In a FAQ on Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. It was revealed that "The Vision of Kain'' was conceived to be a game which adults would want to play. The character Kain was modeled in part after Clint Eastwood's character in the movie "Unforgiven". In this movie, there were no "good" or "evil" characters, they were all "gray". The vision of Kain was to create a game where the player is put in the position where everyone believes you are evil, perhaps even yourself. We wanted to ask the question "What is evil? Perhaps it is merely a perspective."

The notion of evil has long been exercised for, against, and studied at length for varying degrees across countless years before the release of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. Most often against the opposite side of ‘good,’ yet intensely analyzed with a fine pen from the schools of philosophy and psychology. Yet, here the concept is used in a uniquely interesting manner compared to all the other titles in the PSX library I’ve played thus far. Since released back in 1996. Offering a nuanced dark story, featuring an unconventional ‘hero’ protagonist. Where you play as the aforementioned character. A recently slain petty noble turned vampire on his quest for revenge and cure for his vampirism status. His quest is fraught with peril at every turn. He’s weak and isn’t a badass for one turned into a dark creature of the night. Hasn’t adjusted well to his transformation thus his monologues both external and internal display a cynically arrogant personality throughout. A type I vehemently abhor in video games. Yet I cannot help but become allured to his actions throughout as he marches across the lands of Nosgoth.

A medieval fantasy land full of vampires, humans, and other manner of terrifying supernatural creatures prowling the night and day. And before I entered the game, I checked the world map to see what the world is like from a geographical perspective. Nosgoth is filled with large swathes of diverse terrain. Mountainous regions, lush forests, spots of bustling towns, and fortified cities lie amidst the gentle rivers and calm lakes. Most eye-catching of all is the unusually large architectures: big skull, floating island, tall fortress near flowing lava, nine giant pillars, some kinda frozen water temple? A haunting mansion, and one colossal knight statue similar to the Argonath from Lord of the Rings. There’s more I could list but hopefully you get the picture. Jutting out with varied names attached related to the Circle of Nine. Nine powerful sorcerers who protect the pillars of Nosgoth. These pillars reflect the health of the lands. And I was struck with a burning wanderlust to travel to each exotic location and see what each experience has to offer me.

A clear strength at the forefront to lure me like bait on a hook for subtle worldbuilding. Sure it’s not as rich and dense as the Forgotten Realms universe or how nuanced the deep characters of the Witcher are in complexity. Nor does it boast the rich history from Fallout or the sinister and epic clashes from the Diablo games spilling into the world of man. Nay, Nosgoth’s light world-building is steeped in the powerful echelon of the circle, the unholy might of vampires grip onto fearful mortals, breeding suspicion, fear, and all manners of dark monsters waiting, watching to grab innocents and thus bring them closer to death's embrace. Oh yes, right off the bat the unforgiving tone and presentation caught me unawares to the point my wonder was viscerally torn at how brutal events play out here. Evil thrives in all forms and I am here for it.

Despite the malevolent atmosphere, I had plenty of fun here with some caveats I’ll talk about later. For now, I’ll reminisce on the good memories. My first impressions as several hours passed shocked me. To find the gameplay remarkably similar to the Legend of Zelda (LoZ) formula except twisted in a Vampire’s tale filled with a darker domain and dubious individuals at nearly every turn. Short to medium-length dungeons with multiple rooms and puzzles. Seen from a top-down perspective. Linear with non-linear segments for optional items or for the most studious in exploring to be richly rewarded in permanent upgrades to health and magic capacities. Different weapons, armor, spells, and transformations can be found and earned in optional caverns and cleverly tucked away basements in mausoleums or normal houses. Not a wide selection, but useful nonetheless in overcoming multiple obstacles in your path. Use a mace to break stone formations, and axes to chop trees blocking your way. Turn into a wolf to leap across great distances, a bat to fast travel and so much more. Hell, spells are useful when you’re in a pickle like summoning a lightning bolt to activate a switch from a fair distance. A light spell to illuminate your surroundings, and my favorite mind control. Oh, man! You can assume control of any enemy except bosses to reach inaccessible areas, activate a mechanism on the wall, procure consumable items, and even kill enemies! Seriously, I'm amazed at how versatile his powers are in both equipment and utility. I used them habitually time and time again as I progressed further into my quest. Removing anyone and anything from my path.

