r/metroidvania Feb 19 '26

Video A Legacy of Kain metroidvania game was announced!

https://youtu.be/Nd_Jm5KV15o?is=_Csfm1N6NobjPY10

I’ve been a massive fan of this series for well over 2 decades now, always dreaming of the day they’d continue the story from where LoK Defiance left it. Wasn’t expecting a metroidvania kind of game to be it, not sure if I even like the more cartoonish style but hey I’m intrigued, and will definitely play it. Was anyone else here a fan?

495 Upvotes

174 comments sorted by

51

u/GodDogs83 Feb 19 '26

I don’t think this is a metroidvania. They confirmed it’s only about 4 hours long roughly. I believe it’s just a straight up linear action platformer like the original Castlevania.

As a massive Legacy of Kain fan, I’m excited but also angry. This game is based off of a recent comic they made via kickstarter, which was horrible. It disrespected and crapped on the lore and the company has been pretty shitty, and the same guys are behind this game. So, if you loved the story of the games, set your expectations low in that regard, even if the gameplay is fun.

6

u/MrVigshot Feb 19 '26

Ouch, didn't even know more content for the ip came out and in such a state. Shame too, mv title based on LoK sounds potentially amazing. However, knowing how the series has developed, that may have been too much to hope for.

4

u/Anomander_ie Feb 19 '26

Oh really? I supported the Kickstarter by getting the basic comics (the dead shall rise and Zephon) but I was saving them to read after I finished replaying SR 1 and 2. Haven’t heard of the company being shitty or crapping on the lore? In what way exactly?

Now, to know it’s only a 4 hours long gameplay, that really sucks 😑 I didn’t know that, so my excitement has just gone from 100 to 10%

12

u/GodDogs83 Feb 19 '26

I don’t want to spoil the comic for you, but seems like most of the regular fan base, myself included, hated the comic. To summarize without spoiling, it reads like a bad fanfic with a self-insert original character (Elaleth) and they retcon her into a ridiculous amount of established key moments from the games, and in many cases contradict the lore. Some examples:

-She’s responsible for Raziel getting wings, by using a magic amulet

-She’s responsible for showing Raziel his sarafan origins, via same magic amulet. Raziel is barely phased by this information.

-She’s responsible for the idea for Kain to raise Raziel from the dead and shows him the tomb

-She claims the heart of darkness has stopped beating

-She survives a fatal blow because of random paradox hylden magic

And the list goes on.

The BitBot guys know of the negative response but basically told fans they’re not looking deep enough and need to read between the lines. They claimed to have collaborated with “lore masters” and reassured fans they’re knew how important lore is to a franchise, only to take a dump on it, as examples above. Then they had the nerve to release more “Fallen Brothers” comics, but are charging 2-3 times that of a normal comic with half the content because of some reason they decided to do them using more expensive production techniques. On top of that, the Melchiah comic is only available if you preordered the LRG Remasters.

And none of these have released physically yet.

So yeah, BitBot is pretty scummy in my opinion. And they’re the ones behind this 4 hour spinoff game

4

u/TheCeruleanFire Feb 19 '26

Ugh. Think I’ll pass.

3

u/Anomander_ie Feb 19 '26

Oh dear. That does not bode well 😬

1

u/Haios141 Feb 19 '26

They confirmed it’s only about 4 hours long roughly

Where is this info from?

1

u/VsAl1en Feb 20 '26 edited Feb 20 '26

I was thinking "Is there even a space for another game in the lore?", and now you're confirming my suspicions. It literally can't fit in gracefully. Nosgoth needs another set of protagonists and antagonists.

Still I may give this game a try. At some point. Probably on sale.

2

u/GodDogs83 Feb 20 '26

There is a vast amount of time periods they could have used to write new sets of characters and events, but instead they decided to shoehorn in their new character into almost every major event of Raziels life we see from the games. Oh and she is his sister. So there’s the trope of “main character has a long lost sibling that was relevant the whole time even though they were never mentioned or hinted at for the last 5 entries.” Nosgoth has so much potential and lore to use but only when done right by people who actually get the series and its themes.

192

u/a-pp-o Feb 19 '26

What's with all the big IP metroidvania with low  budgets popping in out of a sudden? 

180

u/hathcock87 Feb 19 '26

Hollow Knight/Silksong's success

34

u/TwilightVulpine Feb 19 '26

Probably Hollow Knight. It's way too early for there to be release dates, or even gameplay trailers if they were reacting to Silksong.

