Total War: THREE KINGDOMS - Liu Bei Launch Trailer

A hero rises as a nation crumbles. With Han dynasty blood flowing through his veins and a heart that beats only for the good of his country, Liu Bei stands unwavering against incredible odds. His foes have more money, more troops, more weapons, and more land. But Liu Bei? He has the people…

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Video type: Trailer

[Keyboard_Monkey]

I love the imagery of him protecting the people and them literally lifting him up while he was down, pushing him beyond what he can accomplish alone. That honestly is Liu Bei summerized perfectly.

[fern]

"My people can abandon me. But I will not abandon my people!"

[sundaylee]

the gamer community in China is very shocked by the music quality of total war three kingdoms, all lyrics in trailer music are from ancient Chinese novels and poems, CA really put huge amount of works into this game

[trieutran]

Anyone notice the lack of narrating from Liu Bei. Like in other faction leader trailer, they all talked about their thing and why they are great but not Liu Bei. In Liu Bei, Action speaks louder than words.

[andrewpaedia]

The lyrics are based on Li Bai's 8th Century poem "Arduous Trails to Shu" (蜀道難)! Thanks CA for this nice trailer

[yyu]

I got chills when everyone lifted Lui Bei back up together :')

[CrowsNestGamer]

The music is incredible Total War, you've really done a flawless job with it!

[barbiquearea]

Record of the Three Kingdoms by Chen Shou:



"The Lord was a kinda person who understood the problems, treated people nicely, so his personality was very similar to Liu Bang (the founder of the Han Dynasty), and he was indeed a hero. He held the whole country and his son and he gave them to Zhuge Liang with full trust. He had no second heart but full of honesty to his followers which is remarkable by both the current and the ancient standards. He was smart and tactical, powerful, no lesser than the Emperor of the Wei Dynasty (Cao Cao), though his base and starting point were worse than Cao Cao’s. Yet he didn’t get down by troubles and didn’t stay down as the follower of someone else. When he noticed that others didn’t tolerate him, his first thinking was not to compete but to avoid the conflict."

[张意其]

看见刘皇叔我眼泪都流下来了😭
As a fan of Liu Bei since I was seven years old, my tear rolled down when saw him in the trailer.

[quintilius]

That soundtrack OMG! i want a separate video just to listen to it!

[BlueFalcon]

This is why Liu Bei has been admired by common peoples almost thousand years. He's a people's hero. Fighting and taking tremendous risk for his people. When he falls, his brothers, comrades, and the peoples make him rise up again. The greatest Total War trailer since Hannibal at the Gates.

[ChristofCube]

I-It's Liu Bei! Liu Bei has come to liberate us!

[UniqueConformity]

This has topped my list of all-time favorite trailers. I love the small nuances found throughout the video. These are just my interpretations and observations from start to finish.

0:05 An exhausted Liu Bei sets his 2 swords down. He exemplifies tenacity and an unwavering spirit by continuing to fend off soldiers with a single sword.

0:09 Liu Bei, metaphorically and literally, walks towards the very peril that everyone else must run from.

0:12 A peasant in green falls to his knees; Liu Bei offers a helping hand. Every life is sacred. Every life matters.

0:18 Zhang Fei's little wink <3.

0:20 A daunting warlord. An overwhelming force. A hopeless endeavor.

0:23 Guan Yu glances at Liu Bei. Much like Zhang Fei, Liu's sworn brothers are always there, supporting his every aspiration. It's not about glory, it's about oaths and friendships.

0:26 Liu Bei glances back at the fleeing common folk. If Liu Bei's small cohort falls here, it will not be for naught.

0:35 A defeated Liu Bei lays to rest. 3 Tiger Generals pull him to his feet. A dejected and doubtful Liu Bei is surrounded by the common folk he stood by. Zhuge Liang can be seen to the left. Perhaps this was all a part of Zhuge's masterplan?

0:44 The green peasant who once fell to his knees in terror, now kneels willingly to support the only Lord who cares. The peasant offers a sword, the people's hope and will, for Liu Bei to take and guide to salvation.

0:51 A reinvigorated Liu Bei picks up the sword offered to him and against all odds, rides out against the giant that is Wei.

I've probably watched this more than a hundred times. Thank you CA for blessing us with such a feat, that is this game. Thank you China for enduring through the hardest of times and recording/creating the masterpiece that is The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

[chimiyayuki]

English translation of the lyrics: "The road to Shu is hard, harder than climbing the sky. When earth collapsed and the mountain crashed, the muscled warriors died. It was after that when the ladders to heaven were linked together with timber and stone" (Credit: Elling O. Eide) The lyric is an excerpt of a famous poem from Li Bai, one of the greatest poets in China. The poem, "The Road to Shu is Hard"(蜀道难), is originally a piece depicting the difficulty to enter the region of "Shu"(蜀), aka Sichuan, since the Sichuan Basin is encircled by great mountains separating it from the rest of China. CA apparently took an alternative interpretation, making "Shu" a pun referring to both the region and Liu Bei's regime. Really clever!

[Arsha]

Zhuge Liang: My lord, we have to retreat, leave them now. If not Cao Cao will catch up in no time.
Liu Bei: I rather die along side my people than leave them. Land can be established but does it have any meaning when there's no people. My people can abandon me but I'll not abandon my people.
Edited: Forgot the reference (Three Kingdom, 2010)

[robertduy]

Liu Bei will be my first Warlord in Three Kingdoms Total War!!!!

