Noclip's recent documentary shows just how much of the source material Crystal Dynamics held on to. That's such a rare thing and the remaster benefits so much from them.
back in the 90's, most of the gaming industry barely even thought of Brazil, but legacy of kain came here with an official brazillian portuguese dub. amazing game, one of the best of it's generation
Which games were pretty famous aswell in Brazil ? It sounds really nice that it is famous in brazil love it when cultures can share the Happyness about games.
@Schwenakasven in the 90's the ps1 was massively popular here, we loved soul reaver but also a lot of squaresoft releases and other turn based rpgs, like legend of dragoon and breath of fire. currently we are basically addicted to souls likes hahaha
The remaster was so good that it kept the "Torch" glitch from the PS1. The glitch is when you go to the spectral realm, there is a chance that a torch that is on the wall will move to the floor but still appear to be attached to the wall instead of lying down on the floor.
Raina Audron (who worked on the remaster and created The Ancient's Den) was in chat and said that they used the same engine and code from 1999 in the remaster.
I did not see it as glitch per se. You are moving to another realm and things change perspective there. And as was told by Elder God, time flows differently as well.
@@wisnoskijwhy? The entire point of remakes is to make them for nostalgia, recreating bugs in a remaster/remake shows an IMMENSE love of the game, and there is beauty in imperfection, something the AAA games industry seems to have forgotten about
The German dub in the first game has some issues, especially in the way the characters sound and some of the translations they did. But the second game? I think thats one of the best german voice works in any game.
French dub is by far the most memorable dub i have ever listen too in all my gaming life even after all those years haha our Raziel and kain voice actor are Legendary
So they actually had these behind the scenes outtakes of the VAs in the studio as hidden bonus content in Soul Reaver 2. I used to watch them all the time, over and over as a kid. I love this remaster SO SO much ❤
I was so surprised and delighted to see that not only was all the old concept art and even FAN ART was in the game, but the cut forges and levels from 1, in a PLAYABLE walkable space in both spectral and material realms. This is the best remaster I've ever seen. I'm so happy it's for one of my favorite games, and I'll finally be able to play 2 without constant crashes.
God that main menu with the Weeping Angels (vampires?) bit... Gave me nightmares when I was a kid. I wish the remaster team had made an HD Wallpaper of that and bundled it for free in the GOG release.
This makes me so happy knowing one of my childhood games was given the love it deserves. I’m def gonna end up grabbing the tomb raider collection on steam since it’s only 14.99.
"As I'm getting older, I don't see a game telling me it has hundreds of hours of content as a positive any more" Yeah. I agree; I used to talk about games and the cinema in terms of cost per hour experienced, but in the last ten years or so I've found more and more that what I care for is a strong story that tells itself within a few hours.10 hours, 20 hours? I have work, I have other hobbies - I can't spend all my time on a single thing.
Yeah I can't even tell you the last open world game I actually finished. I've probably quit every single one of them in the past 8 years. I've been playing a lot or ps2 recently and it's a breath of fresh air. The average game length is 10-15 hours. 20 is a long ps2 game. They actually hold my interest, I beat them, they're super fun, I don't get burnt out bored and quit.
@@ooooswain Also open world mean the developers had less time on everything so it is a good game at large instead of been great at smaller scale. And this does matter when you are someone who played video game since you were a small kid. I don't have time for something that is just good, it needs to be great.
This also very well highlights why Warframe 1999 feels so, so much better than the rest of the game, because it's a short and very tight cinematic experience under new team leadership, while most of Warframe is a grinding slog
I'm 37 but I still like long well written story experiences instead of some one afternoon 6-8h "story". I put into the two OwlCat Pathfinders a combined 2571 hours, plus 763h of BG3 too. If that single thing is good I'm all for it! :D
For me, cost per hour is only a good idea IF you are playing a f2p game, have decided to spend money on it and want to keep an eye on your spending at the same time.
I can't believe I never even considered that an exorbitantly long game with an insane amount of content is no longer a positive. It literally never crossed my mind until you mentioned it. The amount of games I have started and then just dropped 20-30 hours in because I realised the same monotonous gameplay loop is actually not enjoyable is A LOT. I recently played a game called NEVA, which took me 5.5 hours to complete 100% (very highly recommend if you love visual novel games), and it was such an enjoyable experience simply because it didn't drag me along for 10s of hours for no reason exploring an empty world and killing pointless enemies along the way, forcing me to do some kind of crafting system and collect random materials I probably never used to begin with. Very enlightening video, thanks mate.
People tend to get caught up in wanting to be part of a game world they like for 10’s of hours, hundreds of hours etc, that it becomes easy to forget that something can still be short, but have way more value because it’s well made
@jslaughter95 we also have dozens of big budget games released a year, hundreds of indies per year and a literal backlog of 50 years to go through. I'd take 50 hours of mediocre gameplay 20 years ago, when I had nothing to play. Now, I am saddened by my unplayed Steam library
I don't mind if the game is big, but I need the game to keep surprising me. I actually dropped Ghost of Tsushima in the second zone because I realized the game showed me everything it had to offer, and the story wasn't any more interesting. so I felt like I had no reason to keep playing it. compare it with for example Sekiro, where when you feel like you mastered the mechanics the game throws a wrench at you and gives you new challenges, and with it, new mechanics, the game does it like 3 or 4 times throughout the game, and when you finish you didn't even see everything the game had to offer, and the game is HUGE.
