The Retrospective 04.12.07: Legacy of Kain (Part 2 of 2)
Posted by Sean McCabe on 04.12.2007
We bring the Legacy of Kain saga to a close, take a close look at the best upcoming games, and Cammy brings some British flavour to the column, all this week in The Retrospective
Well, two weeks on the trot I've managed to put together something. Yay for me! This week I've been watching some anime shows back from the 1970s, you know, when Mozzarella was less cheesy. Very entertaining though, and carrying a spark that anime has sort of lost nowadays. Anyway, I needed something to talk about, so I decided to cast a scope over the big name upcoming games, complete with an anticipation rating. Forgive the lack of PC, but I'm just not really a PC gamer and don't know much about the upcoming games for it. Also, there's quite a lot of games, so I'll just sum things up in one or two sentences. I'll cover the portables next week.
The Introspective
Disclaimer: I in no way claim this to be a complete list of any kind, and also I have disregarded PC versions for the sake of ease. This is pretty much for the benefit of console players.
Xbox 360:
Mass Effect – Epic Sci Fi RPG seeking to give players a lot of freedom in how they go about things. 9/10
Bioshock – A First person RPG with a dark tone and a very interesting look. Could be the game of the year (could be multi-platform, but officially as of now it is not). 10/10
Halo 3 – Ah, well, the continuation of the Halo franchise. Hotly anticipated by all, bar me. 4/10
Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom – Kingdom Under Fire continues with an action RPG game over another action RTS, which is supposedly coming later. 9/10
Blue Dragon – An original RPG from Mr. Final Fantasy himself, Hironobu Sakaguchi. Art by Akira Toriyama and music by Nobuo Uematsu. Should be the Dragon's scales. 8/10
Wii:
Metroid Prime 3 – Samus returns with awesome Wii controls… but Hunters and Echoes didn't leave the greatest taste in my mouth as has been discussed in an earlier column. 7/10
Super Mario Galaxy – A new Mario game, hopefully more 64 and less Sunshine. Super Paper Mario is excellent, here to hoping Mario has a hot streak coming. 8/10
Super Smash Bros Brawl – This will be the same as Melee. I'll buy it, play it religiously for about a year, and then get bored of it and go back to some good, proper fighters… but a year of enjoyment isn't really to be sniffed at. 8/10
Disaster: Day of Crisis – Sod all is known about this game. But as it's being made by Monolith under the watchful gaze of Nintendo, and has a theme and style that is "mature" without selling out the Nintendo family friendly philosophy, I can't help but think it might be the first true classic for the Wii. 9/10
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles – I know some people have bitched about this game becoming something of the next Gun Survivor, but I really don't have many problems with this, as I enjoyed Dead Aim a lot, and this game seems to be similar. I think it'll suit the Wii controller very well. 9/10
PS3:
Ninja Gaiden Sigma – I loved Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox, and frankly I'd be a lying little bitch if I didn't say I wanted this and am rather jealous of PS3 owners. 9/10
Heavenly Sword – This game looks pretty spectacular, and I'm always interested in this style of game. 8/10
Metal Gear Solid 4 – I want this to go multi-platform so bad, because even my anti-PS3 fanboi self drools at the very mention of this game. 10/10
Final Fantasy XIII (All, like, 3 versions) – Looks very Nomura. Frankly he's killing the FF franchise in my view, I really, really don't think this will be good. None of them. 3/10
White Knight Story – Now we're talking, Level 5 have delivered some truly awesome RPGs in the past, I expect this to be a game that will make me wish I had a PS3… but buy it? We shall see I guess. 9/10
Multi-platform:
Devil May Cry 4 – Not fond of Devil May Cry, but I am interested in seeing what its reception of the 360 is like. 4/10
GTA IV – So, about 8 years after 3, we finally get 4. I'm willing to give this one a chance, see if it actually has developed as a series… most of the series up until now points to no though – 6/10
Resident Evil 5 – Well… to be honest if this is just 4 all over again, I won't be impressed. I hope to see some legit horror here, Capcom, don't disappoint me. 8/10
Assassins Creed – I'm not as uber-excited over this as most, but that being said, I'll get it, I'll play it, I'll probably enjoy it. 8/10
The Darkness – This looks fucking Awesome! Not much more to say, but I think Starbreeze will deliver an exceptional game here. 10/10
So, 16 of the top 20 anticipated console games are apparently anticipated by me as well. Guess that's not too bad. And I thought I hated mainstream.
