Sonic Forces Japanese official site opened!

[Woun]

Sonic Forces site has new characters artworks:

 

Resistance team artwork will be uploaded later

 

All backgrounds videos:

 

[MegasonicZX]

I really like that render of classic sonic, it makes him look a whole lot more serious looking than his cute persona in generations and I hope that carries over to the game.

[Polkadi~☆]

Welcome to the Freedom Fighters HQ! Or the Resistance HQ, I dunno, it's better my way.

[DiamondX]

I hope they add more backgrounds as more stages are revealed.

[Red Hot Jack]

I'm really curious to see the resistance artwork.

[LukA8]

So am I. The profile says that Knuckles is the captain of the resistance team, mentions the HQ and something about the resistance "continuing in other places", so different characters appear in different levels, as expected. The artwork may only feature Tails, Knuckles and Amy, as none of the friend characters got artwork in Generations and Sega actually hid them until release (because critics). A shame though, some of the cast haven't gotten new artwork in like 8 years.

Also, what's the deal with the HQ now? Is it a tiny hub "room" or not? Aaron Webber deconfirmed exploration elements in his interview, but maybe you can still access the world map from there and talk to other characters.

[JosepHenry]

8 minutes ago, LukA8 said:

So am I. The profile says that Knuckles is the captain of the resistance team, mentions the HQ and something about the resistance "continuing in other places", so different characters appear in different levels, as expected. The artwork may only feature Tails, Knuckles and Amy, as none of the friend characters got artwork in Generations and Sega actually hid them until release (because critics). A shame though, some of the cast haven't gotten new artwork in like 8 years.

Also, what's the deal with the HQ now? Is it a tiny hub "room" or not? Aaron Webber deconfirmed exploration elements in his interview, but maybe you can still access the world map from there and talk to other characters.

Silver had artwork from Gens, so he could be on the on the artwork.

[RedFox99]

So Knuckles is the commander of the resistance? This is definitely a step-up from his portrayal in recent years. 

[Blue Blood]

I don't get "The Resistance" at all. It makes the cast sound like they're all hardened war-veterans or something, and from the in-game dialogue we've seen that exactly how they're being treated. I always had a distaste for GUN, but this is worse. It's an angle that doesn't work for any of the characters, regardless of which side they're on. And Knuckles is supposed to be leading it? The fuck?

Once again I'm left wondering if anyone at Sonic Team, including Iizuka, actually has an ounce of passion for this game or if it is literally just a product that's been ordered out by corporate. 

[DiamondX]

It's just like the Freedom Fighters in the shows and comics.

[JosepHenry]

3 hours ago, Blue Blood said:

I don't get "The Resistance" at all. It makes the cast sound like they're all hardened war-veterans or something, and from the in-game dialogue we've seen that exactly how they're being treated. I always had a distaste for GUN, but this is worse. It's an angle that doesn't work for any of the characters, regardless of which side they're on. And Knuckles is supposed to be leading it? The fuck?

Once again I'm left wondering if anyone at Sonic Team, including Iizuka, actually has an ounce of passion for this game or if it is literally just a product that's been ordered out by corporate. 

Yes they do.

Shun Nakamura and Tomoya Ohtani are constantly talking about the game on social media, giving hints, sneak peeks, answering questions and they seem proud of what they are doing. I doubt that is all just to promote the game. They care about what they are doing (even if what they do isn't satisfying for fans). Passion is there, but passion doesn't say much about the the level of quality.

 

[Blue Blood]

 

21 minutes ago, RedFox99 said:

So Knuckles is the commander of the resistance? This is definitely a step-up from his portrayal in recent years. 

You think so? I'd totally disagree. Knuckles may not have had particularly good portrayal for the past decade or so (though I'd argue he was fine in Generations considering his minimal presence), but he's not a 'leader' type character. As I say above, none of the characters or the series itself works with an army or war type setup. It's far too moody. Sonic is acting like himself, but Amy and Knuckles aren't the characters I know at all in the footage of this game. There's no real hint of personalities going by what we've seen so far. They can easily be summed up as "mission controls guys". It's crap. At the risk of sounding like I'm mindlessly bashing Forces and praising Mania, that game manages to get Knuckles' character right (spoilers) despite minimal story presentation. Even Lost World actually does it alright. Sure he's a background character and doesn't do much, but he's got a personality going on, with a brief glimpse of his rivalry with Sonic. In Forces, he just spews war tactics stuff and it's like who the hell even is that.

[RedFox99]

9 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

 

You think so? I'd totally disagree. Knuckles may not have had particularly good portrayal for the past decade or so (though I'd argue he was fine in Generations considering his minimal presence), but he's not a 'leader' type character. As I say above, none of the characters or the series itself works with an army or war type setup. It's far too moody. Sonic is acting like himself, but Amy and Knuckles aren't the characters I know at all in the footage of this game. There's no real hint of personalities going by what we've seen so far. They can easily be summed up as "mission controls guys". It's crap. At the risk of sounding like I'm mindlessly bashing Forces and praising Mania, that game manages to get Knuckles' character right (spoilers) despite minimal story presentation. Even Lost World actually does it alright. Sure he's a background character and doesn't do much, but he's got a personality going on, with a brief glimpse of his rivalry with Sonic. In Forces, he just spews war tactics stuff and it's like who the hell even is that.

I see what you mean. Hopefully we get to see more personality when more cuteness are released.

