Thank you so much for taking the time to comment!

I haven’t gotten to the first or second game just yet, as I will be backtracking from the more refined, and as you said, more accessible games to the older titles as those will play more similar to the games I’ve found that used the toolkit for their creation! As you said, the website I linked to for the toolkit is the website hosted by the gracious person who took their time and love of the King’s Field series and used it to improve the engine!

I understand what you mean by the game being purposefully built for the slow gameplay, but that just isn’t how I want to spend my time as someone who doesn’t have a lot of free time. That means that if I can, I will increase the walking speed, the combat speed, or whatever else I need to do to make the game more enjoyable for me, such as being able to use the right analog stick to move the camera. I’m not in it for the slow pacedness of it, I am in it for the exploration, level design, and over feel the games provide. I think it is awesome that people choose to play these games as there were meant to be played, and as you said, would even recommend it for those that want that challenge! I know there are others like me though, and that means that if it can help them enjoy the game for themselves, why try to invalidate their enjoyment? We can both play the same game, and talk about the level design, the secrets, and the atmosphere, while still being able to enjoy the game in our own preferred way. That’s part of the fun of gaming after all! Some play on easy, others play on the hardest difficulty, and that’s just fine!

I am sorry to hear you didn’t like Lunacid that much, and while I agree the anime characters are pretty out there (and definitely not something I enjoyed seeing for the first time), you don’t see them often enough, or at least I didn’t through my entire 30 hour playthrough, where it became such an issue as to quit playing. Lunacid’s developer only mentioned it being inspired by King’s Field, and I think it took that inspiration very well. Maybe they changed the wording by the time it was fully released, but I never saw anything that said it was supposed to be a successor, only that it was heavily inspired. With that said, I understand what you were wanting, and I am sorry you did not get it. For a casual like myself, however, it was an absolute blast that made me go on to start playing King’s Field and Shadow Tower, mainly because there aren’t enough games like them!

As for the music, I am enjoying the music on King’s Field IV, I enjoyed the music on Lunacid, and I hope that when I get done with King’s Field IV, I’ll enjoy the music in Shadow Tower!

All in all, the limitations of the past are gone. I understand they were working with the technology of the time, and I love what they were able to accomplish. No loading screens on a PS2 game, let alone PS1, was such an amazing feat that I don’t think they get enough credit for! But, these limitations do not have to exist any longer, and I think people should be able to play any game, no matter if the developers are targeting a hardcore market or not, because I think limiting people from playing games is kind of sad. Video games are supposed to be an outlet, a hobby, something you can do to take your mind off of things or have a little escapism. If that means allowing them to play a game with more modern controls, as I have done for King’s Field IV, why should that bother anyone else? You can still play the game the way it was intended to, while I play it in a way that is more satisfying for me.

Again, thank you for the time and effort you put into your comment. I just want others to try these gems out too. :)