Think *secondary character* could carry their own series?

[Tornado]

4 hours ago, Dash Speed said:

A Amy spin off won't work because she do not have any cool factors to market as a brand concept. Amy is not meant to be taken seriously and her lack of being a dignifed symbol for any personable role as a hero makes that lack. Hell when you look at her, what she lacks is a stand out presence from Sonic as a larger than life or atypically anti heroic. 

Blaze fits these things more than Amy, she's more serious but not so more than Shadow or Metal Sonic, her brand core elements focuses on her regal composure and superhuman abilities on par with Sonic. Plus she's a lot more of a relatable heroine than Amy, to the point where Amy has an almost upbeat Mickey mouse level cheerfulness that makes her bland stereotype like Sonic to see brand recognition of the bland girl type that never gets picked in multi player games(via Sonia blade or Chun Li), Blaze is much more fleshed out and relatable with flaws, her cold yet clumsy personality and her lack of social cues remind me of elsa from frozen.

And before any of you say pink and cheerfully cute characters like Kirby and Pikachubwork, they have brand recognition as action heroes or mascots of their respective franchises where they are like Sonic and use violence and power scaling to appeal to the casual observer like boys and girls. Amy is about being support type, she doesn't lead the front lines nor does she view combat as the main solution for any fixable problem. She's violently driven but she's most of all just a normal girl who relies in the boys or her friends to do the right thing in battle.

Why are you writing a confusing dissertation about why Amy sucks in a thread about a Blaze spinoff game?

[DabigRG]

5 minutes ago, Meta77 said:

And just cause Amy likes being a girl 

Holy shit.

Just now, Tornado said:

Why are you writing a confusing dissertation about why Amy sucks in a thread about a Blaze spinoff game?

Because there was a tangent of people talking about an Amy game instead, thus having an excuse.

[Cayenne]

1 hour ago, Rowl said:

No. She is just way to close to Sonic in terms of pretty much everything.

- She runs super fast like Sonic.

- She has a super form that is very similar to Sonic's.

- The most powerful objects, that she has to collect, are also just her own version of the Chaos-Emeralds.

- She has her own sidekick in Form of Marine, who is also an inventor that builds machines. 

- Her arch-enemy is literally just a color-swap version of Dr. Eggman.

- The main enemies that she has to defeat are also robots.

- Her world is very similar to that of Sonic.

I really see no point in why she should get a spinoff. Nintendo for example also gave also some of their characters like DK, Wario, Luigi, Yoshi, Tingle etc. their own games, but the characters were unique enough to carry their own games. Blaze has nothing really outstanding that makes her unique, besides her princess title, which is pretty pointless, since her royalty is never really addressed by the characters, and her fire abilities, which is just really visual decoration that doesn't influence the gameplay much.

Also, given Blaze her own spinoff really seems questionable, since she is one of the lesser used characters of the franchise. She only really played in 4 games a noticeable role. Rush, Rush Adventure, which not many people have played, 06, where she really didn't contribute anything to the story, and Black Knight, which is technically not her, but a character from the book that for some reason looks like her.

For real, even Cream, Zavok, and Big deserve more their own spinoff. 

To be fair, Luigi wasn't very different from Mario before Luigi's Mansion. Aside from SMB2/USA and maybe Super Smash Bros., he was just Mario's palette swap and shared the same moves, personality and stats in most spin-offs. Also, the first Wario Land game is pretty much "Super Mario Land 2 with a "twist".

I mean, If Blaze not being very different from Sonic is a issue, why not give her own "Luigi's Mansion" where she can be? I'm indifferent to her, but I don't think that "this character isn't different from another" is a problem when you can insert new kinds of gameplay, moves and make them different.

[Meta77]

1 hour ago, DabigRG said:

Holy shit.

Because there was a tangent of people talking about an Amy game instead, thus having an excuse.

I think more were doing it as a means to explain that any character could fill the role. Amy just got licked

[Rowl]

1 hour ago, Cayenne said:

To be fair, Luigi wasn't very different from Mario before Luigi's Mansion. Aside from SMB2/USA and maybe Super Smash Bros., he was just Mario's palette swap and shared the same moves, personality and stats in most spin-offs. Also, the first Wario Land game is pretty much "Super Mario Land 2 with a "twist".

