Jump to content
Awoo.

Should Sonic Team consider using BRB writers?


8ther

Recommended Posts

Did I miss something? What of Boom is written better than SLoW?

I mean from what I've seen the cutscenes are alright but nothing special, and the in-level dialogue ranges from dull to obnoxious. And I liked SLoW's writing overall (though I fully admit that there are some rough parts), and I haven't seen anything from Boom that's significantly better.

  • Thumbs Up 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Your faith in the series writing in the past is astounding :V

Sonic really hasn't been a series of stellar writing, by any means, so there's not much hope to put in it.

 

Sonic Adventure was the best 3D Sonic story I can think of, but it suffers from poor dialogue and some areas featuring rocky pacing. Adventure 2 was better handled, but the content was (despite its decent handling) questionable for the tone of a Sonic game. Unleashed had a generally great atmosphere and a fantastic opening / ending, but a dull middle and strange ideas. Black Knight was the only one that had that well pieced together of a narrative, but even it couldn't be saved by it's really, really dumb concept that the whole story is based upon.

 

Those are the games with the best qualities I could muster to bring up, and even then they have their own major issues. 

 

Sonic just needs better writing in general. Boom writers (from what we know) and the Graff & Pontac duo both seem to know how to do one thing decently: make funny exchanges. That doesn't mean their writing is better, however, because those things aren't what keeps a story afloat. Sonic needs much more than that, and that's why it looks like neither is a good answer.

  • Thumbs Up 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was being facetious, but I otherwise do agree with Solkia, aside from a few good exceptions, the series is pretty damn lousy with the writing. 

 

 

To give Boom some credit, they seem to be at least trying to tell a story this time instead of just making it like how previous plots have been. Sonic isn't in constant "Lol I'm funny" mode and seems *Gasp* toned down and reserved, I haven't seen much character from Tails or Amy to make a call, although the latter not being annoying and contributing is already a plus in my eyes, and Knuckles` degradation of intelligence is rather...off putting, but at they're trying to make it actually funny by giving him amusing lines instead of just derping around and doing stupid things, so I'll hold judgment off.

 

In terms of the actual plot itself....well yea, can't say much on that yet.

  • Thumbs Up 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm going to echo a bunch of other sentiments and just take a wait and see approach.

 

I mean yeah, I'm liking the writing from what I've seen so far, but we've only seen, what, 2-3 cutscenes at most? Sheesh, it's cool there will be emphasis on story, but isn't it a tad bit too soon to hail it before the game releases?  I'm one of the few people that does not hate Pontac and Graff, mainly for their work on Lost World, and I thought the Storybook games had a nice balance of humor, conflict, and cool factor of Sonic.

Did I miss something? What of Boom is written better than SLoW?

Quoted for the truth here, nothing I've seen so far looks to be overwhelmingly better than Lost World, especially in regards to characters and dialogue. For all we know, Lyric could turn out to be really cool Villain, and we'll probably get a detailed backstory behind him, but that doesn't mean he might not slip into Deadly Six territory of being painfully one-note.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OH FFS...Knuckles is not stupid in Boom! >< From what I can tell, they have made him ditzy which is NOT the same as being dumb or stupid. I'm a Knuckles fan, and they have made him less butt monkey and more ditzy and slow. That's it!

 

Anyway, it is a bit too early to judge the writers for Boom and Pontac & Graff. Dialogue wise I think they're pretty much on par, though the tv series script seems to be a lot better then the games. Still, it's too early to judge and we won't know what the entirety of the script is like until the games are released and the tv series airs.

 

One thing's for sure though, the story in Boom seems to be far more interesting in Boom than anything SEGA has done since Sonic Colours.

  • Thumbs Up 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sonic just needs better writing in general. Boom writers (from what we know) and the Graff & Pontac duo both seem to know how to do one thing decently: make funny exchanges. That doesn't mean their writing is better, however, because those things aren't what keeps a story afloat. Sonic needs much more than that, and that's why it looks like neither is a good answer.

