We need to have an uncomfortable chat about the Legacy of Kain series.

"Vae Victis - suffering to the conquered. Ironic that now I was the one suffering. Not anything as pedestrian as physical pain. Rather the cruel jab of impotent anger…” – KAIN ​

Shakespearean time-travelling vampires

A wizard arranging the slaughter of his future self to render his body unkillable in the present

Spider vampires dragging away and cocooning humans for later consumption

A ghost ordering murder of her former lover, whose bereavement had become so intense, that it caused a telepathic tsunami that was destroying the world.

The “good guy” is a brutal vampire tyrant with a penchant for sadism and an incalculable body count.

The “bad guys” are everyone else, including the “good guy”.

My Credentials

The franchise has lost its stakeholders millions in attempted resurrections.

The Pillars of Nosgoth (repurposed in 1994) Blood Omen : Legacy of Kain (PlayStation, PC, 1996) Blood Omen : Sega Saturn (cancelled in 1996) Kain 2 Silicon Knights “Vorador” proposal (cancelled in 1997) Kain 2 Crystal Dynamics proposal (cancelled in 1997) Shifter (repurposed in 1998) Legacy of Kain : Soul Reaver (PlayStation, PC, Dreamcast, 1999) Soul Reaver 2 32-bit (cancelled in 2000) Soul Reaver 2 Dreamcast (cancelled in 2000) Soul Reaver 2 (PlayStation 2, PC, 2001) Blood Omen 2 (PlayStation 2, PC, Xbox, GameCube, 2002) Legacy of Kain : Defiance (PlayStation 2, PC, Xbox, 2003) Legacy of Kain : The Dark Prophecy (cancelled in 2004) Rumoured Soul Reaver prequel (supposedly never made it past concept phase at some point between 2004 – 2006, very little information available) Lara Croft Poker Party (Java, 2006 – yes I’m including it has Kain is a playable character) Lara Croft GoL: Raziel and Kain (2011) Legacy of Kain : Dead Sun (cancelled in 2012) Nosgoth (cancelled in 2016) Omen (concept rejected by Square Enix, between 2016-2018)

The fanbase cannot grow enough to create the required demand.

"The winds carried screams from the west... I could not help but smile. Someone in this world was suffering more than me." – KAI N​

Conceived by Silicon Knights

Developed by Silicon Knights and Crystal Dynamics (who were bought by Eidos, then as a whole bought by Square Enix)

Converted by Semi Logic Entertainments Inc.

Published by Activision

Historical Baggage

"Their sneering faces were forever etched upon my memory.” – KAIN ​

During the development of Blood Omen, tensions were so high between partners Silicon Knights and Crystal Dynamics that the police had to be called out. (source)





One of the co-creators of the series’ original mythology has been found guilty of very, very serious criminal charges. I won’t name of the offender or the nature of these charges, as the information is already in the public domain and easy to find. While the series mythology has since been developed and evolved by the talents of Denis Dyack and Amy Hennig and is very much its own thing, I could understand how the very origins of the franchise associating with a serious criminal, could put interested parties off wanting to get involved.





criminal charges. I won’t name of the offender or the nature of these charges, as the information is already in the public domain and easy to find. While the series mythology has since been developed and evolved by the talents of Denis Dyack and Amy Hennig and is very much its own thing, I could understand how the very origins of the franchise associating with a serious criminal, could put interested parties off wanting to get involved. Both Blood Omen and Soul Reaver had their ambitions cut in development. Blood Omen was intended to be a larger, wholly non-linear game with enormous player freedom, while Soul Reaver was forced to excise an enormous amount of environments and abilities due to time constraints. While we are still learning the extent of the cuts to Blood Omen twenty years later, the cuts to Soul Reaver were apparent immediately after release – thanks to an abrupt cliffhanger and quickly-found files on the disc teasing the removed content. While subsequent entries were solid games, they were clearly less ambitious in their gameplay innovations – as the teams were possibly burned from their previous experiences. For more information regarding the original visions for these games, please see the excellent work carried out by Ben Lincoln over at The Lost Worlds.





Silicon Knights and Crystal Dynamics engaged in a ferocious legal battle after the release of Blood Omen, with accusations of forcing agreements “under financial duress”, of using trade secrets to usurp positions, of poaching employees, and of misrepresentation. You can read more about this here. This history of bitter litigation is not appealing to prospective parties. The terms of the “Kain 2” settlement between the co-developers of Blood Omen, are still secret decades later. How these terms affect or restrict any prospective development, is unclear.





Development on Soul Reaver was turbulent. Sources – under strict confidentiality – have disclosed creative tensions within the teams, up to and including the allegation of a staff walk out – though I have no further information as to the context of this.

