Tsukasa Saitoh - King's Field IV (2001)

 

Composer: Tsukasa Saitoh
Console: PS2
Game Release Date: 2001-10-04
Bootleg Release Date: 2021-11-09
Ripper: Zophar's Domain
Runtime: 1:20:27, 24 Tracks

King's Field is probably one of my most favourite game series. There are few games that can evoke the same lonely atmosphere, combat style and look. Even the spiritual successor Dark Souls is nothing like the KF series. I've been compiling of list of KF-like games for some time and there are still only a few games that can match up to it's style. 

King's Field IV: The Ancient City (usually just called King's Field: The Ancient City) is one of the most popular games in the series. Unfortunately it is one of the last games in the series. It is also the last mainline game to bear the KF title by From Software (excluding a few mobile games that came later). It's also among the games in the series. 

The game is a first-person dungeon crawler that has you play as Devian on a quest to save the kingdom. You arrive in the holy land (probably just Verdite) and need to drop off a cursed idol in the ancient city before it destroys the world. That's about the gist of it. I never found the stories of the King's Field games that engaging anyways. I played it mostly for the atmosphere, look, etc. The story always took a back seat. Only KF3 really had a story that needed to be paid attention to. 

The game is also notorious for being difficult. It is possible to die within the first 10 seconds of the game if you don't walk right. Fortunately, while difficult it's manageable. There is equipment everywhere, plenty of save points and lots of enemy drops. Despite being a first-person game it controls vastly different than other FP-games from around the time. It's hard to explain but a lot of "normal" FPS' control differently. Like take Black for the PS2. You don't strage with L1 and R1 while in KFIV it is a must. Having played all the available KF games I can say with confidence you do get used to it. However I also have to warn that it may screw up your ability to play regular FPS. Case in point I almost had to stop my run of Bioshock 1 from the same time because I was too used to the KF controls. 
One of the best things about the games movement is that enemies are restricted by it too. This means that enemies turn just as slowly as you do and you can properly plan attacks and manouver around them. Some fights were like fighting a CyberDemon in DOOM. You need to continuously run around and shoot. Except in King's Field it is signifcantly slower. 

This game was also one of the first runs I did on my, at the time, newly built PC. I had random songs playing through WinAmp as I emulated the game. The whole thing is just nostalgic for me. At the start I did find the game challenging but it ended up being about as hard as the others. The whole thing with these games is the start is always difficult but if you play it safe as you go on the game gets easier. I think of the entire series the first Shadow Tower is still the hardest. I always kept tons of herbs, swords, armor, magic, etc on me at all times. 

One thing that I really loved about the game was the level design. It was a bit similar to KF1 wherein you are in a big area and each floor is like a new level. The difference being here is that the game can be split into 5 levels. You got the surface, floors 1-3 and then the deepest basement where the endgame is. As you progress the game you find yourself running back to the levels to get new stuff. Each main level has paths you can take to completely different areas. And usually it's not linear so you can "clear" the levels in whatever order you want. I loved playing through the floors doing all the levels. Writing now I realize how similar it is to Minecraft CTM maps. Each floor was like an intersection and one had the path to the next one. As you unlocked the floors eventually you get shortcuts to the previous floors allowing for easy travel. 

The game is also filled to the brim with secrets. There are few areas that are actually off limits and you go pretty much anywhere. Like, on the bottom floor there's a ton of water and seemingly nothing it. I had a feeling there had to be something in it. And lo and behold, in one of the corners is a secret wall that helps you get part of the moonlight sword. It was so cool finding it, having to hurry to not drown. Not to even mention fake walls and secrets within secrets. There's a ton of crap to be found in the game. 

When I played this back in 2018 this was in my top 3 GOTY. 

The music was composed by Tsukasa Saitoh who has composed for lots of other FROM Software games. He's composed the soundtracks for Echo Night, Armored Core, Bloodborne and more. He's also done a few tracks for Dark Souls as well. The songs are mostly dungeon synth, dark ambient and just regular ambient. It fits well with the barren and depressive atmosphere of the game. Perfect for dungeon crawling. 

The game is extremely long so you will be listening to the OST a lot. There were some points I turned it off and played my own music but it was all random songs. There aren't any albums I associate with this game. 

The original rip of this was passed around Zophar's Domain. However that rip is a direct rip from the game only being the single loops and very quiet. The link below is a "remastered" version with the volumes of all songs upped and all songs extended from 1 loop to 2-3 loops. This makes it a much more comprehensive experience. It also doubled the length of the initial soundtrack. The songs in the original rip were also untitled. I have since titled them. 

Download: aHR0cHM6Ly9tZWdhLm56L2ZpbGUvMlJvVXdhRFojcnVFNWl1b1JaWDZHS1V1RHh5bFJkSlY2aWxfeE82NGlQbXBJdEl2VVItYw==
p@ss: moonlightsword