In the last decade, the gaming industry has truly cracked the code on making the best possible ports, remasters, and remakes for countless games. Preservation has become a vital part of the industry, and if you have been wanting to play a game from the 80s, 90s, or early 2000s, chances are there is a way to play in the best possible format in the modern day. Some of my favorite games from the last few years have been re-releases of classics that I never got a chance to try out when they were released.
However, when games are remastered for modern audiences, most developers run into a conundrum: “How do we address any issues with the game’s core that have only become more obvious with age?” Is it better to leave it as is or try to improve on the foundation to make something accessible for everyone? These questions continuously ran through my head as I played Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered.
Legacy of Kain: Defiance was initially released in 2003 and serves as the final entry in the beloved franchise. It is not the first remastered title in the series, yet Defiance has a whole slew of issues that don’t apply to Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2, namely with the camera and combat. So, how does the remaster hold up? Does it address these issues and make for a more satisfying experience overall? After beating the game for myself, I can safely say that this is a great remaster of a game that still shows its age after almost 25 years.
A Poorly Aged Game…
Legacy of Kain: Defiance picks up right where Soul Reaver 2 left off: Raziel is currently stuck in the spirit realm, while Kain is lost in the past. Both are once more seeking to prevent their fate and alter destiny, yet are constantly being manipulated and misled by the mysterious Hylden faction, the Elder God, and the Time Streamer, among others. Kain and Raziel will need to go on their own journeys in order to save their home of Nosgoth and thwart the hand of fate, once and for all.
Defiance‘s narrative works as a great continuation of Soul Reaver 2‘s story. Rather than focusing specifically on Raziel’s story, it instead highlights Kain as a second protagonist in his own right. At certain points, the game challenges you, as you never quite know who the “hero” of this story is. Sometimes you may wonder if it’s Raziel, and other times you may find yourself thinking it’s Kain. You alternate between playing as both characters every chapter, with an equal amount of time being given to both.
The writing of Defiance has the same level of intrigue as its predecessors and still holds up after all these years. There’s sadly less emphasis on philosophical quandaries than in the Soul Reaver games. To compensate, though, you instead get greater insight into the lore of Nosgoth and the personal journeys of both Kain and Raziel. You get to see their personalities evolve as they begin to understand the truth of their destinies, as Kain begins to grow more contemplative and sympathetic, while Raziel becomes more paranoid and irritable.
The worst aspect of Defiance‘s story is an unfortunate side effect of it being the last mainline entry in the series: the ending. The ending ends on a very clear cliffhanger, meant to set up for a future entry. Ultimately, though, that future entry never came to be. Unless we end up getting that sequel at a later date, the final moments of the game feel like an unsatisfying payoff to a five-game saga. Overall, though, the story of Defiance reaches the same heights as the other entries in the series and still holds up even after 23 years. The gameplay, on the other hand, doesn’t have the same timelessness.
The gameplay of Legacy of Kain: Defiance is, for lack of a better phrase, an absolute mess. To start with, there’s the camera perspective. Rather than the third-person perspective of the previous games, it instead opts for a fixed-camera, similar to the likes of the early Devil May Cry games. Unlike those games, though, the camera feels clunky and often darts around without you having any input on where it’s pointed. I often found myself fighting with the camera in the early game, especially in the numerous platforming segments, which slowed the pacing down to a crawl.
The far more egregious issue at the heart of Defiance is easily the combat. While the Legacy of Kain series never sported the most robust combat mechanics, Defiance‘s just feel clunky and unresponsive. Every attack you deliver lacks any weight or impact, and certain enemies constantly take tank hits, which leads to even the most basic encounters taking ages to fight through. It also feels very monotonous and devoid of any complexity, as all you really need to do is just press the same buttons over and over again.
There would also often be times when I would dodge away from an attack, yet an enemy would react within an instant, knocking me to the ground. It certainly didn’t help that some levels were populated with the same infuriating Gargoyle enemies over and over again in quick succession. These encounters were so infuriating that they often made me want to just stop playing and move on to something else.
It doesn’t help that there are a slew of technical issues. Admittedly, it’s often hard to tell whether or not these glitches were issues that were present in the original game or whether they’re ones that arose as a result of the remaster. However, there were multiple cases where I was ejected outside the map bounds in the middle of a boss fight, other situations where I’d be softlocked and lose almost an hour of progress, and even one crash as I accessed one of the newly added bonus features.
