Characterization in the Sonic Franchise

It's uncanny how you only have to change one word and this could just as easily apply to Forces
that change being "insanely short levels"

To steer back to characterization (and to tie in Heroes/Forces funnily enough), how do we feel about in-level dialogue? It feels like it's in a Catch 22. Have it and people complain characters never shut up, but don't have it and people complain that characters are boring because they never express or emote during gameplay.

 

I like Sonic Heroes fundamentally but there's a lot of aspects of it that really piss me off. Like I genuinely don't understand how they thought making the player go through the same stages in the same order four times was a good idea. Some stages are pretty long and difficult too that it can be aggravating, but I do love the level themes and some of the gimmicks they included, like in Frog Forest and in Mystic Mansion.

I do not like the some of the characterization either. They made Amy come off as a complete psycho just so they could have a stupid Team Battle... and for what? I am glad however that they got Rouge down right, as well as Team Dark in general. I don't like the tone of the story, and while it was understandable because of the target audience, they could've still written it in a way that was suitable for everyone.

 

A lot of people tend to forget that Sonic is a cartoon. The cast aren't bound by human anatomy and standards and so can be animated in many ways to convey personality, but they hardly take advantage of it nowadays.

I don't think cutscenes are inherently the problem but so much cinematography. The characters are just so stiff and lifeless nowadays, combine that with less than stellar dialogue and you just have a recipe for boring characters that nobody care about.

If the effort was put in to really animate these cartoon characters, I think a lot of the characterization debates would be alleviated a bit.

Ironically, that's actually something Forces did well, sort of. For all of its tepid writing, it did have plenty of animated cutscenes.

 

Edit: Bah. Not relevant.

 

I mean if they really were responsible only for the dialogue...well in replaying Colors when Ultimate came out, the dialogue is the part I took issue with. The actual plot is perfectly fine, but sometimes they they too hard to be funny and it all falls flat. I mentioned before (maybe not this thread, but somewhere) one early scene where Eggman tells Orbot and Cubot "Nothing can stop me this time!", and Sonic arrives and retorts "Who you calling 'nothing'?" Great line...but then Orbot dissects the joke for Cubot, and the funny is magically sucked out of the room. And of course, the BBBE and the infamous Baldy McNosehair.

 

This makes a bit more sense when you look at the IDW comics which are completely free of Pontac and Graff, yet still suffer from some bits of characterization issues.....ok, it's really just Shadow, but you get the idea. But it does illustrate that the recent characterizations are down to what Sega of Japan wants more than anything.

 

I mean, they did...and we got Sonic Boom.

 

This is not especially related to anything you guys are discussing, but my dream for a Sonic cartoon and characterization would be styled like Sonic CD or those Mania shorts. It would have a longer ongoing story arch, where Sonic and Tails embark on a long journey, taking an entire season or longer, within which additional plotlines would develop, and perhaps supplemented with additional short stories. They would progress similar to the classic games, trekking across unique and stylized zones, within which temporary supporting characters would be introduced and then exit.

Sonic would be less of a jerk, and have a softer voice. Tails would be cute again, not have that raspy women’s voice, orange instead of yellow, and mechanically inclined, but not a tech genius. Eggman would be called Robotnik (it’s just a better name IMO), though goofy, would be characterized as much more menacing, subversive and yucky, surrounded by an air of despair, and a trigger Dr. Jekyl-Mr. Hyde personality… similar to Him from Powerpuff Girls. I would also give Robotnik a similar voice to Him, and a perverse vaguely love/hate obsession with Sonic... "00Ohhhhoo what I'd give to capture that hedgehog and take him apart piece by piece..." *bites finger. Robotnik would be more similar to the demonic looking clown from the classic era.

Technology would be characterized as diesel punk, not ultra-modern (which is lazy IMO). Themes of environmental stewardship would return. Robotization and badniks would return. Human presence would be minimal if at all, but if it must they should be human-like, ex. monkey tails, elf ears…

I would make it digestible for children of all ages, but with enough depth for young adults and the young at heart (think Dragon Ball, Steven Universe, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz).

