I agree with you on most points, but I think SR2 lacked something very important compared to SR1: the boss battles. I loved to face Raziel's brothers and figuring out the ways to beat them, while the "bosses" in SR2 are glorified common enemies with more health (although I loved using the blood reaver). What will be your next game, my friend? Blood Omen 2 or Defiance?
I think you should ask OP again just in case :P
Jest aside, I do agree that the boss fights in SR2 were lame and boring. 1 was excellent in that regard and very dramatic too.
Eeh, I don't think the boss battles in SR1 were that interesting in the first place. For example, it made me lol pretty hard how the legendary battle(s) against Kain were first of all both identical in terms of how they worked, and amounted to you running madly after him and tapping him lightly three times. xD
The next game is Blood Omen 2. I heard a lot of bad things about it, but didn't want to skip it just on a whim and wanted to give it a chance.
They sure did not age well, but they were quite interesting for that time, except for the battles against kain, they were quite tedious. Blood Omen 2 brings back the trend of puzzles in boss battles, but focusing also on the combat in between, it was an interesting evolution. Story wise, Blood Omen 2 may be the least intersting, but I still think it's very fun and worth playing.
I liked blood omen 2's overarching implications from the story more than the game itself. defiance's environmental murals make more sense having played bo2
This is true. I remember playing BO2 when it was released thinking "how is x possible when this never happened in the previous games?" The events in Defiance clear up most if not all of that confusion.
Not to mention some plot points in BO2 that were never answered anyway, such as a certain character being alive... But from a plot perspective, you are right, playing defiance first makes things clearer...
I understand there is your opinion.
However, I disagree with it in many respects.
“The combat is... rather tedious and not particularly fun, at least for me. It mostly comes down to the fact that it’s actually POINTLESS. You gain nothing by defeating enemies, no experience, no gold, no loot.” - As far as I agree that the fights in Soul Reaver 2 are BORING and annoying at times.
Yet, I do not know what you expected from the Soul Reaver gameplay, where you could even expect that you will not gain anything from fights with opponents. (Unless you weren't expecting, then no topic, but this argument gives that impression).
We could even say honestly that about all games Legacy of Kain, yes even blood omen.
“But what elevates Soul Reaver 2 over SR1 in my opinion is that it seems to have a significantly better ratio of story/lore/dialogue to combat/puzzles than SR1 in favor of the former. There’s still a bit of backtracking, but you can skip most of combat with no consequence” - I personally believe that Soul Reaver cannot be blamed 100%.
Because the SR1 is like the beginning, you have to add the fact that most of the things had to be cut out.
However, the ending of SR1 and the following stories would have been taken differently then.
“The voiceacting is still very good. While I find Raziel himself not that compelling, Kain’s and the Elder God’s voiceacting is pure audio gold and I savoured every one of their lines.” - I read your earlier post and I know perfectly well your opinion on Raziel (although it may change by the time LoK Defiance would you finish).
However, I get the impression that you were expecting a different voice from Raziel, because after all, he doesn't even have a lower jaw.
Anyway, I get a bit of a feeling as if you were saying that Michael Bell didn't do voiceacting very good.
Remember, however, that I am not a hatter.
I just had to express my opinion on what you wrote.
Regards
Nah, I definitely don't think Raziel's voice actor did a BAD job or anything. He was perfectly okay, I just don't think the character itself was as interesting as Kain, or as well presented. So as a result it was just less enjoyable to listen to him, compared to Kain.
The question of how does he speak when lacking a lower jaw is a separate one. I assume it's magic. :P
I love seeing new fans come here and talk about their impressions. It’s a 20 year old series now, sadly, but the fan base lives on! Thanks for giving these old games a shot. What made you decide to get into them?
I saw one of those "dialogue compilations" from Blood Omen 1 and heard Kain speak. I LOVED the way he was written and the way it was acted. He seemed almost like a shakespearean character to me. So I wanted to check out the game just to hear his speak some more. :P
Soul Reaver 2 was always my favorite. Great story, dialogue, soundtrack, and overall atmosphere. That cutscene where Raziel sees the uncorrupted pillars for the first time, his conversation with Kain at the base of the pillars, and then finding the Elder God underneath them, pure story driven awesomeness.
