A new character that's not just a throw-away villain has not showed up since Chip in Unleashed, I think. I saw some leaks claiming her to be a purple hedgehog which would be neat, though I doubt these leaks are true and I don't think we need five damn hedgehogs in the cast when most species have 2 at best.
Lmao, I mean you’re right. The reason that post piqued my interest was because it brings back the possibilities of the ghost girl. The ghost girl was mentioned in one of the few legit leaks but after the games award trailer it seemed to me that the ghost girl was probably just Amy. Since fans weren’t satisfied by the portrayals/usage of Sonic’s friends in Lost World and Forces I thought it was very possible that no new supporting characters would be introduced with Flynn opting to make the most of the established cast. This seemed especially plausible to me given that forces only introduced Infinite and a customizable avatar (who I don’t really count as a new character). And as Frostav pointed out: Look I just thought it would be useful to post the new info here. It’s very little new info but... it’s something.
Chip not being a villain doesn't disqualify him as being a one-off never-to-be-seen-again character. Silver in '06 (or Rivals, I guess) is still the newest* good guy on the major reoccurring Modern Sonic cast. If the Ghost Girl from the leak is indeed a real, distinct character, I suspect she'll be another one-off companion who seals themselves away like Chip or vanishes(?) like Tikal. * Marine is newer, but I don't think she's had the chance to reappear in games iirc, and is thus technically a one-off kind of like Gemerl.
If the ghost girl is a new character, I don't really see why we'd need her, Tikal already filled that role in Sonic Adventure. Considering basically every gem from the Master Emerald, to the Chaos Emeralds, and the 'shit, we're outta zone transition ideas' get-out-of-jail-free card Phantom Ruby seemingly have infinite powers that can do whatever the plot needs at the moment (remember we went from growing more flowers to warping time and space) I don't see why they couldn't tie the Master Emerald and Tikal into the story.
We have that human woman from the picture in TailsTube, right? She might be the one Pollock's talking about. If not, Perky the Parrot will happen someday. Sticks, Sticks is newer. Yes, I know, Sonic Boom and all, but she's one of my favourite characters and could get out of that alternate series hell (like Marine, I want her back too). They're probably as locked as Mighty and Ray, though.
What's this about Mike Pollock being out of character-ly unprofessional and discussing his client's work? Ian Flynn has apparently asked on a few occasions past the lifespan of Boom and Archie and the answer to "Can we use sticks?" seems to be "Not right now" or just anything other than "no" without being "yes", which is a hell of a lot more than the other characters (Marine included, who was supposed to appear for a few pages in IDW) get. Sonic Team cares for her a lot more than other discarded characters, I just think they don't have any ideas on her place in Sonic's current world would actually be yet. Edit: It looks like people took Mike's comment about "characters to be named" a little litterally?
I would rather Sonic Team leaving Tikal alone since it's one of the few characters that had a nice arc that's closed. She couldn't prevent tragedy in her time>she helped Sonic and the crew during their journey>learned that there was more to the energy of the emeralds than negative emotions >found peace and passed to the afterlife at the end. Bringing her just for the sake of doing it because she fulfilled the same role before is pure fan service and ruins her story in my opinion.
Sonic The Comic Online has her alive and well, Evan's ghosts of the future also uses the character, showing she's romantically interested in Sonic. It shows, you can actually use the character well. Now if SEGA were to re-introduce her... That's a whole other discussion.
Sonic the Comic's Tikal had a completely different story to begin with, so it's not directly comparable. In the games, Tikal's story wrapped up neatly in Sonic Adventure. Let's say Sonic does have a ghost-like companion in Sonic Frontiers, like Fi or Midna in Zelda. Why go to the effort of bringing back a character whose story is over, re-explaining who she is and Sonic's history with her, when you could just introduce a new character who both Sonic and the player are meeting at the same time, and has built-in ties to the Starfall Islands and its inhabitants?
Because we're desperate for Sonic Adventure nostalgia, and that's why humans are back, and that's why we're introducing even more weirdly RPG elements into our game design.
I think it has more to do with building Sonic's world. Instead of each Sonic game being one-off stories that don't matter, it's fun to have a series that invests in world-building. I'm not saying we need to bring back Tikal, or even other older characters, but stories that build off older stories and characters makes the whole series more fun in my opinion.
Characters should be used in what benefits the story the best, old or new. Old characters shouldn't be used just for shallow fanservice. And new characters shouldn't be introduced just to fill a roster. Otherwise you get shit like Knuckles, the honored bound warrior who grew up away from civilization, becoming a resistance leader of a small army when you could have easily created a new character to fill that role
Didn't some of the early leaks specifically say it was some kind of AI hologram and not a ghost? Or was I confusing various things? Ancient high tech civilization, it would work either way. But it feels less Angel Island, more like Sonic Booms ancients either way.
I 100% agree with you... that said I’m a hypocrite as Sonic’s purple blocky boost makes me think about how great Nicole would aesthetically fits in. We don’t know enough about the plot to know if she’s be a good inclusion storywise (tho the AI stuff makes me think she would) and more importantly there’s no way in hell sega’s putting SATAM characters in the game... but c’mon look at the stylistic similarities:
I'm kind of way past the point of my life when surface level fanservice appeals to me, and would prefer something substantial. Sooooo, I guess my attitude is "Would be nice and I wouldn't bet upset, but its not a deal breaker for me and I won't lose any sleep"
I don't think I agree with this fully. I mean, what you said about Knuckles makes me realize how poorly that was done. But it also makes me realize how well it could have been done. Rather than portrayed as something that just happened, it could have been portrayed as character development. One of those stories where a loner who typically just works by himself and mainly only has to worry about himself suddenly finds him the leader of said army with people depending on him. Perhaps it's partially about him not feeling equal or fit for that role at first, maybe some self-doubt there or stress about the pressure, and him overcoming such feelings and becoming more competent. Also, it is better for them to serve the story in the manner you described. But even if that is the case, just having fanservice is not necessarily bad either. I mean, it's in the name. fanservice. The point of fictional media of this type is ultimately to entertain. Something that's going to help with that as harmless as this I can't be terribly opposed to. Put simply, it's not that serious, in my opinion. Only real harm that will come of it is lost potential, for a future opportunity to come up where they are really needed and finally show up then would feel less special, but eh. In any case, more troublesome than sprinkling in some shallow fanservice is failing to create a good story outside it, which is where I feel Forces' greater problems lie.
