A Look Back At • King's Field (Analysis) • The History of From Software.

[@ArcaneAzmadi]

Could you imagine the shock and hype if, after Elden Ring came out, FROM Software announced their next project was going to be... King's Field V?

[@MMasterDE]

I would love it, but KF was originally just a trilogy. Is there a real connection to KF4? I don't know. What would KF5 be about? Just similar to KF4? As I said, I would love it, but it doesn't really need to be called KF, and it certainly doesn't need to play like it. It's a bit outdated, being too slow and the first person perspective isn't the most user friendly. An updated version is pretty much Demon's Souls, though that is set in a different world with a lot of new interesting concepts. A KF game, with all the typical KF stuff, just playing like the newer Souls, would be awesome.

[@EarthboundX]

I'd love that myself, but King's Field has always been pretty ninch I think.

[@MilkerMurphy]

Nah, I don't need a sequel. A remake containing all 4 games would be cool though and a new franchise with simmilar gameplay.

[@dhoffnun]

Plot twist: Elden Ring is the sequel to Eternal Ring

[@ix8750]

Nah man we need Dark armored core souls next.

[@abobo5863]

Its great to see the origin of the moonlight sword, in all its low-poly glory

[@squeezylemon1162]

The way you described early 3D visuals was perfect. The hallucinogenic feel of early 3D games is what makes them continue to be so appealing today.

[@Zman82]

Kings Field. One of the most overlooked series ever. One of my first PlayStation games. Their great.

[@fatherpretendo]

They're*

[@dizzygnome6698]

They're**😂

[@zenx28]

Alot of people dont know this game is the OG of the souls series and bloodborne. The kingsfield series game deserves a REMAKE!!

[@TM-df1qv]

Alan Zimmerman my favorites too! Got KF1, 2, and Ancient City and still play them all every so often

[@oldbutgold3374]

@@zenx28 There's the PC SoM Remake and the fangames made with SoM mega.nz/folder/CdM0yKCJ#IK9pr1-2gfMKfKfHBhHh3Q

[@Pacal_II]

Nice, I actually started playing those games recently and am currently on the third game. One thing though, the final boss you show isn't actually the Dark Wizard, that's Reinhardt the Third (the son of the previous king you meet on one of the previous levels that gives you fire magic). The Dark Wizard is that green ghost looking thing that taunts you at the beginning of level four and then you fight him during which fight he changes into a skeleton and defeating him gives you access to the portal to the fifth level.

[@AesirAesthetics]

Pinned for better lore.

[@Pacal_II]

@@AesirAesthetics I don't know if you checked it out but the manual to the game has been translated and is pretty easy to find, it describes some of the story and the characters. You can also find the ones for the next games, the one for the next game is useful because it goes a bit in depth on a bit of the world's history and provides a summary for the events of the first game as well (seemingly retconning it as well?).

[@ninjatears]

Nerdest thing I've ever read! 😮 And I love it. 😊

[@Glori4n]

Thank you for your honest review on one of my favorite games of all time. King's Field is a criminally underated game. Please do an analysis of the Ancient City, it is the pinnacle of King's Field.

[@AesirAesthetics]

I'll do all of them.

[@hypsin0]

Finally, someone who doesn't hate on KFIV. It's my favourite one, too.

[@nackskott12]

God, I love this series so much. The Ancient City is probably the most intimate experience I've had with a game. I went in blind and it's changed the way I see games as an art form. I really wish we could see a new game to really develop on the first person exploration of KF. Nothing compares to the immersion of playing TAC with music turned off, getting lost and slowly piecing together a bigger world.

[@timvanbaelen9797]

Yes, The Ancient City was amazing. The atmosphere is second to none.

[@joshmay2944]

You could be describing my experience with Bloodborne word for word! That was my first From Soft game and it fundamentally changed my relationship with video games.

[@BasedSquiggles]

Why would you wanna turn the music off though that shit slaps

[@tomjones6347]

I agree with everything you said except from the music, there are some heavy polyphonic bangers in kf4! Great games all around

[@GyprockGypsy]

Jesus christ you turn the OST off? Heathen! j/k, sounds like it makes for a very "Shadow Abyss" atmosphere.

