A Look Back At • King's Field 2 (Analysis) • The History of From Software.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- LORE!
Did you know King's Field 2 used to be a thing?
It's true and in this video we talk about that story.
If you've ever wondered what the game's Lore was, what the experience meant and how the first game played this is your video.
Everything King's Field!
Special Thanks to:
*VaatiVidya.
*L337 Classic.
*Burntpinz Gaming.
*World of Longplays.
*Deskawa.
*Naotoshi Jin.
*MatthewMatosis.
Footage from:
*WorldofLongplays (Deskawa)
/ cubex55
*Classic L337
/ classicl337
*Burntpinz Gaming
/ @burntpinzgaming
Patreon: / medievalmegaman
Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/aesi...
Essays&Espresso:
/ @essaysespresso8637
A Look Back At Demon's Souls:
• A Look Back At • Demon...
Exploring the Story of Demon's Souls:
• Exploring the Story of...
Re-Exploring the Story of Demon's Souls:
• Re-Exploring the Story...
Dude. I just beat this a year or so ago. It was a huge achievement for me because this game was one of the first PlayStation games I ever bought with my own money. The clerk even said that I “would never beat it.” I wanted to prove him wrong, but I couldn’t beat it! It was so hard, and I was so young. I didn’t know how to overcome its explorative style. After all, I basically had been raised on “run right and hop” games. Beating it 20 years later felt so rewarding.
bro i feel you we beated it couple of years ago. could not do it when i was 12 :D
You sure showed that clerk lol
Very similar experience for me... it was one of my first ps1 games, and boy did it kick my little kid ass!!!
I too can relate to this being one of my first games on ps1 and one of the first 3d games i played. I made it to the dragon, but couldnt beat him....prob cause i never found that sword in the wall...like who puts a sword in a random wall just floating there! From Soft thats who!!
Little did he know, that clerk sparked a lifelong love for games just like that one within you that day!
Hand it over, that thing. Your King's Blade
Bings Bade? 👽
I'm a hack fraud, you can remove the Rhombus keys, I just didn't do it right because I remapped my control scheme.
All that praise I gave to the game letting you screw yourself was just me being dumb in game.
I offer my sincerest apologies for any inconvenience this has caused, I was bound to get something wrong.
Is amazing that you could beat the game that way, ah and you still can screw yourself if you enter the mine without extra keys or teleport.
AesirAesthetics no worries. I was almost all the way through the game before I even found the ability to teleport. It’s a tough one that doesn’t hold your hand.
Not good enough, you're cancelled.
@@ALocalClown 😢
@@IgorCD Copy the crap out of the first ones you get, luckily the economy in the game is broken as hell.
This is still my favorite game. I keep going back and playing it over and over. The level design is amazing and the ambiance is one of the best. My love for From Software come from this game, and they where and are still my favorite developper.
This game and the original Armored Core games on PS1 are some the greatest games ever made.
I love that I heard rumors about the spider sword and more back then on good ol’ GameFAQs. There were no details or anything on how to acquire back then. Now I’ve been playing in every year or two for a decade. Basically since I figured emulation became good enough now. Looting a spider sword after thinking it was only rumors and not real was very cool. I totally trash the game now and wish it had more… more levels. Deeper and darker exploration. I could keep going and keep leveling. I can grind the dragonkin things for a bit and max level and all stats by the time I finish.
I got a ps1 for xmas that year and rented this shortly after it came out. It was the first time i ever got stoned. We played hockey on the lake after school and got ripped. Once it got dark my brother, friend, and i walked home and my dad had rented this for us. Then him and my mom asked what we wanted at McDonald's and we each said a bag of burgers. 6 cheeseburgers for 2.99 each with fries(munchies) then we played this all night and asked to stay home to play the next day(my parents only let me stay home to play this tomb raider 1 or to play basketball or go skiing but not while sick lol) got baked all day and played kings field. 43 now and ill remember that like it was yesterday. Just the overall life changing feeling of being high and happy with the melancholy and distant feeling of the game. If it werent for kings field i wouldnt really care to remember that experience it wouldve just been another day. Anyway you are a great writer keep up the good work
I'm so glad I stumbled across your channel. I'm waiting for my factory open with my morning coffee and smoke and working my way through your catalog. You seem to cover every game there isnt much decent content for on youtube. Very excited to see what you make next. Thanks again
Welcome aboard!