 

Does he? If Mario can get by just fine without complex plots, deep narratives and mature story telling, why can't Sonic? Maybe I'm biased because I personally think Sonic Colours (and onwards) is exactly what Sonic should always have been, but just because Sonic Team have attempted those other things before, and, judging by the comments in this thread and elsewhere, completely failed, why should they try them again?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does he? If Mario can get by just fine without complex plots, deep narratives and mature story telling, why can't Sonic? Maybe I'm biased because I personally think Sonic Colours (and onwards) is exactly what Sonic should always have been, but just because Sonic Team have attempted those other things before, and, judging by the comments in this thread and elsewhere, completely failed, why should they try them again?

Probably because for every fan like you who seems to think Sonic should be a braindead affair, there are fans who would like to see Sonic make a better use of the lore and characters that he's built up over the years? The world, despite what you seem to feel, doesn't revolve purely around you, and if you despise the idea of Sonic having a story so much, maybe you should just skip the cutscenes.

  • Thumbs Up 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

OH FFS...Knuckles is not stupid in Boom! >< From what I can tell, they have made him ditzy which is NOT the same as being dumb or stupid. I'm a Knuckles fan, and they have made him less butt monkey and more ditzy and slow. That's it!

 

I feel like this is just semantics, but the point is that his lack of intelligence in some form is a major note of his personality, and it's changed significantly from his Sega personality for the sake of distinction. Personally though, I've never really seen a "ditzy" person listen to a plan, and then repeat that plan verbatim as if it's their own idea, nor would I ever imagine Sega Knuckles saying "There's things inside these things." This comes off as textbook cartoon character dumbness mixed in with some arrogance. The only reasons I'm not as annoyed about it as I'd probably be otherwise is because it's an amusing slowness in an eye-roll worthy "bless your heart" kind of way, and because I predicted he'd be this way from the outset anyway so it's not exactly a shock.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does he? If Mario can get by just fine without complex plots, deep narratives and mature story telling, why can't Sonic? Maybe I'm biased because I personally think Sonic Colours (and onwards) is exactly what Sonic should always have been, but just because Sonic Team have attempted those other things before, and, judging by the comments in this thread and elsewhere, completely failed, why should they try them again?

 

There is almost no fan of Mario that thinks his "save the princess" plots are good, it's just that those fans are the minority while the majority simply doesn't care enough about the series and just play the games for what they are. If you ask any serious Mario fan, 9/10 they will say that the RPG's have pretty decent plots and that the main series should try to incorporate that. One of the most universally praised things about Super Mario Galaxy was the storybook of Rosalina's backstory, and one of the biggest criticisms of Super Mario Galaxy 2 is how scaled back the plot was. This is in addition to the people who claim Sticker Star wasn't very good because of the lack of plot and characterization.

 

 

So with that said, where the hell are people getting the impression that Mario fans are just a bunch of sheep who couldn't care less about plot, because I'm really not understand how this sentiment even came into being in the first place. :\

  • Thumbs Up 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I feel like this is just semantics, but the point is that his lack of intelligence in some form is a major note of his personality, and it's changed significantly from his Sega personality for the sake of distinction. Personally though, I've never really seen a "ditzy" person listen to a plan, and then repeat that plan verbatim as if it's their own idea, nor would I ever imagine Sega Knuckles saying "There's things inside these things." This comes off as textbook cartoon character dumbness mixed in with some arrogance. The only reasons I'm not as annoyed about it as I'd probably be otherwise is because it's an amusing slowness in an eye-roll worthy "bless your heart" kind of way, and because I predicted he'd be this way from the outset anyway so it's not exactly a shock.

Sorry to go off topic, but I just realized Boom!Knuckles sounds like a character Patrick Warburton would play. :v

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I feel like this is just semantics, but the point is that his lack of intelligence in some form is a major note of his personality, and it's changed significantly from his Sega personality for the sake of distinction. Personally though, I've never really seen a "ditzy" person listen to a plan, and then repeat that plan verbatim as if it's their own idea, nor would I ever imagine Sega Knuckles say "There's things inside these things." This comes off as textbook cartoon character dumbness mixed in with some arrogance. The only reasons I'm not as annoyed about it as I'd probably be otherwise is because it's an amusing slowness in an eye-roll worthy "bless your heart" kind of way, and because I predicted he'd be this way from the outset anyway so it's not exactly a shock.

