Do the legion zones lack character?

[Deleted]

I was pet hunting today, so went back through some old zones - Shadow Moon Valley x 2, Hellfire, Uldum, Tanaris and some others - and I don't know if it is just nostalgia, but it struck me that the older WoW zones had more "character" than those in Legion - i.e. more atmosphere, more story and more coherence. Maybe I am too caught up taking taxi rides around legion on World Quests[1], but I just don't feel any of the zones are very distinctive or memorable - they merge into a blur of Night elf/Vyrkul/Tauren themed mediocrity[2]. And I'm not comparing them to the best of WoW in the past - even Cataclysm and Draenor, which I think are probably worse expansions, seem to have more characterful zones.

[1]I like World Quests, but think it's nonsense to prohibit flying when we are constantly flying round on taxis; and think they should have had more a hub structure - like dailies in Cata - so that they fit into more of a theme.

[2]Suramar may be the exception.

[Kul Tiras]

I've only played the thing that copy pastes more norse mythology lore then let my sub expire so i'm not speaking for everything, but yeah, based on that zone lone, it felt like i was back in pandaland watching thinly veiled chinese history/mythology unfold behind a front of pandas and monkey and rabbits that wanted to ook you in da dooker.

Stormpeaks was cool because it brought norse mythos to WoW on top of Titan lore, but for some reason it felt natural and smooth, sort of a supernatural side to WC lore. This new Legion zone i played in legion felt devoid of life, character or any memorable sequences. On top of that, one of the guy used the same voice actor who voiced loremasted dipshit in pandaland, whose voice i can't stand, so that didn't help either.

[Deleted]

I credit a lot of it to the fact that older zones often had a lot of empty space, which made them feel like actual places where something's happening as opposed to amusement parks designed around the stuff that's happening. Empty space made the world feel like a real world

[McNeil]

The Legion zones still feel rather new to me, but so far they don't do it for me compared to some of the older zones. One of my biggest issue is how cramped these zones feel, there's very little open areas and way to many mountains and caverns. And they also lack a real identity, for example Stormheim is basically a cramped Howling Ford and Val'Sharah is a smaller Ashenvale. They even got their music remixed. I do like Suramar a lot as a zone, I think its the only zone that I've really liked so far.

[FertsBlert]

Not at all the zones all feel very different, in fact Suramar is the only one that feels bland to me apart from Suramar city itself. The Elf Ruins zone has been done to death over and over and over throughout WoW.

We have never had anything quite as mountainous as Highmountain and Stormheim even Stormpeaks in Wrath wasn't quite that in your face about it, very little of the action took place up and over the peaks.

Val'sharah is an utterly schizoid zone you have the incredible beauty of the Emerald Dream inspired parts but you have the Nightmare showing through in a lot of places and hidden underneath in a lot more.

Azsuna? yeah more Elf Ruins it is a pretty bland zone apart from the Elf lore in the zone.

[FelPlague]

I've only played the thing that copy pastes more norse mythology lore then let my sub expire so i'm not speaking for everything, but yeah, based on that zone lone, it felt like i was back in pandaland watching thinly veiled chinese history/mythology unfold behind a front of pandas and monkey and rabbits that wanted to ook you in da dooker.

Stormpeaks was cool because it brought norse mythos to WoW on top of Titan lore, but for some reason it felt natural and smooth, sort of a supernatural side to WC lore. This new Legion zone i played in legion felt devoid of life, character or any memorable sequences. On top of that, one of the guy used the same voice actor who voiced loremasted dipshit in pandaland, whose voice i can't stand, so that didn't help either.

so you do know the whole of warcraft is basicly based off tons of other lore right? norse, lovecraft, etc?

also "i played one zone for like 10 mins and quit, got super bored so the whole expansion much be shit"
idk its allmost like voice actors will do multiple roles? allthough its a bug he normally is suppose to sound differant but sometimes his voice filter would break....

