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[Kittonwy]

The Legacy of Kain games definitely have the best writing of any game I've played.

No one is painted as some kind of cartoon villain or absolute hero, almost every character has a history that gives them their motives, all of which are on different shades of morality. Only other games series that comes close is Metal Gear Solid but that, especially 4, borders parody.

Legacy of Kain though is just amazing in the quality of both story and voice acting. They remain the only games I haven't sold or managed to lose.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jws63E9dNN8&feature=related (Soul Reaver 2' intro/Soul Reaver's ending)

This generation I will say Uncharted 2 is king in terms of script and voice acting, but it certainly lacks the level of depth present in Legacy of Kain.

Uncharted 2 doesn't need the complexity in terms of plot in Soul Reaver though, it's rare to have Amy Hennig and director Gordon Hunt working across two studios and basically half a dozen games. Uncharted 2 characters as strong modern archetypes tend to have a strong sense of familiarity about them, whereas Soul Reaver felt more like a play.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

It was my favorite game for a long time... but it's been so long I can't really remember the writing.

Same. If you you change "my" to "a".

So when we say writing, are we referring to the story or the dialogue?

 

[heringer]

Bought it on PSN and played until I beat the first boss. I had to stop because the framerate is so atrocious I was getting some serious headaches, so I'm done with the game. Aged controls didn't help either.

It's a shame, because visually it isn't too bad and the voice work is absolutely amazing. Impaling enemies is fun, and so is the platforming.

 

[Pydte]

Hmm...I really want to replay the series, preferably in chronological order - only I'm a copy short of Blood Omen. Besides, how does Soul Reaver hold up on a LCD? I've got my PS2 hooked up via RGB, yet I'm a bit worried of how it will look... Wouldn't risk having my fond memories ruined.

 

[JayDub]

Soul Reaver is the game which introduced me to the amazing Michael Bell. I was already a fan of Simon Templeman's work in Legacy of Kain, but Soul Reaver took the narrative to a new level imo. It's a lot more meaningful if you actually played LoK, and played SR as a "sequel" because it then paints Kain in a different light from a different perspective. Kain also used a lot of monologues, so the narrative style is not new to the series, but Raziel is just a much more interesting character. The setting in Soul Reaver is darker and more morally ambiguous as well, since in LoK, everyone was basically a bad guy and an asshole. Just on different levels of immorality. :lol

This. So this. When Raziel's human past life was revealed I was reflecting on how well the buildup was. It being a sequel to LoZ is great, and people who played the first well feel chills when they see the intro. Yet it introduces it as a brand new game. The way Soul Reaver recounts the happenings of the LoZ is like LoZ was never released, yet it felt just as compelling to hear someone else talk about it.

Amy of Uncharted fame is going to take this medium to artistic narrative heights.

Hmm...I really want to replay the series, preferably in chronological order - only I'm a copy short of Blood Omen. Besides, how does Soul Reaver hold up on a LCD? I've got my PS2 hooked up via RGB, yet I'm a bit worried of how it will look... Wouldn't risk having my fond memories ruined.

IMO, not very well. All SD games, IMO, look shitacular on LCD. Its reasonable on an SD set though.

 

[CartridgeBlower]

So it's definitely a good idea to play Blood Omen to truly appreciate Soul Reaver? Thinking about grabbing one for my PSP...

 

[JayDub]

So it's definitely a good idea to play Blood Omen to truly appreciate Soul Reaver? Thinking about grabbing one for my PSP...

Depends on how open you are. If you go back and play some older games made in the 90s and its not your thing, than you probably won't like it. I cant even go back to playing some games from the 90s that I really enjoyed. So it all depends.

But yea, if you end up getting into BO, SR will be so much better. But the great thing about SR is, like stated in my previous post, you dont have to have played BO to enjoy the story of SR. SR presents the backstory to Kain (and all happenings in BO) in way where it seems like BO was never even released. Like a traditional reveal of the main antagonist's backstory. Crystal Dynamics assumes no one has played BO.

