Sonic Unleashed: The Post-PC Port Discussion Thread

Conversely -- and this is minor, but it does bother me -- Unleashed doesn't only have "Sonic World Adventure" as its Japanese name, but also a fractured world in its Japanese logo. And yet, its sense of urgency is all over the place. I do expect a globe-trotting adventure to involve getting to know people, but I also expect a blown-up-globe-trotting adventure to be more... intense? It has always felt a bit weird to me that Sonic has all of the time in the world to chat with everyone, but also absolutely must fix the world as fast as possible. Which can only be done by repeating the same stages over and over for medals?

And then the very first thing you do after meeting Chip is leisurely "asking around if anyone knows him", which means... a very fast-paced, urgent Day stage in which you break everything around you and don't talk to anyone? It's an abstraction, sure, and I don't believe in the stupid concept of ludonarrative dissonance. But it ends up being a strange abstraction in a number of different, layered ways that I always found a bit puzzling. After a couple of hours in, you do get immersed in the world, but there's always this nagging feeling that the game is torn between a Very Important Adventure and a Mostly Chill Journey, and the excuses for them don't quite line up.

 

also I would argue literally only City Escape actually feels like a place people would actually live in. SA2's locations otherwise feel like total set dressing - there isn't really a feeling that people could be there off to the side that you can't see because you're blowing past them at mach one. You can accomplish a life-like feel with props for instance (City Escape has this, nearly all of SA1's levels have these - but Emerald Coast is the most obvious), and you can also accomplish this with spaces where you sit down and interact with people.

I haven't played Unleashed yet so I can't have an opinion on it (other than the OST is a banger), so this is a tangent, but something I really dislike about SA2 is how much the "various" settings just feel like...video game levels. With how often the "hunt" characters are split off from the rest of their respective casts, and the lack of adventure fields, there's a fundamental lack of context that makes each "kind" of stage feel totally separate from the other "kinds". I guess we're in pseudo-Egypt now. I guess we're in some random aquatic mine now. We're back in pseudo-san fran again. Additionally, like...City Escape aside, the pseudo san-fran levels are so surreal that I can't break my suspension of disbelief like I can with Speed Highway, which ends in an area that looks remotely sane and has you get there and leave via buildings in the Adventure Field.

I'd argue that even though they are the most consistent (even if it's due to how many damn levels of this "type" there are), the Ark levels feel similarly unrealistic - it's the aesthetic of a creepy abandoned (or active) techno space base but there's nothing there that implies that literally anyone had lived there - no desks, computers, nothing that implied that anything other than a bazillion GUN robots and artificial chaos ever lived there. They're corridors with flashy lights and some of the most annoying monsters in the entire game. Compare with literally any of the Egg Carrier levels in SA1 - Hot Shelter has bathrooms with modeled toilets and sinks in them*, and it justifies Big's level by having him fish in what is clearly Eggman's vanity aquarium. You are literally running on the wings of the ship in Sky Deck and breaking things off as you do so - you see the bays where the plane enemies you fought in Sky Chase launch from.

All this to say, SA1, which was well-received by people who Wanted To Go Fast, was a very deliberate effort to tie everything together coherently into something even remotely resembling an actual world with people in it, even when it was surreal and absolutely had Video Game Bullshit in it (there is no reason for those colored cubes Amy has to place in Hot Shelter), because there was enough detail for you to fill in the blanks yourself and picture what it looks like when Sonic and friends aren't running through it. I think Sonic 06 and Unleashed tried to accomplish this similar goal - we all know 06 blew it but again, I haven't played unleashed so I can't have an opinion on that yet...though I have the feeling I'd probably like it because I'm the kind of person who loves slow-paced world-fleshing-out dialogue**.


* So one time I posted a screenshot of this in a discord me and a bunch of my friends are in, joking going "lads, why does Eggman have british toilets on the egg carrier" only to get an actual explanation as to why they're using that design, which is that the "really high tank" design works well in environments with low water flow...such as on a ship, and uses gravity to pull the water down when you flush LMAO. I'm telling you, SA1 is so extra with the details they decided to put in, it's crazy.

** behold, you look upon one of the five people on the planet who actually unironically enjoyed Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

 

This always really bugged me about Unleashed! The whole world has been blown up into pieces and the biggest inconvenience it causes is that some guy from from Not-America can't get to his very important business meeting. In fact, if you find anyone who's upset about about the world being blow up, they've probably been possessed by Dark Gaia.

Sonic Team were certainly trying to go for a much lighter tone than in 06, which was definitely the right decision for the series at the time. Having the world split apart was probably the wrong choice though. It's such a drastic and dire event that doesn't really serve the narrative in any unique way and can only be underplayed to maintain the light-hearted tone.

 

I think Sonic Team themselves had no clear idea what they wanted Unleashed's tone to be. I imagine by the time they decided the game should be more lighthearted, the opening cutscene was already mostly done. The one where Sonic writhes around on the floor while Earth turns into Cthululand. Not enough time to properly change the tone, no less fundamental plot points like the world splitting apart.

 

This game is so interesting. In any online discussion there is direct 50/50 divide on everything about it*, and each side feels like they played a completely different game than the other, with very little means of convincing each other their take. It doesn't matter how much fans's tastes align on other games, they'll butt heads over this game no matter what.

