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I am an old fart (well… kinda) and a sucker for great acting and great stories, so Let’s Play Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain! What is Blood Omen? Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain is an isometric RPG developed in 1996 by Silicon Knights and published by Crystal Dynamics (released in 1997 for PC). This game is what started the Legacy of Kain series. Need I say more? Well, even if I do, I intend to explain stuff about Legacy of Kain in general during the LP. I tried to run this on a modern PC, and I can’t seem to watch the cutscenes. Will there be cutscenes? I can’t watch the cutscenes in-game either (I run the game on Win8), but the cutscenes will be edited in the episodes as appropriate. Is this a 100% run? Not likely. I wish I could say that I can 100% this game, but I honestly cannot. The world is just too big for me to 100% it. So, if I miss any secrets or optional non-secrets, do please point it out, it’s greatly appreciated! That being said, since it's 2015, I have access to the Internet, and, by extension, to a guide, and, as such, will try to get my hands on as many secrets as I can. Post-LP EDIT: no, this is not a 100% run. Spoiler policy? The thread has a strict no spoilers policy. 80% of the game is the combination of storyline, acting, and atmosphere, and many people haven’t played this game or any of the Legacy of Kain games (the last one came out 10 years ago, after all, and this one is 19 years old). As such, do please refrain from discussing anything that can spoil the storyline of Blood Omen or the Legacy of Kain series in general. Feel free to speculate, but PLEASE do not spoil stuff. Not only are spoilers inherently bad, but they can also cause confusion in the future due to how convoluted the series' storyline eventually becomes. I do this LP under an assumption that there are by now people who only know of the world of Nosgoth thanks to Nosgoth (the game) and who aren’t very familiar with the story barring some very general aspects. They are among the people the LP is conceived for, as I intend to actually explain the in-universe stuff in this Let’s Play, as opposed to narrating the gameplay in the “now I go here and hit this” style (I already tried that and it just doesn’t work  ). By the way: 1) there’s no way I’ll be able to maintain some kind of a schedule, as the times when I can record stuff are highly erratic and inconsistent, given that every recording requires a fair share of prior planning and, sometimes, even research. They will be semi-regular, however, as in, I will always have at least one update per week; 2) I will never ever speak over the in-game dialogue; 3) when there's an "uhh", it means that I'm looking for a word, as English isn't my first language, so apologies in advance  Videos                            
nutri_void fucked around with this message at 00:59 on Nov 4, 2015 |
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Apr 28, 2015 18:56
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I've been interested in seeing a VLP of this series - interested in seeing how it'll go.
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Apr 29, 2015 16:32
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Good to see the thread go live. As I said in the sandbox, I've always been interested in this series but couldn't get very far in it, so a VLP exploring the lore will be fun. The games have some interesting ideas, and I really like the cyclical nature of the plot and the way everyone seems to make the exact worst choices at any given time.
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Apr 29, 2015 16:56
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Yeah, that is true, the storyline really is difficult to follow on your own unless you play through all the LoK games multiple times (doing it once doesn't really cut it, as by the time of getting to Defiance one is not likely to remember what was going on in the past games and what happened when and what caused what). That's why mental notes (for understanding the future events), reminders (for remembering the past events), and random trivia (for everything) are quite helpful in understanding the storyline, which is actually fascinating. Well, except several loopholes, but these won't really come into play in BO, they will come in the later games and will have different reasons. It's such a shame that the series never got a proper conclusion >_< Btw, I should be able to post the update tomorrow
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Apr 29, 2015 17:28
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Alexeythegreat posted:It's such a shame that the series never got a proper conclusion >_<
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Apr 29, 2015 17:31
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anilEhilated posted:Didn´t they turn it into an MMO or something? Clearly the proper conclusion is Kain becoming a raid boss. No, not really. They are making a MOBA called Nosgoth, which I have never played (and I don't think I will, I'm a singleplayer kind of guy), which is set in the same universe, but without Kain (afaik, he "mysteriously disappeared") and during the time period that hasn't been covered in the actual LoK games (which I will not specify because spoilers). Thankfully, they aren't using it to conclude the storyline. I think. I hope. Last time I checked it was an open beta, although that was a while ago
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Apr 29, 2015 17:34
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Nosgoth doesn't share anything with LoK aside from the name and aesthetics, as far as I'm aware. I've played it a bit but I'm not very knowledgeable about the series in general. Looking forward to seeing this game completed, I owned it on PS1 when I was young but never finished it. I ended up using cheat codes to see the endings.
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Apr 29, 2015 18:00
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Cheat codes got me stuck good and proper early in the game, and made me decide that while the story was good, the game itself was not. I also found myself getting stuck repeatedly trying to play Soul Reaver, even without cheat codes, and that's a very different game from the original here.
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Apr 29, 2015 18:28
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Seems like the Legacy of Kain took its biggest initial inspiration from the Ultima series. Also, was it a thing for 90's fantasy games to send someone to Hell either at the beginning or the end? Because it feels like that was a thing for a while.
