This is one of those games that I played and beat and I know I liked by if you asked me to tell you a single thing about it I'd be like wuh oh
I'd always enjoyed the LoK series, but had never actually beaten any of them growing up. I decided to change that and played through the Blood Omen games, and now Soul Reaver. The game holds up decently well as far as presentation and level design with lots to unlock and explore. But the shining beacon is the voice acting and the writing for the characters. Besides Metal Gear Solid, this was one of the first games I played as a kid that felt like something made for adults with the professional sounding cast. The game does leave you on a cliff hanger that goes directly into Soul Reaver 2.
Everyone has that one game. The one which they have started to play but shelved at some point. But it doesn’t end there, as you will continue to think about it. The only thing stopping you from continuing your journey is you making up excuses from picking it up again.
For me that game was Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, a game whose existence has fascinated me way before I ever got the chance to play it, just as it does now after finally completing it; my playthrough spanning around two years.
My fascination of Soul Reaver sprung of, from another fascination of mine. I was born in 2004 and thus barely missed the time Sega was a competitor in the console business. They might just have the most interesting history in videogames and that is what made me suddenly really want to own a Dreamcast in 2021. Browsing through some of the more well received games for the console, I came across a relatively little-known game with maybe 500 logged players on this very website and a respectable rating, you probably know where this is going.
Looking up “Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver” on YouTube, I found a ton of people singing its praises, especially when it comes to its story; it was then that I realized I needed to play this, and I eventually did.
Back in January I released a Blood Omen review (which I don’t recommend reading), in which I stated multiple reasons, of why I might’ve stopped playing Soul Reaver and while they may have been a contributor as to why, they weren’t the main reason. Truth is, I didn’t enjoy the game very much.
While I could derive enjoyment out of the technical prowess and it’s devotion to telling it’s grandiose story without having to read a single word of text, it was the gameplay that kept the game from actually clicking with me and reading some of the reviews at the time, this wasn’t just an issue I had with it.
The game just isn’t nice to people who are conditioned to all the modern QoL improvements the industry has been blessed with, combat being the biggest offender to me back then.
So during the last hours of last year, only a day after completing this games predecessor, I sat myself down with my phone on a “tripod”, which I had constructed using a selfie-stick, when I was 12 years old and wanted to become a YouTuber, recording my whole journey through this game (which I unfortunately can’t share as I also used it as a form of a video diary) and most importantly started from a new profile, as I thought I might’ve missed something with the combat-system back then and therefore wanted to experience that opening hour, which made me shelve the game, a little more than a year ago, again.
And I was right, the moment I started playing Soul Reaver again, I couldn’t stop doing so and do now really enjoy what they tried to do with its combat and its way of incentivizing the player to scour your surroundings.
Every encounter you have with an enemy at the beginning of the game will play out like its own little puzzle, as for any non-human enemy-type you will not only have to beat them up, as they cannot die, but when they are stunned, find an object to finish them off and devour their soul. Said object of interest may be a spear, that skewers them, but it can also be a light source, a spiky part of the walls surrounding you, a campfire, an accumulation of water and many more.
Your creativity is only aided the longer you play as you might find enemies immune to one of these methods together with others that aren’t and now plan your fight accordingly.
The moment I got the titular Soul Reaver, which is basically able to defeat any enemy, I was worried that this would be detrimental to the combat-system, but rather than relying on it further on it would only proof as a new option in Raziel’s kit, as it will only be available to use at full-health (in the Material-Realm) which isn’t always sustainable.
Talking of which, the game incorporates a system of switching between realms. Not only are both loaded at any given time, but the game will remember every location of everything you have/haven’t ever interacted with. I cannot start to think what kind of sorcery this would’ve needed to be pulled of in the 90s, or even today for that matter. And when I see every object, I really mean that. During backtracking, which is mostly optional, but you are really missing out on some amazing side-content if you chose not to engage with it, I found myself thinking “oh I remember putting that there.” or “oh yeah that enemy followed me here back then, didn’t it?”, more times than I can count.
Outside of combat your gameplay will be spend exploring the landscapes of Nosgoth, which have changed a lot since your last adventure. If I had to compare the changes to anything, it would be how Gotham City changes during the Dark Knight trilogy, with it basically functioning as its own character in Begins, and existing as a background to the narrative of The Dark Knight, the only difference being, that I didn’t see this as detrimental in this case.
Nosgoth is definitely more videogamey here in the sense that the game starts you of with a platforming tutorial at a place that only exists, because you need to learn how to platform at some point, but these extreme cases are few and far between, as the game also has its high points of its world-design at pretty much all the major locations.
For example, the entrance to the Human Citadel is flooded to keep out vampires and only houses one of Rahab’s’ tribe, which evolved to swim over time. But if you change to the Spectral Realm, it will be the home of many more Sluagh than regular, which feast on all the lost souls.
The Human Citadel is a masterclass in level-design for a 3D-Zelda like game in general. I got there shortly after defeating Melchiah, at the beginning of the game and spend almost an hour just exploring and thinking I had seen most if not everything it has to offer. I then went on going back there after each new acquired ability and not only realized that my previous assessment was totally wrong, but that I had yet to explore the majority of its content. I have rarely seen a, dare I mention totally optional, location that opens up so much after each new chapter of a game.
This serves as a microcosm of Lok’s design, which is built around the fact that you may save at any time. But as I already mentioned, saving will not bring you back to your previous location, no it will bring you back to the beginning of the game, where you can select between fast-travel points; but rather save the location of every object, which serve as shortcuts.
This is demonstrated best with this game’s dungeons, which are in my opinion far better designed than any 3D Zelda dungeon, I have experienced.
Now they also aren’t close to being perfect. The Silenced Cathedral has an intentional softlock, if you enter the Spectral Realm in the wrong room, but said softlock, funnily enough, also signifies the biggest strengths of Soul Reaver’s non-linear dungeons, as even if you get trapped in a room, you can always save your progress and therefore barely lose any progress.
Was it still demoralizing? Yes, of course, you can observe a big gap in my playtime after it happened, after it happened to me, but the second I started to play again, I realized that what had taken me half an hour to get to last time, only takes around five now, as you can see (epilepsy warning) here, because every puzzle was already solved and serving as a short-cut, I never really lost my progress.
I won’t argue that softlocks are good game design of course, just saying that they would be more detrimental when they occur in any other game, because of how good this one is designed to accommodate that issue.
The dungeon design in general is more akin to a Metroid-Vania, as you will go through it without any new abilities, and see many points of interest, which you will then later check out after acquiring said ability after defeating the boss, which also uses it against you.
I won’t spoil any of the secrets, but the way your view of the Drowned Abbey changes, just by you being able to traverse the waters in the Material Realm could be a whole paragraph on its own.
Now the game (still) isn’t perfect, and I still have my own gripes with it, withholding me from replaying it anytime soon.
For one, this isn’t a game I can just sit down and enjoy, as you really must lock-in and search any nook and cranny for maximum enjoyment, something helped by the fact I recorded my playthrough and could easily rewatch any points of interest. If I didn’t have that, I would’ve probably had to look up a guide at some points, due to the lack of an in-game map.
Combat also can still be a bit tedious and it’s often just better to right-out ignore any enemies. The glyphs were more fun to hunt down, than use. The boss fights, while cleverly designed to be puzzle boxes where you must find your enemies weakness, and use your surroundings, to defeat them rather than hand-to-hand combat, still mostly don’t put up much of a fight.
The drawing-distance and camera are hurt by the hardware and unfortunately the fact that the world is constantly loaded twice, which probably is no issue when playing the fan-made HD-remaster, which was good enough to get the people responsible for it noticed by Crystal Dynamics and got them to work on the recent Tomb Raider remasters.
And that is not even touching on this games story, which is expectingly great coming off such a great basis, being Blood Omen.
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is not just a cornerstone of the medium as a whole and one of the most technically impressive games ever made, it is also one of the best games I have ever played and made me even more happy with my recent acquisition of a PlayStation 2, including every sequel of this game.
Soul Reaver will now, and the foreseeable future, be that game; that one game I always continue to think about and will always remember.
For me that game was Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, a game whose existence has fascinated me way before I ever got the chance to play it, just as it does now after finally completing it; my playthrough spanning around two years.
My fascination of Soul Reaver sprung of, from another fascination of mine. I was born in 2004 and thus barely missed the time Sega was a competitor in the console business. They might just have the most interesting history in videogames and that is what made me suddenly really want to own a Dreamcast in 2021. Browsing through some of the more well received games for the console, I came across a relatively little-known game with maybe 500 logged players on this very website and a respectable rating, you probably know where this is going.
Looking up “Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver” on YouTube, I found a ton of people singing its praises, especially when it comes to its story; it was then that I realized I needed to play this, and I eventually did.
Back in January I released a Blood Omen review (which I don’t recommend reading), in which I stated multiple reasons, of why I might’ve stopped playing Soul Reaver and while they may have been a contributor as to why, they weren’t the main reason. Truth is, I didn’t enjoy the game very much.
While I could derive enjoyment out of the technical prowess and it’s devotion to telling it’s grandiose story without having to read a single word of text, it was the gameplay that kept the game from actually clicking with me and reading some of the reviews at the time, this wasn’t just an issue I had with it.
The game just isn’t nice to people who are conditioned to all the modern QoL improvements the industry has been blessed with, combat being the biggest offender to me back then.
So during the last hours of last year, only a day after completing this games predecessor, I sat myself down with my phone on a “tripod”, which I had constructed using a selfie-stick, when I was 12 years old and wanted to become a YouTuber, recording my whole journey through this game (which I unfortunately can’t share as I also used it as a form of a video diary) and most importantly started from a new profile, as I thought I might’ve missed something with the combat-system back then and therefore wanted to experience that opening hour, which made me shelve the game, a little more than a year ago, again.
And I was right, the moment I started playing Soul Reaver again, I couldn’t stop doing so and do now really enjoy what they tried to do with its combat and its way of incentivizing the player to scour your surroundings.
Every encounter you have with an enemy at the beginning of the game will play out like its own little puzzle, as for any non-human enemy-type you will not only have to beat them up, as they cannot die, but when they are stunned, find an object to finish them off and devour their soul. Said object of interest may be a spear, that skewers them, but it can also be a light source, a spiky part of the walls surrounding you, a campfire, an accumulation of water and many more.
Your creativity is only aided the longer you play as you might find enemies immune to one of these methods together with others that aren’t and now plan your fight accordingly.
The moment I got the titular Soul Reaver, which is basically able to defeat any enemy, I was worried that this would be detrimental to the combat-system, but rather than relying on it further on it would only proof as a new option in Raziel’s kit, as it will only be available to use at full-health (in the Material-Realm) which isn’t always sustainable.
Talking of which, the game incorporates a system of switching between realms. Not only are both loaded at any given time, but the game will remember every location of everything you have/haven’t ever interacted with. I cannot start to think what kind of sorcery this would’ve needed to be pulled of in the 90s, or even today for that matter. And when I see every object, I really mean that. During backtracking, which is mostly optional, but you are really missing out on some amazing side-content if you chose not to engage with it, I found myself thinking “oh I remember putting that there.” or “oh yeah that enemy followed me here back then, didn’t it?”, more times than I can count.
Outside of combat your gameplay will be spend exploring the landscapes of Nosgoth, which have changed a lot since your last adventure. If I had to compare the changes to anything, it would be how Gotham City changes during the Dark Knight trilogy, with it basically functioning as its own character in Begins, and existing as a background to the narrative of The Dark Knight, the only difference being, that I didn’t see this as detrimental in this case.
Nosgoth is definitely more videogamey here in the sense that the game starts you of with a platforming tutorial at a place that only exists, because you need to learn how to platform at some point, but these extreme cases are few and far between, as the game also has its high points of its world-design at pretty much all the major locations.
For example, the entrance to the Human Citadel is flooded to keep out vampires and only houses one of Rahab’s’ tribe, which evolved to swim over time. But if you change to the Spectral Realm, it will be the home of many more Sluagh than regular, which feast on all the lost souls.