[@RealCoachMustafa]

14:00 that's not the Dual Shock 1 controller. The first one had no special name, just Playstation Controller. Then came the Dual Analog Controller, which had two sticks. After that, came the Dual Shock controller, when they added the rumble feature.

[@AesirAesthetics]

Oh

[@j_c_93]

@ it was an interesting post, unlike yours

[@j_c_93]

@@AesirAesthetics Disappointing response from you.

[@AesirAesthetics]

@@j_c_93 oh

[@jokerzwild00]

Yeah it's pretty... shocking... that he didn't know that. :|

[@AesirAesthetics]

Oh lordy here we go.

[@sloomdayer2747]

Good video 👍

[@somacruz8272]

Boy do I have two games you'll absolutely love that KZbin has left neglected: Kingsfield The Ancient City and more importantly SHADOW TOWER ABYSS

[@AesirAesthetics]

I'll play both eventually.

[@agenticex]

​@@AesirAesthetics Hop to it! :3

[@RangerKarl]

STA is one of the rare RPGs that lets you tool around with a magic broadsword +whatever in one hand and a damn AK47 in the other, and I love it so much for that

[@PlasticCogLiquid]

The Ancient City was awesome! I thought I was the only person in the world that played it.

[@somacruz8272]

@@PlasticCogLiquid I put the ost on my ipod lol

[@hellhammerCCCP]

As a fan of Armored Core with my favorites being Project Phantasma and AC3 I remember when I used to get made fun for being a FROM fan and how mocking IGN were of FROM game design in the 90s and 2000s.

[@ix8750]

Yay I love armored core too! 💗

[@BlinJe]

IGN. never change lmao. now they bend the knee like everyone else, probably say stuff like "we've always been huge fans of from software" lool

[@missignoochodemoonman3239]

IGN is a joke

[@gozinta82]

Me too! People would say "How can you enjoy that?". LOL.

[@kvltizt]

Jank has soul idk how else to explain it.

[@Wins7ow]

One of the best vids on youtube on this old series! Thanks for playing and sharing, as a recent soulsborne convert I loved seeing what Fromsoft was up to during this era!

[@AesirAesthetics]

Glad you liked it. I'll be making more videos on the old FromSoft games in the coming months, so stay tuned.

[@Wins7ow]

@@AesirAesthetics Very excited to see what you produce! Thank you for replying :)

[@ApenBaard]

Youve gotten me to finaly give this game a shot. Im on the second floor by now and absolutely loving it, thanks :)

[@jacoblake5418]

Thank god we have great creators like you making content to fill the time during this whole thing

[@noneofyourbusiness4616]

it's not like there aren't already enough games, movies, books, tv shows, podcasts, music albums, places to visit to last you a thousand lifetimes... we need more!

[@talabackland8127]

Can’t wait to sit down with a cup of tea and watch this

[@AesirAesthetics]

TEA?!?!?!?

[@talabackland8127]

AesirAesthetics If you’re offering mate, milk and two sugars 😉

[@joopu70]

i sat down after full bottle

[@gozinta82]

I wanted to address two things you mentioned in your video (Btw, great video!): 1. The graphics and reviews of the time - Back in the early to mid 90's there was this "interactive multimedia" craze that took over and not many people grasped what was actually going on. Let me elaborate. When CD hit the market (and laserdisc) this gave people the the ability to not only watch movies in higher quality, it also allowed them to skip to the next/previous track, which in comparison to VHS/CASSETTE TAPE which was the current modern audio/video technology. On top of having computers that used "interactive multimedia" (See games like Maddog McCree or Encyclopedia Britannica or the like of that time period), consoles that toted this technology started coming out and everything was about graphics and Full Motion Video (FMV back in the day). When this game launched, the screenshots made the game look bland and very simple in it's 3D presentation (which even if the case, the gameplay and design make up for it). It got critical reviews most likely because the craze of high end graphics and FMV quality screenshots for advertisements that other popular games used (we didn't really know any better at the time). This is why all of the FMVs of those days were way higher in quality, but the gameplay was really blocky and simple (PS1/N64/3DO/etc). People didn't know what they wanted lol. 2. The controls - There wasn't an industry standard for FPS games yet. Back in 1995, Doom and only a few other FPS games had came out. Those all were on PC exclusively, but the ports used similar setups using trigger buttons to strafe. Turok, Goldeneye, and a few other FPS games up until the late 90's/early 2000's tried alternative setups using joysticks and such, but the WASD and dual joystick setup wasn't really put into practice commercially until after the early 2000's when the PS2 launched. Another example would be Halo that started using that dual joystick setup. It's 20/20 hindsight now, but at the time there was no real standard, so-to-speak.

