Sonic being mute

[Nepenthe]

I don't think Sega thought it through that thoroughly one way or another back in those days. The format of the earliest Sonic games really wasn't suited to focus intensively on storyline, and the closest thing to cutscenes we ever had were the few between-stage transitions from Sonic 3 and Knuckles, leaving the more intricate details of the plot to literature and fandom outside of the games themselves. I don't think this was a character development decision on the part of Sega, though. More than anything I think that pertains to the fluidity and playability of those games, as I think mostly leaving the storyline out of the games themselves made for a more compact and gameplay-oriented experience, in contrast to later-generation titles which have been widely criticized for unnecessary fluff and bulk content detracting from the actual playing.

I don't think Sega thought about it all that much which is my point. If Sonic was never meant to be a silent protagonist in the games before 1998 as it is being argued by a few members here, then it stands to reason Sega would've made a diligent effort from the beginning to demonstrate otherwise in the most mainstream of titles. Dialogue doesn't have to be limited to cutscenes either: In-game exclamations or witty statements made after defeating a boss or losing a life weren't "technically impossible" at the time because dialogue, both audible and legible, was demonstrated in video games long before CD reared its head. Such demonstrations wouldn't have impeded on the flow of the games as they are either. It probably would've made them a bit more annoying to play, but regardless it would lend credence to this ideaof classic Sonic always being meant to speak in the games if Sega had, you know, actually made it a more widespread practice.

[Sean]

It's disheartening to see people pass off the preference for mute Sonic as blind nostalgia.

Having the classic Sonic mute is great and I wouldn't have it any other way. I love silent protagonists that place an emphasis on physical actions, in particular because I love to see what the writer can do with them and still keep them interesting. Charlie Chaplin was beloved for this reason, as were cartoon characters of the old days such as Wile E. Coyote. The Thief and the Cobbler is one of the greatest examples I can think of in a feature-length animated film; the titular characters had absolute no dialogue throughout its duration, but god were they enduring and charming. And from what we've seen in Generations's cutscenes, classic Sonic works this exact way and it actually seems to be pulled off very well. This is the first time I've ever been interested in watching cutscenes in a Sonic game.

Nothing to do with preserving childhood memories as far as I'm concerned. It's a smart and legitimately interesting way of handling the character, because it pushes the writers to keep our attention on him in some very creative ways.

[DC111]

I guess overall it's just hard to imagine both styles working in the same game. We've got loudmouth modern Sonic and mute classic Sonic, two polar opposite things, and I can't quite see the styles meshing together without having the problems I mentioned above. Hoping to be proven wrong, though.

[Sean]

I guess overall it's just hard to imagine both styles working in the same game. We've got loudmouth modern Sonic and mute classic Sonic, two polar opposite things, and I can't quite see the styles meshing together without having the problems I mentioned above. Hoping to be proven wrong, though.

A lot of comedy stems from two completely different people having to be or work together. And some of it actually manages to work.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

It's disheartening to see people pass off the preference for mute Sonic as blind nostalgia.

Well it doesn't exactly help that in the past people have been wanting to rid Modern Sonic's voice simply out of nostalgia and try to look for justification as to why it should be that way.

Regardless, I'm not bothered at all by Classic Sonic being mute. I never agreed with the notion that Sonic in general was meant to be mute, and I've always fought for the belief in keeping Modern Sonic's voice, but overall this isn't something so major that I would want to go overboard with.

People have their preferences after all. The problem is that people often fail to understand both sides of the coin and seek only to lower the value of the other half in favor of the side they like. In addition to that, people often fail to understand that this isn't something they actively control outright as the choice for Sonic to begin speaking full blown sentences since the Adventures was a choice made by those who wanted to expand the character in a way they thought would benefit him. Same could be said for a lot of things, whether or not they were good or bad ideas.

In the end, I'm not exactly against Classic Sonic being mute. Now if we start trying to push this ideal on Modern Sonic, then I think we're crossing boundaries here as you can't have the whole cake and leave the others with crumbs. Those who think they can are really the least deserving of the slice.

I guess overall it's just hard to imagine both styles working in the same game. We've got loudmouth modern Sonic and mute classic Sonic, two polar opposite things, and I can't quite see the styles meshing together without having the problems I mentioned above. Hoping to be proven wrong, though.