"wow stormheim is just a bunch of copy paste norse mythology, but i loved stormpeaks totally not copy paste norse mythology!"

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Not at all the zones all feel very different, in fact Suramar is the only one that feels bland to me apart from Suramar city itself. The Elf Ruins zone has been done to death over and over and over throughout WoW.

We have never had anything quite as mountainous as Highmountain and Stormheim even Stormpeaks in Wrath wasn't quite that in your face about it, very little of the action took place up and over the peaks.

Val'sharah is an utterly schizoid zone you have the incredible beauty of the Emerald Dream inspired parts but you have the Nightmare showing through in a lot of places and hidden underneath in a lot more.

Azsuna? yeah more Elf Ruins it is a pretty bland zone apart from the Elf lore in the zone.

how many elf ruin zones have we been in? azshara (like 1 building) ghostlands? (some houses) and a small village in dragonblight, darkshore, and thats about it? how many deserts have we had :P

(play animaniacs 50 state capitals song)
tanaris
uldum
barrens north and south
old thousand needles
silithus
desolace old and somewhat new
durotar
blasted lands
badlands
part of gorgrond
blades edge mountain

and thats all the deserts there are!

[Lane]

Stormheim is not a good judge, I was quite disappointed with that zone. Conversely, I thought Val'Sharah was amazing. Azsuna had its moments. I haven't completed High Mountain yet, it's not bad I'm just not really into the whole tauren thing.

BC I'd say is one of the worst comparisons because much of it is just a convoluted mess. I could easily break it down similarly to "orc zone, arakkoa zone, demon zone", etc. As far as I'm concerned, everything about Cata was completely forgettable. You don't get an expansion more devoid of character than that one.

Azeroth zones, totally different story though, at least in vanilla. Wrath is definitely where I've set the bar. I didn't play MoP, but Jade Forest was good.

Honestly, I think Legion's questing strength lies in the artifacts/class halls. I've enjoyed that more than any of the zone questing, with the sole exception being maybe Val'Sharah (personal bias as I love NE lore).

[Archibalde]

how many elf ruin zones have we been in? azshara (like 1 building) ghostlands? (some houses) and a small village in dragonblight, darkshore

More than that. There's Felwoods, Wintersprings, Ashenvale, Feralas, Stonetalon Mountains, Desolace, there's some ruins of a Night Elven village in Silithus, Vashj'ir is essentially an entire zone dedicated to a sunken Night Elf city... It makes sense, anyway. The majority of Kalimdor was occupied by elves before the Sundering, it's logical that there would be many ruins all across various parts of the world. The other person is not making any sense. Saying there are too many Elven ruins on Azeroth is like complaining that Firelands has too much fire.

[FertsBlert]

More than that. There's Felwoods, Wintersprings, Ashenvale, Feralas, Stonetalon Mountains, Desolace, there's some ruins of a Night Elven village in Silithus, Vashj'ir is essentially an entire zone dedicated to a sunken Night Elf city... It makes sense, anyway. The majority of Kalimdor was occupied by elves before the Sundering, it's logical that there would be many ruins all across various parts of the world. The other person is not making any sense. Saying there are too many Elven ruins on Azeroth is like complaining that Firelands has too much fire.

We are talking about the character of the zones and you cannot deny that we have had every single damn permutation of Elf Ruins, we've had fel blighted, sunken, desert, jungle, snowy, and more. You would expect the feel to be similar, Suramar is nothing we haven't seen before in any way shape or form apart from Suramar city itself.
It does make sense that Azeroth is liberally coated with elven ruins it doesn't remove the fact that Suramar feels like every other elf ruins zone ever.

[Super Kami Dende]

I enjoy most of the Legion Zones.

especially Val'Sharah and Suramar. Suramar is amazing.