[@JoeWags888]

Just found your channel. This is exactly the kind of video game analysis content I've been looking for. Great stuff, man! Love it.

[@brecoldyls]

Before I was born, my mom tells me that my dad used to play a lot of video games. I hardly ever saw my dad playing video games as I grew up though, and I tended to play a lot of role-playing games. One day my dad mentioned to me almost in passing that when he was younger he would play a role playing game called Kings Field. I had never heard of it. As I got older one of my brothers and I started to play a lot of the Monster Hunter games, which are similar to the Dark Souls games. My youngest brother is actually a huge fan of dark souls and has played and beaten all three of them, and even dabbles in speed running them. Watching this video now and hearing the history of Kings Field, I feel like so many things in my life are falling into place and starting to make sense. I never knew From Software made King’s Field! I feel like my preference towards souls-like games runs in the family haha. I can’t wait to tell my youngest brother and my dad about this connection and see their reaction

[@haughtygarbage5848]

Everyone falls over like a 3 stooges character when they die 10/10

[@BlinJe]

This was a thoroughly entertaining watch. Thanks for putting into words what I loved about the game! I'm working on a challenge-run video/supercut myself, you're definitely an inspiration.

[@pinkemoslayer6337]

Aesir's essays are just the ticket sometimes. I keep finding myself going through them all. Thx mate! 😊

[@Betsujin]

On emulator you can play it with sticks. I played it with PS4 controller. Walking forward, backward and strafing on left stick. Turning on right. Couldn't make moving camera up or down on right stick, but you don't use it often, R2 L2 worked nice. And attack and spell buttons on R1 L1. Feels really like Dark Souls.

[@DocDoesGamingTV]

Listening to this on my way home from working night shift, thanks for the company!

[@ElVlasy]

Great video, I was thinking a lot about this saga and it's spin off Shadow Tower lately.

[@DavidToast]

Amazing video! I played trough the trilogy about a year ago and also thought that they actually hold up pretty well if you go in with right mindset. What blew my mind thou is moonlight sword...optional is right word because I totally missed it. I was watching this video nodding along till you mentioned it. I remember it vividly from second game but thought it's simply not a thing in this one. I tried my best to discover everything on my own but obviously I missed some stuff anyway. So thanks for this video! It made me pretty hyped for replaying this game somewhere down the line. Honestly this is why I never watch alternate endings and stuff like that. To learn much later on that what I got in my playtrough of the game was just one of many possible ways of going trough the game is dope as heck and makes my second playtrough that much different.

[@jennabrutananadalewski412]

I like your hot take about the healing grass I tend to agree

[@AesirAesthetics]

We're visionaries, you and I.

[@catjackson3013]

I love listening to you talk about stuff like this! :D Keep it up!

[@coltonowens2742]

This was an awesome video man. Can't wait until you cover the rest of the franchise.

[@massiveprogressive9488]

Needs to be a King's Field 5. Or at least an HD remaster of the first three games, which uses the right stick for looking around, instead of turning and walking with the same stick/D-pad. I can't believe they never even did that for King's Field 4 on PS2.

[@misterhat144]

I know right? After playing the PSX versions, I was assuming the PS2 game would have smooth and flawless controls. I was quite surprised to find them identical XD

[@BlinJe]

I seem to remember using rightstick for KF4..

[@misterhat144]

@@BlinJe You *can* use it, but it only moves the camera up and down (slowly). The other controls are all still the same.

[@BlinJe]

@@misterhat144 aah that was it. cheers!

[@kvltizt]

I play KF/Shadow Tower/Eternal Ring via emulators and map the view controls to my right stick on a controller. Works quite well.

[@Double_Cheeseburger]

Man I loved these games. Me and my childhood friend would play them together, mapping out the areas and looking for secrets.

[@Thorn99855]

Loving this review. Thanks man. From someone who only played King's Field 2, but adored it.

[@AesirAesthetics]

glad you enjoyed!

[@jopdancing7320]

I would absolutely love it if you cover King's field The Ancient City.

