RTTP - The Legacy of Kain Series

For the last year or so I've been completely engulfed in the retro gaming world. I've spent a small fortune on Framemeisters, Toro boxes, etc. All in an effort to get the most out of my established and growing retro game collection. I recently played through Powerslave on the Saturn for the first time as my inaugural first game on my new setup. After completing it (great game!), I found myself in the biggest mood to revisit one of my favorite series from throughout the PSX, PS2/XB/GC era - the Legacy of Kain.

So I powered up the PS2 and threw in the original Blood Omen on the PSX. The PS2 via component is one of the best and easiest methods of enjoying original PSX titles at their proper output resolution of 240p. That 240p resolution combined with the Framemeister for upscale to 1080p equates to an absolutely stunning presentation of PSX titles. I'm using a profile for the Framemeister that properly upscales the image using a 5x integer scale and I've enabled scanlines and adjusted the thickness and brightness to a point where it simulates a proper CRT really really well with more clarity on my B6 OLED.

So with that, a few thoughts after playing through the entirety of Blood Omen. The first time I've done so since completing it upon its original release!

- I still love the overhead perspective of the original game. It has an atmosphere and a look/feel that simply hasn't ever been replicated in this style of RPG. It's rather attractive even years on and I think it holds up better than most 3D games of its time.
- The voice acting is still top notch as hell. Simon Templeman as Kain gives one of the most definitive high quality performances in a game when voice acting was still in its infancy. The rest of the cast is equally inspired.
- The game suffers from some pretty severe technical issues on the PSX. Music can't be played while voice overs are happening along with myriad of framerate problems. Some of them pretty damned bad bringing the game down to feeling like you're playing underwater.
- The amount of loading in the game is pretty damned bad. This goes back to the technical issues but having to load into your inventory screen is arduous. There are moments when you need to consistently switch weapons to access new areas and having to wait 10 seconds for a screen to load will test your patience to the extreme. If you can, enable the faster loading for PSX titles on the PS2's driver menu. It helps but its still annoying.
- *PRO-TIP* - In regards to the framerate, if you have a PSP and own Blood Omen as a download from the PSX Classics library, this may actually be the preferred method of revisiting the game. (outside of the PC release or emulation). Especially if you have the PSP Go and the requisite component cables. With the Go (or any model PSP really), you can set the display mode to interlaced and PSX titles will properly output to the Framemeister at their native 240p. The better hardware in the PSP cleans up the framerate issues in the game nicely. To top it off, the Go is the way to play because you can also pair a PS3 controller to it. I do not have a GO anymore unfortunately but I may hunt one down just for this reason.
- I forgot how much content is in the game! It took me about 30 hours to finish it up and there's obviously a great deal of repetition in some of its dungeons. Some of the sewer stuff is a slog later in the game, in fact. Encounter design is antiquated and at times frustrating. Getting bounced between spikes for seemingly messing up and ending up dead is irksome. Though I never tire of hearing "The Heart of Darkness" from Kain.:). I'm struck by some of the artistry on display though. The backgrounds are lovingly designed and the consistency of the atmosphere remains impressive as mentioned. Silicon Knights did good on this one.
- As the first game of the series, it does a tremendous job of setting up the narrative to come. The corruption of the Pillars, the Circle of Nine, Meobius the time streamer (The Oracle of Nosgoth in the original game), the Sarafan, William the Just, etc. It's a series that's just so rich with characters and world building and so much of that foundation is laid here. It depresses me that the series died a quiet death after Defiance.:(
- The game is just chock full of secrets to discover. The full moon mechanic opens up moon caves and secret areas that you'd never see otherwise and there's a crazy amount of loot to be had along with blood fountains that permanently upgrade stats.

So yeah, I really enjoyed my time revisiting the game despite its flaws and technical issues. It's a meaty experience with beautifully put together pixel art that still holds up well today. Its gameplay is solid and despite some repetition and padding, I couldn't wait to see what was around the next corner.

I moved on and completed Soul Reaver (I'll post up about that game shortly) and am currently working my through Soul Reaver 2. I plan to play through them all including the much maligned Blood Omen 2 in the coming weeks. Feel free to share any thoughts about the series. Thanks!

