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Axed Legacy of Kain Project Revealed With 30 Minute Video

Payload of footage, details, and images emerge online.

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A thirty-minute leaked video has provided a world-first look at Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun, a AAA action game for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 believed to have been canceled in 2012.

Footage and images of the axed project were brought to light on the games forum NeoGAF, published by a user going by the username "Mama Robotnik." Among the tranche of data and details, the post claims that Dead Sun was developed by the independent UK dev Climax Studios for about three years before it was shelved.

"The game was not projected to meet Square Enix sales projections, and was scrapped, to the enormous disappointment of staff who had dedicated a lot of work to the project," the NeoGAF poster claims.

"One source recalled that staff came in at weekends to continue working on the game, while higher-ups already knew it was canceled."

It is said that the game featured an online deathmatch mode that was disconnected from the main campaign. "This was the only part of the project to survive the cancellation, and has now been heavily expanded upon and released as Nosgoth," the post read.

The area shown in the video is said to be called The Wetlands; a hub world featuring expansive dungeons housing huge bosses. "Think if HBO did Zelda," one alleged source said.

Meanwhile, the NeoGAF post also claims that the project was initially envisioned as being somewhat small, expanding into a AAA-sized Xbox 360 and PS3 game.

"In its final form, the game was strongly considered to be PlayStation 4 launch title," the post adds. GameSpot has contacted Square Enix for comment.

Images of the game (low resolution) can be found below:

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brian_reaver

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Ah man. Raziel takes the 12 step program and eats right (souls) gaining those KILLER abs, finds his JAW at the bottom of the lake AND has a surgeon re-attach it, over comes his fear of heights by ACTUALLY flapping his wings once in a while. What does he get for his efforts...to be sidelined by the hunters of nosgoth with their own game.

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NaturallyEvil

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I watched the video prepared to make fun of this, but the game actually looks like it would have been really good. The problem is that without Amy Hennig's writing (and her perfect choice of skilled, yet over-the-top voice actors) it would never truly feel like a continuation of the Soul Reaver saga. This and any future games would feel more like Blood Omen 2, where it's a fun enough game, but it just isn't what most fans of the series are looking for. Also, every LOK game except the original Blood Omen had more of a comic-book style to it, and trying to make one too gritty and realistic further diminishes the Soul Reaver feel.


With Amy working for EA, I think the closest thing we could ever get to a real Soul Reaver type story is if they let her write the main story to the next Dragon Age game.

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karloss01

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I hope this one stays buried; not only will it be likened to Shadow of Mordor with the whole two souls - one body routine but the script writing is nowhere near up to par with what I've come to expect from Legacy Of Kain. like Nosgoth I feel they wanted to make a different game but Square slapped the name on to sell units.

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sirdukefillion

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As someone who hasn't played any of the Legacy of Kain games and loves games like Shadow of Mordor this looks fantastic and I hope someone is able to start working on it again. However if it doesn't fit well with the LoK series I think it should become something new I wish that happened with Shadow of Mordor.

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SINISTER_XIII

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Permanently AXED?

They should have finalized the first hub and released it as a downloadable 'Episode 1' to gauge the level of interest.


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Stiler

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Looks more like a God of War/Shadow of Mordor game then a Legacy of Kain game imo. Also neither Kain nor Raziel in it?


I mean the game itself might have been fun, but from that video it didn't really get me "excited" as a fan of the LoK games.

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HiroArka

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<< LINK REMOVED >> I am thinking the reason why it would be called Legacy of kain is the fact Kain's actions through out the series really did a number on Nosgoth itself. Therefore his Legacy is left there for all to deal with.

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deth420

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> yes, but were is the soul reaver?

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vaheru

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<< LINK REMOVED >> wasn't that the soul reaver at the 2:04 mark

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wolf503

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Why are developers letting it get shelved and why are Square Enix doing the same when they're a company that supposedly supports kickstarters? It looks good from what I briefly saw, definitely needs polishing but didn't seem like it was worth cancelling. They should consider a PS4, XboxOne and PC release though. My guess is that they also saw too many similarities with Shadow of Mordor the main 1 being able to shift dimensions (so to speak) and having a ghost constantly around you that only you can see, with the way the gaming community acts now days, they're bound to cry "copycats" at the top of their lungs.

