It’s unbelievable how much Demon’s Souls heightened From Software’s profile. Their games have always had a following, but their establishment of the nebulous “Souls” genre cemented them in the minds of the mainstream to the absurd extent where they’re not cool anymore.

On the plus side, it has drawn attention to their back catalogue. I had never even heard of King’s Field until it was cited as the spiritual predecessor of Demon’s Souls. I got curious, especially after a colleague did an enthusiastic playthrough of the series over a decade ago. In 2016, I too jumped into the first game, but while I was having a great time, I didn’t finish it for some reason.

However, King’s Field’s influence has begun leaking into the indie sphere. I had always intended to return to it, but as I keep experiencing these weird little dungeon crawler experiences, I decided to prioritize it as a matter of expanding my historical perspective.

I’m all about self-improvement. I mean in regards to video games, there’s no way I’m addressing my concerningly abundant personal issues. Gosh, no.

JAPAN’S KING’S FIELD

As a quick note: I tried to make this obvious, but I’m looking at the Japan-only King’s Field from 1994. When 1995’s King’s Field 2 came to North America in 1996, it was renamed King’s Field. So, our King’s Field is different from Japan’s King’s Field. This review is of Japan’s King’s Field and not Japan’s King’s Field 2.

I am immensely impressed at King’s Field’s vintage. Some folks aren’t consciously aware that the PS1 was even out in 1994 (in Japan). Few launch window PS1 titles even dared to leverage the system’s 3D capabilities. It was, after all, only a year after Virtua Fighter. At the time, you had to have guts and, ideally, someone who was already an early expert on 3D. Judging by FromSoftware’s history, this seems to just be the experiment that finally took form, as it’s also the developer’s first released video game.

For some reason, I consider King’s Field’s visual aesthetic to be exemplary PS1 (and, to be specific, Saturn, as well). Tight, blocky corridors with crunchy textures. Magnificent.

King’s Field is a dungeon crawler RPG. Sort of like a less ambitious Ultima Underground. It drops you immediately into a five-story shrine that has been converted into a graveyard, which is absolutely bizarre in its own right. Like, it isn’t a crypt; they’re actually burying people down here.

The story (similar to how the Souls series would be) is deliberately nebulous. The King, mad with power, is down on the lowest level. Please, deal with him. NPCs give you snippets of narrative if you nag them, but no one will provide you with the full exposition. There’s a surprising amount of dialogue, and more than enough there to put everything together before the end. Despite the occasional NPC, it’s a very lonely adventure, overall, which isn’t uncommon for the genre.

DOING THE DELVE

It may be unsurprising, given its vintage, but King’s Field is a mechanically simplistic game. You’re mostly let loose in the dungeon with no guidance, and can proceed how you see fit. It’s not exactly non-linear, but getting through it requires a massive heap of exploration. It’s best to take it a bit slow, as King’s Field is perfectly willing to let you walk into a trap or get squashed by enemies too powerful for your character level.

Thus, it’s important to find safe spots as soon as you get to a new floor, but there’s little indication where they’re found. Many of the corridors look extremely similar. There are maps that are very helpful, but the compass was my best friend when it came to navigation. I have a terrific sense of direction, but with so few landmarks and such a dearth of texture variety, I feel it’s almost impossible to not get confused.

Save points are exceedingly rare with, like, three of them available on each floor. Amusingly, the save points are Christian crosses, because, when you’re lost in a dungeon, it’s important to find Jesus.

Even rarer is a place to rest up and heal. The first and third floors are the only places with spots that will refill your HP and MP. You’re essentially on your own to find healing items. Although, by the end, I had swords that gradually dripped life back into my veins and pockets crammed full of leaves. I found, overall, that King’s Field got easier as I delved. I defeated the end boss by gorging myself on the contents of my pockets.

CHOP CHOP MASTER

Combat allows you to attack with an equipped sword and spell. Although there’s three stats for how you attack (Slash, chop, and stab), each weapon really only does a single swing. It’s not like the Elder Scrolls games where you can manipulate your blade’s vector. Magic is also very basic, and spells come to you slowly.

There’s nothing really wrong with that, it’s just that King’s Field doesn’t have a tonne of breadth nor depth. There’s five stages, though you can backtrack at times. For that matter, the only shops are on the first floor, so you have to head back to the basement if you want to buy anything, but even then, they don’t carry many useful items outside of healing salves. Most of the equipment you can easily just pick up along the way. Whenever I bought a new piece of gear, I’d usually trip over something better five minutes later.

I hope you weren’t hoping to see the sky. The entirety of King’s Field is inside the dungeon. Maybe that’s why the end credits roll over a countryside backdrop.

DAYLIGHT

However, as it turns out, all this is exactly sufficient. King’s Field isn’t a terribly short PS1 game at 12 hours, but I ate through it in three sittings. I think, largely, this is because there was just enough to keep me on the hook, feel challenged, and without anything that largely frustrated me. A great deal of the challenge is simply staying oriented in its corridors, and that dissolves away organically through exploration. It feels good.

It would be misleading to say that King’s Field is worth checking out if you like Demon’s Souls. I wouldn’t even say it’s worth playing if you like dungeon crawlers (though, that would help). I think it’s most valuable if you love the PS1. It’s a game from so early that the console wasn’t even out in North America, and its crunchy 3D just feels like home. Plus, it’s an entertaining title in its own right, without much of the hostility of the era. It’s enough to make me want to delve deeper into the series.

Unfortunately, if you’re a monolingual anglophone, you’ll need a fan translation to play it in a language you understand. Fortunately, John David Osborne did the work yonks ago and put out an extremely competent translation of it. I’m not sure why FromSoftware hasn’t put out collections of their old games. Considering all the Armored Core games got bought out from my local game dispensary the moment Armored Core VI was announced, there’s definitely an audience who will blindly scoop them up. I’m still bitter about that.

7/10

This review was conducted on a PSOne console using a CD-R “backup” of the game with a fan translation by John David Osborne. Images are upscaled through a RetroTink 4K.