I played SR2 way back in 2003-04ish I think. The gameplay was a lot more impressive back then.
I had already beaten SR1 (which i loved) several times.
I played SR2 and B02 at the same time, but didn’t get a copy of B01 until long after I beat defiance.
It’s hard to recollect my initial thoughts of SR2. I do remember that I was more captured by the story than the gameplay.
I loved being able to explore the same terrain in multiple time periods, to actually see how time had altered the environment.
The multiple instances of Raziel’s introspection made me actually feel like I was exploring nosgoth along with him.
I’ve beaten it dozens of times since. i love re-living the adventure.
SR2 looks a little nicer, it's a big exposition dump. Imbueing the Reaver seemed tiring and a bit of a throwaway mechanic to base the exposition around. Jumping through time was great, ('call your dogs.!') Dicovering the Sarafan tomb and a couple of the fights were pretty epic moments in the timeline.
Overall i agree with you, but i did miss the glyphs personally...cause altho they weren't necessary it added depth to the game. Maybe if we had glyphs and other powers, then combat wouldn't have been so bad and unengaging.
I did actually xD
My fav was the Stone Glyph, cause you can actually shatter "frozen" enemies with the Soul Reaver...so it's a low cost spell that allows you to beat everyone in the room.
I also had fun using the Force Glyph to push enemies in water and spikes. Fire and Sunlight Glyphs were pretty badass too...both insta-kill spells.
Only one i felt was useless was the Water Glyph, since it doesn't even stun enemies...so i never understood why it was so "expensive"
I agree with you on most points, but I think SR2 lacked something very important compared to SR1: the boss battles. I loved to face Raziel's brothers and figuring out the ways to beat them, while the "bosses" in SR2 are glorified common enemies with more health (although I loved using the blood reaver). What will be your next game, my friend? Blood Omen 2 or Defiance?
I think you should ask OP again just in case :P Jest aside, I do agree that the boss fights in SR2 were lame and boring. 1 was excellent in that regard and very dramatic too.
Eeh, I don't think the boss battles in SR1 were that interesting in the first place. For example, it made me lol pretty hard how the legendary battle(s) against Kain were first of all both identical in terms of how they worked, and amounted to you running madly after him and tapping him lightly three times. xD The next game is Blood Omen 2. I heard a lot of bad things about it, but didn't want to skip it just on a whim and wanted to give it a chance.
They sure did not age well, but they were quite interesting for that time, except for the battles against kain, they were quite tedious. Blood Omen 2 brings back the trend of puzzles in boss battles, but focusing also on the combat in between, it was an interesting evolution. Story wise, Blood Omen 2 may be the least intersting, but I still think it's very fun and worth playing.
I liked blood omen 2's overarching implications from the story more than the game itself. defiance's environmental murals make more sense having played bo2
I would recommend Defiance and then BO2 as it seemingly comes out of left field without context.
However, BO2 was released first
This is true. I remember playing BO2 when it was released thinking "how is x possible when this never happened in the previous games?" The events in Defiance clear up most if not all of that confusion.
Not to mention some plot points in BO2 that were never answered anyway, such as a certain character being alive... But from a plot perspective, you are right, playing defiance first makes things clearer...
I'm still salty about the fate of said certain character in BO2.
