|
Post by Xeogred on Jan 3, 2022 19:51:31 GMT -5
I made it to the inverted castle of Symphony of the Night. I didn't need any guides to discover the good ending, though I think the game's hints could have been a little clearer. Anyway, the game is kicking my ass with all the beefed-up enemies in the inverted castle! No shame there. I don't recall any real good hints about how to "correctly" defeat Richter. I generally try not to look things up for games, but yeah the end game content in Igavania's gets pretty cryptic and I always want to play it all.
|
|
|
Post by anayo on Jan 3, 2022 19:55:32 GMT -5
I made it to the inverted castle of Symphony of the Night. I didn't need any guides to discover the good ending, though I think the game's hints could have been a little clearer. Anyway, the game is kicking my ass with all the beefed-up enemies in the inverted castle! Way to go reaching the inverted castle. Four or five years ago I made it there, got stuck, then my play through died on the vine.
|
|
|
Post by Sarge on Jan 3, 2022 21:05:20 GMT -5
They're a little risky to fight for a little while, but Nova Skeletons are a great way to grind a little bit. Tons of EXP for that point of the game.
|
|
|
Post by Xeogred on Jan 3, 2022 23:45:41 GMT -5
Incredible.
I have walked on invisible floors in FromSoft games. I dared to walk off a cliff in this area that looked like some kind of gate... only to fall to my doom. Still speculating that's a bridge of sorts I can generate, or maybe get another pair of boots like the Aquarian ones that let me walk on special water bridges but for this area, not sure. Met some hermit up in those mountains. Like Cason and the Dwarves area (only two of them), the "towns" and NPC's continue to dwindle in numbers the further you get. Scary. The mountains guy told me of two priests, one was Shudam who I already discovered awhile back. So I'm guessing the other one (Thedak or something) will get me another spell. There were some huge turtles along the cliffs that seemed impossible to damage until I tried Tornado on them. But it still seems like there's boulders in the way I can't get around, the map makes it seem like they could be removable.
My Excellector continues to gain more power, I think it's leveled up two times now and seems even better than the Capricorn Sword which was my heaviest hitter so far. The Excellector's recharge speed even increases too. Very cool, I'm guessing this sword becomes the Moonlight Sword but I'm not sure.
Had an "Evil Crescent Axe" which was cursed and causes paralysis. Not sure if you can uncurse some items in this and get something even greater out of it, but I ditched it for tons of gold. That was my favorite weapon type in KF1-2, but not so much here. I'm digging the swords now and rotate through them more (the Rapier is good for quickly killing weak stuff). Also cycling through my armor a bit more this time as well. Lots of stuff has good use depending on the situation. So it's cool this game has a "Storage" feature in the menu's to tuck things away you don't always need to see in the normal item menu, but still want to hold onto.
|
|
|
Post by Xeogred on Jan 7, 2022 0:58:12 GMT -5
Playing KF1(J) before KF3 is ESSENTIAL!!! Wow, that was such a surprise. Got Seath's Sword and at some point in this session found the broken Moonlight Sword. This KF1 surprise is one I have to backtrack to again later though, the second portion was way too hard.
Completely missed the "Orladin" secret areas in the Passage of Poison. Had to buy a few of those extra block keys from the dwarves to get through all the locked doors. Honestly the more I play STA/KF, the more I think about Dark Souls 2 specifically. Really feels like that one has more nods to the old FromSoft stuff than the rest. The way the secret doors work in that one, it has usable Orladin styled block keys for one area, one of the DLC's seems like a straight up KF dungeon, and just some of the areas even look similar. Huh.
I went back to the mountains and oh... you just have to do one of those miracle run jumps over a ledge to get around some boulders. Charted out the whole map, but still need some kind of "Throne of Irchris" key, which I'm guessing will then let me travel through those gates.
And I totally missed in the cliffs area (before the Passage of Death), the entrance to the Land of Garan. So that's where I'm at now. Definitely went in a wacky order I'm sure and I'm starting to guess a LOT of KF3's content is optional actually, kind of like modern FromSoft games too. But I definitely want to try and do everything possible.
The Passage of Death was pretty wild, but the textures and music annoyed me. I can see how some like Ex would like that dungeon a lot though. Trap city. Even the huge royal chests were trolls too, I think only one of four had something... and it was just a pile of gold. I was able to deactivate most of the traps I think, so I'm hoping I explored most of it. This dungeon alone took me at least 2 hours tonight.
16h30m in so far, level 32.
|
|
|
Post by Ex on Jan 7, 2022 1:05:45 GMT -5
The Passage of Death was my most favorite part of the entire KF saga.
You've increased my interest in Dark Souls 2.
