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Sonic Forces Thread

Discussion in 'General Sonic Discussion' started by Blue Blood, Jul 23, 2016.

  1. Endgame

    Endgame

    Formerly The Growler Member
    What I want to know is, why is there [robot/badnik] fish jumping up when there's no water? Sand fish?

    I think this just shows that the idea to change the water into sand was decided much later on in in the making of this GHZ version.

    It's also interesting that they're doing fish at the end of the stage - again - like from Generations, only this time it's a load of average-sized fish instead of one giant one trying to eat you.
     
  2. JansenM

    JansenM

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    Watching the video for the first time had me really confused about the level's aesthetic actually - the areas without sand are just Green Hill again, and could even just be the original environment. They haven't changed the atmosphere, or the sky, or even the main palette, it's literally Green Hill with sand instead of water. I doubt the foliage would be as pristine, the sun as bright and summery, or the air as clear if everything's surrounded by grit and deprived of water.
    Really have to wonder what's going on in design at the moment...
     
  3. Amnimator

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    It's obvious that they put Green Hill because they wanted to reuse assets. Look closely and it grabs models from Generations and Lost World. I wouldn't be surprised if the mountains in the background were taken from Lost World with a different texture. It's obviously a mish-mash and isn't a coherent art style, but it saves time. Also note how the city stage seems to reuse assets from Lost World and Generations / Unleashed.
     
  4. IndyCotton

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    What I got to say, this isn't really looking good for Classic Sonic's justification in the game. I think if this is what we're getting from the Classic-stages, I'm not really looking forward see the rest of Classic Sonic 4.

    For all what was said so far about Forces, Green Hill's level design's pretty forgettable already, not having any sense of identity or direction to differentiate it from the past iterations. In fact, it felt like going your average graphic-based Sonic 2-romhack crossed with sprinkles of Dimps's worst level design notes. And I'm quite disappointed to hear that the music's quite below-the-average for a Sonic-game in these stages.

    Why didn't they try to say, capitalize on the hinted grittiness of the plot via taking Green Hill and watch it grumble to pieces, changing the level design like in Classic Crisis City from Generations? Could have at least made this level feel actually fresh and cohesive to the game's theme and elements.?
     
  5. JansenM

    JansenM

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    I'd argue, however, that the city stage has quite a coherent, unique style to it. The Green Hill-esque forms towards the end of what we saw throw me off a little, but I love the archways and the patchwork buildings and how all the damage to the city has been cut into the terrain and textures in circles. I'm not too hot on the colour scheme but it's definitely got more thought to it than "reused level with sand".
    The initial city footage got me kind of excited for the style of the game as it brought in stylised forms and bright colours whilst also grounding the materials and lighting in reality. I'm hoping there's more of that than what we're seeing now.
     
  6. Amnimator

    Amnimator

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    Reusing assets isn't bad in and of itself, but whether those assets work with each other? That's its own issue. There's nothing wrong with reusing models and what not, but yeah, it's all well and good until they turn something consistent into something else straight out of nowhere.
     
  7. Felik

    Felik

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    I'm pretty sure Sonic did perform drop dash once during the playthrough towards the end of the video.
     
  8. Turbohog

    Turbohog

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    God, there were so many damn springs in that level. It reminds me of something a crappy fangame would have.
     
  9. Drex

    Drex

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    ^There was no revving up while in the air. From what I can tell it was just a player using one button spindash as soon as they landed.
     
  10. Linkabel

    Linkabel

    Member
    To me it sounds like a "retro" version of the songs we got in Runners so I'm going to go with Ohtani.

    I would honestly be disappointed if this was Naofumi.

    Saying that I'm okay with what we've seen gameplay wise but the music for this game is really letting me down.
     
  11. I think that the music for Green Hill Zone sounds good. It is definitely different. I don't really see anything that is bad about the music's melody and the different instruments fit with each other well enough. The stage that we saw in the Nintendo Direct was from an older build, as I suspected.

    I wasn't sure whether this was posted yet, but there is a translation of the 4/18 Famitsu article about the game here. There is information about the new lighting engine, which I found to be interesting.

    Also, if you look closely at the pictures and footage, you can see some flowers that look purple and have lost some of their petals.
     
  12. 360

    360

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    Better than the Nintendo Direct footage but still pretty uninspired and bland. A weaker and inferior version of GHZ from Generations when really it shouldn't be.

