All the King's Field games emphasize exploration. This isn't a normal first person game. This one requires the player to be patient while searching the massive world they are confronted with. Don't get me wrong, it has its fair share of monsters, traps and puzzles, buts its real beauty is in its ability to immerse the player in a completely unfamiliar world.

The immersive experience is, in my opinion, helped a great deal by the speed of movement. Where others find it a chore, I believe it is there for one purpose. If you were able to cruze through at blinding speeds, you would miss the trully terrifying and exciting elements of this game. Creeping along long forgotten halls and stairways, with only the dead still in the air to keep you company, you almost feel the death and pain of the halls in the air. There are parts in this game that will scare you like no horror move can, not because of any thing, but because of what could be lurking in the darkness up ahead.

This game also offers players a wealth of customization. As you progress through the game, your character slowly grows stronger, as do the weapons he chooses to use. The story in this game requires just as much patience as the exploration. There are no huge naratives to explain what's going on, only your conversation with the few remaining inhabitants can provide you with clues to completing your mission to destroy a cursed idol.

If you enjoy getting wrapped up in your games, and wish to find one that will absorb a good deal of your time, then this game is for you. Fight the undead, giant bugs, and even otherworldly monsters in your quest to bring peace back to the world. Don't let a few small flaws turn you away from an otherwise amazing gaming experience.

22 of 24 found the following review helpful:


Pleasantly surprised---but it's not for everyone.  Apr 29, 2002 By David O'Toole
This game appeals to a rather limited audience. King's Field is focused on atmosphere, setting, and a sense of deep exploration. You navigate spooky, abandoned environments, combat skeletons and slimes, find secret passages with treasure chests inside, and solve puzzles. The settings show a lot of variety, ranging from mines to graveyards to Gothic castles to water-filled passages.

Now I grew up on some very old games: a roguelike called "DND" on an old DEC microcomputer, and later on, the licensed Dungeons and Dragons games on Intellivision. That style of game---slow, methodical, collecting weapons and power-ups as you proceed through ancient crypts and so on---is not as popular as it once was, but if it appeals to you, you'd do well to try out this old-fashioned dungeon crawl.

Oh, and I do mean crawl. One problem is that your movement speed is rather slow, and fights can proceed at a snail's pace until you're used to the stiff controls. But these are minor flaws in a game with zillions of secrets to find, tons of items and enemies, and evocative, atmospheric locales.
Serious (old-school!) role-playing fans only---NO cutscenes here.

20 of 24 found the following review helpful:


The Ancient City  Jan 08, 2004 By Axel Law "The Happy Seizure Kid"
Just when the Playstation was getting started, a company called ASCII Entertainment---best known in the gaming industry for improving graphics---decided to help jumpstart it with a couple new games. "King's Field" and "King's Field II" both debuted in 1996, and in actuality, are the second and third games (the first game was never released here, and they brought the second and third ones over here and renamed them 1 and 2... yeah, slightly confusing. Oh well.). Both were more of an underground favorite, but I personally find the second, in particular, to be quite a classic. Now, Agetec (the renamed ASCII Entertainment) returned to make a new King's Field titled "The Ancient City," centering around a cursed idol that must be returned to a dead city in order for the curse to be lifted, but you also had to fight the main nemesis, the "Dark One." I noticed several people on Amazon seem to hate this game, but then again, most people are newbie gamers that don't have the patience for games and therefore, are not ultimate. Read on for my review of this very overlooked PS2 game. If you don't... well, remember The Ring? Yeah, that's what will happen to you if you don't read. Haha.

THE GOOD
This game features some of the most beautiful graphics on any system I've EVER seen. People talk about the XBox having superior graphics, but one look at this game might change your mind. The control scheme is like the originals and you might find it a bit awkward, but if you're a Doom fan, it'll come as no surprise to you. The music is creepy and/or melodic, very much in the same vein in the originals. In fact, the whole game has this "old school" feel to it that I personally enjoy. While the story isn't exactly plot twisting, it's straight forward and enjoyable.

THE BAD
While I think it's a great game, it's not a great game for everybody. It takes a lot of patience and overcoming tediousness to play through this game. In the beginning, you have to find the equipment and items required to complete the game and some of them are difficult to find without the help, perhaps, of a strategy guide. Not really my gripe, but it is a difficult game, indeed. The kind of game that can kick your @$$ and make you love it. My kind of game.

Perhaps my only REAL gripe with it is its lack of connection with the previous games. BUT this is minor; it keeps the style and fun factor of the originals, which is a good thing. The game still has my five stars.

OVERALL
If you enjoy a Doom-style RPG and are willing to take the time to play through it, this game is worth it. A little hard to find nowadays, but well worth the hunt. However, if you have lack of patience in games (especially RPGs), this game IS NOT for you. If you are like that, go back to your Chrono Cross. Loser.