Long games can still have a place if it never feels like the game is wasting your time. Baldur's Gate 3 averages 100 hours for a first playthrough but you rarely see anyone complain about that because it is all earned. Same goes for The Witcher 3 or the Persona series. Meanwhile Assassin's Creed Odyssey was 30 hours too long and FF7 Rebirth dragged one for at least a dozen hours longer than it needed to. More games need to realize that scope creep is a thing and have to pull back. I would rather have 5 outstanding 10 hour experiences like Space Marine 2 than one of all the bloated "AAA" detritus these days that want to be 50+ hours long.
I'm happy for a game to be shorter if it is compelling, but I feel insulted when a game you can complete 100% in 50 hours is sold for the same price as a game that has more than double the content. If God of War Ragnarok costs A$125 and takes 100 hours to complete, then Spider-Man 2 that can be completed in half the time should not cost the same amount.
SPOILER, I love the moment where Kain and Raziel "unite" against the Elder God and the former witnesses it's true form. Those exchanges are my favourite in the series. Such great voice acting.
I'm SO glad to see this game is getting a ton of love. I do hope this will give them reason to do the third as well. While not the best of them it does tie up the games (at least as well as they can or probably ever will be)
Tony Jay will be missed. The fact that they even have the Smokestack is amazing. For anyone who doesn't know, it was an infamous cut area that can be actually be seen in the distance of the opening cutscene. It was cut in alpha and only seen from a few old magazines pics until people got ahold of a prototype of the game and datamined it.
Those outtakes "How the Sausage is made" are so rare, so BRILLIANT that it's an absolute gem.... totally a unprecedented HAPPY ACCIDENT. Cheers to you mate! What a great gift to have them ask you to do that for the holidays! 🎉 All the best to you and your family this holiday season!
Oh man, hearing Tony Jay's voice unlocked feelings of soul reaver I've forgotten. I don't remember anything from the game but the voices..er voice actors. This might drag me away from poe2 for a bit. Possible spoiler below for anyone that cares. Kain was basically 90s marvel cinematic universe Thanos but he didn't want to get rid of half, he wanted ALL gone and he succeeded.
I remember honing my english from playing this game when I was 11-12 years old... as an argentinian this made feel like I was reading Shakespeare in english class again, and now as an adult I totally get that "shakespearean" is EXACTLY what they were aiming for, and it always tickles me the right way. Timeless saga.
6:43 "Oh, I have no doubt of that. The question is... am I in their presence now?" The writing, the acting... this series is such a treasure! Glad they included all this extra content. It certainly isn't a perfect remaster but it is amazing
Just started my own playthrough. Not sure if i ever played it by my self when i was a kid but played and watch my brother play it countless tines. Absolute classic. I truly wish studios would be given the chance to create games like this in the modern era and focus on only the essentials rather than jam pack every game with every possible mechanic. All the way until every game ends up as a different version of the same compromise as the next one. Love your content! Love to see how happy you are for this ❤
I have never played the game before, but I have heard much about it. Now you are making it interested in the game, and the respect these people have given to the game makes it look even better.
Dark Messiah always comes to mind for good tutorial level teaches you to interact with the environment, sneak up on enemies, kick them off ledges, and then finally to use your sword while they're on the ground for an instant kill the very first enemy teaches you to play dirty which is exactly how you want to go about combat for the rest of the game, we aint here for honourable combat
12:00 as a dad. I need shorter games. A 90 hours game would take me months. I play sometimes a couple of hours in a day, some days 0 hours. I just have no free time, and the time I have is often prioritised to spend with my wife.
Neither a dad or a husband, but now that I'm in my mid 30's I fully get this. A friend bought POE2 early access and gifted it to me to play with my mates, and while they all have 50+ hours since release I have about 5.5. I just struggle to find the time to spare for games the older I get. (I heard you start to gain the time back in your late 60's)
@@doodwasalreadytaken Same here, my brother got me PoE2 for us to play together not seeming to understand that I have so little spare time. We manage to play about 1 hour each night unless I need to wake up earlier than usual the next morning. He has another two characters over halfway through the game because he just has far more time to play.
I remember sitting down and playing Soul Reaver with my brother back in early high school. The first time I tossed an enemy up onto a spike sticking out of a shield that was hanging up on a wall, I knew it was going to be a great thing.
I backed the comic on kickstarter, I love this series so much. Still have my unopened raziel figure from an eternity ago. Did get a copy from them as well got the remaster and god I love this series and what they've done with remastered purely beautiful!!! I would love to see legacy of kain, the o.g. and everything to defiance and beyond remastered. Love this so much
Maybe theres more too it than I am realising but when you say they "found" the out take footage, that's stuff I had seen before, I think it was on Soulreaver 2s disk I remember watching them over and over again as a kid... good times.
Hit the nail on the head with the part about length. New games are 2-5 minutes of gameplay, screen transition to 30-90 second cutscene, 2-5 minutes of gameplay, 2-5 minutes of cutscenes. I do not want to watch a movie. I’m so sick of games trying to tell me a story instead of letting me play.
Never played these games before, but hearing about them throughout the years and especially now with how it's become clear how much love people have for them I'm excited to do so. Already got this remaster, just have a few games to finish first and then jump head-first into them!
So cool! The cut content reminds me of how Insomniac would include a secret "Insomniac Museum" level in old Ratchet & Clank games with unfinished concepts and cut content for people to go and explore. I've never played the Soul Reaver games but I'll honestly give it a look, because the care with which these have been remastered looks top tier.
Nightdive Studios, who have done some retro remasters of a few classic shooters, have started doing this bonus content thing as well, It started with Quake 2 and more recently their Doom 1+2 modern port. It makes me so giddy to have a vault of unseen concept art, unused models and even playable levels that were earlier, cut iterations, cut entirely or exclusively used for demos at conventions. Every remaster should strive to do this!
Tony Jay has such an iconic voice, hearing it again instantly brought me back to that early oughts golden age of gaming. Sacrifice was one of my favorite games of that period and hearing the voice of Mithras again was really a treat.
