Soul Reaver Alpha - Underworld

[@johnnypockets9913]

I could repeat this intro word for word with my eyeballs in my pockets and my pants on my head

[@tailedgates9]

My favorite part is the Elder God's "Become my Soul Reaver....My angel of death..."

[@llVIU]

''my eyeballs in my pockets and my pants on my head'' this guy came from the year 2690 just to appreciate this game. What the hell is this language?

[@ClaireRyanMamboCat]

KAINS DEIFIED, THE CLANS TELL TALES OF HIM.

[@alessandroguarrera2203]

When you realise this was the Gex engine the foot slapping sounds and the wing/cape being held start to seem less magical.

[@llVIU]

so basically since Raziel can ''abandon'' his physical body at any time, there might be something like 5-7 clones of raziel bodies at boss chambers

[@llVIU]

8:50 out of all places... -how many years did you bind me in your grasp? -an epoch, an aeon from the CUT content we see the truth, that the elder god was responsible for entrapping raziel hundreds of years. Probably the same as the end in soul reaver 2, just to get kain away from raziel until the time was right. I never knew the elder god was able to do this. But what exactly does he mean by epoch/aeon? It's vague.

[@TheRealBDouble]

It's cool that the dialog itself seems to be mostly complete, but different recording sessions have been used. The Elder's voice lacks any filters or enhancements and Raziel's delivery is different than retail

[@ricardolujan4791]

Primer comentario. My first son's name is Raziel after this incredible game. I value a lot all these years of your fanatism that keep this game and franchise alive, Raina Audron. Thanks!!

[@Hgmarmol]

Cuando nació le dijiste "Raziel eres valioso" ? jeje Excelente!

[@ricardolujan4791]

@@Hgmarmol No. Sabes lo q le dije cuand lo cargue en brazos y lo lleve a la habitacion del hospital..". Raziel, redentor y destructor. Peon y mesías. Bienvenida alma errante en el tiempo. BIENVENIDO A TU DESTINO." Sip. La linea final de Moebius en Soul Reaver 1

[@saxogrammatikus4195]

So you will be make 5 other sons?

[@Glaiceana]

The location of that water when you exit the underworld makes so much more sense now! For someone playing the game the first time, they wouldn't have even really noticed it. But here, when the explanation is played, you would know that you just walked through it, so you get a live demonstration of what water is like in the spirit world! Also I love the hurt sound of the Sluagh in that version, almost a splat noise that they make! XD

[@aidenarkham8632]

I kinda prefer the echoey effect on the elder god, its kinda creepy that its clear feels like the elder god is beside you and whispering stuff. just my opinion tho.

[@sockmonkey6666]

Agreed. He should sound like an eldritch abomination who only bothers speaking aloud because it's convenient.

[@cgraham6]

Awesome to hear those clean audio files, without the effects they had on them in the game.

[@natbatlightwood5288]

Wow this is incredible. Seriously dude excellent work.

[@GBlastMan]

The aura around raziel appears again only on Soul Reaver 2's intro where you can see Raziel having this white outerworldly aura around him giving him this ethereal feeling that fits with his new nature, but it was only used for the intro cutscene of Soul Reaver 2, and i was always intrigued why they decided to add that there when he never had that even in Soul Reaver 1 intro when he finally turns into a wraith.

[@MrPatricklm]

Amazing video, nostalgic

[@hindel6141]

Man I lover these so much! Tnx for unloading! Its just that after playing Dreamcast version this looks a bit jarring =)

[@RainaAudron]

Too bad no version is perfect but DC version is probably the definitive one. I myself still prefer ps1 over it (even if framerate is low an draw distance is bad) :)

[@voiavictor]

I think DC version is too bright and you lose a lot of shadows from the original version. So the DC version is less mysterious.

[@WaveyTheesz]

I heard DC versions title menu screen doesn’t feature the moving stone image with red eyes

[@MihaiOprean]

awesome!

[@luizenidog5016]

Cool

[@WaveyTheesz]

The Melchahim and Turelim made their appearances too early compared to the retail version. That would of spoilt the moment for their future official appearance.

[@Ethylamine]

I've watched all of your alpha and beta build showcases and I think honestly the way the game turned out is probably for the best, really is, this is too ambitious and too advanced for something like PS1, or even Dreamcast. Its a shame so much work on extra passages of gameplay was cut in development, but the retail version doesn't miss that much quite honestly, there are completely cut levels and enemies in the game surely, but I think what we got was a streamlined and smooth version of a game that had some rather severe complications with render and texture work.

[@somemong989]

I sort of agree. I would've loved to have all the bosses and the complete sr1 story and it sucks that they didn't make it. But the ton of reavers weren't needed, vampire possession was too much, even things like climbing walls sideways didn't feel needed.

[@Ethylamine]

@@somemong989 The idea of including a vampire possession mechanic may have been taken from the original game, Blood Omen. In it Kain gets a ability were he can possess humans as well, so maybe if it could have been properly integrated in the game, it could even have been somewhat cool. But I don't really know why they would have attempted a sideways climbing mechanic at all considering there aren't that many uses for something like this in the game, I also think its pretty much a good idea that they cut so much of its extra content considering that only by the end of the development cycle they managed to get everything working other than isolated sequences of gameplay because programming the game was very difficult for the dev team at Crystal Dynamics, there is so much memory allocation involved, so many cutscenes and so many game changing abilities for Raziel that it makes a lot of things too complicated to be made the way they would have wanted to. Even if it ha came oout in multiple discs back then, I still don't think it would have worked, the fogging effect and loading of interconnected areas would have been a nightmare to work with, its too much for the memory of the PS1 to handle I think. As for the different Reavers, that idea is still in the game as a cheat code and you can still get a Fire Reaver but its about the same as the Soul Reaver, not exactly all that useful, and its actually much better as a mechanic on Soul Reaver 2 which personally I think its a better game to Sooul Reaver 1, despite losing on the cool factor and atmosphere I think it had a better plot and also gameplay too.

[@somemong989]

@@Ethylamine the fog was probably used to deal with draw distance issues, I remember that Silent Hill used it to that effect whilst also providing atmosphere. Didn't know that about blood omen, really didn't like that game. Basically what I'm saying is it would've been nice if they'd included all the bosses and the original arc and then worked on some complex stuff as "nice to haves" if they had any time left. But that's just how it went.

[@Ethylamine]

​@@somemong989 I believe fogging was quite common after Metal Gear Solid came out, because it was such a hit that showed need to load more things inside the game with a set of visual effects, graphics an gameplay mechanics in it, but I ain't sure also if its used in games like Resident Evil 1 or Resident Evil, 2 because i recall certain segments having in-game events that almost reminds me of what could also happen in Metal Gear Solid, though its a lot more linear to Soul Reaver 1 though. But I can't comment completely upon it, since its only my assumption over it, I am not sure about how draw distance worked within the Gex engine used in Soul Reaver or even how it is generated in the PS1's hardware. As to Blood Omen itself, I think its a great game, I love its premise and themes and I think many characters are quite good in it as far as what their place in the storyline is, also like the look of the game and its gameplay, its kinda like a mix of Zelda with Diablo, maybe you could igve it a try its actually reallly good, at least I like it a lot.

[@OutlandishSamurai]

What happens when you turn at will with cheats in the underworld?

[@RainaAudron]

You can´t, it is disabled, but you can swim back in material realm for a bit, then the water disappears.

[@renesimon1769]

Rene Simon