Sonic Rangers Predictions...

[Salamander]

10 hours ago, antinomicTune said:

More on the subject of the thread, I've been thinking about the 'ghost girl' some of the leaks mentioned. Given the reference to 'cyberspace' in the leaks and the focus on digital effects in the trailer, I think it's very possible that the leaks misidentified the 'ghost girl' and that she's actually an AI or something appearing to the player through holograms, like Nicole in the Archie comics.

That tallies, as I don't exactly see what in the series's history could lead Sonic Team to think that another human female lead would be a good idea.  We have to allow for the fact that the focus test demoes don't seem to have included any narrative context, just gameplay; one has to presume that everything will make more sense once we have some idea of what the story is.

[shdowhunt60]

5 hours ago, Salamander said:

That tallies, as I don't exactly see what in the series's history could lead Sonic Team to think that another human female lead would be a good idea.  We have to allow for the fact that the focus test demoes don't seem to have included any narrative context, just gameplay; one has to presume that everything will make more sense once we have some idea of what the story is.

It's not even the idea of having a human female lead that particularly bothers me, it's that this is allegedly done as an inspiration from Breath of the Wild. They're basically just copying Zelda and the four different champions here, and that's before we get into the "guiding spirit turns out to be the emotional core of the story" trope that's been done half a dozen times since Sonic Adventure.

It just screams creative bankruptcy. Nevermind they're supposedly doing this just to copy Breath of the Wild here, we've done this trope so many times before and it's getting exhausting. Can we just not have a Sonic game about Sonic for once, please?

[Multikaris]

10 minutes ago, shdowhunt60 said:

It's not even the idea of having a human female lead that particularly bothers me, it's that this is allegedly done as an inspiration from Breath of the Wild. They're basically just copying Zelda and the four different champions here, and that's before we get into the "guiding spirit turns out to be the emotional core of the story" trope that's been done half a dozen times since Sonic Adventure.

It just screams creative bankruptcy. Nevermind they're supposedly doing this just to copy Breath of the Wild here, we've done this trope so many times before and it's getting exhausting. Can we just not have a Sonic game about Sonic for once, please?

It hasn’t really been done since Black Knight, maybe Colors if you’re generous. The Wisps and Deadly Six are very different from the “dark era” one-offs. So, it’s nice to see it come back.

[Zoomzeta]

13 minutes ago, shdowhunt60 said:

It's not even the idea of having a human female lead that particularly bothers me, it's that this is allegedly done as an inspiration from Breath of the Wild. They're basically just copying Zelda and the four different champions here, and that's before we get into the "guiding spirit turns out to be the emotional core of the story" trope that's been done half a dozen times since Sonic Adventure.

It just screams creative bankruptcy. Nevermind they're supposedly doing this just to copy Breath of the Wild here, we've done this trope so many times before and it's getting exhausting. Can we just not have a Sonic game about Sonic for once, please?

Um...So a spin-off?

[Diogenes]

I feel like it's a little early to worry this much about a character when all we know is "they exist, maybe".

[phobs]

I hope that the ghost girl will have cartoony art style like human characters from Unleashed. I don't know why but semi-realistic characters such as Elise and Merlina always bugged me out, I think they look very weird next to Sonic 

[Zoomzeta]

Just now, phobs said:

I hope that the ghost girl will have cartoony art style like human characters from Unleashed. I don't know why but semi-realistic characters such as Elise and Merlina always bugged me out, I think they look very weird next to Sonic 

Eh. They could look worst. Like, Sonic 06 levels of worst.

[phobs]

1 minute ago, Zoomzeta said:

Eh. They could look worst. Like, Sonic 06 levels of worst.

That's why I specifically mentioned Elise as an example

[Enesephus]

32 minutes ago, phobs said:

I hope that the ghost girl will have cartoony art style like human characters from Unleashed. I don't know why but semi-realistic characters such as Elise and Merlina always bugged me out, I think they look very weird next to Sonic 

Not the biggest fan of the human designs in Unleashed, to be honest. They look fine, and more fitting standing next to Sonic than someone like Elise, I guess, so I get why some may prefer them. Personally, I'd prefer them to go for more of an anime style like in Sonic X. Realistic enough in design to take more seriously, but not trying to look too much like real people like Elise. I just think they'd look better for the kind of tone I want for these games, especially if any of them are going to be important. 

[VO.SUPER]

I wouldn't mind the Naoto Oshima styled humans from Balan Wonderworld. While I prefer Unleashed humans, I think Oshima's brand of human is just as fitting to Sonic.

[Zoomzeta]

10 minutes ago, Enesephus said:

Not the biggest fan of the human designs in Unleashed, to be honest. They look fine, and more fitting standing next to Sonic than someone like Elise, I guess, so I get why some may prefer them. Personally, I'd prefer them to go for more of an anime style like in Sonic X. Realistic enough in design to take more seriously, but not trying to look too much like real people like Elise. I just think they'd look better for the kind of tone I want for these games, especially if any of them are going to be important. 