[JosepHenry]

30 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

 

You think so? I'd totally disagree. Knuckles may not have had particularly good portrayal for the past decade or so (though I'd argue he was fine in Generations considering his minimal presence), but he's not a 'leader' type character. As I say above, none of the characters or the series itself works with an army or war type setup. It's far too moody. Sonic is acting like himself, but Amy and Knuckles aren't the characters I know at all in the footage of this game. There's no real hint of personalities going by what we've seen so far. They can easily be summed up as "mission controls guys". It's crap. At the risk of sounding like I'm mindlessly bashing Forces and praising Mania, that game manages to get Knuckles' character right (spoilers) despite minimal story presentation. Even Lost World actually does it alright. Sure he's a background character and doesn't do much, but he's got a personality going on, with a brief glimpse of his rivalry with Sonic. In Forces, he just spews war tactics stuff and it's like who the hell even is that.

They probably have to mature a bit because of the events of the game, but it doesn't mean their characterization isn't the same anymore, we are probably going to see them in cutscenes. We barely saw anything about them yet. We are definitely going to see cutscenes with more light-hearted moments showing their personality better. But every scene so far shows them in a mission. How they are going to show their personalities like that? Amy should be mature enough to know that is not time to fawn over Sonic, she needs to help him.

And about Knuckles being the captain.... Who would they choose if Sonic got captured? Shadow? Espio? Silver? Vector? Charmy? Knuckles is the most "leader-ish" option when Sonic (And Tails) isn't around. (And Knuckles himself wouldn't be against the idea.)

[A super No.1 washedupgamer]

The backgrounds look more eerie and darker. I wonder if it will still be like this in game.

[septimus01]

The first background of Green hill there looks as if it is the modern stage. You can see Sonic standing on the path at 3:20. Look at the start of the pathway, just before the robots, and if that is the modern stage then it's hilariously linear.

Same goes for that bridge background as well if it's a stage.

And this is coming from someone who more positively interested in Forces than most here.

Although they all look visually nice. Would make for a nice moving background on something that has them, like the PS4 dashboard/homepage.

[Red Hot Jack]

It would not make sense to not have a resistance when the world is in this state. There characters are strong, so of course they are gonna fight back.

[RedFox99]

I wonder if they'll release more story elements later on.

[Meta77]

3 hours ago, Woun said:

Sonic Forces site has new characters artworks:

 

Resistance team artwork will be uploaded later

 

All backgrounds videos:

 

This excites me all over my body.  I can't wait!

[Blue Blood]

24 minutes ago, Joseph Henry said:

They probably have to mature a bit because of the events of the game, but it doesn't mean their characterization isn't the same anymore, we are probably going to see them in cutscenes. We barely saw anything about them yet. We are definitely going to see cutscenes with more light-hearted moments showing their personality better. But every scene so far shows them in a mission. How they are going to show their personalities like that? Amy should be mature enough to know that is not time to fawn over Sonic, she is helping him.

And about Knuckles being the captain.... Who would they choose if Sonic got captured? Shadow? Espio? Silver? Vector? Charmy? Knuckles is the most "leader-ish" option when Sonic isn't around.

If the story events are calling for the characters to change in such a way that suddenly calls for their personalities to be squandered instead of adapted or developed, there's an issue with the story. What Sonic Team have done is take and 'dark' theme and 'mature' story, and wedged a bunch of more lighthearted characters into it by changing them entirely to suit the aesthetic. I'd argue that this is bad because it's an uncalled for change that's completely at odds with what the series normally is. 'Mature' doesn't work for Sonic, so this game feels forced and ham-fisted. Putting the existing Sonic characters into this scenario honestly doesn't work. If other cutscenes manage to dial back this rubbish, then that will be a positive. But that doesn't excuse this. You could even argue that it exacerbates it. 

19 minutes ago, Jack the Rookie said:

It would not make sense to not have a resistance when the world is in this state. There characters are strong, so of course they are gonna fight back.

There shouldn't be a captain to the resistance; there shouldn't even be a resistance in the capacity that this game is doing it. A team of heroes banding together to fight an uphill battle against Eggman would be fine. But turning them into a military crew is not the way to do it.

The world being in this state is a problem in itself. A situation where Eggman has effectively already won should be really fun and interesting, but I'm not feeling that from Forces at all. It's feeling like a very generic war scenario, rather than anything to do with Sonic. 

[Red Hot Jack]

2 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

The world being in this state is a problem in itself. A situation where Eggman has effectively already won should be really fun and interesting, but I'm not feeling that from Forces at all. It's feeling like a very generic war scenario, rather than anything to do with Sonic.

That's your interesting view on it, but I don't see it that way, the game treats the war scenario in a not too dark way.

[Diogenes]

Man everything about Forces just feels gross.

I get that these are just backgrounds for the website, but these slow pans over an empty, ruined city with an ugly reddish filter on them are just so viscerally unappealing. It doesn't just not look like Sonic, it doesn't look like anything I want to spend time looking at.

[Meta77]

What looks like sonic? We're talking about a walking hedgehog that's gone from green plains. Collapsing sky cities.  oceans made of oil to giant death stars in space to ruined cities. That's the magic of sonic he has no real anchor to hold him back from different locations

[Diogenes]

31 minutes ago, Meta77 said:

What looks like sonic? We're talking about a walking hedgehog that's gone from green plains. Collapsing sky cities.  oceans made of oil to giant death stars in space to ruined cities. That's the magic of sonic he has no real anchor to hold him back from different locations

That's not actually a good thing. It means the series has no identity.

[Kellan]

4 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

That's not actually a good thing. It means the series has no identity.

I think that there's more to a series's identity than just the level tropes it uses. What about platforming? Or speed? Or its themes of environmentalism, teamwork, or independence? Good music? Dr. Eggman being comical and serious? The games being able to be light-hearted at first, but then get darker as it needs to? Do none of these things count towards the series's identity? I think the identity can survive Sonic being in a dark city.