Vae Victus

In the opening FMV, those lines were uttered by Kain as he suffers with a big sword lodged through his chest and again used during combat as a battle cry. The iconic line and more is profoundly voiced by Simon Templeman. A man who eloquently becomes the aforementioned character to deliver rich monologues both external and internal. His many years of theatre experience provide such a dash of realism to the protagonist to the point I am instantly captivated by his voice just as any time Morgan Freeman talks. And this without a shadow of a doubt is one of the game's strongest points. “Where the entire story is conveyed through voice-over and first-person narrative.” told by Denis Dyack, who created the original concept of Kain. & director. I was engrossed any time Templeman spoke, and beyond the cutscenes lies numerous mystical signs littering the grounds of Nosgoth where he would speak. Of his internal thoughts. The Shakespearean-like voiced lines provide a fascinating look into the thought process, habits, personality, beliefs, values, history, relationships and so much more. Through Kain’s eyes, we see the story in a personal nature arise and combine with the mature plot. Complementing the FMV and plot beats in tandem with the excellent voice acting. In layman’s terms think of our central figure commentating aloud on the previous events, of goals in mind, self-doubts, and ruminations. It is here I felt the voiced narrative intertwine with the inhabitants ranging from all kinds of human hierarchy. Commoners, beggars, nobles, knights, guards, kings, and of course the nine sorcerers who become major subjects of interest to our 'hero' within thirty minutes of starting the game. Their voices contribute a stark contrast to the audacious personality our titular character conveys. Mortanius the necromancer, speaks to the newly turned vampire via telepathy. Supporting him with new goals. Vorador the elder vampire, a mighty being who without remorse advocates embracing blacker-than-night tendencies. Ariel, the balance of the circle, offers our main character an unusual proposal to cure his sickness. Common folks are not spared either. Granting hints via gossip on unnatural events occurring nearby. Spells, weapons, armor, and items are also given fair treatment. Our key player will briefly talk about the item at hand, any relevant history, and their purpose during battle. Never was tiring hearing these precious lines or other beings like foes. Administering an immersive quality and thus bringing liveliness and deadliness as we journey onward.

His journey, for a closer inspection underneath the surface, upholds a somewhat deadly, but mostly fair design in how dungeons, puzzles to a certain extent, and boss fights are constructed. Tying to the fun gameplay I mentioned earlier. The adequate Legend of Zelda-esque dungeon designs are designed with a mix of traps, like spikes coming from walls and floors. While pesky enemies like skeletons, wraiths, ghosts, murderous humans, etc litter rooms. Thankfully, the game employs a lot of enemy variety so we're not bored seeing mob #1 to mob #2. Switches and levers on walls to open a passageway, sometimes big puzzles requiring more than simply hitting a switch reside. Tingling the brain to use other means within your arsenal. Traveling to another location in a specific path, do so wrongly and I am teleported back to the beginning, one had me teleporting to different places, so backtracking may be needed to remember paths, some walkways may seem insurmountable, but using a handy spell or transformation will make the march trivial. There’s more I could list, but hopefully, you get the picture. To contend with these endeavors in dungeons lies a dungeon boss. Most bosses can be eliminated by any means of weaponry or ability at your disposal. The hard part is getting close to them. Usually, they’ll have a gimmick or two involved making any movement closer hastily punishing. For example, bullet hells. Illusion of death, oh you thought this would be a fair fight man vs. man, bouts of strength and attrition, etc. Overall I would say most of the encounters with each big baddie were decent to very satisfying. Some worrying signals to know though.

And this is where I'll talk about my mixed feelings. Not a positive or a negative. Simply some concerns I found that may prove troublesome for others in varying degrees. For me, all of these points brought the all-embracing experience a tad. Yet doesn’t detract too much from the positives the game entails.

