The Prologue's Writing is.... Well... [Spoilers]

Finedaible

ESO desperately needs its quality writing back again. The writing and dialogue in Orsinium, Thieves' Guild, and Dark Brotherhood is so much higher quality than anything else and took itself seriously, while anything from High Isle on sounds like a phoned in cartoon sketch. Heck, even some cartoons these days have more mature writing than ESO. It's getting pretty cringe, tbh. Take Jakarn for example, he was a completely different person in High Isle compared to the base game where his flirting was relatively playful; In High Isle he was reduced to a perverted creep and I still can't determine why he was there at all really except that he's a Breton.

Juomuuri

High Isle and Firesong were so awful in their dialogue and writing that I felt like the game I loved to quest in had somehow become a parody of itself or something. It's so bad... The only good quests in 2022 were Ember's introduction quest and that maormer quest where a druid artifact causes some shenanigans (I found it highly amusing and it had hilarious dialogue). That's two quests. I was sad. Then we had Necrom and hoooo boy it seemed like a step in a better direction. But then Gold Road happened and I actually physically face palmed at one point in the main quest, it made me feel physically uncomfortable for how awful the plot was, and the dialogue and characters interacting were even more unnatural than before. There was potential for a great story but it was pretty much bothced...

And somehow, this prologue quest is even worse than Gold Road when it comes to dialogue, pacing, presentation. I don't know how that was possible but here we are and I want out.

spartaxoxo

SkaiFaith wrote: »

Syldras wrote: »

I played the prologue in the German translation yesterday evening.

The first negative thing that came to my attention was how repetative the dialogues were - once again. One situation seems especially absurd: You search for documents together with an npc, if you pick the document up it will open - and I think people interested in the story will read it - , and then you have to describe everything you just read to the npc through dialogue a second time once you found all of them, lenghtily, in detail?! It's probably nice for people who don't care to read lore books, so they still know what's going on, but for people who read them, it feels very redundant. It also made me wonder whether they expect the player not to read the lore books anyway, which would be a little sad.

Then of course, I also noticed the "mood swings". Something horrible happens, people are distraught - five minutes later they're fine again. I understand that they don't want the prologue to end pitch-black, with everybody just depressed and mourning. But it doesn't feel realistic either if it gets too cheerful again too fast. Showing a subtle hope for the future would had been more fitting, if they want the ending to be a tiny tad more positive. But I've been posting about that problem - the lack of subtility - since High Isle now. Of course I can only speak for myself, but I am very capable of understanding dialogues also when they're not totally clichéd, overly obvious and in-your-face (in High Isle it was mostly the "flirting" - although it's actually more like "anti-flirting", unless flirting has the intention to make people run away nowadays - but I digress). And I think the average ESO player is just as capable. It also worked in the base game and earlier chapters, after all.

So, what else did I notice... I also didn't have the impression that the new dialogue choices really have a lasting impact. The direct, next reply you get upon them might differ depending on your choice - but, after that everything seems to continue just normally. You can literally throw a clear insult at somebody (and someone with a big ego, of all things), the reply will be accordingly, but from the next line on it's like you're friends again. Or another situation, where you've caught a (former) cultist - even if you've chosen to show him mercy and friendliness the npc accompanying you still threatens him. And you can't even tell him to leave him alone. Feels especially jarring after the cultist just thanked you for your mercy and declared something along the lines of he's been shown that there are friendly people, he'll try to build an earnest life from now on and repent for what he did in the past. And then the other npc immediately jabs at him again. Feels like the development right before that was totally in vain. If I'm allowed to make a choice in this game, I don't want it sabotaged in the end.

While we're at it: I'm not sure if it's a translation problem where they didn't get the right tone, but I've also had the impression that some lines didn't really fit the tone that was marked with the icon next to it. At least to me, offering someone to get drunk just after a close friend had died is not a "supportive, compassionate" reply. I can't remember the wording of the "negative" reaction right now, but even that one seemed more appropriate for the situation. The "postive" one sounded mocking, like "Yeah yeah, he's died - let's have a drink and you'll be fine again!" - Who would say that to a mourning friend who just learned another friend died?

Oh, and then there are a few situations where you just tell people that you just found a "soul reaper" (or whatever that new Wormcult device is called in English) without explaining to them what it is. There's no way they can know what you mean because you have just discovered that thing and returned, but they don't ask either. Although that problem could be solved easily but putting a short explanation into the dialogue ("I've found and destroyed a soul reaper, a new device the cultists invented,...").