[Ram-pwos]

I will probably get the game for its soundtrack alone. Beautiful and spellbinding.
It is great that CA understands the importance of music in its games.

[hongjian]

Perhaps the true Three Kingdoms were the friends we made on the way...

[amosl]

Lyrics from google:
蜀道难
Shǔ dào nán
The difficulty of the Shu Road

作者: 李白
Author: Li Bai

　
噫吁戏，危乎高哉！
Ah, yikes! So dangerous, so high! ( 乎 classic particle to show astonishment; 哉 exclamatory particle)

蜀道之难，难于上青天！
The difficulty of the Shu Road is more difficult than going up to the blue sky. ( 于 conjunction -than )

蚕丛及鱼凫，开国何茫然。
Can Cong and Yu Fu, their founding of the state of (Shu) is so obscure. (According to legend, both Can Cong and Yu Fu are the names of ancient rulers of Shu; 开国何茫然 means – the ancient rulers founded and developed Shu long time ago, all the history is so distant and hard to trace now. )

尔来四万八千岁，不与秦塞通人烟。
Up to the present, it has been forty-eight thousand years, Shu has never been communicating with people live at Qin pass. (人烟 means sign of human habitation, 通人烟 means people communicate or contact with other people.)

西当太白有鸟道，可以横绝峨眉巅。
Its west faces Mt. Tai Bai, there are routes only for birds to fly through to reach horizontally to the summit of Er Mei mountain. (鸟道, roads only a bird can manage which means steep dangerous roads.)

地崩山摧壮士死，然后天梯石栈相钩连。
Earth collapsed, mountain got destroyed and heroes died; then heaven ladders and stone trestlework hooked and connected with each other. (These two lines mean heroes sacrificed themselves to build roads in the mountains in Shu.)

上有六龙回日之高标，下有冲波逆折之回川。
On the top, there is the high sign of six dragons circling the sun, and below, there is a spiraling river with twisting and bending rushing waves.
(六龙回日, according to legend, Sun God drew a carriage which was led by six dragons, and when the carriage reached to the top of mountain, the carriage had to retreat. Thus, 六龙回日 signifies that the mountains of Shu are extremely high.)

黄鹤之飞尚不得过，猿猱欲度愁攀援。
Even the flight of yellow cranes could not pass it. Apes and monkeys wanted to across but were worried about the climbing. (Apes and monkeys were worried their safety for climbing up, for the mountains were too steep and treacherous.)

青泥何盘盘，百步九折萦岩峦。
Mt. Qingni, how twisting and turning it is! In hundred steps (I walked), it bends nine times to wind up the rocky mountain range.

扪参历井仰胁息，以手抚膺坐长叹。
Pressing uneven breathings, glazing through Jing (one of the 28 constellations of Chinese astronomy), I faced up and was afraid to breathe. With a hand stroking the chest, I sat down and sigh deeply.

问君西游何时还，畏途躔岩不可攀。
I ask you when will you return from your western traveling? I was afraid the long journey will be tangled with unclimbable rocks.

但见悲鸟号古木，雄飞雌从绕林间。
I only see miserable birds that cry in ancient trees; male bird flies and female bird follows flying around in the forest.

又闻子规啼夜月，愁空山，蜀道之难，难于上青天！
Again I heard cuckoos weep aloud during the night noon time for worrying the emptiness of mountain. The difficulty of the Shu Road is more difficult than going up to the blue sky.

使人听此凋朱颜。
The hearing of this made people wither youthful face. (朱颜 has two meanings. It refers to a woman’s beautiful face or a youthful and healthy face. )

连峰去天不盈尺，枯松倒挂倚绝壁。
Mountain peaks connecting with each other, their distance to the sky is lesser than one foot. Withered pine trees are hanging upside down and leaning on the steep cliffs. (尺: a Chinese foot / one-third of a meter.)

飞湍瀑流争喧虺，砰崖转石万壑雷。
Flying rushing water and flowing waterfall strive for making clamor and noises. They bang precipices, turn rocks and (the loud sounds are like) the thunder (that you can hear all over) ten thousand gullies.

其险也如此， 嗟爾遠道之人胡為乎哉！
Its danger is also like this. Sigh, what are you people came from far away doing here?

剑阁峥嵘而崔嵬，一夫当关，万夫莫开
Jiangge is lofty and magnificent, however, it is also hazardous and precipitous. If one man holds pass, ten thousand men can not pass. ( 一夫当关，万夫莫开 is an idiom which means one man can successfully guide the pass against ten thousand enemies.)

所守或匪亲，化为狼与豺。
If the guiding person is not trustworthy, then he will become a wolf or ravenous beast. (When someone turns into 狼 (wolf) and 豺 (dog-like animal), then he will bring in great disaster.)

朝避猛虎，夕避长蛇，磨牙吮血，杀人如麻。
When passengers came here, in the morning they have to escape fierce tiger and at night, they have to flee from long snake. Beasts grind their fangs, suck blood and kill people like scything flax.

锦城虽云乐，不如早还家。.
Although Jing City(ChengDu) is a joyous city, it would be better to return home sooner.

蜀道之难，难于上青天！侧身西望长咨嗟。

The difficulty of the Shu Road is more difficult than going up to the blue sky. I stand sideways, look to west and I sigh deeply.

Translated by Shu

The genre of Shu Dao Nan Poem: Yue fu 乐府

[jaeheealbertchoi]

Cao cao, dong zhou, sun jian, they all had narrations to justify their cause.
Liu bei does not.
He does not need justification of his righteousness.
For the people!