Like many gamers, I spent a lot of the 2010s in From Software's now legendary Souls games, after beating Demon's Souls in late 2009 and continuing on with Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2, Bloodbourne, and Dark Souls 3 at the end of the decade. Unlike most of those gamers, I had already known that From was a unique and amazing studio, thanks to their King's Field games in the late 1990s and very early 2000s. Every bit as dark and brooding as the Souls games, the Field games had the seeds of everything folks loved about the Souls games - including the lack of hand-holding and overall difficulty.
While I was elated when From Software finally got the success and recognition they deserved among gamers who played the Souls games, I was kind of hoping for them to do something nostalgic with their King's Field games, but no such luck, as no remake, remaster, or collection has yet emerged. Fortunately, I wasn't the only one fondly remembering those games, as the makers of Lunacid have created an original King's Field style of game for PC that captures all of the wonder and mystery of those old titles.
Lunacid is both a love letter to the King's Field series and a whole new game of its own. It's a first person adventure with stats, currency, loot, and character development, tons of exploration and re-exploration, and lots of that crazy Japanese-style weirdness seen in From Software games. The graphics as well reflect that era, being boxy and clunky at times while still detailed and immersive.
The music is moody and plays well with the environments. There are multiple large areas to explore, lots of enemies to face, and tons of secrets behind hidden walls to find. Some character and monster designs are original, but some like the Venus Flytrap are almost exactly like they were in King’s Field.
Combat is also similar to the game’s inspirational roots, where you have to make sure you are close enough to hit by walking into your swing a bit. It’s easy to get used to, and the good news is that Lunacid runs on modern hardware so having to take lag into account as you swing your sword a la King’s Field is no longer an issue.
There are so many unique weapons in this game and they just keep coming, but you can only have two equipped at a time. With no weight limit you carry them all from the moment you get them, so no time is wasted juggling that stuff at a storage chest, just inside your character inventory. Some weapons have elemental properties and a few can be upgraded a bit at the small settlement the player frequents.
Magic is done via wearable rings, another shout out to From Software as they love love love them some rings so much they made entire games called "Eternal Ring" and "Elden Ring". Like weapons, the player can have two equipped at a time, in spite of presumably having ten fingers. I created a fighter character at the start of the game, but the rings are so essential and useful that I also levelled up my mana to be able to use them.
In fact, there seems to be no choice but to use magic in this game, and that is fine, as the rings come at the player as fast as the weapons. At first, I used some of the spells that cast elemental damages as a nice ranged attack to supplement my own archery attacks before engaging in melee attacks. However, some rings have better uses, like the spell that reveals hit points and weaknesses of enemies. I think there was only one healing spell ring.
Coffin was my favorite. It's a ring that summons a full size wooden coffin. At first I thought it was a joke, but then I jumped up and summoned one under my feet to see if it would help me reach some high inaccessible areas. It did, and that was the whole function of it. Some hallways have ledges I could not reach before acquiring that spell. In one area, there was something on a tall stone tower, but the coffins don't stack very evenly and tend to tip over if one stacks them. I spent about a half an hour summoning coffins at that tower until there was a mountain of them and I could reach the top. It was good, silly fun.
The story was as weird as anything these days, and the game's main ending is not the end. There is one side door that requires the player to do a ton of tasks, and I did not pursue that yet. Other changes in the post-game world offer other things to discover, so maybe I will return to chase down those leads.
Lunacid was a dream come true for me, as the three King's Field games are the only trilogy I've beaten twice. The concept is that good, and the makers of Lunacid have proudly embraced it and delivered it to us few gamers who fondly remember how good it is.
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