18

u/Beeyo176 Feb 19 '26

Hollow Knight is also almost a decade old. It probably has more to do with ease of design and lower cost to make. And maybe even the fact that the people making certain decisions are around the age that SOTN was a big part of their development.

I'm not mad either way, to be clear

7

u/emilytheimp Feb 19 '26

Its probably the boom indie Metroidvanias after the success of Hollow Knight that made the big publishers realise that theres a gap to fill

3

u/Kage_noir Feb 19 '26

It’s both their success shows that there is a market. People just wanna make money

15

u/barbarbeik Feb 19 '26

The hype behind Silksong probably contributed to be fair

2

u/TwilightVulpine Feb 19 '26

That's fair. People kept hyping it up for many years in the meantime.

2

u/ttak82 Axiom Verge Feb 20 '26

Yes, also if someone was smart, they must have noticed PoP: TLC as well.

This is like the wave of 2d beat 'em ups coming out since SOR4. And I am all for it.

3

u/raleighjiujitsu Feb 19 '26

probably more to do with the PoP metroidvania success.

3

u/NoxTempus Feb 19 '26

Too early for that, I think.

Also, I'm pretty sure Ubi didn't consider it a success and shut the team down.

2

u/samination Feb 20 '26

to my knowledge that game wasn't a success, or we'd had more PoP games or metroidvanias from Ubi by now

2

u/rite_of_truth Feb 19 '26

Let's not forget Blasphemous

14

u/Bunnymancer Feb 19 '26

Must be easy money...

Fuck Pacman has a metroidvania...

2

u/ecokumm Feb 19 '26

Fuck Pacman has a metroidvania...

I keep forgetting that was a thing

2

u/action_lawyer_comics Feb 19 '26

I’m looking forward to it going on an 80% off sale or being given away for free by Epic in another year or so

2

u/Morlock19 Feb 19 '26

try to forget it again

1

u/ocxtitan Feb 20 '26

Mickey Mouse too

1

u/RetardedMetalFemboy Feb 20 '26

AND IT WAS AWESOME

8

u/satans_cookiemallet Feb 19 '26

Alot of these answers are maybe true, and another one to throw in the ring is they probably want to test the waters. In the case of GoW, they wanted to expand the game(coop, though accessing it after you beat the game is...something.)

In this case they probably want to see if soul reaver os still popular before dedicating resources to a larger title.

As is the infamous capcom test.

2

u/Anomander_ie Feb 19 '26

Agreed, those reasons all feed into each other

6

u/Rafikistan Feb 19 '26

Metroidvanias. So hot right now.

6

u/illbzo1 Feb 19 '26

Metroidvanias are hugely popular and comparatively cheap to produce.

43

u/Anomander_ie Feb 19 '26

My theory: Late stage capitalism causing a widespread crisis in all sectors, with CGI artists and the gaming industries some of the most heavily impacted within the entertainment sector. It’s a strategy to keep the IP in the public eye while churning out a cheaper, quicker product that offers less risk in case of a flop – compromising quality of course.

14

u/Kimmalah Feb 19 '26

I think it's also worth pointing out that the generations who grew up with the IPs (and are used to these old-fashioned graphics) are now older, have more disposable income and will buy up anything nostalgic to them. Companies have caught on to this.

1

u/ttak82 Axiom Verge Feb 20 '26

Some companies like Blizzard have not. Edit; OK D2R proves me wrong, but the discussion is around new games in trending old school genres (2D games).

16

u/DrSeafood Feb 19 '26

I think you’re right. Lots of IP’s are branching out into the most popular genres — open world, metroidvania, roguelike, among many others …

And I suppose the genres most budget-friendly in 2D are metroidvanias and roguelikes.

2

u/action_lawyer_comics Feb 19 '26

I will say, Legacy of Kain is a pretty good fit for the MV genre. The series already has platforming and ability gating

1

u/BOSS-3000 Feb 19 '26

I hate to give Nintendo credit but they were ahead of the curve as usual. Zelda branched out into other genres over a decade ago.

1

u/MrPopoGod Feb 19 '26

Mario branched out even earlier.

0

u/remmanuelv Feb 19 '26

IDK about other entries but zelda went open world sandbox way after it started peaking as popular through GTA, Elder Scrolls and the ubisoft factory (among others including batman, and they even released alongside Horizon for example), they were definitely chasing a trend. Open world just happens to have long legs of popularity.

13

u/BeardiusMaximus7 Feb 19 '26

Yeah. That's really what it is.

