Sonic X Shadow Generations thread, movie level out now

Day 1 bonuses are almost always marketed as pre-order bonuses by companies for some reason. To incite FOMO ig? :P

 

Delivery of the point aside, I do agree that fully customizable physics in a platformer probably aren't the best long-term solution. There is something to be said for having a good baseline to design around without worrying that a handful of sliders might disrupt or trivialize things. If they really can't nail just one set of controls and physics, though, I guess something like equippable presets would be the next best thing. Maybe object layouts could even change to be tailored to the movement style you go in with.

 

Did everyone forget OG Generations had skills you could equip? Just stick a few "low momentum" and "high momentum" skills you have unlocked by default in the next game, maybe re-contextualize it as gear or something, badabing badaboom.

 

Yeah, I wish they bring back skills, or since they're into customizing Sonic, give you special shoes, gloves, etc, that give unique stats (with a glamor option, of course).

Though for some reason Sonic Team insists on making customization DLC only when they are the easiest layup for collectibles since rings.

Of all things from Forces to avoid, collecting clothing isn't one of them.

 

I'm usually all for customizable controls. If something doesn't sit right with me, I can correct it to my liking. Frontiers' sliders worked for me as well, because of the amount of time you spend in the open zones. They've added a nice layer of experimentation to your normal gameplay.

However, have you ever spent multiple hours in a character editor only to realize you're not enjoying yourself at all and then quit? That's what happened to me with Jump Force. What a waste of time that was. I also almost gave up during the intro MGSV. That's something that must be avoided at all costs imo.

Ideally, you don't need toggleables, sliders, etc., unless they're fun to toy around with.

Also, if you're not happy with Mario's jump height, simply switch to Luigi. =P

 

Meanwhile here i am thinking about Celeste, a beloved technical platforming game that also have several accessibility options that basically breaks the game, and you know who complains about that? No one

 

Well that's the point Kazz and I are making. There's a better way to present this than just changing the value on a slider in a sub menu.

 

I literally mentioned that, bro.

And in that game they are very up front and clear when you first activate that thing that that is not the recommended way to play that game and that will not make for the intended experience.

Becaaaaaaaause there IS an intended experience. There is a default way of play that the games levels were built around. A way of playing, a set of rules and controls which are also consistently praised BECAUSE THEY ARE GOOD and were likely based on playtests and tried and true, smart design.

Further, the options they give you are for the most part quite binary, on or off things. Not sliders. You’re not going to have to really spend time trial and error testing and fiddling in the same way as you would with that stuff in Frontiers.

 

easy to miss things in long discussions like that, my bad

Good thing Frontiers offer 2 default settings then, in reality no one who is picking the game will be truly lost, cause the game is already designed with those 2 options in mind, want more? you have optional settings at your leisure.

kinda irrelevant, because combinations of several binary options can be time consuming in itself, while in celeste it's like 3 options, in a game like TLOU2 there is tons and tons of options that does affect the gameplay, testing them all to see what's clicking must take considerable time, also they do have sliders there in fact, you can pretty much break the game and customize your experience and difficulty, yet again, no one complains, on the contrary it's applaud for how accessible it is and how it should be a standard etc.

and that's games with labeled "accessibility" options, not to mention for example how FPS games usually have sensitivity sliders for controls, that actively affects the gameplay, yet no one mind their presence

at the end of the day, i think options are good, why not add options to classic 2D sonic games or Mario games? go nuts i would say.

 

They have sliders, like game speed and stuff. But from what I’m reading on the wiki site, (Again I have not actually used Celeste assist mode personally) that’s really the only one I think would take any amount of fiddling with to get what you want.

Again, I’m not saying the stuff is bad. Yeah, it would be great to have Sonic control how I want. I’m just saying that between a desire to be accessible and a desire to make a play style people actually want to play, I’m inclined to believe it was the latter that was the motivation behind Frontier’s state, and that does not invoke confidence.

And the funny thing is, that’s even kind of evident in the play styles they have. Because now that I think about it, I have never heard positive reception for the action style. And as far as the high speed style people go with, the jump deceleration is almost universally disliked, which shows me that that was not tested and refined to the degree it should have been.

Don’t get me started on cyberspace.

Maybe it is just me being overly cynical. I dunno.

But you know what? Sure. Bring the sliders. Give me all the customization stuff. Give me all the game. All the Sonic. Unironically

But please just make the default stuff acceptable and build the level design around that so I can know what the intended way to play the game is.

And that is exactly what Shadow Gens appears to be doing. Even if they did have all the sliders from Frontiers, from what I have seen I would be perfectly fine with leaving Shadow as is.

 

I always liked the custom skills in Generations, honestly Sonic Frontiers 2 should scrap Skill Trees and just go back to having character upgrades that you naturally find in the game's world

I don't want to grind XP, I want to explore the game's world and find cool stuff. Imagine if you can just randomly find cool new skills that you can equip/un-equip. I'm veering off topic here though lol

 

I've always entertained having character progression tied to items you can only find with the character, like if the Memory Tokens were Skill Points but only in places that specific character can reach.

Only Knuckles gets upgrades from combat, Amy from saving animals, Tails from finding machine parts, etc.

 

(I just thought this was hilarious)

 

I see no joke here. This is how the game is written now.

 

Christ I didn’t think people actually believed this shit. Good grief.

 

It’s exaggeration, for sure. But nah. Ian really does be throwing in those pointless references for no reason other than fan “service.”

 

God forbid a writer who understands these characters and treats them and their history with respect drop a clunky line that pays homage to the series’ iconic vocal tracks once in a while. + - Even besides the fact we have footage from the leaks to prove this isn’t the case,   Dark Beginnings is right there on YouTube for free and doesn’t go anywhere near that stuff. Hell, the source of this criticism, the IDW books, does this like…twice? It’s been blown out of proportion to a farcical degree and people who seriously think this is a concern need to check their water for lead.

 

I recently started reading IDW and in the first or second issue Sonic starts reciting the lyrics to It Doesn't Matter to Amy and I'm thinkin' "yeaaaaah I see now!" lol. I remember in late Archie Sonic and Knuckles were going back and forth with Unknown from M.E as well.

 

Actually, from what I have seen, they show the opposite. Have you seen that scene

Spoiler

where Sonic meets up with Shadow in the White hub world void thing? Whole time I was like, “NAH, HE DID IT AGAIN! LOL!”

And it’s been more than a few. It’s been a while since I read IDW. But I remember that being among the problems I had with the writing there, though it was definitely among the least of my problems with that comic series.

Then there is Frontiers.

 

This was legitimately hilarious for about 30 minutes before the game itself started leaking - I don't think people are even capable of comprehending the guy who made it actually likes Ian as a writer at this point...