Current Events > Still blows my mind how badly they botched Diablo 3's story *spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

Mr_MacPhisto posted...

Are people still pretending D1/D2 VA and dialogue wasn't corny and melodramatic long before D3 came along?

Romulox28 posted...

i love blizzard games but never have any of them been known for deep & complex stories, it's schlocky comic book style stuff with corruption as a core plot device lol

D1 and D2 were not even remotely comic booky

Melodramatic VA, sure, but thats not the same as a bad story.
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Killing off Deckard Cain was such a stupid choice.

Mr_Biscuit posted...

Ruvan22 posted...

While the story and presentation had some flaws, a few things did catch me off guard (in a good way) - spoilers obv, but Deckard actually dying, eventual fate of Leah, eventual fate of Tyrael.

I get what you are saying about the first two starting off with a hopeless tone - you are thrust into a setting already sliding downwards, but with D3 that was part of the draw for me. Things are stable.. Diablo and his brothers were defeated/dissipated... so what else could there be? In a way that set the stage for RoS (and it's grim ending) really well...

Thats kind of the issue for me though. The few good story decisions they made were delivered terribly too.

I think Cain dying couldve been super powerful... but to Maghda in a horrible in-game cutscene that made zero sense for any character involved? Leah gets betrayed by her mother and possessed by Diablo... in another bad in-game cutscene with a monologue from Adria laying out everything in detail in case you hadnt been paying attention?

They undercut even the potentially good beats.

I feel Adria's reveal (while not a surprise) was well done.. coming back to the keep and seeing the guards you had just been talking to (and hearing they were just waiting to go home) literally torn in half and strewn around the halls really hit home for me.

Which reveals in D1/D2 do you feel were handled better?

Fair enough regarding the Adria twist and the dead bodies, that was good I just haaaated the cheap in-game cutscenes for major story moments. Leahs possession deserved to be part of the cinematic. The bad Saturday Morning Cartoon evil speech from Adria hurt it too IMO.

D1 didnt really have any reveals (unless you count things like the Butchers room, which worked for similar reasons to what you said about Adria, just the horror of the situation), but the D2 reveal of Marius having been speaking to Baal the whole time was gut wrenching. Even if you knew something was up, man, that was hard to watch.

Its less about what a tweest and more about the tone. D1 and D2s cinematics felt super fucked up rather than omg epic
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Mr_Biscuit posted...

Fair enough regarding the Adria twist and the dead bodies, that was good I just haaaated the cheap in-game cutscenes for major story moments. Leahs possession deserved to be part of the cinematic. The bad Saturday Morning Cartoon evil speech from Adria hurt it too IMO.

D1 didnt really have any reveals (unless you count things like the Butchers room, which worked for similar reasons to what you said about Adria, just the horror of the situation), but the D2 reveal of Marius having been speaking to Baal the whole time was gut wrenching. Even if you knew something was up, man, that was hard to watch.

Its less about what a tweest and more about the tone. D1 and D2s cinematics felt super fucked up rather than omg epic

So it's the tone that you find problematic? Iirc D1 only had one cinematic (at the end where you/the protagonist take the cracked soulstone), and you'll have to refresh my memory which of D2's cinematics you are referring to (been a while since I played it)

Yes, its primarily tone. Theres a level of dread in the first two games, whereas in D3, I felt like the demons dreaded ME. That can be empowering but it didnt feel earned, nor do I want to feel like the Lords of Hell itself are incompetent schmucks running scared.

Here are my two favorite D2 cinematics, though theyre all good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFLYAHrxHQ0" data-time="

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6EB6d4xOjg" data-time="
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the nostalgia/being young/etc arguments for D1/D2 don't hold any merit to me cause I played them again after D3 came out and they're exactly how I remembered. between the music and writing and the way the demons/corpses/other visuals were displayed, it's no contest. D3 absolutely looks cartoony. it has warcraft-esque graphics, which is fine. but saying the previous diablo games didn't have a better atmosphere if you're trying to invoke a sort of more horror-type setting is a lie
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ThyCorndog posted...

the nostalgia/being young/etc arguments for D1/D2 don't hold any merit to me cause I played them again after D3 came out and they're exactly how I remembered. between the music and writing and the way the demons/corpses/other visuals were displayed, it's no contest. D3 absolutely looks cartoony. it has warcraft-esque graphics, which is fine. but saying the previous diablo games didn't have a better atmosphere if you're trying to invoke a sort of more horror-type setting is a lie

Ding ding ding

Like I said earlier too, even more counter to the its nostalgia argument is that the newer additions like Ruins of Secheron and especially Temple of the Firstborn are MUCH closer to the vibe of the first two games. The story in Reaper was also about as improved as it could be without basically retconning D3.
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Nostalgia isn't something that only touches the past lol.