[@aweirdwombat]

That's the best of the King's Field series IMO.

[@jopdancing7320]

@@aweirdwombat can't say if it's the best over all, but it most definitely has the best atmosphere and level design. seriously the interconnections in world of the Ancient city is insane, it makes dark souls 1 look tame in comparison!

[@AesirAesthetics]

I will.

[@kynos6219]

I just found this channel, but the way you talk about Kingsfield at the beginning reminds me a lot of Cruelty Squad. If you haven’t heard of it, you should definitely check it out, best way I can describe it is a Kingsfield immersive sim with the modern hitman level structure and progression. It breaks almost all of the rules of what you would call “good design” and is one of my favorite games I’ve played because of that.

[@markcubbedge6701]

Nice commentary. The next king’s field (2) is my absolute favorite. Can’t wait for the next video.

[@OmarMejiasGamertologist]

Kings Field (US) was one of those games that randomly came to me in the ps1 era. A friend of mine bought it without even knowing what it was and kept asking me to translate the text (he was not very good at English) and we became obsessed lol. I remember my friend, his brothers and I trying to beat the game in their room, which was pretty dim lighted and that just added to the eerie atmosphere the game had. We spent a lot of hours looking for secrets and how to get better and beat it, nice memories.

[@supers0nic77]

I have a very similar story. When it came out me and a friend would play all night. Unfortunately he passed many years ago but it's a very special memory for me. At the time he also had sega channel, 3d0, jaguar and many others. We played many systems. Kf and panzer dragoon top ones for me

[@tabbycrumch3062]

I find your videos once in a while by chance, and I always love them. I'm doing my first playthrough of King's Field 2 right now, and I just wanted to watch a bit of content in between sessions. You always put out great stuff!! i subbed you

[@AesirAesthetics]

Thank you :)

[@jennabrutananadalewski412]

What a wonderful video you did such a good job!! Will you be covering the sequels?!

[@AesirAesthetics]

I plan to but it depends on how well this video tracks. (it's currently my most popular video in the first hour-ish after launch so it's looking good)

[@lawrenceyancy3364]

AesirAesthetics can’t wait to see more!!

[@AesirAesthetics]

@@lawrenceyancy3364 :)

[@IgorCD]

@@AesirAesthetics man you really need play the sequels, they are amazing ( 2 and 4 are the best for me).

[@Browsley]

I am so amazed by the quality of this analysis. Love it! Keep up the good work my man! You deserve soo many more views and subs.

[@AesirAesthetics]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Browsley]

A friend of mine and I are currently playing through Kings Field The Ancient City. Loving it! Hopefully you'll go through that game as well someday :)

[@AesirAesthetics]

@@Browsley I will.

[@scarymonsters524]

11:38 "It gives you a real sense of growth when you go from reading about a legendary dragon on the upper levels to receiving its blessings on the bottom." 😳

[@AesirAesthetics]

Unintentional! 😭

[@Freshbrood]

You sold me on this. I love all old school rpgs in the style of Elder Scrolls with real time combat.

[@AesirAesthetics]

😎👉👉

[@tree4318]

The dragon tree leaf looks just like a weed leaf lol

[@nollypoli]

There's something I've noticed among a large sect of gamers, a trait that keeps them from trying to understand various different systems and pine for what they already understand which is often times comparitvely simpler than what is being presented to them. They'll see a power bar for example, and think "why can't I just keep swinging?", and put the game down or slander it instead of adapting to what the game is wanting them to do. They'd prefer every game be the same experience and that perplexes me. If every game played like Skyrim I would be distraught. If every game played like dark souls it would also sadden me, despite my near infinite love for the series and its systems. I think that's why I love from soft so much, they like to play around with their formula more than most other game developers and aren't afraid of alienating people.

[@somagd64]

Because of this video I actually recently beat kings field and really enjoyed it thanks for getting me interested enough to play it :)

[@AesirAesthetics]

Hey hey! Awesome!

[@DraigoDragon]

Always use strafing left and right along with my movement to get around!

[@jyesucevitz]

Ive grown out of favor with rpg games. (Got older and no patients to play for hour upon hour.) With that said the Kings Field games to this day are my favorite games hands down. The way the atmosphere pulled me in has never been duplicated. Thank you for this retrospective. BTW, I loved the games of that era. Tobal 1 and 2. (Best fighting games with a dungeon adventure mode thrown in.) And Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. (No sequel to that is a crime.)

