/vr/ - Retro Games

>>10441128
4 for me. It made me able to go back and appreciate the older games, where as before playing 4 I hated 1 when I first tried it and thought the whole series was trash.

>>10441128
It's literally just 'Dark Souls if unplayable controls'. Also I won't delude myself into thinking the best thing about Souls games isn't the interesting environments and weird ancient cultures, antics and orthodoxies. KF graphics don't do that justice

>>10441128
I seriously haven't heard about this game until like in the past year, is it rising in popularity because of the souls games?

Mine is Shadow Tower because of the intentional world design and mechanics desu

>>10441128
ST Abyss is the only one I like. All the other ones play like shit. I don't care that it's intendend to be shit, shit's shit simple as

>>10441271
King's Field isn't really like Dark Souls at all except superficially. Dark Souls is an action game with RPG elements that's all about combat, it's the absolute core of the gameplay and all exploration is served by it. King's Field is far more about exploration with monsters just being an impediment, hence it's first person and almost a shooter in terms of magic use. It has an actual story with a defined protagonist too, not a blank slate.
>KF graphics don't do that justice
If anything the lowpoly graphics of the first three strongly contribute to the dreamlike atmosphere. Worst take I've heard on a retro board desu
>It's literally just 'Dark Souls if unplayable controls'.
Tank controls are fine once you get used to them. People who give up on the gargoyles also find DS1 unplayable. It's a form of challenge just like QWOP or Getting Over It

>>10441521
I loved Shadow Tower. Such an abysmally dark and unfair game lol, I've never found anything with the same bleakness

>>10441446
Unironically yes. Why do you think the latest Armored Core also sold so much more than the pre-Souls games?

>what is ultima underworld

My wife :)

>>10441128
I have only played 2 and 4 and I like both. Maybe 4 slightly better.
I'm thinking of trying out Eternal Ring and Evergrace to see how they are.

>>10441128
2 because of how insane its anthill style level structure is, but 4 is close behind.

>>10441865
>I'm thinking of trying out Eternal Ring and Evergrace to see how they are.
Eternal Ring is rushed (like most early fromsoft) but playable, with some cool ideas that were never expanded on enough. A magic focused fieldlike could have been great
Evergrace is jankfest 2000 with a very interesting colour palette and soundtrack, but the gameplay sucks fat balls. They converted it from ps1 to ps2 halfway through being made and it shows

>>10441521
Beautiful

I really need to beat 3, 4, and Shadow Tower so I can really appreciate Lunacid.

>>10441128
4 (with rotation/climb hack and controls fix) > 3 > 4 (with no hacks or fixes) > Shadow Tower Abyss > Shadow Tower 1 (with infinte durability cheat) > Eternal Ring > 1 > Shadow Tower 1 (no cheats) > 2

>>10443990
you also need to undergo HRT to properly appreciate Troonacid

>>10444776
>fixes
look at this retard.

>>10444793
>why yes! i do love how my rotation speed is 25% my walking speed which makes ZERO sense!

>>10441128
I honestly love them all and I wish I could erase my memory of them to discover them again.

>>10441128
King’s Field was never good. It was acceptable and interesting back when 3D was new. These are some of the clunkiest, most boring games ever made. You are literally walking at turtles pace in completely square hallways hitting the attack button and backing up. It’s like playing an even worse version of Elder Scrolls: Battlespire, which is quite the achievement. Literally any DOS dungeon crawler are better than these, and less rudimentary. All these were, were 3D.
People sincerely force themselves to enjoy this trash because muh dark souls, muh ANCIENT GRAPHICS.
Zoomers, there are much better games on these old consoles. Don’t be a hipster fag and delude yourself into thinking this trash is any good. From was a budget dev with a mixed library before demon’s souls.

>>10445318
KF4 is genuinely good no matter what you say. I had a blast playing it for the first time in 2021 after seeing someone on /v/ shill it daily for like a week.
KF1 is also a very good game for being a 3D dungeon crawler in fucking 1994.

>>10445349
>KF1 is also a very good game for being a 3D dungeon crawler in fucking 1994.

It really isn’t. It’s so primitive and clunky, it’s just 3D and has PS1 graphics charm. There were dozens of better and more complex dungeon crawlers on PC, they just weren’t polygonal 3D.
Everything worthwhile about King’s Field is in its presentation. Its gameplay is trash beyond words. If it didn’t have the early 3D atmosphere that it does, nobody would bother with it. Even the fourth one is way too clunky for its own good, especially by 2001. I guess they are charming, but they certainly aren’t fun.

