It's fair to say that Evercade releases are getting grander in scope with each passing year. We've only just gotten over the existence of the epic Tomb Raider Collection, and now Evercade maker Blaze has followed it up with Legacy of Kain Collection, which features two of the most beloved releases in the famous blood-sucking series.
The original Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain was released in 1996 and almost feels like Castlevania fused with The Legend of Zelda. You assume the role of the vampire Kain, who indulges in real-time battles and puzzle-solving through the vast, non-linear world of Nosgoth. Kain has all the powers you'd expect from a vamp – he can shapeshift into a wolf, bat or mist, for example – but he needs to keep his blood intake up in order to survive and is weaker in daylight.
At the time of release, Blood Omen was rightly praised for its moody atmosphere, gory visuals, great voice acting, brooding anti-hero and gripping storyline, but it came under criticism for its occasionally awkward controls and jerky scrolling. It also feels like the characters are slightly too big for the screen, giving the game a claustrophobic feel at times. Despite these shortcomings, Blood Omen is still well worth a look today.
The 1999 sequel Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is a substantially different experience to Blood Omen, which is understandable when you consider that it wasn't initially developed as part of the series. The shift to 3D makes a huge difference – as does the game's plane-shifting mechanic, where players must move between the material and spectral planes of existence in order to solve puzzles and move through levels. Instead of consuming blood, protagonist Raziel can collect souls from fallen enemies to replenish his health, which automatically drops when he occupies the material realm.
While the world of 3D gaming has obviously come quite some way since Soul Reaver was released, it remains a classic of the genre – as evidenced by the fact that Soul Reaver and its PS2 sequel are getting the remaster treatment on modern-day systems this year (it's worth noting that the Evercade version of Soul Reaver is the base PS1 original, and isn't remastered).
Oh, and we'd also like to point out that, thanks to the latest system update, Soul Reaver is one of the Evercade titles to benefit from analogue controller support. With that in mind, it's best experienced on the Evercade VS (although it's still perfectly playable on the handheld Evercade).
Like so many Evercade releases, nostalgia will play a huge part in influencing a purchasing decision with Legacy of Kain Collection; if you were a fan of either game back in the '90s, then you'll almost certainly want to revisit them in this new double pack. However, newcomers are encouraged to give these games a try, too; they have enough quality on display to offer plenty of enjoyment, even if you're not a seasoned fan of the franchise.
Comments 15
Soul Reaver is one of the greats. The opening cinematic is astonishingly good and holds up better than it has any right to all these years later. The gameplay felt like the mature take on Zelda that so many of us were craving at the time. And watching the world shift in real time between the physical and spectral planes is still an unmatched delight. I was also lucky to experience this on the Dreamcast where the added horsepower really made it shine over the PS1 version.
It's a shame that the sequels really didn't do the first game justice. Soul Reaver 2 felt like warmed-over leftovers from the first, and Defiance took a left-turn toward being a lazy Devil May Cry ripoff with an unsatisfying conclusion to everything that had been set up before.
Looking forward to the remasters later this year, but nothing will ever match that first adventure with Raziel.
I must get an Evercade.
@Razieluigi
"The gameplay felt like the mature take on Zelda that so many of us were craving at the time."
You are SO right! 😊☝️
Btw do you have an opinion of the original LoK game? I've suddenly become curious about it lately and I might have to check it out while I'm revisiting Reaver. ✌️ cheers
OMG - I just realized this collection has Blood Omen where I thought it was Reaver 2. 😱
I must get an evercade.
It was the Joe Mad illustrated cover of PSM (#19) that got me interested in Soul Reaver. But I think I only ever had access to a demo. I think that cover might have inspired his Death design for Darksiders. Anyhow, when I saw the remake footage I was kinda disappointed the character didn’t look more like the Mad promo art
@-wc- Ridiculously (and despite my avatar) I've never played Blood Omen! I really should get around to it, but it just never appealed to me the way Soul Reaver did.
@Razieluigi
No worries, I felt the exact same way in the Soul Reaver days. Blood Omen was one of those "early psx" games that I glossed over thousands of times (hello, philosoma, jupiter strike, kileak...)
Interesting review, and honestly a higher score than I expected for Soul Reaver. I’m torn about Evercade’s expansion into PS1 era/early 3D games. This was a formative era in gaming for me and I have fond memories of games from this time, including Soul Reaver. But the sad fact is that time has not been kind to early 3D games, as I find many of their control schemes to border on unplayable when revisited today. Given there are remasters of Soul Reaver on the way, it seems like that would be the better way to revisit the game.
Blood Omen on the other hand, seems like a good fit to revisit on Evercade, and I think a straight port would hold up better today.
The first LoK is so underrated. I've said it before on this site but that's the game in the series that deserves a remake with Diablo 4 style graphics.
Keep the voice acting from the original and update the graphics and the terrible 3D cut scenes. The voice acting in LoK was really almost too good for the game. They really did a phenomenal job with the story and acting.
I know everyone thinks of Soul Reaver when they hear "Legacy of Kain" but Soul Reaver was more like Tomb Raider and (in my opinion) not very appealing after playing Blood Omen.
One of my favorite games on the PS. I remember playing this alot over at my friend's house. We would play this game during sleepovers once it got dark. Definitely will have to pick this up.
@-wc-
You can also get it on Gog for a bit more than a Euro.
Overall i would say it is also worth on the Evercade.
I would say the Game is also a Take on Zelda, but the top down ones
You get Spells and Items to get into Zones you couldn't before and you are going through Temples, instead of Maidens you get some, ehm, magical Thingy to make a Pillar shine.
Atmosphere is very good, gameplay isn't perfect, but does its Job.
Good games. Now if only Blaze could sort out their Discord.
Gonna pick up the upcoming Soul Reaver remaster instead.
Hope they make on of Legacy of Kain as well.
I owned Soul Reaver on the Dreamcast back in the day, and I always found it hard to wrap my head for some reason.
I think I might wait for the remaster to give it another crack!
Why does this review have zero information on the emulation quality? The videos all show clear audio speed and desync issues, and Evercade have not responded on these issues.
Are these problems corrected in the retail release?
You should really take the time to review these re-releases and assess them on the quality of the package/features/emulation rather than assessing the video game on its own merits. There's plenty of reviews out there that have done that already. I thought that was the whole point of Time Extension...
@Razieluigi "It's a shame that the sequels really didn't do the first game justice. Soul Reaver 2 felt like warmed-over leftovers from the first"
Does SR2 use any of the "cut" content from SR1?
edit: to answer my own question it looks like Defiance used some of that content instead
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