I have this whole thing pretty solid in my mind, maybe someday I’ll learn how to make a YouTube video and flesh it out in a concept board or something…

Edit: forgot to mention, I would aim for more of a sci-fi feel, than a fantasy feel. More robots, ai, similar tropes... Less monsters and mutants. Aspects of spirituality would be alright, like apparitions and spirit guides, visions...

 

Yea, thing about that..... Amy was fighting Sonic to get Chocola and Froggy back. But you wouldn't know that going in with Team Sonic on your first go. During the Character Battle however, she comments on it being her motivation for fighting Sonic and co.
This idea that she is "trying to force him into marriage" is a giant myth. Pretty big one in fact.
Amy's comment about marriage is a callback to her comment in SA2, where she is just teasing/flirting with him. Heroes has quite a number of callbacks of this fashion actually.

 

You could probably make an essay out of how many Sonic characters are misunderstood through memes and misinformation.

 

I dunno what Sonic Team's thing was with dialogue in bossfights during that era, but yea.
Amy's characterization in Heroes I would argue was a great step up from the direction she was set in the Adventure games.
She wanted to show she could stand on her own and earn Sonic's respect, prove she was a capable ally, etc. and now she is leading her own team and trying to help them get their lost friends back, even if she has to fight Sonic to do it. Its certainly a step up from saving a Flicky and reuniting it with its family. Now she is trying to help get 2 whole other characters' lost pets back fighting through Eggman's army on more comparable footing to Sonic and crew.
Amy spends time encouraging Cream and Big to not give up when they start to lose hope, and by the end of the adventure, Cream has to be the one to remind Amy about Sonic.

 

Wait you’re right, I just never paid attention to the in game dialogue because I was too busy mashing buttons

Thing is though, they should’ve made all that more clear in the cutscene. It just seems like she’s trying to force him to marry him to the average player.

 

Honestly, I blame how janky the character fights in Heroes are in general. I like the game overall, and while character fights in general have never been particularly good in the series up to that point, the character battles in Heroes are particularly messy. What's more is the lines you hear are based on which character gets knocked out of the arena, and the lines can easily be cut off if multiple get knocked out close to eachother. The result is a lot of people might not even hear the lines at all.

In general though I really like Amy in Heroes. You can tell she is way more confident in herself and much more capable. You also see a lot more of her spunk and attitude as a result of it. Girl knows her worth! But she is still the caring person we know and love and her new found confidence and abilities allow her to help people more than before.
Heroes gave us lines from Amy like her calling Eggman a "bloated buffoon" and a "mustached monkey" and telling Vector "If it's about a date, it'll hafta wait". Girl has sass and an attitude herself, and I enjoy it after seeing her put in work in the past few games.

 

Amy is chasing after Sonic in Sonic Heroes. Cream is looking for Chocola. Big is looking for Froggy. All three of them see a photo of "Sonic" with Chocola and Froggy in the newspaper, and team up when they run into each other at the newspaper publisher.

Amy is helping Cream and Big, but her initial and primary motivation is her crush on Sonic.

 

Its more "Amy wanting to figure out where Sonic was is how Cream and Big ended up in her lap" really. Her primary focus throughout most of the game is helping Cream and Big. Of course, the opportunity to meet up with Sonic again is an incentive for her, but her actual focus throughout the majority of the game is helping Cream and Big, and this is reflected in all the cutscenes and dialogue throughout the majority of the game, ending in Cream having to remind Amy about wanting to find Sonic by the end.

 

That's not what happens. Cream says "Hey, isn't that mister Sonic over there?" and Amy immediately chases after him. She's not reminding Amy. Amy simply hadn't seen Sonic.



Immediately prior to the Egg Emperor boss, Amy says "It's your fault that Sonic and I aren't together!". She hasn't forgotten about Sonic.

Similarly, before the Egg Albatross boss she says "Let's get him before Sonic does. Then he'll be head over heels for me!"

Amy wants to help Big and Cream, but the boy crazy stuff is there from start to finish, and it's not a good look. It would have looked dated in the 1970s, let alone 2003.