Seriously, why are Pontaff still writing for Sonic?

[ShadowSJG]

I don't understand. Pontac and Graff know nothing about the franchise lore and most of their dialogue are juvenile/cringey jokes. I don't even get why they were hired in the first place. Most of the games stories they've been written haven't been well received and they messed up the Forces localization(Tortured Sonic/ True Dat, probably included the 'Who's your daddy, Shadow). Why does Sega think Pontaff are good for Sonic? I know after 06 they wanted to a shift in tone but Unleashed's story wasn't bad and things can be lighter without being cringe(I.e, Kirby).

[Celestia]

It could be a lot of different things. Perhaps the criticism aren't as prevalent as this forum makes it seem (even if a lot of people criticize a new Sonic game's writing, not everyone is going to be deep enough into the series to namedrop the writers). Maybe someone higher on the totem pole is happy enough with their output. It's possible they signed a contract for a few games and it hasn't run out yet; they might be freelance though, in which case, maybe they're cheap. And so on.

[Zaysho]

37 minutes ago, ShadowSJG said:

 Pontac and Graff know nothing about the franchise lore and most of their dialogue are juvenile/cringey jokes. 

I say this as someone who dislikes their output but I find the idea theyre obligated to know more than whatever garbage Sonic Team already gives them to localize silly. I don’t like their English scripts but problems like the series lore are way beyond their paygrade.

[MetalSkulkBane]

I think Sega considers them "Good Enough". When Colors came out they were fairly praised.

Now they not, but "Hey, public is never happy. If we switch them they start whining to bring them back".  After all, one of biggest complains about Sonic is lack of consistency. Well *good* news.

[DabigRG]

 

Any one of our SLoW liker's points or a combo of them.

Not for nothing, I didn't think their work(or rather, what I believe was their work) on Forces was bad and it actually had some degree of enjoyable and attempts of reinforcement to it. The problem there is more around how the base Japanese story script was already structured and how those attempts would not be held up with it.

Really, someone just needs to tell them to reel it in a bit and make sure the overall story is actually there & still in tact when work on it.

11 minutes ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

I think Sega considers them "Good Enough". When Colors came out they were fairly praised.

Now they not, but "Hey, public is never happy. If we switch them they start whining to bring them back".  After all, one of biggest complains about Sonic is lack of consistency. Well *good* news.

Pretty much.

The irony that is this series, it seems.

[ShadowSJG]

I hear lost world story is considered garbage

[MadmanRB]

I too wonder why they are on the writing staff, heck as much as i am not a fan of his I rather have Ian Flynn because at least he can write when sega or archie isnt giving him deadlines

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

It would only by slightly better if Ian were writing for the games.

That he’d be on the same leash wouldn’t do any favors so long as Sonic Team and Sega call the shots.

[Diogenes]

Pontac and Graff's writing has been a breath of fresh air compared to the stuffy, dull writing that preceded them. They aren't perfect, their jokes don't always land, but I appreciate that they're trying to inject some life into the characters.

And they're far from the only problem with the series' writing anyway. Going by the leaked script, Forces' script was bad even before they got their hands on it, and I'd guess they were working with similar quality material with the other games they've helped localize. You can blame specific lines on them, but there are deeper problems that aren't going to be solved by just getting rid of them (or by replacing them with Flynn or whoever your personal pick would be).

[MadmanRB]

1 minute ago, Conquering Storm’s Servant said:

It would only by slightly better if Ian were writing for the games.

That he’d be on the same leash wouldn’t do any favors so long as Sonic Team and Sega call the shots.

Sadly this would be the case, I mean Ian Flynn can write as he used to be one of the top sonic fanfic writers in the day.

He is best when he is not under the microscope of Sega

[Wraith]

How are people still saying "breath of fresh air" after almost 10 years of them being writers? They have long been the status quo, and they haven't helped the game's scripts stop being dry at all. 


The truth is likely what Celestia said. They're good enough to satisfy higher ups at Sega/ST for one reason or another and that's all sega's really looking for. They're not interested in improving the storytelling in the series in any significant capacity. Making your voice heard and asking them to make it more of a priority may help with that, but I'm not sure if they care all that much at this point.

[Diogenes]

2 minutes ago, Josh said:

How are people still saying "breath of fresh air" after almost 10 years of them being writers?

Same way people keep saying we need more writing like the Adventure games I guess.

[Multikaris]

I don’t really mind them anymore. They’re just a symptom of something in Japan: Kishimoto. Now, Mario Kishimoto does need to bug off of the franchise. I think most of their work is passable. 

