The Balance Glyph was a glyph spell which Crystal Dynamics planned to incorporate into Soul Reaver 2, alongside eight other glyphs corresponding to the Pillars of Nosgoth. It was not included in the finished product.
Behind the scenes[]
Discussing abilities planned for Raziel to earn in a May 2000 interview concerning Soul Reaver 2, Amy Hennig followed details on the planned Reaver augmentations with a mention that the game would include "nine additional spell-type things. It's not really spells; it's all kinds of things. Instead of having a spell menu, he just has the ring menu, and he there's things he can do from that, he can summon the Reaver from that, he can shift, he can influence the environment in other ways. Some of these things are more physical abilities, some of them are more mystical, but there are nine more of those. So there's actually more things to earn in this game than there were in the last. Less physical abilities, I mean it's not like now I can fly, or now I can burrow underground, it's more like new ways to interact with the environment that you couldn't do before". She caveated this information, saying it "could change", "based on our schedule and what we're going to have to adjust as we go".[1]
The final version of Soul Reaver 2 incorporated no side-quests - neither the "spell-type things", nor the Reaver augmentations intended for Raziel to obtain.[Soul Reaver 2] The game's debug menu revealed that the spells were apparently glyphs related to the Pillars of Nosgoth, with the Balance Glyph at the bottom of the list out of the total nine (below the Energy Glyph).[2] This may indicate that it was the final glyph to be obtained, perhaps during Nosgoth's early history. Though the full ring menu with positions for the nine missing glyphs can be enabled by debugging, the glyphs are only represented by uniform white dots (or by placeholder symbols from Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver in the Air Forge demo), and they have no functionality.[3][4]
Though probably more closely related to puzzle-solving than its Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver counterparts, it is unclear what specific abilities the Balance Glyph would have bestowed upon Raziel. Ariel, Kain and the Martyred Balance Guardian, each of whom served as Balance Guardians, all appeared or were heard in the game, and thus may have been connected to the Glyph in some way.[Soul Reaver 2][3][4] Legacy of Kain: Defiance included the Balance Emblem, which enabled Kain to use Reaver spells based on some of the Pillar principles, and the Balance fragment was one of its components, but no particular special abilities were associated with it or its enhancement.[Defiance][5][6]
See also[]
- Balance
- Balance Emblem
- Glyphs
- Pillars of Nosgoth
The Pillar Glyphs at The Lost Worlds (by Ben Lincoln).- The Full Ring Menu at The Lost Worlds (by Ben Lincoln).
References[]
- ↑ Soul Reaver 2: Director's Interview - PlayStation 2 Feature at IGN (by Douglass Perry), page 6
- ↑ The Debug Menu at The Lost Worlds (by Ben Lincoln)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Pillar Glyphs at The Lost Worlds (by Ben Lincoln)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Full Ring Menu at The Lost Worlds (by Ben Lincoln)
- ↑ Deleted Pillar Reaver Upgrades at The Lost Worlds (by Ben Lincoln)
- ↑ Defiance: Kain's Reavers at Legacy of Kain: Dark Chronicle (by Ardeth Silvereni)
