What is your favorite Legacy of Kain game?

[Golden Xan]

Spoiler: My story with Legacy of Kain

My first contact with the Legacy of Kain universe was through Soul Reaver. At that time, it was a differentiated game in my eyes because you got to play as a vampire. And a vampire of souls at that.

The game started out with an exciting cutscene that set up the tone of the game and prepared me for a deep dive. Pun intended.

The game developed in surprising ways by having us acquire interesting abilities throughout the story, an unusually open world, very detailed lore, extremely well-done narrative, and considerably powerful horror. I got to finish the game without ever finding a single magic power.

I became enamored of the world. Raziel was an amazing character. His story of vengeance was captivating. I didn't get to finish the game until Soul Reaver 2 came out. I got it as a birthday present. Soul Reaver 2 was initially a disappointment for me because the combat changes made it awkward. I couldn't get used it, couldn't get past it. I had to return it.

However, as time went on I came to know Defiance, and I later found out about Blood Omen. I had a CD from a magazine with demos of horror games. Blood Omen was one of them. I only paid attention to it because of its subtitle. Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. The connection intrigued me. I tried it out, and I loved it.

Blood Omen was considerably dated by the time I decided to play it, but it felt timeless. The story told as a narrative from the main character was absolutely incredible. The voice actor did an amazing job. I played Blood Omen knowing that Kain was the villain in Soul Reaver. Seeing that forming throughout the story was very interesting. The most interesting aspect was seeing how Kain's personality developed as he experienced more as undead. He gradually became the character in Soul Reaver, but was also more... Very unique on his own. The best character development I ever saw in any game.

Blood Omen was good for a number of reasons, however. It was extremely complex for a game of its time. In-game climate changes, time lapses, very creative storyline, somewhat non-linear story development, lots of secrets, lots of content to unlock, lots of weapons, lots of powers, lots of enemies, challenging and alluring.

A bug skipped a section of the game for me. I was in a hell-like place and ended up dying. I got transported to another region entirely and couldn't find my way back to where I was. I couldn't start the game from scratch just to get there again.

No matter. I connected with Raziel more easily than I did with Kain, but Kain turned out to be even more complex and powerful in the end. Exploring the world of Nosgoth through Kain's eyes in Blood Omen was an experience that I will never forget.

After finishing it, I went through Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2, and then Defiance in order to see how it all ended. Having known Blood Omen, the series became much more interesting for me. I neglected the awkward controls of Soul Reaver 2 and paid a lot of attention to the scenery and the lore then. A truly epic series.

I then decided to try out Blood Omen 2... But the narrative was not its strong point and the characters weren't as interesting and they looked far too different for me. Frankly, it felt like a rip-off to some extent. I didn't bring myself to finish it.

There was another game in the Legacy of Kain universe, but not a traditional singleplayer story. Its name was Nosgoth, and it was an asymmetric PVP multiplayer F2P game. Soon after finishing Defiance, I learned of its development. I was very excited about it and participated in its community and development as much as possible. It was an incredible game, even in its beta stages, but ultimately bad decisions from the publishers and greediness led the game to be canceled, as some other LoK games were.

My favorite Legacy of Kain game is, then, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, because of its wonderful storytelling through voice acting, character development and how elevated it was on so many levels when compared to most games released around that time.

What is your favorite game in the Legacy of Kain universe, and why? Tell us your story!

 

[Pawniuss]

My favorites are the first entries of each series: Blood Omen and Soul Reaver. Blood Omen was quite dark and complex for its time and so was its main character, many find him to be less relatable compared to Raziel but I think that's mainly because Raziel seems to be written precisely to be more easily relatable while it seems the writters of BO had other ideas when creating Kain. I like both Kain and Raziel but I like Blood Omen Kain more, while Raziel I only like in the first Soul Reaver but in later games he started to annoy me.

I also think Blood Omen 2 is underrated, the main plot and narrative were straightforward but instead the game had more subtle details and side stories that weren't relevant to the plot but helped give the game's world more substance, like when you pass by some NPCs talking about how their relative went missing after talking openly against the Sarafan and how you could stay near and hear entire conversations like that. And I did like the bold sci-fi touches too.
Also the gameplay was better to me than Soul Reaver 2 and Defiance, with better controls for the PC ports.