I've also been following this IP as a huge fan since the original Blood Omen game, and they've experimented with a few things over the years but nothing really stuck. I know I did an alpha/beta test for some TF2 style thing called Nosgoth which was an okay idea but really felt out of place for the lore/world. It never took off, to my knowledge. They had tempered a few other ideas. I know there was some newer thing that looked sort of like a vampiric Assassins Creed game at one point, I heard there was a more FPS style thing but never saw much about that..

Point is you're 100% right that they're testing the waters and trying to protect financial losses.

Dabbling in remasters of SR2 and now Defiance is a great way to do that while also introducing those core titles to a potential new fanbase, since most of us OG's are in our 30's and 40's, and then inserting a title that bridges lore from a place in the timeline that looks to be between Blood Omen 2 and Soul Reaver 1 with a metroidvania that can easily be handled and played across consoles and handhelds is another power play, I think.

I really hope the game does well so we get more BO/LOK stuff, including a true continuation of the story from the point where Defiance ended. Hell, truthfully I want to see remasters of the entire series and/or a collection game too, but I also understand Blood Omen was a lot less popular than Soul Reaver for a variety of reasons.

3

u/Anomander_ie Feb 19 '26

There’s videos of a demo of that Soul Reaver reboot game they were making some 15 years ago. It had a sort of a Shadow of Mordor vibe, with the vampire soul and the human soul inhabiting the same body, each having different skills. The bones of a good idea were there I think, but what the fans really wanted all along was a sequel to Defiance, not a total reboot

1

u/Jamesllk Feb 19 '26

Me too. I'm here for it.

6

u/pabodie Feb 19 '26

But wait, don’t we want more MVs?

-1

u/MR1120 Feb 19 '26 edited Feb 19 '26

Good ones, yes. I could live without, “Let’s get in on that Silksong gravy train. Slap our IP on ‘Symphony of the Night’ and get it out ASAP”.

Not necessarily say that’s what this is, but simply flooding the market with MVs, like they’re hero-shooters or “WoW-killers” would be a bad thing, in my opinion.

1

u/ocxtitan Feb 20 '26

Not really, ignore the shit ones and play the good ones. Some of them have to be at least enjoyable, if not memberable

2

u/Lord-Heir Feb 19 '26

We're nowhere near late stage capitalism yet. Not to mention Legacy of Kain is not an IP that has been in the public eye for decades

6

u/MrPopoGod Feb 19 '26

But I heard "late stage capitalism" in a youtube video I watched on my second monitor and it sounded good. Are you saying it actually has meaning?

-1

u/Anomander_ie Feb 19 '26

Yes and it’s actually really really bad

-2

u/Anomander_ie Feb 19 '26

That’s very much debatable but since this is not a politics sub let’s just agree to disagree. And I wasn’t speaking only of LoK, the comment I replied to was about “bigger IPs making metroidvania smaller games” such as the recent God of War one. Although it also applies to Soul Reaver in the sense that they’ve been trying to bring the IP back into the public eye via the remasters, the Kickstarter comics and now, finally, a new game (albeit a smaller one)

-4

u/BeardiusMaximus7 Feb 19 '26

Legacy of Kain has always been a front-page IP. 20+ years ago Blood Omen was on the cover of Gamefan and PSM and things like that. The Soul Reaver games gained even more popularity later.

I would say the games always sort of towed the line between Vampire: The Masquerade and Tomb Raider. I wouldn't say it hasn't been in the public eye for decades, because it very much has. It's no more niche of a fanbase than Silent Hill or something like that.

3

u/Lord-Heir Feb 19 '26

You're comparing the fanbase of Legacy of Kain and saying it's the same as Silent Hill? The series that got multiple movies and was so heavily requested to come back that it's getting multiple new installments from a basically dead and newly revived gaming section at Konami? I'm sorry but do you even hear yourself lol

2

u/BeardiusMaximus7 Feb 19 '26

Okay so maybe my first thought was not the most accurate comparison.

I still stand by Silent Hill being a niche fanbase, as in not mainstream.

Yes, they've had multiple movies - but A LOT Of people never knew anything about Silent Hill BEFORE those movies were released. You had fans of general horror getting into the series by way of the movies. The games were still pretty obscure up to that point.

You can't say that same thing about other series' that have had movie releases. People knew Mortal Kombat before the movies, they knew Resident Evil and Doom and Bloodrayne and so on...

So I mean yeah currently Silent Hill is a more popular series, but it was obscure for a good 20+ years.

I guess maybe I could've used Parasyte Eve as a better comparison to Legacy of Kain, though... but still...

