If you're a Legacy of Kain, you've gotta be excited about today's Sony State of Play. In it we saw not one but TWO games announced – a remaster of Legacy of Kain: Defiance and a completely new game entitled Legacy of Kain: Ascendance, both of which you'll have in your hands momentarily as they release on March 3rd and March 31st, respectively. Let's get into Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered first:
Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered is a timeless dark fantasy reborn for a new generation. Return to the dark world of Nosgoth as you take control of both the vampire Kain and his betrayed lieutenant, Raziel, two powerful entities bound by the conflict between fate and free will.
Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered Key Features
- Two Legendary Protagonists: Play as both Kain and Raziel, each with distinct abilities, combat styles, and perspectives that shape how the story unfolds.
- Return to Nosgoth’s Dark Fantasy World: Explore ruined cities, ancient temples, and towering strongholds filled with challenging environmental puzzles, enemies, and secrets to discover.
- New! Updated HD Visuals: Experience Nosgoth like never before with a new camera, as well as upgraded character models, textures, and environments, with the ability to switch between classic and modern presentation on the fly.
- New! Refined Camera: Play the game with the original fixed camera or a new third-person camera built for modern platforms.
- New! Bonus Content: Enjoy a slew of additions including a photo mode, alternate character skins, a comprehensive lore reader, unreleased content and 'lost levels' from the original game.
Defiance is all that is needed to tie up the main trilogy of games, providing a through line for the Legacy of Kain and Soul Reaver games. Now let's take a look at the newest installment into the storied franchise – a prequel to Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Legacy of Kain: Ascendance.
A prequel to Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Legacy of Kain: Ascendance is a fast-paced, 2D action platformer built around vertical movement, fluid combat, and skill-driven play, with select PS1 era–inspired 3D sequences. Story and narrative are key to the experience, woven directly into gameplay, cutscenes, and world design. Beautifully crafted retro pixel-art gameplay and anime-influenced cinematics bring Nosgoth’s dark fantasy world to life, telling a new story set in a vast world of collapsing kingdoms, haunted ruins, and shattered timelines.
Legacy of Kain: Ascendance Key Features
- Retro-Inspired 2D Action Platformer: Chain melee strikes, evasive dashes, and supernatural attacks in fluid, vicious combat in this brand-new Legacy of Kain adventure.
- Throwback 3D Moments: 3D sections inspired by the PS1 era appear at key narrative points, offering story-driven interaction and lore-heavy sequences that reward fans of the Legacy of Kain mythos.
- Anime-Inspired Cinematics: A bold new animated style debuts for the franchise, enhancing major story beats with anime-inspired visuals.
- Play as Three Powerful Protagonists: Overwhelm the battlefield with Kain’s vampiric powers. Play Raziel before his fall as a human Sarafan knight, then take flight for the first time in his vampiric form. And discover an aggressive playstyle focused on fast, relentless offense as the vampire Elaleth.
- Iconic Voice Talent Returns: Legendary Legacy of Kain voice actors Michael Bell (Raziel), Simon Templeman (Kain), Anna Gunn (Ariel), and Richard Doyle (Moebius).
- Experience an Epic Original Score: Feel the thrill of the action with a powerful original score by award-winning recording artist Klayton (Celldweller/Scandroid).
Naturally, the game went up for preorder immediately, and will come in three flavors, shipping on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5. If Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered is your aim, well...look no further:
- The Standard Edition, which includes the base game and the pre-order exclusive “Defiance Remastered Shifter Skin Pack,” for $24.99.
- The Deluxe Edition, which includes everything in the Standard Edition, plus a comic book reader (with three classic comics), a demo of the unreleased Legacy of Kain: The Dark Prophecy, and the pre-order exclusive “Defiance Remastered Shifter Skin Pack” for $29.99.
- The Heart of Darkness Collection, which includes everything in the Deluxe Edition, plus Legacy of Kain: Ascendance, an Ascendance-themed skin pack for Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered, and the pre-order exclusive “Defiance Remastered Shifter Skin Pack, "for $44.99. The Heart of Darkness Collection is available to pre-order on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
If you're eager to explore the prequel title from Bit.Bot and Freakzone Games, then you'll want to keep an eye out for that title on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store on March 31, 2026.
I'm excited to see both of these games come to life, as well as the return of some very familiar voices in their iconic roles – namely, Simon Templeman as Kain, Michael Bell as Raziel, Anna Gunn as Ariel and Richard Doyle as Moebius, plus a soundtrack from hit recording artist Klayton (Celldweller). Could this spell the confluence of events that ultimately results in an entirely new installment that furthers the mainline games? Only time will tell, but I can say this – it's good to be back. Vae Victis!
