History TrailersAlwaysSpoil / Videogames

* Not quite a trailer, but those who pre-ordered ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' back in the day got an art book that, along with revealing all of the playable party members (as they were the only ones to get two pages devoted to them, along with a character synopsis,) but revealed the existence of Te'thealla, and that Zelos is its [[TheChosenOne Chosen One.]]

** To be fair, [[spoiler:the scene where Alyx is stabbed]] happens about ten to fifteen minutes into the game.

* In trailers for ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'', a certain combo count would result with an onscreen superlative of [[ViewtifulJoe VIEWTIFUL!]] Take a wild guess as to who was revealed in a subsequent trailer.
** To be fair, he also appears on the cover art too.

* Referenced in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations'', Godot mentions he doesn't like spoiling himself with trailers, and "we'll just wait and see how the movie turns out tomorrow, won't we?" when he refuses to reveal something until the trial starts.

* The trailer for the ''[[DotHack .hack//G.U.]]'' games revealed exactly who the eight Epitaph Users are and which Avatars they have.

* {{Zig Zagg|ingTrope}}ed (I think) in two different trailers for ''ProfessorLaytonAndTheLostFuture''. One shows [[spoiler: Future Layton]]'s clothes being flung away as a reveal. Anyone who played the last two games would have expected it to be [[spoiler: Don Paolo in disguise]], but it's actually [[spoiler: Doctor Stahngun/Dimitri Allen]]. Quickly afterwards, however, [[spoiler: [[MasterOfDisguise Don Paolo]] reveals himself to be disguised as the ''real'' Layton]]. In another trailer, Layton denounces [[spoiler: Stahngun]] as the villain when he discovers that [[spoiler: he is running the future London's mafia]], [[spoiler: however, the true villain of the piece is [[ManBehindTheMan Clive]]]].

** Similar case with ''DeadlyPremonition'' - [[spoiler:the first profiling sequence is a lightning-speed montage of every major twist and plot reveal.]]

* The trailer for ''GrimFandango'' spoiled the [[DeaderThanDead sproutings]] of [[spoiler: Don Copal and Lola.]]

* Referenced in ''PhoenixWrightAceAttorney - Trials and Tribulations'', Godot mentions he doesn't like spoiling himself with trailers, and "we'll just wait and see how the movie turns out tomorrow, won't we?" when he refuses to reveal something until the trial starts.
** Investigations 2 would later play this straight. The trailers make a big deal of [[spoiler: Edgeworth being offered to become a defence attorney.]] But the actual offer itself, coming at the end of case 2, is a ''major'' WhamLine if you don't see it coming. It's even spoiled at the end of the ''demo'' too. (In fact, though the demo comprises of basically the first half of Case 1, the exchange at the end doesn't take place until ''the end of Case 3'')

* A word of mouth example. If you're never played ''NicktoonsRacing'' before and want to check it out on Website/YouTube, [[SincerityMode DON'T YOU DARE READ THE COMMENTS! Seriously,]] everybody who comments on any video of that game reveal [[spoiler:Plankton]] is the mystery villain. If you don't believe us, [[YouHaveBeenWarned don't say we didn't warn you.]]

** The American manual of ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2 Sonic the Hedgehog 2]]'' has the story, but when you turn the page... ''BAM!'' The second picture shows a snapshot of the start of the final boss of the entire game, the Death Egg. If you read the manual before turning on the game, good luck getting to the Death Egg.
** The American Sonic manuals tend to have lists of all of the game's levels (even the secret final ones that must be unlocked), with screenshots and descriptions.

* The trailer for ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars Original Generation Gaiden'' shows [[SuperRobotWarsReversal Fiona Guredan]] alive, and with her final HumongousMecha. This ruins the suspense of if she survived the malfunctioning Time Flow engine when her mecha was badly damaged..

* The DS remake of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' runs into this trope headlong with its opening cinematic, its instruction manual, and even the back of the box. Square Enix must feel that all the info for a game approaching its twentieth birthday must qualify as ItWasHisSled.

