Game Informer Interview with Ian Flynn on Writing for Sonic Frontiers

[Wittymations]

20 hours ago, Cosmos Rogue said:

The biggest flaw Flynn has as a writer, at least in his stories that I've read, is just how much of Sonic's past adventures get referenced.

I feel most fans have played through the main series of games than those who need to go back to Issue 175 of Archie or whatever. I mean, the main games are Sonic 1, 2, 3 and K, Adventure 1, Adventure 2, Heroes, (Shadow I guess?), 06ish: it kinda wrote itself out of existence by the end game, Unleashed, Colors, Generations, Lost World and Forces. 12-14 games isn't really that much, all things considered.

 

Though I guess Sonic 4 exists too. And Mania. Are those main series? Like Sonic 4 Ep 1 and 2 kinda really felt like they were spinoffs despite the naming scheme.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I like past games being referenced. How the fuck is that a flaw?

No, Ian’s flaws are him dragging a story and it’s elements longer than necessary (for reasons understandable, he seems to want to get all the mileage he can out of them, but it helps to know when to end), his story not always having a satisfying finish, leaving a plot dangling (whether through outside forces or some other factor in his plotting), or leaving an interesting idea half-baked.

Mainly general flaws any writer could have. His strengths however outweigh those weaknesses by a long shot—hence why he got enough clout to reach this point to begin with.

[Mangoaxe5]

On 7/14/2022 at 4:04 PM, Cosmos Rogue said:

Surprised, interested, and slightly worried that Flynn was able to convince Sonic Team to add more characters to the game. The biggest flaw Flynn has as a writer, at least in his stories that I've read, is just how much of Sonic's past adventures get referenced.

Why is that a bad thing?

Personally I love continuity callbacks to past games.

[Cosmos Rogue]

1 hour ago, Vampfox said:

Why is that a bad thing?

Personally I love continuity callbacks to past games.

I realize this is asking the wrong thing of a game that will open with Green Hill Zone, but it's past time that we get a new Sonic game that lives in the moment and doesn't try to remind us of other Sonic games.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

On 7/15/2022 at 5:45 PM, Cosmos Rogue said:

I realize this is asking the wrong thing of a game that will open with Green Hill Zone

That's not even really how the game is necessarily shaping up to be, given that the cyberzones are optional.

[Wittymations]

4 hours ago, Cosmos Rogue said:

but it's past time that we get a new Sonic game that lives in the moment and doesn't try to remind us of other Sonic games.

I agree with the general sentiment, but there's a difference between referencing past plot points and rehashing the same level theme over and over and over.

[Cosmos Rogue]

25 minutes ago, Wittymations said:

I agree with the general sentiment, but there's a difference between referencing past plot points and rehashing the same level theme over and over and over.

That depends on if the reference is relevant to the story or not. In Sonic Adventure Amy's story starts with a reference to her experiences in Sonic CD. This lays the foundation for Amy's story of wanting to go on another adventure with her idol Sonic, winding up going on an adventure on her own, and realizing that she doesn't need to chase after Sonic all the time. This is a fine way for one game to build off of another game's story. By contrast in Sonic Heroes Team Sonic compares Final Fortress to the Egg Carrier from Sonic Adventure for no other reason than to say "hey, remember that thing you like from that other Sonic game you like?".

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I figured the comparison was for the sake of scale for those that remember it from past Sonic games, because the Egg Carrier was legit nothing compared to Final Fortress—damn thing was so massive it made the Egg Carrier look like one of the basic battleships of the Egg Fleet. Gave a greater sense of showing that Eggman Metal Sonic wasn’t screwing around.

Plus, it was a throwaway line. Not really too important but not something that got in the way of anything either. (That and Heroes has more problems with its story than that small detail)

[Johnster4]

The interview lead me to think that the story is going to be at the very least promising, I want to see good character development and world building to be focused in Frontiers.

[Ricochet]

It could be interesting contrast between frontier's and Adventures writing. Whether is gonna put some ingame elements into play in storytelling or just throw cinematics exposure one after another.

[VO.SUPER]

15 hours ago, Johnster4 said:

The interview lead me to think that the story is going to be at the very least promising, I want to see good character development and world building to be focused in Frontiers.

As much character development as we can get in a mascot series where the characters don't age. 

Flynn is good at tip toeing that line.