Thank you for introducing me to these games! I am having so much fun in this exact kind of PS1 game that I love. And just approach it for anybody playing, remap the controls you can remap the bumpers and the triggers to the right stick and left stick so that you can have FPS controls and it makes the game way more playable
Man, I feel totally left out that I never knew about this game/series until now. I had a PlayStation as a kid in '95 and this game would have been right up my alley, me enjoying games like Ultima Underworld. I would have had so much fun with this and its sequels. Downloading it now from Vim's Lair.
don't let the normies know about vimm's, fam
@@peenywallie For real. First rule of the Lair, you don't talk about the Lair.
Absolutely mindblowing analysis. I found you're channel through my interest in silent hill 2. You have amazing content. This game really brought back memories for me. I never thought I'd ever see it broken down like you do. Keep up the great work. Subbed! And will reccomend.
Did not know epic open world 3d rpgs like this existed for ps1. Must play them all.
It's refreshing seeing such positive opinions on this series. As someone who discovered Kings Field only a couple years ago, it kind of changed how I see games, so seeing anyone give these games the credit they deserve is nice.
They're far from perfect but the focus on level design and exploration makes these games hypnotic to me. I think these games were far ahead of the times, but even now people are quick to dismiss them as being clunky pieces of shit. It's a shame.
EDIT: I'm not sure if you mentioned it in your last video, but I think it's worth bringing up Ultima Underworld. KF's level design has a lot to owe to UU, which KF was trying to be a console “clone” to. It has less functions and ways to interact with the world, but I actually think the minimalist gameplay is for the better, since it lent itself strongly towards exploration over combat.
First played this when I was 6, I remember getting lost after doing the termite mine and drawing a map to get out because I didn't have the map yet.
Man gonna have to sub after this one , really enjoyed these KF videos.
Looking forward to the other next ones
Glad you like them, KF3 Analysis comes next Friday.
@@AesirAesthetics awesome thanks for the content
Hope you'll cover the rest of old school From Software dungeon crawlers :)
I will.
Would you cover Ultima Underworld series too?
Thành Vũ that would be awesome, those games are really good
Fon't forget russion princess chain of memories
This game creeped me out as a kid. I played it a lot but dont recall making all that much story progress just kinda getting lost and exploring for hours lmao
Me starts game: Why doesnt anyone have a face?
Me wall grinding for 40 hours: Ok, I get it now.
Amazing video, been binging this series while playing elden ring!
Awesome analysis again 😄 I watched it just after beating King's Field II, in 23 hours. I enjoyed the first game a little more, as it was less convoluted.
I hate looking for guide, but here the final boss kicked my ass every time. I read a guide only for this part, and once I knew I could kill the floating orbs, it was easier.
OK, now I need to beat King's Field III in order to watch your next analysis videos 😁
I just started it today(king’s field ll) wish me luck! Heh. Good luck to you too🎉
Kings field 3 is absolutely amazing. I've beaten it countless times, i hope your enjoying your first play!
I play through this game on basically a yearly basis, just because it is my childhood favorite. I love the 2nd (3rd) game just as much, but since it's longer, I play it less often.
In terms of improvements over the first game, I am a bit surprised you didn't mention the magic, and how good a job they did with the varieties available.
I have too much to say about this game to get into in a youtube comment post. Thanks for making a video on it that attempts to do the game the justice it deserves. I look forward to your next installments.
I'm particularly interested in what you will have to say about King's Field: The Ancient City, and I am also wondering if you plan on doing one for Shadow Tower, which I have actually never played.
