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I am trying to come up with funny titles that are somewhat fitting the theme. I wanted to come with a good title for an article about how Sonic franchise should be split in two. Maybe Sonic Dissociative Identity Disorder or Multiple Personality Disorder would be more accurate, but it would not sound as good. And since the symptoms of schizophrenia still seem to be pretty accurate when it comes to Sonic fans, we will leave it at that.
This is just a little update what happened recently, I think it relates to this topic:
www.facebook.com/notes/sonic-a…
You know, I was against the admin posting this. Why? Because I knew exactly what would happen. And it is the same thing my previous entry was about. People calling us out on writing long text and condemning us on this fact alone. Yeah, almost nobody read it. The only people who read it were the SA3 staff members, so this article had no point. The only other possible people who actually read it completely misunderstood the point anyway, as expected.
The article is right however. At this point, SEGA and all people who have any say in the Sonic franchise are fanboys who are completely detached from reality. Not even they would ever understand the point of this article. They are the same oversensitive people who (when threatened) claim that we take their statements out of context, despite they themselves never consider the context. They will read or listen to something, then they will get the impression that some simple event like: "those people don't like Generations" or "those people want Sonic to die" happened, and then they switch to emotional defensive mode and stop reason logically.
Sonic Schizophrenia is in a way the second part to this article:
There are multiple different groups of Sonic fans, and so there are naturally multiple different interpretations what Sonic is about. Emphasis on different, because they are really exponentially different.
SEGA wants to create an illusion that they already did split the franchise in two. But they didn't. All they did was create two universes that are basically the same, only one has Sonic and the other has a Sonic with a silly hat. Or scarf or whatever... There is basically no difference between the two. Except one - the original franchise used to be good in the past. SEGA still wants to pretend that Adventure games happened, even though they are basically ditching them with every new game they make. They are trying to make the fans forget about Sonic Adventure games. Maybe even about Classic games, as they claimed that they will no longer be making Sonic 4 episodes. Maybe they changed their mind, but whatever.
There is the main point:
If you really want to split the franchise in two, you must do it with a clear vision what you are trying to achieve. You must know what people you are doing this for!
Common SEGA, you are supposed to make products for you customers. That means that learning what they want should be the first thing you do. Not making something random and then trying to convince people that they should like it. That's a really shady tactic.
I am an IT technician so I see problems in a technical sense.
Problem:
How to please most of your consumers who have different tastes?
Solution:
Divide Sonic games into games for Comedy fans and Adventure fans.
First we should make sure that we have the same definition of tastes. And since I know about n-dimensional spaces, I will explain it in those terms.
This is a diagram depicting two clusters of scattered points. For the illustration, the x-axis describes how tall should Sonic ideally be and y-axis describes how light/dark shade of blue should he ideally have. Imagine that every point describes a specific taste of one person. And ignore the actual numbers, it's just an illustration.
This diagram could be read that the blue dots are Classic fans and that the red dots are adventure fans. The thing is, SEGA only obtains the "dots" from the various comments it sees on the Internet. But they don't know their color. They must guess their color based on their relative position. Even in technical applications, scientists need to use various algorithms to identify clusters of points in scattered data. They are not supposed to only identify which point belongs to which cluster - they also need to identify how many clusters there are. It is quite hard to do that via computer program. You might think that it's quite easy looking at the data with your own eyes. But that's only because you see this 2D example. A real example would have dozens of dimensions.
You know when people talk about characters having 1D or 2D personalities? You think that a developed character has 3D personality? In abstract sense, we are not limited to 3 dimensions. We can add more dimensions to this diagram. When we add a z-axis with the description: "how much is story important in a Sonic game", we have cluster of points in 3D space. When we add more dimensions by asking question like: "how important is a comedy in Sonic" or "how important is action in Sonic" or "what tone (light/dark) is ideal for Sonic" etc, we may end up getting 10, 20 or more dimensional space. You don't need to imagine how it would look - the mechanics for finding clusters of points still remain the same.
Now SEGA always say or imply one thing: "We cannot listen to fans because there is no way one game would satisfy them all." And SEGA defenders add: "No Sonic game can be a huge success anyway because everyone wants something different." That implies that SEGA and their defenders think that there are either hundreds of very small clusters of points in this n-dimensional space that describes the fans tastes... or that there are no clusters at all and that it the diagram has almost uniform distribution.
I am convinced that there are only two clusters of points in this problem: Adventure fans and Comedy fans. I am around the fanbase for long enough to have a good reason why I think so. SEGA for some reason can't look at this 53 or so dimensional space and make a sense of it. But I have been watching it carefully and dissecting it for so long that I can without a doubt say that there is no chaos in this diagram. There are very obvious correlations in the data. There are really only two significant clusters in this diagram and their centers are describing what the two different franchises should be like.
The thing is, we need to define a clear border between those two clusters:
The border doesn't need to be linear. Nor it looks so simple in reality when you have the n-dimensional space diagram containing the real data. I was just describing my thought process.
If a new Sonic game met the qualities that would be described by the center of one cluster, that game would be liked (ideally) by all people in that cluster. The euclidean distance between individual points and the center of their cluster describes how much the actual new Sonic game differs from the notion of an ideal Sonic game for one particular person (described by that one data point). SEGA should strive to minimize the sum of those euclidean distances - that translates into making Sonic games most people will be satisfied with. The trick is to make two different games for those two different clusters. Because the euclidean distance from the points in one of the clusters to the center of the other cluster is too long - that translates people disliking the game because way too many of its features go against their tastes.
The problem is that SEGA doesn't understand that it should isolate these two franchises. SEGA is interconnecting those two franchises in an attempt to make it look like "all Sonic games are good for you". They are taking Sticks and putting it along with the main canon cast. They are taking Shadow and putting it into Sonic Boom cast. They are taking cartoony concepts like the wisps putting them into "anniversary" games like Runners. They are taking something that looks like dark threats of extreme physical violence and put it in sunshine and lollipop game like SLoW. So instead of trying to create a game that is situated in the diagram at the center of one of those two clusters, they make a game that is positioned between those two clusters - yet again. And even though it is still closer the the Comedy cluster, it is nowhere near ideal - not even for Comedy fans.
SEGA seemed to realize that there were indeed two kinds of Sonic fans at one point (or one kind of Sonic fans while the other group being the general public). But they totally failed at solving this issue. In fact, they did the exact opposite of what they were supposed to do.
If I was put in charge of the Sonic franchise back then, I would take almost the same steps SEGA appeared to take when Sonic Boom was announced. Because I think that they figured out the exact same problems the franchise had. At least initially.
The franchise with Colors Era began to be catered only to the most hardcore and niche part of the franchise. Sonic needed to start with something new and exciting. He needed to attract new audience. And yes, Sonic needed to become interesting for kids again.
If Sonic Boom Fire and Ice bombs even harder than
predicts, he will make an animation of how RoL should have been. And by doing that, Roger will follow the original philosophy of why was Boom created. In fact, he will turn Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric into Adventure game - something that it should have been from the start!
Yes, if Sonic Boom was a true Adventure game, it would actually fulfill all the promises it made, and it would fulfill the mission why it existed. The promises about this franchise having a separate universe would be fulfilled (instead of Boom being yet another disconnected mess with the same general tone and attitude), the promises about character development and dark story would be fulfilled (instead of disregarding all the events as non important, as well as the entire reason why this universe to exists). The promises about new beginning and introduction to the new audience would be fulfilled (instead of treating its audience as seasoned Sonic fans - it actually turned out to be entirely consisted of). The fulfillment of promises about not talking down to their audience and being smart and sophisticated would help its reputation tremendously (we know how this turned out). This would bring this new audience for real and it would make Sonic relevant again.
But what happened? They wanted to ditch the audience they had because they though this audience was insane... yet they turned out to attract this insane audience again and scare the usual customer even more. They wanted to attract new kids (possibly because they were scared of Sonic franchise appealing only to social outcasts , terrible people and people with image of disturbingly looking perverts in general)... yet they turned out creating a product that was so uninteresting that children didn't even notice it and those weirdos they wanted to get rid of became their greatest allies in damage control. They wanted to create a huge new brand that would profit so much that they would have to build special stores that would sell only Sonic Boom merchandise. Yet their product ended up being so terrible that the toys are hiding under the desks in tiny stands on extremely rare nerd conventions.
How could Boom fail to even attract the attention when I am implying that it would succeed with its original premise? Well, they never marketed it right for one. And two: All they have shown us was still rather uninteresting. People will want to see a cool and epic trailer rather than read walls of text (like mine) or listen to interviews about a franchise they don't give a damn about. If BRB really delivered with their audiovisual presentation what they were advertising, much more people would notice. But since their final product had nothing they could use for such a feat, they just had to fail at the marketing. You can't market sh** as gold when you have no access to gold and you don't even know how the actual gold looks like.
And why this all happened? Because they lied to us and broke all of their promises. Except the promise that the show will focus on comedy and that it will have no continuity. This subtle info alone started to cast a light of doubt on the entire picture of Sonic Boom before it even came out. Only the people who didn't want to think about it screamed about not judging before yada yada. The info that could be used to judge was already there however. And it was just ignored. It is ignored to this very day because people hate to think about the issue. They think that the only thing that hinders Sonic Boom now is the undeserved hatred that is coming from the evil outside world of critics or Adventure fans.
The very fact that most of the promises that were made about Boom were broken and nobody noticed is a sufficient proof to say that the only people who ever were interested in Boom enough to watch its development and impact were the Sonic fans. Sonic fans simply excused the lack of the promised features because:
A) They never really listened. They were blinded by hype so they only listened to their feelings instead of the actual words of the developers.
B) They didn't give a damn about all those features that were promised and never delivered. Either because they felt that those features were not important or they straight hated to have those around. So in the end, the lack of introduction, story, adventure or sophisticated humor worked for the fans better.