Also, on the day you should be reading this, I will be winging my way to Glasgow to see Within Temptation who are fresh off of releasing their best album to date in this fan's opinion, look out for it in the US in July, called The Heart of Everything, and since they recently did some PR work for the game Spellborn for the PC, here is the music video for their recent hit single, The Howling. I could think of worse ways than utilising the looks and voice of one Sharon Den Adel to help sell a game.
VG Babe of the Week: Cammy
I will resist the urge to mention Kylie Minogue in anyway… Dammit!!!
And with that, lets get to some good old-fashioned vampire slaying.
The Breakdown
Disclaimer: Spoilers ahead, as I'm focusing on the story of this series more than anything.
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2
Developer: Crystal Dynamics
Format: PS2/PC
Release: 2001/2001
Notes: Soul Reaver 2, despite being a strongly anticipated title thanks to the cliff hanger at the end of its predecessor, met an ultimately lukewarm reception.
Soul Reaver 2 was definitely not as good a game as it's predecessor. The combat felt hollow, and the structure felt even more linear. However, it isn't all bad. The voice acting and music were as good as ever, and the game did have some great, legitimately complex puzzles the likes of which are generally absent from most action/adventure games. The story… well you are going to have to bear with me…
We resume our tale 30 years before the events of Blood Omen. After getting what he could out of Moebius, Raziel races to find Kain at the pillars of Nosgoth, coming into contact with a damaged form of the original Soul Reaver along the way. Kain reveals his intent to try and change history and prevent both the extinction of the vampire race and Nosgoth's damnation. Raziel continues further into the lair of the Elder God who had sent him on this task in the first place, and questions its intentions for the first time. Also, Raziel comes across some ancient murals that hints at a profound secret underlying everything. He seeks out the council of Vorador, a vampire who helped Kain originally, and his advice leads Raziel to travel through time and find a deceased vampire by the name of Janos Audren. On his way back to the time chamber, Fate comes to ahead… Raziel confronts Kain at the point and time that had been ordained for them that Raziel would kill Kain.
However, Raziel refuses, and finally breaks the chain of fate. Ordering Moebius to send him to Janos Audren's time, Moebius tricks him and flings him to the future again, back to the time period of the first game. However… things had changed. By refusing to kill Kain, the Elder God of the Netherword was now at full strength, not weakened as before. Undeterred, Raziel meets Kain again, who once again hints at something unknown behind the events thus far. And in the Air Forge later, Raziel discovers something truly profound. That the vampire race were not original parasites but a noble race of Demi-gods, who had been cursed by some unknown enemy. Now when Kain goes back to the Time Chamber, he arrives where he wants, with suspicious coincidence. It is a time during the genocide of the vampire race by the Sarafan, an elite group of human knights and crusaders. Kain makes his way up to Audron's lair, an area quite clearly built for a winged race.
When Raziel finallt meets Janos Audron, all he had discovered was confirmed. As the last of the pure vampire race, and keeper of the Soul Reaver, Janos reveals that the Pillars of Nosgoth were the creations of the vampires as a way of keeping Nosgoth in balance, but the extinction of the Vampire race corrupted them, rendering the events of Blood Omen inevitable. However, suddenly, a group of Sarafan attack the lair, now having a way up thanks to the efforts of Raziel. And who are these Sarafan knights? Raziel and his brothers, the original humans who Kain had turned into vampires in the original timeline. Janos teleports Raziel away for his own safety, and when he rushes back to Janos' aid, he is to late. The Knights had ripped out his heart.
And thus, Raziel, desire for retribution against himself and his own brothers in his heart, infiltrated the Sarafan Stronghold at the same time as Vorador is meant to have killed the 6 guardians of the Sarafan, an event detailed in the intro FMV of Blood Omen, and is stopped by Moebius and Malek, the guardian of the pillar of Conflict. As Malek had been punished and turned into a monster for failing to prevent the guardian's deaths, it is revealed here why, Moebius would not let him leave his side, which does suggest that the events that led to the fall of the pillars were deliberately set in motion. Yeah, they thought this thing through a lot.
