Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver - Ps1 review

[@roobthenoob6607]

Great review, but it's Melchiah, not Malachai.

[@KalTheSkeleton]

You are, of course, absolutely correct. I hear it in the recording, I see it on the tomb of the sarafan, and yet my script autocorrected and I never noticed it until now. At least I am consistent in my ability to mess something up every video lol.

[@semeras]

yo apparently you haven't blown up yet? so you gotta know, you're one of the best, keep the clever quips -- you are actually funny, and the commentary is insightful and refreshing. Thank you

[@KalTheSkeleton]

My self deprecation cannot accept these things, but I appreciate your kind words all the same. I will endeavor to continue doing my own thing and stumble blindly into success or catastrophic failure and obscurity. Thanks for watching.

[@DundG]

There was indeed a lot that was cut! Not only from remaining files, but the alpha and beta builds plus unused voice lines where discovered, plus interviews from which the fans could reconstruct the plot and areas for the most part. The story originally was to continue as following: - Instead of time traveling Kain leaves and you are able to acquire a part of his soul, enabling you to shift from the spirit world into the world of the living without the necessity of the portals. - Then you go to the human city which had a whole sewer area where you find a secret cult lead by a sorceress who worship Kain as a God. You kill the sorceresses and acquire her ability to posses other beings aka. controlling other npcs for puzzles or some fun. - With this ability you can enter Turels lair, which is the final and cut brother. It is a giant smokestack with molten Rock at the bottom. When you kill Turel you acquire stronger telekinesis. - With the enhanced telekinesis you can reach the smokestack area and use it's upwards winds to fly high into the sky and reach Kains mountain retreat. Here you get your final showdown with Kain, but before that you must kill Ariel, which is the Ghost lady bound by the pillars and consume her so that the Soul Reaver can kill Kain. Kain even encourages you to do it and applauds you for being able to do it "You have your father in you after all", with father referring to himself as the father of Raziel. After you kill Kain the Soul Reaver reaches it's ultimate form. - From the mountain retreat you're able to glide to the upper half of the silenced cathedral your second brother lived in. Here you activate all the pipes which kill all vampires in Nosgoth. - In an interview with the story writer Amy Hennig it was revealed that after killing all Vampires some catastrophe happens which leads Raziel to flee into the past to attempt to undo this catastrophe, which will ultimately lead to the same conclusion in the future three installments! So the stories conclusion remains the same!

[@KalTheSkeleton]

It's impressive to see how much they had planned, I would have loved to see the cathedral eradicate the vampires, and Raziel facing down the elder god with a kain infused reaver. I've tried to go through the series as blind as I can, so I'm not sure if any of that stuff makes it in to the rest of the series, but I'm looking forward to them.

[@delphidelion]

I remember what alter echo was supposed to be. Erick Wujcik was explaining to me at the Gencon he was showing it off at some of the shifty things they did. He was so proud of the initial designs and concepts. He was furious at what happened.

[@KalTheSkeleton]

I was a young teen when Alter Echo came out and I remember liking it even though I don't remember it getting great reviews. It's a shame because with as massive as Ben 10 became for kids just a few years later, I bet it would have been positioned to ride that wave to success. I have never seen any controversies around it though, was it one of those corporate meddling stories?

[@danielstark8700]

I never realized how much the music reminded me of Legend of Dragoon. Great reviews man, I've enjoyed them!

[@KalTheSkeleton]

Man, after you said that I can hear them in my head together, and you're totally right. Thanks, let me know when you start posting again, I'll check it out.

[@christopherflynn350]

I can't believe this game ends on a cliffhanger!! But your coverage was great, I really enjoy your smooth narration :D

[@KalTheSkeleton]

It was surprising, and haven't heard anyone talk about it before, but I think it worked out okay. I think most developers are so unsure of a sequel that they feel like they have to tie things up in an unsatisfying way, just in case. Soul Reaver 2 picks up right from the end of 1 though, and I don't know that I've seen that in a game before. Usually there is at least a big time skip. Thanks, I think I'm finding a good flow in terms of cadence, though I do worry sometimes about being too slow. It's probably a turn off to a younger audience, but I'm not really fishing for that anyway.. I think you've seen all I've got for now lol, thanks for watching. I've got a few more in the pipe.