*** And the Ninja example wasn't much of a spoiler to non-Japanese audiences, since ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake'' [[NoExportForYou didn't get an international release]] until ''[=MGS3=]: Subsistence''.
** Similar to the above ''Phantom Menace'' and ''Gundam SEED'' examples above, ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake'' features a track labeled [[spoiler:"Natasha's Death." (That's Gustava for those of you playing the version included in Subsistence.)]]
** {{Konami}} went to great lengths to keep Raiden a secret until the release of ''[=MGS2=]''. Unfortunately even that wasn't enough to get around different release dates and almost every British gaming magazine which ran a story on the game that featured that. In an amusing inversion, however, many magazines were able to avoid spoiling the plot by [[spoiler: making out that Snake had ''died'' on the Tanker, something the supporting characters treat as correct until halfway through]].
** The instruction manual also spells out that there will be a part of the game where you play as someone named Raiden who defuses bombs and uses a sword (it gives the controls for both). Although gamers reading it might assume that this will be a small part of the game, not the majority. But by the time the ''MGS Essential Collection'' for PS2 came out, everyone knew about Raiden, so the manual for [=MGS2=] mentions that you will be playing as Raiden for the majority.
** In ''[=MGS4=]'', the Metal Gears themselves don't play much of a role until Act 4. Screenshots showed [[spoiler:Snake in the cockpit of a reactivated, railgun-less REX and RAY in a snow-covered harbour]]. There's not much of their relevance to the plot that isn't spoilt by those facts.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'''s previews, especially its "Fight For The Lost" campaign, gave away several plot points that the game's writers appear to have intended to be surprising reveals. Jack's sex and Archangel's identity are kept secret in the game until Shepard actually meets them, and the recruitment dossier sets Shepard up to recruit Okeer instead of Grunt; unfortunately, all three characters were featured heavily in the game's marketing, with Jack and Grunt even having their own interview-style promotional videos. And of course the only way to somehow avoid knowing that [[spoiler: Shepard is dead and the Normandy blown away]] at the beginning of the game would have been to avoid every piece of media BioWare released and abandon society for a year or two.

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'' had fans upset about [[spoiler: Jill being killed]] prior to the story. One of the trailers had Wesker removing the hood off one of his goons claiming it to be "One big family reunion", making it obvious who it was.

** The American manual of VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2 has the story, but when you turn the page... '''BAM!''' The second picture shows a snapshot of the start of the final boss of the entire game, the Death Egg Robot. If you read the manual before turning on the game, good luck getting to the Death Egg Robot.

** A Sonic & Knuckles ad in English shows screenshots of Sonic and Knuckles' respective final bosses.
** [[spoiler:Metal Sonic]] is supposed to be the final boss of VideoGame/SonicHeroes and the secret BigBad manipulating things behind scenes, and the game and its manual treat him as a mysterious figure, refusing to call him by his true name until the final moments of the game. Despite all this, Sega of America heavily promoted the game with [[spoiler:Metal Sonic's]] image.
** Elise's bios in the English website of VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 gave away the fact that [[spoiler:she has Iblis inside and would release it upon crying.]] In-game, this bit of information is kept a secret until the player is well into Silver's story, with the only hint given prior to that being that Eggman wants her due to her being the key to the mystery of the Flames of Disaster.
* Averted in VideoGame/{{Uncharted}} 3 with [[spoiler:Charlie Cutter. In the trailers before the launch, Cutter is seemingly a thug for the main antagonist and they even continue this ruse into their one month multiplayer trial, where Cutter's Skin was a part of the Villains team. In the actual game, it turns out that Cutter was always a double agent; a fact that the heroes knew before the player, and his multiplayer skin is apart of the Heroes team.]]. However, it's played straight in the launch trailer, released a few days before launch, where it shows [[spoiler:Cutter planning alongside the heroes.]]

* Sega of America is a huge offender when it comes to Sonic games:

* The Genesis version of VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2's manual has the story, but when you turn the page... '''BAM!''' The second picture shows a snapshot of the start of the final boss of the entire game, the Death Egg Robot. If you read the manual before turning on the game, good luck getting to the Death Egg Robot.

* Not a trailer, but a preview nonetheless of ''VideoGame/CaveStory'''s DsIWare port in ''Magazine/NintendoPower'' casually mentions that you play as a character named [[spoiler: Quote]], something that you should only learn late in the game if you fulfilled the complex conditions needed to obtain the GoldenEnding.

* The blurb on the back of the case for ''RondoOfSwords'' spoils that you're actually playing the prince's body double, not the prince himself. This isn't as huge a spoiler as it sounds -- it's revealed after the very first stage -- but the game was very obviously written with the intention of keeping it a secret until this (early) reveal.

* Warhammer40000SpaceMarine had a rather predictable reveal, a [[spoiler: daemonic invasion headed by the chaos-infused mastermind]]. The trailer outright showed the protagonist fighting enemies which would only show up when something like that happened, spoiling the entire surprise. Not that GenreSavvy players wouldn't expect it.

* Several previews also spoiled the big twist in ''[[{{STALKER}} S.T.A.L.K.E.R.]]'' on who the player character is.