Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain (PS1, 1996)
Graphics-7 Sound-7.5 Control-6.5 Challenge-6.5 Story-6.5
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-6.5 Fun-6.5 Originality-6.5
Overall Score-6.5
+
Unusual beginning (get assassinated as soon as you exit the tavern, then get turned into an undead)
Can teleport back to the beginning mausoleum at any point with a spell you gain there, Can also teleport to certain visited points in the world when outside via the bat form
Can drain life from stunned human enemies - means you generally have a way to restore your health nearby
Control config (not the shoulder buttons though)
Stats screen (options/select menu, kills, meals (how many you've drained the life of), mutilations, secrets (shows how many you've currently found and how many there are in total), time played, prestige/title - similar to Pirates)
Resurrection item (Zelda 3 fairy)
Transformations (wolf form - can jump and moves faster but can't cast spells, mist form - fly over larger bodies of water+spike floors+swamp+through certain locked doors, peasant disguise/nobility disguise - talk to villagers/talk to nobility after upgrading it) - these drain MP while used
Day/night cycle and moon phase with some gameplay effects (take damage from sunlight, also take damage from rain and water pools - the former seems to happen randomly, wraith armor works at night only, moon gates only open when it's full moon however these locations are optional)
Can trade life for sub weapons or other items at certain points (spirit forges)
Life and stat upgrades (HP via found vials; three MP regeneration speed upgrades via found blood fountains). The fountains also give you abilities and protections: three strength upgrades for pushing larger and larger boulders, rain protection, snow protection, nobility disguise
Some interesting spells and sub weapons (slow time for everyone but yourself (doesn't affect traps though and doesn't last that long), Font of Putrescence - projectile that leaves an acid pool which melts enemies, Pentaliche of Tarot - random death to multiple enemies, light - temporarily light up a whole dungeon, inspire hate - enemies attack each other for the duration of the spell, control mind - possess a human enemy, area of effect life drain, spirit death - kill most nearby enemies, lightning - hits all enemies (outdoors only), spirit wrack - possess any non-boss enemy, repel - shield that also reverts enemy projectiles back towards them)
Some interesting gear (bone armor makes weaker undead enemies ignore you, chaos armor - enemies take as much damage as they deal to you, flesh armor - auto-drains blood, wraith armor - 50% of damage taken is dealt to your MP meter instead, spiked mace - stuns some enemies and breaks some obstacles but has a shorter combo and is weaker overall, flame sword - burns enemies (can't feed on them if you use this though) and sets hay floors on fire, soul reaver - enemies explode in one hit but can't use spells or items while it's equipped+it drains MP, flay - homing projectile)
Pretty good VA (decent monologues by Kain while the game shows some artwork when entering some new rooms or areas though these are done better in Soul Reaver)
Some decent puzzles (switch combinations, timing puzzles, mind control)
Play as a vampire and a bad guy
Some interesting enemies (enemies that summon zombies, enemies that bounce you across slippery surfaces, zombies that need to be blown up to stop them from resurrecting, enemies that teleport behind you as you walk up to them)
MP regen (overly slow before upgrading it three times though and even then it's kinda slow)
Decent bosses overall
Pretty good variation
New gear shows on your avatar (Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Hydlide III, Faxanadu, Dragon Crystal, Diablo)
Skippable cutscenes (but not spoken dialogue)
Different themes for each flight cutscene when going to a new dungeon area
Fight alongside an NPC army at one point (recruit an army to help fight against a monster army, pretty cool scene though the music doesn't quite fit and you're meant to move north rather than fight as enemies and allies keep respawning)
Two different endings (get to choose whether to damn or save the world right after beating the final boss - the "good" ending sucks though and both are rather short)
+/-
Mostly linear structure (optional mini-dungeons here and there, various optional hidden items to backtrack for with gained abilities (100 secrets in total), partially non-linear nuprator's keep dungeon and lava area dungeon - most non-boss dungeons are pretty much linear, maze-like cave area before the forest dungeon)
Save points (15 slots per card, only shows time taken according to the in-game clock)
