PlayStation Experience 2016 happened this last weekend, and PlayStation has shown us some incredible video games coming up. These included The Last of U Part II, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, and to the glee of everyone around the world, the debut trailer for Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy. It’s been a great weekend for gamers, a weekend that has topped a great week with the release of Final Fantasy XV. With the first line of Final Fantasy XV in my mind – “Final Fantasy for Fans and First-Timers” and the nostalgia of Crash Bandicoot I remembered a love for another outstanding game franchise which sadly has fallen into obscurity. I am talking about the legendary Legacy of Kain series.
With so many game franchises’ getting rebooted and remade I ask myself at least once a year why we can’t get a sequel to Legacy of Kain: Defiance which left the series on such an epic cliffhanger? With the trailer of Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, I am now at a fever pitch because as seen from the trailer it is a shot for shot remake with 4K graphics.
With this stunning realisation, I have come to the conclusion that Square Enix needs to get their asses in gear and get The Legacy of Kain franchise back in our lives. The time for this remake or sequel could have been this year as 2016 is the 20th Anniversary of The Legacy of Kain franchise, and everyone knows how Square Enix loves to pull out those special anniversary editions. To be fair it has been attempted several times to bring the series back into the gaming community, there have been two significant attempts that both sadly failed to get beyond various points of production.
The first was Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun, a fresh start for the franchise which was set in the far flung future of Nosgoth. It followed different protagonists, with a story that would have nothing to do with the previous games. The team behind it described it as the Star Trek reimagining of The Legacy of Kain franchise most likely meaning it would be a parallel universe with the only returning character being The Elder God. It ran into several issues and stopped production in 2012. Check out a 32-minute gameplay trailer below. The design of Dead Sun was fascinating, and the story and characters seemed just as intriguing.
After Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun was scrapped there was only one element that was salvaged from it and it was the next attempt at a return to Nosgoth. It was the multiplayer aspect, and we all know how “great” multiplayer modes are when they are attached to a game series that has always been single player don’t we?
The game was dubbed ‘Nosgoth‘ and was set after Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. Raziel is presumed dead, and Kain has time travelled into the future leaving a power vacuum in his wake. So a civil war begins with the vampire clans, while this is all going on the humans decide to take this opportunity to create a power base and strike at the vampires while they are distracted.
The premise of Nosgoth is fascinating, and if it had been treated with more care, it could have been something spectacular like Overwatch, League of Legends and SMITE. Instead, we got a plain jane third person shooter that never lived up to its lofty promises. It got further than Dead Sun, however, going as far as an open beta which ended in May 2016. It was then announced by Square Enix that Nosgoth’s servers would shut down on May 31, 2016. Nosgoth’s official forums also closed down on June 14, 2016. If you never got to try out the game, here is a little taster of what would have been in store for you.
With the closing of the beta of Nosgoth and no word since then, it seems the final nail in the coffin of The Legacy of Kain franchise has been hammered in. I still live in hope though as The Legacy of Kain series has always been one close to my heart. From the iconic characters to the grand narrative it will never be forgotten, at least for this gamer. Leave your thoughts and memories of this series and more iconic series you’d like to see return and if you’d like for me to write more about these kinds of topics let me know.
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