Sonic Rangers Predictions...

[KingMario05]

On 7/7/2021 at 7:35 AM, Whatever the WhoCares said:

I just look at these other open-world games and the magnitudes they have to sacrifice to run on Switch… Xenoblade 1 and 2 drop well below 480p for example. What chance would one of these games have if the protagonist could move, I dunno, 6 times faster? I’d have to imagine that, if Sonic Rangers does come out on Switch, it’ll be extremely blurry, fairly choppy, and low-res all around. Anything more would be a milestone for the device. 

Absolutely none whatsoever. If Nintendo (technically MonolithSoft, sure, but that still counts in my book) can't get consistent performance out of an open-world game for their own goddamn system, then Sega has a snowball's chance in hell of doing the same. (Assuming this is gonna be native, because "box on shelves = more interested kiddies = more $$$$$").

[NoKaine]

Xenoblade 2 was a launch window game, though. It's been four years. If Monolith Soft made the game in 2022, it would also run and look significantly better.

The Xenoblade games are somehow treated as the Switch standard instead of being outliers. I mentioned it before, but Immortals: Fenyx Rising is a third-party, multi-platform open world game on the Switch that took the expected sacrifices but not much more.

And even then, Xenoblade X was on worse hardware and had an actual giant cohesive overworld and still ran and looked comparatively better than 2.

EDIT: Also, when I said Rangers would be be like Odyssey, it has nothing to do with power and everything to do with it'll be harder to make a single, giant cohesive world in general than several separate worlds, which is why Nintendo went with that route in the first place.

It also makes it easier to make missions, sidequests, level-specific gimmicks and varied environments when you have Green Hill and City Escape, as examples, as separate levels.

In Breath of the Wild, every region is functionally the same besides one gameplay element being turned up to the max. In Odyssey, New Donk City and the Sand Kingdom wouldn't be any more different. If you don't want Rangers to be the same forest world we see in the teaser all game, they'd have to go with Odyssey and not Breath of the Wild.

Edited July 11, 2021 by NoKaine

[KingMario05]

True. Honestly, I'd prefer the Odyssey approach. The only way that an open-world Sonic game is if the open forest was paired off with a Kamurocho-like metropolis, mountain range with ski resort, and massive Eggman factory that are all seamlessly connected. Plus a beach zone, water zone, volcano, etc.

And... well... it's Sonic Team. You and I both know that isn't happening, so here's hoping they choose an Unleashed/Odyssey setup over the Ubisoft-like approach that leakers have been teasing for the past few months.

 

[BubbleButt TV]

I was thinking about this a while ago but what do think the odds are that Rangers will be the game to finally bring back the Chao garden that everyone has been asking for? I think this would be the perfect opportunity to do it in an ambitious open world setting.

They could even make a mobile companion app. Since the game's story is meant to be about cyberspace or whatever, they could tie it into that. The Chao get transferred from Rangers to the mobile app by travelling through cyberspace or something lol

[expansivelovestories]

Chao and an open world does have a fantastic potential!  If for example SA2 did not display the full transformation they can go through, any sorts of areas could be reached by specially adapted Chao, and i guess there could be Chao-only hyperspaces (that might resemble the gameplay of NiGHTS??) that would acquire rare items or open otherwise sealed areas!  The concept that Rangers will be a game that they keep adding to also supports the Chao presence as a good idea if they so choose to bring them!

[KingMario05]

7 hours ago, BubbleButt TV said:

I was thinking about this a while ago but what do think the odds are that Rangers will be the game to finally bring back the Chao garden that everyone has been asking for? I think this would be the perfect opportunity to do it in an ambitious open world setting.

They could even make a mobile companion app. Since the game's story is meant to be about cyberspace or whatever, they could tie it into that. The Chao get transferred from Rangers to the mobile app by travelling through cyberspace or something lol

That could work, although I know Sega won't do this. Maybe there could be a 2D platformer starring Chao, too?

[Quicksilver]

I think the idea of a Sonic game in an open world space is both off putting and interesting.

For example Super Mario Odyssey is open world and no body really expected a open world Mario game to work yet it became one of my favorite games of all time, but who would you trust. Nintendo, a company who makes games that are, at worst, pretty mediocre and forgettable, or SEGA/ SonicTeam, a company that, makes games that are at worst can have story's that make no sense and are hard to follow, and can sometimes be unplayable.

I'd love to be proven wrong but we'll have to see

[Domino]

20 hours ago, EveningStar64 said:

...Super Mario Odyssey is open world and no body really expected a open world Mario game to work...

You sure about that? Mario's been doing the whole "open world" thing since Super Mario 64, with Odyssey being a continuation of that style. Nintendo calls it "sandbox Mario."

