KH3's awful marketing

[vrovvv 8]

Kh3 was marketed in a terrible way and after letting the game sit for a while it really became clear to me. 

First of all, mostly everyone has now realized that the game was totally, undoubtedly spoiled by its own trailers. I trusted square. I was one of the people who didn't believe they were showing much...but when I got the game...oh my god where can I even start. I cannot describe the disservice the last few trailers did to the keyblade graveyard segment. Can you even imagine, how much of an impact the scene where everyone "dies" would have if the trailers hadn't shown anything past that point? Its literally a scene where almost every character we know and love is dying before us and I felt NOTHING. Absolutely nothing. Why? Because Nomura wasn't responsible with what he showed and we had already seen these characters alive for other scenes which we could now realize had to come later. What a disaster. The emotional weight of the scene was absent due to us knowing that everyone is gonna be fine. Not just assuming from a narrative standpoint. Knowing for a fact they would cause of the trailers. 

Lingering will...why...just why.. Why would they ever show him in a trailer. Its a character that half of the fanbase doesn't even know whether he's canon or not. Nobody knew he 'd be returning. Just imagine experiencing that scene without that knowledge. Just a shame. 

The final world was revealed like what, 3 months before the release? Yeah OK that's smart. Making one of the most unpredictable parts of the story lose its punch by showing it in a trailer. And don't give me that "oh we didn't know what it was tho". Literally everyone called it. Everyone thought that sora was either dead or really close to dying.

Roxas, Xion. I'm just gonna leave this here...cause oh my god...why. What is wrong with you square..two of the best written characters..one of which had a death scene that unlike litteraly the entirety of the other kh death scenes, felt somewhat real and permanent. Why should I know, before I even buy your stupid ass game that they are both back....what is actually wrong with yall. Why rob me of that reveal. Jesus Christ.

I'm sorry this was long. I'm just sorry in general.

Spoiler

 

 

[matteso586 115]

If the marketing is terrible, then why did it exceed sales expectations?

[Dustin Lübbers 933]

24 minutes ago, matteso586 said:

If the marketing is terrible, then why did it exceed sales expectations?

he was  talking more about the story aspect

[Deathscythe 31]

yeah i had this problem to. were they afraid it wouldn't sell enough copies? longtime fans would've bought it anyway and newcomers wouldn't care. weird decision

[vrovvv 8]

23 minutes ago, Deathscythe said:

yeah i had this problem to. were they afraid it wouldn't sell enough copies? longtime fans would've bought it anyway and newcomers wouldn't care. weird decision

Honestly, new comers didn't buy the game for the kh story shown in the trailers. New comers saw the Disney stuff and thought it might be cool. I'm pretty sure the reason they showed so much was a generall overconfidence that the game had so much to offer story wise that what they showed was unimportant. Which as I said is just plain wrong and hurt our experience with the game really bad

Edited May 13, 2019 by vrovvv

[Movies798 1,358]

I understand what you are saying. I was one of the KH fan camp who I believed they didn't reveal too much of Kingdom Hearts 3. Now after playing Kingdom Hearts 3 a few times, I will say that while they didn't revealed everything of the game's main plot in the trailers, but they definitely gave away most of the cool and exciting scenes in the trailers. In my opinion, they should've never revealed the Anti-Aqua scene in the Frozen trailer, or show off some of the Keyblade Graveyard scenes, and they never shouldn't release the Final Trailer or Final Battle trailer? They gave away most of the exciting scenes that shouldn't been kept a secret so players can surprised when they play the full game on release day. However, I will say the previous Kingdom Hearts games marketing were pretty much the same. They wanted to created the hype so both fans and newcomers to buy the game. Yeah hopefully the next Kingdom Hearts game doesn't make the same mistake like Kingdom Hearst 3. And as for Roxas and Xion? Well I definitely respect that but I'm glad they're back. I think there's some potential to play as Roxas and Xion as the new playable characters in some new Kingdom Hearts games. After all I do want to play other playable characters besides Sora.

Edited May 14, 2019 by Movies798

[vrovvv 8]

7 hours ago, Movies798 said:

I understand what you are saying. I was one of the KH fan camp who I believed they didn't reveal too much of Kingdom Hearts 3. Now after playing Kingdom Hearts 3 a few times, I will say that while they didn't revealed everything of the game's main plot in the trailers, but they definitely gave away most of the cool and exciting scenes in the trailers. In my opinion, they should've revealed the Anti-Aqua scene in the Frozen trailer, or show off some of the Keyblade Graveyard scenes, and they never shouldn't release the Final Trailer or Final Battle trailer? They gave away most of the exciting scenes that shouldn't been kept a secret so players can surprised when they play the full game on release day. However, I will say the previous Kingdom Hearts games marketing were pretty much the same. They wanted to created the hype so both fans and newcomers to buy the game. Yeah hopefully the next Kingdom Hearts game doesn't make the same mistake like Kingdom Hearst 3. And as for Roxas and Xion? Well I definitely respect that but I'm glad they're back. I think there's some potential to play as Roxas and Xion as the new playable characters in some new Kingdom Hearts games. After all I do want to play other playable characters besides Sora.