[@dtPlaythroughs]

I bought into the narrative that these are old janky RPGs not worth playing and avoided, until recently and now I'm in love with King's Field II (USA). You do a great job summing up what makes these games so enjoyable to this day. I love these games for the same reason I love Souls: They do a great job of making you feel lost, giving just enough signposts/markers, and eventually feel like an experienced explorer who has a mental map of the entire game world. It's an awesome feeling that I don't get from other dungeon crawlers.

[@MaitreMechant]

never played the game but after this vid it felt like I did, great analysis. Great channel btw, subscribed :)

[@KneadingHarbl]

Hilarious how the most consistent thing between 1994 and today are games journalists not understanding the games they're playing.

[@AesirAesthetics]

Lol

[@Crazelord91]

This is the King's Field of Dark Souls videos

[@FinneousPJ1]

More like the Shadow Tower of Wizardry videos

[@roland4623]

great video man. totally worth the hype i had for it. you made me really want to play King's Field, too! i've been on a retro RPG kick lately. really enjoying the old AD&D CRPGs and the first Elder Scrolls games, too. maybe i'll have to do King's Field next!

[@Zman82]

I watched, then I played.

[@roland4623]

@@Zman82 i want to! gotta look into the emulation.

[@Frostwulf1313]

I loved KF 1 and 2. I miss the days of these kinds of games and the likes of early Wizardry and Might & Magic.

[@ZacFrazier]

Secret of Mana is another game with the ability to attack as much as you want but with a power meter, though I'm curious to know if that's where it originated

[@AesirAesthetics]

Huh

[@BrandG.]

That did come out in 93?

[@StodgyAyatollah]

Legendary Axe for the PC Engine (1988) and Astyanax for both arcade and Famicom (1989) are the first games I can think of that use this system but wouldn't be surprised if there are others that precede them.

[@jacksawack6724]

Final Fantasy Adventure was the first game in that series, and it had a similar system.

[@OverlordOfEcchi]

Yes!!! Kings field content! give us more!

[@TommyPKFire]

3:02 I'm subbing for that joke, well played.

[@DarkBloodSouls]

Amazing. I love your work and attention to detail.

[@Kishy]

Loving this series so far! Watching King's Field 2 next

[@obliviousmode575]

A very good video of Kings Field 1. I fell in love with Kings Field game watching my cousin play it. I have loved the series ever since. Kings Field 2 USA is probably my favorite. It’s a shame this didn’t make its way over. I have played it though. I just recently got me an android gaming tablet. The 1st game I put on it was Kings Field The Ancient City. A game I do own but haven’t fully played in a very long time. I’m glad I found you video it was very enjoyable. The gameplay and mechanics are what makes it so fun. I love the clunky combat and controls. It challenging and yes it grindy at times but I love doing that. I don’t mind killing the respawning enemies over and over again. It just makes it fun farming exp and gold.

[@bakerdoze]

Good stuff. I only managed to beat King’s Field 2 and 3 (Saw a Let’s Play on the first one, barely played The Ancient City), but it’s nice to hear someone else’s thoughts on this franchise.

[@Ryfinius]

Very refreshing video after seeing all the "this game sucks" reviews that plague youtube. Only played kings field 2 but was always compelled to keep playing even though the game put me in a weird melancholy mood.

[@ErikdreD-bh6tp]

You explained it to a T! Kings field trilogy will always be my favorite. I have all of them.

[@HappyHyperHuggieNini]

I loved the realization I had when I first played this game that the final boss in lore and aesthetic is just the Bed of Chaos.

[@withbravado1548]

Gosh I really enjoyed this! Thank you!

[@AesirAesthetics]

Glad to hear it :)

[@AlReviveMusic]

There was a PC remake of King's field made in 2001 when From released the 'Sword Of Moonlight' tool kit. It fixes a lot of the game's Issues such as Remappable controls, Updated textures, Models, & Animations and it can run natively on Windows 10 at 1080p 60fps. There wasn't an English release, but it has a fan translation that can be downloaded from the Sword of Moonlight forum.(You'll have to make an account on the Forum to access the downloads)

[@StodgyAyatollah]

It also changed many mechanics for the worse and is missing items. It's not the ideal way to play the series and is more of a novelty. I've heard it's been nearly impossible to get access to the forum since all accounts have to be manually verified. A download can be found on the discord for those that are interested.