Vorador should have had his own game. I know there was some talk about an offshoot game for him, too. With Paul Lukather having passed some years ago, its ashame it never materialized.:(

As mentioned, I did recently complete Soul Raver as well. I played through the game on my Dreamcast connected via my Toro VGA box outputting RGB to the Framemeister at 1080p.

Visually, the game holds up nicely. It's definitely a product of its time with simplistic enemy models and relatively simple geometry for its environments. To be entirely fair, the Dreamcast does indeed output at 480p and has a wonderfully clean image but this is still an original Playstation game for all intents and purposes. Crystal Dynamics did go back and increase the polygon count for both Kain and Raziel for the Dreamcast release. They also pushed out the draw distance and increased the framerate to a full 60fps (with plenty of drops) so if you're looking to replay the game - the Dreamcast version is the preferred method. If you want to know more about the differences, I'd direct to you Digital Foundry's excellent retro episode on the game here:



With that out of the way, here are some thoughts on the experience after taking the 10 hours or so to complete the game and recover all of the glyphs and most of the health and magic items.

- The one major downside to the Dreamcast release is the loss of the secondary shoulder buttons from the PSX controller. Because of that, camera control is relegated to the D-Pad so its nearly impossible to move Raziel and control the camera at the same time. This exacerbates what is an already poor in-game camera to begin with in my opinion. I'm not going to lie, I was frustrated as hell at times during combat and in managing the platforming throughout the game because of the uncooperative camera. You will constantly have to press and hold both shoulder buttons down to recenter the camera for properly timed jumps, etc. (this is usually used as an over the shoulder cam to look around the environments but functions well for recentering).
- I had forgotten how utterly over-reliant Crystal Dynamics was on block puzzles here. My goodness you're going to move around a lot of blocks throughout your time with the game.:) At the very least, the puzzles are generally well designed (if at times a bit obtuse) and mostly inoffensive. My primary complaint is that the designers felt the need to put in random encounters in the middle of these puzzles for seemingly no other reason than to annoy you. The puzzles are fine on their own and adding enemies that swipe at you forcing you to stop in the middle of a solution is problematic to say the least.
- The combat is mostly rudimentary with simple attacks and the ability to use some environmental weapons and drops. The game does pick up nicely once you get the Soul Reaver itself and are able to use the force glyph. The flame Reaver also makes for a bit of a god mode situation as you can cook most vampires with a few hits. It's perfectly fine given the era but its about the least interesting thing in the game.
- Enough cannot be said about the lack of loading times in the game. It may seem like its nothing to shout about given where we are with games today but at the time of its release - this was an incredible technical feat and its one aspect of the game that really holds up extremely well. This is a Metroid style adventure game and having to load in new areas would totally kill the pacing of the experience.
- It was great to revisit some of the key locations from Blood Omen in 3D. Seeing the fallen ruins of Nupraptor's Retreat or even the broken down Pillars of Nosgoth in the City of Sanctuaries was good stuff. The game is set 1500 years after the original so things have changed mightily as you can imagine.
- There are a number of boss battles in the game and all are interesting in so far as the interactions you have with your vampiric brothers but mechanically, there's some janky stuff. The underlying design work here is sound but you totally see where the technology was the limiting factor. Weird AI pathing, some not so obvious gameplay elements that game never teaches you to look for, etc. Still, its impressive what they were able to put together given the limitations.
- Much like Blood Omen, there's a lot of foundation building here from a story perspective but looking back on it and knowing what I know now about the development of the game - its obvious Crystal Dynamics didn't really have a blueprint in place on where to take the series story wise. The complex conflict/bromance between Kain and Raziel that feeds the rest of the series is simplistic here by comparison. None of the color that gets added in the subsequent games is present here obviously and that's because of the development cycle and HUGE amounts of cut content that never made it into the game. It's a relatively straightforward revenge story at the outset with some hints at what's to come (and what's to come got put together on the fly). Still, the voice acting is superb and the story elements that lay the ground work for the future are as compelling as they were back when this released in '99.
- The ending is still an utter sham though. Thank GOD I can move right into Soul Reaver 2 because being met with that "To be continued" screen brought back memories of rage and disgust from the first time I played through the game at a ripe age of 21 (christ I'm old!!).

