Anime Legacy of Kain retrospect (obsessive fanboy tl;dr inside)

[Whiny-Butthurt-Liberal]

I liked the original idea that Malek was vain and complacent and got caught out because of that. However, the later version is pretty good too. As Guardians, Moebius and Malek are nominally equal, but we see Malek obeying Moebius' commands. I like to imagine that Mortanius' punishment of Malek served a dual purpose of bringing the Guardian of the Pillar of Conflict more under his power and out of Moebius's orbit.

Moebius and Mortanius were the two guardians who originally rebelled against the Vampire indoctrination, which makes them the most ancient of the human guardians (thousands of years old). There is no mention of Malek at that time, so he was probably younger than them. And the rest of the circle was killed by Vorador five hundred years before Blood Omen, so all the other guardians were no more than five hundred years old.

 

[Silverfish]

God, what a welcome trip down memory lane. The greatest games series of all time and also Defiance.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

simplistic tale of a powerful vampire attacking helpless wizards for shits and giggles.

Not that there's anything wrong with killing wizards for shits and giggles. It's a barbarian-approved pastime.

 

[Chaosdwarft]

I am a big fan of Blood Omen 1! For some reason I did not click with Raziel in the Soul Reaver games (although SR2 was good). Blood Omen 2 was meh in my opinion (story wise).

I just wish we still had games that were able to deliver good gameplay and story/narration like Blood Omen 1.

 

[Murk]

Regarding Mortanius turning into a demon at the end of Blood Omen 1 -- it apparently has to do with the Hylden who were possessing him.

In Defiance, when Kain confronts Mortanius and realizes that Mortanius regrets participating in the anti-vampire rebellion, but is simultaneously being possessed by the Hylden, Mortanius leaves to go deal with the ending of Blood Omen 1. According to this (http://www.thelostworlds.net/Defiance/Question_and_Answer_with_Amy_Hennig.html), the Hylden possession is what turns him into a demon -- and the demonic form does match the shape that the Hylden spawns near the latter half of Soul Rever 2 (and also in Defiance) look like.

For reference, the demonic Hylden spawns from SR2 and below Mortanius' demonic transformation:

 

[Whiny-Butthurt-Liberal]

Looks like Diablo. Came out same year, a month apart. Coincidence?

I think not, Raziel.

 

[Murk]

That's true, but for some reason I was always reminded of the demons from doom. Well, less cyberdemonic, but I guess they're all somewhat similar in their general shape.

EDIT:

Looking at release dates, it seems that Diablo was released in December 1996 where-as BO:LOK was released in November 1996, all of 1 month earlier. Maybe that's why I associate it with Doom instead of Diablo; especially since I didn't play Diablo until 99 or so.

 

[Pound Meat]

Without bothering to read anything beforehand, I'll say Blood Omen 2 was awesome. If they had just made the enemies demons instead of aliens and their dimension hell instead of Space Zanzibar it would have been perfect. The Soul Reaver games are so up their own asses with the lore and endless faux Shakespeare garbage. We get it, guize, games are like movies now!

 

[Reality]

I know this thread is all about the plot and voice acting, but these games are like the only time I ever payed attention to Sound Effects in videogames - Soul Reaver 1 especially has such great and visceral sounds when you spear a vampire and the moans were great.. On the other hand I remember an IGN review of Defiance claiming that the claw/punching sound effects of that game were like you were using paper grocery bags as boxing gloves and personally I agree that they were squishy even all these years later.

 

[Deflowerer]

If I'm not mistaken, then actually even with the original planned ending for SR, there would've still been sequels. I think the idea was that Raziel does indeed exterminate all vampires in Nosgoth with the Silenced Cathedral thingie but then finds out that he has been tricked by the Elder God and goes back in time or shit like that.

Where the fuck did you get that idea?

"To hit the August ’99 release date, we had to cut the last few levels of the game, and end on a cliffhanger that set up Soul Reaver 2. Originally, Raziel was going to hunt down and destroy all of his former brothers as well as Kain – and then, using his newly-acquired abilities, he would’ve activated the long-dormant pipes of the Silenced Cathedral to wipe out the remaining vampires of Nosgoth with a sonic blast. Only then would he realize that he’d been the Elder God’s pawn all along, that the purging of the vampires had devastating consequences, and that the only way to set things right would be to use Moebius’ time-streaming device to go back in time and alter history (in the sequel)."

https://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/10/12/behind-the-classics-amy-hennig-talks-soul-reaver-secrets/

Also new videos up from blincoln on some of the deleted content of SR.



Wish someone would actually try to restore it and make all the missing stuff playable. I think even most of the dialogue from the cut content is still intact.

 

[Whiny-Butthurt-Liberal]

Well, that is interesting. thelostworlds.net lists cut content for Soul Reaver that makes it seem that Raziel would end up being destroyed by the sound-waves of the Silenced Cathedral, while the Elder God congratulated him for his self-sacrifice an restoring balance to Nosgoth... making it seem like it was originally intended to be a standalone and complete storyline with no possibility of a direct sequel.

