Legacy of Kain: Ascendance PS5 review – It’s been a long time since a new Legacy of Kain game. Still, these last few years have brought us Remasters of the Soul Reaver & Soul Reaver 2, along with Defiance titles that have breathed new life into the franchise and have allowed new players to experience some of the best storytelling in video games.
Legacy of Kain: Ascendance PS5 Review
A Prequel Story That Raises More Questions Than It Provides Answers
Ascendance looks to breathe new life into the franchise with a brand-new story that raises even more questions that may remain unanswered, some of which fans may not have even thought to ask. It’s an admirable attempt to bring the franchise back, but unfortunately, it doesn’t do enough to revive it truly and may not reach enough of the audience to make a meaningful impact.
Ascendance is a prequel to Soul Reaver and also crosses into Soul Reaver and Soul Reaver 2 due to the franchise’s constant time travel. The game follows three characters. Elaleth, Raziel, and Kain.
New Characters That Add New Problems
Elaleth is Raziel’s sister, someone who we didn’t even know existed in the mainline games, but was mentioned in the comic book series and took center stage in a recent graphic novel, “The Dead Shall Rise.”
The game is mostly about Elaleth and her quest for revenge against her brother, Raziel, who killed her beloved when he was on the verge of being turned into a vampire to save his life. Elaleth is on the hunt and is constantly being thrown through time by Mobious.
The story adds some context to the events leading up to Soul Reaver, the origins of Raziel’s wings, and how Kain found and resurrected the Sarafan Lautenents. The game even explains why Raziel doesn’t remember his sister and the crucial role she played in his turning into a Soul Reaver.
A Different Type Of Game For The Franchise
Legacy of Kain: Ascendance takes the form of a 2D pixel action platformer. This may seem like a big disappointment for fans hoping for a full-fledged AAA title, but developers Bit Bot Media have done a good job making this feel like an actual NES action platformer.
For better or worse, the game looks and plays like an NES title. Naturally, this includes everything from the cheap encounters and brutal platforming sections to finding and cheesing your way through boss fights by finding the exploits and exploiting enemy hitboxes.
Though you play as three different characters, they each play almost identically. Combat is simple; you have a basic attack, but you can parry enemy attacks and strike most of them down with a counterattack. The Perry system is not forgiving, and you have to be absolutely perfect with your Perry.
Three Different Characters That Play Fundamentally The Same
Elaleth and Raziel can both flap their wings and reach heights and move around the levels a lot easier as long as their mana holds up. They can also perform diving attacks on enemies, which makes most encounters fairly easy, as you can jump and do a diving attack repeatedly to take down all your enemies. This also makes boss fights a cinch.
Kain, on the other hand, can’t fly, so instead he hits harder than the others and has much more defence, allowing him to take more damage.
There is one stage you get to play as human Raziel, and he has access to fire bombs that he can throw that do some serious damage to your opponents. He is also the hardest character to play with due to the lack of healing items to find in his stage.
Bad AI And Bad Level Design
The other characters can drain their opponents’ blood to not only restore health. Still, they can also be used as an exploit because they make you invulnerable to damage when the animation is progressing.
There isn’t a large variety of enemies either, and their AI is at times terrible. A lot of my encounters featured enemies hopping around the area to avoid me, then falling off cliffs or into water, which instantly kills them.
The platforming can also be a problem. There are many instances where you can’t even see the next platform to go to. It can be ahead of you, higher up that can only be reached by flying up, or dropping off a cliff and hoping you land on a platform instead of to your death.
This is also an issue with the level design. The majority of locations are rocky cliffs, caves, and mountains to explore. There are lots of secrets to find from health and Mana upgrades and scrolls that provide lore and backstory. These aren’t too hard to find, as you can see sparks coming off the walls to indicate you can destroy that wall to reveal a secret. You can also find artifacts that provide bonuses to every character. The problem with these is that their descriptions are so vague that I couldn’t even figure out what most of them do.
Great Audio And Soundtrack, But Uninspired Pixel Graphics
Visually, the game is very uninspired and boring to look at. There is almost no detail in anything to look at for the majority of the game. Only one level really looked nice, and it was a daylight level with some green grass.
The character portraits during conversations, on the other hand, look stunning. There is also a single animated cutscene that does a very poor job of recreating the opening cinematic of Soul Reaver, and two CG cutscenes that look on par with the CG that looks like it was ripped right out of the original 1995 Blood Omen.
The soundtrack and voice work are once again stellar. The original cast returns to reprise their roles as Raziel, Kain, and others, and it’s fantastic to hear them back. Though the voice acting is excellent, the writing is not, and there is only so much the voice talent can do.
The soundtrack is the biggest positive in Asendance, with a great blend of symphonic and heavy-metal elements. It was a treat to listen to every track in the game. They even provided a heavy metal version of the franchise’s main theme song as well.
Legacy of Kain: Ascendance is a passable game, but it doesn’t really do anything to set it apart from every other 2D action platformer. Even the franchise’s highest points, such as its story, also take a hit here. As excited as I was for the franchise to get a brand new game, I also wished for a lot more after 23 years. Ascendance is passable, it just may not be enough even for diehard Legacy of Kain fans.
Legacy of Kain: Ascendance is now available on PS5, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.
Review code kindly provided by PR.