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

[Celestia]

1 minute ago, Diogenes said:

Ah, good.

Y'all can suffer.

Hm.

Just now, Soniman said:

All the same, glad Sonic will continue to have a personality

Trust  me, I wish I was still in the Colours Writers is/can be Good, Actually club. In fairness, it's not characterization I have an issue with aside from Tails but let's not get into that,  but yeah.

Still looking forward to the game, but ugh. A four year break after LW was enough time for me to get over those writers.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

2 minutes ago, Sonikko said:

I'll just leave this here. That's how bad it looks to me.

I'm confused. Should I assume you hate the Boom TV series or something? :U

[Balding Spider]

8 minutes ago, MudHunter said:

 

More good news!!!!!!!

 

7 minutes ago, Celestia said:

Ah, finally, something for me to be negative about.

 

4 minutes ago, Depression Kong said:

Oh, thank fuck. Things were looking way too positive today.

 

4 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

Ah, good.

Y'all can suffer.

Wait, did you guys think they were going to switch out writers for this? And if so why?

[Diogenes]

2 minutes ago, It's a Very Merry Miru said:

At one point, one of this pair said that they didn't want to discuss Sonic anymore. And a bunch of SA3 people have hassled them in the recent past.

They deserve better than Sonic fans.

Wait, did you guys think they were going to switch out writers for this? And if so why?

Nah I was mostly expecting them back, but it wasn't confirmed, and considering how much shit they get from fans it wouldn't have been surprising if they were replaced.

[Bobnik]

4 minutes ago, MudHunter said:

 

More good news!!!!!!!

Ugh, REALLY?! I mean, if Pontaff (and yes, I think they both are involved in this) don't go the Colors route (where the dialogue and writing was awful and jokes were cringy as fuck) or the Lost World route (where the dialogue didn't match the game's tone most of the time, Sonic is a douche and Tails is a whiny baby),the writing might still be okay, but damn, THIS got me disappointed. Oh well, gameplay still looks fine and Generations was good even without story, so eh.

[Nepenthe]

Literally the worst thing about all of this today is that Pontaff is back.

[Celestia]

Just now, Balding Spider said:

Wait, did you guys think they were going to switch out writers for this? And if so why?

Eh, I figured it could go either way.

[Sonikko]

1 minute ago, Jovahexeon Joranvexeon said:

I'm confused. Should I assume you hate the Boom TV series or something? :U

The TV serie is good, but it's not like the character design is something to write home about. Especially for the secondary cast, they all looked pretty bad, unsonicy and generic. But it's just my opinion!

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

also explanations on how the animal choices help you in the game

[Balding Spider]

1 minute ago, Celestia said:

Eh, I figured it could go either way.

Really? I fully expected the same writers to stick around for this game and for future titles years to come.. come... come... come...

[Multikaris]

4 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

They deserve better than Sonic fans.

Nah I was mostly expecting them back, but it wasn't confirmed, and considering how much shit they get from fans it wouldn't have been surprising if they were replaced.

It also feels safe to say they'll get kicked out after this for the controversial reaction that's already growing. And if they're trying a more dramatic angle, it's likely this will end up bland or incomprehensible thanks to Pontaff's bent.

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

11 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

Ah, good.

Y'all can suffer.

After Lost World, I am really excited to see what they can do. I hope they utulise all the characters like they did in Lost World.

[Salamander]

I'm sold on the idea raised earlier in the thread.  The third character was Boom Sonic, and everything about Forces makes more sense when you assume this is true.

All that 25th anniversary art with all three Sonics on it.  The way this game would have made sense as a 25th anniversary game but misses the anniversary year.  The grappling hook, the gadgets!  It all fits.  They started making the game and the third gameplay style with Boom Sonic in mind, but as it became clearer and clearer that Boom had been a disaster, the order eventually came to scour Boom Sonic from the game.  That left them with a new gameplay style they'd put a huge amount of work into, but no character to front it with.  It didn't fit any existing characters without needing more work, and the public was sure to reject a random newbie out of nowhere.  Just telling the public "you create the new character" and treating it as a selling point rather than a last resort was their only hope.

I'll give them this, there is quite a respectable range of character design options, even if most of them amount to overdesigned out-of-place anime gear which we'll hopefully at least be able to pretend that Tails made (there's an easy excuse which they'll probably miss the opportunity for).  And I think the idea of animal-specific powers isn't uninteresting.  But a lot of that gameplay looked just as automated as Modern and Classic's; it's just a different spectacle.  How much of this game will anyone actually really play?

13 minutes ago, MudHunter said:

 

More good news!!!!!!!

The icing on the cake.  It's all over.

[Zavok the SpinningSilver]

You know, after giving it a bit of thought, this Custom Hero thing is everything I could have wanted from this story...in reverse.

Someone mentioned it earlier, but the sentiment of Sonic and co. having to rely on everyday citizens to fight Eggman really emphasizes this "Forces" tagline we have here. Everybody working together to stop the forces of evil, a truly global effort that spans across time and space (if this is how Classic Sonic gets involved or something).

