For context: I loved the Legacy of Kain and Soul Reaver games. Some of the very best writing and acting ever in videogames. Didn't care as much for the Blood Omen titles, but they were still decent.
The latest (and likely final) iteration for the franchise? A cheap 2D sidescroller. Released two days ago, it currently has 30 players on steam.
The game is based on a comic book kickstarted for $1.5 million (?!) last year. Guess what the story is about? Apparently Raziel, the beloved protagonist of the Soul Reaver games, had a super secret sister named Elaloth! And not only is she more powerful and competent than her brother, but she was also secretly the catalyst for everything that happened in all of the previous games. She was behind the scenes pulling the strings all along! Isn't that original and cool?
Based on what I've read, marketing for the game prominently featured Kain and Raziel, but the game and comic are both dominated by the new girlboss. So they pulled off both the fanfic Mary Sue and the bait and switch.
You can't hate these fucking people enough.
It's not a real LoK game unless Amy Henning is involved otherwise it's just woke fan fiction
Also, as an aside, I loved the original Soul Reaver when I first played it, but I tried to go through it again with the remaster and I just couldn't do it. I forgot how much these games loved push block puzzles
I forced myself through everything up to Blood Omen 2 within the last two weeks so I could show the missus the plot.
The sound of Raziel moving blocks (thunk, think, griiiiinnnddd, patter patter, griiiiiiinnnddd, patter patter...) Is burned into my consciousness like a brand. Even Kain screaming Vae Victis over and over whenever you did a three hit combo in Blood Omen 1 wasn't that bad.
I can't wait to get back up go Defiance. That's the only game that doesn't make you want to stop playing because of the...questionable gameplay decisions. Like Soul Reaver 2 giving the enemies more combat options than the playerzl, forcing you to essentially go "hehe, wraith blade goes brrr" for every encounter.
I saw the reviews were awful and the game is being reviewed as a failure on all fronts, including story. What pisses me off is that they bundled it with the Defiance remaster but staggered the releases by a month so nobody knew the new game was unfinished dogshit.
Much SHOCK! Such original. 🙄
Even WoW failed to pull off that kind of plot twist in Shadowlands when every. single. major. lore. event. was retconned to have been part of the Jailer's plan all along going back millenia.
And then he died in the same expansion he was created, hence 1 of the 4 evil dragons surviving the following expansion and the sole woman of the 4 ending up on the good side.
It's so fucking insidious. Even when they have the draw of an attached proven franchise to lure the audience into reading/watching this gay original content, these demons still have to thread their own fan fiction around and through everything that came before with endless self-serving retcons and revisions. The obvious goal is to prevent OG fans from engaging with the franchise in any way that ignores the horseshit modern content while making all future content wholly dependent upon it.
Honestly I find all Blood Omen games past the first pointless, Soul Reaver was neat but every game horribly retcons everything again and again. There's obviously not going to be any grand conclusion to the series when it's been so long since the last installments and everyone who worked on it has long since moved on. Adding the girl boss fanfic character is just dancing on the grave.
Play Blood Omen and enjoy it and forget the sequels.
Damn, I was hoping they'd forgotten that franchise existed.
I was wondering why it was getting bombed on Steam.
This truly will be... The Legacy of The Legacy of Kain.