0 
0 Legacy of Kain: Ascendance, developed by Bit Bot Media and published by Crystal Dynamics, is a retro pixel-art 2D action platformer and the first original entry in the series in over two decades. The long-awaited follow-up arrives 23 years after 2003’s Legacy of Kain: Defiance, the franchise’s previous installment.
After three remasters in recent years, Soul Reaver 1, Soul Reaver 2, and Legacy of Kain: Defiance, fans of the franchise finally get to explore never-before-seen characters, places, and timelines. Which, at first, may sound intriguing and interesting, but unfortunately, new personalities like Elaleth do not feel like an organic addition to the lore. Instead, the execution falls flat, burdening a beloved franchise with retroactive continuities, or rather, I should say retroactive discontinuity.
Nosgoth Retold
As if medieval time-travelling demon-vampires acting out a Shakespearean tale of epic proportions wasn’t convoluted enough, developers Bit Bod Media inserted a new protagonist into the twist. Enter Elaleth, Raziel’s shady sister, who had never been mentioned before but is now somehow at the center of everything. Apparently, she is the hidden mastermind behind every crucial moment in Nosgoth’s twisted history.
It was Elaleth, we are now told, who nudged Kain into resurrecting the Sarafan inquisitors as his lieutenants. It was Elaleth who encouraged Raziel to flaunt his newly developed wings, knowing full well that Kain would execute him for it. Every meaningful domino effect in a story fans already loved, it turns out, was set off by a character who didn’t exist until last year’s off-game paperback comic book The Dead Shall Rise.
Most bitter of all, in my opinion, is that consequently, Kain and Raziel lose all agency, which was the whole point of their stories in the first place. To be, or not to be, the masters of their own destinies. It undermines the entire theme and plot of the five previous games!
Instead, Elaleth inherits a legacy she hasn’t earned, under motivations that barely hold together. Worst of all, none of it pays off as the game sidesteps any meaningful resolution in favor of teasing a sequel, leaving the audience with rewrites they didn’t ask for and answers they’ll have to wait even longer to get.
Gameplay
As action sidescrollers go, Legacy of Kain: Ascendance is not the worst I have ever played, but it is also lightyears away from some of the best in the genre. It plays like a Metroidvania, but a simplified version, in that players don’t need to revisit places, as there are barely any hidden treasures, and they’re too easy to find.
There is no way to look down, which doesn’t sound like a major problem, but is quite annoying when you don’t know if you’re falling onto the next platform or into the abyss. Also, some fires that light up the stage cause burning damage, but some other fires don’t. Inevitably, I ended up jumping over every campfire, torch, and lamp I encountered on my way, in fear of losing precious life points.
Level design feels simplified too, as players merely scroll right, fight whatever knight or vampire is in front of them, and keep going to the next mission. Overall, the gameplay feels uninspired, simple, and unchallenging.
I will say, it was pretty cool to rotate through all three characters, Elaleth, Raziel, and Kain, in different eras of their complicated lives. Players get to play Raziel as a Sarafan vampire hunter and as a Vampire Lord with wings.
Graphics & Audio
The art direction in Ascendance feels like three different teams submitted their pitches, and nobody said no to any of them. The core pixel art has a 2D retro Super Castlevania flavor that’s decent enough, but it clashes awkwardly with the anime-style dialogue portraits. Speaking of, the dialogue portraits look very amateurish and lack any detail.
The real standout, though, is the PS1 demake-style cutscenes. Particularly, Kain raiding the Sarafan crypts and resurrecting Raziel as his first lieutenant was a moment in the lore we had only ever heard about. These cutscenes look genuinely fantastic, and every time one ended, I found myself wondering why the entire game wasn’t created in this style. Just how low was the budget for this project?
Bouncing between three visual approaches at three different quality levels is a strange call, and it repeatedly pulled me out of a story that already had enough working against it.
The chime of the safepoints truly sounded like I was back in Nosgoth. Unfortunately, everything else on the sound front did not match the previous games. The voice acting lacked the gravitas and weight that its predecessors were known for. The Legacy of Kain series is best known for its theatrical, almost Shakespearean, dialogues. Sadly, the performances in this episode fell flat.
Longevity
It took me about six hours to finish the game on Normal Mode, which is rather slow. Considering that fans have been waiting for 23 years for a new Legacy of Kain release, a six-hour play duration is simply insufficient and unsatisfactory.
Final Thoughts
As is the case with most reviews, it is hard to stay unbiased and neutral when the reviewer is passionate about the subject. Legacy of Kain is definitely a game series that I hold very dear. I would go as far as to call it a revelatory experience, as it showed me at a young age what game lore and story can be all about. The heavy criticism for Ascendance comes from a place of love for the franchise, not of cynicism.
My final thoughts, in simple terms, are that Legacy of Kain: Ascendance does not do this long-standing series justice. Not in voice acting, not in story, not in graphics, in gameplay, or any other metric by which games are judged. I hope that game developers and publishers realize that there is a passionate fan base out there eager for more Raziel and Kain adventures, unveiling Nosgoth’s misty past, present, and future.
Legacy of Kain: Ascendance gets the Thumb Culture Bronze Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
YouTube | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Discord | Podcast
About Author
