Soul Reaver to originally be new IP - Naughty Dog director/writer
By
Jonathan Toyad, Associate Editor
Crystal Dynamics was initially reluctant to fully adapt original concept into Legacy of Kain franchise.
The 1999 action adventure title Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver was initially planned to be a game called Shifter, according to former Crystal Dynamics producer/director/writer Amy Hennig.
In an interview on PlayStation Blog, Hennig--now a Naughty Dog writer/director--said that the game's narrative was inspired by John Milton's Paradise Lost.
"The protagonist was, essentially, a fallen angel of death, a reaper of souls hunted by his former brethren, and now driven to expose and destroy the false god they all served."
She also added that Crystal Dynamics was sceptical in adapting Shifter's concept into the Legacy of Kain franchise because of the unnecessary technical risks.
"Creative constraints can be inspiring and invigorating, and once we dug into the challenge, the concept evolved in all kinds of exciting ways."
While the plane-shifting concept was kept in the final product, Hennig mentioned that Raziel was originally planned to have shape-shifting powers, but was cut due to technical limitations at the time.
Concerning the first Soul Reaver's abrupt ending, Hennig said that the team had to cut the last few levels of the game and set it up so that Soul Reaver 2 would meet its August 1999 release date. The original plan was for protagonist Raziel to hunt down his former brother and antagonist Kain, then activate the pipes of the Silenced Cathedral to kill off the remaining vampires of Nosgoth. Hennig said that the final ending opened up more narrative options for future sequels, like Soul Reaver 2 and Legacy of Kain: Defiance.
A reboot of the franchise was rumoured earlier this year, thanks to a survey conducted by Square Enix.
By
Jonathan Toyad, Associate Editor
Born and raised from a jungle-laden village in Sarawak, Malaysia, Jonathan Toyad has been playing games since the early 90s. He favors fighting games, RPGs, and rhythm titles above every other genre, and occasionally spaces out like Pavlov's dog to video game music on his iPod.
106 comments
Legacy of Kain series is one of these titles that deserves a remake. These games would benefit greatly from today's technology. Provided they do not mutilate the story, which happens to be one of the greatest stories told in video games, I think it would be great to play these games again in HD :)
1 Like Hmmmm. I would love to see another Soul Reaver game. I just hope this game is treated with care; because this is one game that would kind of bomb if it was turned into some sort of blockbuster movie style of game.
A reboot would be too weak. I think using the same story and voiceover, but remodelling and redesigning everthing, including its mechanics, and making the same game but with today's power would be the only sensible way to make Legacy of Kain pleasing to both old fans and newcomers.
"The original plan was for protagonist Raziel to hunt down his former brother and antagonist Kain"
Kain was never Raziel's brother, he was his master/undead father.
1 Like This is by far the best video game series as far as story telling goes.
I would love to see the original blood omen remade w this gens graphics. Kain's character is so badass he has got to be the best anti-hero of any franchise. Oh and please skip BloodOmen 2 that game was just terrible. I don't see how anyone could like the direction that spinoff took over the direction of soulreaver and defiance.
3 Like It?s a damn shame that the series has been abandoned for a long time. For years and years crystal dynamics focused on the inferior Tomb Raider series (which honestly had nothing special about it) and completely dismissed a game like no other (The LOK series).
I was 10 years old the first time I played LOK:Soul Reaver, I remember how epic the opening cinematic was, of course the language was too sophisticated for a 10 year old boy that I asked our house keeper to explain to me what was going on. I miss the good old days.
Is crystal dynamics really working on bringing back the series or is just rumors ? and if they do bring it back will they be able to pull it off ? All we can do at this point is stay positive and hope for an official announcement.
1 Like One of the best games ever, in my opinion. i still see lots of its influence, especially in Darksiders 2. My first thoughts when playing God of War were that the producers had played Soul Reaver and liked it. Unbelievable voice acting too.
I like original ending of Soul Reaver although that bonus part of activating the pipes sound interesting, but I think it is perfect the way it is. Personally I thought it had the best ending out of the entire series.
But this series was epic. When starting a new game, those trumpets start blowing followed by the drum beats sent chills up my spine, and I knew I was in for one epic ride.
1 Like Soul Reaver and Sould Reaver 2 had such unique atmosphere's. It was a special kind of Gothic medieval fantasy. The storytelling was amazing. I'm certain this series and universe is far from over.
