So... Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain

[Awor Szurkrarz]

I started playing it again. Great atmosphere. Very relevant in today world and fun to play.

Does anyone know what's the deal with the runic writing?

 

[zeitgeist]

The Blood Script?

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Thanks. I didn't even know it had such a cool boxed edition.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

I killed Nupraptor today. Funny thing I played the game several years ago and I remember it being quite difficult. I remember dying many times and never finishing it. This time I didn't die even once and managed to kill the first boss.
I also remember being in different places and fighting a different boss. Is this game non-linear?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

The game is totally linear. However, it does have a shitload of optional stuff for you to discover, as most spells are hidden (well, not really hidden, just not necessary) and other stuff too (though much rarer, spells and artifacts are the lion's share), most notably the Flame Sword (do I remember correctly that the flame sword was the only non-essential weapon in the game, in the sense that you didn't need it to progress like the axes or the mace). For example, the Light spell is entirely optional.

And then there's stuff that you'd run into only by accident without knowing about it, like the Lake of the Dead teleporter.



PS: The key to victory is Kain's Tasmanian Devil Attack he can do with the axes.

 

[Cynic]

Played this game ages ago when it came out. Was good fun. Quite dark.

 

[Menckenstein]

I love the Kain/SR series. Too bad we'll never get another game.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

I just went through something very similar to the Black Clan mines from Arcanum. And now I'm walking through some shitty forest with apes and plants that shoot something in four directions.

I'm starting to dislike this game.

 

[SCO]

And you're not even looking for all secrets


There is even one that's impossible too get without hacking (a secret pirate area)

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

My main problem is that I don't find the game challenging enough and that I'm going through too many too long areas which aren't very interesting.

 

[Machocruz]

I only remember Abernus having any danger, demons being kind of tough. The rest of the game was average to easy difficulty.

The only PS1 game I kept.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Well, it feels to me like it ran out of atmosphere after the first fight with Malekh.

I have found it pretty hard when I played it first long time ago too. I guess my abilities have improved due to playing more complex games.

 

[J1M]

The game design for all of the optional crypts is excellent. Later, enemies that you can't drain will pose more of a challenge, but the game is not terribly difficult unless you never change your equipment.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

The game design for all of the optional crypts is excellent.

Or rather it would be if it was more challenging. I'd say that the level design of them is excellent, though.

Later, enemies that you can't drain will pose more of a challenge, but the game is not terribly difficult unless you never change your equipment.

There are still lots of healing supplies on these levels, though. Drainable enemies provided a bit of challenge of timing blows to avoid getting damaged too much but still be able to drink their blood. In case of the undrainables it's usually just switch to axes and execute them. The "black mountain clan mines" were especially bad in that regard - select mace, destroy something, take supplies, cast repel, move through firing things, select axes, execute an ape/demon, select mace, destroy something, take supplies, etc. repeated ad nauseum.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

The game is first and foremost a storyfag experience, keep going. Then start playing Soul Reaver and work forward from there.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

The game is first and foremost a storyfag experience, keep going.

I'd prefer if the storyfag experience wouldn't include shitty ape caves and a shitty ape forest and shitty swamps, though.

Then start playing Soul Reaver and work forward from there.

No, thanks, I'm already tired with it.

 

[Zergian]

I played this a long time ago, and don't remember it as being particularly good, even atmosphere wise. I had pretty much the same experience as yours turned out to be, though I finished it since it was so easy.

Have you played Castlevania: Symphony of the Night? Although a side-scroller, it has more freedom and a better atmosphere, as well as various different endings. Its main flaw is the same though: too easy, at least if you aren't fast with it.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Sticking with sword makes killing enemies more tedious and makes the game drag out even more.

I spent 10 minutes hit and running Malekh after my first attempt to sell him a combo ended up with me losing 1/4 of my health.
Then I saw that it doesn't work, so I tried a combo once more and this time he fell apart and put himself together and started anaemically shooting projectiles at me.
Then I "defeated" him in a few minutes.

I played this a long time ago, and don't remember it as being particularly good, even atmosphere wise. I had pretty much the same experience as yours turned out to be, though I finished it since it was so easy.

I loved the atmosphere until I have killed Nupraptor when it started falling apart.

Have you played Castlevania: Symphony of the Night? Although a side-scroller, it has more freedom and a better atmosphere, as well as various different endings. Its main flaw is the same though: too easy, at least if you aren't fast with it.

No. Does it allow drinking blood of the innocents?

 

[Zergian]

Have you played Castlevania: Symphony of the Night? Although a side-scroller, it has more freedom and a better atmosphere, as well as various different endings. Its main flaw is the same though: too easy, at least if you aren't fast with it.

No. Does it allow drinking blood of the innocents?

No good-evil choices, unfortunately. But you can turn into a bat, wolf, or mist, after finding the respective artifacts. Not that it's particularly fun to do so; gets slightly more so if you manage to find and upgrade their abilities.

Ultimately, it's just a good Super Metroid clone, if you've ever played that game. If not, I'd actually recommend that first, as I remember its atmosphere as being vaguely better and I think it's perhaps slightly harder.

BTW, if you want a challenge, some old NES games are good for that (Simon's Quest, Zelda II).

 

[Damned Registrations]

Well, technically there is ONE innocent in the castle you can murder, but it's more of a bad ending than anything else. It's a fun game though, if you like exploration. If you're going to emulate it anyways, the saturn version has an extra area that wasn't finished in the PSX version iirc.

 

[Excidium]

Well, technically there is ONE innocent in the castle you can murder, but it's more of a bad ending than anything else. It's a fun game though, if you like exploration. If you're going to emulate it anyways, the saturn version has an extra area that wasn't finished in the PSX version iirc.

But from what I read the Saturn version is kinda worse (controls and graphics) and those new zones serve absolutely no purpose.

Also, did it even get released in english?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Soul Reaver was one of the best platformers of its time though, keep that in mind.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Fuck. You.

PS1 had an extremely high bar for platformers with games like Crash Bandicoot series. If anything, platformers have declined way more than RPGs, as nowadays they're just "artsy" bullshit.

 

[JoshTheDennis]

I remember when I was younger and really into this game, despite the fact that I was obsessed with it I silently admitted to myself that it was a pretty shitty game and I only played it for the fantastic voice-acting and writing. How many video games are framed entirely around the idea of hard determinism while using vampires (that don't come out of a shitty $.50 gothic romance paperback) as a framing device? I'm sure if I went back and played it now I wouldn't be able to stand it though.

 

[J1M]

The game design for all of the optional crypts is excellent.

Or rather it would be if it was more challenging. I'd say that the level design of them is excellent, though.

They aren't there to be challenging, they are there to teach you how to use the new item/spell you just acquired. It's a tutorial without pop-ups or someone telling you which buttons to press, and completely optional.

As people said, the prime attraction here is the story. The other Legacy of Kain games have different gameplay. Soulreaver is a 3rd person action game and Defiance is somewhat similar to Devil May Cry.

I usually recommend people play Soulreaver first, then they care about the events of Blood Omen more and have context for them. Soulreaver has some very cool geometry distortion level design with its plane shifting mechanic and I liked how enemy vampires required being dispatched by sunlight/fire/impaling. Soulreaver 2 was heavier on the story and a little sloppier with the mechanics.