The Sims 4 Royalty & Legacy Official Trailer Review
Developers have announced the expansion "The Sims 4: Royalty & Legacy". On January 15th, an official trailer was released, which showcased quite a substantial amount of content. The 21st (and, according to rumors, final) expansion brings royal families, rivalry, secrets, and new locations to The Sims 4.
In this article, we'll break down the interesting moments in detail, and also try to find important details that you might have missed at first glance.
Official trailer for "The Sims 4: Royalty & Legacy" expansion
Let's start by watching the trailer in full to get immersed in the atmosphere of royal life:
The trailer showed so much that your eyes just run wild. Coronation, scandals, sword fights, banishment from the dynasty. And that's only half of it! But let's go through everything step by step.
Overview of "The Sims 4: Royalty & Legacy" trailer
If you're not one of those who watched the trailer during the premiere, then you missed the countdown. During it, we were taken through the castle, shown portraits of royal families (both new and already familiar ones). And you could also spot new decor elements: sheer curtains, stone statues, new wallpapers, and more.
New type of dancing in Sims 4
The trailer begins with dancing sims. And it's not the funny jerky movements we're used to seeing, but a beautiful waltz.
Updated family trees — the next interesting moment.
In total, we were shown three trees of different dynasties. And this is the first mention of dynasties in the game in the form that players have been creating on their own for years. On our website, you can easily design your dynasty in any style, limited only by your imagination. You can check out ideas for designs in this article.
Darong Dynasty
The developers updated the character frames in the tree, added designation of the current head, and also showed who will take this role next. Also, each dynasty has its own coat of arms. It's quite possible they can be created independently or chosen from existing ones.
Capp Dynasty
The return of the Capp family, which last appeared in The Sims 2, came out spectacular. The Capps (or Capp) are a large dynasty of five generations, but the trailer only showed three. The family name is a reference to the Capulet family in "Romeo and Juliet."
Thebe Dynasty
This is the dynasty of Princess Cordelia, whose mention appeared in the description of decor and furniture in The Sims 4 build mode. The first mention of the name Cordelia is found in SimCity 3000, where it's stated that Malcolm Landgraab owns a hacienda on the resort island of San Cordelia. Cordelia's name and appearance may be a reference to Cordelia Capp, whose father bore the surname "Thebe" before marriage.
New type of greeting
In one of the trailer frames, you can notice characters bowing to each other. We can assume this is a new greeting that will be available to royal families.
Coronation process
We were shown the transfer of title to the heir, and in the first frame some kind of knighting of a sim by the king himself is taking place. Most likely this will be a separate event where you'll be able to invite the necessary characters, since we see a crowd observing the coronation.
Rank and authority system in dynasties
In the next frame, we see a photo of a character with the caption "Son Who Became an Outcast." And as an example, they show us the Capp family, which we covered earlier.
With "The Sims 4: Royalty & Legacy" expansion, new indicators will appear in the game that will affect the lives of sims in the dynasty. As we can see from the trailer, sims will have values that they must adhere to in the dynasty. Prestige and unity indicators will also appear.
Most likely, it's these stats that will influence the dynasty head's decision about banishing an unwanted sim.
Blade duel as the solution to all problems
A new way to settle matters will appear in the game — challenge an opponent to a duel. Based on the results of this duel, the winning dynasty representative will gain prestige, and the loser, on the contrary, will lose it.
After this duel, we see the king showing preference to the winning sim, while the loser stands in the background at this time, clearly dissatisfied with the outcome.
And already in the evening, after all the events, the king lost his temper and banished him (presumably) from the dynasty. The banishment animation is simple, as is the audience's reaction to this event.
Royal scandals and blackmail
Using Princess Cordelia as an example, we were shown how a maid whispers something in her ear, and after that demands money. Could it be that the service staff will be able to blackmail sims by sniffing out every secret in the house?
The next scene shows us what exactly the maid was blackmailing Cordelia for:
Then a real drama unfolds. The maid has 7 days to decide what to do with this secret. As we understand, after this time the secret will simply dissolve and become irrelevant.
Now it will be possible to beg a sim not to reveal the secret, in our case the pleas didn't help, even though Cordelia begged for several days.
And as the outcome of this drama — the revealed secret. What's interesting about this is that now it will be possible to publicly expose sims. And thus influence their position in society. As you can see, for Cordelia everything ended with universal "cancellation."
Other interesting moments from the trailer
There are a couple of small details that can be missed at first glance. For example, a girl kisses a frog in a crown. A living one! Could this be a hint at an enchanted prince?
Or here: while everyone is busy with scandals and fights, a thief is sneaking in the background.
While Bob Pancake is enjoying lunch, the thief successfully takes a large sack of palace jewels for himself.
At the end of the trailer, they kind of hint at making a choice. Either we stir up drama and weave intrigues, or we claim the crown and show only the best sides of our personality.
It all ends with a view of the new town or one of the neighborhoods where one of the dynasties resides:
Release date for "The Sims 4: Royalty & Legacy" expansion
"The Sims 4: Royalty & Legacy" expansion releases on February 12, 2026. Along with it, new game kits will be available, which we wrote about in this article.
Also on January 22, a gameplay trailer will be released, in which they'll show us even more gameplay and possibly tell us about new mechanics.
Time to come up with a storyline for a royal dynasty, and we'll be happy to see your creations on our website!
