King's Field is one of the earliest known 3D console role-playing games, predating later more famous titles such as Final Fantasy VII.

During exploration, the player finds keys and items which can open doors and activate portals to allow travel to different levels of the dungeon.

[2] Different weapons and other items such as shields and armor can be either bought from non-playable characters (NPCs) or found in chests during dungeon exploration.

During the game's events, the land has fallen prey to evil forces once again, with the locals' only hope being a prophecy that the Dragon will return.

Fighting his way through the catacombs, Forester meets the elf Miria, who warns that Verdite's king Reinhardt III has gained a dark power.

Retrieving his father's hereditary Dragon Sword and killing the dark wizard creating the monsters, he again meets Miria and her master the dragon god Guyra, who grants him the power to kill Reinhardt III and seal the "door of darkness", a portal opened by the cursed line of Reinhardt so they could rule the world.

Following the public announcement by Sony of the PlayStation home console, FromSoftware successfully pitched the project after redesigning it to focus on first-person exploration.

[5] The game was later called the brainchild of company founder Naotoshi Zin, who was considered a key creative figure in the series.

[5] The 3D dungeon environments were built using a development tool later dubbed "Sword of Moonlight" which was released for Japanese PCs in 2000 and included a version of King's Field.

[4][5] On release, Famicom Tsūshin positively compared the game to PC titles of the time, and enjoyed its real-time combat and sense of fear it generated.