I love playing these games so much! It just great to revist these timeless classics all over again, and Aspyr and Saber did an incredible job remastering these two. Now I want them to remaster Blood Omen 1 & 2 in the near future.
Ordinarily, I WOULD argue about the new graphics making for a less faithful presentation to the original with it being really bright, but....they let you have the original graphics. The one complaint I had against this is just gone because they didn't get rid of the old style. PS1 remasters like this and Croc NEED these options.
I think Ocarina of Time does a great job of introducing mechanics, especially considering if was the first of its kind at the time. Kokiri forest has signs posted and npcs teach you how things work, then you use them to find the sword, it also rewards you fooling around and exploring with rupees, getting you in the state of mind that if you go looking, you will find things. i love that game so much
Another example is God of War 1. It can take more than 20 minutes, but organically teaches the controls, how to fight bosses and minions, and to explore the map.
Games being under 10 hours was the norm back in the day. The thing is though, we spent 100's of hours playing those games cause they were worth replaying over and over again. If a certain part was boring, it wouldn't last for hours. All of your favorite parts were just a few hours away, not 20+ hours away. Games had great stories and narratives, they weren't focused on a million different mechanics. Now it feels like every game these days has a crafting mechanic, a leveling mechanic, and mechanics for those mechanics.
This is revisionism. Games weren't replayed for hundreds of hours because they were "worth" it. It was because you only had so many games to play in the first.place as a kid with limited access to money. And more importantly, developers intentionally designed games to be grindy, difficult, and waste your time. You were supposed to replay level 1-1 in Mario a thousand times.
My goal in life is to be able to talk about something as passionately as Josh talks aboht Soul Reaver. It too has a special place in my heart. My hype when Defiance released and we got to play as both Kain and Raziel was off the chart. Simon Templeman as Kain still one of my all time faves
I actually love Skyrim tutorial and the first hour of escaping from Helgen. Except the part where you sit in the cart, but that's more like unskipable intro
I was planning to get this already, but holy shit you've sold me on getting it right now. I had it on the Dreamcast way back in the day, and I remember the story being awesome, not to mention the voice acting is absolutely incredible. Really look forward to playing it again.
The Legacy of Kain games, Soul Reaver 1 especially, are a high point in video game writing. The dialogue is so perfectly crafted, it's like high-English, almost Shakespearean. The fact i can remember so much of it, line for line after having not played it for more than 20 years, is testament to how good it is.
I found out about Sour Reaver from Josh. Some time later I've heard about some game that had the title kind of similar and got sad because it was Soul Reaver. Imagine my surprise when some time later I find out this gem got remastered. So good. As a goth guy, Josh has my thanks for introducing me to something cool that I didn't know, that's vampire related. Woah Spartan Total Warrior mentioned. This game is so good and so niche.
Oh, that's such a relief to hear. Legacy of Kain is my game -- it's the series that got me into gaming in the first place -- and as overjoyed I was to hear about the remaster, I was worried as well. The VA outtakes have been floating around the internet, but to have them preserved and collected in one place is fantastic.
joshs original soul reaver video made me go out and buy a ps1, crt, and an original copy just to play it. Im so glad this remaster exists in all its glory, care and passion so that even more people can experience it. The gaming industry NEEDS more releases like this one. Bravo team and thank you josh for introducing so many new fans to this wonderful series.
so much love was put into these games, the original and the remasters. Im so glad someone picked up on the excellent and resilient Soul Reaver community and together they remade two of my favorite games, which helped me a lot while learning english. Thank you Saber.
I remember i was super into this game as a kid but there was no buzz around it here in Ireland, or at least my friend group. I only got it because my dad used to just bring suitcases full of pirates video games and movies when i was a kid.
Nightdive did the same with the Quake 2 remaster and that's why I love it so much. They werent obnoxious with it so it keeps everything you love but now fits your screen and looks great on your modern PC.
This game is amazing!!! Created the template for all games we know today. God of war .onimusha, tom raider, and so on. Amy Higgins helped shape the game industry
to talk about replaying the opening in games. the one i love replaying the opening was sly cooper opening level. sly cooper 2 to be more specific when i was younger.
The outtakes were actually on the original games! I remember watching them on the Dreamcast version of Soul Reaver after I beat it. As a small child I was absolutely mesmerized.
Man I absolutely loved this series, I hope they remaster Defiance next. I am going to be real, I have never played a game that has matched the vibe of this series till I played Darksiders 1 (Also great series btw highly recommended)
i shed a tear of pure joy when i saw the announcment and as i dived into the remaster i enjoyed every dam second of it like i didnt done it like 20 yeahrs i truly feldt like 12 again playing till 4am and not regretting it it was wonderfull
Love the attention this series is getting, as you may guess by my username, Raziel is my favorite videogame character. hope we also get blood omen and defiance remasters!
I honestly cannot wait to boot this up..this game and its dialogue lives rent free in my head nearly 2 decades later ..this story was just perfection.... this remaster has given me something i didn't think id get ..that we may get to see the story finished..... the first bitter taste of that terrible illusion....hope
First time in a long time that I preordered a game. Absolutely blown away. The graphics have been changed just enough to make them look tidy, but still retain the feel of the original. Even things like the drawn distance has been left in, which adds to the atmosphere (one of the things I wasn’t keen on about the Medievil remake, although I thought that was great). You feel like the team who put this together genuinely love the series, and it’s great that they reached out and really wanted your opinion. Absolutely love this game, and it’s well worth the £20 asking price.
Man, I’m so glad I backed the graphic novel. This remaster is brilliant. I’m reliving my childhood. The fire we lost man, it’s here - remnants just hitting me at 90 miles per hour when I get to the good parts.
