Sonic Forces | PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC "The Next Generations"

[Indigo Rush]

3 minutes ago, JosepMelloZSM said:

At LEAST is not the final bulid.

Maybe things changed?...

Maybe the final version won't have that many springs?...

 

I hope they move the rings to the left a little. They've only got a few months left to fix that.

[Nepenthe]

1 minute ago, Ratcicle King said:

That's the thing tho'.

I'm down for a Generations 2,  at least a decade from the first one, with new stages, and a better plot. Heck I'd say many of us are, the novelty of recreating old stages in HD graphics was great and there is much more potential there.

Not Modern Sonic on a brand new adventure starring Classic Sonic and Green Hill taking a level slot for no good reason other than ''Generations made us mad cash'', also starring wisps because Colors was pretty good too.

I would rather we stop wasting development resources on contextually-lacking celebratory blowouts on a franchise whose birthdays don't deserve the fanfare of other franchises anymore at this point.

Regardless, Gens was basically a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity anyway, no matter how much time passes afterwards, because they've already exhausted the novelty as evidence by how completely bored or unsurprised people are at the whole set up. It's one thing to have a franchise with recurring areas, to go back to Angel Island or something if we play through it in unique ways, no different from the Mushroom Kingdom or Hyrule or whatever. But if they were gonna keep the Gens mantra up, the best thing to have actually done to put a sheen on it would've been to set it as a brand new adventure. Like, if I were in charge and told that I had to fucking do this shit again, I'd make it a new adventure.

Also, fuck Wisps.

[Indigo Rush]

Every 5 years is a mile stone in some way

Major Sonic games take about a 3-5 year development cycle

Every major Sonic game from here-on out is technically an anniversary title

Can't wait for Sonic's 30th. e_e

[Wraith]

Lol we're rolling up on the 30th anniversary so the next Sonic game has an excuse to pull this again

[Dejimon11]

9 minutes ago, Nepenthe said:

"You want to play as other characters? Cool. Here's Classic Sonic!"

"But...."

And that's been annoying me it's been 10 years. I get it I truly get why they're keeping it the Sonic only show because the reception of the other characters have been negative but most of that has to do with the fact that we've been forced to have alternate gameplay styles or when everybody plays the same you're forced to beat the game with everybody in order to unlock the last story. So in a way that's there fault. 

[Semi-colon e]

The problem seems to be that they're trying to recapture that magic bullet every time as a shortcut to success. People liked Colours at the time, so the Wisps will be loved in every game after right? People loved the nostalgia celebration Generations was, the're going to love it again, right? A lot of these things only work at the time, and when repeated just immediately lose their luster. I'm sure there were plenty of people (like myself) who adored Generations, yet don't want to see Sonic Team rehash them. Especially when it doesn't seem the flaws are really improved on in any meaningful way.

 

You progress and make good stuff by continually improving and balancing old elements with new twists to keep something fresh, not just shoving Green Hill Zone in which is basically like the Kanto pandering in Pokemon except much worse.

[Ratcicle King]

2 minutes ago, Nepenthe said:

I would rather we stop wasting development resources on contextually-lacking celebratory blowouts on a franchise whose birthdays don't deserve the fanfare of other franchises anymore at this point.

Regardless, Gens was basically a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity anyway, no matter how much time passes afterwards, because they've already exhausted the novelty as evidence by how completely bored or unsurprised people are at the whole set up. It's one thing to have a franchise with recurring areas, to go back to Angel Island or something if we play through it in unique ways, no different from the Mushroom Kingdom or Hyrule or whatever. But if they were gonna keep the Gens mantra up, the best thing to have actually done to put a sheen on it would've been to set it as a brand new adventure. Like, if I were in charge and told that I had to fucking do this shit again, I'd make it a new adventure.

Also, fuck Wisps.

People are bored or unsurprised because of how redundant bringing Classic Sonic so soon is, plus another fucking green hill zone.

