WoW cinematics have little dialogue

Community General Discussion
1

While re-watching the Fall of Kil’jaeden cinematic from Legion, I was shocked when I realized there was less dialogue than I thought.

Then I thought about other cinematics and realized that they have little dialogue too. And most of what dialogue they do have is one-liners, or strings of one-liners (every sentence is a one-liner). For example, here’s the dialogue from that cinematic;

Kil’jaeden: "Our fates are now one. Argus will be your tomb.
Khadgar; "At least we will have died fighting."
Illidan; "Our war isn’t over yet. Not when we hold the key to all worlds."
Illidan; "Khadgar, take us home."
Kil’jaeden; "I was always envious of you. Your gift. Your faith. Your vision. I never believed that Sargeras could be stopped. Perhaps you will prove me wrong."
Khadgar; "Everyone! Get ready."
Khagdar; "What have you done?"
Illidan; "Sometimes the hand of fate must be forced."

For another example, there’s the Argus’ defeat cinematic;

Aman’thul; "You have done well mortals."
Eonar; "It is time."
Aman’thul; "We must gather our strength. Return home, children of Azeroth."
Velen; "Illidan. We’ve done all we can."
Illidan; 'Every choice. Every sacrifice, Has led me to this moment. To face him once again."
Velen; "You are not coming with us."
Illidan; "The hunter is nothing without the hunt. Did you not see this fate, prophet."
Velen; "Fate. Our survival was never in fate’s hands. Light be with you, Illidan Stormrage."
Aman’thul; "Brother! Your crusade is over!"
Sargeras; "Noooooo!"

Now for one of my most hated cinematics;

High Exarch Turalyon: "We are blessed to be in your presence once more, Xe’ra."
Xe’ra: "Turalyon. You have found the Chosen One."
Xe’ra: Illidan. From birth, the light in your eyes held such promise for the future."
Illidan Stormrage: I sacrificed that birthright long ago.
Xe’ra: Do you not wish to reclaim what was lost? To be whole again?"
Illidan Stormrage: The Legion’s end… is all I seek."
Xe’ra: "My child. You have given so much, for so little. Your true potential, your redemption lies before you. Let go of your shattered form and embrace the light’s power."
Illidan Stormrage: "I’ve traded my freedom for power before."
Xe’ra: "The prophecy… must be fulfilled."
Xe’ra: "Your old life has passed. The Light will forge you a new one."
Illidan Stormrage: "It is not yours to take!"
Xe’ra: "The Light will heal your scars."
Illidan Stormrage: "I am my scars!"
Xe’ra: "The Light is your destiny."
Illidan Stormrage: "My destiny is my own!"
High Exarch Turalyon: "You’ve doomed us all! Betrayer!"
Illidan Stormrage: "Your faith has blinded you. There can be no chosen one. Only we can save ourselves."

That’s one of the more dialogue-heavy cinematics, and it’s saturated with cheesy or cringe one-liners.

For the final example, here’s two even worse than the above, the dialogue from the final raid boss cinematics in Shadowlands;

Sanctum of Domination
Jailer; "At long last. The final key is once again mine."
Jailer; "Now, kneel."
Sylvanas; "The way is open, Zovaal. We already have what we need."
Jailer; "Too long I endured the makers’ flawed design. I will forge a new reality where all shall serve me."
(The word “serve” echoes three times in Sylvanas’ head, once in Ner’zhul’s voice, once in the Lich King’s voice and once in Arthas’ voice)
Sylvanas; "I will never serve."
Jailer; "Pity. Still chained by mortality. Still you did return something that was stolen from me. Allow me to repay you, in kind."
Jailer; "I leave you to their mercy. Come. Witness reality’s end."
Sylvanas; "Don’t let him reach the…"

Sepulcher of the First Ones
Jailer; "This must not be!"
Archon; "You have betrayed your duties as Arbiter. And will be bound for all eternity."
Winter Queen; "Your actions have threatened the cycle of life and death entire."
Denathrius; "You could have sought another way, brother. Imagine what we could have accomplished together."
Primus; "Why Zovaal? What drove you to this end?"
Jailer; "You preserve what which is doomed. A cosmos divided will not survive what is to come…"

At least the Jailer gave one sentence that summed up what I think of a lot of WoW’s writing (“Too long I endured the makers’ flawed design”). While delivery can make it more enjoyable, it doesn’t give words meaning. And while some things need to be explained, some can be summed up in few words.

Thoughts?

2

That’s a matter entirely of opinion. That cinematic is one of the more iconic ones in recent years.

It’s a video game, chief. People don’t play this to watch feature-length movies in the middle of a raid. Of WoW’s many writing problems I don’t think the cinematic dialogue is high on the list of things worth complaining about.

