What did Generations and colors story do right?

[Milo]

I said nothing, because that summarizes my thoughts on the subject.

I've already explained why I can't them them numerously. The stories in Colours and Generations did nothing right at all. Nothing. They're such a massive step down from Unleashed, it's like falling off of a skyscraper. I don't see why they drastically simplified the games story in Colours and Generations when Unleashed did it perfectly fine. Actually I wouldn't call it simplified, I'd call it half-assed.

That's much better.

[Unused Account]

...are you sure you're not mixing up Colors and Generations? The entire plot of Generations was restoring a world (universe?) unraveled by its dimensional seems.

I did say "up until the end," correct? It wasn't a universe issue until we learned that Eggman could no longer control it.

[The Weeb with No Name]

He (they) controlled it throughout the whole thing.

[Scar]

I said nothing, because that summarizes my thoughts on the subject.

Except it isn't really true when you look at things closely. Primarily because it does so many things better than other games in the past.

And on top of that, just saying "nothing" and leaving it at that, isn't really an argument at all. Its a statement with no weight behind it at all.

I've already explained why I can't them them numerously. The stories in Colours and Generations did nothing right at all. Nothing. They're such a massive step down from Unleashed, it's like falling off of a skyscraper. I don't see why they drastically simplified the games story in Colours and Generations when Unleashed did it perfectly fine. Actually I wouldn't call it simplified, I'd call it half-assed.

I don't buy it.

Generations yeah, it didn't really have a story at all, but Colours. Nah. You can justify your standpoint all you want, but there is no way to convincingly argue that Colours did absolutely nothing right with its story. Its simply, and borderline factually incorrect to state as such. Characterisation and development of character relationships is something Colours did far better than any other game before it by a margin so large you could put a galaxy between it and still have leg room to work with. Scrape away the silly jokes, and the dialogue and character interaction underneath it all was a step above anything done previously by again, a massive boundary.

Eggman has been better written in this game, better than he has ever been written before. In fact, the only reason he failed this time around was because of an accident where one of his Robot's arm damaged his mind-control-cannon. He was more competant than ever before and most of the humour involved his interactions with his robot minions, not some sad joke about him being beaten up by Charmy Bee.

I accept that Colours' plot wasn't perfect. In many ways, such as scope, its not as strong as Unleashed. But in other key matters such as Characterisation, relationship development and character interactions and even the way the primiary villain was written, Colours surpasses all of its predecessors.

To suggest that it did absolutely nothing right at all, is plainly ridiculous.

[The Weeb with No Name]

Granted, it's also pretty hard to screw anything up when you're just sitting in a chair.

Edited June 29, 2012 by Jayhawker30

[Solkia]

Color's had a story? All I saw was "Eggman is bad and has enslaved space squids. Stop him."

Generations plot was just an excuse for why you're replaying old levels. Nothing special there.

Edited June 29, 2012 by Solkia-kun

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Color's had a story? All I saw was "Eggman is bad and has enslaved space squids. Stop him."

Generations plot was just an excuse for why you're replaying old levels. Nothing special there.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

You could make that very same point for all the other games, especially disregarding all the various things - major or minor - that happened in their plots, dude.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Well it could be argued that while that is true, it just tended to be more blatant with their current stories.

[Solkia]

You could make that very same point for all the other games, especially disregarding all the various things - major or minor - that happened in their plots, dude.

[Kuzu]

Not really, plot and writing, while related, are 2 different things. Colors plot was about as simplistic as you can get. The writing however, was very well thought out for the most part.

The other games other than Heroes and Generations had deeper plots. Stupid as hell, but deeper.

Considering I'm more concerned about characterization than how deep a plot is, I think it's safe to say a deep plot isn't necessarily a good plot, while a simplistic one isn't necessarily a bad one.

Of course half the fanbase don't give two fucks about characterization and would rather watch every Sci-fi/Shonen cliche be played out in the most straightforward and boring way possible, because that's good writing.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

The other games other than Heroes and Generations had deeper plots. Stupid as hell, but deeper.

That doesn't mean you can't summarize the other games plots in one sentence.

SA1 - Stop Eggman from unleashing Chaos upon the city.

SA2 - Stop Eggman from taking over the world with Space Colony Ark

ShTH - Save the world from the Black Arms

Sonic 06 - Stop Eggman/Mephilies from taking over the world/destroying the world

Unleashed - Stop Eggman from using Dark Gaia to take over the world

And there you go, 5 of the series deepest plots summed up in one sentence. Just like you did for Colors, one of the most simple ones.

Edited June 29, 2012 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[SenEDDtor Missile]

I have nothing against simplicity, because I enjoy stuff like Friendship is Magic and Lucky Star.

But I thought the story for Colors was kinda boring, and Generations was basically a story with a beginning and end; the middle was torn out in the name of "LIGHTHEARTEDNESS".

Edited June 29, 2012 by Enigmatus

[The Weeb with No Name]

That doesn't mean you can't summarize the other games plots in one sentence.

SA1 - Stop Eggman from unleashing Chaos upon the city.