In general, though, I think the prologue wasn't bad. The new reply choices seem a little experimental, but it's a start that can be built upon, especially taking more care about the replies having a more serious and longer impact on the npc's mood. Then it's a very welcome addition for me. I've always hoped to have more reply options to actually roleplay my character better.

Another thing I found positive is that the prologue dares to be a little more serious and impactful again. There is a character death - the last big one was years ago... Generally, the mood seems more serious and a little darker than the years before (base game and first few years were fine, but then it somehow became more and more trivial - and even the dead always returned, there were no real tragedies anymore, nothing that felt really dire - it might have been a nice fun story to walk through, but it wasn't creating any big emotions). For me, that's a step into the right direction.

When I read that dialogue option about go drinking I was like - what is happening here?!
Agree with everything you said, and I will add that I think I only used the red option on the cultist but other than that the better options always felt the default ones, not the additional ones, which seems "a wasted opportunity".

I don't know about others and I haven't done the prologue yet but I will say that culturally, people where I live do offer someone a drink when they're grieving.

Syldras

spartaxoxo wrote: »

I don't know about others and I haven't done the prologue yet but I will say that culturally, people where I live do offer someone a drink when they're grieving.

Where I live that would be just as awful as inviting someone whose spouse died in a car crash to binge-watch a show about the most spectacular traffic collisions or to offer a mother whose child just died to just make a new one. Which will probably be a "playful/flirty" reply if we ever get into that situation in ESO, if they continue like in the prologue.

AScarlato

spartaxoxo wrote: »

I don't know about others and I haven't done the prologue yet but I will say that culturally, people where I live do offer someone a drink when they're grieving.

Perhaps - but the response to that was "Oh look how ridiculous you are! You just offered me a drink so I'd come to my senses!" It was truly a bizarre dialogue. I chose it as it was supposed to be the "kind" option but the whole scene just came across bad because of it.

Rkindaleft

Western Skyrim was the last chapter story I actually felt fully engaged in and that was from 2020. Ever since Blackwood the quality of the writing has felt off. Some of the stories are okay but they still don't compare to any questline from the first few chapters and DLCs like Dark Brotherhood or the Daedric War.

Then you have things like in the Necrom prologue where you have to ask HM "Who are you?" like you haven't met him 5 times already in other quests. I saw you in the Vile Manse 30 minutes ago so why am I forced to ask this. It's quite immersion breaking.

spartaxoxo

Syldras wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

I don't know about others and I haven't done the prologue yet but I will say that culturally, people where I live do offer someone a drink when they're grieving.

Where I live that would be just as awful as inviting someone whose spouse died in a car crash to binge-watch a show about the most spectacular traffic collisions or to offer a mother whose child just died to just make a new one. Which will probably be a "playful/flirty" reply if we ever get into that situation in ESO, if they continue like in the prologue.

Wow. Huge faux pas over there. Here's it's really normal to offer a drink and an ear to listen and sit with the person (although usually you'd drink at home). They'll even serve alcohol and food after the funeral at the repass sometimes. Which is not the funeral itself but the after funeral meal where you sit and reminisce about the deceased and find solace with your family. People will often try to tell fun/funny stories about them to keep things from being too somber. At least that's how it is in my area/with my family.

AScarlato wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

I don't know about others and I haven't done the prologue yet but I will say that culturally, people where I live do offer someone a drink when they're grieving.

Perhaps - but the response to that was "Oh look how ridiculous you are! You just offered me a drink so I'd come to my senses!" It was truly a bizarre dialogue. I chose it as it was supposed to be the "kind" option but the whole scene just came across bad because of it.

That sounds really weird NGL. I guess it's one of those execution things.

Syldras

I mean, maybe it was supposed to be an invitation to spend time together to talk, and maybe have a drink while talking (which would be okay here, offering alcohol to a guest is fine regardless of the occasion - but the focus is talking, not getting drunk), but the wording sounded more like it was a suggestion to get drunk because then, everything would be fine again. Like "You're being overdramatic, it's not a big deal, you see, after a night of getting wasted everything will be okay again!" Totally not taking the character's grief seriously. Upon reading that line I really thought they might have accidentally swapped the positive and the negative reply (which doesn't seem to be the case because the negative one isn't really friendly either).

spartaxoxo

Syldras wrote: »

I mean, maybe it was supposed to be an invitation to spend time together to talk, and maybe have a drink while talking (which would be okay here, offering alcohol to a guest is fine regardless of the occasion - but the focus is talking, not getting drunk), but the wording sounded more like it was a suggestion to get drunk because then, everything would be fine again. Like "You're being overdramatic, it's not a big deal, you see, after a night of getting wasted everything will be okay again!" Totally not taking the character's grief seriously. Upon reading that line I really thought they might have accidentally swapped the positive and the negative reply (which doesn't seem to be the case because the negative one isn't really friendly either).