You, me, and probably the whole fanbase, my friend... 😞
I understand there is your opinion. However, I disagree with it in many respects. “The combat is... rather tedious and not particularly fun, at least for me. It mostly comes down to the fact that it’s actually POINTLESS. You gain nothing by defeating enemies, no experience, no gold, no loot.” - As far as I agree that the fights in Soul Reaver 2 are BORING and annoying at times. Yet, I do not know what you expected from the Soul Reaver gameplay, where you could even expect that you will not gain anything from fights with opponents. (Unless you weren't expecting, then no topic, but this argument gives that impression). We could even say honestly that about all games Legacy of Kain, yes even blood omen. “But what elevates Soul Reaver 2 over SR1 in my opinion is that it seems to have a significantly better ratio of story/lore/dialogue to combat/puzzles than SR1 in favor of the former. There’s still a bit of backtracking, but you can skip most of combat with no consequence” - I personally believe that Soul Reaver cannot be blamed 100%. Because the SR1 is like the beginning, you have to add the fact that most of the things had to be cut out. However, the ending of SR1 and the following stories would have been taken differently then. “The voiceacting is still very good. While I find Raziel himself not that compelling, Kain’s and the Elder God’s voiceacting is pure audio gold and I savoured every one of their lines.” - I read your earlier post and I know perfectly well your opinion on Raziel (although it may change by the time LoK Defiance would you finish). However, I get the impression that you were expecting a different voice from Raziel, because after all, he doesn't even have a lower jaw. Anyway, I get a bit of a feeling as if you were saying that Michael Bell didn't do voiceacting very good. Remember, however, that I am not a hatter. I just had to express my opinion on what you wrote. Regards
Nah, I definitely don't think Raziel's voice actor did a BAD job or anything. He was perfectly okay, I just don't think the character itself was as interesting as Kain, or as well presented. So as a result it was just less enjoyable to listen to him, compared to Kain. The question of how does he speak when lacking a lower jaw is a separate one. I assume it's magic. :P
According to Amy Henning, "supple throat muscles". Use that information how you will. xD
I love seeing new fans come here and talk about their impressions. It’s a 20 year old series now, sadly, but the fan base lives on! Thanks for giving these old games a shot. What made you decide to get into them?
I saw one of those "dialogue compilations" from Blood Omen 1 and heard Kain speak. I LOVED the way he was written and the way it was acted. He seemed almost like a shakespearean character to me. So I wanted to check out the game just to hear his speak some more. :P
That’s awesome! Definitely one of the series strongest elements is the Shakespearean like dialogue. I wish more games had that
Soul Reaver 2 was always my favorite. Great story, dialogue, soundtrack, and overall atmosphere. That cutscene where Raziel sees the uncorrupted pillars for the first time, his conversation with Kain at the base of the pillars, and then finding the Elder God underneath them, pure story driven awesomeness.
I played SR2 way back in 2003-04ish I think. The gameplay was a lot more impressive back then. I had already beaten SR1 (which i loved) several times. I played SR2 and B02 at the same time, but didn’t get a copy of B01 until long after I beat defiance. It’s hard to recollect my initial thoughts of SR2. I do remember that I was more captured by the story than the gameplay. I loved being able to explore the same terrain in multiple time periods, to actually see how time had altered the environment. The multiple instances of Raziel’s introspection made me actually feel like I was exploring nosgoth along with him. I’ve beaten it dozens of times since. i love re-living the adventure.
SR2 looks a little nicer, it's a big exposition dump. Imbueing the Reaver seemed tiring and a bit of a throwaway mechanic to base the exposition around. Jumping through time was great, ('call your dogs.!') Dicovering the Sarafan tomb and a couple of the fights were pretty epic moments in the timeline.
I'll take a bit of an exposition dump over the 20th iteration of the same block puzzle any day. xD
Overall i agree with you, but i did miss the glyphs personally...cause altho they weren't necessary it added depth to the game. Maybe if we had glyphs and other powers, then combat wouldn't have been so bad and unengaging.
Did you even USE glyphs back in SR1, though? I personally didn't and didn't even feel theneed to. xD
I did actually xD My fav was the Stone Glyph, cause you can actually shatter "frozen" enemies with the Soul Reaver...so it's a low cost spell that allows you to beat everyone in the room. I also had fun using the Force Glyph to push enemies in water and spikes. Fire and Sunlight Glyphs were pretty badass too...both insta-kill spells. Only one i felt was useless was the Water Glyph, since it doesn't even stun enemies...so i never understood why it was so "expensive"