2003 April Fools - Explanation and Reaction

article by Ben Lincoln

As many of you have no doubt guessed, the "3 new Legacy of Kain titles in 2003" article, and the "press release" from Eidos were a giant April Fools joke. All told, it has been about four months in the making, so hopefully you enjoyed it.

The original plan was conceived by myself as a kind of LoK equivalent of the Fan-produced Star Wars trailers, but I decided it would make an even better April Fools joke. However, I soon realized I would not be able to carry it out on my own, and enlisted the help of Willow Ayala (of Just Play With Them), and Divine Shadow (LoK Hacker Extraordinaire, and author of his own incredibly cool April Fool's joke). Only together could we create a fully convincing package to spring on the public.

Credits

Concept and press release: Ben Lincoln
Vehiculum Furtus Maximo character art and logo: Willow Ayala
Vehiculum Furtus Maximo package design: Ben Lincoln
Soul Reaver 3 screenshots: Divine Shadow, Ben Lincoln
Soul Reaver Special Edition screenshots and package design: Ben Lincoln
Ministry of Propaganda: Willow Ayala, Ben Lincoln, The Priestess, Embla
Special Thanks: Chris Bruno (for providing supporting evidence), Crystal Dynamics and Eidos (for not suing us), the members of the Eidos, Nosgothic Realm, and GameFAQs forums

Full Coverage

[ Trimmed down to only links that still work in 2007 - the Nosgothic Realm and GameFAQs forums no longer contain the relevant posts. ]

"Holy Crapcakes!" - Eidos forum post by Willow Ayala
"3 Legacy of Kain Titles Announced for 2003" - Eidos forum post by Ben Lincoln
"Finally some good LOK news!" - Eidos forum post by The Priestess
"CHRIS! Plz confirm this is not a April Fools Prank!" - Eidos forum post by Reaper007
"3 Legacy of Kain titles announced for 2003" - IGN forum post by Embla

That's a pretty good count if you ask me, even if a few people didn't appreciate the joke =). If I missed any, please let me know.

The response overall was very good. Most people either fell for the joke, or at least thought it was funny. A funny phenomenon I noticed was that a lot of people who were sure it was a hoax came up with completely bogus evidence to support their theories (see "nitpicking the nitpickers," below). A small minority were actually offended by the whole thing, which was kind of disappointing.

Some of my favourite quotes:

The entire back-and-forth between Vampmaster and fneh in this thread - Vampmaster and fneh, Eidos Forums
"*is shocked, and jaw drops to the floor* This is more then we all asked for...and agh Iso want to cuddle that cutesy Kain." - BloodFang, Nosgothic Realm
"holy crap. The first two got me jumping for joy...but that last one....that HAS to be some awful joke. But for the love of god, I hope that this is NOT an april fools joke cus if it is i Hate eidos..." - GawdDawgs, GameFAQs Forum
"Sorry I was not able to give out info on these new titles. I had been told not to talk about them, but I guess now it has been leaked out. When I have additional information, I will post it here." - Chris@Crystal, Eidos Forums
"THIS IS SO [ various random punctuation ]!!!!!!!! I LACK WORDS!!!!!!! *Goes of and does incredible acrobatic stunts while practising taekwondo and fencing at the same time!!* *then sits down again* Aghhh S*** I drooled on my keyboard" - Blade2642, Nosgothic Realm
"if this is some sort of twisted sick April Fools Joke, I will have to hunt the parties responsible down and kill them most foully." - Sarah, Eidos Forums
"I hate you" - James Austin, private email
"Clearly, this is an April Fool's joke. I'll be expecting an apology from the Lost Worlds for this crap." - Duterasemis, GameFAQs Forum

Nitpicking the Nit-Pickers

As I mentioned above, one of the funniest things I noticed was the bogus "evidence" that some naysayers came up with to discount my expertly-fabricated evidence. There were certainly some flaws, but much of what was pointed out existed only in the minds of the viewers. Normally I don't like to nitpick, but I figure this is just what's coming to them =).

"the Lake of the Dead image is just pictures of the cliffs from SR1 but with the SR2 compass, the one with Ariel is nothing more than Raziel crouching... plus, why does he have the spirit Reaver if he's just about to get it?" - Omega One, Eidos Forums

As the 2003 April Fools - Behind the Scenes page shows, the "Lake of The Dead" image has no elements in it from SR1. However, there are comparison pictures at the bottom of this page for the unconvinced.

I'm glad I got it close enough to cause confusion, but the mock image has *nothing* from the original in it.

See the 2003 April Fools - Behind the Scenes page for a look at the Ariel image. The colour of the Reaver is a valid point, but I was trying to make it look like she was already being absorbed into it.

"I thought the most obvious fake was this one..... [ the image of Kain in the future at the Pillars ] Looks like Kain's been decapitated and had his head put on backwards Plus the medallion is on the front, not the back." - Anubis_Orr, Eidos Forums

That image of Kain is actually an unaltered picture of him from Soul Reaver 2. Again, there are comparison screenshots at the bottom of the page.

He needs another medallion on his back to hold his tabbard to his shoulder-harness.

"Hmmm...no screenshots, yet they made the cover? O_o" - FFKonoko, GameFAQs Forum

I used to work in UI design. We would always have the layout set LONG before the graphics were actually ready. One time I had to create a completely fake UI that was never going to be used, just to make a client happy with our progress. Besides, I didn't have time to make immitation cel-shaded mock screenshots =).

Someone complaining about the way Kain's head looks - I'm too lazy to track this comment down, sorry

Kain's head really does look like that. See the Deleted Bonus Material! below.

In Closing

I had a lot of fun with this joke, and I hope you did too reading it. I promise the next SR3 images I post will be genuine. Um, unless they're not.

If you haven't already, check out the 2003 April Fools - Behind the Scenes page!

Bonus Deleted Material!

I had a label all printed out and ready to use on a box, but I completely forgot about it. I also had some screenshots from SR2 that I was going to try and doctor into looking like the player was controlling Kain, but I couldn't come up with a HUD design that I liked enough.

Mail from Eidos to me!

The Lake of the Dead in the real Soul Reaver

Kain third-person camera

Kain in the Sarafan Stronghold in Soul Reaver 2

Kain lookaround camera