Why do people love this game and consider it to be one of the

>>3511815
Nobody considers that. It just had good voice acting.

You're absolutely right, it's combat gets stale fast (though the initial novelty of "hey these are vampires, you have to impale, burn, or drown them" was pretty cool at first). It's more about the story, the dialogue, the voice acting, and feeling of exploration throughout. The world and it's denizens are interesting, and backed by amazing voice talent and writing. If you want gameplay, Soul Reaver is probably the worst game out of the entire Legacy of Kain series, but it's a great entry point story wise.

I have it on Dreamcast. Dropped it after an hour, but I'm going to give it another chance one day.

>>3511824
I actually prefer story over gameplay, I'm just not a fan of the whole vampire thing, but decided to try it anyway because I thought it would be at least fun to play.
Maybe I'll give it another chance one day.

>>3511824
The coolest part was finding the humam citadel. I liked how they would worship you if you didn't kill any vampire hunters.

>>3511815
The game carries a nice sense of atmosphere and exploration is interesting as a result. When the game is about platforming and exploring it's successful. Where it falters is the less-than-stellar puzzles and boss fights (though the latter are at least conceptually very cool).

It's a great game, and I do think it's a classic, but it's kind of a letdown after Blood Omen which had a stronger sense of purpose and identity in its design. The games after the first Soul Reaver are generally much worse.

>>3511815
A better question: WHY has no one used this world-shifting mechanic in another game??? There is a ton of puzzle-platforming potential, and it was awesome seeing the geometry change and distort in real time. Other games have done the "alternate world" idea but none that I know of have done that kind of shifting-before-your-eyes implementation.

>>3511869
I thought Soul Reaver's puzzles were pretty good compared to Zelda, Tomb Raider, etc.

>>3511878
Eversion did it, Sugar Cube Bittersweet Factory did it, and that's all I can think of. It seems to be a rare thing altogether.

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>yet another /vr/ pretends to hate good games as if video games are something you can go snob about episode

>>3511975
>pretends
Why would I be doing that?
And anyway, I don't hate it because I didn't have much expectations anyway, I just asked what people like about it because I'm genuinely curious

>>3511878
The block puzzles are pretty dull compared to most Zelda games.

>>3511980
So you knew people like it, read it somewhere, but the same people that liked it never once said anything about the reasons they liked this game? In all the praise you read or listened about it, not once someone gave any idea on why...
Sure thing buddy. Sure thing.

But hey let's turn /vr/ into /v/. Meaningless threads are fun, maymays etc.

>>3512087
I wouldn't have asked if I knew the answer
Also, if you don't want /vr/ turn into /v/ you can start with yourself, by not being such a bigot and actually contributing to the topic instead of trying to come of as intellectually superior

>>3511815
>The combat is tedious
not really, you hit shit, impale/burn/drown shit and eat souls and the boss battles are mini puzzles
it gets the job done
what exactly were you expecting, DMC?

>the environment feels so empty and dull even for a PS1 game.
maybe because the game is set in a corrupted desolate wasteland?
were you expecting some NPCs to chit-chat with and mini games? You're a soul sucking monster out for revenge ffs

>>3512205
There's a difference between a "corrupted desolate wasteland" and empty rooms with naked walls

>>3512209
yeah, I guess they should've decorated the walls with pointless bullshit that served no purpose

By PS1 third person action-adventure standards the combat is actually pretty decent, in that it works like it should. Soul Reaver's strengths definitely lie more in its presentation rather than gameplay though.

>>3512072
Disagree, the fact that you can lift and rotate the blocks makes them more interesting.

>>3511815

It sucks today but this is the case for 99.999% of PS1 games. Terrible controls and environments

>>3512195
>bigot

>in b4 I was just pretending to be retarded

DAMN YOU KAIN YOU ARE NOT GOD

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>>3511815
LoK is nothing but atmosphere and immersion.
And a good plot, if you are 15.
/thread

Soul reaver or Blood Omen 1?? I found soul reaver in an old stack of CDs but is blood omen worth a go?

Played it for the first time this week, Dreamcast version running on demul (muh sweet x3 internal resolution), and I'm loving it. Yes, the combat is repetitive, but the level design and soundtrack combine to produce such a great atmosphere. Despite the levels being basic as shit by modern standards they somehow feel like real places, with history and presence. Let's see if it holds up past the first couple of hours.

>>3512962
both are good but different

>>3512970
how far have you gotten?

I seem to remember the 'non visible' loading being mentioned in reviews at the time. A more imersive experience being created by hiding loading during the many cutscenes. You could enter/exit areas without seeing closing/opening doors like in Resident Evil. Also, what everyone else said about story. I spent a good few hours back in the day reading the plot faq. Had almost as much fun as playing the game (not joking)

It's greater than the sum of its parts

>>3511815

Like a lot of good storylines, SR forces the viewer to pose philosophical question about the nature of man. I already said in the BO thread that complaining about the gameplay not being great is silly. In all the games I've ever played I noticed it's not good gameplay that sticks with you long after the game has finished, it's good storyline and atmosphere.
I really hate to sound superior, but exotic ( for lack of a better word ) storylines like SR, will always be a wavelength thing, you're either on the wavelength and get them, or you don't.

