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

[Whatever the WhoCares]

I'm a longtime Sonic fan and what I've seen of the gameplay looks... alright. I mean I'm confident I'll have fun with it, but something about it seems so... phoned in, I guess? For a game with such a drastic and epic premise, I don't sense an ounce of passion in any of this. It feels like they wanted to make an epic and serious story, but then corporate came in and forced Classic and OC on them. So now it's just this hollow, resigned-to-blandness bore fest. 

It just feels kind of shit. I mean as a game you sit down and play, it looks decent. But there's this aura of... yeah, shit. 

[RictalRose0]

I seem negative but yeah what i've seen of the 3D gameplay looks... fun I guess. Sonic's 30 seconds of 3D stuff were cool and Buddy's like, 10 seconds of 3D gameplay also looked nice. But the 2D stuff is really bland, slow and clunky. And it looks like a big part of the game will in fact be 2D. You know the OC wouldn't be so weird either if it was just him AND Sonic. Why is Classic here? We already know the 2D gameplay is rubish, we know he won't talk much, and chances of the other classic characters appearing are very low, so his story potential is minimalistic at best and his gameplay will be just a thorn in an otherwise fun-looking plataformer. Again, why the hell is Classic here?

[RLS Legacy]

Huh. Well, this is a turn-up for the books. Guess SEGA will be getting more publicity than they bargained for.

[Chris Knopps]

2 minutes ago, RLS Legacy said:

Huh. Well, this is a turn-up for the books. Guess SEGA will be getting more publicity than they bargained for.

Question is what KIND of publicity and to what degree than they bargained for?

[Kintor]

6 minutes ago, RLS Legacy said:

Huh. Well, this is a turn-up for the books. Guess SEGA will be getting more publicity than they bargained for.

This is actually the ideal scenario as far as Sega's marketing campaign with Sonic Forces is concerned. Direct promotion will only get the game so far. But going viral like this means a crazy amount of free publicity, even among gamers who wouldn't normally consider buying a Sonic game. Which is exactly what I've been talking these past couple of months - a character creator is going to be a significent sales boost for Sonic Forces.

[RictalRose0]

Well people are kinda digging it. I'm pretty sure what's gonna happen is that if Sega plays their cards right maybe they'll get even more of the Nintendo auddience, you know, Splatoon and stuff. And then we the fans can get fucked because there will be a new generation that will prefer this style of custom gameplay. Whatever works I guess.

[StaticMania]

13 minutes ago, RictalRose0 said:

Well people are kinda digging it. I'm pretty sure what's gonna happen is that if Sega plays their cards right maybe they'll get even more of the Nintendo auddience, you know, Splatoon and stuff. And then we the fans can get fucked because there will be a new generation that will prefer this style of custom gameplay. Whatever works I guess.

Well, the fans that dislike the custom game-play anyway. The people who do like it won't get...bad stuff.

[Chris Knopps]

13 minutes ago, RictalRose0 said:

Well people are kinda digging it. I'm pretty sure what's gonna happen is that if Sega plays their cards right maybe they'll get even more of the Nintendo auddience, you know, Splatoon and stuff. And then we the fans can get fucked because there will be a new generation that will prefer this style of custom gameplay. Whatever works I guess.

Sure, crush a mans soul when it's already been shattered.

They should be seeking/aiming for the exact opposite as the franchise was SUPPOSED to do, but...

F-the-long-time-fans-who-know-too-much-thus-deserve-so-little-am-I-right-?

[RLS Legacy]

Just now, Chris Knopps said:

They should be seeking/aiming for the exact opposite as the franchise was SUPPOSED to do, but...

Sorry to burst your bubble, but that just isn't viable anymore.

This isn't the 90s. The SEGA VS Nintendo battle ended long ago. If Sonic hopes to survive as a franchise in today's gaming landscape, where the platformer is all but a dinosaur of a genre, he needs to take what he can get. 

[Chris Knopps]

3 minutes ago, RLS Legacy said:

Sorry to burst your bubble, but that just isn't viable anymore.

This isn't the 90s. The SEGA VS Nintendo battle ended long ago. If Sonic hopes to survive as a franchise in today's gaming landscape, where the platformer is all but a dinosaur of a genre, he needs to take what he can get. 

You can aim for the opposite and still find major success.

The ports of the Adventure titles, Heroes, Unleashed, Black Knight, they all did fairly well on Nintendo without the current direction.

You don't have to cater toward a specific faction to find success within that faction. People tend to like this concept called originality and brand identity.

[KHCast]

Random question, but has Jim Sterling had any comments on this via twitter?

[Tenko]

We have Modern Sonic for the fans of the newer games, we have Classic Sonic for the fans of the older games. We have added a character creator so those that aren't happy to just play Sonic the Hedgehog with its lead character can create their own and stop complaining. It has lighthearted segments harkening back to the classics, it has areas with more dark undertones. 

Gadzooks we have done everything that all sides of the community wanted in one game!! This can't go wrong!!

[Dr. Detective]

1 hour ago, KHCast said:

Random question, but has Jim Sterling had any comments on this via twitter?

He made a video about it. He says some pretty agreeable stuff. 

[Chris Knopps]

I'd imagine SEGA is doing the talking while everybody abruptly crashes.