Not sure how Soul Reaver 2 would make any sense, if Raziel had gone back in time after already killing Kain in the future... needless to say, it would be a very different story.

Wish someone would actually try to restore it and make all the missing stuff playable. I think even most of the dialogue from the cut content is still intact.

Wish someone would acquire the rights to the series and make remakes of all five games, and then top it off with a sixth game that concludes the epic saga. I even have some fantastic ideas for the conclusion, building off the continued dual-protagonist design they had planned for Dark Prophecy, but going in a very wild and unusual direction...

Do you want to hear it?

 

[Deflowerer]

Might also be the case that both ideas are true, just that the one with Raziel surviving and going back was the latest version before the real retail version. Although given that the whole Gnostic false god theme was there from the start, it would make sense that the whole getting tricked and going back idea was already present quite early. If you also listen to the cut dialogue, Elder God praises Raziel after the pipes are open by saying "You have done well, my servant" with an emphasis on the servant part, implying to the player and also Raziel that he has been merely used like a pawn.

Yeah, do tell your idea. Would be interesting to hear. Been on a LoK kick again recently.

 

[Viata]

Wish someone would acquire the rights to the series and make remakes of all five games, and then top it off with a sixth game that concludes the epic saga

Sadly, the people that have money to acquire the rights for the series would not be the kind of people you want making a game for the series.

 

[Whiny-Butthurt-Liberal]

Yeah, do tell your idea. Would be interesting to hear. Been on a LoK kick again recently.

Well, the idea for Dark Prophecy was to continue the dual protagonists separated by time mechanic from Defiance, but this time it would be the Younger Kain (post BO2) and the Elder Kain (post Defiance).

We also know that part of the game would involve Kain finally visiting the Demon Realm (we see it briefly at the end of Defiance and it was mentioned pretty often in SR2 and BO2) and kicking the shit out of the Hylden in their slowly-crumbling Glyph Cities.

Also, the very title of the game suggests the return of the Seer - that weird uncorrupted Hylden woman from BO2.

In my opinion, going to the Demon Realm to destroy the Hylden in person makes more sense for the Younger Kain. He had just recovered his Soul Reaver from the Sarafan Lord/Hash-ak-gik, closed the portal to their realm, but heard his adversary vow to never cease their attempts at invading Nosgoth. In order to secure his future empire, the Younger Kain needs to neutralize the threat at the source, and destroy the Hylden Glyph Cities and everyone inside them. Thus, he finds a way to travel to the Demon Realm, and kick the shit out of them.

The Elder Kain, having been purified by Raziel's Spirit Blade, will go on the exact opposite sort of adventure. He will part with the Soul Reaver, placing it wherever it is supposed to be in the timestream, and will be confronted by the Seer. Kain's goal is now to destroy the Wheel of Fate, believing it will free all souls in Nosgoth from the Elder God's tyranny. The Seer delivers her Dark Prophecy - that if Kain succeeds in doing this, he will end up irrevocably destroying Nosgoth and irreparably damaging the very fabric of reality.

She then sends him away to the Celestial Realm (we saw it briefly all the way back in Blood Omen 1 when visiting Avernus Cathedral - the Dimension Guardian took Kain on a journey across many dimensions, one of which looked heavenly), and there he has to go through a number of Elemental Forge-like areas (Temples?), that will unlock knowledge and virtues that Kain had never had a chance to have, being afflicted by Nuprator's Curse since birth.

Each Temple will take Kain on a mystical journey, where he notices himself being watched by a distant and silent observer... who could that possibly be?!?! With each Temple cleared and an insight gained, the mysterious observer becomes more and more visible... until Kain realizes exactly who it is.

Eventually, the two stories have to converge somehow... I imagine the Elder Kain will eventually return to the future desolate Nosgoth that he left behind in SR1, but not by the means of a time portal, but rather by going into stasis in a secret area, and emerging from it as a blue-skinned, winged, True Vampire - the pinnacle of his evolution.

Spoiler

From there, he will make his way to the Silenced Cathedral and activate it, destroying the horrible monsters that his progeny had devolved into. In the process, he will also be cured of his curse of undeath, becoming the first living Vampire in aeons.

Finally, he makes his way to his throne - the ruined Pillars of Nosgoth, now understanding that the Wheel of Fate is not the enemy, but rather the Elder One - an ancient parasite that corrupted it long ago. He also understands that his role is not to restore the Pillars, but to undo the binding and remove the need for the Pillars' very existence. Before he has a chance to do that, the Elder God's tentacles erupt from the underground chamber where he lurks, and the final battle ensues.

P. S. Probably, Kain and the Seer end up forming a couple, creating hybrid Vampire-Hylden children that continue the ancient bloodlines, in a newly restored Nosgoth.