The LoK community as a whole gets excited about it, I guess I may be one of the only ones that doesn't want to see another LoK game made.

Why?!

Well because I have Zero confidence in Square Enix/Eidos and Crystal Dynamics.

For starters I'm against "reboots" they are basically saying "Forget about that crap before we don't like it so we are going to start over"

It lessens what once was. Furthermore, there is hardly anyone left at CD that even worked on the other games. I know at least one of the head devs died, a few quit including the one person that has been involved in all the series even blood omen the most vital part.. the script writer Amy Henning isn't even there.

Added to this Tony Jay one of the main voice actors of the series.. he did Mortanius in Blood Omen and Elder God in Soul Reaver as well as several other characters where his voice was altered. He is now dead as well. So yet another staple of the series is not there and you can't there is no one that could do him justice.

You know damn well they will cater to getting new fans and not pleasing us old fans, which means likely more focus on the gameplay and less focus on what LoK was about Storyline.

Its bad enough they tried to cater to the casuals in Defiance, so we ended up with a DMC clone (that was quite boring and repetative gameplay wise) with all the storyline shoved to the end of the game instead of paced out in between in a well done manner like SR2.

I for one hope we NEVER see another LoK game. CD will just ruin the namesake that is LoK.

I like Defiance 2nd for storyline, but I find it the worst for combat/gameplay. The puzzles (another staple of the Soul Reaver Saga) are lack luster in defiance. I find the combat irritating and eventually very boring and repetative. Both characters controlled pretty much the same, just different visual animations for doing the same moves. The game was completely streamlined into a leveled linear experience losing the open world feel the Soul Reaver series had, even Soul Reaver 2 felt more open. Also I felt the actual combat was a clear attempt to rip off games like DMC (which is a series I loathe and despise anyways)

The game should have went back to something more along the lines of Soul Reaver
With the large open explorable overworld with an emphasis on puzzles with fewer enemy encounters but more memorable ones.

The only thing that keeps me playing Defiance and plowing through the levels is once I get to a certain point near the end about 2/3rds the way in, the storyline explodes on to the scene and makes up for the lackluster gameplay.

You seem far more trusting in CD/Eidos/Square's ability to stay true to the series than I do. I don't have an ounce of faith in them these days. I do have 2 remaining questions I wish had been answered.. the "Vorador Issue" and is Kain able to Restore things in the end. But really when i think what would likely happen with a sequel or worse a reboot I'd just rather the left it well alone.

Let them play with their little Tomb Raider games to their hearts content and not tarnish Legacy of Kain.

I like Defiance mainly for it's gameplay. The puzzles were indeed underdeveloped, but I found the combat to be a huge improvement over all previous instalments. It comes to preference though. This I can't agree with at all. Vorador's Mansion alone allowed more freedom than the whole SR2.
SR2 was one long corridor through which the player kept running back and forth. It was complete linearity with backtracking on top of that. The only place where there was any freedom was the Air Forge where the player could choose which of the 3 corridors should they go through first.
Defiance at least had some collectibles. Of course it didn't come close to Nupraptor's Retreat's ruins or the Lighthouse in SR1 (let alone all caves and secrets in BO1), but it was still much more than SR2 offered. I like DMC games (those that were released on PC), but only from the gameplay perspective. Taking inspiration from other games is nothing new for the series. Both BO1 and SR1 were clearly ripping off Zelda games. This I agree with. There were a lot places where the game could be improved. It's just that I find what is there to be better than SR2 and BO2 despite it's flaws. Even though I never had problems with it's gameplay, I'll agree that it becomes a roller-coaster once you get to Avernus :). I realise that a sequel has a potential of going terribly wrong. I also agree that if it would not show the prequels the proper respect, then it's best for the franchise to be left as it is.
However, I tend to trust developers until the give me a reason not to. That hasn't happened yet for SE/Eidos/CD.
And if we get a sequel, I wouldn't be so sure that it would be CD developing it (Dark Prophecy was being developed by Ritual). Eidos Montreal seems to be a more likely choice at this point.

