More responses, sorry about the delay.
Breaking the horizontal scroll makes it hard to read such a huge and informative post.
I've fixed this now, sorry.
I played a good bit of Soul Reaver, but it didn't grab me like it grabbed (apparently) everybody else. I could only slide so many boxes around.
Yeah, the overuse of block puzzles is a weakness, there is about a dozen in the game. I simply aim just to get them over with straight away so they don't interfere with further exploration, but they are the one element of the game design that has aged most inelegantly.
Right now, I'm playing Darksiders II and many times makes me wish for a new Soul Reaver game, with up to date graphics, awesome art style and unmatched voice acting and story!
I've heard many good things about the Darksiders games from many LOK fans - I should probably give them a look at some point.
Be good to see someone do a thread like this but on Shenmue .....
It would be very difficult. Many western developers are happy to advertise their works on portfolio websites, years after (I imagine) the NDAs have expired. Such websites are reasonably challenging to track down though, I've gone through a lot of search engines and a hell of a lot of keyword permutations to find the stuff in this thread,
the stuff in in my Metroid threads and in
all my research into Legacy of Kain: The Dark Prophecy. Its a somewhat persistent process to do all of this in English, so I can't imagine how challenging it would be to do in Japanese. Not to mention, and I don't mean to generalise, but it appears that eastern developers are somewhat less enthusiastic in advertising their concept and modelling skills on personal portfolio websites. At least, I've seen very few who do, compared to the sheer smorgasbord of Western-talent portfolio websites out there.
Its a shame of course, because I'd love to look into the development of Majora's Mask, or Metroid Zero Mission, or Final Fantasy IX, with this level of scrutiny.
How's the PC version? I noticed on GOG for a decent price, and I may just bite.
If you apply this patch, it runs in HD, widescreen at a solid 60FPS. The screenshots on the previous page will indicate how it looks (I think pretty good for a game designed for a 2MB console - the texture filtering helps!). I'd suggest its worth a look, but I'm biased.
Epic thread dude.
As much as the cut ending intrigue's me. I am glad the squeals were made while keeping in mind what was originally cut.
That ending does sounds fantastic but a bit too final.
Since I made this thread,
Daniel Cabuco has answered more questions about the intended story and ending. It ads a bit of depth to it:
We've learned from deleted audio and other sources that in the initial SR1 conclusion, Raziel was to ultimately kill Kain and open the pipes of the Silenced Cathedral to kill all the vampires. No time travel apparently involved and this conclusion appeared quite final. I was wondering if the team had planned to adress the origin of the Soul Reaver one way or another in SR1 (or in an in a "different" SR2 ?). Had the Wraith Blade always been thought as being Raziel's soul, or did the idea come during SR2 ? If that was the case, was there a different explanation as to why the Soul Reaver broke when Kain used it on Raziel in SR1 ?
When the scene first played out, I asked Amy why it broke on Raziel. She explained that 'you can't reave your own soul'. That made sense to me. Somehow she had always planned for Raziel to be inside the reaver, and probably would have addressed it in the next game in some meaningful way. There wasn't a different explanation for the Soul Reaver as far as I know.
Still about the original SR1 conclusion, Kain's motivations appear to differ from what we've seen in SR2 (originally, Kain seemed ready to die at Raziel's hand, apparently letting him kill all vampires with the sound pipes). Could you elaborate on Kain's original intentions before the ending was cut ?
Kain saw his empire as a failure after a milennia of trying to forge it. He witnessed the devolution of his children, and the loss of his empire. Ann Rice always had a nice theory about few people having the 'stamina for immortality'. Kain was much more tragic in the original ending, having forseen much in the Chronoplast.I think he saw the inevitablity of it all, and was ready to go. But he wanted to set Raziel on a path first...
Now this is about BO1, so I will understand if you don't have an anwser for that, but... in BO1, when Kain traveled back through time, the only weapon that could kill William the Just was the Soul Reaver. Was it already planned by Sillicon Knights that 2 incarnations of the Reaver could create a paradox (and the idea was carried on in SR2) ?
No the Paradox was created to help explain some of the inconsistencies of BO2, and to create the ability to change fate. It was entirely Amy's creation: she found a way to use coincidences in BO as a way to explain the ability to change time. I thought it was a brilliant solution!
Related to SR2: so in the ending cutscene, the Wraith Blade leaves Raziel's arm, then does it already go inside the Reaver, or is it just coiling on the Reaver (as it did with William's Reaver earlier in the game) and then it turns the blade against Raziel, so as to restore the empty blade to its "original" (in the Wraith Blade's "mind") state ? I never really understood how Raziel's soul is transfered inside the Reaver...
