Published 27/01/2024

King's Field 1 (JP)

Whilst I wouldn’t really characterize myself as one of the ‘hardcore’ From Software fans, I’m one of those fans who cut their teeth on Dark Souls, and was obsessed with every successive release. But, in a sense, I’m a ‘false’ fan - I’ve never so much as touched a non-Soulslike from their library, even if they’ve always intrigued me. Above all, it was King’s Field that excited me the first, combining the brutal, almost minimalist style FromSoft is well known for (at least, in the earlier games) with a true-blue dungeon crawler, and when it comes to ambiance, tone and the sheer isolation of the dungeon, King’s Field is a roaring success. However, when coupled with an incredibly obtuse series of mechanics, clunky combat and generally same-y visual designs make me hesitate to recommend it to all but the most hardcore, and interested, parties.

King’s Field has always appealed to me, since crawlers, especially first-person ones, are amongst my favorite genres in all of gaming. Being the first titles acclaimed developers From Software ever made, King’s Field still exists in a place of obscurity, forgotten by the gaming audience, beloved by those who remember. But even amongst those, the original King’s Field, never released beyond Japan, remains an untapped and overall unappreciated beginning for both developer and franchise alike, though this narrative has begun to change with the release of the recent fan translation. Described by many as frustrating and basic compared to the later, more well regarded titles, maybe it would’ve been smarter for me to begin with the second game - known simply as King’s Field in the west, since it was the first to release, but I love to see a franchise’s origins, both the good and the bad. Do I have issues with King’s Field? Without a doubt, but do I regret it? Lord, no.

From moment one, you’ll see everything that underpins King’s Field core gameplay. You find yourself in a dark, stone corridor, armed with a simple sword, and a basic form of magic. And then you set off, navigating through darkness, without a clue or direction in the world. You’ll probably stumble upon some chests, or barrels, finding some medicinal herbs to keep your health up, but then you hear the shambling, or scuttling, and find yourself faced with the hostile denizens of the dungeon. And from then on - no, before that, from the moment you begin, with the game having no start screen at all, you are thrust into the dungeon on your own - and that’s how you’ll always be; on your own against the world.

King’s Field is a true dungeon crawl, as you’ll be wandering the five floors of the dungeon, looking for anything and everything you’ll need to progress. NPCs who’ll grant you keys to open doors, equipment gleaned from foes and hidden chests alike, whilst avoiding pitfall traps, endless falls, and battling with the increasingly powerful creatures that inhabit the dungeon. It is, inherently, a rather simple game. This is most exemplified in its combat, which is as basic as you can get without it just being a menu battler. Simply, you’ll either swing your sword, or fire your magic, and if you’re close enough, you’ll hurt the enemy, and enemies are the exact same. It’s incredibly simplistic, but it’s enough to prevent the game from growing too stale, forcing you into a sort of dance as you predict enemy attack, dance around them, and counterattack. I could see people loathing the combat, but personally, most of what I was in this game for was its vibes, and its exploration, and the combat was just filler. It worked, and as you get new equipment, you do feel a general sense of growth as you quickly outstrip your foes, and this feeling resets as you reach each new floor, as the creatures will have a generalized jump in power to keep you on your toes. Ultimately, though, it grows a bit stale as you enter the last few hours of the game, especially if you need to grind to take down the final boss who I found a genuine jump in difficulty (for a variety of reasons I won’t spoil) compared to previous dangers.

Almost everything you gain in King’s Field is based on your efforts; healing consumables can be found on the bottom floor of the dungeon, along with a selection of basic armor that’ll grant you the defenses you need to begin your journey into the dungeon. Everything else - including the aforementioned gear, if you don’t want to buy it - can be located in the dungeon, and unless you plan to grind like there’s no tomorrow, you’ll need that gear to stand a chance. Unfortunately, a *lot* of that sweet, sweet gear is squirreled away in surprisingly hard to find hidden crevices, requiring you to either go online and find a map, or hug just about every wall and hope you find those false walls. You certainly can get through the game without a lot of this decent armor, but get ready to grind or get real, real good with avoiding those enemies. Be aware though - the things you do on the first floor, the general gameplay loop I described, that’s the entire game. King’s Field is not a varied title, and I began to feel that as my time went on, I was ready for it to pack it up around two thirds of the way into the game.

Continuing on regarding progression, there’s a lot of systems that aren’t really detailed, and I’m still not sure how they ultimately affect the game; for an example, there’s a kind of class system that seems to update whenever your Strength and Magic stat hits a certain mark (these are raised simply by using your sword or magic a certain amount of times), but I had, and still, have no idea how these affect my overall power levels. Core progression can also be stymied just by how hard it is to find the correct path to progression, thanks to the bevy of secret passages and whatnot you have to contend with. Finding a key, or a NPC, or even learning *how* you’re meant to get past a trap, or cross a vast chasm can be incredibly frustrating if you don’t just stumble onto the answer, as some of these are hidden far more than you’d expect. Then again, it is From Software - even from their very beginning, they’ve always had an inclination for brutality, though it feels far more targeted then in later titles.

Due to its hardcore nature, there are little in the way of shortcuts, and you’ll spend a lot of time wandering back and forth across each floor, hunting down whatever you are. Traversal gets a tiny bit easier as the game goes on - you’ll find portals that’ll warp you between floors, and a staff will warp you back to the start of the current floor. If you’re spend a decent amount of time wandering the first floor, you can locate a relatively decent map - and a much better one further up - that’ll track your location through the labyrinth, but even with the generally labyrinthine layouts and samey visual design, I did eventually reach a point in my time with King’s Field where I could wander well-traveled areas just by memory. Sadly, though, as you move further and further in, the layouts become more and more complex, and my memory just couldn’t keep these layouts in my mind. Opening up your inventory, then the map, to confirm your path multiple times gets old real quick - oh, to have a button dedicated to the map.