Sure, but the difference between Blaze and Luigi is, that people like this new characterization of Luigi. That he is this scaredy-cat and a ghost hunter. With Blaze, on the other hand, it is very tricky. You can not really change her, because you will then destroy the things that people love about her so much. People have fallen in love with her because she is just like Sonic. She can do all the cool stuff he can and that made her so special in the eyes of her fans. I'm not so sure if we can pull off the same with Blase and give her her own game like a Luigi's Mansion or Donkey Kong Country. She is just way to close to all the stuff, that people like about a regular Sonic game.

And if her game plays like Sonic, sounds like Sonic, looks like Sonic and feels like Sonic, why not just make a Sonic game instead? Also, I think that people overrate Blaze quit a bit. She isn't that strong of a character. If she was, Sega would have used her more. But they didn't.

 

[DabigRG]

20 minutes ago, Rowl said:

Sure, but the difference between Blaze and Luigi is, that people like this new characterization of Luigi. That he is this scaredy-cat and a ghost hunter. With Blaze, on the other hand, it is very tricky. You can not really change her, because you will then destroy the things that people love about her so much. People have fallen in love with her because she is just like Sonic. She can do all the cool stuff he can and that made her so special in the eyes of her fans. I'm not so sure if we can pull off the same with Blase and give her her own game like a Luigi's Mansion or Donkey Kong Country. She is just way to close to all the stuff, that people like about a regular Sonic game.

And if her game plays like Sonic, sounds like Sonic, looks like Sonic and feels like Sonic, why not just make a Sonic game instead? Also, I think that people overrate Blaze quit a bit. She isn't that strong of a character. If she was, Sega would have used her more. But they didn't.

 

Pretty sure people [also] like Blaze because

• She's a strong female character
• She's "competent"
• She's somewhat no-nonsense in her duty
• She's not "annoying"
• She has backstory that made her who she was
• She had a character arc where she grew as a person
• She has a important place in a world

[StaticMania]

2 hours ago, Cayenne said:

To be fair, Luigi wasn't very different from Mario before Luigi's Mansion. Aside from SMB2/USA and maybe Super Smash Bros., he was just Mario's palette swap and shared the same moves, personality and stats in most spin-offs. Also, the first Wario Land game is pretty much "Super Mario Land 2 with a "twist".

The only thing Luigi had at any point before the GameCube era was inconsistency.

Blaze isn't like Sonic enough to where she needs this thing and isn't different enough from Sonic to justify having this thing.

She's very middling.

[Meta77]

Backstory? Where?

Segas all about the money. Unless shes in a compalation gsme she most likely would get no show time especially seeing how as I stated little popularity she has in Japan. Heck I've seen more silver merchandise than blaze.  even more Chao material. I miss my chaos

[DabigRG]

2 hours ago, Cayenne said:

Also, the first Wario Land game is pretty much "Super Mario Land 2 with a "twist".

 

Super Mario Land 3.

1 hour ago, Meta77 said:

I think more were doing it as a means to explain that any character could fill the role. Amy just got licked

Hm.

18 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

The only thing Luigi had at any point before the GameCube era was inconsistency.

 

Well, there was the DIC cartoons and that one anime. And I guess Smash Bros had the idea of him being more awkward compared to Mario.

The point is they gave him something that defined his character going forward from that point.

18 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

 

Blaze isn't like Sonic enough to where she needs this thing and isn't different enough from Sonic to justify having this thing.

She's very middling.

That's what Divergent Character Evolution is for.

17 minutes ago, Meta77 said:

Backstory? Where?

 

Um, in a manual or two? 

 

[Sega DogTagz]

26 minutes ago, Rowl said:

Sure, but the difference between Blaze and Luigi is, that people like this new characterization of Luigi. That he is this scaredy-cat and a ghost hunter. With Blaze, on the other hand, it is very tricky. You can not really change her, because you will then destroy the things that people love about her so much. People have fallen in love with her because she is just like Sonic. She can do all the cool stuff he can and that made her so special in the eyes of her fans. I'm not so sure if we can pull off the same with Blase and give her her own game like a Luigi's Mansion or Donkey Kong Country. She is just way to close to all the stuff, that people like about a regular Sonic game.

