Confused about Internal Feedback on Story/Dialogue in Blizzard.der=

[melianor]

When Chris metzen asked on twitter how we felt about story, I wanted to slap him in the face with a wet towel. As soon as lea said, that she is the daughter of Adria and some wanderer I had story figured out. The only "oh" moment was Adria being evil. The rest was told in acts normal. saying it's written for kids is an offence against kids. The can follow a decent plot. There is no plot. You are led by the hand, knowing every twist from the beginning. Dialogs is even worse than standard Hollywood action movie...

[Risingred]

Hei, they designed the game for Grandma's INCLUDING the diagloue.

My grandmother would have never suffered through this horrible pile of **** that they claim is a story. It's barely a plot.

I'm still trying to decide if it's written worse than SC2 or not. That's a tough call, because both are just flipping awful in every respect.

Everyone associated with writing a single syllable of anything to do with this story should be banned from ever writing ever again.

[Sentarius]

And yet apparently Max Max Schaefer liked it.

[exmachinax]

Yeah, the 'plot' and dialogues most of the time sucks badly.

I actually like the beginning, the mystery about the "fallen star" and it being our good old Tyrael.. but that's about it.

Kulle has the potential to be interesting... but portrayed in a very cliche way (no surprise at all).

There a few good (humorous) lines thrown here and there occasionally that I found to be quite amusing (some from Shen, the Scoundrel or the event with the farmer and the dead wife, for example), but it is way too little to give some credit to the game story or dialogue.

Worst of all for me, Leonard Boyarky (the guy worked on games I love like Fallout, Arcanum, Vampire Bloodlines) was in the team, so I had some hope for the story and dialogues... All in vain.

And yet apparently Max Max Schaefer liked it.

That do puzzled me. I thought "perhaps he is trying to be ironic...?".

[Nauthiz]

saying it's written for kids is an offence against kids

this.
the only things I can handle are the lines of the templar, at least these are funny, and the more you hear them the more absurd it gets. poor consolation though.

[ancalagon]

100% agree

You cant defeat your own TERRUOOOORRRR ... TERRROOOARRRR ... ok you can .... but I will repeat it ad nauseum till you get sick of my cheesy lines muahahahaha

PS NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! THIS WRETCHED LIGHT MUST BE ... ERADICATEEEED!!! <MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Edit: On a side note, the scoundrel and jeweler have awesome dialogue, voices and character

[Malodium]

Honestly I wouldn't be too bothered by much of it at all if they just removed almost all of the azmodian and diablo dialog, and the Khule laughing. The constant taunting the player wth cheesy lines and continual backtracking is infuriating. And TERHOAR!!! Magda is an idiot blinding serving Belial so she is more in line with what I would expect.

[Dacar92]

And yet apparently Max Max Schaefer liked it.

What do you want him to say? He is not going to admit in public that he hates it. He is professional and a professional never burns his bridges.

[BohemianStalker]

Worst of all for me, Leonard Boyarky (the guy worked on games I love like Fallout, Arcanum, Vampire Bloodlines) was in the team, so I had some hope for the story and dialogues... All in vain.

ouch I did not know that, bloodlines was masterpiece when it comes to dark rpgs..moon is a cruel mistress :-)

I had high hopes for grey de lisle, she voiced female wizard and i was looking forward to play that character so much because of it For those who do not know Grey de Lisle voiced Viconia in Baldurs Gate 2 (my most favourite character there, even romanced that sweet drow girl! 8) but...in diablo 3 she sounds like 12 years old girl ? Like her voice is pitching every few seconds.

Dont get it really, when it comes to story, dialogues ... everything(almost) in this game seem to suck?

[DeadInside.DOA]

I may be in a minority but part of what was so exciting for me about finally getting to play Diablo 3 was what the story would be about. Diablo 1 and 2 didn't have the most amazing plots, but they did the game well. I have been wondering for years what the fallout from Tyrael destroying the World Stone would be, the NPC's in town and Tyrael say "it will change the world for ever". Well apparently not very much. I even had a suspicion Tyrael did it for his own reasons and GOTCHA! Tyrael is evil and the real villain of Diablo 3.

Instead I was massively disappointed with the plot of the game. Diablo has some great lore behind it, but the story is the most generic they could have possibly come up with.

ACT1: Not too bad. Though Cain dying should have been a huge moment, it happens so early and to Maghda of all things that it loses much of its power. Finally fighting the Butcher again should have been awesome if he had just shown up when you entered the room and it totally caught you by surprise. Instead he gets this introduction from Maghda and again the impact the fight should have is just ripped out.

ACT2: Totally agree with everyone that how can the Lord of Lies be so awful at telling lies? When the emperor showed up I instantly thought it was Belial, but then thought well thats far too easy, maybe it's Asheara or someone else? But instead it was painfully obvious from the beginning.

ACT3: The little speeches from Azmo were too much. If they were done even half as often it would have been more effective.

ACT4: Diablo has spoken so little in the prior two games I was surprised when he wouldn't just SHUT UP for ACT 4. Every time the player should be taken off guard by an unknown mini-boss fight, Iskatu, Rakanosh, Izual, you get a heads up to it beforehand because Diablo tells them not to fail (why he tells them this in a way that you the player can hear it is beyond me). When Diablo says, "Look Tyrael, your old lieutenant" you instantly know, "Oh Izual is right up ahead". There was no reason for all of these heads up boss fights. In the prior games when you walked in to fight Duriel, the Butcher, Mephisto, whoever, they started attacking you instantly while they said their line.

Lastly the NPC's say far too many jokes. Not the ones that you can actually have dialogue with but the ones that are just around town. I don't mind a few because they can be quite funny, (Farnham from Diablo and Gorash from Diablo 2 come to mind) but there is just far too much of it. It makes it seem like no one is taking being invaded by the full forces of Hell seriously and detracts from the overall tone of the game.

Overall I enjoy the game, it's fun to play, but the story was a massive disappointment for me. They did such a good job with the monster lore and random bits of story laying around the world. But the plot was very amateurish. I do think there could be a few things that can still be done now to help the overall tone of the game still:

*Cut out/or down some of the random NPC jokes
*On boss fights such as Azmo, Izual, Butcher, Rakanosh, Iskatu, etc, cut out the cutscene dialog and make the fight instant. The dialogue can still be played as the character and boss are moving around fighting but get rid of the need to pause the game, introduction, fight.
*Cut out the dialogue boxes before the mini boss fights from Diablo and Azmo so there's not the constant, "This is up ahead and you will never get past it"

I know Blizz would never make any of these minor changes but I feel they would help the overall tone of the game immensely.