    So far the modern Sonic Eggman-apocalypse stage looks decent, whilst classic Sonic's stage looks disappointing. Hope the game restores our hopes as they show us more.
     
  13. Linkabel

    Linkabel

    Member
    Is it a hidden booster cause I don't see it.
     
  14. Wow. There is very little appreciation for what Sonic Team tries to do and people are intent on writing the game off from the start. They deliberately made the artstyle of the game to be somewhat similar to how it was in Sonic Lost World. I get the impression that people were expecting the game to be as very detailed as it was in Generations. Its rendering and lighting engine is a definite improvement from the first Hedgehog Engine.
     
  15. Lapper

    Lapper

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    Sonic Studio, Sonic Physics Guide, Kyle & Lucy, Freedom Planet 2
    Clone level in every aspect. Automation. Physics. Terrible music nodding to classics in all the wrong ways. And that's just the classic gameplay. The levels that are meant to please retro fans.
    Really good game here guys, definitely not a fool if you consider paying money in exchange for 0 effort or consideration! I promise!

    That made me smile.

    Yes it does look nice in those screenshots and I appreciate the style, but you could paint a turd...
     
  16. Linkabel

    Linkabel

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    I think the interview that the style was a mix of Lost World and Generations, not just LW. It works for the city level but in Green Hill it's quite not working.

    It seems the point of this is to show the area is decaying, but they should've made it more obvious. The song could've also be a little more melancholy and perhaps people would'vebeen more receptive.
     
  17. Dark Sonic

    Dark Sonic

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    Well the trailer left a very different impression as to what the game was going to look like. You start off with some grim dark, Sonic's in a ruined city with Death Egg Robots smashing up the place, and there's despair everywhere. Then you get the first level of Modern Sonic which goes along with the trailer.

    But then you get this very strange, GHZ/Desert mishmash with cheery music and it's kind of a head scratcher. Even the robots in the level don't fit. None of it adds up. Now granted, there's a lot about this game we don't know. Why is GHZ here? Why is the water replaced by sand? What does this have to do with Eggman's take over? Who knows. Maybe they'll come up with something brilliant and all the sudden it'll make sense. Maybe this is the result of some kind of time shenanigans that has resulted in parts of Classic's GHZ to be transported to the present but in a desert, and maybe this only happened recently so GHZ is still sort of lush for the time being.

    But beyond that people aren't happy with things like the springs and boost pads holding your hand throughout the level. Like, yes game, I know that I press the jump button to jump, I don't need a hidden spring to do that job for me. And even if I didn't know how to jump, well I could take those 2 seconds to figure that out. It's unnecessary. Also the physics not looking 100% up to snuff. Now if they're like what they were like in Generations, I won't care too much, but others might.

    EDIT: So looking through the footage, later in the level there do seem to be some platforms that have GHZ tiling but actually look like they belong in the desert. So maybe Act 1 is lush and Act 2 is in decay?
     
  18. That's what I meant. I was speaking in relation to Generations.

    I'm pretty sure that the water being replaced with sand, tiki statues being buried in it, and the appearance of decaying flowers throughout the stage make it immediately apparent. This is probably only the start of Eggman's influence with the new power that he has while Modern Sonic's stage is when his influence is at its highest.
     
  19. AutiMatic

    AutiMatic

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    Sonic Team is doing a good job. Visually, I find the environment to be more organic than Generations version, from lighting, shading, and textures, to how Sonic blends in. Definitely a mix between Generations and Lost World. The problem is that this is an underselling of the game lol.

    Classic's aerial physics seem off. I am curious to see if they've adjusted bounce height a bit after jumping on an enemy. But the horizontal aerial movement looks rigid. I hope these things are fixed by launch time.

    Sand had no bearing in the level...so it serves no purpose aesthetically. Boostpads and automated sections hinder route exploration, and is a cop out for lack of momentum based physics. I hope that gets fixed before launch too!

    I'm hoping that Classic Sonic gets his own Act 1 & Act 2 for each level to flesh it out a bit. May be Green Hill Act 2 will actually use sand as a gimmick in the level to incorporate player immersion in level progression and add some sense of difficulty.
     
  20. It looks as if those springs can be more like nuisances than trying to be hand-holding. In at least two of those instances, they were placed right before a ledge that Sonic could easily reach by jumping and for one of them, there was a speed shoes monitor above the spring's location. Although the springs launch you more than high enough, it seems that it would be faster to jump normally.