The actual critics and news sites that are not Sonic (and therefore not dominated by Sonic fans) never called the Boom developers out on their lies because they never knew about them. Boom didn't ignite even a spark of interest for anyone outside of the fandom (you know, the alleged target audience) to pay any attention to the various interviews.
Interesting question is why SEGA and BRB did this. Why they thought they needed to lie?
I honestly don't know. I have only two theories:
1. They thought that the lies about Boom features would be sufficient to enrapture new audience. But they never really had resources to implement what they advertised. If this was the case, they had to simultaneously think that the new audience attained this way would not notice the subsequent betrayal.
2. Hopefully it was SoJ who came with the idea to innovate Sonic and make him cool again. But since Japan doesn't naturally know how to do it because of cultural differences, they entrusted this task to SoA. And since SoA was already taken over by the Comedy fanboys who corrupted Sonic during the rise of Comedy Era, they twisted Sonic Boom to their own ends.
The latter option may be the case because of SoJ's overall attitude towards Boom and Iizuka's reported disgust. That would mean that SoJ and SoA are in a war with each other. I knew that they didn't particularly like each other... but this is even more intense war than SEGA vs Nintendo back in the day. The company is in civil war and the fanbase is its hostage.
But despite that, this option is still more favorable to all of us. Because there is a chance that SoJ will strike back and deliver something good. But then again, SoJ has problems of their own.
It's not really looking good.
How does this all make sense? In the first part, I tried to tell you that there is some complex abstraction for the tastes in Sonic content: the "taste-diagram". I told you that SEGA and nobody else can see the solution for this problem of making Sonic games most people would enjoy. Then I told you that the entire world is completely misinformed about Sonic and especially Sonic Boom and nobody realizes that. So why is it I can make sense of it when nobody else can? How is it possible that there really need to be two streams of Sonic games despite it looks that there is only one big stream and multiple small irrelevant ones? It seems that Sonic is massively and unconditionally loved by his entire fanbase and he is only fighting a war against the mean critics and haters who are solely responsible for the franchise downfall.
Well, the answer is that all those people who defend the current Sonic so much are from the first stream - the "Comedy" one.
I called the other stream the "Adventure" one. However, maybe it is not accurate. Maybe I should call it the stream for non-Sonic fans or the actual new audience. Because this is what it burned down to at the end. The people who no longer like Sonic are just "not Sonic fans", right? And maybe it is true. Because this is the same philosophy Boom was trying to push: Getting rid of the old crazy fans and get some new ones. Now it's actually the same; only we must finally admit that Sonic Boom fans and other Sonic fans are one and the same group called simply "Sonic fans" (at least the people who are considered Sonic fans by the standards of this current time - August of 2015).
So what I propose is to do this Sonic Boom thing all over again. Only this time, it should be done right - and the roles should be switched.
Comedy fans should now have Sonic Boom as their franchise of choice. This should be the actual franchise for the long time (and loyal) fans. Despite Boom took back all the previous promises, nobody from the Comedy fans care. They are actually glad. Sonic Boom found its identity as a random series that doesn't take itself seriously and insists that you don't take anything seriously either... ever. Boom attracted the Sonic fans who subscribe to this philosophy, so changing Boom to its original advertised form would not help them. And I really indeed want to help them because they are lost. They know that what they defend is not really as good as they are making it up to be. But they need to defend it regardless in order to validate their self-worth and in an attempt to save this franchise. At least that's what they think they are doing. But the problem is that they themselves will be the Boom's franchise undoing if they keep defending it.
I will now describe how I think Sonic Boom should be working from now on. Not how Sonic Boom should have been. It will be different from Roger's ideas for his possible animation about RoL re-imagination. He had some really great ideas and I think I have some interesting ideas too... but I need to forget them all. That would be the Adventure version of Boom. We don't want that. This is about pleasing the Comedy target audience. The ambition of the writer should go aside. No excuses in the sense that "the writers worked so hard on it so they deserve praise and success" can work here. We must understand what people want and deliver it to them. Like really understand it. We must have genuine empathy. No PR bullsh** can make up for it now.
- Comedy.
- Characters being silly.
- Not ever bothering with serious themes.
- Environments including game levels full of light themes and bright colors.
- Simplicity and lack of continuity.
- Story that can be dismissed and ignored (ideally forgotten).
- Making the fans feel that the franchise is "focused on the gameplay".
This is what the actual Sonic Boom provides. But it is not nearly perfect at it. Every point has a slight problem in the actual execution that will work against it.
The comedy is obviously on the front of Sonic Boom. But it is not really good. Most of the jokes are only understandable for adults and they are actually taking energy away from the experience. It feels as if it was trying to tire you out. That will in the end make the show feel extremely repetitive and boring, and the games completely detached and bland. In fact, this type of comedy is not really in symbiosis with the games. It's pointing out obvious things and mocking repeating tropes... that way, you will sooner or later ask why are you even playing this game when the character that is supposed to be your surrogate is downplaying everything and is trying to make you feel as nothing of it really matters and everything is just so damn repetitive.
I have seen tons of Sonic Boom footage. And there are only three jokes that I ever found funny and worth remembering. First one was in the game when Knuckles punched Sonic so hard rings came out of him and he fell. The only thing I didn't like about it was how they were trying to make it so over-dramatic afterwards. They should have just let it play naturally, because that way people would not expect the twist of Sonic being actually OK. The other joke was Eggman's laughter during snoring. I think that this is the crazy stuff that actually works on the level of "making something funny from something boring", rather than the "make something boring from something funny" anti-humor. The last joke was when Eggman said that he needs to find somebody with a sense of shape and color while Cubot was failing on a puzzle toy for toddlers that was based on shapes and colors. But I think that this amusing moment still fits more into Simpsons rather than Sonic, especially because of the whole premise why this scene happened.
Characters being silly is what Comedy fans not only expect but desire. And it makes sense. Sonic characters always had comedic moments and there was no reason for them not to. I remember for example the interaction between Sonic and Knuckles in Sonic Battle. Despite their characters were slightly flanderized, I just found hilarious how Knuckles got fed up because of Sonic's carelessness and how Sonic teased him by telling Emerl to not listen to Knuckles. It came as a surprise and it was just a playful mischief. The thing is that Sonic Boom writers can't tell a difference between playful teasing and malicious mocking. They think that malicious mocking is OK if you just make the mocked character to love the abuse and even desire to be mocked. All other characters are also mean to each other without any hints of actual friendship. When those hints come, they feel forced, unnatural and out of nowhere. It feels as if the writers have just a checklist of events that need to happen and concepts that need to be shown.
This point and the previous point wouldn't be a problem if they took inspiration from the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog show. This show had genuine comedy and silly characters, yet it never went into the malicious mocking territory. Even Robotnik was likable and portrayed as a... "lighthearted villain" while still actually being a villain!
Not ever bothering with serious themes is not as much important for the quality of this improved Boom franchise, but for the sensibilities of its fans. Remember Eggman threatening to strangle people and eat their black hearts in SLoW? I know it's not technically Boom game, but it was written by Pontaff. And since Pontaff wrote 2/3 of Sonic Boom games, we know what we are up for.
Shadow in Sonic Boom makes zero sense. Same can be said about Metal Sonic. I don't remember if Robotnik actually created Metal Sonic in AoStH,... but even if he did, this Metal Sonic would have to be silly. And Metal Sonic fans don't like Metal Sonic for being silly. This "fan-service" has the opposite effect. It is completely undermining the supposed tone of the Comedy franchise or alienating the very people you are doing this fan-service for. And it is yet again trying to force-merge the two streams of Sonic fans because of "love" (or money). Please, do not even attempt to use dark themes, especially if those themes come from the original Sonic material. Sonic Boom was never supposed to make references to the original since it's completely different.
Didn't the production team behind Sonic Boom think that the original series generated psychopathic Sonic fans for the sole reason of having these dark concepts to begin with? Why would they want to bring them back if the sole reason for creating this franchise was to get "sane" customers?
Environments including game levels full of light themes and bright colors is an extension of the previous point, but it needs to be brought up. There is not much reason to have darker environments in a lighthearted comedy series without a significant story. Because it would imply that at least one of those three elements (lightheartedness, comedy, no significant story) is not present.
Simplicity and lack of continuity is maybe the only thing that Sonic Boom does well. Aside of the games where the story actually exists. Maybe Shattered Crystal had really simple story... but since even some Boom fans were not particularly happy about it, I guess that even implementation of simplicity is not as simple as it seems. In fact, the separate Sonic Boom universe should still have some deeper meaning, continuity and being generally complex in some way... But it must never be forced on Boom fans and they must never even notice it. Only the stories and character interactions should be simple - not the settings of Boom's world or its writer's job.
Story that can be dismissed and ignored (ideally forgotten) is essential for Comedy fans. They do not want to be invested in the story. They want Sonic Boom to make them feel detached. This is pretty much a fact. You will never hear Sonic Boom fans talking about story as if it mattered or as if it meant anything positive for the Boom franchise.
How about the iconic new villain for Sonic Boom? Lyric was his name? How many people talk about him? How many people care about him? I knew some Boom fans that cared about him... They are not Boom fans any longer. Like Christopher Knopps for example. Those people who were hyped for Boom story were just Adventure fans or "non-Sonic fans" that got misguided by the Boom campaign.
Also each time some story tries to present itself as significant, epic or at least as a something that matters, it is because it brings new characters or develops the old characters. And Comedy fans do not like that. The only new characters they accepted were the ones with no story (ala Sticks - her story exists only in the PR statements and it is contradicted in the actual material anyway). And the characters that were supposed to be "developed" got reverted back because they would destroy the simplicity of the series.
I am not saying that there should be no story at all. There should definitely be one, it wouldn't really work without it. But I will say (yet again) that they should take an inspiration from AoStH. Many fans think it was little fun show. I don't see much hate for it. I never did. And despite there were actual things happening and crazy energy in that show... do you remember any plots? I am sure as hell I don't. And I am saying that despite I never disliked the show myself. Yeah, I liked SatAM better, but I didn't hate AoStH.
