Blizzard needs to stop ending expansions by saying “And something worse is coming”.
Bruh, stop.
You want to hype us for the next expansion? Put that content in the game.
Look at Kingdom Hearts. The mainline titles always have a Secret Boss that foreshadows the future. They’re always the hardest fight in the game, meaty multi-phase encounters typically with new unique mechanics/gimmicks, and they bring a visual style that is a contrast from what came previously.
Imagine if, after defeating Argus, we traced some hint of his death energy to Icecrown, and were pulled into the Maw and actually faced the Jailer (who could remain in the shadows while Blizzard finalized his design), holding out against his Terragrue before we were pulled back to Azeroth. And that was it. Suddenly we have a connective thread that would tie Legion to Shadowlands that didn’t feel like a retcon.
Funny thing is Blizzard used to be great at doing this exact thing. We saw Arthas in Naxxramas during Vanilla. The Scourge were again foreshadowed in Burning Crusade during Isle of Quel’danas. The game constantly reminded us that we would face the Lich King by planting the seeds in-game. Azshara also got a ton of foreshadowing throughout the expansions.
The obvious answer I suppose is “Blizzard doesn’t even know what that threat is”… but in that case
A) Blizzard should have some clue what they want to do
and
B) You can incorporate that mystery into the encounter.
Azshara was shrouded in darkness in Legion, we didn’t see her actual appearance until BFA. Or going back to the first example in this thread, in Kingdom Hearts, the first time they used this trope the guy in the black robe literally couldn’t have his face seen, and he was just called “Unknown” - the game was mostly voice-acted and he was a character with no actual voice which was played up intentionally to build up the mystery.
Blizzard should be laying the groundwork for the expansion after the next RIGHT NOW. We knew we were going to Northrend in Vanilla. We knew Deathwing was coming during Burning Crusade. We should be getting these hits 2-3 years ahead of the expansion. We should already have a solid idea of what 10.0 is and have vague hints at 11.0.
my only question is…just how many frikkin old gods are trying to destroy the world or all life…and how in the world are player supposed to buy that we are soooo powerful that we can keep stomping their guts out.
i mean, if we’re that bad, shouldnt we have taken our place in the cosmos as ‘the One’ already?
Or…and help me geeezus…is THAT the path our characters are on?
Ever read an old Conan book or comic?
ONE man standing against hordes of enemies and somehow just wins every time.
At a point you just have to roll your eyes and try to ignore the absurdity of the storyline and pretend youre just a normal sentient being who takes a dump like everyone else. lol.
One aspect of this game that annoys me to no end is the escalation into the insanely grandiose storylines where we’re beating down old gods.
I mean, at a point I start wondering whose ego the storyline is catering to.
Yeah, this really bothered me. Especially since the Jailer’s motivation this entire expansion was always so vague. There were constant threads and discussions saying as much. It was legitimately frustrating for so many people. Building mystery doesn’t mean simply not telling us things about a character.
Over or not, it’s very clear that the cinematic missed the mark with its depiction of a near universally hated villain. We’ve spent the entire expansion being told the Jailer was bad but not why he was bad or why he was doing what he was doing, and at his death we learn he’s discount Sargeras trying to fight something worse than him. That isn’t good writing and that isn’t how you build mystery or hype.
There are two or three more story chapters but they haven’t really told a story with this main narrative. So even if it isn’t over, there isn’t a single writer in the entire world that can make this ending satisfying.
I prefer it that way. It’s better than reading people who think FF14 is ending because their latest release is called “Endwalker”. Cliffhanger does ensure a follow up.
The problem is the writing. A nobody who was the grand master plan behind everything, Sargeras, Legion, Lich King etc, literally died as a nobody.
Bad example. Most people don’t care about that series.
Look at Dragon Ball, every knows Freiza Saga, Cell Games, Buu Saga.
Most people won’t care about Garlic JR, cause it’s a character who invaded the earth out nowhere and go defeated quicker than what he had time to power up.
So Shadowlands is easy to be summered as a bad filler movie.
They’re both 20 year game franchises with darkness and light and pulling lore out of their butt as they go along. They retconned Xehanort into existence and he’s the Zovaal of his story (5D Chess to save the universe from a greater threat).
Big difference is that Xehanort was kind of actually okay. I won’t say he’s good, but he’s like… they retconned him in 10 years into a 20 year story-line. The problem with Zovaal is he showed up 2 years into a “20 year story-line”. Xehanort at least got BBS, DDD, and KH3 to explore his character. He was still pretty much just mediocre but like… he’s not the worst villain ever.
If Zovaal had been foreshadowed in WOTLK and got lore build-up in Legion, BFA, and Shadowlands, I think he could have been okay. I still think Mr. Clean wouldn’t have been great, but he could have at least been like, a Xehanort level tier, y’know people would be okay with him.
uh… one of the n’zoths phases was he showed us what Sylvanas and Queen Azshara did that caused us to be in Nazjatar, which Azshara pointed out what shes trying to do, is that not good enough for you for “foreshadowing”?
Blizzard already foreshadowed BfA and Shadowlands in the end of Legion per that dreambook from Silithus
