How'd ya'll find out about King's Field?

[TheStolenBattenberg]

Hey, I didn't actually think about the King's Field section for KF related stuff, hah.

/On topic

I'm interested to know how you all found out about King's Field, since it's the sorta game that doesn't really shout out much against other titles in a video store or what ever you've got to buy games in!

I've got a rather awkward story myself, but since I'm asking I guess I should share mine.

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[spoiler]
When I was younger (13), in 2008, I used to go through pretty bad depression, parents were getting divorced all that crap,  blahblah lets skip forward... I ended up in hospital, and after that they didn't think I could be trusted around myself, so they put into another place where they'd tell you life was pink and full of flowery situations where everything goes your way...

They had an entertainment area, no idea why since non of the other ones did... It had a PS2, and a small collection of PS1 and PS2 games. In that collection were King's Field I, and King's Field: The Ancient City.

I liked to go and watch people play through games there, and one day I saw them playing King's Field, and the graphics looked impressive so I watched for a while. By the time They got into the Ancient City area, I was hooked on the game.

I didn't get the chance to watch the other King's Field, since I got to leave shortly after and they only reached the second part of of the tower. After that, I set out to play all thing's King's Field -- I found the SoM forums in late 2010/early 2011, and I pretty much got to play everything King's Field because of this site, including finding out that there was an american and japan only release which looked great.

For me I guess you could say that King's Field is a type of anti depressant, which is kinda odd when you think about it, but works.
[/spoiler]
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[Verdite]

I hadnt been in my first job long, I was probably 16... Went to gamestation when it existed, rummaging through the preowned PS2 section, I found KFTAC and Wizardry :TOTFS in the "2 for £20" preowned section, and bought them. Wizardry didnt work on my PS2 because it was badly scratched, and I wanted to take TAC back after falling into the lava just after starting the game, I thought that was a ridiculous place to start... But I liked the combat so I stuck with it and loved it. I started to really enjoy TAC alot after finding the Kings throne room - it became really interesting after that point for me, especially the purple flashing area with the huge knight.

Then I bought KF:additional 2 in Japan (that was the first time I ever heard someone say kingsu frieddu), then later found SOM, then I bought KF2 after Todd recommended it. I also got drawn to Shadow Tower after looking around the forum, probably because there was no PAL release of ST it slipped under my radar when picking up super cheap PS1 games.

Somewhere amongst all that that I bought Eternal Ring at a marketplace and gave it to a best friend to play, somehow he stuck with it from start to finish, where I gave up pretty early. I just found it quite dull. However after rebuying it in 2012 I realised it wasnt that bad, except for the piss poor combat and lack of equipment.

[Auric]

I remember one day my step-father had handed me a small stack of some psx games he thought I'd like. Among them was KF1 and KF2. At first they didn't look too great so I decided to leave them for last. I was certainly wrong though. One I began to play them they became an instant favorite.

Years later I remembered how much I enjoyed them I decided to play them again. The game was much easier then I had remembered so I figured I would collect every item and explore every area 100%. I never found a use for the fairy fossil so I knew I needed to look up a guide of some sort. I ended up finding kings-field.com and shortly after I finished K2 I discovered SoM and these forums here. I've been a member here ever since. Although I've left a few times I've always returned. I don't think I could ever truly say goodbye to SoM and the good folks here.

[JC Bailey]

I first played the original King's Field on PS1 as a five year old kid back in the day, and then got more into the series much later on after playing Demon's Souls and doing some research.  All I remember is being scared to death when I first played it.

[Silvak]

I hope nobody mind the necro thread.

I found King's Fiend after looking into buying a new system.  I had played all the SNES RPG's I could get my hands and that looked interesting and I wasn't interested in getting a Genesis since my friend had one.  Resident Evil was the first game to grab my attention since it was on the t.v. in Electronic Boutique now GameStop.  The strategy guide showing dozens of rooms to explore and more than just zombies to fight was a great selling point.  The employee though sold me when he informed me that Final Fantasy VII was going to be on the system next.  I asked him if there were any RPG's on the system already and he showed me King's Field but had a sour look on his face saying that it wasn't very good.  I looked at the game and saw the pictures and it looked interesting to me but figured I'd take him at his word and set the game back. 