I am not being sarcastic by recommending "something bad" on purpose. But Comedy fans really don't like stories with a meaning. The lack of stories is really for their benefit.
Making the fans feel that the franchise is "focused on the gameplay" is an interesting point. It's not actually "focusing on the gameplay" point, as this is stupid like I said million times before. But it is actually about tricking people that the gameplay was focused on.
The main problem that strikes my brain when I see gameplay footage of Sonic Boom is how disconnected it is from the general tone of the franchise. The franchise is based on sarcastic detached humor, so you feel sarcastically detached when you play the game. That is not making you feel really invested. You suspect that the tone of the game (story in your mind) is at fault so you instantly think that the game is not fun because the "story" took over the gameplay: The gameplay was bad because it was not "focused on" in your mind.
I think that this problem fixes itself by improvements to the humor and characters alone. But having the gameplay fast and dynamic will also help. You can't have sleepy annoyed grandpas running through loopy loops, and you can't have energetic characters full of enthusiasm and good mood walking through blocks filled maze levels with puzzles stopping you at every step.
The new franchise must have a strong appeal that can draw new fans in. It must be the true Adventure franchise. That is what Adventure Sonic games did. They managed to obtain new audience. They managed to attract lots of positive attention back in the day. Maybe I am wrong, but wasn't that around the Adventure times when Sonic games over-shone Mario games? Even if for just a brief period of time? Why would it be?
It is because people were always attracted by cool spectacles and positive energy. Most of the really successful franchises today offer great spectacle. The SA games are claimed to not have "aged well" mainly because the really good and successful games today just look so good and polished in comparison to SA games (Sonic's vampire face in SA, audio quality in SA and SA2...). New franchises need to provide an amazing spectacle in order to leave some great impression and attract the actual new customers. Nobody will be hyped for a product because the intellectual elitists on the Internet praise the game for having some kind of "perfected gameplay". That is true especially when we really talk about new IPs and upcoming games. You cannot really know if "the gameplay was perfected" until you played the game, right? Especially when your fanbase doesn't exist yet. Granted, the phrase "perfected gameplay" is BS anyway.
Adventure series would be the perfect way to get new fans on board, new kids on board and make Sonic famous with the general public yet again. The last thing is especially important for SEGA if they want to make Sonic "merchantable".
"If Sonic nerds will not care about Sonic or defend him while the general public makes a laughing stock out of him,... you will never see people buying his toys or T-shirts, will you?" SEGA thinks that damage controlling the series faults will fix this. But do you honestly think that people in the real world and new audiences who have no knowledge of Sonic will care for all this damage control and bold "up yours!" statements of the official Sonic twitter accounts and Mikes Pollockheads?
What would really bring Sonic back to glory would be if he was again for everyone and if he was made into an exciting action oriented series that everybody would be eager to take part in. Normal people who see a new "refined and polished" Sonic game with kiddy environments, over-saturated colors and infantile humor are just like: "Oh, it's a Sonic game. A game for Sonic fans." And they will leave it at that. No matter if they know about the quality of the franchise or the damage control performed by the Sonic Celebrities. They will still feel it's genuinely impossible to be entertained by a Sonic game unless you have some weird attachment to Sonic.
But... if people saw on E3 or Gamescom an amazing epic trailer (like for example the one Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 had), they would begin to be interested. That is the key - the initial interest. If people are not interested in the concept, they will turn a blind eye on it.
SEGA and Sonic fans think that if a new game looked from a trailer like 06, people would immediately dismiss it and bash it. Well, 06 bombed because of the technical aspects of that game and few story quirks some Internet celebrities didn't like. But none of that was obvious from the trailers. Everybody was excited for the game back then. I remember that. I was there. Surely, there will be people (and probably even people from the general public because of the media propaganda) who will automatically assume the Sonic game is bad because it looks as awesome as 06. But if you don't score the positive points with the initial reveal, you already lost no matter what. So this risk has to be taken.
After all, you are delusional if you think that the general public will think that the new Sonic game will be bad "because it looks like 06", while they the very same public will think it that a game will be good "because it looks like Colors". Most of the people outside of Sonic franchise (the new audiences we are trying to get) see all Sonic games past Sonic 3 as failed anyway. So if Sonic fans will still be pushing their propaganda that 06 or even Adventure games were bad... this reputation will spill on every Sonic game regardless of how it looks. People outside of the fandom will not recognize the details. People who are willing to give Sonic a chance regardless of history of his failures will care about the first impression. They will not care about the similarities between his new game and the past games they don't even know. After all, SLoW looked like Colors and it still flopped despite the damage control and obvious kiddy tone that was supposed attract people "because it was as good as Colors". So if anything, both approaches (the Comedy and the Adventure one) have bad reputation already anyway.
To make a good Adventure game again, we would need a story. And there are few possibilities I can think of that would work:
- Continue with the story after ShtH, possibly taking the hints from 06 development of events as inspiration.
- Reboot the entire franchise, but not in a Boom way of "we will do our own thing and nobody can say anything because it's a reboot", but by redoing the exact same (main canon) story all over again, while improving it, possibly fixing what people saw as "plotholes". They could even make a "Neo Sonic Adventure 1" using story from the Classic Sonic games with vocal soundtracks, masterfully voiced cutscenes and amazingly looking (yet still believable) techno-dream world. And then "Neo Sonic Adventure 2" would be recreation of Sonic Adventure 1, "Neo Sonic Adventure 3" would be recreation of Sonic Adventure 2 and the next game could either recreate (in much better way) the story of Sonic Heroes or Shadow, or make a much better story.
- In the extreme case, start completely anew like Sonic Boom wanted, only make it well. But that is rather dangerous, because of many subtle reasons. I don't feel like elaborating on them.
- Be amazed and engaged.
- Explore the world.
- Feel like a badass.
- Be excited for the upcoming titles.
- Gameplay that builds upon the previous qualities.
Be amazed and engaged is what will draw new people and disappointed Adventure fans in. It is true that many new franchises that created a huge hype didn't live fully to their expectations. They turned out to be (with critics) rather average (like Sunshine Overdrive) or even second-rate (like The Order 1886). I am not saying that being engaged from the trailer or concept alone is automatic win. New players should be engaged during the entire game. Despite cool content and spectacle alone cannot assure complete success (especially if the game is broken), the lack of it definitely assures that getting new people will not happen.
Exploring the world is in another words the same as enjoying the story. It has something to do with the emotional investment. Most people will not explicitly tell you that they play games for stories... but the reasons they like their games are closely tied to the quality and presentation of the story. Without the story, it wouldn't work. Maybe it would work for somebody, but it would not have the desired huge success for masses.
The environment around you when you play a game is much more important aspect than the gameplay alone (unless it is broken). Ratchet and Clank designers said that people at focus tests refused to play the game because they felt it was highly unfinished and completely boring when all that was missing were textures (and models of far away buildings in the background).
If SEGA wants new fans, they want new people who will be into the franchise, not into one game. And franchise is centered around its world. If people are about to be interested into a world, they need to find it awesome. People want to be able to imagine that they are the heroes interacting with the game world as if it was real. And this works even for worlds that are thanks to the gaming mechanics so abstract that some people might think it's impossible to relate to them. Take Heroes of Might and Magic for example. It's a round based strategy. Real life is not round based. You control vast armies, but each type of creatures you control is represented just by one unit. The gameplay is divided between town screen, adventure map screen and combat screen. And yet, people still can feel immersed into the world. They still feel the story, even though they might not know its details. But if everything was just random and had no sense of consistency, design philosophy or themes, why would people even care for it?
Feeling like a badass is one of the most important things Sonic was famous for. That is actually the biggest reason why the current Comedy Era disgusts people. When Sonic was comedic and silly in the past, he was still badass! Now the comedy comes from people being stupid, annoying, annoyed, pathetic or causing anti-climatic events. If this doesn't disgust people, it at least disappoints them.
Every Sonic character that was ever famous and well liked was a badass. Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow, even Tails. Contrary, the characters that were perceived as not well liked were comedy reliefs like Big, Omochao,... maybe partially Babylon Rogues... Yes, there were badass characters who were disliked by some people like Shadow, Silver, Blaze... but after many discussions with them, I am convinced that those people are both long time fans (so they are not the new audience we seek) and they are Comedy fans (because their tastes on the "taste-diagram" are way closer to the center of the "Comedy Cluster" than the "Adventure Cluster").
More importantly, when we ignore Sonic for a while, many people in this world love badass characters. Making the characters lame on purpose or mocking the concept of badass characters will mean to go against what is popular. You can scream "CoD" all you want, but making the series more serious will definitely make it more successful than making it a joke. And besides, people who are already tired of badasses, cool action and spectacle probably want parodies. And Sonic parody can make sense to them only if they are already familiar with Sonic. So they will choose the Comedy fans franchise that is for the old fans.
Be excited for the upcoming titles is something that was a thing for Sonic franchise up until Colors. People were speculating where will the story go, what will happen. They were making up some crazy and amazing theories.
In the past, people were speculating if Shadow was indeed an android after SA2, they were speculating if this mysterious hedgehog "Nazo" will ever appear in possible future Sonic X season or even in the games, they were speculating if Super Emeralds were canon, they were speculating what would happen if Eggman really took over the world...
What are Sonic fans speculating about today?
Nothing.
You can see people talking about possible Colors 2, SLoW 2, Generations 2... But you don't really feel any excitement or hype behind those speculations. It's just a cold contemplation or a mild curiosity at best and disappointment at worst. And you barely ever hear people speculating about original or crazy ideas anymore. People don't speculate about story... and they don't speculate about gameplay either. Sometimes they will say: "we want something new", but they rather don't specify anything because they know that their idea would be stupid gimmick everyone would hate. And most of the time they only ask SEGA to regress their ideas rather than expand on them. All just to have an uninterrupted, boring and empty obstacle course, so nobody could complain about some crazy feature disturbing the fans sensibilities. That is what I am talking about - it's just fans talking to fans, considering only fans or spiting certain other fans. This environment cannot bring new people in.