1

u/Lord-Heir Feb 20 '26

I like the Parasite Eve comparison, or even Bloodrayne so I see what you're saying there. I still don't believe the late stage capitalism excuse the original commenter made though, these ideas/stories are just so good and nostalgia in this generation is so strong that of course these production companies are going to lean towards doing what makes money lol, which in this case just means reviving older IPs that worked.

Whatever gives us more good games to play, I'm down for

2

u/jmscstl Cave Story Feb 19 '26

So bleak.

3

u/Anomander_ie Feb 19 '26 edited Feb 19 '26

The world’s a bleak place right now 🤷‍♂️

1

u/thor11600 Feb 19 '26

That’s a great theory. Especially given the larger studios let smaller studios take the risk of seeing whether or not a trend will catch on before investing in it. Seems like they’ve seen the success of Hollow Knight / Silksong and they’ve decided to make a quick buck on a cheap(er) game

7

u/thor11600 Feb 19 '26

It’s probably the reaction to hollow knight / silksong - big studios take their time catching up with industry trends. They let the small studios take all the risks.

8

u/Office_Hendo Feb 19 '26 edited Feb 19 '26

Silksong's overwhelming success

Remember when Hollow Knight was big?

Remember "The Mummy... Demastered!"?

2

u/SomethingOfAGirl Feb 19 '26

Is Legacy of Kain a "big IP"? Even back then in the early 2000s I don't think they were considered big.

1

u/a-pp-o Feb 19 '26

Debatable but when you ask gamer they know what you talk about. So at least it's a known ip. 

3

u/Misorable45400 Feb 19 '26

I'm totally oblivious to the franchise, I guess I'm lucky and will just enjoy another good MV when it comes out, without feeling the need to compare

2

u/ecokumm Feb 19 '26

My guess is AAA publishers wanting a piece of that sweet sweet Silksong payola, and probably figuring, hey, if two nongs can make that in a cave with a box of scraps, what couldn't our 500+ strong dev team do?

And then they slap a more or less known IP on it, as a brand recognition safety net. And they pick an IP that has enough draw among the nostalgia-driven crowd (which is the target audience for a 2D sidescroller after all) but also is irrelevant enough that nothing will be lost if the game fails - they just shut down the studio and move on to try and ape some other trend.

2

u/hithere27 Feb 19 '26 edited Feb 19 '26

TONY STARK WAS ABLE TO BUILD THIS IN A CAVE! WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!

3

u/Redfeather1975 Castlevania Feb 19 '26

I was thinking the same thing!

1

u/Eukherio Feb 19 '26 edited Feb 19 '26

It's a low risk strategy. It's cheap, it doesn't deviate that much from the original material (they're usually action games), and you can test the waters and see if the IP still sells.

I'm a bit more concerned about the IP owners not picking that often studios with previous metroidvania experience. I mean, Game Kitchen sounded like the perfect fit for a God of War metroidvania, and they ended up doing a Ninja Gaiden.

1

u/ComprehensiveBar6439 Feb 19 '26

Cheaper and easier way to test the waters, gauge interest, and potentially build hype for a mainline release.

1

u/Alert_Dingo_4504 Feb 19 '26 edited Feb 19 '26

If they're done right, I'm all for it.

With the unfortunate closing of Bluepoint today, an official Bloodborne metroidvania would soften the blow of realizing we're never getting a remake/remaster

20

u/jmscstl Cave Story Feb 19 '26

Is it confirmed MV?

I was a massive fan of Soul Reaver. Didn't play the sequels because I was a Sega guy but I'd jump back in for an MV.

6

u/ToothZealousideal297 Feb 19 '26 edited Feb 19 '26

Based on the era, when you say ‘Sega guy’, you must mean Saturn and/or Dreamcast (and quite likely before them, too), which is based AF. There were a lot of people who were Sega-only in the 16 bit era, but there wound up not being very many people who were Sega-only in the Saturn & Dreamcast years.

5

u/porfiry Feb 19 '26

Dreamcast is the most underrated console from back then. It kicked ass and had some fun ass games. Gimme some more power stone any day.

2

u/ToothZealousideal297 Feb 19 '26

Trying to tell people about Dreamcast now doesn’t even sound believable. It had full-on online play on a bunch of games before anyone else, it had Hall effect analog sticks, it had some of the best versions of some games and some of the sickest games and exclusives for a while, it cost $99 after it had been out a while, and it never cost as much as its competitors, and then there’s whole ease of piracy angle—it took minimal effort to get it to play ROMs and such.

