Video Demo - 1999-03-16 - Soul Reaver - Legacy of Kain: The Lost Worlds

Video Demo - 1999-03-16

article by Ben Lincoln, information contributed by Thiago Paulino

This is a rare video preview of Soul Reaver discovered by Brazilian fan Thiago Paulino. Its only known publication was on the German Playstation Zone Volume 6 disc.

The main item of interest is previously-unknown footage of The Turelim Clan Territory, which appears in only one other video (The KainDemo Video). However, it clearly depicts the game in an early state:

It begins with a truncated version of the opening FMV from the game which uses another variation on Michael Bell's dialogue.
That video footage is early enough that Kain's cape/tabbard has Raziel's clan symbol on it^[1].
The first in-game footage is of The Turelim Clan Territory - specifically, the long hallway with a very high ceiling which appears in a few screenshots.
- Raziel enters the room and kills a Turelim vampire using the dart-shaped spear present in many early versions of the game.
- A soul with the appearance of those in The Lighthouse Demo is released.
- Raziel jumps up a series of ledges to reveal the full height of the room.
The second sequence takes place in an early version of the Human Citadel. It appears to be laid out differently than any part of the Citadel in the final version of the game, and at least one of the doorways is not yet connected to another room.
The third sequence takes place in the Chronoplast. There is no "pot of visions".
The fourth (and final) sequence appears is set in Melchiah's territory.

The video file's timestamp places it on 16 March, 1999^[2], but the footage could have been created months before that.

Unfortunately, the publisher of Playstation Zone overlaid a giant frame/logo on the video, which results in the image losing about being cropped by about 25% vertically and about 10% horizontally. The blurred area in the screenshots and downloadable video is from where their logo was removed to avoid infringing their copyright and with the intent of creating a less-distracting appearance. If anyone knows of a version of this video without the frame and logo, please let me know.

Screenshots of The Opening FMV

A significant amount of the image is obscured

Kain with Raziel's symbol

Screenshots of The Turelim Clan Territory

Screenshots of The Human Citadel

Screenshots of The Oracle's Cave

Screenshots of The Necropolis

Video
File	Size	Author
Demo Video - 1999-03-16	93 MiB	Crystal Dynamics
A an early preview video of Soul Reaver.

Footnotes

1.	This was corrected by the time the game was released, although the early renderings made their way into the hands of BBI, who ended up releasing their Kain figure with the same error (see Retail Action Figures).
2.	This would place the video file's creation about six months after The Lighthouse Demo was built, and about two months before "the early beta" discussed in Raina Audron's beta comparison (see Beta Comparison - Versions).

Related Articles:
The Lighthouse Demo
The KainDemo Video