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TerraMantis

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Do you want Legacy of Kain back?

Is Legacy of Kain making a comeback?

Back when vampires were the predatory masters of the world and did NOT sparkle like they’re covered in glitter when walking in sunlight they used to use telekinesis to stream the blood of their fallen prey to their mouth. This was the fantasy world of “Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen”. Hitting the scenes 1996 for the Playstation the Legacy of Kain franchise has been absent from the gaming world since 2003. Is Legacy of Kain making a comeback though?

 

In the beginning there was “Blood Omen”.   This game supported far too often and lengthy load times, but that couldn’t stop this game from etching its way into my memory as one of my favorite games of the PSone generation. Blood Omen had an isometric top-down player view like games such as Diablo and Bastion. You play as the anti-hero Kain of Nosgoth and you seek revenge against the ones who have murdered you. You are resurrected as a vampire by a necromancer to exact that revenge. Kain later discovers that there is a much darker and super natural force pulling the strings behind the scenes. Your adventure feels a bit like a “rated M-ature” version of Zelda. As your adventure goes on you gain more suits of armor with different abilities, weapons, and spells. Kain also wields the fabled Soul Reaver. The Soul Reaver is possibly one of the most famous weapons in gaming second only to perhaps the Master Sword or Blades of Chaos (I might even throw a Lancer into the mix). “Blood Omen” had that action adventure feel and tittered on the edge of RPG just the way Zelda games seem to do.

Most recently was “Legacy of Kain: Defiance” in 2003. In this tale you played as both Kain, the wielder of the physical Soul Reaver, and Raziel who by this time in the storytelling has become known as the Soul that inhabits the physical form of the Reaver which makes the sword overpowering and have a soul lust. Complex and intelligent storytelling take these characters whose fates seem to be intimately intertwined through many spans of time throughout their dimension.   As they are both entities that are immortal they have both been told throughout their stay in reality that they have a fixed destiny and that even trying to defy fate will only lead to its inevitable conclusion that would had always and always will be only one inevitable outcome no matter how long they live. Kain, on the other hand, has a different idea about so-called destiny. Kain states that even a coin could be considered to have only one of two outcomes, but once in a million it could land on its side.  

The Legacy of Kain franchise as a whole has always had several different factors that stapled the mood and penchant of this game. The mood was always atmospheric and medieval fantasy in nature. The penchant’s narrative was complex and mature while simultaneously being simple and primal. Both Kain’s and Raziel’s humble beginnings take place with their murder and then their primal instinct for blood lust ensues with a simple revenge tale, but the intricacies of time travel and underlying nuances of physics, destiny, fate, and freewill come into play with a more mature and sophisticated story to tell. The atmosphere of Legacy of Kain has always been dark, bloody, labyrinth sewn, and torturous.

So where is this franchise’s stapled mood and penchant been for the last eight years? Where has its atmosphere and mood gone? This atmosphere and mood which was medieval fantasy in nature while simultaneously being simple, primal, complex, and mature? Hopefully you can see it too but I believe it has been here in essence since 2007.

 

 Their births are 11 years apart, but they feel so close.
 Their births are 11 years apart, but they feel so close.

No Caption Provided

The action RPG franchise “The Witcher” has embodied all of these qualities from day one.   Geralt’s and Kain’s aesthetic appearance is not where the similarities stop for these two video game front men.

The clichéd beginnings of Geralt’s tale with being plagued by amnesia are no telltale signs to this game’s penchant of delivering a simplistically rooted beginning story while simultaneously being primal, complex, and mature in a darkly twisted, bloody, and torturous medieval fantasy setting. Similar to the way Kain's and Raziel's tale is not only a simple story of revenge. Geralt is not an anti-hero like Kain per se, but he is not “black or white” and he isn’t even gray. Geralt simply seeks the truth. With amnesia Geralt doesn’t span through time physically but rather he is taken there with his occasional rebirth to sections of his memory.  Kain, Geralt, and even Razeil were all human at one time or another and they have undergone and struggled with this change.   Whether it is being transformed at the hands of a necromancer into a vampire or undergoing mutation through an alchemical process and being forever altered these protagonists are or have been human at their core. These characters show the complexities, depths of the darknesses, and the perseverance of the human atmosphere.

 

 Can you spot the monsters?
 Can you spot the monsters?

No Caption Provided

No Caption Provided

The ambiences of both games are extremely similar. They both contain a level of deep immersion and environmentally capture the player’s mind and drag them into their world. All though, I do have to say that “The Witcher” series has learned how to deepen that immersion by basically having no load times unlike the “Legacy of Kain” release of 1996. “The Witcher” and “Legacy of Kain” both take you to places that are environmentally darkly twisted and construed to a carefully crafted and realized medieval fantasy world. From water reflections that cascade over the grime covered stone sewers of Vizima to the eerily lit supernatural luminescence of the catacombs of Nosgoth both game’s mood and atmospheric qualities grip you and drag you in giving them a feeling of two games that are kindred spirits not only through narrative personas but also through their physical world.