>>10445318
Hear that everybody? Plebius Maximus has spoken and his word is LAW.

>>10445368
They are fun. You sounds like a Souls zoomer who couldn't adapt.
KF4 was fun, I wouldn't have played through it if it wasn't. KF1 satisfied me when I wanted more of the fun I got out of KF4.

My opinions on each game:

>KF1
Classic dungeon crawling, fun and very unique compared to the games that were around at the time. Might be a bit too barebones for some. Good introduction to the games

>KF2
Larger, more open world and nonlinear, which some people may like but I wasn't really a fan. Hard to know where to go. The atmosphere, aesthetics and music are top notch though.

>KF3
The perfect game in my opinion. Same open world as 2 but more linear and less confusing. Graphics get a slight upgrade but still have that PSX aesthetic. Music is still great, and the areas are more diverse than 2 and not just mainly composed of the same rocky caves and corridors. Story ties to the first game very well unlike 2 which was more of a spinoff. Despite the game being more linear it's still quite long unlike 1 which could be beaten in a day probably.

>KF4
I've actually never finished it, but this one is more for the Dark Souls fans who don't really vibe with the PS1 graphics of the previous games. Very open world and confusing like 2. Basically a complete spinoff though, and has nothing to do with the Verdite Trilogy.

>>10445406
That’s right little faggot, now kiss the (eternal) ring.
>>10445410
They aren’t fun in my opinion. If they were fun, people would have been talking about them before Dark Souls fever. In fact, people didn’t start talking about them again until after Dark Souls fever died down and they were desperate for more gloomy, desolate atmospheric low fantasy. Now there are Souls hipsters who force themselves to play this crap and tell themselves it was good. Gaming is becoming exactly like music and movies.

It wasn’t until Demon’s Souls they had the gameplay and atmosphere at equal levels and became the hot thing. If Souls didn’t happen, these would be curios forever. Don’t even pretend that isn’t the case.

>>10445531
Souls games are also absolute clunky jank. Punishing clunky jank is what I expect from Fromsoft, and they do it in a way where its always fun and engaging, which is why I choose to check out more of their games.

>>10445406
HEAR YEE HEAR YEE THE DECREE OF PLEBIVS MAXIMVS HAS BEEN ENACTED ON THE WHOLE OF /VR/. HEED THY TOUNGES YOUNG ZOOMOPOLITES AS THE PUNISHMENT FOR HERESEY IS BEING FORCED TO PLAY TELLTALE GAMES FOR ALL ETERNITY!

>>10445540
I disagree. Souls games are the opposite of clunky, they have extremely fluid animation, complex hitboxes, and reactive inputs. They are basically the perfect action RPGs.

Kings Field is so simple it makes 80s dungeon crawlers look complex. You turtle walk up to a slow enemy, strike him, back up slowly, and repeat until numbers go up. That’s the entire gameplay loop. NES games are more engaging than that for God’s sake. All of this in mostly completely square playing areas. It’s even like this in KF4 even though the level geometry gives you the illusion of more complexity.

>>10445554
>You turtle walk up to a slow enemy, strike him, back up slowly, and repeat
As opposed to
>you run up, roll, attack, roll, attack, roll, back up and let stamina refill, repeat

>>10441865
>I'm thinking of trying out Eternal Ring and Evergrace to see how they are.
They're absolute dogshit but then you like KF2 and 4 so enjoy I guess

>>10445554
Also what the hell?
>Souls games are the opposite of clunky
You have to be trolling. Attacks are slow and weighty, input buffering is inconsistent solely to fuck you over for double pressing anything or changing your mind on what you want to do, and its a non-fps where you use the shoulder buttons to attack and not the face buttons.

>>10445570
Lol uh yes?
What sounds more fun to you? An extremely reactive and twitch reflex combat experience of a character you tailor build to your exact play style
Or
Painfully slow turtle walking and painfully slow sword strikes and painfully slow backing up until enemy dies and numbers go up in narrow corridors?

You are deluding yourself if you think they are comparable in any way.