A Generations 2 could've worked, if they didn't become desperate like they are being now. Again, had they given around a decade, maybe more, and actually MOVED ON, you know, actually working to evolve the franchise and not get constantly stuck on nostalgia whoring, whenever a hypotetical Generations 2 rolled, it wouldn't be as well received as the first, but it would've been welcome.

Saying people who enjoyed Generations are at fault for Sonic Forces is honestly like saying people who enjoyed the Adventures are at fault for 06, or people who enjoyed the Advanced series are at fault for Sonic 4.

[Nepenthe]

3 minutes ago, Ratcicle King said:

Saying people who enjoyed Generations are at fault for Sonic Forces is honestly like saying people who enjoyed the Adventures are at fault for 06

This has literally been the working attitude of the fanbase since ShtH came out tho'.

[Ratcicle King]

So if you can't beat them join them? :U

[Scar]

16 minutes ago, Nepenthe said:

Hasn't this been in development since right after Lost World? When did Mania start development?

Sure, but it remains entirely possible that they had another game in the works that got canned (or had development paused) and they made this game instead. Its been a long time since Lost World.

Of course this is pure speculation, but these sort of things have happened in the industry.

[Nepenthe]

3 minutes ago, Ratcicle King said:

So if you can't beat them join them? :U

I sure will, because it's not like the attitude has fully subsided and empathy rules the day again. Ain't like there aren't days where certain sects of the fanbase get shit on in the statuses without a bit of introspection. There's honestly no reason for people who remember just how hilariously terrible the 2000s were to not take just a little bit of Schadenfreude from the whole shitshow going on now. It's more entertaining than the gameplay footage just we got.

Just now, Scar said:

Sure, but it remains entirely possible that they had another game in the works that got canned (or had development paused) and they made this game instead. Its been a long time since Lost World.

Of course this is pure speculation, but these sort of things have happened in the industry.

Eh. Sonic Team has long since been a churner of Sonic games that their schedules are probably tighter than expected, and thus things don't get worked on unless they're absolutely sure they're gonna go into production, because a canned game is wasted money. Like, Occam's Razor makes me believe that they sincerely wanted to do a Gens 2 and just took their time with it while allowing the Boom side of things to do whatever to fill in the gaps, and then Mania just so happened to come along in the meantime.

[GuyWithThePie]

47 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

There's no mystery about it. We just naively hoped that Sonic Team would try to build on that success rather than replicate it 1:1 with nicer grass effects. 

Not even 1:1 when you take the physics and questionable level design into consideration.

[Kintor]

27 minutes ago, Ratcicle King said:

People are bored or unsurprised because of how redundant bringing Classic Sonic so soon is, plus another fucking green hill zone.

A Generations 2 could've worked, if they didn't become desperate like they are being now. Again, had they given around a decade, maybe more, and actually MOVED ON, you know, actually working to evolve the franchise and not get constantly stuck on nostalgia whoring, whenever a hypotetical Generations 2 rolled, it wouldn't be as well received as the first, but it would've been welcome.

Saying people who enjoyed Generations are at fault for Sonic Forces is honestly like saying people who enjoyed the Adventures are at fault for 06, or people who enjoyed the Advanced series are at fault for Sonic 4.

There's no point in sudden recriminations about classic Sonic now. You've known that classic Sonic would be a part of this game ever since the initial reveal trailer. Because making a 'Sonic Generations 2' is still definitely the smart choice to make in order to move the whole Sonic franchise forward. What this franchise needs is a strong foundation going forward.

Neither Lost World nor Sonic Boom could provide that foundation. So, Sonic Team is returning to the style of the last great 3D Sonic game, which was Sonic Generations. Making Sonic Forces a direct sequel to Sonic Generations is the necessary decision, the necessary game to restore stability to the Sonic franchise. Naturally, this means the return of classic Sonic alongside modern Sonic's boost gameplay. From this point forward, with the success of Sonic Forces as a return to form, future Sonic games can branch out further while still using Sonic Forces as strong and stable foundation.

