TGS: Kingdom under Fire Eyes-On Impressions

Unfortunately for us Kingdom under Fire fans, at this year’s Tokyo Game Show; Phantagram’s upcoming sequel to their popular Xbox title was not playable. Instead we were treated with a minute long trailer both on the show floor and on the Japanese Xbox Live servers. We took a look at the well scripted trailer that contained some interesting gameplay shots along with some excellent visuals. But does this trailer do any justice to your current thought on the sequel?

At the beginning of the trailer, the video pans back from a forest-like environment with four centered archways. It plays some dramatic music in the back and takes about ten seconds to get to the Logo, Kingdom under Fire: Circle of Doom. The trailer then goes to more scenes of the forest environment, one where there is four trees around a puddle or a small pond. The video then goes into a scene of a dungeon door which seems to be apart of the forest as their various trees breaking out of the ground. Around the door is nice scenery of ruins similar to most of the ones in the game Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion. Finally a person! A young woman in green is running along a pathway with veins all around here, looks like gameplay but nothing is confirmed. The next scene goes into a long distance view of a character in a full suit of armor run down a set of stairs in the ruins that was mentioned before. The camera was set to show the beautiful rocks and landscape of the run down remains. Now for some gameplay! We have a behind the character angle of the man in armor going up against many small creatures that look like a bunch of lizards that stand up on their hind legs with spears in their hands. He casts some sort of spell which raises a demons hand and swipes those nasty monsters away. After that a short scene of a giant monster rises from the heat of fire or lava and then goes back into gameplay footage. They then display some destructible damage as the man in armor swings his massive javelin and breaks through a statue and through a couple lizards. They then show the young woman’s back again aiming at the massive monster that appeared out of the fire or lava as it climbs on the wall. The man in armor once again appears and takes aim with his cross bow. Aiming with a cross bow will be viewed from an over the shoulder shot and looks very loose. He is firing at hundreds of creatures crawling around the ground and walls and blasts a couple of them on a broke down fountain. The giant monster once again appears to scream at the camera and “Kingdom under Fire: Circle of Doom” appears once again.

This is the only real footage that was shown at the Tokyo Game Show. The game will feature a dynamic and controllable camera along with both close range and long range weapons. Long ranged weapons will be used with an over the shoulder camera angle and the melee attacks will be done through what the first game and most action titles use. KuF: Circle of Doom will also feature spells and magic to cast on the enormous amount of enemies that will appear on screen.

Visually speaking, the video seems to be playing in-game scenery so the game looks beautiful. There is a vast amount of enemies on the screen at once with lots of special effects going on at once. Characters models look well detailed with a good reflection of the characters armor. The magic that was used in the minute longer trailer also looked highly detailed with strong color, shadows and special effects. There will be lots of destructible environments which could add a good deal of entertainment and possibly strategy. Textures and models all look good based on the trailer and has that Oblivion feel to it.

Looking at the trailer, Kingdom under Fire: Circle of Doom looks to succeed on what the previous installment did for the Xbox and improve on what they were missing. With strong visuals and excellent gameplay, we will have to watch out for this title in the second quarter of next year. Keep your eyes on Advanced Media Network for more coverage on KuF: Circle of Doom and the Tokyo Game Show.