The key is to have someone skilled with a pen.

Literature is unique in that it works based on the quality of work put into it and goes through these very problems in order to make it work.

For example, the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit has cartoon characters alongside realistic humans. Pretty hard to imagine how interaction would work between the two, but it does when someone goes and puts forth the effort and creativity in order to mesh the two differing elements together. That's where we get variety from, by trying new things, and a lot of it can come from the very things that people initially believe to be "unable to work" until the moment they get proven wrong and end up enjoying what they thought was doomed by the concept alone.

Edited June 23, 2011 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[SonikkuJeneshisu89]

I was always aware of Sonic being a chatterbox as a kid because of watching AOSTH and Satam literally everyday and playing Sonic CD as a kid hearing his small amounts of speech in the game. It never once occurred to me that Classic Sonic was meant to be mute at all in the slightest and even as a kid was able to notice the games and cartoons were completely different from each other and that technology at the time didn't really allow room for speech. I remember getting excited hearing his voice in CD honestly and felt it suited him perfectly. I didn't really need speech to understand Sonic 1, 2 and 3 my imagination and the vivid visuals like Knuckles harassing you and Eggman were enough to set things up for you to understand the story to some extent.

I agree with Verte completely 100%, it was just the technology wasn't strong enough to support voices at the time and Sonic is no role playing game lol. So they used a lot of visuals and sprite facial expressions and movements to do the talking for you mostly noticeable in Sonic 3 and Knuckles. Sonic CD was the first Sonic game to be able to implement voices in not only the songs but also give Sonic and Amy a voice as well. When I first heard Sonic fully speak in games like Adventure 1 it seemed natural to me, sure it was a little corny and weird at times but the voice suited him well in my opinion and having heard him speak in various cartoons and CD it wasn't something completely new and unknown to me. If he was mute in those games I'd think it'd be rather dull to be honest. Sonic has attitude and cockiness he's very much a talkative, outgoing and into voicing out loud kind of guy.

I like Sonic having a voice, I loved his CD voice and found it matched him perfectly honestly lol if you could have him talk with a voice that sounded like that I'd find it perfectly natural of course coming from Classic Sonic's mouth not Modern who is portraying a older Sonic. I love Junichi's voice as Sonic and think he is "the" perfect voice of Sonic. I like Sonic being a very social guy I'm glad he's not mute because I'd find him to be rather dull and boring. He's supposed to be that out going cocky character, how can you be cocky without speaking? It seems out of Sonic's character not to speak in my opinion, other game characters such as Link can get away with being mute because its been a traditional personality trait since Ocarina of Time.

As for Generations making him mute I wouldn't mind it either way if he was talking or mute, as long as they got a good voice actor or Rodger to pull off a younger sounding voice for Classic well and good voice acting I wouldn't mind it at all. I think they wanted him mute for comic relief between a very talkative older Sonic and a very quiet younger Sonic hanging out with each other. If the script is good given certain circumstances could be quite hilarious when Classic expresses himself through facial expressions and body language and Modern Sonic talking the entire time maybe wondering to himself has he always been so quiet? It can also be like others have said a good nod to the Classic days when voices couldn't be implemented in the games yet. But for people to say Classic was mute and was always meant to be mute as a character I think they are completely wrong and SegaSonic Arcade and Sonic CD would like to have a word with them.

Even Sonic's conceptual artwork had Sonic pointing his finger with speech bubbles saying "My name is Sonic! Sonic the Hedgehog!" Also Classic Sonic was quite the chatterbox in Sonic OVA which was a Japanese storyline based movie as close to the games as we've gotten in a comic or cartoon form and had a lot of influence and helping hands from actual Sega employee's who helped work on the film such as Yuji Naka and others. Sonic X as well had everyone talking up a storm and it was another Japanese based cartoon. Sonic has always had a voice since his birth as a character and was always meant to talk not stay silent.

[batson]

If all characters in the game were mute, that would be fine by me. But having only Classic Sonic be mute doesn't make any sense from an in-universe point of view. Classic Sonic is supposed to be a younger version of Modern Sonic, right? So are we supposed to believe that Sonic either couldn't or for some reason didn't want to speak a couple of years ago? That just makes absolutely no sense.