[Scar]

13 minutes ago, Nepenthe said:

Eh. Sonic Team has long since been a churner of Sonic games that their schedules are probably tighter than expected, and thus things don't get worked on unless they're absolutely sure they're gonna go into production, because a canned game is wasted money. Like, Occam's Razor makes me believe that they sincerely wanted to do a Gens 2 and just took their time with it while allowing the Boom side of things to do whatever to fill in the gaps, and then Mania just so happened to come along in the meantime.

Oh for sure. That's the most logical outcome. There is of course the development of the Hedgehog Engine 2 to factor in, so that probably took some time since 2013. Leaving enough time for Forces to get at least a couple years development in.

That all having been said, for whatever reason, I feel like I can't rule out the possibility. Maybe its all that stuff that Endri said a way back about a game that was neither LW or Boost that existed in prototype form somewhere. Of course it was unsubstantiated beyond that.

Maybe I'm just making excuses. Don't even know why at this point. I've been burned too many times before.

[Nepenthe]

Endri could've easily been talking about Mania if Christian was in talks with Sega before the project was solidified to do it.

[Linkabel]

 

You know, I find it a little weird that SoE decided to release a full gameplay of Green Hill instead of making a trailer like they did with Generations. Just mix the first level of Modern and Classic along with the silhouette of the third character and done.

 

 

At least those were hype af because of the nostalgia, music and editing. They would've also saved themselves the trouble of "remember this is still in development" till E3.

 

 

 

 

 

[blazefan519]

So, the footage from the Nintendo Direct was indeed Alpha. I sorta figured but it's nice to have confirmation. I think the level looks beautiful and the screenshots of the final version (...I think) look even more pretty. While I do think aesthetic of Generations was nicer, I think Forces has its own charm to it. The gameplay is meh, but since I've never been a Classic Sonic fan, it'd probably feel that way anyway, so not too much to say about that. The music... eh. It's not anything bad per se, but it doesn't feel like it fits with Green Hill or Sonic for that matter. Maybe it'll grow on me later, but for right now, eh. It might just be placeholder music as there was some hiccups, like it not starting at the beginning right away and it getting louder when it loops, or maybe it was meant for something else entirely like invincibility or something, I don't know. I kinda like them giving us small bits of information here and there to tie us till E3, though. Nice way of going about things.

[Scar]

47 minutes ago, Nepenthe said:

Endri could've easily been talking about Mania if Christian was in talks with Sega before the project was solidified to do it.

IIRC, he was referring to a 3D game, but my memory is a bit fuzzy on that one. Not sure if anyone who regulars Retro is in the know about what he was referring to.

[Lighthead]

I don't see it mentioned here yet but something to note: The number at the end of the each screenshot's filename is a UNIX time stamp. 1492046832 for example is Thu, 13 Apr 2017 01:27:12 GMT. I doubt it's the build time but at least likely the date/time they were screen captured.

[Waveshocker Sigma]

I'm admittedly not saying any of what folks didn't like about this video footage. Looked alright to me.

I'd like something a bit more substantial and interesting soon, though.

[Dr. Detective]

Yeah, it looked like Classic Sonic running through some grass alright. There's sand in the background now though so at least I can be intrigued a bit by the story for the moment.

They better not do the thing they did with Generations where the instant Sonic meets Classic Sonic the plot literally just stops and the rest of it is a bunch of white space.

The music reminded me of Sonic Chronicles. If it were in that game it'd definitely still be the best track in the game but holy shit were those cats going to town on those fake instruments. 

 

[Captain Fun]

People keep calling this Generations 2, but I'm honestly wondering if the modern Sonic part of the game is gonna be more like Colors 2. We know Wisps are in, and both Colors and Lost World had a big focus on them. It also has the same director as both of those games IIRC so... yeah I dunno.  

[CleverSonicUsername]

I'm sure in the end the similarities between this and Generations begin and end with "it has Classic Sonic and also Green Hill, again." Problem is that's 50% of what they've shown off, so for the time being that's the easiest comparison to draw.

[voltaic]

The official sonic youtube has a slightly different version of the video to the sega one?

The music is playing a different part when sonic crosses the goal post. The music sounds slightly different to me too, but i'm not too sure.

[Cakito]

also, the description tell us something about the plot