KF4 and Shadow Tower are coming
@@AesirAesthetics Excellent! Subbed
Shadow Tower is great as well, but Shadow Tower 2 blows it out of the water I thought. So far the only PS2 game I've ever emulated, since it never came out in English.
I rebought an old PS2, memory cards (omg remember those? Lol) and KF 1, 2, and The Ancient City and I play all three straight through every couple years or so :) love these games so much!
I have some major nostalgia tied to this game. I had just discovered my love of JRPGs on the SNES and that was what I was really into at the time. But my other love was DOOM. This game came to me at a time where it was a combination of my 2 favorite kinds of game. I fell for this game just about as hard as I fell off the starting platform into the water. I was mesmerized by how the game played, the way combat worked, the exploration, the dark moody feel, the music, and the strangely faceless NPCs. One thing I will never forget was how I figured out that you can attack NPCs over and over and over to slightly push them out of the way, and also skill up your strength. What I didn't realize was that you can actually kill NPCs by hitting them too many times. I mean you have to hit them over and over and over, probably over 100 times to actually kill them. But if you do, the other NPCs in the game will call you a murderer. That kind of blew my mind back in 1996.
Also can’t wait to see you tackle the spinoffs and the psp games
I like how slow the main character is because it allows you to dance and weave with your sword play and the contextual combat swings
I got a little excited when khalameet showed up, was expecting to get the dark Slayer from him since we got the moonlight blade from seath, it's still a neat callback either way
A bit of topic but it is funny about Kalameet having one eye. If the thing on his forhead is an eye than he has 3 eyes. Two normal on the side and one on forhead.
@@troo_6656 if it's the one-eyed crown, that harkens all the way back to Shadow Tower, and has even more destructive (and interesting) implications. The depth of the lore of these games is utterly fantastic
>TFW you learn Seathe in Dark Souls was a direct reference to King's Field 2
I honestly knew about the Moonlight Greatsword being from the King's Field series, but had no idea they took characters from it too.
the dragon from kf1 is seath btw
It's kind of shocking how much was taken from KF for Demons Souls, but especially Dark Souls 1 and 2. The Estus Flask even harkens back to the crystal vials from this game.
Thank you so much for sharing this amazing series!
It almost makes me sad how few people have heard of this precursor to Dark Souls.
My pleasure! I love the emergance of the King's Field inspried indie games!
Hey Aesir i love your content! And i'm sure if you keep putting up such good content that you'll have your spot in the lamlight. Especally now that lots and lots of game review channels are getting quite big!
You can tell the footage here wasn't played on a PS1, since it's not 15 FPS. For some reason playing it on the PS3, and possibly emulators ups the FPS to 30 or so. Something to do with CPU speed I think, been years since I heard the explanation.
Freaking love this game, pretty sure it was the first PS1 game I ever saw as well. King's Field IV is my favorite of the series, but this is my second. It took so long, but I glad that with Demon's Souls and beyond From Software are/were finally getting the recognition they deserved. Been a fan since this game, even before I knew what game developers really were.
Yea it plays 30 fps on a overclocked psp
I remember looking longingly at screenshots of this game in Gamefan magazine 25-ish years ago, but for whatever reason never got around to playing it... probably for the same reason I never got around to playing through Dark Souls until this month. It just looked so intimidating! But now that I’ve finished Dark Souls I think I’m finally ready to go back and experience this game I’ve wanted to play since I was a kid.
Fantastic insightful commentary.. Very glad I subscribed.
My favorite king's field, probably because the music is so good.
Simplistic but i think the monsters visuals are better than Kf3.
I swear on my life I used to have dreams about the Moonlight Greatsword before this game even existed, and didn't rediscover it until FIFTEEN YEARS after its release. I bet I'm not the only one, either.
This video got me on your channel love coming back to it
This one is definitely my favorite of the KF series
I cant wait to see KF4, the best one.
August, baby.
@@AesirAesthetics Hell yeah
I seemed to have missed that point in the first vid, what's the problem with the economy mid-late game?
