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

[Shaddy Zaphod]

28 minutes ago, Chris Knopps said:

Mr. Webber is the face of SEGA nowadays really

No he's not. He's just the guy who runs the Sonic twitter. Most people don't even know his name, and Sonic is the only thing he really works with.

12 minutes ago, Celestia said:

He's also only been in this position since roughly halfway through this game's development time, so it wouldn't matter anyway. This also goes for SEGA's general attempt to get back on track recently as well as Iizuka apparently moving to the SoA branch. If any of these things have any influence on Sonic Team's games whatsoever, we won't see it until, well...the next game.

Indeed. It's not as if he's a game designer himself anyway, anything he says to ST would probably be rather broad things in terms of actual choices in development.

...I could see him getting to name the achievements.

[ZinogreVolt]

4 hours ago, Fusion Ellipsis said:

Looks like some concept/animation art for the OC reveal trailer.

Wow, look at those shoulder pads, looks like they're taking Samus's power suit for a spin

[Sgt Nate V]

Er, I don't see any shoulder pads.

[ZinogreVolt]

9 minutes ago, Sgt Jack V said:

Er, I don't see any shoulder pads.

Wait, I'm a dumbass. I thought those were shoulder pads, but upon closer inspection they're the heads of other characters, whoops!

[NegaMix]

7 hours ago, Fusion Ellipsis said:

Looks like some concept/animation art for the OC reveal trailer.

2 hours ago, ZinogreVolt said:

Wow, look at those shoulder pads, looks like they're taking Samus's power suit for a spin

XD Now I can't unsee that.

Anyway, about the Park Avenue track... I'm not really a fan of it so far. I think it's the instruments/synthesisers that put me off, while the vocals are pretty chessy (not necessarily bad, but certainly not good either).

I'm getting a slight feeling that this game's soundtrack may be like Sonic Lost World's to me; A few standout tracks, but otherwise not that noteworthy.

[Chris Knopps]

1 hour ago, Metallix 3.0 said:

XD Now I can't unsee that.

Anyway, about the Park Avenue track... I'm not really a fan of it so far. I think it's the instruments/synthesisers that put me off, while the vocals are pretty chessy (not necessarily bad, but certainly not good either).

I'm getting a slight feeling that this game's soundtrack may be like Sonic Lost World's to me; A few standout tracks, but otherwise not that noteworthy.

The guy composing the music for Forces, he did Lost World and Colors too right?

Maybe he's just really bad with writing vocals and is only good at instrumental stuff?

Though... It seems even his instrumental compositions accompanying the vocals is starting to... Sour...

[blazefan519]

1 hour ago, Chris Knopps said:

The guy composing the music for Forces, he did Lost World and Colors too right?

Maybe he's just really bad with writing vocals and is only good at instrumental stuff?

Though... It seems even his instrumental compositions accompanying the vocals is starting to... Sour...

He's done music for just about every game starting from 06. Colors and Lost World were the ones where he either composed most of the songs or all of them.

[ZinogreVolt]

3 minutes ago, blazefan519 said:

He's done music for just about every game starting from 06. Colors and Lost World were the ones where he either composed most of the songs or all of them.

Wasn't he with the series since SA2?

Anyway, I feel like the problem with Lost World's soundtrack was that a lot of it blended in, leaving only a few standout tracks. That doesn't seem to be the case with Forces, though. At least not yet.

[blazefan519]

Just now, ZinogreVolt said:

Wasn't he with the series since SA2?

Anyway, I feel like the problem with Lost World's soundtrack was that a lot of it blended in, leaving only a few standout tracks. That doesn't seem to be the case with Forces, though. At least not yet.

Was he? I'll need to check on that.

[Blue Blood]

1 hour ago, blazefan519 said:

Was he? I'll need to check on that.

He composed all of the Knuckles raps in SA2, Hang Castle in Heroes and considerable amounts of Rush Adventure, Colours, 06 and Unleashed (also remixes of his own tracks in Generations). In those games, he worked as part of a team to create the a varied soundtrack. Both Lost World and Runners were virtually all by Ohtani alone though, and it really shows in a bad way. It looks like Forces might go the same route unfortunately, though it's still too early to say. 