The Human Citadel is a masterclass in level-design for a 3D-Zelda like game in general. I got there shortly after defeating Melchiah, at the beginning of the game and spend almost an hour just exploring and thinking I had seen most if not everything it has to offer. I then went on going back there after each new acquired ability and not only realized that my previous assessment was totally wrong, but that I had yet to explore the majority of its content. I have rarely seen a, dare I mention totally optional, location that opens up so much after each new chapter of a game.
This serves as a microcosm of Lok’s design, which is built around the fact that you may save at any time. But as I already mentioned, saving will not bring you back to your previous location, no it will bring you back to the beginning of the game, where you can select between fast-travel points; but rather save the location of every object, which serve as shortcuts.
This is demonstrated best with this game’s dungeons, which are in my opinion far better designed than any 3D Zelda dungeon, I have experienced.
Now they also aren’t close to being perfect. The Silenced Cathedral has an intentional softlock, if you enter the Spectral Realm in the wrong room, but said softlock, funnily enough, also signifies the biggest strengths of Soul Reaver’s non-linear dungeons, as even if you get trapped in a room, you can always save your progress and therefore barely lose any progress.
Was it still demoralizing? Yes, of course, you can observe a big gap in my playtime after it happened, after it happened to me, but the second I started to play again, I realized that what had taken me half an hour to get to last time, only takes around five now, as you can see (epilepsy warning) here, because every puzzle was already solved and serving as a short-cut, I never really lost my progress.
I won’t argue that softlocks are good game design of course, just saying that they would be more detrimental when they occur in any other game, because of how good this one is designed to accommodate that issue.
The dungeon design in general is more akin to a Metroid-Vania, as you will go through it without any new abilities, and see many points of interest, which you will then later check out after acquiring said ability after defeating the boss, which also uses it against you.
I won’t spoil any of the secrets, but the way your view of the Drowned Abbey changes, just by you being able to traverse the waters in the Material Realm could be a whole paragraph on its own.
Now the game (still) isn’t perfect, and I still have my own gripes with it, withholding me from replaying it anytime soon.
For one, this isn’t a game I can just sit down and enjoy, as you really must lock-in and search any nook and cranny for maximum enjoyment, something helped by the fact I recorded my playthrough and could easily rewatch any points of interest. If I didn’t have that, I would’ve probably had to look up a guide at some points, due to the lack of an in-game map.
Combat also can still be a bit tedious and it’s often just better to right-out ignore any enemies. The glyphs were more fun to hunt down, than use. The boss fights, while cleverly designed to be puzzle boxes where you must find your enemies weakness, and use your surroundings, to defeat them rather than hand-to-hand combat, still mostly don’t put up much of a fight.
The drawing-distance and camera are hurt by the hardware and unfortunately the fact that the world is constantly loaded twice, which probably is no issue when playing the fan-made HD-remaster, which was good enough to get the people responsible for it noticed by Crystal Dynamics and got them to work on the recent Tomb Raider remasters.
And that is not even touching on this games story, which is expectingly great coming off such a great basis, being Blood Omen.
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is not just a cornerstone of the medium as a whole and one of the most technically impressive games ever made, it is also one of the best games I have ever played and made me even more happy with my recent acquisition of a PlayStation 2, including every sequel of this game.
Soul Reaver will now, and the foreseeable future, be that game; that one game I always continue to think about and will always remember.
The game definitely has its problems but the writing, voice acting and atmosphere are second to none. The back and forth between Raziel and Kain is super entertaining and it's really fun to work through this story bit by bit. It's also the only open-world game in the Soul Reaver series so far, a bit like a 3D Metroidvania, the later games were much more linear. So I like both approaches to world design, but here I got lost from time to time or didn't know where to go. Still, it's super satisfying when you uncover a secret, which doesn't happen so often in the later games. The camera and controls can sometimes suck, but they're fine most of the time. What else can I say, a fantastic game and the prelude to one of the best game series of all time.
Raziel is my dogg
so called free thinkers when they get thrown in the pit of eternal damnation
The beginning of the Kain series started with a bang in 1996. So there shouldn’t be a problem with a sequel right? Oh, I wish. Turns out Silicon Knights(SK) who owned the IP filed a injunction against Crystal Dynamics(CD). We don’t need to get into the nitty gritty here, except to know they were able to make a sequel to Blood Omen(BO). This is important since Amy Hennig made her directorial debut here when previously she worked on BO. For those unfamiliar, she would go off to work on the Uncharted franchise later on. And she is crucial to understand, when I talk about the underlying problems I had with Soul Reaver(SR).
Moving forward in time to 2022. Square Enix(who acquired CD later on) sold their western studios. Eidos, Crystal Dynamics, and Square Enix Montreal for money. Among the plethora of IPs gathered. Two come to mind. Legacy of Kain and Soul Reaver. To none other than the Embracer company. Who has been laying off and closing down their recently bought studios as of late. So I'm here with a heavy heart to tell you guys if we don't see a remake/remaster officially, I will gently point you all towards an excellent Raina Audron’s HD Remaster for the Flycast Dreamcast emulator. Faithfully redone with higher quality textures as an appropriate unofficial alternative instead of waiting for one that may never come. Despite rumors of one in development.
And while there is a PC version on Steam. You cannot currently buy. And the sketchy PC mod doesn’t help matters which GOG is a part of as well. Excusing all those matters. I'll focus purely on the base game. Thankfully, you don’t need to play the previous entry to know what happens. They summarize the events that occurred before. Play it if you wish. I recommend it only for those seeking out why Kain acts the way he does in a Legend of Zelda spliced with a bloodsucker’s tale. The sequel continues the dark gothic storytelling fans have been waiting for. With a return to Nosgoth.
The supernatural setting we start our journey once more. Thousands of years after the events of the first. In the beginning cutscene. We see Raziel, a vampire lieutenant of Kain’s forces who has served him for a millennium. Who after receiving new wings in a fit of transformation. Kain inspects the new appendages while admiring them. Unfortunately, the new attachments did not endear him at all to his boss. Abruptly and forcefully rips the wings and orders his other lieutenants to cast him down into the abyss. An eternity passes and a mysterious voice resurrects our titular protagonist to become his ‘Soul Reaver.’ with a dreadfully cool new look and powers he’s off on a quest for vengeance against his former boss.
Will we face him in the end? Good question. Not sure. We’ll have to traverse through a 3D Metroidvania in a 3rd person perspective with no loading screens before we find our answers. And boy oh boy was this a welcome surprise. The gameplay has shifted in a whole new direction from the top-down perspective of the first installment. Overhauled to the teeth, maximizing numerous advantages of the 3D era. Our hero can move in any direction, jump higher than his base vault, glide in the air, hack and slash enemies. Hold any manner of weaponry without being subject to the gods of durability and throw them at any time. Capable of using mystical abilities like glyphs. The eldritch energy pertains to each element. Sparingly used, they provide a massive advantage against mobs of enemies. Heck one glyph can stop time for everyone excluding our dude! One innate ability is the power to shift between the material world into the spectral world and vice-versa. This sole skill changed the whole gameplay formula. And made my playthrough fascinating to test.
Plane shifting has massive benefits. For one. He has two health bars. As his health slowly depletes in the physical realm. He can apparate to the spectral realm and recover his health there. Incurring no HP penalty either. Dude can literally suck the souls from defeated enemies in either realm to restore his vitality. But that’s not all. Oh no. Both levels distort in weird ways. If he is in the physical domain and encounters an obstacle. All he has to do is switch to the other domain and voila! The path is open! I encountered multiple obstacles like jumping across chasms and unlocking a new path where previously a dead-end was in sight. Additionally, the ability allows one to go underwater without any penalty. Whereas going back to the real world causes Raziel to immediately transition to the other field. The mechanic works seamlessly when encountering puzzles. Usually, physical box placement is designed with several to a dozen steps or more to solve. Sometimes, CD will throw in a handful of switches and levers for good measure. For anyone who played Vagrant Story. The block elements are similar here. Where you’ll have to move them to open a new path or slot them in various places according to the imagery on the walls. Completing the art so to speak. Switches can run on timers, so phase-shifting to another dimension stops time. Making it instrumental if low on time. I didn’t have too much trouble with the puzzles. Controlling how to manage box placement was a bigger issue early on. Solvable once I read the manual. Perhaps one or two overstayed their welcome in a certain region. But the rest from then on felt balanced. A nice change of pace from the constant exploring.
Aside from the freedom to explore in any direction within reason. The boss encounters operate much like their predecessor. Being designed Legend of Zelda-like. As I defeated Raz's old brethren in various arenas I was struck once again by how I had to utilize the environment to my advantage and any tricks I learned prior. Picking up a weapon and slamming it at the boss once all appendages were gone. Use my plane-shifting powers to recuperate and find weaknesses and in some cases lure my opponent away like a rod and carrot stick for bait. They were fun to tackle and a nice reprieve from the Metroidvania world through Nosgoth’s moody areas. Gifting our main protagonist with new abilities. Thereby allowing the player to overcome obstacles with ease. Adding a gratifying reward upon completing a ‘dungeon’ before moving on to the next. And honestly? My motivation to exact retribution on Kain was still at an all-time high as I progressed through each boss encounter. I mean who wouldn’t if your past employer betrayed you in a heinous manner? Look at Raziel waving a “Me!” flag.
Before our hero kicks off a rant on vengeance I must talk about the world. Nosgoth has radically changed. Where previously it was teeming with life. Now it is a world of fear and decay. Gone are the bustling settlements of humans with a manic hatred for all things vampiric in nature. Iconic locations I sought with a wanderlust fervor, have withered away. Now nothing more than fables in the wind and myths of werewolves, ghosts, and ghouls have been reduced to fairy tales. Nosgoth of today. I dread walking and breathing these unfamiliar locales resembling more of a dark moody post-apocalypse as if someone sucked the very life from the land. Vampire creatures reign supreme. Each one is distinct from others based on their biome and clan affiliation. If you thought regular bloodsuckers were a threat. Wait till you see spider and water variants! EW! Humans are near extinct. With pockets of resistance thriving in some far-off places. However, entering such a place seems ill-advised since wide-open fields full of life are a very rare sight nowadays. Replaced with a foreboding harsh atmosphere accompanied by maze-like passages and decent platformer segments. I passed through empty caverns and short corridors while solving puzzle rooms to gain access to new glyph spells or by once defeating a boss in a main area am I endowed with a new traversal ability. Allowing one to venture onwards to new roads less traveled and hidden detours and shortcuts. Although, a new power doesn’t solve all my dilemmas. The spectral dimension is haunting, filled with a ghastly atmosphere that is both depressing and gloomy. A different color palette is injected every time Raziel shifts and with it, new ghostly enemies are summoned. To harm him like wraiths and bloodsucking dementor-like beings. Shudders. The territory makes the real and unreal more pronounced where things become larger or smaller as they appear. So have courage. To embrace the unfamiliar expanse whenever plane-shifting occurs.
The sound design is dynamic. Where a large chunk of my feelings is borderline dislike, except there's another big side of appreciating the technical achievement. The former is vexing and disconnecting in the soundscape. Feels largely oppressing in the foreground with low drums hitting a hypnotic rhythm as a faint choir chants in the background in intervals to imply the divine and further adds to the depressing, lonely, unsettling, creepy ambiance. In a dying world, I was fraught with anxiety wrapped in a tight ball around myself. Reminded me a bit of the soundscape of Silent Hill. However, this one felt less insidious and far more bearable in certain respects. Some select tracks are triumphant and give off a feeling of bravery in spite of the encompassing tracks displaying dread. Not a negative at all. I find it hard to say I like a majority of tracks while playing. On the other hand, I'm amazed by technological advancement. Looking at each piece. I’m amazed how the composer Kurt Harland from Information Society managed to create a vast library of tunes to work on and multiple variations. Whereas in the predecessor there were only nineteen tracks. Here we have one hundred eighty-one. That’s an insane improvement. And a new composer to boot! After listening to the entire game's soundtrack, I found it similar to how the works of Keichi Okabe and his studio band Monaca techniques in the franchise for Nier. From Okabe, the sound design when the soundtrack was ripped. Had dynamic, medium, quiet, no vocals, 8-bit versions for each location and iconic event. Not all of them, but I would say a good size. Allowing the player to smoothly segue into the following track. While not as seamless as Nier: Automata Harland's implementation in Soul Reaver, works similarly. Special thanks go out to Raina Audron who recorded and assembled the full depth of the OST in full so we can see how far Harland worked on composing 11 hours of music. From what Audron states. Each piece " indoors/outdoors (normal+suspenseful), puzzle, danger, and combat... changes dynamically according to the situation on the screen." Meaning we have a similar occurrence here with Okabe in creating multiple variations of a track. That is fascinating and honestly incredible to hear to this extent for a PSX title! As an example you can see most of the track listings here on YouTube. I am deeply amazed, surprised how largely unnoticed and underrated the sheer sound design permeates throughout. One largely not analyzed to an extent I’ve seen online. Curious if other IPs during the fifth-generation console era made comparable strides such as Harland and Okabe on impressive soundscape achievements.