When I first watched Kings Field I could have sworn I played it. Upon researching, I found out I played another From Software game called Eternal Ring.
Another damn fine game too!
It’s pretty good too
I really hope they will remake the King's Field series. I don't see it happening with Elden Ring in the works but, I can dream.
True
Holy Sh*t! I had this game when I was like 5. I remember that we got it used at a garage sale with out the manual and the front cover gone, but I remember the back where the disk went it had all those strange controllers. I never got far into to it because it scared the hell out child me AND I had no memory card, but I remember running around the starting area getting killed over and over again. It got too scratched up to play, so I threw away the disk. I could never remember what the game was called just that I ran around and got killed by flowers. To think that it was made by FromSoftware one of my favorite game studio's. I thought that Dark souls was the first Fromsoft game I had ever played turns out it was this even if I couldn't remember it.
I will forever love this game
Doom is the Dark Souls of King’s Field
😕
confused screaming
@@troo_6656 Crash Bandicoot It's About Time, is the King's Field of Doom Eternal
@@Garl_Vinland doom (the original one) is the anti-dark soul.
Well it was 1995, every first person game back then was called a Doom clone.
Such a big fan of your videos
:)
Frickkk i love these videos you're doing!! I subbed originally because of your I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream video, but now catching up on all your others
Welcome aboard!
YEEEES,! My saturday is saved!
I feel like Dark souls 2 has some major nods to this game, especially in the area between doors of pharros and bright stone cove. There is what looks like a busted "life fountain/ pool" from this game right before entering the camp area. Did anyone else notice that? I think ds2 felt more like kings field than the other souls games...
There is that awfully familiar looking sword that the dwarfy mcdwarf dwarf has by his side...
ds2 is more similar to kf4 like a lot of level design textures etc
Armored Core also has a hidden weapon in it's first game called the Moonlight Blade which appears in later entries too.
Nice videos you make. BTW your voice is EXACLY the same as the Tidus from Final Fantasy X. It's impressive.
That's lovely to hear!
Mostly people just say I sound like Borat :D
@@AesirAesthetics Borat? hahah. Well I'm huge fan of FFX and maybe is my imagination but sometimes you trully sounds like Tidus rs
I'm currently playing Bloodborne. First time i'v blindly played and picked the "wake up" ending and then i realised i left a lot of content and bosses not beaten. This time i'm playing with DLC to see everything and, while playing, i'm watching (more of listening) your videos about BB, Darks Souls and even King's field. You're great man.
You deserve 1000 more years of good health to keep making these good contents to us rs Thank you from Brazil!
@@macos-brasil1814 thank you for the love 🥰
I think this game works well as a sequel but as a starting point for western audiences the story doesn’t really make a lot of sense if you haven’t played the first one. Also can’t wait to watch the kings field 3 vid
Don't mind me I just watched the "Exploring the King's Field Games" video and am putting the relevant info from that under each video
8:10 The sword was stolen by the church king who runs the cult of the island, the cult of Guyra he does this to lure the king, the protagonist of the first game, there so he could kill Seath, the entire reason the protagonist was made a champion in the first place. However, this plan fails as Alexander goes instead
23:10 Guyra is fought in a dream/astral projection
I hope you can do a dive on Kuon. A game so terribly underrated that I feel if From Software made it in today's graphics with the same exact story it would sell millions.
Kind of like how Shadow Tower (especially the second one) is terribly underrated as well.
Perhaps.
This game has a huge nostalgic tone to me. Music is just the right fit for the game and the story you unfold slowly. You have to forgive the slow frame rates and the poor graphics.
really inter sting that the fountain you see near the beginning actually becomes the closets healing place for end game.. and that the entire time the end game is very close to the starting location. I liked that.
You can get the sword without killing the final boss. If you kill the dragon and collect the sword, the game is over.
