Fans of the Legacy Of Kain IP have been crying out for love in recent years, after all, the last entry in the franchise was released on the Xbox, PS2, and PC in late 2003, in the form of Legacy Of Kain: Defiance. When Square-Enix sold Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, Square-Enix Montreal, and a host of IP including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, and Legacy Of Kain to Embracer Group earlier in 2022, hope was sparked anew that the new franchise owner would revitalise the IP that was once so beloved. Now, the first signs of life have emerged, and while it’s not confirmation of a new in-development game as of yet, it’s the best sign that those fans have had in nearly two decades of silence.
The legacy of the Legacy Of Kain IP has grown over these two decades and now we can see some light with fans of the Legacy Of Kain franchise reporting on Resetera that they are receiving surveys from Crystal Dynamics, specifically about the franchise. After asking for basic player details, names, gender, available gaming platforms, etc, the survey begins to ask questions about the player’s experience with the franchise, whether they have played games from the franchise, or whether they’ve consumed content online, via platforms like Twitch or YouTube, about the IP.
The questionnaire continues to then ask players whether they’d consider themselves a fan of the franchise, and which games they have played in the past, and even a rating for each game that you might have played. From here, the line of questioning gets more specific, looking for players to identify their most memorable thing from the games, what words they’d use to describe the setting, Nosgoth, and even asked players what the five core pillars of the franchise are.
Players are also asked about their favourite franchise protagonists and side characters, and what they look for in vampire-oriented titles more broadly, but it’s the next line of questioning where things get interesting. It’s clear that whatever work Crystal Dynamics and Embracer Group, it’s at square one because Question 21 asks players about what direction they’d like to see the franchise go in, offering the choices of “Reboot of the series”, “Sequel to the original games”, “Remaster of one of the original games (i.e. enhance the quality of one of the original games)”, or “Remake of one of the original games (i.e. rebuild one of the original games from the ground up). They ask about whether players want single-player, multiplayer co-op, or multiplayer PvP experiences, and finally look for players to draw comparisons to other games and forms of media to draw highlight the types of games that they may want to play or for the tone that the game may be looking to take.
The survey is thorough and is quite open in its intent to get players involved in the development of any future Legacy Of Kain game that stems from this, so if you’re interested in sharing your thoughts, you can do so here.