[blazefan519]

Just now, Blue Blood said:

He composed all of the Knuckles raps in SA2, Hang Castle in Heroes and considerable amounts of Rush Adventure, Colours, 06 and Unleashed (also remixes of his own tracks in Generations). In those games, he worked as part of a team to create the a varied soundtrack. Both Lost World and Runners were virtually all by Ohtani alone though, and it really shows in a bad way. It looks like Forces might go the same route unfortunately, though it's still too early to say. 

Oh well, dang. Didn't know he's been here that long. I agree with Lost World but I liked all of Runners' Soundtrack. The only track with Forces I dislike so far in Green Hill so, idk, hopefully they release more tracks as time goes on.

[BubbleButt TV]

Brand new gameplay footage of the Custom Hero just leaked by the way

[blazefan519]

34 minutes ago, BubbleButt TV said:

Brand new gameplay footage of the Custom Hero just leaked by the way

heh, just watched that trailer

[Dr. Detective]

1 hour ago, BubbleButt TV said:

Brand new gameplay footage of the Custom Hero just leaked by the way

Odd. I didn't expect this to link to a teaser about a documentary on the Bubonic Plague.

[Roger_van_der_weide]

On Steam?
Nice, only a matter of minutes before someone hacks that character model into every Sonic game ever.

[RLS Legacy]

Well, we got this much right, at least.

Bubsy is back.

Guess we're about to find out what could possibly go wrong.

[SuaveKnux]

Looks memes can do something 

 

[Scritch the Cat]

On 6/7/2017 at 11:05 PM, Shaddy the guy said:

The only "if" is "if" Webber actually has as much power as you seem to think.

I'll answer that "if" right now: he doesn't. He just runs the social media pages. It would take a ton of work on his part to get into contact with the big names at Sonic team, and even more to actually make them take what he says seriously. He doesn't fuckin have Iizuka on speed dial.

I think that's likely only partially true.  I don't believe Aaron is influential to their direction but I wouldn't put it past him to be in pretty close contact with more influential people.  He and Iizuka have appeared together in multiple videos together, and they all gel with Aaron's self-referential sense of humor.  Aaron Webber does seem to have his finger soundly on the pulse of the Sonic series as it exists currently; I just think he's on the receiving end of its direction rather than giving.

However, that's enough for me to treat his posts and videos as a potential positive development in the series.  "Potential" because he might be a rare person who sees the sorts of things he sees, but on the assumption that he's acting in a way the head honchos like, to some degree I'd assume that they understand and value the same things he does.  

Webber has been quite a delight as far as Sonic Team employees go because he's able to strike a balance between making fun of this series' past and saluting it.  He's able to recognize that Sonic 2006 was rushed to death and that Sonic 4's physics were shoddy, but never crosses the line into denigrating this series' legacy, and that's a big deal for me because for a while such denigration felt real.  I'm not sure how people here feel about Big's Big Fishing Adventure, or, for that matter, Big, but we must recognize that for better or worse, it's these sorts of things, alongside present-day streaming of the Adventure series, that are keeping alive elements that, for a while, SEGA seemed rather keen to get rid of.  

That they're just posts, Twitch streams and cheap flash games, and not AAA games made by Sonic Team, is beside the point--they exist, they have Sonic's name on them, and that means fans see them and I'm quite certain influential people at Sonic Team do, too.  I don't expect them to obey Aaron Webber if he says to them, "Next Sonic game should do_______", and moreover I don't ever remember him saying that, but if they see a flash game starring Big the Cat he helped promote become a big hit, they might very well take notice and think it's time to do something bigger and more official with the character.

[Ellipsis-Ultima]

13 hours ago, SuaveKnux said:

Looks memes can do something 

 

Sonic Forces Bubsy to rise from the grave.

[JezMM]

On 07/06/2017 at 3:04 PM, Velvet Reindeer said:

 

Oh, hello PSO2, I thought I left your grindy backside behind after my life became too much for it but you somehow manage to crawl back into it.

Funnily enough when Las Vegas came out on PSO2 and I heard that lovely Runblebee stuff I was like "god I wish in-gameplay vocals would come back to Sonic music" - and now when they do the music is SO PSO2-ish, it's wild.  I was really surprised that Ohtani was behind it and they hadn't got PSO2's main composer back onto Sonic games too.

On 07/06/2017 at 8:21 PM, Conquering Storm's Servant said:

I've not had many complaints compared to others, but I have to saye that those are some pretty sterile robot designs, possibly the most boring looking ones I've seen out of the games.

