If anyone has been watching the gameplay movies you will notice there is a progression of storytelling in them (although the Chronicle 2 one doesn't have one - it showcases all the new features) but there is a series.
I'm personally enjoying the progression of story in the gameplay movies.
Chronicle 1 -(file l2_TGS2003) the story begins of the elf maiden who loses her lover to Orfen, (I think she's an Oracle here) and finds him dead. A dwarf girl is the key to gathering up (what seems to be the rest of the clan) reinforcements, and another human warrior rescues her just as she faces Orfen with her lover's duals.
Later, in the movie for Chronicle 1 Harbingers of War, after visiting her lover's grave (file ch01_divx03) the elf maiden (now an Elder) seems to be contemplating suicide (That or saying goodbye to her lover). The human warrior from before talks to her, and takes her to Aden castle. The alliance of Dark Elves and Orcs awaken Antharas as a distraction, and the warrior leaves in force, leaving behind the maiden, and a token guard at the castle. While they're gone, the dark elves and orcs attack, driving the elf maid and her guard to the throne room while that same little dwarf girl escapes and rouses the other castles, and drags the new boyfriend back home to rescue the girl, who's about to use those duals. The orcs and dark elves are driven out, and there's the romantic kiss emote that a lot of us have been wanting to see implemented into the game. :D
Chronicle 2: There isn't much of a story, but the elf girl does show up dressed in Doom Robes at the beginning, and there's the tournament in the good old Battle Dome. That MIGHT be the human warrior leading the group that won, but there's no actual storytelling here. They also kill Baium.
Chronicle 3: There's a story being told here, but it isn't focused on the 'players' but rather of the continuing conflict between Anakim and Lilith, of Dawn and Dusk. There isn't any sign of the players winning, and the final faceoff happens between Anakim and Lilith. The leader of Aden Castle rather humorously gets dropped into his castle's courtyard.
In Chronicle 4 (C4_playmovie) There is definite storytelling here. The whole movie begins with a wedding, which is gatecrashed by an enemy clan (lead again by a dark elf).
The Elf maiden finally dies instead of her lover (she's been surviving her lover for a while now) and the surviving widow summons ALL his friends who just HAPPEN to all be heroes, attack Goddard like an army of glowbugs to find it empty (the dark elf has sent all hs clan away) Somehow they track the dark elf down to the Lair of Valakas, just as he enters Valakas' lair. The dark elf awakens Valakas, gets charbroiled and Valakas is defeated by the group of Heros. Much use of blessed scrolls of escape clan hall/castle, and I puzzle yet again why the beraved never thinks of using a rez scroll or rez spell of any kind. For the people who love the music as much as I do all the music, I think, is found in your music folder inside your game files.
Chronicle 5
It's all about Prince Frintessa, our mad and merry musician happily pounding away at the keys inside his lair. Mr Hero is back and apparently ready to harrass mad dwarven golem makers, ghostly high priests and our to disturb Frintessa's music making. There are brief cameos of the Dark Elf in possession of / possessed by the Demon Sword Zariche slowly revealing that he has slaughtered EVERYONE who has tried to come and fight him. Frintessa summons a demon controlled by his music and the demon kills them as punishment for disturbing Frintessa's love for music. Movie ends with Frintessa laughing triumphantly over the bodies of the hero and his folllowers. He shows himself to be far harder to defeat than his father, despite his appearance of frippery.
This is the only movie to date where the bad guys WIN.
I wonder what happens in the next Chronicle! The hero is dead and only the bad guys remain. And for the love of sanity I hope the next bad guys aren't so easy to defeat, after this showing by Frintessa and Zariche.
I wonder where the first movie I ever saw fits in this.... it was back when the game was released. There was a castle (and a light elf female and a human male who seemed to be the rulers). The human male went off to fight Antharas and while he was away, the castle (with the light elf female) was attacked. A little dwarf girl ran for help while the light elf female tried to hold them off. The girl found the human male and told him what had happened. He left his hunt and charged to the rescue.
Somewhere in all of this a dark elf female had let the enemy into the castle, but I don't remember where that fid.
that's the 'second' in the series of story. There are two versions of the movie - the long version, which ends in a kiss, and the 'action' version, which focuses largely on the march of the elf and the human, the attack with Antharas, and the siege. I linked the long version.
The story begins in the 'prelude' section, in
ftp://ftp.lineage2.com/l2_TGS2003_final.zip
which is where the elf maiden loses her first human love.
I think you are reading a little too much into the gameplay movies. Some of the movies tell a story (the cinematics, for instance), but I think gameplay movies are meant just to show us the new features/mobs/cool stuff that they have implemented that chronicle. Like that dark elf... I don't think it's supposed to be the same dark elf as the other movies. It's just a dark elf. There are hundreds of them in the game and... *gasp* they all look alike! LOL And even if it was the same dark elf, if he can live again after dying to Valakas then why can't hero boy live again after dying to Frintessa?
