Soul Reaver HD Remaster and website announcement

I finally made the jump and made a brand new website and a new logo to go with it, designed by Terry. While this blog will still be maintained, the hub of the Ancient´s Den will now be accessed through there instead. I also announced my Soul Reaver HD Remaster. I released an HD texture pack in 2020 which was mostly just upscaled textures through AI program, but this time, I have replaced almost every single texture with a brand new equivalent with many being actually the source textures. You can visit the project´s website here.

Soul Reaver OST v8.2 update

Just a quick update as the recently discovered alpha build tracks are now part of this release. I also did a few small edits. This is the regular version of the soundtrack, the alpha version follows a slightly different structure (the tracks are divided differently).

Soul Reaver OST v8.2 download

The Arcane Tomes - The Soul Reaver video

Merry Christmas to all and hope you had a great day today! After many months of working on this video, I finally present you the latest update to the Arcane Tomes series which deals with the Soul Reaver blade in great depth. Dive in for this over hour long analysis of the legendary blade:

Reaver timelines download link

Soul Reaver HD Texture pack announcement

Hello Soul Reaver fans! Today I can finally announce the brand new texture pack I have just finished making for the Dreamcast version of Soul Reaver. More info about it is found on a separate page here which has in-depth information about the procedures and a comparison gallery at the end. I hope this will provide enough incentive to play this awesome game again (it just had its 21st birthday). Enjoy!

UPDATE FOR PC USERS: User EagleEye559 also upscaled the PC version and while the textures have to remain 256x256, the look is a lot more cleaner and he also changed Kain´s textures to be the ones from Dreamcast. 

PC download link and guide here

The Lost Content Series - Enemy, boss and NPC comparison

Today we have a new video focusing on analysing all the enemies found within Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. It appears that the textures from the alpha stages have been greatly downsized in the release version. PlayStation and PC version appear to have the worst texture quality (with the exception of Dumah), with the Alpha being the best and Dreamcast is close second. Below are the screenshot comparisons found within the video:

SPECTRAL CREATURES:

VAMPIRE CLANS:

HUMANS:

BOSSES:

Soul Reaver Alpha – Graphics Comparison

Thanks to the recent alpha leaks, we now know that Soul Reaver underwent extensive changes during its development process. Several years ago, a few beta builds have been exposed and I did an extensive beta comparison with the final version of the game. That showed us the transition just before the game's shipping in mid August in comparison to the May and July builds of the game. Some of the changes were more subtle, but unfortunately, they did not contain any of the cut content of the game such as the Undercity, Smokestack, Kain's retreat or deleted forges.

Examining the different beta builds, I was able to compare in detail on how the game progressed and what type of changes were made between these versions. With the newly emerged alpha builds, this gives me further material to compare and come to the conclusion that the retail release version has been somewhat downgraded since its alpha stages. This is mostly apparent in the resolution of game's textures, which has been notably lowered but lighting has on the other hand was more or less improved. The draw distance is a bit hit and miss and areas which had a farther draw distance are often found to be the opposite when comparing between the alpha and the retail version. Notice also the shift from strangely colourful spectral realm to a more unified bright blue/green colours as seen in the retail version. There is also a case of missing polygons on Raziel's body in 16^th Feb build. It seems that in an effort to maintain his chest and lower jaw visible even with the cowl on, the developers accidentally flipped over certain polygons on his body. In the case of top of the buildings, these seem to be more conscious removals in an effort to improve framerate and remove anything not in player's sight from the screen.

Below are examples of the most notable changes in the different builds. If there were significant changes in more than one build, I have included them in the comparison. I have split this up according to the areas and always tried to included the exact shot from all builds, or at least an approximation. However, there are certain cases where this wasn't possible or that the location has moved. If you prefer to view the screenshots in higher resolution, download below!

SR1 Alpha Graphics Comparison by TAD (998MB)

G-drive link

The Underworld

The Abyss

Raziel's Stronghold

The Necropolis

Sunlight Glyph

The Silenced Cathedral

Stone Glyph

Sanctuary of the Clans

Sound Glyph

Sarafan Tomb

Drowned Abbey

Fire Glyph

The Human Citadel

Water Glyph

Ruined City

Northern wastes

Oracle´s Cave