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Sonic Forces Me To Look Ahead: Where does (3D) Sonic go from here after Forces/2017?


Milo

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Here's a non "lol Sonic Team sux" response:

The most realistic direction is that they'll carry on with the Boost gameplay and the new Hedgehog Engine 2 since I'm sure they believe that will stick.

While I understand why they would believe that, it's not really the ideal direction I would go for, there's still plenty of flaws are stuck in this gameplay style such as linear hallways, automation etc.

Now I'm pretty annoyed myself that they refuse to carry with the Adventure gameplay and expand on it but I believe that there might be some way they'll take small baby steps and slightly improve a bit.

I don't expect them to be perfect and outstanding considering their 3D record has a bit of an inconsistency and identity problem but it would be great if there was instance for them to actually listen to the criticism and concerns of fans, take cues from certain fan projects, and hopefully just ignore the blatant thrashing cause I really doubt that helps anything.

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But for a long answer yeah I agree with you @Yeow with the fact that I simply have absolutely no interest in Sonic Team's direction of the series anymore and while I'm not a fan of most modern games, I've never fully felt that Sonic Team are reaching a point of incompetency that dangers their fact of existing until now, with this game that was apparently in development for four years. I have more faith in fan developers that could give us more stuff like Utopia than anything Sonic Team can produce now. 

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There definitely has to be a change in management, because the people currently leading Sonic Team do not understand even basic concepts about Sonic, like the ring system.

But... I don't know. They just don't understand the gameplay of Sonic all too well. If a group of fans could understand it, and made the highest rated Sonic game in 15 years, you really need to rethink your strategies.

I'm not sure. I can't think that far ahead, with how unpredictable these guys are.

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I'm excited to see how 3D Sonic's gonna be handled after Forces. I have faith that this and future games are gonna do fine.

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I'm imagining Forces will sell pretty well and Sonic Team will continue in that direction with the 3D games, allowing Whitehead and his crew to keep pumping out 2D adventures.

Not saying I personally find that the ideal outcome, but that's what I think will end up happening.

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From what we've seen so far, Forces' review scores will be in the 6-7 out of 10 range. It looks fun and fast-paced, even if in a shallow way, plus its forgiving level design is guaranteed not to piss critics off. As for sales, I really don't know. On one hand, you've got things like the standout box art and character creator that the kiddies will eat up, plus a low price point to entice their parents. On the other hand, Sonic has much more competition than usual, including a 10/10 Mario game. 

Let's say for the sake of argument that it turns out to be deemed a "success" by SEGA. The next game will continue development as planned (it's probably already being put together), coming out as yet another boost game. And beyond that, I can't predict anything else. 

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IIzuka and his team have said statements before and sometime later, they wind up coming out with the opposite of what they said ex; "no plans to bring classic sonic back". I take it with a barrel of salt now. I believe, and if the reception of forces tells them anything, they're gonna experiment yet again, in a way that just won't work. I just got a feeling.

I agree with the idea of making traditional 3d games and boost games though.

 

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The game won't do poorly.

If you look at the Reddit, Youtube, pretty much anywhere else than SSMB, you will find out Forces will sell well.

About the review, we know reviews aren't actually the most accurate (Unleashed's IGN Review for example). But sometimes they can be. (Mania)

 

As for the direction, I would like a fully 3D game, even though I'm used to Colours and Generations.

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They'll do more damage control and still miss the point.

Nothing is really going to change with this series as long as Sonic Team are the ones handling it.

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Honestly not expecting anything too serious at the moment. And I can't think of any ideals here.

At best, they'll just continue the same formula with gimmicks to keep it alive. Beyond that, I could imagine they'll change it up in a similar vein to how they tried Lost Worlds, tho how that'll pan out depends on what they'll do.

Forces might do well sales-wise and mediocre at best with critics. At the very least it won't end up as bad as Sonic 06 come release when people play it, but it's lack of innovation is definitely going to make it grow stale if Sonic Team doesn't come up with something else that can work.

Of course, that depends on how much they care too.

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The boost formula won't live or die by what forces offers up, because it seams like 80% of the game is actively attempting to do anything but.

Post release, we will all be back in the same boat as we were before Forces was revealed. Wondering if Sonic Team is capable of building a viable game around the foundation built by Unleashed and improved in Generations.

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I haven't bought a 3D Sonic game in over a decade, and I make no plans to change that anytime soon. This team has proven themselves incompetent over and over again, with Forces looking like more of the same drivel as before.

At this point, the only way I could get excited about a new 3D Sonic game is if they outsource development of it to another team, just as they did with Mania. As long as it's a competent team and not a bunch of hacks like Big Red Button, please.

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I see a continued lack of 3D in the new 3D Sonic games.

