Love the bit where he defeats Mobius and says "but I am dead as are you"

Wow, so the GOG has 100 secrets? I remember the PS1 version having a bug that only lets you get 98 or something like that. I have very fond memories of watching my mom play the PS1 version. It's kind of bittersweet too. She just passed away in may and i have her copy in my collection

I know Crystal Dynamics didn’t have the initial vision, but I like how the sequels built on aspects of this game that were innocuous at first but had huge ramifications in sequels. Like how in Defiance a major mystery was the location of the Heart of Darkness; if you played the first game, you’d know Kain had it because it was a pickup!

To save yourself some time (it wasn't worth looking up), Ken was arrested for possessing and creating CP.

43:20 lol the way he pops out from behind that pillar is great 😂

Loving your channel. Nice dry humor. Thorough review of a game I'm not likely to ever get around to playing but I'd love to learn about anyway

It's kinda funny listening to someone explain the story who hasn't experienced the story of the other LoK games yet. He quickly brushes through very significant events like the fight with William the Just. Obviously there's no way for him to know this yet, so no fault of his. Just interesting.

What, no mug of ale for a weary traveler from distant Coorhagen!? I can reward you well, for I am of noble blood! I don't know why that first line is always what comes to mind when I think of Blood Omen. Great game, and great video! I enjoyed the longer format (the short videos in between are great too though) and I liked that you went a bit into the muddy development history. Now I want to replay the game, and Soul Reaver too...

Very good review! You did get the nemesis thing a little wrong though. When Kain goes back in time and kills William the Just, that's just nemesis as a young man. William became nemesis through moebius corrupting him. No possession just became an asshole when he got older lol! Looking forward to you reviewing the sequels and other strange games!

Gosh I get so happy every time I see someone talk about this series.

What raises a bit of confusion in the story is that the game doesn't tell you there's a 470 year time gap in the intro cutscene, and another 30 year time gap when the game begins.

Looked up Ken McCulloch as I've never heard of him. I see....more or less what I expected. This game was so ahead of its time when it came to video game voice acting. Simon Templeman is so damned good as Kain. I just can't imagine anyone else nailing the role. He is Kain. And of course just Tony Jay in general, man that guy's voice is amazing. Then Michael Bell in the Soul Reaver games. Those performances coming out around the same time as the first Resident Evil, lol.

I have precious memories growing up as a kid in the 90's playing this with my late uncle Pat. This and castlevania sotn are really close to my heart, glad you're getting into the series great video

I only ever played Blood Omen out of the series, but I have been mishearing and saying "Yay Victus!" for over 25 years. Yikes. Also, between this, Icewind Dale, and King's Quest VI, Tony Jay's voice evokes such a visceral late 90's nostalgia for me.

Have to utter a minor but major (story) point at 42:12 you say the Nemesis took over the body of William the Just. Mobius went back in time and presented William with the Soul Reaver which then turned him into The Nemesis of the present. Two Reavers now exist in the past. When Kain defeats William, the timeline is then altered. Vorador has his mansion overrun in the new timeline. As Kain returns to the present (and the new timeline) he witnesses the death of Vorador. The army of The Nemesis never existed and William the Just has been killed by a vampire. The way time works in Blood Omen is linear. You can never change the past, because you never did. With 2 Reavers existing in the same place at the same time it causes a paradox. Only then can time be altered. Great review otherwise.

I love Blood Omen, but I cannot take Dyack’s comments about the sequels seriously. The man is bitter and loves to blame everyone but himself for his problems (see the Too Human debacle) and his criticism that LoK was slapped onto to the game Shifter at the last minute to make Soul Reaver is blatantly untrue. Amy Hennig might not have liked being forced to make Shifter into a Kain game, but the mandate came down only a few months into Shifter’s development and she put in a lot of work to make sure Soul Reaver got with the lore established in Blood Omen. Finally, there’s the comment a Crystal Dynamics rep had about Silicon Knights back in 2007, how SK had only put out two games since Blood Omen and they’re own Kain sequel likely never would’ve happened given how long Too Human was in development hell. I’m inclined to agree. And given the state of Too Human, I’m not sure we’d even want an SK-developed Kain sequel.

This was a great video. I played BO1 back in 1997 and have been in love with the franchise ever since. Great to see it is still attracting new players

I will never forget playing this with my Playstation upside down. About a third of the way through this game the laser lens crapped out on me. Only way to get it to work was turning the system upside down.

This was the first game I played when I got my PS1 back then. Had so much fun.

this is such an excellent halloween game

"...NOT Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen, How dare you?" subscribed.

