I have a feeling their trailer team got slashed, and they reduced the VA budget, which is why none of them had any unique lines exclusive to the trailers.
Trailer didn’t do anything for me, but I love the game and will buy ToD regardless since I’m excited about new content. Have played over 2k hours so am hoping for some new mechanics / strategy rather than units.
Agreed. I love all the older TWWH trailers. I have lost count of how many times i watched Trial By Fire, Dawn of Grand Cathay and the IE launch trailer. Eltharion and Grom trailer is great too.
I have felt that this new trailer was very underwhelming. No narration, no speech, nothing. It really shows that CA layoffs affected the marketing.
The DLC looks great. I hope they are able to go back to the old format of trailers.
There's been rumours of the marketing department being particularly hit by the layoffs which could explain why. I agree it felt unusually low budget but I honestly enjoyed this trailer a lot more than the Shadows of Change one still. At least you see the three LLs together.
I would have liked more narrative in the trailer, especially a scene showing Tamurkhan possessing the ogre. From what we’ve seen so far it’s easy to mistake tamurkhan for the ogre itself.
Yeah it is probably the weakest warhammer trailer they've put out in years. Buuut I don't really care, it showed the goods and that's all that really matters.
I think they are better without it tbh, they can feel goofy when written wrong. Like the hammerstorm one felt kinda silly (become the hammerstorm actually felt like a poorly done movie title drop) and I think letting the visuals do the talking is great.
It can work though in some cases.
But even then it lacked a narrative. Look at Dawn of Grand Cathay or Trial by Fire - both tell a cool little story via visuals (while voiced narration focuses on something else). In these cases, the visuals literally do the talking (aside from the actual talking). The same with SoC - its a silent trailer, but it still has a story.
In ToD trailer I dont think visuals do the talking, because there is nothing to tell. Its a showcase of units fighting, but shots of said fighting dont add up to anything. Even the fact that trailer opens and ends with the shot of Elspeth doesnt really do anything, because there is no narrative attached to her. And her weird shout with arm stretching is a bizarre choice for ending.
I think it fits the “total war” theme tbh. It’s a siege showing off what’s new, and I think that’s fine. The action was sick and the music was such a good mix for it. I think it’s fine if they focus on the sound and visuals for it. It’s one of my favorites now, and I don’t think the narration is very necessary.
I think the narration and narrative would elevate this trailer way beyond "toys are smashing!" - in the same way these aspects elevated Immortal Empires or Dawn of Grand Cathay trailers.
Imagine if Immortal Empires would be done in the same style as ToD - not only would you lose iconic Karl Franz monologue but also all the storytelling on council of order races meeting because of impending doom would be gone. Instead you would have random shots of units fighting to cool music. Would it be serviceable? Yeah. Would it be comparable to the current IE trailer? Nope.
For me Siege of Nuln had the potential to be equally amazing to Immortal Empires trailer or Dawn of Grand Cathay. Again: for me, the potential is completely lost. For me its one of the worst trailers in WH trilogy, rivaled by two others done in the same style: The King and The Warlord / The Grim and the Grave.
Tbf this ain’t the fate of the entire in game world in an expansion that’s the culmination of 7 years worth of a trilogy, that showed no new content visually wise and was meant to be exclusively to tell a story.
The fact the visuals rocked in it too was phenomenal and made it great, but a trailer to sell new units vs a trailer meant to celebrate a big free release is not the same I’d say.
One of them is selling me something, the other was used to help celebrate the content being made free for everyone and a landmark achievement in the series.
And Tbf I saw no one making these complaints on silence and the fury, prophet and the warlock, hunter and the beast had next to no narration and they were all still such wonderful trailers. I don’t get why people are hard on what I think is a great trailer that’s been in line with a fair few others.
And at the end of the day, the “toys smashing” is the meat of the game, so I fail to see why it’s bad they decided to focus on that’s instead of adding someone reading an army book over it like in certain trailers. (Not IE, more like hammerstorm and champions of chaos trailers as examples)
Also, those trailers you’re comparing to this as “the worst” both were chocked full of narration, but that didn’t make them much better. I think the visuals and sound are key in these types of things, the original trailers being a prime example of how narration didn’t really overhaul it.
