I mean, Zandalar had a pretty coherent overarching story. It was all about Zul’s coup and the Blood God he had allied with. Even the Sethrak story tied pretty well into that due to their alliance with Jakra’zet and by extension Zul and G’huun.
Kul Tiras meanwhile was about… azerite-abusing pirates… spooky Vrykul druids… and Lovecraftian sea-monks? There wasn’t really much that tied the different zones together.
Also Stormsong was straight-up terrible. Besides the Tidesaged it had… naga… quilboar… the Horde… more pirates… and bees? It was too much. Besieged Locals™ the Zone.
There’s an area where quillboar and Horde adds overlap and it really makes u fink if blizzard just turned brennadam from a quillboar invasion to a horde invasion just cuz cheap shocks for the alliance…
oof yeah that’s relatable… I remember being confused about why I couldn’t do the Kul Tiras campaign finale only to realize I didn’t have the Stormsong achievement yet because apparently most of that side quest stuff was mandatory lol (and it was boring as HECK if may add)
To me, Zandalar was the land that was Blizzard’s priority - even before we got there, it was made to feel like it was the more important of the two, with Talanji and Zul.
I hate Kul’Tiras, like - I won’t level my Alliance toons until timewalking, that’s how much I hate it. It’s a shame because the artwork was fabulous, the story telling of each of the three zones was just dire, though.
They probably had a Zandalar focused expansion planned ahead/working on it, then decided to tie it in with this BfA, patchworked in a Boralus for the Alliance & then everything else.
Kul Tiras was awesome tbh. Drustvar was possibly the best zone of the expansion, Stormsong has a great central story (the k’thir etc), and Tiragarde has its charm.
I have to agree, my first character to 120 was an Alliance character and I remember thinking to myself at the time that BFA must be the worst leveling experience I’ve ever had. Stormsong Valley was a mess. It was clear it was half finished, the general experience there was dreadful and there seemed to be no polish at all. Most of it felt quite rushed and in particular the side quests were abysmal especially around that shack being attacked by the pirates. That’s not counting broken quests or mobs that were scaled ridiculously. Either the B team was working on it or they put too much faith in diversity hires to complete that zone. Stormsong is a good example of terrible world building and thoughtless mob placement, they have phasing technology yet it wasn’t utilized once. It’s Sentinel Hill being permanently on fire and besieged personified as a zone.
It just wasn’t well thought out, at all. Tiragarde Sound was a bargain bin Northrend tileset with a storyline so forgettable I honestly can’t recall it and Drustvar, while much better felt like the Witcher crossed with the most generic Noble House RP storyline. It’s not bad but it wasn’t great either. I also thought it was a little silly that freshly geared Alliance had to join a Mythic to see the end of their story arc.
In contrast the Horde leveling experience was exceptional from the get go. It was steeped in atmosphere and the whole experience was polished. It’s the main reason I stuck around, Zandalar was a labour of love. My only complaints would be that at times the voice actors branched in to Nollywood meme territory and I didn’t much care for the Wakanda references and some of the joke NPCs which I feel completely killed the atmosphere.
Yeah, they hit it out of the park with both BfA and Legion, honestly. I can’t think of a questing zone in either that I outright disliked.
The themes were fun, the characters interesting, the questlines engaging. Just generally a refreshing change from WoD for me, which didn’t draw me in very much at all.
I mean, they were actually trying to subvert expectations by going “hah, the faction war was not the REAL battle for Azeroth, bet you didn’t expect that…!”. I’m not even joking, that’s almost literally what they have stated in interviews, iirc.
Too bad the faction war lasted until 8.2.5, the Black Empire story was rushed to the point it’s basically one big plot hole with no new lore and N’zoth got dunked on right after he broke out of his prison.
Also, I’m gonna take the controversial stance here and say that the quest and zone design sucked. Too much clutter. Overzealous mob placement (seriously, you can barely walk an inch without being attacked by something - Stormsong and Voldun are good examples). Too many instances of villages that happen to be under attack right at the time you arrive there - as if events unfold only when you get there. Stuff like that. It’s like the world revolves around the player. The general questing experience is more of a theme park than what I’d expect from an mmorpg, basically.
Yes, I know what you’re thinking, but Classic doesn’t have what I consider must-have features such as transmog. Alas!
To end this “rant” on a positive note: Drustvar is one of the most beautiful zones in the game. Absolutely stunning.
I give it two expansions before the faction war becomes a major plot point again. Like, let’s not forget how hard they forced this after Legion. Because they had to resort to basically pretending the class order halls never happened. It was kind of pathetic and yet they had no problem doing so because it enabled them to tell the story they wanted to tell, so I don’t see why it wouldn’t happen again. Blizzard doesn’t really do organic storytelling. They see Warcraft as a playground for their devs, not a fantasy world with deep lore that should be respected.
Is it sexism if you want a character trait to not be ignored - and to not remain completely unexplored by the story - by the other characters in the story, when it is clearly there?