1 Like I wish they would do something else specifically with Kain. The Blood Omen games were kick ass.
1 Like I liked the original concept better than having it being placed in the "Legacy of Kain" series. I wish they would make that game instead, just saying.
1 Like Conscience...? You dare speak to me of conscience? Only when you have felt the full gravity of choice should you dare to question my judgement!
Your life?s span is a flicker compared to the mass of doubt and regret that I have borne since Mortanius first turned me from the light... To know that the fate of the world hangs dependent on the advisedness of my every deed -- can you even begin to conceive what action you would take, in my position?
@karloss01 Nice to find another freak! I'm actually working on a project for LoK getting all the dialogue from the game and inserting it into the soundtracks (completed as well). I've only finished Blood Omen so far.
1 Like LOK:Soul Reaver was the best game on both PS1 and Dream Cast it was waaaaaay ahead of its time.
LOK:Soul Reaver 2 was a lot of fun but nowhere as good as the first mainly because
they deprived it of Boss fights and the Puzzles were no longer that challenging.
LOK: Defines was average and disappointing to a certain degree.
What im traying to get at is that if they want the reboot or the continuity of the series to satisfy the fans (If crystal dynamics really are working on it) it should be more like the original and less like 2 and defiance.
Its been almost 10 years since the last LOK game. Lets hope they dont screw up with Amy Hannig out of the team.
1 Like They should continue the game from where Defiance left on... The final left so many things to see...
I remember watching my cousin play Soul River for the first time , i was just a little girl. I remember the scene where they rip his wings off , still gives me gousebumps!
I (prefer the new IP road since I am afraid they are going to ruin the old experience) and ........ 0.0 this pic looks awesome!!!!! please do not let naughty dog do it eidos cause we pc gamers probably won't get our hands on it :'(
@Obviously_Right You are either having some fun trolling or too young to know how LoK series marked the game industry. There is no shame in learning. And btw I piss on your Uncharted, it stole from renown franchises as much as we breath air daily. At list it mixed all up in a nice package.
@Obviously_Right You want UC4 after the shooter-wanna-be of UC3??? Well, tastes be tastes, have you ever play AT LEAST Blood Omen? The Legacy of Kain series needs a rebbot, or an extreme makeover.
1 Like @Obviously_Right hmm, you have no idea what you're talking about. Read the article again and again, maybe you will get it.
@ahpuck Time wasted talking about this POS is time that could be spent working on UC4.
@Obviously_Right @ahpuck um... naughty dog is a afraid of "4" kinda like how valve is afraid of 3. im still waiting on new jak and daxter games because the ending to 3 made more questions than answered.
nice. im down for some Legacy of kain goodness, just hope we get to use Kain instead of Raziel like blood omen. nothing against Razhiel. but kain is by far the better character imo.
@Dragerdeifrit I think they should just continue with the formula they already have. one game focuses on Kain and have a separate series that focuses on raziel. As long as the blood Omen series doesn't suck like BO2 then the Kain story line should be awesome.
@Talisac @Dragerdeifrit true but that only means that he should remain the antagonist,the the events unraveling through razial's was epic,imo razial is a better character than kain,after all most fans got into LOK because of soul reaver(i did).
1 Like I wish theyed make a sequel too defiance such a great game but the ending felt too open.
1 Like NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
PLEASE DO NOT RUIN EVEN THIS GAME!!!!
The story was great, gaming experience was cool and enough dark balanced between puzzles, combats and bosses... please... please if you reboot the game : MAKE A GOOD GAME OR DO NOT RUIN RAZIEL ..
5 Like @irwin88 i hope they don't make him look lika a metrosexual-emo-vampire ... but more like a soul thirsty warrior ready for fight!
I hope they make it good. LOK series is one of my favorite games of all time !! I wouldn't mind a HD Classics remake of LOK :D
That doesn't make any sense. Silicon Knights were working on Blood Omen 2 at the same time Crystal Dynamics was working on Soul Reaver. The bickering between the 2 teams is what caused Denis Dyack and his company Silicon Knights to leave and lose the franchise. A game that wasn't supposed to be part of the Legacy of Kain series was then made into one and ended up causing the creator to leave?..
And yes, this series needs to return. I'd even settle for an HD version of the series. Best game series ever made.
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Legacy of Kain: Defiance
- Publisher(s): Eidos Interactive
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- Genre: Action
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