Gameplay that builds upon the previous qualities is of course something that naturally comes with it. I hope that I do not need to make sure that the game developers know it... but I think I need to make sure that gamers know it.
You created all the hype for the game, you love this gaming world, you love the characters, you feel that there is a vision for the franchise... so now it's the time to take control and start interacting with the world. You see how cool everything is? Time to be able to do some cool things yourself. You like all the badasses in the story? Time for you to feel like a badass yourself! Time to perform all the cool moves your favorite character can do.
That is the main difference between the general gaming audience and Comedy fans.
The general gaming audience plays games for the fantasy and immersion:
"I like Batman because he can sneak on enemies, throw batarangs, set traps and fight like the best martial artists in the world. Translate this into the gameplay so I can do those things!"
Arcade centric audience plays games to feel an accomplishment for mastering the mechanics:
"This powerup grants me an advantage against this type of enemy but it is weak against this type of enemy. If I move two steps forward in this direction, I can reach his weak spot, but I must not allow him to perform this move. If I push this sequence of buttons, I can overcome this obstacle to reach this objective. I don't care about the color scheme or the look of the characters - those are just cosmetic changes that don't affect anything!"
The thing is that the players that look for mastering a game to overcome challenges or to prove their worth as gamers are not really attracted to new (or rebooted) IPs, unless those IPs are indeed centered on Player vs Player mechanics. Those people may start to appear in a franchise once it established itself - and once it evolved its gameplay for this very purpose. Sonic is obviously not the case, as Sonic gameplay keeps fluctuating on almost yearly basis and it's only about obstacle course anyway. You may have those speed runners trying to get the highest score in the game... but they will not drive the franchise. Nor will they come from new audiences.
Comedy fans play a game to be detached from the both the real world and gaming world:
"All I want is just a silly fun. I don't want to see any kind of consequences, especially not if they look realistic!"
Then there you have those people who don't look for immersion because they want the actual opposite - detachment. This is an example of stomping on Goombas and growing after eating a mushroom. It's silly, it has no explanation and it is entirely about the mechanics. But because there is no context behind it, there is no identity for it. So franchises that operate on this logic look like each other's clones. And since Mario pretty much monopolized this brand, anyone else trying to do this will look like Mario clone and thus will not really get any attention or appreciation.
Maybe you might say that "focusing on gameplay" means to discover some clever game rules that are fun on themselves... like what Angry birds did. But if the entire franchise is only about mechanics, then slapping a brand on it of any sort is just an afterthought. What if Mario was the first franchise that would introduce this concept of throwing things to demolish pyramid of other things? Then Angry could never come into existence. But since they came before Mario could come up with this, they slapped their meaningless faces on it and now they "own" this concept. But since we now have a movie made about Angry birds, something tells me that they are no longer only about their gameplay concept. They used this concept to get into subconsciousness of masses, and they are using their newly gained identity to stay relevant. Meanwhile, Sonic is copying identity of others and he is taking a dump on his own gameplay gimmick: The pinball physics.
So unless Sonic wants to get rid of absolutely everything and wants to become only a pinball game, he needs to establish his own world the gameplay can derive from.
The majority of potential new audience will want this fundamental element of immersion. If SEGA wants to consciously piss on the concept of immersion for the sake of some imaginary Sonic ethics, they are consciously preventing themselves from reaching this goal of gaining new people. So in the end, if SEGA officials (or their corporate slaves) really believe that making an immersive game is evil because it goes against some high gaming standards, they should be glad that Sonic is not getting any new people. Because those potential new people would try to "corrupt" the franchise with their immersion philosophy.
It appears to me that SEGA is unable to understand why it is so important to completely isolate those two different groups of people from one another. Even if we take into the account that SEGA realized that Sonic Boom is actually not for kids and that it is about detachment, they still act as if this series was for some kind of semi-Sonic fans... or some proving ground for Sonic fans. SEGA basically thinks that Sonic Boom is some kind of entry level to get new fans on board, so they will later merge with all other fans and become fans of everything Sonic. Yeah, they don't seem to distinguish "Sonic fans" who like Sonic Boom from "Sonic fans" who like the original Sonic. They probably think (at least SEGA of America) that all people who don't like Boom are just biased assholes who either need to change their ways or leave the entire franchise.
But this can never work. Sonic Boom fans and original Sonic fans literally cannot be the same group of people. They stand for completely different standards and they have diametrically opposite motivations for why they are in the franchise. Even if SEGA believed that Sonic Boom really generated them new fans, why would they think that the point on the "taste-diagram" for each individual new (and old) fan can move its position? Maybe it can move slightly... But to move it across the board, one would have to change his life values drastically.
So SEGA either wants to "enlighten" people in some holy quest for moral perfection, or they think it's just so much fun when the two series keep referencing one another. Sticks in comics or Olympic games with the main cast, or wisps in Boom... Do they think that those references are cute? And those are not just references... this is full use of the foreign concept. That's completely different. A reference would be if a child drew a picture of Bat-Mite in Nolan Batman movie. Full use of this foreign concept would be if Bat-Mite had a main role in the story of the Nolan Batman movies. Yeah, maybe the crossover comic or the Olympic games are not canon... but it's damn close! The point is that they are advertising the main canon (hopefully "Adventure") content by promoting values of the Comedy content! That is like advertising the badass, cool, dark and broody Batman by the Bat-Mite on posters and in the trailers. Even if it's just adds. It still makes no sense.
They need to really divide the franchise in two if they want to make Sonic successful again. If they will insist on keeping only the Comedy franchise alive, they will fail on their main objective of gaining new people.
Sonic Boom used to be marketed as the franchise for the new people, yet it became the ultimate embodiment of the current small niche fanbase SEGA was originally trying to get rid of.
Because Boom was already established as a direction for the niche Sonic fanboys crowd, it should stay that way. Even though it should still improve a bit. I suggested to make it a bit more like AoStH. As far as I know, people who love comedy in Sonic hardly ever complained about that show.
The original appeal of Sonic should be used to attract new people. Implementing again the Classic and Adventure saga is actually the way of getting both new and old fans interested again.
SEGA makes it look like Boom series was made for non-Sonic fans, yet the people who start getting into it need to became full fledged Sonic fans of the entire franchise (both sides of it). This will never happen, it is delusion and it is the main reason why they are failing at their mission.
If they really want to keep only the Comedy franchise (or have both franchises centered around comedy for some reason), they should at least be honest and tell the entire world that they intend to keep this weird niche franchise for extreme nerds as the only official Sonic portrayal. They should also say that they will not welcome any outsiders and that they are proud for it.
Edit:
SA3 page posted my article. And they quoted the one thing from my article I actually borrowed from someone else - Roger van der Weide. "Sonic with a silly hat" is a reference to his parody where he was pointing out that Eggman being actually Eggman Nega in Sonic Rivals was not really a plot-twist. If anything, those two characters were portrayed as basically the same. The story in that game wouldn't change if Eggman Nega was just the usual Eggman the entire time. I thought this was a perfect parallel for main Sonic versus Boom Sonic.
This is just a little update what happened recently, I think it relates to this topic:
www.facebook.com/notes/sonic-a…
You know, I was against the admin posting this. Why? Because I knew exactly what would happen. And it is the same thing my previous entry was about. People calling us out on writing long text and condemning us on this fact alone. Yeah, almost nobody read it. The only people who read it were the SA3 staff members, so this article had no point. The only other possible people who actually read it completely misunderstood the point anyway, as expected.
The article is right however. At this point, SEGA and all people who have any say in the Sonic franchise are fanboys who are completely detached from reality. Not even they would ever understand the point of this article. They are the same oversensitive people who (when threatened) claim that we take their statements out of context, despite they themselves never consider the context. They will read or listen to something, then they will get the impression that some simple event like: "those people don't like Generations" or "those people want Sonic to die" happened, and then they switch to emotional defensive mode and stop reason logically.
Sonic Schizophrenia is in a way the second part to this article:
Sonic PsychopathsThis is a cool title for a new Sonic game, don't you think? It is resolute and gutsy, it attracts attention... and it goes well with the tone of the current Sonic games. I can already picture it: Sonic characters trying to one up each other in a regular dick-measuring contest. Except for Knuckles, he is trying to lose this contest on purpose to prove to everyone how delightfully pathetic he is. Sonic characters are also gonna show no understanding for the others and none of the characters will be genuinely sympathetic (in a way a regular kid would say: "I wish he was my friend!"). That is where the title "Psychopaths" comes from.
On the other hand... why using Sonic characters? We can use random simple 1D NPCs like Evil Monkey (Comedy Chimp), Kyle (or Dave or who the hell it is) or Guy that Makes You Feel Guilty (I don't really know his name and I don't care).
Or wait, scrap even that. We don't need to be using only the surrogates for the writers and other staff. Sonic Boom has been ar
Sonic the Hedgehogs
There are multiple different groups of Sonic fans, and so there are naturally multiple different interpretations what Sonic is about. Emphasis on different, because they are really exponentially different.
SEGA wants to create an illusion that they already did split the franchise in two. But they didn't. All they did was create two universes that are basically the same, only one has Sonic and the other has a Sonic with a silly hat. Or scarf or whatever... There is basically no difference between the two. Except one - the original franchise used to be good in the past. SEGA still wants to pretend that Adventure games happened, even though they are basically ditching them with every new game they make. They are trying to make the fans forget about Sonic Adventure games. Maybe even about Classic games, as they claimed that they will no longer be making Sonic 4 episodes. Maybe they changed their mind, but whatever.
There is the main point:
If you really want to split the franchise in two, you must do it with a clear vision what you are trying to achieve. You must know what people you are doing this for!
Common SEGA, you are supposed to make products for you customers. That means that learning what they want should be the first thing you do. Not making something random and then trying to convince people that they should like it. That's a really shady tactic.
Linear Algebra Lesson
I am an IT technician so I see problems in a technical sense.