I'd rather ppl focus on creating new games than sequels, rebooting old franchises and stuff... The little uncertainty left in the end of defiance is good, i don't like when everything is explained, some things must remain the mystery, becouse i like mysteries :)

I don't mind the linearity of SR2, . As a story based game it can well be a long corridor for me, I don't care. it was never boring, and the story was so gripping i was hooked to the screen all the time. Can't say that for defiance, it got boring at moments, as you said, story progression wasn't paced that good (although not THAT bad, learning the history from murals was fun to some extent), and there were many repetitive moments as far as i remember. The demons cutting off paths and forcing you to fight them all the time was the most annoying part.

i love the defiance graphics though, especially the spectral realm was awesome, character design, combat was fun to watch, special moves looked great and so on.

Actually, speaking of story pacing, i'd say the first SR is the worse, you got only few really important plot points along the way, and suddenly things pick up at the end just to leave you with a cliffhanger. What saves this game is gameplay, atmosphere, setting, design, but if it wasn't for SR2, SR1 wouldn't have stayed in my mind that much. Actually all the most exciting things storywise happened in SR2 and a bit in Defiance, even Blood Omen didn't seem as gripping after i knew all the recounts from SR2 having played it already (of course its a great game atmosphere / gameplay - wise).

I don't mention BO2, never played it, and not much looking forward to playing it, judging from what i heard about the game :)

We may have some slightly differing opinions about BO2 but I completely agree with your views on Defiance. Everything you said about in fact. Defiance was a rip-off of DMC, they even told us that in the news about it before it came out. They said that combat was boring in Soul Reaver 2 and they wanted to improve it and make it more like DMC, which was the most popular melee combat game at the time. They didn't seem to realise that DMC was a flash in the pan. They also only had like 6 different moves for each character. So, they only had like 6 different moves. : / Like you said, both characters played the exact same. They made a big deal about that beforehand too. Claimed it was the next best thing since sliced bread and then damn, Kain can even glide (thank you BO2 (sry, not trying to drag another thread into this).

IMO, the series lost something after SR1. I don't know quite what it was, the story and vision only got bigger, but the atmosphere that was in SR1 hasn't been replicated in anything since. Therefore I would be 100% against a reboot of the series. They won't get it right

EDIT: I just thought of something. SR1 was not originally designed to be a Legacy of Kain game, it was changed during production, even the story was largely just cannibalised from the old game. That may explain the atmosphere and story differences.

there is no such thing as "the Legacy of Kain gameplay"

every single game tried something different.

I adore the series, and I consider it to be the single best story ever told in the history of gaming. I want a sequel, because I want closure.

that being said, the gameplay was always fairly weak. The strongest game, gameplay-wise, was the first one, Blood Omen. This is because it was a classic Zelda game in a Gothic setting, with a vampire protagonist, and all kinds of awesome tricks you gathered along your journey.

Soul Reaver was somehting completely different. It was in 3-D, and it was focused around the interaction with Spectral realm. THe combat was sparse, it was tense, and often annoying, becuse you had to kill stuff, make sure it styed dead, and then eat its soul, all the while being continuously attacked. There were also too many block puzzles, and the jumping drove me mad sometimes (esp Rahab's area..... godDAMN, Rahab's area!).
Nonetheless, there were some cool things about SR, especially the optional areas.

SR2 worked on the whole elemtal reavers thing, but not enough to make the combat really interesting. The story was AMAZING (all capitals truly deserved), but the gameplay was quite poor.

now, enter BO2. Being the absolute opposite of SR2. often touted as having a terrible story (still far above average, though not up to usual LoK standards), it did plenty of things right.

1) first off, it tightened up the combat. this was probably the best combat in an LoK game, without going crazy overbaord and DMC-ish, as Defiance did. Given that a very simlar combat model was used in The Witcher 2 (the sword-work, at least) means it was till pretty standard-fare, but nonehteless miles ahead of anything that came before. And, it was spaced well enough so as to never really seem like a chore, unlike SR2
2) The setting. Meridian was an actual city. Sure, it was all scripted and the levels were one long corridor, but despite that, it seemed real in places. some of that dialogue was simply fantastic as well, really added to the mood of the game.