So all in all, there are elements here that hold up well and plenty of others that will force you to acknowledge the game as a relic of its time. I feel like the original Blood Omen holds up better because it fit a simple mold of an established 2D action RPG whereas Soul Reaver was tackling a 3D character adventure - a genre still in its relative infancy at the time. Despite my numerous frustrations with it, its worthy of a revisit for fans of the series. As long as you understand what you're getting into, you'll have a good time with it. Also, I can't not mention that Soul Reaver still has one of the coolest damned intro movies in all of gaming:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DOKzTHaPfM&t=2s

I'll have more as I progress through the series. I am already several hours into Soul Reaver 2 on the PS2 and this is really where the series brought its A game. It's rather stunning how much of an improvement Soul Reaver 2 is over its predecessor visually, cinematically and gameplay wise. I look forward to sharing my thoughts when I'm done with it.

The Dark Chronicle in Soul Reaver 2 is so good. It's wonderful being able to re-read the interactions that Raziel has with the characters. There's so much dense story to wade through that having it all in one place is nifty as shit. The only thing would be better is the ability to rewatch the cutscenes in their entirety but that's what youtube is for today.

I agree with you on Soul Reaver 2 though - it was always my favorite back in the day and I'm finding its still living up that reputation as I play through it now.

I don't remember outright hating Blood Omen 2 when I played through it but it was definitely the lesser experience. I'm strangely looking forward to revisiting it.

I didn't mention them much in my previous posts either but the soundtrack to these games are phenomenal. Especially the Soul Reaver series.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNWSDvDqm9g

The PC version has better loading, resolution and obviously framerate but you have to jump through hoops to get it to run in general. Here's a guide:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=882486908

I'll reiterate from the OP, if you have a PSP (the Go specifically) that's a really great way to play the game if the PC version is not accessible. Better framerate, better loading times and the PSP can output the correct native resolution of the PSX version. Emulation is also a good option as well. There's some pretty fantastic looking filters I've seen used in the more common PSX emulators out there.

I finished up Soul Reaver 2 late last week, finally. I actually played the last half of the game on my new TCL 6 Series set once again using the Framemeister at 1080p and finally getting a quality profile with good looking scanlines after some tweaking (I love me some scanlines).

This is where the series truly brought its A-game. Soul Reaver 2 is a remarkably improved game over its predecessors. Visually its a noticeable leap but the core gameplay benefited the most from the jump to the Playstation 2. Combat feels a much better with some added variety thanks to more enemy weapon drops and an alternate strong attack kick combo available to the player. Finally moving camera control to the right stick is god send over the shoulder buttons on the PSX for the original game (or even worse, the D-Pad on the Dreamcast version). It just *feels* good to play and you feel much more in control of Raziel than before.

It's also a much more cinematic game than its predecessor. It's an interesting observation as Soul Reaver had plenty of story but it was doled out much more slowly and in bigger chunks (mainly during its intro and finale). This game has a great deal of exposition and most of it is used to build on the foundation that Blood Omen and Soul Reaver worked to build. That exposition is doled out in both mini-cutscenes to introduce new areas or longer story cutscenes for the really important stuff.

Story wise, this is where the time streaming shenanigans of the series truly takes a front seat by exposing the major paradox points that would define the remainder of the series. Blood Omen 2's development played heavily into the story of Soul Reaver 2 and vice versa. Kain's follow-up solo game exists in a timeline created by Kain's actions at the end of Soul Reaver 2 and would also setup the entirety of Defiance and more specifically it would seal Raziel's destiny in its finale.

Moebius finally takes on the role of the primary aggressor and Richard Doyle just kills it from a voice acting perspective. He's sniveling, conniving and downright evil when he needs to be and its glorious to watch. The second game also offers players the opportunity to revisit some of the key areas of the original Blood Omen in their full 3D glory. It's glorious to see the Pillars in their original pristine glory and then watch them decay as Raziel is thrown throughout time and visits key eras in the series. Same for Vorador's forest and the art design behind the various Reaver forges is just exquisite.



The Air Forge in particular deserves special mention as it stands as one of the most unique areas in the series:



The game also gives us our first glimpse and interaction with Janos Audron who would play a significant role in Blood Omen 2 and Defiance. His fate and the reveal of who it was that finally murdered him still works today as a great twist. Janos' retreat is yet another example of the amazing art design in the game!



