Prerelease:Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (PlayStation)

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (PlayStation).

To do: Cover the many magazine articles.

Timeline

• 1997
  • November - Silicon Knights files lawsuit against Crystal Dynamics for breaches of non-disclosure agreements.
• 1998
  • April 14 - Silicon Knights files an injunction against Crystal Dynamics to prevent further publicity publication of Soul Reaver.
  • May 28-30 - Playable build is shown at E3 1998.
  • June 30 - Build date of the Lighthouse demo.
  • September 10 - Eidos acquires Crystal Dynamics.
  • October - Lighthouse demo is released with Official US PlayStation Magazine #13.
• 1999
  • January-February - Various prototypes were built containing the majority of unused areas.
  • March-April - Development scales down to meet release deadline, many areas are removed at this point.
  • May 13-15 - Playable build is shown at E3 1999.
  • May-July - Various builds created, new ending is recorded and added.
  • July 28 - Build date of US final.
  • August 16 - Final PlayStation build released in North America.
  • September 8 - Final Windows build released in North America.
• 2000
  • January 27 - Final Dreamcast build released in North America.

Concept Art

Arnold Ayala

Arnold Ayala, who worked on Concept Art, Initial Concept Art, and Texture & Lighting for the game, released much of the assets he created on his blog in 2009, many of which originate from Soul Reaver's Shifter pitch document before it became a Legacy of Kain sequel. Much of this art was the first full glimpses of the deleted material before prototype builds in 2020 were released.

Created the overall vision for the “Soul Reaver” project. Responsible for creating most of the characters (as well as the main character), backgrounds and environment concepts. Develop the production pipeline for character creation and diffuse maps on environments. Supervised and tutored the Art team. Liaison between the Art team and the Programming department regarding proprietary tool issues. Built 3D characters and levels by using 3D Studio and 3D Max. Textures were created in Fractal Paint and PhotoShop.

— Arnold Ayala

Character Concept Art

Various concept art for Raziel, Kain, and the vampires.

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Environment Concept Art

Various concept art for environments, most of which seem to depict The City and The Undercity.

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Screenshots

Various screenshots of The City and The Undercity, which were used for magazine publicity. The build depicted uses Raziel's old model, placing it in 1998.

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Texture Maps

To do: How do these textures compare to the textures present in the alpha prototypes?

Various texture maps for The City, The Silenced Cathedral, Zephon, and the deleted Undercity and Turel.

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1998

May

To do: Properly rip trailer for comparisons.

Soul Reaver was first shown at E3 1998, with various publications covering it. Most notably, a demo disc, Eidos Demo CD Volume 3, was given out containing an early trailer.

• A temporary voice actor is used, reciting the dialog that would be said in the opening cinematic in the final.
• The Elder God is referred to as 'The Elder'.
• Raziel uses his early model, the same as the one in the Lighthouse demo.
• Nupraptor's Retreat, Melchiah's Clan Territory, and the Drowned Abbey are shown, consistent with the location names listed in the Lighthouse demo. This gives evidence that these areas were worked on first.
• Raziel does not appear to have the Soul Reaver. It is unclear if it wasn't implemented at this point, or you were originally intended to go to the Drowned Abbey and defeat Rahab before fighting Kain for the first time.
• The Water Forge is prominently featured, which was located where the Fire Forge is in retail, beneath the Drowned Abbey.
• The souls are very different from any build, being more ghost-like as opposed to the green energy orbs in other builds.
• Combat appears much looser, with Raziel being able to move between targets while attacking without changing directions.

1999

May

E3 1999

Various Unincorporated Sources

Videos

• E3 1998: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7MIvRV28cs
• KainDemo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWxzrQhz_Y0
• PlayStation Zone Vol. 6 footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxdvMhjQmvQ
• E3 1999: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4uMRsgKiDo

Magazines

-Community magazine archive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JIzEZlM7Ssc78MevAiGmf5N3lQs1g0m4

Screenshots

• https://web.archive.org/web/20071230035058/http://www.juegomania.org/galeria/psone/823/88485
• https://www.gamespot.com/games/legacy-of-kain-soul-reaver/images/
• https://web.archive.org/web/20150912234621/http://www.gamershell.com/playstation/soul_reaver/screenshots.html
• http://archive.thegia.com/psx/soulr/soulrmedia3.html
• http://archive.thegia.com/psx/soulr/soulrmedia2.html
• https://www.ign.com/games/legacy-of-kain-soul-reaver/images

Articles

• Soul Reaver Designer Diary: http://www.dark-chronicle.co.uk/resources/designerdiary-sr1.php
• Amy Hennig 2012 interview: http://theancientsden.blogspot.com/2012/10/amy-henning-talks-soul-reaver.html

Misc.

• Robert Chang room tests: http://web.archive.org/web/20031107014312/http://www.ethereality.info:80/ethereality_website/3d/textures/soul_reaver.htm