Map feature which shows the entirety of the current area as well as your position (somewhat spoils the exploration aspect when reaching a new area, doesn't mark items/points of interest/exits nor boulders and rock pillars/statues, it being a a very zoomed out and pixelated view of the whole current area also makes it harder to read than a simple map a la Zelda 3)
World map screen via the options menu - shows where you've been by darkening unvisited areas (good clarity but only marks certain points of interest)
Can't talk to or free the prisoners in the mausoleum or NPCs outside (only kill or drain the life from them (which also kills them)) - gain the ability once you gain the disguise a few dungeons into the game
Dated CGI cutscenes (a bit tacky even for the time, decent camera work though)
Some rather cheesy lines ("nothing is free, not even revenge")
Camera zoom feature (two levels, see below however)
Voiced item descriptions in the inventory menu
No block or dodge moves. No knockback or stun when hitting enemies until you've weakened them and they stand stunned for a few seconds and then die - leads to some combat becoming hit and run-based
Enemies and prisoners respawn when re-entering dungeon areas
Can't fly around within an area in bat form - it's simply used as a fast travel ability
Can review certain cutscenes via the dark diary feature
Weird how enemies can only be drained of life the first time you're in a dungeon area and then only of MP when revisiting it - in overworld areas you always get HP. The game also isn't consistent about this
Can't cast spells or use items/sub weapons while equipped with the two axes (can't equip just one) or the soul reaver
Can't attack while jumping in wolf form (some delay to its melee attack)
Can't attack certain NPCs
Gore (can make enemies explode into bits)
Can't jump back down to the second floor of the first large building in your home town and it's emptied of enemies while passing through the second floor
Acid pool shot and repel are pretty OP and repel+the third armor is very OP (you can just walk into various enemies and have them kill themselves by attacking). Electric bolt is kind of OP as well (until the mid-late game) and so is the area of effect life drain
Can't carry vials of blood placed here and there with you for later use
Clearly marked points that you can walk onto to examine something next to it or trigger a comment about the general area/situation (red triangles)
Soldiers in towns respawn when entering buildings
Hunger mechanic (very slow draining of HP if you don't feed on blood)
Kain pretty much embraces his vampire form right away and is pretty stereotypically evil as well (you didn't learn much about him before he transformed so maybe he already was an asshole but some more fleshing out of his background or more of a gradual transformation would've been more interesting). Going by his comments when picking up spells it also sounds like he's familiar with them
-
Some interface/control issues (no subtitles, odd delay to the camera when starting to move in a direction and it moves too far ahead so it'll keep jerking back and forth if moving back and forth and not giving a good general overview (see Global Gladiators for example) - this and how zoomed in the default view is means a zoomed out view plays better in terms of visibility but the graphics become rather pixelated and there are slowdowns, somewhat slow menus (about 2 seconds of delay when closing one or going into a sub menu), textless inventory menu - instead there are spoken lines giving the name of gear which is OK however there's a delay on the lines, can't bind a sub weapon and a spell to a face button at the same time - R1 could've been used to bind both and then X and R2 to use them (you should've also been able to bind more than 4 spells or items to a quick item slot since going in and out of the pause menu is slow), somewhat sloppy hit detection (unforgiving when attacking in wolf form, overly big hit box when interacting with wall switches, sometimes overly small hit box on your sword swings - they look wide but sometimes only hit in front of you, a bit unforgiving on item drops from chests and the like), pointless pause animation after every fourth sword strike if you mash the button - faster than holding it, can't place map markers, can't view the full map of an area (only the current room/sub area), can't cast spells while in wolf form - can be annoying in dark areas where you want to use the magical light spell, can't skip dialogue lines - they also have to play out fully before you can exit the room that the NPC you talked to is in, sometimes can't jump for seemingly no reason (also can't jump diagonally), somewhat slow movement in vampire form - can't upgrade it or gain a run move so you have to transform into wolf form to go faster, can't walk alongside the northern side of houses like you'd expect to - their hit boxes reach further on that side, safe spots when fighting certain enemies from certain angles due to hit detection issues, can't replay the voice messages from triangles on the ground (some of it is NPC dialogue) - no message log, the axes are too sluggish to use for most combat - regular attack is slow+the combo locks you into place+the spinning move is also kinda slow (and on top of this the latter two make you unable to feed on an enemy), pretty slow mist form movement, unskippable staff roll)