I'll end with a few bullet points on the game that I think are worth mentioning:

- As good as the game is, it's still a bit too heavy on combat for my tastes. Considering how much backtracking you do in this game its a bummer to see the developers fall back on walled off encounters with progressively bigger enemies as the primary method to impede the players progress in the second half. Defiance would also lean on combat heavily but there's significant differences between both games that I'll get into that when I deep dive into that title.

- On the opposite side of the equation - the game is at its absolute best when you're deep into a Reaver forge solving puzzles. Long gone are the endless block puzzles from the original game and they are replaced by legitimately well thought out brain teasers that are just challenging enough to not be insulting but not hard enough to truly frustrate. The fact that the Flame forge is so short at the end of the game is part of what frustrates me in so far as the combat imbalance as the game progresses.

- Love, love love Simon Templeman and Michael Bell. I can't say that enough. They completely carry this game and give the story a sense of gravitas that simply wouldn't work without them. Bell in particular conveys a sense of trepidation about his growing alliance with Kain (a character he very much hates) so well that you buy into it despite the truncated timeline the game takes to get there.

- The unlockable bonus materials on the disc are a treasure trove for fans of the series. They include a high resolution version of the opening CG movie for the original Soul Reaver, VA outtakes, full on VA sessions intercut with their respective cutscenes, art concepts and more. Great stuff!

Honestly, years on its just an impressive game and it holds up phenomenally well today. It was a pleasure to experience it again and it remains my favorite of the series up to this point. We'll see how Defiance and Blood Omen 2 play into that ranking as I continue my replay.

Speaking of which, I'm already on Chapter 5 of Blood Omen 2 and boy do I have some thoughts on that game. I'll update this thread with those once I've completed it and then finally move on to Defiance to complete my series playthrough. I leave you with the opening theme for Soul Reaver 2 (again) cause well, it's bad ass.:)

Morrigan said:

Oh thanks for bumping this! I forgot to add it to my Watched threads and wanted to read your comments on Blood Omen and Soul Reaver and completely forgot.

Just read all the posts now and I fully agree with you on just about everything. Your impressions of Blood Omen mirror mine exactly. I still love that game to death despite its massive technical flaws. A rough, unpolished gem it really was. And Kain, oh, Kain... *wistful sigh* How I miss him. I mean Raziel's all right, but Kain will forever be the GOAT.

My biggest issue with Soul Reaver 2, is the unskippable cut scenes and low frequency of save points. Since my game crashed after an hour of playing without saving (Steam port, which I mentioned earlier is shite) and having to rewatch long-ass cut scenes, that was immensely frustrating.

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Both good points I forgot to mention. That's one plus to both Blood Omen 2 and Defiance (the ability to Save at any time!). Though I won't lie, the save spots in Soul Reaver 2 looked damned cool at least!

Dreenk said:

Not sure if you know already, but Kurt Harland of Information Society also happened to do audio at Crystal D on Soul Reaver 1&2 and Defiance, and Ozar Midrashim is actually just an IS track. Clearly it kind of became the foundation for the series' sound from then on, and boy, was that ever a good call! That track - and the audio in general - is so inextricably linked to my fond memories of this series.

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Yep, well aware. John over at DF did a great job covering a lot of the history on that, too in the Soul Reaver post I put up.

The biggest sore thumb that sticks out in Blood Omen 2 for me at the moment is the change in composer and the effect it has on that games atmosphere.

It took me longer than I had cared for but I finally completed Blood Omen 2. I have to say, I struggled like hell with the game. As mentioned, I played through it in the best possible console conditions. I played the Xbox version via component cables connected to the Framemeister, upscaled to 1080p using an excellent OG Xbox profile.

Right from the intro movie you're left a bit awe struck at how completely "off" the art design is in the game. It doesn't look or feel like a Legacy of Kain game. The bulk of the experience is set in the city of Meridian which features a heavy steam punk influence. It just doesn't jive with the dark medieval vibe of the original game or even the wasteland overworld in Soul Reaver (though its the closest analogue considering some of the cut content in that game).

Even more dire is the look of Kain himself. I mean...


