Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is a video game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos. 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.
| Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver | |
|---|---|
| Soul Reaver box cover. | |
| Developer(s) | Crystal Dynamics |
| Publisher(s) | Eidos Interactive |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation, Dreamcast, PC |
| Release | 1999, 2000 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Background
Taking place a millennium after Kain's fateful decision to not sacrifice himself to restore the Pillars of Nosgoth to their former state, Nosgoth is vastly different from how it looked in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. Dilapidated and run down, the vampires and Sarafan hunters are constantly vying for food and security, and what structures still remain are pathetic remnants of a former glory. This Nosgoth is now ruled on high by Kain, who himself has evolved as a vampire. His throne rests on the center pillar, the Pillar of Balance.
Kain takes the corpses of the Sarafan who conspired to kill the vampire leader Janos Audron, who now were to become his loyal vampire servants: Raziel, Turel, Dumah, Rahab, Zephon and Melchiah. Being the leader of the Sarafan, Raziel was turned over first, and as a result was the strongest of his brethren; Melchiah, being the last Sarafan to be turned, inherited the least amount of Kain's powers. It was a sad irony considering that the brothers became the very creatures they sought to purge from the land.
Evolution
Being the master vampire, every few hundred years Kain would go through an evolutionary change, and his followers would "catch up" sometime down the road. However, for reasons unknown at the time, Raziel's latest transformation preceded that of Kain by sprouting a set of wings. When Raziel presented his new gift to Kain, it incited Kain to apparent wrath and jealousy. Kain, examining the wings up close, violently rips the skeletal structure off the wings, causing Raziel to scream and faint in pain.
Punishment
In addition, Kain had Raziel thrown in the abyss of the Lake of the Dead, a hellish place where traitors and weaklings were cast. Upon hitting the waters, Raziel's flesh was seared and burned as if engulfed in flames. As he plummeted to the depths his flesh and lower jaw were worn away, leaving a near-skeletal mass of muscle fiber and cartilage, hair and white glowing eyes. Eventually, he hits the bottom and his corpse sits idle for an unknown length of time.
Revenge
Eventually awakening, Raziel found himself in what turned out to be the Spirit Realm. It was The Elder God who made Raziel regain consciousness, and told him that his role in the future of Nosgoth had just begun. He was to become the Angel of Death for the Elder God, sucking in souls to feed himself and restore the cycle of life and death that had been horrendously corrupted by Kain. Fueled by nothing but hatred for Kain, Raziel set forth blindly to do the Elder God's bidding, since it allowed him to exact vengeance upon all those who cast him into the abyss.
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.
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.
Phasing
One of the most valuable skills he gains is the ability to phase, or pass, through certain doorways 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.
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 does not appear in later sequels.
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.
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.
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.
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. Down the road it gains elemental enhancements, like the power of flame.
Mission
While the obvious course of action for Raziel is to kill each of his brothers and eventually taken down Kain, there are much more important, and far-reaching, machinations being plotted. Not only does he begin to learn what happend to him and his brothers as the course of the story moves on, but starts to understand that the Elder God isn't being 100% 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.
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 a lot of 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 a lot of the head-scratching story gap. Turel's disappearence is later explained in Legacy of Kain: Defiance.
- Ariel, the previous guardian of the Pillar of Balance, was to make an appearance and explain to Raziel that the Soul Reaver is not powerful enought 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.
- The Priestess, who leads a clan of vampire-worshippers, would have granted Raziel the ability to possess other beings upon her defeat.