And if her game plays like Sonic, sounds like Sonic, looks like Sonic and feels like Sonic, why not just make a Sonic game instead? Also, I think that people overrate Blaze quit a bit. She isn't that strong of a character. If she was, Sega would have used her more. But they didn't.

 

If you make a fun game, people will embrace it. You don't have to change what or who Blaze is to put her in a game that isn't a momentum based or action based platformer. You can deliver those key notes in different ways in different genre's and still have the same character remain intact.

Even if you wanted to make a platformer diversion, she has the tool-kit to separate herself from the rest of the cast. Her fire powers being the most obvious. You could create a game in the vein of the a Sonic platformer with an additional wrinkle of burning the environment to manipulate the level. You could use her feline reflexes to put more of an emphasis on balance and pouncing. You could use her Princess monkier to add a layer of territory control to the game board, where she has to use her speed and authority to traverse her world to keep the rabble in line. You could play up her parallel world in tandem to Sonic's and have two player objectives where you have to deal with threats from both sides of the breech. There is no end to what you COULD do - and none of that inherently involves changing Blaze.

[StaticMania]

2 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Well, there was the DIC cartoons and that one anime. And I guess Smash Bros had the idea of him being more sheepish compared to Mario.

Smash Bros.' thing was to make Luigi weird (Luigi Missile, Pelvic Thrusting, Planking). Him being sheepish is only a thing in the Mario & Luigi games and Luigi's Mansion.

3 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

That's what Divergent Character Evolution is for. 

Well Sonic Nex Gen already did that game-play wise now didn't it? Personality wise, she's already different.

[Meta77]

6 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Super Mario Land 3.

Hm.

Well, there was the DIC cartoons and that one anime. And I guess Smash Bros had the idea of him being more sheepish compared to Mario.

The point is they gave him something that defined his character going forward from that point.

That's what Divergent Character Evolution is for.

Um, in a manual or two? 

 

Lol I meant in the way that it's not really that deep of a backstory. Princess. Fights eggman recolor naga. Protector of the master emer....I mean sol gems. Kind of a mix of sonic and knuckles

[DabigRG]

Just now, StaticMania said:

Smash Bros.' thing was to make Luigi weird

Eh, same thing.  

1 minute ago, StaticMania said:

(Luigi Missile, Pelvic Thrusting, Planking).

You know, I never thought about it like that...

1 minute ago, StaticMania said:

 

Well Sonic Nex Gen already did that game-play wise now didn't it? Personality wise, she's already different.

Ah yes, thank you.

4 minutes ago, Meta77 said:

Lol I meant in the way that it's not really that deep of a backstory. Princess. Fights eggman recolor naga. Protector of the master emer....I mean sol gems. Kind of a mix of sonic and knuckles

Bullied in childhood for her powers, which she had to learn to control. Thus, leading to her initial attitude of not getting close to others and personally handling her large duties.

[Wraith]

I think the financial concerns regarding a Blaze spinoff are solid but most of the reasons to shut the idea down come from a lack of imagination more than anything else.

"Blaze isn't that different from Sonic." She can be if you lean into what makes the character and the games featuring her distinct.

"Her world is the same as Sonic's world." We didn't see much of it at all. We basically know nothing about It could be.

"Eggman Nega is just eggman!" Yeah, but you can come up with a new villain that's more of a direct foil to Eggman if you want.

I'm not saying I or others in this thread have million dollar ace in the hole ideas, but surely this is a more productive direction for the thread to go in than trying to shut down the discussion altogether or trying to put shine on your favorite character instead, yeah? Surely we can think about this beyond the level of "Does this have the right to even exist?" or imagining it in the lamest possible way.

[DabigRG]

14 minutes ago, Wraith said:

I think the financial concerns regarding a Blaze spinoff are solid but most of the reasons to shut the idea down come from a lack of imagination more than anything else.

