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Looking for PC games like King's Field IV for the PS2

jdinatale

Cipher
Joined
Sep 28, 2013
Messages
422
I'm looking for first-person exploration RPG's similar to the King's Field series on the Playstation. Elements of backtracking built into the game is a plus. Basically a first-person explorefag game.

I haven't played anything yet on the PC that 100% reminds me of King's Field, but I've really enjoyed:

Morrowind
Enderal (and the other Sure AI mods)
System Shock 2
Fallout: New Vegas
STALKER

Monomyth looks in line with what I want, when it comes out.
 
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deama

Prophet
Joined
May 13, 2013
Messages
4,352
Location
UK
Gothic series are pretty similiar, though they're 3rd person.

Kingdom come deliverance?

Stalker series?

Arx fatalis?
 

jdinatale

Cipher
Joined
Sep 28, 2013
Messages
422
Gothic series are pretty similiar, though they're 3rd person.

Kingdom come deliverance?

Stalker series?

Arx fatalis?

Loved STALKER, updated OP. I need to play Gothic, KCD, and Arx Fatalis, thanks.
 

rbenchley

Educated
Patron
Joined
Oct 9, 2013
Messages
55
Aside from the listed PC games, there is also an English translation patch for one of From's other PS2 dungeon crawlers, Shadow Tower Abyss. It's still in my backlog, but as far as I know, it's completely playable in PCSX2 and looks great in HD resolutions.
 
Self-Ejected

aweigh

Self-Ejected
Joined
Aug 23, 2005
Messages
17,978
Location
Florida
first-person view medieval-theme action-RPG that prioritizes slow-burn exploration of dungeons/areas and where the combat is slow, methodical and dangerous?

for real, i can't think of ANY on PC except maybe Kingdom Come? It fills the above requirements at least. Obviously one can think of dark messiah of MM but that game is extremely action-y and arcade-like in its combat and it doesn't really feature much exploration or RPG systems.

Closest i can think of would be Arx Fatalis, Underworld 1 and 2 games, and although not in first-person perspective how about Gothic 1, it ticks all of the boxes except for the perspective.
 

jdinatale

Cipher
Joined
Sep 28, 2013
Messages
422
first-person view medieval-theme action-RPG that prioritizes slow-burn exploration of dungeons/areas and where the combat is slow, methodical and dangerous?

for real, i can't think of ANY on PC except maybe Kingdom Come? It fills the above requirements at least. Obviously one can think of dark messiah of MM but that game is extremely action-y and arcade-like in its combat and it doesn't really feature much exploration or RPG systems.

Closest i can think of would be Arx Fatalis, Underworld 1 and 2 games, and although not in first-person perspective how about Gothic 1, it ticks all of the boxes except for the perspective.

The main requirement is first person exploration-centered, the theme does not have to be medieval.
 
Self-Ejected

aweigh

Self-Ejected
Joined
Aug 23, 2005
Messages
17,978
Location
Florida
i mean, that would include basically every dungeon crawler ever though. I imagine you also want combat to be at least similar to KF, which rules out most of them.
 

zwanzig_zwoelf

Graverobber Foundation
Developer
Joined
Nov 21, 2015
Messages
3,086
Location
デゼニランド
I'm looking for first-person exploration RPG's similar to the King's Field series on the Playstation. Elements of backtracking built into the game is a plus. Basically a first-person explorefag game.
Have you finished every KF game, including KF3 Pilot Style?

Have you tried:
  • Shadow Tower & Shadow Tower Abyss
  • Eternal Ring
  • Arx Fatalis
  • Ultima Underworld 1 & 2
  • TES Legends: Battlespire
  • Baroque (JP only, advice is only valid for the Saturn/PS1 version, avoid PS2/Wii version like a plague)
  • Hungry Ghosts (JP only)
Even though the majority of games listed here are not PC games, I still think they're worth trying.

Also, check out KF fangames made using Sword of Moonlight tool. Some of them are pretty cool and may scratch that itch of yours for a while.
 
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lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,158
Das Gesterchiff or The Ghost Ship, made by a Codexer, should be of your liking. It's sci-fi though, not fantasy.
 

YldriE

Learned
Joined
Oct 9, 2018
Messages
116
Location
Europe
You enjoyed Morrowind, what about later (preferably modded) Elder Scrolls games? Oblivion has mediocre and repetitive world design, but that has largely improved in Skyrim, with more varied and interesting environments and enemies.

You don't want strictly heroic fantasy, so add both Gamecube Metroid Prime games to your list. It's not System Shock, but the careful exploration of abandoned sci-fi facilities had an air of System Shock to it.

In the vein of STALKER, Homefront The Revolution is essentially STALKER without the charm, but maybe you will be more tolerant than I was.

While the quality varies hugely from game to game, the Far Cry series from 2 onwards offer pretty good first-person exploration, Far Cry 2 in particular is quite bleak and pessimistic and I can see a STALKER fan enjoying the trip. 3, 4 and 5 are more frantic and joyful, all sense of tension is gone.

Someone else said Arx Fatalis, and you would be a fool to disregard that advice. It definitely could be bigger and longer (in before benis) but you will get that slow, eery, dangerous first-person dungeon crawling you seem to be looking for.

The Codex will hate that suggestion, but I had a great time playing through Thief 2014. Exploring the city and its many secrets is a lot of fun especially with how good the engine looks and how effective the first-person animations are. Thief 3 The Dark Project also had highly immersive explorable hubs, though much smaller.

While it's an action rogue-like, I still want to mention Depths of Fear Knossos, few games I played had such a crushing atmosphere and sense of imminent death. You will need to explore if you want to find tools and alternate routes, fighting is heads-or-tails.

Lastly, while the exploration isn't exactly free, you should still enjoy Alien Isolation. Again, has a powerful atmosphere and rewards you for giving a shit and trying to understand.
 
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zwanzig_zwoelf

Graverobber Foundation
Developer
Joined
Nov 21, 2015
Messages
3,086
Location
デゼニランド
Also recalled a few more:
  • System Shock 1 & 2
  • Tetsujin
System Shock deserves mentioning for obvious reasons (tons of exploration and scavenging + gud atmosphere), while Tetsujin is my personal favorite. While it plays like a slower Wolfenstein 3D clone at the first glance, it requires you to figure out how to handle each enemy type and each boss with mild resource management and exploration thrown into the mix. Combine that with dense atmosphere and industrial music and you'll have a blast for 6 hours or so. Unfortunately, I can't recommend Tetsujin Returns since it dropped most of the stuff that made the original good while only retaining the dark visuals and atmosphere.
 

JaMpocalypse

Novice
Joined
Dec 2, 2018
Messages
12
Dungeon & Darkness
You may like it or not, demo available on Steam
Is it any good? It's been on my radar for a while, but so far I'm getting mixed impressions from fellow KF fans and I'm still stuck in late 90's with a 32-bit OS.

Starting from the technical details, the game has problems, my laptop is above the recommended requirements but even in the lower graphics it runs bad. In one review of the game it is mentioned that even having a GTX 1070 the game presented problems in some dungeons. The game is poorly optimized, although reading the notes of the last patch, it is mentioned that the game was optimized, and the review mentioned previously is dated before the patch.

In my personal opinion from what I play in the demo, the game is fun, the gameplay is basically a copy of King's Field IV, the game is pretty barebones in all others aspects, the history is generic and the same can be said about the missions, inconsistent graphics and worse animations than King's Field IV, if you only care about having a similar gameplay, you will like it. If you want to know details of the game you can see them here.
 

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