Problem:
How to please most of your consumers who have different tastes?
Solution:
Divide Sonic games into games for Comedy fans and Adventure fans.
Why This Works?
First we should make sure that we have the same definition of tastes. And since I know about n-dimensional spaces, I will explain it in those terms.
This is a diagram depicting two clusters of scattered points. For the illustration, the x-axis describes how tall should Sonic ideally be and y-axis describes how light/dark shade of blue should he ideally have. Imagine that every point describes a specific taste of one person. And ignore the actual numbers, it's just an illustration.
This diagram could be read that the blue dots are Classic fans and that the red dots are adventure fans. The thing is, SEGA only obtains the "dots" from the various comments it sees on the Internet. But they don't know their color. They must guess their color based on their relative position. Even in technical applications, scientists need to use various algorithms to identify clusters of points in scattered data. They are not supposed to only identify which point belongs to which cluster - they also need to identify how many clusters there are. It is quite hard to do that via computer program. You might think that it's quite easy looking at the data with your own eyes. But that's only because you see this 2D example. A real example would have dozens of dimensions.
You know when people talk about characters having 1D or 2D personalities? You think that a developed character has 3D personality? In abstract sense, we are not limited to 3 dimensions. We can add more dimensions to this diagram. When we add a z-axis with the description: "how much is story important in a Sonic game", we have cluster of points in 3D space. When we add more dimensions by asking question like: "how important is a comedy in Sonic" or "how important is action in Sonic" or "what tone (light/dark) is ideal for Sonic" etc, we may end up getting 10, 20 or more dimensional space. You don't need to imagine how it would look - the mechanics for finding clusters of points still remain the same.
Now SEGA always say or imply one thing: "We cannot listen to fans because there is no way one game would satisfy them all." And SEGA defenders add: "No Sonic game can be a huge success anyway because everyone wants something different." That implies that SEGA and their defenders think that there are either hundreds of very small clusters of points in this n-dimensional space that describes the fans tastes... or that there are no clusters at all and that it the diagram has almost uniform distribution.
I am convinced that there are only two clusters of points in this problem: Adventure fans and Comedy fans. I am around the fanbase for long enough to have a good reason why I think so. SEGA for some reason can't look at this 53 or so dimensional space and make a sense of it. But I have been watching it carefully and dissecting it for so long that I can without a doubt say that there is no chaos in this diagram. There are very obvious correlations in the data. There are really only two significant clusters in this diagram and their centers are describing what the two different franchises should be like.
The thing is, we need to define a clear border between those two clusters:
The border doesn't need to be linear. Nor it looks so simple in reality when you have the n-dimensional space diagram containing the real data. I was just describing my thought process.
If a new Sonic game met the qualities that would be described by the center of one cluster, that game would be liked (ideally) by all people in that cluster. The euclidean distance between individual points and the center of their cluster describes how much the actual new Sonic game differs from the notion of an ideal Sonic game for one particular person (described by that one data point). SEGA should strive to minimize the sum of those euclidean distances - that translates into making Sonic games most people will be satisfied with. The trick is to make two different games for those two different clusters. Because the euclidean distance from the points in one of the clusters to the center of the other cluster is too long - that translates people disliking the game because way too many of its features go against their tastes.
The problem is that SEGA doesn't understand that it should isolate these two franchises. SEGA is interconnecting those two franchises in an attempt to make it look like "all Sonic games are good for you". They are taking Sticks and putting it along with the main canon cast. They are taking Shadow and putting it into Sonic Boom cast. They are taking cartoony concepts like the wisps putting them into "anniversary" games like Runners. They are taking something that looks like dark threats of extreme physical violence and put it in sunshine and lollipop game like SLoW. So instead of trying to create a game that is situated in the diagram at the center of one of those two clusters, they make a game that is positioned between those two clusters - yet again. And even though it is still closer the the Comedy cluster, it is nowhere near ideal - not even for Comedy fans.
Almost There
SEGA seemed to realize that there were indeed two kinds of Sonic fans at one point (or one kind of Sonic fans while the other group being the general public). But they totally failed at solving this issue. In fact, they did the exact opposite of what they were supposed to do.
If I was put in charge of the Sonic franchise back then, I would take almost the same steps SEGA appeared to take when Sonic Boom was announced. Because I think that they figured out the exact same problems the franchise had. At least initially.
The franchise with Colors Era began to be catered only to the most hardcore and niche part of the franchise. Sonic needed to start with something new and exciting. He needed to attract new audience. And yes, Sonic needed to become interesting for kids again.
If Sonic Boom Fire and Ice bombs even harder than
predicts, he will make an animation of how RoL should have been. And by doing that, Roger will follow the original philosophy of why was Boom created. In fact, he will turn Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric into Adventure game - something that it should have been from the start!Yes, if Sonic Boom was a true Adventure game, it would actually fulfill all the promises it made, and it would fulfill the mission why it existed. The promises about this franchise having a separate universe would be fulfilled (instead of Boom being yet another disconnected mess with the same general tone and attitude), the promises about character development and dark story would be fulfilled (instead of disregarding all the events as non important, as well as the entire reason why this universe to exists). The promises about new beginning and introduction to the new audience would be fulfilled (instead of treating its audience as seasoned Sonic fans - it actually turned out to be entirely consisted of). The fulfillment of promises about not talking down to their audience and being smart and sophisticated would help its reputation tremendously (we know how this turned out). This would bring this new audience for real and it would make Sonic relevant again.
But what happened? They wanted to ditch the audience they had because they though this audience was insane... yet they turned out to attract this insane audience again and scare the usual customer even more. They wanted to attract new kids (possibly because they were scared of Sonic franchise appealing only to social outcasts , terrible people and people with image of disturbingly looking perverts in general)... yet they turned out creating a product that was so uninteresting that children didn't even notice it and those weirdos they wanted to get rid of became their greatest allies in damage control. They wanted to create a huge new brand that would profit so much that they would have to build special stores that would sell only Sonic Boom merchandise. Yet their product ended up being so terrible that the toys are hiding under the desks in tiny stands on extremely rare nerd conventions.
How could Boom fail to even attract the attention when I am implying that it would succeed with its original premise? Well, they never marketed it right for one. And two: All they have shown us was still rather uninteresting. People will want to see a cool and epic trailer rather than read walls of text (like mine) or listen to interviews about a franchise they don't give a damn about. If BRB really delivered with their audiovisual presentation what they were advertising, much more people would notice. But since their final product had nothing they could use for such a feat, they just had to fail at the marketing. You can't market sh** as gold when you have no access to gold and you don't even know how the actual gold looks like.
And why this all happened? Because they lied to us and broke all of their promises. Except the promise that the show will focus on comedy and that it will have no continuity. This subtle info alone started to cast a light of doubt on the entire picture of Sonic Boom before it even came out. Only the people who didn't want to think about it screamed about not judging before yada yada. The info that could be used to judge was already there however. And it was just ignored. It is ignored to this very day because people hate to think about the issue. They think that the only thing that hinders Sonic Boom now is the undeserved hatred that is coming from the evil outside world of critics or Adventure fans.
The very fact that most of the promises that were made about Boom were broken and nobody noticed is a sufficient proof to say that the only people who ever were interested in Boom enough to watch its development and impact were the Sonic fans. Sonic fans simply excused the lack of the promised features because:
A) They never really listened. They were blinded by hype so they only listened to their feelings instead of the actual words of the developers.
B) They didn't give a damn about all those features that were promised and never delivered. Either because they felt that those features were not important or they straight hated to have those around. So in the end, the lack of introduction, story, adventure or sophisticated humor worked for the fans better.
The actual critics and news sites that are not Sonic (and therefore not dominated by Sonic fans) never called the Boom developers out on their lies because they never knew about them. Boom didn't ignite even a spark of interest for anyone outside of the fandom (you know, the alleged target audience) to pay any attention to the various interviews.
Interesting question is why SEGA and BRB did this. Why they thought they needed to lie?
I honestly don't know. I have only two theories:
1. They thought that the lies about Boom features would be sufficient to enrapture new audience. But they never really had resources to implement what they advertised. If this was the case, they had to simultaneously think that the new audience attained this way would not notice the subsequent betrayal.
2. Hopefully it was SoJ who came with the idea to innovate Sonic and make him cool again. But since Japan doesn't naturally know how to do it because of cultural differences, they entrusted this task to SoA. And since SoA was already taken over by the Comedy fanboys who corrupted Sonic during the rise of Comedy Era, they twisted Sonic Boom to their own ends.
The latter option may be the case because of SoJ's overall attitude towards Boom and Iizuka's reported disgust. That would mean that SoJ and SoA are in a war with each other. I knew that they didn't particularly like each other... but this is even more intense war than SEGA vs Nintendo back in the day. The company is in civil war and the fanbase is its hostage.
But despite that, this option is still more favorable to all of us. Because there is a chance that SoJ will strike back and deliver something good. But then again, SoJ has problems of their own.
It's not really looking good.
Why Two Streams of Sonic Fans?
How does this all make sense? In the first part, I tried to tell you that there is some complex abstraction for the tastes in Sonic content: the "taste-diagram". I told you that SEGA and nobody else can see the solution for this problem of making Sonic games most people would enjoy. Then I told you that the entire world is completely misinformed about Sonic and especially Sonic Boom and nobody realizes that. So why is it I can make sense of it when nobody else can? How is it possible that there really need to be two streams of Sonic games despite it looks that there is only one big stream and multiple small irrelevant ones? It seems that Sonic is massively and unconditionally loved by his entire fanbase and he is only fighting a war against the mean critics and haters who are solely responsible for the franchise downfall.
Well, the answer is that all those people who defend the current Sonic so much are from the first stream - the "Comedy" one.