And yeah, KF3 can be done in a variety of sequences, there's definitely optional areas. It's probably possible to speed run the game in like an hour or two. But far better to take your time and smell all the dead roses.
|
|
|
Post by Xeogred on Jan 7, 2022 1:14:53 GMT -5
The saw blades were amazing. So many scary noises. Also there's a variant of the ghost enemies in this one that is legit creepy as balls. Maybe they were just in that area too, I'm not sure if they were anywhere else.
It finally hit me this session how great the sound design is in these games (been playing with headphones). When you can hear enemies behind walls, it helps nudge you into investigating the right walls to find some secret doors. Not always, but often for sure.
It's a shame the 10 people who played KF2-KF3 in the US back in the day didn't get to experience that EUREKA moment with the callback to KF1.
I actually watched a speedrun of KF2 a bit after I beat that one. But it was kind of boring, since most of it was out of bounds stuff. Think the time was like 20-30 minutes. lol
|
|
|
Post by Xeogred on Jan 7, 2022 21:52:11 GMT -5
Judging by the playlist for the OST here, this might be the final dungeon(s)? This has to be some of the best final dungeon music I've heard in awhile. EPIC!!!!!!
|
|
|
Post by Xeogred on Jan 9, 2022 21:39:41 GMT -5
After nearly 50 hours of the PSX King's Field trilogy, this is what I got for it: Well, I was in tears from laughing so hard. So that's fun I guess. Knocked out KF3 at about 22 hours, Level 40. Think I was pretty thorough and explored mostly everything. I got the Good Ending, I think, upon looking around on that after beating it. I'm not sure what triggers what, ending wise though. But I knew to throw Lyn's Ring in the fountain at the end near the final castle, then you talk to some ghost. Something about that fountains placement felt obviously important, so I just tried all my key items until that worked. Maybe that's it? Who knows. But I'm glad I think I explored mostly everything in the game.
Combat wise KF3 is definitely easier than KF2 after a point and I was drowning in items. That said me missing the main fountain in KF2 for most of the game made that one way harder in general. But I can also see how the first half of KF3 is more for the veterans of the first two games. You need a lot of patience with its slower drawn out beginning and weirdly enough it was like the dungeons in the first half are a lot more devious than the options in the back half, after the infamous Passage of Death. I was actually kind of bored with the "Palace of the Beginning" or whatever it was called, which you access from the High Elves mountain area. The gimmick with the usable Orladin Keys was interesting though (similar dungeon in Dark Souls 2). The final dungeon isn't complex either and more of a combat gauntlet, but that's how they were in the other games too. Either way, this game was massive and so any minor low points weren't really bad at all in the long run. This one is chalk full of so much cool equipment and weapons to use, which would lend itself well to replays for any kid that had this back in the day. It was weird how the Excellector powers down after putting the Ichris Keys together though, so I never used it again after that. Once I got the Moonlight Sword, that was all I needed for the final stretch. But there was still so many cool options to tinker with. I swapped out the Ichris Armor for the Orladin chest plate, since it halved MP use. I'm not sure if there were more spells to learn after level 40, I had a bunch of legendary ones like "Thedak", "Shudom", etc that were the pinnacle of their respective elements. I loved Earth Wave like in the last games though, since some of the higher level spells have AOE damage that hurts you, but not that one. Throughout the game you get tons of Light Crystals and I figured some offensive Light spells would eventually show up, "Flash" was the last thing I learned and freaking awesome to use. I rocked that on the final bosses.
I'll need to meditate a bit on KF2-KF3 to see how I'd rank them. But they are ultimately different enough, they both do what they want extremely well. I really like how KF2 is a bit more experimental and unrefined in ways like Demon's Souls, but KF3's slow adventurish pacing feels a lot like a big epic RPG or Metroidvania, you feel like such a badass in the final stretch with how much you've conquered and how powerful you've become. It's a journey. I also love how KF2's OST was so weird in spots, but KF3's OST is legit medieval dungeon crawling and fits the vibe a lot better. Overall, these are some of the best games I've played on the PSX for sure. I can see how our admin Ex and other fans obsess over these games. Not sure I ever expect to sell anyone on these games, as its hard enough convincing some to check out the original Demon's Souls, hah. But yeah, I'm glad the FromSoft first person action adventure games finally clicked with me. They give off a similar adrenaline to Ultima Underworld, Thief, System Shock, etc in a way to me. I love this stuff.
I know others moved on from this theme... But the PlayStation 1 is FOREVER!
|
|
|
Post by Ex on Jan 9, 2022 21:54:03 GMT -5
I was in tears from laughing so hard. I think they got their $4.25 for 10 minutes worth of narrative recording from that studio janitor. It was hard to sell YOU on them, took years! But now you understand why the "slow speed" is actually an asset. Or at the very least, not a deal breaker. You do still have one PS1 game left though: I will definitely be interested in your overall opinion of it, and KF4. Awesome to see another person who was hesitant and adverse to KF, have a change of heart and a great experience.
|
|