I haven't really seen any of those types anymore, though I'm sure at a few exist somewhere out there. A couple years ago I found a guy on Twitter who still genuinely believed in the possibility of getting new SATAM content if the fans bugged Sega enough, so I'm sure every breed of nutty Sonic fan is still existent somewhere I have to agree with @Shaddy the guy that it does seem like Dubs is letting social media make it seem like something is bigger than it really is.
This reminds me how people were sure Drummond was back because Griffith sounded a little bit like him in one of the Sonic 06 trailers. I think it's also wanting consistency and liking performances. For me Knuckles sounded better with his SA1 or SA2 actors, and has never clicked with me after that. I am a little jealous that the Japanese cast has been able to grow through the years. But it's not the end of the world.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cult like behavior around Sonic fans with VAs other than people just saying they preferred one VA over the other. Some people prefer Jason Griffith others prefer Drummond or Roger. For me, I think Jason Griffith is my favorite but that’s just cause I feel like that was the most common Sonic voice during my childhood if that makes any sense. Although I did play the Adventure games + Heroes first, so maybe that's not really correct either. Honestly did not notice the shift between Sonics at all as a kid, but I was pretty young when the shift and disconnect between voicecasts in Sonic X and Heroes was a thing that happened. Although I will say, I'm personally not that much of a huge fan of his performances in 06 and Secret Rings.
If half the focus on voice actors had been focused on gameplay between 2001 and 2008 we'd have had much better games.
I mean, aren't the first concerted efforts to explain Sonic's gameplay and actively push SEGA to bring certain gameplay aspects back to classic Sonic from the mid-2000s too? Sonic Science, SAGE in general (not in itself, but HIRE THIS MAN initiatives)... huh. I'm sure there were more.
That's something way more subjective and honestly something I try to leave at the door when discussing the series because it's usually tied to personal circumstances. I know people that think Sonic Heroes or Sonic 06 was the fall off, but for me I made it all the way to Generations before my feelings started to wane any IE I turned 14
These were nowhere near the loudest voices in the fandom at the time. Fact of the matter is that most of the vocal Sonic fans care more about the aesthetics, narrative, and characterization over the gameplay. Don't think it's a coincidence that many younger fans are artisans in some form or fashion, it's a series that lends itself to the imagination very well. It's a lot easier to talk about why X character is cool or the story potential of Y, as opposed to breaking down the logistics of Sonic's gameplay. It's why you'll have more people bitching about Sonic's voice as opposed to how he plays, it's justthe type of audience that Sonic attracts... for better or worse.
I don't really agree. Their circumstances were dire but when faced with that Sonic Team always overscoped and made unnecessarily risky plays imo. Not every Sonic game needed to be a world shattering event bursting with new characters, features and systems.
To be fair, Jason Griffith can act now. I'd love for him to return to the franchise in any capacity. I understand I have a bias because I'm into the story as a whole but I don't really understand what about this specific scene can be chalked up to bad writing overall. Even accounting for the translation (which barely plays into the scene) it's fine. Sure, the pacing is weird because of how they cut the real-time scenes, but it does what it's there to do, and seems pretty typical of Japanese writing styles. One of the bigger reasons people even want him is just because he understands Shadow more than pretty much anyone else. Because, you know, he helped create and flesh him out in ways that connected with them.
Frankly, when I think of "Sonic" and "embarrassing", what immediately comes to mind is the English voice acting in any of the 3D games, rather than any plot points. My friends sitting around drinking and playing this shit will be getting just as much of a kick out of it for how stupid it is that an extremely edgy Shadow recolor with crystals sticking out of his head kills Sonic with an energy spike as we would out of Eggman blowing up the moon in SA2. The distinction between "good stupid" and "bad stupid" that the 06 example apparently crosses is such a non-starter for me, because this is a very stupid series to its core. Or, I dunno, maybe the difference does make sense to me, and the "bad stupid" is just especially entertaining because of just how badly it fumbles the bag.
People grill 06's stupidity a lot more because of the clashing aesthetics. If Elise was a furry creature then people would've been kinder to it, I mean hell, Archie's romantic tumors kept a fandom going for years. Conceptually, the idea of Sonic dying and being brought back to life by his friends isn't bad, that's what people wanted out of Frontiers. It's just the spotlight character for that moment is a realistic looking girl.
Yeah that's the other thing. Madonna was cut from Sonic 1 because Sega didn't want a shallow damsel in distress, they thought that having one would make the series less unique. And sure, Amy in SCD was a damsel in distress, but she at least was different in that she constantly chased after Sonic, who didn't wanna be around her. It was more comedic than something like Mario. I understand if people still don't like that, but at least she was distinct, compared to Elise who's played painfully straight. I don't wanna start a Sonic shipping war, but having Elise as a "partner" for Sonic just flies against the series.
Even without the romance, the story is ridiculous and thematically misplaced because the best character development driver for a girl who would engulf the world in flames if she were to shed a single tear certainly isn't a guy who says "Hey that'd suck. Have you uh tried smiling instead?"
The idea that the world could only be saved from Iblis by having a little/teenaged girl never, ever cry is amazing though. Many people manage to make teenaged girls cry without even meaning to. Mephiles could have saved himself a lot of trouble if he just applied to become the royal chef and then asked Elise to help him cut up some onions.
Elise wasn't always a teenager. She was a 6 year old child when she became host to Iblis and her father was killed. We're to believe that she didn't cry even once been then and Sonic getting killed ten years later? Lol no. Elise isn't even portrayed as some kind of emotionally repressed ice queen which would somewhat handwave the whole situation. She's perfectly capable of a range of emotions, and rules her Kingdom with love and compassion. But apparently she's able to just draw the line at crying. Having the romance sub-plot in 06 was dumb. Having Elise be a realistic human was dumb, even if only because is look weird. Having Elise contain Iblis by never crying was dumb. Some might even say... 06 was dumb.
I don't actually mind Iblis being contained by Elise never crying, or even her being able to almost-cry from a multitude of different emotions. That's pure fairy tale/lyrical ballad territory, and they could very well work within those boundaries, safe from any sort of realistic concerns about crying from waking up late and looking directly out of the window. But that'd need them to use far less elements, and use them as, well, fairy tale elements. Now if she was forbidden from SMILING or something, that'd make it easier for Sonic to make sense in the story, being a guy who is always smiling and everything.
It also might have to do with the fact that 06 was a dumpster fire, and people are generally more critical of things they don't like. 06 being the way it was meant things that wouldn't have necessarily been criticized to the same degree in other games (Adventure 2 for example) are put more into focus, because everything ELSE around it also sucks. This extends the opposite direction, too - people are less critical of things they DO like, and may handwave away things they would've had an issue with in a different game. I'm willing to overlook some issues with Frontiers just because I get so much enjoyment from playing it.
It's also a lot easier to imagine her not smiling, especially since she basically saw her dad die in front of her. She could be a strong stoic princess refusing to let anyone get close to her, with Sonic just being Sonic, saving her multiple times and generally being aloof eventually breaking her defences. Sonic releases Iblis by cracking a long squeaky fart during a royal strategy meeting. You could also make the ending more than just "nothing happened kinda" by showing Elise actually able to smile and show compassion at the end of it all.