and then, Defiance. THE story was almost on par with SR2 (barring a few hiccups, like vorador's resurrection not gettign explained), and the combat, while a DMC ripoff, was mostly kept interesting enough not to get tedious. Aside from those Ancient Forges/Tombs, Defiance was pretty perfect. One thing it did largely lack, though was linearity. Paradoks brought up the Mansion, and it was a great example of what the game could have been. Unfortunately, if you get down to it, it was the most "open" part of the game. and it was still nothing compared to SR1.

now, from the sequel, I'd like to go back to the open-world of BO1+SR1, while trying to keep the "real-life-like" settings of BO2 where appropriate. I feel the combat could be done in either the BO2 or Defiance iteration, as both were good implementations, imho.
but, for the love of all that is holy, don't try to reboot it, and DEFINITELY Do. Not. Try. To. Mess. With. The. STORY.

While I want nothing else but a true sequel to the series, that dream sort of died a while ago. It's been almost 10 years since Defiance came out, and as was already said, almost all of the old LOK crew have left the company (at least the ones in charge of the series) in one way or another.

I'm such a huge fan of the series that any news about a new game coming out I immediately get excited for. A reboot could go either way, so I try to be cautiously optimistic. Also, the term "reboot" doesn't necessarily mean "let's forget about what was in the past and do it over". I would hope that any LOK "reboot" would follow in the same footsteps as the movie X-Men First Class. It was a prequel to the other X-Men movies, but at the same time, it was considered a reboot because it's so far removed from those movies. In the videogame world, a good comparison would be Deus Ex Human Revolution. It's another prequel, but it stands on its own, while still technically "rebooting" the series that, like LOK, died over a decade ago. So, in that regard, LOK is, more or less, ripe for a "reboot" that doesn't rely on past games to move forward, considering how Defiance ended.

But the odds of that happening are low, and the cynic in me says "they're going to casualize it, and redo the whole thing as if it never had a past. A "LOK-in-name-only" situation, which would royally suck. I don't want to judge anything yet though, since we haven't seen anything yet, not even a formal announcement, which I thought would be present at E3.

I wish they'd do an HD remake of all the games. That's what I truly want if we can't get a proper sequel. I can only dream...

I don't want to see another LoK game because I feel the series came full circle at the end of Defiance. I would however like to see maybe a novel or something just to expand the universe a little bit. An HD collection would be cool as well.

I think a 3d animated movie series would be a good idea. As long as they don't butcher the story like they did to Cirque Du Freak.

Clarification: When I say "they" I mean the movie industry.

Apparently Square-Enix has just registered a domain 'warfornosgoth', which gives me hope that maybe they are working on a completely new title for the series that is not a reboot.

www dot nosgoth dot com

there is a new Legacy of Kain game, it is kind of like team Fortress... personally not my kind of thing.. but it is free to play, it is still in live beta testing but the game does exist. If it is successful they may make another Legacy of Kain game more in keeping to the original series.

Just thought I would comment to let you know if you didn't know :)

Well, odd that no one actually brought <span class="bold">Nosgoth</span> to this thread earlier.
Unfortunately, it was put to death by its creator on May 31st, this year... :|

That's because at the time Nosgoth was not officially announced and was still known as War for Nosgoth from the leaks.
That's... debatable. I felt really bad looking at fellow fans who enjoyed the game when the announcement about the shut-down was made. But personally, I always found the whole Nosgoth concept to be doomed from the start. I tried to be open minded about it, I really did, but in the end I just can't look at it as anything more than Dead Sun's leftovers.

Well, yes, but one would think that someone would have posted anything about it here, but no one did, apparently... :/

I understand your attitude, I know many of us who have all but despised what was done to the Legacy with Dead Sun and Nosgoth as its multiplayer companion. I managed to be open minded about it all, though. I played Nosgoth ever since the Alpha up until the very moment it took its final breath and closed its servers to the world...

Over 1.7k hours I have spent in that game. Needless to say, I enjoyed it immensely and was very willing to accept the parallel universe it inhabited and that was brought to life for us to witness and partake in... I feel no remorse, nor do I believe that loving and playing Nosgoth made me any less of a fan - if not the opposite. But then again, we all make our own choices and voice our own opinions... And I truly respect that.

I do not, however, encourage nor support those that let this make a division amongst ourselves, nor will I ever.