4-6 seconds of loading when going in and out of the inventory menu, About 2 seconds of loading when transforming, Frequent loading when moving between rooms or sub areas
Slowdown issues when playing in zoomed out view (particularly bad in certain areas like Nachtholm)
Trial & error (point of no return after traveling back to the past (northeastern castle) - can't go back and go into the moongates or the lost city area, poor directions after the dark eden/lava dungeon - the game could've blocked you from progressing if you missed the second strength upgrade in the swamp area, getting into the lost city dungeon and the large metal bar gates (full moon only apparently), various secrets lack visual or other clues and some hidden switches that trigger them have overly small hit boxes, the lava dungeon boss - also a difficulty spike (interesting idea with one of them slowly replacing solid ground with water though), sometimes lacking gear descriptions - wraith armor for example, inspire hate doesn't work during the finale)
Some tedious aspects (can't even jump down small heights in vampire form, no wait command for skipping ahead to full moon or a non-rainy day, a few teleporters that just move you backwards in a dungeon, the light spell might as well have been a passive ability toggled in the menu since there are various parts you want to use it at but can't be bothered to (either dark areas or sprites blending into the backgrounds), some enemies will walk right into your avatar's sprite - there's no contact damage but it means you don't hit them with your attacks, overly drawn out avernus cathedral dungeon and boss, some dead space, slow time doesn't work on traps, spike floor near stahlberg puts you back on the other side of it if you get hit for some reason, can't upgrade or buff the standard sword or the mace so you can avoid killing enemies you can feed on with your melee attack+have spells and items available while using a melee weapon)
Can't manually talk to story relevant NPCs such as the tavernkeeper or the spirit at the pillars (can't talk to the former at all after being turned into a vampire (nor reach him)) - feels unpolished
Can't backtrack through doors when moving through certain dungeon areas (one of the first dungeons and malek's bastion - pointless since you can teleport to outside of the dungeon anyway and they could've made the enemies turn into spirits/MP droppers when re-entering rooms in these dungeons)
Villagers don't react to someone near them being killed nor do they run away when you're in wolf form
Music pauses when viewing the map screen/moving between rooms/the teleport spell prompt pops up/checking signs and other things that can trigger a comment by Kain/talking to NPCs, NPC voice samples can overlap and then become much louder+a bit scratchy, Thrown daggers sound like gunfire
Fairly detailed but mostly non-interactive environments (there are exceptions for certain rooms however), Can't talk to some NPCs and various NPCs say the same thing
Some items, abilities and transformations are handed out too easily
Can't buy from tavernkeepers or smithys (no economy besides trading HP for items at shrines)
Weird how you're made to kill prisoners to open doors in some smaller dungeons
Energy bank (temporarily have max MP for about 15 seconds then lose all MP) doesn't last long enough to be worth it for the most part and you can't keep using it while having the soul reaver sword equipped
Some invisible walls in the avernus city sewers
Pretty easy last four bosses (dollmaker, william the just, mobius, final boss) unless maybe if you wasted all your energy bank spells
Gets a bit repetitive in the late-game (the last dungeons don't grow in complexity and you don't gain new non-combat abilities towards the end, boring backtracking during the finale)
Bugs:
-Have to first press down to be able to select a sub weapon from the menu after opening it - emulation issue?
-Can lock yourself out of a life upgrade in the electric bolt dungeon if you teleport out of it before opening the left door to the second room (the door to the right closes after you when going into the puzzle room)
-Game replays the dialogue from killing your assassins if you revisit the northeastern graveyard area
-Noticeable noise at times when everything else goes quiet - emulation issue?
