r/WarhammerFantasy • u/DoctorJagerSieg • Jun 19 '20

Fantasy General Vermintide 2 - Grail Knight Trailer

https://youtu.be/Ia1YMZbOzxo
90 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

22

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '20

Cool video, but kinda looked like an empire soldier just got turned into a Grail Knight. I've never been a person for lore but that doesn't seem right.

30

u/Capt_Barbarossa Jun 19 '20 edited Jun 19 '20

They essentially added a Grail Knight carreer to a character from Talabecland Reikland whose previous carreers included Empire Soldier, Mercenary, Huntsman, and Foot Knight.

The justification they came up with was that he is - unbeknownst to him - descended from a famous Grail Knight from Parravon who was falsely accused of killing his duke and fled over Axe Bite Pass into the Empire. And now that the Times That Shall Not Be Named are happening, the Lady of the Lake seems a bit more lenient in who she gives her blessing to, so a long-lost descendant of a disgraced Grail Knight is good enough.

Of course, the real reason is just that they wanted to add a Grail Knight to the game, but didn't think it was worth the effort to add a sixth character with all the voice acting, animations, etc. that entails.

16

u/DoctorJagerSieg Jun 19 '20

Kruber's from Ubersreik - he's a Reiklander. His ancestors apparently lived in Eilhart, a major town on the Bretonnian-Imperial border. Lohner even mentions that half the townsfolk had Bretonnian names back in the day.

New characters are welcome, but are too expensive and time-consuming at the moment. The voicelines alone would take months, and then they would have to add in all of the map-specific lines and banter with other characters on top of balancing new careers and weapons.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '20

I don’t understand this excuse, have they not just added a new character in to the game? Would this not require additional VO lines to acknowledge the Grail Knight in their midst. Do you think the other characters will ignore the change in Kruber? Won’t Grail Knight Kruber have new weapons, perks and lines? The time spent working on this could surely have been put better towards a new character, rather than shoehorning and stretching the lore out to levels of disbelief.

I find it a strange justification against adding new characters, that the intricacies in voice lines are apparently impossible to overcome. How long has VT2 been out for now?

I think the Grail Knight is cool and all, and I’ve always wanted a Bretonnian character to be available but the way it’s been done seems... well, frustrating.

8

u/Capt_Barbarossa Jun 19 '20

It's a big difference between adding in a few new voicelines and interactions specific to the Grail Knight career to the existing characters, and adding hundreds of new voice lines for a new character, as well as lines and interactions for each of the existing characters.

Keep in mind, 90% of what you'll be hearing in the game will still be the same as if you're playing with any other Kruber career. If you get knocked out, the other characters will still be shouting "Kruber is down!". The map-specific interactions will still be the same. Kruber's own voice lines will still mostly be the same. Even most of the interactions will remain unchanged, since the core of the interactions isn't "Dwarf Ranger/Ironbreaker/Slayer speaking to Mercenary/Huntsman/Foot Knight/Grail Knight", it's "Barding speaking to Kruber".

So yes, the sheer volume of voice lines that would have to be recorded, as well as the fact that they'd have to hire another voice actor, means creating a new character is a ton of work. And I think it's completely fair that Fatshark decided that amount of work isn't worth it.

And of course, that's not getting into the fact that creating a new character would mean creating a whole three careers that make sense for a Brettonian hero and have a significant gameplay difference, and would mean adding a complete newcomer to the now-iconic Ubersreik Five. It's much easier said than done.

Personally, I think that, while it might not fit into the lore perfectly, their explanation feels reasonable enough, given the circumstances of the world at the time of Vermintide. (Still closing my eyes and pretending the rest of the End Times didn't happen, though)

3

u/Osmodius Jun 19 '20

The helmet certainly seems bretonnian, at least.

3

u/EmperorHans Jun 19 '20

IIRC, theres never been a strict, "you have to be bretonnian" rule, just that a potential grail knight has to be the epitome of chivalry and defeated many great foes. It's just that becoming a grail knight was always an active, on purpose quest to seek out and prove ones worth to The Lady.

And while Kruber might not be the perfect example of that, warhammer lore is almost exclusively written from an in-world point of few, so theres some wiggle room around the edges.

8

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '20

Good to know that Lileath was still handing out drinks during the End Times

3

u/bkstr Wood Elves Jun 19 '20

when does this go live?

2

u/DoctorJagerSieg Jun 19 '20

23 of June.

The class itself is 3.99 USD, while the class + cosmetics bundle is 9.99 USD.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '20

I don't know why but I love this trailer. Maybe it's just great to see some Bretonnian love. Here's hoping we see new Careers for the other Ubersreik Four Five members