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[Vae Victus] Let's talk about Legacy of Kain (Spoilers in OP, read at your own risk)
SimBen
Hodor?Hodor Hodor.Registered User regular
Hodor?Hodor Hodor.Registered User regular
I've recently ordered that sweet PS1 LoK double-pack off of Amazon. I've already played through the entire series, but I've been craving some sweet vampiric action lately, so I figured, hey, let's talk about this most awesome series!
But SimBen, what IS the Legacy of Kain?
The series can best be described as M-rated Zelda. It borrows a lot of elements from that beloved series, from gameplay to general game structure; it's somewhat comparable to Beyond Good & Evil and Okami, only a bit more linear (there generally isn't much backtracking involved in this series, especially in the later games). You go through dungeons, solve puzzles, fight various baddies and gigantic bosses.
But surely there's a twist to all of it, to make the game more than just a regular Zelda clone?
Yes there is. Here's the twist: in Legacy of Kain, you're a vampire. You're either Kain or Raziel, who are two very different types of vampires that have slightly different mechanics (which I'll get into later). But being vampires, as you would expect, there's quite a lot of vampiric things going on. You'll need to sustain yourself or you'll die. This means killing bad guys as well as innocent people for your own, selfish needs. Your health will slowly drain unless you keep a steady stream of the red stuff (or the ether, when you're Raziel) flowing in your gullet. This leads us to the next awesome thing about this series: you're pretty much a bad guy. You're going around slaughtering everything you see, which is great. But here's the thing: there's more to it than black-and-white, good-vs.-evil. One of the central themes of the games's story, which is completely awesome, is the true nature of good and evil; every single character is floating in one shade of gray or another, and nobody is completely selfish or completely selfless. The characters in Legacy of Kain are surprisingly believable, being that they are flawed without being Satan, and good-natured without being saints.
How about you tell me about some of these characters?
Okay, sure. Here are the main ones. The spoilers start here, btw, so read on at your own risk:
Kain
Appears in: all of 'em
Voice actor: Simon Templeman
Well, it's HIS Legacy, so you better believe he's the central character to all of it. Kain is one of those bad-asses in the purest Kratos tradition (only he was around years before Kratos), with a hint of Anne Rice thrown in. Born a nobleman, Kain was hunted down and killed by brigands in the beginning of Blood Omen. Making a pact with Mortanius, he agreed to be revived as a vampire so he could hunt down his assassins and seek revenge. This task is quickly taken care of, but Kain isn't sated: it turns out being a vampire is something of a curse (whodathunk?), and he proceeds to try to find a cure for his condition. This makes him ripe for manipulation by every wizard and politician Nosgoth has to offer, which makes Kain all the more pissed when he finds out he's been everyone's puppet all along. He finally decides to destroy Nosgoth and rule over the remaining wasteland, raising his own breed of vampires, his eldest son turning out to be...
Raziel
Appears in: Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2, Defiance
Voice actor: Michael Bell
Being the first, most powerful and favored son of Kain the Vampire Emperor, Raziel quickly drew jealousy from his younger brothers. This was only amplified when he became the first vampire to evolve wings and the power of flight; this was such a big deal that even Kain himself became jealous. Breaking his son's wings as well as his heart, Kain had him cast into the Lake of the Dead, which should have normally killed Raziel, vampires being deathly allergic to water. (Debatably) fortunately to Raziel, he was revived as a soul-eating wraith and set off on his own bloody path of revenge against his brothers and father by...
The Elder God
Appears in: Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2, Defiance
Voice actor: The late Tony Jay
Its true nature never fully explained, the Elder God first appears to be a benevolent deity sympathetic to Raziel's cause. As the games go on, however, it becomes increasingly apparent that this Lovecraftian squid-monster is actively manipulating Raziel to fulfill its own needs as, as Raziel puts it, "As Nosgoth falls into decay, you seem to thrive". Interestingly enough, through all the time-travels and history-changing happening over the course of the series, the Elder God seems completely aware of everything, and will remember Raziel in the past even if there's still over a thousand years left before their first meeting. Ultimately, the Elder God turns out to be the chief manipulator behind all of the series' events, mostly through its most prominent lieutenant...
