The humans in sonic unleashed.

[Djawed]

Before the game came out, there werent many pictures that showed of how the humans would look in the game.

So i got the game and noticed that they gave them this new pixar style or whatever you wanna call it. Well in the beginning i did give it a chance, finished the game and i still didn't have an opinion about it... but when i think about it now, when i play the game i think their hideous. They look so stupid.

I have always seen sonic as a japanese animation game.

Now ive noticed that sonicteam tries to brauden the audience throughout the world with it's pixar style but i honestly dont think it fits.

When i think of a style that is perfect for sonic than that would be sonic the animated movie as an example. I dont know exactly what her name was again (i think its sara). She fitted in perfectly. The whole talkin animals and human world was nicely done and today i havent seen any other animals except for the main characters.

Why do the NPC's always have to be humans and now they even made them ugly and gave one of the "new famous character" the biggest nose i have ever seen... No not robotnik/eggman.. friggin professor pickle. Did he really have to be this ugly

Well i made my point clear

I wanted to discuss this and see what everyone else thinks about sonic unleashed's new style

Edited May 22, 2009 by Jaouad

[Ferr]

I liked, I think it fits with the Sonic style. I also liked the anime style of SA1.

I dont care, as long as they dont repeat the realistic humans of Sonic 06, THAT locked so out of place and stupid..

[Badnik Zero]

My simple take on it is this. The humans in Unleashed have exaggerated features. Large noses, ridiculous ears, whatever features make them unique and individual from each other. They might look a little goofy, but it's only so we don't sink into realistic town again. Take a look at Sonic himself, he's exaggerated too. His quills sweep back in a kind of hawk style, his hands are huge, and when he runs in the classics he makes a wheel with his feet. Have you ever seen a man as round as Eggman?

I think this current style is more flexible than the basic anime style, because it lends uniqueness to the characters. The Zelda games, for example, use a similar style without crossing into generic looking anime. In order to create diversity among NPCs.

Edited May 22, 2009 by Badnikz

[AdventChild]

The humans in Unleashed were okay albeit a bit goofy and cartoonish yet still befitting, but I liked the anime-like styles in SA1 more since it fits Sonic style a bit better. Though I don't want to see any more of the lame and out of place human styles from 06, the realism was crap.

Edited May 22, 2009 by AdventChild

[Diogenes]

Sonic and the rest fit better alongside the humans in Unleashed than the generic anime-ish ones we've seen elsewhere. And Eggman as well...he's a human, remember, and it's only logical to have all the humans be done in a roughly similar style. I really don't see how people can have no complaints about Eggman's design and yet if any other character uses it they're deemed hideous monstrosities and they don't "fit" the style of the series.

[Indigo Rush]

...Sonic is aimed for kids. Of course the humans are going to look cartoony. I have no idea why they ever made the humans realistic in 06.

If you want realistic humans, then I guess Eggman should look realistic too.

Yeah guys. Let's mix this with this.

...

Edited May 22, 2009 by Indigo Rush

[Dr. Mechano]

Eggman is unrealistic. The animals are unrealistic.

Why, then, should the other humans be any different?

That is my entire argument- Make the humans as cartoony as the franchise's first human, Dr. Eggman.

[sock fox]

I have always seen sonic as a japanese animation game.

But... there isn't a single major character in the franchise who uses any of the conventions of anime character design. They've always been based on a much more western style. Sonic himself was even based on Mickey Mouse.

I always though Sara looked horrifically out of place. She should've either been human or cat. Thanks to her that anime had humans, animals and a weird human-animal hybrid. Overkill.

[Cake]

Gonna hafta agree with the general consensus here. Cartoony animals = cartoony humans. You wouldn't want to see Banjo and Kazooie in Fallout 3 (or maybe you would, but it would LOOK weird), so why should Sonic games have realistic human characters?

Besides that, the Japanese anime aspect of Sonic games is overdone, anyways. Heck, it only really SEEMS that way because of Sonic X. There are plenty of art styles out there aside from Anime; it'd be nice to see some more of them again.

[Frozen Nitrogen]

The humans in Unleashed were okay albeit a bit goofy and cartoonish yet still befitting, but I liked the anime-like styles in SA1 more since it fits Sonic style a bit better. Though I don't want to see any more of the lame and out of place human styles from 06, the realism was crap.

The only problems I had with '06 were the loading screens and the zoophilia.

And the fact that many of the missions were utterly stupid. "Pick up 5 pieces of shopping!"

Oh, and the fact that the plot didn't make sense even in its own erase-self-from-time continuity.

BUT THE POINT IS that I did not find the graphical style of the NPCs offensive. They were just... there, and largely unobtrusively. It was a non-issue for me as you didn't especially have to concern yourself with them on a person-by-person basis.