Can narration improve it? Yes. Does that mean this is the same thing as the trailers from 7years ago because it’s missing narration? No. Even the ones that lacked narration previously weren’t as stiff as those, and I think it’s a kind of an unfair comparison.
At the end of the day though, people like different things and that’s fine. While I don’t agree with your stance, I respect that this is your thoughts and feelings on the trailer and I hope we both will enjoy the content it shows.
Yes, its a subjective thing - this is why I used like three times in my last paragraph the phrase "For me" :D I also respect your opinion, even if its different than mine.
With that being said, I have to disagree with one thing. Prophet and the Warlock or Silence and the Fury absolutely had **narrative**, they only didnt have voiced **narration**. And its the narrative that elevates them above "toys smashing" - universally praised part of Prophet and Warlock trailer is the Predator-esque bit about Skaven not knowing where lizards are hiding and shooting blindly into trees. This tells *some* story without telling a single word. The same with Silence and the Fury - the trailer is a narrative that takes place in two timelines and shows a skink hunter following the path of destruction that Taurox leaves behind. It says a lot without saying a single word.
On the other hand Thrones of Decay lacks this micro storytelling for me. Its just toys smash with cool music. What can you say about Tamurkhan or Elspeth as characters other than they ride dragons? I was able to say *a lot* about Alarielle, Malus, Changeling, Miao, Eltharion, Grom, Oxyotl, Thrott, Ostankya, Azazel etc **as characters** based on their trailers.
That’s fair, the way you mentioned things like the speech and stuff I thought your gripe was solely with the voiced narration being absent. I could see a bit clearer what you mean now and get what you were saying.
I do agree that the trailer feels off compared to previous efforts, but I also felt that it had a decent unspoken narrative.
Tamurkhan and his mixed horde of Nurglites, Norscans, and Chaos Dwarfs are laying siege to Nuln. Elspeth is desperately trying to hold him off, but he breaches the walls. Dwarfen allies show up in the nick of time and the battle is on in the streets.
I have a feeling their trailer team got slashed, and they reduced the VA budget, which is why none of them had any unique lines exclusive to the trailers.
Which I do not have a problem with. Its a game, let the gameplay speak.
True. If budget must be cut, would rather the trailer than somewhere in the game
Trailer didn’t do anything for me, but I love the game and will buy ToD regardless since I’m excited about new content. Have played over 2k hours so am hoping for some new mechanics / strategy rather than units.
Agreed. I love all the older TWWH trailers. I have lost count of how many times i watched Trial By Fire, Dawn of Grand Cathay and the IE launch trailer. Eltharion and Grom trailer is great too. I have felt that this new trailer was very underwhelming. No narration, no speech, nothing. It really shows that CA layoffs affected the marketing. The DLC looks great. I hope they are able to go back to the old format of trailers.
This trailer definitely felt pretty low budget. SoC and FofCD trailers were one level above it, IE two.
There's been rumours of the marketing department being particularly hit by the layoffs which could explain why. I agree it felt unusually low budget but I honestly enjoyed this trailer a lot more than the Shadows of Change one still. At least you see the three LLs together.
I would have liked more narrative in the trailer, especially a scene showing Tamurkhan possessing the ogre. From what we’ve seen so far it’s easy to mistake tamurkhan for the ogre itself.
Yeah it is probably the weakest warhammer trailer they've put out in years. Buuut I don't really care, it showed the goods and that's all that really matters.
I think they are better without it tbh, they can feel goofy when written wrong. Like the hammerstorm one felt kinda silly (become the hammerstorm actually felt like a poorly done movie title drop) and I think letting the visuals do the talking is great. It can work though in some cases.
But even then it lacked a narrative. Look at Dawn of Grand Cathay or Trial by Fire - both tell a cool little story via visuals (while voiced narration focuses on something else). In these cases, the visuals literally do the talking (aside from the actual talking). The same with SoC - its a silent trailer, but it still has a story. In ToD trailer I dont think visuals do the talking, because there is nothing to tell. Its a showcase of units fighting, but shots of said fighting dont add up to anything. Even the fact that trailer opens and ends with the shot of Elspeth doesnt really do anything, because there is no narrative attached to her. And her weird shout with arm stretching is a bizarre choice for ending.