But the sword itself has stats! And you can use it! First have the gold fountain, and you should by end game unless you're speed running. Then get him to move all the way to one side, rush to the other, run up his shoulder, and over his body. If you plan it right, you can get over him and get the sword, then intentionally die by jumping into the abyss. that's a 'trap' and so the gold fountain respawns you without penalty and.. you have the moonlight sword!
It's fun to use it against the final boss... xD Because you have to kill him to win.
I would love a new KF sequel that's FPS Dark Souls, which, however, takes a bit more from the old games.
Bought my first copy of
KF and KF2 from an Ames when it was still around. Never looked back. . .
So to clarify the lore:
GOD creates the world.
GOD gets tired of the world. He creates 3 lesser gods to help him: earth sky and ocean.
GOD fucks off forever.
The 3 lesser gods take over, cause they have to, and do their best. until 2 of them get bored.
2 of the 3 lesser gods fuck off.
This creates a lot of work for lesser god 3, who takes a page from daddy's book and create lesser beings to help him, Seath and Guyra the dragons, demigod both.
The two dragons both think they should be in charge. thi is bad. they fight to settle the score. This creates the SEED OF ALL EVIL. This is also bad.
The seed of evil, alongside the two dragons, are sealed to avoid further issues.Lesser god 3 still wwants out and his plan to retire went south, so he turns to his diciple, the archmage Orladin.
Hey Orladin, watch over the world and also the dragons and also the seed of all evil that threathens to swallow us all, and basically all of existence.
The third lesser god fucks off.
Things go badly, as anyone who gave a shit could have predicted. Bad things escape and the games happen.
Orladin imparts his knowledge to Jean's son, because he was lucky enough to not be corrupted by the seed of evil's influence. Orladin decides that, as long as Lyle and his entire lineage remain entirely pure and perfect in everyway, they should totally be able to oversee the world, existence, the dragons and the seed of all evil. this is a terrible idea. hey orladin, wanna give this a second thought?
Orladin fucks off.
Great video
I aim to please.
Kojima? I didn't see any creepy overly elaborate cutscenes of women being sexploited while droning about past events for half an hour.
They should have rethought the compass design...
Because of the sharp angle, when slightly south of east is front and center, it totally says SEX...
I wonder what a souls engine remake of king's field would look like
Dark souls is kings field with rolling.
One of my top 10 favorite games of all time
Great stuff!
Glad you enjoyed it
Thanks buddy
This is amazing stuff
What is the music you used at :45
6:10 Is that text crawl narrator the same voice actor as the crestfallen warriors from Demon's and Dark Souls? It sure sounds like it. At the very least, his cadence is the same. I hope that's true. I would love it if From has been using the same voice actors for several decades.
Watching these, I finally understand why there's a Moonlight Blade in every single Armored Core game...
I never played a single KF, I think, but I feel like I've must've interacted with it at some point in my life because I feel nostalgic towards it
How so?
@@AesirAesthetics just an odd feeling of familiarity with the franchise, makes me wonder if I watched a friend play it over their house cause I'm 99.9% I never owned a KF game
@@ComradeSeanski I know the feeling well.
I've found myself sometimes playing a game and 4 hours in reach a level which I vaguely half remember watching a friend play once :)
Shadow Tower incoming?
Yes.
fuck yes, another king's field video!
The first time at played this game (I was maybe 10) I was taught the lesson to never sell something that isn't some ordinary piece of equipment.
After searching through the jail and finding everything of note, I figured I had no more use for the jail key and sold it for some quick cash. Maybe 20 hours of gameplay later I made it to the other side of the island and found there's another jail, but no other jail key. Stuck in that jail is an NPC that's essential to beating the game. Whoops.
Tackle Eternal Ring. It was my favorite early PS2 game.
I will in time.
AesirAesthetics oh wait. It’s actually a Kingsfield game! Whoops! I totally forgot!
I played (and still play) this game so much that I don't even use a map anymore. I sell them for money.