-You sometimes end up somewhere different (still in the same overworld sub area though) after having teleported to an area from within a dungeon and then exiting it
Notes:
-Got the Count rank and 51/100 secrets (couldn't be bothered to wait for the moongates and lost city area to open in the late game)
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-6.5 Fun-6.5 Originality-6.5
Overall Score-6.5
+
Unusual beginning (get assassinated as soon as you exit the tavern, then get turned into an undead)
Can teleport back to the beginning mausoleum at any point with a spell you gain there, Can also teleport to certain visited points in the world when outside via the bat form
Can drain life from stunned human enemies - means you generally have a way to restore your health nearby
Control config (not the shoulder buttons though)
Stats screen (options/select menu, kills, meals (how many you've drained the life of), mutilations, secrets (shows how many you've currently found and how many there are in total), time played, prestige/title - similar to Pirates)
Resurrection item (Zelda 3 fairy)
Transformations (wolf form - can jump and moves faster but can't cast spells, mist form - fly over larger bodies of water+spike floors+swamp+through certain locked doors, peasant disguise/nobility disguise - talk to villagers/talk to nobility after upgrading it) - these drain MP while used
Day/night cycle and moon phase with some gameplay effects (take damage from sunlight, also take damage from rain and water pools - the former seems to happen randomly, wraith armor works at night only, moon gates only open when it's full moon however these locations are optional)
Can trade life for sub weapons or other items at certain points (spirit forges)
Life and stat upgrades (HP via found vials; three MP regeneration speed upgrades via found blood fountains). The fountains also give you abilities and protections: three strength upgrades for pushing larger and larger boulders, rain protection, snow protection, nobility disguise
Some interesting spells and sub weapons (slow time for everyone but yourself (doesn't affect traps though and doesn't last that long), Font of Putrescence - projectile that leaves an acid pool which melts enemies, Pentaliche of Tarot - random death to multiple enemies, light - temporarily light up a whole dungeon, inspire hate - enemies attack each other for the duration of the spell, control mind - possess a human enemy, area of effect life drain, spirit death - kill most nearby enemies, lightning - hits all enemies (outdoors only), spirit wrack - possess any non-boss enemy, repel - shield that also reverts enemy projectiles back towards them)
Some interesting gear (bone armor makes weaker undead enemies ignore you, chaos armor - enemies take as much damage as they deal to you, flesh armor - auto-drains blood, wraith armor - 50% of damage taken is dealt to your MP meter instead, spiked mace - stuns some enemies and breaks some obstacles but has a shorter combo and is weaker overall, flame sword - burns enemies (can't feed on them if you use this though) and sets hay floors on fire, soul reaver - enemies explode in one hit but can't use spells or items while it's equipped+it drains MP, flay - homing projectile)
Pretty good VA (decent monologues by Kain while the game shows some artwork when entering some new rooms or areas though these are done better in Soul Reaver)
Some decent puzzles (switch combinations, timing puzzles, mind control)
Play as a vampire and a bad guy
Some interesting enemies (enemies that summon zombies, enemies that bounce you across slippery surfaces, zombies that need to be blown up to stop them from resurrecting, enemies that teleport behind you as you walk up to them)
MP regen (overly slow before upgrading it three times though and even then it's kinda slow)
Decent bosses overall
Pretty good variation
New gear shows on your avatar (Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Hydlide III, Faxanadu, Dragon Crystal, Diablo)
Skippable cutscenes (but not spoken dialogue)
Different themes for each flight cutscene when going to a new dungeon area
Fight alongside an NPC army at one point (recruit an army to help fight against a monster army, pretty cool scene though the music doesn't quite fit and you're meant to move north rather than fight as enemies and allies keep respawning)
Two different endings (get to choose whether to damn or save the world right after beating the final boss - the "good" ending sucks though and both are rather short)
+/-
Mostly linear structure (optional mini-dungeons here and there, various optional hidden items to backtrack for with gained abilities (100 secrets in total), partially non-linear nuprator's keep dungeon and lava area dungeon - most non-boss dungeons are pretty much linear, maze-like cave area before the forest dungeon)
Save points (15 slots per card, only shows time taken according to the in-game clock)
