YMMV / Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Kain's assassination was planned as a start to the long series of convoluted schemes, but take note that right after he gets fatally stabbed we see him as a human soul in Hell. Was he a lot worse of a person in life than his brief moments seemed to incline, or was the cycle of life and death already so botched that he got sentenced to punishment on a dime? This isn't helped by his vicious laughter of slaughter and Catchphrase still being there if you manage to kill at least an assassin or two.
• Breather Level: The improved mortal disguise dungeon, which is quite short, with only simple puzzles to navigate, and filled with nothing but relatively harmless humans who can be easily killed or fed upon; you even get a free full heal at the end from the Blood of Ages. Coming out of the Demonic Spider haven that is Avernus, it's a cake walk.
• Complete Monster: The fair boy-king William the Just, through the wicked influence of the time-traveling Moebius, came to embrace evil and became a sadistic despot known only as the Nemesis. The Nemesis has his legions sweep across the land to torture, rape and murder all they find, leaving entire cities such as the once-academic Stahlberg a complete ruin with its population put up on stakes. The Nemesis intends to come down upon all Nosgoth and turn the world into blood, ashes and chains before him, and even curbstomps the King Ottmar and his noble army, forcing Kain to turn back time forty years to undo William's carnage upon the Earth.
• Game-Breaker:
  • The Flay item, the game's most common pickup, also happens to be its most useful. Not only can it kill most enemies in about two hits, but it can be gotten in near infinite amounts from a Spirit Forge that just so happens to have a Bat beacon next to it.
  • Mind Control some poor fool and walk them into a Spirit Forge. Turns out the wraiths running the place are happy to rip your possessed fall guy apart, not only with no penalty to you but granting you 99 of the item they offer instead of the usual small amount if Kain shows up himself. Pulling this trick off on a Forge offering the Heart of Darkness (revives Kain when his health is emptied, heals him for a lot aside from that) and you're almost functionally unkillable for the rest of the game. With the Magic Bank item, which normally offers 10 or so seconds of infinite magic, and you now basically have infinite magic for the whole game.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The oracle of Nosgoth, later revealed to be Moebius the Timestreamer, describes Malek's vanity and self-indulgence as having led to the deaths of the six members of the prior Circle of Nine at the hands of Vorador. As it turned out, this was nothing more than a boldfaced lie - Soul Reaver 2 reveals that it was Moebius who purposely kept Malek from reaching the Circle members in time to save them from Vorador, instead focusing on trapping Raziel in the Sarafan Stronghold. Furthermore, it turns out the Circle of Nine weren't the only ones slaughtered that day - Raziel killed the other Sarafan sorcerer-priests as well, those being the his own past self and those of his brothers. In other words, it was likely the single worst day of Malek's life, and his damnation came about because of Moebius.
• Narm Charm: Tony Jay is a phenomenal voice actor, and does an excellent job as both Mortanius and William the Just. Thing is, he's still very obviously Tony Jay, and after listening to him voice your sinister benefactor the entire game it's a bit jarring to hear him play the diffident king.
• Nightmare Fuel: The Game Over screen is jarring, as it shows Kain's skeleton in an eerie background, complete with dead silence.
• That One Level: Avernus, a Demonic Spider haven that will give any seasoned gamer a hard time, even with Game-Breaker skills and tools.
• Underused Game Mechanic: Kain runs into a mad outcast in Steinchencröe who encourages interactions with others like him, or townsfolk in general, while masquerading as a mortal. Unfortunately, there's little incentive to do so, as the game's two-legged cattl- er, townsfolk are not a particularly insightful lot.