Bro you can take the rhombus keys right back out of the door and reuse them 😂 at least in my copy you can. The silvieras keys in 3 work the same way. Tho I can see how you might miss that because you do have to be in the pixel perfect zone of looking at it
I learned this shortly after making the video :D
I spent so much on new keys for no reason, lol
@@AesirAesthetics it happens, I didnt figure it out at first either 😂. I love this game tho, it's the only one I've played a lot of besides ancient city. I can go to guyra now but I've missed a lot of bosses apparently, and definitely wanna go back and explore. But after your videos I'm more inspired, I started kings field one this morning through the English fan patch and I'm already in love with it. I wanna try and do all 3 plus shadow tower, I love that game a lot too.
Totally forgot the name of this game...Man brings me back to the days of running to Blockbuster and renting new games and then getting hooked and racking up late fees...Good times!
I started playing this game because of Aesir's and others' videos on King's Field games, and as annoyingly jank as it can be, I can't help but love it anyway. It's weirdly satisfying in a way I can't quite explain. It reminds me almost of Castlevania 64, which I mean as a compliment.
Wait, King's Field is not DooM?
I'm confused? So kings field 2 is 3?
King's Field 2 and 3 launched in the west as King's Field 1 & 2.
@@AesirAesthetics ok. That makes some sense. I've only played kings field 2 or technically 3 and I loved it. I don't remember seeing some of the stuff you're showing tho. I might have to go back and do I again and really dig in.
Man this game gave me the creeps when I was young lol
*Acquire
no video about shadow tower and eternal ring? have you tryed these games?
sorry for eventual english error (i'm from Italy)
I actually have a video on Shadow Tower coming out in like a week.
Eternal Ring is on my "to play" list
@@AesirAesthetics i'll surely watch the shadow tower one and i'll wait for your play of eternal ring :)
Wait, are those cyberspace termites cyborgs???
Jean is pronounced Jon
Breath of fire V and this game have my favorite environments.
there is something really cool about the environments in this game
holy shit, you had a shitload of health going into the big mines. I went in at lvl 13, with like, 114 Max HP, a crescent axe, and the spells fire, heal, and anti-poison. I keep dying, but i keep trying to truck on through it.
Also, screw those archer guard dudes. Seriously.
They got this on the psn store for ps3 is it worth it?
Yes
King's Field 1 & 2 Remastered. When?
Great video! Can we have Kings Field 4 analysis?
August.
#ExcellectorGang
Great game. I loved it!.. nevermind this was the 1st for the USA. It was okay. Moving on... no wonder why Ancient City was labeled as IV. I was like.. what happened to 3??.. same kind of thing with all the Final Fantasies. Japan likes to confuse the USA. Why didn't they just call it what it was? Lol
Jean is "John" with a soft J, like Captain Jean Luc Picard. It's French. Hohn hohn
How the hell did you reach lvl 51? I killed everything and was around lvl 35 by the end boss.
Not my footage.
@@AesirAesthetics the world will never know then.
Dark Souls was fairly linear. Thinking it open world is a mistake. In Dark Souls you were still gated to following a path to an end. You could not roam freely, say start in a prison and jump to any location without exploiting glitches, hacking the game or overcoming the blockades (monsters, doors. story segments).
"Open World" games are just as linear as linear games. Players are funneled to do specific things to make any kind of progress towards the games end.
I guess im just too dumb for this game. Ive got the combat down i just dont know where tf to go
Drink every time the compass spells "SEX"
Dark Souls is better than Demon's Souls because it's on PC and I can actually play it ouo
bro your in-game audio is mixed way too friggen low. when you played the text crawl intro with voice over, I had to turn it up a *lot.* then your fucking voice came back and it was an extremely loud voice deafening me and booming through my house.
please put more conscious effort into your audio mixing in the future
How you thought about hiring a translator?
You gonna pay for that?
The maps were fine for me though...
Honestly I just play the souls series
honestly i've never played a souls game and only play king's field and shadow tower
Love these games, still play them on my PS1 classic.
So there’s 2 kings fields 1 or is KF2 is number 1