Although Moebius uses his staff to seal the wraith blade, Raziel finds the physical Soul Reaver blade and uses it to kill all the Sarafan Knights, including himself, in one fell swoop explaining what happened to the Knights in the first place. Then suddenly, the Soul Reaver itself spears Raziel… the Reaver was never a Wraith like blade, it's Soul stealing properties came from the spirit trapped inside… Raziel's. But still alive, Kain is able to pull the Reaver out of Raziel just before the merger is complete. However, this only returns things back to a status quo… history had not been changed yet. And thus ends Soul Reaver 2, the game with five too many twists that was good for it.
In Retrospect: the actual game was pretty average, feeling decidedly last gen, but the story was phenomenal really, almost too good. Definitely a necessity to play for those that are interested in this series for its story… and lets be honest, that is what came to matter here, when the series debuted on the 128 bit systems.
Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain
Developer: Crystal Dynamics
Format: PS2/PC/Xbox/Gamecube
Release: 2002 (all)
Notes: Blood Omen 2 is really the money grabber of the series, as its story other than revealing some minor plot details is not of much consequence to the other games, and the gameplay was somewhat weak.
Since it took so long to cover Soul Reaver 2's story, I'll do this in Bristol fashions. Because of the paradox created in Soul Reaver 2, an alternative set of events had been created of Kain's Vampire Empire. A new Sarafan Army comes into being about 400 years after the events of Blood Omen, and defeat Kain. Another vampire Genocide occurs (wow, they like those in this series) and a Cabal of resistance is set up with Vorador at its head. Hey, in this timeline, shouldn't he be dead? Yep, he should, if you've been paying attention, so although supposedly this minor detail would have been covered in Defiance, that never made it in the finished version, so we have a somewhat gigantic plot hole here.
Anyway, Kain, intent on regaining all his power, defeats everything in his way to discover the Sarafan Lord, who turns out to be a Hylden, the old enemy of the Vampires. On this journey he also discovers Janos Audren, apparently not dead (this at least is explained, in the alternative timeline Raziel returns the heart of darkness to his body thus reviving him). Janos explains, after Kain frees him from being chained to a device that drained him of his blood, that the Hylden leader had possessed him and used his blood to open a portal, allowing the banished Hylden back into Nosgoth. Their aim is to use an ancient device to wipe out all non-Hylden life on Nosgoth. How nice. Kain prevents it all, as youd expect, and defeats the Hylden leader, reclaims the Soul Reaver from him, and thus continuing his reign of terror over Nosgoth.
In Retrospect: I enjoyed the game on the whole, although the story wasn't as interesting as past endeavours. Only the introduction of the Hylden was really important, the rest of the story was mostly filler, quite disappointing overall for the second game to carry the name of Blood Omen. Technically, the game offered the most interesting environmental designs seen in the series, but was otherwise fairly ordinary.
Legacy of Kain: Defiance
Developer: Crystal Dynamics
Format: PS2/Xbox/PC
Release: 2004 (all)
Notes: Unofficially the last game of the series due to the departure of producer Amy Henig from Crystal Dynamics.
Defiance should have been the end. With Kain and Raziel finally both being playable in the same game, it would have been the perfect way to bring this tale to an end. Unfortunately, that wasn't to be. The game's story was simple enough and saw both Kain and Raziel on separate journeys, meeting each other at various points, looking to destroy the Elder God and Moebius in an attempt to restore things to normal. However, they could not save the pillars, and as a result, the Hylden are free completely from the seal placed on them, and seem poised to invade Nosgoth once again.
I can only hope they bring out another one. The gameplay combined elements of Soul Reaver 2 and Blood Omen 2, albeit improved over both somewhat.
In Retrospect: A decent enough game but disappointing in how it failed to bring about much of a conclusion for the series, and only moderated improving the technical faults of Soul Reaver 2 and Blood Omen 2.
Legacy of Kain then is a series that started out strongly, but sailed by mostly on its strength of story. It will be interesting to see is there are any more. I do know an extremely successful film franchise is waiting here if any studios have the balls to do a videogame movie with a good story.
Alright, it's late and I got that concert. Keep things in perspective, and next week… meh, I'll come with something. I don't know what yet.