Moebius
Appears in: Blood Omen, Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2, Defiance
Voice actor: Richard Doyle
Moebius, the Timestreamer, is a bastard. He's always cackling in everyone's face and being this giant puppetmaster that just sends everyone on seemingly beneficial errands all over space-time, yet ends up benefitting from everything, mostly in the name of the Elder God, whom he worships. Even after he dies, he just won't shut up, and he also seems to have a conscience outside of space-time; though that might be only because he can, at any point, look anywhere in the future or in the past; therefore, he is always aware of the big picture and will adress separate incarnations of Kain or Raziel differently, depending on how he needs to manipulate them. One of his most significant accomplishments has been to send Kain back to the past to have him assassinate a present dictator back when he was a benevolent king, which caused the humans of Nosgoth to really hate vampires and start a crusade, which ended with the capture and death of...
Vorador
Appears in: Blood Omen, Soul Reaver 2, Blood Omen 2, Defiance
Voice actor: Paul Lukather
Vorador is, more or less, the most prominent example of a "classic" vampire in the series: he's very Dracula-esque, very decadent, and he overall seems to enjoy undeath far more than his compatriots. Vampires had the upper hand in the original history of Nosgoth, which explains why he had everything to gain from the status quo; when history was changed, he was quick to find the new situation not to his advantage. He inexplicably shows up in Blood Omen 2, probably revived by the vampire Resistance in that timeline; that is the latest we've seen of Vorador in the Legacy of Kain chronology. Vorador was the first "modern", or second-generation, so to speak, of vampires in the timeline, and the first to be spawned by...
Janos Audron
Appears in: Soul Reaver 2, Blood Omen 2, Defiance
Voice Actor: Rene Auberjonois (yes, that Rene Auberjonois)
Janos was the last of the "original" vampires, and as you can see, they didn't look much like "modern" ones. After being cursed by the Hylden, his race was condemned to bloodlust, and Audron spawned the more-familiar, undead vampires. He was hunted down and killed by the Holy Crusade of the Sarafan, led by the human, pre-vampire Raziel, in Nosgoth's distant past. Raziel, from the future, recovered his heart and revived him, which turned out to be the key to the whole plan set in motion by the Elder God to bring the Hylden into this world (a plan whose realization is seen in Blood Omen 2). It's all much more complicated than that, but in the end, Janos is once again killed as he's cast into some sort of inter-dimensional abyss by the Hylden Lord in the end of Blood Omen 2. To be honest, that part of the story is still a little fuzzy to me, as I tend to block out everything about BO2. :P
But yeah, those are the main ones!
Now.
Wow, this series sounds incredible SimBen, you should tell me about all the games in it!
My pleasure.
1996 (PSX), 1997 (PC)
The original game, with one of the most ludicrous list of developers ever: it was jointly published by Activision and Eidos, and though Crystal Dynamics is listed as the developer, the actual development was sub-contracted to Silicon Knights. This one is unique in many ways: it was the only one to be developed by Silicon Knights, it was a 2D, top-down affair all the way through, it allowed the player to choose between two endings (though the "bad" ending turned out to be the canon one), and it was generally far more RPG-ish than the subsequent installments. Other things to note are the loading times (absolutely horrendous in a way that would be quite simply unacceptable by today's standards) and the voice acting (consistently superb, which was a rarity at the time). This is perhaps the one that's aged the most poorly, but it's still worth playing for its story, which sets the stage nicely for the rest of the series, and its gameplay, still the series' deepest. Here Kain is murdered, then revived as a vampire, and he ends up hunting down and killing all the Guardians of the Pillars of Nosgoth in order to return balance; however, he finds out in the end that he, himself, is the Balance Guardian and that he must therefore sacrifice himself to restore balance to Nosgoth. In the canonical ending, Kain refuses the sacrifice, and he ends up ruling the wasteland that Nosgoth becomes as its dictator and emperor.