I'm not saying I or others in this thread have million dollar ace in the hole ideas, but surely this is a more productive direction for the thread to go in than trying to shut down the discussion altogether or trying to put shine on your favorite character instead, yeah? Surely we can think about this beyond the level of "Does this have the right to even exist?" or imagining it in the lamest possible way.

Essentially the case half the time.

 

 

[MetalSkulkBane]

20 hours ago, Wraith said:

Surely we can think about this beyond the level of "Does this have the right to even exist?" or imagining it in the lamest possible way.

Good point. This is a thought exercise for fun, not a strategic plan for a pitch we're about to send to Sega or make game yourself (although if one of us happened to be Sega executive, he could let us know. Just saying)

So here's how I would try to make game "Blaze: Flame of Seven Seas"

Gameplay
Sticking to Sonic style would be detrimental to character. Just like Luigi Mansion, it's better to focus on character strength. So my suggestion would be "Zelda: Wind Waker" with focus on "fire vs water" mechanics. Blaze fire is her main weapon, but she lives in archipelago. Big part of the challenge would be avoiding water, which could be also part of puzzles. Imagine boiling water to make a cloud that Blaze can bounce off, stuff like this.
Blaze could have her own ship to travel with some customization. Maybe she would power it with her own flames (or at least fire cannons) and perhaps she could have own Crew that you can recruit on her adventures.

Story
I would keep Marine as one of early NPCs, but not someone who sticks with you for whole adventure. Or like I suggested with a Crew, give player a choice of keeping her around and listening to her adorable rambling or deciding you leave her on first island and never look back. Pirates will work as nice goons to fight.
World building I would establish Sol Dimension as world of rules. Sonic is all about freedom, Blaze's world is about strict rules, traditions and purity. While Sonic animals live among each other, this world believes in segregation, cats believing they better than foxes, etc (with Koalas and Marine being rebels to this world of rules). It would fit nicely with how Blaze started and where her arc is taking her. She would be "Avatar (Aang/Korra)" trying to unite people and fight old ways (again, Crew mechanic would serve this purpose greatly).
Main villain should NOT be Eggman Nega. We need a enemy who's foil to Blaze and Nega doesn't do that. How about her old teacher, disappointed that she abandoned a "proper way of thinking"? Or a demons who feed on bad emotions, liking a bad state her world is but also feeding on Blaze hot-headness. Maybe a rival who beliefs Blaze shouldn't be Guardian of Sol Emeralds. Or sassy thief who constantly makes fun of her seriousness. Either way, the person doesn't have to have a direct connection to Blaze (Sonic/Eggman had zero before Sonic 1), but he must play-off her in interesting way.

Connections to Sonic World
Overall game wouldn't need them, but simplest ideas
- Big can be a gag. We don't even need to explain how he got here, that's part of the fun. Same for Sticks.
- Rouge could steal jewelry as side mission or side-mechanic. It would be nice change for her, be a thief again.
- Sonic, Knuckles, Silver or Shadow could eventually be part of side-mission or hidden boss, something like that. Nothing to big, it's Blaze's game.
- Chaos. Of all Sonic's lore, a water monster with connection to magical stones would be a best choice. He could just be a boss fight (someone is controlling him with magical item or something), but there are more creative ways.
- If we really want ties to Sonic to be strong (which is absolutely optional) some characters could bee a Crew Members. Team Rose, Rouge, Babylon Rouges, Sticks and with some imagination Omega and Chaos could be fun additions to a Crew, without stealing too much spotlight from Blaze. (like Omega is extra cannon that you don't need to power yourself. Cream keeps the morals of the Crew up, making your boat faster. Sticks paranoia and 4wall-breaks makes her a perfect person to foretop and Marine can fix engines, making your boat stronger, etc).

[Cayenne]

23 hours ago, Rowl said:

Sure, but the difference between Blaze and Luigi is, that people like this new characterization of Luigi. That he is this scaredy-cat and a ghost hunter. With Blaze, on the other hand, it is very tricky. You can not really change her, because you will then destroy the things that people love about her so much. People have fallen in love with her because she is just like Sonic. She can do all the cool stuff he can and that made her so special in the eyes of her fans. I'm not so sure if we can pull off the same with Blase and give her her own game like a Luigi's Mansion or Donkey Kong Country. She is just way to close to all the stuff, that people like about a regular Sonic game.

