Video Games : King's Field: The Ancient City

Price: $27.00

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Binding: Video Game
Brand: AgeTec
EAN: 0093992089603
Label: Electronic Arts
Manufacturer: Electronic Arts
Platform: PlayStation2
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Sales Rank: 10604
Studio: Electronic Arts

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.com Product Description:
An accursed idol responsible for the destruction of an ancient race has resurfaced to wreak havoc once again among the kingdoms of man. You must return the idol to the Ancient City to break its curse, but monsters of unspeakable horror haunt the ruins. There is a palpable fear in the air of the Ancient City. Even the monsters fear the evil that has returned. Treasures beyond imagination await the warrior bold enough to attempt the journey, strong enough to face the minions of death, and wise enough to follow the path that leads to the essence of light. You must use your sword arm well to rid the land of a potent curse. But be aware that should the sword fail, you have the magical arts to serve you in your quest. Learn the proper time and place for each or you too shall be counted amongst those lost forever.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Classic brain power required
This game was a third choice that arrived first in the mail. I was exploring this games slow but inquisative puzzles when I realized that 3 hours!!! had gone by. This game is slow paced BUT it will grab your brain and not let go. I've since received all of the Kings Field games and have played them with relish. They require the original/classic brain power to solve even the simplest of puzzles instead of just killing enough monsters to go up enough levels to make even the hardest/fastest monsters killable. This game and all the Kings Field games are some of the best classic RPG games of all time in my opinion.

Rating:

- Classic King's Field Style that should never be changed.
First, it must be said that the King's Field series has been, is and always will be a series that the vast majority of people will either love or hate. Rarely, is there ever a middle ground with this series.

When you put in any game that has this name attached to it(King's Field), there are a few things that you can be assured of.
1. It was never meant for you to be able to speed through every place like it's nothing. It is meant for you to observe with patience and explore with patience. Savor the game and its every moment

2. You will hear an excellent game soundtrack that makes you feel like you are in a real epic. Once more, the music really fits the stage of the game that you hear it in.

3. 98% of what you pick up is important and is paced very well. That ticked me off about Elder Scrolls picking up stuff that I find out I don't need and being overbound by weight through the freakin' tutorial.

Now, for those who are familiar with the King's Field series before the Ancient City comes along, this is for you if you have not tried the Ancient City yet.

It will forever be extremely difficult to top King's Field II as it is widely considered the best in the series among fans of the cult classic. However, King's Field the ancient city is worth the buy. It personally did not draw me in right away the same as KFII, but it did not take very long.

The Positives
The Monsters are more difficult. If you've ever gone back through and played previous KFs again, you may feel that fighting the monsters gets too easy. Not only is there a more various sort of monsters, but they have wised up a bit. For example, the giant wasps that seem impossible to shot down from the sky at first, because they dodge your projectiles so well. The snake pits. You walk into them, and before you know it snakes are lunging at you from all angles. The two headed dogs. They run around like they've gone mad, look like they've gone mad and unless you have a strong projectile, they'll drive you made your first time through. The Bats that fly around and the spiders that shoot web at you. The lizards that jump back from your attacks.

2. The Music still draws you into the game. I give KFII the slight edge here, because it consistently makes you feel like you are in a fight of Destiny. However, the music is so fitting. Even the beginning menu music. I've found myself to just let that play while I do reading for class.

3. YOU CAN SWIM! Well, you can walk under water. At first, not for long, but you don't just fall in and die.

4. The Graphics are indeed beautiful. Keep in mind this was made back in 02 though, so it's not like PS3/360 type stuff, but they are great. The environments have typically vivid detail for the series.

5. Dark Magic. Yes, along with the original five, you also get dark magic, which will hurt you a little when you use it but is very affective.

6. I know that I already mentioned the difficulty of the monsters, but overall this game as a whole is more difficult. The puzzles are more challenging, the traps are more challenging. Not quite as immediately deadly as KFII with the saw and those spikes, but they'll make their presence felt plenty.

The Negatives

1. The Storyline: Yes, it is indeed detached from KF I and II(U.S). Not that is is terrible, but it just isn't on the same level if I gave the previous storylines a 5, I'd give this on either 3.5 or 4. I mean, KFII had a strong connection in the story for every monster you fought for crying out loud!

2. This depends on how you feel about it. You don't meet a mage for your magic, you get your magic through magic crystals. Once more, NO FLYING PHOENIX SHOOTING FIRE BALLS AT ALL THAT IS LIVING. lol. This was a small adjustment for me, but you do get a cool one called Flamed Breath. Ever wanted to breath fire?

3. At this point, if you love the series, you might not care about this anymore,but the communication with the people is still text based. At least, the people have eyes now. lol

All in all, This is a cult game with a cult following through the U.S. Europe and Japan(It's most popular in Japan) and it should be that way. I honestly don't think after KFII that is was ever meant to be anything different but a cult type First Person RPG(They'd made 3 at that point). Either you will love it or you will hate it. And NO JUST BECAUSE YOU LIKE FIRST PERSON RPGS DOES NOT MEAN YOU WILL TRANSLATE FROM ELDER SCROLLS TO KING'S FIELD AND VICE VERSA. They are two nearly completely different styles.

Rating:

- Unique And Fun Dungeon Crawling Adventure
This game has it's share of flaws and is definitely not for everyone. The graphics are mediocre, your character moves slowly and there are many annoying features, such as having to place items with exact precision. Also I reached several "dead ends" where I had to consult a strategy guide in order to proceed.

