Playable female characters in the Sonic games

[Kuzu]

It wasn't significant to the story, though. It just added depth. It could've easily been taken out without the story really suffering.

I never said it was relevant to the story, I was just saying it was an interesting part of Sonic's character, I know it adds nothing at all. Actualy.....wait we're getting off topic, Female Sonic characters.

Edited January 6, 2011 by Shadic93

[Diogenes]

I know it adds nothing at all.

[Badnik Zero]

I think the females occupy female and not conventionally female roles. I have a few ideas I guess.

Amy needs to be fun without Sonic. Unfortunately she's a girly character in an action series. Give her another purpose. She used to be Sonic's #1 fan, so let her tag along more often instead of being caught in the dust. How about a mini-game where you try to photograph your best time ghosts with Amy or something, I dunno.

Cream is boring to me. Her personality is "polite". What can you do with that, she's cotton candy sweet. Maybe she can appear wherever there are Chao, she likes them.

Merlina-Shahra might be the most intriguing character for me. Wherever she is she always has some crazy backstory. She also inevitably betrayed Sonic in each of her appearances. I would've liked to know who this Storybook avatar girl was. In fact she's my favorite human character outside of Eggman, if you count her as human.

Blaze is almost a spin off character. I like her a lot though and wouldn't change her. It's interesting that she's a tomboy who's kinda self conscious about being a tomboy.

Finally Rouge. It's not just about her cleavage. She's mischievous like no other character, it makes her fun. She's a like a Black Cat type and I'd love to see her talk to more of the cast. She can fill the female villain role too. Her gem fixation is kinda typical though. Maybe she should graduate to Carmen Sandiego levels.

[-Mark-]

And Amy desperately needs depth. She needs a point other than following Sonic around with a big hammer, whining about marriage. And yet she's rarely done anything but that. The only example where I can think of her being anything but an annoying groupie is Sonic Advance, where the happy lack of cutscenes made her just another playable sprite (and an interesting, challenging one at that).

[Blazey Firekitty]

Oh my, the Bakeneko is back~

Yes, it feels a little strange to return after all this time. ;

I'm seeing a lot of comments dealing with Rouge's role in the series after SA2. My current personal feelings are that she seems to have stagnated because much of her development in her debut appearance revolved around her rivalry(And eventually friendship with Knuckles). Shadow's return and Omega's emergence has meant that she barely has any time to spend with Knuckles, either to antagonize him or nurture whatever positive feelings arose between the two during the whole ARK incident.

That doesn't mean that I think the Team Dark storyline was complete crap, though...At times, it seemed to bring out a quasi-maternal "big sister" side of Rouge. I don't want her friendships with Shadow and Omega to be thrown away, but I don't want them to be the only people she's concerned about...it would be nice if she'd go back to ruffling a certain echidna's dreads from time to time.

As for Blaze and the whole "Is she from the future or another dimension?" problem...It could just be a throwaway line, but in my opinion the dialogue in Colors DS suggests that she came from the future first, and then somehow came to live in the Sol dimension. The dialogue also suggests that Silver has been able to live in an idealistic, happy future(Well, minus Nega's occasional attacks), just one where he never knew Blaze, due to the original timeline being erased.

[Mangoaxe5]

Amy: I don't really like Amy. I find her to be a dull character. Outside of her crush on Sonic she's a really boring character.

Cream: I don't like Cream. She's a useless character. I don't get why she was created.

Rouge: I like how Rouge seems to have become Shadow's best friend.

Wave: I don't like the Sonic Riders games, so I don't really have any feelings towards this character.

Blaze: I really like Blaze. I ignore her Sonic 06 storyline. Sega seems to be going with her Sonic Rush storyline as being the canon one.

Shade: I really like Shade, and I hope that Sega does find a way to use her again. She seems to also have a lot of fans.

[Aquaslash]

No mention of Marine? Son, I am disappoint.

[Blazey Firekitty]

I kinda feel like Cream was meant to be Amy's "sidekick" and Marine was meant to play the same role for Blaze, but they might need more development before they truly "work" in those roles.

[Ultimate Victory]

Oh I totally forgot, Cream sticks around so Amy, since she's the main female character, has to have a Tails of her own AMIRITE! Too bad these two are too girly and boring to be as epic as Sonic and Tails though LOL.