7 of 7 found the following review helpful:


Kings Field: The Ancient City - A second look  Mar 02, 2005 By Adam J. Ruggieri "Xen Xander"
I have submitted reviews for the first two Kings Field titles. And as a fan of the series, I now tend to look over the fine points of the games and consider them more fairly. This third game in the series (fourth, technically) is the most graphically impressive of the three thus far. The developers took more time in creating enemies that seem almost flawless as they move. I notice VERY LITTLE block-structure when the creatures move about (a.k.a. seeing the joints where arms, lets, torsos, ect. move and connect to each other) if at all. The menue system has undergone just a few more fine-tunes to make it eaiser and still keeping the same controller interface. Picking up this title after playing KF and KF2 will feel like wearing a pair of old shoes with a brilliant new shine. It's comfortable and reliable, but works better. I esspecially like the finer detail in the NPC's you meet. Yes they still have somewhat featurless faces, though you can eaisly see, comparing it to KF and KF2, that there is MUCH more detail. They almost look real! I like this flavor a lot, as it give you more of an impression that you're dealing with real people.

There are some aspects that do take away from the overall preformance of the game and I'll try and mention them, as I have encountered.

First, when looking back at KF and KF2, all the enimies had limmits to how far they "strayed" from their generated positions. This gives the game a nice feel of localization, and how creatures seem to have a "territory". Yet in KF IV, they added a feature which seems nicer to look at but makes the game much eaiser, and that is: When a creature reaches the limmit of its distance, in KF IV, it turns around and walks back some. If you're standing out of its traveling distance, it seems to keep walking in circles. KF, and KF 2 had the creatures simple walk in place but not move, yet they still continued to face you. Having them walk around and way form you makes it very easy to get a few "sucker punches" in before backing away and waiting to repeat it. It would have been better if the creatures would simply stop walking, and perhaps make jestures to "goad" you to come back and fight. It does look nice when they keep walking, but it's just too cheesy in my eyes and too cheap in the player's favor.

I do enjoy the wepon system, having levels from 1 - 3 in proficency, but this could have been better for a few reasons too:

If you get one longsword upto level 3, you would think that all longswords of the same name would be at 3rd level.. but they aren't.. only the one you used is that that state. This isn't very realistic as I see it. They also added a "durability" feature, which slowly deteriorates your armor/weapon values. I do not think this should have been added, as it's very annoying to suddenly realize your weapon is down to 50 durability and is taking three times as many hits to slaughter the enemies as it had only an hour ago. Yes you can repair them at no cost ^_^ but still, it's frustrating.

Magic hasn't changed much, but instead of each field going up in levels, as in KF2, thus giving you more spells to choose from as you learn more, KF IV lets you learn new spells only if you find the crystals that house them... which I like better, actually, as it makes sense that you receive enlightenment only after you're taught, rather then suddenly become "aware". To compensate for this, each spell can evolve two times (level 3), making it cost more to cast *merf* but also have more and longer lasting effects, becomming more powerful. I like this a lot, as the first fireball spell you find can still be usfull later in gameplay, rather then having the player give up certian weaker spells for more powerful ones, as in KF and KF 2.

Leveling up, getting physical and magical power all work the same as I see it. Use magic a lot, and magic power increases, and the same with using weapons to increase physical strength. There are some places in the game where you can continually fight, especially in places that have high creature regeneration rate. This can be very helpful in building up strenght and magic if you need to, but too, can be highly exploitable. A place that has lots of creatures that regenerate eaisly can be used even at very high levels to increast magic and wepons, as well as phisical/magical power. It would have been so much nicer if, as the stronger you became, the less expeirence certian monsters of lower calibur gave you (towards weapon/spell & physical/magical power, not actual experience). Say... 1/10 of an expierence point for wepon or spell epxerience if you dwarf the enemie by "x" amount. That may sound a bit harsh but it would make you fight enemies more your size rather then exploiting the game to build up.

So in general, this game rates for me at 5/5, but because of certian features, I find it to rank just below that.. say 4.4 - 4.65. I STILL give my highest recomendation for this game, even though it still moves at its familiar if creepingly slow pace. You DO get used to it, though I do feel using the PS2 it could have been increased to at least x1.5 the speed of KF and KF2 and it still wouldn't have deferred from the experience of the world you step into. If you're new to the KF world, rent before buying. You won't be able to beat it on a 3-day rental but you will get a feel for it. Give it more then 30minutes, and you may find yourself the newest Kings Field fan. It's still a masterpiece, as I see it.

4 of 4 found the following review helpful:


A great King's Field game  Aug 19, 2002
If you like challenging, difficult RPG's like the prior two King's Field games, this game will not disappoint. It has lots of similarities to the other games, similar spells and similar combat techniques.

The graphics are improved for PS2 and seem very easy on the eye.

If I have any complaints it would be like all King's Field games that the initial character movement speed is slow.

The most important thing to know, this game will give you a steady week of non-stop play, unlike most console games like Baldur's Gate which you can blow through in 24 hours.

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