As much as I love everything that Soul Reaver elevated from Blood Omen I do have some mixed feelings. And this isn’t a positive or a negative. Simply concerns I had during my playthrough that others may find useful to hear beyond the praise I sprouted above.
First, the story is a bit of a letdown. But narratively an improvement beyond BO's narrative. We don’t receive as many voiced monologues as the previous game. Telling a subtly compelling character development from the beginning to the very end, where we see Kain shift from a human into something far more sinister. Here we don’t get that as much. Missing lore drips. Voiced monologues of Raziel poetically waxing his thoughts both internally or externally to the player could've been far more utilized here than the sense of silence covering a large amount of distance. And this I feel is a missed opportunity to call back to the series' roots by detailing the story-telling through a voiced narrative. In the previous installment, Kain would narrate about items he finds and narrate their description to you upon cursor highlight. Effectively luring me further into the worldbuilding and NPCs. Speaking of NPCs, there's almost no one. Aside from one NPC and your new boss. Who will chime in at times to have a chat like a god speaking to his new disciple. Much like how the parasite speaks to Eddie Brock from the Venom(2018) film. Except the mysterious being isn't exactly within our titular guy. Somehow always with him, yet not physically.
Granted, he still opens their mouth at critical moments, usually during plot beats of cutscenes and during intro-boss battles. And to our new hero's credit, I resonated far more with him than his former employer. Pretty likable guy I initially thought would be far more angsty, moody full of hate. Far from it! The dude was focused and sought reason without letting his emotions boil over his spirit. Regardless of his dour appearance, Michael Bell's voice lends a unique cadence to bringing our wraith's character to life. Making my overall experience not so isolating. His actions mirror my incentive to push forward. In the face of desiring to know more about what happened to Kain. Anything deeper between their relationship? Were there any more reasons why he ripped the wings? Why has the world suffered like this further and why have clans of vampires which have risen to prominence and discussed a fair amount, thrown to the curbside? Speaking of being thrown onto the curb. The ending without going into spoilers feels unfulfilling a tad.
And this makes sense. According to Amy Hennig, SR1 suffered development troubles due to the injunction. Recent news started to arise about the edits of an unfinished product. Hennig set the record straight by stating in April of 2000. “...We simply just felt that we were compromising Kain's epic story by trying to cram too many major events into the last 10% of Soul Reaver.” - If I were in her position I would divide the game into two. She called this a “blessing in disguise” allowing the ideas, cut content, and story to flourish here rather than cramming everything and delaying. Her response felt appropriate and validated a lot of my disconcerting thoughts on the shortcomings I gathered upon finishing. And to be fair as a whole, I think the game is still fine for what her team tried to achieve. I'm grateful for what is already here and not rushed, broken, or horribly missing plot details I think were vital to know. A safe product at the end of the day without being too ambitious.
Second, loading any save file or dying. Has the player start from the 1st zone. This results in kinda of tedious backtracking for the unaware. You’ll need to use gates that act as a fast travel system to head to your next destination. Sadly they're only denoted by a symbol. And no menu is available or font to visualize where the path leads unless I walk through. Reminds me of Stargate. Lacking the wormhole loading. Rather you move forward without any delay or transition to another screen to load the new area. Pretty much an uninterrupted travel system. Thankfully, more often than not the waypoints are spread a decent amount from before entering a dungeon and before a boss encounter. I suggest copying the image and putting the pic on a Google Doc or notepad for reference. You can go traditional and draw the piece on paper to help! Vital to recall where I had already trodden. Should be noted dying in both dimensions returns the player to the start. Felt this wasn’t too punishing. Since you have plenty of time to recover vitality in either realm. Wasn't a drag either, I was able to adjust to the flow quickly.
Third, in a minor way, a hurdle may occur for the camera. It can take some getting used to. Though thankfully not a major hassle and you will fight it sometimes when fighting enemies and checking your surroundings. And I didn’t realize until midway I could quick turn by hitting the directional pad on the left or right and transitioning to first-person point of view mode to check my surroundings by hitting both L2 and R2 buttons. Useful to see the verticality in level design and any secrets tucked away.
Fourth, aside from no title markers when using gates to fast travel. or a hints menu. Hand-holding here is very minimal. Therefore, players must be aware of their sense of location. Keeping a map of Nosgoth helped tremendously and I'll post a link below to help newcomers. Didn't use it until I reached the 70% mark and after exhausting as much backtracking as I could without help. Keeping these details in mind, I think are crucial to progress further. One could speak to your new boss and another being you'll meet later on and apprise Raziel on his next objective. And that's the only gentle reminder of where to head out. Good idea to check again if you’re lost and need a gentle nudge. Though be warned, you may need to decipher the Shakespearean-like dialogue when given. Not a big deal, since they’ll reference past locations. And for a Metroidvania, I think they do a serviceable job toeing the line on not being too cryptic and not too easy, I need a journalist mode to persevere. Most if not all of my frustration was a consequence of rushing without thinking. I advise taking a step to re-collect your thoughts. Patiently recalling prior distinct areas visited to arrive at a sensibly achievable goal.
More than two decades ago, I had the pleasure of playing the title when I was a kid. Never finished it since I was very confused about my true objective. And I vividly remember my first impressions. Badass FMV in the beginning, hot meh on nearly everything else. Confusing passages, dull color palettes, and a combat system that felt clunky. Now as an adult revisiting. I'm on the opposite spectrum for my first impressions. Where now I think its not meh. The confusion is still there, though tempered with patience and a drive to explore the gloomy post-apocalyptic world with some platforming segments. Nosgoth’s murky setting is a stark contrast to the lively world from before. Adding incentive to my vengeful goal of what happened here. A decent combat system that can take some getting used to along with the camera still left me completely enthralled in the presentation. The voiced narrative continues to be strong although lessened by switching to a new protagonist, but is equally as fascinating to learn about. The solid writing continues to leave me hungry to know more about the underlying narrative. Satisfying and self-contained to an extent like the Trails or Xenoblade games. The first delved into a nuance-filled story about a human who becomes a vampire and struggles with darker impulses. A shadowy tale in a dimly lit fantasy environment. SR meanwhile flips the scripts and asks the confused avenger Raziel to embark on a quest for vengeance. And understandably so! Man was betrayed by his employer after faithfully serving him for a millennium. Only to be betrayed because he had wings and Kain did not?! WELL SEE HER- Coughs. Anyway, I think the Dreamcast remaster is a great way for anyone looking to dive into the series nowadays rather than resorting to a sketchy PC mod. Emulation or playing via console are also fine choices. While I did have some mixed feelings, muddling my final thoughts. Ultimately they're not as egregious as my time in Blood Omen. Thus Soul Reaver is a worthy gateway to try for folks interested in a seamless 3D metroidvania with a rare shifting mechanic followed by an uncommonly gothic story in the Legacy of Kain saga.
8/10
References and additional material:
1998 - Knights fight for Kain article - injunction
2022 - Square Enix sells off IPs and studios
2023 - Embracer & layoffs throughout the year
Dreamcast remaster of Soul Reaver 1
Rumors for an official remaster
Sketchy Soul Reaver PC mod
Raina Audron's work on Soul Reaver 1. Quote is from a readme
2000 - Soul Reaver Response - Amy Hennig responds to reports about the game being unfinished.
—
Helpful Links - Map of Nosgoth - Incomplete OST - Setting summary of Nosgoth - Spoiler-free SR1 walkthrough - Before I play tips on SR1 - There was no section previously. So I submitted my own tips. Hope this helps any newcomers!
Who owns the Legacy of Kain IP?
Moving forward in time to 2022. Square Enix(who acquired CD later on) sold their western studios. Eidos, Crystal Dynamics, and Square Enix Montreal for money. Among the plethora of IPs gathered. Two come to mind. Legacy of Kain and Soul Reaver. To none other than the Embracer company. Who has been laying off and closing down their recently bought studios as of late. So I'm here with a heavy heart to tell you guys if we don't see a remake/remaster officially, I will gently point you all towards an excellent Raina Audron’s HD Remaster for the Flycast Dreamcast emulator. Faithfully redone with higher quality textures as an appropriate unofficial alternative instead of waiting for one that may never come. Despite rumors of one in development.
And while there is a PC version on Steam. You cannot currently buy. And the sketchy PC mod doesn’t help matters which GOG is a part of as well. Excusing all those matters. I'll focus purely on the base game. Thankfully, you don’t need to play the previous entry to know what happens. They summarize the events that occurred before. Play it if you wish. I recommend it only for those seeking out why Kain acts the way he does in a Legend of Zelda spliced with a bloodsucker’s tale. The sequel continues the dark gothic storytelling fans have been waiting for. With a return to Nosgoth.
The supernatural setting we start our journey once more. Thousands of years after the events of the first. In the beginning cutscene. We see Raziel, a vampire lieutenant of Kain’s forces who has served him for a millennium. Who after receiving new wings in a fit of transformation. Kain inspects the new appendages while admiring them. Unfortunately, the new attachments did not endear him at all to his boss. Abruptly and forcefully rips the wings and orders his other lieutenants to cast him down into the abyss. An eternity passes and a mysterious voice resurrects our titular protagonist to become his ‘Soul Reaver.’ with a dreadfully cool new look and powers he’s off on a quest for vengeance against his former boss.
Will we face him in the end? Good question. Not sure. We’ll have to traverse through a 3D Metroidvania in a 3rd person perspective with no loading screens before we find our answers. And boy oh boy was this a welcome surprise. The gameplay has shifted in a whole new direction from the top-down perspective of the first installment. Overhauled to the teeth, maximizing numerous advantages of the 3D era. Our hero can move in any direction, jump higher than his base vault, glide in the air, hack and slash enemies. Hold any manner of weaponry without being subject to the gods of durability and throw them at any time. Capable of using mystical abilities like glyphs. The eldritch energy pertains to each element. Sparingly used, they provide a massive advantage against mobs of enemies. Heck one glyph can stop time for everyone excluding our dude! One innate ability is the power to shift between the material world into the spectral world and vice-versa. This sole skill changed the whole gameplay formula. And made my playthrough fascinating to test.
Plane shifting has massive benefits. For one. He has two health bars. As his health slowly depletes in the physical realm. He can apparate to the spectral realm and recover his health there. Incurring no HP penalty either. Dude can literally suck the souls from defeated enemies in either realm to restore his vitality. But that’s not all. Oh no. Both levels distort in weird ways. If he is in the physical domain and encounters an obstacle. All he has to do is switch to the other domain and voila! The path is open! I encountered multiple obstacles like jumping across chasms and unlocking a new path where previously a dead-end was in sight. Additionally, the ability allows one to go underwater without any penalty. Whereas going back to the real world causes Raziel to immediately transition to the other field. The mechanic works seamlessly when encountering puzzles. Usually, physical box placement is designed with several to a dozen steps or more to solve. Sometimes, CD will throw in a handful of switches and levers for good measure. For anyone who played Vagrant Story. The block elements are similar here. Where you’ll have to move them to open a new path or slot them in various places according to the imagery on the walls. Completing the art so to speak. Switches can run on timers, so phase-shifting to another dimension stops time. Making it instrumental if low on time. I didn’t have too much trouble with the puzzles. Controlling how to manage box placement was a bigger issue early on. Solvable once I read the manual. Perhaps one or two overstayed their welcome in a certain region. But the rest from then on felt balanced. A nice change of pace from the constant exploring.
