Sonic Unleashed: The Post-PC Port Discussion Thread

Ehhh I dislike Perfect Dark Gaia but at least I know what the hell is happening. Time Eater is complete nonsense.

 

I don't think this is true at all tbh, the opening cutscene is goofy and cartoonish as hell!


We tend to just remember the parts we want to remember.

I think Unleashed's overall tone is quite playful and charming, which is fine for a Sonic game. Compare it to something like Frontiers which is so bleak and miserable. I swear even Sonic '06 feels more whimsical than Frontiers!

 

Characters fall over in ShTH's opening too. I find the opening's occasional attempts at humor bizarre and awkward, almost like they weren't meant to be there. Mike Pollock's shitty evil laugh gets in the way of what's supposed to be establishing the stakes of the story. The AAAAAA face always struck me as some tone-deaf attempt at drama like 'oh no look at the agony Sonic's in!' which is why they showed it off early. I don't know why they would bother with the Werehog, Dark Gaia or the world immediately exploding if the tone was meant to be goofy and lighthearted.

Sonic 06 feels more whimsical than Sonic Unleashed.

 

Further confirming theres a dimensional convergence and we really did play completely different games.



No really, 06 more whimsical than Unleashed? What??

 

I mean, they may have also just not watched those videos, dude. As far as the pre-rendered CGs you actually have to see on a campaign run, I can mostly understand the comparison.

Not that I agree or anything, since the games have in-engine cutscenes too, and Unleashed Sonic kicks the shit out of the soulless man in a mascot costume from 06.

 

Is all the charm Unleashed can muster just repetitive food gags? That gross close-up shot of Chip's mouth with the swallowing noise makes me cringe into a black hole.

 

Just seems to me there is no argument and it's just hating. lol

 

Hey man I love that you find a bottom-tier character chewing on things whimsical. The clips there are kinda better directed than most of 06's cutscenes but that's not really what whimsical means.

 

Kazz shut the fuck up and let people enjoy things huh

 

I'm all for calling Unleashed overrated. But on what planet does 06 have even once ounce of whimsy, yet alone more whimsy than Unleashed? That's just... Christ, no.

Unleashed constantly tries to paint itself as a a silly, light hearted adventure about fun, friendship and lots of food. And it ngl, despite Sonic and Chip's relationship being overstated at the end of the game, it succeeds in what it sets out to do. The world is vibrant, the characters and artstyle are charming and the tone is playful. It was a complete 180 from whatever the hell the series was doing with the likes of Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic 06.

 

Let me enjoy 06's humor more than Unleashed's. It's not a big deal.

 

The only times 06 has humor and whimsy are that moment in Sonic's last cutscene where the explosion pushed him and Elise up, the bit where he tipped over the E-Gunner in the opening cutscene, and a few of the NPCs the disinterested devs put in while no one was looking (Sonicman, Pele, Hatsun, Luppyluppy guy). Maybe you can count the mocap guy for Knuckles fumbling around?

But other than that, what whimsy? Unleashed's entire attitude is built on a lighthearted world adventure where the wacky NPCs and funny slapstick is commonplace instead of in the far background. 06 is desperate to make out itself as a melodramatic COOOL plot you're supposed to be invested heavily in the oh-so-clever threads they've weaved.

If you don't like Unleashed's tone or humor then that's your problem, not mine. I think it carried itself well, honestly.

And yes, I like food jokes. I like food. It brings me joy. Rather be joyful than joyless!

 

It's not a problem to begin with how you or I feel about Unleashed's tone or 06's. I feel like this is that 'toxic positivity' thing I've heard about. "LET PPL ENJOY THNGS" because I said I enjoyed a part of 06 more. Give me a break.

 

? I'm simply just stating that 06 is not whimsical or lighthearted in tone (definitely not moreso than Unleashed) and gave my reasons.

You're the one that's been "yeah well that's not true because Unleashed sucks". Like, okay? Doesn't make what you're saying true!

 

I finally got this set up and started a fresh run last night. Didn't play that much, but thoughts so far:

Non-Gameplay:
• The opening cutscene is still sick, and I still want to play the unseen adventure that it is clearly the climax to.
• The general aesthetic of Eggman's machines is overall pretty bland, particularly the stuff in the room where he harnesses the power of the Chaos Emeralds to crack open the planet. This shit walked so the forgettable stuff from the films could run.
• Playing in Japanese, and man, Kanemaru really is the fucking king.
• Apparently Tomokazu Seki (who apparently is the Japanese voice of Domon Kasshu in G Gundam, let's go) voices the Werehog. My default assumption was that it would also be Kanemaru, but this was wrong. He is also killing it.
• Discourse around kazz's low quality bait aside, I still find Chip incredibly fucking cringe, but he's way more tolerable in Japanese.

