Sonic X Shadow Generations thread, movie level out now

I find it amusing how divided the fanbase is over this song. Personally, this is one of the worst level tracks for a Sonic game I've ever heard, and I've been a fan since Sonic 2 on Genesis. Not a fan of dubstep/whateveryoucallit in Sonic tracks.

 

Please! I’d rather smaller but more visually interesting and distinct locations than 5 drab AF locales

 

I decided to hear Chaos Island remix again (apparently, the full ver is on Spotify) and honestly the song did grown on me a little. The first second is not that great, but it starts slowly getting better and it really gets solid. Still not my favorite remix, but I think I appreciate it more now and I like it.

Now all they need is to post the Vengance is Mine remix, because that might be the best song from the game yet.

 

I thought they were trying to get back to their original vision for '06's interactive day/night cycles.

 

A couple more screenshots of Chaos Island. They're really low-res, but here they are.

 

I like how they made new rails for Chaos Island.

 

I liked Act 1 remix, but I hope Act 2 will be Jun Senoue just because I'm curious what his take would sound like in Frontiers' songs.

 

Open world games are the in thing, and Sega obviously wanted in on the action. Mario Odyssey is more of a Mario 64/Banjo-Kazooie-esque collectathon. And considering Frontiers became one of the best selling 3d Sonic games ever and attracted many players who would never have paid attention to a Sonic game otherwise, I'd say it wasn't such a "crazy" decision.

 

I’ve heard so many variants of people saying “EDM doesn’t belong in Sonic” within the past few days that it’s become quite bafflingly disheartening. The best assumption I can make is that these sorts just don’t listen to EDM enough to tell a difference. It's a shame dubstep has basically been tainted forever, I'd have killed to put on a fire Sonic remix if people remembered the genre for Burial and Coki, not Skrillex.

I gotta be truthfully honest though, halfway through the track and onwards is the sort of EDM (not dubstep) I’d blast all day long as a kid, so it’s nice being able to feel nostalgic about it - but I do think this sort of EDM is very different compared the older games’ tracks.

Pull up this Chaos Island remix, Digital Circuit, Wrapped in Black and promptly compare. They all have their own unique flavours to em! I’m not angsty just because this is something new and change is scary, I’m disappointed in the first half of this track because they used brostep when they could have referenced literally anything else.

 

EDM is fine in Sonic and a lot of frontiers goes for a vibe like this and is good.

this song sucks tho

 

Chaos Island is just an atmospheric piece, it doesn't have that distinct a melody so it doesn't make for a good hi-energy remix. Maybe someone else could do it better, but there's a reason that Sonic doesn't really do those kind of pieces, it's all about the action.

 

I'm no music buff and frequently find people talking about sub-genres that I've never even heard of. But regarding Sonic and EDM, what I can say is that offerings in recent years have been incredibly varied. Problem is, the term encompasses so many different sub-genres. I wouldn't have lumped Digital Circuit or the Rush soundtrack into EDM. Tbh, I don't have a clue what the Rush soundtrack's genre even is. It's just Hideki Naganuma's style to me.

Frontiers goes all out with a range of different EDM genres in the Cyberspace levels and DLC character themes. Of the lot of them, the only track I dislike is Deja Vu, which sounds strangely 2001 in a bad way to me. It's pretty naff. The remaining tracks though all range from "pretty good" to "absolutely fucking incredible", vastly skewed towards the latter. There's dubstep, drum and bass, rave and nightclub music... I don't know what to call it all, but it's good shit.

But Chaos Island Act 1 is bloody offensive to the ears. Can't stand it. It's just noise interspersed with some occasional piano. They picked the wrong track and genre combination for this remix.

Do we know anything about the artist, RBU? I struggled to find anything following a quick Google.

 

I think he also did the Bullet Station and Vengance is Mine (the trailer ver, not in-game). It just sound in the very much style.

 

wanted to share this vid of alt paths in kingdom valley:

it confirmed what i already felt: kingdom valley seems like the most adventure-esque stage we’ve seen in years in terms of design. it very much calls to mind the way sa2 handled alternate paths, and there were some surprises in there that i didn’t even catch as a spectator.

i’m hoping that this is indicative of the level design of the rest of the game - seems like a big step up from typical boost formula stuff

 

I just can't get on board with this statement. Look at the actual actions the player is undertaking, the movements Shadow is performing. The level of interactivity is rock bottom. You land on a flat platform, boost a straight line to springs, home in a few enemies and then spend a few seconds on a fully automated grind rail before starting the process again. The are some dynamic camera angles, particularly with regard to the rails and homing attack chains, but that's literally all it is. The player only had to do the bare minimum so that the game can get away with largely playing itself. Where's the gameplay?

 

Maybe it's cause I grew up listening to music from UKF Dubstep, NCS, Monstercat, Skrillex, etc. but I honestly didn't mind the remix. The 2nd half is definitely the better part, but I overall liked it.
Definitely curious about the "R.B.U." Other than this YouTube channel that uses R.B.U. in its titles, I can't find much else.

 

This is not that far removed from SA2 though in terms of interactivity. The most I'd give that game over this one is that there's less "boxy" geometry and rails demand a pulse from the player. Those two changes might go a long way in some cases, but I don't consider them transformative esp with boxy geometry already being a hallmark of certain SA2 levels like Metal Harbor.

Other than that SA2 is by and large the codifier of this type of design with only two real enemy types in most stages, homing chain "offshoots" being one of the only ways the game spices things up and most of the gimmicks boiling down to timed A presses.