Do you think the series is better with Sonic as the only playable character?

[Wraith]

And everyone here who was actively against that wanted Sonic Team to "Fix" the boost gameplay, so what happened to that?

 

 

It's easy to see how the boost gameplay is hard to "fix" because a lot of it's flaws are just part of the way it's designed, really. They can make gigantic levels that Sonic will clear in minutes. They can make huge environments that Sonic wont be able to see since his more built for dodging obstacles at breakneck speeds and less built for moving around in a 3D environment. They'd have to overhaul it majorly to get more mileage out of it, so wiping the slate and starting clean with something you can build off of more easily makes sense.

 

The Wisps are easy to bring over because since they're essentially powerups you can tweak them to suit another gameplay style. The thing that the Wisps have that the boost doesn't is flexibility. 

[Diogenes]

I'm "freaking out" because you seem hell bent on convincing me of my "wrongness" on this situation.

You were freaking out before I even responded to you.

And I consider it a massive cocktease to have all of these characters around, when I can only play as one of them.

Which is ridiculous. Would you look at a Zelda game and say it's a cocktease to not play as Navi, Impa, Zelda/Sheik, Tatl, Skull Kid, a Great Fairy, Tetra, KoRL, Midna, etc etc etc?

Yes, a supporting hero can be important if they aren't playable. Yes, a completely optional NPC can be worthwhile even if they aren't playable. What you still haven't answered is why can't they be playable on top of all of that?

You're allowed to want whatever the fuck you want. But they are not cockteasing you simply for not giving you everything you want. They are not obligated to make a supporting character playable just because you want them to. A supporting character remaining an NPC is a perfectly valid choice.

Having an important recurring character not be playable, unless its justified, still doesn't make sense to me.

There is, simply, no obligation at all to make a recurring character playable. Where you picked up this notion I do not know, but there is simply no justification for it. If this doesn't feel like a convincing answer it's only because this is so far from rational thought that I've never had reason to consider how to explain it before!

[Kuzu]

You were freaking out before I even responded to you.

I made a simple three paragraph post about my feelings towards it(Ya know, the point of the topic) and suddenly that counts "freaking out" :\

Which is ridiculous. Would you look at a Zelda game and say it's a cocktease to not play as Navi, Impa, Zelda/Sheik, Tatl, Skull Kid, a Great Fairy, Tetra, KoRL, Midna, etc etc etc?

And only one of these characters is in every game and actually has a chance at being able to be played as. And yes, I'd want to play as Zelda one day.

You're allowed to want whatever the fuck you want. But they are not cockteasing you simply for not giving you everything you want. They are not obligated to make a supporting character playable just because you want them to. A supporting character remaining an NPC is a perfectly valid choice.

And I'm obligated to disagree with that choice. Its not the simple fact that no one else is playable, its that its been going on for far too and I feel there's very little justification at this point beyond the creators just simply not wanting to when they've done so in the past.

There is, simply, no obligation at all to make a recurring character playable. Where you picked up this notion I do not know, but there is simply no justification for it. If this doesn't feel like a convincing answer it's only because this is so far from rational thought that I've never had reason to consider how to explain it before!

Then there's really nothing else to argue about; you feel one way, and I feel another. I don't really know what else to say, I've already explained myself and my thoughts, so its just a simple disagreement, there's really nothing wrong with that.

It's easy to see how the boost gameplay is hard to "fix" because a lot of it's flaws are just part of the way it's designed, really. They can make gigantic levels that Sonic will clear in minutes. They can make huge environments that Sonic wont be able to see since his more built for dodging obstacles at breakneck speeds and less built for moving around in a 3D environment. They'd have to overhaul it majorly to get more mileage out of it, so wiping the slate and starting clean with something you can build off of more easily makes sense.

 

The Wisps are easy to bring over because since they're essentially powerups you can tweak them to suit another gameplay style. The thing that the Wisps have that the boost doesn't is flexibility.

 

Yes, but its flaws still didn't stop everyone from liking it, and Sonic Team axed it despite that. Like I said, even if the Parkour gameplay is well received, there is no guarantee that they will keep it after only a couple of games and move onto something else, at which point we'll probably be doing this song and dance again. 

[Wraith]

 

Yes, but its flaws still didn't stop everyone from liking it, and Sonic Team axed it despite that. Like I said, even if the Parkour gameplay is well received, there is no guarantee that they will keep it after only a couple of games and move onto something else, at which point we'll probably be doing this song and dance again. 