1999 (PSX, PC), 2000 (DC)
Completely awesome intro movie: http://youtube.com/watch?v=f5BRglejVCs
The series' first 3D installment. A thousand years after the original Blood Omen, Kain has pretty much become a god. He's spawned his own race of vampires, Raziel evolves wings, he's executed for his insolence, Raziel meets the Elder God, and he goes off on his revenge quest. Raziel kills most of his brothers and finally catches up to Kain, who gives him a long-winded speech about time and fate. They fight for a bit, then Kain steps into a time portal. Raziel follows him, meets Moebius, and the game ends on a cliffhanger. This game is just excellent. It's got a very Zelda-esque structure to it, with Raziel gaining new powers as he kills his brothers, opening up more of the world to explore. Raziel must eat souls to sustain his physical form; if he runs out of energy, he's kicked back to the spectral realm, in which he can't interact with any physical objects. The ending was originally going to be very different, with Raziel annihilating every vampire in Nosgoth by striking a bell with an upgraded Reaver after he's fought and killed Kain, effectively ending the series there; however, tight deadlines prevented this from happening, and the game was ended after the fight with Kain, and with the time-traveling cliffhanger we now know. Good thing, too, because this led to the completely awesome...
2001 (PS2, PC)
Arguably the best game in the series; Raziel continues to hunt Kain around Nosgoth's various time periods, and on the way, begins to understand that it's not really Kain who's the bad guy here. Awesomeness includes well, time travel, Moebius being a slimy bastard, Raziel learning about the origin of vampires, beginning to understand the origin of the Reaver, and a Raziel-on-Raziel final showdown that would make Doc Brown freak out. It all ends on yet another cliffhanger where Kain finally accomplishes what he wanted to do all along, but immediately realizes how much of a mistake it was. What fate awaits our two anti-heroes? Stay tuned to find out...
2002 (PS2, GC, XBox, PC)
...not right away. Blood Omen 2 seems to pick up right where Blood Omen 1 left off, taking place snugly between it and Soul Reaver 1, but as it turns out, this isn't entirely true; Nosgoth as seen in Blood Omen 2 is the direct result of the paradox introduced at the end of Soul Reaver 2, and Kain's experiences in this one are the reason he freaks out and tries to warn Raziel not to do what he knows he's gonna end up doing. This game, well, sucks. It was developed by a completely different team at Crystal Dynamics while the main LoK guys were working on SR2. Its plot has little to no immediately apparent relevance to the overall arc (though Defiance would later tie it to the rest), it's buggy as hell, the graphics are ass-ugly compared to the other games, and it has very little gameplay besides generic-baddie-killing. You basically run around linear levels and kill lots of guys. It just fails to inspire any sort of epic grand storytelling feeling like the other games do. I don't like it.
2003 (PS2, XBox, PC)
The series' last game so far, and the only one where you get to control both Kain and Raziel. As a result, it kicks ass. It's a little more linear than the previous games (with the exception of BO2), but it makes up for it in storytelling: continuing the "epic time-traveling saga" setting introduced in Soul Reaver 2, this one has Kain and Raziel hiking back and forth between various eras until they finally resolve their fate. You get to see a few events you've seen before, but from a different perspective, and most remaining plot questions are answered. It really is a fantastic game, and it ends with an uncommon sense of resolution for this series, leading many to believe no further Legacy of Kain games will be made. Which is just a depressing thought. But to be fair, Crystal Dynamics currently has its hands full with the re-imagined Tomb Raider, so hopes are thin right now; yet, if there's something you learn from this series, it's that you never know what your fate will hold... maybe the Reavers will clash again sometime and spawn a 6th Legacy of Kain from the paradox!
So. Discuss.
But SimBen, what IS the Legacy of Kain?
The series can best be described as M-rated Zelda. It borrows a lot of elements from that beloved series, from gameplay to general game structure; it's somewhat comparable to Beyond Good & Evil and Okami, only a bit more linear (there generally isn't much backtracking involved in this series, especially in the later games). You go through dungeons, solve puzzles, fight various baddies and gigantic bosses.
But surely there's a twist to all of it, to make the game more than just a regular Zelda clone?
