Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is getting a canonical prequel graphic novel starring everyone’s favourite jawless monologuing vampire

How does one monologue without a jaw exactly?

Image credit: Crystal Dynamics

Kain is merchandised. The clans sell tales of him. Few know the truth. He was a character in a dead franchise once, as were we all. However, his contempt for anonymity drove him to inspire the creation of an upcoming (crowdfunding allowing) graphic novel. The book stars Raziel, the first-born of his lieutenants, and It’s a canonical prequel story to the original Soul Reaver. I have waited a millennium. Over time, I became less human and more…games blogger. I have had the chance to write about Legacy Of Kain precisely once. You’re goddamn right I’m going to froth at the mouth at even the vague promise of more Shakespearean monologues and time-travelling vampires.

Ok, so I’ll dial back on the frothing. The Dead Shall Rise looks gorgeous, absolutely no complaints there. Any reservations I have are in the monkeys paw of getting more Legacy Of Kain media at the cost of fleshing out a chunk of the timeline that I always felt worked better as an unknown. The story, which has been written in collaboration with Crystal Dynamics, aims to focus on aspects of Raziel’s human past, via IGN. As I say, I’m left both intrigued and cautious. Not that I don’t think the writers won’t do a great job, just that so much of Soul Reaver’s strength lie in letting the player fill in the gaps in Raziel’s past for themselves. Never getting to see Kain’s empire at its height of power, for example, always felt like a deliberate choice rather than a lacking omission. There’s something to be said to filling in the literal cracks in Nosgoth’s corpse for yourself.

None of this, I’m sure, will stop me devouring the book like so many wayward souls haunting the spectral realm. The real question here, of course, is what this might mean for the Legacy Of Kain franchise going forward. In 2018, Crystal Dynamics put out a survey asking fans about what they’d like to see from the future of the long-dormant series. I remember it well, because one of the questions was something along the lines of “what games should any new Legacy Of Kain titles be like?” to which I responded “Legacy Of Kain”, which felt so obvious I wonder why they asked it. Anyway, I’d say this new comic bodes well, although only time will tell if it’s anywhere near as brilliant as this wonderful tale of Kain discovering Raziel making chocolate pudding at an ungodly hour.