Revisiting Old Friends - Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain

2009-01-29T01:56:00.000-08:00

Playing Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain has reminded me a lot of my teenage years and what the PlayStation represented to me at the time. Like a lot of children of the nineties, I grew up on Mario, Zelda, and Final Fantasy. I suppose all of that teen angst was starting to affect my taste buds and I started to branch off into more "serious" games, such as Twisted Metal, which was pretty much Mario Kart with somewhat more realistic weapons and sans the whole racing aspect. Another more realistic and adult take on a Nintendo franchise, The Legend of Zelda, came in the form Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain.

One of the bullet points on the box art points out the "adult story" contained within. In this category, it's almost the polar opposite of Zelda but with a few nods to its inspiration. Instead of a young, silent protagonist with no real back story destined to be the savior of a land, Kain is an adult with a voice and personality quirks who turns into a vampire after he is murdered. He seeks revenge on those that conspired in his murder, a plot which involves restoring balance to the world via the enigmatic Pillars of Nosgoth. Restoring the nine Pillars provides a frame for the story, similar to obtaining Tri-Force pieces in the earlier Zelda games, instead restoring them with various sacrificial trinkets from the slain protectors of the Pillars, such as the head of a sorceror which is offered to the Pillar of the Mind. The framework is toyed with even in the beginning of the game, with the second Pillar-keeper impossible to defeat initially. Instead, BO:LoK is more chaotic in terms of structure, with many dungeons without bosses to defeat, and Kain even scores several main goal trinkets at a time on more than one occasion.

Praise for the voice acting was a constant in every review I remember reading about the game, and every review I can still find online. This has not changed at all in the nearly 13 years since its release. I can easily say that, although the sheer quantity of voice acting is nowhere near that of many modern games, the acting and writing easily rivals some of my favorites in the past few years in terms of quality. Not bad considering the franchise it was somewhat emulating, Zelda, has been without voice acting in every iteration to this day. It's abundant throughout the game and not just relegated to cut scenes prevalent in other PlayStation era games like Metal Gear Solid or Resident Evil. Some of the best lines are uttered when Kain picks up an item and describes it to himself, or when he narrates his feelings on the battlefield during boss fights and other pivotal moments. Just read what he says about the weapon item, Implode:

"Of all the methods I employ, this is perhaps the cruelest. Causing my victim's body to shrink on itself, crushing bones and rupturing organs til the pressure inside bursts the sack of fleshy skin, spraying its contents for all to see."

You hear descriptions like this every other time you pick up a brand new item. It's awesome.

The game is not without faults. There are odd design choices that make the game somewhat of a chore to enjoy. Visibility is the first noticeable issue, as darkness is abundant in every room making important switches difficult to find, and the HUD takes up a good quarter of the screen space. Similar games such as Secret of Mana allowed for users to easily switch weapons, items, and magic with a very convenient ring-based system that did not require a traditional menu and instead allowed players to spin a dial for abilities, or flip to another dial if the player wanted to switch magic instead of items. In Kain, the forms, magic, and items quick menus are assigned to different buttons and chances are the spell or item you desire might not be assigned to your quick menu. Added to the frustration is that the armor and weapons demand to be substituted as frequently as anything else in the game, and since they have no quick menu the player must bear a loading screen and less-than-wieldy menu. The aforementioned Secret of Mana ring system could have easily made these problems a non-issue, and probably would have considerably cut into loading time. Speaking of loading, for whatever reason the player must go to the options menu to load up a save file every time they turn on the console, which is a bit obnoxious considering this is something that happens more often than not.

Despite being enjoyable, the combat is a bit archaic in terms of video games. Lacking a certain polish that a Zelda game would normally have, enemies have no easily learned pattern. They will surround you very often, and attack you over and over, sometimes with homing projectiles, occasionally making it impossible to flee in a sticky situation. While being a bit more realistic (would you quit hitting a vampire while he's pinned against the wall?) this is sort of a pain in the ass, and I found myself relying on the Repel spell, which negates physical and magical damage for a short period, a bit more than I would have liked to. Combat largely boils down to whether or not Repel has been cast, and if the player is using the best weapon for the target. Breaking up the combat were hazard bits much like in a Zelda, that also lacked polish, as sometimes spiked balls would just run around with no pattern. Or a spiked floor which could normally be traversed by mist form will for whatever reason place Kain back at the beginning of the trap upon contact.

Sound choice is a mixed bag as well. Music and sound effects aren't bad themselves, but some audio cues are a bit confusing. Music sometimes changes from room to room, and even starts from the beginning in between rooms despite being the same song played earlier. While most of the mood music fits the tone of the game, near the end the game goes overboard by playing the sad theme despite nothing particularly sad happening in the story. Intense music will start up in a very small area, like the inside of a house or tent, and this never fits the action onscreen. Some vocal cues are also baffling. Male NPCs in towns have the least problems, usually having something to say about the setting or the plot. Despite being region specific, this information is not useful at all. Aside from screams, female NPCs in towns only have three different vocal tracks that play throughout the entirety of the game, which range from hitting on you, telling you to quit touching them, or basically telling you that they will totally have sex with you because it is cold outside. In combat, Kain will usually shout "Vae Victus" or laugh maniacally whether he's bashing a dude's skull in or breaking a barrel. Even if you were to cut the frequency of these vocal cues to 10%, you'd still be looking at the menu to see if there's a way to turn them off (and you can't).

Still, for all its faults I'm happy to have revisited the game, and I look forward to finally working on the rest of the series, despite a change in developers and its affinity for Tomb Raider styled block puzzles.

The Fix Game Magazine

Revisiting Old Friends - Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain