Community Trailer Critique – Rate the Videogame Trailers

[Cacher]

Youtube randomly recommended me a trailer of NTE – an upcoming character action gacha with a city open world. I heard of this game before. Many people think that it will be the next big thing in the anime gacha space. Then, I saw the view count. 3.44 millions. I can imagine that many youtubers wouldn’t be able to see this number even in their wildest dreams. In fact, many of my favorite youtubers are complaining about how Youtube algorithm affect their livelihood lately… Anyway, I clicked the button and watched it, giving it my full attention.

Let’s just say, in that 3 minutes, I saw a lot of things and listened to a terrible song. Sorry potential NTE fans, I think this trailer is pretty bad.

This makes me think: What is a good trailer? “Oh god this is good”, “Best trailer ever”, “Yoooooo this is smooth!!!”… We read a lot of these comments on forums or Youtube. But what makes a trailer good? If we have critics who review videogames, why not we also dissect videogame trailers?

Therefore, this thread is born.

Please make sure to provide the following in your post:

• Name of the game
• Trailer link
• Your comments
• Give a score (eg. 6/10)

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Here’s my contribution.

NTE (Neverness To Everness)



This trailer has neither a focus nor proper storyboard. It is a whole package of stuff stitched together into a 3-minute long video. I saw a number of characters who tried their best to look cool / mysterious / funny, but after watching I honestly know absolutely nothing about them. What are their narrative purposes? Why are they here? Gacha is usually character-centric because the developers need to ensure that the audience can get attached to the characters. They make or break a gacha game, literally. Unfortunately, this trailer makes very little effort to convince us to care about them.

The cuts of the trailer are a mess, too. For example, at 1 minute mark we saw a car broke down in front of the traffic light, but in the next shot it is literally flying off the road, with police cars on its tails. Somehow the car was mysteriously repaired on the road. In addition, it is baffling that they did not show more about the city itself – because an open world game with a city is not common in the gacha genre. I can safely say that this is the biggest differentiation of NTE when compared with Genshin or Wuthering Waves, but somehow, this trailer is still largely about the characters but not about the city.

3/10. Not my intention to open this thread with a negative review. I can’t help but voice my disappointment. This does not deserve 3.44 million views.

 

[Ascheroth]

Did you just enable me to post tons of Hoyo trailers? Lol.

Don't know if this is intended to be "larger" game/season trailers only or stuff like individual character trailers is fine too, but I'm gonna open it up with a character trailer regardless

Honkai Star Rail


Came out last week, 1.9 million views right now.
Probably one of the best trailers they ever made. Hoyo almost always have great editing and music, but this one has a much bigger narrative focus and it hits hard.
I'm not sure how well it works without context, but I'd like to think it's crafted to be understandable well enough - and it just hits harder with that context.
I... am not entirely sure what to comment much on it other than music, editing, voice acting and framing is all excellent, or how much I should go into explaining how the imagery and symbolism relate to the story.
9/10

 

[Cacher]

Did you just enable me to post tons of Hoyo trailers? Lol.

Don't know if this is intended to be "larger" game/season trailers only or stuff like individual character trailers is fine too, but I'm gonna open it up with a character trailer regardless

Go ahead. Review whatever you want.

 

[Cacher]

Bringing this thread back from the dead

Marvel’s Wolverine - Gameplay Trailer (11.24 million views)



Sony is the hottie on MC during the past few weeks, so let's look at one of their games. In the modern era, Sony games are known for their "third-person cinematic actions". Wolverine is no different - and it surely is the perfect subject for this subset.

This reveal trailer was definitely a nice watch. Let's face the truth: most people around the globe learnt about the character Wolverine from the X-Men movies, so it should not be a surprise that this trailer intentionally shares many similarities to productions from the Hollywood - a deep voice narrating the premise and struggle of our hero, with scenes perfectly matching what's being narrated. "I'd like to say I'm not a violent man", proceeding to cut people into pieces; "doesn't matter where I go", then showing multiple locations at different times of day. The violence, the killing, the running, the flying - all signify that this game is filled with constant, heart-pumping actions that put you on edge every single minute.

Once you understand what will you do in the game, the trailer drops the characters - Mystique, Omega Red, and multiple alleged bosses. "Do you recognize these characters? They are in the game!" At the second last moment, we see a close-up the classic yellow suit, then the trailer immediately cut to the title. Yes, the claw man in yellow is back. Right after the title, they present one final hook - a menacing robot emerges from the ground. A threat, a very big threat. But our hero can overcome it. We know he can.

This trailer hypes you up, and yet, it isn't perfect. Seriously, what are those opening scenes? The editor handpicked a few seconds from the 1:51 minute-long trailer and put them at the front. What's the point showing those split seconds twice in such a short trailer? Are they being used to entice those people who randomly stumble onto a freaking Wolverine videogame trailer on YouTube? This trailer without those opening scenes was perfect as-is. Unfortunately, their addition only serves as another tragic reminder of modern viewership's short attention span.

9/10