Sonic Forces | PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC "The Next Generations"

[Indigo Rush]

Just now, Kintor said:

Honestly, I don't accept your limitations on what is actually possible both now and in the near future. The story of the coming decades will be how technology increasingly replaces human labour in even the most surprisingly high ladders of society. It will redefine what it means to be a contributing citizen in a modern nation and it might even kick start a civil war or two.

I've been here for over a decade and I think this may be the one, guys

[Diogenes]

2 minutes ago, RictalRose0 said:

This is why we need more info, or else it gets like this. Jeez. 

We just got info, though. This is what we're like when we get info.

[Lord-Dreamerz]

14 minutes ago, Joy said:

I can only stress this point again. No amount of cutting-edge technology, status, money or whatever else can possibly negate the human labour required to make content.

Well not at least until we get far into the future where we can tell a computer ideas and stuff we want and a AI system makes the rest of it for us AKA the Star Trek holodeck. Hohoo

But yeah that possibility is only in the science fiction story universe for now.

[D.K.]

I miss 'boost-to-win' as the buzzword already.

You never know what it is you have until it's gone.

[Kintor]

9 minutes ago, Indigo Rush said:

I've been here for over a decade and I think this may be the one, guys

Do a bit of reading about the future of employment (or lack thereof as the case may be), topics of automation and 'Universal Basic Income'. You might be suprised how far long things are already.

[Celestia]

A topic on SEGA as a business or whatever could actually be pretty interesting.

Unfortunately that is not this topic. Get back on track, please! Thanks!

[RictalRose0]

I just wanna point out too that Sega of America ain't that great either. Aren't they supposed to take care of Sonic Boom the show and the Archie Sonic Comics? Well Sonic Boom is dying because it's stuck on Boomerang and I have yet to see Sega do anything about it. Maybe they are doing something but obviously it's something they're not communicating because no one knows what's happening. Meanwhile the comics have been on hiatus for almost half a year, Sonic Boom Comics were cancelled a year ago, a ton of other stuff got cancelled and we still don't even know if the comic is cancelled and what Sega and Archie are "talking" about. And all of this in the year two mayor games are supposed to come out. It's a disaster so far. But whatever, this isn't really the topic for that.

[KHCast]

You know, as much as I hate the nostalgia pandering by sega as of late, I wouldn't mind if this game used one of the past location from one of the past games to give a sense of world building and coherency with the story. Maybe something from Unleashed or one of the Adventure games.

[Celestia]

Normally I'd rather not see returning locations from Generations, but in this case if they changed it up enough to really drive home that Eggman's taken over I'd be cool with it.

That's something I really wish they did in Generations in the first place (I guess they wanted to have the whole "mystery" with the Time Eater but like...c'mon, was anyone really surprised?), but I'm glad we're getting it here at least.

[Dejimon11]

1 hour ago, KHCast said:

You know, as much as I hate the nostalgia pandering by sega as of late, I wouldn't mind if this game used one of the past location from one of the past games to give a sense of world building and coherency with the story. Maybe something from Unleashed or one of the Adventure games.

I don't know that doesn't seem like a good idea. I mean Iizuka pretty much said that this game isn't a sequel to Generations and the fact that classic sonic isn't here isn't helping his case. If they were to add past levels that would just make things worse on there part. 

[KHCast]

Not if they did it in a way similar to Shadow the Hedgehog, where it's not some nostalgia "hey remember this", and its treated as just a location that happened to be in another game. Like if Shamar returned and it was treated as like a headquarters for Sonic & Co and characters like Pickle returned as some mentor for the group. Or maybe it just happened to return as a area in danger of being destroyed. I don't think it it would be a area fueled on by nostalgia in those cases.

[Chris Knopps]

 

Actually... Hold up...

What if Sonic Forces is going to be a new reboot of the game canon of the Sonic franchise? many have pointed out the city looking placed in a Green Hill atmosphere so what if SEGA of Japan is pulling an Archie and is merging everything from the series into one single existence?

As in, everything from the original Genesis trilogy and the Adventure series, if you want to categorize the "Adventure Era" as SA1 through Unleashed, is now being completely assimilated so everything is essentially one?

You've got the standard tropes ala Green Hill and now GUN and such is potentially returning, Station Square type locales...

I could see this working two ways, very, VERY well, or very, VERY badly.

I'd be all up for a total HARD reset on the franchise, where there's no longer any separation of era but rather a single unified world where everything is one with the only difference in the franchise being not the content or location, but merely the appearance of the cast.

(Edit)

If they put a half-moon in this game and have the ARK pop up in the sky somewhere, I'll shit.

[JosepHenry]

Please, no words like "reboot" here.

[Marcello]

They already are in one single existence. They just rarely acknowledge each other outside of nostalgia pandering. Sonic just doesn't have a strong focus on story for that. A reboot wouldn't necessarily change that nor would one be necessary to do so.

[Fr0zenanus]

Call me an bitter Adventure-era fan, but nothing i see about this game (or Mania) is working out for me for anything to stand out from the collection of Sonic-games i already have. it's basically an PS4 edition of whatever Sonic-game exists (i don't want to say Generations for obvious reasons)

I want to take bets that the new character will fill my interests, or an fanfic-inspired crossover with other Sega characters (bearing the name "Forces" after all.) 

Part of me, thinks it's about time Nagoshi is given control of an Sonic-game. 

[Chris Knopps]

I actually think, in its own way, it is a necessity. I mean, think about it. Putting cities from the Adventure games and Unleashed smack dab in the center of places like Green Hill and such, I wouldn't mind unifying the various "universes" or "realities" or "worlds" of the franchise like that. Instead of making up excuses as to why thing and people are, or aren't there and such, just merge everything together into a singular existence.

