NEW Three Kingdoms Total War Trailer!
Cao Cao, a man who was equally full of cunning, ambition and ruthlessness. A man of ability who generously valued those of abilities. A man who was half tiger and half fox, absolutely contemptuous of conventions and full of strange mirths, who shifted between a bloodless villain and a Byronic hero. A man who would have been the undisputed master of the post Han world if not for a realm of worthy heroes who opposed him.
This will be a quick, the new trailer for Three Kingdoms Total War is out and features my favorite Machiavellian anti-hero (anti villain?) Cao Cao as the main character of the trailer. Go check it out!!!
Show your support, you can pre-order the game here.
Also, props for the way armors looked in this trailer, I am liking everything I have seen so far, the rich intrigue filled narrative, the depth of the interpersonal dynamics, how it combines two of my favorite settings and franchises together.
I truly appreciate the amount of dedication that went into this and the fact that someday it could be good enough to be used as a touchstone for this setting. I am also loving the fact there would be a more historically accurate Classics Mode. All in all, I'm stoked, take your time CA, take as long as you need. Make something great.
TAKE MY MONEY!
Also, if you are curious about the armors of the post Three Kingdoms period, please check out this article I wrote months ago.
Comments
I noticed both armors that strongly reminisced of Qin and Tang influences, Cao Cao had a lieutenant that looked like he had Qin officer's armor, and Xiahou Dun was wearing Tang era armor and from the first trailer Dong Zhou was wearing Song era heavy cavalry armor. But I'd gotta say, just this trailer alone makes me so much happier than the first trailer, they did a lot of research with the aesthetics, the way Cao Cao's camp looked, the way Yuan Shao's armor looked, Cao Cao's Eastern Han courtier design, and how cities looked gave me tremendous hope.
Speaking of styles, I mean most of China's depiction of the 3 Kingdoms period from the 50s-90s had them look like they were from the Song and Ming period, so Japan was just influenced by that. Even games that tried to be very period accurate about the Han armor- like Tiger Knight, still had units that looked like they were from the Qin and Tang periods.
A slightly bigger one came from what I saw was a counter weight tribuchet during the siege rather than traction tribuchet- counter weight tribuchets were not native to China but brought in from Persia during the Mongol invasions of Song in the 13th century, while traction ones were invented natively and used by Cao Cao.
Still, I'm both hopeful and patient with all the changes they have made so far. I loved the idea of a Classic Mode while keeping a Romanced Mode, I have wanted an option for both and it seemed they read my mine. They would commit to polish it rather than rush works out. Plus- for the armor and aesthetics, so long as there is a robust modding options out there I'm pretty sure there would be a variety of mods that would satisfy even the most discriminatory of players.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=13&v=jQX6qBiCu9E
Funny thing is I kind of wrote off the series for just another one of the many many medieval Europe- Feudal Japan fests like most games out there. Or literally any other nerd culture mediums out there from concept art to comics to pop history segments to animation. I remember the countless times I mentioned the idea of simply including China in a Total War game or have China as a setting on many comment sections and gotten shut down repeatedly until I stopped trying. Then I started this blog lol. But this does pique my interest and I think if For Honor patch the factions right I will go and buy it on Steam. The breach mode with Kings looks fun as hell.
😊
https://forhonor.ubisoft.com/game/en-us/news-community/152-327176/get-for-honor-starter-edition-free-on-uplay-console-versions-on-sale-during-e3
No comment on Japanese armour. The woman wears typical foot soldier armour but the “samurai” is unarmoured.
The mongols... I don’t know. Quite stereotypical. They should have Chinese and Korean troops too if you want historical accuracy.
Good question Henrique, I've actually actively followed that game ever since it was announced, I also really love the concept art the game had. The first trailer had mostly accurate samurai armor and Mongol armor and I was super stoked. But the recent E3 one...chipped away my enthusiasm somewhat.
Namely the samurai fights way too much like an infantry swordsman rather than what they still were during the Kamakura Shogunate and the Hojo recency- elites heavy mounted archers. Even as early as the founding of the Ashikaga Shogunate most of the samurais were still mounted warriors. The swords should have a tassel on their end. Some might call it a nitpick but compared to what I saw in the first trailer, the E3 trailer lowered my expectations in terms of historical accuracy.
The most alarming thing I noticed is how the Mongols soldiers just drew their sword and rushed towards the main character without having any of them firing a single shot. The Mongols were some of the best archers in the world and during all phase of the invasion they should have many impressed Chinese and Korean spearmen with spear and wooden shields but none of that was seen. They also have bomb slings and grenades. To have them just rush in and fight the samurai on his own terms is kind of convinient for me. And even from a game player- game design's perspective they still could have done something interesting. I have worked on games so I know that having enemies that actively tries to deny your strength could create interesting interplay dynamics (especially after you start to kill them and your reputation as a deadly swordsman develops.) I hope there will be enough different kind of enemies to not be a procession of ragdolls waiting to be sliced like a feudal version of Metal Gear Revengeance.
Oh- perhaps most telling of all, my Mongolian friend messaged me that he barely understood a single world from the "Mongols" in the game. All gibberish to him. He was really interested in the game but I think he will not be getting it.