How is this unpopular exactly? :p Adventure 2 introduces a plothole every other cutscene, but damn is it fun. Peak Sonic storytelling as far as I'm concerned, and I'll take it any day over the stuff we've been getting since Colours.
Yeah? I like the stories of 2000s games for the most part. They aren't peak fiction or anything but I enjoy them, Adventure 2 being the highlight of course.
Sonic 3D Blast is good. Sonic Chronicles is great. Sonic Labyrinth wasn't a bad game at all, just mediocre. I think the premise of an Adventure Billiards game is pretty brilliant. Executed well, they would've beaten Kirby: Canvas Curse to the punch by a full decade, and everyone would've hated it anyway because any deviation from the norm was rejected out of hand by fans even before these games got actually bad. EVERY Puyo should've received a Mean Bean Machine localization in the west, and we should have a separate AoStH Robotnik continuity a la WarioWare that continues to this very day.
Really I do appreciate SOME elements of the later titles, bringing back the whimsy and the more traditional Sonic environments, Eggman getting to be the villain the whole game instead of the bigger bad's patsy, Tails actually feeling like Sonic's best buddy for once, Sonic being more flawed, Orbot and Cubot (yes I like them), not having to kill a character off for the token 'feelsy' moment, the NPCs actually looking like they're from the same universe as Sonic, etc. I really feel if the narrative wasn't so lethargic and littered with awful pace breaking jokes, the later stories had the potential to completely trounce the earlier melodramatic ones. Heck I'd argue just using DS Colours' script and interactions would have fixed the story a great deal. I don't get why every damn light hearted story has to be unbearably juvenile in script. Heroes had the same problem. It's like the writers feel it's just a stupid cartoon for babies unless they slop on the grit and drama.
I don't like the Saturn soundtrack for 3D Blast. I actually don't mind it, and especially like the music for the special stage and You're My Hero. But after a while it all starts to blend together. And I'm unsure if it's just my untrained music ear but almost all the tracks sound like a variation of You're My Hero or has a segment that borrows from it. Feel like the Genesis soundtrack has more of an identity so it stands out more.
I mean at least the Unleashed ones were gonky and cartoony like Eggman but whatever. The bigger point there however is that it was ALL humans, and the Felix the Cat main characters were about a dozen or so aliens that got crapped out of nowhere. It was so out of place that Sonic X basically made fun of it as the premise, meanwhile Forces and Lost Worlds at least brought back the premise of anthro NPCs. Kinda the same really. Maybe it's because I grew up with the Megadrive one, but the Saturn one kinda overdoes the use of the same leitmotif, even if it has some really neat tracks when played individually. Shame Richard Jacques only did a few tracks for Sonic R since even without the iconic cheesy vocals, they sound way more individual and memorable. (EDIT: Sorry, double posted.)
Yeah, it's interesting. I noticed that another leitmotif he used was later turned (?) into this song. Listening to it I wonder if he had less time to come up with a soundtrack than Jun did. Or if it was a conscious effort to do it that way. Again great soundtrack but I can't vibe with it when I'm playing the Saturn version.
That was the whole point. You're free not to like the soundtrack, but that's literally the point. That motif shows up in almost all of the tracks. You're making it sound like the songs being similar in places was unintentional.
I am not arguing it was unintentional. Either he didn't have enough time to do more with it so sharing a melody helped speed things up, or he just had that idea from the beginning so he went for it. Not sure where you're getting that I am saying it was unintentional.
It was your comment right here. "I'm unsure if it's just my untrained music ear". I can't figure out what being untrained in music has to do with anything. It's suggesting that because you're not a musician, that's the reasons the tracks sound similar. I'm just confused by the point you're trying to make there. They sound similar because they all share the same chorus. It's not an unheard of trope in game music, and isn't an indicator of time constraints. It's a stylistic choice. And interview exists out there there Jacques actually talks about the process of posting the 3D soundtrack. I can't find it right now and it's been many years since I read it so expect that there may be some inaccuracies. But some of the main takeaways were as follows: The game way already complete when he started working on it, and it already had a complete soundtrack for the Mega Drive version. He took a lot of inspiration from the Japanese CD soundtrack. Because he was brought on to the project so late, he only had around a week to get everything done. For the level themes, he wa s creating the first acts in the morning and then arranging them for the second acts on the afternoon.
The reason why I mentioned that is because sometimes music sounds similar but once you look at the composition it turns out that's not the case. All you have to do is look at the Sonic 3 threads here to see someone that doesn't make music saying certain song has the same composition as another one from the game so that means it's the same author, only for someone that actually creates music to come along and say nope that's not the case. That's why I mentioned that, just in case I was wrong. You mentioned it wasn't because of time constraints, but then you say he was brought in late and had only a week to do the soundtrack. To me that sounds like a time constraint and maybe this helped get him to deadline. Either way, it doesn't prevent it from still being a stylistic choice. And I do see the CD influences, one of the reasons why I listen to it every once in a while so that's good to know he used that as inspiration.
I enjoy Rider's 1 and 2's "stories" if you can call them that more than that of either Adventure game. The Adventure games have their moments though. Also, I consider the Riders games to be non canon, their own thing. And honestly, if they suddenly decided to drop all of modern Sonic canon and just make stories in this non canon universe, possibly rebooting things, I wouldn't exactly care. Also, I don't get why some praise Unleashed and Black Knight's story outside of Sonic's characterization.
I didn't feel like they matched at all in SA1. You have the main cast all having a bit of a feel to them and then a bunch of generic anime people. I think they only "match" because everything was so low poly there wasn't much room for drastic stylistic differences. I still think Unleashed had the best approach to human NPCs, but there was room for improvement (but then we haven't seen a human in a Sonic game since 2008, 2010s were very much rise of the furries in Sonic lore lol) Then SADX of course not even close, but there are many reasons that port's trash. But yea, as far as humans fitting in I'd rank them as such Unleashed SA1 06 (although in this it was the opposite they tried to make the cast fit in with the humans, that was a mistake) SA2/SA2B (you only have the President, the Secretary, Maria, and Gerald Robotnik. Gerald fit in, the other 3 not so much imo) Shadow (I mean what even were they going for here) SADX (Didn't even try) If that Frontiers art of that girl is legit then I think we have a chance for a new front runner in this regard.
I dont know if this opinion is that unpopular but its more of a Hot take: - Sonic mania's Sonic sprite always looked way too shiny for me and imo doesn't look that good, specially with the light blue fur
My unpopular opinion of the day is that Sonic Unleashed has addressed every criticism of the series and turned it into a thrilling adventure that will have you on the edge of your seat. Yes, even the Werehog stages™. It really blows my mind how amazing this game can be once you put a little effort into your gameplay and take your time to explore all the different hub worlds. A few quality of life improvements would be all the rage (so to speak). Man, I'm hungry.
not unpopular, i think it's justified. say what you will about the "poorly written plots of the 200s games" but i find them more entertaining than the unfunny kiddie crap of the new plots.
I find the melodramatic stories from those games to be a total drag to sit through. I just can't get myself to give a shit about them. Though, I'm still no fan of the plots from the games after. I like darker things, but I think those games do it poorly and feels like they were shoehorning in dark and dramatic moments. I just can't take them as seriously as they were intended to be taken as. My other hot take of the night is that I don't like Crush 40. Just not of my taste.
