Yes, yes it was. I'm not sorry about it in the slightest. Yeah, we should talk about Sonic Forces....I don't like it. You know who I think could make a good 3d sonic game? An indie dev called Coliworks. Why? Because they made Cloudbuilt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3CttkaEaZQ And that's some nobody indie dev. Why can't Sonic Team (with it's AAA dev resources) at least match this quality? Because this guy was telling truth way back when and clearly nothing has changed since then (even with the improvements of Colors and Generations). http://www.cutefluffykittens.com/2009/01/05/the-blog-sega-doesnt-want-you-to-read/ BTW, this just occurred to me, Sonic the Werehog....They just wanted to make a new Ristar game didn't they?
It's too early to fully judge the quality of the game. What has been shown, however, gives the impression of a souless project. Forces is welcome to surprise me. If there's one thing I hope Sonic Team does post-mortem, it's some genuine soul-searching as a developer, and for Sega as a publisher to be supportive of it. This is a developer that has not had an original IP in 13 years. Let them do something else. Something to spark their passion, that Forces truly feels lacking in. Prove that they do still have the creativity to manage a new IP, and then let them come back to Sonic again. Sonic can be supervised by them for a few years while the Mania team, as well as a few other developers if need be, handle game development. But they need a reminder they are not a Sonic factory. They are AM8, and they made games other than Sonic, Puyo, and PSO once.
We're two months away from this game's release. The game has been made playable on show floors at least twice (E3 and Gamescom). Everything about Forces Sonic Team has showcased so far has not only been revealed over the span of the past six months, it is also what this studio felt would be the best material for people to make a judgement about their game. If they didn't think it was up to standard, they would had either shown something else, or simply shown nothing at all. There's not really much time left (and based by the track record of the developer as it is, not much reason to believe) for Sonic Team to suddenly make a Hail Mary pass here. ... As for Sonic Team's future from here on out, by all means let them work on something else, I wouldn't care either way what it was. Just as long it's no longer Sonic. I'd rather see almost any other team's efforts at handling the Sonic IP than continuing the status quo of presentable Sonic Team products. A clear lack of passion in recent products is one thing, but I think the other thing that needs to be addressed are their diehard approaches to design--which we're still seeing in this particular product, even when they've been given more time to work on this game than any other Sonic game in past years. Sonic Team at this point would have to educate themselves to not be Sonic Team. Any other developer out there has gotten that down already. It's not as if Sega's short on passionate and competent devs (either internal/acquired or contracted) as it is.
I mean, we'll see with this game, but it does kinda look like they're tired of this. Pass the torch on to those who love the franchise and will do well by it. It's not fair to the developers to have to churn these things out against their will and it's not fair to the fans that end up playing these soulless projects. But yea it is out in like 2 months. I bet it's pretty much done at this point outside of bug fixing.
Seconded on jolting Sonic Team's spirit via giving them the chance to work on another game. I'd love a Burning Rangers 2 or a new Nights. Hell even a new IP. Their energy just doesn't seem there with this one. You could tell they cared about Generations. They produced a beautiful game. With Forces it honestly looks like they don't care.
I third the sentiment of letting Sonic Team work on something other than Sonic. Preferably a new IP because I found Billy Hatcher to be a fun game. PC version still runs flawlessly.
The Japanese website updated with slow pans through all of the revealed levels, and they've been ripped to YouTube: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Good to see SEGA stealing my ideas :v:/>
Ah goddammit I got ninja'd on the Youtube thing, well I still showed off the japanese website and stuff. So uh Famitsu apparently confirmed that Shadow, Zavok and Chaos are all mind controlled by Infinite...and maybe Metal Sonic. And I don't know if this is a mistranslation but apparently it also claims that they all now have block powers, and that's why Metal Sonic has red glitches...Which to me implies that Metal Sonic is being mind controlled too even though he already works for Eggman, that's why I feel like there may be a mistranslation there. I'm gonna look more into this and see if I can find any more sources. In other, more proper, news the japanese Youtube Channel has uploaded a bunch of new videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UhWew6Q9HA <- I WALK A LONELY ROAD, THE ONLY ROAD THAT I HAVE EVER KNOWN https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0alP3yMkRHU <- I think this may be a Second Act of Gree-- ....Sandy Green Hill Zone, it just looks to me that way, if so, I wish they had shown this off earlier, since it does look like a slightly bigger change compared to what was shown off first. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihuUMMmj4D8 <- Almost entirely fully 2D City stage, I hope to god it's for Classic Sonic. I should probably analyze this level design further but for now it just looks kinda off to me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwhkTn4uI2c <- This looks to me like the base of operations and possibly minihub. And finally, the japanese website for Forces opened up with tons of new artwork and oh god. http://sonic.sega.jp/SonicForces/character/image/pc_pic_02.png WE DID IT REDDIT, CLASSIC SONIC IS FINALLY EDGY AGAIN. http://sonic.sega.jp/SonicForces/character/image/pc_pic_06.png This image of Infinite is pretty good, though I notice a way different colour scheme than last time we saw him? I don't know why...maybe the trailer had a filter that caused his colours to look different? http://sonic.sega.jp/SonicForces/character/image/pc_pic_07.png AND FINALLY, THE LEAGUE OF SUPER VILLAINS, who are ALL doing the weird "scrunching up hands to look tough" thing, hell, Shadow and Metal Sonic are BOTH doing the "scrunch up hand while holding it up in the air" thing. I wish I knew how to translate japanese so I could translate that text and figure out what it says but I don't know how. Website: http://sonic.sega.jp/SonicForces/ I gotta say, it's actually quite a spiffy website. EDIT: Okay so I didn't find anything on the Famitsu thing, so I'm thinking that what I might've read comes from the japanese website, what I did find however, is this interview with Famitsu from August: "When asked if it's possible to have multiple avatars, Iizuka said that since it's supposed to be the player's own personification, you can't change characters in the middle of the game. However, there is some sort of feature that's unlocked after you've cleared the game once." New Game+?
