Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
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| Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver | |
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| Developer(s) | Crystal Dynamics |
| Publisher(s) | Eidos Interactive |
| Series | Legacy of Kain series |
| Release date(s) | 1999 (PS1, WIN) 2000 (DC) |
| Genre(s) | Action-adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: T(Teen) |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation, Windows, Dreamcast |
| Media | 1 CD-ROM (PS1, WIN) 1 GD-ROM (DC) |
| System requirements | 266 MHz CPU, 16 MB RAM, 2 MB video card RAM, 4X CD-ROM drive, DirectX 6.0, 320 MB available hard disk space, Windows 95 (WIN) |
| Input | Keyboard, mouse, or gamepad |
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is a video game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos.It was the first Legacy of kain game not developed by Silicon Knights . It's the second game in the Legacy of Kain series. It was released on the PlayStation, Sega Dreamcast, and PC.The game chronicles the journey of newly appointed Reaver of Souls Raziel as he exacts his revenge upon his vampire brethren and anti-hero, Kain.
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[edit] Background
Taken from the Playing manual, as told by character Raziel.
Dark Gods: A millennium has passed since Lord Kain set his capital in the ruins of the Pillars of Nosgoth and began his conquest of the world. His first act was to recruit a cadre. Dipping into the underworld, Kain snared six souls and thus birthed his lieutenants of which I, Raziel, was one. We, in turn prowled the twilight of purgatory building six legions of vampires to pillage Nosgoth.
The destruction of the major human Kingdoms was inevitable. Within a hundred years, humanity had been thoroughly domesticated. To be sure, there remained some feral humans scattered across the hinterlands, clinging to their hopeless holy war to rid Nosgoth of 'the vampire scourge'. They were tolerated. They made existence for the fledglings more challenging.
After the taming of the humans, our real work began; shaping Nosgoth to our will. Around the Pillars, slaves constructed a shrine worthy of our new age, worthy of our new renaissance. Huge furnaces were built to belch smoke into the sky, shielding the land from the poisonous effects of the sun. Never had the world known a time of such beauty. However, we grew bored.
We allowed the remains of the legions, the lesser vampires, to have their intrigues. They provided amusement and spice to an increasingly uninspired court. As faction fell against faction we bet upon the outcome. We helped and foiled plots at our whim. We were the Council and Lord Kain, our only master.
Raziel: The humans think it is a poison of the blood that makes us what we are. Fools, the blood only feeds the bodies we live in. To create a vampire, one must steal a soul from the abyss to reanimate the corpse. It is the body that demands the blood sacrifice; our souls gain their advantage from the powers of the underworld. As we matured, our earthly bodies evolved into a higher form. We assumed the powers and nobility of the Dark Gods. With each change, the trivial affairs of vampire and man held less interest. Always, it was Kain that would change first. After the master had experienced a new gift, one of us would follow in a decade or so. That is, until I had the audacity to evolve before my master. I was gifted with wings. And for my impertinence I was damned.
The Elder: To us the touch of water is agony; it burns our flesh like acid. My punishment was to be cast into The Lake of the Dead, our execution ground for traitors and weaklings. As my brethren heaved me into the air I could see the bemused expressions on their faces. The transitory thrill of something new. Then the pain. Melting, twisting, burning, falling. A new experience indeed. Time. I have no concept of how long I fell. Only that there was an end to the fall and through the pain I heard the voice. At first I thought it merely the echoes of my own tortured mind, but I grew to understand that it was more. Something primal. Something angry. Something righteous. Something ancient.
The Elder explained much to me. It told me of creation, of death, of souls and of hunger. For eons the Elder fed upon the souls of Nosgoth. Then Kain's vampire dynasty deprived the Elder of sustenance. For centuries his hunger grew and festered in this place.
The Elder offered me a solution to my sorry existence - if I would stalk the Material Realm slaying my former brethren then I would have the chance to avenge myself against Kain. How could one refuse such an offer?
[edit] New Surroundings
Having lost his physical body upon death, he inhabited the Spirit Realm, the other plane of existence in Nosgoth where ghosts, spirits and wraiths inhabit. The surroundings are similar to the Physical Realm he once inhabited, but walls, floors and landmarks have been warped to a certain degree, vastly changing the terrain. Water is now thin as air, and if he sucks in enough souls he has the ability to enter the Physical Realm, albeit for a limited time. While in the Physical Realm his existence is tenuous, and either by length of time, falling in water (initially), or taking damage, he is unvoluntarily shunted back into the Spectral Realm if he cannot maintain his strength.
Once warped back into the Spirit Realm, any weapons he may have been carrying fall by the wayside and disappear. Being dead, Raziel is seemingly incapable of death. It is later revealed that history itself can purge irritants of history's path, and so Raziel can die this way. But for the time, death is not a factor in his mission at all, though being thrust back into the Spirit Realm suddenly can set back progress, especially since the player cannot open doors, scale walls, etc. when Raziel lacks corporeality.
[edit] Gained Abilities
At first, he can only glide through the air, since his wings' structure was violently torn off. This allows him to traverse pits that are otherwise too long to jump. His other power is to suck souls, which as mentioned before feed both his energy level and the Elder God. After successfully felling his brothers, he gains their powers, which enhances his ability to survive in both realms.
[edit] Phasing
One of the most valuable skills he gains is the ability to phase, or pass, through insubstantial obstacles, such as fences and other gates, in the Spirit Realm that would otherwise be impassable in the Physical Realm. This is gained from Melchiah, who has degenerated into an amalgation of dead bodies.