It just seems as though the concept art didn't translate well into the more limited polygon models featured in the game as I don't find this to be nearly as offensive:



Don't even get me started on the seemingly sado-leather inspired vampire designs featured throughout Blood Omen 2:


Vorador's design in particular is really rather poor in comparison with his appearances in Soul Reaver 2 and later in Defiance. The art direction in the game is truly one of the more problematic elements but even if we push on past that, we find more fundamental flaws.

The most prominent issue is that the first half of the game is interminably boring. Most of the first half is set in the city proper and there's just very little variety in what you're asked to do. Fight a Sarafan, flip that glyph switch, rinse and repeat. Mix it up with a few stealth kills using Mist just for the heck of it. Sure we could boil down just about any game to these components (including the rest of the games in this series) but Blood Omen 2 stands out in how badly a job it does in masking its repetition.

Even more problematic is that there's no story hook here. Kain is the only character anchoring us to this world until Vorador comes into the picture. Uma is a cypher that exists only to play out her betrayal in the finale but since you never cared for her to begin with - that little twist falls utterly flat. The same applies to the games bosses who are forced to explain their histories with Kain via exposition at their moment of death. There's just not enough connective tissue here to make you give a damn about any of this. I'm not sure how you fix it but maybe actually allowing you to play through the initial fight with the Hylden Lord and interacting with these characters might have helped? I don't know, just throwing that out there.

The game also features the most noticeable downgrade in puzzle quality in the series at this point. After the highs in Soul Reaver 2, the "puzzles" here are insultingly simple affairs. Most are tied to the dark gifts that Kain acquires as he kills his previous Vampire generals. Charm tends to be overused throughout the second half as is Telekinesis. You get a total of 7 Dark Gifts and three of them are combat focused which says a lot about where the focus of the game is. Combat is a simple combo-based system that emphasizes blocking (especially if you choose the manual blocking option) though more often than not its best just to attack endlessly regardless of whether your weapon breaks. You're claws will serve you just fine in 90% of the games encounters.

Thankfully, a little ways after the mid-point of the game things do begin to pick up. Both story and level design wise. The Eternal Prison is actually a pretty great level as is the descent into the Hylden facility that is holding "The Mass". Both levels features some of the most unique looking designs and puzzle solving opportunities you'll see in Blood Omen 2. The story finally starts to tie back into the finale of Soul Reaver 2 with the inclusion of Janos and the reveal of the Hylden as the race of beings that have been pulling the strings of the Legacy of Kain mythos from the very beginning. It's necessary info really but I believe Defiance covers a fair bit of it as well so I don't know how necessary this game is other than knowing the fate of Janos in the finale and how he ended up in this world after his heart was ripped from him.

In the end, Blood Omen 2 is strikingly mediocre. It's functionally not terrible but committing the sins of being boring and working to gut the aesthetic and audio designs of the series while presenting a pretty ho-hum story to boot? Yeah, there's a reason this is regarded as the worst in the series. Deservedly so.

To close things out, I wanted to throw out a few random thoughts:

- The music is a serious step down from the previous games. There's very few stand out tracks with most of the music being primarily ambient in nature. Another area of the game that attempts to forge a new identity for a series that really never needed it.
- There's only one aspect of Kain that is upgradeable and that's his blood/health bar. You upgrade by drinking the blood of fallen enemies/NPC's. By doing so you collect "lore". That's it and you will be sick to death of the blood slurping animation by the end of the game.
- That having been said, props to the team for bringing back some of the original audio files from the original Blood Omen. I can't help but smile when I hear "Please, help me kind sir!".
- Some of the boss battles are interesting in design but man do they feel janky as hell! I mean the game itself is pretty janky but the combat during the boss battles are meant to be presented in various stages and they just feel as though they are horribly limited by the technology of the era.
- Seriously, what the fuck is this:



One more to go! I plan to start my final run in Defiance this week and hope to have everything wrapped up by the weekend. Thanks for reading and despite walking into Blood Omen 2 knowing what I was in for, I'm still having a blast.

Morrigan said:

Blood Omen 2 is a travesty. Vorador's presence in that game is one of the most obvious plot hole in any story, and far as I can remember there is zero attempt to even explain his presence whatsoever. It's complete nonsense.

You could tell the game was outsourced to a different team who were left completely clueless.