First, every time you re-enter a room or corridor all enemies will re-spawn. In spite of already defeating them into oblivion. This wouldn’t be so egregious if we could gain a reward like extra items to replenish our vitality. Yet some adversaries are troublesome to defeat since they will always be without end once your character moves closer to them. Become public enemy #1 where you cannot escape until you run a sufficient amount of distance. Distance from what I experimented with leads from afar. You go into another room. And two. Run a decent amount so they cannot catch up to you. Both parts aren't really helpful in the long run if I need to go back to a previous room. Driving the knife deeper are several enemies like wraiths shooting magical bolts dealing a decent amount of damage and flinging you to one side. The game loves to slap several of these infuriating dudes in a room and have us try to kill or evade them. Imagine killing the insufferable apparitions only to forget there was a spare hidden path tucked cleverly. Oh, I should head back. OH, MAN. You guys again f%^ my life. For what it’s worth, these occurrences didn’t happen often, merely uncommon to rare times. Doesn’t help that we can't suck the essence out of foolish enemies to recover our strength. And more often than not I faced scores of foes where I cannot possibly suck their juice. Thereby taking my enjoyment a bit at times in a minor form.

Second, speaking of opponents. I think the game needs to lessen the attackers' devastation in the middle to late game. Enemies hit hard, so you’ll need to be careful of wasting precious items and spells. Dying here and using up your remaining heart of darkness(these are the only consumables to automatically restore you to life with 1/7 of your max health) sucks. I think more enemies chained on walls to freely replenish our vigor would’ve helped and a decrease in overall damage from 10-25% towards endgame would’ve helped smoothen my slight frustration. He doesn’t have a lot of health in the beginning. Regardless of the player exploring thoroughly to upgrade their total HP supply. Therefore, my endgame suffered a bit until I decided to use cheats the game employs. Starting from the halfway mark. Think button commands ala Grand Theft Auto III to restore health. Only used the commands as a last resort to recover my magic/health. And only when I had less than three hearts of darkness in my pockets. Die without any of the hearts and goodbye save file. Hello, game over screen and back to your last known save location. I should confess to prevent any misconceptions. I explored thoroughly to grab as many health and magic upgrades. To the point I was still struggling somewhat with this amount of health and magic Yet I still suffered through bloodshed. Even when I ran away most of the time. I barely used any blood spells which according to the spell description can restore your health from enemies. Using the heart as a consumable might also mitigate loss in endurance due to restoring a decent amount of health instead of dying and reviving. So maybe my playstyle suffered more because of this. Thus, your mileage may vary.

Third, both qualities of constant re-spawning of enemies as we re-enter rooms and high damage output from assailants lead me to believe the Silicon knights(the developers who created Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain) perhaps had trouble configuring the right balance of enemy placement and harmful properties. The fact there are cheats available leads me to believe that the devs saw this as a temporary bandaid to solve possible frustrations from lack of healing/revival items. I suspect perhaps if I were more vigilant and prepared properly with some tips and hints then maybe I wouldn’t have any issues. However, one other factor that may cause further difficulty is how the save system is implemented. Innately players cannot save manually anytime. They have to approach a blood shrine to activate. I found these shrines constantly in caverns, mausoleums, castles, towns, cities, and homes where a multiple-floor level resides. The problem is that they only appear at the start. So if you die mid-way through a dungeon. Welp, my dude back to square one. Only if you have no heart of darkness. If you do, you can come back alive. Thankfully before hitting a major boss, the devs saw fit to include another shrine before a bossfight. A large sigh of relief overcame my being once I saw this implemented again and again, yet this doesn’t remove the underlying dilemma. Progress lost is still progress lost. Losing minutes to half an hour can be morale-inducing to my detriment. So beware of each shrine location and how far you are from one. Still, the aspect isn’t a major negative in my books, since I was able to complete the game using the titular mechanic constantly. Merely a warning for those curious about how to save properly.