I remember reading about this game when it came out, it looked interesting but there was always this "no horror" rule in my house, so I couldn't give it a shot. But I did play once a demo of Soul Reaver. That was fun. And funny thing about that pirate ship, they were talking about it even back when it came out, but I guess it was way too complicated to figure it out and no one found it until recently apparently. Aside from the reviewers who talked about it and showed screen shots.

I think your channel is my next binge watch. This is my 3rd vid after Kuon and Ecko Night and you're killing it

Blood Omen is a fantastic example of developers using pixel art to make the most of the technology. Like Symphony of the Night. It feels like a lot of modern games use pixel art as an excuse to make games look simple.

THRILLED the algorithm led me to your channel. I’m a huge Grimbeard fan and your channel hits similarly. Ez sub.

This game was/is dope af. I filled out that questionaire for the new one. I want more Kain!

I actually purchased this game when it came out. I spent hours upon hours digging through all of its gameplay, and story to find out that you could actually beat it at only 20% or less. We missed out on a good chunk of the game, both my friend and I did beat it, and Then moved along. Over 25 years later, it might be worth pulling out again because I do still have it… But for PlayStation one.

I did enjoy this game, but I really prefer what we ended up with rather than what I have heard of the original plan. Especially since they essentially made Blood Omen and Soul Reaver into two stories that dovetailed together quite excellently and that more or less used time travel in a reasonably sensible manner, as well as pre-empting the modern, clumsy 'I have meta knowledge' storyline infecting so many rehashes now by making that a literal point of the plot. Sure a lot of people got screwed over and their ideas pushed into the series to much grumbling, but the end result is something quite impressive, and I feel it was worth it to the players. Not to mention this series of events also lead to Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, another excellent game on it's own.

Honestly, this is still one of my favourite games. As an RPG with an open world, it gets a lot right where most modern games fall on their face. (But I would love a remake, please and thank you!)

At the time it was one of the only games in which you played as a "villain". It was glorious.

I love this game and i love that you covered this content. Thank gog for their rerelease of this classic

“You have to open menus for everything... also I never remembered the hotkeys” 😂

I have the full on LOK series myself and yet my dudes i come to conclusion myself that my mind will never be forever changed is the Blood Omen Legacy of Kain is far by the most epic game in the history of games.... I still play it and its like 2024 like c'mon thats how good the game is guys you can't blame me for playing such game that takes hold of being the No.1 game for centuries to come

Great review 😊 I thoroughly enjoyed this trip down memory lane, and the full history/game review was excellent 👌 You've got a new subscriber. Thanks man

Subscribed. I'm gonna stop short because, I got the very end but never finished it yet. Looking forward to your other videos. 👍

I really enjoyed the "you died" intro to the game lol. I like when games do stuff like that. Also i had zero clue what the cinematic was depicting, so thank you for explaining some of the backstory

Love this series, but only played Blood Omen once. I should remedy that some day.

Oh man, not sure if I'll ever play this but definitely gonna be listening to the OST. Thanks for pointing it out!

Good work mate. 👍

would love to see a remake of this one - loved to play it back in the 90s on my psx

I know this is a strange place to put this; but I just need to describe my frustration with how Naughty Dog treated Amy Hennig. In Uncharted 3; there is a scene where Nathan meets Elena again. In this scene, Nathan points to her wedding ring and says "You're still wearing it" and in that moment; that one tiny piece of dialogue, you as the player are told everything you need to know about their past and current relationship and their dynamic. You are understand that they were married but now separated and you understand that there's still feelings between them; but things are complicated but there's still hope. In that one tiny exchange of dialogue, Amy showed you quietly and quickly an entire backstory between Uncharted 2 and 3 and it's incredible. So of course Neil Druckmann forced her out of the company and wrote Uncharted 4. For anyone not aware, Uncharted 4 has a scene between Nathan and Elena where they are trapped in a lift together, airing out their relationship problems in the most verbose and melodramatic way possible. The writing is fucking terrible and you are forced to witness it through contrived means. The nuance and subtly of Amy's writing was completely stripped from the Uncharted series after she was forced out and this terrible poorly written scene is prime example of it. Now... I have no evidence for my next conspiracy but the timeline makes sense... The Last of Us 1 is so wonderfully paced and the idea to do it over seasons of the year is brilliant. The dynamic between Joel and Ellie is nuanced and well developed. TLOU was being developed at the same time as Uncharted 3... Is there a chance that Amy Hennig worked on TLOU? Possibly the one who developed the themes and was the scenario writer? Because if you believe TLOU 1 and 2 were written by the same person (Neil Druckman) then you haven't played TLOU2 yet. I think Amy got her name stripped from TLOU1 If you think Druckman isn't an egomaniac who would remove someone's name from the credits... Bruce Straley wasnt credited as one of the creators of The Last of Us in the HBO series.

