Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered | PS5 Review

Having only first properly experienced Legacy of Kain with 2024’s Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver Remastered, I walked away incredibly impressed. Though Blood Omen laid a strong foundation for this vampiric universe, the Soul Reaver titles took it to the next level through its elegant prose and macabre world. The atmosphere was dripping off of those games, even when using the original PS1 and PS2 graphics. After the exciting cliffhanger of Soul Reaver 2, I was chomping at the bit to finally play Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered.

The End of the Board

When it comes to that story, it’s nearly as strong as the Soul Reaver titles. Not only do we play as Raziel once again, but the dark vampire lord Kain is playable as well. The differences between the characters is fairly minimal, but it’s nonetheless exciting to play as both of these adversaries as they follow the threads of their fates. Truthfully, the time travel heavy storyline does get a little convoluted five games deep, but it finishes very strongly with a bold cliffhanger that remains sadly unanswered to this day. The dialogue is still very strong, unafraid to stop and have a philosophical showdown in between all the sword-based showdowns.

The voice acting is incredible in this day and age, and must’ve been revelatory in its time. Simon Templeman as Kain and Michael Bell as Raziel are the standouts, and their few shared scenes are the highlight of Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered just as it was in previous titles. Every cutscene feels like a treat, which turns out to be a necessary reward in Defiance.

Defy the Tyrannous Stars

Both Soul Reaver games were puzzle-heavy titles, but Defiance lets your brain take a backseat during gameplay. It appears to have been emulating the character action games of its time like Devil May Cry, as it throws mobs of enemies at you with every turn. There’s even those classic magic barriers that get thrown up until you clear any area of all enemies.

Unfortunately, the combat is basic at best. There’s one combo to unleash by mashing the attack button, and an uppercut move to get enemies airborne for the one air combo you can use. You do unlock simple special moves and magical area attacks, but they’re more trouble than they’re worth. The standard attack button will carry you through every encounter with minimal effort. To put into context the absurd amount of combat this game has, I skipped past every non-essential fight after my first hour and had a completion time of 8 hours. HowLongToBeat puts the average main story completion time of Defiance at 12 hours. That’s 4 hours, or 25% of the game’s runtime, filled with the most mindless and dull combat of its time.

And the great shame of it is, the puzzles from Soul Reaver are almost entirely absent here! There’s little to break up the monotony of walking forward and killing fiends. I never had to hesitate to think on how to progress, which is unlike the games before it. It’s truly a shame this change in direction to more action-oriented design was decided upon.

Embrace Your Calling

The effort put into Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered is an unbridled labor of love. Not only are the graphics improved, but many of the characters are slightly redesigned with their concept art in mind, utilizing modern hardware to do what the PS2 and Xbox could not.

It is impossible to properly explain what a difference the new camera makes. In the original release, camera angles were fixed, but here in the rerelease you can look all around with an entirely free camera. I don’t mind fixed camera angles, but swapping between this new camera and the original made it clear Legacy of Kain: Defiance didn’t know how to use fixed cameras very well. This change alone makes the package worth it for fans of the original.

Also included is a plethora of bonus materials. Concept art galore, videos of recording sessions, levels that were cut from the original game, an in-game encyclopedia of Nosgoth’s history and culture, the list goes on and on. It’s any fan’s dream to see a remaster so lovingly assembled. Unbelievably, there’s even a playable section of the cancelled sequel, Legacy of Kain: Dark Prophecy.

Vae Victus

Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered is a beautiful package for longtime fans, and still a great value for newer fans like me. Though I can’t deny being disappointed in the gameplay design and structure, it’s ultimately not what I’ll be remembering from my time here. I’ll remember the incredible dialogue, the strong leads, the compelling world, and the adoration put into this restoration. If this is once again the endpoint of the story for Legacy of Kain, it’s a worthy one.

To hear me talk more about Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered, be sure to listen to the March 10, 2025 episode of The Gaming Outsider Podcast.

This review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy of Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered provided by Sandbox Strategies for coverage purposes. It is also available on Xbox, Steam, and The Epic Games Store. It will be available on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 in the future.