FromSoftware's final King's Field game is a culmination of all of the strengths of the original trilogy and Shadow Tower — a gorgeously-atmospheric early PS2 title that feels like the missing link between the unrefined PS1 trilogy and the Soulsborne games that would later take the world by storm. The exploration is some of the best that FromSoftware has ever put out; The Ancient City is a bit more linear than King's Field II, but the myriad secrets and shortcuts back to previous areas give each of the map's areas a satisfying density and reason to revisit. This is also the first (and only) King's Field game to run with acceptable performance out-of-the-box, a feat no doubt aided by the stronger PS2 hardware, but all the more impressive given how well the art design and textures have held up. Furthermore, this game would be incomplete without its beautifully melancholic soundtrack full of inorganic wails, strings, harpsichords, and more.
There are a few issues that hold The Ancient City back, mainly stemming from the combat and movement. The player character is slow in this game, not just in their walk speed, but also in their pathetic turn rate. The slower pace of the game fits with the atmosphere, but I found myself wishing that, at the very least, it did not take me several seconds to completely turn around and leave a room when I was done looting it. The combat is also the same simple attack-backstep-repeat dance that the series has had 1994, but strangely, it's lost some of the additional mechanics of Shadow Tower, namely the manual blocking with shields. The combat is never actively detrimental to the experience, but its rote simplicity is out of place when compared with the absolutely excellent atmosphere and exploration.
The Ancient City is certainly the most well-rounded of FromSoftware's first-person dungeon crawlers (though I have not yet played Shadow Tower: Abyss); any fan of the Soulsborne series who doesn't mind a bit of jank should check it out. Quibbles about the combat and movement aside, it's an engrossing RPG that is a worthy conclusion to an oft-overlooked franchise.
There are a few issues that hold The Ancient City back, mainly stemming from the combat and movement. The player character is slow in this game, not just in their walk speed, but also in their pathetic turn rate. The slower pace of the game fits with the atmosphere, but I found myself wishing that, at the very least, it did not take me several seconds to completely turn around and leave a room when I was done looting it. The combat is also the same simple attack-backstep-repeat dance that the series has had 1994, but strangely, it's lost some of the additional mechanics of Shadow Tower, namely the manual blocking with shields. The combat is never actively detrimental to the experience, but its rote simplicity is out of place when compared with the absolutely excellent atmosphere and exploration.
The Ancient City is certainly the most well-rounded of FromSoftware's first-person dungeon crawlers (though I have not yet played Shadow Tower: Abyss); any fan of the Soulsborne series who doesn't mind a bit of jank should check it out. Quibbles about the combat and movement aside, it's an engrossing RPG that is a worthy conclusion to an oft-overlooked franchise.
Played this the first time a few years ago and after a tough opening it became one of my favorite games ever made. The progression of player speed makes combat is sorta fun, and no other dungeon focused game does exploration anywehre near as well as kings field. Finding locations, enemies, items, and weapons with meaningful differences tucked into 3d environemnts is a seemingly obvious hook for a fantasy game that I've never seen effectively repeated. Great music too. I haven't successfully been able to get into the ps1 kings fields but this is a must play.