[Pull My Finger]

I was pet hunting today, so went back through some old zones - Shadow Moon Valley x 2, Hellfire, Uldum, Tanaris and some others - and I don't know if it is just nostalgia, but it struck me that the older WoW zones had more "character" than those in Legion - i.e. more atmosphere, more story and more coherence. Maybe I am too caught up taking taxi rides around legion on World Quests[1], but I just don't feel any of the zones are very distinctive or memorable - they merge into a blur of Night elf/Vyrkul/Tauren themed mediocrity[2]. And I'm not comparing them to the best of WoW in the past - even Cataclysm and Draenor, which I think are probably worse expansions, seem to have more characterful zones.

[1]I like World Quests, but think it's nonsense to prohibit flying when we are constantly flying round on taxis; and think they should have had more a hub structure - like dailies in Cata - so that they fit into more of a theme.

[2]Suramar may be the exception.

That's the most baseless and subjective thing one could say. You're not even able to put your finger on it yourself. I can tell you 100% that "it's just you".

[FelPlague]

More than that. There's Felwoods, Wintersprings, Ashenvale, Feralas, Stonetalon Mountains, Desolace, there's some ruins of a Night Elven village in Silithus, Vashj'ir is essentially an entire zone dedicated to a sunken Night Elf city... It makes sense, anyway. The majority of Kalimdor was occupied by elves before the Sundering, it's logical that there would be many ruins all across various parts of the world. The other person is not making any sense. Saying there are too many Elven ruins on Azeroth is like complaining that Firelands has too much fire.

felwoods has a few, wintersprings has only 2 minor locations with them, ashenvale only has 1 location that is "ruined nightelf" the rest is currently being used nightelver, forgot feralas and stonetalon, desolace aswell, silithus? and yeah vashjir but only in that one zone where the city is

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I enjoy most of the Legion Zones.

especially Val'Sharah and Suramar. Suramar is amazing.

same here, allthough grizzly hills will allways be my fav

<<<kinda bias due to my location though...

[Deathquoi]

I've only played the thing that copy pastes more norse mythology lore then let my sub expire so i'm not speaking for everything, but yeah, based on that zone lone, it felt like i was back in pandaland watching thinly veiled chinese history/mythology unfold behind a front of pandas and monkey and rabbits that wanted to ook you in da dooker.

Stormpeaks was cool because it brought norse mythos to WoW on top of Titan lore, but for some reason it felt natural and smooth, sort of a supernatural side to WC lore. This new Legion zone i played in legion felt devoid of life, character or any memorable sequences. On top of that, one of the guy used the same voice actor who voiced loremasted dipshit in pandaland, whose voice i can't stand, so that didn't help either.

What in the actual fuck is this post? Stormpeaks was cool because it brought Norse mythos on top of titan lore? You mean just like fucking Stormheim does? Seriously, if you want to just cry about the game without actually playing it, you should go make a live journal, at least you won't be exposing your ignorance to as many people.

[Jokubas]

I really liked Val'sharah, Despite how relatively small the Broken Isles are (the new draw distance is awkward for old areas, but actually makes this "continent" feel like the isles they are supposed to be), Val'sharah actually made me feel like I was deep in a forest, not just in a place with a lot of trees. Also, I thought it was clever how the quests led you into more corrupted looking areas gradually, making it feel like it was because the corruption was progressing over time.

I'll admit that, at least right now, the zones don't feel super-special to me, but I think it may be unrelated to the zones themselves. For me at least, I think it has more to do with the story. Even with Val'sharah, I felt like I kinda got in there, found the main threat, banished it, then was done, in fairly short order (well, there was still the dungeon and raid, but those are separate in my mind). That isn't to say I thought the story with the Nightmare was bad, I'm just reminded a lot of Pandaria (which is the expansion I'll forget if I'm listing them off and miss one).

