Legacy of Kain: Ascendance – Nostalgia Over Substance?

Twenty-three years. That’s how long it’s been since Kain and Raziel last traded Shakespearean barbs. Now they’re back. But not in the AAA blockbuster the diehards wanted. Instead, we got a 2D pixel-art platformer that occasionally morphs into a PS1 demake and randomly throws anime at your retinas. It sounds like a rom-hack fever dream. It plays like a slightly bad one. And yet, we’re still grateful for Legacy of Kain: Ascendance. Broken as it is, we missed this universe dearly.

What awaits thee yonder?

“Weaving narrative into world design”

Well, about that. You are moving right. You are mashing the attack button over and over and over. That’s all the weaving that’s done.

It’s a 2D brawler with a fresh coat of gothic paint, but the friction hits immediately when you realize how incredibly stiff everything is. Playing as Kain feels heavy, but not in a very satisfying and deliberate way; he just feels sluggish. Human Raziel fights like a generic sword-and-board knight you’d find in an old flash game. Then you unlock Elaleth. Suddenly, the game asks you to play it like a cracked-out speedrunner. You have to constantly rewire your brain for different hitboxes, but none of them feel genuinely fluid. You have a jump, a glide, a parry, and a remarkably hollow sword swing. That’s it. You do your best to appreciate the universe. It works most of the time.

The real pain happens when the game yanks you out of the 2D plane to dump you into one of the “throwback 3D moments.” These are clunky, tank-controlled PS1-era diorama rooms. You’re trying to find a rhythm in combat, and then—bam. You’re navigating a blurry, low-poly crypt. It halts the pacing entirely. You battle enemies, but you also battle the feeling that this game feels like a disservice. It’s not. It has some cool moments and nods to the franchise, but we wish it was more than that. Or, at least, to have done things differently.

Torches up

Crystal Dynamics holds the keys to Nosgoth. But they didn’t really build this house. They outsourced it. FreakZone Games is the muscle here, working under Bit Bot Media.

FreakZone knows retro. They built their name on the Angry Video Game Nerd platformers. They know how to make you suffer through precise pixel jumps. But handing them a lore-heavy, voice-acted, multi-perspective narrative epic seems like a miscalculation. I can’t help but wonder if Crystal Dynamics is testing the waters. After spending years chasing live-service trends with Avengers, we think they want to see if this IP still has a pulse before committing real budget to a modern 3D title. Looking at the Steam reviews, this isn’t a grand return. It’s a cheap temperature check. And it’s freezing.

Hey, did you know that:

Three wildly different art directions

We like experimentation, we’re all for it. But, combining pixel art, low-poly retro 3D, and fully animated anime cutscenes makes for a highly jarring visual pipeline. Then there’s the transition from native 4K anime cinematics back into chunky PS1-era 3D sequences. It creates a severe visual identity crisis. It doesn’t look like one cohesive product. It looks like three different games glued together. Poorly. To make matters worse, the rigid controls bleed into the UI, making simple upgrades feel like a chore.

Disjointed love letter

Ascendance is weird and fundamentally misunderstands what made the originals great. It relies entirely on the sheer charisma of its legacy cast to mask shallow gameplay. For nostalgic reasons, it has its moments, and it makes you love and cherish the originals even more. We sincerely hope the critical reception of Ascendance doesn’t discourage the publisher, and we can still see this franchise evolve and bring it to its former glory.

ID Card

• Developer: Bit Bot Media / FreakZone Games
• Publisher: Crystal Dynamics
• Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, Switch 2, PC (Steam/Epic)
• Release Date: March 31, 2026
• Genre: 2D Action Platformer