Tony Jay would have made a perfect Odium in an animated Stormlight Archive series, may he rest in piece. Great video! I decided to throw it on and just run around Nosgoth a bit in Soul Reaver 1 while I watch.
It's a great and much needed update for a couple of beloved games from a long dormant franchise. But in terms of technical and aesthetical enhancements, the ShadowMan release by Nightdive is far more accomplished example of how to revive a ps1/n64 era 3rd person game.
I’ve fallen into an abyss fighting Dumar 🤣 been stretched after defeating Kain to get the sword. I climbed the wall ran through the left door and fell stretching my torso.. love it 🤔😁
I got interested in the Soul Reaver franchise from your original video, so I pounced on the remake immediately. I'm genuinely in love, can't wait to finish 2 and go back to play Defiance. I really hope you make a video on one of the other games in the franchise someday!
I'm gonna tell you Mr Strife, my initial intention was to listen your commentary about the remastered and go on with my day, but the exquisit passione with you talk about Legacy of Kain make me want listen the entire stream. Big fan of Legacy of Kain too by the way, in fact, funny story: a friend of mine never play this games, but its very passionate about story telling, so I gift him the remastered to make him experience the the Soul Reaver duology, however, since the first game can by a little hard with the puzzle I guide him during his playthrough, and seeing him exploring Nosgoth make me so nostalgic that I started the game too. P.S.: Beautiful voice Mr. Strife.
@@RepliAmras BO2 story is definitely not as stellar as the other games;nevertheless it is crucial to understanding the story of Defiance and as such it should be remastered as well.
Man I remember playing this game as a young child back in the day. Never beat it but didn't care as a child since I just was playing for fun. So excited this got the remake it deserved, definitely going to play it for christmas!
This is excellent. Cut content and behind the scenes media should be mandatory for a remaster, not just a graphical update. I'd be so much more interested in remasters if they became little lore repositories for my old memories
Even though I would absolutely love a remake of the entire Legacy of Kain series (with the old voice files as an option you can toggle on because they're iconic if you don't like a potential new cast), I am extremely happy we got a faithful remaster.
6:00 - Those outtake videos are actually from the original Soul Reaver 2 release on PS2. There was a short period where DVD-like extra features were fairly common in games and SR2 had some pretty memorable videos of the voice actors getting up to shenanigans included in a bonus menu. Defiance also had some, I think. So it's not quite "lost media," it's a thing that the games they're remastering already included as a bonus. Neat to see it again, though.
8:00 - When I heard they'd included restored versions of the cut Soul Reaver areas that you could explore, I bought the game on the spot. I've been a Legacy of Kain fan since the games were actively being released, so I was also following the Lost Worlds website back in the day *as* discoveries were being made. The development lore of this series fascinated me back then and still does now. To be able to explore those areas is worth the price of admission by itself, for someone like me.
Noclip's recent documentary shows just how much of the source material Crystal Dynamics held on to. That's such a rare thing and the remaster benefits so much from them.
back in the 90's, most of the gaming industry barely even thought of Brazil, but legacy of kain came here with an official brazillian portuguese dub. amazing game, one of the best of it's generation
Which games were pretty famous aswell in Brazil ? It sounds really nice that it is famous in brazil love it when cultures can share the Happyness about games.
@Schwenakasven in the 90's the ps1 was massively popular here, we loved soul reaver but also a lot of squaresoft releases and other turn based rpgs, like legend of dragoon and breath of fire. currently we are basically addicted to souls likes hahaha
@Schwenakasven from the top of my mind, I can think about Top Gear series, Metal Slug, DKC and of course International Superstar Soccer
Soul Reaver and Max Payne 1 dubbed, shit was amazing
Castlevania SoTN was also translated, no?
The stream was so dope, the fact that the director even showed up in the stream was such an added bonus :3
Wanna watch the whole thing. Does Josh have vods channel or might i have to go to twitch?
@@rad_rex go and try Josh Strife Replays 😉
@@rad_rex There is the Josh Strife Replays channel! And SoulReaver is on it.
@@rad_rex ruclips.net/video/c1sRUAIkOV8/видео.html
Raina is a real treasure of the Legacy of Kain fandom. I have great respect for her.
The remaster was so good that it kept the "Torch" glitch from the PS1. The glitch is when you go to the spectral realm, there is a chance that a torch that is on the wall will move to the floor but still appear to be attached to the wall instead of lying down on the floor.
Raina Audron (who worked on the remaster and created The Ancient's Den) was in chat and said that they used the same engine and code from 1999 in the remaster.
That does not sound like a good thing.
I did not see it as glitch per se. You are moving to another realm and things change perspective there. And as was told by Elder God, time flows differently as well.
Haha I noticed that!
@@wisnoskijwhy? The entire point of remakes is to make them for nostalgia, recreating bugs in a remaster/remake shows an IMMENSE love of the game, and there is beauty in imperfection, something the AAA games industry seems to have forgotten about
The voice acting for Legacy of Kains belongs to the best ever made - to this day. Even the German dubbed version is stellar.
Naaah, german Raziel in SR1 sounds kinda goofy. He grows on you but he sounds off to me.. they found a better VA in SR2
The German dub in the first game has some issues, especially in the way the characters sound and some of the translations they did. But the second game? I think thats one of the best german voice works in any game.
That and Defiance, yes !
