Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric (Wii U)

[goku262002]

I'm amazed no fan has done the trending thing of recreating game POC's in Unreal Engine 4 with this game, would like to have seen what a fan can do with this same concept but done right.

[Graystripe2000]

I might as well clairify something Tamaki said about CryEngine. In the "Where did it all go wrong" video he said it wasn't natively comparable with Wii U. He clarified in a discussion that he meant it wasn't compatible with dual screens. 

 

[TCB]

Big Red Button takes a moment to reflect on their part in the franchise, the past and future.

http://nintendoeverything.com/big-red-button-reflects-on-sonic-boom-rise-of-lyric-sega-on-sonics-future-and-more/

This line though:

"He hopes the game will stand the test of time because it tried to do something different for the brand, but admits that it is ultimately up to history and the game community to decide."

I don't think it will stand for the reasons he's implying.

[FriendBot]

>implying the game will be remembered at all

I'm pretty sure most of the statements said in that article are just typical PR nonsense but I can see that people like Iizuka and the like are really going for a "high quality" focus for future titles while keeping the style the series is known for.

I feel somewhat hopeful for the future of Sonic but it all depends on the next main series game, really. It going to be the make-or-break for the fans, which is probably what SEGA/Sonic Team are expecting as well.

[The Deleter]

Quote

“When you buy a Sonic game, we want you to see that Sega logo on the package and know that you’re getting a great experience."

Quote

He says with Rise of Lyric, priority was put into shipping the title rather than quality and fan expectation

You can't have your cake and eat it, too, Iizuka :Y

[FriendBot]

1 minute ago, Detective Layton said:

You can't have your cake and eat it, too, Iizuka :Y

You are aware that Iizuka says that for future Sonic games, right?

[The Deleter]

6 minutes ago, True Detective Soni said:

You are aware that Iizuka says that for future Sonic games, right?

It should apply to all the games he makes, past, present, and future, but I don't think the other half of the quote

Quote

Ideally, I want Sonic to be a character loved both by people who play games and by those who don’t

isn't talking about Boom and it's marketing direction..?

[goku262002]

Yeah this game is shit, I don't know who hes fooling. hes effectively made another Sonic 2006 with RoL, something new for the fanbase and Sonic Team to be ashamed of while the rest of the world laughs at it. even Raftei admits Sonic Team has the cross to bear of RoL's failure while they can wash their hands of it and "move on", doesn't seem fair in my book.

[Milo]

^ Yeah, speaking of which... (this is from the Polygon article, by the way)

Quote

Where a company like Disney may have a "corporate bible" for how to draw its characters, Sega has the combined vision of Sonic Team and Takashi Iizuka, both of which are instrumental in making sure every change made maintains both the Sonic brand and name. Rafei says that Sonic Team gave the developer "guardrails" to explore within as to what changes made sense visually, thematically and stylistically for its character. While not everything was necessarily set in stone, Rafei says "tremendous care" was taken by the two parties to maintain the brand of the character. Iizuka and Sonic Team would give Big Red Button feedback during the development of Rise of Lyric, choosing and critiquing what changes were acceptable and denying changes they believed went against Sonic’s character.

...

Iizuka does not wash his hands completely of Sega’s problems. He cites Rise of Lyric, explaining how priority was put into shipping the title rather than quality and fan expectation. He also admits that Sonic Team wasn’t "deeply involved" with the game’s development. Iizuka says that Sonic Team wants to build a new internal standard for its products, giving the team the necessary resources to craft something that lives up to fans’ expectations.

...contradiction in terms much? What Rafei says and what Iizuka says are both at odds with each other. Either Sonic Team had a major hand in BRB's development of Rise of Lyric, or they didn't.

Personally, I'm going to take Iizuka's word for it that he and his staff at Sonic Team weren't really involved in the game's development. A lot of what BRB staff has said about Rise of Lyric following its release, especially the Stephen Frost interview, seems more like damage control to excuse the game's quality that has come way, way, too late after the fact. Especially how Rise of Lyric in general seems like another project that has superficial ties to the Sonic (Boom) brand haphazardly shoehorned in. It just seems like these people are genuinely conditioned to give an excuse to any such critical questioning (though in the context of Sonic games in general, BRB are far from the only party guilty to have engaged in this).