I suppose my own interpretation will be that Sonic had severe autism as a child and then drank from the holy grail or something and got better.

[Lady Soniko]

i don't care what anyone says, if Jaleel White VA'd Classic, i'd be creaming myself

nothing can beat the badass attitude of Sonic in the cartoon series.

[Scar]

I'd rather SEGA keep trying with the voice-work so that eventually they can hit some consistantly excellent dialogue some time in the future.

[ChikaBoing]

I just heard in a Podcast that someone interpreted Sonic as an always mute character, because he was the kinda guy who was too "cool" to talk, and was always in a Rush. And that Tails should do the verbal speeches for Sonic. Kinda cute.

[Melru]

I don't mind them keeping Classic Sonic mute, because similar to what Sean says, sometimes "showing" and not "telling" can be a lot better than simply having the characters talk and stating the obvious.

That's when moments in video games, cutscenes, animated movies in general really shine and showcase the music and scene that captures the moment. Sometimes it can be comedic, heartwarming etc. etc, and relying on expressions for Classic Sonic can probably get the message across much more funnily than him saying "Oh no!" Exaggerated expressions especially, makes me wonder what he'll react to in that way.

[Koopalmier]

If all characters in the game were mute, that would be fine by me. But having only Classic Sonic be mute doesn't make any sense from an in-universe point of view. Classic Sonic is supposed to be a younger version of Modern Sonic, right? So are we supposed to believe that Sonic either couldn't or for some reason didn't want to speak a couple of years ago? That just makes absolutely no sense.

I suppose my own interpretation will be that Sonic had severe autism as a child and then drank from the holy grail or something and got better.

Or maybe Sonic was like Mario before. He didn't talk much, but he did sometimes, but even then he wouldn't say tons of stuff (but in Mario's case, the player can't understand it). Then, as he grew up, he became more talkative.

Anyway...

I like Classic characters being mute, actually. It gives more of a classic feeling (as the characters didn't have voice in Mega Drive games), and makes the "classic" universe feels like an old-school cartoon.

[Aquaslash]

The fact that Classic Sonic doesn't speak is a travesty. It just goes to further stroke all the nostalgia punks who had warped perceptions of the character to begin with. Sonic was never a silent protagonist. He was always a talkative dude. Period.

I don't know what they would have done though. I'm of the crowd who'd have personally preferred White because when I was a kid, there was no distinction at all between the different Sonic media. Sonic was Sonic. Period. I only wish it were that way now :/

I don't buy the technical limitation explanation as to why Sonic et. all didn't speak in most of the games. Why? Because Sonic CD more than proved it was possible. If dialogue was supposed to be a character trait of game Sonic in the 90s, why wouldn't they try it in every other succeeding title? A comparatively few people got their hands on CD much less waited around for ten minutes to hear a clip they probably wouldn't have thought existed, and people damn sure didn't play SegaSonic Arcade. Even assuming it was completely impossible for every other main installment and spin-off sans those two games at the time to have sound bytes, why couldn't they add text during cutscenes? Surely text was doable in 1991.

It's all in the hardware. PCM samples were pretty easy to do on the Sega CD. Not so much on the genesis. It's possible, but costly when you have an actual budget.

Edited July 25, 2011 by Aquaslash

[krazystitch]

Growing up, I played the classic games but also watched Sonic SatAM, so I pretty much already had the basic idea of Sonic having a voice, so it never really surprised me when I played anything like Sonic Adventure years later. I was used to it. As for Classic Sonic being mute in Generations, I actually like that since they're aiming for him to be the way he was around the first game where he didn't have a voice. Plus, I think it'll be funny to see how he'll interact with the other characters by being mute and all.

[Nepenthe]

It's all in the hardware. PCM samples were pretty easy to do on the Sega CD. Not so much on the genesis. It's possible, but costly when you have an actual budget.

[Aquaslash]

So the team the developed the Genesis' flagship series and put Sega on the map couldn't put a snippet of text in the games that mattered to communicate this supposed perception that Sonic was always meant to talk because of budget issues? Really? So in the sequels, we can double and even triple the level size, improve the graphics, add playable characters, and even cutscenes, but text in those cutscenes? Oh no, sorry. We don't have enough monies. It takes billions to type some exclamations out.