[@hypsin0]

It's also got a broken final boss, with way too much health.

[@ravend5595]

I come back to this video time to time as a soulsfan !

[@rueceless7580]

The slow movement was there to allow the game to load in new areas, game loads new zones as you play only really loading when you first start or load a file.

[@Anders010]

Great video. They should release this games in a collection. The music of Kings Field is something really special, I dare to say I like it more than the OSTs of Bloodborne and Dark Souls. Atmospheric and haunting but in a more subtle way than the modern games. I feel like with each new game the music of the Soul series got more grandiose and 'Hollywood' like while Kings Field and Demon Souls tunes are more of an intimate experience.

[@Caine187]

11:33 that's one thicc lizard man

[@kristianbeqiraj3340]

Are u going to play the shadow tower gaames too? The second one is one of my favourites pre demon souls game

[@AesirAesthetics]

Yes.

[@voivodadracula1936]

This first person mod for Demon's Souls is really nostalgic

[@number1enemyoftheuseless985]

Yeah first souls game.

[@MMasterDE]

While Moonlight Sword is a great sword, I wrote a guide about how another weapon you pick up in this video is actually the most effective to level up your magic. That guide is actually about how some game mechanics you didn't explain in this video. How to improve stats and what the class stuff even is.

[@DonnyKirkMusic]

King's Field 1 is beautiful! I especially loved the first dungeon's atmosphere when you are first getting your bearings: you will probably stumble into that hidden passage with the skeleton and the shield which is great because the games later-on call back to that darkly-humorous moment. Later, you find a small graveyard where everything is mostly normal...you return to that same area and one of the graves is knocked over (a detail I have seen no-one cover) and a mummy appears that spawns a knight-sword (a detail that EVERYONE covers). You go to the church and the priest wants you to find his cross...like the one right next to him? No, its a specific one that can only be found on a merchant but the game doesn't tell you this. Its like back-to-back charming, classic gaming moments. Oh yeah, and the two shopkeeps that are setup pretty damn far from one-another, but have varying buy/sell prices so if you don't write shit down you'd be painstakingly comparing, and they actually don't have much of a rhyme-or-reason to their prices: one of them seems to buy your items for more gold if you sell him enchanted/magical stuff, but sometimes he doesn't give you more for that type of item.

[@rswindol]

Great video; I really enjoyed it. Think I might give this series a shot when I get the time. Would love to scratch the souls itch with something new.

[@lillyclarity9699]

As far as your feelings about Demon's Souls grasses, I'm on your side with that, as well as Dark Souls 2 lifegems. They're both wonderful pieces of design and you can easily just choose to not use them once you're good enough at the game to not need to, while their continued presence is good for new players, experienced players who want to turn off their brains, and even makes certain high-armor, high-hp, high-damage builds more feasible. tldr: grass and lifegems aren't as big of an issue as people make them out to be, Demon's and Scholar are the best souls games, fight me

[@danielramsey6141]

Damn, this game needs a remake.

[@luckycharms3783]

I’m from the future and still come back to this video every while in a while.

[@AesirAesthetics]

Why didn't you tell past-Aesir the lottery numbers, future man?

[@Morraak]

I think King's Field for you was the Quest for Glory games for me. Great series if you haven't played it! I wish it was easier to be able to play King's Field. I'd definitely give it a go.

[@ericcannon222]

Up until 5, anyways... What a huge mistake, forcing the series into 3D... >.>;

[@Freshbrood]

Emulators=save states=easier

[@GyprockGypsy]

I think the contrasts between Kings Field 1&2 are very interesting. You can really see the influence of earlier games like Wizardry and Gauntlet in the design of the first game. Particularly in the level design and monsters. The highly linear nature of the first game stands out so starkly for what would become one of the defining games in open world exploration. I think my greatest regret of the entire series is that MoonLight Sword (a community modding, level edit, and launching tool) never got the love it deserved and the it's capabilities never got brought out much past the first game.

