This video was in production for a few weeks, and of course RIGHT AS I AM ABOUT TO RELEASE IT, Riot announce a visual update for Jax. Which is turns out was actually planned since around the time of his LoR release, but it got delayed due to staffing issues. WHATEVER MY POINT STILL STANDS (kinda) - I need to work faster on these dang things.
Well. You don't. Riot should work on those projects faster and communicate with us their plans more openly. There needs to be a visual overhaul of at least 30 Characters by now. Your "duty" is to do what feels right. And if Jax would have been announced earlier, there are still a bunch of other Champion Redesins made by the LoR Team that are very good. Veigar, Shyvana, Ashe and Annie just to name a few Also 🃏
@@franciscoOrellana29 Nah the lamp part is literally lore and intentionally, is a lamp that is slowly fading the more jax uses it, from 3 years ago lore on jax
Rumble, Milean, Malphite, Jax and bandle city as a whole. All characters that I fell in love with because of LoR and are beyond a doubt my favorite characters in Runterra
I was thinking about it while watching hahah. Great video Skyen! Tho Jax is more of a main character, Zilean deserves a ASU waaaay more, he has the ugliest model currently :(
While admittedly not a “save” since he was already pretty great, Sion and his grey legion are undoubtedly one of my favourite editions to the league universe ever
It's really freaking cool that it establishes necromancy not only as a war asset but as a craft that's been practiced and perfected by the Noxian Elite, with Sion being the culmination of their efforts.
@@TBSkyen Saijax Cail-Rynx Kohari Icath'un / simply Jax is one of my champions in Gidachad Characters. But I'm not sure if he's still a sand troll like Trundle ice troll but on steroids. And as for the story at 55%, I think Fiora can join him if she is nimble and fast enough to disarm Jax during their fight. What do you think T B Skyen what is your opinion on it?
@@TBSkyen With Seraphine, I like her LOR expansion because they showed us her personal life, her characters, her relationship with her father and hinted a little that there could be something more between Seraphine and Zaun Diva. If Shaco gets a rework, he could be the opposite of Gwen in the form of a living Grandmother who, on the other hand, gives out Madness, Terror and fear. But as Fiddle a container for a demon from the 10 primary Demons. The origin could be either from Camavor or Blessed Ilies.?
LoR gave Seraphine hair dye, lots of leather, a scooter, a squirrel, a guitar with a FLAMETHROWER attachment that she made herself, and a Zaun punk diva gal pal! Bring some of that to League please.🃏
Her gameplay too should be reworked aswell to fit that idea, since I don't think her poking away playstyle fits zaun's more griddy in the fray battling. I have an idea that she becomes a Diving enhcanter, both clash in their objectives since one prefers diving into battle using everything to be the first in and get the first kill or pressure, while another prefers to stay back and enchant or keep their allies alive to succed. That clash shows a problem, maybe I should lean more to her being a Diver that supports, since in a way divers require ally help to succed, so her inspiring allies, forcing enemies out of position by launching herself through them, using the flamethower to lower enemy defenses so on. And ofcourse her scooter as her Homeguard animation, by default it should be in.(35:36 because yes it does fit her very well, like her driving to her performance instead of just gliding there like she's some god)
It's beyond me how they had good concepts for her and deliberately decided to go with what we got ingame. Plus that weird lore relation to the Brackern?!
@@CptApplestrudlwell all Zaun Piltover were involved with brackerns... Vi, Caitlyn, Jayce, Viktor, Jinx and a bunch of others did used brackerns crystals but Seraphine was the only one blamed for it even being the one that got the direct permission to do that from the brackern "soul"
@@gabrielgomessilva484 the implication was: they don't know about it.. SHE knew their lifeforce were being used and thus about the genocide...She can HEAR it. yet doesn't seem to care and chooses to do nothing about it. Instead just keeps using them to power her stage. And when she meets skarner she had THE GALL to rub it in his face that she can hear his people's suffering? Of couse they're retconning it, but the initial implications just painted her as a psychopath.
I think another part that Gwen represents, even though it is not really relevant to the LoR cards, is "healthy grieving". The contrast to Viego is obviously there, but even ignoring that, Gwen represents not just childhood and innocence, but also a mature way of dealing with and accepting pain, loss and grief. I would be really interested to see this part of her be included in some future content of her's.
this!!! ^^ it especially makes sense when you think about the keyword they added with Gwen, Hallowed, which strengthens every unit you pull from your deck the more hallowed units die. It's like, these people will be gone, but you can grow stronger from it
My extra thoughts on Gwen: Not only does she represent innocence and joy, but she particularly is tied to children and childhood. As you mentioned in your video, she was created by a young child Isolde, as an imaginary friend and for wish fulfillment. One more important thing that a favorite doll/toy/stuffy does, though, is protect that child. Teddy bears and dolls keep you safe from things that go bump in the night. When you see something scary, you now have an ally and a defender who can help you face that fear. Gwen literally drives away the scary, corrupted ruination of the dark mist by fighting it off with her scissors AND by providing her own aura of safety and happiness, i.e. the Hallowed Mist. While I think it's cool that she gets to go on all these adventures that young Isolde dreamed about, I don't think she was ever *completely* relegated to Viego. Even without Viego, there will always be scary things, and kids will always need a friend or caretaker to protect them and give them strength. There is no shortage of threats and danger in Runeterra, and as we see in her backstory, she will always be there, *for the children*. She is unique as a champion in that she is explicitly here to protect children and childhood, and I love her so damn much.
