Sonic does rescue the animals in that capsule when he completes the first level of the game. It can be assumed that the fall wouldn't harm the animals. In regard to the line sounding unnatural, I can somewhat understand why you would judge the line to be that, but it sounds normal to me. Both Sonic and Tails's attention is taken completely away from Eggman and toward the capsule instead. I don't see how showing Zomom exact motivations for being a part of the Deadly Six would accomplish that much. The Deadly Six was formed by Master Zik and leadership was transferred to Zavok. There is at least one cutscene for an instance of Sonic confronting each of the members of the Deadly Six and those generally aren't of a particularly serious tone with the exception of the cutscenes with Zavok and maybe a couple of others.
That's pretty much the only argument I see against 06's claim to the throne. Well, I guess that, and the fact that they indeed haven't actually used the name yet. Aww shit, you refined it further, you magnificent bastard!
Sonic Lost World was terrible, and the story was by far the worst part. Pontac and Graff's story writing/dialog is awful. It has almost no depth and isn't even that funny on a surface level. If you want a good critique on the writing to understand our frustration, Roger from IMP has done several Sonic Dissected videos. Here's one on Colors' writing.
If it can be assumed that the animals are safe then why didn't Sonic & Tails just keep chasing Eggman, stop him and later comeback for the animals? The whole point is that they were worried enough to stop chasing him like you said because they were worried, right? And again, the dialogue and delivery didn't reflect that. I don't get your second point because I'm not sure if you're defending those interactions or you're agreeing with me. Yes, the problem is that you interact with each of the Deadly Six. While I'm not asking for "super edgy dark storytelling" cutscenes, it would've served the story better on focusing on the characters and why they're "Deadly" to begin with.
Define "depth". If you're talking about character personalities and interactions, then the old 3D Sonic games don't actually do much better. Plotwise, Sonic Lost World's story is unique in the fact that the major problems that need to be fixed were unknowingly caused by Sonic himself. Because of his recklessness, he would cause Knuckles, Amy, and probably several others on the Earth to die and in another instance cause Tails to be kidnapped and almost be transformed into a robot. In many of the older games, Sonic doesn't actually have any meaningful character flaws that hinder him and he is somewhat more generic personality-wise. Tails's character was improved as well. The only thing that Eggman appeared to have was the capsule, so they prioritized rescuing the animals over chasing Eggman. That whole scene was just to show them discovering the Lost Hex for the first time. They would show how deadly the Deadly Six were after the fight against Zomom by having them immediately seize control of Eggman's robots when they get the chance and then proceed to destroy Sonic's world with Eggman's machine and make themselves stronger out of spite. They also don't have any reservations against killing Sonic and Dr. Eggman.
Sonic Adventure did this INFINITELY better. Lost World lacks depth, nuance, and any really thought. The reason? The story is a giant bowl of disgusting filler. We are never explicitly told what the Lost Hex is? It's just something floating somewhere. Probably over Sonic's world, we're never actually told. It doesn't really matter though. Why? because it's just some place that Sonic is in, and an excuse to have him run through worlds and fight eggman (and later the Zeti). We don't know the origin or even what the Zeti are. All we know is that they can manipulate technology, but this is only even brought up to justify how they intend to usurp Eggman later in the story, and even then their powers are never fully explained. Tails gets demoted to kidnapped princess, but somehow manages to save himself in the end. But if he was so hellbent on proving he could solve this whole thing without Eggman, why does he wait till AFTER they beat Eggman, who already sucked the planet mostly dry. Why are the Wisp suddenly here? Weren't they native to their own galaxy, which teleported away at the end of the game? How did Animals get here? We know they inhabit the Lost Hex, because there's a scene where Eggman berates the Zeti for kidnapping piss poor animals, and it never implies they leave. Why does half the shit in Sonic Lost World even happen? Why should I care? Why should I keep playing the game? If you're going to pull, "it's just a game, the plot doesn't need to matter", then why have a plot? Why waste your time making it and the player's time listening to it, if nothing is gained from having been exposed to it. A plot in a game can achieve many things. A nice chuckle. An explanation of events. Motivation to keep playing the game. There are very tiny slivers of player motivation on display in Lost World, but they all basically amount to nothing because none of it has any consequence in the end. Meanwhile, Sonic Adventure uses it's HUBs and Story to create a sense of cohesion between every area in the game. Things like the train in station square, the echidna shrine in the mystic ruins, and the egg carrier in the ocean all help identify key points of the game's world and story. The origins of Chaos, what Chaos is, and how he came to be are all explored in vivid detail in Adventure. In fact, it's done a bit too much (the