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Apr 29, 2015 19:04
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I loved this game (but it's really hard to get back into now) - it really revels in its gore and such. Some of the weapons and spells you find later on are amazing in this regard - maybe not its graphics but definitely the descriptions are amazing. On the ending of the series, I kind of feel like they wrote themselves into a corner - in that I don't see how Kain could proceed in his goals in an effective manner. Then again, this series is timey-wimey ball squared, so who knows.
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Apr 29, 2015 19:53
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It's really too bad there isn't likely going to be another Legacy of Kain game to tie up all the loose ends, they could have used a final game to end it all.
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Apr 29, 2015 20:27
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I like the open ending of Defiance. Sure, it was not intended to end that way, but having a vague hope beats knowing Kain will gently caress up further as he frequently does.
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Apr 29, 2015 20:28
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Considering the rumor mills had it that Soul Reaver ONE was going to end on a downbeat end-of-the-world note but they realized they'd have to delay it to a sequel due to space constraints (and THEN the popularity of the series nixed the idea totally) I think we should be happy with what we got.
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Apr 29, 2015 20:33
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These are no rumors, Soul Reaver really was originally supposed to be the end of the series. In any case, I actually think that we will eventually get a proper conclusion (or another set of sequels, why the heck not *_*), although not in this decade
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Apr 29, 2015 20:48
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anilEhilated posted:I like the open ending of Defiance. Sure, it was not intended to end that way, but having a vague hope beats knowing Kain will gently caress up further as he frequently does. This is pretty much where I am.
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Apr 29, 2015 21:00
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That video made me miss Tony Jay all over again.
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Apr 30, 2015 01:13
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MaskedHuzzah posted:That video made me miss Tony Jay all over again. It's hard to believe it's been almost a decade  --- It'll be nice to see a VLP of this series, it's been far too long, especially considering Blood Omen is the one I'm least familiar with.
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Apr 30, 2015 02:03
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Alexeythegreat posted:In any case, I actually think that we will eventually get a proper conclusion (or another set of sequels, why the heck not *_*), although not in this decade I long ago gave up my hopes for a proper conclusion. Tony Jay is gone, the original devs have moved on, and the IP is currently being used for an MMO. It's dead, Jim. I like your spoiler policy, BTW. It's hard to discuss anything in this series without having to, eventually, discuss literally everything else. I'm totally itching to discuss my pet theory about what the point of the main yet-unresolved plot point of the series was, but I won't. MaskedHuzzah posted:That video made me miss Tony Jay all over again. 
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Apr 30, 2015 03:42
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Really awesome to see this. The Legacy of Kain is one of my favorite series. I've played through all the games several times, even the less than stellar Blood Omen 2, and the story and voice acting really grip me every time.
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Apr 30, 2015 03:46
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And we have an update! Now, I have a question for you. Should I keep the parts relatively short, or should I increase the length to 20-25 minutes, considering that I don't pump them out daily? nutri_void fucked around with this message at 00:54 on May 1, 2015 |
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Apr 30, 2015 10:09
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Alexeythegreat posted:And here's an update! I can only speak for myself, but I stongly prefer longer episodes. Also, you might want to make an update post more visible, a single hyperlinked word is easily overlooked if someone's just skimming the thread. Something like this:  Episode 2: Enter the Pillars is much easier to notice.
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Apr 30, 2015 10:34
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Yeah, you're right, thanks for the tip
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Apr 30, 2015 10:44
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Are you doing live commentary? If you have trouble finding the right words in English sometimes (and trust me, I know a lot about that), commenting in post might be a better option.
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Apr 30, 2015 14:06
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It is live, yes. I personally don't think that it's a problem, because Actually, my attempt to do post-commentary turned out to be completely unsatisfactory, because issues arose with timing and I was speaking just way too fast when I knew all my text in advance
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Apr 30, 2015 14:23
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I think shorter updates (<20 mins) are better if you're going to update frequently. If you're going to go a while between updates then going a little longer makes sense. I like the show-don't-tell aspect of the pillars. We're told that the decay represents the mental state of the individual pillars' avatars (or whatever you want to call them) and we see that three of them are black-black and completely rotted. Clearly those guys are not well.
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Apr 30, 2015 21:00
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Hmm... well, it really depends on how long should be considered "frequently". I'm pretty sure that I would be able to post an update as soon as tomorrow, but even with shorter videos I still want to allow for some cooldown period for speculation. Add.: then again, the next 30 minutes of gameplay are about collecting stuff and teasing us with stuff that we can't get, and they will not bring any plot advancement... ----------------- Speaking of the Pillars, I never even actually noticed that three of them are, indeed, darker than the others! O_O Although it only shows in the cutscene, and not in-game (BO or any of the following games), and the pillars that are in near-charcoal state are the pillars of Dimension, Conflict, and Energy. Knowing the story of BO and other LoK games, I see it is a very random set of pillar guardians to be declared more insane than others. It may be just a graphical derp in the cutscene, but still... drat, now I'm curious *_* I will look into it nutri_void fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Apr 30, 2015 |
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Apr 30, 2015 21:17
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I think longer updates would be better if you want to leave time for people to discuss stuff.