[Blazey Firekitty]

Oh I totally forgot, Cream sticks around so Amy, since she's the main female character, has to have a Tails of her own AMIRITE! Too bad these two are too girly and boring to be as epic as Sonic and Tails though LOL.

Well, for better or worse, I can't get the image of a manly Amy and Cream out of my head now.

Edited January 6, 2011 by BlazeyBakeneko

[dirupti]

It helps give Sonic games appeal to little girls. So, yeah, that there makes them pretty necessary. Sonic games aren't really marketed to little girls under the age of 8. However Cream and Amy are made for littler girls.

Rouge on the other hand keeps the storyline more interesting. She gives Knuckles a love interest, she helps the good side while robbing them blind, and she can fly. We don't really need more characters that can fly with the already established mutated fox and rabbit. But she is better at it. she is swifter due to the fact that she has real wings. They have a bit too many characters now though. I'd be fine if they dropped all of them except for the ones who e=were in sonic heroes. However I still am going to say, the more playable characters the merrier!

[JezMM]

Amy needs to drop the stalker part of her personality, it was funny at first, but now its just annoying, because it shows up everywhere.

SA1: Bumps into Sonic by coincidence.

SA2: Is trying to rescue Sonic.

Heroes: Is under the impression Sonic has stolen Froggy and Chocola.

Shadow: Despite being in his presence during the finale, is utterly controlled around Sonic.

2006: Is actively stalking Sonic, though shows her devotion by defending him from Silver. Is also mature enough to appreciate Elise's kiss to save his life (as nonsensical/unneeded as it may have been).

Unleashed: Bumps into Sonic by coincidence, and becomes the Professor's assistant temporarily so she can help without getting in his way; also, she utterly accepts his transformation, so clearly she isn't shallow.

The closest thing she's ever done to stalking is the fact that she loves to jump on and hug Sonic whenever they DO run into each other, and let's face it, who hasn't done that to their own crush when you're good friends enough for it to be acceptable? I know I used to with Mollfie before we started going out.

TL;DR

Amy's stalking habits = Beam Me Up Scotty

[Little Miss Fortunes]

Blazey's back! O: Hi!

I'm not really knowledgable about game dynamics and how to make things work in gameplay, but outside of that I like the female cast~ I don't think they're any less stereotypical than the male cast.

Amy

There's so much more to her than just her crush on Sonic, which prolly does need to be toned down a tad (though it already has been in recent games, showing her to be a good friend rather than just a fangirl), it just hasn't been explored so much lately. She's bubbly, energetic, sensitive and a bit preppy, but she can become forceful and protective when need be. I don't really appreciate the kind of over-aggressive tsundere who pummels her love interest for the most stupid reasons or just for not getting her own way type which Amy had kind of devolved into in some stories, I think it serves to make the character look like a jerk rather than be an endearing trait. I think we need to see more of her friendly and caring side, both to Sonic and other characters when Sonic isn't involved. Though this probably wouldn't fit in a game for obvious reasons, I can kind of imagine Amy playing match-maker with characters that are too shy to admit it themselves, or persistently trying to help a more shy character come out of their shells - kind of like she started to do with Silver in '06, only that becomes her priority rather than her getting sidetracked because finding Sonic becomes the only thing on her mind again. Perhaps her intuitiveness could be expanded upon more as well; she has her "Sonic Radar", but perhaps she could be intuitive about other things unrelated to Sonic as well?

Rouge

Rouge is actually a really fun character. She's a morally-ambiguous bad girl, but she's so playful and snarky with it that it's made fun XD She's probably the most mischievous of the cast. She can do pretty much anything and get away with it - she can 'flirt' with Tails, a child, because we know she's only doing it to bother him, she can be manipulative either with an actual intent or just to play a kind of prank or mess with peoples' heads... She's just so versatile! She's the kind of character you don't really know what her intentions are; she's vague and misleading, and has contradictory jobs as a GUN agent and a jewel-thief (perhaps the latter could become more prominent). As others have said, whilst it's nice that she has friends in Shadow and Omega, I think she needs to have more screen-time herself - especially so we can see her mischievous character with characters that would react to her teasing more than Shadow - Knuckles, Amy, Tails... I'd love to see Rouge and Blaze interact for this reason - Rouge, a flighty and devil-may-care jewel-thief and femme-fatale, and Blaze, a shy and withdrawn guardian who's insecure about her underdeveloped body... XD Though that could be inappropriate for a series like Sonic. But yeah~ Rouge is awesome, she just needs more time to shine for herself.

