KF 2, or just King’s Field here in the states remains my all time favorite. The second one was the first one I played though and it just really stuck with me. Plus you have this track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDapXvnjAhI which I ended up hearing a lot of, and it perfectly encapsulates why the game owns. Also finally being able to murder that giant kraken was one of the most satisfying things to me (even if I did just cheese it with fire wall), so it holds a special place in my heart.
I really should look at the fanmade games people have made with the Sword of Moonlight tools, it just amazes me that people are still making new stuff as late as 2016 in this engine for a series that is rather under the radar.
It’s really a shame to see how short Mal’s Castle is, given all the obvious care there was in making sure the required brands were present and how sweet ass the entrance is. Least she had a cool design, a more manevelant humanoid version of Moonlight Butterfly is p. ace in my book.
Murdelia Mal is likely a callback to a boss called Murderfly from Ska’s earlier game The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile. They’re pretty distinct from one another, though. While I’m here, it’s worth noting that Vampire Smile also had weaponized scissors called The Guillotine.
Bzzzz! Wrong, and you were so close too! The actual answer is Shadow Tower, I’m afraid.
But yeah, KF2 is pretty good. Never actually finished it, I got maybe 1/3 of the way in and started to get lost so I took a break. Then never returned to, as I end up doing with a lot of games. :V
My favorite, as you might be able to tell, is Shadow Tower. Dank dungeon crawling goodness with weird monster designs is much more my thing than KF’s heavier emphasis on exploration.
Oh, that’s neat. This is the nice thing about having a good place of discourse for LPs, you get to learn shit even if you’re the one making the LP.
[quote=“Fiendly, post:22, topic:1472, full:true”]
Murdelia Mal is likely a callback to a boss called Murderfly from Ska’s earlier game The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile. They’re pretty distinct from one another, though. While I’m here, it’s worth noting that Vampire Smile also had weaponized scissors called The Guillotine.
[/quote] I sadly never owned a 360, so I missed out on all those handfuls of actually interesting XBLIG/Marketplace games. Good gravy this game looks dumb in the best ways though.
Wow, I somehow have never seen this either. Looks like the are using the same kind of engine they would later use for the Echo Night games perhaps? Interconnected but since it’s actually split up between doors and proper levels instead of being one big blob of a world looks like it runs much better too. Also having no music just like the Echo Night game seems like yeah, is prolly the same engine. Gotta check this out at some point for sure!
It’s dumb, but so good, one of my favorite games ever (and one of my first LPs embarrassingly enough). They did 2D Devil May Cry with that game just as well as they did 2D Dark Souls with this game. They’ve been working on a PC version of Vampire Smile with new content for literal years now, and I have no idea how long it’s been since they’ve mentioned any progress, but if it ever comes out, it’ll be worth checking out.
There are two Shadow Tower games, actually. One for the PSX which has an official localization, and a sequel (Shadow Tower Abyss) for the PS2 which only has a fan translation. Both are pretty good but assuming you have a decently specced computer I’d recommend the PS2 one more. It’s easily the best playing of the KF/ST games (you can chop off enemy limbs and you have guns in addition to swords) and it also seems to be a big influence on Demon’s Souls directly (survivability stuff like durability, separate theme worlds connected to a nexus that has all your shops, the general tone of the game, etc.).
That aside, new update. It’s another area. Not much else to say.
Shame that the level was so bland, if jam packed with goodies for upgrading. At least the boss(es?) were mechanically interesting if not all that particularly threatening. The spider folk just feel like a leftover of “whoops we had a cool idea for a monster and need to drop it in somewhere, well here you go”.
The shortcuts continue their dubiousness and feel more like a product “oh yeah this -is- to the right of Salty Saul’s Pottery Pit, we should slap a hallway between here” Beside’s Mal’s Floating Castle, they seem really afraid to really compartmentalize areas completely. The only reason Mal’s is way on it’s own is, well I mean it’s fucking floating. Unless you have some hell gondola made of ship parts and human limbs that goes up and down from somewhere, then it’s gonna be off doing it’s own thing.
Maybe this all is partly a product of being a 2D space, where in souls games it’s easier to cordon off various areas by just splaying the whole thing out and have things wrap around on one another with elevators and the like. Other metroidvanias do this by making it a big root structure of some kind, going really far down/up and splitting off at multiple levels. In this game it’s kinda just blobbed all in a big mass, which I guess thematically makes sense in it being just an island but, ehh nitpicks.
Can’t wait to see eventual frustration forest though.
She’s right. This is really, really not representative of the true first-time experience of the Pitchwoods.
You know, if those Yoku blocks were a common thing in his duchy, there may have been another reason besides his illegitimacy and his complex over it for Carsejaw’s decades-long witch hunts.
As for why he looks like Nito, the sword and armor he’s wearing are ceremonial stuff he had made for performing executions and witch hunts. They were designed to make him look like the grim reaper or similar embodiment of death.
He’s giant because that’s just what seems to happen to important Drowned/Cursed people that end up on the island I guess.
Also, if you fall down that huge pit right before the Betrayers, and have a lightsource active, you can see that the whole bottom of the area is filled entirely with corpses.
The strategy for Yoku blocks is to have already spent years honing your rhythm and just jump to the next one on the beat. If that doesn’t apply to you, then uh, good luck?
I mean, let’s be real here. He looks real neato because he’s just a cool guy. Also because the devs really like Dark Souls.
Yeah, pretty much. This episode was actually my second attempt due to a recording mishap, but even on the previous attempt I only fell once before acing it, despite not practicing beforehand. It really is just keeping up with the rhythm set up which thankfully is pretty consistent. They don’t really delay any of the jumps in particular to try and screw you over.
Guess I played more of this game than I thought since only the last two videos were stuff I never saw in my own playthrough. Still disappointed that I don’t like the game itself more, but I have a slightly better understanding of what others see in it and the LP was just super entertaining. I’m surprised they didn’t have more references to their other games that I could call out, The Dishwasher was loaded with billboards for their other projects and Charlie Murder has cameos from the entire Dishwasher cast in it, plus all of their other games have at least one anglerfish in them (S&S has those light-stealing cave guys, but that’s a stretch). I guess they wanted to make this one more “serious,” but it was always fun for me to catch those inside jokes.
Thanks for showing this off. I’d been curious about it for a while, but hadn’t ever gotten around to playing it. The enemy design and overall aesthetic were really unique and I enjoyed the overall atmosphere. Plus, the LP itself was just an enjoyable high quality tour of the game, so thanks again.