French dub is by far the most memorable dub i have ever listen too in all my gaming life even after all those years haha our Raziel and kain voice actor are Legendary
@@erynies6129 and to think, that you can just switch between the dubs on the fly shows the care put into the remaster
Those outtakes are like chicken soup for the soul. Loved these actors growing up and it still stands
So they actually had these behind the scenes outtakes of the VAs in the studio as hidden bonus content in Soul Reaver 2. I used to watch them all the time, over and over as a kid. I love this remaster SO SO much ❤
Same. I loved watching it so much. "Janos no!" Oh that's your line
@@name_redunded "I'm dying, give me a break here!" XD
Yup, only on PS2 though. The PC version came out on a single CD, so there was no room.
@@mantrox Huh, that’s interesting. I never played the PC version, so I never knew that.
Michael Bell has some all-star lines in those outtakes. "I could see the rise in your toga." 😂
I was so surprised and delighted to see that not only was all the old concept art and even FAN ART was in the game, but the cut forges and levels from 1, in a PLAYABLE walkable space in both spectral and material realms. This is the best remaster I've ever seen. I'm so happy it's for one of my favorite games, and I'll finally be able to play 2 without constant crashes.
God that main menu with the Weeping Angels (vampires?) bit... Gave me nightmares when I was a kid. I wish the remaster team had made an HD Wallpaper of that and bundled it for free in the GOG release.
You could get it as a wallpaper on a jailbroken iPod touch back in the day😂
This makes me so happy knowing one of my childhood games was given the love it deserves.
I’m def gonna end up grabbing the tomb raider collection on steam since it’s only 14.99.
Raina did a fantastic job helping out with this remaster honestly without her help I feel it wouldn’t have been as great.
"As I'm getting older, I don't see a game telling me it has hundreds of hours of content as a positive any more" Yeah. I agree; I used to talk about games and the cinema in terms of cost per hour experienced, but in the last ten years or so I've found more and more that what I care for is a strong story that tells itself within a few hours.10 hours, 20 hours? I have work, I have other hobbies - I can't spend all my time on a single thing.
Yeah I can't even tell you the last open world game I actually finished. I've probably quit every single one of them in the past 8 years. I've been playing a lot or ps2 recently and it's a breath of fresh air. The average game length is 10-15 hours. 20 is a long ps2 game. They actually hold my interest, I beat them, they're super fun, I don't get burnt out bored and quit.
@@ooooswain Also open world mean the developers had less time on everything so it is a good game at large instead of been great at smaller scale. And this does matter when you are someone who played video game since you were a small kid. I don't have time for something that is just good, it needs to be great.
This also very well highlights why Warframe 1999 feels so, so much better than the rest of the game, because it's a short and very tight cinematic experience under new team leadership, while most of Warframe is a grinding slog
I'm 37 but I still like long well written story experiences instead of some one afternoon 6-8h "story". I put into the two OwlCat Pathfinders a combined 2571 hours, plus 763h of BG3 too. If that single thing is good I'm all for it! :D
For me, cost per hour is only a good idea IF you are playing a f2p game, have decided to spend money on it and want to keep an eye on your spending at the same time.
I can't believe I never even considered that an exorbitantly long game with an insane amount of content is no longer a positive. It literally never crossed my mind until you mentioned it. The amount of games I have started and then just dropped 20-30 hours in because I realised the same monotonous gameplay loop is actually not enjoyable is A LOT.
I recently played a game called NEVA, which took me 5.5 hours to complete 100% (very highly recommend if you love visual novel games), and it was such an enjoyable experience simply because it didn't drag me along for 10s of hours for no reason exploring an empty world and killing pointless enemies along the way, forcing me to do some kind of crafting system and collect random materials I probably never used to begin with. Very enlightening video, thanks mate.
People tend to get caught up in wanting to be part of a game world they like for 10’s of hours, hundreds of hours etc, that it becomes easy to forget that something can still be short, but have way more value because it’s well made
@jslaughter95 we also have dozens of big budget games released a year, hundreds of indies per year and a literal backlog of 50 years to go through.
I'd take 50 hours of mediocre gameplay 20 years ago, when I had nothing to play. Now, I am saddened by my unplayed Steam library
I don't mind if the game is big, but I need the game to keep surprising me. I actually dropped Ghost of Tsushima in the second zone because I realized the game showed me everything it had to offer, and the story wasn't any more interesting. so I felt like I had no reason to keep playing it. compare it with for example Sekiro, where when you feel like you mastered the mechanics the game throws a wrench at you and gives you new challenges, and with it, new mechanics, the game does it like 3 or 4 times throughout the game, and when you finish you didn't even see everything the game had to offer, and the game is HUGE.
Long games can still have a place if it never feels like the game is wasting your time. Baldur's Gate 3 averages 100 hours for a first playthrough but you rarely see anyone complain about that because it is all earned. Same goes for The Witcher 3 or the Persona series. Meanwhile Assassin's Creed Odyssey was 30 hours too long and FF7 Rebirth dragged one for at least a dozen hours longer than it needed to. More games need to realize that scope creep is a thing and have to pull back. I would rather have 5 outstanding 10 hour experiences like Space Marine 2 than one of all the bloated "AAA" detritus these days that want to be 50+ hours long.
I'm happy for a game to be shorter if it is compelling, but I feel insulted when a game you can complete 100% in 50 hours is sold for the same price as a game that has more than double the content. If God of War Ragnarok costs A$125 and takes 100 hours to complete, then Spider-Man 2 that can be completed in half the time should not cost the same amount.
Tony Jay's voice acting is so legendary. Rip
SPOILER, I love the moment where Kain and Raziel "unite" against the Elder God and the former witnesses it's true form. Those exchanges are my favourite in the series. Such great voice acting.
F
Rene is also dead. He brought so much gentlesness and charm to Janos...
