Prologue story bodes well for the expansion

Pevey · April 2022

There have been many threads in the past about the quality of the writing in this game, with many (including me) expressing their opinion that the stories are not very interesting. This is obviously a matter of taste. Also, in my opinion, it is not so much about quality of the writing (or of the writers) as it was about conforming to a very formulaic Elder Scrolls fight-off-the-cultists plot.

Well, it seems the writers are indeed very capable of veering from the worn path if they are allowed to. The prologue quest seems to point toward the coming expansion being a departure from the old formula, and I am looking forward to it. I hope it plays out that way. The characters are interesting to me, seem well-developed, and only a little bit on the nose with their dialogue (as compared to some past writing where new characters essentially give you a Freudian analysis of themselves the first time they meet you).

One thing I was laughing about when doing the prologue is that there was still the trope of bandits leaving well-written notes dropped in dungeons explaining their evil plans and where they are going next. How convenient. I thought to myself, well, they couldn't quite free themselves of ALL of the tropes. Except then it turned out that (perhaps?) the writers themselves were making fun of the trope and being a little meta. I won't say more for those who have not played it yet.

In any case, I have griped before about the stories and asked for something a little different, so I feel like I have to say thank you. Well done, ZOS.

Grizzbeorn · April 2022

Good to hear.
Thanks for the insight.

Blinx · April 2022

Thanks, good looking.

Necrotech_Master · April 2022

where does one start the high isle prologue quest? i saw the new achievement for it but did not find where to start it yet

Blinx · April 2022

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

where does one start the high isle prologue quest? i saw the new achievement for it but did not find where to start it yet

pick it up in the crown store under quest starters

Chaos2088 · April 2022

Yeah it was interesting, dont get why it was on Vvanderfell tho, like opposite side of Tamriel to High rock and location of High Isle. But hey im picking now.. lol

Necrotech_Master · April 2022

Blinx wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

where does one start the high isle prologue quest? i saw the new achievement for it but did not find where to start it yet

pick it up in the crown store under quest starters

thanks, ill take a look at this tonight, must have missed it since i dont check the crown store often lol

Luke_Flamesword · April 2022

I had opposite feelings - I'm very hyped for Breton chapter and main plot about ending war, but prologue was very weak for me.

It was supposed to be about politics and intrigues, but prologue looks so generic with just another evil organisation which is just copy paste od daedric/vampires/necromancers evil organisations from previous chapters. This is not biggest issue.

The worst thing is just how stupid was whole plot. Maybe I missed something crucial in dungeon DLC (I really hate that form of introduction - everyone skips dialogues even in first day od release) but whole idea of making special amulets just for some political debate about war is just silly and looks just like weak reason to make this "intrigue". Just write a letter and hire good people for protection and that's it. But it would be too easy, so we need special amulets. Oh, no - they were stolen by evil organisation. Let's take them back and don't even check what they done with it. In world full of evil magic no one checked it and they just want to give them to most important people in continent! Then we of course go to safe the day, cleansing them and of course no one have problem with it. Oh, it was deadly but you cleaned it with magic powder so now that's ok - my king can wear it. There is no risk at all, nothing can go wrong when you remove evil magic. In worst case king will die, so not a big deal. It's magic powder form amulet original distributor, created 5 seconds after she find out evil magic in it, so there is everything checked very well, don't worry

Eh, and this dialogues where my character talks like *** just to be sure that player skiping dialogues still know what's going on.

"- Can you give me special magical amulet for fighters guild master?
- Yes, I will give you special magical amulet for fighters guild master"

Geez, dialogues and whole plot looks sometimes like generic fantasy for 13-years old kids with memory issues.

I don't expect level of Witcher 3, RDR 2 or other mature games, but this is game for adults so treat us like adults please...

Pevey · April 2022

Valid criticisms, but I wasn’t expecting Hemingway or Margaret Atwood. Any deviation at all from the usual formula is highly welcome in my book. In my view, there were some big steps in the right direction.

Supreme_Atromancer · April 2022

Thanks for the prologue, ZOS. We always look forward to them, and I'm now excited for the next development!

Chaos2088 wrote: »

Yeah it was interesting, dont get why it was on Vvanderfell tho, like opposite side of Tamriel to High rock and location of High Isle. But hey im picking now.. lol

This! And even more to the point, none of the scale in the prologue works at all. SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD!

Firstly, the location to which you travel doesn't make sense- you traverse a small cavern and come out half of Vvardenfell away. How?!