Gameplay:
• Going back to this after Shadow Generations, I gotta say, steering is kinda rough.
• I still maintain that mapping the Homing Attack to the X Button is an objectively bad design decision (especially when you're not mapping anything else to the A Button in midair, to justify it), but it was trivially easy to re-acclimate to. We'll see if I complain more once I unlock the Air Boost and the "will I Light Dash or will I Bounce?" classic from SA2 is reincarnated.
• Totally forgot Stomp was an upgrade you had to get later. Not a bad thing necessarily, but it surprised me.
• All that aside, still a fun lil racing platformer so far!
• After the first level, I got to the town. Interest in continuing was surgically extracted from my body. Granted, it was also time to start making dinner, but this does bode poorly. I truly do not care about doing this shit. If I wanted to play an RPG I'd go back to working my way through Skald: Against the Black Priory.
• I've always remembered walking around the town being bad, in part, because of how shitty Sonic feels to control at lower speeds. Having finally played it again, I gotta say that Sonic's on-the-ground movement is actually totally fine. But his jump feels fucking awful. Like, insanely sluggish midair movement, whether you have a running start or not. If I'm just walking around and tapping a button to talk to people, that won't be an issue. We'll see if I complain more when reaching level entrances and upgrades requires more than walking and talking.

 

Oh give over. That's not what this about. You got called up on this this comment:

And that's got nothing to do with preference.

You're more than welcome to prefer 06's brand of humour to Unleashed. But you're trying to call 06 more whimsical than Unleashed. Virtually nobody's going to agree with that, because there's practically nothing whimsical about 06 but there's plenty of whimsical elements in Unleashed. It sounds like you simply don't like the think that Unleashed's attempts at whimsy are effective. Which again, it's fine for you to think that. Just try to make your arguments in good faith and don't throw your toys out the pram when people call you out.

 

Come on now. That's just a few seconds of whimsiness, amid a scene played straight. The rest of the game is the exact opposite - overall silly with a few serious moments. Well, aside from the finale, where it gets serious again.

 

And you're the one trying to convince me out of my own feelings about Unleashed. You can call Unleashed a "wacky world adventure" all you want and it's still just as convincing as "Unleashed sucks", which I never said. I probably used the word "whimsical" too generously but it still doesn't feel like this big a deal. I genuinely find 06 more charming and "wacky" is just not the way I'd describe Unleashed most of the time.

 

I think this is an underappreciated issue. I always feel like the robots in this game aren't Eggman robots. Maybe more than 06 -- but compared to Egg Pawns or any classic-era badniks, they're super generic. Egg Fighters don't even look like they have heads half the time, and the other half is just more of the beady little circles for eyes on everything, even the spinners, which had a perfectly good look to them back in SA1. Same deal with the small bipeds, the trap robots that hook onto you, and whatever those flying gun robots are called. They don't feel consistent between them either, since the fire/ice/air shooter (polywhirl?) robots dance around and show some actual personality, but most other stuff doesn't have that kind of flair.

Not sure if you know this, but recomp adds the option to move it to the A button if you'd like. I did this and never turned back. I'm still not gonna -- but I actually do think the original layout has some utility, in that Unleashed's most-intense platforming (usually in a 2D level for one of the DLCs, fuck Rooftop Run 2 and 2-2) loves to have you doing a lot of tight jumps and homing attacks at weird camera angles, and it is extremely easy to hit the A button before you've properly touched the ground, which with the A button for air dashing will send you careening off into a death pit and ruin your S-rank.

Not sure if you're just talking about jumping with the neutered hub controls, but those go away when you get to the Gaia Gates, and even those don't really require much skilled horizontal platforming anyway.

 

Unleashed has lame enemy designs but that's totally Sonic 06's fault for turning the GUN robots into Eggman's, which Unleashed gladly copied over in all its charm and whimsy.
Really though why did they lean away from the Heroes-style Eggman robots, literally right after inventing them? They would've looked great in Unleashed. The enemies could've used brighter colors like that to really stand out while you're blasting past them. Would've contrasted the Dark Gaia goons better too.