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Yep. It's explained away in the series lore that sometime in the fourth timeline's post-Blood Omen era that Vorador is resurrected by an "unknown party". That's is. Nothing on how that was accomplished, etc. That's nonsense. He was decapitated by Moebius during the vampire purges and none of the paradoxes presented in the subsequent games change that.

It's pretty well know that the development of Blood Omen 2 changed how the story played out in Soul Reaver 2 and Defiance. Vorador is one of those things they just simply never addressed well. Considering the role that Vorador plays in Blood Omen 2? You could remove him entirely and you'd miss nothing. You'd be hard pressed to convince me that the vampires in the Cabal don't know who Janos Audron is!

Also, can we address Vorador's appearance in Blood Omen 2? I mean good lord...

Blood Omen:



Soul Reaver 2:



Defiance:



Blood Omen 2:

I just reached Chapter 9 in Defiance. I can see the finish line!

Man, I forgot how expansive Vorador's mansion was in Defiance. It's the biggest chapter in the game (Chapter 8) and features the best overall balance between exploration/combat and light puzzle solving. It's also where the story really starts to give us answers to some of the big questions the series has been asking up to this point. Its a shame that Defiance spends so much of its time rehashing earlier plot points. Specifically those covered in Blood Omen 2 which confirms how unnecessary that game is overall (i.e. watch a synopsis and skip it if you can). Narrative wise, it just feels like Defiance is running in place for far too long before it gets to the good stuff.

I'll have more once I'm done with it.

WellbornWarrior said:

I still remember those absurd jumping passages in Voradors mansion that drove me crazy...

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The move over to a fixed camera perspective for Defiance can be utterly maddening, yes! I was actually bothered more by an earlier chapter with Kain at the Pillars of Nosgoth. You have to go west and jump on a few pillars to reach the top of a broken down castle and there's a row of archers waiting at the top that you have to contend with. Between that and the camera, I'm not going to lie - I wanted to put my fist through the TV.;)

I play most current games on the hardest difficulty right out of the gate and don't ever feel that level of frustration...lol.

I literally just finished up Defiance. Bittersweet to have completed this journey through the series.:(

I'll post my full thoughts on it tomorrow.

I meant to post final thoughts a bit ago but ended up going to Wildwood, NJ for vacation with the family and that ended up taking up most of my time for the last week.:)

Defiance is an interesting game and the final transformation of the series move away from the puzzle solving roots that Soul Reaver established into a more action-centric game that prioritizes combat arenas and simple exploration. As I had mentioned in my Blood Omen 2 thoughts, this isn't exactly the direction I wanted the series to go in but the industry had already moved in this direction with games like God of War and Devil May Cry really garnering attention - so it seemed pretty inevitable really.

Despite that shift, there is a lot to like in Defiance and the game never loses focus on the narrative and functioning as a psuedo-finale for the series. It doesn't resolve all of the outstanding plot elements (including some rather important ones including the final fate of the pillars) but it does provide closure to Raziel's journey and leaves Kain in a good place to pick-up as the series protagonist once again. That's really where the game shines in that it finally allows you to play as Kain once more. Proper Kain this time, too! Not that emaciated imposter in Blood Omen 2. Templeman once again knocks it out of the park with his portrayal of Kain who by this point has progressed from the overly confident and arrogant tyrant who doomed the world to the far more strategic and self-aware of his own destiny character the series has been hinting at.

Raziel's final sacrifice enabling Kain to end the wheel of fate and the Elder God controlling is well executed and strangely more emotional then I had remembered it. Raziel assuming Moebius' now broken body was an excellent twist and Kain's reaction to it was priceless.

Defiance also sees a return to the stronger art direction featured in the Soul Reaver titles as opposed to the steam punk nonsense in Blood Omen 2. The game features some really stunning locales.