Aside from the freedom to explore in any direction within reason. The boss encounters operate much like their predecessor. Being designed Legend of Zelda-like. As I defeated Raz's old brethren in various arenas I was struck once again by how I had to utilize the environment to my advantage and any tricks I learned prior. Picking up a weapon and slamming it at the boss once all appendages were gone. Use my plane-shifting powers to recuperate and find weaknesses and in some cases lure my opponent away like a rod and carrot stick for bait. They were fun to tackle and a nice reprieve from the Metroidvania world through Nosgoth’s moody areas. Gifting our main protagonist with new abilities. Thereby allowing the player to overcome obstacles with ease. Adding a gratifying reward upon completing a ‘dungeon’ before moving on to the next. And honestly? My motivation to exact retribution on Kain was still at an all-time high as I progressed through each boss encounter. I mean who wouldn’t if your past employer betrayed you in a heinous manner? Look at Raziel waving a “Me!” flag.
Before our hero kicks off a rant on vengeance I must talk about the world. Nosgoth has radically changed. Where previously it was teeming with life. Now it is a world of fear and decay. Gone are the bustling settlements of humans with a manic hatred for all things vampiric in nature. Iconic locations I sought with a wanderlust fervor, have withered away. Now nothing more than fables in the wind and myths of werewolves, ghosts, and ghouls have been reduced to fairy tales. Nosgoth of today. I dread walking and breathing these unfamiliar locales resembling more of a dark moody post-apocalypse as if someone sucked the very life from the land. Vampire creatures reign supreme. Each one is distinct from others based on their biome and clan affiliation. If you thought regular bloodsuckers were a threat. Wait till you see spider and water variants! EW! Humans are near extinct. With pockets of resistance thriving in some far-off places. However, entering such a place seems ill-advised since wide-open fields full of life are a very rare sight nowadays. Replaced with a foreboding harsh atmosphere accompanied by maze-like passages and decent platformer segments. I passed through empty caverns and short corridors while solving puzzle rooms to gain access to new glyph spells or by once defeating a boss in a main area am I endowed with a new traversal ability. Allowing one to venture onwards to new roads less traveled and hidden detours and shortcuts. Although, a new power doesn’t solve all my dilemmas. The spectral dimension is haunting, filled with a ghastly atmosphere that is both depressing and gloomy. A different color palette is injected every time Raziel shifts and with it, new ghostly enemies are summoned. To harm him like wraiths and bloodsucking dementor-like beings. Shudders. The territory makes the real and unreal more pronounced where things become larger or smaller as they appear. So have courage. To embrace the unfamiliar expanse whenever plane-shifting occurs.
The sound design is dynamic. Where a large chunk of my feelings is borderline dislike, except there's another big side of appreciating the technical achievement. The former is vexing and disconnecting in the soundscape. Feels largely oppressing in the foreground with low drums hitting a hypnotic rhythm as a faint choir chants in the background in intervals to imply the divine and further adds to the depressing, lonely, unsettling, creepy ambiance. In a dying world, I was fraught with anxiety wrapped in a tight ball around myself. Reminded me a bit of the soundscape of Silent Hill. However, this one felt less insidious and far more bearable in certain respects. Some select tracks are triumphant and give off a feeling of bravery in spite of the encompassing tracks displaying dread. Not a negative at all. I find it hard to say I like a majority of tracks while playing. On the other hand, I'm amazed by technological advancement. Looking at each piece. I’m amazed how the composer Kurt Harland from Information Society managed to create a vast library of tunes to work on and multiple variations. Whereas in the predecessor there were only nineteen tracks. Here we have one hundred eighty-one. That’s an insane improvement. And a new composer to boot! After listening to the entire game's soundtrack, I found it similar to how the works of Keichi Okabe and his studio band Monaca techniques in the franchise for Nier. From Okabe, the sound design when the soundtrack was ripped. Had dynamic, medium, quiet, no vocals, 8-bit versions for each location and iconic event. Not all of them, but I would say a good size. Allowing the player to smoothly segue into the following track. While not as seamless as Nier: Automata Harland's implementation in Soul Reaver, works similarly. Special thanks go out to Raina Audron who recorded and assembled the full depth of the OST in full so we can see how far Harland worked on composing 11 hours of music. From what Audron states. Each piece " indoors/outdoors (normal+suspenseful), puzzle, danger, and combat... changes dynamically according to the situation on the screen." Meaning we have a similar occurrence here with Okabe in creating multiple variations of a track. That is fascinating and honestly incredible to hear to this extent for a PSX title! As an example you can see most of the track listings here on YouTube. I am deeply amazed, surprised how largely unnoticed and underrated the sheer sound design permeates throughout. One largely not analyzed to an extent I’ve seen online. Curious if other IPs during the fifth-generation console era made comparable strides such as Harland and Okabe on impressive soundscape achievements.
As much as I love everything that Soul Reaver elevated from Blood Omen I do have some mixed feelings. And this isn’t a positive or a negative. Simply concerns I had during my playthrough that others may find useful to hear beyond the praise I sprouted above.
First, the story is a bit of a letdown. But narratively an improvement beyond BO's narrative. We don’t receive as many voiced monologues as the previous game. Telling a subtly compelling character development from the beginning to the very end, where we see Kain shift from a human into something far more sinister. Here we don’t get that as much. Missing lore drips. Voiced monologues of Raziel poetically waxing his thoughts both internally or externally to the player could've been far more utilized here than the sense of silence covering a large amount of distance. And this I feel is a missed opportunity to call back to the series' roots by detailing the story-telling through a voiced narrative. In the previous installment, Kain would narrate about items he finds and narrate their description to you upon cursor highlight. Effectively luring me further into the worldbuilding and NPCs. Speaking of NPCs, there's almost no one. Aside from one NPC and your new boss. Who will chime in at times to have a chat like a god speaking to his new disciple. Much like how the parasite speaks to Eddie Brock from the Venom(2018) film. Except the mysterious being isn't exactly within our titular guy. Somehow always with him, yet not physically.
Granted, he still opens their mouth at critical moments, usually during plot beats of cutscenes and during intro-boss battles. And to our new hero's credit, I resonated far more with him than his former employer. Pretty likable guy I initially thought would be far more angsty, moody full of hate. Far from it! The dude was focused and sought reason without letting his emotions boil over his spirit. Regardless of his dour appearance, Michael Bell's voice lends a unique cadence to bringing our wraith's character to life. Making my overall experience not so isolating. His actions mirror my incentive to push forward. In the face of desiring to know more about what happened to Kain. Anything deeper between their relationship? Were there any more reasons why he ripped the wings? Why has the world suffered like this further and why have clans of vampires which have risen to prominence and discussed a fair amount, thrown to the curbside? Speaking of being thrown onto the curb. The ending without going into spoilers feels unfulfilling a tad.
And this makes sense. According to Amy Hennig, SR1 suffered development troubles due to the injunction. Recent news started to arise about the edits of an unfinished product. Hennig set the record straight by stating in April of 2000. “...We simply just felt that we were compromising Kain's epic story by trying to cram too many major events into the last 10% of Soul Reaver.” - If I were in her position I would divide the game into two. She called this a “blessing in disguise” allowing the ideas, cut content, and story to flourish here rather than cramming everything and delaying. Her response felt appropriate and validated a lot of my disconcerting thoughts on the shortcomings I gathered upon finishing. And to be fair as a whole, I think the game is still fine for what her team tried to achieve. I'm grateful for what is already here and not rushed, broken, or horribly missing plot details I think were vital to know. A safe product at the end of the day without being too ambitious.
Second, loading any save file or dying. Has the player start from the 1st zone. This results in kinda of tedious backtracking for the unaware. You’ll need to use gates that act as a fast travel system to head to your next destination. Sadly they're only denoted by a symbol. And no menu is available or font to visualize where the path leads unless I walk through. Reminds me of Stargate. Lacking the wormhole loading. Rather you move forward without any delay or transition to another screen to load the new area. Pretty much an uninterrupted travel system. Thankfully, more often than not the waypoints are spread a decent amount from before entering a dungeon and before a boss encounter. I suggest copying the image and putting the pic on a Google Doc or notepad for reference. You can go traditional and draw the piece on paper to help! Vital to recall where I had already trodden. Should be noted dying in both dimensions returns the player to the start. Felt this wasn’t too punishing. Since you have plenty of time to recover vitality in either realm. Wasn't a drag either, I was able to adjust to the flow quickly.
Third, in a minor way, a hurdle may occur for the camera. It can take some getting used to. Though thankfully not a major hassle and you will fight it sometimes when fighting enemies and checking your surroundings. And I didn’t realize until midway I could quick turn by hitting the directional pad on the left or right and transitioning to first-person point of view mode to check my surroundings by hitting both L2 and R2 buttons. Useful to see the verticality in level design and any secrets tucked away.
Fourth, aside from no title markers when using gates to fast travel. or a hints menu. Hand-holding here is very minimal. Therefore, players must be aware of their sense of location. Keeping a map of Nosgoth helped tremendously and I'll post a link below to help newcomers. Didn't use it until I reached the 70% mark and after exhausting as much backtracking as I could without help. Keeping these details in mind, I think are crucial to progress further. One could speak to your new boss and another being you'll meet later on and apprise Raziel on his next objective. And that's the only gentle reminder of where to head out. Good idea to check again if you’re lost and need a gentle nudge. Though be warned, you may need to decipher the Shakespearean-like dialogue when given. Not a big deal, since they’ll reference past locations. And for a Metroidvania, I think they do a serviceable job toeing the line on not being too cryptic and not too easy, I need a journalist mode to persevere. Most if not all of my frustration was a consequence of rushing without thinking. I advise taking a step to re-collect your thoughts. Patiently recalling prior distinct areas visited to arrive at a sensibly achievable goal.
More than two decades ago, I had the pleasure of playing the title when I was a kid. Never finished it since I was very confused about my true objective. And I vividly remember my first impressions. Badass FMV in the beginning, hot meh on nearly everything else. Confusing passages, dull color palettes, and a combat system that felt clunky. Now as an adult revisiting. I'm on the opposite spectrum for my first impressions. Where now I think its not meh. The confusion is still there, though tempered with patience and a drive to explore the gloomy post-apocalyptic world with some platforming segments. Nosgoth’s murky setting is a stark contrast to the lively world from before. Adding incentive to my vengeful goal of what happened here. A decent combat system that can take some getting used to along with the camera still left me completely enthralled in the presentation. The voiced narrative continues to be strong although lessened by switching to a new protagonist, but is equally as fascinating to learn about. The solid writing continues to leave me hungry to know more about the underlying narrative. Satisfying and self-contained to an extent like the Trails or Xenoblade games. The first delved into a nuance-filled story about a human who becomes a vampire and struggles with darker impulses. A shadowy tale in a dimly lit fantasy environment. SR meanwhile flips the scripts and asks the confused avenger Raziel to embark on a quest for vengeance. And understandably so! Man was betrayed by his employer after faithfully serving him for a millennium. Only to be betrayed because he had wings and Kain did not?! WELL SEE HER- Coughs. Anyway, I think the Dreamcast remaster is a great way for anyone looking to dive into the series nowadays rather than resorting to a sketchy PC mod. Emulation or playing via console are also fine choices. While I did have some mixed feelings, muddling my final thoughts. Ultimately they're not as egregious as my time in Blood Omen. Thus Soul Reaver is a worthy gateway to try for folks interested in a seamless 3D metroidvania with a rare shifting mechanic followed by an uncommonly gothic story in the Legacy of Kain saga.