These issues were extremely frustrating and made me realize that Defiance had not aged well whatsoever. Within the first few hours, I was ready to give up and lament at how the game’s issues were not addressed whatsoever with the Remastered version. That is, until I started to understand all the major new features, additions, and quality-of-life updates that this new version of Defiance offered. While it may not have completely fixed the original release, it has certainly come close, which is an achievement in and of itself.
…Fixed by a Great Remaster
There was a specific moment when I realized that the Defiance remaster was more impressive than I ever gave it credit for. Most of my playtime in the first two hours was spent figuring out the camera, trying to angle it towards platforms so I could figure out where I was going, and getting somewhat nauseated as it darted back and forth in the middle of combat. Then, all of a sudden, the camera perspective changed to a third-person perspective. As someone who had not followed any of the marketing for this game, I quickly realized that Aspyr had actually fixed the camera and that I had accidentally pressed a button that could be used to toggle it on or off.
Usually, a lot of modern remasters focus on just the graphics. Here, though, there are countless quality-of-life updates and major additions that almost make this feel like a brand-new game. When it comes to the graphics, there are completely new models for all of the game’s characters, plus new lighting and details. This is par for the course for this sort of release. Yet, much like with the camera, you can switch between the modernized graphics and lighting and the original, and even mix and match by having updated graphics and the older lighting, or vice versa.
Several new additions make this the perfect experience for long-time fans of the series. There’s a Music Player mode that features all the music from the game, the original opening cutscene in its original aspect ratio, and even some cut levels to play through (though it’s worth noting that when I tried to start one of the levels, my game instantly crashed). In addition, some new costumes for both Kain and Raziel are equippable via the newly overhauled pause menu.
Also in the menu is a complete encyclopedia of the entire franchise’s lore and history. There is even a photo mode, if you want to get some beauty shots of the game’s main characters. Easily, though, my favorite feature is a demo for Legacy of Kain: The Dark Prophecy, the cancelled sequel to Defiance. The demo is barely ten minutes long and is only available in the Deluxe Edition, but the fact that it was preserved at all makes the Deluxe Edition more than worth it.
Obviously, there are only so many issues that the Remastered version can address. While the fixed camera makes a world of difference to the gameplay, it still doesn’t fix the combat’s more frustrating qualities. Some problems have only become more prevalent with this version, such as some lighting problems in the Spirit Realm and the aforementioned glitches. Yet, when considering what this version managed to pull off, I found myself more willing to forgive these problems.
There were countless moments where I was absolutely not having fun when constantly fighting through the same frustrating combat encounters over and over again. Yet the great quality of writing, the beautiful new graphics, and the numerous quality-of-life additions made me want to see this experience through to the very end. Even though Defiance hasn’t aged well at all, if you’re a fan of the franchise, then this Remastered edition is an absolute must-play.
The Coin is Still Turning
Admittedly, Legacy of Kain is a series that I have only recently found myself invested in. When I was younger, while I had heard people talk about it, it managed to slip my grasp and was never a franchise that I wanted to invest time into, even as the remastered versions were coming out. If I had just played the original version of Legacy of Kain: Defiance, then my opinion of the series wouldn’t have changed at all. However, with the Remastered release in particular, I can now consider myself a fan of the franchise.
Defiance, as it was released in 2003, is extremely flawed. The fixed camera perspective is an absolute pain to navigate, plus the combat is quite frustrating thanks to unfairly balanced enemies and attacks that lack any weight. Furthermore, some issues are likely exclusive to the remaster, such as the aforementioned glitches and crashes. Yet, when you consider the overall improvements and additions that the remaster added, these low points are worth trudging through.
The fact that you can change from the original fixed camera perspective to a newly added third-person view is enough to make the remaster worth it alone. Yet, there’s also cut content that has been added, behind-the-scenes videos, new UI elements, new unlockables, and countless new features that fans will especially get a kick out of. This is the ultimate love letter to not just Legacy of Kain: Defiance, but also the broader franchise.
If you are a fan of the series, even if you’ve only played the Soul Reaver remasters and haven’t yet played Defiance, then this is an essential purchase, regardless of the shortcomings. As for what this means for the future of the franchise, considering that we’re getting a new Legacy of Kain spin-off game very soon, I can only hope that we will get the long-awaited continuation of Raziel and Kain’s story sooner rather than later.
Disclaimer: Aspyr Media provided a PlayStation 5 copy of Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered for review purposes.