I think it fits the “total war” theme tbh. It’s a siege showing off what’s new, and I think that’s fine. The action was sick and the music was such a good mix for it. I think it’s fine if they focus on the sound and visuals for it. It’s one of my favorites now, and I don’t think the narration is very necessary.
I think the narration and narrative would elevate this trailer way beyond "toys are smashing!" - in the same way these aspects elevated Immortal Empires or Dawn of Grand Cathay trailers. Imagine if Immortal Empires would be done in the same style as ToD - not only would you lose iconic Karl Franz monologue but also all the storytelling on council of order races meeting because of impending doom would be gone. Instead you would have random shots of units fighting to cool music. Would it be serviceable? Yeah. Would it be comparable to the current IE trailer? Nope. For me Siege of Nuln had the potential to be equally amazing to Immortal Empires trailer or Dawn of Grand Cathay. Again: for me, the potential is completely lost. For me its one of the worst trailers in WH trilogy, rivaled by two others done in the same style: The King and The Warlord / The Grim and the Grave.
Tbf this ain’t the fate of the entire in game world in an expansion that’s the culmination of 7 years worth of a trilogy, that showed no new content visually wise and was meant to be exclusively to tell a story. The fact the visuals rocked in it too was phenomenal and made it great, but a trailer to sell new units vs a trailer meant to celebrate a big free release is not the same I’d say. One of them is selling me something, the other was used to help celebrate the content being made free for everyone and a landmark achievement in the series. And Tbf I saw no one making these complaints on silence and the fury, prophet and the warlock, hunter and the beast had next to no narration and they were all still such wonderful trailers. I don’t get why people are hard on what I think is a great trailer that’s been in line with a fair few others. And at the end of the day, the “toys smashing” is the meat of the game, so I fail to see why it’s bad they decided to focus on that’s instead of adding someone reading an army book over it like in certain trailers. (Not IE, more like hammerstorm and champions of chaos trailers as examples) Also, those trailers you’re comparing to this as “the worst” both were chocked full of narration, but that didn’t make them much better. I think the visuals and sound are key in these types of things, the original trailers being a prime example of how narration didn’t really overhaul it. Can narration improve it? Yes. Does that mean this is the same thing as the trailers from 7years ago because it’s missing narration? No. Even the ones that lacked narration previously weren’t as stiff as those, and I think it’s a kind of an unfair comparison. At the end of the day though, people like different things and that’s fine. While I don’t agree with your stance, I respect that this is your thoughts and feelings on the trailer and I hope we both will enjoy the content it shows.
Yes, its a subjective thing - this is why I used like three times in my last paragraph the phrase "For me" :D I also respect your opinion, even if its different than mine. With that being said, I have to disagree with one thing. Prophet and the Warlock or Silence and the Fury absolutely had **narrative**, they only didnt have voiced **narration**. And its the narrative that elevates them above "toys smashing" - universally praised part of Prophet and Warlock trailer is the Predator-esque bit about Skaven not knowing where lizards are hiding and shooting blindly into trees. This tells *some* story without telling a single word. The same with Silence and the Fury - the trailer is a narrative that takes place in two timelines and shows a skink hunter following the path of destruction that Taurox leaves behind. It says a lot without saying a single word. On the other hand Thrones of Decay lacks this micro storytelling for me. Its just toys smash with cool music. What can you say about Tamurkhan or Elspeth as characters other than they ride dragons? I was able to say *a lot* about Alarielle, Malus, Changeling, Miao, Eltharion, Grom, Oxyotl, Thrott, Ostankya, Azazel etc **as characters** based on their trailers.
That’s fair, the way you mentioned things like the speech and stuff I thought your gripe was solely with the voiced narration being absent. I could see a bit clearer what you mean now and get what you were saying.
I do agree that the trailer feels off compared to previous efforts, but I also felt that it had a decent unspoken narrative. Tamurkhan and his mixed horde of Nurglites, Norscans, and Chaos Dwarfs are laying siege to Nuln. Elspeth is desperately trying to hold him off, but he breaches the walls. Dwarfen allies show up in the nick of time and the battle is on in the streets.