[@Peach_Creed]

I love old enemy designs. Back then you had to get creative where as now theres kind of established enemy types like zombies ect yes they had zombies then I know what I mean is if you wanted your enemies in the game to stand out you'd need to make an enemy unique or twist a preexisting concept for example modern zombies or any undead most times it's a virus (extremely played out) but look at how dead space deals with a concept like reanimation of flesh, the markers produce a frequency that causes a person to go insane the higher the intelligence the person has the harder it is to manipulate the person for conversion (not factoring the infectors which can reanimate a corpse) how many times do we need to do the virus scenario before you realize wait we've done this millions of times. Now days people can just copy and paste but back then you really had to put in the effort if you didn't want to get left behind and your game forgotten.

[@xXLunatikxXlul]

Agreed

[@PlasticCogLiquid]

The thing I love most about Kings Field is the way they dropped you in the middle of a bunch of shit with a helicopter and said "Figure it out fucker." Then you walked into some water and died. The game grabbed me immediately :D Took me forever to actually make any progress but it was rewarding every time you make it to a new area. I still own the first two games! Something else I love about the games is that they didn't compromise on detail. Some areas framerate gets pretty bad but it's because they put more detail than a lot of other games at the time in some of the scenes. Sometimes there are actual polygons making up a tree instead of just a sprite for example.

[@TVGGAMEZCO]

Earned my sub. This game was such a mystery and difficult for me. Never beat the first area.

[@AesirAesthetics]

Happy to have you aboard: )

[@dulceratoncita]

Your kingsfield series really pushed me to give this first game a try, and I gotta say, it was the most fun I've had in a while. Didnt really expect this game to grab my attention this much! Also I just got 1 question if you get to read this, did you ever figure out how to use the sword spells some of the weapons have? I think it's something that is never mentioned in the game I believe, so I wouldn't be surprised if most of the people that play this miss this extra lil gameplay feature

[@AesirAesthetics]

I think I did in my second playthrough, it's been a while now but I recall magics being attached to sword 🤔

[@dulceratoncita]

@@AesirAesthetics I think for some swords you had to equip a specific accessory, for example I think the moonlight greatsword doesnt have a magic spell if you dont have the dragon armband thingy if I remember correctly

[@arciks11]

You swing weapon that has a spellsword effect and mid swing cast a spell.

[@dpcquak]

Just finished this game for the first time. Surprisingly fun and challenging.

[@Graff-z4x]

Thank you for your work! scouring for meta-lore in from's historical development so this was a perfect gem of a find! Also, impressed and grateful you denied the pay-to-play sponsorship lol I absolutely hate this parasitic quality of current games.

[@insertgoodchannelnamehere]

17:20 I just realized, this is basically what post 1.9 minecraft combat is. Wild.

[@AesirAesthetics]

:O

[@Robocopnik]

The wizard is like the baby brother of the Witch of Izalith.

[@number1enemyoftheuseless985]

Great game wish I could play a remaster of it.

[@cyberninjazero5659]

Don't mind me I just watched the "Exploring the King's Field Games" video and am putting the relevant info from that under each video 6:48 The main artifact the king was looking for was the Moonlight Greatsword

[@QuikVidGuy]

my favorite part of the wizard is that it's not nonsense, in fact it jumped right out at me that it's a foreign ego that's taken root in somebody else's grave. It's so cool.

[@insanelyheinousbeefer]

hey aesir just wanna say i fuckin love your analyses. your notes on how refreshing it is just diving head-on into straight-played fantasy tropes resonated super strongly.

[@dmas7749]

i'm a fan of old school item resource management as well so uhh, you're actually not alone on that estus thing also good on you for rejecting raid

[@AesirAesthetics]

resource management gang, represent!

[@dmas7749]

@@AesirAesthetics: it's the easy way out to give a regenerating source of resources, but it is a tricky balance to land, FF has you accumulate ridiculous stock of potions and the like whereas games that don't give you enough makes it feel like you're scraping by, which can feel intense but tends to slow enjoyment with frustration currently binging your KF series, hoping for a look at Eternal Ring, i have never played king's field or any souls game and its one of the few experiences i have from a fromsoft game, it's charming but i've yet to beat it, mostly from the harsh penalty of death

[@AesirAesthetics]

@@dmas7749 I will do Eternal Ring soon. My next batch of videos will be the Shadow Towers, Shadow of the Colossus, a couple of secret videos (NDA) and then I'll either dip right into a Bloodborne commentary or Eternal Ring.