 

 

 Can't you see it? Just imagine the camera view zoomed-in down to a third-person perspective.
 Can't you see it? Just imagine the camera view zoomed-in down to a third-person perspective.

 

 

No Caption Provided

 
The Witcher franchise does not titter on the edge of the RPG genre the way games like “Blood Omen” did; instead The Witcher series is a full-fledged action-RPG-adventure of great quality and execution. So if you’re looking for a game that can take you to some of the same places, mentally and spiritually, that games like the Legacy of Kain series seemed to embody then you need look no further than the deeper RPG action experience of the adventures of Geralt in “The Witcher”.

 

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TerraMantis

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Edited By TerraMantis

Is Legacy of Kain making a comeback?

Back when vampires were the predatory masters of the world and did NOT sparkle like they’re covered in glitter when walking in sunlight they used to use telekinesis to stream the blood of their fallen prey to their mouth. This was the fantasy world of “Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen”. Hitting the scenes 1996 for the Playstation the Legacy of Kain franchise has been absent from the gaming world since 2003. Is Legacy of Kain making a comeback though?

 

In the beginning there was “Blood Omen”.   This game supported far too often and lengthy load times, but that couldn’t stop this game from etching its way into my memory as one of my favorite games of the PSone generation. Blood Omen had an isometric top-down player view like games such as Diablo and Bastion. You play as the anti-hero Kain of Nosgoth and you seek revenge against the ones who have murdered you. You are resurrected as a vampire by a necromancer to exact that revenge. Kain later discovers that there is a much darker and super natural force pulling the strings behind the scenes. Your adventure feels a bit like a “rated M-ature” version of Zelda. As your adventure goes on you gain more suits of armor with different abilities, weapons, and spells. Kain also wields the fabled Soul Reaver. The Soul Reaver is possibly one of the most famous weapons in gaming second only to perhaps the Master Sword or Blades of Chaos (I might even throw a Lancer into the mix). “Blood Omen” had that action adventure feel and tittered on the edge of RPG just the way Zelda games seem to do.

Most recently was “Legacy of Kain: Defiance” in 2003. In this tale you played as both Kain, the wielder of the physical Soul Reaver, and Raziel who by this time in the storytelling has become known as the Soul that inhabits the physical form of the Reaver which makes the sword overpowering and have a soul lust. Complex and intelligent storytelling take these characters whose fates seem to be intimately intertwined through many spans of time throughout their dimension.   As they are both entities that are immortal they have both been told throughout their stay in reality that they have a fixed destiny and that even trying to defy fate will only lead to its inevitable conclusion that would had always and always will be only one inevitable outcome no matter how long they live. Kain, on the other hand, has a different idea about so-called destiny. Kain states that even a coin could be considered to have only one of two outcomes, but once in a million it could land on its side.  

The Legacy of Kain franchise as a whole has always had several different factors that stapled the mood and penchant of this game. The mood was always atmospheric and medieval fantasy in nature. The penchant’s narrative was complex and mature while simultaneously being simple and primal. Both Kain’s and Raziel’s humble beginnings take place with their murder and then their primal instinct for blood lust ensues with a simple revenge tale, but the intricacies of time travel and underlying nuances of physics, destiny, fate, and freewill come into play with a more mature and sophisticated story to tell. The atmosphere of Legacy of Kain has always been dark, bloody, labyrinth sewn, and torturous.

So where is this franchise’s stapled mood and penchant been for the last eight years? Where has its atmosphere and mood gone? This atmosphere and mood which was medieval fantasy in nature while simultaneously being simple, primal, complex, and mature? Hopefully you can see it too but I believe it has been here in essence since 2007.

 

 Their births are 11 years apart, but they feel so close.
 Their births are 11 years apart, but they feel so close.

No Caption Provided

The action RPG franchise “The Witcher” has embodied all of these qualities from day one.   Geralt’s and Kain’s aesthetic appearance is not where the similarities stop for these two video game front men.

The clichéd beginnings of Geralt’s tale with being plagued by amnesia are no telltale signs to this game’s penchant of delivering a simplistically rooted beginning story while simultaneously being primal, complex, and mature in a darkly twisted, bloody, and torturous medieval fantasy setting. Similar to the way Kain's and Raziel's tale is not only a simple story of revenge. Geralt is not an anti-hero like Kain per se, but he is not “black or white” and he isn’t even gray. Geralt simply seeks the truth. With amnesia Geralt doesn’t span through time physically but rather he is taken there with his occasional rebirth to sections of his memory.  Kain, Geralt, and even Razeil were all human at one time or another and they have undergone and struggled with this change.   Whether it is being transformed at the hands of a necromancer into a vampire or undergoing mutation through an alchemical process and being forever altered these protagonists are or have been human at their core. These characters show the complexities, depths of the darknesses, and the perseverance of the human atmosphere.