>>10445318
Yeah the annoying part is there's a ton of action RPGs from the era that don't suck balls but zoomers don't play them because they're not fashionable. Nobody's playing old Might & Magic games and they're better than KF
>>10445410
No YOU sound like a zoomer. "I played them so they must be good" isn't an argument. Play Might and Magic 6 and see what a good dungeon crawling action RPG looked like. You won't because that's not a fashionable franchise to play these days

>>10445591
nta but slow and clunky have nothing to do with each other. Souls may be a bit slow bit it's a very responsive game with tight controls. KF controls like ass. And don't act as if it's supposed to control like ass because it's old. Old doesn't equal bad

>>10445591
Souls games aren’t clunky and I can’t believe you are claiming this to somehow says kings field is good or the same thing lol.
Way to lose the plot you fucking sperg.

>>10445601
Exactly. There are dozens of better dungeon crawlers before and after king’s field, games that directly inspired king’s field, but zoomers want From atmosphere because muh dark souls so they delude themselves into thinking this glacial pace budget shit is “fun”.

>>10441128
Can't go wrong with any.

They are all god-tier kamiges.

>>10445598
Souls isn't extremely reactive, later games especially. Its trial and error down to its very core, you have to memorize the attacks to know when to roll.
Its a simple gameplay loop, same as KF has. You're just mad that you like one but hate the other, while other people like both.
>>10445601
>play Might and Magic 6
"I played them so they must be good"isn't an argument I thought? M&M6 must be shit I guess then.
Also I didn't play KF because its "fashionable" I played it because I was interested. Same reason I played Megami Tensei and Baroque.
Lemme guess, all old games are automatically bad if zoomers get interested in them? Grow up.
>>10445608
>>10445609
Souls is absolutely clunky, and the input buffering can make it feel very unresponsive at times. If slow speed does not equal clunky then what the hell is clunky about KF? The controls? Are we just gonna ignore the weird shit with Souls controls like pressing O twice or R3 to jump, and having attacks mapped to L/R?

>>10445703
This is so much delusional cope you fucking retard lol.

Yes, kings field is reactive and dark souls isn’t because you don’t like pressing the trigger buttons.

Get the fuck out of here, seriously, that was embarrassing what you just typed.

>>10445738
>kings field is reactive and dark souls isn’t because you don’t like pressing the trigger buttons.
Where I say that anywhere? You say I'm coping when you can't even come up with an argument and just start making shit up?
Nowhere did I say KF was reactive either, I'm just telling you that Souls is not. The trigger buttons have to do with Souls being clunky, if you think its not clunky, then you cannot say KF's trigger camera control is clunky either, its hypocritical.
Either say both aren't clunky or both are, because they both have some weird fucking controls. Hell, Souls is more weird since their controls are far from what was normal at the time and now, while KF has an excuse in that games all the way up to PS2 commonly used shoulder buttons for camera.

>>10445756
Dark Souls isn’t clunky. None of the souls games are clunky. Nobody has ever thought this, nobody has ever said this, until right now, because you need to prove to yourself that gif I posted isn’t the definition of clunky.

King’s Field is fucking boring, slow, and controls like shit. Even after they could update it mechanically, they didn’t. You’re playing this game like a hipster used to listen to vinyl. You don’t care about the content, you care about it’s presentation.

>>10445738
>>10445765
>reddit spacing
>uhhh kings field is bad because slow
Lol you probably just have ADHD. Strafing around enemies in KF with a controller is fun as fuck. I don't need to spam a bunch of buttons and play a glorified rhythm game to have fun

>>10445531
Lol Dark Souls is not low fantasy, most humans are undead from a curse and it has monsters and magic around every bend. It's Dark Fantasy

>>10445765
There's nothing clunky about that gif. You don't know what fucking clunky means.

>>10444780
Yes :3

>>10445554
>>10445598
There's nothing wrong with being slow. After all, people enjoy Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon and The Longing. The pace of king's field is chill to me

Imagine malding because some people like some old games...

>>10445808
Want to know how I know you’re a tryhard newfag? There is no such thing as reddit spacing. Look at 4chan archives, there are line breaks everywhere and nobody called it reddit spacing until 2016, when the tourists came. Go back.
>>10445823
There is a case for it being low fantasy but dark fantasy is the better descriptor and the one I meant to say.
>>10445829
So that gif is showing a game that isn’t clunky, and this game is?
You faggots better be pretending to be retarded.

>>10445864
>move in move out move in move out
>roll roll roll roll
Good job on proving how both are repetitive in their own way. Neither gif shows whats clunky about them though, you're retarded.