I doubt that's the case with all of them, but I'm not impressed with these.

 

On 07/06/2017 at 8:32 PM, Blue Blood said:

I think they're supposed to look sterile and somewhat generic, if the giant Death Egg Sentinels are any indication. But yeah, they could look like production models and less zany than Eggman's typical machines without being wrote so bland. The badniks in Green Hill actually look alright, as do the sentinels. It's just the totally new enemies that aren't so hot. 

You know what I think would be super cool?  If there was a mixture of Egg Pawns, sterile production models, and deteriorated Egg Pawns that show the "production model" aesthetic underneath due to damage from over time.  If the story DOES turn out to be that a lot of time has passed under Eggman's rule, it'd be a cool way to fully illustrate "Eggman's influence has expanded so fast he doesn't have the resources or time to dress up his army anymore" and be some delicious lore material in terms of revealing the inner-workings of his goofy robots.

The only key would be quickly communicating to the player that both the intact, deteriorated and endoskeleton models are all the same enemy with the same attributes, just different aesthetics.  Animation would need to be clear and on-point for them.

On 08/06/2017 at 6:54 AM, Chris Knopps said:

Well... That's what Mr. Webber is supposed to be back for. If they're ignoring things he's very likely telling them, it can't be helped.

Big "if" there mind you.

To be fair, what is Mr Webber meant to be saying?  "No-one likes Egg Pawns"?  Coz that isn't true.  They aren't universally loved but I only ever see a few people who passionately hate them.  The only issue I have with them is relating them to Heroes and Shadow, which had very unsatisfying combat due to even the weakest enemies having health bars that made them feel rubbery and resisting rather than clean and satisfying to crack open in a single hit.  It's hard to shake that relationship of them.  I found the Egg Fighters more satisfying to fight due to their size, BUT either are fine now that badnik variety has been reintroduced to the series.  The Egg Pawns fit well as generic footsoldiers alongside all the goofy animal design robots.

Either way the sterile production model look is certainly way closer to the darker/serious Eggman you'd like to see, surely?

[Sean]

Ohtani is at his best when he's part of a team full of composers whose work complements and enhances each others'. I actually did like SLW and Runners' soundtracks a lot, but they're not exactly what I expect or want as the norm for a Sonic game. I miss the varied styles and what each composer brought to the table - not to mention Kumatani and Tokoi have him beat.

I'm still in love with Park Avenue, and the main theme for Forces is really good, so I'm optimistic for this game's soundtrack. Even though I'm disappointed that it's yet another solo Ohtani effort, at least it feels like he's trying to channel the pre-SLW sound that Sonic games had in the music.

[Roger_van_der_weide]

Hmm, I find it hard to care about what the badniks look like for the quarter of a second they're on screen before Sonic/ Bob the Accountant flamethrow/Boost their tragic remains into outerspace. As long as the bosses/ Set piece induced stronger enemies look more impressive.

[A super No.1 washedupgamer]

Maybe they might have more variety of badniks like how in sonic adventure 2 there were badniks around when team sonic got to the pyramid levels along with gun robots.

 

[Celestia]

There's an idea. Maybe Eggman started militarizing his badniks after Sonic disappeared, but when he comes back he gets fired up again and you start seeing the more standard designs return as the game progresses. Would be a neat little detail, and hey, LW set a precedent for there being a lot of badnik designs in one game.

[JackIsInTheStadium]

On 6/4/2017 at 10:27 AM, Nepenthe said:

Citation needed on this.

I've seen more asks for Cream to be playable again rather than people's own characters.

Cream Becoming the Playable character? PFFFFFFFT, those kids trying to get Cream back, they are stu- Oh yeah, they're going to burst and destroy me. Also I mentioned that it is what most fans creates and not wants, it was just a mistake cause my mind is filled with so many randomness.

But besides that, I have something to say, we did something, and it was something that no other gaming franchise fans have ever done, we used memes like we always did in the past, we ignored the internet, instead of making whatever there is as a meme, we made a huge mistake, and while we were making memes like we did, it was too much, we brought back something, it's not Sonic, because we always talk negative about him, it is Bubsy, We are Sonic fans, only to revive Bubsy, we have went too far with what we had and now, because jokes become reality, they are not jokes, they are seriouses but we need to remember this, What could possibly go wrong.