Gwen’s my favorite too. I craft and draw a lot and hope to be a concept artist some day. And I can’t tell you how many times I wished my crafts would come to life
Even more than Jax's Followers, Jax's personal Voicelines are my favorite part of LOR Jax. "Let me show you how we did it in Icathia!" "Your gonna want to watch this." "A thousand years of battle and im still warming up!" And his taunts to Azir are legendary: "Glad you could make it to the second uprising Feathers." "Gonna witness this lamp to your face!"
perosnally when milio comes i would love an interaction between the 2 where jax says "here's to you kid" it would be a fun callback could work well and personally i just want those 2 to interact the difference in outlook could really pick at the "facade" that jax has built up in that time
“A thousand years of battle” is my personally favourite. There’s just something to how he says it that makes you BELIEVE him, no matter how cocky it sounds.
idk why but the detail of seraphine not having naturally pink hair really does a lot for her character to me, it's a very small detail but it goes a long way to show how much she does to be this idealized pop star
I'd also like to point out that the mini-arc with Master Yi is both interesting and deeply tragic. His arrogance during the Noxian invasion costs him his village, and turns him into a tragic wanderer only revitalized by Wukong's intervention. Now, with Jun he sees a way to redeem himself, by training the next generation of Wuju swordsmen, but ultimately fails to save her either. Which is both brutal and somewhat ironic.
LoR Seraphine has improved my opinion of her design to such a degree that it earned her the biggest honor I can bestow: Desperately wish for a Pentakill skin.
Redefining a pop star into a metal head could be an interesting challenge. Also while talking music skins, make a True Damage fan or effects skin for Lucian with glitter or pyrotechnic guns.
How has there not been a story about Jax and Zilean yet? It's right there. Both present at the fall of Icathia! What do they think of each other? Does Jax think highly of the mage who managed to help some escape? Or does he resent that a powerful mage chose to flee rather than fight? Does Zilean look at the weapon master, and the Light of Icathia, with fondness and hope? Or does it bring back old grudges and regrets, that all that's left of Icathia is a mage who failed and a brute who dives headlong into any fight he can find? Do they unknowingly press at each other's sore spots? Or do they find solidarity in one another? And how do their respective found families see each other, and the "opposing" master? THERE'S SO MUCH TO WORK WITH, WHY IS THERE NOTHING!?
I was thinking the same thing, the story basically writes itself! One looks to save Icathia’s past with time magic, the other tries to prevent Icathia’s doom from coming to other places. They’re such nice foils! I don’t even play this game and I want to see this story!
Zilean has so much potential to be a badass and loving character for his home. I truly hope he gets a voice update instead of 4 lines. He could be such a deep character. His base design has so much potential with a real update. I love playing him and his playstyle truly feels like you're a man seeing multiple timelines and how to prevent loss as much as possible.
If riot ever does the void event, Zilean can learn that he can’t save his people alone and he’s willing to enlist the help from champions who are extremely powerful and have abilities he never has to fight against the void. The reason why he sees the void winning is due to him only using his magic, upon getting help from others, Zilean sees a future that is extremely hazy, but for once, he doesn’t see the void have a guaranteed win
I love that Seraphine's Zaunite Roommate has an amp for a leg. And her sticklike, almost insectoid exaggerated proportions are kind of great I think. Great character design on her. 🃏
Your conclusion about Gwen really brought tears to my eyes. I, too, lost my childhood. I had my innocence slowly beaten out of me, leaving nothing but demons in my head to whisper in my ear. To go on adventures that my childhood self would’ve always wanted to. To treat that child with the gentleness and kindness that embodies Gwen? That’s a dream that makes me want to weep.
Legends of Runeterra's legacy is that it saved the IP. Like said at the end- it literally breathed life into the world of Runeterra. I remember how I felt about the world before and after LoR released and the contrast between those two periods couldn't be more night and day.
It's hard to overestimate how much work LoR is putting in as a brand ambassador. I played League for a few years in college before deciding that I just didn't enjoy the genre, and then proceeded to not think or care about Rito in any way shape or form for roughly 5 years after that. Then Legends of Runeterra came out, I was experimenting with different card games and it just blew me away with the raw production value and just as a legitimately well designed card game I could really get into. It is no exaggeration to say that Legends of Runeterra made me *care* about Riot Games, it made them a company to watch for me, and that's great.
