King's Field Episode IV: A New Hope
From Wiki
 |
This article or section is in the middle of an expansion or major restructuring. You are welcome to assist in its construction by editing it as well. If this article has not been edited in several days, please remove this template. This page was last edited by Holy (talk| contribs) ago. (Purge) |
King's Field Episode IV: A New Hope (Ep4) is the first game in a planned series of King's Field trilogies set in an open source canon, or universe, intended to lineup with the content of From Software's original trilogy with the smallest margin of error possible, but with allowances made for the sake of quality and coherence here and there. These games are implicitly licensed (or not) by virtue of being made with From Software's Sword of Moonlight: King's Field Making Tool software.
Everyone is encouraged to take part, and multiple versions of these games and the canon itself are able to freely exist. Everything that makes up the official canon is public domain and fluid, and versioned to the best of the abilities of those involved. Games set outside the planned trilogy projects represent welcome additions, but are not held to as high standards. The maintainers of the canon designate which games, and versions of said games, are deemed to be apocryphal, or breaking with the canon, or some version (incremental or forked or otherwise) of the canon.
Planned trilogies
The projects begin with Episode 4, not unlike the Star Wars trilogies. From Software has not produced a new King's Field game since IV. The fourth game in the series is unrelated to the original trilogy, or the first three games. And not well received. Episode 4 was originally conceived of independent of IV, however it bore so many similarities, that it was decided that it can serve as a reworking of the fourth game, without any concessions in the slightest made to better overlap with IV. If there is any derivation between them it is purely subconscious, probably born of disappointments if so.
The decision to replace the fourth sequel in the new canon is also practical. If this is not done then the direct continuation in the form of subsequent trilogies would not be possible. The back story is consistent across the games admitting to exist within the canon. However each trilogy is separated by fast distances of time. And the interpersonal affairs presented within are utterly disconnected between them. Exact dates must never be given, so that the timeline remains flexible, for the purpose of inserting new games and events at any point within the canon. The history and back story as presented in any given game is allowed to and even encouraged to be inaccurate or deceptive, but anything that plays out in the form of game play or a cutscene adheres to canon or risks being rejected.