As a Legacy of Kain fan this remaster was a real treat. More please. 🙏
I'm SO glad to see this game is getting a ton of love. I do hope this will give them reason to do the third as well. While not the best of them it does tie up the games (at least as well as they can or probably ever will be)
The chills i felt when they started talking in that lost media, i am so excited to replay these games!
One of the greatest series of all time is fucking BACK BABY!LET'S GOOOOOO!
Tony Jay will be missed. The fact that they even have the Smokestack is amazing. For anyone who doesn't know, it was an infamous cut area that can be actually be seen in the distance of the opening cutscene. It was cut in alpha and only seen from a few old magazines pics until people got ahold of a prototype of the game and datamined it.
One of the biggest LoK youtuber worked on this remaster. So happy when I found that out. Well deserved!
No kidding? Was it raina audron?
@@superdarklink Yea, it was. Noclip documentary went into it a bit
@@brandonn161 oh hell yeah
Those outtakes "How the Sausage is made" are so rare, so BRILLIANT that it's an absolute gem.... totally a unprecedented HAPPY ACCIDENT. Cheers to you mate! What a great gift to have them ask you to do that for the holidays! 🎉 All the best to you and your family this holiday season!
Oh man, hearing Tony Jay's voice unlocked feelings of soul reaver I've forgotten. I don't remember anything from the game but the voices..er voice actors. This might drag me away from poe2 for a bit.
Possible spoiler below for anyone that cares.
Kain was basically 90s marvel cinematic universe Thanos but he didn't want to get rid of half, he wanted ALL gone and he succeeded.
Well, this would have flown completely under my radar. Now I am happy that I subscribed to this channel. Bought it immediately. Thx Josh. Thx Visa.
I really like these outtakes and extra content seeing these great voice actors interact which in a sense are being immortalized by this medium.
Valve have made a good QA business out of the philosophy that the first hour is 99% of any game's success.
I remember honing my english from playing this game when I was 11-12 years old... as an argentinian this made feel like I was reading Shakespeare in english class again, and now as an adult I totally get that "shakespearean" is EXACTLY what they were aiming for, and it always tickles me the right way. Timeless saga.
6:43 "Oh, I have no doubt of that. The question is... am I in their presence now?"
The writing, the acting... this series is such a treasure! Glad they included all this extra content. It certainly isn't a perfect remaster but it is amazing
Just started my own playthrough. Not sure if i ever played it by my self when i was a kid but played and watch my brother play it countless tines. Absolute classic. I truly wish studios would be given the chance to create games like this in the modern era and focus on only the essentials rather than jam pack every game with every possible mechanic. All the way until every game ends up as a different version of the same compromise as the next one.
Love your content! Love to see how happy you are for this ❤
That opening cutscene never fails to get me hyped, even after 25 years its still fantastic
I have never played the game before, but I have heard much about it. Now you are making it interested in the game, and the respect these people have given to the game makes it look even better.
Dark Messiah always comes to mind for good tutorial level
teaches you to interact with the environment, sneak up on enemies, kick them off ledges, and then finally to use your sword while they're on the ground for an instant kill
the very first enemy teaches you to play dirty which is exactly how you want to go about combat for the rest of the game, we aint here for honourable combat
DMMM is such a gem
12:00 as a dad. I need shorter games. A 90 hours game would take me months.
I play sometimes a couple of hours in a day, some days 0 hours.
I just have no free time, and the time I have is often prioritised to spend with my wife.
Neither a dad or a husband, but now that I'm in my mid 30's I fully get this. A friend bought POE2 early access and gifted it to me to play with my mates, and while they all have 50+ hours since release I have about 5.5. I just struggle to find the time to spare for games the older I get. (I heard you start to gain the time back in your late 60's)
Men were blessed with needing fewer hours sleep. This is when I game 😅
@@doodwasalreadytaken Same here, my brother got me PoE2 for us to play together not seeming to understand that I have so little spare time. We manage to play about 1 hour each night unless I need to wake up earlier than usual the next morning. He has another two characters over halfway through the game because he just has far more time to play.
I remember sitting down and playing Soul Reaver with my brother back in early high school. The first time I tossed an enemy up onto a spike sticking out of a shield that was hanging up on a wall, I knew it was going to be a great thing.
As soon as I heard the voice of Tony Jay I was taken back, Josh is right, these truly are two of the best games ever created.
I backed the comic on kickstarter, I love this series so much. Still have my unopened raziel figure from an eternity ago. Did get a copy from them as well got the remaster and god I love this series and what they've done with remastered purely beautiful!!!
I would love to see legacy of kain, the o.g. and everything to defiance and beyond remastered. Love this so much
6:19 and the fact that they are doing their scenes together is interesting. I get the sense that that isn't as common anymore
Seeing the voice actors is so cool. The VA in this game was really good.
"The coin you tossed has struck the earth."
"The pawn you discarded has reached the end of the board."
Maybe theres more too it than I am realising but when you say they "found" the out take footage, that's stuff I had seen before, I think it was on Soulreaver 2s disk I remember watching them over and over again as a kid... good times.
Hit the nail on the head with the part about length. New games are 2-5 minutes of gameplay, screen transition to 30-90 second cutscene, 2-5 minutes of gameplay, 2-5 minutes of cutscenes.
I do not want to watch a movie. I’m so sick of games trying to tell me a story instead of letting me play.
Never played these games before, but hearing about them throughout the years and especially now with how it's become clear how much love people have for them I'm excited to do so. Already got this remaster, just have a few games to finish first and then jump head-first into them!
All of those studio outtakes were available on the Original Soul Reaver 2 in the extra feature section of the disc.
So cool! The cut content reminds me of how Insomniac would include a secret "Insomniac Museum" level in old Ratchet & Clank games with unfinished concepts and cut content for people to go and explore.