[@BBTRaziel]

great review of block puzzle simulator

[@KalTheSkeleton]

Ha, thank you. If you're hitting all the optional areas it definitely gets tedious. But of course, look who I'm talking to, you already know.

[@jeremygregorio7472]

The first three levels of this game are astonishing and amazing but it just doesn't stick the landing. It's not that the last two levels are bad it's that they feel unfinished like they ran out of money and time which I think they did

[@KalTheSkeleton]

You're definitely right and the developers have said as much in interviews. The scenes that Raziel sees in the Tom portals were supposed to be part of this game and they were supposed to be four or five different Elemental upgrades for the Soul Reaver and a bunch of other stuff on top of the brother that had to be cut entirely. I've noticed it's been the same for basically every PlayStation 1 game I've played in recent years. Too much ambition, not enough time.

[@burglemyhead6838]

my fave thing about this game is the contrast kain has knowledge he aint dumb but he is arrogent with , raziel is the same cept he is humble but both in some way have suffered the rage of the lust for vengance and get used thre this motive ,lighting ina bottle both sides of the franchise

[@KalTheSkeleton]

Yeah I'm just going through the series for the first time, but I have spoiled some things on the wiki's and it's really cool how they tied it all together in that theme of destiny and history working in cycles. They are similar characters and they went through some similar shit, but they came out of it totally different and are still stuck together like some kind of family. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the games.

[@chillyprotocol]

Not bad at all, the intro had me cracking up. That's one more subscriber for you. The audio was a little loud, but other than that was good. Maybe try using a compressor plugin. #feedbackfriday

[@KalTheSkeleton]

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it. For my audio I record it all in one long take, then cut out all the mistakes and breathing noises, run the EQ and then normalize and compress it, but those are just at the default settings, maybe I need to fiddle around with them. I did just get in some new headphones that are supposed to be better quality, so maybe they will help me compare what I'm doing to what others seem to do better.

[@atariplayer3686]

If Amy Henning could come back to Crystal Dynamics and then remake the whole series from the beginning it would be awesome!

[@KalTheSkeleton]

Yeah, but apparently the reason she left was because they wouldn't let her do anything but keep making them, so she quit and went on to Uncharted. I'll settle for a big wave of indie dark gothic vampire games, it's gotta be around the corner, right?

[@atariplayer3686]

@@KalTheSkeleton Some of the voice casts of the original games have passed away, so that makes matters complicated unfortunately.

[@KalTheSkeleton]

@@atariplayer3686 yeah that would definitely put a damper on things. I don't know how the legacy of kain ends yet, but I hope they'll do something more with it. It's just such a cool world and story.

[@TheTruePacmanMG]

Remasters recently leaked. I'm hoping they don't just shit on my childhood, but here we go.

[@KalTheSkeleton]

I saw something about that but remaster is kind of a broad term these days, I'm expecting just a texture upscale and maybe some subtitles and control options. It would be hard to see a full remake without the original voice actors.

[@TheTruePacmanMG]

@KalTheSkeleton gonna be 100% real with you that's all I want lol. Don't you touch the original audio. Hell I'd pay full price for a damn port.

[@KalTheSkeleton]

With as bad as most companies are about games preservation I can't imagine they even have the original audio stuff floating around anymore. It would be nice to have camera controls on the joystick at least.

[@TheTruePacmanMG]

@KalTheSkeleton for sure. The audio is gonna sound like it is in a different room cause they recorded a "long play- no commentary" hahaha

[@randysonnier4647]

No. We have things we need to do

[@KalTheSkeleton]

That's okay, it'll be there when you're ready for it.

[@elijahparmenter4967]

Nice thumb nail

[@KalTheSkeleton]

Thanks, though it still feels kind of generic. I never want to go that click-bait "The best Ps1 vampire game no one had ever played 😱" route, even if it is supposed to work.