Legacy of Kain Wiki
Register
Advertisement

"Locked. What a love of doors these pathetic humans have."
―Kain[src]

Doors, also known as Gates, Barriers or Doorways, were a recurring feature of the Legacy of Kain series seen in every title and frequently used to separate different areas. Doors were a simple barrier, often opened and breached through simple actions, although some required unlocking or opening through the use of Switches or other mechanisms.

Profile[]

BO1-Mausoleum-Buttons-DoorOpen

Open and closed passive doorways in Blood Omen which are activated by nearby Switches

Doors are interactable objects seen in every installment of the series , providing a simple removable barrier between different areas. Doors were seen throughout the series and were present in some way in every title - although truly interactable doors were only present from Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver onward.

Doorways were first encountered in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain and could be seen from the opening in "Welcome to Hell" as Kain entered Ziegsturhl and made his way to the tavern. However, Many doors in Blood Omen were presented as open doorways and did not require interaction - Kain could simply walk through them to access the new area. From the beginning of "Seeking Revenge", Kain would encounter additional sub-types of doors that were initially closed and required the usage of nearby Switches and other interactable mechanisms, the appropriate timing, the use of certain abilities, or particular conditions to be met before they would open and allow him passage.[Blood Omen][Blood Omen/1][Blood Omen strategy guide]

Door-normal2

Raziel opening a door in Soul Reaver

For the transition to 3D in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver doors became true interactable objects for the first time, now requiring the use of the action button to make Raziel physically push them open. Raziel could encounter regular doors from the end of Underworld (chapter) as he made his way to the outer entrance of the Sanctuary of the Clans. As with Blood Omen, several other doorways could be seen which required other conditions to be met to open them - all needed the interaction of the Material Realm to function and would be immovable in the Spectral Realm - although other mechanisms required the use of Switches or particular abilities or objects. Certain doors marked with a blue sun-like symbol led to special Warp gates.[Soul Reaver][Soul Reaver/2][Soul Reaver manual (US)][Soul Reaver manual (UK)][Soul Reaver strategy guide (Prima)]

Doors returned in Soul Reaver 2 where they were treated much the same as in Soul Reaver with Raziel needing to push them open with the action button and were encountered from the first chapter. A number of doors required conditions to be satisfied to open them, with several requiring the use of Switches, appropriate objects or Wraith Blade enhancements to be held.[Soul Reaver 2][Soul Reaver 2/1][Soul Reaver 2 manual][Soul Reaver 2 strategy guide (Prima)]

BO2-DoorGlow

Kain stands before a glowing Blood Omen 2 door

Doors were also featured in Blood Omen 2 where they were seen from the first chapter and were again opened physically by the protagonist when unlocked. A number of doors would be encountered when locked, however other mechanisms were present that could be used to open locked doors, such as various Switches and the use of the Glyph magic network. As with other interactable objects in Blood Omen 2, doors that could be opened would glow a white color when Kain was within range.[Blood Omen 2][Blood Omen 2/1][Blood Omen 2 manual (US)][Blood Omen 2 manual (UK)][Blood Omen 2 strategy guide]

Doors returned in much the same capacity in Legacy of Kain: Defiance. As before they were featured regularly from the outset and could be physically opened by a push from the protagonist, but a number of doors required further activation or unlocking such as by carrying certain objects or upgrades, or even by defeating the enemies present.[Defiance][Defiance/1][Defiance manual][Defiance strategy guide]

Types of Doors and Barriers[]

Broadly speaking, doors and the like could be classified into several related categories - Doors were an opaque physical barrier that was specifically intended to be opened to allow passage beyond, Gates were similar but could be seen through in some manner and occasionally passed through, even if entry was not the specific purpose; while Barriers were obstructions that were either specifically designed to prevent encroachment or delay progress, although they generally could be opened and crossed by the protagonists like doors and gates when employing the appropriate powers. Other Obstacles acted like barriers but were more naturalistic or co-incidental in their placement, often requiring some kind of movement or destruction to pass them. A Number of special classes of doors, barriers and the like existed and could be opened through various methods. In addition a number of Locking Mechanisms were seen throughout the series, which kept a door or barrier closed until the correct action was carried out or the correct item employed.[Blood Omen][Soul Reaver][Soul Reaver 2][Blood Omen 2][Defiance]

Many varieties of doors and locking mechanisms were seen throughout the series, some of which notably overlap:

Mooncave

A closed Moon gate in Blood Omen

SR1-Chronoplast-Chrono15-Lower-WarpDoor

A warp gate door in Soul Reaver

SR2-Door-Portcullis

A door protected b a portcullis in Soul Reaver 2

Ward Gate

A Ward Gate in Blood Omen 2

Def-BlessedBarriers

A Blessed Barrier in Defiance

Behind the scenes[]

Doors were used throughout the series to break up areas. Blood Omen regularly used doorways to mask loading, with many doorways effectively teleporting the player to a different map area - often giving the impression that internal areas appeared larger than external ones.[Blood Omen] This effect was notably lessened in Soul Reaver with each door opened playing a short cutscene of Raziel pushing them open - these did not necessarily mask loading times however as nearby areas were in fact streamed as Raziel approached.[Soul Reaver] This trend of cutscenes and streaming loading continued into Soul Reaver 2, Blood Omen 2 and Defiance.[Soul Reaver 2][Blood Omen 2][Defiance]

The exact placement of doors was apparently something that was adjusted throughout the development of certain titles, with the beta versions of Soul Reaver in particular showing a number of doors that are moved, and doors that are present in beta but removed in the retail and vice versa.[1][Soul Reaver]

Notes[]

[Soul Reaver 2/3][Soul Reaver 2/5][Soul Reaver 2/7]

Gallery[]

See also[]

Door, Gates and Barrier Types[]

Other Obstacles[]

Locking/Unlocking Mechanisms[]

References[]

Advertisement