8/10
References and additional material:
1998 - Knights fight for Kain article - injunction
2022 - Square Enix sells off IPs and studios
2023 - Embracer & layoffs throughout the year
Dreamcast remaster of Soul Reaver 1
Rumors for an official remaster
Sketchy Soul Reaver PC mod
Raina Audron's work on Soul Reaver 1. Quote is from a readme
2000 - Soul Reaver Response - Amy Hennig responds to reports about the game being unfinished.
—
Helpful Links - Map of Nosgoth - Incomplete OST - Setting summary of Nosgoth - Spoiler-free SR1 walkthrough - Before I play tips on SR1 - There was no section previously. So I submitted my own tips. Hope this helps any newcomers!
Who owns the Legacy of Kain IP?
One of the finest action adventures from the 32 bit era. Might have aged poorly in some regards, but generally this still holds up.
watch raziel eat a tide pod the second he gains his ''free will''
When deciding to marathon the Legacy of Kain series, it was Soul Reaver that I was looking forward to the most. At points I even thought about starting with it and skipping Blood Omen entirely because I was just that eager to finally play it. It's generally regarded as the best in the series but I knew every LoK game has underwhelming gameplay so I didn't go into it with high expectations, only moderate ones, and this game still managed to be a let down in almost every aspect.
Generally though, what Blood Omen did well, is still done well in Soul Reaver. The story is again, the best part of the game and it starts off with what might be my favourite CGI Opening to any game I've played. I need to gush about it, it's so good, It establishes Raziel as essentially being Kain's favourite son and then has him killed by Kain in the same scene which does a perfect job in emphasizing just how fargone Kain has become. The image of Raziel having his wings ripped off by Kain has been branded into my brain ever since I first saw it and it was my main motivator for starting the series. The rest of the story is good too, narration is still strong here and listening to Raziel's musings on how twisted and decayed the world he once knew has become were the best parts of the game for me. Problem is, there's just not as much narration this time around, compared to Blood Omen, Raziel barely talks here and yeah, it makes sense for a guy whose basically been tortured and scorched for 500 years to not be very talkative but it's still disappointing. Still, the conversations that Raziel shares with Kain and his lieutenants are great and it's what kept me going right until the very end even when I just wished the game was over. Too bad that when the game is finally over, it doesn't end with a bang, not even a spark, just an absolute dud of an abrupt To Be Continued screen.
Okay so why don't I like this game, well let's start with the minor stuff. The combat at the start is awful, enemies have 0 windup to their attacks and Raziel's attacks will whiff randomly leading you to just getting interrupted in the middle of your string, killing enemies is also a hassle since it requires using the environment to your advantage by grabbing the enemies when they're stunned and throwing them into something lethal like sunlight, fire, spikes etc. Cool idea for sure, but in execution it just feels inconvenient. But this is only a minor issue since you can run past about 99% of the enemies in this game and once I realized this I did just that for the whole game and I think there's only one instance where you're forced to fight enemies that aren't bosses.
This leads me to another problem, Soul Reaver tries to be a Metroidvania style game that puts you in the middle of a huge area and allows you to learn the ins and outs of the environment on your own. A good metroidvania should facilitate exploration with rewards to make going through it feel worth it and Soul Reaver doesn't do this. If you go out of your way to find hidden areas and rewards, you'll usually get 2 things. Either Glyphs that function as AoE attacks that drain a bit of your health or 1/5th of a health upgrade. Getting Glyphs feels Worthless since they only help with combat which you can almost entirely ignore here, that and they cost Health to use which means you lose your ability to use the wraith blade when activating them which is the way you kill enemies without relying on the environment. As for the health upgrades, it's a personal gripe of mine but I hate when games have you collect X amount of an item in order to get any benefit from it. It's just so lame when I find an item and think "Oh if I get 4 more of this I'll actually get something out of it". So with exploration that just doesn't feel worth it, I ended up just trying to get through the game's story without doing much else and that leads me to my biggest problem with this game, it's too damn big. It's so easy to get lost in this game with how huge it is and without having hidden items that make it worth it, it just leads to so much frustration. The amount of time I wasted aimlessly wandering around Nosgoth with no idea if I'm going in the right direction pissed me off to the point where I had to bust out a guide since I just wanted to get this game over with. I mentioned before how you can run past most enemies with no issue but the one enemy you'll be fighting throughout your entire playthrough will be the camera, oh my Lord it's so bad with how it's glued to Raziel's back and it often obscures the paths above you that you're meant to go to. What doesn't help is that the game has No map feature and the fast travel mechanic is so awkward to use. Each area is marked by this symbol that you use to identify which teleporter leads where and memorizing these is just needless busywork. I'm so baffled at how Blood Omen did all these things better, that game actually had a map feature with a fast-travel mechanic that was easy to comprehend and gave you more reason to explore since exploration there led to you getting items and permanent health upgrades that upgraded your health Immediately.
When you're not fruitlessly parading through Nosgoth's remains you're usually solving puzzles here. Some are pretty cool, I like the one where you ring bells in succession in order to break glass that lets you progress further or the one where you push pipes in order to allow for air to flow that you can use to hover up to your destination. Puzzles that rely on the gimmick of swapping between the real and spectral realm are also pretty enjoyable. But majority of the puzzles are just relegated to consisting of mindless block pushing, these aren't bad per se but surely they could've thought of something more interesting, this is just lazy. The bosses are also puzzles and they're hit and miss. Melchiah is pretty simple and fun, Zephon is even simpler but very fun and he's got a sick design that looks like something that H.R Giger would design, Rahab's bossfight requires platforming which is clunky as hell in this game but it's still decent and Dumah is just a worse version of the Melchiah boss with how tedious it can be to have him follow you. The real appeal of these bosses isn't in their levels or bossfights though, it's in finding out about their relationship with Raziel, how they feel about Kain's actions and how they metamorphosed and adapted to the changing climate all of which is done well but again, I wish we got more dialogue to flesh these things out.
Maybe I'm being a bit hyperbolic regarding some of its shortcomings, and there is some other stuff I like here such as the fact it loads in real time and therefore doesn't require loading screens which feels like an absolute Blessing after Blood Omen's stop and start gameplay and the music is once again really good. But still, the majority of the time I spent playing this game was me bored out of my mind waiting for it to be over. Soul Reaver is a real Paradox. I don't get how a game that's so light-years ahead of its time in terms of characters, narration and story-telling can be so dated and archaic in terms of almost everything else.
Generally though, what Blood Omen did well, is still done well in Soul Reaver. The story is again, the best part of the game and it starts off with what might be my favourite CGI Opening to any game I've played. I need to gush about it, it's so good, It establishes Raziel as essentially being Kain's favourite son and then has him killed by Kain in the same scene which does a perfect job in emphasizing just how fargone Kain has become. The image of Raziel having his wings ripped off by Kain has been branded into my brain ever since I first saw it and it was my main motivator for starting the series. The rest of the story is good too, narration is still strong here and listening to Raziel's musings on how twisted and decayed the world he once knew has become were the best parts of the game for me. Problem is, there's just not as much narration this time around, compared to Blood Omen, Raziel barely talks here and yeah, it makes sense for a guy whose basically been tortured and scorched for 500 years to not be very talkative but it's still disappointing. Still, the conversations that Raziel shares with Kain and his lieutenants are great and it's what kept me going right until the very end even when I just wished the game was over. Too bad that when the game is finally over, it doesn't end with a bang, not even a spark, just an absolute dud of an abrupt To Be Continued screen.
Okay so why don't I like this game, well let's start with the minor stuff. The combat at the start is awful, enemies have 0 windup to their attacks and Raziel's attacks will whiff randomly leading you to just getting interrupted in the middle of your string, killing enemies is also a hassle since it requires using the environment to your advantage by grabbing the enemies when they're stunned and throwing them into something lethal like sunlight, fire, spikes etc. Cool idea for sure, but in execution it just feels inconvenient. But this is only a minor issue since you can run past about 99% of the enemies in this game and once I realized this I did just that for the whole game and I think there's only one instance where you're forced to fight enemies that aren't bosses.
This leads me to another problem, Soul Reaver tries to be a Metroidvania style game that puts you in the middle of a huge area and allows you to learn the ins and outs of the environment on your own. A good metroidvania should facilitate exploration with rewards to make going through it feel worth it and Soul Reaver doesn't do this. If you go out of your way to find hidden areas and rewards, you'll usually get 2 things. Either Glyphs that function as AoE attacks that drain a bit of your health or 1/5th of a health upgrade. Getting Glyphs feels Worthless since they only help with combat which you can almost entirely ignore here, that and they cost Health to use which means you lose your ability to use the wraith blade when activating them which is the way you kill enemies without relying on the environment. As for the health upgrades, it's a personal gripe of mine but I hate when games have you collect X amount of an item in order to get any benefit from it. It's just so lame when I find an item and think "Oh if I get 4 more of this I'll actually get something out of it". So with exploration that just doesn't feel worth it, I ended up just trying to get through the game's story without doing much else and that leads me to my biggest problem with this game, it's too damn big. It's so easy to get lost in this game with how huge it is and without having hidden items that make it worth it, it just leads to so much frustration. The amount of time I wasted aimlessly wandering around Nosgoth with no idea if I'm going in the right direction pissed me off to the point where I had to bust out a guide since I just wanted to get this game over with. I mentioned before how you can run past most enemies with no issue but the one enemy you'll be fighting throughout your entire playthrough will be the camera, oh my Lord it's so bad with how it's glued to Raziel's back and it often obscures the paths above you that you're meant to go to. What doesn't help is that the game has No map feature and the fast travel mechanic is so awkward to use. Each area is marked by this symbol that you use to identify which teleporter leads where and memorizing these is just needless busywork. I'm so baffled at how Blood Omen did all these things better, that game actually had a map feature with a fast-travel mechanic that was easy to comprehend and gave you more reason to explore since exploration there led to you getting items and permanent health upgrades that upgraded your health Immediately.
When you're not fruitlessly parading through Nosgoth's remains you're usually solving puzzles here. Some are pretty cool, I like the one where you ring bells in succession in order to break glass that lets you progress further or the one where you push pipes in order to allow for air to flow that you can use to hover up to your destination. Puzzles that rely on the gimmick of swapping between the real and spectral realm are also pretty enjoyable. But majority of the puzzles are just relegated to consisting of mindless block pushing, these aren't bad per se but surely they could've thought of something more interesting, this is just lazy. The bosses are also puzzles and they're hit and miss. Melchiah is pretty simple and fun, Zephon is even simpler but very fun and he's got a sick design that looks like something that H.R Giger would design, Rahab's bossfight requires platforming which is clunky as hell in this game but it's still decent and Dumah is just a worse version of the Melchiah boss with how tedious it can be to have him follow you. The real appeal of these bosses isn't in their levels or bossfights though, it's in finding out about their relationship with Raziel, how they feel about Kain's actions and how they metamorphosed and adapted to the changing climate all of which is done well but again, I wish we got more dialogue to flesh these things out.
Maybe I'm being a bit hyperbolic regarding some of its shortcomings, and there is some other stuff I like here such as the fact it loads in real time and therefore doesn't require loading screens which feels like an absolute Blessing after Blood Omen's stop and start gameplay and the music is once again really good. But still, the majority of the time I spent playing this game was me bored out of my mind waiting for it to be over. Soul Reaver is a real Paradox. I don't get how a game that's so light-years ahead of its time in terms of characters, narration and story-telling can be so dated and archaic in terms of almost everything else.
Just a great game all around. Retains the level of voice acting and atmosphere the previous game contained now told in a 3D space.
Magnificent
I think it is the best allegory of what a good adventure game is why it is so hard to do.
It has 3 main gameplay cores, all of which remain on the character controller, essentially moves and navigation. Theses 3 gameplay cores are all solid (like snake). 3D platformer first, relies on a lot of verticality, 3 initials moves (a quick but not high jump, a crouch jump that goes way up and a glider) and some additions spread all along the adventure. Then, an action-combat game, that benefits a lot from the theme : both a clever way to design an health bar, a power up related to this health bar and a final blow system that adds a lot of dynamism by cleverly using the level design. Eventually, a very varied puzzle game relying on very different aspects, even the sound and music design.
