Blood Omen 2 Designer Diary #2

Entry #2 - 3/13/02

By Mike Ellis
Lead Designer, Crystal Dynamics

Looking back through the history of computer and video games, there have been many cool characters. There are characters who are fun and instantly lovable, like Yoshi, who, if we ever perfect genetics in our lifetime, is our pet of choice. Then there are characters like Maximo. Always ready to hack through a legion of monsters and save the world or grab the girl. Also, let's not forget the charms of characters such as Chun Li, Lara, and Yuna (FFX).

Kain makes being bad fun!

However, just how many bad guys or "gray" characters really stand out? Kefka from Final Fantasy? Or how about Revolver Ocelot? There are good examples and great characters in what may be an underdeveloped aspect of games--characters who aren't good guys but still have depth. But even they lack one thing: player control! This is one of many aspects that make Kain such a great character. He's powerful, arrogant, calculating, and ruthless, not to mention a megalomaniac. And we, the players, get to play as him! This instantly presents an interesting dilemma to the development team. How do we take a character already as powerful as Kain is from LOK: Blood Omen and let him grow? Which mechanics would successfully cross over from a 2D game (LOK: BO) played from an overhead viewpoint to a fully realized 3D world? We also had to examine the style and pacing of the gameplay that we wanted. This raised questions such as "How many people have played and remember LOK: Blood Omen?" and "To just how many people does Legacy of Kain mean Soul Reaver?" What would each of these audiences expect?

A little "charm" goes a long way.

With the creation of the Sarafan Lord and the concept of him having lead the reformed Sarafan armies to victory over Kain's vampire hordes, we could address the balance of the world a little and create a foe worthy of Kain. However, it was the idea of the Sarafan Lord leaving Kain for dead and claiming the Soul Reaver as his own that solved many design problems. The most powerful weapon in the LOK universe wasn't freely available, and Kain now had a very personal and driving purpose--retrieve the Reaver and settle his score with the Sarafan Lord!

Kain's near-death experience and a 200-year hibernationlike period also provided us with a reason why Kain didn't retain all of his original powers--and it helped with issues such as the look and feel of the world, as well as player training. However, throughout this process of setting up the state of the Nosgoth at the opening of play, it was essential that we remembered that people wanted to play Kain, since he was powerful and ruthless. Thus, he still needed to retain these character traits. This is where the unfortunate population of the city of Meridian came in. It had already been decided that we wanted to portray a busy fantasy-world city at night, and these poor wretches were the perfect tool to demonstrate just how frightening and powerful Kain was. They would run, trip, cower, and scream! Back away from Kain in fear and beg for their worthless lives! Kain would manipulate the humans as if they weighted nothing to him, as well as stalk his prey like the most cunning of lion. We would see if their Sarafan could protect them from this creature of the night!