But man, if you did play BO, having the main character from the last game as the antagonist is just..fuck.

 

[HK-47]

Closer to Oscar worthy than anything else outside of Planescape: Torment or Dreamfall: The Longest Journey.

lol Dreamfall is no where near Planescape or Legacy. I'd take MotB, Bloodlines, Grim Fandango, Psychonauts among others over Dreamfall.

 

[shintoki]

Which system has the best version. Been eyeing the PC or DC.

 

[Endless-Bravado]

So it's definitely a good idea to play Blood Omen to truly appreciate Soul Reaver? Thinking about grabbing one for my PSP...

I played SR before Blood Omen several years ago and I still loved Soul Reaver. Although in retrospect I can certainly see how Blood Omen would make SR's story all the more memorable so it's recommended. Both games have held up pretty well IMO in terms of gameplay, controls, and obviously story. Some people here are having framerate issues because they're playing PS1 era game on an HDTV. So play it on an SDTV if you can.

I've been meaning to replay the whole series. While I still remember most parts about Blood Omen 1, Soul Reaver 1, & LoK: Defiance(since it's the most "recent") I hardly remember much from Blood Omen 2 and Soul Reaver 2. I wish we could get one last game to wrap it all up since Defiance had such a big cliffhanger from what I can remember.

 

[crasherball]

im personally a big fan of soul reaver

and soul reaver 2 and blood omen


but i never was able to finish soul reaver 1 :-S

i guess i was too supid for it -.-

 

[Mifune]

This whole series has great writing. Funny though that I've only played Blood Omen, Soul Reaver, and Soul Reaver 2, and never finished any of them.

 

[HK-47]

It isn't better written than Silent Hill 2.

Its better voiced by far though. SH2 does utilize the medium better.

 

[HK-47]

Better voiced doesn't equate to better writing!

Did I say that?

 

[Johnny Utah]

Sould Reaver 2 was cool. But the rest was so so.

 

[Afrikan]

oh man, this game used to freak me out......kind of like that Freddy Krueger game for Nintendo, when the setting changes....

 

[Agnates]

Where's that thread about using 2 different art styles in a single game? Soul Reaver 1 managed it all those years back on the lowly PS1 (and in silky smooth 60 fps on the Dreamcast), add a couple of pixel shaders on top (for the characters to change also mainly) and what that guy was asking for is certainly possible without meaning the developers need to do exactly 2x the work.

And yah, I dunno about the writing but these games certainly had cool atmosphere. Then they went downhill. For really good writing my vote goes to Panzer Dragoon Saga and the original Final Fantasy Tactics (despite the botched translation it initially got)

 

[TheYanger]

The best writing i've seen in a console game, is related to MGS 1, 2 and 3.
I'm not referring to plot-related writing (you know, the Snaaaaake lines of dialogue ) but to the adjacent themes that are explored in the series, like
- evolution and genetics (genetic 'enhancements' via isolating and transferring certain genes from an individual to another following the completion of the Human Genome Project; MGS1)
- philosophical interpretations of genetics (does DNA define you as a person? Is your fate encoded in your DNA?; MGS1)
- information evolution (cultural information transfer - the memetic legacy; MGS2)
- social dynamics (like the consequence of mass availability of information - via the internet - on social culture; MGS2)
- politics (how the economic and political climate of a certain period influences and dictates the country's allies and enemies - which means the enemies of yesterday can become the allies of tomorrow, this friend-enemy relativity continuing forever; MGS3)
and many others...

I don't think i've encountered another series that touches so many big themes, in such an analytical way. It is the best writing i've ever seen in a game, as it ponders real life topics and i doubt soul reaver or any other console game is better in this respect.

And yet, despite touching on 'heavy' topics, the stories themselves come accross as pretentious and pointless. I love MGS as much as the next guy, but the games are NOT well written.

 

[teiresias]

I wish my Kuro would recognize my Dreamcast through its VGA adapter. I'm half scared to get this game through PSN because I have memories of the DC graphics and I'm afraid I'd hate it now, haha.