Map feature which shows the entirety of the current area as well as your position (somewhat spoils the exploration aspect when reaching a new area, doesn't mark items/points of interest/exits nor boulders and rock pillars/statues, it being a a very zoomed out and pixelated view of the whole current area also makes it harder to read than a simple map a la Zelda 3)
World map screen via the options menu - shows where you've been by darkening unvisited areas (good clarity but only marks certain points of interest)
Can't talk to or free the prisoners in the mausoleum or NPCs outside (only kill or drain the life from them (which also kills them)) - gain the ability once you gain the disguise a few dungeons into the game
Dated CGI cutscenes (a bit tacky even for the time, decent camera work though)
Some rather cheesy lines ("nothing is free, not even revenge")
Camera zoom feature (two levels, see below however)
Voiced item descriptions in the inventory menu
No block or dodge moves. No knockback or stun when hitting enemies until you've weakened them and they stand stunned for a few seconds and then die - leads to some combat becoming hit and run-based
Enemies and prisoners respawn when re-entering dungeon areas
Can't fly around within an area in bat form - it's simply used as a fast travel ability
Can review certain cutscenes via the dark diary feature
Weird how enemies can only be drained of life the first time you're in a dungeon area and then only of MP when revisiting it - in overworld areas you always get HP. The game also isn't consistent about this
Can't cast spells or use items/sub weapons while equipped with the two axes (can't equip just one) or the soul reaver
Can't attack while jumping in wolf form (some delay to its melee attack)
Can't attack certain NPCs
Gore (can make enemies explode into bits)
Can't jump back down to the second floor of the first large building in your home town and it's emptied of enemies while passing through the second floor
Acid pool shot and repel are pretty OP and repel+the third armor is very OP (you can just walk into various enemies and have them kill themselves by attacking). Electric bolt is kind of OP as well (until the mid-late game) and so is the area of effect life drain
Can't carry vials of blood placed here and there with you for later use
Clearly marked points that you can walk onto to examine something next to it or trigger a comment about the general area/situation (red triangles)
Soldiers in towns respawn when entering buildings
Hunger mechanic (very slow draining of HP if you don't feed on blood)
Kain pretty much embraces his vampire form right away and is pretty stereotypically evil as well (you didn't learn much about him before he transformed so maybe he already was an asshole but some more fleshing out of his background or more of a gradual transformation would've been more interesting). Going by his comments when picking up spells it also sounds like he's familiar with them
-
Some interface/control issues (no subtitles, odd delay to the camera when starting to move in a direction and it moves too far ahead so it'll keep jerking back and forth if moving back and forth and not giving a good general overview (see Global Gladiators for example) - this and how zoomed in the default view is means a zoomed out view plays better in terms of visibility but the graphics become rather pixelated and there are slowdowns, somewhat slow menus (about 2 seconds of delay when closing one or going into a sub menu), textless inventory menu - instead there are spoken lines giving the name of gear which is OK however there's a delay on the lines, can't bind a sub weapon and a spell to a face button at the same time - R1 could've been used to bind both and then X and R2 to use them (you should've also been able to bind more than 4 spells or items to a quick item slot since going in and out of the pause menu is slow), somewhat sloppy hit detection (unforgiving when attacking in wolf form, overly big hit box when interacting with wall switches, sometimes overly small hit box on your sword swings - they look wide but sometimes only hit in front of you, a bit unforgiving on item drops from chests and the like), pointless pause animation after every fourth sword strike if you mash the button - faster than holding it, can't place map markers, can't view the full map of an area (only the current room/sub area), can't cast spells while in wolf form - can be annoying in dark areas where you want to use the magical light spell, can't skip dialogue lines - they also have to play out fully before you can exit the room that the NPC you talked to is in, sometimes can't jump for seemingly no reason (also can't jump diagonally), somewhat slow movement in vampire form - can't upgrade it or gain a run move so you have to transform into wolf form to go faster, can't walk alongside the northern side of houses like you'd expect to - their hit boxes reach further on that side, safe spots when fighting certain enemies from certain angles due to hit detection issues, can't replay the voice messages from triangles on the ground (some of it is NPC dialogue) - no message log, the axes are too sluggish to use for most combat - regular attack is slow+the combo locks you into place+the spinning move is also kinda slow (and on top of this the latter two make you unable to feed on an enemy), pretty slow mist form movement, unskippable staff roll)