..... that's so much worse than I was picturing. Yikes 😬

Syldras

Finedaible wrote: »

The writing and dialogue in Orsinium, Thieves' Guild, and Dark Brotherhood is so much higher quality than anything else and took itself seriously, while anything from High Isle on sounds like a phoned in cartoon sketch.

The more I think about it, the more I agree with this. The problem (or at least one problem) seems to be that one gets the feeling that the story and the world of ESO isn't taken seriously.

Nothing really has consequences, nothing is supposed to evoke some real emotional reaction. Bringing back dead characters has happened so often in the past years (actually already starting with Markarth - if we ignore that companion sacrifice thing in the base game main quest - where everybody in the city died and then magically came back to life in the big finale of the story) so dramatic character deaths didn't really feel impactful anymore because at some point one knew those people will be saved and return to the living anyway before the story is over - because there will always, under every circumstance, be a happy ending.

And while now, maybe, characters will die again, the situation isn't taken seriously anymore. Characters mourn for five minutes and then it's fine. The player character can't reply in a more emotional way either. In this case I found it even stranger because we spend quite a lot of time in the base game guild questline with the deceased character and I actually found him quite likeable (maybe not "would be friends in real life" likeable, personally, but I found him to be a respectable, honourable person). Or am the only one?

The dialogue with Galerion is also an example of a lack of seriousness in a way. Whether one likes him or not, he has a high social status. It's already unusual we get to insult him directly in his face - but that's not what bothers me. That would even be totally fine with me (in fact I'd find it interesting for my character to behave provokingly in some situations). The strange thing is that there is no reaction from him or the surrounding npcs that would fit the situation. You'd expect the people to be shocked, you'd probably expect Galerion to show irritation, but nothing really happens.

It somehow makes me wonder whether the point was missed that, while being able to choose between different replies to play one's character the way we imagine them is a nice thing by itself, the real fun part is to get appropriate reactions on our behaviour.

HatchetHaro

Yeah the dialogue writing for this prologue was just especially terrible. It feels like AI was used somehow and there was little to no review on the script. Even the player response options had cheesy writing.

"Let's head to the Fighter's Guild in Shornhelm." My guy, we are in Shornhelm; we are underground, in the Mages' Guild, in Shornhelm. You don't need to specify "in Shornhelm" while we are in Shornhelm. "Let's head to the Fighter's Guild topside" would be much more suitable.

You know what? Sure! Let's just rename the Fighter's Guild in Shornhelm the "Fighter's Guild in Shornhelm".

Varana

Syldras wrote: »

... It also made me wonder whether they expect the player not to read the lore books anyway, which would be a little sad.

But that expectation is much more realistic, I fear.

Syldras wrote: »

Oh, and then there are a few situations where you just tell people that you just found a "soul reaper" (or whatever that new Wormcult device is called in English) without explaining to them what it is. There's no way they can know what you mean because you have just discovered that thing and returned, but they don't ask either. Although that problem could be solved easily but putting a short explanation into the dialogue ("I've found and destroyed a soul reaper, a new device the cultists invented,...").

I specifically paid attention to that, and it never was an issue. Skordo tells you about the thing at the camp; you find one below the Mages Guild. In a background dialogue (while you're free to leave), Skordo tells Gabriele what the thing is while she moves the remnants upstairs (or wherever). At that point, people in the questline (i.e. Mages and Fighters Guild in Shornhelm) should know. Also, turns out Galerion knew about the devices already, though maybe not under that name.

The "let's go drink something" option was really weird. I can see where they tried to go with it, but it was worded very strangely, and didn't really bring the intent across.