SA2 - Stop Eggman from taking over the world with Space Colony Ark

ShTH - Save the world from the Black Arms

Sonic 06 - Stop Eggman/Mephilies from taking over the world/destroying the world

Unleashed - Stop Eggman from using Dark Gaia to take over the world

And there you go, 5 of the series deepest plots summed up in one sentence. Just like you did for Colors, one of the most simple ones.

Are any of those actually plots? They're more like objectives.

[Burnt Ash]

Well, to be honest, while the story itself may be good, I can't say that the events really tie together. Then again, I remember almost nothing from the Colors story, so my judgement on it may be foggy.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Are any of those actually plots? They're more like objectives.

It's the plots summed up in one sentence. Of course their objectives would be part of the plot.

[tenchibr]

I think of Sonic Heroes and how the teams would talk amongst each other to discuss the level as it was happening.

Not that I would want to hear Sonic say every time "Oh, I remember that GUN truck. WHOA, it got beefed up!", but if they had something like this to play once through the story and then you can turn it off at your whim, there could have been so many opportunities!

Sky Sanctuary: "Hey look, it's the Death Egg, which if I recall, I destroyed it... What a load of false advertising!"

Speed Highway: "If this is a highway, why do I spend so much time running on the sides of buildings?"

City Escape: "This time, I got a proper board!"

Seaside Hill: "Without Tails and Knuckles, I can go even faster! No offense, heh."

Crisis City: "I remember this city being a lot more 'broken'..." or "That tornado is STILL carrying a car!"

Rooftop Run: "Balloons? For my birthday? Eggman, you're so kind!"

Planet Wisp: "Time to break that BBBE record!"

Edited June 29, 2012 by tenchibr

[The Weeb with No Name]

It's the plots summed up in one sentence. Of course their objectives would be part of the plot.

Well, plot's are more than JUST the objective. It's everything about the story. The ups and downs and all arounds.

That said, I think it'd still be feasible to sum up what happened in Colours or Generations in single sentence that actually touches up on all the important bits, considering how few important bits there are to both of them. Maybe I'll take a crack at it to show what I mean.

Actually, screw it. I'll let Solkia do that.

Edited June 29, 2012 by Jayhawker30

[Solkia]

Well, plot's are more than JUST the objective. It's everything about the story. The ups and downs and all arounds.

That said, I think it'd still be feasible to sum up what happened in Colours or Generations in single sentence that actually touches up on all the important bits, considering how few important bits there are to both of them. Maybe I'll take a crack at it to show what I mean.

Actually, screw it. I'll let Solkia do that.

But I don't wanna D:

@Shadic I agree, but this thread is about the stories of the games, not the writing. Probably why people decided to talk about the writing instead, since the stories in these games are damn near non-existent.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Well, plot's are more than JUST the objective. It's everything about the story. The ups and downs and all arounds.

Except that was exactly my point regarding Colors. I'm not so shallow not to know what a plot is dude, and you know that considering how much I keep talking about it every chance I get.

Edited June 29, 2012 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[OlenJimi]

The stories didn't suck.

[Kuzu]

@Shadic I agree, but this thread is about the stories of the games, not the writing. Probably why people decided to talk about the writing instead, since the stories in these games are damn near non-existent.

I admit the stories aren't anything particularly interesting, but as far as I'm concerned a deep, or epic story means nothing if the writing is shit, which is why it bothers me when people say games like 06 are better simply they're "epic".

[UltDevilDoom]

I didn't like the paper-thin storylines in Colors and Generations. There was just barely enough story in Generations to tie the game together. Colors had a somewhat better story, but it was almost childish most of the way through. Sonic's corny one-liners didn't help in either game.

After 06 and Unleashed, I think Sega was trying the right thing in terms of story. But after two major light story games, I'd like to see a return to deeper storylines.

[The Weeb with No Name]

Except that was exactly my point regarding Colors. I'm not so shallow not to know what a plot is dude, and you know that considering how much I keep talking about it every chance I get.

Touchy.

By no means was your response to Solkia invalid. You demonstrated your point that what he did with Colors could just have easily been done with the other games. I'm saying that what was actually summed up by either of you weren't exactly plots/stories, but rather just the player's objective.

...actually, in that regard you screwed up Sa2 a little. You didn't include the Dark side of the story or the final conflict.

[Space☆Tomoki]

Here's my 1 sentence summary of Colors' story:

Eggman used a tractor beam to capture planets to make a space amusement park to harvest energy from magic alien squids (that Sonic can use to get high powerful transformations from) to create a mind control cannon to enslave the world, and Sonic and Tails sneak in to investigate and find out what he's up to from a magic alien squid named Yacker, Sonic defeats Eggman for the millionth time, escapes a Black Hole caused by the defeating the first boss, and everyone lives happily ever after.

In all seriousness, I liked the character interaction to some extent, as it felt more natural in those games, and I love how Eggman's portrayed in those games, but I feel the stories lack substance; I mean, they don't need to be long or 'epic' (though I would like to see a bit more 'epic' stories in the future), but the stories are too 'bare-bones' for my liking. Also, while I like Sonic's snarky side, I personally felt some of the puns/gags were a bit forced and excessive in quantity, so as long as the jokes aren't excessive and the story has substance, I think I'd be good.