Will it, this time, land on its edge? But in all seriousness, it's difficult to wrap one’s head around the fact that the original Soul Reaver game came out in 1999 - a staggering 25 years ago. Now, a quarter of a century later, we find ourselves bearing witness to the rebirth of both the game and its franchise. Truly remarkable. I extend my heartfelt congratulations to those who were on this marvellous journey since the very beginning. I was thinking to myself, even though the Legacy of Kain franchise fell somewhat into obscurity in the past decade or so, and even with all the incredible games that came out during all those many years, this franchise is still unmatched in terms of voice acting, story and linguistic finesse. An indomitable masterpiece and titan amongst games, even in contemporary discourse, and thus a veritable piece of art, in my humble opinion. Many may scorn some or all of the titles in the franchise, but, as arrogant as it may come across, I find that to be due to a lack of comprehension or unrefined taste. That’s why they don’t make them like this anymore, unfortunately.

If you’re new to this game or franchise, I would advise you to keep your expectations realistic. I mean, don’t get me wrong, these games are masterpieces, especially to us long-time fans, however, as I’ve mentioned above, they are quite old and you simply can’t expect modern gaming standards from a game that’s literally from another era, a game that’s maybe even older than you yourself are. This is a remaster of two old titles, basically a fresh coat of paint with some modern technical adjustments, so keep that in mind before you buy this. I promise you though, even if their age can be felt in some aspects, you’re in for quite a ride with this franchise. It’s literal food for the soul (pun intended) and once you dip into the dark world of Nosgoth, it will keep sucking you ever so deeper (pun also intended). You should also be prepared to have your vocabulary and language skills elevated, whether you want it or not.
Anyhow, it’s time to once again oppose destiny and help our dearest Raziel find his raison d'être. I can’t be certain as to what the future of our timeline holds in store for this glorious franchise, but I fervently do wish that this marks but the beginning of its return to greatness.

As Kain himself so ruminatively put it – the first bitter taste of that terrible illusion: hope

As a huge Legacy of Kain fan, it saddens me greatly to leave a negative review, but I simply cannot recommend this game in good conscience.

So, there’s basically two sides to all this as far as I’m concerned: the gameplay and the story.

Gameplay
The gameplay itself is honestly okay, albeit rather basic. A simple pixel art platformer - it's not bad, but certainly not very impressive either. Definitely one of those games that would deserve a mixed rating, if there was such an option. On one hand, I'm extremely glad that the Legacy of Kain series finally got revived after more than 20 years with all the remakes and new games like this one, but on the other hand, this small game here is basically such a bare-minimum of a new entry for the series that it's actually painful to see that they're throwing the fans mere scraps even though this series is so revered. However, I kind of also do understand that they're testing the waters to see how much interest for the series there still is before they commit to a larger project, so I find small spin-off games like this one fully acceptable, but only as long as they’re good and faithful to the franchise. As I said, the game itself is nothing spectacular, but for a mini spin-off game, it's fine gameplay-wise, though it certainly isn’t without issues. To put it briefly: combat feels clunky and inconsistent, parries are unreliable, enemy movement is twitchy, and there’s no combo system at all. Level design is largely generic and soulless, with little sense of place and environments that feel randomly stitched together. If you use mouse & keyboard, you can’t change key bindings at all, and the game sometimes stutters badly if you use a controller. The soundtrack isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s very misplaced. Nosgoth is dark and oppressive, so the soundtracks usually reflected that in the previous games, whereas here, most of them are like some sort of Marvel movie or something. Horrible choice and completely out of place, clearly poorly thought through, showing very little understanding of the previous games and the franchise setting in general. If I were to rate the gameplay aspect, I’d give this a generous 6/10, because it’s okay for a small spin-off game, but there’s definitely a lot of room for improvement.