Yes there is. Here's the twist: in Legacy of Kain, you're a vampire. You're either Kain or Raziel, who are two very different types of vampires that have slightly different mechanics (which I'll get into later). But being vampires, as you would expect, there's quite a lot of vampiric things going on. You'll need to sustain yourself or you'll die. This means killing bad guys as well as innocent people for your own, selfish needs. Your health will slowly drain unless you keep a steady stream of the red stuff (or the ether, when you're Raziel) flowing in your gullet. This leads us to the next awesome thing about this series: you're pretty much a bad guy. You're going around slaughtering everything you see, which is great. But here's the thing: there's more to it than black-and-white, good-vs.-evil. One of the central themes of the games's story, which is completely awesome, is the true nature of good and evil; every single character is floating in one shade of gray or another, and nobody is completely selfish or completely selfless. The characters in Legacy of Kain are surprisingly believable, being that they are flawed without being Satan, and good-natured without being saints.
How about you tell me about some of these characters?
Okay, sure. Here are the main ones. The spoilers start here, btw, so read on at your own risk:
Kain
Appears in: all of 'em
Voice actor: Simon Templeman
Well, it's HIS Legacy, so you better believe he's the central character to all of it. Kain is one of those bad-asses in the purest Kratos tradition (only he was around years before Kratos), with a hint of Anne Rice thrown in. Born a nobleman, Kain was hunted down and killed by brigands in the beginning of Blood Omen. Making a pact with Mortanius, he agreed to be revived as a vampire so he could hunt down his assassins and seek revenge. This task is quickly taken care of, but Kain isn't sated: it turns out being a vampire is something of a curse (whodathunk?), and he proceeds to try to find a cure for his condition. This makes him ripe for manipulation by every wizard and politician Nosgoth has to offer, which makes Kain all the more pissed when he finds out he's been everyone's puppet all along. He finally decides to destroy Nosgoth and rule over the remaining wasteland, raising his own breed of vampires, his eldest son turning out to be...
Raziel
Appears in: Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2, Defiance
Voice actor: Michael Bell
Being the first, most powerful and favored son of Kain the Vampire Emperor, Raziel quickly drew jealousy from his younger brothers. This was only amplified when he became the first vampire to evolve wings and the power of flight; this was such a big deal that even Kain himself became jealous. Breaking his son's wings as well as his heart, Kain had him cast into the Lake of the Dead, which should have normally killed Raziel, vampires being deathly allergic to water. (Debatably) fortunately to Raziel, he was revived as a soul-eating wraith and set off on his own bloody path of revenge against his brothers and father by...
The Elder God
Appears in: Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2, Defiance
Voice actor: The late Tony Jay
Its true nature never fully explained, the Elder God first appears to be a benevolent deity sympathetic to Raziel's cause. As the games go on, however, it becomes increasingly apparent that this Lovecraftian squid-monster is actively manipulating Raziel to fulfill its own needs as, as Raziel puts it, "As Nosgoth falls into decay, you seem to thrive". Interestingly enough, through all the time-travels and history-changing happening over the course of the series, the Elder God seems completely aware of everything, and will remember Raziel in the past even if there's still over a thousand years left before their first meeting. Ultimately, the Elder God turns out to be the chief manipulator behind all of the series' events, mostly through its most prominent lieutenant...
Moebius
Appears in: Blood Omen, Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2, Defiance
Voice actor: Richard Doyle
Moebius, the Timestreamer, is a bastard. He's always cackling in everyone's face and being this giant puppetmaster that just sends everyone on seemingly beneficial errands all over space-time, yet ends up benefitting from everything, mostly in the name of the Elder God, whom he worships. Even after he dies, he just won't shut up, and he also seems to have a conscience outside of space-time; though that might be only because he can, at any point, look anywhere in the future or in the past; therefore, he is always aware of the big picture and will adress separate incarnations of Kain or Raziel differently, depending on how he needs to manipulate them. One of his most significant accomplishments has been to send Kain back to the past to have him assassinate a present dictator back when he was a benevolent king, which caused the humans of Nosgoth to really hate vampires and start a crusade, which ended with the capture and death of...
