Legacy of Kain: Defiance is lastly getting the remaster it is lengthy deserved, and along with a a lot nicer wanting and taking part in recreation, those that buy the Deluxe Version will get to play a never-before-seen demo of the canceled sixth Legacy of Kain recreation, The Darkish Prophecy.
Introduced at the moment, Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered will launch on March 3, 2026 for PS5 and PS4, Swap and Swap 2, Xbox, and PC through Steam, GOG, and Epic Video games Retailer. It is developed by Crystal Dynamics and PlayEveryWare, and per franchise basic supervisor Matt McCloskey, relies closely on “a digitization of this large archive that we really present in a closet at Crystal Dynamics San Mateo workplace.”
That is a remaster, not a remake, however there’s a lot to it. The graphics, lighting, cinematics, audio, and music participant have all gotten a main touch-up, alongside the controls and HUD. New on this model is a third-person “floating” digital camera view, although you’ll be able to toggle again to the unique digital camera view for those who desire the outdated look. There’s a new fight tutorial that is a little simpler to entry for newer gamers, a photograph mode, a cheat menu, and a few new localizations the unique recreation did not have.
The remaster may even characteristic a line-up of bonus content material, together with new collectibles, the addition of a quantity of beforehand reduce misplaced ranges, native degree maps, an improved 3D lore map, and a bunch of participant character skins. For purchasers of the Deluxe Version, a comedian e-book reader may even be out there containing the Soul Reaver and Defiance comics.
However those that buy the Deluxe Version may even get entry to one thing somewhat astonishing: a demo of a cancelled recreation. It is lengthy been public data that Crystal Dynamics was engaged on a sequel to Defiance again in 2003. Internally known as Legacy of Kain 6 and rumored to be subtitled “The Darkish Prophecy”, its existence and a few particulars about it had been leaked over time, however the recreation itself was cancelled earlier than it could possibly be formally introduced. Crystal Dynamics has assembled a demo of that recreation from archived recordsdata, and made it out there to play within the Deluxe Version, giving a glimpse at a Legacy of Kain that might have been.
All of this can be out there on March 3, leaving lots of time to arrange for the discharge later that month of a model new Legacy of Kain recreation, entitled Ascendance, which we additionally realized about at the moment. This pair of releases marks a main revival for the franchise, because the final “new” recreation was the unique Legacy of Kain: Defiance over twenty years in the past in 2003 (which we gave an 8/10 all these years in the past!), and the one launch since has been Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered in 2024.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Received a story tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.