- Tested on PS5
- Code transmitted by the publisher
- We travelled both shutters for about 15 hours.
- We were already there, once, on Sony's first two consoles.
- Home captures
Realizing a remake rather than a remaster remains a complex, if not thorny, question. Constantly debated because of not always clear definitions, the notion of remaster more bothers players. It is true that with the release of the remastered versions of The Last of Us or d-Horizon Zero Dawn, the public is certainly cooled so much commercial ambition jumps to the eye faced with almost identical versions to the pixel near. The remaster is more related to what was previously defined as a simple HD version of a title originally released on an earlier console, when the remake, on the other hand, is supposed to beat the cards from bottom to bottom. Moreover, graphic and technical developments from one generation to another were far more perceptible than those of the last three generations. Remastering a soft makes sense to give a second life to much older licenses or today difficult to access. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered is a choice that therefore has a real interest beyond the simple pleasure of exploring Nosgoth and rediscovering the fun qualities of a soft of a past and yet not so distant era.
Big Daddy Kane
For whom was born last century, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver sounds like a work that has left an indelible trace in the industry, first in the hearts of the players, but also in the creators. That's what stands out in this rich documentary available on Youtube. Even lost in limbo, the memory of Kain and Raziel was preserved thanks to a community of inveterate fans. And it was also thanks to them that the cult duology came back to the front of the stage at the dawn of 2025. Moreover, there is no doubt that the future of franchise will depend on the hosting of this compilation.
« A thousand years have passed since Lord Kain established his capital in the ruins of the Nosgoth columns, the key to his grip on the world (...) ». For us, about twenty years have suddenly come to skew. Two decades enough to make the wait even more unsustainable. And what a waiting for those who swore only by a new opus! How can I blame them? Once the dark lands crossed, after having surveyed the material world and its spectral version, only remains the desire to dive again.
And what about his music that never let us down! They bewitch us until we remove the words from our mouth. Confidence for confidence, these dark hours spent alongside Raziel only reinforced my desire to see a new opus disembark on modern consoles. Yes, the license Legacy of Kain – including works with the scarf hero as well as those with Kain as protagonist – must come back, if only to see how it could benefit from current industry standards.
Soul Reaver, even more than his eldest, is an important work within the videoludic medium. Duology is one of these avant-garde creations that have been able to significantly transform industry. Legacy of Kain is the kind of proposal primarily guided by the passion and crazy ambition of developers freed from the only pecuniary research. And yet the development of games was chaotic at the time. If one would have preferred a suite today rather than a remake or even a reboot – irrelevant now that the remaster exists – it is also and above all because violent cuts were made in the past. In fact the games have never really been allowed to a clear end leaving frustrating shade zones, which is all the more a shame for such an exciting story.
This is the opportunity to recall that initially the two projects were understood as a whole, namely a gigantic interconnected world, we will return to it... Don't be surprised to finish the first episode in front of a cliffhanger, even if it closes the initial arch, one might say.
Ozar Midrashim
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, for the time at least, shone on many aspects starting with its dark atmosphere and the care given to the writing of its characters. Special mention to the exemplary work of the doublers, which was not so widespread at the time. If Raziel and Kain have remained in the pantheon of video figures, it is not only for their chara design but for their depth. The characters are ambiguous and the relationship between the two vampires plays a crucial role in the attraction to history. Destiny, manipulations, world at risk and betrayals will blend in with an intrigue that is ultimately richer than one could imagine at first sight. What seems to be a common quest for revenge is actually much more subtle than that but we won't say anything...
Of course compare Soul Reaver (from the PS1/PS2) to recent licences such as Uncharted is a little anachronistic, writing has progressed greatly in recent decades and studios like Naughty Dog n的y are not strangers. However, the comparison is not futile. Indeed it is Amy Hennig that we must Legacy ok Kain: Soul Reaver. The thinking and scriptwriter of the license will later work at Naughty Dog who owes him the stories of the first two Uncharted. This duo of charismatic vampires with lyrical flights detonated in the face of competition even though it may be pale figure today (and again).
In episode 1, we follow the revengeful quest of Raziel, determined to hunt down and eliminate his brothers to stand up against the great Kain, their master who became traitor in his eyes. To browse the games centered on Kain's trajectory, it is to offer another point of view, this time in the skin of a vampire ricket armed with soul reaver. The hero can only accept the legitimacy of this bloody quest. Blinded by the anger which is the guardian of his mental stability, he embraces a destiny of which he is only one pawn among others on the great chessboard of life.
Offered to the damned
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver – including both episodes – is built as an action-adventure game in the movement of the Tomb Raider of 1996 to whom he owes much. Many more or less twisted puzzles await us with the obligation to manipulate the two sides of reality: the material world and the spectral world. Indeed, in the spectral world, interacting with objects of the scenery is impossible. We will not be able to open a door or recover physical objects. In return Raziel gained some useful powers before handling the iconic eponymous sword rather quickly recovered in the game. Note that for this remaster, the transition between the two worlds is more fluid than before; The environments are instantly distorted, without any latency. The effect works wonderfully!
As for episode 2, the latter is very much on his predecessor despite some welcome improvements to the gameplay. On the other hand, the story focuses on Raziel's attempt to thwart the machination at work with the hope of emancipating from the grip of the wheel of destiny. Between time travel and friction between the material and spectral worlds, the scale of the plot continues to grow. The narrative comes out again with honours, in particular thanks to the care given to cinematics to the staging faithful to the first game. In addition to the addition (exclusive to this version) of a very useful compass to avoid wandering goallessly in Nosgoth as well as the arrival of the sacrosanct free camera offering appreciable comfort, the experience remains similar... defects included!