I called the other stream the "Adventure" one. However, maybe it is not accurate. Maybe I should call it the stream for non-Sonic fans or the actual new audience. Because this is what it burned down to at the end. The people who no longer like Sonic are just "not Sonic fans", right? And maybe it is true. Because this is the same philosophy Boom was trying to push: Getting rid of the old crazy fans and get some new ones. Now it's actually the same; only we must finally admit that Sonic Boom fans and other Sonic fans are one and the same group called simply "Sonic fans" (at least the people who are considered Sonic fans by the standards of this current time - August of 2015).
So what I propose is to do this Sonic Boom thing all over again. Only this time, it should be done right - and the roles should be switched.
Comedy Fans Franchise
Comedy fans should now have Sonic Boom as their franchise of choice. This should be the actual franchise for the long time (and loyal) fans. Despite Boom took back all the previous promises, nobody from the Comedy fans care. They are actually glad. Sonic Boom found its identity as a random series that doesn't take itself seriously and insists that you don't take anything seriously either... ever. Boom attracted the Sonic fans who subscribe to this philosophy, so changing Boom to its original advertised form would not help them. And I really indeed want to help them because they are lost. They know that what they defend is not really as good as they are making it up to be. But they need to defend it regardless in order to validate their self-worth and in an attempt to save this franchise. At least that's what they think they are doing. But the problem is that they themselves will be the Boom's franchise undoing if they keep defending it.
I will now describe how I think Sonic Boom should be working from now on. Not how Sonic Boom should have been. It will be different from Roger's ideas for his possible animation about RoL re-imagination. He had some really great ideas and I think I have some interesting ideas too... but I need to forget them all. That would be the Adventure version of Boom. We don't want that. This is about pleasing the Comedy target audience. The ambition of the writer should go aside. No excuses in the sense that "the writers worked so hard on it so they deserve praise and success" can work here. We must understand what people want and deliver it to them. Like really understand it. We must have genuine empathy. No PR bullsh** can make up for it now.
What Do Comedy Fans Want
- Comedy.
- Characters being silly.
- Not ever bothering with serious themes.
- Environments including game levels full of light themes and bright colors.
- Simplicity and lack of continuity.
- Story that can be dismissed and ignored (ideally forgotten).
- Making the fans feel that the franchise is "focused on the gameplay".
This is what the actual Sonic Boom provides. But it is not nearly perfect at it. Every point has a slight problem in the actual execution that will work against it.
The comedy is obviously on the front of Sonic Boom. But it is not really good. Most of the jokes are only understandable for adults and they are actually taking energy away from the experience. It feels as if it was trying to tire you out. That will in the end make the show feel extremely repetitive and boring, and the games completely detached and bland. In fact, this type of comedy is not really in symbiosis with the games. It's pointing out obvious things and mocking repeating tropes... that way, you will sooner or later ask why are you even playing this game when the character that is supposed to be your surrogate is downplaying everything and is trying to make you feel as nothing of it really matters and everything is just so damn repetitive.
I have seen tons of Sonic Boom footage. And there are only three jokes that I ever found funny and worth remembering. First one was in the game when Knuckles punched Sonic so hard rings came out of him and he fell. The only thing I didn't like about it was how they were trying to make it so over-dramatic afterwards. They should have just let it play naturally, because that way people would not expect the twist of Sonic being actually OK. The other joke was Eggman's laughter during snoring. I think that this is the crazy stuff that actually works on the level of "making something funny from something boring", rather than the "make something boring from something funny" anti-humor. The last joke was when Eggman said that he needs to find somebody with a sense of shape and color while Cubot was failing on a puzzle toy for toddlers that was based on shapes and colors. But I think that this amusing moment still fits more into Simpsons rather than Sonic, especially because of the whole premise why this scene happened.
Characters being silly is what Comedy fans not only expect but desire. And it makes sense. Sonic characters always had comedic moments and there was no reason for them not to. I remember for example the interaction between Sonic and Knuckles in Sonic Battle. Despite their characters were slightly flanderized, I just found hilarious how Knuckles got fed up because of Sonic's carelessness and how Sonic teased him by telling Emerl to not listen to Knuckles. It came as a surprise and it was just a playful mischief. The thing is that Sonic Boom writers can't tell a difference between playful teasing and malicious mocking. They think that malicious mocking is OK if you just make the mocked character to love the abuse and even desire to be mocked. All other characters are also mean to each other without any hints of actual friendship. When those hints come, they feel forced, unnatural and out of nowhere. It feels as if the writers have just a checklist of events that need to happen and concepts that need to be shown.
This point and the previous point wouldn't be a problem if they took inspiration from the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog show. This show had genuine comedy and silly characters, yet it never went into the malicious mocking territory. Even Robotnik was likable and portrayed as a... "lighthearted villain" while still actually being a villain!
Not ever bothering with serious themes is not as much important for the quality of this improved Boom franchise, but for the sensibilities of its fans. Remember Eggman threatening to strangle people and eat their black hearts in SLoW? I know it's not technically Boom game, but it was written by Pontaff. And since Pontaff wrote 2/3 of Sonic Boom games, we know what we are up for.
Shadow in Sonic Boom makes zero sense. Same can be said about Metal Sonic. I don't remember if Robotnik actually created Metal Sonic in AoStH,... but even if he did, this Metal Sonic would have to be silly. And Metal Sonic fans don't like Metal Sonic for being silly. This "fan-service" has the opposite effect. It is completely undermining the supposed tone of the Comedy franchise or alienating the very people you are doing this fan-service for. And it is yet again trying to force-merge the two streams of Sonic fans because of "love" (or money). Please, do not even attempt to use dark themes, especially if those themes come from the original Sonic material. Sonic Boom was never supposed to make references to the original since it's completely different.
Didn't the production team behind Sonic Boom think that the original series generated psychopathic Sonic fans for the sole reason of having these dark concepts to begin with? Why would they want to bring them back if the sole reason for creating this franchise was to get "sane" customers?
Environments including game levels full of light themes and bright colors is an extension of the previous point, but it needs to be brought up. There is not much reason to have darker environments in a lighthearted comedy series without a significant story. Because it would imply that at least one of those three elements (lightheartedness, comedy, no significant story) is not present.
Simplicity and lack of continuity is maybe the only thing that Sonic Boom does well. Aside of the games where the story actually exists. Maybe Shattered Crystal had really simple story... but since even some Boom fans were not particularly happy about it, I guess that even implementation of simplicity is not as simple as it seems. In fact, the separate Sonic Boom universe should still have some deeper meaning, continuity and being generally complex in some way... But it must never be forced on Boom fans and they must never even notice it. Only the stories and character interactions should be simple - not the settings of Boom's world or its writer's job.
Story that can be dismissed and ignored (ideally forgotten) is essential for Comedy fans. They do not want to be invested in the story. They want Sonic Boom to make them feel detached. This is pretty much a fact. You will never hear Sonic Boom fans talking about story as if it mattered or as if it meant anything positive for the Boom franchise.
How about the iconic new villain for Sonic Boom? Lyric was his name? How many people talk about him? How many people care about him? I knew some Boom fans that cared about him... They are not Boom fans any longer. Like Christopher Knopps for example. Those people who were hyped for Boom story were just Adventure fans or "non-Sonic fans" that got misguided by the Boom campaign.
Also each time some story tries to present itself as significant, epic or at least as a something that matters, it is because it brings new characters or develops the old characters. And Comedy fans do not like that. The only new characters they accepted were the ones with no story (ala Sticks - her story exists only in the PR statements and it is contradicted in the actual material anyway). And the characters that were supposed to be "developed" got reverted back because they would destroy the simplicity of the series.
I am not saying that there should be no story at all. There should definitely be one, it wouldn't really work without it. But I will say (yet again) that they should take an inspiration from AoStH. Many fans think it was little fun show. I don't see much hate for it. I never did. And despite there were actual things happening and crazy energy in that show... do you remember any plots? I am sure as hell I don't. And I am saying that despite I never disliked the show myself. Yeah, I liked SatAM better, but I didn't hate AoStH.
I am not being sarcastic by recommending "something bad" on purpose. But Comedy fans really don't like stories with a meaning. The lack of stories is really for their benefit.
Making the fans feel that the franchise is "focused on the gameplay" is an interesting point. It's not actually "focusing on the gameplay" point, as this is stupid like I said million times before. But it is actually about tricking people that the gameplay was focused on.
The main problem that strikes my brain when I see gameplay footage of Sonic Boom is how disconnected it is from the general tone of the franchise. The franchise is based on sarcastic detached humor, so you feel sarcastically detached when you play the game. That is not making you feel really invested. You suspect that the tone of the game (story in your mind) is at fault so you instantly think that the game is not fun because the "story" took over the gameplay: The gameplay was bad because it was not "focused on" in your mind.
I think that this problem fixes itself by improvements to the humor and characters alone. But having the gameplay fast and dynamic will also help. You can't have sleepy annoyed grandpas running through loopy loops, and you can't have energetic characters full of enthusiasm and good mood walking through blocks filled maze levels with puzzles stopping you at every step.
New Fans Franchise
The new franchise must have a strong appeal that can draw new fans in. It must be the true Adventure franchise. That is what Adventure Sonic games did. They managed to obtain new audience. They managed to attract lots of positive attention back in the day. Maybe I am wrong, but wasn't that around the Adventure times when Sonic games over-shone Mario games? Even if for just a brief period of time? Why would it be?
It is because people were always attracted by cool spectacles and positive energy. Most of the really successful franchises today offer great spectacle. The SA games are claimed to not have "aged well" mainly because the really good and successful games today just look so good and polished in comparison to SA games (Sonic's vampire face in SA, audio quality in SA and SA2...). New franchises need to provide an amazing spectacle in order to leave some great impression and attract the actual new customers. Nobody will be hyped for a product because the intellectual elitists on the Internet praise the game for having some kind of "perfected gameplay". That is true especially when we really talk about new IPs and upcoming games. You cannot really know if "the gameplay was perfected" until you played the game, right? Especially when your fanbase doesn't exist yet. Granted, the phrase "perfected gameplay" is BS anyway.