[azoo]

Neither Odyssey or 64 are "open world". They're sandbox, which is a completely different affair. You are given a big open map, yeah, but it's still very tightly designed around itself and has it's own obvious borders on where you're not supposed to go.

If you wanted the closest thing to compare to Mario with, you'd have Bowser's Fury, which would be the ideal for a Sonic game since it's "open world" in the sense that it's a lot of sandbox maps strung together seamlessly through an ocean. This sounds like the best answer to me, especially when Sonic's game design started being based off of islands, but you know.. kinda doubting they went this path with the hog.

[Scar]

9 minutes ago, azoo said:

Neither Odyssey or 64 are "open world". They're sandbox, which is a completely different affair. You are given a big open map, yeah, but it's still very tightly designed around itself and has it's own obvious borders on where you're not supposed to go.

If you wanted the closest thing to compare to Mario with, you'd have Bowser's Fury, which would be the ideal for a Sonic game since it's "open world" in the sense that it's a lot of sandbox maps strung together seamlessly through an ocean. This sounds like the best answer to me, especially when Sonic's game design started being based off of islands, but you know.. kinda doubting they went this path with the hog.

Agreed.

I like the idea, but I'm not entirely convinced it'll be particularly amazing

 

[Quicksilver]

On 7/22/2021 at 1:54 PM, Domino said:

You sure about that? Mario's been doing the whole "open world" thing since Super Mario 64, with Odyssey being a continuation of that style. Nintendo calls it "sandbox Mario."

Well 64 isn't as open world as odyssey, with stars being locked behind certain missions, when all moons can be unlocked from the second you get to a kingdom in odyssey, and hearing rangers be described as "BOTW Sonic" it sounds more like odyssey

[8ther]

Anyone else feel the “Rangers” in the title could be referring to multiple playable characters similar to the “Forces” in Sonic Forces, my hope is for Tails and Knuckles to be playable, though sadly it most likely to be just the avatar, doubt Classic Sonic is coming back seeing how his inclusion in Force was one of that game’s most brought up criticisms.

[___]

I can imagine a scenario where this is some kind of soft reboot where the avatars and/or new characters become Sonic's lifelong buddies and everyone else is written out. They shoved a lot of characters into Forces and that game didn't go over well, so I could see Sega getting the causality wrong (again) and announcing that everyone from Tails on down will be comic-exclusive. Maybe that's a bit out-there, but the "stranger in a strange land" vibe I got from the leaks (if true) makes me feel like they could try for a vast departure.

The safest bet though would be that this comes off as a weird experiment where things don't really mesh together well and feels incomplete because Sega only spent $76.49 on it (including lunch at Chili's for the two programmers). And Tails, Knuckles and Amy get a few lines of dialogue and nothing else. Metascore in the mid-40s to low-50s.

[User18091994]

I think Sega is probably going to release a version for Nintendo Switch developed by a different studio (Dimps?). I know nowadays this isn't common, but the new consoles are way more powerful than the Switch and the SSD technology would work perfectly for an open-world Sonic game. There are already games coming to the new generation that feature open worlds and run at 60fps, such as Tales of Arise, that aren't going to the Switch. The Nintendo Switch cannot even run Zelda Breath of the Wild at a consistent fps, even with being technically a Wii U game.

I think in this generation, the Nintendo Switch is going to be like the Nintendo DS, a weaker hardware that receives a lot of games designed specially with its limitations in mind due to its popularity. We are already seen this with games like Monster Hunter Stories 2, Monster Hunter Rise, SMTV, etc. In the worst case scenario, the Nintendo Switch is going to be like the Nintendo Wii that became outdated fast and stopped having relevant third part games.

The thing is, Sonic is very popular on Nintendo platforms, it's even more popular than on the other consoles. The Nintendo Switch is the most popular platform at the moment. I know that designing different versions of the same game isn't common anymore, but considering how important Nintendo consoles are for Sonic audience, I think Sega is going to do it.

Sega has a track record of supporting Nintendo platforms with Sonic games. The Wii got a lot of Sonic games, even the Wii U got an exclusive Sonic game. If Sonic Rangers isn't possible to run on a Nintendo Switch, I think Sega is going to release a different version of the game. Which would be fine by me, I only hope this different version could be at the same level of quality than the Wii/PS2 versions of Sonic Unleashed.  I love both versions of Unleashed, and I even think the SD version has better pacing. But, I don't like Sonic Generations and Lost World 3DS, they are rushed and poorly designed versions.

[KingMario05]

On 7/29/2021 at 11:36 AM, Gloved Animal said:

I can imagine a scenario where this is some kind of soft reboot where the avatars and/or new characters become Sonic's lifelong buddies and everyone else is written out. They shoved a lot of characters into Forces and that game didn't go over well, so I could see Sega getting the causality wrong (again) and announcing that everyone from Tails on down will be comic-exclusive. Maybe that's a bit out-there, but the "stranger in a strange land" vibe I got from the leaks (if true) makes me feel like they could try for a vast departure.