That’s it for my mixed feelings. Honestly quite a lot of my troubles I feel were attributed to my negligence to seek help in favor of a blind playthrough. I don’t regret it. But a lingering doubt in my head feels like it could’ve been better to smoothen out my overall experience. Nevertheless, the sheer strengths Silicon Knights employed back in 1996 deserve special praise to this day. The music hits the orchestral high notes while giving off epic drums and beats to intensify our moods into mythical dimensions. Complementing well with Templeman’s impeccable voice acting among others. Luring me like a helpless slave to their magnificent voices. Reminiscent of Louis de Pointe du Lac detailing his past stories as a vampire to a reporter in the film Interview with a Vampire(1994). And similar, but different in some respects to Sang-hyun. A priest who turns into a vampire. From the Korean film Thirst(2009).

In the end. The dark fantasy & bloodthirsty LoZ-like formula works almost perfectly, the solid arsenal and wicked powers our titular character can utilize are maximized to a degree, I didn’t have trouble figuring out the right solution to solve the puzzles. Sufficient amount of paths to back-track for the curious fella in need of any upgrades to become stronger. A large and dense world to traverse while listening to Kain’s constant monologues is alluring, if not horrifying to witness. As a consequence, we are treated to a captivating nuanced character development take, of a 'hero' into something else. A remarkable campaign experience from the good old days and most certainly punches above its weight class for the grayish gothic story-telling. Delving without excess on what shapes evil, different forms that come to be, why the notion exists, and for what purpose does evil maintain in a world against a different ‘evil.’ And ultimately what is the result of our malicious acts? Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain asks these mature questions without forgiveness. Through his eyes and actions, the unmaking of the human soul surges. Blackened with dark tapestry and removed of all sensible feeling. Hmmm… I wonder what awaits me plus others, as the saga moves forward to Soul Reaver. And what fate ultimately lies to Kain in the end.

Vae Victus. Suffering to the conquered.

7.7/10

References & Additional Material:
FAQ on Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. - Frequently Asked Questions on BO:LoK. Inspirations, original concept, creator etc.
Evil. Origins and all forms from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - More reading material on Evil.
Nosgoth world map - Lord of the Rings Argonath - Picture example
Playing Catch-Up - A conversation with Denis Dyack, founder of Silicon knights and creator of the original concept of Kain
Interview with Denis Dyack - On Simon Templeman who voices Kain
2nd interview with Denis Dyack - on Silicon Knights and what they tried to achieve with the first entry of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain “Where the entire story is conveyed through voice-over and first person narrative.” and more like Too Human and guild philosophy.
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain cheats - Cheats if you need it. Think of button commands like GTA III cheats
Example of my endgame health and magic - Disregard the subtitle
Youtube example of slow load times on PS1 - Compared to fast loading speed on PC -
Simon Templeman - who voices Kain in every game.
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain on Mobygames - Interesting to see the narrative in the genre section is horror. When wikipedia classifies the game as dark fantasy.
Plot Guide to the whole series - For all games + observations after the ending
Highly Recommend installing fan-patch on PC - Verok's GL wrapper & patch should be enough. Was easy to add after first installing the GOG version. Game is super cheap when on sale at less than 2 bucks.
Essential tips on for newcomers to Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain - Previously prior to this review. There was no section for BO:LoK. On the Before I play website. So I contacted the owner and sent him my tips! Hope this helps newcomers!

Wanted to play a nice short game after Metroid Prime 2 so I decided to dive into the Klonoa series finally! While I did have a good time with this game, I wish I liked it more because it has a 4.1 average and a lot of my followers love it so I kinda feel bad only giving it a 7 lol.

I think after beating the game, the absolute best aspect are the bosses tbh. I did not expect them to go so hard but most of them are really damn good tbh. In fact I'd go as far to say they're better than most of the levels. Something I really liked about them was how they all made good use of the foreground and background, thought that was sweet. Also the health bar they had looked really cool with that whole 3D effect.

The levels themselves are decent for the most part. They start off really simple but get more complex as you go on. I honestly didn't think they were getting really good until the last couple stages but overall they're fine.

Another one the best aspects of this game is the visuals. The mix of sprites and 3D models is always cool and its done well in this game. From the little I've seen of the remake, it's a total downgrade which is a shame so I'd recommend the original just on visuals alone.

