Soul Reaver Alpha - Kain's Mountain Retreat

[@natbatlightwood5288]

Imagine if they remade Soul Reaver, and restored all this cut content, they could incorporate branching pathways depending how you play the game you get a different path e.g. maybe you'll end up at Kain's Retreat or maybe you'll end up in the canonical ending it could totally work. They could do so much with a potential remake of this game.

[@nightfallalicorn4246]

I'd love a remake were the player can choose between canon or original play through of the entire game. I'd gladly sink £60 for this remake to become a reality.

[@mortvia]

I think how I would like to see it is, you make the Chronoplast and Oracle's Cave a hidden area; completely inaccessible unless you meet certain conditions (including beating the game once in this scenario). So if you proceed 'normally' you end up at Kain's Mountain Retreat, kill him and get the pinnacle of the Silenced Cathedral ending. The average person feels like a badass because oh the vampire menace is no more. Huzzah. But if you do ALOT of exploring and uncover certain abilities (not sure exactly what or how) then the events at Kain's Retreat are altered and the Caves become accessible. Then you get to have that hallway of omens and start to feel that ominous sense of 'wait, what exactly is going on here?' just after you viewed the original ending. Now that's an experience I'd love for the fresh eyes of the series to have.

[@TheELASESINADOR]

What about putting the true ending in a new game+ with stronger enemies, some changes in boss patterns, even little new mechanics to defeat them. Something like in the first playtrought you kill one with light, but in the new game+ the boss defend himself with a decorative shield that he takes from a statue in the boss room, adding more content to the game and replayability. Even can be added new lines only in the new game+ for who plays it to 100%. Maybe the obligatory use of some glyphs to hinder bosses in new game+ version? I don't remember all of this (yeah, too much for having Raziel as icon) but if I remember correctly, the whole saga is about trying to cheat destiny. What if in the remakes, in each game there is multiple endings where only the true one can be performed in a new game+? The problem with this idea is that the games then require replay value. I don't know, too many changes could bring down the whole thing, but hey, if the original script has gone through all of this and the sold product has still its fanbase after 20 years of the game release, maybe on the right hands, change could provide an even better product. In the end, nobody can steal us the original.

[@DundG]

@@mortvia how about just altering the order of the places. After killing dumah Raziel can go to the undercity instead of the oracles cave, to obtain the mind Control ability, then he proceeds to Turels area and gets the amplified telikinesis ability, giving him access to kains mountain retreat where he resides. There Kain gets dominanted, but can't be killed but only wounded and he escapes again. From there Raziel seeks Ariels advice as none of Raziels weapons where powerfull enough. She mentions the cathedral and that it is the ultimate weapon against all Vampires. To Help Raziel she sacrifices a Part of her soul to him and Raziel gains the Shift at will ability. With the shift at will ability Raziel ist able to Go to the top of the Kathedral and kill every Vampire in nosgoth. Except for Kain and the last vampires (who he time traveled with into the future as he knew the outcome). The Elder explains that with the Soul of an Balance Guardian, the Soul Reaver could "force" the guardian to restore balance as it is the will of the pillars to be restored. So Raziel goes Back to Ariel to Claim her Soul. At first she is afraid, as she wanted Rest, Not beeing consumed by the blade. But Raziel Corners her and she accepts her destiny and sacrifices the only Chance of peace to the void. Creating the Ariel Reaver. With the Ariel reaver Raziel ist finally able to go to the oracles cave and confront Kain, only to find all the Visions, realizing that Kain foresaw everything. The battle takes place and Raziel could truly wound kain, but he escapes through the time Portal into the past. Thus having the Canon ending with all the extra Material :)

[@mortvia]

@@TheELASESINADOR THAT is precisely the feel I'd want to keep in Soul Reaver. The adaptive hunter. You know the weaknesses but now how do you get around their strengths kind of thing. I'm all for not only only bosses but enemies too. Like apart from the standard more HP and aggressive enemies, the AI could also be smarter and maybe even cooperate across areas? Like what happens when you walk into a previously Melchahim inhabited room but now there's also a Rahabimim there? Oh guess what no sunlight now and the Rahabim is immune to water so now what? I'd also work to manage resistance and immunities across the five clans so that it's easy to keep it all in your head but still add levels to the depth of combat. I would probably keep the destiny thing strictly to the story level at least for the first Soul Reaver. Since in Soul Reaver it's all about the hunt for Kain, you only realize the fulcrum of what's truly at stake in the final scene.