It's just amusing that the game about night and day has a reputation just as polarizing.

* - In Sonic circles. In general online discussion it's always been 70/30 with the unfavorable opinion in the majority. I think how loud that side has been about their issues with the game is what's led me over the years to be all the more open to say my piece.

 

I loved how Unleashed had actual people and things happening in the levels. The only immersive world I’ve actually seen in a 3D Sonic.

 

The hub worlds are the best part because they have my waifu Sarianna in them.

 

Tbf to the game I think they're trying to do a thing here. The thing you're trying to stop isn't the planet being shattered, but the reformation of Dark Gaia, which has completely stagnated with no obvious way to move forward.

I think it would have helped the game to insert a bit more danger and urgency into things though. For all the talk of RPG structure the game doesn't ever really leverage it's most reliable tool: giving a fresh town a fresh problem to solve. It wouldn't even be hard to do either since both Eggman's robots and the Dark Gaia legion are wandering the globe. Have the Dark Gaia guardian create issues for the citizens of shamar instead of it just standing between Sonic and a macguffin.

There's a game with a similar tone and setup I want to bring up. Breath of the Wild has a similar 'lighthearted post apocalypse' angle but the stakes are much more clear and the way the initial catastrophy affected the world state is more clearly felt. The various tribes have been cut off from one another, with free travel being restricted by ganondorf's hordes, the blights are causing direct issues for each town you visit for you to solve and several landmarks in the game world have been completely destroyed. Hyrule isn't in immediate danger, but has inarguably completely stagnated as a state with everyone being worse off by the continued presence of the blight.

I think there were ways to implement more of a sense of danger without betraying the game's tone, but it all ties back to Unleashed's unwillingness to actually connect it's disparate ideas. Eggman's robots and the Gaia monsters only terrorize the locals occasionally. Plot points like the missing elder in chun nan feel really undercooked. It's not clear how Dark Gaia reforms so it's hard to know what the stakes are. Sonic isn't even affected enough by his transformation to feel all that urged to fix it on a personal level.

 

Frontiers at least does a better job of showing Sonic being affected by something.

By the way, I think they were trying to do more world building, but simply ran out of time again. Empire City's hub and entrance stages are so small and flat compared with the others. There aren't any cutscenes or events at all.

 

I think this too. vibe I got from my latest playthrough is that the game shipped at around 70% completion, which is better than the games before but still not great.

 

Well a ton of DLC was added to fill-in incomplete parts, so a lot of that was missing. Tons of werehog content was incomplete or cut. For some reason Dragon Road Night was split even though it was basically done beyond the final's goal ring, though.

The Chip vs Dark Gaia fight seemed strangely without substance, so I feel like they might've planned something more there.

Spagonia seems the most complete to me.

Why did Sonic get 3 of the same boss effectively?

Overall, I think that a 100% complete game probably would've had cutscenes for every location and better transitions.

 

Name and more iconic duo than rushed development and Sonic games.

 

I guess you could call Sonic game development “perfect chaos.”

 

Not just Dragon Road Night. Arid Sands and Jungle Joyride Night both have blocked off areas that can only be properly accessed via DLC, although you can wall clip to reach them during the regular act 1s too. And when information about the game was first leaked in early 2008, some of the earliest screenshots we saw were from one of the DLC Savannah Citadel Night stages.

 

I know, but based on some videos (not sure if you've seen the channel) detailing the unused areas, Dragon Road Night's seemed the most complete. Empire City's very incomplete. Arid Sands also was complete more or less. Jungle Joyride's was a bit broken.

Supposedly there was a lot of Act 2 content very unfinished too.

This channel has a lot of amazing looks into prototypes and cut content (although maybe you've seen it):
Just the latest video.

 

A problem with having a sense of urgency with Sonic Unleashed is that you're constantly changing between Day and Night to solve puzzles or just to talk to the same NPC in different times of day. I think partially the decision to make the story "like that" might've come from that it'd be weird to have you constantly play around with time and "waste days" on small tasks while a big impending thing is happening. Still, I agree it would've been nice if there felt like the citizens' lives were more harshly affected by the planet being torn apart, or just really lean into the absurdity that these people feel so unconcerned. Or maybe explain the constant Day/Night switching by saying that the planet's rotation is totally out of whack thanks to Dark Gaia, implying that you rotating the planet to make it Day/Night is the planet actually rotating faster thanks to Dark Gaia. NPCs could talk about how their sense of time is messy thanks to these quick rotational spurts.

 

How bad is it that I had to look up a video to figure out why I kept getting a zero speed bonus on Windmill Isle Act 1? lol

 

I'd believe it. That opening always felt out of place in relation to the rest of the plot to me.

It's like, the game starts with a kickass, super compelling intro that promises a grand cinematic experience. Then immediately afterwards it turns into a silly cartoon that doesn't take itself seriously and is full of "Saturday morning cartoon" characters and gags. I felt like I was lied to

 

A lot of anime is like that though.

 

The plot of the game is a mistake.

It creates a huge event that shattered the planet, but nobody around the globe seems to care. It also serves as an excuse for Sonic to become a werehog, but the werehog is awfully boring to play. And it provides a monster-of-the-week final boss, that is worse than the Time Eater.