"It would take me hours to list the contributions, retcons, editions and expansions that this game made to the league of Legends universe" I honestly and genuinly think most of us watching your content would in a heartbeat watch an 8 hours stream that is just a list all of those things.
In the somewhat early stages of Runterra, T B Skyene had some streams just about that. Mostly of course being more of an art critique, however, if there were lore bits to discover there be some theory-making.
As much as I like Gwen’s story in LOR, I’m still craving for more. Who are those spirits ? Why is Gwen so familiar with the mysterious pretty boy ? Where are they coming from ? Why do they have a party on a dead island ? This is thrilling to look into as a Gwen main but it also makes me craving for more lore for Gwen
I think the “pretty boy” is supposed to be a version of Viego, at least an imitation of him as the dreamy prince he was before everything went south in him and Isolde’s relationship. I know that brings about plenty of other questions, but that’s what I think TB Skyen was trying to get at in the video.
Shadow ilse are not really under shadows anymore.. Maybe those spirits are people from blasted ilse that were left traped under the shadows and now are selebriteing because they are finaly free? But thes i dont know what are the shadows from gwen's lvl 2 art..
So, there was a card in the Foundation set called "Tortured Prodigy", a tormented soul of a pianist "living" in the Shadow Isles always frustrated by his inability to compose his perfect music. Riot later addeed a card called "Redeemed Prodigy", the chill pianist of the ball who no longer pursues perfection and now strives for "perfect imperfection". It implies that these are the same characters, the former in the past and the later in th present (and while I don't know if this was actually confirmed by Riot, the LoR wikia also states that). If all of this is true, it suggests that Gwen has been purifying the souls of the Shadow Isles and giving them a better afterlife.
I think now with Viego no longer being around to keep the shadow isles submerged in his black mist the hallowed mist is slowly beginning to spread and purify the trapped souls with Gwen being basically at the forefront of this conflict. Gwen fights against the black mist by helping the trapped souls find peace and comfort, and by literally fighting the monsters of the black mist with these hallowed spirits helping her. Gwen fighting to give the souls of the Shadow Isles a better afterlife, since it seems as though even with Viego gone they still can't move on. In that sense I think the mysterious man is literally the good side of Viego, the part of his soul he discarded the moment he became the Ruined King, the part of him that Isolde fell in love with.
@@GSugaF The Yorick story that Riot Forge released kinda has a similar vibe, with the reveal that Yorick has been redeeming a ton of spirits and helping them move on I feel like Riot wants to do this so that they can keep the Shadow Isles around while progressing its story. The original plot of the Shadow Isles was SUPPOSED to be Yorick destroying the Black Mist and letting everyone pass into the afterlife, but that would mean no more Shadow Isles and no more Shadow Isles champions, which I doubt Riot would allow. So the idea of redeeming the Shadow Isles may be a way of pushing the story forward while still keeping the Shadow Isles a place filled with ghosts and monsters and wraiths.
The thing I loved about Seraphine Lor is realising just how easy it was to make her design perfect and how it was done as soon as you got someone one it who cared about it.
Its worth noting that Riot just put out a Dev Blog explaining the use of Jax's Lamp-post. It's no longer just a flex to give other people a fighting chance. It's the only remnant of his home that he still has, and he can't carry that unwieldy thing AND a weapon, so he fights with the Lamp-post.
This was already explained in his biography. The lamp-post is actually a magic staff with conjured elemental fire that Icathian mages used to contain the void.
@@locke8412 He went from chastising his comrades and being a laughable ball of rage ready to not just cleave but heckle anything in sight to actually feeling like a tragic figure. Though I can't deny the main game one made me laugh. "There was a memo!"
The LoR additions to Varus and the idea of a Darkin being reminded that they were these great heroes in the past is really interesting instead of just "he likes murder".
As someone who didn't play any of the other versions of the Ruination event, I actually really liked LoR's take on it. Viego and Akshan were really fun champs to mess around with, and having all the regions get "ruined" cards really sold that this was a global event that hit everyone in some form or another.