But the truth is I really enjoyed playing this game. King's Field has a unique feel to it, which reminds me more of an old school Dungeons And Dragons adventure rather than the typical Final Fantasy style of RPG. I loved the non-linear opportunities for exploration and the feeling of total immersion in a mysterious new world. The 40+ hours of gameplay offers good value for your money and this game, while far from perfect, is worth the purchase

Rating:

- this is a great adventure game that would teach one patients.
this is a great game. after playing this game 2nd time around i went on the net and found out there is part 1 and 2 for ps. i also got those. have not recieved them yet tho.will leave reviews for them later.

as for this game, you have to have patiens to build up strength and money to buy equipment for your warrior. there are phoenix, giant worms, dead warrriors, bats, blobs, lava monsters, ice warriors, beasts, archers, sorcerers, etc that you will be up against to be defeated by swords, magical powers, rings, deadly armors, arrows and bows that are located in lakes, hidden passageways, tombs, coffins, barrels and that could be bought from merchants in the game.

its really exiting, it really is!

Rating:

- Kings Field: The Ancient City - A second look
I have submitted reviews for the first two Kings Field titles. And as a fan of the series, I now tend to look over the fine points of the games and consider them more fairly. This third game in the series (fourth, technically) is the most graphically impressive of the three thus far. The developers took more time in creating enemies that seem almost flawless as they move. I notice VERY LITTLE block-structure when the creatures move about (a.k.a. seeing the joints where arms, lets, torsos, ect. move and connect to each other) if at all. The menue system has undergone just a few more fine-tunes to make it eaiser and still keeping the same controller interface. Picking up this title after playing KF and KF2 will feel like wearing a pair of old shoes with a brilliant new shine. It's comfortable and reliable, but works better. I esspecially like the finer detail in the NPC's you meet. Yes they still have somewhat featurless faces, though you can eaisly see, comparing it to KF and KF2, that there is MUCH more detail. They almost look real! I like this flavor a lot, as it give you more of an impression that you're dealing with real people.
There are some aspects that do take away from the overall preformance of the game and I'll try and mention them, as I have encountered.
First, when looking back at KF and KF2, all the enimies had limmits to how far they "strayed" from their generated positions. This gives the game a nice feel of localization, and how creatures seem to have a "territory". Yet in KF IV, they added a feature which seems nicer to look at but makes the game much eaiser, and that is: When a creature reaches the limmit of its distance, in KF IV, it turns around and walks back some. If you're standing out of its traveling distance, it seems to keep walking in circles. KF, and KF 2 had the creatures simple walk in place but not move, yet they still continued to face you. Having them walk around and way form you makes it very easy to get a few "sucker punches" in before backing away and waiting to repeat it. It would have been better if the creatures would simply stop walking, and perhaps make jestures to "goad" you to come back and fight. It does look nice when they keep walking, but it's just too cheesy in my eyes and too cheap in the player's favor.
I do enjoy the wepon system, having levels from 1 - 3 in proficency, but this could have been better for a few reasons too:
If you get one longsword upto level 3, you would think that all longswords of the same name would be at 3rd level.. but they aren't.. only the one you used is that that state. This isn't very realistic as I see it. They also added a "durability" feature, which slowly deteriorates your armor/weapon values. I do not think this should have been added, as it's very annoying to suddenly realize your weapon is down to 50 durability and is taking three times as many hits to slaughter the enemies as it had only an hour ago. Yes you can repair them at no cost ^_^ but still, it's frustrating.
Magic hasn't changed much, but instead of each field going up in levels, as in KF2, thus giving you more spells to choose from as you learn more, KF IV lets you learn new spells only if you find the crystals that house them... which I like better, actually, as it makes sense that you receive enlightenment only after you're taught, rather then suddenly become "aware". To compensate for this, each spell can evolve two times (level 3), making it cost more to cast *merf* but also have more and longer lasting effects, becomming more powerful. I like this a lot, as the first fireball spell you find can still be usfull later in gameplay, rather then having the player give up certian weaker spells for more powerful ones, as in KF and KF 2.
Leveling up, getting physical and magical power all work the same as I see it. Use magic a lot, and magic power increases, and the same with using weapons to increase physical strength. There are some places in the game where you can continually fight, especially in places that have high creature regeneration rate. This can be very helpful in building up strenght and magic if you need to, but too, can be highly exploitable. A place that has lots of creatures that regenerate eaisly can be used even at very high levels to increast magic and wepons, as well as phisical/magical power. It would have been so much nicer if, as the stronger you became, the less expeirence certian monsters of lower calibur gave you (towards weapon/spell & physical/magical power, not actual experience). Say... 1/10 of an expierence point for wepon or spell epxerience if you dwarf the enemie by "x" amount. That may sound a bit harsh but it would make you fight enemies more your size rather then exploiting the game to build up.
So in general, this game rates for me at 5/5, but because of certian features, I find it to rank just below that.. say 4.4 - 4.65. I STILL give my highest recomendation for this game, even though it still moves at its familiar if creepingly slow pace. You DO get used to it, though I do feel using the PS2 it could have been increased to at least x1.5 the speed of KF and KF2 and it still wouldn't have deferred from the experience of the world you step into. If you're new to the KF world, rent before buying. You won't be able to beat it on a 3-day rental but you will get a feel for it. Give it more then 30minutes, and you may find yourself the newest Kings Field fan. It's still a masterpiece, as I see it.


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