 

[Denis Dyack]

I am biased of course . Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain was the game where I dared to try to tell stories for the first time and moved away from Real-Time: Strategy games. I am so glad that I did. When I think of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, it will always be like going home.

 

[Livin]

My favorite is Soul Reaver with Blood Omen being a close second. I love Kain but Raziel is just more to my liking and his best game was the first one.

 

[Maine-iac Gaming]

The original, blood omen. I loved the opening cutscenes. The game had me interested right from the start and I was curious as to what was coming next. The voice acting was amazing. With every new item or scene brought on a descriptive dialogue. I had never played anything like it at that time. I was actually disappointed when Soul Reaver came out because it was not a direct continuation of Blood Omen. I did enjoy Soul Reaver 2 quite a bit, the twist at the end. LOK is still one of my favorite gaming series.

 

[Kefka1134]

Despite having some issues here and there I would have to say Blood Omen.

Soul Reaver honestly was just not that different or interesting all things considered...

Technically it was different, but in spirit Blood Omen has all the essence of what makes a kind grim medieval European sorta fantastical story tick.

That's one of the reasons I'm glad there's Deadhaus... because it's closest to that style....

I always s wondered actually a lot about Blood Omen 2for that reason... but I feel like that game they kept announcing stuff that made it feel
Blood Omen 2 but it never really got there.... so I ended up passing on it.

 

[Sailor Midgard]

Blood Omen was my favorite because it was the first dark setting in a game I ever experienced. I loved playing Kain as he went from hating his curse to slowly enjoying his vampirism more and more. I also really enjoyed making little stories about the world, like why were there people chained up in the brothel, and why were the soldiers in Avernus not attacking the demons, that sort of thing. It gave a great primary story but left a lot for the player to wonder about as well. The voice acting was another first for me . The actors gave the feeling of being their characters instead of just reading lines which is all I had known back then.

 

[Varik Keldun]

My favorite game in the series is Blood Omen 1 - the detailed descriptions, the assortment of items, and the dark fantasy setting all drew me in originally.

My favorite character in the series is Raziel - i was a big fan of the tomb raider series before Soul reaver came out and I did love the phasing system. this made it a great platform puzzle game like tomb raider but with quite a bit more depth - having to go through 2 worlds at the same time.

Fav. to least fav. BO1, Defiance, SR1-SR2, BO2

Worst game BO2 - over all just seemed disconnected from everything else in the series, unlike the other games it was set in a thriving style world with bigger cities, the story was to straight forward. puzzles were way to basic. descriptive details are not there. combat system felt laughable, and Kain doesn't feel like Kain. (i honestly feel like kain straight from the crypt in BO1 would beat the crap outta kain from BO2)

Worst feature - combat: this is actually for all 5 games. all the enemies aside from boss fights just seemed too basic they have a single standard attack.... and all seem to just die in 2-3 hits which is way to repetitive no real tactics needed. just seemed easier to avoid most enemies unless they were needed to open a door or something.
----In D&D your enemies have quite a few different skills to use up their sleves, can use tactics / enviorment.
----in RTS games Starcraft / warcraft / age of empire ect... lots of dif. units who excel in different areas that counter things.
----Dark souls enemies have different style timed attacks that make you learn or be punished rather than just run at them and swing.
--- first person shooter games : rainbow six / black ops. use cover and terrain.


I only ever got to play the Demo for SR1 on one of the playstation magizine demo disks they sent out. and never fully played the series till i found out they made 5 games in the series total... bought em all on steam and it was a pain to get them rolling - only to play with keyboard at the time. (this has been resolved and i can use controller now yay)

 

[Edge of the Coin]

The first Kain game I played was actually Defiance. I had no idea what was going on at all, but I wanted to! So, I acquired all the others, and played them wildly out of order. So, my first experience of it was Defiance>Blood Omen 2>Soul Reaver 2>Blood Omen>Soul Reaver all on playstation/playstation 2. Then, I played them over again in order.

