Eh, you just learn to accept that the younger generation didn't have the same Sonic experiences as we did. I've seen the same thing happen across many other fandoms and game series I have interests in. Younger people liking things the older people don't like isn't gonna change my opinions, but I genuinely feel it's a huge waste of effort and time to tell them they are wrong for liking something we think is objectively shit.
I'm really tired of seeing this strict divide between Classic fans and Adventure fans. There was only four/five years separating Sonic 3 and Sonic Adventure. It's like saying Sonic Lost World and Sonic Forces fans. Very simplistic. I played the Classics as a kid and Adventures as a teenager. It's not like I was just so incredibly old at the age of twelve that it's radical new approach to storytelling and tone was too much for me to handle. Like I just sat there being angry about straying from the Classics' vision. I didn't even care about that. I have criticisms of SA1 and SA2's stories because they aren't very good compared to contemporary games such as Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, etc. Nor do they have amazing presentation such as Halo. I don't really want to get into the arguments about Sonic's story again but the strict divide perceived between sectors of the fandom bothers me.
Pretty much how I feel. When done right, like Majora's Mask, darker storylines are thought provoking and deep. Superficial darkness trying too hard to be edgy a la Shadow doesn't really work unless it's self aware. That kind of early 2000s edgy subculture wasn't that big in Europe at the time, so that didn't help. Sure I had emo friends, I was halfway there, but it wasn't as popular as the Indie Dance/Electronic crowd that was getting big with teens at that time. I think SEGA forgot there was an audience outside the US after Adventure 1. Or just pitched it primarily for the US kids. Still, they (US kids) thought it was shit anyway. A Sonic character with a gun is just so tone deaf I'm surprised it actually got signed off. With the sweet passing of time it's hard to remember the universal horror of Shadow's unveiling. It was mocked hard, and rightly so. That doesn't mean people can't enjoy it mind, just know that you are enjoying a crap game. haha I'm such an arse. sleep deprivation
I'm in the same boat, but mostly don't mind the Adventure stories pretty much because I'm not here to compare them to the big leagues. They're manga or anime tier basic stuff, ambitious in scope for their time in gaming but certainly not for writing quality or effort, and fun little stories that aren't trying to be bigger than what they were. It's just this sort of thing where people retroactively try to segregate this stuff as "this era" and "this era", not helped by Sega themselves outright having the Eras introduced in Generations as a matter-of-fact. But I can firmly say that as a Sonic fan I can certainly enjoy most of the series, it's just the past decade from Lost World onwards that's been the rocky place for me, and there's still big highlights like Mania, the community work, the effort put into the comics and Tyson's animations, and the films. There's plenty for newer audiences in the past five years to enjoy on a similar level to the old fans even if they don't get the nostalgia bait for a lot of it. And I don't mind if newer audiences do like Forces or Frontiers or what have you, people will like what they're gonna like. But I'll have my opinions about what I don't like, and I do hope that someone like my niece will be able to take in the franchise as a whole some day to enjoy rather than just be stuck with the newest, biggest things.
IMO there is a huge divide between the tone of SA1/2 and Shadow. Even though I first played Adventure 1 and 2 at ages 4 and 6 respectively, I had played the classics before that. At the time, I didn’t think they were anything beyond an evolution in the stories due to more capable hardware (which is pretty much where my opinion falls now). However, even at the age of 9 or whenever Shadow was revealed, I genuinely thought it was an April Fool’s joke. Sure, I bought it and probably enjoyed it a bit, but I did not ever replay it until last month which probably speaks to its impact on me (I replay SA1 and 2 once a year maybe).
My favorite Sonic game is Sonic CD ever since 1993. I was a sega fan way before Sonic the Hedgehog ever existed. A big part of why Sonic CD is my favorite game is because of the concept of Bad Futures. Sonic got dark and dystopian starting with the 3rd entry in the series. Go even further -- my favorite part of the Fantasy Zone series, a sega series known even *more* than Sonic the Hedgehog for being bright and poppy -- is the dark ending to Fantasy Zone II DX where Opa Opa goes mad and Space Harrier has to kill him. I got no problem with dark and sinister themes. I just have a problem with SA2's actual plot being told in just about the worst possible way while also being generally dumb. My problem with Sonic and Shadow meeting the president has nothing to do with the game being dark.
I'd say Fantasy Zone games having a tone/story dissonant with the visual design is pretty much a series staple. FZ1 - "Was my victory really worth the price I had to pay?" FZ2 - "Opa-Opa can no longer contain his tears... Opa-Opa vows that never again will war occur." SFZ - "Opa-Opa is haunted by the Dark Master's final words: 'What you can see will not be all that prevails in this world.'" It's such a weird series and I love it so much.
Kirby's kinda like that too. Always some lovecraftian horror/universal Destroyer comes into play at some point interrupting all the excessive cute
So I've heard. Never finished a Kirby except for Canvas Curse though. I will need to pick up Forgotten Land soon now that I got a new, non-drifting JoyCon. Just to swerve back to Frontiers: Does anyone know if there is anything planned for today? Edit: Nevermind, this goes up in 2.5 hours - Metadata says it'll be 7 and a half min long.
That's a cool observation about the bad futures. Dark, but unquestionably Sonic. Man they nailed that game so well. Level design can be choppy, but it has so much style. I'm looking forward to playing it again with the re-releases Frontiers - Crap environment art style aside, I really do quite like the surreal enemy design in frontiers. Reminds me of that really early Sonic drawing with the hand and bumblebee robotnik, early 90s surreal. More of that please
To me it is weird hearing people unironically loving Sonic 06 but that is about as far as it goes. Fans weren't a monolith even back then.
Wow, Iizuka said he’d like to continue the Adventure series in the most direct wording I’ve heard from him yet. The rest of the vid was pretty much expected, but that is going to be the big takeaway for a lot of people. “I haven’t thought about my next game yet, but I hope the work we put into Frontiers can be used to make another Sonic Adventure game.”
So Iizuka still wants to work on a new Adventure title, someday. And he believes Frontiers may be a good experience to that end. First, we gotta see how Frontiers does. Then one can think of a new Adventure title.
The interview wasn't too ground breaking, except for that last part where Iizuka basically said "I want to make a new Adventure game. We took some lessons from SA1s Adventure fields here and maybe after this we'll take Frontiers strengths and put them in an Adventure game" Ninja'd lol still ya that was the most concrete evidence of even a desire to make an SA3 yet. Also I found it funny that it basically sounded like "after Forces we didn't know where to take that formula anymore without people just being like 'oh this again' so we actually wanted to try to implement some level of freedom instead." Sounds like they were bored of that formula and knew we were getting bored of it to.
I hope when Sega sees that 90% of the feedback coming from this video is, “YES GIVE ME THAT INSTEAD,” they take a long, hard look at themselves lol. Anyway, I’m looking forward to the thousands of “IIZUKA CONFIRMS SA3?!” videos I will doubtlessly see recommended to me by the end of tonight
Yeah I love how Iizuka bookends it by suggesting that Frontiers is setting the stage for a potential Sonic Adventure 3, I feel like I can already see fans hyperfixating on those words lol
That's what you got from that? Because his connection between the adventure fields in SA1 and the more open-levels in Frontiers just sounded like weak bait in order to get Adventure fans interested in Frontiers. I really don't see how the adventure fields had any meaningful influence based on what we've seen so far of Frontier's level layout.
Wtf are you talking about? He literally said “at some point I’d like to return to Sonic Adventure.” There’s no inference needed from the viewer. Rewatch the video and then reread my post.
