Sonic Unleashed Remastered wishlist

[User18091994]

 

I'm hyped for Sonic Colors Ultimate, but I would be lying if I said I wouldn't prefer a Sonic Unleashed "Ultimate" or something like that. I think Sega decided to port Colors first because it's more easy and cheap, and they can outsource the development. Sega isn't as big as Nintendo, they don't have too many staff members available to work on a lot of Sonic projects at the same time, and they are prioritizing other IPs as well. It seems Sonic Team is focusing on the next mainline game (Sonic Rangers?) and Blind Squirrel is in charge of Colors Ultimate. I don't think a Sonic Unleashed port would be possible without the Sonic Team members working on it because of the Hedgehog Engine, so I can only see this remaster being developed after Sonic Rangers' release. In whatever way, we can dream about the perfect Sonic Unleashed Remastered, so that's my wishlist:

Added content:
- New difficult modes: easy, normal and hard. The easy mode could have things like Tails save from Colors Ultimate or other changes to make the game more accessible for newcomers because Unleashed is the hardest mainline Sonic game, in my opinion;

- New things to do on the hub worlds. More side-quests, more mini-games, shops to buy cosmetics based on the countries. Like Super Mario Odyssey that we can buy clothes and hats based on the worlds. We could have accessories and clothes for both Sonic and Werehog;

- 2 Player modes for both Sonic and Werehog. The daytime stages could be racing like the 2P mode of Sonic Lost World, while the Werehog stages could be like the 2P mode of Bayonetta 2;

- New battle songs for the Werehog. It could be like some Kingdom Hearts games that feature different battle themes per world;

Graphics:
- The game hold up pretty well, and it looks wonderful on RPCS3 (PS3 emulator) when it's running on a higher resolution with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filter. It wouldn't change much, maybe tweak and improve a few assets and textures;

- It should run at 60fps, at least on the next gen consoles and PC;

Quality of Life improvements:

- The medals are no more mandatory to progress through the game;

- The medals and collectables have a different design or an aura, so the player could locate them more easily on the stages;

- Werehog stages have fewer waves of enemies;
- There are no areas on the Werehog stages that you have instant deaths. Instead of dying when falling into the water or bottomless pits, you lose HP/rings and went back to the closest safe place before. The same way as happen in Sonic Boom Fire & Ice when you fall into the water or into spikes on the floor. You only lose a life and have to go back to the latest checkpoint when you run out of HP/rings. This would increase the pacing of the werehog stages;

- The homming attack is the jump button as it's on the majority of the games and Sonic's controls could be a tweaked to be a little smoother like it is on Generations;

- The QTEs will be more simple, less frequent and less punitive. They could stay the same as the original game in the hard mode, though;

 

What's your Sonic Unleashed Remastered wishlist?

[charmsb]

- Easier Dark Gaia/Perfect Dark Gaia fights, and saves inbetween them.

- General improvements to the controls and physics.

- Have the battle theme activate for more combat focused sections, but running into a few enemies in your path just adds percussion to the track.

- Medals aren't mandatory.

- Hub world for Eggman Land.

This is all I really want.

[Kazhnuz]

What would seem possible for me is mostly adding some cosmetic, simplyfing the game and maybe some QoL improvement

- Simplyfing the game could be via some equivalent of the Tails Save (some "Chip Save" maybe ? It could also handle the lives of the wherehog, as IIRC they resurrect you on the spot instead of making you go to the last checkpoint). Non-mandatory medals would also make the game when more fun. Some other stuff could be possible on that front. I'm not sure if we would have several difficulty levels, though.

- I don't really see big changes to the werehog. Maybe if they do again the whole "let's remix the soundtrack", it could be possible to have the Werehog battle music to be transformed on each level to fit the theme (but I don't think we would have completely different music, mostly rework). Maybe faster XP too.

- IIRC, Colors Ultimate is supposed to have customizable inputs, so it could solve on Unleashed the homing attack problem.

- Cosmetics like Sonic Colors Ultimate could add some motivations to do stuff

And of course, all the DLCs content could be present, as having a lot of content could be a good way to have new stuff.

About the rest, I don't think that Unleashed would get many more improvement more than "it's on newer console it runs 60FPS except on switch". Unlike Sonic Colors Ultimate, they wouldn't have to swap the whole renderer (as it's not on PC, they might have some work to do to make it working everywhere), but maybe they would want to swap some part for more modern stuff.

 

About who could do it… TBH I think that Blind Squirrel could actually do it. Sure, they don't know the HE well, but let's hope that the ST have some documentation of their own code, and I'm not sure that the issues would be that much technical (if they have been able to port Colors to a completely different renderer, I think they would be able). But maybe that SEGA prefer to share only HE code with internal teams… So IDK. But technologically wise, it would be possible for BS to work on such a project with some people from ST to share some help, or maybe even help from Hardlight that have ported Sonic Team games on PC, so have some knowledge on the HE (but certainly not the team needed to perform a complete remaster yet, imo).

