What cinematic do you think is best, and which do you think is the worst?
As I can’t decide, I think Vanilla, TBC, WOTLK and Cataclysm cinematics are all pretty epic.
The worst has got to be Mists of Pandaria when they had out of place disney-like humour in cinematics for the first time. Even though I’m never playing it, I watched Dragonflight cinematic recently and the cheese and cringe humour was…far too cringe. I thought the cinematics would at least be good, but it was like watching a trailer for an animated movie aimed at kids under 10.
Time changes. (c) Garrosh.
Warlords of draenor and legion had some epic cinematics.
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Expansion intros dragons and shadowlands are really meh … vanilla, tbc, wotlk probably my most favourite …
And I love those little series, Harbingers, Lords of war, warbringers … fight, Kill, SALUTE
Jaina was so epic and sad, and then they turned her into lawful stupid “oh no horde is sad, we have to go home now” …
How they went from dude chopping off his own arm or guy who would turn into beef jerky just so he can chomp you good to “we cant beat this super genocidal maniac, we will send them to do daily quests instead” … simply losing it …
I’ve never seen any cinematics beyond Crapaclysm, so I’m definitely pinning the original vanilla intro, which remains an incredible piece of work.
We begin with a simple map spanning two continents - we get a glimpse of how huge this world is. Cut to the Dwarven character on the snowy mountain, rifle in hand, with his huge bear companion. Epic music plays…
Then the female Night Elf races through the forest, morphing into a cat, to show us the nature of this magical universe where anything is possible.
The Undead warlock, in a burning landscape, a huge Infernal rises menacingly behind him, and then cut to the Tauren, testing the wind, and then the Orc, wielding his mace as the fire rages… and then the nature of this conflict is made clear, as the races clash, fire and magic rain down.
It’s absolutely epic, and it was the perfect vehicle to get me truly excited about this game.
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Maybe I’m getting old. There was any humor in Dragonflight cinematic?
I watched the launch cinematic again just to be sure, noticed plenty of cringe but no humor beside possibly the startled to death tuskarr fisherman at the very beginning. That was the only part one could consider humoresque and I doubt you are talking about announce cinematic. That one had absolutely none humor at all.
So, by the cringe humor you meant those first few seconds on the beginning of the cinematic? Could you please elaborate on this?
Also you mentioned this:
This is interesting. To me the Dragonflight launch cinematic had same vibe as Final Fantasy XIV cinematic trailers.
Cataclysm trailer was terrifying. Literally. It gave me uneasy feeling, imagining the end of the world, even though it was never the end. Just the new beginning.
MoP cinematic on the other hand, even though I still think that whole lore and setting of Pandaria does not suit World of Warcraft, the trailer was good.
As alliance player, the WoD cinematic never really impressed me besides it’s connection to WC3.
BfA had epic cinematic trailer, but I can’t say I liked the expansion as whole.
If I have to chose one cinematic trailer, it would be Legion.
Oh, here we go again… THE CRAPACLYSM! (imagine the word screamed with wrathful hatred by female night elf)
The Vanilla WoW trailer was bit too erratic. It gave good idea on what is possible in the game, but was lacking narration and continuity. It was just one chaotic mashup of glimpses into the World of Warcraft and Burning Crusade was pretty much the same.
I find the narrative trailers revolving around the main plot of the expansion much better.
Suppose when I said humour I meant there was humour in it, not whether I thought it was good or not! It is the one with the tuskaar fisherman at the start; it’s the silly parts with dragons making “amusing” eye contact or jolly moments that aren’t really in the spirit/atmosphere of Warcraft e.g. Pandaria trailer has a similar sort of child-like humour as that dragonflight one. The same cheesy unfunny humour as Marvel movies and pretty much most movies as of of the past few years. Humour is fine but when it’s out of place it’s…yeah.
You know it is a bit like FF now you mention it. Not a big fan of FF though lol.
Haven’t seen the other cinematics past Cata other than one with Garosh or Thrall in prison and an Alliance walks into their cell etc, I thought that was good but just that scene with the quality of the sound effects.
I like that it actually leaves something to the imagination and that they can’t cover everything in one segment e.g. the mage throwing fireballs in Vanilla as the Infernal gets closer, or the dwarf hunter. Made me want to play the game sort of thing.
I think the best cinematic is WoD.
For me Wotlk cinematic is overhyped, and it’s a pro Wotlk talking.
Yes Dalteon Crapaclysm. It was, in my view, crap. Therefore I call it Crapaclysm. Frankly you’re lucky I capitalise it. Wrathful hatred is an appropriate description for how I feel about it, as it killed six years of progress for me, and killed my game of choice stone dead.
Fair enough. For you it ruined the game. For me it improved the game-play mechanics for almost every class I’ve played, and I had many alts.
Actually played every class beside warlock and notably enjoyed playing paladin, warrior, rogue, druid and death knight more in CATA than I did in WotLK.
That however is not the matter of discussion here. We are talking about each expansion cinematic trailers, not changes to the game which those expansion introduced.
Indeed we are, and I hope I expressed my love of the original cinematic appropriately.
Original one is timeless. Simple as that even if I feel they still didn’t quite figure out a way to not lean on horde being mostly look like bad guys. I’d still need to give my vote for TBC one though but being a huge Illidan fanboi I am very biased. Still “You are not prepared!” will always send chill down my spine.
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Lich King > Vanilla > BFA > Wod
Worst ones are Shadowlands, Mop and DF.
The worst for me were Dragonflight and MoP.
The best surprisingly was WoD. It’s a shame the expansion’s entire budget went into the cinematic, because the art and music team did a fantastic job.
I also loved the pre-Legion cinematic, the one that showed Gul’dan finding Illidan. Bringing Illidan back was a perfect example of “break glass incase of emergency” and showing him with his original music; even for a brief few seconds, felt great.
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Nobody ever truly stays dead in WoW. I’m fully expecting Uther Lightbringer to make an appearance sooner or later… in fact it’s possible he already has, given that I’ve never played any expansions after Crapaclysm.
He played quite a big role in Shadowlands.
…Which is to be expected, it’s an expansion based on the afterlife.
He did… Not the most flattering role but he did.
Edit:
Yeah played a big role in forever shafting any chances for redeeming Arthas. Of course it was the vindicative part of his soul that had to be send to the afterlife -.-
Why am I not surprised.
I guess Miylee is right, it’s based on the afterlife, so I suppose it makes sense. I wonder if Bellygrub and Mankrik’s Wife were there too?
Dunno. Didn’t play it, might give it a look to see how badly it went…
If you actually did stumble across Bellygrub and Mankrik’s wife I’d laugh my head off.
If I were designing an expansion based on the afterlife, that’s precisely what I’d do - populate some areas with the spirits of vaguely-remembered named mobs you’d killed while levelling, all of them would be very upset to see you and make rude gestures every time you walked by.
I’d also add a whole bunch of hoofless zevras, headless Murlocs, liverless goretusks, tailless worgs etc.
That would be an expansion worth playing.