Apart from that, the quest again suffers from too much in too short a time. Or rather, treating the rushed events as if they happened in a much longer time.
You have Skordo (and maybe yourself) getting over the guildmaster's death, you have Azah taking on his new role, or mages realising that their meeting is under attack. Now, it's appropriate that there's not much time to process these events for the people involved - Skordo doesn't have time to mourn because things are happening now, Azah has to take up Merric's mantle now - but the dialogue treats these events as if they actually had time to think about all of this. It's strangely relaxed and doesn't convey much urgency.
Now, the writers are in a lose-lose situation here - make things urgent, and it sounds even more ridiculous if you do pledges, a trial, and some box farming between quest stages. Writing fast-paced quests with critical information is basically impossible for a game like this, without compromises.

Jestir

It felt rushed and Jersey Skordo was awful

Syldras

Varana wrote: »

I specifically paid attention to that, and it never was an issue. Skordo tells you about the thing at the camp; you find one below the Mages Guild. In a background dialogue (while you're free to leave), Skordo tells Gabriele what the thing is while she moves the remnants upstairs (or wherever). At that point, people in the questline (i.e. Mages and Fighters Guild in Shornhelm) should know. Also, turns out Galerion knew about the devices already, though maybe not under that name.

The issue is that when you talked to the surrounding npcs before talking to the npc the quest marker leads you to, their dialogue always implied they just arrived and no one talked before, and you should, urgently, tell quest-marker-npc about what we found and what happened. Which makes it sound like there was no information exchange beforehand at all, and then it comes across as quite strange to just throw around a name/term without an explanation. It would be clearer if they actually informed you they have brought the soul reaper to the guild hall and that you should explain details.

Also, I can't guarantee it's also like that in the English text, that's why I emphasized that I played a localization. Sometimes there are differences between translations, and even just a nuance can change things.

Wuduwasa13

AScarlato wrote: »

I actually really liked the scribing questline In the middle of it was a great story about the growth and decay in relationships and eventually parting ways. It hit home for me in many ways.

I think a challenge for ESO is that it's not a particularly cinematic experience. There is a lot of "tell" via long speeches and less "show." As long as no enemies prove any sort of challenge, any threat supposedly in the story is undermined.

While it's great to have some recurring NPCs, our relationships with them remain surface level as our involvement in the story is that mostly of "listener" with no return in the relationships. As OP hinted at, they do seem to process sorrow and grief very quickly. It is often ignored or the tone has to return to light-hearted/fun very quickly.

I haven't done this prologue yet, but I did also notice the trend towards silly/"Comedic" tones in many quests which also lowered the stakes in what was happening.

We just need ESO to feel like Elden Ring. There, sorted.

Renato90085

if main story line good like Zerith-var story line i will play more..

Taraezor

Oh. I thought I was the odd one out... a bit too invested in ESO etc etc.

Immediately when I began the Prologue for the return of the worm cult... I sensed that something was off. The dialogue is as though it's... sorry I don't know the politically correct way to say it, but back in the day we'd say "fan fiction". Meaning nothing more than low quality.

Right away I had to suspend very strong doubts and soldier through the proplogue.

Contrast that with the incredible prologue to the Northern Elsweyr zone.

Okay, this is supposed to be a more budget effort. No more big chapters. I get that. But still... underwhelmed.

The voice acting... I think they did the best with the limited material.

I've posted elsewhere about the colourised immersion quest options. TLDR: Not good.

Taraezor

"A little on the dark side..."

A quote from Gabrielle from my pink/salmon coloured response. Not a spoiler I hope.

My point: After all that Molag Bal / Mannimarco did in the main story... yeah I'm entitled to a real hatred for the Worm Cult. My daggers / staff are/is ready!

Gabrielle here shows a total detachment. It doesn't match the in game feeling as we know.

The inclusion of immersion options in the quest in this instance is just so wrong!

Taraezor

The writing in the prologue.... agree 100% with the OP.

Okay the Merric related outcome was shocking (avoiding spoliers). Really shocking. But that only distracts from the overall lack of quality.

Skordo... they using a writer who is not familiar with ESO? Never played through Wrothgar? It's really disrespectful to Orcs. I'm a Khajiit guy btw - no love lost with Orcs.

Sorry. Three in a row. Feeling a bit P off as a player invested in ESO. Since the beginnning.

Edit: Sorry. I just feel that the Merric situation was cheap. Not gonna quit. A positive: Of course the two main guilds should work together. Good move! The Skordo / Prince choice? Loved the drama but the dialogue... jarring.

Ragnarok0130

Punches_Below_Belt wrote: »

Is there anything more jarring than Vanus offering his assistance in a fight especially when your overpowered meta build has already obliterated the foes. Prince Azah is terrible.

