Legacy of Kain Ascendance

After Blood Omen, Soul Reaver, and Defiance, there were numerous attempts to continue the Legacy of Kain series. There was Dead Sun, which was canceled in an earlier phase, Dark Prophecy, which made it to a playable demo, or the Nosgoth multiplayer game that got stuck in Early Access. Ascendance is the first new Legacy of Kain game here, but it's more anticlimactic than it sounds.

After a long 23 years (Defiance, 2003), the first new Legacy of Kain game is a 2D Side Scroller with pixel art graphics. Clearly, it's a low-risk market test to gauge interest in the series. But what about the game itself?

Ascendance is a basic Side Scroller, and a very basic one at that. One button for each function and one weapon. No additional weapons, magic, or power-ups. There are only two types of items to explore and track, and here and there a lore scroll to read along the way. However, that basic part is quite well done, and secrets as well as destructible objects have been added to enhance the experience.

The pixel art graphics are very simple in style (to the point where you can't even see the characters' eyes) but look very good as they move fluidly on the screen during gameplay. The wind blows, fire swirls, the cloak flutters, snow falls and scatters around the feet... You can see the skill when it comes to presentation.

Similarly, the soundtrack is excellent and fits well within the Legacy of Kain setting. However, that's about where we stop with the compliments and encounter "uncanny valley" moments. It's totally strange to hear an 'epic heroic anthem' every time we play with the protagonist of this game, who is neither a hero nor does anything so significant or heroic to justify such hype (but more on that later). If Kain and Raziel were fighting against the lord of time with such a backdrop, it would be somewhat understandable. There are also some strange easter eggs like the infamous "They fly now!?" Star Wars: Rise of the Skywalker reference.

There are quite a few of those 'tone deaf' moments in the game. I would say, quite a lot and too many. We now have a 'Hollywood problem' in the gaming industry where it has gone too corporate, leading to a clash between producers and fans. Some reviews say that Ascendance is fan fiction of Legacy of Kain, but that's poorly expressed. This is a new vision of the studio for the Legacy of Kain series, despite the wishes of the fans. It started with the comic Soul Reaver: The Dead Shall Rise, which sold very poorly, and continues here, whether we like it or not. The game actually retells the same story, just in a different order. It seems to me that Crystal Dynamics has no intention of continuing in the old way, so I don't want to give you false hope. However, this game was made in collaboration with Bit Bot Media, but given everything seen so far, the impression remains.

Ascendance (like the mentioned comic) is a retcon of the Legacy of Kain story. Not heavy, but considering how highly it is held in the eyes of fans, it still hits hard. Now Raziel has a sister we've never heard of, who is the great love of Mathias, although he never mentioned her, which is as subtle as Spock's sister in Star Trek Discovery. Of course, in the tradition of this era of girlboss inserts, she is suddenly instrumental in some of the most significant events of the entire story we've already gone through in previous games.

The story starts off with a temporal paradox and can only go downhill from there (for example, "Kain killed our parents." - 500 years before Kain was even born. Hello!). If Crystal Dynamics or Bit Bot are aware of the complexity of the story and were counting on the characters' time travel without mentioning it, then it is still lazily done and poorly or not at all told. On top of that, the dialogues are very average with just a few clever lines that would remind one of the quality moments from previous games. Not to mention the consistency. What took Raziel long years of gradual evolution, he receives in a matter of minutes or seconds, so clearly, what more is there to say. The fact is that Amy Hennig, who played a significant role in the stories since the first Soul Reaver, is no longer at the studio nor did she have anything to do with this game or the aforementioned comic. However, it is a bit too simplistic to reduce the entire burden and credit of the story to one person. This is about a change in the studio's policy, so I wouldn't say that her absence is the sole culprit for the decline in quality. It's not as simple as "bring back Amy and everything will be great".

The best asset of the game, I would say, is - diversity. Perhaps not so much the changes in styles (from pixel graphics to cartoon anime to 3D rendered animations) as it is about playable characters, and that is what I would say saves this game the most. We may not have layered combat or 'metroidvania', but we have the option to play as Sarafin Raziel, then vampire Raziel, then vampire Kain, and of course, the new protagonist. A bit on foot, a bit on horseback, and a bit in flight.

In short, Ascendance is Legacy of Kain for Dummies. It is undoubtedly the worst Legacy of Kain game so far, which is not surprising. This is not exactly good news for the revival of the franchise, and if the quality of the story doesn't improve, it might be better to stick with the classics for a while longer. However, we, like Raziel, like Kain, cannot know what the future holds, we can only hope.

A copy of the PlayStation 5 version of the game was provided for review purposes by the development studio Crystal Dynamics