It was a week or so later and I was at Toy's R Us and saw the game again.  I stood there holding the game considering it again.  Resident Evil was proving to be difficult for me at the time and I really wanted an RPG for my new system.  I grabbed the game and played it as soon as I got home.

I died and died and died.  Falling over the edges into the water.  Getting killed by giant octopus many times as I was sure there was some trick to killing it at the beginning of the game.  Plant looking creatures, slime that I had to look almost strait down to be able to hit and maze like structure that I had no clue which way I was suppose to go.  I played the game off and on for many months and never made much progress.  I got to the ants or termites and remember not having any idea on what to do.  I never understood what any of the NPC's were really telling me.  I didn't play the game again for several months. 

Then one night I was looking through my games and picked up King's Field and stuck it in and just started playing from the very beginning.  I went through nearly all the same motions as before but this time I made sure to pay attention to more detail and what exactly the NPCs were telling me and I figured out that I did indeed need to kill the Termite Queen.  After that point something about the game clicked with me and I found myself staying up late that night and playing as soon as I got up the next day to beat it.  Opening fountain doors and seeing how the world was one giant hub around was awesome.  It still took me a decent amount of time to beat the game but once I finally did it felt great.  I even got online after I beat the game and found some secrets that caused me to go back and get the things I had missed, such as magic swords shooting magic and of course acquiring Moonlight Sword.

To this day with how popular and positive the Souls series and Bloodborne is getting I have high hopes that FROM will eventually make a new King's Field or at least a new game like it.  With how poor Eternal Ring was though I don't think will happen.  I swear that game wasn't finished with how quickly it was beaten.

[HwitVlf]

Hi Silvak and welcome. A fun read! It's quite interesting how consistent people's reaction to King's Field seems to be. They either try if for a few minutes, decide it's too hard and slow and they hate it, or they take the time to slow down and pay attention enough to see how rich and finely crafted the game world is, and love it.
 

[Hguols]

My first experience with King's Field was 1994. Video Junction (a movie rental place) at the time had PSX games for rent, which it was the only placed in town that did and I thought it was just the bees knees.

King's Field was one of the new games to rent. I had it for a weekend and was HOOKED. I remember most of my friends and my brother and most of his friends thought the game was too quaint... slow... other adjectives.

I bought the game the following weekend.
Bought King's Field II the week of its release.
Was at the door of Software Etc. at 9am on the release date of TAC.

[Mord of Swoonlight]

My good buddy rented it back in 1994 or 1995, and told me I had to come over and see this crazy game.  Never saw anything like it before.  He had been playing (and dying) for a few days by the time I got around to seeing it, and he was just at the entrance to the Small Mine.  Of course things like Google didn't exist back then for 'getting help' from outside, so it was a wonderful mysterious experience wandering around wondering what was going on with Mama Kraken, the termites, dinosaurs (earth elementals) et al.   Sold a lot of crystals for arrows that first play through before realizing that we really needed those flasks, haha.  Oh man, and accidentally firing off the sword magic for the first time and slowly realizing it wasn't a bug - priceless. 

Usually my friend would play games (be the pilot) while I would navigate, keep an eye out for items, help with puzzles and such.  This is one of the games where I had to get in on the action myself.  And then when the second game came out, we basically didn't leave the house for days... 
 

[Kammu]

I found out about it just 30 minutes ago, while googling for "games similar to brigandine" (exactly that).  this thread is the very first result lol

I think I might like this game. is there any PC versions around?

[HwitVlf]

The King's Field series never had PC releases, but they can be played on an Playstation emulator. However, a PC remake of the first King's Field was included with Sword of Moonlight and is available here.  It captures some of the 'King's Field spirit', but isn't quite the same as the Playstation installments.