When can we expect to get more from Tomoya Ohtani's soundtrack? He teased us almost two weeks ago during the Direct that there would be a full version "in the near future." Could it be this week or next month?
Probably after the "real" trailer of the game. I think that music will be probably in the trailer itself. Also, I bet it's the vocal theme of the game, but it wasn't lyrical in the Direct preview.
Seaside Hill and Ghosts were not also game mechanics people had been clamoring for a return to for twenty years. Feels like you're phrasing that as if it is not an exact request I've seen from people, but regardless, I think you already understand the difference here. Characters are a natural part of any story, and even in bad Sonic stories, things would not have played out the way they did without other characters. Chao, on the other hand, had a major story presence in exactly one Sonic game, and are either set-dressing or a game mechanic in others at best, and one that hasn't had a presence in a main game for over a decade, something not true of other playable characters, even if you don't like the way Forces handled them. This feels disingenuous. Outside of being cute, I don't think people do care about Chao as much more than a gameplay mechanic. Cute things are everywhere, there's obviously something that makes people want specifically Chao Gardens. You seem to be under the impression here that I think the line doesn't make sense without the gameplay to back it up. That is not my problem. My problem is the dialogue shouldn't be drawing attention to a thing the game is withholding from the players, especially in this specific instance. Again, if this had come from Pontac and Graff, I wouldn't bat an eye, because nothing they've ever said or written has given me the slightest impression that they care about the series or its fans. But unless you're going to argue that this particular line was part of SEGA's guidelines, then yes, I do think that Ian Flynn, a guy who cares immensely about the series and its fans, should've known better than to put it in the game (and especially early scenes he'd have to know the press would draw attention to) if the thing he's referencing has absolutely no presence whatsoever.
Respect for you Shaddy, but I honestly cannot even begin to see where you're coming from here and I don't think that your rebuttals here actually rebuke anything. I'm not misunderstanding your points like you think I am. Flynn is one of the biggest, most dedicated Sonic fans out there and I fully believe that he would gladly choose to add in fun references to things like Chao Gardens simply on those grounds. Although I'd sooner argue that the author isn't important one way or the other. Its a tiny, teeny, throwaway line just like anything else. Frontiers isn't witholding Chao Gardens. Like most Sonic games, it just doesn't have them.
I don't see what's so complicated here. Don't call attention to things you know people like and want more of if they're not actually there. You can downplay the significance of the issue if you want, but I really don't think it's too much to ask.
I have immense doubts a chao garden feature is in the game. If it were, I would buy it even if it were a completely unplayable piece of shit that makes Boom look like Mania, but it probably isn't I'm going to assume Frontiers is a very What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get game. I am not expecting mind-blowing stuff in the slightest. My expectations have faded to nothing but an above-average boost game.
Tbh I don't even think Flynn has any knowledge of what dialogue is revealed to the public before the game is released. If there's no Chao Garden, he probably assumed that the game would be out and nobody could possibly be confused or misled by any of the dialogue at that point. By release day I think we'll definitely know if there is a Chao Garden or not.
Obviously he wasn't part of the marketing team and probably didn't get to choose, but are the opening minutes of a game really what anyone expects to be kept very secret? I don't think so.
New Game Informer interview dropped. The bit that's most interesting to me: While on the one hand, this is the exact sort of "going back to Sonic's roots/getting the series back on track" rhetoric that we heard for SA2, Heroes, 06, and Unleashed among many others, it's still nice to hear that the director's ambition is that the action stages can live up to other platforming icons, and the Genesis-era pedigree. Here's hoping!
Honestly, I think as long as they're the same quality as Unleashed/Generations then they'll be well received.
He's saying a lot of the right stuff here but I haven't seen it reflected much in the actual footage yet. The open zones aren't much more interactive than stages in the previous games. The grass, trees, rocks and water still feel like set dressing in comparison to springs, rails and speed boosters which are still stealing the show. I can't judge any improvements to how they approach linear level design until I actually see the linear stages. If they're serious about living up to recent Donkey Kong and Kirby titles I'd love to see how they're achieving that. Why are they being so skiddish about showing them? They've also mostly avoided the subject of combat which is interesting. It's this game's big new element and, imo, by fair the clunkiest looking thing they showed. I'd love to hear the justification for including it.
Regardless of how it turns out, Sonic Team really seems to be approaching this with a level of ambition that we haven't seen from the series since Unleashed. I really hope it pays off for them.
“We wanted to compete with the recent Kirby titles, so in this game, Sonic can eat a car. Please be excited.”
Ya know, sometimes I feel like Sonic is a victim of his own legacy at times. I don't think expectations would be anywhere near as high if this were just a run-of-the-mill platformer, but because it's Sonic specifically...well he has to do good, because its Sonic. Even if Frontiers turns out to be a decent 6 or 7 out of ten game, well...you're gonna have a group of people who are mad because that's simply not good enough for what people expect from a franchise like Sonic. Expectations are a bitch.
Currently playing Kirby and the Forgotten Land and it’s great. Love the graphics and overall cute tone. There’s plenty of challenges and using different abilities can make it easier or harder. I have not played the more modern 2D Kirby’s but I want too. I’ve always liked him and platformers of course. There’s just a lot of games I haven’t gotten around to. I will agree that expectations are probably unfairly high for a lot of things. After something has been around for so long people want every new part to blow them away but that’s not really possible. Just being good and building on previous stuff is all you need sometimes.
Honestly, I think Kirby is a high but achievable bar here. Adventure Wii modernised the Adventure/Fun Pak gameplay style with the next three games building on it, with a focus of new gimmicks for puzzles. Planet Robobot in particular did this really well as the integration of the Robobot Armour is almost seamless and feels the most like a true extension of Kirby’s move set than any other power up in the last decade. Star Allies is a solid game, but didn’t stumble in having less focused level designs in an attempt to accommodate 4 players while also struggling to innovate much, with the friend abilities perhaps being even more superficial than the Super Abilities from Adventure Wii. Now we Forgotten Land offering a significant paradigm shift while still staying true to the established gameplay formula. In many ways, these games could be seen as parallels to Unleashed, Colours, Generations, Forces and Frontiers.
Ah the Pixar problem, where even making 8/10 films has certain people on the internet looking at you like you just cranked out the billionth Minions spinoff. More to the topic, they really took the "Forces can be beat in 2 hours" criticism to heart, didn't they? But this part in particular has me interested. At long last. A way to ignore the 2D sections. Truly this is my dream Sonic game.
I realise this is obviously cut to create the rapid fire format but my god it plays like some deranged man just cornered Iizuka in the street and started asking him random questions. But uh, we got confirmation that Sonic doesn't cook and his shoes don't break! Of actual note is hard confirmation that Classic Sonic won't be in this and also that Koco have no relation to the Chao (which apparently aren't in the game), as well as explicit confirmation that cyberspace is based on Sonic's memory.