 

7 minutes ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

I wouldn't mind the Naoto Oshima styled humans from Balan Wonderworld. While I prefer Unleashed humans, I think Oshima's brand of human is just as fitting to Sonic.

...I always wished to imagine humans to look like something straight of a Studio TRIGGER show.

[shdowhunt60]

41 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

I feel like it's a little early to worry this much about a character when all we know is "they exist, maybe".

I know, but one thing about Sonic Team is that as chaotic and aimless as the general direction they go may seem, they seem to be really, really predictable when it comes to a select few tropes that they seem to cling to.

 

55 minutes ago, Snowragnarok said:

It hasn’t really been done since Black Knight, maybe Colors if you’re generous. The Wisps and Deadly Six are very different from the “dark era” one-offs. So, it’s nice to see it come back.

Yeah, and both the Wisps and the Deadly Six are extremely contentious. I feel like this would be a lot more reassuring as well if we didn't have like... 3-4 games from Sonic Team in the past decade, with no indication that they've learned or grown at all from the past.

But I guess that's just the really pessimistic way of looking at it. There's a different route of thought I'm actually currently following though that maybe this is Iizuka taking the chance to finally make the Sonic Adventure he originally wanted to make. I'll be sure to share it when I get my thoughts together.

[Enesephus]

24 minutes ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

I wouldn't mind the Naoto Oshima styled humans from Balan Wonderworld. While I prefer Unleashed humans, I think Oshima's brand of human is just as fitting to Sonic.

That wouldn't be a bad way to go. I mean, it's the same guy who originally designed Sonic so it'd be a pretty natural fit and it would probably please most people. I don't think we're getting anything like that here, though.

[Whatever the WhoCares]

As long as we’re talking character design, I’ll take this moment to ask that we get a good Sonic model. The Forces one was weird, with its bright blue and flattened cranial spike. Hopefully we can go back to the Unleashed look. 

[Multikaris]

41 minutes ago, shdowhunt60 said:

Yeah, and both the Wisps and the Deadly Six are extremely contentious. I feel like this would be a lot more reassuring as well if we didn't have like... 3-4 games from Sonic Team in the past decade, with no indication that they've learned or grown at all from the past.

But I guess that's just the really pessimistic way of looking at it. There's a different route of thought I'm actually currently following though that maybe this is Iizuka taking the chance to finally make the Sonic Adventure he originally wanted to make. I'll be sure to share it when I get my thoughts together.

One of the big complaints about those characters is that they’re too recurring compared to others, even when the Wisps had a return explanation in side media. The Deadly Six... well, they vanished like Mario bosses, so it was very unclear about their fates until later. The HBH reformed, and Infinite... his fate is up in the air right now, but he’s most likely dead if IDW still can’t use him. The thing is, the Six and Wisps were never compelling enough to be recurring, and the plots made them seem like one-offs. The Wisps probably returned due to a popularity they quickly lost from their re-use, however...

[Endy]

3 hours ago, shdowhunt60 said:

It's not even the idea of having a human female lead that particularly bothers me, it's that this is allegedly done as an inspiration from Breath of the Wild. They're basically just copying Zelda and the four different champions here, and that's before we get into the "guiding spirit turns out to be the emotional core of the story" trope that's been done half a dozen times since Sonic Adventure.

 

ITS A PRETTY GOOD TROPE

[Azure Blue Tori]

At least Merlina shook things up, but I'm not sure if they'd really want to pull the "guiding spirit is actually evil" twist twice.

[Sega DogTagz]

Merlina was an awesome stab in the back, because you trusted her face due to her being a dead ringer for Shahra, but its easy to forget that Shahra stabbed you in the back in her game too. So its a fool me once, fool we twice gag. Perfect rug pull.

 

But yeah, we don't know nearly enough about this potential character to hazard any kind of realistic guess about what they would be about. From the information gleamed from the leaks, it would make sense that a "ghost" could be misinterpreted as either an AI or a Hologram - which both would be thematically fitting with cyberspace. Furthermore, we saw mention of some of the enemies in the overworld being "robots" and "aliens" so who knows whats going on with that and how it would tie in with the girl.

Recent companion characters in Sonic History run the gambit between Yacker to Chip, so how prevalent this ghost will be to the story is too early to tell. Lets wait and see what she's about before we start getting scared of them ripping story beats out of BoTW.

[antinomicTune]

I'd like to point out that we don't actually know for a fact that this ghost girl is a human. The January leak that first mentions her doesn't mention what she is at all, so going from that one she could be a Human or a Mobian or King Boom Boo with a pink bow or something.

And I don't consider the May leak nearly as reliable, given that it was only posted after Sonic Central had started and is near identical to the January leak, I personally think it might be an attention-seeking copycat.

