See this one I get. The one in another thread of “LOL HER NOSE LOOK SMASHED” is goofballs mahoney.
I do like the ‘cloak over one shoulder’ kind of mystique OG Jaina had but they added some more flare with the coloured cuffs on her sleeves, the violet material/partial-skirting things off her hips, and her staff looks really sharp.
Well, I’m only a nitpicker for certain issues. The problem with designs based on WoW, which this one indirectly is, is that WoW has certain limitations. Cloaks are designed in a specific way that makes them look kind of lame, but keeps them out of the way for the default animation set.
But in Reforged, Jaina would have her own unique animations, and can therefore have a unique cloak unobstructed by WoW’s limitations.
The only thing I could kind of try to throw out as a point disagreeing is that WC3 Jaina’s always had the one shoulder pad out with her cloak partially over the other shoulder. It could’ve just been that the real narrative was she had two shoulder pads the whole time or something.
I do agree though. It kind of robs a teensy bit from Jaina’s silhouette and aesthetic while not being a huge or super notable crime. I’ll have to rewatch footage to see if there’s a physics engine in Reforged or not (I know trees sway in the wind but I’m not sure if that’s just pre-canned animation or if the weather system actually applies) because now I’m wondering.
Makes me curious if her cloak/cape will be extra flappy this time on spellcasts, since they did a tidy job of it without physics before.
As a long time Night Elf fan I can honestly say that in some rare cases the “WoWyfied” versions are better.
Take for example Malfurion, they used his WC3 model as a base for his Heroes of the Storm model and it just looks…awful. He reminds me of a fat goofy chicken.
He goes around with this staff, but in the lore he never actually has a staff. He has a metal claw strapped on each hand and he uses it to attack in melee when someone gets too close to him.
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The only thing I would like to maintain from his WC 3 version is his blue hair, I never understood why they changed his hair colour. Also, I’d like for his model to stay the same in the reforged version of TFT as well, as that magical goat he was riding around never made any sense either.
I don’t have any concerns as of yet with the other lore character models, Malfurion is the only one worrying me.
Please do not go there… That makes no sense… With very few polygons I could make a square… It wouldn’t be the best square on the world… And I could put a 10×10p texture on it… U would still recognize it is a square… Because of its basic shape… You can’t attribute Jainas complete change of silhouette and shape to better graphics…just no.
You have to think in what you call lore… Lore has hanged many times through the years… In original warcraft 3 Lore he does have a staff.
Those pictures you put are extremely new compared to other content.
By warcraft 3 he did not have any animal trait on his body (excepting the horns) … And this is perfect, why? Because it shows his development over the year… He’s not a static character… It is actually explained that throu communing with nature and his raising druidic power he started to develop the, wings and other animal traits, they are not randomly put in there, this is a good example of fans not knowing the difference between lore now and lore back then…
No he doesn’t, it’s not mentioned, ever. Unlike the metal claws, he has a staff because the Druid of the Talon model had a staff back in WC 3, those are technical limitations, not lore development.
Never has Malfurion used a staff for anything, the only time he’s shown with a staff it’s just in that model.
I never mentioned the wings or other animal traits, not once, but you’re wrong in that regard as well.
My spirit spent many years in the Emerald Dream while my body slept, and it started to take on attributes of our animal forms.
At first, it appeared that he was adorned with the marks of the great animals whose shapes those most versed in his calling could summon. Only closer inspection revealed that some of these attributes were a part of him, the results of his ties to Azeroth and the many years his spirit had spent in the Emerald Dream. While his dreamform had become more and more attuned to that other realm, his sleeping body-still bound to his spirit-had begun to take on elements of these powerful creatures.
Malfurion had wings since he was awakened in Warcraft 3, after he spent thousands of years in the Emerald Dream. Again, it’s technical limitations of the time that prevented him from having the wings, in the lore however it’s made crystal clear that he has them, it’s not his character evolving in the short span of 8 years (for an elf, 8 years really aren’t that much, don’t you think?)
Anyway it’s the staff and the magical goat he got in TFT I have an issue about, it’s pure lore inconsistency and not much else.
Imagine Jaina being described as always fighting with magic and a staff, but then in game she uses magic and a sword because another model had a sword. It’s wrong.
Also in TFT she comes back riding an unicorn.
Now I’m starting to take this personally.
No, you’re the good example of a purist who likes being one without knowing why. In fact you’re the one who’s not understanding the lore here.
The whole reason Warcraft is getting ‘reforged’ and not remastered is to revisit siatuations such as Malfurion’s, or Stratholme’s architecture, or Mal’ganis having a tail or as something that sparked a lot of discussion on the forum, like Demon Hunters being shown as entirely male.
This is Blizzard’s opportunity to remake Warcraft 3 without any technical limitation, it’s not a fan-made project that is pushing for a fanfiction version of the game, it’s the company itself that is going back and revisiting their game and their story out of their own volition to fix past mistakes.