I've never played the Soul Reaver games but I'll honestly give it a look, because the care with which these have been remastered looks top tier.
Nightdive Studios, who have done some retro remasters of a few classic shooters, have started doing this bonus content thing as well, It started with Quake 2 and more recently their Doom 1+2 modern port. It makes me so giddy to have a vault of unseen concept art, unused models and even playable levels that were earlier, cut iterations, cut entirely or exclusively used for demos at conventions. Every remaster should strive to do this!
Tony Jay has such an iconic voice, hearing it again instantly brought me back to that early oughts golden age of gaming. Sacrifice was one of my favorite games of that period and hearing the voice of Mithras again was really a treat.
I love playing these games so much! It just great to revist these timeless classics all over again, and Aspyr and Saber did an incredible job remastering these two. Now I want them to remaster Blood Omen 1 & 2 in the near future.
Kain refused the sacrifice
I have picked this up, the devs did such a great job I feel the need to support them.
Those outtakes of the voice actors having fun making the game is exactly what game development should be.
Both of those guys were voice actors in Warcraft as well.
The narrator of the original WoW intro scenes, and Medivh.
Thanks for loving the few remaining people who love to make games
Ordinarily, I WOULD argue about the new graphics making for a less faithful presentation to the original with it being really bright, but....they let you have the original graphics. The one complaint I had against this is just gone because they didn't get rid of the old style. PS1 remasters like this and Croc NEED these options.
I think Ocarina of Time does a great job of introducing mechanics, especially considering if was the first of its kind at the time. Kokiri forest has signs posted and npcs teach you how things work, then you use them to find the sword, it also rewards you fooling around and exploring with rupees, getting you in the state of mind that if you go looking, you will find things. i love that game so much
I'm so stoked for you for this. That's for updating folks like me who simply love watching you enjoy the games.
Holy crap, seeing the outtakes is awesome.
Another example is God of War 1. It can take more than 20 minutes, but organically teaches the controls, how to fight bosses and minions, and to explore the map.
Games being under 10 hours was the norm back in the day. The thing is though, we spent 100's of hours playing those games cause they were worth replaying over and over again. If a certain part was boring, it wouldn't last for hours. All of your favorite parts were just a few hours away, not 20+ hours away. Games had great stories and narratives, they weren't focused on a million different mechanics. Now it feels like every game these days has a crafting mechanic, a leveling mechanic, and mechanics for those mechanics.
This is revisionism. Games weren't replayed for hundreds of hours because they were "worth" it. It was because you only had so many games to play in the first.place as a kid with limited access to money.
And more importantly, developers intentionally designed games to be grindy, difficult, and waste your time. You were supposed to replay level 1-1 in Mario a thousand times.
My goal in life is to be able to talk about something as passionately as Josh talks aboht Soul Reaver. It too has a special place in my heart. My hype when Defiance released and we got to play as both Kain and Raziel was off the chart. Simon Templeman as Kain still one of my all time faves
So glad you are getting approached by such great games. Love the channel, love the content and I can't wait to play this game.
I was obsessed with this as a kid, i saw the remaster the other night, my jaw dropped but i was gonna wait for gameplay footage
30s into the video, I'm sold as SOON as you mentioned they're the same folks who remastered the recent Tomb Raider 1-3 games. You're BLOWING MY MIND
I actually love Skyrim tutorial and the first hour of escaping from Helgen. Except the part where you sit in the cart, but that's more like unskipable intro
I was planning to get this already, but holy shit you've sold me on getting it right now. I had it on the Dreamcast way back in the day, and I remember the story being awesome, not to mention the voice acting is absolutely incredible. Really look forward to playing it again.
The Legacy of Kain games, Soul Reaver 1 especially, are a high point in video game writing. The dialogue is so perfectly crafted, it's like high-English, almost Shakespearean. The fact i can remember so much of it, line for line after having not played it for more than 20 years, is testament to how good it is.
I found out about Sour Reaver from Josh. Some time later I've heard about some game that had the title kind of similar and got sad because it was Soul Reaver. Imagine my surprise when some time later I find out this gem got remastered. So good. As a goth guy, Josh has my thanks for introducing me to something cool that I didn't know, that's vampire related.
Woah Spartan Total Warrior mentioned. This game is so good and so niche.
Oh, that's such a relief to hear. Legacy of Kain is my game -- it's the series that got me into gaming in the first place -- and as overjoyed I was to hear about the remaster, I was worried as well. The VA outtakes have been floating around the internet, but to have them preserved and collected in one place is fantastic.
joshs original soul reaver video made me go out and buy a ps1, crt, and an original copy just to play it. Im so glad this remaster exists in all its glory, care and passion so that even more people can experience it. The gaming industry NEEDS more releases like this one. Bravo team and thank you josh for introducing so many new fans to this wonderful series.
so much love was put into these games, the original and the remasters. Im so glad someone picked up on the excellent and resilient Soul Reaver community and together they remade two of my favorite games, which helped me a lot while learning english. Thank you Saber.
I remember i was super into this game as a kid but there was no buzz around it here in Ireland, or at least my friend group. I only got it because my dad used to just bring suitcases full of pirates video games and movies when i was a kid.
I genuinely hope new people enjoy this and fund the remasters/remakes of the rest of the games. This series deserves recognition.
Nightdive did the same with the Quake 2 remaster and that's why I love it so much. They werent obnoxious with it so it keeps everything you love but now fits your screen and looks great on your modern PC.
The way they make the first level so good is they make sure to develop it last so they have all the skills and knowledge put into their hook level
the original looks gritty and dirty, the remaster looks cartoony and clean
seeing how Josh is so excited and telling us all the amazing details of the remaster convinced me to get the game.