Vorador
Appears in: Blood Omen, Soul Reaver 2, Blood Omen 2, Defiance
Voice actor: Paul Lukather
Vorador is, more or less, the most prominent example of a "classic" vampire in the series: he's very Dracula-esque, very decadent, and he overall seems to enjoy undeath far more than his compatriots. Vampires had the upper hand in the original history of Nosgoth, which explains why he had everything to gain from the status quo; when history was changed, he was quick to find the new situation not to his advantage. He inexplicably shows up in Blood Omen 2, probably revived by the vampire Resistance in that timeline; that is the latest we've seen of Vorador in the Legacy of Kain chronology. Vorador was the first "modern", or second-generation, so to speak, of vampires in the timeline, and the first to be spawned by...
Janos Audron
Appears in: Soul Reaver 2, Blood Omen 2, Defiance
Voice Actor: Rene Auberjonois (yes, that Rene Auberjonois)
Janos was the last of the "original" vampires, and as you can see, they didn't look much like "modern" ones. After being cursed by the Hylden, his race was condemned to bloodlust, and Audron spawned the more-familiar, undead vampires. He was hunted down and killed by the Holy Crusade of the Sarafan, led by the human, pre-vampire Raziel, in Nosgoth's distant past. Raziel, from the future, recovered his heart and revived him, which turned out to be the key to the whole plan set in motion by the Elder God to bring the Hylden into this world (a plan whose realization is seen in Blood Omen 2). It's all much more complicated than that, but in the end, Janos is once again killed as he's cast into some sort of inter-dimensional abyss by the Hylden Lord in the end of Blood Omen 2. To be honest, that part of the story is still a little fuzzy to me, as I tend to block out everything about BO2. :P
But yeah, those are the main ones!
Now.
Wow, this series sounds incredible SimBen, you should tell me about all the games in it!
My pleasure.
1996 (PSX), 1997 (PC)
The original game, with one of the most ludicrous list of developers ever: it was jointly published by Activision and Eidos, and though Crystal Dynamics is listed as the developer, the actual development was sub-contracted to Silicon Knights. This one is unique in many ways: it was the only one to be developed by Silicon Knights, it was a 2D, top-down affair all the way through, it allowed the player to choose between two endings (though the "bad" ending turned out to be the canon one), and it was generally far more RPG-ish than the subsequent installments. Other things to note are the loading times (absolutely horrendous in a way that would be quite simply unacceptable by today's standards) and the voice acting (consistently superb, which was a rarity at the time). This is perhaps the one that's aged the most poorly, but it's still worth playing for its story, which sets the stage nicely for the rest of the series, and its gameplay, still the series' deepest. Here Kain is murdered, then revived as a vampire, and he ends up hunting down and killing all the Guardians of the Pillars of Nosgoth in order to return balance; however, he finds out in the end that he, himself, is the Balance Guardian and that he must therefore sacrifice himself to restore balance to Nosgoth. In the canonical ending, Kain refuses the sacrifice, and he ends up ruling the wasteland that Nosgoth becomes as its dictator and emperor.
1999 (PSX, PC), 2000 (DC)
Completely awesome intro movie: http://youtube.com/watch?v=f5BRglejVCs
The series' first 3D installment. A thousand years after the original Blood Omen, Kain has pretty much become a god. He's spawned his own race of vampires, Raziel evolves wings, he's executed for his insolence, Raziel meets the Elder God, and he goes off on his revenge quest. Raziel kills most of his brothers and finally catches up to Kain, who gives him a long-winded speech about time and fate. They fight for a bit, then Kain steps into a time portal. Raziel follows him, meets Moebius, and the game ends on a cliffhanger. This game is just excellent. It's got a very Zelda-esque structure to it, with Raziel gaining new powers as he kills his brothers, opening up more of the world to explore. Raziel must eat souls to sustain his physical form; if he runs out of energy, he's kicked back to the spectral realm, in which he can't interact with any physical objects. The ending was originally going to be very different, with Raziel annihilating every vampire in Nosgoth by striking a bell with an upgraded Reaver after he's fought and killed Kain, effectively ending the series there; however, tight deadlines prevented this from happening, and the game was ended after the fight with Kain, and with the time-traveling cliffhanger we now know. Good thing, too, because this led to the completely awesome...