And if her game plays like Sonic, sounds like Sonic, looks like Sonic and feels like Sonic, why not just make a Sonic game instead? Also, I think that people overrate Blaze quit a bit. She isn't that strong of a character. If she was, Sega would have used her more. But they didn't.

 

You don't need to change anything about Blaze's personality as a character to make a spin-off work IMO. Like Sega DogTagz said, you just need enough gameplay changes to make something that can be fun and different from the usual Sonic game.

Again, Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 is a very good example of how spin-offs are born. The game takes a lot from Super Mario Land 2 (well, it's a sequel and spin-off at the same time : p), a portable Mario game inspired by Super Mario World, but:

 

- The general pace is slower;

- Wario has some abilities that work and interact very differently from Mario's;

- Thanks to some level design choices, the player is much more encouraged to explore and collect coins;

- The game has six "aesthetic" endings (Wario gets a different kind of "Castle") that are determined by how many coins you collected.

 

The game was sucessfull enough (it's one of the GB's top sellers) to make Nintendo drop the "Super Mario Land" subtitle and add major changes to gameplay in Wario Land 2.

 

Knuckles Chaotix and Tails Adventure follow a very similar formula. They have elements from the classic Sonic games from the 90s but add different twists (combine ring, "metroidvania" elements, etc.) to make their structure somewhat fresh.

On 3/13/2019 at 4:45 PM, StaticMania said:

The only thing Luigi had at any point before the GameCube era was inconsistency.

Blaze isn't like Sonic enough to where she needs this thing and isn't different enough from Sonic to justify having this thing.

She's very middling.

Almost all the Mario characters have inconsistency by design. As Miyamoto says, they are "actors" that can be inserted in almost any kind of situation without being limited by lore, "bibles" or worldbuilding like Sonic & Cia. can be.

About Blaze as a character, see my answer to Rowl.

On 3/13/2019 at 4:54 PM, DabigRG said:

Super Mario Land 3.

Yep, it has the "SML 3" subtitle, but still is the first game of a spin-off series. : p

[StaticMania]

1 hour ago, Cayenne said:

Almost all the Mario characters have inconsistency by design.

Inaccurate.

Literally no Mario games has been bound by that "actors" logic since...it's been said.

Ever since then has been an ever growing consistency between character portrayals and behavior even in spin-offs.

Your answer about Blaze isn't really good for what I said, which was about character and game-play respectively. 

I already acknowledged Sonic Nex Gen giving Blaze her own unique game-play differences from Sonic in a later post anyway.

[Cayenne]

7 hours ago, StaticMania said:

Inaccurate.

Literally no Mario games has been bound by that "actors" logic since...it's been said.

Ever since then has been an ever growing consistency between character portrayals and behavior even in spin-offs.

Your answer about Blaze isn't really good for what I said, which was about character and game-play respectively. 

I already acknowledged Sonic Nex Gen giving Blaze her own unique game-play differences from Sonic in a later post anyway.

I will give a kinda short answer since this is super off-topic, but I disagree. There's many things that aren't "set in stone" with Mario characters like:

- Wario's strength (Super strong in Wario Land and World, but can't even open a bathroom door as Wario Man in WarioWare Showcase);

- Morton's Koopa speech (Speaks normally in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam but has a "caveman" speech in Paper Mario: Color Splash);

- Rosalina's personality (Collected and a bit stoic in the Mario Galaxy games and some promotional artwork, but suddenly happy and smiling a lot in Super Mario Party).

And the list goes on.

Mario characters have this kind of inconsistency because this is what their games demand, similar to how Bugs Bunny and Woody Woodpecker are just wild animals in one episode but heroes, cowboys, etc. in another because the script says so. They follow the "old cartoon" formula of Mickey Mouse and Popeye.

About Blaze, I honestly still don't understand how what you said is a issue for a Spin-off. I'm sorry if this sounds rude or stupid, but can you explain your reasoning more?

[Dash Speed]

Uh oh clone thread! Jk!

