King's Field IV

King's Field IV

Japanese packaging
Developer(s) FromSoftware
Publisher(s)
  • JP: FromSoftware
Director(s) Rintaro Yamada
Satoru Yanagi
Series King's Field
Platform(s) PlayStation 2
Release date(s)
  • JP: October 4, 2001
  • NA: March 25, 2002
  • PAL: March 28, 2003
Genre(s) First person role-playing game
Mode(s) Single-player

King's Field IV, known in North America as King's Field: The Ancient City, is a medieval-themed first-person role playing video game produced by FromSoftware for the PlayStation 2 in 2001. It is the fourth game in the King's Field series and the last one released for home consoles. Agetec published the North America release in 2002, while Metro 3D published the Europe release in 2003.

Plot

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 themselves 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. Use your sword arm well to rid the land of a potent curse. 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 among those lost forever.

Naming of characters in the Agetec release

Before the release of the game as King's Field: The Ancient City in North America, there were a number of fans of the series using what is now called a Yahoo.com "Group". Discussing possible plotlines, characterizations, and aspects of gameplay in the upcoming release, they caught the attention of an ASCII Entertainment employee (left unnamed for reasons of privacy). The group, known on the site as The Verdite Inn, collaborated on a community driven storyline based in the world of the first two North American releases. Out of respect for the group's opinions, imaginations, and support for the games, the names or usernames of the contributing members were used as the names of certain NPCs.

These were sometimes associated with a role they had explored in The Verdite Inn site, such as the NPC Lee Maynor. In the game he is either found wounded near a giant spider, wishing to die, or already dead and possessed, and is the only NPC in the game that can be killed with no negative effect. At The Verdite Inn, Lee Maynor (who allegedly suffered from arachnophobia) portrayed himself as the undead "Lord Darkman the Vampire". One of the first shopkeeper NPCs in the game, David Bunch, is named after the only one of the Yahoo group admins to be made aware of the naming before the games release. He kept the plans to honor the club secret until the day of the release, when a member found his character in-game and asked about it on the forum. His dialogue reflects some of his quotes from the website.

Many others, including Jamarc Neely, Duhrin Pathwarden, and Arx Angelos, are known to be derived from names of the users of the site. Ramirez Martin, also an NPC, is the webmaster of kings-field.com.

Reception

On release, Famitsu magazine scored the game a 30 out of 40.[1] Game Informer magazine scored the game a 6.5 out of 10.[2]

References

  1. ↑ プレイステーション2 - KING'S FIELD IV. Weekly Famitsu. No.915 Pt.2. Pg.89. 30 June 2006.
  2. ↑ 'Reviews - PlayStation 2 Quickies': King's Field: The Ancient City. Vol. XII. No. 4. Issue 108. Pg. 77. April 2002
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