Klonoa's moveset is kinda weird overall. The grab is very fun, especially when you can get an extra jump from an enemy. The flutter is alright but a lot of the time just doesn't cut it in getting you over large gaps unless you plan well. I just never thought it felt good to use tbh. Also Klonoa himself has a slipperiness to him when you build momentum up and that can trip up the player especially in later stages.

I didn't really find the game that hard until the last couple stages. I got every collectable so I was able to do the extra stage and man was that one tough. It was fun but definitely put your grabbing and hovering skills to the test.

The music overall was just alright. There was a track or two I kinda liked but most of them were forgettable I felt. There was also a track or two that kinda bugged me because it reminded me of the intro song to Amazing Animals. Please tell me I'm not crazy, I just kept thinking about that whenever one of the beginning stages songs was playing.

The game also had a surprisingly abundant amount of cutscenes. I thought the story overall was pretty cute, the very solid voice acting certainly helped that I feel. Like damn, I loved Huepow's voice it was adorable. And while I didn't cry or anything, the ending was pretty sad and was a unique way to end the game.

While I didn't love this game like others do, it was pretty good! I can certainly see how others would love this game cuz it just has that 90's PS1 charm. I did hear the sequel is even better so I'm looking forward to that!

This was... surprisingly refreshing!

It has been a while since I last interacted with anything related to Undertale, so I was pleasantly surprised when I found out about the recent release of Undertale Yellow. I have seen the demo some years back and never expected it to be finished - but here we are, and the wait paid off!

The developers did a really good job at imitating the charm and characters of Toby Fox - of course it doesn't feel the exact same, but I've still grown to like the characters here in their own ways. The fights and music of Yellow are also pretty unique; a highlight were the respective final bosses of each route, which all surpass their Undertale counterparts (in terms of their fights) for me. However, I'd like to add that as of the time of writing (I played Version 1.1), the final boss of the Genocide Route still feels too difficult with the optimal equipment, to the point where it can get really frustrating. Skill issue? Maybe, whatever. I just think it's really demoralizing for the average player.

A thing I really like about Yellow is that it serves as a prequel to Undertale and is not set in an alternate universe like many other fan projects. It doesn't conflict with the original lore and adds more depth to it instead - very nice! Can't say much more about this aspect since it's a spoiler-free review, but let's just say the writing of Yellow definitely made me enjoy the universe of Undertale a lot more.

Overall, I consider Undertale Yellow to be a must-play for every fan of the original game out there. Just don't play it before Undertale (if you somehow intended to do that). That's all for today. See you.

I've had my eye on the Metal Gear Solid series for a while now and eventually I got the incentive to try the first game in the series after @wheatie assigned it to me. Had a decent time with it!

Metal Gear Solid is a classic stealth game - you sneak your way past enemies, and usually don't face them head on. (Else you have to deal with really frustrating aiming controls!) Your tools consist of several weapons like a silenced pistol, a sniper or even a rocket launcher, but also handy gadgets like EMP grenades and... a cardboard box?

The overarching narrative was engaging and consisted of many, fully voice-acted cutscenes. Some of them longer than others, ranging from quick Codec calls to villains monologuing for minutes on the brink of death. I have to admit that there were times where the exposition and monologues went on for a bit too long for my taste and apparently the cutscenes are only getting longer in the later games. A shame, since I believe those moments drag down the pacing quite a bit.

As I mentioned before, my other main complaint are the controls. Sure, this game is 25 year old at the time of writing this, but other games released in that period had more understandable controls too (an example being Ocarina of Time). The worst offender was definitely the aiming, but then again I didn't find out until after the beating the game that there was auto-aiming. Oh well, too late now.

That aside, Metal Gear Solid was enjoyable enough to make me want to check out the rest of the series as well, considering MGS2 and MGS3 are praised highly. It's a fairly short game and was just the right experience to play after Red Dead Redemption 2, which took me about a month to beat. But let me tell you, going from the graphics of RDR2 to PS1 models was certainly something! Have a good day.

