Game Discussion of the Week: Legacy of Kain series

Added and stickied.

A classic

I think, if you want to fully grasp the story, you need to start at the first game, Blood Omen 1. Soul Reaver 1, 2 and Defiance involve time travel and underhanded plots. Blood Omen 2 is more of a side story.

Maybe it was because I was so engrossed in the action and puzzle solving, but I couldn't fully follow what was happening. I got that Raziel was looking for vengeance against Kain for throwing him into the Lake of the Dead, but Kain? Apparently, Kain was trying to use him in some complicated to disrupt time break free from a timeline that's set in stone, or "getting the coin to land on its side". There's also Moebius the time streamer, who worships the Elder God, who's suddenly a despised enemy by Raziel in Soul Reaver 2, despite no signs of rebellion in SR1. I mean, how do we do the Elder God really isn't part of the natural cycle?

Don't worry, there are video on the topic, but they contain spoilers.

Otherwise, the game is a less kid friendly kind of Legend of Zelda, with puzzles, enemies and spells. With Soul Reaver, you need to go that extra step rather than hacking an enemy to death. Most of your enemies there are vampire spawn, which require being thrown into fire or water to be finished off. Otherwise, you'll need to finish them off with a weapon in order to kill them, at which point, their soul is released for your consumption. Also, Kain's and Raziel's health slowly drain over time, so they have to be careful and siphon off health from their fallen enemies.

I tell you want, the voice acting and music are top notch though.

MeleeMonk In the intro of Soul Reaver, Raziel mentions that every now and then, Kain would undergo a state of change or evolution, followed by Raziel and his brothers. The timeline spans hundreds of years. But then Raziel evolves (he grows wings) before Kain could...

Then, when Raziel emerges from the Underworld after 500 years, he finds that his brothers had devolved into less human and more monstrous forms, e.g. his brother Zephon and his spawn becomes giant insects, and Rahab and his spawn traded their immunity to sunlight for the ability to become fish-like vampires that live in water.

I'd also like to add that, despite never playing any of the games, I've always been extremely impressed by the quality of the character designs from this series. They're easily on par with the quality of the best character designs from any of the classic Soul Calibur games, and that's saying something.