Legacy of Kain: Ascendance

I was expecting Raziel or Kain to be the main protagonist(s) of this game, but what I got was mostly Raziel's Girl-Boss Karen of a sister. Not the least bit likeable from the near 90 minutes I played. And the controls are sluggish with really bad hit detection. This game is NOT worthy of the name "Legacy of Kain."

Generative AI is the death of creativity. You have slaughtered a masterpiece.

Mediocre 2D platformer with a disrespectful fan fic of the brilliant Legacy Of Kain franchise bolted on to it.

This a terrible game. The lore has been torn apart and shares none of the love and poetry the original script in the games prior had. The combat is slow and uninteresting. I love the franchise, but this game actually made me sad. Just give us Dark Prophecy written by the original writers and then leave the franchise well enough alone!

This is not Legacy of Kain. The forced retcon to fit the new character is an offence to the series.

Tl;dr - Legacy of Kain: Ascendance is a clunky, mediocre homage to the SNES (or even NES) days of video games at best, and a subpar game overall. Sadly, it does not live up to the series’ legacy in many ways. Nor do I think Embracer ever gave a damn whether Legacy of Kain would be revived as a series or not. So, I can understand why a lot of folks are giving their impassioned review. While I did not take the final product personally and wish to give a more levelheaded opinion, that does not mean Ascendance is without its failures. With its primary failure being that Bit Bot Media did not deliver a game that is fun to play instead of a frustrating slog. And LoK: Ascendance is primarily a slog because it plays like a sluggish SNES title that would’ve been found mediocre and forgotten at best during that era. The combat is a simple yet repetitive, uninspired system (not that anyone playing a game in this series is a stranger to repetitive button combat) that immediately becomes tedious after Chapter 1. The level design, while also simple, is a frustrating series of environmental hazards and enemy placements that leave you wanting to rush past them as fast as possible, if able. And the bosses are either far too simple or a trial and error obstacle to pad out the playtime. Overall, it feels like a short game that still manages to overstay its welcome. I’m assuming Embracer allowed a minimal budget with a fast development time, not actually caring what the end result would be. Now… in regards to the other elements of the game. The music is simply fine when it works, and it is grating to the ears otherwise. The voice acting is actually quite good overall, though I hate to say that Michael Bell is not at his best and makes Raziel sound exhausted. I don’t know if they had too little time to work with the voice actors, or if it’s a case of Michael being sick while recording. I can only speculate. The art design is quite good overall, if a bit all over the place in a disjointed attempt at being cinematic. And the story… There are some elements of the story that fail to reach their potential, and there are others that do come off as fan fiction at best. I actually do like the inclusion of the new characters and how they *could have* influenced things in spite of falling flat at every given opportunity. No, I do not believe they were shoehorned in with what I know of the BTS material. I truly believe somewhere in Ascendance is a narrative involving Elaleth and Raziel that could’ve explored how their family is the final pawn in the various time spanning schemes at play in the series. Unfortunately, the writers did not (afaik regarding The Dead Shall Rise) do anything to refine the story to a level that is worthy of the series’ legacy. If I had to give this video game a numbered rating, it would be a 2/10 for simply being a frustrating slog of a subpar SNES-like. I hate that I have to leave a negative review honestly, especially when it is part of series that I hold close to my heart. But I cannot, in good conscience, recommend this video game to anyone. Even if the price were slashed by 90% or more.

Terrible story aside the game is still terrible. The worst first level Ive played in years Enemy AI that reminds me of movie tie in videogames from the mid 90s Unskippable cutscenes which completely render this game useless to a speedrunners Your attack stops you dead in your tracks Horrible hit detection on everything A parry that I didnt even realize was in the game until I looked at end game stats and realized I didnt parry once Incredibly easy and way too short Boring bosses The game was obviously outsourced to some programming/animating mill that churned out one of the worst games ive finished in recent memory. Imagine what couldve been(story aside) if they just allowed DOTEMU to develop it.

lost interest in finishing the game the new OC is boring and the depleting heath is so fast you are unable to explore the game world so if you make a mistake you can get stuck, combat is basic and boring, guess I can safely say blood omen 2 is no longer the worst kain game

There are only 2 things I like in this game, Wraith Raziels running animation and the Classic Sound of the Reaver blade soaring when you swing it.. If we are going to talk about everything I Do not like about this game it would take a few hours. This new character diminishes already established lore and puts her self at the center of certain events which tones down the meaningful events that Kain or Raziel experiences down to "it was my idea, i made it happen". Instead of adding into the established lore. it has the audacity to re-write it to make herself important.. In the soul reaver games we spent 2 games discovering and learning secrets about the lore.. Elaleth or what ever she calls herself.. gets handed these secrets in a 5 min cutscene... lazy writing.. Game play wise.. pretty average for a metroidvania game. Nothing new to offer.. but LoK was never about how amazing the game play is... its about the story and lore which fans were adamant to protect. History Abhors a paradox.. LoK Fans abhors Ascendance..

I was expecting a Metroidvania style of game when I first saw Ascendance trailer. It got me hyped, as graphics seemed pretty decent, and I really always wanted a 2D Legacy of Kain graphics, with gameplay as smooth as Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I was also super excited by the lore expansion. Sadly, this is not the entrance in the series I was waiting for, as it is the exact opposite of all my expactations. The main protagonist looks okay. Her origin story sounds good, but the rest feels more like a mess without much real substance, something original LOK games were really spot on. She needed more work. Especially in her ambitions, and at whom she casts blame. The gameplay is a platformer which isn't fleshed out. Is is stale and barebone. For instance... Light sources hurt you. Yeah, basic torches which, I assumed were there to provide light for the player to navigate the level. And they are everywhere, making it really tight and difficult to both traverse the levels, and actually have any consistence in fighting. The parry/counter system feels obsolete, because it is not rewarding at all. You gain a slight damage boost for next hit, but the enemy don't stagger or flinch. Nor are you granted any window of opportunity for counter strike. This means the enemies can, and will, just keep pounding you and interrupt your attacks, without you being able to actually make a come-back. For a good parry system, developers should take a look at Castlevania: Lords of Shadow series for inspiration. The levels that require flight are extremly poor. Not only is it really difficult to actually manage flight, since flapping your wings barely lifts you up and costs a lot of stamine, but you are also completely defenseless while enemies sorround you. To make matter worse, if your toes even as much as brush against the surface of water... your character decides it is time to die: you lose control and fall in water. In cinematic, the fighting scenes would be better if some studies in fighting arts were made. Not to give out spoilers, but one move in particular irritates me a whole lot, since you never do that in a real fight. Ever. Especially in sword fight. This makes the tone and atmosphere lose its credibility, which is not something devs want. Voice actors did good... except for the voice actor of Raziel. I was genuinely worried (and still am) if he had serious, terminal, health issues, given how he talks and strength of his speech. That voice on a young Sarafan Raziel doesn't work very well. Main protagonists voice over is very good tho! Very fitting, and very nice. Kain is killing it, as usual. Ky has also intressting voice actor. And the music... why has metal replaced the haunting, tribal/gothic/horror/ambient soundtrack? It worked good for Terminator 2D: NO FATE, since it actually takes place in modern times... but this? It saddens me greatly that the lore was re-written and heavily diluted. Who made that decision, and what for? I don't understand. The game has nothing solid going for it. It starts as a mess, and finishes off as an even bigger mess, without any explanation or answers. This is no LOK game. I hope the devs learn and improve for their next game. I know it can't always be easy. But take this as a stepping stone to a big success. Better luck next time and best wishes! :)