That being said, I still have yet to get into the Kain series because I'm not sure whether Blood Omen or Legacy of Kain came first and they're a bit too expensive on Steam with potential lack of controller support.

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NaturallyEvil

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<< LINK REMOVED >> The order goes like this:

Blood Omen

Soul Reaver

Soul Reaver 2

Blood Omen 2

LOK Defiance


Most fans of the series only care about SR, SR2, and Defiance. If you don't play the Blood Omen games, skim through a quick recap of the story, as SR2's awesome time travel stuff will be very confusing otherwise. Blood Omen 2 can be skipped entirely with little consequence to any of the stories, although I personally still enjoy it for the gameplay and level design.

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wolf503

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> I actually have played a bit of Blood Omen 2 back on PS2, I liked most of what I played solely for the reason that I could grab people by the throat, bash them in the head then toss them away, it was fun lol Although it seems like Square Enix are in the mood to reboot everything they can, I don't think I'll need to play them just yet especially if they manage to reboot Legacy of Kain, I think Steam was missing Blood Omen anyways.

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drumjod

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver was doing dimension shifting long before Shadow of Mordor was even a project. I'm pretty sure Blood Omen was the first game in the series. A little Google search would clear that up for you.

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DeathwachMarine

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Boobies!

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deth420

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sweet! in an age were social buffoons call for more clothing on women, i must say im happy to see the hunter lady's breast hanging out....im mean, thats not odd at all..... i would totally lose that fight.

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skootbootz

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Okay now after watching this I can definitely say they made the right move on not releasing this. It is so far removed from what LOK is supposed to be. It looked like an okay game, but it didn't seem like an LOK game.

On a diff note why not just release the game and say inspired by LOK my gosh there's an idea. Then you can take what ever liberties you without having to acknowledge the rest of the lore, which from what I could tell they had no problem doing anyway. Then again this is SE and they say 3 mil copies sold is a failure so I guess there goes that idea.

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skootbootz

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Honestly, if the main game is anything like Nosgoth I am glad it got scrapped. Better to not soil a good thing with a bad game. That and its not even the same writers so its really hard to imagine them pulling this off right (have not watched video yet). Especially b/c all the lore I have read in Nosgoth is just simply not good.

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Ygdrasel

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I could see why they expected it to fail. Gameplay had grown stale by Defiance and it was vastly repetitive despite two playable characters. But this tossed in parkour, free-flow combat, flying, all this new stuff...It changed things up in a way that could well have revitalized the series and still could.

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deathblow3

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square enix is stupid this game once finished would have sold jsut as much as there other stuff good job messing up again.

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ShyOn92

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So far the best remake old school games I've come across. Cant wait to play it :) it was one of my best childhood games. I played both Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2. Kudos Core Design and Crystal Dynamics :)

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Ygdrasel

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<< LINK REMOVED >> ...What remake?

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deathblow3

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<< LINK REMOVED >> heck i played every one they made sands nosgoth and probably would have played this one as well. if the sega story is any indication of higher ups not having any idea for what we want this is a 2nd case for it.

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PS2fweak

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I want to pretend to be upset, but Climax Studios have been "C" students, at best. I can't really blame Square, because they probably didn't see much going for that game, and it probably still needed a ton of work($). Some aspects look alright, but the visuals make my eyes water.

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deathblow3

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<< LINK REMOVED >> well the visuals are unfinished so that would be a fare assessment.

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leviathanwing

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> well except by going what we know is that it was in fact finished... in every single way but finalization and going gold.

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Dat-tsu

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After Bloodborne was announced my friends and I joked about From Software somehow doing a Legacy of Kain reboot. Oh how I wish...

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skootbootz

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<< LINK REMOVED >> From just needs to go ahead and to a Berserk game.

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Unreal849

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<< LINK REMOVED >> That would be the best thing ever. Souls combat/bonfire mechanics would be a pretty good match for the SR universe

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xolivierx

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Legacy of Kain : easily one of the best game franchise ever. Great story, it had terrific gameplay and graphics.

On the other hand I'm just very happy nobody fu-cked it up with a new title

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Roland3710

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The major appeal to me for the Legacy of Kain series was in the story and the characters. While the gameplay in the footage looked good (bearing in mind that it was obviously not a finished product), the story as it was didn't seem interesting and oil vampire didn't strike me as a strong enough character to follow in the footsteps of Kain and Raziel.


