What if Sonic Team did make all the humans in Adventure Era up have the same overall syle as Sonic and Co.?

[Almar]

Over on Twitter there was a talk on how civilians in the series should be:

And then some interesting answers came:

And it made me wonder:

1. Have they ever considered just doing that?

2. What did they have to lose by doing  it?

So yeah, Uekewa humans?

[Sonario]

I dunno, that'd make them look like Humanized versions of Mobians, which would look kinda unsettling IMO. Personally, my favorite design for the humans was the Unleashed style. I feel they mix the best with the style of Sonic and co (especially since Eggman's also a cartoony human like them). But I just want to see human and animal civilians in the same setting instead of Sonic and co being the only animals in a world full of humans or the world being full of animals and Eggman being the only human.

[DryLagoon]

I do like the new option, my only question is how would it reflect older characters without looking weird?

I do think humans in Sonic being less realistic (in design) are for the better, but I wasn't a huge fan of how they looked in Unleashed either. Adventure was passable at the time, but I understand would look dated now. I'm not 100% sure on it, but I might try drawing some of the younger NPCs in that style just to get a better idea of how it'd look. I find Sonic surrounded by anime-style humans kind of amusing, sort of like Kappa Mikey in contrast.

[DabigRG]

I kinda wanna see the human designs in Adventure updated, tbh. Limitations or not, they have a style to em that might work if scaled up in resolution.

[DryLagoon]

I tried doing two of the NPCs in a mixed style. Sorry if it looks somewhat off (and blurry only have phone cam), but hopefully enough to get what I was going for. The NPCs used are TrainGirl and UnusedBoy. I felt his was the most Sonic-ish to use. Thanks to @Speeps for the model images.

Spoiler

 

[DabigRG]

18 minutes ago, DryLagoon said:

I tried doing two of the NPCs in a mixed style. Sorry if it looks somewhat off (and blurry only have phone cam), but hopefully enough to get what I was going for. The NPCs used are TrainGirl and UnusedBoy. I felt his was the most Sonic-ish to use. Thanks to @Speeps for the model images.

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Oh, those are pretty good.

[Iko]

I think both anime (Adventure) and occidental cartoon (Unleashed) styles don't fit Sonic at all, they should develop a new style that fits the one of the animal Sonic characters.

Something like Billy Hatcher maybe... I know it's harder to develop an unique style that fits the franchise's identity for each NPC, especially in those games like Adventure that have tons of them, but I think it's Sega's task, as a company, to take care of the image and presentation of their own franchise.

This or make them purposely more realistic in a funny way, similar to how Mario did in Odyssey. If done right. the fact that the main characters and the NPCs clash together is like a joke (think of the dinosaur in Mario), though, like any joke, it can get old fast if overused, and it's not much suited for serious stories and moments, so it's probably not the right way.

[DabigRG]

25 minutes ago, Iko said:

This or make them purposely more realistic in a funny way, similar to how Mario did in Odyssey. If done right. the fact that the main characters and the NPCs clash together is like a joke (think of the dinosaur in Mario), though, like any joke, it can get old fast if overused, and it's not much suited for serious stories and moments, so it's probably not the right way.

So, 06 with smoother textures then.

[Multikaris]

1 hour ago, Iko said:

I think both anime (Adventure) and occidental cartoon (Unleashed) styles don't fit Sonic at all, they should develop a new style that fits the one of the animal Sonic characters.

Something like Billy Hatcher maybe... I know it's harder to develop an unique style that fits the franchise's identity for each NPC, especially in those games like Adventure that have tons of them, but I think it's Sega's task, as a company, to take care of the image and presentation of their own franchise.

This or make them purposely more realistic in a funny way, similar to how Mario did in Odyssey. If done right. the fact that the main characters and the NPCs clash together is like a joke (think of the dinosaur in Mario), though, like any joke, it can get old fast if overused, and it's not much suited for serious stories and moments, so it's probably not the right way.

Yeah, the designs of the New Donkers and other “realistic” characters in Mario are actually fairly off if you look closely. Even Elise was kinda anime, and Archie, Fleetway, and Shadow had that 90s comic vibe for their humans. (With some anime influence) Man of the Year has its humans show Looney Tunes and Spielberg influence. And AOSTH is a different beast entirely. 

 

[Wraith]

Sonic and co are supposed to stick out from the humans so overall I wouldn't like them to blur that distinction. I understand the call for consistency but you should also be able to tell your main characters apart from the crowd. There are still normal animals in the series for the same reason. 

 

The humans look fine to me in SA1 and Unleashed.

[DabigRG]

Here's another experiment worth considering: is it possible to design humans that look along similar but not too close lines as Eggman and Dr. Nega?