And what about the Saturn port of 3D Blast? R? Fighters? Why wasn't it attempted then? You honestly believe there wasn't a single chance before 1999 other than CD and SegaSonic The Hedgehog to try something?

[Barry the Nomad]

-When you first heard Sonic talk, what was it like? Did it occur to you that he had never talked before?

-Would you prefer Sonic be mute?

-Are you glad Generations is keeping Classic Sonic mute?

- I remember it well actually! I watched the premiere of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, which was the episode "Best Hedgehog". It was strange at first, but after 5 minutes I got used to it. However I never was surprised by it, as I always had considered Sonic to have a voice. Six months before the cartoon premiere, I started reading the Archie series of Sonic comics and in my head I had a voice for Sonic. I can't remember exactly how I thought it should sound like, but I'm sure it was close to the AoStH interpretation.

- No, but I think during gameplay he should not speak too much. Colors and Unleashed had the ideal amount of dialogue during gameplay. Heroes was wayyyyyy too much.

- Yes, during Classic gameplay. No, during cutscenes. I think short statements would be ideal. Like Modern Sonic says "Ready to take on Eggman?" and Classic replies "You bet!". Keep it limited, but don't mute the poor kid. He had to converse with other characters in the Genesis games somehow. I can't imagine Sonic and Tails being silent unspeaking friends. I know I've never made friends by not speaking.

Edited July 25, 2011 by Barry the Nomad

[BakingBluePotatoe]

I suppose my own interpretation will be that Sonic had severe autism as a child and then drank from the holy grail or something and got better.

I've been playing around with the idea of Sonic having a Mental Disorder of some sort... I could believe that.

Did we get any confirmation about the other Classic charries talking or not?

[Sean]

I'm pretty much behind Nepenthe's theory. There wasn't anything stopping the team from inserting some dialogue in the old games to indicate that he was meant to talk back then. Sonic Adventure was a reboot of sorts, or at least a fresh new start for the series, so it's possible they simply decided to ditch the silent protagonist deal considering the game's (and later games') emphasis on character. Naughty Dog titles such as Crash Bandicoot and Jax and Daxter also started out with a conscious effort to make their protagonists mute.

[Nepenthe]

Well, text is easy, but it breaks the flow of the game. The stories likely come out that way because of these issues. Besides, what of Tails, Knuckles, Robotnik? You mean to tell me the entire cast was meant to be silent, AND right along side various media portraying them as the complete opposite?

[Kuzu]

Yeah I got to side with Sean and Nephenthe on this one, the series` focus wasn't as story and character focused as it is today, not to mention silent protagonist back in the 90's were pretty much a common thing, Sonic still had a character, he just reflected through actions rather than words.

[Nerfuffle]

A younger version of an existing mascot being given a voice……. What could go wrong?

Even if they got one of the old voice actors to reprise the role like Jaleel White, they’d be appealing specifically to fans of Jaleel White and no one else. Especially all the gamers that haven’t played Sonic games in years and don’t know of the stupidly complex politics that surround the franchise.

Fact of the matter is, it’s not possible for this “game for all Sonic fans” to please every fan. I believe the classic Sonic was kept mute simply to keep things safe and familiar.

[Aquaslash]

Speaking of, I don't know why you keep talking about alternate media. The shows aren't the games nor do I even agree with this idea of some ultimate conglomerate of every single universe either.

[Rusty Spy]

Does it really need to be explained? If Sonic were mean to be silent, he'd still be silent to this very day. He'd have been silent in the cartoons and comics too. But Sonic isn't Snake Eyes. He seems to have a problem with knowing when to shut the hell up.

[Sean]

Man, this whole thing is right up there with "baww green eyes" IMO.

No it's not. The only thing that's making this out to be a bigger deal than it really is is generalizing others as blind nostalgiafags simply due to preferences and perception of the character. Dismissing them as having a "hatred for dialogue" is also a pretty unfair accusation to make since that's not the point here, and rather dismissive of Nepenthe's arguments. Frankly I don't think this is anything to be up in arms over.