On top of these 3 very cool gameplays, Soul Reaver adds :
- A metroid-vania structure based on power ups that open the map. That adds a lot to the level design
- A deep and well treated theme, which has a lot of different layers to its language
- A generous artistical direction, that hits the top in world building, music, dub, graphisms, colors, chara design at a point that it is still interessting nowadays.
That's the catch with adventure games. Beyond necessitating a lot of ideas, mastery and talent, all these elements necessitate a lot of money. Doing an adventure game is expensive, both artistically and monetary speaking, and that might explain why I don't like this genre.
Very few find my favors. On PS1, you can also play the first Spyro games, which are really cool. Medievil deserves to be cited too. More recently, Pumpkin Jack or A Plague Tale:Inocence are worth playing. Unfortunately, i never felt anything for Uncharted or Tomb Raider. I guess it's a matter of tastes.
For your information, french version of this game is... Pretty much above anything. 5 stars cast, 5 stars art direction, 5 star writting. I think it might have not been reached in videogames since.
"Tu te perds dans les méandres de ta morale relativiste, Kain !"
It has 3 main gameplay cores, all of which remain on the character controller, essentially moves and navigation. Theses 3 gameplay cores are all solid (like snake). 3D platformer first, relies on a lot of verticality, 3 initials moves (a quick but not high jump, a crouch jump that goes way up and a glider) and some additions spread all along the adventure. Then, an action-combat game, that benefits a lot from the theme : both a clever way to design an health bar, a power up related to this health bar and a final blow system that adds a lot of dynamism by cleverly using the level design. Eventually, a very varied puzzle game relying on very different aspects, even the sound and music design.
On top of these 3 very cool gameplays, Soul Reaver adds :
- A metroid-vania structure based on power ups that open the map. That adds a lot to the level design
- A deep and well treated theme, which has a lot of different layers to its language
- A generous artistical direction, that hits the top in world building, music, dub, graphisms, colors, chara design at a point that it is still interessting nowadays.
That's the catch with adventure games. Beyond necessitating a lot of ideas, mastery and talent, all these elements necessitate a lot of money. Doing an adventure game is expensive, both artistically and monetary speaking, and that might explain why I don't like this genre.
Very few find my favors. On PS1, you can also play the first Spyro games, which are really cool. Medievil deserves to be cited too. More recently, Pumpkin Jack or A Plague Tale:Inocence are worth playing. Unfortunately, i never felt anything for Uncharted or Tomb Raider. I guess it's a matter of tastes.
For your information, french version of this game is... Pretty much above anything. 5 stars cast, 5 stars art direction, 5 star writting. I think it might have not been reached in videogames since.
"Tu te perds dans les méandres de ta morale relativiste, Kain !"
A stellar sequel that changed the formula from its predecessor. God tier voice acting for a ps1 game. Very fun puzzles and boss fights!
Amazing game. The Windows port butchers this though, play on something else
Soul Reaver is one of those classic games that still holds up surprisingly well. The story and voice acting are top-notch, the world design is awesome with tons of spooky atmosphere, and shifting between the spectral and material realms is such a cool mechanic! Some of the puzzles can be a real head-scratcher, and it sometimes feels a bit linear... but for a gothic action-adventure, this one's a must-play.
Man I played this shit when I was a boo-hoo teenager and it hit so hard. "Yeah this is a pitiful form to inhabit, Raziel!"
Playing through this now 25 years later and shit is still solid. The mood is so gloomy and the PSX graphics make it even more gritty. Love running through flooded and muddy ruins and spearing sad excuses for vampires.
It does suffer from of those 90's camera issues (had to remap the camera turn) and the boss fights are mostly a let down. But the writing, mood, and environments are just that good moody shit hell yeah.
2/5 of "BC relives his teen years and plays all of LoK"
Playing through this now 25 years later and shit is still solid. The mood is so gloomy and the PSX graphics make it even more gritty. Love running through flooded and muddy ruins and spearing sad excuses for vampires.
It does suffer from of those 90's camera issues (had to remap the camera turn) and the boss fights are mostly a let down. But the writing, mood, and environments are just that good moody shit hell yeah.
2/5 of "BC relives his teen years and plays all of LoK"
gustoso
Güzel gibi duruyor fakat bu sene de oynanmaz.
Proto - Soulslike 10 anos antes do 1o soulslike.
Esse jogo é uma aula de game designe, parte técnica, trilha, direção de arte e a forma como as mecânicas se conversão, tudo encaixa muito bem, pegando elementos de metroidvania no seu level designe e progressão é aquilo que eu chamo de metroidvania 3D, master piece do PS1.
09/10
Esse jogo é uma aula de game designe, parte técnica, trilha, direção de arte e a forma como as mecânicas se conversão, tudo encaixa muito bem, pegando elementos de metroidvania no seu level designe e progressão é aquilo que eu chamo de metroidvania 3D, master piece do PS1.
09/10
Tengo muchos sentimientos encontrados con este juego.
Todos los problemas que tengo con este juego se debe a los recortes que hicieron.
La historia no es mala si no floja y con mucho potencial desperdiciado.
Se explora muy poco la dinámica de Raziel con sus hermanos. Se compensa un poco con lo definidos que están pero pues eso es más un consuelo que un punto a destacar sin mencionar que el juego no cierra nada.
Además de que está más centrado en hacer puzzles que se pierde mucho la narrativa del juego como si estuvieran separadas.
No miento con decir que dure mucho tiempo haciendo puzzles y cuando termine se me olvidó porque carajos estaba en ese lugar.
Otra cosa a destacar es el contenido recortado en varias zonas que pasaron a ser opcionales la más evidente la ciudad de los humanos......
También tiene algunos problemas el gameplay la cámara falla en varias ocasiones al estar puesta en lugares cerrados, Mención deshonorifica a la cámara cuando estamos nadando.
Ya quitando eso el resto de la experiencia es muy buena. El nivel de progresión de Raziel es excelente y se llega a sentir increíble cuando conseguimos la segadora de almas y los poderes nuevos. Los puzzles llegan a ser muy variados e ingeniosos esto combinado con el cambio de espacio al tener que alterar entre 2 realidades es increíble. El diseño de niveles están muy bien es un mundo semi abierto que incita mucho la exploración con muy buen backtraking.
La ambientación es increíble. Un juego de 1999 tiene mejor ambientación que muchos hoy en día.
En cuanto a los coleccionables me gustan que sean opcionales, el juego nunca te presiona a conseguirlos y si quieres puedes hacer caso omiso a ellos y seguir con la aventura (aunque si el juego es muy fácil......) Quiero destacar que estos coleccionables si son importantes para tu progresión con Raziel y no son mamadas como los juegos de Ubisoft que es recoger porquería por qué hay que rellenar el juego con algo.
Lo recomiendo pese a sus falencias pero si puede ser algo tedioso en los aspectos negativos que mencioné.
Todos los problemas que tengo con este juego se debe a los recortes que hicieron.
La historia no es mala si no floja y con mucho potencial desperdiciado.
Se explora muy poco la dinámica de Raziel con sus hermanos. Se compensa un poco con lo definidos que están pero pues eso es más un consuelo que un punto a destacar sin mencionar que el juego no cierra nada.
Además de que está más centrado en hacer puzzles que se pierde mucho la narrativa del juego como si estuvieran separadas.
No miento con decir que dure mucho tiempo haciendo puzzles y cuando termine se me olvidó porque carajos estaba en ese lugar.
Otra cosa a destacar es el contenido recortado en varias zonas que pasaron a ser opcionales la más evidente la ciudad de los humanos......
También tiene algunos problemas el gameplay la cámara falla en varias ocasiones al estar puesta en lugares cerrados, Mención deshonorifica a la cámara cuando estamos nadando.
Ya quitando eso el resto de la experiencia es muy buena. El nivel de progresión de Raziel es excelente y se llega a sentir increíble cuando conseguimos la segadora de almas y los poderes nuevos. Los puzzles llegan a ser muy variados e ingeniosos esto combinado con el cambio de espacio al tener que alterar entre 2 realidades es increíble. El diseño de niveles están muy bien es un mundo semi abierto que incita mucho la exploración con muy buen backtraking.
La ambientación es increíble. Un juego de 1999 tiene mejor ambientación que muchos hoy en día.
En cuanto a los coleccionables me gustan que sean opcionales, el juego nunca te presiona a conseguirlos y si quieres puedes hacer caso omiso a ellos y seguir con la aventura (aunque si el juego es muy fácil......) Quiero destacar que estos coleccionables si son importantes para tu progresión con Raziel y no son mamadas como los juegos de Ubisoft que es recoger porquería por qué hay que rellenar el juego con algo.
Lo recomiendo pese a sus falencias pero si puede ser algo tedioso en los aspectos negativos que mencioné.
Uh.. This is the first review i make of a game that let me down in some aspects... Don't get me wrong, Soul Reaver is good, overall. But it truly needs a remake.
One thing that truly amazed me is the "two worlds" mechanic. Basically, there is 2 different versions of all scenarios that you go trough the game. Until this day, i've never seen a videogame that do that so well than this one.
The story is 10/10. Fantastic, a whole universe in a PS1 cult game. But i cannot say the same for the gameplay, the combat works well but there is so many enemies (and they keep respawnning) that it doesnt make it fun to fight, it just keep being boring when they messes with u when you're trying to solve a puzzle.
And talking about puzzles, this game has a LOT. And most of them are "box pushing simulators". There is SO MANY, so MANY puzzles that it feels that this isn't a action/adventure game, 'cause the pace gets so slow that there is moments you just want to see a walktrough by a 13yo kiddo instead of trying yourself (None of them are really hard and the bosses are easy as well)
It's a shame, but it's still worthy to try!
One thing that truly amazed me is the "two worlds" mechanic. Basically, there is 2 different versions of all scenarios that you go trough the game. Until this day, i've never seen a videogame that do that so well than this one.
The story is 10/10. Fantastic, a whole universe in a PS1 cult game. But i cannot say the same for the gameplay, the combat works well but there is so many enemies (and they keep respawnning) that it doesnt make it fun to fight, it just keep being boring when they messes with u when you're trying to solve a puzzle.
And talking about puzzles, this game has a LOT. And most of them are "box pushing simulators". There is SO MANY, so MANY puzzles that it feels that this isn't a action/adventure game, 'cause the pace gets so slow that there is moments you just want to see a walktrough by a 13yo kiddo instead of trying yourself (None of them are really hard and the bosses are easy as well)
It's a shame, but it's still worthy to try!
I tried, i love the lore and story of this game, the characters, how the bosses looks, the music is amazing, love what they try to do with the gameplay and combat BUT this game is borderline unplayable. The framerate, controls and camera are atrocious. The camera & controls prevent me from have any fun with this game.
If a game exist that NEEDS a remake is this.
If a game exist that NEEDS a remake is this.
Box pushing simulator.
I still think about this game on a regular basis. Maybe we'll get a remake some day.
me gusto
This review contains spoilers
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver tells the story of Raziel, mouthless, blue vampire boy, facing his greatest foe: box pushing puzzles. Ok, actually it tells the story of... well, it tells PART of the story of Raziel's fight with Kain, his former vampire boss. He enacts this battle by hunting down his brothers-in-arms, devouring their souls to gain new abilities, Metroidvania style, to explore more areas of a large, interconnected world, all the while being guided by a faceless elder god who never really explains why any of this is happening.
Soul Reaver comes from that magical turning point in gaming history where developers realized that voice acting could actually be good, and this is by far the best part of the game. Characters speak in pseudo-Shakespearean riddles about betrayal and purpose with a level of seriousness that adds proper weight to the setting, bordering juuuuuust on the edge of being a little too edgy for its own good. All the performances hold up even by today's standards, particularly Raziel's self-serious, single-minded internal monologue. It's all pretty one-note, but it's a good note that suits the Gothic goings-ons. Unfortunately, no amount of high-quality acting can outplay the lesser parts of the game.
