I had a bad experience with King's Field II, so I'd prefer my dungeon crawlers to focus more on clever connectivity than sprawling environments (by psx standards). King's Field I was a blast though, and I'm astonished that a launch title was so well put together.
Not exactly King's Field, but there was a spiritual sequel to Ultima Underworld that got a lot of hype on Kickstarter, then I never heard anything after that. I forget the name, but Razorfist did a stream of the demo.
Underworld Ascension wasn't just a clusterfuck of terrible design choices, but the cloth map reward took actual years to be made despite being a fucking piece of cloth and looked nothing like the one shown in the teaser. Needless to say that System Shock fans were on pins and needles about the remake potentially being as bad.
Thats not entirely true its just that after demon's souls and dark souls 1 their games stopped being about adventures in a hostile world and became action rpgs centered around learning dodge patterns.
While a totally different genre from kings field those first 2 games rewarded paying attention to your surroundings and thinking about how to proceed. You needed light for dark areas, anti poison resources to take on poison areas. Since warping wasnt a thing in dark souls 1 for most of it you had to prepare multiple weapons or have the repair kit.
of course now the later games stamina isnt even a resource anymore because actions cost less and it recharges faster you can roll in elden ring at the start of the game like 4-6 times before running out of stamina and like 15 times at 30 endurance. dark souls 3 it was 16 rolls at 40 endurance and dark souls 2 you could only get 3 and a half at 40. Bloodborne started this trend along with bosses having 15 hit combos you had to run away from and elden ring is loaded with times where you just have to walk away from a boss while they flail at the air for a full minute in an anime attack. They barely have any traps in the worlds anymore.
This video was really good at nailing down issues i had with ds3 being so bland and repetitive even when compared to 2 and its only become more true.
I had a bad experience with King's Field II, so I'd prefer my dungeon crawlers to focus more on clever connectivity than sprawling environments (by psx standards). King's Field I was a blast though, and I'm astonished that a launch title was so well put together.
My own experience with the King's Field series is I feel they get worse as they go on, though I still love all four of them.
(To avoid the Japanese numbering vs American numbering autism I'll use descriptions instead)
The one where you wake up on a shore with water on most sides and where there's a cave guarded by a kraken near the starting point is my favorite, while the one that begins on a grassy field... story-wise is the most interesting but I found it less fun, especially since the device that points out secret walls is far less useful (I don't remember if it even worked).
Underworld Ascension wasn't just a clusterfuck of terrible design choices, but the cloth map reward took actual years to be made despite being a fucking piece of cloth and looked nothing like the one shown in the teaser. Needless to say that System Shock fans were on pins and needles about the remake potentially being as bad.
I'm worried about that SS1 remake just on the basis of everyone loves the second System Shock, so I was worried it would be one of those remakes whose whole philosophy is "make it play like the more popular entry."
And I love System Shock 1 but hate System Shock 2, so for me that would be terrible.
So I watched a video about Dread Delusion and from what I've seen.... yeah I probably need to play it.
For some reason videos I saw compare it to "if Morrowind was a PS1 game" (though one of the videos I saw specifically mocked that comparison). To me it looked more like "if Ultima Underworld had an overworld.... and the devs took inspiration from their acid trips."
Which, I miss the days when creative artists were always high on some sort of hallucinogenic so I'm all for this style returning.
That video makes me glad that Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1 are the only games I have easy access to right now (meaning I can easily emulate one and own a legit copy of the other). It sounds like the further the series goes, the worse it gets.
Current Shadow Tower Abyss progress for anyone who cares.
Taking a break from Shadow Tower Abyss. I'm not sure if I've just been playing too long and got irritated or if the game design really just kinda takes a nosedive. I got past this area with bird-man enemies that was irritating as fuck, and now I'm in this section called like The Mist Area or something where there's all these invisible flying fleas that like to fire rings at you, but its almost pointless to kill them because they like to hover over bottomless pits, so if they drop an item when they die then I'll be unable to pick it up.
Both areas I kept dying--in the latter case, because of what I can only call "the platforming"--and it started to get on my nerves.
(To be fair.... that area with the invisible fleas is actually completely optional--I went to the Illusion Area first and that gives you the key to the next floor. Its just I'm wondering if there's any particularly cool loot in there).
Again tho, other things were going on so maybe I just need to take a break.
............... I'm still keeping an ear open for any game that's remotely KF-like. Even games like the first Ultima Underworld (which came out before King's Field) are fair game in my book. Although I prefer how KF simplifies the experience to make it more focused on adventuring--Ultima Underworld and a lot of western RPGs sometimes feel to me like they have too much going on which can make them a little intimidating to play, but I can bear it in the right mood.
Keeping these outside the spoilermark because they're legit questions I'd like to see answers to:
There are also things I'm curious about too.