The art in LoR really is absolutely gorgeous and it was singlehandedly responsible for getting me into the LoL lore. I'd love to hear you talk about the story telling some of the non-champion cards do! So um... 🃏
I'd be curious to see an inverse list for this. Not exactly a "6 champions RUINED by LoR", but just a list of champs you feel might have gotten weaker in the transition, since during the initial card art streams, I know you pointed out a few you didn't like, like Elise
@@bthsr7113 Highly disagreed. Part of her story IS seeking a place to belong though, not total isolation. The dragonguard doesn't operate in the middle of Demacia City but rather they tend to be more out and about in the mountains, which does not inherently negate the sense of isolation from her countrymen present in Shyvana's core character struggle. That sense of isolation was not wholly removed from her, as her interactions with Arrika display, and the fact her flavour text literally still talks about the distrust her countrymen still hold for her. And to be quite blunt, as someone whose fav champ literally is Shyvana, I do not WANT her to remain isolated. I like what they were attempting to build up with her involvement with the dragonguard (and trying to give some sense to her nonsensical armour, which I think needs to be axed completely in a vgu but I digress). Just because Shyvana is a magical being regarded with fear and distrust does not mean she is not allowed to have friends, and she needs someone out there on her side other than Jarvan the fucking Fourth who still puts his trust in the Mageseekers like the grief-stricken idiot he is. To think the dragonguard undermined her stories is, imo, a misunderstanding of her core character struggle. The point of her story isn't solely that she's isolated, it's that she has been trying to find someplace to belong (which is why she serves Jarvan in the first place, because he promised her a place in his personal retinue and she feels she owes him for that), and that no matter how much good she does, no matter how much she tries to show that her intentions are pure and she fights for Demacia just as any other Demacian, it's never enough. This is why her falling to the global Harrowing was actually a good, compelling story choice, that despite everything she's done the people will not trust her, so if they are so insistent that she is a monster then a monster she shall be, thus proving those who feared her right all along. Of course the downside to this is that the entire narrative was a complete bust and we're coming up on two years since any of that happened and last anyone was aware the Sentinels left her in the Mageseeker prisons and we haven't heard from her since. Yay. But anyway no I think the dragonguard angle is onto something and I think it suits her better than being smack dab in the middle of Demacian politics she is wholly unequipped to deal with in the capital proper.
Well wanting a place is her goal, I just feel she's gotten too much of it without earning it. And I want to see her earn it. I wanted to see her connect with Jarvan after he dropped the blind fool disguise and have him elevate her with her having tempered her predatory instincts. Have him show that he ultimately cares about her more than hiding his understanding of the plot, and have her be a decisive force for good in the Demacian civil war once all cards were on the table. Let her be a hero to the people
Azir and Xerath at the very top. The latter was watered down into a cackling supervillain who just wants power and apparently uses slavery himself, which is a terrible plot point, and the former's arc is just... gone. He's back to tyranny and expansionism, never interacts with children despite being a grieving father of three and the "I know what you've planned for the weavers" could tip the scales into making him unforgivable. And they still have him be chummy-chummy with Ekko and Irelia, who should sniff a tyrant among a crowd of millions and want nothing to do with him.
as someone who played rumble at release, fell out of love with him to main viktor, seeing what LoR did with my baby boy made me audibly cheer great work as always skyen! 🃏
I've always known that LoR Seraphine was a huge improvement on her original design, but this video really made me appreciate just how much it does to improve her as a character in Runeterra! Just the fact that they gave her outfit more of those down-to-earth leather aesthetics that we saw in the early concept art is a huge improvement! What a breath of fresh air!
Loved tour take on Gwen, I never actually thought about what her deal with the ball was, but now you've changed my perspective entirely! Amazing analysis, as always. 🃏🃏
I've only recently been getting into the lore of runeterra and that last bit was absolutely heartbreaking to hear. I've loved LOR for giving so much life into runeterra; their artworks splashing so much personality and storytelling into an otherwise stagnant world. A shame they chose to gut art in the name of money, but that's just business I suppose. Here's to hoping for a good future Edit: 🃏
@SekiSchro Essentially, he talks about how LoR's game state is basically on life-support compared to how it was on release. No focus on POC, less focus on story driven development, less staff. He is fearful that the game's state right now is the best it will be narratively and creatively.
@Clara C Clenky 100% Snunny has a good video on it somewhere talking about this. In Hesrthstone there is a lot of stuff to whale your money on, whereas in LoR it's mainly board skins and character skins. Combine that with the fact HS has cross-promotion with other blizzard titles to bring in new people. I think a free skin in LoL for doing progress in LoR would really boost player count.
While the full reinventions are obviously the best, one thing I really like is how LOR progresses the stories of champions, or modifies stories that already work. Sion’s story isn’t the most unique, but the undead juggernaut is still pretty cool. But turning him from that into an undead GENERAL is incredibly cool, leading the Grey Legion. Giving Vladimir a coven of blood benders? Expanding the Darkin so much? Writing Corina as C and making Caitlyn actually feel like a detective? Veigar’s mech suit? There’s so many things in LOR that are improved, and I didn’t even discuss that some followers just expand their champions so much. Literally the only things I don’t like are Kindred’s followers (except for the Etherfiend) and Galio’s brothers, and even then, they’re potentially interesting. I’ll miss how good the creativity was.
Etherfriend is actually excellent. A death spirit that hunts other death spirits is cool af. I would go as far as to say that the existence of Etherfriend justifies the existence of other death spirits besides Kindred. Once you introduce the possibility of death, it becomes much easier to introduce the possibility of more.
I really wish we got LOR Sera in SR. Her LOR design is just amazing like you described. If that was the design we got from the start i feel as if her backlash would have not been there. I know it will never happen but I hope riot can ditch the her hoverboard and let her walk and fight with a guitar. Her spells can be her playing different strums to buff her allies and show that inner Zaun side of her. Amazing video as always!