Half moon in the sky, check. Hazy view of the ARK, check. Station Square in Green Hill, check. Prison Island actually built somewhere on Angel Island? Okay.

(Though the last may be a bit of a stretch)

I still wouldn't mind the game series taking an Archie direction. Instead of keeping everything split apart and fractured, just mush it all into one and there you go. Happiness for all fans.

If nothing else it would ease continuity and timeline placement woes and such.

As far as how all this happened?

Easy, the Time Eater, even though he was defeated, the damage was still done, albeit repaired to a recognizable degree nonetheless. All the warping left the world in a "reborn" state of existence. Everything is one.

Welcome to the future.

[Wraith]

Meshing everything together and focusing too much on continuity and references is exactly why I don't enjoy reading Archie much, actually. Feels too much like cluttered nonsense that's trying to appease every Sonic fan and not enough like just trying to tell a fun story about Sonic characters.

 I also thought we were trying to avoid referencing previous locations and nostalgia pandering and stuff.

[Diogenes]

3 minutes ago, Josh said:

Meshing everything together and focusing too much on continuity and references is exactly why I don't enjoy reading Archie much, actually. Feels too much like cluttered nonsense that's trying to appease every Sonic fan and not enough like just trying to tell a fun story about Sonic characters.

Yeah if the series is to do any kind of reboot it should be to strip away a lot of crud and not mash it all together. I want to see a more focused Sonic universe.

[Wraith]

I'm not sure if any kind of reboot is needed, but putting more shit in kind of completely defeats the purpose of a reboot to begin with, doesn't it?

[KHCast]

15 minutes ago, Josh said:

Meshing everything together and focusing too much on continuity and references is exactly why I don't enjoy reading Archie much, actually. Feels too much like cluttered nonsense that's trying to appease every Sonic fan and not enough like just trying to tell a fun story about Sonic characters.

 I also thought we were trying to avoid referencing previous locations and nostalgia pandering and stuff.

I don't see the harm in having re-occurring locations every once and awhile. Other franchises can do it no problem and stil keep them fresh and unique. I could see sonic doing it fine if they don't pull a Generations and fill the levels up with nothing but references and nods to the original stage. Essentisllu it'd be a new stage in all but location and name. Ex. If we return to Apotos/Windmille Isle for whatever story reason, maybe it's some new area like by the beach or underwater or something, with a few instances of city exploration 

[Wraith]

7 minutes ago, KHCast said:

I don't see the harm in having re-occurring locations every once and awhile. Other franchises can do it no problem and stil keep them fresh and unique. I could see sonic doing it fine if they don't pull a Generations and fill the levels up with nothing but references and nods to the original stage. Essentisllu it'd be a new stage in all but location and name. Ex. If we return to Apotos, maybe it's some new area like by the beach or underwater or something, with a few instances of city exploration 

Returning areas is fine every once in a while, but I don't want too many things from older games having too much story or gameplay relevance. Part of the appeal of the franchise is each entry being self contained and exploring new territory. A person shouldn't feel left out if they missed a game.

[Lord-Dreamerz]

15 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

Yeah if the series is to do any kind of reboot it should be to strip away a lot of crud and not mash it all together. I want to see a more focused Sonic universe.

Not me. :V

I like the idea of combing elements from across the whole series like Archie has done way more then abandoning almost everything for some dull bare minimum experience.

I enjoy a lot of this series wacky hijinks. I’d go as far to say the best way to enjoy this series is to treat it like a capture toy machine where you’ll never know what you’ll get and have fun with the random adventure of it all instead of hoping the series will find a true single winning formula someday and stick to it forever… which is very unlikely to ever happen and doesn’t match the adventurous spirit of the Sonic series.

[Milo]

7 hours ago, Radiant Hero Ike said:

Isn't Sonic Colors a Modern Sonic only game? Like without a secondary gameplay style like Werehog and Classic? Or do the Wisps count as a secondary gameplay style?

Boost gameplay is widely restrained and simplified in speed, controls, and level design; and the majority of Colors' gameplay is comprised of 2D puzzle platforming and using Wisp powers, rather than the boost gameplay that does exist. Colors comes off as more of a spinoff of the playstyle, rather than a direct installment like Unleashed, Generations, and Forces are.

Moreover, Wisps are designed more akin to situational minigames (that all differ depending on the Wisp in question), rather than act as traditional extensions to Sonic's moveset (i.e. shields and character upgrades). Wisps are not a separate dedicated playstyle to same extent of the Werehog and Classic Sonic, but their implementation is definitely not homogeneous to the boost gameplay. "Genre roulette powerups" would be an decent description of the Wisps, IMO.

[Diogenes]

25 minutes ago, Lord-Dreamerz said:

I like the idea of combing elements from across the whole series like Archie has done way more then abandoning almost everything for some dull bare minimum experience.

"Focused" and "bare minimum" are not the same thing at all.

[SonicDude]

1 hour ago, Fr0zenanus said:

Call me an bitter Adventure-era fan, but nothing i see about this game (or Mania) is working out for me for anything to stand out from the collection of Sonic-games i already have. it's basically an PS4 edition of whatever Sonic-game exists (i don't want to say Generations for obvious reasons)

I want to take bets that the new character will fill my interests, or an fanfic-inspired crossover with other Sega characters (bearing the name "Forces" after all.) 

Part of me, thinks it's about time Nagoshi is given control of an Sonic-game. 

I only care about Sonic Mania, so I hope for your sake Forces fucks up hard and then Sonic Team says "let's try the Adventure formula again then, people hating on boost now shit." And really the Spin Dash from Adventure 1/2 was fun as fuck, they just need to tweak it to make it more stable since they are pretending to care about quality now. But part of the fun was being able to moon jump by Spin Dashing and then jumping off an incline.