[@artemisarrow179]

This feels like modern-day archeology and I love it. Really wish some of the old devs would hit you up to shed some light on this

[@BlazeEx9]

Gotta say, of all that has been revealed from the legendary alpha version, this is my favorite area.. i can't pinpoint exactly why.. maybe the gigantic statues like titans rising their arms to the sky? maybe the color palette of the ornaments.. the huge archs.. gah, the entire reveal of the Alpha build has been absolutely fantastic, but this area just captivates me to no end haha. Thanks again Raina, guys, for all your efforts!

[@StefanoDrumsLife]

These videos are GOLD ✌🏻 Legacy of Kain forever ❤

[@soulreaver1983]

😎👍

[@VDeorsumProles]

So much cut content, so much beautiful

[@MT-ie7hy7oz1r]

Fans would love to play a new version of Soul Reaver along with all cut content. When I first learned of Kain's mountain retreat, I was shocked: wait, what? Didn't he escape (on purpose) through time for Raziel to pursue him? Whoa, to think there would be other places in Soul Reaver to explore... just fantastic. What if they are other possibilities to beat the game? What if the NON-CANON ending could be possible (e.g. Kain being beaten, along with the Priestess and Turel, and then the vampires defeated by the pipes of the Cathedral)? And then, PUFF! To the Chronoplastic Chamber (for the canon ending)! That would be cool! Thanks Raina for uploading this :D

[@Araneus21]

To put it simply, a Soul Reaver game where you may choose to play out the events as in the original, or play them out as they were originally planned in alpha version, a multi-ending game. complete with a new game plus where you can start with all skills already present and sequence break the game into oblivion, should you be so inclined. 9/10 for sure

[@nohulse]

Just personal fan speculation, but what if the area shown in the chronoplast vision is actually just the part you glide to outside of the Mountain Retreat, and climbing the scalable wall was the only way in? Just like the Sanctuary of the Clans, where "the doors of the Sanctuary were immovable. Either barred from the inside, or rusted shut." You'd get a little tease from Kain, him already knowing you're there, and you'd have maybe a small battle, then climb the scalable wall into the area that Ariel appears and tells you about upgrading the reaver with her soul. Then a bunch of puzzle rooms until you reach the half-circular hallway that leads to the true final battle with Kain.

[@RainaAudron]

It is certainly possible! I think he would have teleported out of the courtyard as there were supposed to be only 3 battles with him total.

[@nightfallalicorn4246]

This has to be one of the most interesting places. I'd love to see how it would had played out there.

[@cristianvilches245]

After seeing all of this cut content, it seems pretty obvious to me that the game was sure intended to be 2-disc from the very beginning. So due to financial/time constraints, they had to rebuild the entire mess as to make it fit in a single disc space while still maintaining backstory coherent. If I was already amazed now I'm definitely in awe at this marvelous piece of art by Ms. Hennig et al. Bow a knee to them! 🤘

[@RainaAudron]

The alpha is really small, about half of 1 disc so I think they could have fitted all of it easily (it's only missing cutscenes, some dialogue and models).

[@wizzgamer]

The original impressively only takes around half a CD despite the incredible graphics and Voice acted cutscenes so they could still have finished it on one disc.

[@saterpa13]

all these series of cut content videos are just like a dream come true.

[@charbelchagoury3755]

The kain and raziel encounter was made clear in soul reaver 2,when raziel confronts kain in the sarafan stronghold, threatening kain with the reaver and kain staying calm, the whole design here is exactly remade in soul reaver 2 in front of William the just tomb

[@soulreaver1983]

Excellent video! KAIN would be pleased! 😈👍

[@TizerisT.]

i truly hope that one day, we can have a PC mod which allows us to roam these cancelled areas, connected by map we can walk to

[@RainaAudron]

This might be possible to do, indeed :)

[@frankdelahue9761]

@@RainaAudron Reminds me of Vampire Citadel from Legacy of Kain: Defiance.

[@MsULTIMATEMAX]

Wait, new videos, damn this is aweosme

[@Glaiceana]

Wow... His Retreat is incredibly beautiful! Such awesome textures, I really wish this was included in the release, although the story may have turned out far different to what we know today! :)

[@KatherinaBathory]

His retreat is so beautiful. Kain's showing some amazing taste here! (Not surprising at all). I have mixed feelings with this. Since I obviously love SR2 and Defiance extended story... But this is so great! Maybe after all of these they could still time travel after all this... I know the original intention was to kill Kain in this game but I'm so glad they didn't.

