Was it Good? - Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

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Become my Soul Reaver, my Angel of Death. It's time to return to Nosgoth and help Raziel seek revenge on the immortal vampiric lord Kain. I'll be replaying the full game on playstation 1, critiquing the mechanics and bosses, finding the hidden optional areas and casting all the spells as we ask, Soul Reaver, was it any good?

As usual a big thank you to the supporters on Patreon and Twitch who keep the channel alive.

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[elisecunliffe]

Of all the games that deserve a remake or remaster, this has to be up there. a masterpiece that my child brain at the time couldn't appreciate.

[Arsenov]

Fun fact: The VA's were most almost all from a theater background, when they got the parts for Legacy of Kain, most of them thought they would go in, do some voice acting and get out, but, the moment they got the script and saw the lines, they were fascinated and thought this was theater level writting. So they did their utmost best at it and we 20+years later on all of the games got some if not the best voice acting we have never heard before to this day.

[tomegranatejuice]

I could listen to Cain and Raziel talk for hours. They should start a podcast.

[uppermost]

Raziel is possibly my favourite protagonist in all of video gaming. Soul Reaver was a massive part of my childhood. I give this video a "I love it" out of 10

[SymbioteMullet]

Fun little detail that's very easy to miss:
The giant skull castle is called Nupraptor's retreat, Nupraptor was one of Kain's targets in the first game.
When you finally meet him in the head of the skull, you look out through the eyes of the skull and see two different things, one a land of paradise, the other a nightmare wasteland. This is foreshadowing the choice at the end of the game.

When you as Raziel enter the skull, you go in through the right eye... the one that looked out on to the wasteland.
What the other eye sees at this point is a mystery

[AkosKovacs.Author.Musician]

Bit of a correction: Raziel is Kain's first Lieutenant and the first of his vampire son who received the strongest portion of Kain's gift; which is also the reason why the other lieutenants were so quick to turn on him as they were all envious of his prestige.

[MrAncop]

Jesus the voice acting and dialogues are insanely good, this truly feels like ahead of it's time

[DM]

Really like how you mentioned no one ever skips the cutscenes, they're so dense in that once you have greater context to the whole story you pick up on layers that you couldn't have noticed before.
Like Raziel's first confrontation with Kain, it's one of the only times that Kain actually seems angry, once he starts talking about the choice he was faced with at the end of Blood Omen.
One of the biggest themes of the series is choice, or more specifically the lack thereof, Kain knows the game was rigged from the start and it enrages him.

I love this game so much.

[OiSuzy]

"Suppose you throw a coin enough times...Suppose one day, it lands on its edge."

[BansheeKing]

Fun fact: when you initially find dumas impaled corpse if you switch to the spectral realm you can actually speak with his soul. You can't hurt him in anyway until he's back in his body but its a nice little secret interaction you can have. Also the mini boss was originally going to be a boss fight involving Turel your missing brother from this game but he was cut last minute and later brought back in Defiance as an actual boss.

[xsxSquallxsx]

I feel like this game is underrated because for a lot of people it was too complicated. I think, the game is a piece of art.

[ZK-szvs]

for those too young to remember or who didnt live through it, this game was the elden ring of its day. it had that level of hype and praise, it was THE game, on the cover of every gaming magazine, highly reviewed, and considered state of the art for its time.

[Golem]

To this day the voice acting in this game and series is the best I've ever heard in a game.

[zerodividetwitch]

can we just take a moment to realise that not two months after Josh releases this video. Crystal Dynamics have a survey online asking players if they would like to see a Soul Reaver comeback! 😯

[DanTheManCalter]

The giant skull castle was what remained of Nupraptor's retreat from Blood Omen. It was really cool of the team to throw in an old set piece like that

[Thenameisdutch]

Speaking of cut content, there’s one brother you don’t fight in the game, Turel, who was cut for time. Thankfully, Raziel finally gets to face him in Legacy of Kain: Defiance as a neat throwback to the boss fights in this one and claim his ability

[Interference]

This game was a technical tour de force: the system for warping between the spirit realm and the land of the living is still impressive. They had to design areas with geometry that could seamlessly change between two states at the press of a button, complete with unique lighting and collision, with the same number of polygons for each.

[willn]

I swear the 90's and early 2000's were the best times for gaming overall and this series was one of the proof for that.

[KhasAdun]

If you, like me, are in love with Tony Jay's performance as the Elder God in this game, you should definitely look up the audiobook for The Castle of Otranto. It's the first gothic horror ever written in the 14th century and it's read by Tony Jay. It's like listening to the Elder God read you a book with the same exact kind of language. I love it. I even memorized the opening poem: Sonnet to the Right Honorable Lady Mary Coke.

[pear-head]

My cousin got this for Christmas when I was ~4 years old, and I vividly remember sitting on the couch watching him play it. Might've even been the first game I saw, and the imagery stuck with me to this day, but I never knew what game it was until now. Thanks for the nostalgia rush and answering a question I've had for over 2 decades.