Legacy of Kain - A look back at a Playstation classic

[Thomas Ennis]

Interestingly enough, the first time I played Legacy of Kain I didn't like it. A few years later I picked up a copy at a local used game store and that all changed. I was hooked the moment I saw the video of Kain being turned into a vampire to get revenge on his killers. Never before had I seen a game where you got to play a vampire, much less a magic wielding vampire.
I think the reason I took to this game so quickly the second time, is it reminded me of a dark Zelda. You had to adventure through caves and towns looking for new items and spells. Feeding on the enemy's blood became important because you constantly lost health without doing so. The story is superb, the voice acting top notch, and the action was engrossing, though somewhat frustrating on the more difficult areas. My only issue with this game was the load time.
Legacy of Kain spawned several sequels, most notably the Soul Reaver series. Whoever wrote these games had a talent for recruiting talented voice actors and writing fantastic story lines. By the time Deception came around, the story had become a tad conveluted, but it was still a great game.
I have since misplaced my original copy of this game, but I downloaded it onto my PS3. I still enjoy this classic.

 

[BanjoKazooie]

I never owned a PSX, I don't know why, just never did. But this game sounds really fun! I sometimes wished I owned a PSX...

 

[Thomas Ennis]

If you have a PS3 you can download Legacy of Kain. Likewise, you can probably get your hands on a PSX pretty cheap nowadays. Another option is getting a hard copy of the game and playing it on a PS2. Banjo, I believe in your ability to get your hands on this game h34r:

 

[LALucien]

Ahh yes!
You sir, have great taste. It is only yesterday that I was talking about 'Soul Reaver'.
It is one of my favourite games full stop, not just from the PS1.

You're kinda right, it is a bit like a dark Zelda, although I never thought of it like that and actually, Zelda is quite dark on its own.

I like the element of being able to twist the world into the spirit realm in order to pass through gates etc and the fact that the soul reader only has its active powers while in the spirit, it ads a lot of death to the game. The story is very immersive too and was clearly well researched and thought about. It did remind me a little of Spawn, the way rahziel was killed and stripped of his powers and his jaw destroyed etc.

There is also Blood omen, where you play as Kain also. For some reason it wasn't as popular as souls reaver. I think it's because the character story was weak and the gameplay less puzzle based and more just run around draining victims of their blood. Was still fun though!

 

[Thomas Ennis]

I actually don't think the character story was weak at all. I will grant you that characters were better developed in the Soul Reaver installments. The first Soul Reaver had some ridiculous puzzles, that I feel should have been eased back a little, but the gameplay itself was very cool. It reminded me of a macbre version of Tomb Raider. Soul Reaver 2 was my favorite, though it was a little short. Deception was a good game, that took some of the combat attributes from Devil May Cry, but the story at that point had become completely mishmoshed.

 

[BanjoKazooie]

SOOOO MANY GAMES I NEED TO DOWNLOAD!!!! I couldnt find a copy of it anywhere, so I might need to download it off PSN, after I get Symphony of the night..

 

[Thomas Ennis]

If you get Legacy of Kain and Symphony of the Night, you will have 2 of the top 10 games ever made, in my opinion. Through in a little Final Fantasy 7, Super Metroid and Doom 2, then you will be living large. I know you play Zelda, so I won't even mention A Link to the Past again

 

[BanjoKazooie]

Doom 2, good times, good times That was my dads favorite game, I used to sit in a chair near the computer and watch him play for HOURS.

 

[Thomas Ennis]

We used to play Doom 2 all the time. It even got to a point where my parents would kick my brother and I off the computer to go play outside. Every chance we got though, we would be on that game, blasting through enemies. The last boss was a major disappointment, which is a shame for such a great game.

 

[BanjoKazooie]

Getting kicked off the computer to play outside... I got very used to that... Every single day it would happen.

 

[dethdealer24]

Legacy of Kain was one of the coolest games I played on the PS one. My favorite part of the game was how Kain actually fed on humans, he would suck it in through his hand, so you'd actually pull blood out of people from across the screen. The story was also really cool, but my only problem with it was while the difficulty could be hard in some places, the game was relatively easy.

 

[Esperahol]

! I recall Soul Reaver, but not Legacy of Kain. I'm not sure why, but I think it was because I was rather heavily invested in things like chemistry sets and my hoard of foster pets. I don't know it's all kind of fuzzy... ugh I'm getting all old and senile.

 

[Damien Lee]

I remember playing a demo of Legacy of Kain for the PS1. It was sort of a top-down action rpg with pre-rendered graphics. Fairly high quality game that magazines such as Gamefan, GamePro and Electronic Gaming Monthly were raving about back in those days. What stopped me from getting it were the pre-rendered graphics and cutscenes. Even back then, I knew it was a game that would age badly. Fortunately, I held out for Alundra which is possibly the finest action rpg on the PS1.

 

[joshposh]

! I recall Soul Reaver, but not Legacy of Kain. I'm not sure why, but I think it was because I was rather heavily invested in things like chemistry sets and my hoard of foster pets. I don't know it's all kind of fuzzy... ugh I'm getting all old and senile.

That was actually the second game in the series to use the Legacy of Kain brand. Yes, loved that game and I had it for the Dreamcast. It was a monumental game at the time that didn't have the long load times that plagued the PS1. The shifting between the two worlds was seamless and not seen at the time of home based consoles.

Part 2 of the Soul Reaver Saga was released on the PS2 that really pissed me off. With the cliffhanger ending I wanted it to continue on the Dreamcast, but the game publisher thought otherwise.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy_of_Kain

 

[Shimus]

I've played everything related to Nosgoth because I adored the story line. Some of those puzzles in the original Soul Reaver were ridiculous too, and the way you could impale people and use different abilities lured me right in hook line and sinker. I admit to playing Soul Reaver first before I played Legacy of Kain or anything related to Kain, but my love of Kain from Raziel's viewpoint in Soul Reaver made me lust for power as I played Kain. Kain was a boss in Blood Omens. And the entire series was decent.