Like I keep noticing armor pieces that claim they've got "the soul of a samurai" and that they "seek reunification." I have four parts of it and I've put them all on at once but it didn't seem to accomplish anything (outside of just being really good armor, but in this game I prefer less-good armor that happens to have buffs like immunity to status conditions and the like).
..... Speaking of which, what exactly are "Burden" and "Lighten?" The latter I assumed was like in Shadow Tower 1 where it would brighten up areas and make it easier to see, but actually it seems to do fuck all (I seem to remember King's Field The Ancient City also had a "light" spell that basically did not work at all--for some reason only the PS1 had proper light-up-the-area magic). Burden I assume decreases your carrying weight, but items that have "Burden Null" seem to do fuck all as well (unless equipping them causes the game to keep sending messages to the owner of Kiwi Farms).
So I watched a video about Dread Delusion and from what I've seen.... yeah I probably need to play it.
For some reason videos I saw compare it to "if Morrowind was a PS1 game" (though one of the videos I saw specifically mocked that comparison). To me it looked more like "if Ultima Underworld had an overworld.... and the devs took inspiration from their acid trips."
Dread delusion has been fairly good for the small amount of time(4 hours) I've put into it and I really like the setting. The only complaint I have with it is the combat is pretty basic and circle strafing dominates most of the fights I've been in, but that's nitpicking and could be because I'm so early into it.
That video makes me glad that Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1 are the only games I have easy access to right now (meaning I can easily emulate one and own a legit copy of the other). It sounds like the further the series goes, the worse it gets.
Don't let that video turn you off from DkS1, even the guy who made that video prefers it to demon's. I think those first 2 games are masterpieces.
Also so I don't completely de-rail the thread, I've been interested in checking out kings field, especially before trying all the new indie inspired ones whats a good king's field to start on. I'm pretty tolerant to old game quirks so should I just start on the first one? Are they even accessible in english?
I already own Dark Souls 1 so I'm definitely gonna give it another go--I actually did play it years back, I just never beat it because I got bored. Still, having it on my Switch means I always have another chance.
Also so I don't completely de-rail the thread, I've been interested in checking out kings field, especially before trying all the new indie inspired ones whats a good king's field to start on. I'm pretty tolerant to old game quirks so should I just start on the first one? Are they even accessible in english?
Yeah, all four of the main games are available in English. The one that requires a fan-translation runs fine in emulators as well... I never had a need to test the other ones.
If you ever do play them, post here and tell us your progress.
Dread delusion has been fairly good for the small amount of time(4 hours) I've put into it and I really like the setting. The only complaint I have with it is the combat is pretty basic and circle strafing dominates most of the fights I've been in, but that's nitpicking and could be because I'm so early into it.
That thing about combat actually sounds like a plus to me, as that's kinda how King's Field is too.
.........
Shadow Tower Abyss progress
Beat it.
Okay, so..... it really feels like the area design kinda drops off in the final sections, almost like From Software ran out of time.
There is something I both like and hate about both Shadow Tower games--both games end with a sense of "wait, it can't be over already!" (and usually with endings that make me go "what?") Which on one hand always tricks me into thinking I must've missed a secret, but on the other hand at least avoids the problem of "the explanation was retarded" that most dark fantasy or horror-adjascent media falls victim to... mostly because after both games I still have no idea what the eponymous tower actually is, where it came from, why it exists, and why there isn't a third game or a re-release on the Switch.
Yeah, FromSoft back when they made first-person Action-RPGs could do no wrong (outside of that looping sounds bug in Eternal Ring).
Also so I don't completely de-rail the thread, I've been interested in checking out kings field, especially before trying all the new indie inspired ones whats a good king's field to start on. I'm pretty tolerant to old game quirks so should I just start on the first one? Are they even accessible in english?
KF1 is a launch title and looks like it, but once you get accustomed to the tank controls you will find it to be a very designed game. It's also very stress free as everything you need to clear a floor is already on the floor with exactly two exceptions you can easily spot.
2 is more ambitious in scope with its single location and a degree of interconnectivity on par with the Undead Burg of DkS1. The problem is that the game doesn't have enough texture variety and the map has no depth gauge, leading many to easily become lost. The teleportation key system is also a real pain, and you now have to find crystals to unlock specific magic elements instead of learning those spells upon leveling up.
3 fixed all of these issues by having clearly defined areas, a superior teleportation system, and a map that fills itself in as you explore. The magic system has been greatly improved as well, with booster crystals matching each element being found in abundance on top of the every-element boosting verdite crystals seen in every game.
There is one that only has a demo available called Verho you could try. It's quite janky but it's probably the closest thing imo
P.S Lunacid is fun for about 5-6 hours then it drops off the face of a cliff
P.P.S sorry for raise this thread from the dead