Adventure series would be the perfect way to get new fans on board, new kids on board and make Sonic famous with the general public yet again. The last thing is especially important for SEGA if they want to make Sonic "merchantable".
"If Sonic nerds will not care about Sonic or defend him while the general public makes a laughing stock out of him,... you will never see people buying his toys or T-shirts, will you?" SEGA thinks that damage controlling the series faults will fix this. But do you honestly think that people in the real world and new audiences who have no knowledge of Sonic will care for all this damage control and bold "up yours!" statements of the official Sonic twitter accounts and Mikes Pollockheads?
What would really bring Sonic back to glory would be if he was again for everyone and if he was made into an exciting action oriented series that everybody would be eager to take part in. Normal people who see a new "refined and polished" Sonic game with kiddy environments, over-saturated colors and infantile humor are just like: "Oh, it's a Sonic game. A game for Sonic fans." And they will leave it at that. No matter if they know about the quality of the franchise or the damage control performed by the Sonic Celebrities. They will still feel it's genuinely impossible to be entertained by a Sonic game unless you have some weird attachment to Sonic.
But... if people saw on E3 or Gamescom an amazing epic trailer (like for example the one Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 had), they would begin to be interested. That is the key - the initial interest. If people are not interested in the concept, they will turn a blind eye on it.
SEGA and Sonic fans think that if a new game looked from a trailer like 06, people would immediately dismiss it and bash it. Well, 06 bombed because of the technical aspects of that game and few story quirks some Internet celebrities didn't like. But none of that was obvious from the trailers. Everybody was excited for the game back then. I remember that. I was there. Surely, there will be people (and probably even people from the general public because of the media propaganda) who will automatically assume the Sonic game is bad because it looks as awesome as 06. But if you don't score the positive points with the initial reveal, you already lost no matter what. So this risk has to be taken.
After all, you are delusional if you think that the general public will think that the new Sonic game will be bad "because it looks like 06", while they the very same public will think it that a game will be good "because it looks like Colors". Most of the people outside of Sonic franchise (the new audiences we are trying to get) see all Sonic games past Sonic 3 as failed anyway. So if Sonic fans will still be pushing their propaganda that 06 or even Adventure games were bad... this reputation will spill on every Sonic game regardless of how it looks. People outside of the fandom will not recognize the details. People who are willing to give Sonic a chance regardless of history of his failures will care about the first impression. They will not care about the similarities between his new game and the past games they don't even know. After all, SLoW looked like Colors and it still flopped despite the damage control and obvious kiddy tone that was supposed attract people "because it was as good as Colors". So if anything, both approaches (the Comedy and the Adventure one) have bad reputation already anyway.
To make a good Adventure game again, we would need a story. And there are few possibilities I can think of that would work:
- Continue with the story after ShtH, possibly taking the hints from 06 development of events as inspiration.
- Reboot the entire franchise, but not in a Boom way of "we will do our own thing and nobody can say anything because it's a reboot", but by redoing the exact same (main canon) story all over again, while improving it, possibly fixing what people saw as "plotholes". They could even make a "Neo Sonic Adventure 1" using story from the Classic Sonic games with vocal soundtracks, masterfully voiced cutscenes and amazingly looking (yet still believable) techno-dream world. And then "Neo Sonic Adventure 2" would be recreation of Sonic Adventure 1, "Neo Sonic Adventure 3" would be recreation of Sonic Adventure 2 and the next game could either recreate (in much better way) the story of Sonic Heroes or Shadow, or make a much better story.
- In the extreme case, start completely anew like Sonic Boom wanted, only make it well. But that is rather dangerous, because of many subtle reasons. I don't feel like elaborating on them.
What Do New Fans and Adventure fans Want
- Be amazed and engaged.
- Explore the world.
- Feel like a badass.
- Be excited for the upcoming titles.
- Gameplay that builds upon the previous qualities.
Be amazed and engaged is what will draw new people and disappointed Adventure fans in. It is true that many new franchises that created a huge hype didn't live fully to their expectations. They turned out to be (with critics) rather average (like Sunshine Overdrive) or even second-rate (like The Order 1886). I am not saying that being engaged from the trailer or concept alone is automatic win. New players should be engaged during the entire game. Despite cool content and spectacle alone cannot assure complete success (especially if the game is broken), the lack of it definitely assures that getting new people will not happen.
Exploring the world is in another words the same as enjoying the story. It has something to do with the emotional investment. Most people will not explicitly tell you that they play games for stories... but the reasons they like their games are closely tied to the quality and presentation of the story. Without the story, it wouldn't work. Maybe it would work for somebody, but it would not have the desired huge success for masses.
The environment around you when you play a game is much more important aspect than the gameplay alone (unless it is broken). Ratchet and Clank designers said that people at focus tests refused to play the game because they felt it was highly unfinished and completely boring when all that was missing were textures (and models of far away buildings in the background).
If SEGA wants new fans, they want new people who will be into the franchise, not into one game. And franchise is centered around its world. If people are about to be interested into a world, they need to find it awesome. People want to be able to imagine that they are the heroes interacting with the game world as if it was real. And this works even for worlds that are thanks to the gaming mechanics so abstract that some people might think it's impossible to relate to them. Take Heroes of Might and Magic for example. It's a round based strategy. Real life is not round based. You control vast armies, but each type of creatures you control is represented just by one unit. The gameplay is divided between town screen, adventure map screen and combat screen. And yet, people still can feel immersed into the world. They still feel the story, even though they might not know its details. But if everything was just random and had no sense of consistency, design philosophy or themes, why would people even care for it?
Feeling like a badass is one of the most important things Sonic was famous for. That is actually the biggest reason why the current Comedy Era disgusts people. When Sonic was comedic and silly in the past, he was still badass! Now the comedy comes from people being stupid, annoying, annoyed, pathetic or causing anti-climatic events. If this doesn't disgust people, it at least disappoints them.
Every Sonic character that was ever famous and well liked was a badass. Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow, even Tails. Contrary, the characters that were perceived as not well liked were comedy reliefs like Big, Omochao,... maybe partially Babylon Rogues... Yes, there were badass characters who were disliked by some people like Shadow, Silver, Blaze... but after many discussions with them, I am convinced that those people are both long time fans (so they are not the new audience we seek) and they are Comedy fans (because their tastes on the "taste-diagram" are way closer to the center of the "Comedy Cluster" than the "Adventure Cluster").
More importantly, when we ignore Sonic for a while, many people in this world love badass characters. Making the characters lame on purpose or mocking the concept of badass characters will mean to go against what is popular. You can scream "CoD" all you want, but making the series more serious will definitely make it more successful than making it a joke. And besides, people who are already tired of badasses, cool action and spectacle probably want parodies. And Sonic parody can make sense to them only if they are already familiar with Sonic. So they will choose the Comedy fans franchise that is for the old fans.
Be excited for the upcoming titles is something that was a thing for Sonic franchise up until Colors. People were speculating where will the story go, what will happen. They were making up some crazy and amazing theories.
In the past, people were speculating if Shadow was indeed an android after SA2, they were speculating if this mysterious hedgehog "Nazo" will ever appear in possible future Sonic X season or even in the games, they were speculating if Super Emeralds were canon, they were speculating what would happen if Eggman really took over the world...
What are Sonic fans speculating about today?
Nothing.
You can see people talking about possible Colors 2, SLoW 2, Generations 2... But you don't really feel any excitement or hype behind those speculations. It's just a cold contemplation or a mild curiosity at best and disappointment at worst. And you barely ever hear people speculating about original or crazy ideas anymore. People don't speculate about story... and they don't speculate about gameplay either. Sometimes they will say: "we want something new", but they rather don't specify anything because they know that their idea would be stupid gimmick everyone would hate. And most of the time they only ask SEGA to regress their ideas rather than expand on them. All just to have an uninterrupted, boring and empty obstacle course, so nobody could complain about some crazy feature disturbing the fans sensibilities. That is what I am talking about - it's just fans talking to fans, considering only fans or spiting certain other fans. This environment cannot bring new people in.
Gameplay that builds upon the previous qualities is of course something that naturally comes with it. I hope that I do not need to make sure that the game developers know it... but I think I need to make sure that gamers know it.
You created all the hype for the game, you love this gaming world, you love the characters, you feel that there is a vision for the franchise... so now it's the time to take control and start interacting with the world. You see how cool everything is? Time to be able to do some cool things yourself. You like all the badasses in the story? Time for you to feel like a badass yourself! Time to perform all the cool moves your favorite character can do.
That is the main difference between the general gaming audience and Comedy fans.
The general gaming audience plays games for the fantasy and immersion:
"I like Batman because he can sneak on enemies, throw batarangs, set traps and fight like the best martial artists in the world. Translate this into the gameplay so I can do those things!"
Arcade centric audience plays games to feel an accomplishment for mastering the mechanics:
"This powerup grants me an advantage against this type of enemy but it is weak against this type of enemy. If I move two steps forward in this direction, I can reach his weak spot, but I must not allow him to perform this move. If I push this sequence of buttons, I can overcome this obstacle to reach this objective. I don't care about the color scheme or the look of the characters - those are just cosmetic changes that don't affect anything!"
The thing is that the players that look for mastering a game to overcome challenges or to prove their worth as gamers are not really attracted to new (or rebooted) IPs, unless those IPs are indeed centered on Player vs Player mechanics. Those people may start to appear in a franchise once it established itself - and once it evolved its gameplay for this very purpose. Sonic is obviously not the case, as Sonic gameplay keeps fluctuating on almost yearly basis and it's only about obstacle course anyway. You may have those speed runners trying to get the highest score in the game... but they will not drive the franchise. Nor will they come from new audiences.
Comedy fans play a game to be detached from the both the real world and gaming world:
"All I want is just a silly fun. I don't want to see any kind of consequences, especially not if they look realistic!"