..and yes that includes another revisit to the Pillars looking about as good as they have in the series:




Having said that, the strong art direction doesn't save the game from its blatant reuse of assets. Defiance is without question the most "samey" feeling game in the series. We are, for the first time introduced to the Vampire citadel and its various entrances throughout the landscape. Each one of these citadel locations provides the bulk of the games puzzle solving. These puzzles are mostly just simple brain teasers that require the use of a specific Reaver type in the case of Raziel who has the more puzzle heavy adventure. More often than not you have to find and light a few torches to reactive the portal that brought you to the Citadel to begin with and then you can return to the main world proper and start to look for the next one. Raziel must find a number of Reaver variants including a few he had already acquired before (light, dark, air, etc.). Kain on the other hand must find four tablet blocks that will enhance the physical Reaver with various attributes (fire, poison, etc.). It's all pretty well worn adventure game stuff but its a far cry from the intricately designed areas in Soul Reaver 2 and returning to my earlier point, the various Citadel locations are just re-skins of the same area. They all look and feel alike and that leads to a sense of fatigue and repetition as the game progresses. The music suffers from the same issues as most of it is recycled themes from Soul Reaver 2 with little variation (though who am I kidding? It's still damned good!).

On that same note, combat is deceptively deep at first. You can see the same shared DNA with the likes of God of War which I think is the games closest analog. The problem is that said depth is an illusion. Both characters will unlock new moves as they rack up experience killing enemies. They have wonderful names like "Cadaverous Lacerations" but in the end, both characters share almost the exact same move set. There is almost nothing to distinguish them in combat other than Kain moving a bit slower. This is a damned shame as having two characters with highly differentiated skill sets would have been pretty damned cool. Specifically designing Raziel's adventure as a low combat, heavy puzzle affair would have been even more amazing.

Combat also functions as the main impediment to progress in the game for both characters and you'll be doing a metric ton of it. A healthy portion of it is extremely repetitious and frankly not fun. Especially now that you have to deal with a non-controllable, more "cinematic" camera ala the previously mentioned Devil May Cry. The difference is that that game tuned its combat and camera to near perfection. Defiance lacks any depth and the camera angles it puts in front of the player just adds to the inherent frustrations. Especially when trying to perform what should be an easy jump in a platforming segment! There was a section when Kain first visits the pillars that requires him to go north towards an abandoned castle/fort. As the player, you have to jump up to the top level of this castle using some broken down pillars and what's waiting for you at the top is a minor army of archers that will continuously knock you down and force you to pick away at them using your TK powers. Seriously, fuck whomever thought *THAT* was good encounter design in a game!

So yes, Defiance is an interesting game indeed. My time with it was bittersweet as mentioned. Primarily because in some ways it was a return to form for the series coming off of Blood Omen 2 and in many ways it was also a disappointment. This series had its own "flavor" that should have culminated in the best of the Soul Reaver games nd instead we got a relatively average God of War/Devil May Cry clone with a Legacy of Kain paint job instead.

I reviewed the game years ago and closed that review with these words which I think still very much apply:

"Though not easily accessible to LOK beginners, the culmination of the storyline is the most pleasing aspect of Defiance. Crystal Dynamics throughout the course of three games managed to expand a storyline begun by Silicon Knights as well as intertwine the storyline of the much maligned Blood Omen 2. All of this is done with a certain aplomb that very few developers could pull off. Players are privy to a tale that is both entertaining and well acted. The themes explored range from the fate and sacrifice of one man to the inevitability of free will.

I can't ignore the fact that Defiance is also a game of missed opportunities. There was a chance here to create an interesting combat system that differentiated itself by providing two very different characters and experiences. Budget and time are always an important concern for developers and I have no doubt that Crystal Dynamics needed to focus its energies and dollars on what it felt was important. With that in mind it is my humble opinion that the heart of any action game is its ability to draw the player into the conflict with a diverse and interesting set of mechanics with which to wreak havoc and carnage. This is an area I feel Defiance failed in both due to its shallow combat and often frustrating camera system.

If you're a fan of the Legacy of Kain series you will without hesitation run right out and buy this just to see how the story ends regardless of what I say. I don't see a problem with that as any fan will be willing to overlook the problems just to see some of their favorite characters in action again. For the more discriminating action fan I would heartily recommend at the very least a rental as you've got little to lose on that end."

...and so ends my two month sojourn into the world of Kain and Raziel. It had its ups and downs but for me the strongest games outweighed the any of the major problems with the weaker ones. I still found things to like in those experiences and even in 2018, there's a whole lot worth revisiting here. If I had to rank my experiences with the series now that I've recently replayed them? It would go something like this:

1. Soul Reaver 2

2. Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen

3. Soul Reaver

4. Legacy of Kain Defiance

5. Blood Omen 2

Thanks for reading my lengthy as hell thoughts on the series. It's been fun!