But seriously, at this point, Shadow is the most popular character in the series behind Sonic which when put together is one of the most iconic staple foundations in the series next to Sonic and Eggman. At this point, he deserves a higher position as a brand main staple of the series and should sell and expand his own stories apart from the core Sonic stories, so why haven't they acknowledge him and pushed his popularity as hard as Sonic and his iconic cast then, Shadow belongs on the same level as as Sonic as the main lead of his own spin off brand to market new fans. 

The fact they don't use him glaringly(because he's so easy to attract to kids) makes his own fame in the series seem unoticable since they won't let him upstage the core three or Eggman, I hated that he played a filler lead in forces, it's like anyone could had been the sole face of investigating Eggman and sabotaging infinite forces, but it's a waste of character and gameplay ideas. Ever since 06, Shadows been the sole face of pointless fanservice for shallow exploiting to fan base, and basically it works. Fans latch to Shadow but view him as a tool that has no real reason to appear as the focused impact of a games/tv shows/comic/etc new and important selling point that stays unique in order to work successfully, like Sonic and the new games and spin offs that revolve around gimmicks that only Sonic can engage in.

Shadow isn't even advertised as a iconic main role character that much, his image falls behind the classic 4 and Eggman much more these days. He used to be on par with them but now he only gets to be a staring mystery role in the last second without any real build up, only to either fall short to Sonic in the end. His popularity is not iconic and it's not mandatory for the Sonic mainstream media, the most he gets is a cool moment of getting a single task to complete and then he fades off of the action being barely noticible to Sonic and his friends when they go off and move into the main action and leave Shadow off panel when they to the real hero moments.

It's like Sonic Team and many official developers and writers forgot what to do with Shadow with no context on what can they use him without making him a staring role, he's basically a plot device that keeps the heroes on their toes or makes them look good, even though he's a competant and extremely powerful solider or wild card that can take on anything Sonic can.

 

This makes me wonder if Sonic Team really wanted to, could they make Shadow distinctly plot capable without Sonic or Rouge or even Shadow with Rouge and Omega being plot capable without fighting alongside Sonics adventure based threats?

[Wraith]

On 3/14/2019 at 5:51 AM, MetalSkulkBane said:

Good point. This is a thought exercise for fun, not a strategic plan for a pitch we're about to send to Sega or make game yourself (although if one of us happened to be Sega executive, he could let us know. Just saying)

So here's how I would try to make game "Blaze: Flame of Seven Seas"

Gameplay
Sticking to Sonic style would be detrimental to character. Just like Luigi Mansion, it's better to focus on character strength. So my suggestion would be "Zelda: Wind Waker" with focus on "fire vs water" mechanics. Blaze fire is her main weapon, but she lives in archipelago. Big part of the challenge would be avoiding water, which could be also part of puzzles. Imagine boiling water to make a cloud that Blaze can bounce off, stuff like this.
Blaze could have her own ship to travel with some customization. Maybe she would power it with her own flames (or at least fire cannons) and perhaps she could have own Crew that you can recruit on her adventures.

Story
I would keep Marine as one of early NPCs, but not someone who sticks with you for whole adventure. Or like I suggested with a Crew, give player a choice of keeping her around and listening to her adorable rambling or deciding you leave her on first island and never look back. Pirates will work as nice goons to fight.
World building I would establish Sol Dimension as world of rules. Sonic is all about freedom, Blaze's world is about strict rules, traditions and purity. While Sonic animals live among each other, this world believes in segregation, cats believing they better than foxes, etc (with Koalas and Marine being rebels to this world of rules). It would fit nicely with how Blaze started and where her arc is taking her. She would be "Avatar (Aang/Korra)" trying to unite people and fight old ways (again, Crew mechanic would serve this purpose greatly).
Main villain should NOT be Eggman Nega. We need a enemy who's foil to Blaze and Nega doesn't do that. How about her old teacher, disappointed that she abandoned a "proper way of thinking"? Or a demons who feed on bad emotions, liking a bad state her world is but also feeding on Blaze hot-headness. Maybe a rival who beliefs Blaze shouldn't be Guardian of Sol Emeralds. Or sassy thief who constantly makes fun of her seriousness. Either way, the person doesn't have to have a direct connection to Blaze (Sonic/Eggman had zero before Sonic 1), but he must play-off her in interesting way.