Cream

Cream's a bit hard to place, especially gameplay-wise since she's an established pacifist. I think, as JezMM said, she's better suited to roles where she can be a good character without having to get in on the action all the time. I actually really liked her in Sonic Advance 2, she seemed like both an innocent, vulnerable and polite little girl whilst also being brave and adventurous, it allowed her to fit into the game more. But later her being an extremely sensitive pacifist became more focused upon, it's harder to fit her into an action series like Sonic. As for my personal opinion, I go back and forth a lot with Cream; sometimes I find her adorable, other times grating and shallow. It depends on how she's written, like any character really.

Blaze

Probably my favourite female character of the cast~ I like Blaze, I think she's awesome. She's not overtly girlish or femenine, yet doesn't seem quite like a tomboy to me either; she's quite gender-neutral and adrogynous personality-wise to me. I think I prefer her when she's written as being shy and insecure, hiding her real feelings behind a calm and rather gruff facade (but sometimes slips and loses her composure and/or starts acting like she has an inferiority complex like in Colours) than when she's completely just calm and "closer to earth"; I think the former is far more interesting, and gives her a secret vulnerable side which is just so... cute for a character that generally seems so tough and competent. I like her fear of heights too, I find it funny and ironic for a cat that can jump high and do impressive mid-air acrobatics to be scared of heights XD I like her though, I hope she stays around. As for her backstory ordeal, I tend to think that, like Cream was created for Heroes but appeared in Advance 2 and Sonic X first, Blaze may have been created for Sonic '06 with Sonic Rush being a sequel (like she was from the future but sealed herself into the Rush dimension), but Rush ended up being released first.

Marine

Aaah, Marine's so much fun! I think she makes a good foil to Tails in that whilst she has some potential as a child prodigy inventor, she's just such a hyper kid that she tends to rush into things and goof up, in contrast to Tails being calm and mature for his age. I also think her interactions with Blaze are quite fascinating as well - Marine, whilst reckless, is open and free about her feelings, thoughts and desires, but deep down I think she's more self-aware than she seems to be, and can be more competent when the time calls for it. Blaze is like the opposite, she's competent, but very repressed and withdrawn, and deep down she's self-conscious and insecure, and tends to lose her composure and needs to be calmed down when things get out of hand. I think they go well together, and of course there's the fire and water theme they seem to have going on. I wonder how Marine would be as a playable character...~

Wave

Hmm... I can see where Wave's purpose is within the Babylon Rogues and as a "corrupted" rival/counterpart of Tails, but I'm personally not over-keen on her. She's just so mean and haughty... I tend to only like arrogant characters if they fall flat on their face in some way, get knocked down a peg or two (even if they then go right back to being arrogant, but that's for silly characters really XD). I'm not sure what else to say about her to be honest, I'm not completely familiar with the Riders games due to sucking at them too much to get anywhere. XD

Shade

I guess Shade's sorta interesting for her backstory, but she didn't seem to be very... characterised in her one appearance. She seemed a lot like Blaze, only without the secretiveness and hidden feelings - she really did just seem like a calm, collected and competent soldier with no defining quirks or flaws that I can remember (I may be wrong though; I haven't played Chronicles for a while). If they do make a sequel to Sonic Chronicles, I hope they expand on her character and flesh her out a bit more. She does open a window of opportunities for character development for Knuckles though~

And yeeaaah, I think I've ranted enough already, so I think I'll stop there. As a whole, I don't see too much of a problem with the female characters. There may be some questionable turns in their characterisation at times, but the same goes for the male characters as well.

[Kuzu]

Amy: I don't really like Amy. I find her to be a dull character. Outside of her crush on Sonic she's a really boring character.

Cream: I don't like Cream. She's a useless character. I don't get why she was created.

Rouge: I like how Rouge seems to have become Shadow's best friend.

Wave: I don't like the Sonic Riders games, so I don't really have any feelings towards this character.

Blaze: I really like Blaze. I ignore her Sonic 06 storyline. Sega seems to be going with her Sonic Rush storyline as being the canon one.

Shade: I really like Shade, and I hope that Sega does find a way to use her again. She seems to also have a lot of fans.