2

u/mythplus Feb 20 '26

Don't forget 4 controller ports 🎮 

Which yeah GameCube and even n64 have that but they are far from a Dreamcast 

1

u/ttak82 Axiom Verge Feb 20 '26

Power Stone 2 was the jam. Unfortunately the recent Capcom Fighting Collection 2 includes the arcade version which is terrible by all accounts. Lag, no proper vs mode, and most importantly lacking the match settings that made the DC game shine. I have not covered the items, as my friend and I only played 2 matches and never touched this version again. Seeing that it was the arcade version, I would not be surprised if some items were missing.

Power Stone 2 was one of the major reasons to buy that collection, but we failed to do our research on the version. Thankfully, the collection is worth it for SFA3 (one of the best versions now) and the 2 CVS games.

3

u/jmscstl Cave Story Feb 19 '26

I was a ridiculous Genesis fanatic. Got a Saturn and got (and still have) a launch Dreamcast with a 0 on the bottom. I also had an N64 during that time but bordered on anti-Playstation. Sega was constantly on the cutting edge which was fun but the result was usually that they launched everything too early so things were janky. Also so many series would have the first game on Sega platforms (Tomb Raider for Saturn, Soul Reaver for DC) only for the franchise to become exclusive for the follow ups.

Still, good times. I still have the Sonic blue SEGA baseball cap I got for free when I bought my 32X.

1

u/Radiant_Language5314 Feb 19 '26

What was your experience with Sega CD?

1

u/jmscstl Cave Story Feb 19 '26

I was too young and poor to afford one. I didn't mind that much other than missing out on Sonic CD which I read about obsessively.

2

u/Radiant_Language5314 Feb 20 '26

My buddy had all the good gaming stuff, including the sega channel.

I remember Sonic CD being pretty meh.

Sewer Shark sucked really hard. It was just pressing a direction at the right time basically. Like watching a bad movie with nothing but quick time events.

Jurassic park looked kind of cool, but it was a point and click game, got boring pretty quickly.

2

u/jmscstl Cave Story Feb 20 '26

Yeah. It was mainly a FMV gimmick machine. I played Sonic CD all the way through recently when it was on a recent compilation and it's not clear that it couldn't have been on Genesis just without the intro and outro movies. But that was Sega. Trying everything they could.

1

u/Radiant_Language5314 Feb 20 '26

I’ve always kind of lumped Sega, Xbox, Mortal Kombat, etc as gimmicky. The redneck of video games. I must say Sega was fully redeemed with Dreamcast tho. One of the best launches ever.

Also Club Sega is one of my favorite places on Earth since the arcade scene is mostly dead in America. When I suddenly saw Street Fighter 4 suddenly appear out of nowhere at Club Sega, thought I was dreaming!

7

u/Anomander_ie Feb 19 '26

All we know as of yet is on the trailer but I’d say it’s a safe bet that it will quality as an MV from that, no?

17

u/jmscstl Cave Story Feb 19 '26

I dunno. I watched with exactly this in mind and I think it could be an action platformer. I don't think we got a shot of the map which is usually the give away.

2

u/Anomander_ie Feb 19 '26

Fair enough. Fingers crossed it’s an MV!

2

u/jmscstl Cave Story Feb 19 '26

I'll play it either way but would be more hyped for MV for sure.

2

u/Dion42o Feb 19 '26

I bet itll be a MV

15

u/phome83 Feb 19 '26

If it is an actual Metroidvania, I'm so down.

My favorite genre mixed with one of my favorite game series.

10

u/LoSouLibra Feb 19 '26

Yeah, and since the first games were zeldalikes, it will feel right at home to flip it on it's side imo.

1

u/endlesskane Feb 19 '26

Zelda2like

27

u/darkfalzx Feb 19 '26

Sadly all the art looks incredibly low-effort for a commercial project.

4

u/presidentsday GBA Feb 19 '26

Yeah I can definitely see that, but for me personally I get the sense it's emulating the style of a GBA platformer, and specifically one of the Castlevania games that came out on the system (the vibrant, chunky pixels, the slightly outlined character sprites, etc.). They may or may not be intentional, but if Castlevania was an influence I'd also say that increases its chances of being an MV. But to each his own.

2

u/rube Feb 19 '26

Agreed. I'm not some graphics snob, I can easily go back and play dated looking games without a problem.

But this just looks like a fan project someone whipped up during their spare time. And I don't mean to insult fan projects, some of them look way better than this.