>>3512979
Not very far, to be honest. I literally just played it for a brief session the other day and got to the 3rd portal or whatever you call the thing that lets you teleport. Hopefully I'll have some free time in the weekend to play more.

>>3513119
>complaining about the gameplay not being great is silly
It's not.

>>3513119
Holy fuck what a hipster faggot.

You seriously think story matters more than gameplay in a game?

You seriously think any game has ever had a great story?

It's people like you, who've clearly never been exposed to any truly great literature, who are a cancer on our great hobby.

Games don't have amazing narratives. Not to say there haven't been some good ones, but nothing that comes close to the best a great book has to offer.

If you're looking for story/character/narrative, go read a book. You won't find what you're looking for in this medium. And once you've found it elsewhere, you'll understand what a totally faggot you were for suggesting you could.

>>3512303
>but this is the case for 99.999% of PS1 games.
But anon, I still find 99.999% of PS1 games more playable than most of the other shit in 5th gen aside from Saturn and PC games.

>>3512962
Blood Omen is better and more satisfying. Soul Reaver has a good atmosphere and cool voice acting but is majorly let down in that the plot isn't resolved in the game and then is dragged out in several sequels that get progressively worse.

>>3513292
>>3513384

It's retarded posts like these that really make me lose faith in this board.
If you think gameplay is more important than story, I'm perfectly fine with that.
If you don't like the SR story, I'm fine with that to, like I said, it's a wavelength thing, so I don't see the point of arguing.
Personally, I try to play each game from the perspective their designers intended.That's why, coming to a SR thread, a game that was explicitly created by its designers to be a cinematic experience, and complaining that the gameplay isn't great, is the height of retardation. It's like going into Dota or TF thread and complaining about the lack of story line and cut scenes. It makes you look like a complete fucking moron. What's next, complaining LotR was a poor comedy, reading a programming book and bitching about how you couldn't connect with the characters?
Do you even realize how stupid you are?
It's a rhetorical question btw, don't bother answering.

>>3512350
Your posts are seriously lowering the level of discourse on this board.

>>3514797
You act as if Soul Reaver doesn't have any gameplay at all or something. But it does and there's plenty of it, making it a perfectly valid thing to criticize. Soul Reaver is story heavy, yes, but not unlike the first Blood Omen it carries an action-adventure game emphasis even if its sequels largely abandon that emphasis. I actually like Soul Reaver's gameplay, for the most part, but saying that it's "silly" to criticize it is asinine since most of the player's time with the game is in gameplay.

Even the games after Soul Reaver 1, which are more eager to railroad the player to the next cutscene, have plenty of gameplay. There's nothing wrong with criticizing it since it's in the game. Get over yourself.

>>3511815

>Blood Omen
Masterpiece, will forever be remembered as one of the best story telling games ever made.

>Soulreaver
Mediocre, blatantly unfinished was rehashed into a LoK game from another game, story was basic and lackluster but not bad, had a decent amount of exploration. gained enough popularity to get a sequel.

>Soulreaver 2
Horrible game, shit story, linear gameplay, even more unfinished than the first game.

>Blood Omen 2
Another rehashed game, contrived plot barely fits into any of the other games plot, complete mess of a game both story and mechanically.

>Defiance
Desperate attempt to fix loose ends and plot holes, fails horribly. abysmal game was the final nail in the coffin that killed the series.

>>3511815
great voice acting
great writing
great artistic style
the series is still to me a masterpiece

>>3515214
>There's nothing wrong with criticizing it since it's in the game

You can criticize whatever you like but coming into a SR thread, a game that was explicitly designed as a cinematic story, a game acclaimed for its cinematic story and loved by its fans for its cinematic story, and saying how the story wasn't good and how the gameplay could've been better, looks stupid.
You can still do it though sure, there's nothing stopping you.

You need to play it on pc bro.

>>3515768

>criticising a video game's gameplay makes you stupid

Look, I haven't even been participating in this thread, but you should know that you're definitely the one who looks stupid. I quite like Soul Reaver too. But it's definitely the kind of game where the story, characters, atmosphere and general world building are better than the gameplay itself. Nothing wrong with pointing that out. You're just being a fanboy by trying to deflect all genuine criticism of the game by pretending the gameplay itself doesn't matter. This isn't one of those telltale games interactive stories with absolutely minimal gameplay. Soul Reaver is very much a video game, with platforming, puzzle solving, exploration and combat. Given how much time you spend doing those things, they're totally fair game as far as cricitism is concerned.