Failed Resurrections

“What is it about me, Demon, that makes me such an unreliable instrument? ​

Why do I survive one trial after another... on and on in an endless succession of humiliating deaths and resurrections?” – RAZIEL ​

SCREENSHOT - LEGACY OF KAIN : THE DARK PROPHECY

SCREENSHOT - LEGACY OF KAIN : THE DARK PROPHECY

SCREENSHOT - LEGACY OF KAIN : THE DARK PROPHECY

SCREENSHOT - LEGACY OF KAIN : DEAD SUN

SCREENSHOT - LEGACY OF KAIN : DEAD SUN

SCREENSHOT - LEGACY OF KAIN : DEAD SUN

SCREENSHOT - LEGACY OF KAIN : NOSGOTH

SCREENSHOT - LEGACY OF KAIN : NOSGOTH

SCREENSHOT - LEGACY OF KAIN : NOSGOTH

SCREENSHOT - LEGACY OF KAIN : NOSGOTH

SCREENSHOT - LEGACY OF KAIN : NOSGOTH

CONCEPT ARTWORK - LEGACY OF KAIN : OMEN

CONCEPT ARTWORK - LEGACY OF KAIN : OMEN

CONCEPT ARTWORK - LEGACY OF KAIN : OMEN

CONCEPT ARTWORK - LEGACY OF KAIN : OMEN

Publisher Problems

“Do you believe for a moment that our Lord would risk his empire upon an upstart inheritance?!” – MELCHIAH ​

No communications blackout

“… the hushed silences embrace an ancient enigma." – THE ELDER ​

In Conclusion

“Conscience? You dare speak to me of conscience?! Only when you have felt the full gravity of choice should you dare to question my judgment! Your life's span is a flicker compared to the mass of doubt and regret that I have borne since Mortanius first turned me from the light! To know that the fate of the world hangs dependent on the advisedness of my every deed! Can you even begin to conceive what action you would take in my position?!” – KAIN ​

Continuing the Legacy

“Rest? A body is needed for sleep. Flesh and bones are required to recline. No, child. All I may do is watch, and remember, ceaselessly conscious as this wretched world's history unfurls. Ghastly past, insufferable future - are they one and the same? Am I always here?” – ARIEL ​

