"Rediscovering Hope" opening Cinematic

[SemiLazyGamer]

 

[SnowKomodo]

So badass!! I never thought they'd have a cinematic rooted in an ambiguous SEA character, and I certainly never demanded it, so I absolutely love it! what a pleasant surprise

 

[FXS_Gilgamesh]

Just dropped from The Game Awards:

- Civ VII Opening Cinematic: youtu.be/gV0waX2uPLg
- Civ VII's Main Theme, "Live Gloriously":

 

[ombak]

Gwendoline Christie is doing some great work in the videos and cinematics so far. Can't wait to hear her in-game.

 

[marius_kaparius]

Beautiful

 

[JNR13]

Can't wait for the expansion that adds women!

 

[TheGhostEnthusiast]

The emphasis on the theme of "learning from the past" works well for Ashoka there, and works well for the Ages system as a whole. Very well thought out!

 

[Klaus Hergersheimer]

I miss looking at an old man with a big nose sitting in front of a campfire.

 

[Zaarin]

I miss looking at an old man with a big nose sitting in front of a campfire.

Civ5 may have been one of the weakest games of the franchise, but it had a compelling opening cinematic.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Andrew Johnson may correct me, but I think the scene with the masked man dancing with the sword might be part of a dance performance of the Ramayana. The costume looked Thai.

 

[notNamed]

The costume looked Thai.

I wonder if there's enough details in the footage to tell whether the farmer himself is Thai or Khmer himself.
Though at the same time, the cinematic will have been done by a separate studio so it probably wasn't micromanaged on every small detail. But Mr. Johnson was definitely involved, there's no question about it given the story of the cinematic.

 

[Verified_Confection_Being]

I don't know if it's just me, but I've been sitting a little uncomfortable with the gameplay information we have about a shift towards warfare being a bugger thing.

Now the opening cinematic and the theme both speak heavily to that aspect of civilization over and above any other. Not one builder in the cinematic, centred around a sword of all things. Only reference to the modern period was WW2 soldiers. All the lyrics to the theme seen to be about dying honourably.

Am I over analysing this? Answer probably yes...

 

[notNamed]

Am I over analysing this? Answer probably yes...

You have a farmer picking up the sword of a person known for spreading the message of peace after he'd seen too much suffering.
Followed by a cultural performance in a theatre. Then *highly dramatic Hollywood* sea travel. Commerce in Abyssinia. Travel along the Sahara to Mali. Discussions in Andaluz. The only piece that's not explicitly against war with the invasion of Pagan. And a vision of our farmer seeing himself being turned into a frightened soldier before coming back into his reality as he rows the field while Saturn V takes off to the Moon. What part of this is pro-warfare?

 

[Verified_Confection_Being]

You have a farmer picking up the sword of a person known for spreading the message of peace after he'd seen too much suffering.
Followed by a cultural performance in a theatre. Then *highly dramatic Hollywood* sea travel. Commerce in Abyssinia. Travel along the Sahara to Mali. Discussions in Andaluz. The only piece that's not explicitly against war with the invasion of Pagan. And a vision of our farmer seeing himself being turned into a frightened soldier before coming back into his reality as he rows the field while Saturn V takes off to the Moon. What part of this is pro-warfare?

In what part of my reply did I say it's pro warfare?

I didn't get building a grand civilization through time from this I guess is my worry. I got sword. Together with other information I'm clearly over worrying that theres a shift towards military play style being leant into thematically

If we want to get into some media analysis on this, why would they go for a sword being found in that field? Why not something far more likely like a coin or jewellery? The answer, so you can get to the theme of peace and hope yadda yadda, but that only exists with war as it's foil. There is no perceived value to peace or reason to hope for it if there is no war, it just simply is life at that point.

 

[Andrew Johnson [FXS]]

The central conceit is to follow an object back and forth through time and across possibilities. The object is a tool - it can be used for war, for art (the Reamker [Cambodian] / Ramakian [Thai] dance), for commerce and trade, etc. The question asked here is "to what ends will our tools be put?". The farmer and Ashoka are both remembering the violence of the past and feeling regret over it. At the end, we have another tool - a rocket. To what ends will those tools be put? Also, this is a little trip through victory conditions: militaristic, economic, cultural, etc.

And through civilizations in the game: time and people change, but some continuity remains. We see Khmer, Chola (the ship), Aksum, Maurya, Songhai, Spain, Mongolia. Some forbearance might be asked for time and place - yes, the "Spain" is Al-Andalus, Aksum is after the Aksumite kings, etc. If we wanted to put a narrative onto it in a rather straightforward and less thematic way, the sword is dropped by Ashoka, found and used by a court dancer in Southeast Asia, carried across the Indian sea by a sailor, sold in Aksum, carried by Ibn Battuta across West Africa, its stories told in Al-Andalus, makes its way back east and is carried by a Mongolian soldier into Southeast Asia, and is rediscovered there.

 

[Verified_Confection_Being]

Im sorry I just get this is a game about swords and militaries

I feel like the grandness has been stripped away, and it no longer feels as top down as the game should be. Civilization isn't a game series about tools and how they are used or personal feelings of regret over it, it's what people pick up to build huge empires from the ancient era to the modern and smash Aztec jaguars with tanks. It's way more macro than this cinematic, and way less caring/mournful.

What I get from this is the sword is central, and common to all cultures, and something about looking mournfully at the moon over spilled blood. If you showed me this trailer in absence of knowing what the game was, I think I'd say it's for a new age of empires game rather than a new civ game.

 

[Mahasona]

Does this get me excited to play the game? Absolutely not, does nothing for me. Worst intro ever, I'm afraid. I get bowled over by the awe and wonder of the scope of history but this... nah.

 

[LastSword]

I feel like it would be better without or with less narration. No point to state obvious.
And the middle segment, between the "sun scenes", should be sped up. More dynamic, more yet shorter scenes, progressing the flow of history. Current composition feels flawed.
I am also not sure if the farmer with the rocket in the background is not too cliche at this point.

Even Aśoka does not redeem it. Though obviously he is on the brighter side.

 

[Naokaukodem]

Hope is still to be rediscovered though ; travel to the Moon was probably confused with other worlds travels when celebrated in the American streets. Alas we have only one planet and there's nothing good upcoming.

 

[Civinator]

Even the intros of Civ 1 and Civ 2 in my eyes are much better than the intro of Civ 7. The good thing is, that the intros are mostly skipped when playing a civ game.