Should the Sonic brand get more Japanese elements into the mix?

[Skull Leader]

7 hours ago, batson said:

I will say this: I do miss the days when the Sonic series was written by japanese writers. Stories like the ones from Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 simply doesn't come from the western writers that have been running the show for a while now.

Pontac and that other guy do not represent western writers.

[Razule]

6 hours ago, DabigRG said:

It's worth noting that Forces and at it's base Colors were written by the Japanese as well.

Indeed, we have learned it makes no difference either way. Pontaff are just localizers, aside from Lost World.

[StaticMania]

5 hours ago, Skull Leader said:

Pontac and that other guy do not represent western writers.

Yes they do.

[Whatever the WhoCares]

Sonic’s world and storytelling should reflect the passions and sensibilities of its developers. That’s how you get the best interpretations. Time and again we’ve seen the results of Japanese developers trying to be “western,” those results being the blandest stories in the franchise. But then we can point to Sonic Adventure 1&2, which felt like someone in that writing room was creating the narrative and world how they truly wanted it to be. Those games’ stories didn’t come off like action anime because they were trying to; they were just naturally like that. Meanwhile Sonic Boom or the comics don’t feel like they’re trying to be like western action-comedy; they just are. Compare this to Sonic Lost World, a Japanese narrative written to emulate a western cartoon. How about Sonic Forces, where our side of the pond got so much writing power that it actually ended up feeling like a western cartoon trying to be an anime. It’s no coincidence that both of these stories feel entirely soulless.

I’m not saying things should be only Western or only Japanese, we’ve seen plenty of franchises that incorporate storytelling tropes from all kinds of mediums. But the people making Sonic need to take a step back and realize that what will ultimately turn out better is probably whatever story they can truly care about. 

[Diogenes]

9 hours ago, Whatever the WhoCares said:

Time and again we’ve seen the results of Japanese developers trying to be “western,”

Yeah that only got us...the creation of Sonic himself.

[Whatever the WhoCares]

5 hours ago, Diogenes said:

Yeah that only got us...the creation of Sonic himself.

Is that really all it was? No, and you know that. Cmon. 

[DabigRG]

4 minutes ago, Whatever the WhoCares said:

Is that really all it was? No, and you know that. Cmon. 

Shoes reminiscent of Michael Jackson, a partial color scheme of Santa Claus, and a basis similar to Mickey Mouse.

So...yeah.

[Sonic Fan J]

Me personally, I kind of prefer the approach of the Japanese taking western concepts and then writing and designing them from their own familiarity of the world. It gives the target audience something familiar but also foreign enough to make Sonic's world something worth seeing what's out there. It even works for a Japanese audience as well as foreign Concepts are familiarized and Sonic's adventures brings the world closer to home.

Of course regardless of how you approach it you are still going to need skilled individuals involved to make it work and the people at SEGA seem to be either burnt out, talentless, or just not given the time to actually develop a bond with the series and form a unified vision for it that grows and evolves as they do.

[Kellodrawsalot]

On 3/26/2019 at 3:32 AM, Whatever the WhoCares said:

Sonic’s world and storytelling should reflect the passions and sensibilities of its developers. That’s how you get the best interpretations. Time and again we’ve seen the results of Japanese developers trying to be “western,” those results being the blandest stories in the franchise. But then we can point to Sonic Adventure 1&2, which felt like someone in that writing room was creating the narrative and world how they truly wanted it to be. Those games’ stories didn’t come off like action anime because they were trying to; they were just naturally like that. Meanwhile Sonic Boom or the comics don’t feel like they’re trying to be like western action-comedy; they just are. Compare this to Sonic Lost World, a Japanese narrative written to emulate a western cartoon. How about Sonic Forces, where our side of the pond got so much writing power that it actually ended up feeling like a western cartoon trying to be an anime. It’s no coincidence that both of these stories feel entirely soulless.

I’m not saying things should be only Western or only Japanese, we’ve seen plenty of franchises that incorporate storytelling tropes from all kinds of mediums. But the people making Sonic need to take a step back and realize that what will ultimately turn out better is probably whatever story they can truly care about. 

...the Sonic adventure games are like super anime, the director who wrote the stories even said they took inspiration from various manga titels like ""Please save my Earth"", Shadow's story even shares some elements of Mewtwo's story in the anime  and his Japanese audio drama, Sonic's lost World suffered heavily under the writing of Pontaq and Graff, you know the western writers involved with the franchise.

[SBR2]

On 3/26/2019 at 12:31 PM, Whatever the WhoCares said:

Is that really all it was? No, and you know that. Cmon. 

Sonic may have been made in Japan but hid origins and influenceshave always been western. Honestly Sega should probably just move Sonic production and development to America. He's never been particularly popular in his home country anyway. 

[Skull Leader]

On March 26, 2019 at 1:59 PM, Sonic Fan J said:

Me personally, I kind of prefer the approach of the Japanese taking western concepts and then writing and designing them from their own familiarity of the world. It gives the target audience something familiar but also foreign enough to make Sonic's world something worth seeing what's out there. It even works for a Japanese audience as well as foreign Concepts are familiarized and Sonic's adventures brings the world closer to home.

Of course regardless of how you approach it you are still going to need skilled individuals involved to make it work and the people at SEGA seem to be either burnt out, talentless, or just not given the time to actually develop a bond with the series and form a unified vision for it that grows and evolves as they do.

I think Sonic Team should consider the contributions of western individuals who have shown that they have what it takes to deliver. For example, Christian Whitehead and his developers achieved with Mania what ST themselves could not with Sonic 4. Ian Flynn has made justice to a lot of game characters (especially Amy and Knuckles) with how he writes their characterizations, something ST hasn't for quite some time now as well as Tyson Hesse with his animations, which say something when the latest one (TSR Overdrive) made Iizuka shed tears of joy and took the risk of focusing on a character like Big with positive reception.

Not all westerners are writers like Pontac and Graff, nor developers like BioWare or Red Button.

[Myst]

On 3/28/2019 at 1:51 PM, SBR2 said:

Sonic may have been made in Japan but hid origins and influenceshave always been western. 

'I think Sonic's design was very japanese.. In those days Sega really wanted to make it a little more American. The very first Sonic game's poster Sega of America marketing created was hated by the Sonic Team and became a big issue at that time.'

-Shinobu Toyoda

 

 

[SBR2]

55 minutes ago, Myst said:

'I think Sonic's design was very japanese.. In those days Sega really wanted to make it a little more American. The very first Sonic game's poster Sega of America marketing created was hated by the Sonic Team and became a big issue at that time.'

-Shinobu Toyoda

 

 

...Ok. And?

Is this supposed to change my mind because...it doesn't.