It's really disheartening to hear what happened to the LoR team following the success of Arcane. I hope the game has a bright future but knowing Riot I don't have much hope left. Great vid as always 🃏
I LOVE GWENS LOR STORY THEY ARE SO CUTE AND PLEASE LET THEM BE THE IDEALIZED ROMANTIC VERSION OF WHAT VIEGO AND ISOLDE COULD HAVE BEEN PLEASE ITS SO ROMANTIC AND CUTE AND OMG PLS I have a theory that the paramour is a doll Isolde made for Gwen as her prince :) that’s why I feel it’s based on viego (before they crumbled apart) omg the way u describe it is making me cry :) I love Gwen so much
Another interesting thing about LoR Seraphine is her friendly rivalry with the Zaun Diva, which really does a great job at emphasizing the core of her story, that she is the bridge between the two cities, by giving her another connection to Zaun. Also I ship it but that's beside the point.
This design honestly addresses every single issue I had with Seraphine's design on launch. I often saw people say she was "too much like Sona" or that they hated that she was a performer, but to me it was always that it felt like her base design just didn't exist in Runeterra. Legends did such a good job on these designs, and the base game needs to start taking some notes.
To end with Cithria was kinda meanifull to me. She is my favorite card, from my very simple elite deck. But she kinda represents the good impact that LoR made. Falling in love with this world and adventuring through it.
I like that LOR shows us Seraphine’s dad. Long story short is I hate my parents because they’re massive narcissists. Seraphine having a loving father who takes interest in and supports her dreams is nice, because it’s a reminder (for me, at least) that parents that care actually exist, and even if I didn’t grow up with parents that cared about more than just their personal wishes, I can be better than them when I do become a parent myself one day. The cycle ends with me.
@@valerielusa8000it would be slightly more possible for me to take this reply seriously if I had actually made that equivalence myself, but you’re the only one claiming that I did, so 🤷🏽
My favorite thing when champions are added to Runeterra is the voice lines and the implied lore. They’re by no means a forgotten champion, but for instance Kindred’s lore in runeterra is fascinating. Showing that kindred aren’t the only death spirits of runeterra. Or Malphite now being a DAD with a ROCK SON, along with having a adorable and sweet friendship with Taliyah. Legends of Runeterra is top tier, and I hope more people give it a try. It’s been sad seeing one of my favorite games not achieving the success I think it’s earned.
Why did every story retold by this man of these charachters emotionally touched me? Damn, even after playing LoR itself, I couldn't guess the full story behind those pictures and quips between cards. How dramaticly heartwarming and hopefull in the face of tragedy all of those stories are. If the stories told are meant to spark emotions then these are the storiest stories I've heard for some time. Told through cards, movies, dialogue and written bits and retold by a lovely storyteller, Skyen. Why, this is astounding on so many levels and I love every one of them
Ugh I could really go on about how perfect seraphine is In LoR, her dad is incredible, her squirrel is fantastic, her both rivalry and maybe romance with that rocker girl? It just does her so well
I was waiting for you to mention the creature they introduced with Yi that his helmet is canonically based on. It does still look kinda silly, but I’m glad they gave it more meaning.
While small their Dev team is still really good. The game struggled a bit when they tried to focus on PvE content, but the refocus on competitive play meant a great improvement in gameplay quality even with a smaller production budget.
@@SuzukaYuka I have fallen off of the game (mainly due to not being able to play it on my main devices) but as someone who sucks at the nuance of competitive deck building I did appreciate the PVE stuff. All **I** ever wanted was a path of champions deck for every champion (eventually. Like, released 2-4 at a time). That way you get to play those champions, and even begin to understand “ok, this is their thing” by seeing what the given cards and powers do for them.
@@SuzukaYuka As someone who hit Master's in the last 7 seasons the new standard rotation is the best the game has been competitively in years. And as much as I can appreciate the PvE content, LoR's high-level midgames are the best out of all competitive TCG's on the market and I really hope they continue to push for it to become something like the Tekken of TCG's.
I'd like to think that Seraphine's LOR reframing was to show how her character adapts when performing in Zaun. It's a great insight into her character as her league "persona" can be seen as a front she puts up for the people of Piltover. She changes how she presents herself to cater to which audience she performs too, and I think that shows how ware she is of the situation between both regions.
I never really got into LoR but always loved seeing how they contributed to the world-building of runeterra, this video highlights a lot of what the writers and designers have given to the fans and I'm glad it exists
I play the heck out of LoR, probably more than I should. My go-to "time waster" on my phone. Haven't gotten sick of it yet and I'm still enjoying the new things being produced, particularly the new champion Jack. I'm all for you covering more of the cards. 🃏
I watch a lot of lore youtubers for different franchises, but you have a way with words that I kid you not made me tear up, when I heard how much passion you have for the world of Runeterra. Thanks for making my day a bit better❤
The lore and world building in LoR are some of my favorite aspects of it so I do sincerely hope that they reevaluate their decision to stop making these types of stories. It’s these stories that make us all fall in love with the characters again, in LoL malphite is a rock guy, in LoR he basically has a son who is one of the most popular followers in the game. It’s these stories that keep us coming back for more
I'm extremely glad that Legends of Runeterra is still addressed to this day, being a fan of League's lore. I really want this game to flourish, and I would really enjoy seeing your Card Reviews, I thoroughly enjoy your type of videos going over the Runeterra universe :)
I was always a fan of League Lore, the moment LOR came around I was instantly hooked and played it a lot, even tho I don't really like card games, just so I could see and hear the awesome interactions, places, persons and storys that the world has to offer. It's such a shame that riot doesn't respect that part of a game anymore. A real shame. Oh and of cause 🃏 Loved the LOR card art streams!