 

This is probably why I'm not too upset at Boom!Knuckles despite his large departure from the character he's based on; his "dumbness" mostly stems from his jealousy towards Sonic and his general boisterousness rather than Knuckles just being a waste of space who everyone ignores like he's been recently in the main series.

  • Thumbs Up 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Probably because for every fan like you who seems to think Sonic should be a braindead affair, there are fans who would like to see Sonic make a better use of the lore and characters that he's built up over the years? The world, despite what you seem to feel, doesn't revolve purely around you, and if you despise the idea of Sonic having a story so much, maybe you should just skip the cutscenes.

 

 

Wow.

 

You're awfully mad about a bunch of things I never said.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OH FFS...Knuckles is not stupid in Boom! >< From what I can tell, they have made him ditzy which is NOT the same as being dumb or stupid. I'm a Knuckles fan, and they have made him less butt monkey and more ditzy and slow. That's it!

 

tumblr_n70s6jtV681rlvuwko1_250.gif

 

tumblr_n70s6jtV681rlvuwko2_250.gif

 

tumblr_n70s6jtV681rlvuwko3_250.gif

 

tumblr_n70s6jtV681rlvuwko4_250.gif

 

You don't consider this stupid? Even bottom of the barrel anime airhead girls don't say this kind of crap.

  • Thumbs Up 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does he? If Mario can get by just fine without complex plots, deep narratives and mature story telling, why can't Sonic? 

 

Well, mang, the stories and writing that the Mario RPGs (and Mario Galaxy, through Rosalina's Storybook) all had were executed far better than any Sonic game ever managed to do. At least, that's the way I see it, anyway...

  • Thumbs Up 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm also not sure that people's desires aren't once again getting misconstrued into something they're not. We don't want complex, mature, and "deep" storytelling. We want solid, entertaining adventure stories, like an animated film. Why people's demands for something adventurous and action-riddled in an action-adventure franchise are always framed as wanting too much or something the series has somehow never been equipped to handle is beyond me and half the reason talking about this issue for the years I have has become exhausting at this point.

  • Thumbs Up 9
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does he? If Mario can get by just fine without complex plots, deep narratives and mature story telling, why can't Sonic? Maybe I'm biased because I personally think Sonic Colours (and onwards) is exactly what Sonic should always have been, but just because Sonic Team have attempted those other things before, and, judging by the comments in this thread and elsewhere, completely failed, why should they try them again?

  

Wow.

 

You're awfully mad about a bunch of things I never said.

Alright, then I'll give you a better answer. I don't really mind if Sonic is more comedic or has a simpler story; I would be a hypocrite if I said I hated simple stories. But Colors styled storytelling is fucking awful in my opinion, because it undercuts it's own plot for the sake of shitty jokes even when plots prior to it still had some degree of respect for their own plots. And I want Sonic Team to keep trying to write a better story because they've shown, even in small amounts, that they can actually pull it off. To completely give up on it and pander to groups of people who can't be assed to just simply skip the cutscenes or believe they are some kind of bastion of superiority because they hate the idea of stories in Sonic due to stupid singleminded-ness is not only fucking insulting to the fans who see the potential of Sonics universe, but it also means that Sonic will have nothing left to distinguish itself or even have anything left to draw people in. The gameplay is already spotty as it is; are we really going to trash the narrative and turn Sonic into even more of a nobody than he is now?

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is almost no fan of Mario that thinks his "save the princess" plots are good, it's just that those fans are the minority while the majority simply doesn't care enough about the series and just play the games for what they are. If you ask any serious Mario fan, 9/10 they will say that the RPG's have pretty decent plots and that the main series should try to incorporate that. One of the most universally praised things about Super Mario Galaxy was the storybook of Rosalina's backstory, and one of the biggest criticisms of Super Mario Galaxy 2 is how scaled back the plot was. This is in addition to the people who claim Sticker Star wasn't very good because of the lack of plot and characterization.

 

 

So with that said, where the hell are people getting the impression that Mario fans are just a bunch of sheep who couldn't care less about plot, because I'm really not understand how this sentiment even came into being in the first place. :\

 

 

They think the Mario RPG's stories are just decent, even TTYD? o__o I think they're brilliant, with some of the funniest and emotional scripts of any RPG out there.

