Joy

What strikes me more about the current Sonic Team is that they are just straight-up tired by now from a conceptualizing point of view. I'm happy enough with their track record since 2008 to say a game from them is at generally going to be fairly well polished and visually pleasing. For the most part the games HAVE accomplished what they were trying to do, it's just that the scope of their goals hasn't been pushed far enough over time. Fast forward to today and they're in a phase where what they're doing is enough to get by and so they've started stripping away the intricacy more and more. Say what you will about Unleashed, they put the effort in. The boost gameplay was new to 3D and the levels, while fairly linear compared to games before and after, were not as boost-to-win as they're made out to be. They demanded a lot of quick thinking in order to be maneuvered through efficiently and were generally of a reasonable length. The werehog, while not popular, was certainly not without a reasonable amount of combat options and platforming challenges. A large amount of effort went into building the world around you to make it feel alive and that there are people's lives on the line. Nine years later and we're left with a feeling of dissatisfaction. The exhilaration of boosting through levels is still there but it's no longer able to cover up the limited gameplay options the formula can accomodate. The break-neck reaction-based obstacle courses are now largely replaced with 2D block platforming and 3D sections that serve as transitions at best and automated spectacle at worst. Forces does bring back some of that worldbuilding with a more fleshed out story and the friends appearing more active in events even if we're not playing as them. Sonic Team have simply not bothered trying to reiterate the boost formula to any significant degree. Generations is the best attempt at opening things up so far but the expanded design only drew attention to how badly our current Sonic handles when he isn't running at full speed or doing the most basic of platforming. Sonic should be fun to control on his own in the simplest of environments (see that new 3D classic engine from this year's SAGE) and then the levels should be built around providing engaging terrain to put those controls to work. Doing this would naturally bring in all the thrills of the boosting without having to compromise controls or level design. I don't hate the current Sonic Team, and they haven't done anything SO bad that I think people need to get fired. What they DO need is a real shake-up right at their foundations. We need at least a few fresh perspectives on what Sonic is as a game series and the team needs to figure out a solid direction they can follow through for literally decades like 3D Mario has managed. If it were up to me, get a new group in to start rethinking 3D Sonic and give the current team a break to work on something else like one of the other "All-Star" IPs or even something new entirely. Let them do that, and come back refreshed to find a fun but different Sonic from the one they'd seemingly outgrown when they left.

I'm not the best when it comes to the real nitty gritty of game programming but wouldn't 60fps input to 30fps visuals create some catastrophic input lag with the game only being able to show the results of input half as often as it's able to actually detect input in the first place? Is this disconnect actually even a thing in the first place? I've never heard of such a thing before!

As minor as that is, re-watching cutscenes is something Lost World ditched for no reason at all so if nothing else it's good to see it back!

Also worth noting, the leaderboards are now properly working on PS4 after being completely inaccessible since launch! Definitely looking forward to some friends competition now!

Was it ever explicitly promised that new stuff would be coming from this livestream in particular? Now, something new at TGS as a whole? Yeah, you bet we're expecting that but the last I heard we were expecting something simply "at some point" at TGS. Even though it's a Japanese event, I imagine they'd, in part, want to try and also get people from the West seeing announcements immediately and hardly any of us would've at this time of night over here. We know how erratic SEGA are with marketing and reveals, TGS isn't over just yet.

Something I'm curious about, unless Shadow's light speed attack would be a total disaster in the design of the later levels, why is it that there are seemingly Modern Sonic levels he can't be used in? Unless this is referring to tag team and boss stages, surely Sonic and Shadow are mostly interchangeable? I'd imagine even most of Sonic's animations could be skinned onto Shadow relatively simply.

That Chemical Plant is absolutely stunning, really makes me want to see Studiopolis in clean HD gameplay like that!

As a bit of speculation, I'm wondering if that shot of Classic Sonic is in the same scene as the shot of Tails with the NPCs. They get cornered and then at the last moment Classic turns up and destroys the robots. Tails and Classic Sonic then go off on their adventure hence why both are seemingly so disconnected from the rest of the plot so far. Maybe Tails will be the one to figure out what the deal is with the phantom ruby, responsible for Classic turning up and seemingly a source of Infinite's power. Possibly afterwards they'll eventually make contact with the resistance and the info they've gained ultimately helps to build a strategy for the end game where the heroes stop Infinite.