 

 

We've been over this. They axed it because it was causing trouble in the development team and it wasn't flexible enough to build on. The parkour seems to take away these issues, so it's far less  likely to be axed if people like it, right? 

[Kuzu]

We've been over this. They axed it because it was causing trouble in the development team and it wasn't flexible enough to build on. The parkour seems to take away these issues, so it's far less  likely to be axed if people like it, right? 

 

Have they said this? About the boost gameplay not being flexible enough to continue? If so, then I'll just drop this argument right now and just wait and see how things play out.

[Nepenthe]

Why would it be less likely to be axed when they've literally axed every other gameplay style in the franchise regardless of its depth?

[Celestia]

Have they said this? About the boost gameplay not being flexible enough to continue? If so, then I'll just drop this argument right now and just wait and see how things play out.

Considering how much fans--even some who actually like the boost games--have said this, I don't think it's that out there to assume some Sonic Team members felt the same way.

 

Also, on the whole "well they've done it before!" thing, keep in mind Sonic Team might not have many of the people that were around a few years ago. Not sure about that though, anybody here pay attention to the credits? :V Granted, I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to figure out how to implement other characters...but I'm not them, so I can't really speak for 'em.

Edited August 15, 2013 by ElementofChaos

[Wraith]

Have they said this? About the boost gameplay not being flexible enough to continue? If so, then I'll just drop this argument right now and just wait and see how things play out.

 

Well, they stated something along those lines..

 

asically, we were proud of our accomplishments on Unleashed, Colors and Generations. But we felt we explored that style of gameplay quite a bit and didn’t want too keep playing in that same space. The developers wanted to explore new styles of gameplay and part of the goal there was to make pure platform action a bigger part of the experience this time. Unleashed through Generations, we are proud of them but focus was pretty much on speed and platforming would happen from time to time, but the developers wanted to make it more of a traditional platformer. Not that we want to lose the speed. That’s why there’s still plenty of running and such. It’s still a Sonic game, but we want you to have more control over the speed this time around.

 

 

I also remember there being more quotes on this particular subject, but I can't seem to find them at the moment. 

[Jet Prower]

Wow, surprised this got as heated as it has. As I said before, I do believe other characters add alot to the games and being able to play as them does add alot of replay value, since there is more to do than just run through the stage once as Sonic and that's it. But, the characters don't all have to be playable, but there should be alot more story to go along with them and more dialogue if they aren't going to be playable. Like why not have Tails following Sonic in levels and them talking during the levels to have more story as you are playing. Having more cutscenes and actually developing a story that is not simply get Eggman.

 

The other characters I do feel are neccessary to the games, but playability really does come at people's discretion. Would I love to play as Tails again, heck yes. Do I NEED to play as him, no, but I would love to do so. Just sticking the characters in there to do nothing isn't really worth it for the game, but if they are in the game, make it worth their while to be there. Let them contribute. Simple as that.

[Sparky]

I really think that other playable characters should be added in to game for several reasons, but one of those reasons is how long it would take to play a game, a Sonic game would be only so long with just Sonic, and when your done with the main story, all that's left is side missions or replaying the same levels for the 100000th time. If other characters were in the game with their own stories or something, it would extend game length and give the player more options in replay value.

[SoulSlasher]

I can officially say at this point, kinda. The Sonic series has had some great games where they've focused on other characters while also keeping the core Sonic gameplay. In Sonic Adventure, all the characters kept the core Sonic gameplay but made tweaks to them to make them unique while keeping it familiar, but sadly, SEGA & Sonic Team for the past 5 years have focused on nothing else but Sonic & while that's good because the series is called "Sonic The Hedgehog", it was nice to have unique gameplay styles. It's become bland and too expected, that is until Lost world. That Parkour System caught me off guard and to me, it's a happy surprize. I'm still gonna be skeptical but I'm also gonna welcome this change. 


TL:DR Version. Sorta.

[Masterofnone169]

Personally, yes.  I even sort of know how I think they should work.

Let's take Sonic Unleashed gameplay for my example.  Get rid of the Boost, Homing Attack, Ground Stomp, Drift and the Wall Jump.  That should be the core gameplay of each character.  They can only run (momentum based) and jump.  And then with the characters you can have sonic how he would play in this game, Tails having the ability to fly and tail spin and knuckles being able to glide and climb walls.  And then if they chose to add additional characters all they would need to do is work around the core gameplay.