Never Trust a Trailer/Video Games: Difference between revisions

** Catacylsm showcased the new Path of the Titans system, which would, with the help of the new Archaeology profession, help streamline the character by adding new sidequest-only glyphs. It was converted into the Medium Glyph system, at least for the moment.

* Almost every Playstation 1 game that contained CGI cutscenes was made to look like that's what the gameplay would be like. While this wasn't exclusive to PSX1, the storage capacity of the CD compared to the relatively weak real-time rendering power led to this happening a lot.

* Taken to a science by ''[[Metal Gear]]'' director [[Hideo Kojima]], most notably in the campaign for ''Metal Gear Solid'' 2 and 3. In ''MGS2'', the main character was going to be the new character Raiden, but the general expectation of the audience, furthered by very selective news releases, was that it would be Solid Snake. Konami released extensive gameplay information and footage, but only from the game's prologue segment, when the player really does control Snake. When video was shown from later in the story (when Raiden would be the main character), footage was edited together, using out-of-context clips and dialogue, to almost completely hide the real main character from the audience -- except for a few teasing flashes of his face behind the mask of a ninja. One scene showing Snake fighting the boss Fortune was footage from a hypothetical sequence serving as a metaphor for the [[Mind Screw]] the main character was suffering, and the real battle was fought by Raiden.

** MGS3 parodies this in the very beginning, where when you first land in the jungle(after selecting "I liked MGS2" from the New Game menu), Naked Snake is wearing a convincing "Raiden" mask, likely causing more than a few fans' hearts to skip a beat.

*** To understand how over the top the trailers could get, Etna announce in one that the [[Everything Is Better With Penguins|Prinnies]] will [[Fusion Dance|fuse]] to transform into [[Humongous Mecha|Pringer X]]. Not only that but they go as far as showing you in game screenshot of your characters fighting and being attacked by Pringer X, the damage counter being shown as well. You could be easily forgiven if afterward [[Like You Would Really Do It|you didn't believed the serious trailers afterward]].

** This tradition was resurrected for ''Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice'', with a different character voicing each 'Next Episode' spoof, each of which was declared to be the 'Final Episode' of the imaginary series. And, true to the tradition, the ACTUAL Final Chapter had a completely honest trailer, right down to being declared as the Final Episode...

*** Another example would be the game's introduction movie, which ends with a [[Team Shot]] including Axel, which might lead you into thinking he's a part of the team. {{spoiler|He doesn't officially join until the post-game, and mostly plays a supporting role until then.}}

** And in ''Disgaea Infinite'' leave the game on at the title screen and the demo will show a trailer for... ''Disgaea: Hour of Darkness''! Laharl and Etna are not happy with the trailer, stating some things were lost in it...

** ''Halo 3'' seemed to be going this route, but you actually did spend nearly half the game fighting the Covenant invasion on Earth and [[Genre Savvy|most fans knew]] the game would take place on the Ark in some fashion.

** Played ''gloriously'' straight with the cutscene showing opening of the Voi portal: the first ever Halo 3 trailer showed Master chief looking at the structure from a cliff, while a huge Covenant fleet flies over his head and moves into position around it as the gateway fires up. If the actual game, the same scene is re-enacted with Master Chief looking from the cliff, while a ''human'' bomber wing flies to blast the hell out of the Prophet's ship as Lord Hood calls in an attack with several starships' MAC guns... [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|awesome]]!

** Please see [[Descending Ceiling]] for another fan-made pack that includes this in its entirety (''with spikes'').

* ''[[Time Hollow]]'' on the DS' trailer culminates with one of the main characters falling seemingly to her death, only for the main character to dramatically grab her hand mid-air, still falling. In-game the scene is never used, and while the girl does fall, all the main character does is reach out through a portal while time is stopped and pull her through.

* Nintendo's ads for ''[[Earthbound]]'' pushed the [[Toilet Humor]] harder than anything else with the infamous "this game stinks!" ad campaign; it memorably declared its subject to be "the first RPG with BO", which it...''isn't''. As ''anyone'' who played the game will tell you, the humor is much more intelligent and subtle, with only a few potty jokes here and there. Financial reports indicate that Nintendo put ''millions'' into this misguided campaign. It backfired spectacularly and the game became a financial disaster for Nintendo, to the point where they're [[No Export for You|highly reluctant]] to take another chance on the franchise even though it's since become one of the most beloved [[Cult Classic]] games.

* The opening trailer for ''Oneechanbara Vortex'' shows clips from the game, including a rather cool scene of Aya saving Saki from an attacker by running into him with a motorcycle. Except that in the actual game, it's not returning [[Token Mini-Moe]] and Heel Face Turned ex-[[Big Bad]] Saki, but newcomer Anna who is saved in this manner.

* The Tekken 5 trailer. "Heihachi Mishima...is dead." {{spoiler|No he isn't.}}.

* In ''[[I Wanna Be the Guy]]'', the list of items in the game fulfills this trope. The trick? Most of that shit ''is'' in the game, just not as items.

* Parodied and lampshaded in ''[[Tsukihime|Kagetsu Tohya]]'' with the Imogirisou trailer and sidestory. The side story is unlocked with a bizarre dreaming involving a fake Shiki, murders, Akiha's ex fiance and numerous other things, and when the game starts it has absolutely nothing to do with anything in the 'trailer' dream. Shiki gets irritated at how the story he's in now is even less interesting than the one he had a dream about. For clarification, the side story is something of a [[Take That]] to another series of games that hasn't been released outside Japan, called Otogirisou, which is made by Chun-soft, rather friendly game maker to Kinoko nasu (he made a side story to their visual novel later too).

* ''[[Sam and Max]]: The Devil's Playhouse: They Stole Max's Brain!'' was presented by all pre-release information as a [[Noir Episode|Film Noir]] [[Pastiche]], showing an angry, [[Perma Stubble|unshaven]] Sam charging around through [[Dutch Angle|Dutch Angles]] in the rain and [[Unnaturally Blue Lighting|the dark]]. It was!... [[Fake-Out Opening|for the first twenty minutes]], after which it dropped all of the [[Film Noir]] tropes and turned into a [[Gag Series|straightforward comedy]] about a boy Pharaoh [[Reality Warper]] posessing Max's body and using [[Psychic Powers]] to brainwash Sam and turn Manhattan into Ancient Egypt. The screenshots on the official site were even rotated at Noirish angles and [[Hollywood Darkness|tinted blue]], so there was no knowing about the [[Halfway Plot Switch]].

** Parodied in the trailer for ''Moai Better Blues'', which is [[In the Style Of]] a ''Girls Gone Wild'' commercial, complete with [[Censor Box|Censor Boxes]] covering up [[Nonhumans Lack Attributes|Max's totally SFW nudity]] and 'point and clicking action', and [[Machinima]] showing things like [[Fan Disservice|Max shaking his censored rump at the screen, drinking and shouting "WOOOOOO"]].

* The early trailers for [[Catherine]] implied that it was a bird's eye view horror-adventure-puzzler. Now we find out it's a [[Nightmare Fuel]]-Speed-Puzzle-Platformer. Yes, a platformer, one with vertical platforming about a guy running and climbing for his life in his underpants, all while trying to evade gluttonous demons and rack up a high score. Yes.

* [[Aion]] was regarded as a new wave of video gaming featuring beautiful enviroments and characters flying freely...only to be shot down when you learn the game was a typical korean grindfest, most of the world is hideos past the one or two areas shot specifically in the trailers, and flight is limited to certain areas in the game, and timed to one minute base, after which they'd dissapear and send you plummeting to your doom. Granted, the character customization is one of the best out there, but that doesn't really change the fact.

* The trailer for ''[[Super Scribblenauts]]'' shows a boy creating a huge, living skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Too bad you can't even make something remotely like that in the game, for if you type in "giant skeletal tyrannosaurus", all you get is a big normal tyrannosaurus with bones painted all over its body. Lame.

** Try "Living Fossil".

* ''[[Suikoden V]]'' had you thinking that Queen Arshtat was the main villain of the entire game. {{spoiler|She gets killed a few hours in, and it is actually one of the most [[Tear Jerker]] moments of the game.}}

* Castlevaina: Dawn of Sorrow trailer could be slightly counted as this. Most notably the area that you face one boss is changed, as well as other enemies in odd areas. It does stay away from showing any area that wasn't in the game.

* ''Blood Omen: [[Legacy of Kain]]'': [[Subverted]] in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF0ilULgn7M this] trailer. {{spoiler|The trailer makes it look like Mortanius is stabbing Kain in the back when he's actually pulling the sword out of him. [[Foreshadowing|But it turns out he's the one who arranged for him to murdered in the first place]].}}

* The ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog]]'' game trailers all show extensive footage of Shadow riding that snazzy motorbike of his. In the game, the bike is only available in one level, is a hidden item, and has probably got the worst handling of any vehicle in the game.

** While on the subject, one of the trailers for the game is done up like a propaganda video for the Purity First movement, portraying the game as a straightforward fight against an evil corporation (Sarif) and it's twisted technology which has enslaved the world. In truth the game is far more ambigious with the main cast all working for Sarif (who turn out to not be so bad afterall.)

* [http://www.gametrailers.com/video/exclusive-us-record-of/60352 This trailer] of ''[[Record of Agarest War]]'' makes it like the game is a naughty [[Hentai|eroge]] on a home console and a turn-based strategy being its second purpose. While the game do features sim dating system and suggestive CG, the main plot of the game is a regular no-nonsense war and politic genre. There isn't even a full nudity in the game like how the triller misleaded by using pixelization.

* ''[[Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet]]''. None of its trailer is included in the game. It's as if it was a project proposal for the unique aesthetics and graphic style of the game.

** Additionally, the trailers made it look like {{spoiler|Medusa would be the game's [[Big Bad]]. Before the game is even two-fifths finished, it's revealed that [[The Man Behind the Man|Hades is the real]] [[Big Bad]].}}

*** This particular lie is continued by ''the game itself'', which even rolls credits before the revelation.

* The trailer for ''[[Poker Night At the Inventory]]'' has a scene in which [[Penny Arcade|Tycho's]] eyes [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|glow red]] like they do in the comic he's from. This animation was made without the game engine, his eyes never glow red in-game because the game engine does not support it. ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6HN3TsI8cw Here is a link to the trailer, skip to about 0:39 for the scene])