Something amazing is that Yi's googles are modeled after 'the spirit of wuju'. It's a 7 eyed bird creature thing. And the disciple of Doran that made his googles is a bird creature too. So the googles are Canon and intentional
the video was so fun to watch until the sad conclusion. Lor videos are also the reason I've found your channel when the game came out, so yea more would be nice🃏
Could you talk more about the lore of legends of runeterra? Like the Durand Family & their Petricite Constructs for example, now that they tie-in with mageseeker game.
🃏 Even though we’re still getting cards and expansions, the lack of voicelines in recent expansions is also telling of the budget cuts, shame too since a lot of them have so much personality in flavor text or design
Jax, Seraphine, and Master Yi I enjoy their new looks in LoR. It really shows where they came from. *(Instead of looking like a sand troll with Ionian clothing or whatever, a Pop star in the wrong (some what) era, and a Warrior's traditional suit ahead of their time)*
The love and care given to turn around all of these charachters to give them their space and thing to do is astronomical! LoR truly is just the gift that keeps on giving! That said, hopefully Riot will eventually reconsider their decision to butcher up and ice the game for the foreseeable future. 🃏
I, for one, really hope that when they don "condense" everything down to one setting, that it's more in-line with LoR, which took existing ideas and explored them in a variety of fun/interesting ways... instead of Arcane, where it often time ignored or flat out changed how things were originally supposed to be. (For example, Yordle's "glamour" disguises are part of the lore everywhere... except in Arcane where they walk around and it's... normal?)
I think LoR actually also skips over the "glamour" cuz from what I remember, in her interaction with Veigar Senna calls him a "fluff"/"fluffy" or sth like that. But maybe my memory fails me, not sure, can't really check it right now. Edit: also remembered now that the art for Piltover Academy literally has a statue of Heimer on it, and I'm not sure whether the disguise works for statues etc.
Cliche what I am about to say, but thank you! Really. I did not know a damn thing about Rumble for example. You made me curious about Legends of Runeterra, I might give it a try. I heard that it is a good game and is not pay to win at all. Hopefully this is true because I spent enough on League and Ruined King already 😅
Absolutely free, and money is not a requirement at all. The biggest issue you might face starting out is collecting all the cards you want... Well that and the new Standard/Eternals format they’ve added making a lot of cards illegal in Ranked.
I only really dabbled in LoR when it first released, back before Bandle City and even Targon were added. I enjoyed my brief time with it, but I had absolutely no idea just how much love and care the creative team was putting into this. Thank you for highlighting all of these poor champs who got a second chance, and it's sad to hear that LoR won't be getting much more.
LOR is still very much alive and getting support. I dislike the conclusion that he drew at the end. We're still here and playing because the game is still fantastic. LOR isn't going anywhere.
@@chadgemacusi1369 sorry, misspoke at the end there. I'm aware that the game is going to still be getting updates, but I'm lamenting how it's going to be shying away from giving old league characters the visual and story updates they deserve. That is, if what T B Skyen says is true
@@ZeroToNegative But that's not true. He's literally making that up with no proof, when even just in the most recent set that just came out a few weeks ago, they gave Sett and Samira visual and story updates, and introduced a new character, Jack.
In league my favorite champions/mains were mostly yordles like gnar, poppy, and tristana so when the bandle city expansion came out it was such a fun time seeing the revamps and added lore for yordles and where exactly they reside. Even characters I never even thought of before like azir and zilean were made to be awesome, like everyone on the LOR team really did fantastic work. I enjoyed LOR's gameplay but the personality, interactions, and lore between cards in the game made it even better, so seeing as Riot is sort of putting the dev team on a leash is disappointing.
I was hoping for Yorick to get added into LoR. He was in a position to be the Aragorn of the shadow isles. The True King of the dead, bringing peace and allowing the souls of the deceased to pass on peacefully. One of my biggest hopes was for him to meet Gwen, so she could spark some hope in him.
I have been able to run a D&D Campaign for the last three years, since the release of that Dark Tides of Bilgewater module, in Runeterra and I cannot stress enough how much LoR has been helpful toward it.
i don't know how you did it but this video just pushed a billion inspirations into my mind all at once and since it came out i have not stopped myself from writing stories about the forgotten characters of leage of legends, you just sparked my mind into creativity, thank you so much
Damn that Jax visual change and story is actually insane. Had no idea. I've always liked Jax, but this takes it to an insane level. If they implemented the visuals and transfered his story from LoR to League, he might actually be my favourite character, hands down.