I never got to play much more than a demo of this on my Dad's work laptop but I remember absolutely loving the ambience. Even with such a simple game world, it had so much texture.

This video was released 7/14/23. At 40:40 we here this quote "So we're about to have time travel introduced into this place and, Oh man, I'm just getting a little light headed here." The video "Weirdest Time travel Video on PS2 | Shadows of Memories" was released 11/11/23. At 26:20 we get this quote: "Me, other timelines? I've got a headache, I need to go lie down." Love the circular references!

Such an underrated game. The first two sequels were very good, but those are completely different games. They should remake this and keep most of the gameplay elements. The atmosphere this game creates with the incredible voice acting and soundtrack is still first rate, even after all these years.

William the Just and The Nemesis are the exact same person. There is a split in the time stream. In one Kain defeats him, the other Kain is defeated. The Nemesis is the result of Kain's failed attempt on the young king's life.

Love this game, great video!

Thanks for reminding me I need to replay this game, and reinstall the patch with subtitles lol, Kain's voice is amazing but my english still needs a bit of help

certain sounds in this game are so engraved in me from childhood that when you mentioned the chained-up innocents I automatically yelled "PLEASE! HELP ME KIND SIR!" before hearing it. probably scared my roommate. good times 😌

I love the LoK series above all others So I'm happy it continued as long as it did and really enjoy the story they tell. I'd like to have seen Dennis' vision for sequels too though. Man I want a LoK collection on current consoles.

I still put on that like 2 hour story video someone uploaded here a while ago fron time to time. Such good voice acting

Now this deserves a remake!!!

You could honestly say that the “Modern AAA Open World Game” began in earnest with Blood Omen and still be mostly on the mark. Not specifically because of the formatting of the game but because of the high levels of polish and storytelling that was involved for something this early in the 3D era! It’s mostly 2D, but really punches above its weight with the cutscenes & presentation…something that pretty much carried into THE FIRST “real AAA Modern Open World game”: GTA III. The fact that it ultimately went back into primarily segmented levels for Soul Reaver 1 & 2/Blood Omen 2 + Defiance in order to keep up with the story (as great/consistent as it was) really days a lot about how little they understood what Silicon Knights was going for…but they still stuck the landing and created the premiere series of AAA Dark Fantasy titles that haven’t been matched since and probably never will be again unless you count the Batman Arkham series (even if they skew more towards Dark Sci-Fi/Crime Thriller) or, like every game journo…The Last of Us (the original PS3 version + PS4 “remaster” is still one of the best games ever made) Shame on Square Enix for never allowing Climax Studios and Sam Barlow to finish Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun (NOT Dead Sun: Legacy of Kain unfortunately) but allow the creators of Rocket League to release Nosgoth!

Bought this when first came out in 96', one of my favorites, oh and you should have mentioned the spell flay and let Kain describe it for us, love that one lol

I love the dialogue in this game. Adds so much atmosphere.

I never get tired of hearing Tony Jay's voice in video games. He was awesome as the Lieutenant in Fallout 1.

I originally played the PS1 version when it first came out as a kid and I loved this game so much. The loading and sluggishness doesn't stand out in my memory at all, even though we hated the loading screens of the era even back then, but I think that just speaks to how good a game it is.

I love this game. The side bar left my old flat screen with some lingering burn in that eventually went away.

Great video

I really need to play this series one day

"Alas, poor Nupraptor - I knew him well. Well, not really." 😂I loved this game and the whole series back in the day and used to really nerd out about the whole twisted self-referential lore. Very interesting to know that it's actually the result of legal and publishing bullshit.

I own this game but I don't have a PlayStation anymore. Thank God for Gog.

One of the things about Blood Omen is that the PS1 version has a faster frame rate than the PC version, but has terrible amounts of loading on everything that negates the speed boost.

Interesting the developer described it as such. I always thought of it more as a "Vampire approach to a Zelda game."

The title made me "HUH?" But the intro made me "Ooooh!"