I actually like all the Kain games. Even Blood Omen 2. It was a huge derailment of the series (as was Soul Reaver) and it lacks polish, but there are things that I enjoy about it as well. I liked the "lore" system, it gave the player a reason to act like the homicidal maniac everyone treats Kain as, and I like what the addition of the Hylden added to the story. That fun twist that the big bad is actually an oppressed minority victimized by the guy who's your buddy all through Soul Reaver and half of Soul Reaver 2, aided and abetted by the blue angels you thought were cool. And yeah, those NPC conversations can be hilarious. Especially when they just start killing each other over a disagreement.

I like the way Raziel plays mechanically as a platformer character, the gliding is fun, but I never really liked him as a character--he's so whiny and self-righteous. I suppose he makes a good foil to Kain, and I enjoy Michael Bell's voice performance, but Kain's my main man. The aspect of Soul Reaver that I liked the best was, if you didn't kill any of the humans in the game, the humans start worshipping you. I thought that was really cool when I discovered that on my second playthrough (I totally killed humans on my first go).

The game I replay most often, and is therefore my favourite, is Blood Omen. I keep a PS3 hooked up just so I can play it whenever the mood strikes me (it runs smoother on the PS3 than on either PC or PSX). It has an atmosphere that the later games don't even try to replicate, and I've often wondered what the Silicone Knights sequel would have been like. I guess with Deadhaus Sonata, I will have an experience as near to that as possible, and for that, I am grateful. I just wish it was a standalone title. I'm not much into "games as a service" "always online" "multiplayer" stuff. If I wanted to interact with people, I'd go outside, LOL.

 

[Denis Dyack]

I guess with Deadhaus Sonata, I will have an experience as near to that as possible, and for that, I am grateful. I just wish it was a standalone title. I'm not much into "games as a service" "always online" "multiplayer" stuff. If I wanted to interact with people, I'd go outside, LOL.

Thank you for the kind words about Blood Omen, your support and contributing here! You will be able to play Deadhaus Sonata without interacting with anyone if that is what you please. In fact, the more I think about it, we could integrate some interesting gameplay around that aspect, but alas, I should stay on track. Rather than think about the game as Online, multiplayer - think about it as Cloud First where we provide a persistent universe where the world allows for emergent narrative and world-building. There are narrative possibilities that are not possible with premium single-player games. It is up to us to win you over with this direction and I look forward to getting your input as we move forward in this undiscovered country.

 

[Denis Dyack]

I have just updated the About section on the website to reflect this latest perspective - there are probably a few typos but I will work on - all interested, please let me know what you think.

 

[DistortionDevil]

A couple people know this story already. I know the exact date when I was introduced to Legacy of Kain.
It was January 25th, 2003, and my best friend had gotten Blood Omen 2 for the Gamecube for this birthday. It was the first game that really truly frightened me, enough that I didn't want to watch my friend play the game at night. I thought Kain would leap out of the screen and get me. After some pizza and switching over to Fable, I read the manual for Blood Omen 2 and thought that Kain was more cool than scary, and so I watched my friend play and took in everything the game had to offer. For all of it's janky animations and funny bug-eyed characters, something about the game captivated me. I saw Legacy of Kain Defiance in a gamestop one day and I wondered "What happened to kain? He looks all spiky and scary and cool!" it wasn't until the PS3 came out and I downloaded the PS Store version of Blood Omen that I really got into the series proper, since I was now finally able to play them all. Out of all the games, I'd say that Soul Reaver 2 is a beautiful culmination of all the plot threads and leads perfectly into defiance. It has, in my opinion, the best dialogue in the whole series (although it's all amazing) and being able to see Janos Audron again was awesome. Not to mention Soul Reaver 2 has one of the greatest reveals / plot twists in video game history. That said, BO2 will always hold a special place in my heart, even with all of its flaws.

 

[Edge of the Coin]

I have just updated the About section on the website to reflect this latest perspective - there are probably a few typos but I will work on - all interested, please let me know what you think.