It has been over fifteen years since the last Legacy of Kain game was released. Gaming generations have come and gone, and many present-day gamers have never experienced:For those that love the series, there is nothing else that compares. The Legacy of Kain is viewed by many of its fans, as the greatest story ever told in the gaming medium. The world building, characterisation, dialogue, voice acting, and consistently transcendent writing, are in a league of their own.Despite no recent releases, the fanbase for the franchise is fierce. Crystal Dynamics – one of many developers on the franchise – cannot post anything on social media without a barrage of posts demanding the return of the series:For fifteen years, this community has kept waiting for the next E3, hoping that the return of the Legacy of Kain series will finally manifest.It never does.And this is the “uncomfortable” part of the chat.This is a franchise with a turbulent, troubled history, a franchise that has been sometimes controlled by companies that don’t always understand it, a franchise that has burnt a myriad of parties in its wake. In addition, the Legacy of Kain has a complex history of litigation that still shrouds some of the terms of its continued existence in secrecy.Let us explore this turbulence, the behind-the-scenes chaos that has haunted this wonderful series.Who am I to make these arguments? I have been a prolific member of the Legacy of Kain community for twenty years, and have contributed to the major fansites Nosgothic Realm and The Lost Worlds . I originally exposed both the cancelled sequels The Dark Prophecy and Dead Sun.I’m not saying that this makes my view any more or less valid than anyone else’s – and I certainly welcome discussion and counterpoints to what I am about to assert! I wanted to show that I have been involved with the fanbase of these games for a very, very long time, and that this is what informs my arguments.With that all said, let us begin.The Legacy of Kain series has many, many cancelled or unreleased games – the ratio of released to unreleased titles is remarkable:There has evidently been interest in developing the series, but for a multitude of reasons, these all fell through. For more information regarding some of these projects, click here I have had conversations with sources linked to some of these cancelled games. Square Enix spent millions upon millions investing into these cancelled projects, up to and including E3 trailers that were never used. Given that these financial investments have resulted in a significant net loss, and only resulted in bad PR from disappointed fans, it seems tremendously unlikely that they would want to return to the franchise.While the IP sometimes had moderate financial success, there is nothing to suggest that any return could cancel out these enormous losses.Classic games can sometimes garner new fans even decades after their release, helping build new momentum for a franchise return.The seminal first title in the franchise, Blood Omen, is very difficult to access. This is unfortunate as Blood Omen sets the story foundation for all sequels – every subsequent game constantly referenced the events and world building that Blood Omen presented.The weakest version of the game, the PlayStation release, is available on PSN but is hampered with frustrating loading times. While an amazing experience, the technical deficiencies do not impress without considerable persistence.The definitive version of this game, the PC release, fixed some of the technical issues while adding additional functionality such as higher resolutions and a speedier interface. Unfortunately, the publishing circumstances of this have created a rights nightmare preventing a re-release:Consequently, the PC release has never been re-released, re-issued, or made available on any digital platform or service. Like so many of the franchise characters themselves, this definitive edition remains trapped in history by convoluted forces. Never will a prospective fan happen to come across the essential first game in the series via GOG or a Steam sale.Tackling the Legacy of Kain is a brave thing to do; the franchise has so much baggage that it could make any prospective developer uncomfortable:The history of the franchise is one of bitter litigation, unsavoury episodes, unfortunate association with a serious criminal, and tension.Yet more challenges had impacted contemporary developers who sought to resurrect the series.The first attempt at a resurrection was Legacy of Kain : The Dark Prophecy , which was cancelled after a few months of development in 2004.Many years later, Square Enix commissioned Climax Studios to resurrect the franchise, with Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun . According to some sources, Square Enix cancelled the game after three years of development but neglected to tell the team, leaving them to work on the title not knowing that it was never coming out. There seems to be some behind-the-scenes chaos, with entire E3 CG trailers being commissioned , to never be shown to anyone. To see the gameplay that Dead Sun offered, click here With the cancellation of Dead Sun – after millions of dollars spent and three years of work wasted – focus was placed on Psyonix to turn the multiplayer segment of Dead Sun into its own F2P product. To take a franchise famed entirely on the quality of its philosophical, single-player storylines, and demand it go multiplayer, shows little insight as what LOK was all about.While Psyonix worked away on the project, the marketing and community management side of Square Enix worked their socks off to try and make this work. As leaks from the Steam.db revealed “ War for Nosgoth ”, LOK fans finally felt their time had come. Legacy of Kain was coming back. To manage escalating expectations, vague messages were released stating that this would not be the LOK continuation that was perhaps being expected.When the title was revealed, and Nosgoth was announced to be a F2P arena game, there was considerable anger and disappointment. The game wasn’t given the fairest hearing on its own merits, of which some where considerable. A public beta revealed matches that were compelling, with supporting texts highly reverential towards the series lore, and well-written documents were subsequently released week-on-week linking the in-game factions into the wider Legacy of Kain mythology (these have been archived on the excellent Tales of Nosgoth fansite ). It wasn’t the single-player LOK that the fanbase had expected, but it was something some gamers could really get their teeth into.After months of further development and feedback from the public beta, the game began to feel more like it came from the same world as the Legacy of Kain. New arenas were created showing cut locations from the original Soul Reaver – such as the lava-filled domain of the Turelim. Combatants began to show series traits, such as evolved vampire powers. The balance of the game was maintained, ensuring that it never felt pay-to-win. Slowly, Nosgoth was starting to win more players around. The following screenshots illustrate some of these changes, full credit to Lucinvampire of the Tales of Nosgoth fansite for archiving these images:Square Enix then cancelled the game, the public beta, everything. Servers were shut down, and the fanbase had no way to return to an experience