Well they've now shown all of Green Hill and City Heights. Can we see something else now :v: Also all of this is making me feel like this is some kinda post apocalyptic plot. But graphically it looks nice, just a very strange way to show off content. I feel like this is more just to show off the engine than the game. My opinions of this game are so all over the place. Despite pessimism I really do want it to succeed though. I never want a Sonic game to fail, as for some reason I just love this series. The rules are different with me for Sonic than they are for other franchises. Idk why.
I still feel like we're only getting glimpses into really early game content and that they probably don't want to spoil something plot related, but, after playing Mania a bunch of times, the possibility of that city stage being Classic Sonic's Park Avenue makes me really sad. Come to think of it, neither version of Generations really represented any of the classic games very well either, but none of their stages approached that stage's level of simplicity and I was still able to have fun with them. Aesthetically speaking, I'm really liking the look of that long street under that lighting, though.
The video for Metal Sonic's theme has screenshots of him using the red blocks, so it would make sense that he's being controlled. I don't think it'd make much of a difference though, since Eggman is working with Infinite anyway.
I wish I could say that I was interested to know why Infinite and Eggman are working together, but what's the bet that the end result is that Eggman "was just a pawn in [Infinite's] plan"? Bonus points if that's how it's actually worded in game.
Infinite was trapped in Mania's Phantom Ruby, so Eggman finds the ruby after Mania Sonic is dumped in Modern Sonic's dimension and starts using it to tamper with space and time just like Mania Eggman did. Infinite is a manifestation of the ruby that will eventually betray Eggman once he's out served his usefulness. Just a hunch :specialed:
Methinks Park Avenue is gonna be the first stage of Forces. So I guess they're making the classic stage simple just for that purpose. I really hope Classic plays well. I'd be okay with him being forced (haw haw) into the game if he at least has good stages, but I'm still a bit worried regardless. I'd like to think they learned their lesson from Generations and are going to design his levels better, but this is coming from Sonic Team, the guys who had a good formula going along and then put out Lost World. But I digress.
This is what I was thinking and it wouldn't be half bad of an idea. I was worried about Infinite's role prior to Mania's release, specifically anxious he was going to be akin to something like Mephiles. Infinite seems more grounded and like they're working within their limits this time around, which is good.
Is there a translation of the character bios on the site already or does someone want me to translate them? There's not much new info but it does talk about the plot.
Man, every time I see screenshots of how linear the levels appear to be it makes it hard to be optimistic. Like I don't think Forces is gonna bomb as everyone says it will, but...jeez, it's looking kind of rough right now. My only thought is that those stages are a bit earlier and maybe they thought that the early stages need to be easy to understand? Granted, I think you can teach a player how to play your game without super linear levels, but I'm hoping maybe the stuff after Green Hill/Park Avenue will pick up. I can only hope.
I still firmly believe they tossed out good game and stage design from Generations for the sake of spectacle, and the Missions will be the residual filler that keeps the game from being three hours long.
It's a shame, man. Not only does Forces have some big, BIG shoes to fill from Mania's launch in terms of the general public who expect something great after Mania, which Forces will almost certainly not fill, but it's also just looking painfully mediocre. I'm really hoping this stuff picks up later in the game or stuff like that, but it's really hard for me to try and not be really worried about this game. I'd rather not, because even though it's Sonic, I like to see the positives where I can before the negatives. In the level design, I'm having trouble doing so. Maybe if Forces gets lukewarm reception, they'll learn their lesson. Though, again, this is Sonic Team, so...probably not.