[@Viichan777]

I found an oddity in the throne room where if you stand on the throne and turn the camera towards the door and move forward it crashes,setting the event checker show that it attempts to change suggestion it might be looking for a cutscene or some other trigger and it doesnt happen in spectral so I'm guessing when you went to the retreat it was empty and kain would attack you as you were leaving

[@Viichan777]

A similar occurrence also happens if you attempt to complete the smokestack area by debug fly mode as of course the fans dont push you high enough

[@Tomraziel1]

I thought that I'd never see this cut content but... here I am. Unfortunately possession ability is not totally functional. But... ok I'm pretty happy.

[@PorToGeN1792]

This game deserves a remaster fo sure!

[@awesomeinmortal3499]

This is awesome keep it up

[@danielflorez3762]

Beautiful...

[@angelvillagon295]

Esta area debe estar mucho mas completa en otro prototipo ya que en las revistas se mostraban screenshots donde se veía la zona del trono con texturas

[@RainaAudron]

Correct, the screenshots are from a later build that this one.

[@julianbarrera6752]

@@RainaAudron existe la posibilidad de encontrar esta build?

[@Alucardko]

vveery interesting alsso was a very good investigation (magazines screenshots)

[@thebigbadwolf946]

Maybe we can see a little incomplete fight with turel escaping before the events of defiance

[@AndrewConlan]

when it comes to the likes of Kains Mountain Retreat and the visions shown in the Chronoplast i personally feel that it makes sense to remove the Retreat when they decided to go with the time travel plot, since i personally feel that Raziel would have only gone there if Kain hadn't made changes to the time line, resulting in a longer and more winding adventure for bot Raziel and Kain in their battle to beat and cheat fate

[@zenicehero9154]

This the ending that should have made in the Soul Reaver Raziel defeats Kain, Kills all the vampires for good and saves all of Nosgoth

[@RainaAudron]

Except he doesn't save it - he would realise his mistake and travel back in time to fix it.

[@zenicehero9154]

@@RainaAudron I think he would've stayed in the future and help rebuild the civilization and preserve the humans survivors of Nosgoth.

[@RainaAudron]

@@zenicehero9154 It has been confirmed by Amy that he always travelled back to the past.

[@zenicehero9154]

This confirmation is from the final story or the cut story??

[@RainaAudron]

@@zenicehero9154 sorry, not sure what do you mean. Amy said the above in an interview for PS blog about the original cut ending.

[@Azathoth4444]

In the original plot with kains death in the corrupted timeline the elder god would have got what he wanted with the sion of balance dead. Raziel would truly have nothing left to do besides kill off the vampire's by himself. There's also unused dialogue for soul reaver.

[@RainaAudron]

Not entirely, Amy confirmed that Raziel would realize his mistake and go back in time to fix it.

[@Azathoth4444]

@@RainaAudron I wonder if it's possible to get any gameplay footage of legacy of kain the dark prophecy there's no video's anywhere i can find.

[@RainaAudron]

@@Azathoth4444 none has leaked yet, afaik. It would be interesting to see!

[@Azathoth4444]

@@RainaAudron yeah so far screenshot's are all i can find too i know some of the plot of dark prophecy been awhile since i read about it though. Kain was ment to travel back to the demon dimension a few time's.

[@Azathoth4444]

@@RainaAudron I first learned about the dark prophecy from this website www.thelostworlds.net/

[@shadowdragonx07]

hey an odd Q. was SR2 spost too be a cuntinue of sr or was it orig. ment to be sorta as a remake of SR1 🤔 cuz iv noticed chu do alota rerun stuff in sr2 that chu did in sr1 soo its y i asked 😶

[@RainaAudron]

SR2 was meant to continue Raziel´s story and discovering his fate in Nosgoth´s past. They have brought back the forges and gave them a story purpose, however.

[@shadowdragonx07]

@@RainaAudron ok i see but wait tat means LOK.DEF. would tec. be the 3rd instalment right sence it picks up after sr2 and i thought it was spost too end the lok series 🤔 well untill they make the rwmasters or w.e 😄 or rather IF sence iv heard and seen the betas or tat was ment for LOK dead sun but it was cancled short after its beta demo witch RWY suck ass as i herd it was ment to be the 4th lok and it was ment too take place long after kain and razil 😞 just sucks we never got to see it

[@RainaAudron]

@@shadowdragonx07 Defiance happens straight after SR2 but the order of playing the 5 games is not so straight forward. Dead Sun would have been 7th game (if we count Dark Prophecy) which was also a soft reboot (see my article about it on my blog).

[@RainaAudron]

@@shadowdragonx07 No, Defiance is the fifth game in the series (BO1, SR1, SR2, BO2, Defiance). It was called SR3 during development but they have changed it to Defiance. It is a good thing that Dead Sun was cancelled, imo. I did not like what I saw in the vertical slice.