Redesign after lost world?

[Sonic The Badass]

Do you think Sonic games should have a redesign after lost world? most people argue its too cartoonish...

 

Sonic has always been cartoons but the unleashed/colors redesign is the most cartoonish we have seen him yet. I liked the SA2 design but I don't see how that would work today.

 

What do you think about the current character/game designs?

 

 

[Sly4Good]

No, I don't think Sonic Games should have a redesign after Lost World because I'm perfectly content with they way Lost World looks. It's cartoonish, yes, but I feel that the cartoony environments suit him best.

Look at this screenshot, for example. It looks absolutely GORGEOUS. All the little detail, like the plants, the patterns in the trees and grass, the Ivy, the rays of sun, and even the DIRT all complement each other beautifully and fit exactly into what I would imagine a sonic game looking like. Hell, Sonic himself is in the screenshot and looks like he fits in this world PERFECTLY.

[Alice Twilight]

This is probably a one off thing. Sonic games have always had a slight change in art direction, Sonic Shuffle had a really cartoonish feel to it because of the cel-shading, wouldn't mind cel shading again in Sonic games it can look real pretty sometimes.

[Sonic The Badass]

This is probably a one off thing. Sonic games have always had a slight change in art direction, Sonic Shuffle had a really cartoonish feel to it because of the cel-shading, wouldn't mind cel shading again in Sonic games it can look real pretty sometimes.

I love cell shaded sonic i cant lie

[Jolt_TH]

Personally I don't mind, I love both the Unleashed and Lost World art styles. Unleashed looks great with all the little details they have put in and the amount of detail that is in the textures themselves, the drawback is that it's a lot harder to render more detailed textures (aswell as the fact that the gameplay made you completely miss it!). Lost world, although simpler just looks great for Sonic, he really fits in with the zones and although the level of detail isn't as high as Unleashed, there is still a fair amount of detail in the stages, and it looks great! There can be such a thing as too much detail and I think with this art direction the levels of Unleashed detail would just look to cluttered and noisy! The Lost World art style does remind me of the classics a little, and before we start on the old "but the classics were always really detailed" argument I'm not saying that it has "gone back to" or is "emulating" or "trying to capture" the classic style, it just minds me of the classics with the colours and as I mentioned before, the balance in the level of detail.

No matter, Sonic looks great in both styles and im sure he would look great in some more too!

Edit: however I might be against a redesign of Sonic himself, we have had this iteration since Unleashed and I think it's a great one, of course that may be due to familiarity, but I think he looks great, his proportions are perfect and the colouring really fits

Edited August 11, 2013 by Jolt_TH

[Sonic The Badass]

No, I don't think Sonic Games should have a redesign after Lost World because I'm perfectly content with they way Lost World looks. It's cartoonish, yes, but I feel that the cartoony environments suit him best. Look at this screenshot, for example. It looks absolutely GORGEOUS. All the little detail, like the plants, the patterns in the trees and grass, the Ivy, the rays of sun, and even the DIRT all complement each other beautifully and fit exactly into what I would imagine a sonic game looking like. Hell, Sonic himself is in the screenshot and looks like he fits in this world PERFECTLY.

that does look pretty.. but some examples of lost world don't show that perfect look, the lighting sometimes seems to... make it look weird. I like seeing a cartoonish sonic but this design feels a bit off at times

[Autosaver]

Sure some people dislike it, but there are a TON of people that adore the new art style. If this art style allows us to experience Sonic games in 60FPS and actually interact with the level itself, I say keep it.

 

 

[http://images.vg247.com/current//2013/08/89901_SilentForest_Zone2_005.jpg]

 

 

 

If the alternative is to go back to 30fps and at points a slideshow/too much detail that it actually detracts from the experience, I'd rather not go there.

 

edit: is it just me or did we miss the detail in that second screen where sonic is HANGING on the leaves!

Edited August 12, 2013 by Autosaver

[Tara]

I'll actually be incredibly disappointed if there is a redesign after Lost World.  I know the reception on the new artistic direction tends to be a bit mixed, but I personally love absolutely every little thing about it.  It actually looks like a Sonic game for a change.  It's very reminiscent to the classic Sonic era without feeling like a half-hearted attempt at trying to appeal to nostalgia.  Plus, it looks both surreal and positively gorgeous.

 

Though as someone else stated, the Sonic series is constantly reinventing itself artistically, so chances are they'll move onto something different in the next game, and I'm fine with that.  But I really wouldn't mind if this remained the uniform art direction for the series as a whole.

[SteffieMusings]

I actually like this more cartoony look for the Sonic series and hope it will stay if possible.

[Autosaver]

Retro: We’re seeing Sonic Lost World at the convention today, and one of the things that is very noticeable is that it goes back to an older, more classic visual feel for the game, with recognisable elements of the original Sonic the Hedgehog design. What motivated you to make this change?