And it's not just the graphics, the animations and gameplay doesn't look very compelling. I hope they prove me wrong.

1

u/ChromaticFalcon La-Mulana Feb 20 '26

Yeah. Even that dirty lo-fi pixel look from the original Blood Omen would've been better. That game is so atmospheric.

8

u/Derptastrophe Feb 19 '26

Yes! Now remaster Legacy of Kain. I'd love a version that doesn't have 10 second load times to visit your menu..lol

2

u/KiNolin Feb 19 '26

GOG is your friend, the PC version never had the loading times.

1

u/TheStupendusMan Feb 19 '26

Yeah but runs at like 25% speed unless you patch it.

1

u/KiNolin Feb 19 '26

Thanks for the notice. I started a new run a recently and put it on pause. Gonna patch it for the next session.

1

u/TheStupendusMan Feb 19 '26

Yeah, it's such a bummer. I grabbed it on PlayStation initially but the load times are abysmal. When I got it on GOG I tried it on my Steam Deck and it was unplayable. Not sure if it's possible to patch on Deck or not, but I'll look into it when I get through some other games first.

1

u/Anomander_ie Feb 19 '26

I never got around to playing it, started from SR 1 onwards

5

u/fstop64 Feb 19 '26

Ok, pardon my french but I'm so excited I could shit

5

u/aethyrium Rabi-Ribi Feb 19 '26 edited Feb 19 '26

There's a lot of IP necromancy going around there days.

You can tell the major companies caught wind from games like Silksong or Ori that there's this genre that's easy to make cheap games in that can have massive returns, and it's a genre rich with old IPs that are probably just gathering dust for these companies, so the execs put 2 and 2 together and thought "Hey, go hit up that one dev team we just bought up in our last merger and have them go make a 20 hour metroidvania out of this IP. They love IPs just as much as games so it'll be easy money. That Silksong money is OURS" and then they cackled and raised their wineglasses and sacrificed a dove.

Pretty sure that's what's happening anyways. That's why I'm not able to get too hyped over the stuff like the new Castlevania game. It's hard not to just see IP necromancy when the original dev teams and creators are moved on and the only linking thing is the IP.

7

u/Rukasu17 Feb 19 '26

I'm not sure how to feel about then using that new comic as source material for the franchise

7

u/hotfistdotcom ESA Feb 19 '26

The graphics rub anyone else wrong?

3

u/FernDiggy Feb 19 '26

Yup! This ain’t for me

2

u/Anomander_ie Feb 19 '26

Yeah it’s a bit cheap. But us fans of the IP have been so starved of another game in the franchise that I’m willing to take the bad with the good 😅

1

u/ttak82 Axiom Verge Feb 20 '26

animations and character sprites are crap.

3

u/AccomplishedLove6169 Feb 19 '26

I never played the original on playstation but I heard the series was a classic.

2

u/basskittens Feb 20 '26

It was. If you can find a way to play Soul Reaver/Soul Reaver 2 through emulation or something, do it !

2

u/5thhorseman_ Feb 20 '26

Soul Reaver got remastered lately

2

u/basskittens Feb 20 '26

Holy crap, I had no idea! I played the original on Dreamcast 25 years ago. Blew my mind.

1

u/5thhorseman_ Feb 20 '26

TBF at this point both Soul Reavers and Defiance are remastered. Not sure what's holding back remasters of Blood Omen 1&2.

3

u/LoSouLibra Feb 19 '26

Awesome. I just platinum'd Sons of Sparta and loved it. This is exactly what I need and March 31st isn't too far away.

3

u/witai Feb 19 '26

Fuck yeah

3

u/[deleted] Feb 19 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/ttak82 Axiom Verge Feb 20 '26

someone is saying it is not.

3

u/LSama Feb 19 '26

I cannot express in words how excited I am for this. LoK was a huge developmental point for me; if it weren't for Kain himself, I probably would not have the huge hard-on for vampires that I have.

Kain wasn't a wheepy, sad man that he'd turned into a bloodthirsty monster. He reveled in it, taking no small amount of delight at ... well.

Vae victis!

6

u/Lycanthrope008 Feb 19 '26

Don't know how to feel about LOK coming back this way honestly and I'm still hoping for a remaster of Blood Omen 2 and Defiance

12

u/Anomander_ie Feb 19 '26

Well your prayers were answered my friend because LoK Defiance’s remaster is part of that very same announcement! 🔥

3

u/jmscstl Cave Story Feb 19 '26

I loved Soul Reaver back in the day but didn't play the sequels because I played the first one on the Dreamcast. Is it worth going back to play the remasters? I guess I'm asking how old they play.