Well, beating this on my birthday sure was a nice surprise! Especially since this was a pretty great game overall. It was my Secret Santa game in fact, which was something me and my discord fellas participated in. I'll link the list I did for that here.

Any who, yeah this was really good. I beat Prime 1 last year for the first time and thought it was awesome. So I was excited to see how 2 fared and I was not disappointed. I do think 1 was better overall as 2 has higher highs in some parts of the game and lower lows but it's still really good even compared to 1.

When it comes to straight up improvements, there's a couple things 2 did extremely well compared to 1. Loading times are all faster, it takes like half the time for you to get to a new area now. Scans now go from red or blue to green when scanned and are much easier to see if they've been scanned or not. The scanning especially being a lot better than 1's would definitely make me miss it when I replay that eventually lol.

Obviously the game's big mechanic is the dark and light worlds and honestly, I thought it was awesome. I've heard some people say they found it tedious, and I never really had an issue with it. I thought it added a cool spin on Prime's gameplay and made you think. It could make the game difficult somewhat, especially when fighting some of those dark world bosses but I liked that.

Speaking of the bosses, they're very interesting in this one. Overall, I'd say they were an improvement from 1 tho there were a couple that were a pain in the ass. Spider Guardian obviously being the main culprit for most people. I didn't hate it but man was it frustrating trying to figure out what to do while fighting it cuz that one can be brutal. A lot of the bosses were actually pretty tough, they were certainly more complex than 1's bosses. Those last few tho, the 2nd Dark Samus fight...Quadraxis and the whole set of final bosses were easily the best in the game and better than all of Prime 1's bosses. At first I was a little disappointed with the boss roster in 2 but after fighting the endgame ones, overall I do think 2 has better bosses than 1.

Now the biggest thing I think that's holding this game back from being better than 1, is its world. Prime 1 was basically Super Metroid in 3D. You had a very interconnected world to explore that was more into showing not telling. Prime 2 is more similar to Fusion with its bigger focus on storytelling and more linear world. The game is definitely not quite as linear or focused on story as Fusion, but it definitely feels like it took inspiration from it. The world is broken up into 3 main areas to explore and 1 overworld type area you go back and forth from. Rather than exploring at your own pace like Prime 1, it feels more like you're guided around slightly as you have to go back to the hub to unlock each new area. Eventually the areas do have elevators that connect to other areas but even with that the world isn't as tightly designed as 1's I feel. The area's are all cool, especially Sanctuary Fortress...that one is awesome, however I feel there weren't as many "aha" moments whenever I saw areas connect like in 1. I also feel like the game wasn't as atmospheric as 1 was, at least not the atmosphere I dig as much. Still, the world does interconnect by the end, I just think compared to 1 it just aint as good.

As for other miscellaneous things, the OST is pretty solid tho I do think its a downgrade compared to 1. I love how the classic item room theme is back, that's sick. I enjoyed the connections the game made to 1 near the beginning. Dark Samus was awesome to see in this game finally and it seems like it comes back in 3 so that'll be cool. Pirate commanders suck ass and were easily the worst enemy in the game. They're basically Chozo Ghosts from 1, except instead of locking the doors only some of the time, they lock them every time they appear and they're tanky as fuck which Chozo ghosts weren't. Weird change tbh and was just tedious every time they popped up. Navigating menus in this game feels clunkier than 1, they tried to make it all cool but it feels like it takes longer to find a certain file if you wanna read it again. It was interesting to see the screw attack in this game and while I warmed up to it by the end of the game, I still can't help it felt a little lame compared to how it was in prior games. Also again, one of the best parts of the game was just getting collectables and seeing what puzzles you have to do to get/find them. That was still really fun to do in this game, especially with the Dark/Light gimmick. I did get every item, which is of course a Metroid staple, and got a good chunk of the scans so I'm satisfied.

Overall, this was very good despite some issues I had. I do like Prime 1 more but this was definitely a worthy sequel I feel. Thank you @QuentTheSlayer for having me play this as my Secret Santa game, had a jolly good time! Next is gonna be the original Klonoa. A nice short game will do me good methinks.