6 Likes
3

“Iconic” isn’t always a good thing; iconic just means popular and influential. That label has also been used for “Twilight” (poorly written vampire romance where the main relationship is abusive), “Avatar” (preachy, stereotypical environmentalist sci-fi film) and “Birth of a Nation” (pioneered several cinematography techniques… but unfortunately it’s literal pro-Klan propaganda).

While I can see your point, what writing problems would you say are high on the list of things to complain about?

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I not be wanting a lengthy cinematic during a raid, especially if it’s not at de end.

Less talking heads, less cinematics just put de dialogue onto de NPCs and have it play over de music so it be creatin atmosphere and not preventin us from playing de game.

Trial of De Crusader and Icecrown Citadel be good examples of dialogue done right Mon. It not be needin to be lengthy just to de point and cool, get de people into de mood and immersed in what dey be doin.

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5

A picture speaks a thousand words.

Take the fall of KJ Cinematic. The opening dialogue is:

Kil’jaeden: "Our fates are now one. Argus will be your tomb.

That isn’t even warranted. We can see KJ collapsing to the floor, the scars on his face, the expression of defeat. The camera pans to the ship that is collapsing and falling down to the twisted planet called Argus, and then a pan to Khadgar and Illidan with worried expressions.

The Dialogue is just there as a guide / audio aid. I wouldn’t want a lot of dialogue.

2 Likes
6

Its cinematics… what do you want , a fully detailed 20 minute conversation?

:face_with_raised_eyebrow:

RAID NIGHT:
“Ok guys, the cinamatic is coming up… Im going to go make some popcorn and get some snacks… this one runs 23 minutes and there is an after credits scene too!!”

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With the cinematics the visuals are the most important thing, so less dialog is better imo.

8

Show rather then tell.

I still like the tos cinematic

The velen /kj scene is great and doesnt need words. Velen’s actions say it all when he eases kj’s pain before going nuclear

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9

For all of my gripes against WoW, the fact that we don’t have a two hour long parley with Zovaal is NOT one of them.

Yes, some people seem to worship FF for its lack of brevity.

In fact, its crazy to me. You’ll get hours of cutscenes over the geopolitics of the Empire in FF, and yet the “Final Boss” of their story “8 years in the making” was a random bird that came out of nowhere, its actually quite insane.

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I’m probably in the minority but I get annoyed if a cinematic is too long. And I’ve actually skipped some of them.

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The 17 minutes cut scenes every 30 seco ds of gameplay with 5000 lines of text describing how to toast bread. All while your character is head nodding.

No other game makes me mash esc harder than ff.

2 Likes
12

I care little for the dialogue, only for seeing KJ explode in fel fire.

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Velen is a man of very little words. His presence is enough to get a message across :crazy_face:

Easily the best cinematic they have produced.

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15

The storyline, and the characters involved are extremely poor quality. The writing team needs a revamp.

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16

They also have to write for a really broad and diverse playerbase of all ages and therefore must keep it at a certain accessible level.

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17

I can’t say I agree with your assessment, and the cinematic you consider “one of my most hated” had some of the more interesting and dramatic outcomes of the entire game. Besides…this is a heroic fantasy world, what you call ‘cheesy’ is almost a requisite.

The final take-away seems to be that you want one or more of the characters in these cinematics to indulge in some monologuing. Eh…no thanks.

1 Like
18

That is what we have raid fights for, there is a ton of dialog during most fights. The cinematics are suppose to be “iconic” moments and sometimes less is more/enough. As an example:

World of Warcraft: Velen’s Sacrifice - YouTube

The only lines are from Ner’zhul and then we have a minute of just music and yet the emotions were perfectly done/visuals conveyed everything we needed to know.

2 Likes
19

Surprised it wasn’t said yet, but I would assume animating the mouths takes WAYYYYYYYYYYYYY more time and effort than you realize.

A sweeping shot or the camera simply panning around is probably just a command in Maya (or w/e they use).

I mean sure, you can just have the dialogue spoken while we stare at a mountain or something. But generally, if someone is speaking, there is going to be a shot of them speaking… which means you have to animate the mouth. As the Garrosh scene in SoD taught us, that takes EFFORT.

20

Your wish is granted.

Now we all have interactive Khagar Shattrath follow the voidwalker quests where we go into a detailed discussions with each NPC and narrate each biography. Plus, we get a 209 question fill in the blank test we must answer and score 80% while in a hot air balloon to progress.

You’re welcome

:dragon: :ocean: :dragon: :ocean: :dragon: :ocean: :dragon: :ocean:

21

“Interesting and dramatic outcomes” can also be said about a plane crash or a story like Twilight, but that doesn’t make it good. “Cheesy” is a good adjective - some cheese tastes good, some tastes foul and cheese can go stale and become unfit for consumption.

Sometimes I think more dialogue is warranted, sometimes less.