Sword of Moonlight Forum

Sword Of Moonlight Games => Games (Dormant Projects) => King's Field V => Topic started by: JC Bailey on August 10, 2014, 08:50:27 pm

Title: King's Field V - General Discussion
Post by: JC Bailey on August 10, 2014, 08:50:27 pm
Well here it is, my next big Sword of Moonlight project, King's Field V, and it's exactly what the name suggests: a long awaited sequel to the famed King's Field series.

First off, most of the game will take place in a large, undead-filled hellhole called The Underworld, and a small kingdom above it named Nephrite. The plot will center around the first king of this kingdom, King Vinhardt I, who is resurrected as an undead 100 years after his reign. When he emerges from his tomb, he discovers that his kingdom is in ruins and that a gate leading to The Underworld has been opened underneath Nephrite Castle. Having no other option, he ventures into the gate to find a way to close it and banish the undead from his decaying kingdom.

The level design itself will be similar The Ancient City, in that it will be very nonlinear and handcrafted. Also, being that the game has a heavy theme of the undead, it will be a lot darker in tone than any other game in the King's Field series. And sorry, but King's Field V won't have anything to do with the story of the original trilogy, as I felt that creating a new world would be a more logical progression for the series.

Anyway, King's Field V will have its own map sets and far more custom resources in general than any of my past games, including a custom soundtrack (right Ben? :wink:). It's going to be a very big project that I'm guessing will take around 8-10 months to finish. Once I finish conceptualizing, I'll start a daily update thread here so everybody can keep up to speed with the progress of this project.

I'm looking forward to posting more updates in the future and eventually releasing the game, wish me luck!
Title: Re: King's Field V
Post by: dmpdesign on August 10, 2014, 09:11:02 pm
 :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:

Yes, more SOM games!

Thank you, man I love the people on this forum, always bringing out new and great ideas.  I love these games, awesome idea - can't wait to play it ;)
Title: Re: King's Field V - General Discussion
Post by: Auric on August 11, 2014, 02:27:17 am
Amazing! It's going to be fun watching this idea grow up into an actual game and I'm sure it'll be even more fun to play it once it's finished. I look forward to seeing more.

Good luck on this! It sounds like it'll take a lot of work and time to create this.  :beerchug:
Title: Re: King's Field V - General Discussion
Post by: GusLeRoi on August 11, 2014, 07:41:22 am
TY Taffer. You and Verdite are keeping Kings Field alive...This new game of yours will be awesome  :movingeyes:
Title: Re: King's Field V - General Discussion
Post by: HwitVlf on August 11, 2014, 07:28:01 pm
This sounds quite intriguing. I will be keeping an eye on it.

My but you're quite a prolific game maker! And good quality too. Wish I was more like that  :beerchug:
Title: Re: King's Field V - General Discussion
Post by: Verdite on August 12, 2014, 06:42:05 pm
AGHHHHHHH

MT!? What about the Blood Dragon edition of Kings Field?! I have only just bought my 80's aviator glasses and vaguely ethnic clothing. Devastating news.

Joking aside, this is going to be a MASSIVE project, so I hope you stick with it - it could take years to complete. Thank you MT, for making me feel normal about my 2 year project  :smile: really though, good luck and I will be here, like everyone else in the forum, to help out where we can. :beerchug:
Title: Re: King's Field V - General Discussion
Post by: JC Bailey on August 12, 2014, 07:30:49 pm
King's Field V: Blood Dragon will be a standalone DLC expansion of course, to be released shortly after the main game. :wink:
Title: Re: King's Field V - General Discussion
Post by: JC Bailey on August 13, 2014, 02:14:23 am
I'm playing all four games back to back as part of research before I do any more planning for this project. Just remember that any of these ideas may change in the future.
Title: Re: King's Field V - General Discussion
Post by: dmpdesign on August 13, 2014, 09:26:14 am
Hey John, have you ever by chance translated what was said in the chronicles of verdite video that came with the dark side box set to see if it coincides with that mish mash of KF history posted on kings-field.com?

Here is a link to the first part of the video, if I knew Japanese I would do it myself :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_wGf2ON8Pc
Title: Re: King's Field V - General Discussion
Post by: Verdite on August 13, 2014, 03:36:02 pm
Don't mean to put a downer on this, but if you call this game KFV and its great, then won't that give FS an excuse to dodge making a new KF game?  :movingeyes:
Title: Re: King's Field V - General Discussion
Post by: dmpdesign on August 13, 2014, 03:58:57 pm
I can say from experience From Software couldn't care less what is made with their software, after numerous attempts to even get a generic response from them regarding the game I made, it is unlikely they would pay any mind to a fan made sequel in regards to creating new games.

I don't believe From Software will ever revive KF, and if they did it likely wouldn't be anywhere near the same engine/concept of the original series anyhow.

To put things in perspective...I sold almost 2 million copies of FortressCraft at this point, that is more than many AAA game studios get with their games...and you know how much the developers or publishers of Minecraft care?  A big whopping 0. 

I think From Software would just as soon take an actual physical dump on a copy of any SOM made KF game as care whether or not they release a game with the same name as one of them...in fact From Software doesn't give a damn about anything a non Japanese audience has done or says.  The only reason there was ever an 'ear' to the fans of King's Field was because of Agetec and the same holds true for the Souls games, Namco/Atlus were the ones that listened and worked with the US fanbase, From Software just makes games, they don't involve themselves with people and fans.
Title: Re: King's Field V - General Discussion
Post by: HwitVlf on August 14, 2014, 02:44:02 pm
I would think that interest MT's King's Field V would improve chances of a new King's Field installment because any KF interest would only boost sales.  But, like Todd says, I don't know if they are even aware of what fans are doing these days, or if they even makes their own decisions any more  since their takeover.