ZOS writing has definitely been off since Blackwood turned Evelie into captain obvious. That Disneyesque Fox in the Gryphon scribing line was bad. I found Bergson and the other sidekick in West Weald awkward in a really bland and boring way.

But then you go to Infinite Archive and the Filers seem well done. Funny, genuine, appropriate.

I agree, between the prologue tone and Tanlorin's writing/voice acting it's apparent that something is rotten in the state of Denmark and has been for the past year.

Destai

Overall, I've never found the game's writing to be particularly well-done, but it was mostly tolerable for the first few years. There's been some shining moments, most of which I've seen in side quests or early DLCs. I think Elsweyr was the last great storyline. Greymoor was good, but definitely a step down for me. Blackwood and onwards have all suffered from the same problems - awkward pacing, irritating characters, and overused tropes.

The thing is a lot of the stories have great frameworks and ideas. Blackwood had great lore around the Longhouse Emperors, High Isle did with the druid factions and noble houses too. It always come down to some individual characters that make or break a story for me. I enjoy the stories only as ambiance, never as a dedicated study anymore. I tried with this prologue, and got a few lines in, and decided it wasn't for me. Vanus in particular is one of my least favorites. How Skordo was delivered too - I just clicked through it all after that.

ragnarok6644b14_ESO

I will say the plot has me very excited and I was already thinking of the ways my characters participate but man did the dialogue ruin my immersion.
SPOILERS AHEAD:

"Damn worm cultists ambushed us, come help me pal!" *Just after walking through a scene where a character says the worm cult just ambushed the fighter's guild contingent*

It immediately had me thinking my character went "I'M NOT YOUR PAL, GUY" and thusly the chain begins.

GatheredMyst

As a quick follow up to my original post, a friend of mine took the plunge and bought the Season anyway. He then decided to stream the story from the PTS to me so we could both see if things were any better there. He didn't do the entire thing. Just enough to sample if things were any different.

And... strangely... not only were they better...

... i'd go so far as to say that it felt like it was from a completely different writer, and a completely different *voice director*.

Seriously. Between the prologue and the new zone, the writing went from tonal whiplash to actually halfway decent. Push on a character? They respond realistically. The dialogue feels a lot more grounded. Heck, Skordo feels like a completely different character than he was during the prologue. My friend said that it's more accurate to how he was in the Fighter's Guild Questline.

So now i'm left to wonder...

... what the heck happened? Seriously, what happened? Was the prologue rushed? Did someone slap it together, send it to the voice actors at the last second, and then throw it in the game?

Because seriously. The difference in quality is stark. Bafflingly so.

While my original feedback still stands, i'm going to have to add one more thing with this new revelation:

Consistency in writing also matters, because I went from not wanting to preorder the Season at all due to fears of the writing quality, to now being OK doing so. If this is the thing that's meant to sell your Season, you want it to be polished to a mirror shine.

Because yikes, talk about having to re-frame my brain in real time.

Northwold

I don't wish to name names as it's simply not fair on the people who work really, really hard on this game, but there was what I'm guessing was a pretty fundamental departure in the writing/lore team around the time of Elsweyr and perhaps they are still trying to stake out the game's identity and tone in the aftermath of that.

Bo0137

I didn't play this year's prologue yet. But I must say the Scribing questline was the best thing I ever experienced in ESO questing!

NotaDaedraWorshipper

HatchetHaro wrote: »

Yeah the dialogue writing for this prologue was just especially terrible. It feels like AI was used somehow and there was little to no review on the script. Even the player response options had cheesy writing.

"Let's head to the Fighter's Guild in Shornhelm." My guy, we are in Shornhelm; we are underground, in the Mages' Guild, in Shornhelm. You don't need to specify "in Shornhelm" while we are in Shornhelm. "Let's head to the Fighter's Guild topside" would be much more suitable.

You know what? Sure! Let's just rename the Fighter's Guild in Shornhelm the "Fighter's Guild in Shornhelm".

This is not a new thing in ESO's writing, though, and it's very common, much to my chagrin. The Vestige or the npc, or sometimes both! Need to repeat the quest objective in a very unnatural way. For example, when the usual quest duo finds the next piece of information and where to go next, either from overhearing, seeing or reading something.
The more natural responses (here shortened and simplied) to move on would be something like: "Seems we need to go to the local temple for more information." "Indeed. Let's go/I'll see you there".
But what we usually get is "Did I hear that right, we need to go to Temple of Bla in Blaville?" "Yes, the information we need seems to be in Temple of Bla in Blaville." "Ok. I will meet you in Temple of Bla in Blaville."

