Quote:Maybe like me, Sega reckons most people don't give a flying crap about those characters or what games they're from...When Sega really does it like that, then they will get a lot of problems...
If you do some research about 06 or Shadow, you will see a lot of people actually saying that those games, compared to many other games Sonic had, where very bad (and that for a lot of good reasons).
Maybe I'm wrong and this character will be "totally awesome", but I have learned that Sonic characters these days are nothing but cardboard figures with bad puns attached onto them or a copy of an already established character (which is not better than the cardboard by any means). I hope, they only choose the design for this guy from these two characters and not their personalities. That design still looks so boring to me, since it's edgy evil hedgehog for... the whatever time again?
Yes, I get it, the next gen can enjoy that as well like it would be new, but I don't really get it, why you would reuse stuff what made your game from the past bad, rather than using something good instead? It's okay to use stuff again you used before, but making an game reuse stuff from a game with a bad reputation is a risky move, since people, who experienced or heard about said games, will connect here the reused design with said game (which I do).
It can be done right (Crisis City in Generations for example) but since we are talking about character design and story here (which, let's be honest, was never new gen Sonics highpoint), I'm afraid this character will be either a Black Doom/Mephiles rip-off (which are two bad characters to rip off from to begin with), a cardboard bad guy ("I destroy world because I'm evil") or a Shadow/Metal anti-hero clone of some sort.
sigh... is it too much to ask for a "normal" story here? I really hope, it will get a "regular", not that poor story, instead of the wacky'n'unfunny stories with cardboard characters doing nothing here other than getting dunked on by Sonic and his bad puns. Maybe I will be proven wrong and the story will be awesome, but since Heros, the stories were either too weird and complex (06, Shadow) or just plain dumbed down to parody level (with Colors and Generations being the highpoint of this).
Even if people are saying now again "it's all about gameplay"... yes, gameplay is the most needed aspect of a game, but that doesn't mean that the story has to be bad. Excusing a bad story with a pleasant gameplay is not a good move, since a good story can improve your game experience and makes more people enjoy your stuff you have been working on, rather than skipping through them, which means, you have wasted time you could have use elsewhere in the development of the game.
And that's why I like Mania so much more... there is no real story here yet (well, at least not now that I'm aware of), but at least, the team concentrates on making fun and enjoyable gameplay, rather than on cutscenes and characters no one cares about in the end, because they are executed badly. I'm sure, Manias story will be no blockbuster too, but at least, it will get more enjoyable to play than the cardboard joke fest new gen Sonics had (and from the looks of it, Forces goes probably into the same direction as the other new gen Sonics).