[Duelistic Nature]

On 7/17/2022 at 10:38 AM, VO.SUPER said:

As much character development as we can get in a mascot series where the characters don't age. 

Flynn is good at tip toeing that line.

True, but even if they don't age physically you still get the feeling they grew in character in one way or another.

Although so far it's a bit hard for me to pinpoint how Flynn likes to portray certain characters that weren't new in design. Blank slates are more easily filled in, but already established personalities and warping those is quite a task to do right.

I don't think I have to point out the instances where we saw characters in the game swing behavior from previous installments.

[LegoFedora]

Really interesting to see Ian's work is what's being translated and not the other way around. Although, I am really hoping his flaws don't show too much due to him not having as much freedom with writing.

The flaws have already been discussed to death here, that being his tendency to reference old songs/quotes despite a lot of them feeling really forced and sometimes entirely out of place.

The only upside to the worst scenario constant referencing being real, is that we may finally get more of a sense of a timeline on what is canon (riders? Black knight? Does sonic remember 06?) And what isn't.

[Duelistic Nature]

Boy I wish Black Knight was canon, but when you're already setting the stage in a fictional world within a fictional world you lose points in the argument of making it canon. And unfortunately, Cyberspace got explained as being fragments/ reflections of Sonic's memories and not so much alternative dimensions... which would be a funny segue into it being a canon world.

[Zaysho]

The "canon" in this series is so loose and vague, and so far the only time I can think of a Sonic Team game explicitly not being "canon" is Chaotix. Maybe the arcade game. Secret Rings is alluded to in Generations so it doesn't discount Black Knight either. My point is what the cyberspace levels focus on isn't really going to point to a strict canon.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

Yeah,  there's nothing to suggest that Black Knight isn't canon.

[Duelistic Nature]

18 hours ago, Zaysho said:

The "canon" in this series is so loose and vague, and so far the only time I can think of a Sonic Team game explicitly not being "canon" is Chaotix. 

Well they kinda slipped up with Sonic Heroes then writing them straight into canon again.

[Zaysho]

10 minutes ago, Duelistic Nature said:

Well they kinda slipped up with Sonic Heroes then writing them straight into canon again.

Not really because Sonic Team pretends Heroes is the first appearance of Vector, Espio and Charmy now. They more or less pretended Mighty and Ray didn't exist until Mania Plus. Why they do it that way is beyond me and for the most part I ignore them when it comes to that because it's so loose I can't bring myself to care what Sonic Team says.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

I just want Honey to be a real character, man.

[Wittymations]

3 hours ago, Zaysho said:

Not really because Sonic Team pretends Heroes is the first appearance of Vector, Espio and Charmy now.

To be honest, with Heroes, I kinda thought that the Chaotix were from an entirely different series all together, just by their dialogue. The line "It could be you know who" and all that stuff made me think the Chaotix had their own series and their own villain.

Didn't know there was a game called Knuckles Chaotix until a couple of years later when I was just reading stuff online.  Like, yeah, obviously Espio and Charmy actually looks like a regular Sonic character, but they had this presence of feeling like guest, tie-in characters that I can't entirely explain. I guess they sorta-kinda-but-not-really were, but yeah.

[Razule]

They're some of the only non-mammalian SEGA-canon characters. Makes them stick out a bit

[Speedi]

3 hours ago, Zaysho said:

Not really because Sonic Team pretends Heroes is the first appearance of Vector, Espio and Charmy now. They more or less pretended Mighty and Ray didn't exist until Mania Plus. 

It is the first appearance of those versions of the characters, though. Consider that those three weren't even a detective agency in the original game. They were just a part of a group of different people with their own motivations for helping (or getting in the way of) Knuckles. With completely different personalities then the ones they have now if we go by the manual descriptions. It'd be kind of weird for Sonic Team to talk about them as if they were same incarnations from Chaotix knowing all that.

[Wittymations]

21 minutes ago, Razule said:

They're some of the only non-mammalian SEGA-canon characters. Makes them stick out a bit

 

Mostly Vector. No one has that snout.

Espio and Charmy get by. They may be a reptile and insect, but it's not like looking like an animal is really a huge focus for the series, like Sonic and Knuckles look next to nothing like a hedgehog and echidna, not really even mammals. More like aliens, honestly. Plus fur and scale texture is very scarce in the franchise, especially during Heroes with the really shiny bodies.

Like, they have it, but it's incredibly subtle to the point of almost seeming nonexistent.