Dude, im with you on them coming back. I love that they did. I hate that I knew that they would, months before the release

[SweetYetSalty 330]

Looking back I agree that the trailers showed too much. The Frozen and Pirates trailers were more then enough for me to get me hyped. So after seeing those two trailers I was onboard. However some things they had to show to get the hype. Anti-Aqua was one of those things that really got the KH community buzzing, and it was smart to reveal the "too late" scene. But beyond that they shouldn't have shown anything else from Aqua in trailers.

I agree that Roxas and Xion shouldn't have been shown at all in trailers.Especially since that was their only screentime in the game too. I am fine with the 13 Seekers being shown with their hoods up because at least then you don't know for sure who it is and can still generate hype. And yes you can guess from their body sizes but you'd be surprised how many people still got the final lineup wrong by going by the hoods up.

I wouldn't have shown Terranort or Lingering Will either. And nothing from the Final Battle Trailer.

But to be honest most KH trailers reveal too much. I remember DDD's trailers spoiling too much too.

Edited May 14, 2019 by SweetYetSalty

[Mystics Apprentice 2,397]

I honestly tried to avoid watching trailers, because I was quite concerned that too much would be revealed.  I also like to be surprised about most of the content in the game, so I don't even like knowing which worlds are coming.

I think their marketing tactic was to get people hooked on the game by feeding tidbits of information over the span of years, growing hype so that people would definitely get the game at release.  However, I entirely agree and think too much was revealed–and I haven't even seen all of the trailers!

[CaptFancyPants 6]

I had this exact same feeling too. I wouldn't have felt so "meh" about my first experience with the plot of KHIII if the trailers hadn't basically given away the entire storyline. I'm so happy I avoided the last few trailers so most of the Keyblade Graveyard section was a surprise to me, especially Scala Ad Caelum. 
The way I see it, the bits and pieces of plot given in the trailers are like puzzle pieces. Players will remember which pieces they've already been given as they play through the game, and will be able to figure out what the rest of the puzzle looks like as they continue if they were given too many pieces. 
I was really hoping more would be revealed on how Riku and Mickey get their Keyblades, more plot would be given in-between Disney worlds. I don't think what we got in KHIII was necessarily bad, but I think they made too many promises for the marketing and spoiled too much of the game. From this point on I'm not going to be watching any new trailers for games / DLC beyond the first trailer.

[2 quid is good 2,209]

As soon as E3 popped round and we saw that gauntlet of trailers I knew it was too much. After that I tried my best to avoid the trailers but seeing all of my friends discussing them eventually chipped away at my resolve and after a day or half a day I'd watch them. I deeply regret not listening to my instincts.

Aside from these trailers however, I have another issue with the general marketing campaign for KH3 (social media/TV adverts). They were just far too Disney. Look at every single previous KH TV spot, they all go a little something like this:

Pegi 12

*ping* Square Enix

*insert Utada music here*

Nice deep cool voice over about never knowing what'll happen next

Montage of story and gameplay Kingdom Hearts xxxx

Available now on xxxxx

Now look at KH3's TV spot, it's just a recut version of that awwwfuuul cheesy cinema trailer with such a generic "we must save the worlds from evil" voiceover. I've heard that Americans liked the cheesiness but it felt so wrong to me, I've always known KH trailers to be wonderfully abstract, and they show equal amounts of Disney and square in them. This one didn't even have an utada song playing in the background, let alone showing cool KH stuff.

[vrovvv 8]

On 5/16/2019 at 1:54 PM, 2 quid is good said:

As soon as E3 popped round and we saw that gauntlet of trailers I knew it was too much. After that I tried my best to avoid the trailers but seeing all of my friends discussing them eventually chipped away at my resolve and after a day or half a day I'd watch them. I deeply regret not listening to my instincts.

Aside from these trailers however, I have another issue with the general marketing campaign for KH3 (social media/TV adverts). They were just far too Disney. Look at every single previous KH TV spot, they all go a little something like this:

Pegi 12

*ping* Square Enix

*insert Utada music here*

Nice deep cool voice over about never knowing what'll happen next

Montage of story and gameplay Kingdom Hearts xxxx

Available now on xxxxx

Now look at KH3's TV spot, it's just a recut version of that awwwfuuul cheesy cinema trailer with such a generic "we must save the worlds from evil" voiceover. I've heard that Americans liked the cheesiness but it felt so wrong to me, I've always known KH trailers to be wonderfully abstract, and they show equal amounts of Disney and square in them. This one didn't even have an utada song playing in the background, let alone showing cool KH stuff.

The overall game was more Disneyfied.  That in it self is a huge problem in more ways than one. But the most noticeable difference for me is the complete disregard for the original worlds. The game had literally 0 original worlds worth exploring. While all the love went into creating the Disney ones, making them as faithful, beautiful and expansive as they ended up being. The original worlds are so half assed its actually hilarious. Proper jokes

[ienzo628 548]

I am really hoping the DLC cleans up the original worlds and plots. 

[vrovvv 8]

On 5/22/2019 at 8:29 AM, ienzo628 said:

I am really hoping the DLC cleans up the original worlds and plots. 

Me too but relying on dlc for that is a pretty low bar for kh

[ienzo628 548]

2 hours ago, vrovvv said:

Me too but relying on dlc for that is a pretty low bar for kh

Agreed.