[Wraith]

3 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

Same way people keep saying we need more writing like the Adventure games I guess.

This doesn't even make sense. 

Stop bringing your shitty grudges about arguments you've been having for years into every discussion. It's gotten to the point where you only know how to throw passive aggressive jabs.

[Celestia]

4 minutes ago, ShadowSJG said:

I hear lost world story is considered garbage

That is a thing people say, yes. I wouldn't go that far personally but it's definitely not great.

I like a lot of the story beats (Sonic and Tails butting heads for example) but it's very haphazardly put together. At the time I was kind of curious to see more stuff from them since they supposedly had more control over that game's story, but at this point, ehhhhhh. It wouldn't hurt at all to get better scriptwriters and I'd even argue that someone who's into the series being in that position might be good for the stories if they had even an ounce of input.

[Diogenes]

2 minutes ago, Josh said:

This doesn't even make sense. 

Stop bringing your shitty grudges about arguments you've been having for years into every discussion. It's gotten to the point where you only know how to throw passive aggressive jabs.

I'm not bringing in "shitty grudges", I'm not making "passive aggressive jabs".

I still appreciate Pontac and Graff's writing after 10 years because I still enjoy them trying to have some fun with the characters, in (I assume) much the same way as people still like the Adventure games' writing nearly 20 years later for whatever personal reasons they have.

[Celestia]

13 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

I'm not bringing in "shitty grudges", I'm not making "passive aggressive jabs".

Admittedly I read that post in that tone too considering the context.

That said,

15 minutes ago, Josh said:

This doesn't even make sense. 

Stop bringing your shitty grudges about arguments you've been having for years into every discussion. It's gotten to the point where you only know how to throw passive aggressive jabs.

I don't this was called for at all man, even if he did mean it like that. Chill out.

[SBR2]

I'd say how much I enjoy their stuff but in my experience anytime you defend them or say you like them you're just setting yourself up for people to tell you you're wrong and they suck so what's the point. 

[Celestia]

You could try making actual points in their defense.

Now I'm the one getting passive aggressive. Sorry.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I think it has less to do with being wrong and they suck and more to do with them making mistakes that come off as annoying given the continuity.

Like Tails throwing a fit about how Sonic doesn’t trust him in Lost Worlds when nothing at all implied the case for him to even think that as long as he and Sonic had been friends.

Or Tails cowering at the sight of Chaos 0 in Force, whereas he didn’t even hesitate to jump into a fight with the much more powerful Chaos 4.

Then there’s the claim in the humor being overdone. I’m sure there’s more.

They were praised in Colors because they didn’t make such faults, all the criticisms over its humor aside. So it sounds more like people are upholding them to a standard that they fell from. Other faults, such as the non-use of other characters I think fall more to Sonic Team, but overall it seems to be a case of a standard not being met—and it isn’t really difficult to reach, funny enough.

[Celestia]

To be fair Tails not being a fighter anymore precedes the duo by quite a few years. It didn't really feel like anything new, though definitely a step back from the previous games. For example in Colours/LW he leaped in to save Sonic once each time, it would've been nice to see him at least try at the beginning of Forces.

[RedFox99]

4 minutes ago, Conquering Storm’s Servant said:

Or Tails cowering at the sight of Chaos 0 in Force, whereas he didn’t even hesitate to jump into a fight with the much more powerful Chaos 4.

While I do agree with the case of LW, this example I disagree because of the fact that in the Japanese and English versions, Tails still cowers. Now more fair examples would probably be the torture line and Tails saying true dat 

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

3 minutes ago, RedFox99 said:

While I do agree with the case of LW, this example I disagree because of the fact that in the Japanese and English versions, Tails still cowers. Now more fair examples would probably be the torture line and Tails saying true dat 

I don’t really think the version matters if he still cowers when the point was that he didn’t cower in the past fighting against a Chaos that was four times stronger than the base form—and by that, I mean he never even tried to put up a fight.

Pretty sure Tails could at least handle Chaos 0.

[RedFox99]

Just now, Conquering Storm’s Servant said:

I don’t really think the version matters if he still cowers when the point was that he didn’t cower in the past fighting against a Chaos that was four times stronger than the base form.

What I meant was that it seemed like you were using tails cowering a con against Pontaff when that's more Sonic Team's fault then their own.

[ShadowSJG]

Eh, I don't see Pontaff as having fun with character. All they do is make the characters stereotypical and tell bad jokes all the time.