4-6 seconds of loading when going in and out of the inventory menu, About 2 seconds of loading when transforming, Frequent loading when moving between rooms or sub areas
Slowdown issues when playing in zoomed out view (particularly bad in certain areas like Nachtholm)
Trial & error (point of no return after traveling back to the past (northeastern castle) - can't go back and go into the moongates or the lost city area, poor directions after the dark eden/lava dungeon - the game could've blocked you from progressing if you missed the second strength upgrade in the swamp area, getting into the lost city dungeon and the large metal bar gates (full moon only apparently), various secrets lack visual or other clues and some hidden switches that trigger them have overly small hit boxes, the lava dungeon boss - also a difficulty spike (interesting idea with one of them slowly replacing solid ground with water though), sometimes lacking gear descriptions - wraith armor for example, inspire hate doesn't work during the finale)
Some tedious aspects (can't even jump down small heights in vampire form, no wait command for skipping ahead to full moon or a non-rainy day, a few teleporters that just move you backwards in a dungeon, the light spell might as well have been a passive ability toggled in the menu since there are various parts you want to use it at but can't be bothered to (either dark areas or sprites blending into the backgrounds), some enemies will walk right into your avatar's sprite - there's no contact damage but it means you don't hit them with your attacks, overly drawn out avernus cathedral dungeon and boss, some dead space, slow time doesn't work on traps, spike floor near stahlberg puts you back on the other side of it if you get hit for some reason, can't upgrade or buff the standard sword or the mace so you can avoid killing enemies you can feed on with your melee attack+have spells and items available while using a melee weapon)
Can't manually talk to story relevant NPCs such as the tavernkeeper or the spirit at the pillars (can't talk to the former at all after being turned into a vampire (nor reach him)) - feels unpolished
Can't backtrack through doors when moving through certain dungeon areas (one of the first dungeons and malek's bastion - pointless since you can teleport to outside of the dungeon anyway and they could've made the enemies turn into spirits/MP droppers when re-entering rooms in these dungeons)
Villagers don't react to someone near them being killed nor do they run away when you're in wolf form
Music pauses when viewing the map screen/moving between rooms/the teleport spell prompt pops up/checking signs and other things that can trigger a comment by Kain/talking to NPCs, NPC voice samples can overlap and then become much louder+a bit scratchy, Thrown daggers sound like gunfire
Fairly detailed but mostly non-interactive environments (there are exceptions for certain rooms however), Can't talk to some NPCs and various NPCs say the same thing
Some items, abilities and transformations are handed out too easily
Can't buy from tavernkeepers or smithys (no economy besides trading HP for items at shrines)
Weird how you're made to kill prisoners to open doors in some smaller dungeons
Energy bank (temporarily have max MP for about 15 seconds then lose all MP) doesn't last long enough to be worth it for the most part and you can't keep using it while having the soul reaver sword equipped
Some invisible walls in the avernus city sewers
Pretty easy last four bosses (dollmaker, william the just, mobius, final boss) unless maybe if you wasted all your energy bank spells
Gets a bit repetitive in the late-game (the last dungeons don't grow in complexity and you don't gain new non-combat abilities towards the end, boring backtracking during the finale)
Bugs:
-Have to first press down to be able to select a sub weapon from the menu after opening it - emulation issue?
-Can lock yourself out of a life upgrade in the electric bolt dungeon if you teleport out of it before opening the left door to the second room (the door to the right closes after you when going into the puzzle room)
-Game replays the dialogue from killing your assassins if you revisit the northeastern graveyard area
-Noticeable noise at times when everything else goes quiet - emulation issue?
-You sometimes end up somewhere different (still in the same overworld sub area though) after having teleported to an area from within a dungeon and then exiting it
Notes:
-Got the Count rank and 51/100 secrets (couldn't be bothered to wait for the moongates and lost city area to open in the late game)