I know the devs have a road map for the world soul saga and we sort of, kind of all know where this is all heading, but after the Slyvanas “mystery box” being dangled in front of us for several expansions, I have to admit I’m a bit wary of villains who try to look cool while keeping their motives and plans close to the chest.
It’s definitely a very weird cinematic. Especially the trolls full-body flailing about. At least with the the other 2 they are accomplishing something. The dwarf is forging and the paladin is preparing for war. The troll is casting spells wildly at absolutely nothing. The bent over backwards arms flailing upward gets me every time, it’s hilarious. It’s as if she is tripping out on the magic glowing mushroom she touched at the beginning. It reminds me of that Dragonflight cinematic introducing dracthyr where it’s alone in a room casting and prancing about for no reason.
And no, this is not a ‘classic style’ trailer. Just because the focus is on a single character, the old trailers had the characters casting or interacting with the environment. What they were doing had more context. They really didn’t show how these characters are a part of the war within. 2 of the characters are citizens of the expansion, but that really isn’t made clear with a connection to the other shots. I think the troll is supposed to be a player character exploring the new expac, but that isn’t conveyed very well. Except maybe “this new world is so insane you will trip balls.”
If they only new feature of the expac is the hero talent trees then it should have shown 2-3 player characters exploring the new continent and using the new talent animations. Maybe of the trees getting the most hype during beta like fire mage, shadow priest, unholy dk ect.
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well, if each new thread started got a nice punchline like the op gave
count me in! lol
I think they tried to capture the feel of vanilla and BC’s cinematics but it kinda felt short. Instead of getting me invested from the start, I felt lost. Yeah, there were a lot of pretty character models and great scenery, but it didn’t make me feel anything. In my opinion, their best cinematics tell a bit of a story while also building the hype, like with Wrath, Cata and MoP to name a few.
I somehow missed the “Echoes of Azeroth” announcement cinematic and honestly, I’d prefer this to be the official cinematic for the expansion. Brief recap of every expansion cinematic and then a short preview of what’s in the “Shadows Beneath” cinematic. Surprised no ones talking about it especially when it gave me chills realizing that we are nearing the end of our “journey”.
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I’m using the exact same phrasing Blizzard used for the cinematics in question. The cinematic I posted the site address for, which is not the one with Sylvanas and Bolvar, is described as the “Shadowlands Launch Cinematic” in the video title. The same goes for the Dragonflight one I posted site address for; that’s the “Dragonflight Launch Cinematic”, while the first one with the watchers is the “Dragonflight Announce Cinematic Trailer”. The Anduin and Thrall cinematic is titled “The War Within Announce Cinematic”. I’m only using the language that Blizzard has being using semi-consistently.
I’m not saying that everyone has to like the new cinematic, but I don’t see how it’s completely out of the blue for such a cinematic to exist when we’ve gotten such cinematics for the previous two expansions. To compare this new cinematic to, for example, the Wrath cinematic trailer, is to compare apples and oranges. TWW has an equivalent to the Wrath cinematic trailer, and it’s the Anduin and Thrall cinematic that announced the expansion at BlizzCon.
We already know more about Xal’atath’s and Iridikron’s plans than we ever knew about Sylvanas’ during Shadowlands. Xal’atath wants the world soul, like every other void baddie before her, and Iridikron wants to wipe out the Titans. I suppose there could be deeper reasoning for why the Void wants Azeroth, but I’m also perfectly fine with the idea that it’s just good old cosmic horror.
Exactly!
That character isn’t a troll. Look closely, she’s got too many fingers and toes.
That one got some discussion when it came out. I suspect it’s one of the reasons why we didn’t get Xal’atath voiceover for this latest one, because it would have been repetitive.
Does anyone else wonder if these posts are just an exercise to see how offensively someone can get away with referencing an amputee before they get in trouble?
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It’s more like the vanilla and TBC cinematics that did not feature dialogue but rather focused on the races that we’d be seeing in that expac.
We’ll be getting the Earthen, the Harronir, and will be interacting with the Arathorian Empire. Those are all relevant to this expansion’s story. The Harronir and Faerin are both specific characters we will be interacting with.
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the guys in the cinematics
you’re welcome gigabear, the giant panda in a onesie
hope that helped
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I’m stuck on a turtle. I need things explained sometimes.
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You’re not alone. It seemed more like someone’s animation project than a window into the story we expect to see in TWW.
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I don’t doubt Blizzard used the phrase, but that would just mean some Blizzard employee used the phrase in a way that’s not usually the way it’s used at large. Usually when I hear “launch cinematic” it’s in reference to the expansion’s main cinematic.