[edit] Constrict
After running two consecutive circles around an enemy or object, a band of energy would constrict to the center of the circle, either crushing an enemy or activating a switch/lever that would otherwise be impossible to manipulate. This is gained from the nigh-invincible Dumah, and is the only ability that does not appear in later sequels.
[edit] Swimming
At first, water destroys his corporeal body in an instant, but after killing Rahab he gains the power to swim and dive in all bodies of water, excluding the Lake of the Dead.
[edit] Force Projectile
This enables Raziel to fire a projectile of energy at remote objects, perhaps to enable a switch, or at an enemy to attack them. Another very indispensable tool, and it works in both realms as well. A Turelim vampire grants this ability.
[edit] Wall climbing
Certain walls in the Physical Realm have a specific texture that allow Raziel to dig his claws into them to scale. Areas otherwise impossible to access now become easy to get to. He attains this ability in the Silenced Cathedral after defeating Zephon. This ability is also available in the spectral realm in the sequals.
[edit] Soul Reaver
After Raziel's first confrontation with Kain upon his return to the Physical Realm, the Soul Reaver shatters the instant Kain tries to strike Raziel down with it. Kain ponders the ramifications of this (which aren't full revealed until Soul Reaver 2), and then takes off. The Soul Reaver's physical restraints were eliminated upon contact with Raziel, and now takes on its true form as a wraith blade; a "Soul Reaver" in the literal sense. In addition, the Soul Reaver is now permanently fused to Raziel's right arm, making it an extension of his own body. Later in the game, the reaver can be imbued with the elemental power of fire.
[edit] Mission
While the obvious course of action for Raziel is to kill each of his brothers and eventually take down Kain, there are much more important, and far-reaching, machinations being plotted. Not only does he begin to learn what happened to him and his brothers as the course of the story moves on, but starts to understand that the Elder God isn't being completely honest with him. This becomes very apparent when Raziel confronts Kain for the final battle of this arc of the story, and Kain reveals that he is not the bad guy in all this. Kain slips into the time stream, and Raziel gives chase.
Upon entering the time stream to follow, he meets the great puppet master of time, Moebius the Timestreamer, who welcomes him to his destiny. It's only the beginning of what fate had in store for tragic character Raziel.
[edit] Trivia
- As episodic the story may be, there was a substantial amount of dialogue, story and characters that didn't make the final cut. Crystal Dynamics's grasp was beyond their reach, and had to cut a lot to make deadline. This explains a missing boss encounter against one of his brothers, and two encounters with females that had heavy plot points. To make a full list here is futile, but here are two of the three major characters that didn't make the cut that would have filled in several storyline gaps:
- Turel, the 2nd oldest vampire brother, can be seen in the opening FMV, and you fight in his lands, but he is nowhere to be seen. Defeating him would have earned you an Enhanced Force Projectile attack. Instead, a Turelim underling, which was no stronger than a regular enemy, granted you the original Force Projectile attack. This was a last minute swap, which explains much of the head-scratching story gap. Turel's disappearance is later explained in Legacy of Kain: Defiance.
- Ariel is in the game, but her role was significantly reduced. Originally she was to make an appearance and explain to Raziel that the Soul Reaver is not powerful enough to defeat Kain. Only by striking her down would the weapon gain its full power. In addition, Kain was to know of this and taunt Raziel about it. A cheat code that gives Raziel the 'Ariel' Reaver, a glowing yellow version of the original, also suggests this.
- The Priestess, who leads a clan of vampire-worshippers, would have granted Raziel the ability to possess other beings upon her defeat.
- Examining the dialogue that was unused yet present in the game disk has created a theory of an alternate ending to the game which would have featured Raziel confronting Kain in a disclosed location, wielding the Reaver enhanced with Ariel's spirit to ultimately absorb Kain's soul into it. After defeating Kain, Raziel would have journeyed to the Silent Cathedral and made all of its bells ring a certain frequency fatal to vampires, thus deleting every single living vampire in Nosgoth, himself included. This is also supported by a cheat code that allows Raziel to wield the 'Kain' Reaver, a menacing black and red version. It is also shown as a prediction in Moebius's Chronoplast Chamber in the retail version of the game. Fans have noticed that the "deleted" events actually occur in some form in the later games (Ariel is absorbed into the Reaver, thus enhancing it, and Kain is temporarily "dead" after his final battle with Raziel.)
- The soundtrack is performed by Kurt Harland, from Information Society, included the song "Ozar Midrashim", track of the album "Don't Be Afraid".
- The name "Raziel" comes from an angel of the same name.
[edit] External links
- Eidos' official site
- Nosgothic Realm – Contains lots of artwork and pictures.
- Legacy of Kain: The Lost Worlds – Site archiving deleted and lost information about the Legacy of Kain series.
- Legacy of Kain: Dark Chronicle – Extensive encyclopaedia about anything to do with Legacy of Kain.
- Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver at MobyGames
| Legacy of Kain series |
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| Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain | Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver | Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 | Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain | Legacy of Kain: Defiance |
| Major Characters |
| Kain | Raziel | Moebius | Elder God | Mortanius | Hash'ak'gik | Ariel | Vorador | Janos Audron |
| The Circle of Nine |
| Nupraptor the Mentalist | Malek the Sarafan | Bane the Druid | Azimuth the Planer | Dejoule the Energist | Anacrothe the Alchemist | Moebius the Timestreamer | Mortanius the Necromancer | Ariel of the Balance |
| Kain's Lieutenants |
| Raziel | Turel | Dumah | Rahab | Zephon | Melchiah |
| The World of Nosgoth |
| Pillars of Nosgoth | Lake of the Dead | Nosgoth timeline | Soul Reaver | Ancients | Hylden | Material Realm | Spectral Realm |
