Legacy of Kain: Ascendance Review - A Return to Nosgoth, Light and Shadow

When talking about the Legacy Of Kain saga, there always seems to be that premonition of talking about something with a glorious past that has been lost in the mists of time.
Some speak of a saga incapable of innovation, others of suboptimal corporate strategies: like Eidos's focus on Tomb Raider or Square Enix's cancellation of Legacy of Kain Dead Sun.

The fact remains that the franchise remained silent for more than 20 years, or at least until 2022 when Embracer acquired the rights to the franchise, placing them in the hands of Crystal Dynamics, which then initiated a series of remastered operations aimed at testing the waters for a future return.

A return that was announced in the last State Of Play, when after the announcement of the Defiance Remastered we found ourselves facing the presentation of Legacy Of Kain: Ascendance; a new chapter in the saga that promises to take us back to Nosgoth to discover its stories and secrets.

Legacy Of Kain: Ascendance. A new game for old stories

Ascendance arrives with great expectations and responsibilities. Not only does it have the duty to carry on the saga, but also to tell something about Raziel, Kain, and Nosgoth that is worth seeing, hearing, and playing.

With this awareness, Crystal Dynamics entrusted the saga to those who know it well: Bit Bot Media, who previously worked on the graphic novel Legacy Of Kain: The Dead Shall Rise, which explores Raziel's past in his role as Kain's lieutenant through the introduction of Elaleth, a vampire who helps Raziel understand more about his human and Sarafan origins.

Legacy Of Kain: Ascendance picks up directly from the pages of the graphic novel; it reintroduces the character of Elaleth and uses her to tell the behind-the-scenes story of the events that shaped Nosgoth and its pillars, while also laying the groundwork for the future of the saga.

Between past and future, the plot of Legacy Of Kain: Ascendance

As mentioned, Legacy Of Kain: Ascendance introduces the character of Elaleth, Raziel's sister who was turned into a vampire and is searching for a temporal paradox that will allow her to bring her beloved Mathias back to life.

The premise, however trivial, is functional to the narrative because it allows Elaleth to come into contact with all those characters who over the years have shaped and impacted the destiny of Nosgoth, allowing our vampire to meddle in their affairs.

In her journey, Elaleth asked Moebius for help, who, to prevent her from hindering his plans for Raziel, condemned her to wander incessantly through the timelines.
Elaleth was, however, saved by Ky'Set'Syk, a half-human, half-Hylden figure, who bestowed upon the vampire the powers of Hylden magic and helped her escape Moebius's curse.

Thanks to Ky'Set'Syk's protection, Elaleth manages to insert herself into the events that shaped Nosgoth, influencing the lives of Raziel and Kain much more than they could imagine.

The disappointing gameplay of Legacy Of Kain: Ascendance

While Ascendance's story manages to be intriguing, thanks to a very high-level foundation, the same unfortunately cannot be said for the game's gameplay proposal; which is decidedly below expectations.

Legacy Of Kain: Ascendance is a 2D action-platformer in pixel art surrounded by 3D cutscenes that sometimes try to evoke the PS1 style and other times propose an anime style.
The game allows you to control as many as 4 characters: the aforementioned Elaleth, Raziel in his Sarafan warrior and vampiric guises, and Kain.

Despite the 4 characters, the game's gameplay proposal is truly basic. Ascendance tries to give the impression of having structured 4 different gameplays, but the reality is that apart from Elaleth and Raziel's ability to use their wings - in sessions reminiscent of the rightly forgotten Flappy Bird - and Kain's ability to pass through gates, the gameplay is limited to 2 attacks - a simple sword attack and an overhead attack - with which to overcome the various enemies.

At the end of each level there is then a boss fight that is limited to the very elementary dodging the enemy attack and attacking immediately after: repeat for a few minutes and the game is done.

The game areas are also very linear, with some possible deviations to collect the various collectibles and hidden scrolls scattered around, which are however not at all essential to the game's economy.

Legacy Of Kain: Ascendance, an artistic proposal with highs and lows

The announcement of a 2D pixel art game raised many fans' eyebrows, however, it should be remembered that there are excellent 2D titles, such as Celeste or Blasphemous 2, and 2D titles that leave a bitter taste. Legacy Of Kain: Ascendance belongs to the second category.

While the use of pixel art is a stylistic choice by the development team that may or may not appeal, it is imperative to observe that this choice fails to convey the majesty of Nosgoth's environments or the typical atmosphere of the saga.
As the images scroll across the screen, it's impossible not to think of Ascendance as a budget operation, following the desire to test the waters already initiated with the two remastered versions of Soul Reaver and Defiance.

A mention must also be made of the cinematics that fail both in recreating the PS1 style - Legacy Of Kain Soul Reaver represented the avant-garde at the time - and in proposing an anime style that looks like a low-budget Netflix production.

A completely different story applies to the game's audio, which boasts the return of the original voice actors: Michael Bell (Raziel), Simon Templeman (Kain), Anna Gunn (Ariel), and Richard Doyle (Moebius), who, despite the weight of the years, manage to deliver a very high-level performance.

The game's soundtrack was instead entrusted to Klayton, an illustrious name who has already left his mark on high-level cinematic and video game productions and who for Ascendance has prepared a series of tracks ranging from electronic to metal, playing heavily with the original Legacy Of Kain theme.

Legacy Of Kain: Ascendance - is it worth returning to Nosgoth?

Legacy Of Kain: Ascendance is a bittersweet game.
The title succeeds in the complicated task of proposing something new in Nosgoth and does so by introducing a character who presents herself as the perfect piece to tell the behind-the-scenes story of the events we experienced in the past and to create new narrative elements on which to build the future of the franchise.

However, the game fails in its gameplay proposal. Ascendance is a strong step backward compared to what we have seen and appreciated in the past; not only for the formula proposed, but above all for the way this formula has been implemented.

It is difficult today to understand what Embracer and Crystal Dynamics' plans are for Legacy Of Kain. After two remasters aimed at testing the waters, Ascendance is certainly a game to try to discover the background of the events that occurred in Nosgoth, but it is not the proposal that fans expected after more than 20 years of waiting.
So, the question I ask myself is the same with which I concluded the review of the Defiance remaster: Are we sure that the Legacy Of Kain saga deserves all this?