King's Field

"A classic must have..."

Ok, in my personal opinion, this is one of the greatest playstation games to every hit this system. At the time of its creation, it was one of the most innovative games out there.

While it is great, it doesn't really appeal to everyone - but die hard, high experience gamers or fans of games with EXTREME DARKNESS will absolutely LOVE this game. Everyone else can play Crash Bandicoot or something.

The Story is set on our Character Alex, who is pretty much starts his journey washed up on a dark sea shore, armed only with his dagger and will to survive. After talking to people, Alex decides to takes on the obligation of ridding the Island of Melenant of the evil god Guyra, and claiming the holy Moonlight Sword back from him.

The great thing about the overall gameplay, is that your character starts out VERY weak, and by the end of the game, he becomes VERY strong. It's an EXTREMELY fun game to play, and it's HUGE. Even if you know EXACTLY where everything is, it will still take you a couple weeks to beat it. One of the great things about this game is that there aren't any points of frustration. The game is too HUGE to get stuck in, if you get stumped on a puzzle (which is not likely since they are all pretty relevant), there is something else that you could do as means of exploring another part of the game.

In my personal opinion, the game was hard enough to keep me challenged, but not in anyway easy in giving away it's secrets.

The controls of the game could be better, but are pretty good. Most people nit-pick the speed of the game, but that's what makes it so DARK and demented. The overall speed and feel of the game is very dreamlike, and very attractive. I never get bored with it. The people are downright creepy. You talk to them, and they move as if they're dead. The game is excellent in having a dreaming ''cruising speed'', and then sudden bursts of terror! One good example is the skeletons of the game... a tall slender being, with a huge sword in hand, and it's arms down to it's side. Skeletons walk VERY slowly, but if they see you, and if you are in range, their sword is raised and down upon you before you almost have a chance to let out your last scream in death. It's so startling; my heart skipped a beat the first time this happened.

The graphics could be better.... One flaw of the game is that it doesn't matter whether you are outside or in, everything as far as topography is rather square. This world is full of perfect symmetry, both inside and out. Hills are non-existent. That's one thing that I wish were different. The features of the residents (both citizens and evil guards) of the Island are rather plain. No detailed eyes or facial features. A positive note on the graphics is the limited range of sight. Once again, it gives a very dark atmosphere - the enemy beasts that you fight are relatively detailed.

The sound is good, but the music is great!!! The music is some of the darkest tunes that I've ever heard.... I really wish that there was a soundtrack of this - in fact, anyone that is reading this, I will pay good money if you could make me a King's Field (I & II) soundtrack CDR - it's that good. The sound effects aren't very realistic, but are put to use well. What I mean by ''put to use well'' is, for an example, there are certain places in the game with water fountains - you can hear a faint trickling of water before you actually see the fountain, and it progressively and smoothly gets louder as you get closer to the fountain. Vise Versa also applies when you walk away from the fountain. ASCII, great work!!! As for the actual sounds themselves, there are a couple effects that could have been dubbed better. Whenever Alex swings his blade it sounds like a blast of wind, rather than a shrivel of steel swiping in the air (like a sword is supposed to sound). The spells have a rather interesting sounds, I really don't know what an enormous fireball would really sound like, but it does sound a bit ''monaural'' on the game. The devilish and blood curtailing screams form the monsters are excellent! Also, Good use of a well-put sound of the monsters shrieking in the background as well. It always wants to make you look behind you!

This game's replayability is great too. Not in the sense that you want to start over again right AFTER you beat the game. What usually happens to me, is right after I finish a game, I don't play it again for a couple months.... then, I just play it again from scratch, and it's GREAT!!!

It's been a GREAT while since this game's release.... but if you can find it anywhere, buy it ASAP. It's that good of a game.

My rating is a 9/10.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/16/00, Updated 03/16/00