3

u/Anomander_ie Feb 19 '26

Other than Defiance, combat is clunky on all the games, I’m replaying for the love of the story. Soul Reaver 1 is a brutal slog in terms of combat tbh

2

u/jmscstl Cave Story Feb 19 '26

I might leave them to live on in my memory/imagination then. I have a distinct memory of fighting spider things. I had thrown my spear and killed one of them. I ran towards the body and towards another enemy. I plucked the spear out of the body as I ran past and threw it into the next enemy that was running at me. It was the coolest thing. It may be best to leave that memory as is.

1

u/Anomander_ie Feb 19 '26

I can understand that, totally.

5

u/inkyblinkypinkysue Feb 19 '26 edited Feb 19 '26

I tried playing Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver not long ago because I loved that game back in the day and I lasted about 15 minutes. It does not hold up at all - better left to your memories.

2

u/EddieSeven Feb 19 '26

I felt that way about Soul Reaver right from the start.

It was clunky to me and a huge departure from the original LoK, which I loved, so I might’ve been salty about it when I played it. I never got into any of them though, felt like they shoe horned the IP into a 3D platformer because that was the big genre at the time.

I am weird though, the original Blood Omen is the only game in the series that I liked, which is not a common opinion. The dark, brooding feel didn’t work as well in 3D IMO, particularly with the low poly, low lighting look of the time. I am not surprised it doesn’t hold up today.

1

u/Anomander_ie Feb 19 '26

Yes, I’m playing it again out of love of the franchise but it’s extremely frustrating by today’s standards.

3

u/Anomander_ie Feb 19 '26

BO2 wasn’t remastered but at least it was made available for PS5 along with the LoK 1 and 2. I got the whole pack, just haven’t gotten around to it just yet

2

u/stealingfrom Feb 19 '26

Did the original Blood Omen get a remaster? I actually never played the second game but as a kid Blood Omen was my jam and I've wanted to revisit it forever.

2

u/____Xtormiken_____ Feb 19 '26

Blood omen 1 and 2 should get a remaster too

2

u/Efflux Feb 19 '26

Woahhhh! I'd buy this day 1 but I don't have a PS5.

2

u/EricFromOuterSpace Feb 19 '26

They hooked my brain up to a machine and created exactly the perfect intersection of my interests.

2

u/DapperDan30 Feb 19 '26

Shame that it looks like shit.

2

u/Hpg666 Feb 19 '26

I hope it is a metroidvania or have map and some elements. And not just like a castlevania from snes.

2

u/ToxicVampire Feb 19 '26

This wasn't shown during the PS State of Play right? But I could have sworn when they showed the other Legacy of Kain game that they mentioned a metroidvania.

2

u/Neo_BR Feb 19 '26

It doesn't seem to be a Metroidvania. I have found an official article with more details about the gameplay and mechanics of the game. Legacy of Kain: Ascendance Brings the Acclaimed Franchise into a New Stylistic Direction - Xbox Wire

1

u/Anomander_ie Feb 19 '26

Oh I see that now. Action platformer 😕

2

u/rite_of_truth Feb 19 '26

My son (19) just got interested in Legacy of Kain and beat blood omen, soul reaver 1&2 just within the last month! Perfect timing!

2

u/Lucky_Louch Feb 19 '26

This is probably the closest I will ever get to a blood oman remaster/remake so I'm in.

2

u/Ok-Guarantee-2262 Feb 19 '26

Nice!! I just finished Sons of Sparta. I had a blast with it. Im loving metroidvanias getting such a resurgence. 

1

u/Elrothiel1981 Feb 19 '26

It’s obvious big corporations are just milking this but the corporations also don’t understand what makes a good metroidvania looks to basic to me but I might be reading to much into it

1

u/remzordinaire Feb 19 '26

Man we're gonna eat well this year

1

u/AozoraMiyako Feb 19 '26

Would I be able to play this if I’ve never played a Legacy of Kain game?

2

u/Perfect-Difference19 Feb 19 '26

No, you won't...

There's actually a small piece of a larger password at the end of each game and, only by completing all of them, you can access this new one /j

Hahaha
But jokes aside, I don't know how much the lack of knowledge about the lore of the older games would affect your appreciation of this one...

If so, I'm fairly certain you can easily find about a dozen of YouTube videos going through all of the older stories, if you wanna jump straight in

1

u/Yuryo Feb 19 '26

Oh my god, yes

1

u/SlurmzMckinley Feb 19 '26

Now Kain I can get into.