 

Although I agree that seeing a bit more of that in the main Mario platformers would be great, we know that's never going to happen since Mario has never been known for its epic stories. They can be epic (see Super Mario Galaxy) but mostly they're fairly straightforward and simple. Of course Sonic is completely different, since his stories have always had far more depth than Mario. Sure it was All There in the Manual but it was there all along!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anywho, getting back on topic. These guys are the same guys who have written the Jak and Daxter games correct? I'm not really too familiar with those titles(Ratchet and Clank 4 life), but what was the writing in those games like, maybe we can judge better from there?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We don't know if they are. As much as people like overhyping and forgetting stuff, this is not Naughty Dog. It's Big Red Button, made of ex-Naughty Dog members, but we don't know which ones.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not gonna sit here and kiss Ian Flynn's ass, because he's not perfect (few writers are). But, he clearly is, by and large, the best writer that Sonic, across any medium, has had so far.

Do some of his plot threads fall flat on their faces sometimes? Sure. But, the guy has proven, time and again, that he has a deep understanding of the Sonic lore. And he manages to balance witty banter, character development, meme-references, and fan-service with great skill.

I mean, come on, the guy single-handedly made the Archie comics readable. I think that, in and of itself, is the greatest accomplishment that any Sonic writer has bagged thus far.

And to all of the guys complaining about Knuckles being the air-headed muscle, deal with it. The most interesting aspect to Knuckles' character has always been his strong bond with the Master Emerald, and his guardianship of it. Without it, he's pretty much boring as shit.

Since Boom doesn't have Chaos Emeralds, and Knuckles is being placed within a team, making him a bit ditzy and goofy is the only way I can see him adding an interesting dynamic to said team. Hell, I'd take that over "the hothead, with a chip on his shoulder" any day of the week.

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not gonna sit here and kiss Ian Flynn's ass, because he's not perfect (few writers are). But, he clearly is, by and large, the best writer that Sonic, across any medium, has had so far.

Do some of his plot threads fall flat on their faces sometimes? Sure. But, the guy has proven, time and again, that he has a deep understanding of the Sonic lore. And he manages to balance witty banter, character development, meme-references, and fan-service with great skill.

I mean, come on, the guy single-handedly made the Archie comics readable. I think that, in and of itself, is the greatest accomplishment that any Sonic writer has bagged thus far.

And to all of the guys complaining about Knuckles being the air-headed muscle, deal with it. The most interesting aspect to Knuckles' character has always been his strong bond with the Master Emerald, and his guardianship of it. Without it, he's pretty much boring as shit.

Since Boom doesn't have Chaos Emeralds, and Knuckles is being placed within a team, making him a bit ditzy and goofy is the only way I can see him adding an interesting dynamic to said team. Hell, I'd take that over "the hothead, with a chip on his shoulder" any day of the week.

 

 

You're not really going to get people to agree with your point if you're just going to tell them to  "deal with it" if they find opposition with something they don't like. If they don't like something, aren't they within their right to voice their reasons, why should they just "deal with it"?

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You're not really going to get people to agree with your point if you're just going to tell them to  "deal with it" if they find opposition with something they don't like. If they don't like something, aren't they within their right to voice their reasons, why should they just "deal with it"?

Yeah, they are. And I'm not trying to get people to agree with me.

But, this version of Knuckles has been around for a while now. It's nothing new. They just embellished it and made him actually funny now. Complaining about it, at this point in the game, really is kinda pointless.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, they are. And I'm not trying to get people to agree with me.

But, this version of Knuckles has been around for a while now. It's nothing new. They just embellished it and made him actually funny now. Complaining about it, at this point in the game, really is kinda pointless.

 

There's nothing "pointless" about voicing your opinion, just because you find it pointless yourself doesn't mean everyone else should. :\

 

 

In regards to Knuckles...I really don't recall Sega!Knuckles ever saying lines like the ones he's been saying in Boom, so I don't really think it's fair to say he's "been around for a while" especially since Sega!Knuckles has been kind of irrelevant for a few years to really establish any sort of character aside from very minor appearances. Boom is literally is first major role in a video game for a long time now. Not saying I don't like Boom!Knuckles, because I too think he's very amusing in his own charming way, but he and Sega!Knuckles are not the same character by any stretch.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

You must read and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy to continue using this website. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.