[@dmas7749]

@@AesirAesthetics: no rush also i'm a pointless contrarian; when you told me to get coffee i got tea, and i drank coffee while watching spiffingbrit use a chest filled with barrels to murder a town

[@AesirAesthetics]

@@dmas7749 you're a monster.

[@jeremyabbott4537]

did you ever think to look at Eternal Ring on the PS2? It was actually the first FromSoft game I played, and because it didn't use the analogue sticks I didn't give it a fair shake. It seemed really cool though and I wish I had my PS2 with me to try it again.

[@johnavy1722]

Got it in it’s original long cardboard box in all its glory.Love it still.

[@bitzgames]

I just bought Shadow Tower and Echo Night from the PS3 Store after getting off work. Watching this out of curiosity and to get some background on the history!

[@AesirAesthetics]

Enjoy

[@xXLunatikxXlul]

Does Echo Night save properly for you? I have tried saving the game a numerous amount of times and it says I cannot save the game?

[@bitzgames]

@xXLunatikxXlul I haven't actually played the game yet, it's in the backlog. However, just in case, If you are referring to the PS3 PSOne Classics release off PSN, you will have to create a virtual memory card in the PS3 menu first. PSOne games purchased off PSN on PS3 use virtual memory cards that you can set up in the XMB interface. PS2 games purchased off PSN on PS3 do not use virtual memory cards, they just save games normally onto your hard drive as PS3 software. Make sure that for Echo Night you create at least one virtual memory card and assign that card to slot one. (You can do this all through the PS3 XMB interface)

[@bitzgames]

PSP and Vita users do not have to set up virtual memory cards manually because on those platforms they did those steps for you. And because these virtual memory cards are universal for all PSOne games on your PS3, digital or otherwise, you will have to manage the storage space of each accordingly. Thankfully, you can create as many virtual memory cards as you can fit on your PS3 hard drive (and seeing as how each virtual memory card is about the size of a physical PSOne memory card, that's a lot of memory cards!)

[@bitzgames]

When you set them up, you can give each virtual memory card a name, optionally assign a color, and set them to either slot 1 or 2 on the Virtual PSOne. You can only have one virtual memory card in each virtual slot at a time. When you run out of space, choose or create another virtual card and replace the card in slot 1 or 2 with it.

[@conradsonvideo]

Thanks for this awesome analysis. I watched it after I played and finished King's Field for the first time in 12 hours. Even if I explored a lot the game, I missed the "quest" of the Moonlight Sword, I saw the dragon but no fairy where found : I might have miss a step along the way (too bad, as I found two of the hidden sealed dragon doors). Now I'm playing to King's Field II, and I may be weird, but I like it less (I'm 6 hours deep).

[@AesirAesthetics]

Number 2 is a lot more "Samey". All the other numbered King's Field's constantly shakes things up

[@cyka_delik9537]

Highly recommend this game on the steam deck with the "Modern Controls" community button preset.

[@x54xHantamachine]

That combat syatem actually seems super similar to how Minecraft does it nowadays.

[@munkaccino]

this game came with the first playstation I owned, it was so creepy and weird, I never got very far after getting the fire spell god damn this game gave me chills back then..

[@VtheWanderer]

Wondrously written and masterfully executed retrospective. Hope you do the sequels. Especially KFIV. Keep it up, my dude.

[@AesirAesthetics]

That's the plan!

[@QuikVidGuy]

This is one of those companies that has a consistent vision. There are some where you look back on their old work and are like "how the fuck did we get to where we are? thank goodness [beloved director] came in." But with From, there's a really clear line of progression. The same way that Miyazaki's games are always making small edits to the formula to fix past mistakes, you can really see that he had a solid foundation to build on, and just guided them somewhere that had a better game flow. Really emphasizes how we put too much emphasis on the Great Man idea. Like, Miyazaki's great, but it was the team that had the experience and the format and put in the work to follow his vision, he didn't just spring up and revolutionize the whole field.

[@QuikVidGuy]

AAAAAAA you said pretty much the exact same thing in your conclusion!!!

[@FaustBusserl]

At the start I wondered if you had played System Shock 1. Seems like you did, and I think I was so impressed recently with that game as you were with this one.

[@AesirAesthetics]

I really like the System Shock games, I even made videos on both.