Sonic the Threadgehog

Where's all the complex characters and story the series is famous for

Yeah agreed. Are all the baddies just going to be shapes?

I like it when the robots look like other aminals. But bad aminals.

3D sonic is just fundamentally boring to me in general, even when it's done quite well. Hold X to go fast is mega snore.

Nah we need a brief clash with Knuckles before they resolve their differences and join forces. Tails to save the day and to invent a couple of things to help. Amy to chase Sonic for a few levels.

True. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going any further than giving the benefit of doubt. I won’t be surprised if it is crap

I can't believe they'd release something so obviously shit. I feel as if they are going for the movie approach of subverting expectations. They can't possibly think what they've shown isn't absolute garbage.

I'm more or less using "Breath of the Hedgehog" to mean an open-world that actually fits Sonic, clearly he doesn't fit the actual BotW style they want to shoehorn him into. Probably should have clarified, to be fair.


But otherwise, this is what I'd like to see as well. An open-worlder built around Sonic's strengths (with some room for innovation and new mechanics, of course) is a game I genuinely think would be great, or at the very least a refreshing new take on what he can do. But what we've seen so far... That ain't it, chief

Xenoblade fields also had cities and towns though? Colony 9 was both a city and a field, Bionis' leg had the Refugee camp, the Fallen Arm had its own village, quite a few areas have uninhabited ruins and if they weren't limited by it being on the Wii I'm fairly certain that Alcamoth, Frontier Village and the like would be part of their areas rather than separate areas (see also Bionis' Shoulder in Definitive). Not many dungeons, true, but the fields themselves took that role for the most part.

Then Xenoblade X was pretty much a giant open area with dungeons, as you mention, the lack of many cities being because you crash-land on a planet with little prior evidence of civilization of its own, and 2 went back to smaller areas with (sometimes) cities as part of them.

Most Zelda games prior to BotW (to my recollection) also had cities be their own separate areas with loading zones and the like rather than be a seamless part of the main map. I think Wind Waker didn't but that's about it, and that one had the sea travel to mask its loading times.

This game definitely goes either/both Zelda and Xenoblade with its environment (and mostly failing so far, imo) but it's not like Xenoblade's fields are just barren land or grassland everywhere

Yup, and that world so far doesn't match his go fast mechanics. If that tower could only be climbed by figuring out a series of loops that propel him upwards faster with skill and timing then I'd start to think maybe they're onto something.

Also if getting to the top of that tower meant he could go super duper quick and now get to a new place that he otherwise couldn't then I'd be thinking this could work after all.

But none of that was in the video.

I agree, linearity suits Sonic.

Even in the classic 2D games, though you would have several routes that overlap each other, they're still very linear.

It's why I don't mind most the 3D games in principle. When they're done well, like most of the 2D levels in Generations, it feels very much like Sonic imo. Plenty of the levels in the classic games have sequences where you hold right or left and just enjoy the rollercoaster.

Feasibly you could create an open world that has a number of well-defined courses, that would be fine. But when it's not really clear where Sonic should head it literally loses all momentum.

I think a Sonic open world is always going to look barren. Because you are going very fast, you are going to cover a lot of distance in a very short time. Case in point, think back to the 3D levels in Generations. If you put them in a Mario game, they would feel way too long. So a Sonic open world would have to be extremely large.

Can you really make an open world large enough to feel big in that context, and not make it barren, without it costing ridiculous amounts of time and money?

I think the answer would be not to make it an actual open world game, but more like an interconnected world with seamless level loading. Kinda like Soul Reaver or Dark Souls.

The combat doesn't work because every time you attack you come to a sudden halt.

In any game you don't want that unless there's a specific reason, but in a game where you're supposed to be kinetic that's just insane.

So, uh... Am I missing something or was their big Tuesday reveal actually just a rehash of the previous two trailers with some commentary? Because if so... I am really hoping they're showing a very early build (as in, a year ago) for some reason, otherwise I cannot wait to see the meltdown

Although I still don't understand why they'd show an early build in the first place, or why they'd wait until the third video to actually give some context to what we're seeing. Very bizarre marketing...

Note also the seagull outspeeding the Fastest Thing Alive™ without even flapping its wings

I don’t want to play a sonic game with the last guardian / sotc soundtrack playing in the background. It’s just weird..