Both Legion and Pandaria decided to roll out their story over time. This wasn't bad in the long run for Pandaria, but it meant that the questing didn't have a lot of things to cover. In Pandaria, the main plot stopped in the first zone, when you were told that the main fleet would be coming along in awhile (which ended up being the first patch). This meant that the majority of the questing was almost literally just killing time. Legion is similar. Aside from the Pillars of Creation themselves, the actual main plot is waiting for the Nighthold raid in order to progress. So despite the expansion being advertised with characters like Gul'dan, Illidan, and Anduin, they have almost no actual appearances.

To summarize, I think the Legion zones are actually pretty neat, but since many of the stories in them were filler-heavy, I didn't get the sort of connection with them that I might have been able to.

[Amsden]

Stormeim and High Mountain are great, the others really aren't my cup of tea, but they all have character.

[Shinrael]

I think a lot of people here mix "beautiful" and "have character". I must say that all the zones are incredibly beautiful. My favourite would be either Val'sharah or Highmountain. But I too thought that they lack character. Keep in mind I'm not whining or bitching, just wondering why I feel this way. I'm willing to believe that something is simply wrong with me lately.

But the zones do feel weird to me. I can't put my finger on it... Is it because there aren't many open spaces? Suramar is a much better done but night-themed Sunwell (and that's my favourite raid visually). I dislike the areas outside the city because they mix too many colours and I prefer green grass and leaves. Which is why Val'sharah quite appeals to me. This is the first zone ever in WoW that makes me feel like I really am in a forest. But that brings another problem which I have irl when taking a walk in the forest - you can't just walk wherever you want. You have to follow the main road strictly. This isn't anybody's fault nor is it necessarily a bad thing.

[Snackwiches]

I think they have substantially more than anything other than Pandaria or Northrend.

[KrazyK923]

No, its just that the character they have is fucking boring.

Highmountain's entire story revolving around the Tauren is boring.
The Vrykul stuff as the only zone storyline except for the very beginning and end is boring.
Azsuna's jumbled mess of a story is boring.
Suramar's not boring but the entire gating of content makes it really less interesting to stay focused on.

Val'sharah is the only one that actually is interesting.

[Awbee]

The only thing I can see is that the zones are getting more and more detailed and realistic, and have a lot more variation throughout the zone. Which might lead to them having less of that "highly stylized theme park" appeal that older zones sometimes had. Like, Tanaris is a desert, mmkay. Stranglethorn is a jungle, mmkay. Hellfire Peninsula is a big red demon desert, mmkay. Old Shadowmoon Valley is a big bad green demon zone, mmkay.


The newer zones have many more colors and different areas, and aren't "one trick ponies" in that way. I personally prefer that and find it more realistic and immersive, but I can see how it for some people might make them less easily identifiable.


edit:

I just thought of another thing, but that was the same in Cata and in WoD.

It's the fact that during leveling, you don't walk from zone to zone, but instead fly everywhere. Which takes a bit away from this feeling of having one big connected continent that you explore yourself.

It was the same in Cata, where the zones were literally all over the place. I actually quite liked most of the Cata zones and thought they were quite unique and good looking (I just really didn't like what they did with the Uldum storyline). But a major flaw of that expansion was that everything was in different places of the world and there wasn't that feeling of being in one place, fighting the baddies.

In WoD, it was like we have now in Legion: while the zones are connected, you usually get a quest from your hub (Garrison vs. Dalaran) that sends you directly to the next leveling zone. So you always travel from your hub to the zone, and not from one zone to another.
I personally find that it's much beter done in Legion than it was in WoD, but of course it doesn't have that "ride from one end of the continent to the other" feeling that we had in Vanilla or Northrend. But for me personally it's a minor critique point, since we actually DO have the ability to ride from one end of the Broken Isles to the other, we just have to do it on our own time.

[wrv451nlp]

To me the Broken Isles feels like a mix-mash of the different themes from previous expansions,

Azuna: Cataclysm Vibe
Val'sharah: Cataclysm Vibe
Highmountain: Pandaria Vibe
Stormheim: Poorly imitated Northrend Vibe
Suramar: Draenor Vibe