If a sequel/reboot can't be done well I'd rather it not be done at all.

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serris2k4

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Agreed, the link to the overarching story seemed tenuous at best from the video and looked generally mediocre overall. Also agree that if we are going to have do more waiting for a new LoK game, it should be a top quality one.

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skootbootz

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> I don't even think he called himself a vampire. The dude said he was more like a Wraith (what ever Raziel is).

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Roland3710

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> True. But I couldn't remember his name and I figured if I called him "oil vampire" people would know who I was talking about. Maybe I should have gone with "oil reaver"? He definitely looked oily regardless.

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twisted_outlaw

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Look at dat bewb

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Fernin-Ker

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Square. F#ck you..........

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deactivated-64efdf49333c4

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Making decisions based on sales projections is stupid. Like any of those tiny indie teams creating unexpected megahits created their games based entirely on sales projections.

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PS2fweak

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<< LINK REMOVED >> It's the exact opposite of "stupid".

Legacy of Kain is a 3rd person action adventure game, so it's not some out of the box concept. Based on the quality of the game and popularity of the IP, you can make a prediction on how successful it might be. Some strange indie title might be risky, but there's nothing to compare it to. It's harder to make a prediction, but it's also a unique game, so it's probably worth releasing. It also doesn't cost as much to develop, so you don't lose much if it fails.


What's the motivation to release another Legacy of Kain game, unless it's at the highest quality and is expected to sale well? You also have to consider what happens if it doesn't sale and/or score well. It leaves a bad taste in the mouths of fans, and the IP gets thrown back in the basement for God knows how long.

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chuckles471

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<< LINK REMOVED >> "Like any of those tiny indie teams creating unexpected megahits created their games based entirely on sales projections."


Yup, but how many indie projects fail? It's ok to take risks when you are a small team and everybody knows they could lose their livelihood, but when you are talking 100s of people it's a bit selfish to take those kind of risks.

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Aeluron1989

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> What's ironic is loads of people qq that AAA studios don't take risks.

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SINISTER_XIII

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Just heard that Kim Kardashian's Hollywood game made $200million last year, and now this?

GTFO.

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xOmniCloudx

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As long as the story was good and finished the LoK plot, this would have been acceptable to us fans. The gameplay was NEVER the best part of the franchise and it changed per game anyway. I want a reboot done right and it's really the only major Eidos series that hasn't gotten one yet which sucks since how did Thief get one when back in the day LoK was the number 2 Eidos franchise after Tomb Raider. SE the other day eve said Fear Effect and Gex were on the table to get new games. When it comes to the classic storyline, just pay Amy Hennig to write an ending and sell it as a graphic novel so, that we finally get some conclusion and they can still profit off of it without having to do much.

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Ygdrasel

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<< LINK REMOVED >> A reboot? Sooo...You want the story completely scrapped? That's what a reboot is, you know.

And the problem is the gameplay didn't change per game. Blood Omen was an anamoly but BO2 and both Soul Reavers were largely alike there. Defiance added DMC-style movesets but was otherwise the same.

Meanwhile, Dead Sun added Arkham-esque combat and parkour. This would have been (and still would be) awesome.

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skootbootz

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> eww please don't call Arkham style combat awesome.

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xOmniCloudx

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<< LINK REMOVED >> But it is and most people agree. Get with it.

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xOmniCloudx

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> Maybe you didn't read the whole thing. I start off saying I want the plot to finish. I then say I want a reboot because I DO want one of those too and yes I'm aware that a reboot is starting fresh. However, I flat out say after the reboot comment that when it comes to the already in place story, I'd be happy if they paid Amy Hennig to finish it in WRITTEN form. That way I get my plot ending AND my reboot. Win-win.

As for the gameplay, you say it didn't change per game (and it certainly did) but then detail how it changes per some games. It's one thing to expand on a gameplay style per game but most the games are noticeably different from each other in approach. Of course BO1 to SR is the most noteworthy example as it changed genres entirely but only SR2 felt like it was a real sequel off design. The other games just stood out too much there.

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jeffGost

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Yet, they gave us Thief.....oooh well, i guess we don't deserve it.

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xsonicchaos

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<< LINK REMOVED >>

Or maybe they were upset with us, and thought we deserve it.

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