Over the last decade or so, FromSoftware has become one of the most popular developers in the industry. Though Demon's Souls managed to find a group of avid fans, FromSoftware's Dark Souls series is where the developer really made its mark on the video game landscape. With the release of Sekiro, and the developer's first Game of the Year win, FromSoftware was turning more heads than ever. Now, less than a week away from Elden Ring, it seems as though FromSoftware couldn't be more popular.
This fairly sudden rise in popularity only makes FromSoftware's beginnings all the more humbling. Though the developer was founded in 1986, it wouldn't be until 1994 that FromSoftware would release its first video game. Titled King's Field, this medieval fantasy RPG may not look like FromSoftware's modern-day offerings, but its mechanics, atmosphere, and world design are certainly still reminiscent of everything FromSoftware does now.
The Original King's Field Trilogy
Dropping onto the original PlayStation in 1994, King's Field followed the tale of John Alfred Forester and his search for his lost father. In keeping with the developer's love for Dragons, the world of Verdite was said to be infested by an ancient evil that only a Dragon could stop. Though the visuals obviously aren't a spot on modern FromSoftware titles, King's Field's world of Verdite still manages to look and feel suitably dark and foreboding, in true FromSoftware fashion.
Although King's Field uses a first-person perspective, a few classic FromSoftware mechanics are present in the game. The first of which is a stamina meter that gets drained with every swing of a sword or cast of a magic spell, forcing the player to manage their stamina carefully to ensure that they're not left in a precarious situation.
King's Field also puts a large emphasis on exploration, and loot. Over the course of the game, players will come across a range of environmental puzzles that need to be solved in order to gain some valuable loot, such as new spells, weapons, and armor. One of these items of loot is now a staple of every FromSoftware game, the "Moonlight Sword."
Of course, as all FromSoftware games must be, King's Field is very difficult. While this is mainly due to the game's clunky controls and barebones combat mechanics, difficulty is still very much a prominent feature of FromSoftware's modern-day titles, as is the game's slower rate of movement, encouraging the player to be more purposeful with their attacks.
In another stroke of FromSoftware tradition, King's Field was met with a polarizing critical reception, with critics both praising the game's challenge, and condemning it. Regardless of how critics viewed it, the game went on to be a commercial success in Japan, where it released exclusively.
The sequel, titled King's Field 2 in Japan, was branded simply as King's Field for Western audiences, and released in 1995/1996. This time, the plot revolved around the player retrieving the Moonlight Sword for the King of Verdite. From a gameplay perspective, the game appeared pretty mechanically similar to the first. The game's slow rate of movement and methodical attack animations were still present, as was the eerie atmosphere and difficulty. Western critics were just as polarized on the sequel as Eastern critics were on the first, with half praising the game's pace and realism, and half despising it.
Releasing just a few months later, King's Field 3, or King's Field 2 in North America, was a much larger-scale game. Rather than traverse through a series of catacombs or other confined spaces, this sequel allowed players to teleport to larger city areas, where they could explore different buildings that were all connected together. Although it's certainly a rudimentary version, this does seem to be FromSoftware's first attempt to create an interconnected world, which would go on to be one of Dark Souls' best features.
King's Field 4: The Ancient City
Marking the final mainline entry of the series, King's Field 4, or King's Field: The Ancient City in the West, released on PlayStation 2 in 2001 in Japan, 2002 in North America, and 2003 in PAL regions. With the better visuals granted by the PlayStation 2, King's Field 4 is widely considered to be the most atmospheric entry of the series, really delivering that distinct FromSoftware sense of foreboding.
This dark atmosphere extends to the game's plot this time, with the entire land being plunged into madness following the King receiving a cursed idol. Here, Dark Souls fans will start to see some familiar terminology, with phrases like "the soul of man," and the forces of "dark" being present throughout the game.
A long-running theme of FromSoftware's games, King's Field 4 was once again met with wildly varying scores. Fans of the previous King's Field games recognized this title as an evolution of the formula, bringing more ambitious open-world aspects and a non-linear structure to the game, while other critics still couldn't enjoy the game's slower movement speeds and ambiguity. Interestingly, a few reviews of the time state that it took them a few hours before they got King's Field 4, and afterward, everything clicked into place and they enjoyed the experience, which has been widely said about the Dark Souls series.
King's Field On PSP
Released exclusively in Japan, King's Field Additional 1 and 2 dropped onto PlayStation Portable in 2006. These games take the very basic essence of a King's Field game and dilute it down into a half-baked portable experience. The general gameplay loop sees the player talk to townsfolk, head into a dungeon, kill some enemies, come back to the town, repeat.
While in the dungeon, players can only move in a 90-degree arc, and during combat, they can't move at all. To fight an enemy, players simply need to press the block button or the attack button in the right sequence. A stamina management system is still in place here, so the combat feels a little like a FromSoftware game, but the games' overall loop and presentation don't really match the prior games in the series.
As of 2022, these PSP King's Field titles have been the last sightings of the franchise. With FromSoftware moving on to even bigger and more exciting projects, it seems likely that the King's Field franchise is all but done, though at least the essence of the original games still lives on in all of FromSoftware's modern projects.