I feel that the mystical monk warrior could have been kept. There is currently a strong dissonance between his personality and his visuals, but his visuals were the stronger of the two. A lone survivor clutching onto a craggly lamppost, the last surviving piece of his home, is a cool character and one that his voice lines didn't line up with. The direction they took makes his visuals line up with his character but I kind of wish it went the other way.
Just imagine if we got a story tying LoL Seraphine's design and LoR Seraphine's designs together. Like, the first thing I thought was "imagine if LoL Seraphine was who Seraphine thought she had to be to be aspirational, her idea of what the people would respond to and look up to, listen to, and enjoy the work of regardless of where they came from, but when that failed, she turned to her roots and her success started to come not in money, but in the kind of social response she wanted and the kind of identity she wanted to make for herself" Sort of like a "studio vs indie" music argument maybe? I dunno; it's not SUPER well thought out, but I couldn't help but think that that storybeat would be so wonderful, seeing Seraphine work through that "mistake" in her career for her passion, beliefs and love. EDIT: I'd also love to see if maybe they could add a tidbit about that multi-eye helmet of Master Yi being inspired by perhaps an Ionian insect that has some sort of cultural significance and looks similar. I always thought the helmet seemed like an attempt to copy compound eyes.
🃏 Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to keep up with the last couple of updates, but this game still has some of the best art in the CCG biz. I'd love to see some of the latest sets - maybe it would get me playing again. 🃏
In terms of gameplay the game may bê in an all-time high quality. The Darkin Saga was great gameplay wise and they figured a much better balance cadence with less fear of making hotfix nerfs. The Darkin Saga may also interest you because It was made during the storytelling focus era of the game and the 3 sets tell a huge story about a world-ending Darkin war that even brough the targonian angels and Ryze himself into the conflict. The current set has less lore but it's design is really fun with Samira and some bounty Hunters facing the boxing fishman of Bilgewater and the Vastayan brawlers in Sett's arena. Gameplay wise they made rotations with refreshed the game and took down the Power level a bit. You have a diverse meta with the only problem maybe being that you have too many Samira decks right now
I've kinda been binging your Shorts and a lot of your essays recently and this video makes me wish two thing: 1. I wish I could get into Legends of Runeterra but me and TCGs just don't mix 2. I wish Riot would release either a TTRPG-System or a D&D Setting for Runeterra
What a great theme for the video. Loved your points about Jax and Yi especially. Never really thought about Yi’s old armor sharing design with Noxus’s style. Have you considered talking about specific narrative improvements that LOR has made for certain League characters? You touched on it briefly with Jax, but I feel like there is a lot of potential with many characters and how their depth is increased thanks to their interactions and flavor text help build upon them. Aatrox in particular has grown immensely in my eyes thanks to his new conversations with fellow Darkin such as Joraal. Seeing how he interacts with them as a general, and in many ways a hero, to his fellow darkin. Which hammers home how far he has fallen from grace.
I need Twitch in LOR. Need.... Lore.. and cheese!! Ps. TB a question: what's your feeling about LOR level up animations? i dont like the cinematics ones, I love the ones (old ones mostly) where the actual card transformed
Seraphine became an actually great character to me thanks to legends of runeterra, i got to love Zilean because of legends of runeterra, I got to love Targon as a region A LOT thanks to legends of runeterra. The game is amazing. 🃏🃏🃏🃏🃏
In speaking to the conclusion of this video, I have been wondering why PoC seemed so boring compared to the first couple of champions that came in. On top of that, some of the new cards that came with rotation now make sense as to why they don’t have voice lines, though, I’m not sure how related that is. I really, really hope and pray they don’t continue to blunder least the game falls off in some way
🃏I love it when you cover Legends of Runeterra hope you continue doing so. I remember when it first came out almost every week I'd finish whatever video you had posted about it and still have a Necrit video about the card lore to go watch afterwards. Now it seems like Riot has given up on it so there probably won't be anything to talk about after a while. Such a waste. Loved the video though.
...I'm not sure why you started playing the instrumental version of everything goes on. but curse you for that. i'm crying now. (great vid tho) edit: 🃏
Amazing video, love your content. Very sad about the riot management decision, i have been playing lor since its lauch and never stop feeling good wenever a new expansion comes out with great stories, visuals and voicelines. When the most recent expansion was released i found strange that a bunch of card that seemed to have great personality got no voicelines or animations to it. And now knowing that they got a shunk of their staff cut off and are in the mercy of a whole other sector to approve their ideas for new stories, makes me afraid for the future of the game.