>>10445864
King's Field controls are something you have to keep going at over and over until it clicks with you. I'm not sure how familiar you are with the MGS series, but I recall my first time playing MGS3 (first one I played), and absolutely despising the layout and inputs on initial impression. After some time the layout felt perfect to me.
Same thing happened with King's Field. The more I played the smoother my movements became and the more dynamic the game became in general. That with the consistent stamina management with the run feature made the game a nice risk-reward management which is pretty similar to souls game design where a lot of your movements and input are a commitment. It's okay if you don't want to put in the time to really master the controls. These games aren't meant for everyone. There's even the joke that From Soft makes games for Japanese salarymen. I'm sure there are some games you like that other people can't seem to appreciate to your level, and that's okay. Different strokes for different folks.

>>10445531
>They aren’t fun in my opinion. If they were fun, people would have been talking about them before Dark Souls fever.
Imagine all the great media with cult followings you'd miss out on if you actually just had the mentality that popular and new defines good. King's Field is much more comparable to an immersive sim than the hack and slash gameplay of Dark Souls.

>>10446863
That’s definitely not how I define good and you’re putting words in my mouth.

King’s Field has a cult following because of Dark Souls, simple as. It isn’t good enough on its own, but it is the blueprint for one of the biggest franchises in gaming now (soulsborneringkiro). It has a retroactive cult status, nobody really fondly remembered these games in the west because they were unimpressive and boring.

>>10446904
KF had fan translations, fan games, and was referred to as a cult classic series by games journalists way before Demon's Souls.

>>10446904
I owned all the english games and was part of a modding community for the game in the mid 2000s. Just because you weren't alive back then doesn't mean it didn't have its fans.

>>10446940
I was alive back then. Did you try to mod the game to make it fun? Apparently not since it still sucks lol.

>>10444780
What are you blabbering about, schizo?

Do all KF threads really have to be derailled by soulsfags?

>>10445410
>>10445528
QRD on each KF's story?

>>10441128
I've only played the original so I give to that one. What an amazing experience.

>>10447162
the first one almost feels like a nes game that just happens to have 3d graphics. Very comfy imo

>>10448213
Yeah it's a real gamers game, more star tropics than mario for those who don't get it.

>>10447106
>King's Field 4
is the only prince vs prince game of the series. Also the European release translated the Dark Magician (one of the somewhat story-relevant bosses in the game) as Black Magic Man, among other instances of errors or dodgy decisions. Meanwhile, the US release is probably more accurate but the translators who were big KF fans were allowed to go hog with giving things their own names (or so I read). That's really no biggie, because older KF titles already had that in spades.
>King's Field 3
KF3's English release differs from the Japanese in that the ending cutscene is actually voiced whereas it's just a silent text scroll in the original. Also might have made the good ending a bit better for the hero, but I might be wrong.
>Eternal Ring
is even crazier, the JP version is kind of voiced, but it's just the narrator in the intro and ending. Meanwhile, the English version fully voices all cutscenes and dialogues in the game.
>Shadow Tower
Big spoilers for Shadow Tower Abyss: it's kind of a sequel to the first game but also maybe not necessarily and Rurufon (the demon girl of the series who is way more relevant in the sequel) is fucking perfect. It's not a joke, it's a big lore thing that explains some other things.
>Evergrace
Now, for the fucking masterpiece, which is finally fully voiced in all versions: the villain is called Morpheus in the translation but is fucking Bag(u)ragera in the original. And Sharlin is Sharuami/Shalami. Weird.

>>10448213
Original Zelda has better combat and exploration than King’s Field. King’s Field is a downgrade. King’s Field is more like picrel.

>>10448305
>first-person dungeon crawler is like a first-person dungeon crawler
whoa crazy

>>10445703
>Same reason I played Megami Tensei and Baroque
Which are also both fashionable. Just a coincidence. Play Might and Magic 6/7 and then tell me if it's shit or not. If you really are interested in this genre
>what the hell is clunky about KF? The controls?
Yeah, what the fuck anon, it's the controls. They suck. ST Abyss fixes the controls and w'allah it doesn't suck anymore, it's actually a fun game. Totally unbalanced though

>>10448694
>Might and Magic 6/7
Sounds like fashionable games to me. I only play real games.

>>10448694
They're both good. No need to sperg out.

>>10441128
it's probably either 1 or 4. i really like 1's simplicity and being able to casually beat it in one sitting if you at least know what to do. 4 refined a lot of stuff from the ps1 trilogy and has top notch music and atmosphere (no fountain revival system or truth mirror though sucks.) i really like the other two though still.
>>10441521
shadow tower ps1 is really good. i like it way more than the ps2 one.