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King's Field IV
Japanese packaging
Developer(s)	FromSoftware
Publisher(s)	JP: FromSoftware NA: Agetec PAL: Metro 3D
Director(s)	Rintaro Yamada Satoru Yanagi
Series	King's Field
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2
Release	JP: October 4, 2001 NA: March 25, 2002 PAL: March 28, 2003
Genre(s)	First person, role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player

King's Field IV, released 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 Template:Vgy. It is the fourth game in the King's Field series. Agetec published the North America release in Template:Vgy, while Metro 3D published the Europe release in Template:Vgy.

Plot

Treasures beyond imagical arts to follow the path that should the destruction await the ruins. There is a palpable fear in the idol to the Ancient City—even the kingdoms of unspeakable fear the evil that leads to the sword arm well to rid the land of a potent City—even the destruction of an ancient City to break its curse, but monsters

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.

Reception

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

Character names in the N. American localization

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 were noticed by a member of the group, who was also an ASCII Entertainment employee, in charge of translation and localization of the Japanese game for the English/N.American market. 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 their support for the games, the actual names or usernames of the contributing members were used as the names of certain NPCs.

These were often associated with a role they had explored in "The Verdite Inn" community website. For example, the first NPC shopkeeper in the game who attempts to guide and help the Player Character is David Bunch, real name of the only group administrator made aware of the naming before the game's release. He kept the plans to honor the club secret until the day of 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 other characters, including Jamarc Neely, Duhrin Pathwarden, and Arx Angelos, are known to be derived from usernames of the site, and have dialogue associated with, or appearances similar to, their club personas.

Lee Maynor is either found wounded near a giant spider, wishing to die, or already dead and possessed. He is the only NPC in the game that can be killed without labeling the Player Character a murderer and limiting shop interactions, due to his eventual enemy status. Lee Maynor (his real name) spoke on the site about suffering from arachnophobia, so his character's poisoning by the spider boss fit in line with the nature of honoring the real people involved with the group.

Another NPC using a real name is Ramirez Martin, who was the webmaster of the now defunct kings-field.com, which continued to keep the group connected long after changes to the Yahoo.com site made "The Verdite Inn" less accessible. He is also an artist, who contributed a number of images of his related work to the group, which gave further detail to the localizers for tailoring the choice of members' in-game characters.

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

External links

• Official website

• 2001 video games
• PlayStation 2 games
• PlayStation 2-only games
• Role-playing video games
• Curses in video games
• King's Field series
• Video games developed in Japan