They always find a way... No matter what happens after this game, let it be known SEGA always found a way to get us all.

[KHCast]

8 minutes ago, Dr. Chaotix said:

He made a video about it. He says some pretty agreeable stuff. 

 

yeah I gotta agree that them building on Gens and seeing if they can do more with it is alright with me. I'm just not okay with them Re-doing Gens again in the literal sense if that's what this essentially turns out being for 80% of the thing

Oh and there's this lol 

[Chris Knopps]

13 minutes ago, KHCast said:

 

yeah I gotta agree that them building on Gens and seeing if they can do more with it is alright with me. I'm just not okay with them Re-doing Gens again in the literal sense if that's what this essentially turns out being for 80% of the thing

Oh and there's this lol 

...Oh how far we're falling together.

This is topping all the cakes.

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......F@$k......

[RictalRose0]

Well places like Tumblr have had the most positive reaction to it, and that's where most of the Nintendo crowd hangs out. Or where they are the majority. So I imagine that yes this will be appealing to nintendo people.

[The J]

4 hours ago, blazefan519 said:

Ayy, wondering when someone would do this.

I really couldn't let that opportunity slide haha 

Was wondering if this would get featured on here, thought I was the only one who saw that recent trailer that way 

[BlueFlare]

2 hours ago, Tenko said:

We have Modern Sonic for the fans of the newer games, we have Classic Sonic for the fans of the older games. We have added a character creator so those that aren't happy to just play Sonic the Hedgehog with its lead character can create their own and stop complaining. It has lighthearted segments harkening back to the classics, it has areas with more dark undertones. 

Gadzooks we have done everything that all sides of the community wanted in one game!! This can't go wrong!!

It really isn't that simple. Modern Sonic has seemingly taken slightly more linear and automated approach than most of us prefer but feels mostly familiar because of the boost games, classic Sonic hasn't gained much praise from understandable reasons and what they've shown us so far. I don't know about the third style, it is somewhat of a modern Sonic without boost and comes with a few interesting twists.

[Salamander]

This game really does look like they're throwing absolutely everything at the wall and seeing what sticks.  Modern Sonic!  Classic Sonic!  Boost!  Platforming!  Boom gameplay!  Custom Hero!  Darker tone!  Lighter tone!  Returning levels!  New levels!  It's trying to embrace every single possibility for a Sonic game at once, and right now there doesn't appear to be any unity to it.  New characters and old, new levels and old, fast gameplay and slow, light tone and dark tone - this game has no identity of its own.  It doesn't mean anything for the franchise except as a giant testing ground.

So I stepped back.  I tried to look at this game from a perspective of trying to figure out the franchise's direction from here.  And then I saw it:

If the Custom Hero is a success, Sonic's friends will never be playable again.

We all know that the Boost gameplay as its stands cannot support a full-length game on its own because it requires a disproportionate amount of content to be created relative to the playtime of each level.  So they've had to come up with various gimmicks to sustain it - Werehog, Classic Sonic.  However, you can't bring those back every game without some serious mental contortions, nor without redefining the identity of the franchise.  But you can with Custom Hero.  Custom Hero is infinitely reuseable as both a narrative and gameplay element.  "You and your buddy Sonic go on another crazy adventure!"  It's a premise which can apply to nearly any story you can conceive of, and it doesn't even detract from Sonic's role as the main character.  And the actual gameplay of the Custom Hero doesn't matter because of the flexible, undefined nature of a custom character; if people don't like the Custom Hero's gameplay, they can just change it while keeping the same "character"!

The Custom Hero has unlimited ability to sideline and replace Sonic's friends.  Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, all the rest - if Buddy succeeds, he will kill all of them.

[Roger_van_der_weide]

Heh, the thought occured to me that a lot of the recent gimmicks that seemed like they were one-time only tricks keep sticking around for future games.
Wisps, Classic Sonic, Boost. If the Custom character also becomes a staple... Hah, it's almost as if the Sonic franchise is going to become a weird Katamari ball of dozens of ideas and gameplay concepts piled on top of a giant monstrous ball of uncontrollable gameplay death.



Heh, let's hope it won't get that far.


At least I'm happy they made the Wisps into equipment for Buddy. That seems like a decent attempt to "smooth" the gimmicks together into one comprehensible whole at least.

[Ayliffe]

4 hours ago, Kintor said:

a character creator is going to be a significent sales boost for Sonic Forces.

people viewing a video on the internet lots =/= lots of people putting down £40-50 for a videogame

[Blue Blood]

6 minutes ago, Ayliffe said:

people viewing a video on the internet lots =/= lots of people putting down £40-50 for a videogame

Honestly, I believe this is a hook that's going to draw a lot of children in. I loathe the idea of a character creator, but they're pulling it off better than I had expected and the reception (outside of SSMB) isn't actually that negative.

Keep this crap out of future games. Relegate it to a spin-off that I can just ignore, please. 

[Kintor]

8 minutes ago, Ayliffe said:

people viewing a video on the internet lots =/= lots of people putting down £40-50 for a videogame

Getting people talking about Sonic Forces is always the first step. This character creator announcement has done just that. So far so good, now onwards to E3!

[MudHunter]

So if I understand well, the main character of the game is still Sonic and the story of Forces was first developped in Japan.