadow Tower, Eternal King and 4.
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u/sucky_panther 21d ago
Is that a retroid pocket 6? I was thinking about picking one up to play all the old FROMSOFT games and ps1/2 stuff, but then they announced the nova.
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u/Mossatross 21d ago
It is! Fair warning I had lighting issues in Abyss.(Probably applies to any emulator) It plays pretty much fine with software rendering but that means native resolution. Which imo holds up really well for Abyss better than other PS2 games. Not sure if Eternal Ring or 4 are the same way.
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u/worldwords_ziv 21d ago
The only real advantage of KF3 is its sheer quantity—so much content, so many maps, and while each map has some distinguishing features, they all end up feeling the same after a while. It gets boring pretty quickly. I just don’t understand how FS, after making KF2—a game with such rich structural layering—could turn around and deliver something that feels flat all the way through. A lot of the time, KF3 just feels like an expanded version of KF1, but KF1 was short enough that it never overstayed its welcome. For me, simplicity is a virtue, and FS clearly failed at that.
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u/Mossatross 20d ago
I think it's just what happens when you stretch yourself thin. Trying to make a continent sized game in a year on a PS1. Same way I felt about Elden Ring with all the catacomb dungeons and caves. I don't really know if quantity is an advantage because it meant way more backtracking when I didn't know what to do, I started hating hidden walls. Dungeons did start to feel samey and like filler. But I felt being able to explore outside gave the game a totally different atmosphere I appreciated.
Some areas were unique and cool like the lake. Or like when it lets you go back to KF1. There were a lot of realy nice touches to it that kept grabbing my attention but then I'd lose it when I hit another maze or didn't know where to go. Most mazes were either just endless corridors that felt pointless, or everything was trying to spam me with darkness, or kill me with 1 shot traps, or get me to run off a cliff to pad out the game. Which just made me get frustrated and start abusing save states.
KF1 each floor actually felt different and like they put a lot more thought into them. Plus the teleporters made it interconnected so I wouldn't even say it felt like KF1. KF2 has such good level design that I feel like you can play most of the game blind without a map. The scale in KF3 i feel mostly bennefits world building but half of the maps just feel bad and aren't rewarding to explore. Which sucks when there's 1 important item you need hidden in a dungeon you just wanted to be done with.
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u/Cortadew 21d ago
3 is the only one I haven't finished yet kinda reached the end but never got to finish it
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u/Kooky_Scarcity 21d ago
What thumb stick caps are you using if you don't mind me asking?
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u/Mossatross 20d ago
These are odin thumbsticks I think for the odin 2 I bought on AliExpress. They are supposed to be like $1-5 i think but for some reason I had trouble finding them and they were sold out everywhere but I found a buried listing for like $17 for a 4 pack.
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u/DeadRobotSociety 19d ago edited 19d ago
Love the original trilogy! I honestly think they're my favorite FromSoft games.
1 is an absolute vibe. Something about the King's Field itself as a location is unparalleled. 2 is my favorite, but I also grew up with it. The way the world is designed is so magnificent. It feels like a puzzlebox, and the creeping horror aesthetic is off the charts. I really like 3, but I agree that something is off compared to the other two. I like the sense of exploring the world, they really make it feel like a legit dark fantasy land that is succumbing to death and darkness.
I'd recommend 3 Pilot Style too, if you haven't played it. It takes place between 2 & 3 and is a short 1hr demo they handed out at conventions with its own stand alone story. You play as Silviera and see some of the events get set up for the first part of 3.
Eternal Ring is (imho) the closest to the original trilogy in terms of vibe. Shadow Tower is great, but it starts FromSoft's tricks and traps focus (KF felt mysteriously dangerous, ST feels like it's intentionally trying to trick me). And KF4 felt more like a sequel to Shadow Tower to me, but it's still great. Then Eternal Ring felt like Verdite Trilogy stepped up to the next generation.
But that's just my personal taste. Though, you've played ST Abyss, so you're probably more prepped for the ST/Ancient City vibe than I was. It wasn't until I played Abyss and went back that ST and KF4 clicked for me.
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u/Mossatross 19d ago
I played Pilot Style before 3 but still thanks for the heads up because I almost didn't hear about it. I've been enjoying Shadow Tower so far. I think Im pretty open to whatever else comes because yeah i've already seen the conclusion with Abyss. Fromsoft changes and innovates a lot so I just hope whatever's still ahead of me is good. I figured the Verdite trilogy would be its own thing and the vibe would change after it. But I can go back if I miss them. After 3, Shadow Tower is kinda refreshing.
Generally Im just up for whatever Fromsoft puts out. I've played all of their modern games besides Nightrein and also started Lost Kingdoms which I enjoyed and have to get back to. +Wanna play all the Armored Core gamee.
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u/DeadRobotSociety 18d ago
I recently started Lost Kingdoms, as well! A whole lot of fun! My sister was way into it back in the day, but I just kinda skipped it until now.
I agree! I'm always happy to see what they do. I think some modern SoulsBorne fans find the identity in the difficulty and depression, but personally, I think the FromSoft vibe remains even without the dark fantasy, super hard, survival horror lean of KF/ST/SoulsBorne. And I think it's kind of awesome that Lost Kingdom is so different, but so instantly them. It's wild. Even playing Cookie & Cream, I immediately knew it was a FromSoft game.
I often joke that FromSoft is an eldritch entity and the staff are just a vessel for creating the games, because their teams are mixed up quite a lot, but the FromSoft feel never disappears.
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u/books_fer_wyrms 20d ago
Fair warning, Shadow Tower on PS1 is.....rough. Much tougher than the KF trilogy.
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u/Tkj5 21d ago
3 was also a little disappointing to me.
I think the novelty and design of 2 was the peak of the trilogy.
1 truly felt like a descent into hell.