they had developed an enthusiasm for. Square Enix had teased, and Square Enix and taken away. Yet another team of developers had their work flushed down the drain, and yet more millions had been wasted.Since Nosgoth, another abandoned Legacy of Kain concept has been exhibited – Omen – an isometric “role playing game” pitch seemingly starring Kain and Raziel from 2016.These were developed by studio Blazing Griffin, which has links to Legacy of Kain co-creator Denis Dyack, who when queried, responded with a very direct statement:Was there some attempt to revive the franchise from where it began, with the series co-creator? That this went nowhere was yet further disappointment for the fans, it is intriguing to consider what Denis Dyack would have done with the series arcs developed by Amy Hennig, the developer of Soul Reaver.Those with power over the franchise, often made poor decisions regarding its directions.While the developers often had a clear vision of the game, Eidos made misguided marketing decisions as a publisher, which showed that they didn’t really understand the franchise. They marketed the games with bizarre trailers in bathtubs , or showed off the combat as a rock music video . The strengths of the franchise – the exploration, world building, story, reality-shifting mechanic and undead powers – were always ignored to advertise the titles in a very superficial way.Eidos also made bad decisions regarding the overall direction of the Legacy of Kain series. During the height of the franchise success, Eidos commissioned a misguided sequel in the form of Blood Omen 2, and tasked to development leads that weren’t aligned to the series approach. The result was a bizarre game that has no place in the series, in which a character named Kain battles aliens in a futuristic city. The Soul Reaver development team that had worked immensely hard to earn the success of their Legacy of Kain games, were soundly ignored when their concerns were raised. The game was advertised as an opportunity to play “Kain – the most evil character to ever appear in a video game” – despite the core theme of the entire series being the ambiguous morality of the characters. More information on the contrasting vision between developer and publisher can be read here . The result was a bomb of a title that caused considerable storyline difficulties and contradictions, of which some remain utterly unresolved.With Legacy of Kain : Dead Sun, Square Enix provided some directives regarding the new game, ones which were counter to the very identity of the franchise: Kain must not appear in the game, references to the storyline of the previous games must be kept to a minimum, and a multiplayer mode must be included. The development team were forced to create a narrative bound by these constraints – Kain is said to have committed suicide in the backstory. While I expect there would have been more to this story twist than meets the eye, with references to a “very old vampire child” suggesting a resurrection strategy of some sort for Kain, the story concept has left a bitter taste with some.Anyone who knew Legacy of Kain, and understood the reasons for the critical success of past entries, would never have made such strange demands of a sequel. It would be like demanding Half-Life 3 take place in a strange future after Gordon Freeman shot himself.With a history like this – full of litigation, cancellations, financial loss, disappointments, and bad developer/publisher experiences - could someone in the upper echelons of Square Enix still consider giving this poor franchise another chance? Could, against all odds, they be secretly working on one right now?No.The reason for this can be seen in Square Enix communications about the franchise. While the company was confidentially working with partners to develop The Dark Prophecy, Dead Sun, and the foundations of Nosgoth, no one would speak about Legacy of Kain. This was understandable in retrospect, as all announcements about the franchise would be tied to the strict PR strategy. The only external sign that Legacy of Kain was remembered was cameo appearances of the icons and images in the Tomb Raider games – it fascinating to consider that Legacy of Kain has been referenced in more Tomb Raider/Lara Croft games (six) than actually Legacy of Kain games (five).Now though, the silence is over. Square Enix will talk about the franchise. The head of Square Enix’s Indie Publishing team made an offer to anyone who could provide a credible LOK proposal:Unfortunately, by April 2019, no one has provided anything credible.It is difficult to understand what “credible” means, given that historically, some publisher decisions regarding this franchise have been clearly made by individuals that don’t understand why it was a success to begin with. The only later clarification was that the “Omen” pitch was not part of these credibility considerations.Regardless, the fact that Square Enix isn't on radio silence regarding the franchise, suggests there is no PR strategy currently enacted, because nothing is in development.The result of all of this turbulence has been disappointment for everyone. Disappointment for the publishers, who lost millions in litigation and failed development. Disappointment for the developers, who found themselves at odds with the publishers on their visions of the games, and through cancelled games found gaps in their employment history due to the NDA. Disappointment for the fanbase, which lost a multitude of cancelled returns of the franchise. This included Nosogth, which developed a devoted and engaged fanbase with the playable beta, only for fans to lose the experience as it was cancelled before launch.Baggage everywhere, for everyone.Legacy of Kain is dead. It shouldn’t be, but it is.Consider the troubled development history, the wasted millions, the toxic criminal background of a key founder, litigation and rights issues, staff mismanagement, and the ownership of the franchise by a publisher that has never seemed to understand why the released games were so loved.Given all this uncomfortable baggage, perhaps we were lucky to get the five games that we did.While this may seem like a hopeless piece – and I do believe that the odds of a future game are now very slim – the games industry has surprised us before with continuations of Shenmue, Wasteland and System Shock. It would be wonderful to be proved wrong.While the series is seemingly dead and buried, the fans are undeterred. If you are interested, consider the following links: The Ancients Den – Raina Audron’s site is a great place to seek out any new developments regarding the franchise, with very well informed content. The Lost Worlds – Ben Lincoln’s legendary website documenting the cut content, prototype releases and various other technical analysis of the games. Recently updated to reflect the massive recent discoveries within newly unearthed Blood Omen betas. Legacy of Kain Wiki – The current administrators - Baziel, Aevum, and Raina Audron – have been devoted to documenting the complex lore of the series, including detailed entries for all the cancelled games discussed above. Patrick Johnson / TheHylden Portfolio site – An immensely talented CG artist who is creating extraordinarily detailed renders of the characters.I’m also really appreciative to some of the above parties, for offering feedback on this article.