Later, you use a little dinghy to travel high seas from Auridon to Emeric's retreat near Daggerfall. This doesn't make any sense! But you push it from stretched disbelief to outright laughable when we use the dinghy to travel from Emeric's retreat across the entirety of Tamriel to go back to some makeshift camp on Vvardenfell, and then Jakarn starts speaking to Arabelle in a fashion that implies but a few hours have past.

But yeah, I don't know why it was Vvardenfell either. There's no connection between story and world.

MJ202 · April 2022

I came away from it with deep suspicions about....
....well, I'll just leave it at that. I don't want to spoil it for others.

Malthorne · April 2022

I liked it. It was a little cheesy and a tad on the nose with its theme, but it was actually a neat little story. The best prologue so far, imo.

Faulgor · April 2022

Characters were still too quippy for my taste. Not everything should be a Marvel movie.

Plot and quest design was as formulaic as it gets, but we'll see where this goes. Hope we can side with the Order down the line.

Pevey · April 2022

Faulgor wrote: »

Hope we can side with the Order down the line.

My guess is that is exactly what they are setting up. Lots of ambiguity with no clear right or wrong answer. This was also the Skyrim main quest setup, but at least it hasn’t been done to death. Other option is Lady Arabella as the obvious-ally-turned-obvious-evil-doer that has been the eso punchline. I hope that is not the case.

Edit: by “Skyrim” I should clarify TESV, not the ESO Skyrim expansion.

Arunei · April 2022

Jakarn feels like Derian 2.0 to me. Aside from that it was all right, I guess. It is kind of... irritating, I guess, when you're expected to travel halfway across Tamriel for practically every step of quest, though. It's a problem 95% of quests in ESO have, though, so it can't really be held against the prologue.

Pevey wrote: »

Faulgor wrote: »

Hope we can side with the Order down the line.

My guess is that is exactly what they are setting up. Lots of ambiguity with no clear right or wrong answer. This was also the Skyrim main quest setup, but at least it hasn’t been done to death. Other option is Lady Arabella as the obvious-ally-turned-obvious-evil-doer that has been the eso punchline. I hope that is not the case.

I was honestly thinking this during the entire prologue, that she had gone redcoat. If she doesn't turn out to be a traitor or something I'll be surprised.

markulrich1966 · April 2022

I was very bored by the prologue quest.

Business as usual: a very flat story, just sending you from point A to point B to point C, all well known locations.
The "highlight" were the strange looking glasses of this mage woman. The only eyecatcher, but just because they looked so strange.
It ended with a reward that will remain unused in my "inventory" as most other emotes that last just a few seconds and display a small gadget.

I must admit that this prologue pretty disappointed me, I was waiting for something that attracts me about the coming location, like the sneak preview on fargrave from far in that prologue quest.

dinokstrunz · April 2022

It was pretty dull to be fair. Explains why they gave out Morrowind for free though.

Antagonist is a roll over, very awkward voice acting too. Telegraphed abilities of the champion was hilariously out of place when I encountered it. Jakarn already started to get annoying by yelling out of the same dialogue over & over. Overall a pretty weak sounding plotline so far and the end reward is very lackluster. Doesn't feel me with optimism for what's to come.

Freelancer_ESO · April 2022

It wasn't my favorite prologue but, it wasn't the worst one either by a longshot imho.

As a DC character that is relatively faction loyal, I would have really liked to have interacted with one of the parties that we didn't get to meet but were in close proximity with.

My memory might be foggy but, it seemed to take less time than some of the other prologues.

I think it might be better if the action was a bit more dramatic and the dialogue was less dramatic.

Iselin · April 2022

It was OK and a nice set--up. My only gripe were a couple of boat assets for moving to the next area in the quest: a rowboat from Skywatch to the island? Another rowboat to Vvanderfell from the island? My shoulders hurt just thinking about it

TheImperfect · April 2022

I loved it, my Khajiit main has a huge crush on Taraska. The characters throughout are fantastic, dialogue and story well written and funny. Locations good. Voice acting is exceptional. Quest was fun.

UntilValhalla13 · April 2022

It was pretty by-the-numbers for me. The very first moment that I saw the white haired Lady Whatsherface person, I immediately got villain vibes, before she even said a word. That remains to be seen, but I'm expecting it.

Katlefiya · April 2022

Chaos2088 wrote: »

Yeah it was interesting, dont get why it was on Vvanderfell tho, like opposite side of Tamriel to High rock and location of High Isle. But hey im picking now.. lol

Prologue quests by necessity can only be located in Areas that everyone has access to without ESO+ or buying a DLC. So with Morrowind now being available for everyone (https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/61935), this was the obvious choice.