Semantics aside, the proper comparison for this cinematic is to things like Sylvanas v. Bolvar, the Legion airship cinematic with Varian, and the Arthas waking up cinematic. Stuff that’s meant to grip people even without prior knowledge of lore.
The big dialogue cinematic is still worthwhile, like the Old Soldier stuff in BFA, but every expansion gets one big MAIN cinematic associated with it that’s meant to be the real crowd pleaser, and the one they did for TWW does a bad job. Any single other expansion I can think of had a better cinematic as its big entry. Even Dragonflight’s stone statue adventure.
Why would Blizzard refer to the main cinematics as launch cinematics when they don’t come out as part of the launch of the expansion? The big main cinematics have always been the ones used to announce the expansion many months in advance (often at a convention), and that’s what the Silithus one is. Metzen even warned the BlizzCon crowd in advance that it was going to be a more quiet, intimate moment between characters rather than a big action scene. The shorter teaser reels are in addition to the longer announcement cinematics, and in the case of all three expansions that have had them, they’ve been released right before the expansion launches. They don’t serve the same purpose in the hype cycle.
Genuine question, have you watched the shorter Shadowlands and Dragonflight cinematics I posted addresses for up above? The whole reason I started using launch vs. announcement was because Gigabear replied to my initial post by discussing the cinematics I hadn’t posted addresses for as if I had. Again, everyone is welcome to their own taste about how good a particular cinematic is, but I do not understand why there’s so much doomsaying about how Blizzard has never done a cinematic like this before (short, little or no dialogue, focusing on new characters/zones) when, in fact, they’ve done it for the past two expansions.
You’re getting stuck on the semantics.
The “doomsaying,” such as what appears in the youtube comment section the other poster mentioned, is a reaction to the reality that this was the cinematic for TWW they tied in as the main one. Whether you call it “launch” or anything else, this one fell below the standards of other expansions.
It’s not remotely close in hook quality to “You are not prepared!,” Arthas waking Sindragosa, Varian flying into Legion invasion, or even the lighthearted Mists of Pandaria human vs. orc vs. pandaren fight.
You didn’t answer my question. Have you seen the previous expansion cinematics I was referring to?
Yes, because that’s not its purpose. It’s not mere semantics. Comparing them makes no more sense than comparing the in-game features trailer to the Wrath cinematic does. Blizzard makes different types of cinematics for different purposes and different points of the hype cycle.
I don’t care about whether or not you like it; I’m not particularly fond of it myself. I’m only addressing the specific complaint of “oh no, they’ve never done this before, the expansion is ruined.” Yes, they have, for the past two expansion, as I showed in my first post. That’s it. That’s my point.
As for quality of main cinematics: I think the actual TWW main cinematic, which was shown at BlizzCon, does a fine job teasing a central plot hook without giving too much away, but I understand if other people would prefer something with more action. I personally don’t need to see Alleria fighting Nerubians in glorious HD, for example.
You might not need to see it but putting the launch cinematics of previous expansions next to this one… the difference is staggering. This was more in line with a teaser/word building cinematic, not something that can carry launch with story or build hype with action.
Yes, that’s it’s job. It teases new zones and characters, just like the Shadowlands and Dragonflight ones did.
Shadowlands launch cinematic introduced each zone one by one, gave us an overview and followed up with as a glimpse of what they do. From kyrian’s duty, to eternal war at maldrax arena, to venthyr torturing people to extract anima… we saw story points from every part and ended with the jailor.
Dragonlight cinematic was very “vanilla” and colorful on purpose to cleanse the palate from the bleak nature of SL. It starts with showing of dragonflight which was a hype feature, shows a couple story points, presents dractyrs as the new hype race, and shows glimpses like how the nature is healing with the help of dragons… The sun is shining as the dragons fly off into the distance over the clouds… endless possibilities etc etc…
Tell me what is going on in this launch cinematic? A dwarf is hammering an ingot and a troll is dancing while a one-armed soldier is intensely staring down the camera while dressing up for some reason.
For real when the Wrath trailer happened I didn’t know who ‘Arthas’ was in the cinematic, it wasn’t till I played through WC3 again I figured out Arthas and the LK were the same guy. It didn’t tell me who the LK was, who Sindragosa was or anything. I’m just supposed to be afraid of a single knight with a dragon and some fodder zombies?
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That poster definitely sounds annoying but I’d say the point holds true. Blizz doesn’t really do a good job at explaining the story in game. The pre-patch could’ve been a good time to at least get some information about Khaz Algar and give some story snippets but all we got was Magni throwing a tantrum and fainting.
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