[Wraith]

17 hours ago, goku262002 said:

Yeah this game is shit, I don't know who hes fooling. hes effectively made another Sonic 2006 with RoL, something new for the fanbase and Sonic Team to be ashamed of while the rest of the world laughs at it. even Raftei admits Sonic Team has the cross to bear of RoL's failure while they can wash their hands of it and "move on", doesn't seem fair in my book.

I don't think he's trying to fool anyone. You'd be hard pressed to find any developer who will say their own game sucked. I'm surprised about how frank he was when discussing the game and where he thinks it went wrong tbh.

[Autosaver]

On 2/8/2016 at 2:16 PM, True Detective Soni said:

You are aware that Iizuka says that for future Sonic games, right?

He's been saying that shit since like... Sonic 06. 10 years ago.

[GuyWithThePie]

27 minutes ago, Detective Paradox said:

Should've been one of his alternate costumes in Sm4sh.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Someone else doing the renders would explain the slightly different lighting and colors we've gotten out of the series. Still looks good, wonder why they haven't used these for anything yet.

[KHCast]

Hmm, I wonder if Boom Sonic was considered a alt for Sm4sh. Wouldn't surprise me given how SEGA were trying to push it at the time.

[Graystripe2000]

I just found something rather interesting. The placeholder music that plays when fighting the drill in ROL's E3 demo is actually a song from Steamboy. 

 

[FriendBot]

25 minutes ago, Operationgamer17 said:

I just found something rather interesting. The placeholder music that plays when fighting the drill in ROL's E3 demo is actually a song from Steamboy. 

 

I recall that this was mentioned when that gameplay footage was first shown here.

[Graystripe2000]

I was watching the GDC 2015 trailer, and Sonic Boom was in it despite being released in 2014. I thought the CryEngine trailers at GDC were for UPCOMING games. 

 

[goku262002]

Hey @Paraxade, Jontron name dropped ya buddy!

Also Hii DYKG!! Message us if you're looking for info for a part 2.

[FriendBot]

Don't forget @Tails' Channel too dood!

[Cyrus]

Look at what our good ol' friends at Big Red Buttox are up to!

 

[DarkRula]

1 hour ago, Cyrus said:

Look at what our good ol' friends at Big Red Buttox are up to!

 

I really hope that's a typo and not a slightly subtle name you're calling them.

 

It's good that they have a new game that they're working on. We'll have to see how good this one is.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

47 minutes ago, DarkRula said:

I really hope that's a typo and not a slightly subtle name you're calling them.

It's probably the least subtle name ever actually

[Mad Convoy]

BRB is still looking for a Senior Programmer according to its website, but it seems that any other position they need has been filled. Yet again, that page still refers an unannounced project despite having announced Arcslinger so BRB might have since filled the position and simply not have updated all of the site yet. Or, alternatively, they're working on another game alongside Arcslinger that needs a person for that position. No mention of RoL anymore on the website-- seems kind of obvious but the RoL-related posts still remain on its official Twitter so it wasn't necessarily guaranteed that it would purge all traces of that game from all its official outlets.

I hope BRB manages to recover somehow. It made a lot of bad mistakes with RoL, but it was also screwed over in a lot of ways beyond its control. I hope it at least gets the opportunity to show off what its learned from the whole fiasco and what it can do when its not hamstrung by Sega's haphazard idiocy. On the other hand, its banking on VR for this recovery. It might seem smart since people who are mostly familiar with VR or have enough of a passing interest in it to want to try out a few games wouldn't be familiar with RoL or Sonic fanculture (at least not beyond Sonic Dreams Collection, but even that had little to do with Boom and faded into obscurity within a month of release). But VR remains polarizing, being derided by some as a gimmicky fad or otherwise not worthwhile. Not to mention that, being a new technology, its super expensive and hasn't yet fully defined itself or worked out all of the kinks. Don't get me wrong, making game number 2 would have been an uphill battle for BRB no matter what-- releasing lesser failures than RoL as the first title can and has killed companies in their infancy, so BRB was lucky to have only been barely scraping along for a pretty long time. Not to mention that its reputation is still quite poor in the console gaming market. But I think VR carries a huge risk of making things harder than it should be for the company.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

5 minutes ago, Mad Convoy said:

No mention of RoL anymore on the website

Except, y'know, the background of the careers page

 

[Mad Convoy]

41 minutes ago, Shaddy the guy said:

Except, y'know, the background of the careers page

How did I not recognize that lol?