Legacy of Kain Ascendance Review: A Disappointing Trip Back to Nosgoth

16 hours ago 3

Published Mar 31, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT

Maddie Fisher is a writer, journalist and game developer. She was born and raised on the east coast, having started working in games journalism over fifteen years ago. She tends to enjoy musical theater, hockey and tennis.

As the resident Legacy of Kain devotee around these parts, it's been my absolute honor to cover and review the franchise's rebirth. Following its slippery descent into the vampiric shadows that birthed it, Legacy of Kain has been given a new lease on life through remasters of the classics and now, finally, after what felt like a lifetime of waiting, a new mainline game.

While Legacy of Kain: Ascendance may not be the sequel to Defiance we've waited for, as it's a prequel taking place before the events of Soul Reaver, it's good to know that the people who make the decisions on these things see something in the IP. I know, no one wants to talk about our favorite vampires within the confines of business decisions and the cold, unfeeling lens of IP ownership, but that's where the franchise is now.

Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered Review

One of Kain's greatest adventures returns with a fresh coat of paint.

Ascendance is a side-scrolling action game with multiple playable characters, including long-time protagonists Kain and Razel, along with Elaleth from the recent The Dead Shall Rise comic books. Multiple protagonists, vampires, and fast-paced combat? Sounds like a Kain game to me. It's a tricky one to take into account, however, when you consider just how intrinsically linked to fully 3D experiences the Kain games are.

It's not the Kain game we've waited for, but it's unfortunately the one in front of us right now. And while my hopes are pinned on a sequel to Defiance coming in the near future, this little excursion into the Kain franchise is one that you'll probably be conflicted about checking out for various reasons if you're a fan of the series.

We Have Legacy of Kain at Home

In a lot of ways, I think the key, perhaps defining feature of Legacy of Kain has always been its writing and story. The gameplay has always been good to genuinely fantastic, but the real draw of the franchise has consistently been the narrative. It was a franchise determined to have not just a good story, but to have one rooted in a complex mythology with amazing actors doing their thing.

The Shakespearean, theatrical dialogue and dazzling performances were what made me fall in love with the series to begin with. Just to be clear, Ascendance does not have that. It tries, and does so honorably, but it's just not where it needs to be. The writing and story have all the right ideas and are clearly written by people who love the franchise and its mythology, but it really is missing the signature voice of the other games.

It's not inherently bad for what it is, and in fact, the voice acting is fairly on par with most games of this style, but it just doesn't strike the same chord as the classic Kain games. Even the worst-acted Kain game sounds better. It's rather disappointing, as that has always been one of my favorite parts of the franchise.

I also can't help but find this style of story presentation to be both dated and disappointing in 2026. It feels like the worst parts of the 2010s, with uninspired character portraits and awkward animations. Considering how the franchise made its name on long-form, cinematic story sequences, seeing a regression to this style of narrative is incredibly disappointing.

Unfortunately, Elaleth is going to be a sore spot for a lot of fans. The character has been a part of some rather uninspiring retcons seen in The Dead Shall Rise, and her inclusion here isn't really going to sway you. I do think the franchise needs to introduce more new characters in order to sustain itself, as it can't rely on the old cast forever, but if you have no interest in seeing Elaleth, it's worth noting that she is a major part of the game.

That being said, it is absolutely delightful to hear the wonderful tones of franchise icons like Michael Bell and Simon Templeman as Raziel and Kain, respectively. You can certainly hear age in their voices, which is a bit amusing considering this is a prequel, but it doesn't really matter as these folks are still absolute pros. Everyone in the game is decent enough, but often routinely outclassed by the legacy actors.

The writing and story have all the right ideas and are clearly written by people who love the franchise and its mythology, but it really is missing the signature voice of the other games.

The audio is also maddeningly inconsistent, as you'll have spectacular voice performances, but the music is dreadful. It just feels like one piece of music is looped over and over again, and at a frighteningly high volume. The music has no sense of character or pace to it, and quite often amounts to white noise. That's not really what I wanna hear when it comes to a Kain game.

At the end of the day, you're left with a game that tries incredibly hard to recapture what amounted to magic back in the day. You would be lucky to get even halfway there, and the team here has really done an excellent job in their efforts to approximate what the franchise used to be. It's not perfect, but the effort and will to do so are always appreciated.

In fact, when the game ties itself so ruthlessly to that mythology and its events, that's when it really hits. There are several moments where the game is deeply entrenched in the lore of the franchise, and if you've ever enjoyed this series, these moments are going to hit you pretty hard. That's the true strength of Ascendance, when it both celebrates what this franchise is and does so with modern technology.

Oh No, We Suck Again!

Ascendance was announced during a flurry of Kain announcements in a State of Play back in February of this year, and for many fans of the franchise, including myself, it felt like a bit of a monkey's paw situation. We had waited so long for a new game, and for it to be a 2D action-platformer didn't quite feel like the move, but I was cautiously optimistic. The end result didn't do much to change my mind.

Movement and jumping are rather uncomfortable, as it feels like a game that never left its beta stage. The limited range of animation also makes the game feel a little cheap, and considering just how much emphasis the franchise has always put on animation and immersive movement, that definitely doesn't help. Combat feels even more restrained, with one feeble attack that looks like it came straight out of an NES game.

Fortunately, when you hit a parry at the right time, that is the one part of combat that actually feels genuinely satisfying. The sound design on it is quite nice, too, as it all has a pretty visceral edge to it. That's about where the positive aspect of the combat and platforming ends. What you're left with after that is so incredibly dull and frustrating, and it feels altogether rotten to play.

Enemy patterns in Legacy of Kain: Ascendance seem to have learned all the worst lessons from the games that inspired it. Floating enemies that drift just out of reach, ranged foes that are frustratingly difficult to pin down, and a unique health system for each character that is just mind-numbing. I love Castlevania, but a contemporary game asking me to find random chickens on the ground to regain health just isn't it.

Platforming is even more of a disaster. I've often talked about my distaste for precision platforming in 2D action games, and Ascendance has not made me feel any different. Jumping feels painfully slow, and when you combine this with how inconsistent some of the higher-level platforming tricks are, it just becomes so depressing to experience. The actual basics of platforming are just not good, which is not what you want to hear when a game describes itself as an action-platformer.

This is a franchise built on complex world-building, satisfying combat, and deep exploration. Ascendance wants to be that, but very little of those efforts come out the way I think they wanted them to. This is a tremendously flawed experience that is trying to live up to one of gaming's most iconic franchises, and that's a mighty tall task. Unfortunately for Ascendance, the coin did not land on its edge this time.

Legacy of Kain: Ascendance is the first new game in the franchise since 2003's Defiance. It really misses the mark on quite a few things, not the least of which is its story, which tries valiantly but just doesn't succeed in a meaningful way. In many ways, it's a step backwards and makes the franchise's most defining feature feel like a throwaway. It also just feels so bad to play, and if you were even a casual fan of Legacy of Kain back in the day, there's not much here I can really recommend outside of hearing Michael Bell and Simon Templeman again.