Connections to Sonic World
Overall game wouldn't need them, but simplest ideas
- Big can be a gag. We don't even need to explain how he got here, that's part of the fun. Same for Sticks.
- Rouge could steal jewelry as side mission or side-mechanic. It would be nice change for her, be a thief again.
- Sonic, Knuckles, Silver or Shadow could eventually be part of side-mission or hidden boss, something like that. Nothing to big, it's Blaze's game.
- Chaos. Of all Sonic's lore, a water monster with connection to magical stones would be a best choice. He could just be a boss fight (someone is controlling him with magical item or something), but there are more creative ways.
- If we really want ties to Sonic to be strong (which is absolutely optional) some characters could bee a Crew Members. Team Rose, Rouge, Babylon Rouges, Sticks and with some imagination Omega and Chaos could be fun additions to a Crew, without stealing too much spotlight from Blaze. (like Omega is extra cannon that you don't need to power yourself. Cream keeps the morals of the Crew up, making your boat faster. Sticks paranoia and 4wall-breaks makes her a perfect person to foretop and Marine can fix engines, making your boat stronger, etc).

I was tempted to just stick with the boost game play or at least stay within the platformer range since Blaze is a fairly acrobatic character but a Zelda clone with sonic characters peaks my interests, haha. Perhaps you could bridge the two together somehow. An action adventure with heavy platforming elements. 

I imagined the game taking place on a hypothetical mainland but having a home base to go back to thathe gradually expands is something I've wanted for a Sonic game for quite a while anyway so I like the crew idea. 

I like the theme of restoring order and my idea was to have the villain use plants/nature to more directly contrast Eggman's philosophy. Perhaps the kingdom is in danger of being reclaimed by the wilds. 

You could theoretically have 'rival' characters too so there could be more than one villain to fight. Either a villain or an antihero to contrast with Blaze's serious demeanor would be fun. 

As far as implementing other characters from the main universe goes I kind of like the idea of saving them to swing the tide in the last third of the story. Establish a line to Sonic to provide a bit of back-up in the final stretch. 

[Wraith]

I think Shadow could potentially have a story to himself and it could work pretty well, but most of my favorite moments with him involve moments his more expressive peers draw out of him so tossing them aside would be kind of a waste unless you have more ideas on how to fill out the cast for him. 

Most of my ideas for amother Shadow focused piece don't involve the chaos powers at all. Instead I almost always land on his skates. Those things should inherently change how the guy interacts with the level design but they never have for reasons that are hard to argue with. A Shadow game would be a good opportunity to lean more into the extreme sports bent of SA2 and make a JSR/Platformer hybrid where solving some injustice and looking cool while doing it is the priority. 

[StaticMania]

33 minutes ago, Wraith said:

An action adventure with heavy platforming elements. 

I'd focus more on the speed element still than the platforming, being a spin-off series doesn't mean losing the series identity.

Also platforming hasn't really been Sonic's strong suit in a 3D space.

It'll be slower sure and Blaze's current abilities are certainly suited to make for interesting platforming pieces.

She needs a Flame Sword too.

[Wraith]

11 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

I'd focus more on the speed element still than the platforming, being a spin-off series doesn't mean losing the series identity.

 

I mean speedy platforming is still the Sonic identity so I imagine her as a good deal faster/more agile than your average Link. 

I like the way Okami still let's the protagonist accelerate and jump around so I was thinking something more along the lines of that. 

[Dash Speed]

1 hour ago, Wraith said:

I think Shadow could potentially have a story to himself and it could work pretty well, but most of my favorite moments with him involve moments his more expressive peers draw out of him so tossing them aside would be kind of a waste unless you have more ideas on how to fill out the cast for him. 

Most of my ideas for amother Shadow focused piece don't involve the chaos powers at all. Instead I almost always land on his skates. Those things should inherently change how the guy interacts with the level design but they never have for reasons that are hard to argue with. A Shadow game would be a good opportunity to lean more into the extreme sports bent of SA2 and make a JSR/Platformer hybrid where solving some injustice and looking cool while doing it is the priority. 

So a non action shadow spin off?