Cortyn draws a first conclusion about the story of World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth. And here, the Alliance wins clearly.
Battle for Azeroth has been released for a few days and has drawn many World of Warcraft players back. I too played through the story quite quickly and can now compare both sides, the Horde and the Alliance. And as hard as it is for me to say, I must say: The Alliance performs simply better in terms of story.
Spoiler warning: As this is about the story of both factions, there are certainly some small spoilers. You have been warned.
Two different conflicts
Two stories for the factions: In Battle for Azeroth, for the first time in a long time, not one but two stories are told – one for the Alliance and one for the Horde. Both factions try to gain the trust of a new party. The Horde wants the support of the Zandalari, and the Alliance wants Kul Tiras back in their ranks.
This looks cool and equal at first glance – but it is not. The story around Jaina Proudmoore with the emotional finale is narratively on a completely different level than everything the Horde has seen so far.
The old Jaina against the new Talanji
No bond for the Horde: Bwonsamdi, Talanji, and Rastakhan on the Horde side are all pretty cool characters that definitely have their right to exist. But it lacks the emotional bond and the many years of character development that, for example, a Jaina already has. As a result, the entire story of the Horde feels more like an action movie that relies only on spectacular special effects.
Little development with the Zandalari: It is cool and exciting to observe, but it leaves one unfulfilled. I am always happy to hear a voice line from Bwonsamdi, but all the characters seem to me like “the cool sidekick” of a main character who somehow is missing. The Horde simply lacks a character in the Zandalar campaign that has a similar significance as Jaina. There are simply no sympathetic figures with whom one can empathize.
Jaina, on the other hand, has 20 years of Warcraft lore behind her, is a character I have known for a long time and whose development I look forward to. A worthy counterpart here would have been Sylvanas, who has a similar popularity – but she would not fit into a dramatic “mother-daughter story”.
In the cinematic where Jaina and her mother play a major role, there is more emotion than in all the Horde quests combined. This does not make the Horde’s story “bad”, but simply not as significant as that of the Alliance, as it does not evoke feelings in the player.
The Alliance wins the story trophy – for now
Unknown story developments possible: However, one must keep in mind that some quest lines have not yet been unlocked. A few missions are tied to reputation requirements, such as in the War Campaign. It is quite possible that Blizzard will still pull a few secrets out of the hat.
However, this will probably not change my fundamental opinion about the majority of the “level content”. Here, the Alliance simply has the more emotional, better story. The Horde may have won the first steps of the war with the destruction of Teldrassil and the end of the Battle for Undercity, but in terms of story, it lags significantly behind.
Generally, I must say that I like the principle of a different story. It is a nice experience to experience a different plot on the side of the Horde than on the side of the Alliance – even if they operate on different emotional levels.
Nevertheless: The story of the Horde is not bad. It is just not as good as that of the Alliance.
How have you liked the story of Battle for Azeroth so far?
