Here is a retrospective look back at one of my own personal favorite series.
The Legacy of Kain series is like many that have fallen by the wayside and sit nearly forgotten by all but a dedicated fan base that has kept its memory alive. It has been many things starting by being entertaining and had ranged from dark humor to chilling violence. The series has continued to persevere with recent announcements, though has languished in a time where most of the series key developers had moved on.
The very first game in the series was titled Blood Omen, Legacy of Kain. It was a two dimensional sprite based game with 3d cutscenes originally released for the original PlayStation which was for its time a bit of an oddity with the push for 3d games. It had inspired voice acting, an intricate gameplay style similar to the Zelda franchise, and numerous hidden items and locations all the while maintaining a certain wry sense of wit to it all. This engrossing story arc begins here. A travelling nobleman is murdered outside of an inn. He is given the chance by a necromancer to return to enact his revenge. The story had many layered plot yet at heart it remained the story of a self-entitled noble having been wronged taking it out against the world. Luckily for him he had been brought back as a vampire with a wide host of supernatural abilities to do this with.
In the land of Nosgoth which is this series’ setting, vampires lack some of the traditional weaknesses found in folklore and literature. Here, water is the primary weakness with the Sun simply weakening your abilities to a certain extent. Special fountains of blood alleviate injury from rain and snow, but rivers and lakes require shifting into a form composed of mist to navigate. The form also allows one to pass through bars in various strongholds and dungeons that are traversed through the game. The main antagonists start out forward enough. There are nine sorcerers simply named the Circle of Nine who each wield a particular domain of power and existed to maintain the balance of the world. The death of one of their group set off a series of events that drove them all mad. The necromancer who had raised your character is from within their ranks, yet he has seen the corruption and advises you on goals as you proceed. Killing each grants a token to restore the damage done to the Pillars of Nosgoth, nine infinitely extending pillars that are tied to the Circle and are physical representations of the state of the world.
As you travel the world and become embroiled in schemes that vary from demonic invasions to time travelling plots to rewrite the course of history. It all culminates in learning that everything ties back together and that the necromancer Mortanius is possessed and using you to stop all of this chaos the all stems from the corrupted circle and those they deal with. You fight his twisted form to reach the end. There is so much more to the story and it is a must play for anyone looking for a great story. The original console version does suffer from load time issues, though the pc version is incredibly smooth from all personal experience.
This game was developed by two companies, its original writers hailing from the Canadian game company Silicon Knights and its co-designers and publishers were from the company Crystal Dynamics. It has been said the series iconic Soul Reaver began in the Too Human franchise that had been in development since before this title. Creator Dennis Dyack had stated it was at first just a cool looking weapon. This partnership is a complicated story, though in the end Crystal Dynamics took over full control of the franchise.
This leads us into the sequel, Legacy of Kain, Soul Reaver. This game takes place millennia after the events of the first. Kain has won. In preserving his own life he has damned the world. His vampiric broods have infested the land and dominate it completely. You start as Kain’s lieutenant Raziel, and have evolved a pair of wings which Kain certainly had not. This is said to be seen as a transgression and they are promptly ripped off. You are thrown into a swirling maelstrom and of course water is still like acid so you are quickly destroyed. You don’t fade into nonexistence, merely the spiritual underworld as a newly born wraith. Under the wing of the seemingly benevolent Elder God you are sent along the path of revenge which is a recurring theme in this series. Switching between the material and spiritual realms is a primary mechanic underlying the game and still stands out as being impressive as the world distorts as you switch between them. Of course, the other well-known game mechanic that is often pointed out was the high volume of block puzzles, which I grew to love more than hate like many fans seem to have.
Over the course of the game, you hunt the degenerate vampires who have grown more grotesque than the human seeming ones that have appeared before. There is one last human stronghold and several vampire hunters dot the world. If you aid them they are not hostile. Attacking one leads to all humans in the city and all the wandering hunters attacking you at any encounter. They do have what appears to be electricity and lighting, so they may just have developed cell phones as well. The strongest vampires are the bosses, Raziel’s brothers who were all raised by pieces of Kain’s soul. Each has evolved special abilities on their own paths of evolution. Beating them confers these powers to you reminiscent of Mega Man in many ways, opening up many unreachable areas in the process being more like Metroid.
Part way through the story, Kain breaks the Soul Reaver sword over Raziel’s back and the spirit held inside becomes a wraith blade bonded to your arm. The game had in development numerous upgrades for the wraith blade, but in the end only the fire upgrade remained. There are numerous glyph relics that grant magical abilities as well. All these power ups and there are still tokens scattered through the world to increase your magic meter as well. The culmination of events of course is the inevitable confrontation with Kain in the bowels of a massive time machine complex. You glimpse scenes from the future as you travel through the local, and jump through a portal at the end of the game.
This game is well known for having bosses, abilities, and various kinds of upgrades removed from the game and it is well documented through sites like www.thelostworlds.net for what was in earlier phases of development. Some had continued and had been added to later installments as there was not enough time to implement it all into Soul Reaver, and Divine Shadow/Mamma Robotnik of www.neogaf.com fame has tirelessly added to what has been discovered.