This game is amazing!!! Created the template for all games we know today. God of war
.onimusha, tom raider, and so on. Amy Higgins helped shape the game industry
to talk about replaying the opening in games. the one i love replaying the opening was sly cooper opening level. sly cooper 2 to be more specific when i was younger.
even as someone who doesnt show much emotion i could see josh was so happy about this
Love this remaster! I never could beat the first game when I was a kid, until yesterday! Working on 2 now.
I love going back to the Soul Reaver video and listening to it. Ive been waiting for you to talk about this!!!
The outtakes were actually on the original games! I remember watching them on the Dreamcast version of Soul Reaver after I beat it. As a small child I was absolutely mesmerized.
Man I absolutely loved this series, I hope they remaster Defiance next. I am going to be real, I have never played a game that has matched the vibe of this series till I played Darksiders 1 (Also great series btw highly recommended)
i shed a tear of pure joy when i saw the announcment and as i dived into the remaster i enjoyed every dam second of it like i didnt done it like 20 yeahrs
i truly feldt like 12 again playing till 4am and not regretting it
it was wonderfull
Love the attention this series is getting, as you may guess by my username, Raziel is my favorite videogame character. hope we also get blood omen and defiance remasters!
So I know one of the folks that worked on the music for these games .. I had no idea there was a remaster for these!
I honestly cannot wait to boot this up..this game and its dialogue lives rent free in my head nearly 2 decades later ..this story was just perfection.... this remaster has given me something i didn't think id get ..that we may get to see the story finished..... the first bitter taste of that terrible illusion....hope
Thank you Josh. Went to steam and added the remaster on my wishist. This is as much of a high praise i can get
Wasn't it released on December 10th, though?
First time in a long time that I preordered a game. Absolutely blown away. The graphics have been changed just enough to make them look tidy, but still retain the feel of the original. Even things like the drawn distance has been left in, which adds to the atmosphere (one of the things I wasn’t keen on about the Medievil remake, although I thought that was great). You feel like the team who put this together genuinely love the series, and it’s great that they reached out and really wanted your opinion. Absolutely love this game, and it’s well worth the £20 asking price.
It’s beautiful. It looks like the version you pretend it is in your head when playing back in the day. They did so good
Man, I’m so glad I backed the graphic novel. This remaster is brilliant. I’m reliving my childhood. The fire we lost man, it’s here - remnants just hitting me at 90 miles per hour when I get to the good parts.
Tony Jay would have made a perfect Odium in an animated Stormlight Archive series, may he rest in piece.
Great video!
I decided to throw it on and just run around Nosgoth a bit in Soul Reaver 1 while I watch.
It's a great and much needed update for a couple of beloved games from a long dormant franchise. But in terms of technical and aesthetical enhancements, the ShadowMan release by Nightdive is far more accomplished example of how to revive a ps1/n64 era 3rd person game.
I’ve fallen into an abyss fighting Dumar 🤣 been stretched after defeating Kain to get the sword. I climbed the wall ran through the left door and fell stretching my torso.. love it 🤔😁
I got interested in the Soul Reaver franchise from your original video, so I pounced on the remake immediately. I'm genuinely in love, can't wait to finish 2 and go back to play Defiance. I really hope you make a video on one of the other games in the franchise someday!
I'm gonna tell you Mr Strife, my initial intention was to listen your commentary about the remastered and go on with my day, but the exquisit passione with you talk about Legacy of Kain make me want listen the entire stream.
Big fan of Legacy of Kain too by the way, in fact, funny story: a friend of mine never play this games, but its very passionate about story telling, so I gift him the remastered to make him experience the the Soul Reaver duology, however, since the first game can by a little hard with the puzzle I guide him during his playthrough, and seeing him exploring Nosgoth make me so nostalgic that I started the game too.
P.S.: Beautiful voice Mr. Strife.
I will always take a 10 hour game I'd want to play through twice than a 20 hour game than I barely want to finish once.
I really hope they remaster BO2 & Defiance soon, this is probably my favourite game series of all time
and once they've remastered all of the original bits then finish the story.
Well, Defiance is still solid even today, but Blood Omen 2, eh...graphics, yes, but the story is really a mess (compared to other games in the series)
@@RepliAmras BO2 story is definitely not as stellar as the other games;nevertheless it is crucial to understanding the story of Defiance and as such it should be remastered as well.
Man I remember playing this game as a young child back in the day. Never beat it but didn't care as a child since I just was playing for fun. So excited this got the remake it deserved, definitely going to play it for christmas!
This is excellent. Cut content and behind the scenes media should be mandatory for a remaster, not just a graphical update. I'd be so much more interested in remasters if they became little lore repositories for my old memories
Even the first "blood omen"had so much depth and story put into it
Really great news for this remaster, hope they expand on it
Even though I would absolutely love a remake of the entire Legacy of Kain series (with the old voice files as an option you can toggle on because they're iconic if you don't like a potential new cast), I am extremely happy we got a faithful remaster.
6:00 - Those outtake videos are actually from the original Soul Reaver 2 release on PS2. There was a short period where DVD-like extra features were fairly common in games and SR2 had some pretty memorable videos of the voice actors getting up to shenanigans included in a bonus menu. Defiance also had some, I think. So it's not quite "lost media," it's a thing that the games they're remastering already included as a bonus. Neat to see it again, though.
8:00 - When I heard they'd included restored versions of the cut Soul Reaver areas that you could explore, I bought the game on the spot. I've been a Legacy of Kain fan since the games were actively being released, so I was also following the Lost Worlds website back in the day *as* discoveries were being made. The development lore of this series fascinated me back then and still does now. To be able to explore those areas is worth the price of admission by itself, for someone like me.