It makes me so sad that Fromsoft stopped making these somber dungeon crawlers. I really have no interest in soulslikes and their heavier focus on action and boss battles. King's Field IV is their definitive masterpiece.
yeah FromSoft peaked with KF IV, now it's all rollslop
>>3861857>that feeling when played 50 fps Euro version with some dps dips and the super sketchy translation fully and loved it>tfw the weapon leveling mechanic and ability to just punch stuff I'd have probably didn't know about if not for online guides and such>tfw the design of the best armor in the gamePS1 ones couldn't grab me somehow. I should do them, also Shadow Tower games and Eternal Ring. Also Evergrace. Fuck, Echo Night series.
Is there any half-decent place to get ROMs anymore?
GOD DAMN I miss the time when basically nobody on the fucking internet talked about fromsoft.NOW after souls garbage got popular it's suddenly full of faggots going "ooooh but i always liked their older games"
>>3862405Cope. I got Evergrace when it came out. Didn't know a thing about them at the time.
>>3862405Not OP but I've never tried to claim that, I think I've played KF4 long after Dark Souls Prepare to Eat Pies Edition came out. Maybe even after DS 2. There's nothing wrong with people discovering good olde games they've missed. I believe Zeliard and Horde are the fucking best and those came out on DOS, among other platforms (Zeliard is more board related than Horde) and one of them is older than me. When I say that KFIV is the best too, I mean it.
>>3862405My experience is that they go "HURR I AM SUCH A FROMSOFT FAN, I'M THE BIGGEST FROMSOFT FAN, I LOVE THIS COMPANY TO THE BONE"but only played elden shit, bloodborne and maybe ds3. They don't aknowledge that anything that existed before BB and got ultra butthurt when ACVI was announced
>>3861857I bought a PSX in 1996 just to get King's field. Had it in the long box too. I saw pics in a game mag and had to get it. I was a PC gamer, grew up on Strahd's Posession, Ultima Underworld, Eye of the Beholder, but KF looked so good.Atmospheric. Just dropping you down on that island with the night sky above you, rushing water on all 4 sides, and that haunting music. It captivated me from the very beggining. Everyone I knew hated it because it was slow, but I was running a P-133 as my gaming PC at the time, so I was used to slow movement.Ended up getting KF2 for Christmas in 1996 too. Then years later picked up Shadow Tower at a local Toys R Us, not even knowing the game existed at the time. Got a PS2 and grabbed KF4 as well. Years later, played the real JP KF1 when I found it on CD Romance translated.I tried to get into the Souls games, but I find them to be boring. Nowhere near as slow-paced, atmospheric, and dramatic as KF was. KF had soul, it had feeling, it didn't punish you too hard, it made you want to explore and navigate and push on, whereas the Souls games are just masked corridor ARPGs where you do the same thing to the same monsters over and over again.Lunacid was nice, but I really want a modern KF game from somebody. If only From Software would remaster these games, I'd buy them in a heartbeat.
>>3861857What do people think about Sword of Moonlight version and fanmade games?
>>3862405Armored Core and Echo Night were their most popular titles prior to Demons' Souls
>>3863042I only have read some really old posts talking about how the monster AI was in some way broken in it. Don't really remember anything else said about it but I've heard some good things about the fan stuff (maybe on the level of "look, some guy made a game using a game-making toolbox, pretty cool, yeah?").
>>3862405It used to be a lot more niche, obviously, but they've always had a fanbase. They wouldn't have made fifty Armored Core games if no one was buying them, and there was pretty active King's Field discussion back on the old Agetec forums for a while.>>3863042I remember trying one of the more highly-regarded fangames, and not being too impressed with it. The environments just weren't as interesting as in the actual King's Field games, and enemies respawned incredibly quickly after being defeated for some reason, which was kind of annoying.
>>3862399Crocdb you utter nigger. Or from Myrient directly. Internet Archive still had most stuff, if you login.
>>3863061>and enemies respawned incredibly quickly after being defeated for some reasonWell it was like that in Shadow Tower.
One thing I liked is that it felt like KFIV made being a pure spellcaster more viable than it was in the previous games. Once I got the Queen's Staff I pretty much stopped using melee attacks altogether until the final boss.
>>3863221It was a lot worse than in Shadow Tower. They were respawning in 10-15 seconds or so, and the rooms were generally larger, so it was more likely you would still be in the area when they reappeared. Enemies in Shadow Tower also stop respawning forever if they're killed a few times. I never felt like enemies in Shadow Tower were getting in the way of examining the environment.>>3863232Unarmed combat is also pretty viable in KF4. It sucks at first, but reaching level 2 skill provides a massive boost in power and will outclass any weapons you find for a while.
>>3862377Shadow Tower Abyss is closest to 4 in atmosphere and gameplay. Probably the best graphics in the series too (Shadow Tower is the bloodborne of King's Field)
>>3863247In Shadow Tower there were many times in which after you kill an enemy they would spawn another immediately in the room you're in. You got even less than ten seconds, and the rooms are frequently small. So you ended up in a room for a few minutes because it would spawn enemies out of nowhere. Worst one is the giants with clubs that can cause earthquakes in the earth realms. If you dare to snipe one from the door/hallway in the other room then the game would spawn one of the giants right next to you. None the less the large armored guys in the dead world in the more cramped rooms getting an instant spawn after you kill one of the two, or the headless baboons in the monster world continually spawning in the rooms as you defeat them.
>>3863623It's impressive how overwhelming the first Shadow Tower starts off, monsters spawn and attack pretty quickly, your equipment can break and not how it is in KF4 with you getting 100/100 durability weapons that are unlikely to errode before you find better ones and free the dwarf but like "here's a knife with durability 8/13, have fun", the reach of your starting weapons pretty much requires getting right into the monster's face and eat a return hit, no idea where to go and all doors feel like teleporters transporting the character all over the place. Oh, and at least some traders barter for the player's HP which also is a finite resource.
I prefer 3 and the first ST, but 4 is also great. The layout of the tower is fun.
>>3863970It's a shame that the resource management aspect is so easy to trivialize later on, and the difficulty falls off so hard in general.
>>3864263Well the game is a whole knowledge check. It's required to go into Shadow Tower blind, otherwise if you know certain things it becomes more than manageable.
>>3863043Man, I should really go back to Echo Night
>>3863042I was interested in making something with it myself but it's too fucking jank. I could never get it to run properly on my pc even with help from the community.
>>3862441You didn't, actually.
There are indie games that are beginning to capture the feeling but lack the immersion of a true maze or world. Labyrinth of the demon king is okay.
>>3862405>hipster prime is mad that jewtube essay hipsters are stealing his thunder
Is IV the best one to start with?
>>3867169I'd say "yes". Though nothing stops you from firing up one of the older ones and seeing for yourself.
>>3865700I did, and you're gay.