This leads to the second Soul Reaver game. It follows up directly from the ending of the first as you travel to the past into the chamber of the series preeminent time traveling schemer named Mobius by his own power over time. Raziel is right to ignore anything he says as he quite the reputation. This sets the stage for the game being several connected areas visited over several eras you progress through. Each era shows how the world has changed over its course. It begins with vampire hunters in a time 30 years before the first game with vampire hunting mercenaries, to 200 years after the first game in an era overrun with demons. It then travels back 500 years before the first game to when a vampire purging inquisition was well underway seguing into the very opening events that where shown in the introduction of the first Blood Omen’s opening cinematic as the distant past. Throughout it all you are shown how powerful a force Raziel is as he is not bound to fate and can influence time itself with the Soul Reaver he is bound to bending time as it meets another iteration of itself as it is out of its native time. Everyone knows the moves he makes, but can’t predict the outcomes so everyone has a vested interest in trying to sway Raziel to their side.
By the end, you learn the truth. You were a violent vampire hunter in your human life and Kill yourself. The physical form of the wraith blade is hollow at this point, as it is Raziel’s that inhabits it and he is a walking paradox. Kain actually saves you from your fate by pulling you away from your own consumption.
This game was less open then earlier iterations of the series. There were larger puzzles based around Reaver elemental upgrades needed to progress and managing combat with the Reaver on your arm constantly feeding on health when overused. The game goes to show many myths presented through the series are half-truths, as the story mutates both by ignorance and willful attempts to ignore the truths that lay hidden.
This leads to a side story. Blood Omen 2 is Kain’s rise to power and a wall he hits that is the result of timeline changes in Soul Reaver 2. The inquisitors that existed in the past called the Sarafan brotherhood have risen, and another dimensional power helps them defeat Kain. He rises up after what is best described as a coma to kill those who again betrayed him as per series tradition and to stomp out all resistance. The game is an industrial gothic city, which is fairly linear as you progress from one area to the next. The combat has changed, as a blocking mechanic and breakable weapons have been added in. There is less free movement in combat and it feels still because of this.
Kain gains powers similarly to Raziel by taking blood from the various vampire bosses in the game. A greater enemy appears. The ancient pre vampire raise of angelically winged beings that degenerated into the first vampires had an ancient enemy they banished with the pillars to a hellish dimension. They have returned and are the ones who reformed the Sarafan. They are the ones who have manipulated demons seen through the majority of the series trying to escape. Defeating them, stopping their plans and destroying their portal wraps up the story of this game, but segues back into the main story.
The currently last released game in the series was Legacy of Kain Defiance. The last released game that came out in 2003. It ran two parallel stories alternating chapters between both Kain and Raziel using the physical Reaver and wraith blade Reaver respectively. Mobius is shown to be an avid follower of the Elder God, and have been puppeting everyone else all along. Mortanius and even the ancient vampires were as well, though Mortanius broke away and set Kain upon his path to atone when he realized much of what had happened over the series. Raziel sacrifices himself to complete the Soul Reaver as a new weapon to harm the Elder God and this leaves the series with something it usually lacks, a glimmer of hope. The story has ended here until now.
This installment was less like previous installments with it being more akin to the Devil May Cry series in a mix of action and puzzles. There was a fair amount of items to gather and backtracking to do so that made up the bulk of the gameplay. This game was developed with both the Soul Reaver team and the Blood Omen 2 team in part being brought in to help develop it. The game tied up many lingering story elements, yet seemed to be setting up the scene for so much more that was left undone.
This wasn’t to be. The major story writer Amy Hennig left after this game to Naughty Dog and became a major writer for their Tomb Raider like hit series Uncharted. The development team itself are mostly who have been functioning on developing the Tomb Raider franchise itself.
Later evidence found by Divine Shadow showed another game in early development after Defiance titled Dark Prophecy in 2004. Eidos was collaborating with Ritual Entertainment like with Defiance to continue Kain’s story. A great deal of concept art and developmental assets have been discovered in various portfolios of many of the developers. Kain was shown to have various and returning forms, while there are numerous showcased areas that hadn’t been seen since Blood Omen.
These developments are always drudged up by dedicated fans and they have always been vocal in their wish for the series return. Eidos president for life Ian Livingston in the past went on record setting that he wished for the Legacy of Kain to return while also reviving the Deus Ex and Thief franchises.
In April 2012, a rumor started to spread that the gaming convention E3 was going to be where a reboot of Soul Reaver was to be announced. The rumor traced back to the video game website www.vg247.com and was quickly circulated by other major news outlets as a prominent rumor and brought a great deal of awareness back to the series. It was proven false after the convention itself to many peoples disappointment. It trended on Twitter and showed popularity. After that, the domain name www.warfornosgoth.com had been registered leading to more speculation. Between the Game Dead Sun and the new Nosgoth itself, Divine Shadow has abridged everything and brought new information to lights with his major article here at https://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?
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