That's the entire reason why anyone cares about the phenomenon.
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COVxy posted...

Nostalgia isn't something that only touches the past lol.

That's the entire reason why anyone cares about the phenomenon.

Does nostalgia affect my opinion of the most recent D3 content?
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Do you have memories of playing recent D3 content when you were a child?

I can play FFVII today and have the same exact experience I had when I was a kid, even though the dialog is ridiculous and the graphics are hard to understand. I play that game and feel the same grandiose emotions I felt as a child, and enjoy it just the same. If I were to take my experience and try to understand why a current day player, never having been exposed to the game, may have a different opinion, I would be dumbfounded. But I know that my experience is tinted with nostalgia. Those strong feelings are partially driven by memory.

It's really easy to see this effect in music. Everything you listened to in middle school is still fucking awesome, as embarrassing as it is to admit it to yourself.
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COVxy posted...

Everything you listened to in middle school is still f***ing awesome, as embarrassing as it is to admit it to yourself.

Limp Bizkit - Significant Other was a good cd

COVxy posted...

Everything you listened to in middle school is still fucking awesome, as embarrassing as it is to admit it to yourself.

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D3 was absolutely garbage, the first part of the first act was okay but killing Leoric again, and everything after that, fucking dumb. People that white knight this garbage fucking piss me off too. Even getting past all the story stuff . . . it's just about the worst example of power creep in a video game.
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Ive never understood why, if they were determined to just go nostalgia-fest on Act 1, they wouldnt swap Leoric and the Butcher.

-the fallen star resurrected everything in the old cathedral
-the Act talks about Leorics madness the whole time and ends in his old mansion/torture chambers

I know! Lets have Leoric die halfway through the act after doing nothing but yelling youll never defeat me!!! and have Maghda throw the Butcher at you for no discernible reason to end the Act!

Shits weird. It was such a layup to have Butcher ambush you in the cathedral for old times sake and end the Act with Leoric after hyping him up the whole time. One of so many odd decisions/missed opportunities. Like, if youre gonna have Diablo possess Leah and youre gonna have Cain die, why not have Leahblo kill Cain? How tragic and dark would that have been?

Its like they came up with a rough first draft of story beats and decided aight thats fine instead of thinking AT ALL.
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Mr_Biscuit posted...

Its like they came up with a rough first draft of story beats and decided aight thats fine instead of thinking AT ALL.

Sounds typical to me
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UnfairRepresent posted...

Mr_Biscuit posted...

Its like they came up with a rough first draft of story beats and decided aight thats fine instead of thinking AT ALL.

Sounds typical to me

Lol. Yeah... these days.
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Bump for fun
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Mr_Biscuit posted...

Bump for fun

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Blizzard demonstrated just the past couple of weeks how badly they misunderstand their fanbase.
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pinky0926 posted...

Blizzard demonstrated just the past couple of weeks how badly they misunderstand their fanbase.

Yeah.

My ray of hope is the newer D3 content like Ive said ITT. Its very good and much closer to what all of D3 needed to be.

I can reflect back on base D3 and marvel at how badly they misunderstood what Diablo is at the time BECAUSE theyve done so much better since. The Immortal reveal was pretty alarming, though.
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I remember the demo for D3 and it took forever to get through. And then they said "this is just the first part of Act I" and I'm like holy shit, this game will be long as fuck. Nah, Act I is disingenuously long to sell that line.

D3's story isn't good, but I'll give them props for killing Leah and keeping her dead. Deckard deserved more.

ocelot51 posted...

I remember the demo for D3 and it took forever to get through. And then they said "this is just the first part of Act I" and I'm like holy shit, this game will be long as fuck. Nah, Act I is disingenuously long to sell that line.

D3's story isn't good, but I'll give them props for killing Leah and keeping her dead. Deckard deserved more.

The Act pacing in D3 is weird.

Act 1 is super long but changes scenery a bunch of times and keeps it fresh. Its easily the most interesting act in terms of the journey

Act 2 is just Lut Gholein 2: Electric Boogaloo but less interesting. It feels pretty long but thats because half of it is a fetch quest for Kulles left kidney or whatever

Act 3 feels big but actually goes pretty quick if you arent full clearing every area

Act 4 is a fucking joke

Then thank god for Act 5, easily better than anything in base D3 and huge to boot
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