But the key difference is that this is what I want to see happening in the background. 

Imagine a scenario like this: You're playing a level as Tails. He's got all of these Wispon gadgets that he made after studying the Wisps and you're using them to traverse the area. You're running along and all of a sudden one of the massive Death Egg Robo's starts sabotaging your routes a la Sky Santcuary Modern's Eggrobo. What if, at the end of such a section, there's a crew of these "Custom Hero" type civilians that take them out while you move on? Throw in a hearty "we've got this guys" from them over intercoms and BAM. The illusion of randies helping you out is established.

Is it the best idea? I don't know, but I want it more than what we have now. Ah well.

Could be worse. It's not like the writing staff would throw away good story potential regardless of whose playable, right?

...right?

 

[Indigo Rush]

29 minutes ago, MudHunter said:

 

More good news!!!!!!!

It keeps getting better worse

 

[Ratcicle King]

2 minutes ago, FFWF said:

I'm sold on the idea raised earlier in the thread.  The third character was Boom Sonic, and everything about Forces makes more sense when you assume this is true.

All that 25th anniversary art with all three Sonics on it.  The way this game would have made sense as a 25th anniversary game but misses the anniversary year.  The grappling hook, the gadgets!  It all fits.  They started making the game and the third gameplay style with Boom Sonic in mind, but as it became clearer and clearer that Boom had been a disaster, the order eventually came to scour Boom Sonic from the game.  That left them with a new gameplay style they'd put a huge amount of work into, but no character to front it with.  It didn't fit any existing characters without needing more work, and the public was sure to reject a random newbie out of nowhere.  Just telling the public "you create the new character" and treating it as a selling point rather than a last resort was their only hope.

I'll give them this, there is quite a respectable range of character design options, even if most of them amount to overdesigned out-of-place anime gear which we'll hopefully at least be able to pretend that Tails made (there's an easy excuse which they'll probably miss the opportunity for).  And I think the idea of animal-specific powers isn't uninteresting.  But a lot of that gameplay looked just as automated as Modern and Classic's; it's just a different spectacle.  How much of this game will anyone actually really play?

The icing on the cake.  It's all over.

I doubt that, you can't just go ''welp let's make a character creator instead'' in the middle of development, because there's a SHITLOAD of stuff to take into account thanks to the customizable nature of it.

[Balding Spider]

You have to wonder what took Sonic team so long to come up with the idea of a character creator. Like how do you not reach this conclusion earlier in the franchise? How did we get playing through storybooks and whatever the hell Shadow was first, but not his?

[Multikaris]

3 minutes ago, Indigo Rush said:

It keeps getting better worse

I actually have a faint hope Graff is trolling.

[Nepenthe]

I feel like the timeline doesn't make sense. Rise of Lyric came out in 2014. It was a disaster then. We started seeing 25th anniversary materials last year, with Boom Sonic on it. So why in the world did they not edit out existing materials in the years they had to do it? More than likely, it's only because Boom Sonic continues to exist at least in part due to the TV show, and he had a new game coming out within the anniversary time frame (two if you count the Dash reskin), that he was included in promotional materials.

[Balding Spider]

14 minutes ago, Sonikko said:

The TV serie is good, but it's not like the character design is something to write home about. Especially for the secondary cast, they all looked pretty bad, unsonicy and generic. But it's just my opinion!

Meh, I'll just color him Grey and give him a scouter. Star Wolf makes everything better.

[Diogenes]

2 minutes ago, Balding Spider said:

You have to wonder what took Sonic team so long to come up with the idea of a character creator. Like how do you not reach this conclusion earlier in the franchise? How did we get playing through storybooks and whatever the hell Shadow was first, but not his?

I'm sure they were aware of the concept ages ago. It just took time for the series to rot enough and for the developers to become desperate enough that they could convince themselves it wasn't an awful, embarrassing idea.

[Marcello]

Dragon Ball Xenoverse added a character creator and they've become the best-selling DB games. Then there's the fact that fan characters a pretty big in the Sonic fanbase. And kids will probably love being able to fight Eggman alongside Sonic. I think it's a good idea.

Graff being back for writing sucks, though.

1 hour ago, Chris Knopps said:

Everything is either too clustered or too spaced out/empty in this game.

I also want to point out there aren't any echidna options.

All echidna's are belong to Penders.

 

 

Knuckles is the last echidna.

15 minutes ago, Balding Spider said:

Wait, did you guys think they were going to switch out writers for this? And if so why?

 

There were some rumors about Ian Flynn writing.

[E-122-Psi]

It wouldn't surprise me if they had some templates for existing characters. A lot of those shoes and gloves already look similar to Shadow and Silver's attire at least. They stuff in enough easter eggs like that and this could be fun even for those not interested in OC making.

[Indigo Rush]

3 minutes ago, It's a Very Merry Miru said:

I actually have a faint hope Graff is trolling.

I sincerely doubt it at this point. 

[Nepenthe]

I wouldn't mind the character creator if it was optional, if I could play with an existing cast member or choose to make my own.

I bet you a dime to a dollar it's mandatory.