 

Iizuka: With the previous game (Sonic Generations), it was for the 20^th anniversary so we decided to celebrate Sonic’s history. With that one, we tried to compress 20 years of history into one title and aimed for a high quality, HD re-imagining of what Sonic could be. With Sonic Lost World, what we wanted to do was imagine how best Sonic should be going forwards. So we looked back at what we had done before and tried to think about what would the best, playability-wise for Sonic going forwards, and what’s the best look for Sonic.

With Generations, it was HD and really detailed, almost so much that it was hard to see the rings when you were running through the levels. So this time, we stripped everything back and tried to renew Sonic, and we simplified the graphics to match the playability, the style of what Sonic should be.

 

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Ha! Even Iizuka backed up my complaints on the other art style. He even says the new one is what Sonic should be. Sorry, it seems like it won't be coming back.

[Johnny Boy]

Nope. Cartoon style blends perfectly with Sonic.

[Chaos Warp]

Admittedly I prefer the detail of the old artstyle but if this artstyle allows us to gain 60 FPS and it can still produce areas that look great to me like the casino area, water tube area or jungle area I'll argue for it staying.

[t0ms0nic]

In the same boat as most people; vastly prefer the new less busy artstyle, focusing on areas and objects that Sonic can personally interact with, as well as Sonic not blending into the environments by not excessively using lightfields (the whole screen taking on a slight tint with the environment) and always standing out. The best part is how everything feels like sprites from the classic era lovingly brought over into 3D.

 

Though, on the subject of redesigning Sonic...

 

 

He seems to have been given a fresh model for the first time since Secret Rings (the first game to use the Unleashed model but at a lower polycount), having a slight trim on the quills and his torso being noticeably smaller. Something I've noticed in the screenshots and models since we saw it from behind (especially with the grinding screenshots after playing Generations mods with cameras that zoom in from similar angles), but finally have a decent shot from the cutscene to show it. The CG seems to still be using the same high-quality model, but it's still quite interesting how they've made a new model for the game.

Edited August 11, 2013 by t0ms0nic

[ArtFenix]

Yeah, I REALLY think they should go back to Unleashed art direction. It was beautiful and the new one doesn't impress me and only gives me headaches. I really don't like it.

[super saiyan weegee]

I'm perfectly content with Lost World's style, and I would be fine (in fact, I would prefer it) if Sonic games stayed this way from here on out.

[Sami]

I hate the Lost World style. It's far too bright and too void of detail. Just looks bad, in my opinion.

 

I really, truly hope that it's a one time thing they're doing to be more like Nintendo or something.

[Wraith]

 

I really, truly hope that it's a one time thing they're doing to be more like Nintendo or something.

It's weird because Mario is the more detailed one now.

 

 

 

Funny how these things turn out.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

It's weird because Mario is the more detailed one now.

 

 

 

Funny how these things turn out.

I made this notice before, how Mario and Sonic are now switching places in terms of Artstyle (at least for this game).

[Sami]

Oh you have got to be shitting me.

[Marcello]

I'm not a huge fan of the Lost World art style. Took the cartoony-ness to far into something that I don't think fits. Don't like the highway in the sky tubes. Really hate those :V

 

I'd be happy with the Unleashed-Generations style. Never found the backgrounds distracting. Take some ADD pills people =P I also never had a problem with 30 fps.

[Soniman]

If you hand pick Mario Kart8 then sure, but if you're fair and actually take a screenshot from a main Mario game like 3D World, youll see that the diffrence isn't all that drastic.

Edited August 11, 2013 by Soniman

[Diogenes]

I'm pretty satisfied with how SLoW looks. I could see shifting a little back towards realism/detail, but I don't see reason to go too far from what they're doing in SLoW.

[Wraith]

If you hand pick Mario Kart8 then sure, but if you're fair and actually take a screenshot from a main Mario game like 3D World, youll see that the diffrence isn't all that drastic.

 Even 3D World looks a bit more detailed than Lost World in a lot of place.

 

 

It's not like it's a negative point or anything. It's just interesting how their roles as far as style go are kind of switching.

[Gatestormer]

No thank you, I adore this new style to the environments and I'm very pleased to read that Iizuka plans on taking Sonic in this direction. This is the sort of thing I've wanted to see, I think it fits the characters much better and everybody looks right at home. 

Edited August 11, 2013 by Gatestormer

[GuyWithThePie]

This is probably a one off thing. Sonic games have always had a slight change in art direction, Sonic Shuffle had a really cartoonish feel to it because of the cel-shading, wouldn't mind cel shading again in Sonic games it can look real pretty sometimes.

Sonic 4: Episode 1 (XBLA/PS3/WiiWare versions) also had cel-shading.