Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered has finally been officially confirmed.
Following the first look in the latest State of Play, Gematsu reported that Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.
It’s as straightforward as it gets, with the two Soul Reaver games remade for new platforms and bundled in one package. We had reported that these remasters got leaked prematurely because some tie-in toys revealed the branding weeks earlier.
But what’s even stranger than this is that we got an even earlier announcement for this game. Last month, Evercade announced they would get this remaster on their proprietary carts, in partnership with UK publisher Blaze Entertainment. For a few weeks, it looked like this successful, but very niche, game console was the exclusive landing site for these remasters.
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver originally released on PlayStation, Windows, and the Dreamcast, between 1999 to 2000. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 released on PlayStation 2 and Windows in 2001. Both games are being rereleased for the first time in over 20 years.
It’s certainly something special that this is the first time that the games are then coming to Nintendo and Xbox platforms for the first time as well, but there is something about this release that may be cause for concern among fans.
That would be that Aspyr was named as the developer for this game. That’s the same Aspyr that released that really ‘well-known’ remaster of Star Wars Battlefront: Classic Collection, and the same one who were taken off of the KOTOR remake.
To be fair, the Soul Reaver games are considerably smaller in ambition to those, and Aspyr has made good remasters of old games before. We did note that the announcement trailer did not reveal any technical details for these remasters.
We do see comparisons between what appear to be upscaled and cleaned up versions of the original blocky graphics, and properly remastered new graphics. It makes a lot of those creatures look completely different, but conceptually these were what they were supposed to look like.
It’s fertile ground for remakes and remasters, but after the recent releases of Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics and Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP, we have experienced the highest of highs and the most disappointing of mids when it comes to these rereleases (At least Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP isn’t as bad as XIII. We certainly hope these latest remasters lean more on the high side.
You can watch the official announcement trailer below.
