21 years ago, a CG French film called Kaena: The Prophecy was released to poor reviews and even worse box office results. The film's creative leads were deeply involved in the video game industry, and a PS2 adaptation was released shortly after the film in Japan. While an English-language version of that game was essentially completed with the vocal talents of the film's star-studded cast, it was never actually released and seemed to have effectively become a lost medium—until now, that is.
A few days ago, Robin Davies posted on Twitter (thanks, Time Extension) that “I'm very happy to have recently acquired a full debug preview copy of the game with its original voice cast. I'll be playing it and uploading it.” some videos when I have time.” The tweet is accompanied by some gameplay clips showing Kaena in action and, friends, it's something.
For 20 years, the original English version of #Kaena for #PS2 was thought to be lost. So I'm very happy to have recently acquired a full debug preview copy of the game with its original voice cast. I'll play it and upload some videos when I have time. pic.twitter.com/qlBYjkOcvgOctober 18, 2024
On PS2, Kaena looks a bit like Resident Evil with pre-rendered backgrounds and fixed camera angles, although it's much more action-oriented than that, perhaps similar to a somewhat more static version of Devil May Cry. In any case, it stands out for its surreal visual style and the unmistakable jank that lovers of retro obscurities devour.
The footage also gives us a glimpse of some very bad voices from some very good actors, which is probably the most notable thing about Kaena today. The previously unreleased English dub features the same Hollywood talent as the film, including Kirsten Dunst, Anjelica Huston, Keith David and Richard Harris. Harris' last on-screen film role was as Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which was released after his death, but his voice role in Kaena: The Prophecy was his last performance of any kind to be released. His appearance in the game adaptation would likely be this final true role.
Some gameplay of the second level of Namco's #Kaena in English (unreleased PS2). pic.twitter.com/jSfGu6kkzTOOctober 18, 2024
Kaena's history as a franchise is strange and fascinating: the project began development in 1995 as a video game before spending years developing into a CG film, in part due to a meeting with Steven Spielberg, as told in a story . The full story is shape Too long to go into here, but I'm already getting obsessed.
“Yes, I'll share it,” Davies says of the newly discovered construction. “Preserving the game is good for all of us.” I can't wait to see more, and in the meantime, I could stand to watch Kaena: The Prophecy (apparently it's streaming for free on Tubi).
He best ps2 games? I mean, you can find a lot at that link, but who wants to play good games when there are things like Kaena here?