You gotta grow the fuck up anon. Perfectly fine to disagree with someone's opinions, but don't pretend that they're doing something wrong by voicing them in the first place (while you, of course, are allowed to voice yours with impunity).

>>3511815
Nobody considers it the greatest anything.

>>3517350

Listen you imbecile, I'll say it one more time, maybe you'll understand. I never said you can't criticize what you like but shitting on the story and then emphasizing only the gameplay doesn't make much sense in a SR thread. Since the game has been considered by pretty much anyone worth his salt to be a story centric game, I think my opinion is justified. It's not that the game didn't have gameplay, it had good gameplay, it's just your whole approach that's fucking retarded and it looks like trolling.
You post shit like "You seriously think any game has ever had a great story?" in a SR thread and you're surprised people shit on you. If you really think all game stories are crap and only gameplay matters, good for you, but do it somewhere else.

How can LoK have great writing if it was written by a female

>>3517995
>Who is Andre Norton

>>3511815
A lot of people here seem to confuse good story and good writing. Story in BO is as mediocre as in Soul Reaver, but writing quality is great everywhere except BO2. Story actually becomes much better in SR2 and Defiance where shit starts to actually come together.
BO - Great Gothic action, game is linear with branching paths to secrets, despite the ability to go back, you never actually need to.

SR - Decent platformer with some combat and puzzles. Hope you enjoy moving blocks. Non-linear world with ability to shift between 2 states on the fly.

SR2 - Better platforming, MUCH better puzzles, less linearity. Great optimisation for the time. Plot actually starts to make sense.

BO2 - Mediocre action with mediocre puzzles, shit plot and mediocre

Defiance - Good action/platformer with decent puzzles and much better writing and plot thatn in previous 3 games.

>>3513384
>implying ICO and Shadow of The Colossus are shit because no one gives a shit of the story
>implying no one plays Metal Gear for the story. If that were true, people would've been ecstatic about Metal Gear Survive
>implying nobody plays Legend of Zelda for lore

>>3519120
>Story actually becomes much better in SR2 and Defiance where shit starts to actually come together.
Eh, I don't really agree.

>>3519256
Blood Omen story honestly sounds like someone just stuck all his favourite popular fiction cliches together:

1) Killed, then brought back to unlife for Vengeance
2) Heroes who protect world against corrupted shit, become corrupted shit themselves
3) Have to go and kill the corrupted shit, then turns out you are part of the corrupted shit you have to kill
4) Dark broody purpleprosed vampire
5) Controled Butterfly Effect Gone Wrong
etc.

>>3519269
3) Have to go and kill the corrupted shit, then turns out you are part of the corrupted shit you have to kill
4) Dark broody purpleprosed vampire

I don't remember seeing these anywhere in other media

>>3519269
It's not like SR2 and Defiance fare much better in terms of novel ideas. It's just time travel wankery with the usual musings on fate. It's not a shallow story, but it isn't a deep one either.

What I like about Blood Omen is how thoroughly it explores madness and corruption, extending these qualities to the player's character and the gameplay itself. It's a story that lends well to an action-adventure game, which is what it is. It's far more satisfying for this reason. So is SR1 and its story up (to a lesser degree) until the cliffhanger.

>>3511815
it had a fantastic story and atmosphere
I didn't mind the gameplay, at least it wasn't a shitty fixed camera game like so many at that time

The opening cinematic is one of my all time favorites. Also, the start menu is
pretty creepy (in a good way). I don't think it's the greatest PS1 game, but it
was probably regarded as a very successful PS1 game when it was released. It
also presented the player with large environments (for the time) while managing
to virtually eliminate load times by streaming content off the CD-ROM, which (I
think) was regarded as a technical innovation.

>>3511838
Yeah, came to post this. I remember really enjoying that part.

Nothing else really stands out for me other than the Spider Cathedral as far as the exploration goes.

>>3519120
>SR2 - Better platforming, MUCH better puzzles, less linearity. Great optimisation for the time. Plot actually starts to make sense.

I loved the Soul Reaver games when they came out, but I've never seen such denial in defending SR2.

>>3520294
The opening cinematic of SR seems to be all anyone remembers from the series

>>3519336
3) and 4) don't crop up all that often in /quality/ fiction.

In trash fiction, however it is a staple of "dark fantasy",.4) - Because newb authors think that making protagonist a Vampire automatically makes their novel "dark and gothic"
3) - Because they cant write dark antiheroic protagonist, they see nothing wrong in resorting to shyamalanic "what a twist, you've been same as thoese evil guys the whole time lol, what a tragedy".

>>3519120
>>3522206
SR2 is more linear I wanted to write. Fumbled that lol. It is not perfect, but puzzles are still better.

>>3513119
>philosophical question about the nature of man.
In a game full of vampires.