Sonic X Shadow Generations thread, movie level out now

The PS5 Pro might have a better GPU. I wonder whether this will help. It depends on whether the games are GPU-bound. I’d assume the pro could get you 60fps at full graphical fidelity if Sega unlocked the framerate on that console.

I think the problem continues to be wanting to support the weakest hardware (switch) combined with a lack of hardware-specific optimizations (as far as I know).

 

Persona 3 Reload is actually one example of a game that runs full 4k 60 on ps5. I bet some weaker hardware ports on ps5 achieve it as well. (Like I think Shin Megami Tensei Vengeance as well.) But yes it is quite demanding and hard to hit 4k60 on most games.

 

Making the game compatible with a weaker console doesn't make it less optimized on other platforms. If we were in 2010 and talking about Wii vs. PS3 and 360 I'd agree, though. Since the actual architecture was so different it made a huge difference, especially on the PS3 case.

On the Switch, we have smaller/slower RAM, slower flash memory, and no ray tracing. I could see we having more geometry and a broader use of RT'd surfaces on stages if the game was PS5/Series X exclusive, sure. But I'm just complaining the fidelity mode isn't 60fps considering the OK visuals.

 

This is really cool.

I know it's not most complex thing ever, but I love seeing the use of boost in favor of level design. I hope we will see more of this. The level design in Kingdom Valley also looks really solid, it looks more wildy open than Space Colony Ark Act 1. I wonder if they will do the waterfall running secting thing.

So far, the game seens to have a strong level design, to me.

 

Time and time again we have gotten immeasurably excited over clips like this, only to find out that it's all scripting once we got to play the game ourselves.

 

I see a lower path below the ramp so that'd be kinda silly of them.

 

Final Horizon is literally filled with manual ramps. It's not a stretch to say that they're learning.

And even if it is scripted... does it matter? It doesn't feel scripted. It looks perfectly natural, that should be the goal. Lots of things in games are scripted to railroaded to a degree.

 

How hard was it to make natural ramps work like that?

They made those boost ramps work like that, but instead of being binary a natural ramp gives the illusion of working on momentum.

 

I knew I should have mentioned it in the post, but yeah, here in Kingdom Valley at least, it doesn't feel scripted at all, it feels very organic and the player seens to be in full control.

Edit:

Also, yeah:

 

Scripting is a problem when it locks control to do that, compare the ramp at the start of 1-4 to all the manual ones in Final Horizon, in 1-4 you can’t do anything with it but watch until the controls are unlocked while all the manual ones in FH allow all sorts of crazy fun routes and expressive play that feels very far removed from the boost formula. Scripting ramp trajectory rather than just letting physics handle it is fine in theory as long as they don’t lock control.

 

The idea that it is scripted is silly because that doesn't at all account for the obvious part that it's the boost that gave Shadow enough speed to clear the gap. If it were scripted, it would have the dash panels or ramps because Sonic Team has never to my knowledge forced you into a boost state for automation. The most they do is forcing Sonic into top speed but it's never at the speed or momentum as the boost.

And Space Colony ARK has several segments of using ramps exactly like this. Hell, the Final Horizon too.

And of course, the fact that there is level design below, obviously placed for if you fail to or cannot boost off the ramp.

 

It's probably not automated, but it can absolutely still be. That cliff's edge could have a collision box that checks if you're boosting in that direction or not and then send you on that exact trajectory if you are, and then if not it could just drop you to the route below.

Whether or not this instance would be a big deal or not is a different matter (it's not to me, personally); point is that Sonic games have done input-based scripted sequences before. It's never only been dash panels and launchers.

 

I wish more people took note of this. It's exactly how Classic Sonic works in Generations. Ramps in that game are all scripted, but the scripts are usually invisible rather than being boosters/springs. There's no consistency between how physics work between one ramp and the next.

The specific example in Kingdom Valley looks fairly organic. I don't think it's scripted because there's no sudden jolt as Shadow's angle and speed get changed as he goes off the ramp, which is a giveaway to scripted events in previous games. Shadow's behaviour looks more like something I'd expect to see in Frontiers' open zones; no scripting, although you're basically just expected to boost or not boost on the ramp to choose your path. The level design doesn't encourage you to approach the ramp in any way to get the higher path or to try to maintain speed. And it's just one example in a game that's very, very flat and uses the homing attack as a crutch not just for platforming but almost all 3D movement.

 

After decades of handholding, can you really blame anyone for being paranoid? I feel like a battered spouse everytime I get my hopes up from early footage.

I wanna fly high...but I'll never reach higher than they intended...​

 

I like the person on that thread saying something like, “This is how you know they mastered Sonic level design.”

Apparently we’ve reached the point where adding a ramp = design mastery lol. Yasuhara must have achieved divinity upon placing the final ring in GHZ1 then.

That said, it does seem to be more akin to how Final Horizon’s cyber space stages were designed which was genuinely a great improvement IMO.

 

The additional footage of kingdom valley has completely alleviated my concern for the doom launch. It’s not common for a sonic game to LOSE red flags as we get closer to release. I’m legit impressed and extremely excited

 

I'm honestly surprised how they made Kingdom Valley fast-paced.

 

I'm just going to be the contrarian that says yes, it matters...

But I actually doubt it's scripted either, and I agree with the general consensus that this game continues to impress as time goes on. Generations was still IMHO the best of the 3D games alongside SA2, so make of that what you will.

 

There's a clip of it on Twitter, I don't know if you've seen it, but you can actually skip the part where Shadow has to beat the enemy up to do the Doom Blast if you hit them with a Chaos Spear. He'll go straight to the launching.

 

I agree, its painful to see SEGA and Sonic still backing the Switch but needs must