 

[Agnates]

The graphics are pretty much the same as on Dreamcast, but with half the frame rate (30 vs 60). This video is decent enough (bad).

At least, I remember being mind blown by how smooth it was on the Dreamcast in comparison when I saw them running side by side at a store I used to frequent. But I don't recall noticing many other differences and I had it on PlayStation myself and really enjoyed it (I did later get a Dreamcast but not Soul Reaver on it).

 

[teiresias]

Well, the textures are more filtered on the DC and obviously the PS1 version has the trademarked PS1 texture warping due to lack of perspective correction, but not bad otherwise. Might play that version just to hear the music differences anyway.

 

[Skilletor]

Urge to play games again...rising.

 

[Mr. Jonh]

I have a copy of Soul Reaver 2 but playing it on the PS3 creates a glitch that prohibits progress

It's so beautiful to listen to. Magnificent. Such an excellent world too.

 

[epmode]

lol Dreamfall is no where near Planescape or Legacy. I'd take MotB, Bloodlines, Grim Fandango, Psychonauts among others over Dreamfall.

Dreamfall is really goddamned good though. It's way up there, as far as I'm concerned.

In fact, I just finished my replay of The Longest Journey and I'm going through Dreamfall right this very second. Just alt-tabbed out of Chapter 1. The writing and especially the acting is a huge improvement over TLJ.

What I wouldn't do for a proper sequel.. Maybe this decade, Ragnar?

 

[Gattsu25]

I agree...the writing and dialog in Soul Reaver really is pretty good

Legacy of Kain series as a whole is pretty fucking ace

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

Urge to play games again...rising.

same for me

 

[Lard]

The very high-quality dialogue and voice acting combined to create something pretty special in the Legacy of Kain games.

This is exactly what I was going to post. With different actors, it could have come across as cheese, but with the actors they got, the stuff really works.

 

[Keikoku]

I'd like to play it again, is there anything wrong with the PC version ?

 

[EctoPrime]

I'd like to play it again, is there anything wrong with the PC version ?

• The game shipped with a huge bug that made the framerate nosedive if you loaded a saved game, until it was patched.
• The FMV in the pc version has weird fake interlacing for some stupid reason
• It requires patching on XP sp2 and up
  

The Dreamcast version is the best overall package. It would be nice if you could patch the game to use the high quality version of the intro found on SR2 (Ps2)

 

[Brolic Gaoler]

It's definitely up there.

 

[Rezbit]

Soul Reaver was a genuinely excellent game around the time it came out. SR2 and Defiance both continued the great dialogue and music, but the gameplay started to splutter a bit. Still, just such enthralling games. Probably the most interested I've ever been in a games story. Loved 'em.

 

[Endless-Bravado]

Soul Reaver was a genuinely excellent game around the time it came out. SR2 and Defiance both continued the great dialogue and music, but the gameplay started to splutter a bit. Still, just such enthralling games. Probably the most interested I've ever been in a games story. Loved 'em.

Yeah I agree. The puzzles and environments in Defiance in particular were really repetitive especially while playing as Raziel. The combat was a somewhat of an improvement but nothing special by today's standards obviously.

 

[Garl_Vinland]

Blood Omen and Soul Reaver are some of the best games i've played on the PS-One. In love with the dark atmosphere and storyline. In retrorespect, i loved them more now than when i played them because i realize how rare these type of games are.

If people are like reading novels and using ur imagination, Planescape Torment has some of the best writing in the business. Close to 1 million words and the story is brilliant.

It isn't better written than Silent Hill 2.

Oh man, i really love this game. The game also has my favorite videogame soundtrack of all time.

 

[Keikoku]

• The game shipped with a huge bug that made the framerate nosedive if you loaded a saved game, until it was patched.
• The FMV in the pc version has weird fake interlacing for some stupid reason
• It requires patching on XP sp2 and up
  

The Dreamcast version is the best overall package. It would be nice if you could patch the game to use the high quality version of the intro found on SR2 (Ps2)

You mean official patchs right ?