Story
My biggest gripe with this game, though, is its story elements based on the somewhat recent comic called The Dead Shall Rise and the character of Elaleth. From what I’ve seen in most of the reviews by other fans, that definitely seems to be a collective sore point for the vast majority. It’s obvious that the original author didn’t have a hand in this, and, don’t get me wrong, it's not even that I'd have trouble accepting a different writer doing this, but only if it was good. It's just that the one they chose to do it simply does very evidently not seem to have a knack for this and is lacking even a fundamental understanding of the previous and established stuff, which really shows. I mean, if anyone who made decisions regarding this game is maybe reading this - what exactly were you thinking, bruh? One of the main reasons without a single doubt as to why fans fell in love with this franchise for two decades now was the stellar writing, so getting some writer who’s clearly completely out of their depth to write it ends up making the story literally look like fanfiction and it genuinely ends up being offensive to fans that you'd even consider insulting our intelligence to such a degree.

And I somewhat actually have understanding for the author who wrote this, because taking over such a well-established and immaculately-crafted world like Nosgoth is a difficult task in itself, which is made even more difficult considering the immense complexity and interwoven nature of the story elements. Even seasoned authors and people with degrees in literary fields would have a hard time continuing the work of the original author while remaining truly faithful to the source material. But that’s also the biggest issue I can see here and the part for which I absolutely have no understanding - there was no continuation of the previous work in this case, rather redoing and overcompensating with unnecessary additions rather than refinement. And it’s not even that people would have a hard time accepting additions, if they just were well-made. Had this been a prequel about just a random vampire or something like that in the Legacy of Kain universe, nobody would bat an eye and just enjoy the mini-game for what it is. But the game is not just that, though. It’s the story of a forcibly-inserted new character instead, which is not only a very poorly-written and shallow character, but also directly touches existing pivotal moments of the established story and even ends up introducing weird inconsistencies.

The writing in general suffers from very weak structure, heavy exposition, and an astonishing disregard for key established plot points, which undermines established core characters. For example, Kain’s entire character is misrepresented as overtly malicious and duplicitous, rather than the purposeful, apathetic figure and anti-hero defined by his hidden integrity, while Raziel’s carefully built arc, from extreme self-righteousness to humility and compassion, is disrupted by unnecessary humanization and altered lore that contradicts not just smart snippets of existing lore, but actual pivotal story moments. Like I said, a very clear failure to fundamentally comprehend the source material to properly work on expanding it. As if that wasn’t bad enough though, the newly-introduced elements end up further weakening the story instead of strengthening or expanding it: Ky feels poorly written and overly sincere, eroding mystery, while contrived devices like the talisman replace meaningful character interaction.

I think that it is also extremely obvious now what the fans think - the Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered game, which released last month, is sitting at a 98% review score, very positive, and is thus currently amongst the best reviewed games on all of Steam. The previous remaster from a year ago, Legacy of Kain™ Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered, is sitting at a 90% review score, also very positive, while this game here, Legacy of Kain: Ascendance, is sitting at around a 30% review score, not even close to a mixed rating, let alone a positive one. So, again, if anyone who’s making any decisions in regards to the Legacy of Kain games and franchise is reading this - those scores right there are a very obvious answer as to what we, the fans, want and expect from this glorious franchise. An undeniable answer clear as the brightest day. So, I very strongly suggest that you start acting on that information right there.

Conclusion
Whatever comes next for the franchise though - if there even is a next now - the writing needs to be improved and that is absolutely not debatable. Like I said, I’m a huge Legacy of Kain fan, but I refuse to have my intelligence insulted and I will not support slop which defecates on such pristine lore and monumental world building. What they need to do is get a competent writer to handle the franchise, or, preferably, try and get Amy Hennig back as author, for the entire series, or at the very least get her as a consultant to the authors who take over. I’m not going to lie, the character of Elaleth is an affront to everything Legacy of Kain ever was - and ever will be. Why the author of this story felt such a strong need to shove in some “girlboss power” while at the same time essentially getting the two established main characters wrong is beyond me. Like, you had such an established franchise with an immense amount of lore. The audacity. I would rather see the franchise stay dead than witness it being defiled like that.