[Tracker_TD]

If we have Uekawa do the humans, then I have a better idea.

Make every NPC Hatsune Miku. Here comes the money.

Spoiler

I'm fine with either Unleashed or SA1 style humans, honestly. Or if we're talking putting humans in the Classic series, which I'd also be fine with, look at Man of the Year or NiGHTS! 

 

[GentlemanX]

Uekawa's art was the basis for the character design in Sonic X, though Satoshi Hirayama made the final designs based on Uekawa's art. So you can probably look to those designs for what non-Eggman Uekawa humans look like.

 

[StaticMania]

Literally just anime humans in Uekawa's art style...because it doesn't matter that much.

They don't need to fit and this looked perfectly fine in Sonic X anyway.

[Indigo Rush]

I'm most partial to Unleashed's NPC human designs, but can get along with SA1 or Sonic X's just fine, too. 

My biggest stipulation is that Eggman has to not look like a different species of hominid when standing next to another human. It needs to be somewhat consistent with that at least. 

[Jango]

Unleashed has the perfect balance TBH. They don't clash with Eggman and they're very charming. A few exagerated traits (pretty much like Eggman) to give that cartoonish look. That's all it needs. Adventure / Sonic X is too generic anime IMO.

[Iko]

3 hours ago, DabigRG said:

Here's another experiment worth considering: is it possible to design humans that look along similar but not too close lines as Eggman and Dr. Nega?

 

41 minutes ago, Indigo Rush said:

I'm most partial to Unleashed's NPC human designs, but can get along with SA1 or Sonic X's just fine, too. 

My biggest stipulation is that Eggman has to not look like a different species of hominid when standing next to another human. It needs to be somewhat consistent with that at least. 

Exactly my point. Eggman is a main character since the first game, and his design is stylized in a way that fits the one of the other (animal) characters. I think that human NPCs should feel the same way as Eggman even though they would obviously look different.

In order to make the main characters stand out more, just make the human NPCs more generic... simple wearings, little details, etc. Kinda like the generic resistance guys (including the avatar) in Sonic Forces but humans instead of animals.

[DabigRG]

2 hours ago, Iko said:

In order to make the main characters stand out more, just make the human NPCs more generic... simple wearings, little details, etc. Kinda like the generic resistance guys (including the avatar) in Sonic Forces but humans instead of animals.

If only there were more humans in Boom.

[DryLagoon]

3 hours ago, Iko said:

just make the human NPCs more generic... simple wearings, little details, etc.

Looking at the Adventure 1 models closely it's like they had maybe 5 models and then went from there. The little girls have the same outfit recolored, one boy has the same haircut but with glasses, one woman was turned into twins, etc. If anything it shows how well they did that I didn't notice how little variation there was until now. I get not wanting Eggman to look too different, but I felt the mayor/explorers were close enough to him in size. Sure it looks more animeish but I find it more pleasant to look at than the Unleashed ones.

[JezMM]

Unleashed is definitely my favourite, but I also wouldn't mind if they pushed it further and went full Professor Layton - design every human to be as unrestricted in their makeup as Eggman himself is.  I think giving them normal clothing would be enough to make Eggman distinctly look like a big deal in comparison due to his elaborate outfit.

Sonic X did look fine but at the same time that was a canon where Sonic and co are aliens to the human world, so I dunno if that affects my perception of it at all.

 

But yeah, either way I'm generally with the crowd of "Eggman shouldn't look like a different species from the rest of the humans".  I'd also be fine with them really establishing that anthro characters aren't unusual by putting them in too - take a leaf out of Sonic Boom or Big/Vector by not limiting them to just being "Sonic-like" in design too so they have plenty of bodyshape variety like the humans.

Granted despite being an Unleashed fan, it would be a mistake to retroactively include anthro NPCs there, would sort of confuse the idea of Sonic travelling around "our" world with these believable settings.  But if they did another game with a lot of different locales, they could always imply that some regions are more anthro-preferred and some are more human preferred.

[Iko]

Humans should at least have slapstick arms and legs like the anthros and Eggman himself (something that the Unleashed design lacks).

Boom (cartoon, not games) did it great with the design of the side characters, and I think that's the ideal style for NPCs, regardless of if they're human or not. I understand why people prefer the Unleashed style, because it's more cartoony and all, but Sonic's design is completely different; by using Unleashed's design, Sonic would still clash. Sonic has its own design style for characters, they just have to find a way to adapt it to humans, something that's definitely possible because they already did it at least once (as said already, Eggman, and arguably, the Billy Hatcher characters).

[StaticMania]

They don't have to do that, it would be preferable...to some, but the series has never cared about clashing the anthros with the humans.

Even when it failed at making the audience not care.