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May 1, 2015 01:06
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Longer videos and longer gaps it is, then!
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May 1, 2015 14:54
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Noice, I only learned of this game some years after completing Soul Reaver 1 and 2 (which I played through close to their original release dates). I found it too difficult to go to the top-down gameplay stlye, so I've missed out on this, the first title in the series. I know the basics of the plot thanks to wiki's, but it's nice to see the game as intended. LoK is one of my favorite series. One of the first that I found to have competent voice acting, besides MGS of course. But then a quick search reveals that Blood Omen came out 2 years before MGS. Of course the VO was improved even more for Soul Reaver, which can a year after MGS. Has it really been 10 years since Tony Jay left us?!
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May 1, 2015 20:31
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Negatron00 posted:Noice, Yeah, it's been almost 10 years >< Should an actual continuation of the series be released someday, there would have to be recasting, and it would inevitably feel not right, even if the new voice actor were to nail the performance I remember playing Blood Omen for the first time (that actually was well after I have played all the other LoK games - I couldn't really play it on release due to me being only two years old back then), and the to-down view took a LOT of getting used to. As did the abscence of certain characters. And the controls. All the menus and selection screens in the game are tied to function keys, and I still mess them up. --- On an unrelated note, there will be an update tomorrow. It won't include any storyline advancement despite being about 30 minutes long, and will be basically a sequence of obtaining and showing off a bunch of new items and gameplay mechanics, so I don't feel bad about not leaving a larger gap between the updates in this case.
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May 1, 2015 21:01
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Alexeythegreat posted:I couldn't really play it on release due to me being only two years old back then drat i'm old...I was 14 in 96
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May 1, 2015 22:00
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Negatron00 posted:drat i'm old...I was 14 in 96 I feel the same way when I see people born in 2000s as teenagers
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May 1, 2015 22:56
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I had played this game years ago and enjoyed the hell out of it, even if the long distance blood sucking was goofy. Don't think I ever beat it though, so I hope you stick through to the end!
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May 2, 2015 00:38
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Negatron00 posted:drat i'm old...I was 14 in 96 And I'm two years older than that! 
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May 2, 2015 01:10
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I love this series to death. It's so well voice acted, especially for the time. I want to talk about a lot of things but as someone said above me, if you start talking about one thing you almost have to talk about everything. I'm looking forward to the next video, and hoping you continue through the whole series. Also, I'm glad you got the cutscenes to work properly. I remember weird lines going through them some years ago when Bentalbot and I were thinking about LP'ing this game after we finished Defiance. I'm happy that you're doing this series because I cannot listen to my commentary from that LP. It's all in jokes and nervous laughter and just ugh, I was so bad.
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May 2, 2015 09:39
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So, we have an update! In this case there is zero story advancement, we just collect a bunch of spells and powerups. They are essential to the progression, but not to the story. As such, this time my commentary consists mostly of semi-random (although sometimes interesting) trivia about the lore and development of Blood Omen. I also ended up making some cuts and speed-ups, it was just too painful without them, so I ended with 21 minutes instead of the "around 30" that I promised. As this update does not contain story, the next one will be posted fairly soon, within a couple of days. --------------------- marasamune posted:I love this series to death. It's so well voice acted, especially for the time. I want to talk about a lot of things but as someone said above me, if you start talking about one thing you almost have to talk about everything. I'm looking forward to the next video, and hoping you continue through the whole series. I never got them to work (not on Win8), I just edited them into the videos
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May 2, 2015 17:10
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Man, this game is quite different from the later games - while still having crazy good voice acting (for such an early title). I think I'd actually prefered if it stayed more like this and less 3D puzzle platformer (although there's certainly some of that here with the wolf form and spike pits...). Never thought that the gameplay meshed all that well with the story being told in any of these games.
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May 2, 2015 17:31
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Pimpmust posted:Man, this game is quite different from the later games - while still having crazy good voice acting (for such an early title).
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May 2, 2015 17:43
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anilEhilated posted:Soul Reaver 1 managed to mix exploration, platforming and puzzle solving really well. The others... less so. Unfortunately, SR1 also had, unlike the other 4 games, block puzzles ><
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May 2, 2015 17:49
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Alexeythegreat posted:Unfortunately, SR1 also had, unlike the other 4 games, block puzzles >< Oof, thanks Eidos...They just retooled the Tomb Raider engine for SR1 didn't they? I just remembered that there was a dreamcast version of SR1 Is the steam version ported from PS1 or the Dreamcast version? Anyway, sorry for not talking Blood Omen. I love the hokey CG.
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May 2, 2015 19:08
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