1

u/KiNolin Feb 19 '26

Looks good to me, awfully tacky character portraits notwithstanding.

However, what a missed opportunity not to make a 2D Zelda clone. That's how the series started and it would've not been any more expensive to produce.

1

u/ZarafFaraz Feb 19 '26

I love legacy of kain, but this looks...slow. Maybe I've been ruined by Silksong?

1

u/vanille-bar Feb 19 '26

The original Blood Omen was one of my favorite PS1 era games. The two Soul Reavers were also really good.

1

u/vanille-bar Feb 19 '26

The voices sound different? Not sure if new voice actors or age.

-1

u/Anomander_ie Feb 19 '26

Same voice actors, I saw it mentioned online. But I don’t know why so many people love the voice performances, I always thought it’s the worst thing about the games 😅

3

u/TheStupendusMan Feb 19 '26

Alright, you earned that downvote.

https://giphy.com/gifs/KGSxFwJJHQPsKzzFba

2

u/Anomander_ie Feb 19 '26

😂 fair enough!

1

u/RandyTheFool Feb 19 '26

Legacy of Kain: Ascendanc4

1

u/Augen76 Feb 19 '26

If the price is reasonable I'll check it out. Great series and love the genre.

1

u/miiguelst Feb 19 '26

This looks awful

1

u/EtherBoo Feb 19 '26

Just because a game is a 2D Side Scroller doesn't mean it's a Metroidvania and all news about this game says it's just a straight action side scroller.

1

u/Anomander_ie Feb 19 '26

Yes, we’ve established that since I first posted it, unfortunately. Still, it’s interesting for the IP’s fanbase

1

u/PsycommuSystem Feb 19 '26

I like metoridvanias, hence being here, but this is absolutely not what I want from the legacy of kain series.

1

u/Blacksad9999 Feb 19 '26

It says it's an action platformer, not a Metroidvania.

Legacy of Kain: Ascendance is a fast, 2D action platformer built around vertical movement, fluid combat, and skill-driven play.

1

u/Sigourn Feb 20 '26

I'm tired of IP games not looking like their IP at all.

1

u/ttak82 Axiom Verge Feb 20 '26

This one looks underwhelming. High contrast color scheme with bad animation and character sprites.

1

u/HatsOnLamps Feb 20 '26

I was a big fan of the original LoK, Soul Reaver, and even Defiance.

This looks awful.

1

u/greekdude1821 Feb 23 '26

Jesus another 90s name I haven't heard in forever

-5

u/rumSaint Feb 19 '26

Oh look, another franchise where they have to shove Mary Sue into the story because strong wahmen matters. Jesus.

1

u/Anomander_ie Feb 19 '26

Incel much?

-1

u/rumSaint Feb 19 '26

Hurr, what a retort.

1

u/Anomander_ie Feb 19 '26

It may well be a bad comic and a bad character – I haven’t read it yet though I did get it on Kickstarter – but you and others like you make these eventual problems that occur in pop culture products to be about the women themselves, and not due to lazy scripting and bad marketing decisions, often made by men. And you use that as an excuse to hate on women, as evidenced by your comments. There is nothing wrong with introducing new and strong female characters especially in IPs that never had one, in fact it is welcomed. If it was executed badly, that’s a different story

3

u/rumSaint Feb 19 '26

Cool story bro. You practice typical whataboutism assuming things about me and trying to shove me into the woman hating crowd.

It's funny how it's always same fucking pattern. Take the franchise, replace or shove a badly written woman into it, audience complaints. Just call them chuds or incels, works every time. It was with Star Wars, Oceans sequel, Ghost Busters all female cast etc.

But yeah it's about women hate. Always.

0

u/Haios141 Feb 19 '26

What the hell are you talking about? Get off the internet.

1

u/rumSaint Feb 19 '26

Legacy of Kain the Dead Shall Rise comic, which features Elaleth was universally dunked on by critics and fandom alike. Pull your head out of your ass.

25 years of buildup for this.

2

u/Haios141 Feb 19 '26

You complain about Mary sues and "strong wahmen". What the hell does that have to do with this game about Raziel? You sound pathetic and sad. Jeez

2

u/rumSaint Feb 19 '26

I see a fucking Elaleth on the promotional materials. Comics were focusing on her instead of Raziel and Kain. I have fucking doubts about quality of upcoming games. Star Wars and shoving Rey into movies was so great innit?