Oh, if they pull this stunt, I'm fucking out. I don't want a bunch of new "lifelong friends" that we're never gonna see again if the game tanks at retail. I want his actual friends, preferably playable but even just as significant support. (Especially my man Tails.) Sonic Rangers could be crowned "TEH BEST SANIC GAME EVAAAAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" by every game critic imaginable... but I still wouldn't get it if they did this. Maybe on sale, but certainly not on launch.

[KingMario05]

15 hours ago, Raphael Martins said:

The thing is, Sonic is very popular on Nintendo platforms, it's even more popular than on the other consoles. The Nintendo Switch is the most popular platform at the moment. I know that designing different versions of the same game isn't common anymore, but considering how important Nintendo consoles are for Sonic audience, I think Sega is going to do it.

Sega has a track record of supporting Nintendo platforms with Sonic games. The Wii got a lot of Sonic games, even the Wii U got an exclusive Sonic game. If Sonic Rangers isn't possible to run on a Nintendo Switch, I think Sega is going to release a different version of the game. Which would be fine by me, I only hope this different version could be at the same level of quality than the Wii/PS2 versions of Sonic Unleashed.  I love both versions of Unleashed, and I even think the SD version has better pacing. But, I don't like Sonic Generations and Lost World 3DS, they are rushed and poorly designed versions.

They're gonna have to, right? Something that works even on PS4 and Xbox One isn't gonna translate seamlessly to Switch, and certainly not if they want the Nintendo version out at the same time as everything else. (And... well, it's Sega. Of course they're gonna want that.)

[Rabbitearsblog]

Since we don't have that much information about what Sonic Rangers is really supposed to be about, I can't really say what my predictions are for this game until we get more information about the plot and the gameplay.  

[Perkilator]

52 minutes ago, Rabbitearsblog said:

Since we don't have that much information about what Sonic Rangers is really supposed to be about, I can't really say what my predictions are for this game until we get more information about the plot and the gameplay.  

Yeah, that's the best course of action; wait until we see what the actual game is before we speculate anything. leakers be damned

[KingMario05]

1 hour ago, Rabbitearsblog said:

Since we don't have that much information about what Sonic Rangers is really supposed to be about, I can't really say what my predictions are for this game until we get more information about the plot and the gameplay.  

Agreed. Gamescom Opening Night Live with His Holiness, Toronto Dorito I Geoff Keighley is in a few weeks. And Sega IS on the list of partnered publishers, sooo... maybe we'll get a new trailer there?

[NoKaine]

Wow, the wait is really driving you guys crazy, huh. "I think SEGA's going to remove all of the characters forever for some reason! Also the game will be bad because Sonic."

Okay, my turn: Rangers is Persona 6.

[KingMario05]

Just now, NoKaine said:

Rangers is Persona 6. I will not be taking questions.

Come on, you're saying that like it'd be a bad thing. (/s)

Spoiler

Seriously, where is the Sonic RPG by Atlus? Chronicles wasn't THAT bad, dammit!

 

[Rabbitearsblog]

2 hours ago, Perkilator said:

Yeah, that's the best course of action; wait until we see what the actual game is before we speculate anything. leakers be damned

I agree.  I don't even believe the leaks since we haven't really seen anything from SEGA themselves.  Let's wait until SEGA themselves said something, not go by leaks that may or may not be true.

[User18091994]

On 7/31/2021 at 11:39 PM, Rabbitearsblog said:

I agree.  I don't even believe the leaks since we haven't really seen anything from SEGA themselves.  Let's wait until SEGA themselves said something, not go by leaks that may or may not be true.

The only leak I believe is the first one because the name matches the name leaked by Sega and because some elements of the teaser match with the description that person had. It would be too much coincidence if it turned out to be fake.

That means, the only thing we know that's more likely to be real is that the game is called Sonic Rangers (could be a development name, however) and that's inspired by Zelda Breath of the Wild.

[BubbleButt TV]

https://www.sonicstadium.org/2021/08/tony-harnell-himself-says-he-may-be-working-on-a-new-sonic-song/ 

 

It sure would be pretty cool if Rangers has a new vocal theme

[Jango]

Hyping us with another vocal theme in a game that could or could not have any substance, just like Forces. I love vocal themes in Sonic, but they won't save a bad game. See how well implemented and meaningful each vocal theme was in SA1 all the way to Shadow the Hedgehog, and even 06, despite the quality of these games, they didn't just threw a vocal theme for the sake of it like how it was in Forces. Forces scratched the surface of many things fans have been asking for, and a vocal theme was one of them. It had no meaning, it's just there, like Classic Sonic, Chaos 0, Shadow...