King's Field IV: The Ancient City

As with most of the series, the game is hardest at the beginning. Take it slow and scrounge for earth herbs until you unlock the blue healing spring a few areas in. Eventually you'll also find a red spring that restores MP instead of HP which makes for a great "base" location for most of the game, and lets you switch largely to spell-based healing.

The game world is expansive and labyrinthine so it's highly recommended to keep manual notes as you go, especially of locks that require specific keys you won't acquire until later. Locks are opened by keys that share their name, with the exception of Forest Folk locks which are actually opened by a key called Zastari's Key instead.

There are two Life Rocks in the first mine dungeon, one is required to progress while the other can be traded to the man on the second floor of the nearby temple for a very valuable Crystal Vial.

There is an accessory called the Clarity Bracelet that is essentially indispensable if you want to have enough MP to cast spells. You can find it very early on near a certain house as soon as you acquire a weapon capable of breaking wooden objects.

While most secret passages (of which there are many) are opened by pressing the interact button, there is the very occasional attack-breakable wall as well, though these are always distinct in some way so there's no need to swing your weapon at every wall you come across.

Your equipment durability represents percentage of maximum damage or protection, and while you'll unlock the ability to repair items quite a long way into the game, you'll have to swap out gear regularly until then.

As with most games in the series, there is a hidden mechanic known as Sword Magic that's not mentioned in any way in-game. The common kind is activated by pressing the spellcasting button mid-swing of a weapon, but this requires you to be level 3 with that weapon and is not that useful. The more useful kind is tied to certain unique later game weapons and can be used at any weapon level. This type is activated nearly the same way (cast a spell mid-swing) but in this case you first have to press the interact button immediately before starting the weapon swing.

Some ways into the game, you might come across an area with intense music and a permanent curse effect. While it's possible to get a lot of money and experience from the flying enemies there, it's not worth the trouble trying to pass through it until you've first found the source of the curse and opened all four chests by the red water fountain.

You stun enemies when you hit them for at least 1/3 of their health. Be careful if you're fighting an enemy you're not stunning. You won't interrupt its attacks when you hit it so you will leave yourself exposed.