2001 (PS2, PC)
Arguably the best game in the series; Raziel continues to hunt Kain around Nosgoth's various time periods, and on the way, begins to understand that it's not really Kain who's the bad guy here. Awesomeness includes well, time travel, Moebius being a slimy bastard, Raziel learning about the origin of vampires, beginning to understand the origin of the Reaver, and a Raziel-on-Raziel final showdown that would make Doc Brown freak out. It all ends on yet another cliffhanger where Kain finally accomplishes what he wanted to do all along, but immediately realizes how much of a mistake it was. What fate awaits our two anti-heroes? Stay tuned to find out...
2002 (PS2, GC, XBox, PC)
...not right away. Blood Omen 2 seems to pick up right where Blood Omen 1 left off, taking place snugly between it and Soul Reaver 1, but as it turns out, this isn't entirely true; Nosgoth as seen in Blood Omen 2 is the direct result of the paradox introduced at the end of Soul Reaver 2, and Kain's experiences in this one are the reason he freaks out and tries to warn Raziel not to do what he knows he's gonna end up doing. This game, well, sucks. It was developed by a completely different team at Crystal Dynamics while the main LoK guys were working on SR2. Its plot has little to no immediately apparent relevance to the overall arc (though Defiance would later tie it to the rest), it's buggy as hell, the graphics are ass-ugly compared to the other games, and it has very little gameplay besides generic-baddie-killing. You basically run around linear levels and kill lots of guys. It just fails to inspire any sort of epic grand storytelling feeling like the other games do. I don't like it.
2003 (PS2, XBox, PC)
The series' last game so far, and the only one where you get to control both Kain and Raziel. As a result, it kicks ass. It's a little more linear than the previous games (with the exception of BO2), but it makes up for it in storytelling: continuing the "epic time-traveling saga" setting introduced in Soul Reaver 2, this one has Kain and Raziel hiking back and forth between various eras until they finally resolve their fate. You get to see a few events you've seen before, but from a different perspective, and most remaining plot questions are answered. It really is a fantastic game, and it ends with an uncommon sense of resolution for this series, leading many to believe no further Legacy of Kain games will be made. Which is just a depressing thought. But to be fair, Crystal Dynamics currently has its hands full with the re-imagined Tomb Raider, so hopes are thin right now; yet, if there's something you learn from this series, it's that you never know what your fate will hold... maybe the Reavers will clash again sometime and spawn a 6th Legacy of Kain from the paradox!
So. Discuss.
SimBen on
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Posts
That's pretty much the essence of any truly proper contribution to this thread.
It's like all the twists and awesome of Metal Gear, with a couple additional vampires and none of the stupidly convoluted bullshit.
I really, really hope there will be more games, because these were so fucking cool. And hey, there's potential in the ending to Defiance.
We'll have to see.
To be fair...
As a matter of fact, one thing I'm wondering is what happens with the stacking of Raziel's soul. Because since Raziel keeps receiving his own soul out of the Reaver, then going back and pouring it in, wouldn't the amount of soul increase with each loop, making the Reaver always more powerful? There's a story to be told here. Maybe Kain could find some way to "vent" the sword so only the one soul remains in it, before leaving it for King William? Hmm.
"Nupraptor's Head."
....
Well, not really."
My Backloggery
Of course, it is ALWAYS possible to save someone through time travel shenanigans.
They picked Lara Croft: Shit Raider over this? God damn't, fuck generic action/adventure games and remakes. LOK needs a new game even if its a new story following Raziel and his wacky sidekick Souly, the soul with the heart of gold. In theory.
Actually, the new, Crystal Dynamics-developed Tomb Raiders are fantastic.
Also, Anne Hennig is no longer part of CD, and she was the main creative soul behind LoK.
So, to get the conversation rolling, something that always gets lost in all the talk about the great time travel gimmicks and plot but which I enjoy thinking about, is the evolution of the relationship between Kain and Raziel... I mean, it's very clear from the beginning that Raziel is on some sort of an Oedipal quest and that he wants to beat his father partly to prove that he's better than him, but...
such a great story
Not here, though. Somehow, it works. From the very first Blood Omen, where you 'accidentally' make a martyr out of a would-be tyrant, it made sense. And how such a paradox could be tolerated in the universe (or not, as it turns out), that made sense, too. Of all things, it wasn't the story that ultimately let me down, but the fact that, after Blood Omen, there wasn't much in the way of resolution right up to the end of Defiance. I just lost patience with the series apparent inability to contain the story, let alone end it, and I didn't get around to Defiance until quite a while after it was out.