Frogmother · April 2022

Luke_Flamesword wrote: »

Eh, and this dialogues where my character talks like *** just to be sure that player skiping dialogues still know what's going on.

"- Can you give me special magical amulet for fighters guild master?
- Yes, I will give you special magical amulet for fighters guild master"

Geez, dialogues and whole plot looks sometimes like generic fantasy for 13-years old kids with memory issues.

I don't expect level of Witcher 3, RDR 2 or other mature games, but this is game for adults so treat us like adults please...

That is what I was afraid of and why I have not pre-ordered the expansion.

If the dialogues are again on a "special Vestige doofy" level, then I'm out.

SerafinaWaterstar · April 2022

I rather enjoyed it.

Not surprised at Vvardenfell setting as has been pointed out, they want to highlight that is now open to all.

The travelling bit? Would you prefer having to *actually* row? Just imagined that they rowed out to a bigger boat!

Mixed vibes about Lady Arabelle. At some points highly sure she is bad, but then think that’s just me being utterly suspicious of any new main character in the prologue. Really hope it does not follow previous stories & that she remains nice.

But can’t tell you how glad I am that it appears to be just normal politics and intrigue rather than another tedious battle with an overhyped-yet-somehow-easily-defeated Daedra. Hoping for it to be more like the Orsinium story. 🤞

And please please please, more of Taraska. Lovely voice acting & interesting character.

Gaebriel0410 · April 2022

I enjoyed it so much more than any of the recent prologues. And Bretons are my favourite race, so I am extra critical haha.

The rowing all over the world was an instant GoT Gendry meme, but I kind of get it for gameplay purposes.
Voice acting was great, and I especially Love how voice actors put so much more emotion in their lines nowadays. I thought the dialogue was much less handholding trivia as well, it still had some recap elements which is unavoidable I guess, but it was much more subtle this time which I really appreciated. It is a shame we did not get more of a glimpse of the new zones and architecture. The minor plot twist with the amulets I genuinely did not see coming.

Though at this point we have been teased enough with that ancestral Breton armour, it'd better be available in the chapter this time.

SammyKhajit · April 2022

This one just wants Lady Arabelle’s eye glasses. Also her robe. Some nice costume design in the prologue.

This one did the pre-test and gave feedback: nice to see that one of them was implemented (NPCs were talking as you arrive at their location but finished before you get to hear the whole thing - this was fixed), but some others weren’t. Oh well.

AcadianPaladin · April 2022

I enjoyed the prologue and think it was pretty well done.

Love how most of the prologue NPCs have their own unique costumes.

My guess on Morrowind being part of the prologue is that it was done to reinforce the fact that the zone is now part of the basic game.

My one criticism would be to stop recycling NPCs into DLC/Chapters. Tharn, Lyris, Sai, Eveli did nothing for me when they were recycled except make me dislike them. Jarkarn is already grating on me and I already disliked him. Though not a fan of Count Ravenwatch, recycling him into the vampirewerewolf invasion was pretty well done because he really fit into the story.

robwolf666 · April 2022

It was interesting, it does make me curious and want to play the main story for the next instalment.
Kind of wish we got the medallion and bag for the memento, but whatever.

ghastley · April 2022

AcadianPaladin wrote: »

My guess on Morrowind being part of the prologue is that it was done to reinforce the fact that the zone is now part of the basic game.

Cynical me thinks they made Morrowind free when they realized we would need it for the prologue.

Malthorne · April 2022

Iselin wrote: »

It was OK and a nice set--up. My only gripe were a couple of boat assets for moving to the next area in the quest: a rowboat from Skywatch to the island? Another rowboat to Vvanderfell from the island? My shoulders hurt just thinking about it

Why are we taking boats back and forth across the world when we are helping mages who could easily portal us everywhere?

Pevey · April 2022

Now that more people have had time to play the prologue for themselves I will add some thoughts on why I am hopeful:

Her reference to us as "too useful not to use again" and this new Investigator Vale series we learn about (sounds a lot like a Bourne type thing) makes me think there will be a lot of spying/intrigue and indeed we have been, in the prologue, a Useful Idiot. I'm expecting a lot of moral ambiguity, a lot of double-crossing, etc. So while I don't 100% trust Lady Arabella, I still think there is a lot we don't know about the Society of the Steadfast and the Ascendant Order (which are supposedly anti-war protestors, not a traditional ESO cult, so that is new). I really hope it plays out that way and not save-the-world-against-the-100%-evil-cultists. Bourne in ESO it would be a very refreshing type of Elder Scrolls story. Looking forward to finding out.