If you ask your average gamer what comes to mind when you say “FromSoftware”, they’ll probably say Dark souls. The Japanese studio has gone from niche developer to household name over the course of its long career thanks in large part to the success of its “Souls”-style games. Its now signature genre began with Demon’s Souls in 2009 and culminated in FromSoftware’s crowning achievement in 2022: Elden Ring.
But longtime fans of the studio will be quick to tell you that FromSoftware isn’t just known for those titles. The company has been creating games for almost 30 years, starting in 1994 King’s field. Although more focused in recent years, the developer’s catalog contains a fairly wide variety of titles, from the Armored Core series to An eternity ringa title that is somewhat hilarious today.
FromSoftware’s hidden oddities are especially fun to revisit in the soulslike age because they’re often more informative about the subgenre than you might expect. Example: The Lost Kingdoms. The GameCube classic, which launched 20 years ago in North America, may now seem like a left-field part of the company’s repertoire, but it contains the DNA that still exists in its recent hits.
Card fight
The Lost Kingdoms it may not be widely acclaimed as one of the GameCube’s biggest hits, but it was an important game for the console early on. A console exclusive, the distinctive title is a far cry from Nintendo’s usual stable of brightly colored mascot-driven platformers. Instead, it was a dark RPG that gave the console a bit of an edge in its first year – one that wasn’t traditionally associated with Nintendo consoles.
The game features one of the weirdest premise FromSoftware has come up with yet. Players control a princess named Katia who sets out to save her kingdom from an all-encompassing fog. However, Katia never directly attacks the army of creatures that invade her home. Instead, she summons her own monsters to do her bidding through cards.
Lost Kingdoms / Rune Japanese advertisement
The unique blend of RPG action and deck building creates a fascinating, and at times sloppy, dynamic. Throughout Katie’s adventure, players collect different monster cards and build a deck. When Katia enters the battle, the environment closes into a small arena and she must summon creatures to do her dirty work, while she herself is careful to avoid attacks. If they run out of cards by the end of the level, players will have no choice but to give up and try again. It’s a little frustrating, but it encourages players to understand what each creature does and what it’s strong against in order to spend as few cards as possible.
There are various RPG hooks that deepen the core of the combat. Cards can be leveled up and transformed into more powerful ones. Enemies can be captured and turned into cards. There’s even a multiplayer component that lets players battle it out, putting their best decks to the test.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
After playing it recently, The Lost Kingdoms is a fascinating experience. His card mechanics are sometimes more admirable than practical. I would often run out of cards in a level and be forced to give up and try again, turning parts of the adventure into a dry grind. Even with the layer of rust, it’s hard not to admire FromSoftware’s attempts to bend established rules to create something on its own terms.
Sounds familiar?
From GameCube to Limgrave
While The Lost Kingdoms‘ gameplay doesn’t resemble the more traditional (or at least direct) combat in games like Elden Ring, there are some clear connections. The most obvious comes from the gaming world, which is unmistakably FromSoftware. Its various mist-ravaged locales are dark and dilapidated, drenched in somber earth tones. Decaying architecture dot the landscape, and even its castles are more ominous than opulent.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
The game is careful not to overshare when it comes to what happens in each location, another FromSoftware staple. Before starting a mission, players are given a short text box that delves into some lore. But the environment mostly does the talking, with only a few key NPCs thrown in. The almost esoteric nature of his world building would become a major feature Dark soulswho hides his deep commitment in the item descriptions.
Beyond aesthetics, The Lost Kingdoms it feels philosophically aligned with FromSoftware’s approach to the action RPG genre. There is no feeling that the developer wanted to repeat the success of his colleagues, like in the 2000s Final Fantasy IX. Rather, it is an inventive approach that is eager to experiment.
If you wanted to draw a more direct line between The Lost Kingdoms and Elden Ring, the card system of the former looks almost like a rough draft of what would become the favored calling of the latter. IN Elden Ring, players can summon spectral creatures into battle to attack enemies. They are even presented as a card-like item, showing the creature on the scroll. While it may not be an intentional callback, there is a sense that the game is like Elden Ring it’s a natural byproduct of a developer accumulating ideas over decades of experimentation.
The Lost Kingdoms it may not go down in history as one of FromSoftware’s canon classics, but it’s a reminder why revisiting old games can be more than an act of nostalgia. It can be an informative experience that helps us understand how the games we love came to be. There may be more creative notes locked The Lost Kingdoms‘an extraordinary world just waiting to be adapted for the game that will define the next generation.
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Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn