Diablo – A Complete Retrospective
Diablo has been overlooked, but it shouldn’t be. I am here to crusade on its behalf, to argue why it’s worth taking the time to play it, even when others may claim it’s too old or basic compared to its sequels.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Jwlar
Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/c/jwlar
Watch more retrospective analyses and reviews:
Read the full Diablo – A Complete Retrospective essay here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UqzdrO-pbXjKpjIXVKs8qjrHnWM4wiuG1vT_tS9cB7o/edit?usp=sharing
Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XORJpcfvXAivPjhYCV7BFF6uu-ZMNAUjSs8U4JabkRw/edit?usp=sharing
Custom-made Class Wallpapers: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dlIy76kcfpb-A0Uh9mjfsI2wkno2nPSL?usp=drive_link
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/EstVM7nRgR
Sections
Part 1 – Tristram
Analysis Intro 0:00
How to Play 02:35
Main Menu 4:57
Tristram 9:33
Part 2 – Entering the Dungeon
Influences 30:44
Controls 35:10
Interface 39:17
Combat 47:51
Magic 1:00:54
Tone & Atrmosphere 1:09:22
Graphics 1:23:27
Part 3 – The Foundation
FM Waves 1:29:09
Condor Inc 1:34:53
Meeting Blizzard 1:39:34
The Design Document 1:40:50
Becoming Blizzard North 1:51:16
Turn Based vs Real Time 2:00:49
Part 4 – Cathedral & Catacombs
Proc Gen Dungeons: 2:11:26
Dungeon Objects: 2:19:24
Loot Lottery 2:22:56
Catacombs: 2:32:10
Level 1-8 Bestiary 2:33:58
Part 5 – Builds
Classes: 2:41:00
Warrior: 2:44:20
Difficulty Settings: 2:47:00
Warrior cont: 2:48:41
Rogue: 2:50:01
Sorcerer: 2:51:56
Progression: 2:55:52
Part 6 – The Butcher
Finding the Butcher: 3:03:14
Demos & Shareware: 3:09:21
Side Quests: 3:18:14
Cut Content: 3:26:20
Crunch: 3:43:13
Part 7 – Caves & Hell
Caves: 3:49:03
Hell: 3:52:19
Level 9-16 Bestiary: 3:55:10
Lazarus: 4:05:30
Diablo: 4:09:29
Criticism: 4:18:30
Part 8 – Battle.Net
Battlenet Development 4:20:30
Battlenet Gameplay 4:26:53
Part 9 – Story & Lore
Lore Intro 4:40:00
The Manual 4:40:51
Warrior Background 4:42:08
Rogue Background 4:47:08
Sorcerer Background 4:48:30
Nature of Magic 4:50:31
Bestiary 4:52:47
Librarius Ex Horadrim 4:54:13
Book 1 4:54:52
Book 2 5:00:21
Story in-game 5:08:52
Part 10 – Hellfire
Hellfire Intro: 5:13:35
Hellfire Developement: 5:15:00
Hellfire Classes: 5:26:53
Monk: 5:27:11
Bard: 5:30:27
Barbarian: 5:32:55
Hellfire Gameplay: 5:37:09
Hellfire Quests: 5:42:53
Hellfire Story & Lore: 5:47:13
Hellfire Cut Content 5:50:58
Part 11 – Ports & Legacy
Mac: 5:52:44
Playstation: 5:54:43
Conclusion: 6:00:11
Legacy: 6:00:44
Remaster: 6:07:20
Credits 6:08:11
‘Influential’ cannot even hope to describe Diablo’s domination of the Action Role Playing genre, its impact was such that said genre has come to be more commonly referred to for Diablo-style isometric dungeon crawlers than for the games that birthed its definition (Rogue).
Two decades later, and the titles it inspired are still referred to as Diablo-clones. Even the games in its own franchise cannot compete with the adoration it, and especially its sequel, garnered.
To rip off Patrician TV ’s ‘Outer Worlds’ essay, “the literature and resources that surround games are a good indicator of their success”. Diablo is frankly one of the most documented games in history. Its Wikipedia page alone is a shrine indicating the devotion of its fan-base. Entire publication’s have been written covering its history, and its developer’s still, rightfully, ride its coat-tails to this day. When fan-made guides contain every single statistic down to the extreme minutiae, you know that a game has left an impact on its audience.
Diablo – A Complete Retrospective
#diablo #retrospective #jwlar
Excellent video mate This is the most devoted video I’ve seen for Diablo 1
Man I dont know why, but D2 just looked so much worse than 1. It was actually pretty off putting the first time I played it, being a huge D1 fan.
great video :)))) exactly what I enjoy – this game holds strong in my heart!
4:50:21 it’s a weird nitpick but city status in the UK isn’t because a cathedral, it’s cuz the monarch designates it as one
You can thank King Diamond for that riff from Tristram, seriously, listen to Black horseman by King diamond.
Diablo 1 was the best. It had stakes, you died? Reload. Not just "oh run back to your corpse with back up gear and continue where you left off"
19:24 Since he doesn’t comment on it here, I’ll ask: who or what are the “Dark Riders”? I tried scouring the internet for info previously, but couldn’t find anything relevant. Are they just a plot convenience to explain why the Tristram villagers never left after their populace dwindled due to the devils and demons below the cathedral?
Awesome
Thank you all for watching! Finally this goliath is done!
I’ll add any corrections or relevant information to this pinned comment:
@Tarranium pointed out that the font used for Diablo’s main menu and in-game text (Exocet) is a minorly altered version of the font used in the AD&D 2nd Edition book, released 8 years before Diablo, and likely an influence on the choice of typeface.
"Imagine a world before Diablo."
I wish I could imagine a world before Diablo Immortal.
At over 6 hours runtime, I thought this would be a retrospective of the entire series, not just the first game. You mad lad.😲
Shivering at the thought we almost got games as a service 15 years earlier than we did.
Call him the postman bc Jwlar always delivers!
Diablo 2 is still the game I come back to once in a while. If there was any game that I would bring to play forever, it would be D2. I tried 3 and 4 but it’s not even close. Those felt like completely different games with just familiar names on it. Early Diablo has that sense of dread and horror. D3 is "this is world of warcraft"
Six hours and all of it high quality. Amazing.
So when will the sequel be out😅??
Diablo 1 is the only game that scared me
The atmosphere of d1 is unmatched to this day
Bigger resolution might make the game more modern but it distances u more from the game
It is less immersive as you have wide view of everything around you, while in the original game was limited
Yay, a 6-hour Diablo 1 retrospective – just a content for me.
Note: Wanted to read the game’s design document. It sucks that the site with the document does not work anymore. Yes, there are other places where you can download the document, but still…
Imagine pulling off workforce from one of the greatest competitive RTS and reassigning them to a genre defining arpg masterpiece to keep up with deadlines. Now throw in billions of dollars and look at where that got us.
Have you checked out Noah Caldwell-Gervais retrospective on the Diablo series? I feel like that is a good companion piece to your video. This was very insightful and well done. Keep up the hard work
11:18 haha “Lolita”
Well done! I really enjoyed this retrospective. It inspired me to play through Diablo again.
1:59:33 Wow, "Страна игр"!
God I adore Diablo 1&2
They are a huge fraction of my childhood
I have now bought and am playing Diablo 1 just 1 hour in. The same thing happened with Daggerfall too, so good job, I guess?
Good video!
I have played far too many rpgs, and am a lover of the genre, but for whatever reason these ones like Diablo can NEVER maintain my interest. On paper I feel like they should be able to, but even though I did manage to finish one of them, even that one got rather boring at various moments.
I feel like the main problems for me are the fact that most of these games the story is largely just something to push you from point to point, not really anything genuinely interesting or worth caring about. It’s not helped that the game play feels obnoxiously repetitious, which is rather funny because all games are like that including rpgs, but I think it’s down to the fact that the same reason I eventually got bored of playing mmos over and over, the combat ends up boiling down to the exact same button combos done on repeat for hours and hour and hours on end.
There’s likely more to it than that, like perhaps I enjoy the more "tactical" or "thinking man’s" angle of other rpgs and this just never gave me the same feeling, but I’ve never loved almost all diablo likes and I’ve only completed one, which was in the diablo series funny enough but most people don’t think much of it, the only reason I cared though was the character building felt like I had some degree of customization to how I built their abilities and what not. Still boring at the end of the day though since it came down to the same problems as all the others in the end.
Again it always felt like on paper I should enjoy these games, but they’ve never clicked and after trying many of them over the years, I don’t think any of them truly ever will for me.
It’s also VERY disheartening to hear the fact they wanted to take away the complexity of rpgs, character building and customization, and just simplify everything. That also doesn’t work super well either. I prefer learning complexity and understanding how the game and combat system works too. There have been a few games that were simplified that I enjoyed, but most of the time I prefer it the other way around.
I very much enjoyed this video and wanted to say I appreciate how much effort you put into this.
I see new jwlar I click
Halls of torment does a pretty good job of recreating the classic Diablo feel in current times
I find it funny how starfield was such a huge disappointment that it didn’t even get a part 2 of it’s critique lol
Just dropped in to thank you for making this. Takes a dedication and love of a game to drop a six hour analysis.
fandom is characterized by copy pasting from ohter sources
Sorry Erich, I don’t think my mom could play this game.
My brother in $DEITY this is too much. Thank you for helping me plan my work day audio so efficiently.
I wonder how many clicks it takes to beat diablo? Also, is there some sort of speed running that tries to do it in as few clicks as possible?
Spending $20,000 on a tote bag is the obvious choice, rather than spending $200 on a kisluxs bag and investing the remaining $19,800 since a $20,000 bag is unlikely to increase in value.
It should have mentioned D2 more often. I do like that you included David Brevik saying something like "asking which Diablo game is your favorite is like asking which child is your favorite". 👍🏼
Ah. Another R&A! It’s always fun to watch these! 😁
Another epic. I absolutely loved your Daggerfall video – looking forward to watching this. Amazing work.
Addendum to the 5:42:30 part. Europe and multiplayer zone. With this many languages in the region. And some regions only getting out of the USSRs grip in 1989-90. Multiplayer simply was not a thing people cared as much about. At least the Bnet multiplayer. Lan was the way.
Came here just for the Diablo 1 part because i expected it to be a retrospective of the whole series. Now i gotta watch the whole thing. Well done! Subscribed.
Diablo 1 Online was so scuffed…EVERYONE used a Mod Software to get crazy good gear and level their character…then a God Tier Game Hacker from another Guild with a Lvl 1 Wizard would instakill you. Good times.
This needs more views.
I find it to be the definitive video essay on Diablo. Even more so than Noah’s!
Clicked, assuming this was for the series. Stayed, because I love the original Diablo
Moon of the Spider fucks, IMO, It doesnt matter if you actually like the Diablo Games or not its just a really good Fantasy Novel that happens to be a Diablo Novel.
Diablo 1 is criminally underrated. I recently finished two playthroughs (in a row, because one just wasn’t enough) and I had a blast. The atmosphere of this game is unparalleled.
Also just want to point that the madlad manually wrote and synced up subtitles for 6 HOURS worth of footage. That is insane!
Big thank you for those amazing subtitles and chapter marks! I listen to your work in my home office and sometimes my brain drowns out your voice but I can quickly catch up reading subtitles.
A, a nice short video to explain one of my favourite game-franchises. How nice!
I once had a dream I was playing diablo 1 as a first persion VR game and it was AWESOME.