game would have been much better without those flashback scenes). Chaos is guardian of the Emeralds, formed by the power of the Master Emerald, and created from the waters surrounding the shrine. He gains power from the emeralds themselves, warranting why Eggman would want to collect them, and justifying his powers. Sonic Adventure's story helps create context. It states character motives, so that the player knows what they need to do and where to go next. It instills a sense of intrigue in the player, as the plot thickens the farther along the story gets, and the multiple different perspectives means that events can line up in interesting ways. Sonic and Tails screw up half the time. But not just because they were rash and clumsy, but because Eggman is always one step ahead of them, making him a properly comparable villain. When Chaos usurps Eggman, it's justified through his defeat and Chaos' nature as the guardian of the emeralds. What Sonic and the Crews failure results in, is the destruction of the city, and the bringing of potential doomsday. But it's never treated too edgehard, it's played conservatively. Sonic Lost World's story is a very lousy, half hearted, uninspired excuse plot. Only there to try and create the illusion that everything being done in game has some sort of purpose or relevance. It may have better character interaction, but half of the time it borders on scenarios that always play out the same way. Sonic and Tails get mad at each other, Eggman says some "wise" shit, Sonic tells a lousy joke, and then it ends. Oh, and orbot and cubot are here too. Who cares how well the characters interact if none of it corresponds with events in the game? Does Sonic getting mad at Tails mean that Tails makes some sort of decision that skews the story. Nah, he just gets kidnapped, and then the feud they had in the beginning is dropped entirely. Maybe you could debate plots in later entries, but the truth is that Graff and Pontac are terrible choices for this series. They may be okay writers, but the know nothing of Sonic, and their writing style is all wrong for the series. And if you expect me to believe that these guys can make a story with a game that seems to be playing around with elements of the lore, then you better think again buster.
That second image is from Sonic 06, isn't it? God, every single thing they give us from Forces fills me with dread.
Well to be fair, while the image was promoting Sonic 06 nothing remotely similar can be found in Sonic 06. That was back from when there was still hope for the game in like early 2005 :v:
IIRC anticipation for the game was pretty high up until reviewers and fans actually got their hands on it. ;v
God that image of Sonic 06 brings back haunting memories. Such an optimistic, positive image giving us all such hope - and then the game was nothing like that.
Some things I picked up on looking at some E3 footage I finally went looking for: -Rings can't be recollected if you drop them. At all. -Sonic and Amigo both have capped top speeds when transitioning into 2D. Both get stuck in an awkward hobble of their run cycles if left on their own. In 3D Sonic accelerates extremely quickly and boost is more potent than in the first gameplay teaser -Some of the setpiece boost pads stop Sonic from even boosting when he runs into them. -Sonic arcs up a little in the air when doing a mid air boost, at least in 2D. -Double jumping retains most of the momentum. -Boost effects, and the homing attack animations still look like WIP art assets -Boosting changes the music to more intense sounding theme in Park Avenue, can't tell if the white noise filter is still present -Sonic doesn't seem to be able to drift though it might be locked to sections like Colors was. -The level design changes somewhat for Amigo to take advantage of whatever wisp you picked out -The lightning wisp weapon looked extremely awkward to use in 3D. It kept lunging Amigo forward and stopping on a dime. Like worse than melee weapons in Shadow the Hedgehog. Some of the changes to Sonic seem alright but the level design would never let you think that. I really don't like how they went with lines of enemies standing in a row for the wispons. Seems like there's more of a danger running into enemies accidentally when trying to use the wispon and its better to just outright avoid them.
I still have hope. We've seen too little of the game to make a judgement. Only thing I dislike is the character creator, but outside of that the post-apocalyptic theme is cool and Park Avenue looks great. GHZ with classic Sonic is disappointing, but really there's not enough media out there yet to write off the game just yet.
I'll be picking up this game for sure, but most likely once it hits the $20 bargain bin. Boost Sonic is fun but not full-price fun, y'know?
I'll be buying a copy from Green Man Gaming or cdkeys for half the price :v: otherwise, waiting for a sale.
Probably buying it at launch here. It's mainstream, core Sonic so I kind of feel obligated to. Highly likely I'll enjoy it, so think it'll be worth it.
This is a return to how Sonic's ring system worked in Unleashed, rings couldn't be picked up when you got hit. However, getting hit and losing rings in that game halved your total ring count. Here, you seem to lose ALL of your rings. (For comparison's sake--Colors, Generations, and Lost World all operated under the traditional rule of losing all of your rings, but you could re-collect a certain amount of dropped rings.) Granted, this could an odd thing only in the betas we've seen so far, and could be addressed in the final game, but you never know...
