Spoilers for the HD Universe continuity of the Grand Theft Auto series preceding this one note may be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
"The only way we're gonna get through this is by sticking together. Being a team."
"Well, look who’s back."
Grand Theft Auto VI is the upcoming fifth Numbered Sequel and 13th overall installment in Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto series, and the long-awaited sequel to Grand Theft Auto V. Announced in December of 2023, VI marks the franchise's return to Vice City for the first time in nearly two decades - now expanded to the greater region of Leonida - as it follows the story of Outlaw Couple Lucia and Jason trying to make it big in the criminal underworld.
The game is set to release sometime in 2025 for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Previews: Trailer 1
This game contains examples of the following tropes:
- Breaking Old Trends: Downplayed, probably. In a possible sign of the game bucking some trends within the franchise, Lucia is the first canonical protagonist in the 3D Grand Theft Auto games to be female. But make no mistake, the game trailer seems to suggest that the GTA series will continue to satirize the sociopolitical climate as it always has.
- Covered in Mud: The trailer shows a mudding event held by a "Thrillbilly Mud Club", with a mud-soaked girl in a Flag Bikini taunting the camera while trucks power through a mud pit behind her and her friends.
- Crapsaccharine World: The state of Leonida seems like a vibrant and fun place, with nightlife, clubs, and beautiful beaches in Vice City (itself also played straight in previous iterations), beautiful natural vistas in the countryside, and wild parties everywhere. But make no mistake, as one can already witness in the trailer, Vice City's glamour exists alongside slums, poverty, street gangs, crime, and alligators.
- Dark Action Girl: Lucia is one half of an Outlaw Couple who the trailer shows to be an ex-convict fresh out of prison who's the equal of her boyfriend Jason when it comes to causing crime.
- Deep South: Vice City may be a world unto itself, but the trailer demonstrates that the rest of Leonida is still a Southern state, with dusty rural towns, crazed and nationalistic rednecks, lifted trucks, airboats running through the swamp, and a party held in a mud pit.
- Fictional Province: In addition to Vice City as a fictionalized version of Miami, the trailer shows that the game takes place in the state of Leonida, the GTA universe's version of Florida, as seen on the license plates and some of the news reports and social media videos.
- Fictional Social Network: Multiple shots in the second half of the trailer are styled as clips on an Instagram-like video platform.
- Fun with Acronyms: A profile pic briefly glimpsed in one of the trailer's in-universe social media videos reveals that Leonida's wildlife agency bears the name P.O.A.C.H. (Protection Of Animals & Controlled Hunting).
- Heist Episode: In classic GTA tradition, the trailer includes scenes of a low-stakes version of this where Jason and Lucia stick up a convenience store.
- Historical In-Joke: Per the reveal trailer, the fictionalized GTA-verse version of Florida is instead known as Leonida, after Juan Ponce de León, the leader of the first European expedition to the peninsula.
- Hookers and Blow: It's Grand Theft Auto, so yeah. The first trailer shows a Vice City that is just plain overflowing with sleazy, lustful, drugged-up behavior, from people stripping and dancing sexily on top of moving cars to people happily getting wasted in broad daylight.
- Hotter and Sexier: Thanks to improvements in graphic and character design, there are a lot more physically attractive male and female characters than in previous games.
- Lighter and Softer: Rockstar has certainly continued in the same colorful, satirical, and fun-filled direction that characterizes Vice City since it was first explored. In complete contrast to the first installment of the HD era, GTA VI provides a bright atmosphere and a vibrant, lively, and fun-filled nightlife. One might expect it to be even Lighter and Softer than GTA V, considering that here you play as a duo of young protagonists, in contrast to the short-tempered bank robber in the midst of a midlife crisis (Michael) and the complete nutcase living in the desert (Trevor).
- LOL, 69: Wouldn't be a Grand Theft Auto game without it. In the trailer, the plane pulling a banner over the beach is advertising a business called Nine1Nine, with the slogan "why sixtynine when you can nine 1 nine".
- Mythology Gag: One shot in the trailer showing Vice Beach has a yellow-and-white classic '50s sedan parked in front of an "Ocean View Hotel", a reference to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City where Tommy's first safehouse was that hotel with that car (called the Oceanic in that game) parked in front.
- Naked People Are Funny: One scene in the trailer is of a naked fat guy running from the police in front of a gas station.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: The trailer has multiple scenes of alligator antics, one a video on a Fictional Social Network of an animal control officer pulling a gator out of a pool and another a security camera video of a very large gator entering a convenience store.
- The New '20s: The game trailer does a very good job of showcasing the most striking and prominent aspects of 2020s culture, especially the youth's obsession with social media.
- Only in Florida: The game returns to Vice City, and the trailer shows off a whole slew of Florida Man — or rather, Leonida Man — antics, from a woman twerking on the roof of a moving car to a naked man running from the cops to a man who got sucked into a waterspout and is now demanding the city buy him a new suit to multiple incidents involving alligators. Most of these scenes are based on real "Florida Man" videos and news stories.
- Only in Miami: At the same time, the trailer also shows off the photogenic glamour of its Miami-inspired setting.
- Outlaw Couple: As seen in the trailer, the protagonists Jason and Lucia are a pair of lovers and criminals.Lucia: The only way we're gonna get through this is by sticking together. Being a team. Trust?
Jason: Trust. - Pimped-Out Car: The trailer shows off a bunch of heavily-customized classic cars, including lowriders and donks.
- Retcon: The state of Florida was mentioned in Grand Theft Auto IV as the location of a theme park run by the Angels of Death, but the trailer reveals this game is set in the fictional state of Leonida instead.
- Scenery Porn: The trailer features many loving shots of not only Vice City's most glamorous locales (and its not-so-glamorous), but also the game's versions of the Florida Keys and the Everglades.
- Selfie Fiend: One shot in the trailer has a woman in a bikini self-consciously posing for a picture on a rooftop balcony. Tellingly, this is where the trailer segues into showing clips from an unnamed Fictional Social Network.
- Shout-Out: Many shots in the trailer are references to real-life "Florida Man" news stories.
- Spicy Latina: Lucia is practically the epitome of this trope, as one would expect from an incredibly badass but also very attractive Latina.
- Vice City: The return of the Trope Namer itself after more than a decade, now updated to The New '20s, complete with the trailer showing a nonstop spree of debauchery by the city's residents in between Jason and Lucia's crime spree.
- Younger and Hipper: Unlike other GTA games, this one seems to be the first to distance itself somewhat from the typical organized crime stories and shift towards a much more youthful atmosphere. The trailer does a very good job of portraying a lot of fun, social media, and two young protagonists who are most likely in their 20s.