As with From Software’s later titles, King's Field narrative is minimalistic experience - beyond a befuddling intro crawl, dialogue from NPCs, and the piecemeal information gleaned from The Mirror of Truth, much of what happens in King’s Field’s backstory is left to some interpretation. Your father has disappeared into the dungeon, leading the player to follow him in and destroy whatever has corrupted the dungeon. NPCs will fill in the gaps, encouraging you to chat with them everytime you pass them by, but the bulk of the backstory is filled in by NPCs who appear only a few times, and messages left on walls and door, which are by far my favorite due the genuinely chilling messages they convey. Scratches on walls, messages that say little more than ‘All my men are dead’ was more chilling to read then any piece of lore could’ve, whilst not necessarily furthering any real narrative, but making the dungeon feel like a very real, very horrifying place. This eerie, slowly escalating atmosphere is supplanted by the beautiful, evocative visual design of King’s Field - the otherwise repetitive, samey look of the dungeon, coated in a vague, shadowy fog did a lot to keep my tension on edge. This was especially when I’d arrive on new floors, as my mind wondered what new creatures were hiding, just out of sight… even if they frequently looked more hilarious than intimidating. Sure, the dungeon’s samey look can make it hard to get around, especially if it takes you a bit to find the map, but it is what it is. King’s Field is a starkly beautiful game, in its own, gloriously PS1 way. I just wish some of the floors went for a slightly different aesthetic; even if I do like the general look of the five floors that make up King’s Field, there’s only so many endless stone pathways one can stomach before you wish for a little bit of… hell, *anything*.

It’s everything you think of when you think of PS1 games; eerie graphics, blocky creatures, limited animations. The creatures are perhaps a bit goofy for the otherwise macabre tone, but they’re fun enough to not bother me with how they clash. Even if it might not always work in concert with itself, King’s Field looks great for its two decade plus age - though it absolutely suffers from a decent chunk of slowdown, especially when multiple enemies are on the screen, and that caused a death on at least one occasion, so beware.

I’d like to diverge for a bit to talk about *how* I played King’s Field. Since I don’t have a PS1, I had to play King’s Field via emulator, using a fan translation. As a baseline feature, Retroarch allows all games to run with a speedup funcion, and as mentioned when complaining about how confusing the dungeon’s layout was, I quickly began utilizing a map to guide my way through the game. Honestly, this sparked a bit of debate in me - am I playing the game ‘correctly’ if I’m using a speedup tool to make the backtracking and wandering through empty hallways, and using a map to help me reach my next objective, or piece of equipment. It’s certainly not how FromSoft intended the game to be played, that’s for sure; so does it devalue my playthrough, and any fun I had with it? In all honesty, my first two hours with the game weren’t spectacular. You don’t even get the roughshod map from the jump, and even then, it’s not the best guide in the game. Every corridor looks the same, with an occasional room or pillar to mark my progress. Hell, even with the map, I had no idea how to progress, or where I should be progressing *to*. The NPCs surely weren’t helpful. This is a lot of words to say that playing with that online map is probably half the reason I stuck with the game. Instead of having to stumble to and fro, just hoping I’d stumble upon what I needed, I got to soak in the ambiance, the atmosphere, of the game, learn the combat, just… have a good time. I wasn’t glued to the map, mind you - I still explored as much as I could before glancing at it. Either way, I think this section isn’t really a justification for my cheating - which, in some sense, it absolutely is - but rather to say that I think King’s Field was elevated by my bending of the ‘intended way’ one could play the game. Should you play it this way? I dunno, but I’d say try and play it ‘clean’, and if those frustrations make you want to bounce, give the map, or a guide, a shot. Might make it worth it.

A major piece of criticism I have for this game is sort of unfair, due to the fact that King’s Field has only been translated in the last few years, and this has led to their being a general lack or limited amount of overall documentation for it. This mostly rears its head in the very final stages; everything involving the Dragon Sword, the Sealed Doors, and everything that comes with it is utterly confusing and I found three different sources of conflicting information, each of which had pieces of the truth. King’s Field frequently has moments where it just doesn’t indicate what you need, or where you should be heading, and whilst there is some appeal to a game that is much like a wall, leaving the player to scramble for a foothold forward, but I play a lot of video games, and I just don’t have the time to tease everything out. I just wish there was a bit more signage, or *something*, because I’d bet half the players who played this game totally blind never beat it - I sure wouldn’t have! Seriously, how the hell do you find out about weapon magic!?

With these confusing mechanics, the lack of variety in environments and a decently brutal difficulty spike on the final floor, in the end, I’d say King’s Field just wore out it's welcome for me; the first two thirds of the game are brutal, challenging, yet engaging, even if I had to use outside means to progress from time to time. It’s only as you approach the end that everything begins to blend together, a concrete-blur of skeletons, bottomless pits, and endless dead ends. Don’t let me turn you off from playing it - it’s still unlike most other titles, but just be aware, even with its ten to twelve hour playtime, it’s not the most varied title in the world. King’s Field is a unique beast; a hardcore, almost bare-bones dungeon crawler experience that almost literally drips with atmosphere, ambiance, and horror. Somehow toeing the line between simplistic and mind-boggling, hard to parse, the lack of any real signage, direction or… well, really anything, including its story, might turn people off. King’s Field isn’t remotely perfect, but it’s a fantastic proof-of-concept that did a lot to set the stage, not only for the later, more well-regarded entries in the King’s Field series, but also the bones of the legendary RPGs From Software would go on to forge.