Thanks for the excellent review. I own the first and second games and enjoyed them both, playing on the PS1. Back in the 90s I never heard about the drama between the devs and outright I.P. theft from the publisher. Ouch, it explains a lot. Pardon the pun on titles but I had the unpopular opinion the first game had far more "soul" than the second. Soul Reaver was good, but it felt like an empty world vampire version of Tomb Raider. Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain just has so much atmosphere, lore and the voice acting was remarkably good for the time when compared to so many titles like Resident Evil. I might have to buy the G.O.G. copy just to take a nostalgic trip through Nosgoth without the horrible load times. Cheers!

one of the greatest PS1 OSTs ever

That was great. I can't wait to see Soul Reaver get this treatment.

I used to play the PS1 mini game all the time: how long can I avoid opening the inventory as the load screen took so long

I did enjoy listening to this guy talk about the game.

I love listening to this guy talk about games. Especially ones that are interesting and I'll likely never play

I love Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. First I rented it. After renting it, I bought it. I Still have my original PS1 version. But, that being said, the GOG is the superior version to play through. Those load times are just killer. + the Ps1 version has that nasty little camera jerk every time you face a new direction that gets super annoying. If only they could add the PS1 original load-up screen, that nostalgic crescendo is a masterpiece.

I wish we'd get another LoK game, but only if it's done correctly. Kain's story needs to be finished!

Yes, it is still worth playing. The whole story, including the Soul Reaver series, is fantastic, in my opinion.

4:55 Fun Fact: Ariel is voiced by Anna Gunn, who would later play Skyler White on Breaking Bad. EDIT: 16:45 Spoke too soon. You just mentioned it yourself.

Shame there's so few games like Blood Omen where you play as an unapologetically evil monster, reminds me of the Undead campaign in WC3.

William the just become the nemesis cause of kain, his body wasn't taken over. Its apart of the themes of fate and inevitably that become important in the last two games

It's my favorite game!!! I and my best friend love this game so much.

Yes. Just yes. How do you think things would have gone if Ariel literally tipped the scales the other way as she died? Might Kain have become angel and so forth?

Honestly, I simultaneously love and hate that I watched this. Even though I didn't play Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, the voice actors and the music both hit so many nostalgia points that it was almost painful. xD

With the recent announcement of the original Tomb Raider trilogy being collected, maybe their is hope we’ll get the LOK series collected.

I remember playing LoK for the first time when it came out and thinking by the end of it "Shut up Kain".

Best thumbnail ever

26:11 this game could do with a remake, but it's part of Crystal Dynamics? Or was that just Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver?

kain should be in mortal kombat one

Excellent game. I didn't really enjoy the Soul Reavers, but Legacy of Kain: Defiance? Masterpiece.

The 1 st. one was the best Love the whole vibe

On nupraptos eyes the way i saw it is one is how nosgoth is just a plain european landscape the other is his hellish grief after ariel died

Hey DC are you still planning on doing a Soul Reaver video? This was really well done and would love to hear your thoughts on SR. Thanks!

This needs a remaster like Diablo 2

One of my favorite games

omg had completley forgot about this game

40:15 I was around the forums for Legacy of Kain for a good while and let me tell you Hash'ak'gik was a font of conspiracy theories, same with the Lost City secret area. The former eventually got a somewhat satisfying payoff in the last game, the latter remains an object of speculation.

I recently replayed this and I was surprised how well it held up tbh Great game. I adore the voice acting and dialogue in this as well as Soul Reaver. I can't help but feel that a modern game wouldn't possess the same charm, it'd be filled with self-referential nonsense.

I just completed it for the first time a month ago. God but unbelievably frustrating the CONSTANT need to change weapons and equipment and the loading EVERY SINGLE TIME you open inventory ......it's amazing i stuck with it.

Honestly, I played the OG PS1 version of Blood Omen back in like 2004 AFTER playing Soul Reaver 1&2 and despite some rough edges (game literally has to “LOAD” to bring up your weapon wheel which is off-putting when the games seems to just lowkey FREEZE for 2-3 seconds), I actually think it holds up fantastically well but it would GREATLY BENEFIT from a modern remake.

Oh man....i remember playing this as a kid, this needs a remaster SO BAD!!!! Like...a decent one from a decent company...not the overpriced shit we get nowadays...

Such a great, if madly confusing timelined, franchise.

A classic for me, one of my all time ps1 games

So do you think it’s just happen stance that Morutanis is voiced by Tony Jay the same man who would later voice the Elder God

I had this on the PS1 back in the day, and the load times were excruciating. I literally couldn't make myself finish it. When I got the PS2 that had backwards compatibility that helped a bit, but yeah unfortunately I never finished this one--though I did finish all the other games in the franchise.