UNLIKE in Unleashed, where you were required to talk to every stinking one of the cartoon-goofy set in order to complete the encyclopedia. I wouldn't have minded what they looked like if, as in '06, you were not particularly obliged to identify and interact with them. Running around Soleanna looking for folks with appropriately-coloured squares over their heads was fine; running around Shamar trying to distinguish between huge-eyed cartoon versions of fez-wearing Arabian stereotypes... less so.

The level of realism was one of the things I think '06 got right. The gravitas just didn't work overall because it was embedded within a matrix of nonsensicality.

Edited May 22, 2009 by Frozen Nitrogen

[redmenace]

Sonic looked fine with both Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Adventure, but I do prefer the Sonic Unleashed pixar style. Sara and the president like someone already pointed out, looked awfully out of place but Eggman was perfect in that one (classic style).

Nothing with 06 please, that was terrible. I was freaked by Eggman's design back then and he looked even weirder than his American/European counterpart, who was alreday weird as it was.

[Gabz Girl]

Eeeegh, the humans looked horrible in Sonic 06.

Cartoony humans look much better with the obvious cartoony Sonic (and Eggman, since he's also human!). Ok yes, some of the human characters did look pretty goofy and dare I say stereotypical, but it fits!

[Silencer226]

I thought they fit perfectly, even though I didin't like 2/3 of the game the character design was the best in recent years. If anything the goofy charctes has always been something that seemed to fit Sonic...

Is realism really that important in a series where a blue talking hedgehog can run faster than the speed of sound and go through loop de loops and defeat an egg shaped villain?

Edited May 22, 2009 by silencer226

[libertyernie]

I think the humans should look more like they do in the Pokemon games. That IMO would be much more fitting.

[Indigo Rush]

I think the humans should look more like they do in the Pokemon games. That IMO would be much more fitting.

Pokemon is just another general anime... it'd be the same as Sonic X.

[Frozen Nitrogen]

Is realism really that important in a series where a blue talking hedgehog can run faster than the speed of sound and go through loop de loops and defeat an egg shaped villain?

Yep.

There's a reason they spent 3 years developing a physics engine for gameplay, y'know.

[lounge]

Eggman's from another world. I don't know why people think he was born in the human world, when they explained the whole thing in the first episode of Sonic X. Yes, most of the events in that anime are non-canon. But some parts like the first episode, and Eggman rebuilding the moon (which they couldn't fit in the game) should be considered canon. And yes, some of these episodes were supervised by the Scenario Writer of SA2, and the director of the sonic adventure games.

As for the humans in Unleashed. I despise them. They look ridiculous and embarrasing to the franchise's style. What on earth was a character like Prof. Pickle, doing in a game like Sonic Unleashed? I'd expect him to be in some sort of Cartoon Network show. Sonic doesn't look ridiculous or embarrasing, which is why those humans piss me off.

How can you go humans that look like Maria and Elise, to humans that are Pixar influenced. It doesn't make sense. It kind of screws up the continuity of past games. I know sonic is usually seen as being aimed towards young people, but they took it too far.

I don't even like interacting with humans. Doing missions for them. They need to get rid of that pointless RPG aspect. Why do they keep forcing these town stages on people? Do it in a Chronicles game. Not in a main series game.

[Dr. Mechano]

Eggman's from another world. I don't know why people think he was born in the human world, when they explained the whole thing in the first episode of Sonic X. Yes, most of the events in that anime are non-canon. But some parts like the first episode, and Eggman rebuilding the moon (which they couldn't fit in the game) should be considered canon. And yes, some of these episodes were supervised by the Scenario Writer of SA2, and the director of the sonic adventure games.

No.

Sonic X is a different storyline from the games. But I'll play your game- Tell me this.

If Eggman is from another world, how is Professor Gerald his grandfather? Explain this. This is one of Sonic X's fundamental plot problems. Eggman's grandfather is from this supposedly separate "human world", yet Eggman himself is not. The anime never bothers to explain this inconsistency. Perhaps you can do a better job.

Either way, who cares if Sonic Team supervised the anime? It's clearly a separate continuity from the games.

[Diogenes]

Yes, most of the events in that anime are non-canon.

No, all of the events are noncanon.

How can you go humans that look like Maria and Elise, to humans that are Pixar influenced. It doesn't make sense. It kind of screws up the continuity of past games.

SA screwed it up first by not following the conventions established by Eggman, and successive games made it even worse. It wasn't until SU that they actually made human designs that fit the series' original style.

[Badnik Zero]

Eggman's from another world ... ... ... And yes, some of these episodes were supervised by the Scenario Writer of SA2, and the director of the sonic adventure games.