I'm also a little worried that the focus on story that Forces has will be a one time deal that the mystical fairy of the cosmos allowed to happen for me just this once before I die. They'll probably go back to doing nothing soon after.

Also more Green Hill Zone variations. Oh the irony of Green being my favorite color.

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4 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

I see a continued lack of 3D in the new 3D Sonic games.

I'm also a little worried that the focus on story that Forces has will be a one time deal that the mystical fairy of the cosmos allowed to happen for me just this once before I die. They'll probably go back to doing nothing soon after.

Also more Green Hill Zone variations. Oh the irony of Green being my favorite color.

I'm not sure how Forces is focusing any more on story than, say, Lost World did.

The tone is darker, but is the story really any more complex or well-crafted? To me the story seems just as simple and flat as the last few games, except more stuff is on fire this time and the bad guy has a deep echoey voice.

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14 hours ago, -Justin- said:

I'm excited to see how 3D Sonic's gonna be handled after Forces. I have faith that this and future games are gonna do fine.

And they will. I just want them to make a true SA3. Let classic only lovers have their mania and modern 3d adventure type with blasted choa  raising.

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25 minutes ago, Meta77 said:

And they will. I just want them to make a true SA3. Let classic only lovers have their mania and modern 3d adventure type with blasted choa  raising.

I just don't know if an Adventure 3 is necessary now... but I'm happy to see another person here that actually has faith in this game.

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I'll say this much: IF forces does not sell well or review well, SEGA absolutely has to make a personnel change with sonic Team, coming off the success of Mania. Nothing else will make sense at this point. Even if they don't spend the time nailing the 3D sonic formula and continue with mostly 2D entries, they don't even do 2D game play particularly well.

It could not be more obvious that whitehead and Co need to be promoted internally and the current sonic team should recede from view. I don't know what else can be done at this point that would make it more clear. Mania Team have proven not only that they know sonic, but have the skill to make the games truly excellent and focused. And current Sonic Team has repeatedly flopped.

What more could you possibly need to see, SEGA?

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IMO Sega should just fire bunch of people from Sonic Team, or turn Sonic Team into something else and let some 3rd party handle the IP.

Like, for all previous bad or mediocre Sonic games there was an excuse. Sonic 06 was rushed, Secret Rings suffered from the team splitting into 2, they were experimenting with Unleashed, Sonic 4 wasn't supposed to be a big title but they named it Sonic 4 just to make it sell, SEGA wanted Sonic Boom for Wii U even tho the engine didn't support it and they had no time to port, etc... But for Sonic Lost World and Sonic Forces I really can't find any excuses, other than the designers not doing a good job. Of course, there could be some stuff going on behind the scenes at Sonic Team HQ, but if that's not the case then it would be best to just get some better people.

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1 hour ago, Mors said:

IMO Sega should just fire bunch of people from Sonic Team, or turn Sonic Team into something else and let some 3rd party handle the IP.

Like, for all previous bad or mediocre Sonic games there was an excuse. Sonic 06 was rushed, Secret Rings suffered from the team splitting into 2, they were experimenting with Unleashed, Sonic 4 wasn't supposed to be a big title but they named it Sonic 4 just to make it sell, SEGA wanted Sonic Boom for Wii U even tho the engine didn't support it and they had no time to port, etc... But for Sonic Lost World and Sonic Forces I really can't find any excuses, other than the designers not doing a good job. Of course, there could be some stuff going on behind the scenes at Sonic Team HQ, but if that's not the case then it would be best to just get some better people.

Not outright disagreeing with you, but, I would just like to say that, for the record, none of those things you listed are "excuses".  They're just reasons things happened.

Sonic 06 being rushed is a stupid thing for a company to do on it's own and splitting the team-up to work on Secret Rings for the sake of that rushing is even dumber. Also, for Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, not telling the developers that they wanted it to run on a different engine then the one they initially were developing it for until it was too late is a move so immeasurably stupid that blood sprayed out of my eyes just having to type that down.

Firing a bunch of people and overhauling themselves after Sonic 06 is what brought us Sonic Unleashed, which to this day, still stands as one of the few games where the work and passion that went into it feels a lot more obvious compared to a lot of other stuff that came after it, even considering how mediocre the werehog was and how technically better at being a Sonic game Generations is to people. However, after Unleashed, stuff like all the character they put into each country with all the different foods and people with their own developing stories, the graphics with it's awesome lighting, and even the beautiful soundtrack were all things that didn't measure up as much in my opinion.

It kind of felt like they trimmed a little too much fat and rested on their laurels. Then when Iizuka got it in his head that he wanted to make "Legacy Sonic", he went and did a Lost World and then back-peddled back to the thing they did before instead of, again, working off of what good could have come from that formula. 

They just react to things. They don't seem to actually think about what they're going to do before they react to them though. 

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