Soul Reaver is a lot of old game design wrapped up in much prettier packaging. Raziel's adventure takes place in one massive environment with no visible loading screens. Teleportation gateways serve as shortcuts around the world, but even those hide any perceptible loading of assets. It's an extremely impressive technical feat for a game of this size from 1999. Raziel travels through swirling lakes, vampiric temples, and a massive cathedral that is, in fact, a giant pipe organ of sorts. It's all very unique, but the creativity was spent entirely on these settings and not so much on what to fill them with. Despite the sprawling environments and varied enemies that inhabit them, the main thing Raziel spends his time doing is pushing boxes. Literally every level has multiple box pushing puzzles. Every so often he'll flip a switch or pull a lever, put it's usually in service of getting Raz to the next bunch of boxes to push. It's tedious and wears thin almost immediately. Credit where it's due, most of the overall puzzles are built into the environment itself, being a part of the natural setting, but rounding the corner to see another stack of boxes just waiting for Raz to push around is sigh-inducing.
When he's not pushing boxes, Raziel is leaping, climbing, or swimming around the world. He can swap between the physical and material planes pretty much at will (returning to the physical world requires using a highlighted spot in the environment), and the area around him can shift dramatically between either version. It's a neat idea and offers some cool visuals, but both realms are stuck with Raziel's dated controls and camera. He often slides to a stop, turns in wide circles, and decides randomly when to use his high jump, making precision platforming more aggravating than rewarding. Add a camera that usually wants to be as close to Raz as possible and it all becomes a harsh reminder of how early 3D platformers played.
Fortunately, levels culminate in a boss "battle" against one of Raziel's brothers, and most of these are memorable high points of the journey. Very rarely is a fight won with brute strength. The majority of Raz's brothers are bested with some sort of creative puzzle solution, turning their powers back against them. It's a satisfying way of defeating these creatures that have been twisted and deformed by the passing of hundreds of years, whose sole purpose seems to be betting Raziel that he can't kill them. Each time he proves them wrong, he absorbs their soul and special ability, which enables him to traverse more parts of the environment, tracking down Kain to his final hideaway.
At the end, however, all of this fratricide leads to a great big reveal of... nothing. The game's story ends with a defeating "To Be Continued..." text screen. Nothing is answered, nothing is explained, no one ever speaks in any specifics. Raziel is never clued into anything that Kain is actually up to, and is instead forced to, I assume, get answers in the sequel that wouldn't appear until the PS2. It's a deeply unsatisfying ending that comes at a point when things seem to be picking up, not concluding.
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is rightfully remembered for terrific voice acting, dramatic presentation, and gorgeous environment and character design. It's rightfully less remembered for its janky controls, repetitive combat, and abundance of box pushing puzzles. Overall it's a memorable experience that shows off some of the best that the PS1 era had to offer, but, much like the beginning of Raziel's tale, many years have passed and many things have changed in the world of games, making it a worthwhile journey with a heavy dose of caveats.
Soul Reaver comes from that magical turning point in gaming history where developers realized that voice acting could actually be good, and this is by far the best part of the game. Characters speak in pseudo-Shakespearean riddles about betrayal and purpose with a level of seriousness that adds proper weight to the setting, bordering juuuuuust on the edge of being a little too edgy for its own good. All the performances hold up even by today's standards, particularly Raziel's self-serious, single-minded internal monologue. It's all pretty one-note, but it's a good note that suits the Gothic goings-ons. Unfortunately, no amount of high-quality acting can outplay the lesser parts of the game.
Soul Reaver is a lot of old game design wrapped up in much prettier packaging. Raziel's adventure takes place in one massive environment with no visible loading screens. Teleportation gateways serve as shortcuts around the world, but even those hide any perceptible loading of assets. It's an extremely impressive technical feat for a game of this size from 1999. Raziel travels through swirling lakes, vampiric temples, and a massive cathedral that is, in fact, a giant pipe organ of sorts. It's all very unique, but the creativity was spent entirely on these settings and not so much on what to fill them with. Despite the sprawling environments and varied enemies that inhabit them, the main thing Raziel spends his time doing is pushing boxes. Literally every level has multiple box pushing puzzles. Every so often he'll flip a switch or pull a lever, put it's usually in service of getting Raz to the next bunch of boxes to push. It's tedious and wears thin almost immediately. Credit where it's due, most of the overall puzzles are built into the environment itself, being a part of the natural setting, but rounding the corner to see another stack of boxes just waiting for Raz to push around is sigh-inducing.
When he's not pushing boxes, Raziel is leaping, climbing, or swimming around the world. He can swap between the physical and material planes pretty much at will (returning to the physical world requires using a highlighted spot in the environment), and the area around him can shift dramatically between either version. It's a neat idea and offers some cool visuals, but both realms are stuck with Raziel's dated controls and camera. He often slides to a stop, turns in wide circles, and decides randomly when to use his high jump, making precision platforming more aggravating than rewarding. Add a camera that usually wants to be as close to Raz as possible and it all becomes a harsh reminder of how early 3D platformers played.
Fortunately, levels culminate in a boss "battle" against one of Raziel's brothers, and most of these are memorable high points of the journey. Very rarely is a fight won with brute strength. The majority of Raz's brothers are bested with some sort of creative puzzle solution, turning their powers back against them. It's a satisfying way of defeating these creatures that have been twisted and deformed by the passing of hundreds of years, whose sole purpose seems to be betting Raziel that he can't kill them. Each time he proves them wrong, he absorbs their soul and special ability, which enables him to traverse more parts of the environment, tracking down Kain to his final hideaway.
At the end, however, all of this fratricide leads to a great big reveal of... nothing. The game's story ends with a defeating "To Be Continued..." text screen. Nothing is answered, nothing is explained, no one ever speaks in any specifics. Raziel is never clued into anything that Kain is actually up to, and is instead forced to, I assume, get answers in the sequel that wouldn't appear until the PS2. It's a deeply unsatisfying ending that comes at a point when things seem to be picking up, not concluding.
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is rightfully remembered for terrific voice acting, dramatic presentation, and gorgeous environment and character design. It's rightfully less remembered for its janky controls, repetitive combat, and abundance of box pushing puzzles. Overall it's a memorable experience that shows off some of the best that the PS1 era had to offer, but, much like the beginning of Raziel's tale, many years have passed and many things have changed in the world of games, making it a worthwhile journey with a heavy dose of caveats.
The graphics are kind of whack for j villagers and most enemies, but this game is one of the greatest narratives ever told in video games.
The acting is above and beyond.
If anything deserves a remaster or reboot, it’s this series.
The acting is above and beyond.
If anything deserves a remaster or reboot, it’s this series.
I struggled to get into Soul Reaver initially. I wouldn't say I was wrong to, either. There's a lot of issues, and most stay for all of the game. The combat isn't terrible in theory but since you're almost always fighting vampires, who are immortal, you will have to pick them up and throw them into something that kills them (water, fire, spikes, etc), which is sluggish, unresponsive and very difficult to do while their friend is clawing your face in. There's some ways to mitigate that, such as remaining at full health to use the Soul Reaver or just bringing a spear into the fight, but they aren't always reliable, and overall the gimmick ends up making basically all fights a drag whenever it isn't just negated by one of the above.
Really though, I could get past that. I could also get past the block puzzles, which I honestly ended up enjoying a bit, and the platforming, which kinda sucked but I had save states so who cares. I was mostly confused by the exploration, and I think fairly so. Soul Reaver is an impressively open-ended game, and while you're always given vague directions on what to do next, they're difficult to interpret: the world is big, teleport points are infrequent and most damningly there is no map, which means I really barely had any idea where I was going for most of it. There were even whole completely optional areas, which while extremely impressive kept confusing me even more because I kept wandering around them without realizing that they weren't where I was supposed to be. Eventually, though, Soul Reaver began to click. The puzzles and exploration of the dungeons all fell into place, the bosses, while of mixed quality, were all at least interesting, and I started to get a hang of the game's structure. I'd say that the latter half of the game was definitely the most fun I had with it, overall.
That initial reaction, I think, is what most players will have, and that's a shame because under that layer of poor communication and confusion lack of direction lays a rather well-made 3D Metroidvania, not something you'd see often in this generation, or the next, really. Raziel constantly acquires new powers and the world expands as a result, which is quite great because every level's different atmosphere is absolutely Soul Reaver's greatest strength. The adaptive music (absent from the PC version, for some reason) is extremely well-realized, shifting between different instruments and vibes when Raziel enters a fight or switches to and from the spirit world. Unfortunately, exploration is somewhat discouraged by the awful combat and a complete lack of a map (I can make do without one in games with simple or extremely memorable layouts, but Soul Reaver doesn't really fit either description), which meant that I still mostly just made a beeline to the end, with the occasional help of a guide.
The story is perhaps a bit in the background compared to Blood Omen, unfortunately there isn't as much dialogue, and Raziel doesn't do the Kain thing of commenting at length about every single location he enters and ability he gets (which I loved), but I think he's still a great protagonist, maybe not quite as charismatic but very very fascinating, and I loved it every time he did speak. The final confrontation between him and Kain is great, but without getting into spoilers, I have to admit that the story doesn't really ever feel like it's... getting anywhere? Blood Omen had one hell of a climax, a pretty drawn-out one too. Soul Reaver just ends, and with a cliffhanger at that. Still, I had a good time. I would say that it's probably not worth it to play this game if you're not interested in the LoK series as a whole, which I am, but personally, I had a pretty good time, and am definitely looking forward to playing the next game, Soul Reaver 2.
Really though, I could get past that. I could also get past the block puzzles, which I honestly ended up enjoying a bit, and the platforming, which kinda sucked but I had save states so who cares. I was mostly confused by the exploration, and I think fairly so. Soul Reaver is an impressively open-ended game, and while you're always given vague directions on what to do next, they're difficult to interpret: the world is big, teleport points are infrequent and most damningly there is no map, which means I really barely had any idea where I was going for most of it. There were even whole completely optional areas, which while extremely impressive kept confusing me even more because I kept wandering around them without realizing that they weren't where I was supposed to be. Eventually, though, Soul Reaver began to click. The puzzles and exploration of the dungeons all fell into place, the bosses, while of mixed quality, were all at least interesting, and I started to get a hang of the game's structure. I'd say that the latter half of the game was definitely the most fun I had with it, overall.
That initial reaction, I think, is what most players will have, and that's a shame because under that layer of poor communication and confusion lack of direction lays a rather well-made 3D Metroidvania, not something you'd see often in this generation, or the next, really. Raziel constantly acquires new powers and the world expands as a result, which is quite great because every level's different atmosphere is absolutely Soul Reaver's greatest strength. The adaptive music (absent from the PC version, for some reason) is extremely well-realized, shifting between different instruments and vibes when Raziel enters a fight or switches to and from the spirit world. Unfortunately, exploration is somewhat discouraged by the awful combat and a complete lack of a map (I can make do without one in games with simple or extremely memorable layouts, but Soul Reaver doesn't really fit either description), which meant that I still mostly just made a beeline to the end, with the occasional help of a guide.
The story is perhaps a bit in the background compared to Blood Omen, unfortunately there isn't as much dialogue, and Raziel doesn't do the Kain thing of commenting at length about every single location he enters and ability he gets (which I loved), but I think he's still a great protagonist, maybe not quite as charismatic but very very fascinating, and I loved it every time he did speak. The final confrontation between him and Kain is great, but without getting into spoilers, I have to admit that the story doesn't really ever feel like it's... getting anywhere? Blood Omen had one hell of a climax, a pretty drawn-out one too. Soul Reaver just ends, and with a cliffhanger at that. Still, I had a good time. I would say that it's probably not worth it to play this game if you're not interested in the LoK series as a whole, which I am, but personally, I had a pretty good time, and am definitely looking forward to playing the next game, Soul Reaver 2.
This review contains spoilers
Have you ever experienced the feeling when encountering a new piece of media, might that be a book, movie, music, game... that you feel from the very beggining that it was made for you? That you realize from square one that this is going to be something that caters to your tastes all the way through? Something that impacts you deeply for a long time or even the rest of your life? There have been many games for me that had done this, the top five you can see on my profile, but Soul Reaver is probably one of the more special and personal ones to me and the only reason is not there is because I can't decide which of the other five should I exchange it with.