[Mangoaxe5]

Actually Shade does have a fanbase. I see plenty of fanart of her on deviantart.

[JezMM]

Correction: In Unleashed she was looking for Sonic, "I've been looking for you forever" she was a lot more tolerable in Unleashed, but she still followed him around. But you're right though it happens a lot less than people make it to be. Though you forgot SFR(Where literally every one of her lines has Sonic in it), and Colors DS.

I was just including the main series games. Sonic Free Riders had her horrific personality from Heroes back, Knuckles remained present but unexplained and Shadow and Rouge just turned into dicks so I find it hard to take the game seriously. And Colours DS seems pretty uncanon, or at least irrelevant overall. If one really wants to consider it an "extended" version of the Wii plot, then it's a pretty shoddy one since it barely explains both how they all got to the park and how they all leave before it explodes/the planets return to their original places.

As for her claim of looking for him forever I dunno how seriously to take it really... personally I percieved that of her being playful or generally saying she hasn't seen him in a while. Rather than literally she was just running around Spagonia city center looking for Sonic with absoloutely no idea whether he would actually be there or not.

[Blazey Firekitty]

Shadow and Rouge just turned into dicks

Come to think of it, what the heck was up with that? Why would they leave a robot to die under the logic that he was "just a machine" when they'd been friends with Omega for so long?

Granted he survived in the end, but still, it really came out of left field, in my opinion.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Shade has no fans, and if she does I've never seen any, why? Because she's BORING.

Uh, yes she does. Even forgotten characters like Mighty and Ray have fans, so it's very ignorant to say Shade doesn't have any.

And I just so happen to be one my self, if only because of her design and backstory.

[Blazey Firekitty]

I had mixed feelings about Chronicles, but I'd love Shade to return, if it ever becomes possible. She didn't get much development, but had a lot of potential for future development, and struck me as rather kind for a "tough warrior" archetype.

[Kuzu]

Uh, yes she does. Even forgotten characters like Mighty and Ray have fans, so it's very ignorant to say Shade doesn't have any.

And I just so happen to be one my self, if only because of her design and backstory.

Mighty at least had a personality, being a pacifist and all. Shade has none for me to like, and I like to be able to see a characters traits as well. I don't hate Shade there's just nothing there for me to like.

[Blazey Firekitty]

Mighty at least had a personality, being a pacifist and all. Shade has none for me to like, and I like to be able to see a characters traits as well. I don't hate Shade there's just nothing there for me to like.

Admittedly there's not much there to her, but there is a little...Her backstory basically has her turning her back on her old way of life, and becoming very conflicted because of that. She doesn't like what her old leader does, and has to accept that he's lost his mind, but she still cares about him.

[Kuzu]

Admittedly there's not much there to her, but there is a little...Her backstory basically has her turning her back on her old way of life, and becoming very conflicted because of that. She doesn't like what her old leader does, and has to accept that he's lost his mind, but she still cares about him.

The thing is, her entire character revolves around the nocturnes, so unless they follow up on that if they ever make a chronicles 2, I don't see a place for her, especially with the way Chronicles ended.

[Blazey Firekitty]

The thing is, her entire character revolves around the nocturnes, so unless they follow up on that if they ever make a chronicles 2, I don't see a place for her, especially with the way Chronicles ended.

Understandable. Though, I still personally think she could fit in somehow, eventually, even if Sega has to adapt Chronicles plot in "broad strokes," that is to say, treat it as if some of it happened, but not all of it(Eggman apparently taking over the world would likely need to go).

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Mighty at least had a personality, being a pacifist and all.

That doesn't make him any better than Shade, but I'm not seeing how Shade would lack a personality with her being a character. She'd have to be very hollow to the point that she's lacks even more than a generic robot would should she not have a personality.

Shade has none for me to like, and I like to be able to see a characters traits as well. I don't hate Shade there's just nothing there for me to like.

That's fine with me, except that none of that holds any weight to your claim of Shade lacking fans. She may not be something that interests you much as of yet, but rest assured what you may not be able to see others can likely drag out for you.

Of course, this is coming from the person who still has yet to play Chronicles.

Edited January 7, 2011 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[Kuzu]

I did say Shade might have her fans, I've just never seen them, even generally hated characters like Big have a somewhat feasable fanbase, I've never seen that for Shade, if you can change my mind then by all means.