Will future Sonic games introduce more new characters?

[Rowl]

The Sonic series is actually very well-known for its huge cast of beloved and also very hated side characters. Sonic has a big circle of friends, rivals and enemies. I wonder... will there be more of them in the future? I personally would say yes, they will create new characters. But I think they will now handle them more like Nintendo does with their characters. If they will create another new character, he or she will only be part of one game and than will never used again, besides some small cameos and throw backs. Nintendo for example created for Breath of the Wild the Four Champions, which all played a huge role in this game, but will also likely stay in this one game and will never be used in a major role again. Same also with DKC where they introduced some new enemy groups like the Tiki Tak Tribe and the Snowmads. Those characters will mostly never be used in major roles again.

I think Sega will do the same thing. They actually also kinda started with that after 06. Elise for example was never used again in a game, same with Chip and Prof. Pickles. Infinite will also probably be never used again. With the Deadly Six I'm not 100% sure, but it seems like their big role was also in Sonic Lost World. Sticks will also never been used again and same I could also say of Marine.

How would you like to see Sonic Team take one the new characters for the future? Should they handle them like they did with Shadow, Silver, Jet and Blaze, where they will be recurring regulars to the series? Or should they handle them like Elise, Shahra, Merlina and Chip, where they just play one major role and than get retired? 

[DabigRG]

Well, obviously. Gotta keep things fresh and distinct somehow and everyone knows the most integral part of a work is the characters.

.

31 minutes ago, Rowl said:

How would you like to see Sonic Team take one on new characters for the future? Should they handle them like they did with Shadow, Silver, Jet and Blaze, where they will be recurring regulars to the series? Or should they handle them like Elise, Shahra, Merlina and Chip, where they just play one major role and get retired? 

I personally think they should try to stick to the latter in mentality, but also consider having some of them become the former: characters that stand up a little more than well enough on their own on the first appearance, but are able to potentially come back later with relatively little issue.

On Sonic Team themselves, they'll most likely do more villains, which is good since not only do they often make the plot, but they're also something this series has needed more representation of for years. 

[DabigRG]

Erase

[Multikaris]

Not sure. Depends on who’s doing it. I could see the Mania team try to expand, once the pool of potential existing characters runs out.

[Rowl]

How can they run out? They already now have maybe over 30 recurring characters.

[Multikaris]

2 minutes ago, Rowl said:

How can they run out? They already now have maybe over 30 recurring characters.

As in the Classic era cast and team. I’m not even sure anymore that they can use a lot of the extant Classic characters.

[DabigRG]

14 minutes ago, Rowl said:

How can they run out? They already now have maybe over 30 recurring characters.

• Let's see:
• Sonic Tails and Knuckles
• Dr. Robotnik
• Metal Sonic
• Eggrobo
• Mighty Ray
• Hardboiled Heavies
• Silver Sonic
• Princess Sally
• Fang the Sniper
• Bean and Bark
• Tails Doll and Metal Knuckles
• Honey the Cat
• Heavy and Bomb
• Witchcart and her puppets
• Speedy
• Grand Battlekukku XV and Dr. Fukurokov

I only count 2818 at the absolute max.

[Rowl]

They first should use the characters they have for the classic era before creating new ones. They already have with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Eggman, Metal-Sonic, Mighty, Ray, Fang, Bean, Bark, Espio, Vector, Charmy and the Hard Boiled Heavies enough characters to work with. Those are 19 characters for only the classic series. Maybe even 23 if we count Honey, Tails Doll and Metal-Knuckles as well. 

[DabigRG]

4 minutes ago, Rowl said:

 Espio, Vector, Charmy  

Those three probably don't count anymore.

4 minutes ago, Rowl said:

 Maybe even 23 if we count Honey, Tails Doll and Metal-Knuckles as well. 

Oh shoot, how could I forget those two!

[Sega DogTagz]

Even at the peak of Sonic only gameplay, Sonic Team never stopped pumping out new faces. Its just part of the formula at this point. Every game is going to have at least 1 new face to help drive the plot and there is no reason to expect otherwise at this point.

 

I think Merlina was the best of the new faces, mostly because she was a play off of Sharah.

[Shadowlax]

I think so

Whether they will stick around longer than a game or whether they will be well received? Different discussion entirely

Sonic's hit ratio with new faces has been low as of late. Even sticks a character I like, i found out a bunch of people didn't like. And I feel like new characters are going to operating with a bit of a bias against them. Sonic already has characters people like that are kind of going unused.

[Scritch the Cat]

The examples you gave for Nintendo are pretty isolated.  Zelda tends only to reuse the title character, Link and Gannon because they're characters who get reincarnated across generations.  Donkey Kong, meanwhile, seems like it was  affected by an anti-Rare backlash beginning with the moment the Stamper Bros sold out Rare to Microsoft, leading to (some) future developers axing what Rare had added even when making games that could use them just fine. (Like replacing Rhambi with Hoofer.)