 

 Can you spot the monsters?
 Can you spot the monsters?

No Caption Provided

No Caption Provided

The ambiences of both games are extremely similar. They both contain a level of deep immersion and environmentally capture the player’s mind and drag them into their world. All though, I do have to say that “The Witcher” series has learned how to deepen that immersion by basically having no load times unlike the “Legacy of Kain” release of 1996. “The Witcher” and “Legacy of Kain” both take you to places that are environmentally darkly twisted and construed to a carefully crafted and realized medieval fantasy world. From water reflections that cascade over the grime covered stone sewers of Vizima to the eerily lit supernatural luminescence of the catacombs of Nosgoth both game’s mood and atmospheric qualities grip you and drag you in giving them a feeling of two games that are kindred spirits not only through narrative personas but also through their physical world.

 

 

 Can't you see it? Just imagine the camera view zoomed-in down to a third-person perspective.
 Can't you see it? Just imagine the camera view zoomed-in down to a third-person perspective.

 

 

No Caption Provided

 
The Witcher franchise does not titter on the edge of the RPG genre the way games like “Blood Omen” did; instead The Witcher series is a full-fledged action-RPG-adventure of great quality and execution. So if you’re looking for a game that can take you to some of the same places, mentally and spiritually, that games like the Legacy of Kain series seemed to embody then you need look no further than the deeper RPG action experience of the adventures of Geralt in “The Witcher”.

 

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cstrang

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Edited By cstrang

I miss the Legacy of Kain, even with the later-convoluted story. Blood Omen is a classic, Soul Reaver was revolutionary (the rest of the games were kinda meh). I will say that this post has inspired me to maybe check out The Witcher, if my computer can handle it.

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deactivated-64ba3d2213a4d

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I would quite like a reboot for the Legacy Of Kain series. That said, more along the Soul Reaver/Defiance route than Blood Omen. 
The first Blood Omen was good, but 2 was one of the worst PS2 games I've ever played.

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Edited By mosdl

@cstrang said:

I miss the Legacy of Kain, even with the later-convoluted story. Blood Omen is a classic, Soul Reaver was revolutionary (the rest of the games were kinda meh). I will say that this post has inspired me to maybe check out The Witcher, if my computer can handle it.

There is a demo out there.

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Edited By Hot_in_rhinos

@Terramantis
 
Yeah, the witcher does seem to somewhat be a spiritual successor to legacy of kain a bit. Witcher 1 does a better job of feeling like Blood Omen 1 than Blood Omen 2 did. Exploration, magic, several suits of armor, finite number of weapons.
 
@Protome
@Cstrang
Yeah, Blood Omen was awesome and so were the Soul Reavers. Defiance was mleh and Blood Omen 2 missed the mark by so much it was pathetic. Complete garbage.

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Edited By august

Darksiders seems to have this style of game covered these days.

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wickedsc3

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Edited By wickedsc3

I loved soul reaver.

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Edited By Ghostiet

Soul Reaver 2 is probably one of my favorite games of all time. I'd like the series to return, but I don't know what else can be done with the story after Defiance (and Tony Jay's ascending to a higher plane of existence) and I don't give a fuck about rebooting, 'cause what would be the point?

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TerraMantis

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Edited By TerraMantis

@cstrang
 I cannot speculate on what type of machine you have, but it is pretty easy to run Witcher1 on basically anything that was new in the last 3 years. Also, i've heard people saying "how do i get my game to run W2" and things along those lines and i have to say that i didn't think my PC was THAT powerful, but it is going on 3 years old now and i had absolutely no problems running it on very very high settings. All in all, yes, give them a try for sure. W1 is not as action oriented as a ARPG but it strangely blurs the line between turn-based and action simultaneously in a very weird yet satisfying way. W2's fighting mechanics seem to pay more homage to games like Demon's Souls. They're both very good games though and you should check them out for sure.
 
@wickedsc3
@Hot_in_Rhinos
@Protome
I also enjoyed the Soul Reaver games very much. Still though the first Blood Omen was my favorite and yes...Omen 2 was quite awful. 
 
@Ghostiet
Yeah...i am not sure about a reboot either. That being said, the article wasn't about a reboot though; i'm trying to help people fill that void if they have that was filled by a specific Legacy of Kain mood with the suggestion of Witcher. As you can tell...Witcher reminds me very much of the same attitude that LoK pitched for a contemporary game world. 
 
@august
Can't speculate, i've never played Darksiders. Although, it did have some appeal on me and i actually almost picked it up only a few weeks ago...but i picked up Assassin's Creed 2, Mass Effect 2, and Dragon Age: Origins UE. Would you suggest Darksiders?

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lockwoodx

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Edited By lockwoodx

Sick of reboots.