People don't talk like this!

Syldras

Bo0137 wrote: »

I didn't play this year's prologue yet. But I must say the Scribing questline was the best thing I ever experienced in ESO questing!

In itself, it was a well-written story, but the whole tone felt more like a fable or fairytale and somehow very much un-TES. And so did the netch and the fox, very weird for a game aimed at adults, and especially for TES, considering its comparably dark and serious tone.

Northwold wrote: »

I don't wish to name names as it's simply not fair on the people who work really, really hard on this game, but there was what I'm guessing was a pretty fundamental departure in the writing/lore team around the time of Elsweyr and perhaps they are still trying to stake out the game's identity and tone in the aftermath of that.

Zerith-var's questline showed that they can still deliver well-written, appropriate and serious stories that do fit the world of TES. The big question is why most content looks different now, and that's where I'm wondering whether they aim for a different target group now. Mounts get flashier, everything gets more colourful, puzzles are non-existent now (rotating a cube until it stops rotating and someone yells it's correct now is no puzzle), dialogues have become more trivial and repetative, characters are simplified too,... Is that really more appealing to people than the ESO of the earlier years?

spartaxoxo

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

HatchetHaro wrote: »

Yeah the dialogue writing for this prologue was just especially terrible. It feels like AI was used somehow and there was little to no review on the script. Even the player response options had cheesy writing.

"Let's head to the Fighter's Guild in Shornhelm." My guy, we are in Shornhelm; we are underground, in the Mages' Guild, in Shornhelm. You don't need to specify "in Shornhelm" while we are in Shornhelm. "Let's head to the Fighter's Guild topside" would be much more suitable.

You know what? Sure! Let's just rename the Fighter's Guild in Shornhelm the "Fighter's Guild in Shornhelm".

This is not a new thing in ESO's writing, though, and it's very common, much to my chagrin. The Vestige or the npc, or sometimes both! Need to repeat the quest objective in a very unnatural way. For example, when the usual quest duo finds the next piece of information and where to go next, either from overhearing, seeing or reading something.
The more natural responses (here shortened and simplied) to move on would be something like: "Seems we need to go to the local temple for more information." "Indeed. Let's go/I'll see you there".
But what we usually get is "Did I hear that right, we need to go to Temple of Bla in Blaville?" "Yes, the information we need seems to be in Temple of Bla in Blaville." "Ok. I will meet you in Temple of Bla in Blaville."

People don't talk like this!

People don't talk like that but the latter is far more accessible

Syldras

spartaxoxo wrote: »

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

HatchetHaro wrote: »

Yeah the dialogue writing for this prologue was just especially terrible. It feels like AI was used somehow and there was little to no review on the script. Even the player response options had cheesy writing.

"Let's head to the Fighter's Guild in Shornhelm." My guy, we are in Shornhelm; we are underground, in the Mages' Guild, in Shornhelm. You don't need to specify "in Shornhelm" while we are in Shornhelm. "Let's head to the Fighter's Guild topside" would be much more suitable.

You know what? Sure! Let's just rename the Fighter's Guild in Shornhelm the "Fighter's Guild in Shornhelm".

This is not a new thing in ESO's writing, though, and it's very common, much to my chagrin. The Vestige or the npc, or sometimes both! Need to repeat the quest objective in a very unnatural way. For example, when the usual quest duo finds the next piece of information and where to go next, either from overhearing, seeing or reading something.
The more natural responses (here shortened and simplied) to move on would be something like: "Seems we need to go to the local temple for more information." "Indeed. Let's go/I'll see you there".
But what we usually get is "Did I hear that right, we need to go to Temple of Bla in Blaville?" "Yes, the information we need seems to be in Temple of Bla in Blaville." "Ok. I will meet you in Temple of Bla in Blaville."

People don't talk like this!

People don't talk like that but the latter is far more accessible

I can understand a location name being mentioned once in a dialogue, but I don't see the need for repeating it several times within not even a minute.

Juomuuri

This trend of NPCs repeating quest objectives three times in one minute or less is driving me nuts. It's the worst part about the newer dialogue for me, and this makes me think if they're aiming to please zoomers with TikTok brainrot...