The weaving was to show that a tether existed, anchoring Raziel to the blade. It's a prison, made to house Raziel's soul and consciousness. The Anchor would set, preventing Raz from letting go to the blade, then draw him into itself. In that moment, when he is both inside and outside the blade (anchored and passing into it), a time paradox exists the same as when 2 Soul Reavers cross. The blade would absorb and house him into itself. From then on, whenever the blade struck an enemy as the Soul Reaver (as opposed to the Blood Reaver) it would devour the soul of whomever it killed.
Thank you again for the opportunity you gives us of having our most burning questions answered 
Also, don't get me wrong if I'm interested in SR1's original ending, I still think the actual ending was brilliant, and so was SR2 !
Thanks! There was a lot of unique challenges to making the SR series, but I think, despite all the changes, it turned out for the best. Necessity sometimes begets creative brilliance, and at every turn we strove to create a fun, intellectual experience that was coherent. I can't really imagine the series ending differently than it did.
wait..so if kain were to try and kill Janos(hypothetically) the reaver would just stop working the minute it would touch his "friend"?
Nope. Raziel is just a ravenous, insane soul. He needs to feed and doesn't care who he hits. I don't believe he's fully conscious in the blade.. living and somewhat sentient. If Kain hit Janos with it, and killed him, Raziel would consume his soul.
There are more answers at the linked site and they keep coming all the time - very interesting for fans of the series.
You make some of my favorite threads, MamaRobotnik. Gotta play through this series once I clean up my backlog. I'll start with Blood Omen once the Vita is patched to play ps1 classics
Or do y'all recommend the GOG route?
It depends of if you prefer portable or desktop more than anything I suppose. I lean towards the PC releases as Soul Reaver looks considerably better, and when you have completed it you can download patches from thelostworlds.net to allow access to a debug menu, and enable exploration of some remnants of the cut areas and powers.
The intro blew my mind. It felt so mature and advance for the time. I think I'll replay it sometime later this week.
The amount of detail that went into THAT intro is still mind-boggling to this day. The brothers, who you only see for mere seconds, and the environment were rendered with a near-obsessive level of detail:
Sorry about all the images, but it really shows how even after thirteen years, the work still holds up.
Weren't there ways (cheats?) to unlock the different reavers in the game? I remember using the yellow one on the dreamcast, but I also remember it only being a cosmetic change.
This tool allows access to the Crystal Dynamics Debug Menu in the PC release, allowing access to the superficial elements of the cut reavers - ie the change in colour/appearance but none of the cool cut powers. It can also enable cut abilities like Shift at Will.
I was really disappointed with how blood omen 2 turned out. Not just talking about how it was by far the weakest game in the series, but because of what the early game was shaping up to be. I remember reading an early EGM article talking about how blood omen 2 was going to be kain stuck in this giant city in a free roam game, where you had to stick to the shadows and lure people to alley ways to feed on them. An open world vampire game set in the legacy of kain universe? Sign me up!
The perspective of a Soul Reaver lead on Blood Omen 2 is very interesting:
http://www.dcabdesign.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=143 The BO2 team just did what the heck they wanted to, regardless of plot holes, the developing story, the character of Kain, and the themes and recurring motifs of the series. It has some fun bosses and some nice music though, and the Eternal Prison is pretty cool. It did a LOT of harm to the franchise though.
Is SR2 available on PSN in any region?
Its a PS2 game, so its most likely chance of being playable on a non backwards compatible Playstation would be a HD rerelease.
Interestingly, Soul Reaver 2 actually started life as a PS1 game:
Until it was changed platforms to the PS2, with massive benefit to the animations, models and environment:
DAAAMN Mama. Between your Soul Reaver Lunacy and my MGS obsession we would be great cellmates in a padded room
Haha, I'd love to explore the fantastic MGS3 with this level of scrutiny.
That is a truly fascinating write up Mama. What is the story with the sequel? I never played the second game. Did they just put all the story arcs they had planned on the cutting room floor as well?
No, they changed tack massively with the story for Soul Reaver 2, and the result was entirely for the best. Soul Reaver 2 is the best story in the LOK series, and its interesting to visit areas in multiple time periods and see Crystal's fantastic artistry at work.
Some of the broader ideas (like the lost brother, a subterranean temple, Ariel's "Reaver", Demons, Winged Vampires) that were cut from SR1, appear in SR2 and Defiance but in some cases massively reinterpreted. Again, its for the best. Kain goes from suicidal tyrant to a vampire Doctor Who, returning to the anti-hero role he had in Blood Omen. After completing SR1, I found SR2 to be absolutely essential.
Right, final page of responses shortly.