Because of its imprecise hitboxes, its often approximate jumps and its archaic backup system, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered requires a minimum of personal investment to be valued at its fair value. Weighing defects for a remaster of a game over twenty years old. His real flat that makes the excursion more painful than it was at the time, is the fighting party. If we fail the bosses looking rather at the environmental puzzle, the gameplay unfortunately accuses its age during the clashes.
Fun Reaver
We will appreciate the care given to animations; However, the range of hits remains too limited to fully appreciate in 2025. At the end of the original games the finding was completely different. The few weapons available as well as the agility of Raziel with a dreadful escape sent heavy on our old cathodic screens. In terms of pure and long-lasting action the industry is now light years away from what it proposed at the end of the 1990s, which can throw away the youngest players. Good ideas survive, however, such as having to systematically crucify, burn or sever to soul reave wandering creatures. Objective: to aspire their souls, or to see them live forever. Inconsequential details for novices but that the old breakers will wonder to rediscover in 2025.
What's more, Raziel's adventures come to life in what remains technically a fully connected open world that it travels on foot or via transporters without loading time please. You had to dare in 1999! And it must be said that Amy Henning and her colleagues saw things big. Immersion, the license knows perfectly since the first episode. Everything that affects the artistic dimension of the license impresses. And we will never say it enough, hope in the near future that we can contemplate the aesthetic richness of Nosgoth on a modern console.
Speaking of riches, thank the studios for their generosity in giving the beautiful part to archival content, artworks and a tripote of information about lore including the work of conservation of fan communities; There are even rushes from behind the scenes of dubbing among other small surprises. Lovers of franchise and/or documentation will be delighted. In addition, the first game had the advantage of arriving in 1999, at the end of the PlayStation's life, allowing the teams to make the most of Sony's console. Even today, PS1 is still proudly wrinkled. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered does not transcend the original experience, it is a fact. And that wasn't the goal. The idea was above all to be able to offer both games together – because thought as one – but also to enhance the graphics of the first in order to visually connect to the PS2 opus. With this remaster, games gain in graphical consistency and the transition from one opus to the other is smoother.
The Puzzle of Gods
Forcedly Soul Reaver 2 cannot boast of such a scrub except for the characters and bestiary reworked in depth. Just sticking to the decors (a simple pressure of the analog stick allows you to pass between the old and current graphics) to see that the environments have barely been retouched. Critical voices will probably be heard to blame the laziness of developers. That being said, it is also the purpose of (re)discovering the work of an era without transvesting it. It's a bit like watching a film from the 1930s or reading a book written centuries earlier to appreciate the flavor of the era. In other words, this choice can be justified in a sense of heritage.
For the cult works of a medium, it is to allow to relive a moment of history. We see the roots of mechanics, the premises of game design and the foundations of modern video game that time has improved over the years. It is thanks to this kind of stage games that we can produce better works on paper today. And given its core of fans partly responsible for this unexpected return, the franchise had no interest in taking the risk of embracing a new audience educated in recent games.
Experimenting retro titles is not always easy for those who are not used to looking back. For example, Soul Reaver neither map nor clearly displayed goal, which requires the player a minimum of attention and involvement. Something that the popular titles of the current decade are having a hard time choosing outside soul... However, to immerse properly and thus appreciate the universe as the work of the teams, it is better to leave a minimum of freedom of action by giving us the opportunity to tame the places. It is essential that the player participates cognitively in the universe and does not stupidly follow coarse indicators in color. Too few games still dare to trust players and especially on the side of modern AAAs.
So yes, back in the past forced, we will not escape the traditional round-trips every failure. Bugs can also force to restart a previous backup. We've made the most of it by losing two hours of adventure in Nosgoth's limbs following a manipulation error during a riddle. To differentiate itself, the second pane opts for a backup via dispatched points of interest in each area of the card. Significantly, failure thus prevents us from losing precious minutes of journeys to find his way back. The level design dates a little, you have to say. On the other hand, it is impossible to perform a manual backup to avoid redoing an environmental enigma or recovering previously acquired objects, although the first episodes allowed for one as the other.
What more can I say without repeating the story? Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered is the hope of the possible! We thought Kain and Raziel had been lost forever in inundated limbs of reality, forgetting that not all pieces of the puzzle were delivered. If this is not really new, if this is the first part released on PS1 that joins the aesthetics of the second part, this return is a direct response to fans. Even though the fighting could not look so proud today and lack a hint of fun, how can we not recommend this version to fans of the first hour? The additions, of course minimal, bring an appreciable comfort, the qualities persist and the bonuses of the collection are worth their weight for any licensor. A remaster to see as the (re)discovery of a piece of media history. Waiting for the real renewal?
For
- Kain and Raziel
- A video game monument
- The whole DA (ambience, music and visuals)
- Exciting plot to follow
- Graphic consistency thanks to the remaster
- Game design ambitious and inspired
- Writing and dubbing in tune
- Adding the compass and free camera
- Plethora of documents available in bonuses
Against
- The gameplay of battles accuses his age
- Bugs and inaccuracies (hitbox and jumps)
- Archaic backup system
- An experiment (too much?) rooted in its time
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