Neither of these, though, are Nintendo's standard.  Their standard approach to characters is that they'll keep showing up so long as they fit into a gameplay niche that is still around.  If that niche vanishes, the characters do, if it resurfaces, so do they.  But more than that, some characters do stick around, regardless of mechanics.  Bowser is almost always the villain of Mario games, even when how he fights changes, and even in games where he's not the villain, he's still usually there.

[MadmanRB]

Please god no, this roster is filled with a million useless characters as it is.

[DabigRG]

3 hours ago, Sega DogTagz said:

 

I think Merlina was the best of the new faces, mostly because she was a play off of Sharah.

...What?

[MetalSkulkBane]

If Sonic was a cartoon/comic/movie/candy commercial, I would say yes yes yes. It's law of nature, Entropy and Nostalgia combined. It's a slow process but franchises have to make a new characters and by pure luck some of them will become popular, so bringing them back just makes sense. Marvel, Star Wars, Transformers, every large franchise with recurring characters does that (well, live action stuff are a bit more tricky for obvious reasons.)

But games are slightly different beast.
- Name in your head big video game franchises, say with more than 10 big games
- Now keep only those with recurring casts (so no Castlevania, Final Fantasy, Tomb Raider, or Modern Warfare)
- Now remove fighting games for reasons I hope I don't need to explain.

And you're left with what? Sonic, Mega Man, few Nintendo IPs, arguably Crash can count... not much really. Sonic and Mario are probably ones that produce games yearly, so their postion in kinda unique in that regard. Mario tries to play it safe but even he made a larger name every decade or so (Bowser Jr, Rosalina, Captain Toad).

So my guess is that he will be forced to make them, but it will be ever slowwwwww process.

[Sega DogTagz]

6 hours ago, DabigRG said:

...What?

Merlina uses the same character model as Sharah - which lends her instant credibility as an ally because Sharah was your friend in the previous game. Then when Merlina stabs you in the back - you remember that Sharah did the same thing, and you get sucker punched by the hidden-in-plain-sight plot twist.

Its clever.

We all salivate over the smallest scraps of lure that get carried over between games, I adore Merlina because she is a meta example of using that to dictate expectations and help sell the story. On top of being the damsel in distress in the opening scene, she quite literally had a friendly face. That how you manipulate a fanbase right there.

 

(Lol I always miss-spell Shahra as Sharah) sorry if that caused any confusion

[DabigRG]

1 minute ago, Sega DogTagz said:

Merlina uses the same character model as Sharah - which lends her instant credibility as an ally because Sharah was your friend in the previous game. Then when Merlina stabs you in the back - you remember that Sharah did the same thing, and you get sucker punched by the hidden-in-plain-sight plot twist.

Its clever.

We all salivate over the smallest scraps of lure that get carried over between games, I adore Merlina because she is a meta example of using that to dictate expectations and help sell the story. On top of being the damsel in distress in the opening scene, she quite literally had a friendly face. That how you manipulate a fanbase right there.

 

(Lol I always miss-spell Shahra as Sharah) sorry if that caused any confusion

Oh okay.

Yeah, that was kind pf a clever touch,

[Roger_van_der_weide]

Do any Sonic games even exist that didn't introduce a new character? Even the ones you'd think didn't, did, like Mania with the Hard Boiled heavies and Generations with the Time Eater. The only Main Sonic game I can think of that didn't introduce a new character was Sonic 4. Sonic Heroes can cheat by claiming Cream's from Advance 2 and the Chaotix from Knuckles Chaotix, but even THEN it introduces Cheese's brother Chocola, ultra minor as he might be. Not to mention the Egg pawns.

Other then that,  it's some of the Game Gear games, mobile phone games and the Sports spinoff games have entrees without new characters introduced.
But all the main ones at least have a brand new Sonic's best friend sidekick (Chip/ Yacker) or Generic evil monster of doom (Ifrit, Time eater, etc.)

So yeah, Sonic game with no new characters? Wouldn't count on it.
 

....
... Ohh right, the first Sonic Rivals also didn't introduce a new character... Huh, there's more then I thought.
Maybe there's a tiny chance then.

[MetalSkulkBane]

1 hour ago, Roger_van_der_weide said:

Sonic Heroes can cheat by claiming Cream's from Advance 2 and the Chaotix from Knuckles Chaotix, but even THEN it introduces Cheese's brother Chocola, ultra minor as he might be. Not to mention the Egg pawns.

1

AHEM

And someone who isn't a meatbag or worthless consumer model

[Detective Kaito]

Every Sonic game introduces at least one new character. Future games won't be any different.

[Rowl]

4 hours ago, Roger_van_der_weide said:

Do any Sonic games even exist that didn't introduce a new character?

Sonic 4. Unless you count the new Badniks as characters.

[Multikaris]

On 1/10/2019 at 10:34 AM, Rowl said:

Sonic 4. Unless you count the new Badniks as characters.

Episode 1 didn’t even have new Badniks. Also, Mania Plus, if it’s counted separately from Mania, though you can cheat by pointing out that the one new Badnik was an unused Badnik in the original.

[Skull Leader]

If they do, I hope they are villains, which is something that is actually lacking.