Crystal Dynamics and developer Bit Bot Media are launching Legacy of Kain: Ascendance today on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, priced at $19.99. It is the first new Legacy of Kain game in over twenty years, a 2D action platformer set in the dark fantasy world of Nosgoth with several original voice actors returning to their roles.
Nosgoth has always been a world defined by decay. Kingdoms falling apart, ruins haunted by things that refuse to stay dead, timelines fractured beyond easy repair. Ascendance renders all of it in pixel art, a retro visual language that suits the series' gothic sensibility surprisingly well. The game mixes 2D sidescrolling with PS1 era-inspired 3D sequences, and anime-influenced cinematics carry the story between levels. Narrative is woven directly into the world design itself, with environmental storytelling threaded through the platforming and combat rather than confined to cutscenes alone. This is still unmistakably Nosgoth, a place where every surface feels steeped in something ancient and wrong.
The story is set prior to the events of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, placing it in a period the series has only partially explored. Simon Templeman returns as Kain, the vampire patriarch whose ambitions have shaped Nosgoth's fate across multiple timelines. Michael Bell reprises Raziel, though here players encounter him before his fall, first as a human Sarafan knight and then in his vampiric form taking flight for the first time. Anna Gunn returns as Ariel and Richard Doyle as Moebius. Having these actors back gives the game a direct line to the series' identity. Legacy of Kain was always carried as much by its performances as its lore, and Ascendance leans into that history rather than trying to replace it.
The game is built around three playable protagonists, each with a distinct combat identity. Kain overwhelms enemies with vampiric powers. Raziel plays across two phases of his existence, shifting from his Sarafan knight origins to his vampiric form. A new character, the vampire Elaleth, introduces an aggressive playstyle focused on fast, relentless offense. Combat chains melee strikes, evasive dashes, and supernatural attacks into fluid sequences, and the platforming emphasizes vertical movement alongside environmental challenges and puzzles that flow into the fighting. The skill-driven design asks players to read each encounter and respond with the right tools from whichever protagonist they're controlling.
Alongside Ascendance, Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered also launches today on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, having previously been available on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. Both titles can be purchased together in the Heart of Darkness Collection for $44.99, which bundles the two games with a digital comic reader containing three classic comics, a playable demo of the unreleased Legacy of Kain: The Dark Prophecy, and an Ascendance-themed skin pack for Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered.
The original score comes from Klayton of Celldweller. Twenty years is a long absence for any franchise, and bringing it back as a focused 2D action platformer rather than attempting to rebuild the 3D action-adventure structure of its predecessors is a deliberate move. Ascendance is smaller in scope but sharper in intent, a game that trusts Nosgoth's collapsing kingdoms and shattered timelines to hold weight even rendered in pixel art, and trusts that players who remember Kain and Raziel's voices will recognize them the moment they speak.