I never said that the dark elves were the same. The first one seemed to be a spellhowler, the one in the C4 movie seems to be a Shillen Knight. The continuing couple of Elf and Human (later the widower) did remain constant though.
So what if I am reading 'too much' into the gameplay movies? L2 Korea's website gets WAY more story content than L2 NA. The gameplay movies were made - like the game itself - with it's Asian fanbase in mind first. There SEEMS to be a story to me, and if they manage to work it in while showcasing each new Chronicle's game features, then yay, right? Besides, given the fact that Lineage 2 has LOTS of story (it's just largely ignored by the American side of the company) it's not illogical of me to see story patterns in the movies. Hell, we Asians ADORE stories especially of the fantasy bent (there is a large thriving industry of fantasy TV series, live action, not just animated) and even the piddling sections of story we get here about the Lineage 2 world is quite detailed and in-depth.
Heck, I WISH L2 NA would get translated versions of the L2 Stories (http://bbs.lineage2.co.kr/board/l2story/list/list.asp?bbs=l2story) *and* the minicomics (there are currently three, two completed, one currently ongoing - called Hello Lineage 2!). L2 stories not only HAS stories, but gorgous artwork done FOR the stories. Tons and tons of content that we don't get any official access to (we have Hellrose and the other translating fans to thank though...)
I think though one of the reasons why the comics tend not to get translated is because the characters probably swear a lot. Lineage 2 is "nobody under 18 allowed' in both Korea and Japan, and stuff generally levelled toward mature audiences there tend to include a lot of cuss words.
Lineage 2 Japan has the monopoly on books (http://www.lineage2.jp/goods/books.aspx) - not just guide books (guide books for every chronicle from Prelude onward) and art books (there are two so far) but also compilations of fan-made manga. Of these compilations there are three.
Oh, and the cinematics involve the characters the servers are named after. That gorgeous cinematic where the characters were actually talking names one of them: Shikken.
"You're mad Shikken! The Daughter of Shillen must die! Stand aside!"
Take a look here (http://www.lineage2.com/background/leading_role.html) - Shikken is mentioned, but since we don't have as many servers as the other Lineage 2s, we only get a handful of characters. Every one of them has story.
Maybe it's not me who's reading too much into the movies, but just you who isn't very aware of the fact that there is plenty of story invested into Lineage 2 - not just grind, gratitious PVP, and gorgeous graphics. Try to keep an open mind and imagination. =)
Yup, DE girl does, DE guy runs away. I'm not sure if he's a Spellhowler, I'd have to watch it carefully, but I think he is the guy who casts that firebally spell during the attack in the castle. He has white hair, with one of the 'most of it falling over my eye) styles. Lead a clan with only DE and Orcs in it.
DE guy in the next 'sequence' is a SK, (unless subclassed as SK) has pointy hairstyle with purple black and white hair, with goatee. Valakas roasts him.(Chronicle 4 gameplay movie) He lead a clan with humans, orcs and DE, but I don't think I saw any elves or dwarves - they don't show too many clannies)
Chronicle 5 has a spikey haired DE in Apella heavy with the Zariche, but he has white hair, not purple and black.
Given the rather blatant differences, I can gues sthat the DE in the first movie is different from the guy in Chron 4, and both aren't the Zariche wielder in Chron 5's movie. Hero dude and elf girl has issues about enemies! O.o
Ive noticed that these are the short verions of many of these movies. I jsut watched the cron 1 version, and jute it the one we were thinking about. however the one i watched once was ( if i remember correctly ) around 10 minutes long. If anyone could link me to a site that has the longer versions, i would be rly happy ^_^
I loooooove l2 movies. I've collected them all to my HD and each time i feel the grind or that i dont want to play anymore, I watch them and it brings back the emotions and a need to log back into this beautiful world.
Yes, i read all the quests when i take them... enjoy the storyline and heck i even enjoy the job-change quests.
Movies are awesome. I DO wonder why they have wedding outfit in the game, even tho there's no real marriage there. Just to show off? For some reasons i doubt.
As for c5 yeah, it seems to be the first chronicle where the good guys die in the end. I watched it like.. whoa.. they died.. and nothing happened after that. Just the evil laugh...
Also i think about the crhonicles. People tend to take it like each chronicle should be improvement off all classes and make them more balanced. What if its NCSofts intentions to have FOTMs? Like each chronicle you have to change your playstyle, either you reroll or keep playing with your char. I doubt they try to make the game balanced. There's no way you can really do it, some classes are always meant to kill others.. maybe they are overpowered who knows.. but next chronicle will bring them down again. Why else we wait for the next chronicle so much? The thing we dont know whats going on, how exactly things are done etcetc.. its exciting. At least i DO play it cause of challenges, waiting for the new chronicle to bring smth new and if it is a nerf ill wait for another one and definetely get smth new and interesting.
Suppose i didnt talk about the subject now :P But i DO love l2.. been always and probably always will (yet i've hated it also, since i take it waaay too seriously sometimes :P) and storys - keep em going <3<3