I'm not sure why u are talking about Isolde this way, her dream was to travel the world and marry to a price and live like that and she got her dream and no she wasnt unhappy or depressed when she was with Veigo it was the opposit of thatthey both lived happly until she died
If only Riot cared enough about its game to update all the old champions. Just take one season and update all the old garbage models and update the champions
Great video, love a lot of your work. But removing Master Yi's boot swords instead of coming up with a way to properly incorporate them into his new design is cowardice on Riot's part. I love his flowy redesign, but removing the sword boots is part of what I feel like is a larger problem with many design philosophies. The sword boots ARE stupid, and sometimes STUPID IS GOOD! FLCL said it best with 'Cool things are stupid, that's what makes them cool.' I see often in what I would call a sort of 'try hard' mentality that comes when some people approach design. It's sort of this urge to take something and make it 'proper' in it's design, with proper being a metric of what will be universally enjoyed or considered good. Much the same what that many high profile action games over the decade have had to file away at their character designs until the protagonist is a generic everyman, I feel the same has happened to Master Yi here into becoming just a generic fantasy master swordsman. And Riot does have a history of doing such things (the first thing that jumps to mind is making monster man characters having a pretty boy human form like Thresh and Xerath) as after all they are a company trying to make money so they smooth over the character designs for mass appeal. Don't get me wrong, I like the new Master Yi design. But the removal of the sword boots is just the most glaring feature that exemplifies my point. Visually Master Yi had 3 notable features. His many glowing eyes on his helmet, his sword with the massive rings hanging off the blade, and the fact that he has swords on his boots for unexplained reasons. But with the redesign all three features are scrubbed down to a point where he no longer looks like Master Yi but like 2010's era reboot design that ends up underselling and killing the series. Sure his multieyes helmet is still there, it has to be or you literally would not be able to tell that it's Master Yi. But instead of exemplifying or trying to do something interesting with his most iconic feature it tries to quietly make it less noticeable and less 'stupid'. It's ashamed of the character's main design feature instead of trying to take it and enhancing it into something worthwhile. His sword rings meanwhile are meanwhile minimized down into barely noticeable features. I love his new sword, but it's the kind of sword that would look better without the rings on it. Instead of making a sword that would look good and cool with the rings, making a sword that was designed around the iconic feature instead of messily taping them onto a design that they don't work with. And finally, back to the sword boots. Are big ass boots with swords on them rational? No. With a cursory thought they don't make sense on a speedy character. But ever since Zoro from One Piece showed us that you can wield a third sword in your mouth we've been shown that something being stupid is simply not an inherently bad character design. Those are not conceptual flaws, they are conceptual challenges. No don't get me wrong, I respect the great artists employed to make LoL character designs. I don't blame any of them for any of my critiques because they are employees who's goal is to make money working for Riot which is a company to make money. Their jobs aren't to overcome challenges, their job is to make what their bosses think will generate money. Master Yi's sword boots are silly, stupid, whatever you want to call them, but they make you ask the question 'why does he have swordboots?'. What an amazing world of possibilities to the answer to that question could be. But we don't get any answers. With the removal of the swordboots we instead no longer need to ask any questions. That's all his redesign is. It doesn't answer any questions, it's a removal of the need to ask them. The Master Yi redesign is not good because it's a good transformation of the character of Master Yi. It's good because it's a 'proper' design of what a master swordsman should be. It carves out the image of Master Yi into a puzzle piece that fits properly with what League of Legend's setting has become, and in doing so cuts him into a picture with little to say when it stands alone.
Damn my lack of sleep is showing in the typos. Maybe I should make a video essay response instead when I'm less tired. Is anybody even gonna read this? Ho hum.
I love your videos so much, the details you mark and your speech just leave me breathless, I catch every word. After Seraphine fragment I saw "In conclusion" and was very surprised because "Wait, the video supposed to be 40 minutes long!" I will never get tired of your video essays and I'm really hoping I'll see more new ones Thank you so much for your work! 🃏
Now i’m crying over Gwen lol she’s my favorite champion and hearing just how much more she is thru LoR is so nice especially because she is ignored entirely in league
Spot on analysis is an understatement. It gave me chills, and other moments like Gwen being the legacy of Isolde, or Jax being the last light of his nation, and Zilean's power, responsibility, lifetime of pain, vulnerability really moved me.
I completely agree with all of these opinion, in special with the seraphine one, LoR made me finally have interest in her. Also a lot of old champions have gain new life in this game (Malphite my prime example). Great video Mr. Lorekeeper Skai'en 🃏🃏
im dissapointed that nautilus wasnt in the top, he was just a wacky metal suit that punished people, but lor brought him to life as the real titan of the depths
Loved this video, brought up great points, and also the ever important point of how the business outlook isn't always the best for the company or the consumers. Also 🃏
🃏 i would love to hear your thoughts about the new cards and the new skins. i love the star guardian taliyah skin, her expression in the level up art is so good.🃏
We got Jax's concept art for his redesign and we already have so many people who say they HATE it. I can only imagine how frustrating it will be if we get a visual update for Yi or Zillean and still somehow having people who think the old versions are better.