I'm gonna have to agree with the others. This doesn't apply to the games at all. You can take a basic story structure and flesh it out into a show or a movie, but nothing can be called official canon outside the games. Even if the scenario was based on the game's plot, it was interpreted into the overall frame of Sonic X. Sonic is not from another world, he lives in his own dimension. Green Hill Zone is right there in SA2. It didn't get there by dimensional rift or any other nonsense. Sonic X is an interpretation of canon, derivative. The source material is the game, Sonic X is only canon to Sonic X.

As for the humans in Unleashed. I despise them. They look ridiculous and embarrassing to the franchise's style. What on earth was a character like Prof. Pickle, doing in a game like Sonic Unleashed? I'd expect him to be in some sort of Cartoon Network show. Sonic doesn't look ridiculous or embarrassing, which is why those humans piss me off.

By nature's standards of what a hedgehog should look like, Sonic is probably very embarrassing. Evolutionary biology wakes up every morning ashamed of him. Seriously, Sonic is a total freak. But he's a cartoon and that's okay, because we see him as cute and fun and cuddly. Humans don't need to be exactly in dimension to look good, or at least that's how I see it. I think Sega's going for these varied wacky designs because the old ones didn't give NPCs identity. Now we can see an NPC and think, "the guy with the funny ears" or "the old man with the unibrow" or something like that.

Look at the GUN Commander and President from Shadow. Absolutely nothing stands out about them in their design. How would we even know they're who they're supposed to be from game to game? I believe the GUN Commander has different colored eyes for this reason, cause there's NOTHING remarkable about his design at all. Of course Eggman is extremely striking and we could recognize him from a mile away. That's why we're going with exaggerated features, because now we have individuals, which is alright with me. Sonic is exaggerated and so are the humans of his world, it's consistent and it works.

Edited May 22, 2009 by Badnikz

[sock fox]

Look at the GUN Commander and President from Shadow. Absolutely nothing stands out about them in their design. How would we even know they're who they're supposed to be from game to game? I believe the GUN Commander has different colored eyes for this reason, cause there's NOTHING remarkable about his design at all. Of course Eggman is extremely striking and we could recognize him from a mile away. That's why we're going with exaggerated features, because now we have individuals, which is alright with me. Sonic is exaggerated and so are the humans of his world, it's consistent and it works.

This. The only humans besides Eggman that I remember from Sonic 06 are Elise (because she wouldn't go away) and the old guy you have to get to open up certain stages (because he wears a top hat). Oh, and Elise's father. But see, I forgot him until just then.

I remember most, if not all of Unleashed's humans, because their designs made them characters rather than mission markers.

[Indigo Rush]

Maria could use more cartoon qualities as should the GUN commander.

[lounge]

Sonic X is a different storyline from the games.

That doesn't matter. What matters is that they didn't explain it in SA1, so they thought it would be a could idea to explain it in the anime. Things like Sam Speed and Chris are things that TMS came up with.

If Eggman is from another world, how is Professor Gerald his grandfather?

I thought Gerald never even lived on earth. He lived up in space. He was only taken there when GUN captured him and took him to prison. Don't you think it's odd, how Gerald looks different from everyone else. In the cutscene where the ARK blows up the moon, they show all the humans in panic. They look nothing like Gerald. And maybe the reason Maria doesn't look like Gerald, is because human scientists from earth came to work on the ARK when they found out about it... and you can put the rest together.

[Indigo Rush]

That doesn't matter. What matters is that they didn't explain it in SA1, so they thought it would be a could idea to explain it in the anime. Things like Sam Speed and Chris are things that TMS came up with.

They didn't explain it because there was nothing to explain. I'm fairly certain they would have explained these things if it actually happened. There was nothing preventing them from doing that; they told their story fairly well.

Edited May 23, 2009 by Indigo Rush

[lounge]

Green Hill Zone is right there in SA2. It didn't get there by dimensional rift or any other nonsense.

They explained in Sonic X that some of the environments from sonic's world were transported to earth.

Also, that reminds me. According to the level select map interface in SA2. Green Hill Zone is located just off Prison Island and Central City. I don't see Marble Zone, Springyard or any of that other stuff nearby. Which further kind of supports my argument.

Green Hill was also seen in the Chronicles game. Didn't they have to use a boat to get there? Also, Central City is next to Green Hill in that game, right?

They didn't explain it because there was nothing to explain. I'm fairly certain they would have explained these things if it actually happened. There was nothing preventing them from doing that; they told their story fairly well.

You don't know if that's true. They probably didn't want to waste time explaining a backstory. Plus, SA1 was a rushed game. Edited May 23, 2009 by lounge