It's great to know that solo play will be a viable option! But it's more the ephemeral nature of the Cloud itself that bothers me. I won't likely be able to hook up an ancient console 30 years from now and get stuck into a game of Deadhaus the way I do Kain, LOL. Still, I can't begin to fathom how in depth this thing will become in its own time. Some things are worth investing in, even if they are impermanent. I bought a founder's pack for Nosgoth, even though it was a battle royale (a format I detest) now dead, and I will definitely be purchasing a founder's pack for Deadhaus (I only found out about this awesome project yesterday), and I dearly hope to be able to participate in the first age, though I may only be able to procure myself the Risen pack, what with the pandemic and all.

In summation, I'm super stoked about this project, and I will do what I can to support it. I'm a character artist, so I'll be out there submitting mods like nobody's business once that aspect of the game is in place. I can't wait!

 

[Denis Dyack]

It's great to know that solo play will be a viable option! But it's more the ephemeral nature of the Cloud itself that bothers me. I won't likely be able to hook up an ancient console 30 years from now and get stuck into a game of Deadhaus the way I do Kain, LOL. Still, I can't begin to fathom how in depth this thing will become in its own time. Some things are worth investing in, even if they are impermanent.

Yes, what we plan on doing is very server intensive and would not be able to fit on a console (however, 20 years from now, it would likely be possible - haha technology).

I dearly hope to be able to participate in the first age, though I may only be able to procure myself the Risen pack, what with the pandemic and all.

I hope so too! Thank you for the support and we appreciate it, especially in this brutal time of COVID-19. Keep checking out the streams on Friday Knights (4 pm EDT) as we will be giving out free founders packs and upgrades.

In summation, I'm super stoked about this project, and I will do what I can to support it. I'm a character artist, so I'll be out there submitting mods like nobody's business once that aspect of the game is in place. I can't wait!

Nice! I am very excited to see your contributions!

 

[Nova]

I probably have to pick Blood Omen since the series wouldn't had existed without it.

 

[KTVL]

The two Blood Omens. Actually picked Blood Omen2 randomly in a store as purchased a hacking and slashing third person game. It was surprising how different it was from the genreic action games with the dark atmosphere and the main character who cannot be labelled as good or bad, also had his own disciples he strictly followed. And of course the violence. Blood. Lots of blood By getting to the end the game became a great love. Then it was needed to get it's first part, which was quite difficult by that time, it was already about 13 years old and could only got a ripped copy, plus the messing with the compatibility but in the end it was very worthy. I can't really choose which is my fave of the two. Well I played the soul reaver trilogy too , it'd be okay on it's own but lacking coherence with the Blood Omens in storytelling, characters (all they used from Blood Omen are out of character, and what they did to Kain is horrible) , universe, mithology, everything you can easily split them to two independent titles and both can stand with their own story.

 

[Reckoning]

Soul Reaver.

One or two?

Yes.

 

[Carmilla]

my preferences probably go blood omen > defiance > soul reaver > blood omen 2 > soul reaver 2

 

[Barkingworm]

Although I’m a huge fan of all of them, I lean more towards Soul Reaver. I really liked the setting of the game, where Kain’s empire had been established and ruled over by he and his lieutenants. For me, I really enjoyed seeing the distinctions between vampire clans. One thing I liked about Blood Omen was Vorador and how he looked less human than Kain. I think that was really the first time I thought of the idea that as vampires age, they would gradually drift further away from being human and more towards being monstrous. I feel like Soul Reaver (and Nosgoth) really expanded on what it means to have went to the extreme end of vampirism, to a point where it has not only affected one’s appearance, but also his personality, practices, and abilities as well. They were, in every way imaginable, monsters. So for me, it was endlessly fascinating to see a world that was dominated by them and their equally grotesque offspring.

But as I mentioned, I’m a huge fan of all of them, so that’s tough question.

 

[Beaches55]

Soul reaver has to be my favorite, its what I started with and, I grew up playing with my brother, so it may just be the memories that make it better for me haha. But the opening cutscene was always super badass to me, and introduced me into this bleak, empty, dead world. The setting, along with the amazing voice acting got me hooked into the game and made me need more of this world. Which led me to finding the original blood omen, which is a close second and can see how its the favorite of a lot of people. After both of those games I fell in love with the series, so they will always hold a close place in my soul.