God there's just... so many things that I want to say about this game and it'll still feel like it whouldn't be enough.
I still remember vividly the first time many years ago booting up the game and seeing the intro cutscene, which I highly recommend the person reading this to do on YouTube, and being completely enamoured with everything. The music that scales up as the cutscene goes, the character design that is just SO late 90's/early 2000's horror-esque, the narration which is just so epic and catched my full attention immediately, the scenery that has these warm hues that contrast with the tension of the entire thing, the moment Raziel is thrown to the lake of the dead bein during a warm orange sunset, it ending with the tentacle mass that is the room of the Elder God, and the Elder God itself claiming that "you are worthy" after experiencing centuries of torture. Nothing compares to me.
Since we are talking about "worthy", Raziel is such an interesting character to me. If you don't know the full extent of the lore it doesn't impact you as much but the game makes a great job on being very clear that Raziel has a very important role on the bigger scale of Nosgoth's destiny, the imagery of him being a doomed messiah, how when he falls at the beggining or glides his model reminds me of an angel (the credits have art that reflect this as well), his mission of saving the land tie him with destroying his previous master but at the same time discovering the truth of himself and his brothers only to kill them, and how in a way he is mirroring what Kain did and suffered centuries ago. Is so tragic, so compelling, so well written.
And the writting, man the writting. Not just on the intro but throught all the game, something made by people who know how to write and WANT to write a story, want to write the dialogues of these characters like an epic tale unfolding in front of you. Don't want to sound like an old person being all "back in my day things were better", but I don't like how something like this is not as common anymore, maybe because in current times it whould be seen as too edgy or
pretentious? I don't like the way how current writting is full of ironic banter towards the craft, stuff like this feels so cool and genuine and rich. I mean, even the tutorial is narrated that way, and I adore the way the characters talk.
Quick mention here for the music, which I think is stellar and that every single track is amazing and very unique, who whould've thought that an indie electro pop band could do such a banger OST for such a grimmy looking game?
The world of Nosgoth might be dying, but it also feels like it was lived in. The entire map is so full of details that enhance this, mural paintings, decorations, exquisite architecture, all of it inspired by multiple cultures but implemented so masterfully that it feels like something new, a unique set of lands with their own customs and beliefs. All of this with a strong gothic influence of the time, plus the nice color palletes it has, it does feel very vampiric to me.
And speaking of the enviroments, they are fantastic for platforming, not sure what it is but even when climbable places can be kind of obvious sometimes, the architecture of certain buildings makes it feel like it was not intentional. I mean this as like, the programmers saw real life buldings and modeled the in game ones based on how climbable they looked, like it was natural. And the gliding ability opens the space so much, exploring can be so fun.
And speaking of exploring, some people claim this to be the first "3D Metroidvania" but it doesn't have the RPG elements that truly defines those games (leveling up, different equipments, stats, etc), so I feel like this is more closer to "the first 3D Metroid like", and what an exceptionally good game it is at that, the use of 3D spaces is phenomenal for exploring, puzzles, platforming, and so on.
And the main mechanic, the biggest thing for when it comes to playability. Changing between the spirit and material realm not only serves the narrative cohesively, but is basically having two maps on one. The already massive world map can be re explored at any time on a twisted and cold new look and to explore a new geometry with new platforms or places that open up to explore or solve puzzles, AND which also serves as a way to replenish your health or to catch up with souls that might've escaped you on the physical realm.
Ah, also the soul mechanic is so cool? If you don't feed on an enemy soul it can fade into the spirit realm and turn into a stronger enemy? Or if you didn't destroy the body of the defeated enemy it can turn it back to life? Genius.
This is a game that I've noticed, is not very talked about despite being so innovating on many aspects for it's time, in so many things that even with this long ass review I barely scratched the surface of it, the few people that know and finished this game will tell you how good it is, how many new things it did right, then why isn't it remembered as much as the other classics?
This is where the few hiccups Soul Reaver has pop up, you start to notice areas way too big being used only to guard a single glyph. Glyphs whose power is not really that useful once you unlock the fire or light one, how at the end of the game it feels like a rushed series of puzzles, how the human citadel has no bigger purpose, how it seems like there's a brother missing, how the ending (which looks super cool I love that last cutscene) is a cliffhanger. And then if you look into it you find out that massive parts of the game had to be cut. Areas that connected everything together further, characters completely scrapped with story and mechanics so unique as well, deleted from existence so late in development that their lines were even translated into every language the game was avaliable at, how the glyphs were going to serve to solve more complex puzzles, how there was supposed to be an ending.
I feel it is a bit unfair thinking of what it coul've have been, when the game as it is is amazing and I love it, but I can't help but wonder had the vision been fulfilled could Soul Reaver be remembered as the innovative classic that I feel it deserves to be remembered as? I think that there are some rumors about a possible remake or reboot but idk, it is a good chance to implement everything back but I feel part of the game's essence was due to the time it came out in, but who knows, it still has a lot of stuff going for that I haven't seen other games try...
Back then when I played this on my Dreamcast (which is the port I recommend the most, it runs better and looks better, I think the PC version is based off this one too) I never could go that far, the console was an used gift and lacked a memory card, so no saving for me. And yet every day I whould repeat the same cutscene and the same tutorial with the same joy, and every day I whould try to go a bit further, which was hard since I liked the maps so much that I whould explore the same places over and over. With the years I lost the console and the game, but it remained a fond memory of my childhood. Untill now, when I could finish it for the first time (only lacking the 100% because I missed a heath upgrade somewhere...), and I don't know if you could call this nostalgia, sometimes you like something as a kid and when you grow up not anymore or you experience it further and the magic wears off. But for me, for this game, it was that feeling of wonder the entire time, with every new thing that I avoyded spoilers of for years I loved it all the way, every aspect still caters to my tastes and for what I tend to look for in media.
Please give this game a chance.
Somehow it feels like it was made for me, and that it was waiting for me all these years, is such a feeling of satisfaction to finally give this story (some sort of) closure and truly give it the title of one of my favorite games of all time.
God there's just... so many things that I want to say about this game and it'll still feel like it whouldn't be enough.
I still remember vividly the first time many years ago booting up the game and seeing the intro cutscene, which I highly recommend the person reading this to do on YouTube, and being completely enamoured with everything. The music that scales up as the cutscene goes, the character design that is just SO late 90's/early 2000's horror-esque, the narration which is just so epic and catched my full attention immediately, the scenery that has these warm hues that contrast with the tension of the entire thing, the moment Raziel is thrown to the lake of the dead bein during a warm orange sunset, it ending with the tentacle mass that is the room of the Elder God, and the Elder God itself claiming that "you are worthy" after experiencing centuries of torture. Nothing compares to me.
Since we are talking about "worthy", Raziel is such an interesting character to me. If you don't know the full extent of the lore it doesn't impact you as much but the game makes a great job on being very clear that Raziel has a very important role on the bigger scale of Nosgoth's destiny, the imagery of him being a doomed messiah, how when he falls at the beggining or glides his model reminds me of an angel (the credits have art that reflect this as well), his mission of saving the land tie him with destroying his previous master but at the same time discovering the truth of himself and his brothers only to kill them, and how in a way he is mirroring what Kain did and suffered centuries ago. Is so tragic, so compelling, so well written.
And the writting, man the writting. Not just on the intro but throught all the game, something made by people who know how to write and WANT to write a story, want to write the dialogues of these characters like an epic tale unfolding in front of you. Don't want to sound like an old person being all "back in my day things were better", but I don't like how something like this is not as common anymore, maybe because in current times it whould be seen as too edgy or
pretentious? I don't like the way how current writting is full of ironic banter towards the craft, stuff like this feels so cool and genuine and rich. I mean, even the tutorial is narrated that way, and I adore the way the characters talk.
Quick mention here for the music, which I think is stellar and that every single track is amazing and very unique, who whould've thought that an indie electro pop band could do such a banger OST for such a grimmy looking game?
The world of Nosgoth might be dying, but it also feels like it was lived in. The entire map is so full of details that enhance this, mural paintings, decorations, exquisite architecture, all of it inspired by multiple cultures but implemented so masterfully that it feels like something new, a unique set of lands with their own customs and beliefs. All of this with a strong gothic influence of the time, plus the nice color palletes it has, it does feel very vampiric to me.
And speaking of the enviroments, they are fantastic for platforming, not sure what it is but even when climbable places can be kind of obvious sometimes, the architecture of certain buildings makes it feel like it was not intentional. I mean this as like, the programmers saw real life buldings and modeled the in game ones based on how climbable they looked, like it was natural. And the gliding ability opens the space so much, exploring can be so fun.
And speaking of exploring, some people claim this to be the first "3D Metroidvania" but it doesn't have the RPG elements that truly defines those games (leveling up, different equipments, stats, etc), so I feel like this is more closer to "the first 3D Metroid like", and what an exceptionally good game it is at that, the use of 3D spaces is phenomenal for exploring, puzzles, platforming, and so on.
And the main mechanic, the biggest thing for when it comes to playability. Changing between the spirit and material realm not only serves the narrative cohesively, but is basically having two maps on one. The already massive world map can be re explored at any time on a twisted and cold new look and to explore a new geometry with new platforms or places that open up to explore or solve puzzles, AND which also serves as a way to replenish your health or to catch up with souls that might've escaped you on the physical realm.
Ah, also the soul mechanic is so cool? If you don't feed on an enemy soul it can fade into the spirit realm and turn into a stronger enemy? Or if you didn't destroy the body of the defeated enemy it can turn it back to life? Genius.
This is a game that I've noticed, is not very talked about despite being so innovating on many aspects for it's time, in so many things that even with this long ass review I barely scratched the surface of it, the few people that know and finished this game will tell you how good it is, how many new things it did right, then why isn't it remembered as much as the other classics?
This is where the few hiccups Soul Reaver has pop up, you start to notice areas way too big being used only to guard a single glyph. Glyphs whose power is not really that useful once you unlock the fire or light one, how at the end of the game it feels like a rushed series of puzzles, how the human citadel has no bigger purpose, how it seems like there's a brother missing, how the ending (which looks super cool I love that last cutscene) is a cliffhanger. And then if you look into it you find out that massive parts of the game had to be cut. Areas that connected everything together further, characters completely scrapped with story and mechanics so unique as well, deleted from existence so late in development that their lines were even translated into every language the game was avaliable at, how the glyphs were going to serve to solve more complex puzzles, how there was supposed to be an ending.
I feel it is a bit unfair thinking of what it coul've have been, when the game as it is is amazing and I love it, but I can't help but wonder had the vision been fulfilled could Soul Reaver be remembered as the innovative classic that I feel it deserves to be remembered as? I think that there are some rumors about a possible remake or reboot but idk, it is a good chance to implement everything back but I feel part of the game's essence was due to the time it came out in, but who knows, it still has a lot of stuff going for that I haven't seen other games try...
Back then when I played this on my Dreamcast (which is the port I recommend the most, it runs better and looks better, I think the PC version is based off this one too) I never could go that far, the console was an used gift and lacked a memory card, so no saving for me. And yet every day I whould repeat the same cutscene and the same tutorial with the same joy, and every day I whould try to go a bit further, which was hard since I liked the maps so much that I whould explore the same places over and over. With the years I lost the console and the game, but it remained a fond memory of my childhood. Untill now, when I could finish it for the first time (only lacking the 100% because I missed a heath upgrade somewhere...), and I don't know if you could call this nostalgia, sometimes you like something as a kid and when you grow up not anymore or you experience it further and the magic wears off. But for me, for this game, it was that feeling of wonder the entire time, with every new thing that I avoyded spoilers of for years I loved it all the way, every aspect still caters to my tastes and for what I tend to look for in media.
Please give this game a chance.
Somehow it feels like it was made for me, and that it was waiting for me all these years, is such a feeling of satisfaction to finally give this story (some sort of) closure and truly give it the title of one of my favorite games of all time.