And about the ST doing it… It all depends of if they have people not working on a main project in CS2, but as they tend to have several parallel project in SEGA CS2, I'm not sure how dev bandwith they have to do a remaster.

[Cube]

- Instead of being required for progress, I would want the moon medals to unlock something else. The DLC missions seem like a really good option. Perhaps they could even port some Wii levels as unlockable levels.

- Homing attack on the jump button instead of boost button

- Better sense of where you should be going. Remove the requirement of having to talk to the professor to activate levels (it's annoying opening a new area, heading there and finding no gates active). Also have a cutscene or HUD marker in the level hubs pointing to the next main missions. You still have to explore to find others.

- I would like for the lives system to be just removed. When you can farm them easily, it makes the system pointless. Sega themselves even seem to think the lives is bad for Werehog stages as they'll give you an extra life after a checkpoint for some annoying sections. That said, the "return to gap with loss of health" idea is also good.

- More leeway for the Werehog grab. Make it so if you press it just before the lock on, it still works.

- For finishers, make a set combination for each enemy type. So for the annoying wasps, it's always B then A. This allows you to memorise some QTE combinations.

- Perhaps rework the final fight with ideas from the Wii version.

[Sonictrainer]

While we're on the topic of Sonic Unleashed, let me ask this question:

Should they split Eggmanland up or leave it unchanged?

[KingMario05]

I'd love for them to add in a a playable Were-Tails. Always felt like a missed opportunity to me.

Then again, I never finished it due to the Werehog's platforming sections, so maybe they should try to remedy that first before adding in anything new.

Oh, and could they make Were-Sonic faster? He's too damn clunky in the original, I find.

[Wraith]

2 hours ago, Sonictrainer said:

While we're on the topic of Sonic Unleashed, let me ask this question:

Should they split Eggmanland up or leave it unchanged?

I'd leave it unchanged. Part of the reason it's so cathartic is because of how much of a gauntlet it is. Lives are plentiful, and every console having a sleep mode now means you don't actually have to play it all in one sitting.

[KHCast]

I wouldn’t mind if they re-did some of the music. And by that, I mean the Werehog battle theme. Maybe give it a thematic spin depending on what country you’re in? That’d at least keep things fresh. 

[User18091994]

17 hours ago, Sonictrainer said:

While we're on the topic of Sonic Unleashed, let me ask this question:

Should they split Eggmanland up or leave it unchanged?

I would leave unchanged because I think most of the problems with Eggmanland are the terrible frame rate, too many waves of enemies in the Werehog parts, instant deaths, QTES, etc. Most of these things would be fixed in the whole game and in consequence would make the stage much more enjoyable and fluid. Maybe I would add a shadow on the Werehog parts that he doesn't have one because it would make the platforming easier.

[KHCast]

I wonder if they’d maybe bundle the Wii/PS2 version and remaster it as maybe an extra mode or something. I’d hate for that version to be lost to time, cause it certainly stood on its own as a game and had its positives

[Nix]

Other than the obvious 4k/60fps...

-Medals should only unlock the extra acts and DLC stages. Story progression should be as seamless as possible and Sonic Unleashed feels like it's actively plotting against the player's progress at times.

-With that in mind, instead of having to go back to Professor Pickle's lab every time you need to unlock new areas, have him contact you on the World Map screen instead. Tails' portable already influences the UI design in a lot of ways, so I say use it to its fullest.

-Give the camera unlimited uses.

-Homing Attack on the Jump Button. Homing Attack on the Jump Button. Homing Attack on the Jump Button. Homing Attack on the Jump Button. Homing Attack on the Jump Button.

-Some big obvious Generations styled warning markers when a trickier segment of the level is coming up would be nice for new players. Have the option to turn it off.

-Just have all of Sonic's movement options unlocked in the beginning. Sonic feels really naked on replays.

-The Werehog similarly should have more combat moves unlocked at the start of the game.

-Add everything in this mod:

It really makes a world of difference with the Werehog.  Stages are much more brisk, and he's just more fun to control. You get EXP faster so you can unlock the more fun combos faster. Gets rid of the battle music too, speaking of which...

-Get rid of the battle music entirely from the levels. The Werehog night tracks are already jams that are pretty well suited for battles anyways. You can keep it for the camera exorcisms though.

-A lot of the game's QTEs need to be adjusted. From the infamous "Mash x60" during the final boss down to the smaller things like maybe shortening the ones for opening doors and flipping switches.

-Give the Werehog a more obvious drop shadow at all times. Or a Crash 4 style indicator of where he's going to land. Platforming segments can become needlessly frustrating when you can't see it.