YMMV / A Total War Saga: TROY

• Audience-Alienating Premise: The game tended to struggle for a while with finding an audience, due to the rather odd approach it took of "the facts behind the myth"—that is to say, it's based on the mythologized era of Mycenaean Greece, but attempts to interpret the myths as having potential "realistic" origins (i.e. centaurs exist, but they're just horse-mounted cavalry). This left the game as something of a feathered fish, because fans who wanted a strictly historical recreation of Mycenaean warfare found the game remained rather fantastical and strange (i.e. hero units and generals capable of One-Man Army feats reminiscent of the Iliad), and fans who wanted essentially Age of Mythology but in the Total War style found the concept of, say, a minotaur being a big guy with a bull skull helmet to be incredibly lame. Notably, one of the first big expansions the game got, the MYTHOS DLC, more or less threw out the concept in favor of providing two new modes: one all-historical mode with the superpowered hero units and divine powers cut out, and one all-mythology mode where genuine hydras and cyclopes run amok on the battlefield.
• Broken Base:
  • Strangely enough, despite a generally positive reception, the game managed to anger both sides of the "History or Fantasy" debate when it was announced. The fans of fantasy, who expected something akin to Age of Mythology, were severely disappointed by the downplaying of mythological elements, such as making the "monsters" more realistic (for example the Minotaur is actually a man wearing a bull's skull as a hat), their relative scarcity, and the Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane approach, but the fans of historical titles were quite displeased at how many fantastical elements were still present, such as Hero Units, generals having abilities and being One-Men Armies, and how the Gods give actual blessings.
    • However, the Mythos DLC helped reconcile both sides by adding two different game modes that allow you to either go full myth or full historical, while still keeping the "Behind the Myth" option for those who want it.
  • Another smaller source of anger was the decision to keep the game exclusive to the Epic Store for a year. Again, the Mythos DLC made up for this when players realized that with the DLC (and accompanying free patch), the situation was akin to a re-release of the game.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: A video game adaptation of Romance of the Three Kingdoms followed up by an adaptation of The Iliad sounds a lot like the Dynasty Warriors series and its little-known spin-off Warriors: Legends of Troy.
• Spiritual Licensee: It's basically a video game adaptation of Troy.
• Uncertain Audience: The game's initial approach caused it to suffer heavily during its early years from the presence to two conflicting expectations over what it should be. One major faction wanted it to depict the actual battles of the iconic, yet relatively undepicted, Mycenaean Greek war era in a way that would make them feel as if they were actually there, while the other faction wanted it to be a showcase of the miracles and monsters of Classical Mythology in all their splendor. As it ultimately turned out, the initial approach failed to please either side, with the history enthusiasts being turned off by the presence of 'mythical' units that were never present in the real life battles of the Mycenaean Greek era, the mythology enthusiasts being turned off by how they'd wanted the real mythical monsters instead of the poor man's imitations present in the original campaign, and the people who were actually on board with the initial 'truth behind the myth' approach being turned off by the fact that there were still mythic heroes and godly powers present in the gameplay. Ultimately, the game finally found a proper audience after the launch of the Mythos DLC that rebranded the initial vanilla campaign as "Behind the Myth" mode while also including a "Historical" mode that removed the mythical units and heavily altered the mechanics behind the hero units and godly powers, and a "Mythological" mode that remodeled all the mythical units into the actual mythical monsters they were supposed to represent while also adding in several additional fantastical beasts that hadn't been present in the initial campaign.
• Win Back the Crowd: The "Fact Behind the Myth" approach had left many fans disillusioned by Troy who were hoping to see some of the famous monsters that were believed to exist in the era. But with the announcement of the Mythos DLC, CA has decided to make an effort to bring existing players back into the game along with some new ones.
• WTH, Costuming Department?: The Amazons' clothing and armor are based off of the Thracians' and Scythians' that are believed to be possible historical links to the Amazons' legends. Unfortunately, some sorts of said clothing rather resembles pyjamas◊ and makes a number of the Amazons' Light units look like they appeared armed at the World's Largest Slumber Party.

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