Well... okay, that, and the ending to Soul Reaver 2, epic as it was, felt kind of underwhelming.
Wish I'd gotten to Defiance sooner, frankly, since it makes up for it in a big way. And I second all the comments regarding the acting, the script... it's top notch start to finish.
Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine
Yeah, but doesn't part of you just wish they'd keep making those games forever? The fact that most of the story is now wrapped up is a bittersweet feeling to me.
Then this thread has succeeded.
Well, it's never too late, but it is possible to take a good idea too far. It took over five years, three-four games, and another console generation for questions raised in Soul Reaver 1 to be resolved in Defiance. A good writer, in my opinion, should be able to finish what they start, and I'm both shocked and pleased that the LoK games managed to do so. Going further would be tempting fate at best.
Still, I do miss the quality storytelling. This thread's bringing back some crazy nostalgia, and I wish I still had my Blood Omen disc. Loading times aside, that game was class, as is this thread and the OP :^:
Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine
Xbox Live - Doctor Xedd
Gametap - RIbar77
Shogun Streams Vidya
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Somehow, someway, Hennig made a story about time-traveling vampires brilliant.
And if you pony up the cash, they have defiant and soul reaver 2 also.
OP no longer fails.
Meh, I think they should tempt fate. A wonderful thing could come of it. I'm of the opinion that they should try even if it ends up being crap. I think bad sequels/remakes don't tarnish the greatness of established pieces. Just like Fallout: BOS didn't affect my love for Fallout, or really effect me in any way at all. Same with Blood Omen 2 with LOK. For instance, some people act like the I, Robot movie made the books everywhere spontaneously combust and set their puppies on fire.
Though I guess the namesake goes against the idea, I'd like a new game to feature a new vampire/character to breathe life into the series again. Kain's story, to me, despite that I guess it's not 100% concluded, is finished. Plus the mastermind behind him and his story is gone, so I think it'd be fitting for a new chapter in the world.
Yes.
In fact, go back and play Blood Omen 1, too. Then play the rest of the series. You'll thank me later.
I need to get my hands on the Blood Omen games.
Also, wasn't there some sort of code you could use in Defiance to replace Kain's soul reaver with a cardboard tube?
Yes, and he'd even say "Obey the tube." when you enabled it.
My Backloggery
It's always the fucking water temple, isn't it?
Actually, I remember the cathedral as being much more of a headache to me...
Always. You will never, ever have a good water temple. EVER.
Is it really worth playing through?
I wouldn't say it's very necessary to enjoy the rest of the series.
My Backloggery
The gameplay is kinda... lacking, along with the graphics. The voice acting is still superb, and the story, even though it seems unrelated, actually ties up the whole series. If you wanna know the ultimate fate of Janos Audron and the Hylden Lord... BO2 is the one to play.
Which will be a bitch and a half.
How many are available for PC?
All of 'em.
You'll probably have some trouble playing BO1 on XP, though there are ways.
I still get swells of pre-tears hearing that.
And I definitely wish we could get one further game. Yeah, BO2 Kain prevents the Hylden invasion. But I don't think we should end it there because:
a) BO2 was not very good, and I'd almost like it stricken from canon.
b) We still don't know what happened to Kain in the end, and the Hylden weren't the main problem in the first place. The Elder God was. Is Kain able to defeat him?
Too bad we pretty much have to resign ourselves to never seeing this finished.
Also, when Turel was introduced in Defiance, did anyone else know who he was before Raziel mentioned his name? I saw his big ears and shouted, "OH FUCK THERE YOU ARE."
Did you know Soul Reaver 1 was supposed to have Turel as a boss in a volcano area, and you would go on to kill Kain at the end? They went overbudget and scrapped both Turel and Kain, gambling that people would buy a sequel. I'm glad they did!