I'd like to think that least some of the artists who worked on the KF games will come across these sites and the projects dedicated to their work and be honored - maybe even be encouraged to promote new KF-like games wherever they're working now.

dmp- About the Chronicles of Verdite video, the KF2(US) guide where most of the stuff on KF.com came from was basically a mirror to the Japnese KF3 Strategy Visual Guide. That has a 9 page section titled "The Chronicles of Verdite".  I've been thinking of translating it for awhile but I just haven't got time for more side projects right now. Hopefully after Brigandine is done,  :badteeth:
Title: Re: King's Field V - General Discussion
Post by: JC Bailey on August 15, 2014, 01:53:05 am
There's a possibility that King's Field V will have a complete setting change. Playing through some of the King's Field games made me realize that a sequel should do new things rather than sticking with the old, though I won't know for sure what I'll do until after I finish playing the trilogy and start rewriting the story. I'll edit the first post if this change does occur.
Title: Re: King's Field V - General Discussion
Post by: HwitVlf on August 15, 2014, 12:35:02 pm
There are a few things that I think are the 'core' of what made KF great; you've mentioned them in other posts. As long as a sequel stays fairly true to the core that made it distinctive, I think changes can make it new and interesting.
Title: Re: King's Field V - General Discussion
Post by: Xethuminra on August 15, 2014, 09:49:06 pm
If anything, I'd be curious to know how you would fit Eternal Ring in there haha

Do people actually care about Eternal Ring on here?

I actually love everything in the game that's not broken, undeveloped or the ice level

:)

I can't stand the Ice Level
Title: Re: King's Field V - General Discussion
Post by: Auric on August 15, 2014, 10:15:03 pm
I care about ER. I feel that it had great potential, but it could have used more work. Gameplay was short, combat balance seemed lacking and the story was ok (not good but also not bad. Like everything else it could have used more work.). Ring creation and use was fun. The currency system was unique as well.

It's one of those games that I want to like, but just has too many flaws.
Title: Re: King's Field V - General Discussion
Post by: Xethuminra on August 16, 2014, 01:52:34 pm
The gem system was the progenitor to the soul system in many ways. Too bad it didn't take gems to level up, that would have been cool

Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything linking Eternal Ring with King's Field

Dragons and Lizard Men? Haha
Title: Re: King's Field V - General Discussion
Post by: JC Bailey on September 02, 2014, 12:28:01 am
Now that the Return to Melanat patch is finished, I'm getting back to work on this project. A lot has changed since I first made this post, so here it goes...

First off, I had a few goals in mind when I first created this project and they are:

- To create a game that felt like is was made by Fromsoft themselves.
- That the game feel very handcrafted and polished.
- To connect the lore of the original games and TAC.

Now I'm sure this will disappoint some of you, but I will be dropping the last goal, simply because it conflicts with the first. Seeing as how King's Field 4 abandoned the lore of the original trilogy, I think the next logical step the series would take is to create an entirely new world all together. The obvious benefit to this decision being that it would give me a lot more freedom to do what I want to make a better game.

As for the level design... forget the chart I made. I'm completely redoing the world, because I now want this sequel to be an original title and not something that feels rehashed. Though, some common locations and quirks from the series will still make a return. For example, every King's Field game always has some kind of garrison, numerous cemeterys, and a mine of some sort. Anyway, I'm significantly reducing the number of maps to around 14 or so, all of which would be roughly the size of the maps in King's Field NA, and each map will contain 3 or 4 separate areas, similarly to how maps were structured in, again, King's Field NA.

Lastly, there's the story, which is another beast that I'll have to tackle. Simply put, I want for it to match the depth of the original trilogy at least and not feel like an afterthought like it did in The Ancient City.

I'll be posting more stuff in the coming weeks, as I've got lots of planning to do. Wish me luck!
Title: Re: King's Field V - General Discussion
Post by: Verdite on September 02, 2014, 07:26:04 am
Good luck MT I am sure you'll ace it  :smile:
Title: Re: King's Field V - General Discussion
Post by: JC Bailey on September 10, 2014, 07:07:56 pm
So I've done quite a bit of concept work for the reworked plot and setting lately.

First off, most of the game will take place in a large, undead-filled hellhole called The Underworld, and a small kingdom above it named Nephrite. The plot will center around the first king of this kingdom, Ruus Vinhardt, who is resurrected as an undead 100 years after his reign. When he emerges from his tomb, he discovers that his kingdom is in ruins and that a gate leading to The Underworld has been opened underneath Nephrite Castle. Having no other option, he ventures into the gate to find a way to close it and banish the undead from his decaying kingdom.

The level design itself will be similar to The Ancient City, in that it will be very nonlinear and handcrafted. Also, being that the game has a heavy theme of the undead, it will be a lot darker in tone than any other game in the King's Field series. And sorry, but King's Field V won't have anything to do with the story of the original trilogy, as I felt that creating a new world would be a more logical progression for the series.

Anyway, King's Field V will have its own map sets and far more custom resources in general than any of my past games, including a custom soundtrack (right Ben? :wink:). It's going to be a very big project that I'm guessing will take around 8-10 months to finish. Once I finish conceptualizing, I'll start a daily update thread here so that everybody can keep up to speed with the progress of this project.