King's Field III

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King's Field III
Kingsfield3 cover.jpg
Japanese box art
Developer(s) FromSoftware
Publisher(s)
Producer(s) Naotoshi Zin
Programmer(s) Eiichi Hasegawa
Writer(s) Toshiya Kimura
Shinichiro Nishida
Series King's Field
Platform(s) PlayStation
Release
  • JP: June 21, 1996
  • NA: November 20, 1996 [1]
Genre(s) Action role-playing
Mode(s) Single-player

King's Field III [a] is a 1996 action role-playing game developed and published by FromSoftware for the PlayStation. [2] It is the third entry in the King's Field series and the last one to be released on the original PlayStation. [3]

Contents

The game was released on June 21, 1996 in Japan by FromSoftware and November 20, 1996 in North America by ASCII Entertainment. It was not released in PAL territories. The English-language version was renumbered and retitled King's Field II, [4] because the original King's Field was not released outside Japan.

Plot

The player takes the role of Verdite prince Lyle (ライル・ウォリシス・フォレスター) as he struggles to uncover the reasons behind his father Jean's sudden descent into madness and restore his kingdom.

Gameplay

As in previous King's Field series titles, Gameplay mostly involves first-person battles, puzzle solving and exploration. The game takes place mostly in significant stretches of land above the ground, with the exception of some dungeons. [5] Players can teleport between the different cities from the map screen. [6]

Reception

Reviews for King's Field III widely praised the massive size of the game world and the resulting longevity, [8] [9] [10] and criticized the slowness of the character movement and combat. [8] [10] [11] Otherwise, however, critics were divided about the game. Of the four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly , Shawn Smith praised several of the game's elements but found its gameplay too tedious, Dan Hsu and Crispin Boyer recommended it for its first person approach and various improvements over the previous installment, and Sushi-X criticized that the game is ahead of its time, using a design which would make a good future for RPGs but runs much too slow on contemporary hardware. [8] A GamePro critic noted the improvements over King's Field II but judged that the slow, unbalanced combat remained a crippling flaw, remarking that "everything onscreen looks like it's moving underwater. A melee round against a low-level creature can take up to five minutes to complete." He concluded by expressing hope that there would be no further games in the series. [11] Greg Kasavin of GameSpot also felt the improvements over King's Field II were insufficient, but primarily because they added up to more of a refinement of the original formula than a new direction. He concluded, "The first King's Field was an excellent game, and its like-minded sequel is even better. This is an exciting, non-linear journey filled to the brim with swords, sorcery, and secrets." [9] Next Generation said that the combination of the action and RPG genres results in the game being shallow and dull by the standards of both genres, though they felt it could still be worthwhile for players who don't mind its slow pace. [10]

Notes

  1. ↑ Kingusu Fīrudo Surī (キングスフィールドIII)

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References

  1. ↑ Jane Cowley (October 31, 1996). "The King's Armada Has Arrived! King's Field II Releases November 20". The Free Library. Archived from the original on June 19, 2019. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
  2. 1 2 "キングスフィールド III [PS] / ファミ通.com". www.famitsu.com. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
  3. ↑ "KING'S FIELD III". PlayStation™Store. Retrieved August 9, 2020.
  4. ↑ "King's Field 2". Electronic Gaming Monthly . No. 87. Ziff Davis. October 1996. p. 98. King's Field 2 (actually, it's King's Field 3 in Japan) ...
  5. ↑ Krishna Lal, Arjun (June 11, 2021). "King's Field Retrospective: Exploring the Roots of Elden Ring and Dark Souls". TechSpot. Archived from the original on June 13, 2021. Retrieved August 21, 2022.
  6. ↑ "King's Field II: The Moonlight Sword Is Missing - Again". Electronic Gaming Monthly . No. 88. Ziff Davis. November 1996. pp. 236–7.
  7. ↑ "King's Field II for PlayStation". GameRankings . CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on December 9, 2019. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Review Crew: King's Field 2". Electronic Gaming Monthly . No. 90. Ziff Davis. January 1997. p. 68.
  9. 1 2 3 Kasavin, Greg (December 1, 1996). "King's Field II Review". GameSpot . Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "King's Field II". Next Generation . No. 26. Imagine Media. February 1997. p. 122.
  11. 1 2 Art Angel (December 1996). "King's Field II". GamePro . No. 99. IDG. p. 204.
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