PSP Fanboy is proud to provide extensive coverage of King's Field, now known as IGN's "worst PSP game ever." The game hilariously provides some truly horrendous graphics, ridiculous load times, and awfully dated gameplay mechanics that make you wonder why anyone would pay money to subject themselves to such a horror. Watch the videos of the game, and revel in the fact that it wasn't you that had to play.
Then, send your hate mail to Chris P for not writing one, but two stories about this game since he's joined.
King's Field: worst PSP game ever
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(Page 1)2. Chris you nailed it...Wizardry maybe even original Bard's Tale. I grew up on those.
If the price was less than Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel...maybe....but not for $50.
Posted at 7:08AM on Aug 3rd 2006 by PerfectVirus
3. it looks like a pokemon battle. everything just vibrates a lot.
4. Haha Chris, you know things are cool. I even gave you a gold Star! I'm like an elementary school teacher!
Posted at 8:57AM on Aug 3rd 2006 by Andrew Yoon
5. This doesn't look so bad.. In fact, like others, it reminds me of old school RPG games like Wizardy or Bards Tale. Perhaps even the Might and Magic series.
Personally, I'm intrigued by it and I'm hoping an english translation will be made.. Unfortunately, I can't speak or read Japanese, so imports aren't much fun for me...
6. Reminds me of those classic AD&D games for the PC back in the day. Or my AD&D Eye of the Beholder for GBA (though slightly better)
Posted at 9:22AM on Aug 3rd 2006 by PodMonkeys
7. I purchased this crap for the ps2 several years ago. It was the worst ps2 title I ever played. Dogpoop is more fun to play with. I felt betrayed.
8. I don't agree that the game looks so bad. This game is clearly part of the first-person, dungeon crawling RPG genre; a genre with a long heritage dating back to such games as Shining in the Darkness on the Sega genesis(Megadrive), for example. The basis of IGN's criticisms misses the point of such games entirely and does not show the site in a favourable light.
9. You know, Wizardry wouldn't have had so many sequels were it not so popular. Eye of the Beholder wouldn't have had remakes on various systems if it didn't do well. Now those of you who said "Yeah, but that was back then, this is now." I want you to thinka bout how much money Square made off its remakes for Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasies only what? A year ago? Two years ago?
Also, there is alot of interest in games like these for alot of people. Myself included. For the fans of King's Field this adds a strong piece of story that was not previously included, for those who are into dungeon crawlers, this may be a title they can have fun with. The original KF's were full first person, just like Oblivion is. The problem is on a PSP screen, a full first person RPG might make it hard to see things like the herbs growing on the ground or the sword that you want to hide but still give a small hint to its existance.
I believe I've said enough. Those of you who bashed the game and didn't take the time to see past your perosnal opinions of what a good game is (you seem to think its based on graphics, not gameplay) won't be able to play this anyways since your feeble minds probably wouldn't be able to learn Japanese in enough time to finish the game before you die.
10. As a fan of the PS1 Kings Field games, I'm both thrilled and disappointed. I don't see any reason why they couldn't retain the proper 3D first person aspect. Include a user-configurable gamma setting and you're laughing.
I still may enjoy this game (should it be released in English). The stories were never the strong point of the KF series, but were fun nonetheless. Ever try Eternal Ring for PS2? Same idea.
12. The IGN reviewer can go bugger himself. These were very underappreciated on the PS1 and the PSP version has major improvements to the graphics that overcomes the previous problem when scenes would become abstract if viewed from the wrong angle/distance.
Also, the video linked here doe not demonstrate the real gameplay. It's more of a rapid slideshow. In the real game you don't just walk up to monsters and whack them with you weapon. Maneuvering in realtime is critical to survival in these games. Like most RPGs you start off quite weak and in danger from the most minor monsters. It is critical to maneuver so you can get in the several hits needed to kill without taking fatal damage to yourself.
Keep in mind $50 was the price for an import. A US release should be $40 or less. If the dialogue is largely the same a localization could be done fairly cheap. Getting both on a single UMD for $30 would be a pretty good deal for the amount of game time delivered.
I've enjoyed all of From's 3D dungeon crawls except Shadow Tower due to a ridiculous difficulty level. If Shadow Tower got a port to a newer platform with adjusted difficulty I'd give it another shot.
#10
I trust you're aware that Eternal Ring is from the same team within From? They later did King's Field IV on the PS2. There is no King's Field III in the US. The games we got as I and II are actually Japan's II and III.
13. This reminds me of "Dungeon Master" waaay back on the Atari ST! I loved that game.
The only problem is... Dungeon Master looked abit more advanced than this game in terms of combat.
Anyway, the really worst part of it is the loading. It's really bad... and would almost be bearable if the music continued playing. It just keeps getting cut out upon loading... bad move.
1. Hah hah, Andrew, I think I hate you.
I love the battle animations. It reminds me of those old cartoons that had only a few frames of animation. Man, I was always pissed off as a child when I watched that crap.
However, the game looks a bit like Wizardry from the NES days. I don't know whether that's good or bad, but I did have some fun playing it back in the day.
Posted at 3:37AM on Aug 3rd 2006 by Chris Powell