But don’t worry, they’ll keep an option open for purists too, so we can all enjoy the game.
My good man, I’m not going to argue about this, let’s keep it on the topic… If you prefer the new lore… Well good for you.
However please do not use the newer lore as the only lore.
And no he did not have wings in warcraft 3 or claws… You can see it clearly in his super highly polygonal cinematic model from the last part of reign of chaos cinematic
If you guys want to see WoW designs I have all the WoW ripped and ready to use in Wc3 and you can use them even as your versions of hero ‘skins’ by allowing local files, so if that makes you all happy please leave WC3 designs alone and be happy with your WoW rips that I’ll share.
She has two shoulder pads instead of one now, her staff is more detailed, and the most major thing about her is that instead of the cloak being over one shoulder and down her side it’s hanging behind her. That last one is the biggest shape change.
And that change sucks
There’s also the issue that her cloak is now split into two. I don’t know about others, but for me, the biggest part about Jaina were the runes on her cloak. They have brought back the runes, but with the cloak split, they don’t look as distinct.
@Illarian I legit never knew that Malf doesn’t use a staff in WoW. Count me surprised. I know his model in Warcraft 3, in Dota2 and in HotS - they’re all very iconic, and they all use the staff. Moreover, in TFT he mounts the stag, and keeps the staff!
Your point would be the clearest example of bad WoWification if proceeded with.
Oh don’t you dare, you’ve already been presumptuous enough to assume I was a new player to discredit my argument. What I’ve said is not diverging from your topic, we’re talking character design and the reasons behind it, it is not off-topic.
Many books written in the WoW-era refer back to the Warcraft 3 periods or even further back, how many books were written during Warcraft 3 about the game’s universe and it’s inhabitants?
Right.
The world has been expanded upon since then, I welcome these changes as long as they don’t become full-on retcons on the original game’s plot. I have as much passion about this game as anyone else, I enjoy its story more than most other game fantasies, however I can also recognize when the creators of the world back then wanted to do one thing, but couldn’t because of a variety of reasons.
These are the same people who are coming back to work on Warcraft 3: Reforged and they have explicitly said what they plan to do and why in their interviews, which includes reworking on these things.
He did according to the lore.
He never uses a staff ever.
It’s one of the greatest lore inconsistencies we have in the Blizzard universe. Even in the books set in the War of the Ancients, or the comics set in the War of the Satyr, he never uses a staff, not once.
This is all started because the original Malfurion model in Warcraft 3 was created using the model of a Druid of the Talon, so he had to have the staff for the model to function. If you look at their models, they have the same, exact, staff, but Malfurion does not have a staff and he certainly does not ride on a stag/goat.
I never understood why the decision was made in TFT to make him go around on a goat, it always puzzled me.
I imagine the stag was added to give him a more heroic, grand silhouette. Probably along the same lines of why he went from a bunch of leaves for a cloak to an animal hide shawl and cape and feather-lined spaulders.
I will also add that Maiev’s pauldron spikes are supposed to end in wingtips. I don’t mind if they’re gone, but I quite liked how the wingtips were ‘plucked’ after The Frozen Throne, given that she was captured by Illidan in a cage.
I hope that they include them.
Warcraft 3 original games comes with a book with the lore…what lore are you even speaking about? This is precisely what I’m speaking about wow lore should not affect warcraft 3 lore… That by this time are almost two different games…
It’s amazing you actually deny the ending cinematic of the game where he did not have any wings or claws by claiming wow lore does not have it,…
Wait, WTF, he does. You make no sense. He does ride a goat. And he does use the staff. He does it in HotS and Dota2, too. The development history is irrelevant, by the way.
He doesn’t in the lore, he never, ever uses a staff or ride on a goat. Again I go back to the point I made about Jaina:
These were ‘cosmetic’ decisions made at the time of Warcraft 3, in some cases they were made for technical reasons, like the staff because Malfurion used the Druid of the Talon model so for him to use the casting animation and the attack animation he needed a staff.
The goat? I still have no clue.
But Malfurion isn’t the only one, remember when Dreadlords had blood dripping from their lips because they were some kind of vampires? Or the fact that some of them had stitches on their mouths? These, again, were all cosmetic decisions which made no sense with the game’s story and they still make no sense.
Malfurion (Furion) supposed to be using a staff and riding a Stag as his mount CAUSE HE WAS LEADER OF DRUIDS AND DRUIDS USED STAVES , WORE CAPES EVEN THOUGH THEY DID HAVE CLAWS, you can’t cast spells with your ‘claws’
Druids of the Claw ran up and punched things and flapped their arms like they were really awkward, flightless birds trying to clap their hands.
I mean, I can. I don’t know how you cast your spells yourself but I’ve been using my claws for years now.