I don’t get it. We got a dwarf, a troll, and a disfigured half-elf, all basically sitting in one spot doing arm exercises, and a split second portrait shot of Xal’atath at the end with no dialogue for the entire thing. I don’t get what I was supposed to be seeing. The cinematic didn’t show anything other than the new races we’re getting, and a picture of the villain we’re dealing with.
Where is the dialogue? The showing of the villain and their motives and abilities? The Wrath cinematic was all about the Lich King, his background and upbringing, and his abilities which players were going to have to deal with throughout the expansion. In TBC, we had Illidan cracking a demon skull and flying. Even in systemlands we at least had the shirtless shoe-shiner doing… stuff.
This cinematic just has me wanting to kiss Xal’atath’s squishy elf face, and didn’t even show her doing anything. They really need to hire some new talent if this is the quality we’re going to be getting, because this was even more disappointing than the shadowlands impression.
They did a cinematic a few months ago that was centered around Anduin and Thrall introducing one of the storylines (and people complained endlessly about it), this one was just “check out a few of the groups that you’ll be dealing with.”
Presumably, it was taking a bit of inspiration from Vanilla’s cinematic where, beyond the “Four years have passed” bit at the start, it was a clipshow of various races doing stuff. Probably didn’t take enough inspiration, mind you, a short narration would’ve helped, but I guess they wanted to emphasize the music.
Side cinematics not being action-packed is not a big deal as those are bits and pieces of the story. But the official expansion cinematic? That’s the main presentation for the expansion pack. That’s supposed to be the grand slam that pulls people in droves back into the game.
Instead, we got a cinematic that was less interesting than a mobile game advertisement.
I’ve more or less given up on the WoW story making a lick of sense.
And with the TWW trailer, I think the entire development team has as well. I think the animators were only given some concept art from the expansion and told “make it look cool”.
This has to be trolling. It has to be. How can be people so…something… as to not understand a basic story like Gathering Strength and Preparing Yourself against the Enemy.
This is purely speculation on my part, but I suspect that the Anduin/Thrall cinematic is actually going to be the start of a new “Old Soldier” series, and we’ll get more cinematics throughout TWW and possibly the whole WSS that will have more story/fight sequences.
Of course, won’t know for sure until a second one comes out though.
The various races doing stuff for the vanilla cinematic was fine as it was more of a showcase of potential player characters, not story npcs. Vanilla didn’t have much of a story emphasis. It was an introduction to some races, environments, and general vibes of a new game.
20 years later, showing a few story npcs doing nothing with no dialogue or story or action is a pretty big miss, IMO.
It reminded me of a youtube add for some mobile gacha game doing camera cuts to bad music while showing new characters you can try to pull for money.
Shadowlands had a launch cinematic that was almost identical to this one in terms of just showing off new characters and zones, with the exception that it had a small amount of vague narration by the Archon and the Jailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrGPaVUMBl4
Dragonflight had one too, that could have been mistaken for “How to Train Your Dragon” advertising, no dialogue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj3MGAlcfyo
This are how the launch cinematics are. They’re basically sizzle reels, giving a sneak peak at the new environments and characters. The announcement cinematic is the big one, the one that gets shown on log in, like the Wrath or Legion cinematics, and for TWW that’s the Anduin and Thrall one shown at BlizzCon. We already got Xal’atath alluding to her motives in the date announcement cinematic that came out a month ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBBEt8gfXks
I immediately recognized Sylvanas and Bolvar, and had enough information just from playing the game to follow what was going on. Same with the DF cinematic, which I just rewatched, where they spell it all out 100% what is happening.
I have no idea what is happening in this cinematic though, because nothing is explained at all and the characters in it are all new ones who we’ve never met except one.
Not a random Harronir. Not sure about the Earthen, I haven’t followed as closely in the beta coverage.
Sylvanas and Bolvar aren’t in the Shadowlands launch cinematic, and the DF one contains no dialogue. Both those cinematics contained characters that would have been unknown at the time to anyone who hadn’t played the beta or followed spoilers. You’re describing the announcement cinematics, which would be the Anduin and Thrall one for TWW.
All of the top comments on the official video are lamenting how it is the most non-WoW cinematic ever put out for WoW. If people liked it that’s cool, but I’m going to need to play the actual expansion and come back to it so I know who is even on screen to judge it.
(Edit: also the like to dislike ratio is actually underwater, so there’s that)
Not sure about the Earthen, I haven’t followed as closely in the beta coverage.