Even if we assume the May leak isn't just a copycat, it's still not very certain what the ghost girl actually is, species-wise. The May leak calls them a "human (?) ghost girl thing". That question mark, to me, implies that the leaker wasn't sure themselves if the ghost girl was a human or not.

[Multikaris]

2 hours ago, Azure Blue Tori said:

At least Merlina shook things up, but I'm not sure if they'd really want to pull the "guiding spirit is actually evil" twist twice.

We haven’t had an “ally” to Sonic turn out to be COMPLETELY evil at any point in the game series so far, though. A few other series have done this twist (Megaman X, Sly Cooper, and Danganronpa for example), but not Sonic. The Deadly Six kinda count, as they showed no gratitude for Sonic freeing them, but they weren’t ever shown as allies of Sonic, nor were they taken as seriously as the likes of the examples I mentioned. They’ve also become less threatening in their later appearances like TSR. Given Sonic Team apparently doesn’t care to make nuanced villains anymore, I could see them doing that. 

[Iko]

5 hours ago, antinomicTune said:

I'd like to point out that we don't actually know for a fact that this ghost girl is a human. The January leak that first mentions her doesn't mention what she is at all, so going from that one she could be a Human or a Mobian or King Boom Boo with a pink bow or something.

And I don't consider the May leak nearly as reliable, given that it was only posted after Sonic Central had started and is near identical to the January leak, I personally think it might be an attention-seeking copycat.

Even if we assume the May leak isn't just a copycat, it's still not very certain what the ghost girl actually is, species-wise. The May leak calls them a "human (?) ghost girl thing". That question mark, to me, implies that the leaker wasn't sure themselves if the ghost girl was a human or not.

I agree with you that the ghost being human is not sure yet, and that the May leak is not reliable. For what is known the ghost girl could even be Tikal.

Boom Boo with a pink bow I want to see it now.

[Red Hot Jack]

I don't think it's mobian, so no NICOLE or even Tikal like characters. It says humanoid, if anything the one from Unleashed short makes more sense, but yeah it's gonna be a new character obviously.

I don't mind it... if it doesn't copy Zelda lol, of course, we don't want rehashes. But it doesn't say anything about Champion-like characters? Guardians as bosses would be cool though. And you don't fight the champions in BotW. 

It's gonna be a guide type character, so like Shahra, Merlina, I liked both of them, Chip too, Yacker (more or less). I think they work well.

I really don't want it to just copy BotW now that you guys mention it. As I said, it needs to feel new and free but also a Sonic game.

The other characters as playable should be fine if the boost is gone, and corridor like level design that usually follows this type of gameplay, really... the boost just gives a lot of issues, it's a Sonic only move, it makes stages short, relatively not much to do in gameplay, it needs a lot of space and resources that take most of the game, which is over in few minutes, this is why I don't like the boost, at all.

But at the same time it looks like this game focuses primarily on Sonic, so I'm not sure about other playable characters, could happen with that title but maybe not.

 

[Endy]

It is absolutely in Sonic's character to help out distraught humanoid girls. Tikal are little more than obstacles he will dismissively help on his journey to his true goal; of getting some human woman. Elise, Shara, Merlina, even in Sonic's conceptual stages, Madonna. Sonic is in to humans. Sonic Team would be absolutely correct and in fact embracing the series history and character to have another human. The cowardice of Lost World, Generations, Forces Colors and even Unleashed! It is your chance to correct it course now Sonic Team

This thread even runs through Shadow. Maria is the heart and soul of Sonic Adventure 2. While that relationship with his human is far from romantic, perhaps it indicates further similarities between Sonic and Shadow beyond appearance...................

[Red Hot Jack]

If we want to list them all, it's gonna be a long one.

SA1 - Tikal/red orb

SA2 - Maria in flashbacks, with Omochao (tutorials)

Sonic X - Chris

Shadow - Doom's eye

Sonic '06 - Elise

Unleashed - Chip

Night of the Werehog - Ghost girl

Secret Rings - Shahra

Black Knight - Caliburn and Merlina (with twist)

Colors - Tails and Yacker

Generations - 2 Tails (basically), Omochao for tutorials

Sonic Movie - Tom and Maddie

 

 

[Multikaris]

11 hours ago, Jack-al said:

If we want to list them all, it's gonna be a long one.

SA1 - Tikal/red orb

SA2 - Maria in flashbacks, with Omochao (tutorials)

Sonic X - Chris

Shadow - Doom's eye

Sonic '06 - Elise

Unleashed - Chip

Night of the Werehog - Ghost girl

Secret Rings - Shahra

Black Knight - Caliburn and Merlina (with twist)

Colors - Tails and Yacker

Generations - 2 Tails (basically), Omochao for tutorials

Sonic Movie - Tom and Maddie

 

 

06 also had the Duke. Perci and QNC would maybe count for RoL, but they were downplayed.