by Kris Marnes
marnes@digipen.com

I bought King's Field the hour it was available after eagerly awaiting 
the release of the first PlayStation RPG.  I was quickly amazed.  
Because my roommate also has a PlayStation, I temporarily saved my 
"crucial" data of other games onto his card.  I was pleased to find 
that the game only took two-three slots per save.

I really liked the fact that you start off knowing nothing.  Your 
standing holding only a dagger, and this gloomy deathtrap island lies 
before you.  You don't know what to do, or where to go, so you have to 
explore.  This is the key phase of the game.  You quickly learn 
through trial and error where you can go now, and where you can go 
later.  This usually is determined after losing many lives.

Once I finally secured a path between the save point, and the recovery 
fountain, I was able to feel a small sense of safety.  I could begin 
to explore new areas, and find new equipment here and there.  I would 
frequently go back, recover my life, then save the game.  

The game is similar to Doom.  I dislike that game, and I wouldn't pay 
$3.00 to even rent it.  The Doom aspect is just a single quality 
King's Field has, except in true 3D.  The texture mapping is 
impressive.  When you get close to a slime, you can watch it's shape 
ooze as well as the textures constantly changing.  It looks alive.  
They are even slightly transparent, so you can see the floor below 
them.  The other creatures are well done, and the way they move is so 
realistic and believable.  When they die, its fun to watch them 
collapse and eventually disappear.  Skeletons are cool, because 
sometimes, if you hit them in the head, it comes off, and the skeleton 
will catch it, and place it back on its head, which is usually enough 
time to get a free swipe in -- you usually need it.  Those guys are 
vicious.  They can give you quite the scare by popping out of treasure 
boxes, or falling through the ceiling.

The music, I would rate a 6/10.  It suited the game, but it lacked the 
energy of other great RPGs out there.  Despite that, it isn't a 
problem at all.  The sound effects are good, and the distance to sound 
level ratio is there.

The NPCs in the game were a little disappointing.  They really didn't 
have much useful to say, and it was a lot like reading random 
information on a bulletin board.  They were all rendered in 3D and 
were performing some kind of task, such as digging, eating, or 
watering flowers, etc.  The lack of detail on the faces on all of the 
humans in the game brought it down a little bit.  

Despite some of the minor downfalls of the game, it more than makes up 
for it in the fighting/exploration of the game.  One example of fun, 
is saving the game, and jumping off cliffs.  Climb up a tower, and 
jump off while looking down, and you get to watch the ground approach 
you very realistically.  Actually, there was this peculiar island.  I 
was damn high, and jumped off onto it(after saving).  I landed, and 
survived, and there was a Samurai grave there.  I searched the grave, 
and I found a samarai sword that is very good (and has magical 
qualities).  All weapons are rated on 3 types of physical damage 
(slash, chop, stab), and 5 types of magical damage (holy, water, 
earth, light, and fire).  Armor is similar, as well as other items you 
can equip.  You learn to keep a small arsenal of weapons that serve 
diffent purposes.  For example, your fighting a skeleton with a sword,  
and you have to hit it many times.  Use a morning star, and it dies 
much quicker.  You have to think logically.  Blunt damage will kill 
brittle skeletons faster than a sword, and a sword will kill a plant 
type monster better than a blunt weapon, because plants cut easily.

There are even side effects to equipping various things.  For example, 
equip the Dark Armor (which is fairly good), and your field of vision 
is halfed.  To make it worse, you can't use light magic.  Most of 
these things, you find out by experimenting.  Also, when you bump into 
the fortune teller, she will tell you about every item in the game (if 
you have it).  If its a simple weapon, armor, or item, she'll say that 
it is a typical item...  

Magic is a great part of the game.  There's nothing more fun than 
casting 3D spells that can kill you if your too close.  Imagine being 
on a bridge or ledge looking down, and you see enemies walking, 
crawling, or oozing around.  You drop a FireWall on one of them, and 
watch the barbeque.  Later in the game, you cast powerful spells, like 
Flame.  A phoenix appears, flies into the enemy, and explodes.  You 
quickly see the explosion heading your way, and you back up.  You will 
still likely get hit by it (because its a huge explosion) and lose a 
lot of life.  Using different weapons and magic forces you to change 
your tactics accordingly.  The archery combat in the game is tough.  
Your aim is pixel accurate, and it becomes a game much like artillery 
duel, except in 3D and against moving targets.  In all there are 25 
different spells (according to the instructions).  I haven't even 
found half of them (after beating the game the first time).  

Some problems I encountered with the game are some minor technical 
glitches.  Occasionally, the game will freeze up for no apparent 
reason.  This happens maybe once for every 6-8 hours of gameplay.  
Just save the game frequently (you'll do that anyway -- you have to).  
Another glitch is rarely (twice for me in about 50 hours of game 
time), the title screen crashes, and the graphics become a mess of 
Sony PlayStation logos and other bits here and there.  It still works
but clears up when you start a game.  The other thing is the slow 
down.  Certain areas when combined with monsters, slow down the game 
to no more than 60% of normal speed.  It's actually useful, because if 
there's that much going on, you need any edge you can get to survive.  
Its not really a big deal, and game play is still just as smooth.  
Sometimes the game play gets too fast, when your looking down and the 
only thing there is the floor and a slime.  You'll be going a little 
faster than real-time.  It's not really a problem either.  They could 
have regulated a maximum frame rate though.  There are some games I 
have bought, and if it sucked, and had these problems, I would use it 
as an excuse to take it back (believe me, I've done it).  Anyway, my 
point is that this game is so good, I'm willing to put up with it.  

Another great part of the game is it re-defines NON-LINEAR.  You play 
all these past 16-bit RPGs that are supposedly non-linear, but they 
are.  This one gives you the freedom to do whatever you want and go 
almost anywhere.  You can go to the Krakken in the very beginning of 
the game, and try to fight it.  You will die though.  Some creatures 
can kill you in one hit, early on.  Falling down pits, and traps can 
also kill you.  That reminds me of the Doom style of searching walls 
for secret passages.  It's all here, but there's a twist -- sometimes 
you find a trap, like spears popping out to stab you in the face.

In total, this game is the best game I've ever played.  I've never 
felt realistically placed into a virtual environment.  You feel for 
the character.  You get scared when monsters ambush you, and you 
actually feel a sense of being scared of heights, when your looking 
down through the cracks of a narrow bridge some 120 feet in the air, 
especially when getting attacked by those persistent dragon flies with 
large stingers.  The game gets better and better, as your character 
gets more experienced.  The best combat is near the end of the game, 
when you fight Necron.  He's a character that could be in Toshinden.  
The way he fights and moves is identical to one of these characters.  
Fighting Guyra, the black dragon is also impressive.  He is very 
large, and his head can ram you back 30+ feet, if your not careful.  
King's Field is a must buy for any RPG fan, and even Doom fans.  The 
RPG factor isn't hard core by any means -- action fans will love it 
too.  

For the guys:  I have a girlfriend who hates games, but I actually got 
her to play this one.  Its actually a lot of fun watching her die or 
getting scared when a monster starts coming at her.  She literally 
jumped out of her skin once looking around a corner to find a small 
Krakken swipe at her.  She was able to kill her first monster.  She'll 
be back for more...

Just buy the game -- if you can find it...