Then there you have those people who don't look for immersion because they want the actual opposite - detachment. This is an example of stomping on Goombas and growing after eating a mushroom. It's silly, it has no explanation and it is entirely about the mechanics. But because there is no context behind it, there is no identity for it. So franchises that operate on this logic look like each other's clones. And since Mario pretty much monopolized this brand, anyone else trying to do this will look like Mario clone and thus will not really get any attention or appreciation.
Maybe you might say that "focusing on gameplay" means to discover some clever game rules that are fun on themselves... like what Angry birds did. But if the entire franchise is only about mechanics, then slapping a brand on it of any sort is just an afterthought. What if Mario was the first franchise that would introduce this concept of throwing things to demolish pyramid of other things? Then Angry could never come into existence. But since they came before Mario could come up with this, they slapped their meaningless faces on it and now they "own" this concept. But since we now have a movie made about Angry birds, something tells me that they are no longer only about their gameplay concept. They used this concept to get into subconsciousness of masses, and they are using their newly gained identity to stay relevant. Meanwhile, Sonic is copying identity of others and he is taking a dump on his own gameplay gimmick: The pinball physics.
So unless Sonic wants to get rid of absolutely everything and wants to become only a pinball game, he needs to establish his own world the gameplay can derive from.
The majority of potential new audience will want this fundamental element of immersion. If SEGA wants to consciously piss on the concept of immersion for the sake of some imaginary Sonic ethics, they are consciously preventing themselves from reaching this goal of gaining new people. So in the end, if SEGA officials (or their corporate slaves) really believe that making an immersive game is evil because it goes against some high gaming standards, they should be glad that Sonic is not getting any new people. Because those potential new people would try to "corrupt" the franchise with their immersion philosophy.
The Isolation Problem
It appears to me that SEGA is unable to understand why it is so important to completely isolate those two different groups of people from one another. Even if we take into the account that SEGA realized that Sonic Boom is actually not for kids and that it is about detachment, they still act as if this series was for some kind of semi-Sonic fans... or some proving ground for Sonic fans. SEGA basically thinks that Sonic Boom is some kind of entry level to get new fans on board, so they will later merge with all other fans and become fans of everything Sonic. Yeah, they don't seem to distinguish "Sonic fans" who like Sonic Boom from "Sonic fans" who like the original Sonic. They probably think (at least SEGA of America) that all people who don't like Boom are just biased assholes who either need to change their ways or leave the entire franchise.
But this can never work. Sonic Boom fans and original Sonic fans literally cannot be the same group of people. They stand for completely different standards and they have diametrically opposite motivations for why they are in the franchise. Even if SEGA believed that Sonic Boom really generated them new fans, why would they think that the point on the "taste-diagram" for each individual new (and old) fan can move its position? Maybe it can move slightly... But to move it across the board, one would have to change his life values drastically.
So SEGA either wants to "enlighten" people in some holy quest for moral perfection, or they think it's just so much fun when the two series keep referencing one another. Sticks in comics or Olympic games with the main cast, or wisps in Boom... Do they think that those references are cute? And those are not just references... this is full use of the foreign concept. That's completely different. A reference would be if a child drew a picture of Bat-Mite in Nolan Batman movie. Full use of this foreign concept would be if Bat-Mite had a main role in the story of the Nolan Batman movies. Yeah, maybe the crossover comic or the Olympic games are not canon... but it's damn close! The point is that they are advertising the main canon (hopefully "Adventure") content by promoting values of the Comedy content! That is like advertising the badass, cool, dark and broody Batman by the Bat-Mite on posters and in the trailers. Even if it's just adds. It still makes no sense.
Conclusion
They need to really divide the franchise in two if they want to make Sonic successful again. If they will insist on keeping only the Comedy franchise alive, they will fail on their main objective of gaining new people.
Sonic Boom used to be marketed as the franchise for the new people, yet it became the ultimate embodiment of the current small niche fanbase SEGA was originally trying to get rid of.
Because Boom was already established as a direction for the niche Sonic fanboys crowd, it should stay that way. Even though it should still improve a bit. I suggested to make it a bit more like AoStH. As far as I know, people who love comedy in Sonic hardly ever complained about that show.
The original appeal of Sonic should be used to attract new people. Implementing again the Classic and Adventure saga is actually the way of getting both new and old fans interested again.
SEGA makes it look like Boom series was made for non-Sonic fans, yet the people who start getting into it need to became full fledged Sonic fans of the entire franchise (both sides of it). This will never happen, it is delusion and it is the main reason why they are failing at their mission.
If they really want to keep only the Comedy franchise (or have both franchises centered around comedy for some reason), they should at least be honest and tell the entire world that they intend to keep this weird niche franchise for extreme nerds as the only official Sonic portrayal. They should also say that they will not welcome any outsiders and that they are proud for it.
Edit:
SA3 page posted my article. And they quoted the one thing from my article I actually borrowed from someone else - Roger van der Weide. "Sonic with a silly hat" is a reference to his parody where he was pointing out that Eggman being actually Eggman Nega in Sonic Rivals was not really a plot-twist. If anything, those two characters were portrayed as basically the same. The story in that game wouldn't change if Eggman Nega was just the usual Eggman the entire time. I thought this was a perfect parallel for main Sonic versus Boom Sonic.
Roger's Sonic Adventure Frontiersified.
I feel like Roger's Sonic Adventure Frontiersified was inspired by my journal. At least it would seem that the lines from Tails were: And I haven't laughed as much for a long time. Definitely give it a watch. It really should have much more views. I have to also commend on the brilliant idea of Frontiersifying SA1 story. Maybe this will make it a bit more hard to understand for very casual fans who know only one (or none) of those games, but for Sonic fans who know both, this will perfectly sums up the problems of Frontiers by comparison. If the parody was solely about Frontiers, most Sonic fans wouldn't have to even notice the problems and the missing potential. But like this, we have examples of how Frontiers is in certain aspects a worse game than the very first serious 3D Sonic game, which came out in the ancient times when 3D games in general were a brand new thing. And that is kinda sad.
Coming blindness
So, yesterday I was diagnosed with a condition that may in few years result in blindness. It's only over a half year since I was assured by my eye doctor that my eye sight is fine, that I don't need to fear blindness in my case, other people have it much worse... and so on. Well, I just know that since I already got one disease that targets only 1% of the population, on top of that another one one that targets 10%, now this... that being assured that only a small percentage of those with my condition will go blind is not really that reassuring. Cause I am a master of squeezing into these small percentages every single time when it comes to stuff that can go catastrophically wrong for me. Originally, I thought that if I went dark, it would be because I'd die. Looks like it will actually be because I go blind. Of course, there is no treatment. Like if that even needed to be considered an option. When retina degenerates, there is nothing that can be done. I was afraid this will come for
Sonic Frontiers - JP bland vs EN 4th Wall breaks
I decided to compare the two versions of Sonic Frontiers: The English and the Japanese script. Friend linked me this video where the Japanese dub is translated, so we can begin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-TCdYY2a2k I will only comment when I find something worth pointing out. But looks like I have a lot to point out. 2:27 - Tails: "Whoa! A law-defying force field is changing the steering's outcome? Logic disparities are manifesting and going down to the bottom of causality!" :D Say what? English mutherfucker, do you speak it?! I know, I am viewing the direct Japanese translation. Did Tails really say this in Japanese? That's weird way to speak. And it's not the first time I read direct Japanese translations... I guess Tails is secretly a robot. 5:58 - I noticed the visuals don't go very well with the Japanese translation. Sonic looks determined, makes this cheerful fist gesture and daring expression and smiling, yet the words are "anyway, what happened to you?" Doesn't fit
Sonic Frontiers Review
After Sonic Frontiers was released, several circumstances prevented me from making a review on it. First was general apathy I started to feel towards Sonic franchise. It was mostly fueled by the way my detractors and SA3 group detractors got to me mentally. Then SA3 lost its traffic, then SA3 was outright deleted from Facebook without any stated reason (which outright made it impossible to correct whatever they deemed we did wrong), and in the end it was my health issues and private life. But now I finally gathered enough energy to again write a new piece. Intro Before Sonic Frontiers was released, I was having hopes that it might do something right. Well, I wasn't as hopeful as my hypothetical younger naive self that died a long ago. But I still secretly thought that there would be some kind of evolution in Sonic games that would bring us to a new better era. I always thought it would be nice if Sonic games had something like 1v1 styled combat. Seeing the promo, I was surprised with
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I'd say this is definably worth a shot.
But if you ask me: what I think Sonic needs most is a reboot. I'm serious, just reboot the whole thing. This time, use Sonic SatAM as the main foundation with some of the better elements from Archie and Fleetway mixed in, then build everything else on top of it, yes even the classics and the 2 Sonic Adventures. This I believe, will revitalize Sonic and give the entire franchise a rich and engaging storyline. That to me would be the ideal Sonic game series I would want: A group of Freedom Fighters fighting against an evil robotic empire, eventually fighting against malevolent wizards, ruthless mercenaries, mad scientists, invading aliens, monstrous gods, and evil cults as well. Imagine a Sonic game where you can fight for the ideals of freedom, hope, and justice against any villain that aims to conquer, enslave, and destroy; the potential in that premise is downright limitless. I don't care if the gameplay could be in 2D or in 3D as long as they can pull it off well.
But if you ask me: what I think Sonic needs most is a reboot. I'm serious, just reboot the whole thing. This time, use Sonic SatAM as the main foundation with some of the better elements from Archie and Fleetway mixed in, then build everything else on top of it, yes even the classics and the 2 Sonic Adventures. This I believe, will revitalize Sonic and give the entire franchise a rich and engaging storyline. That to me would be the ideal Sonic game series I would want: A group of Freedom Fighters fighting against an evil robotic empire, eventually fighting against malevolent wizards, ruthless mercenaries, mad scientists, invading aliens, monstrous gods, and evil cults as well. Imagine a Sonic game where you can fight for the ideals of freedom, hope, and justice against any villain that aims to conquer, enslave, and destroy; the potential in that premise is downright limitless. I don't care if the gameplay could be in 2D or in 3D as long as they can pull it off well.