Yeah, gotta give credit to the doc, he gave a great performance with that theme park.
The following story reviews will be negative. I'm a bit sad because I am geniunely tired of 2010's discourse, but it is what it is, and I respect Pariah's takes. See you at Eggman's theme park in space.
To win, you need to adapt, and to adapt, you need to be able to laugh away all the restraints. Everything holding you back.I actually asked him about that. He doesn't necessarily hate the Pontac era games, especially to the extent that the fanbase does. He just thinks there are things about them just aren't very good.
But that doesn't mean there are no good things about them either. Colors does extrapolate that environmentalism that Sonic is known for every well, and that's something that isn't really acknowledged by its detractors.
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.I won't say most of the more modern games since Colors even qualify as mediocre. Colors and Generations are both genuinely good games, Lost World is the kind of experimentation that with a bit of refinement could be wonderful and Forces...
Those three level designers did the absolute best they could have with their level of experience.
I just got annoyed with this Unleashed final words claiming it was goodbye to "the real Sonic". Felt just weird, and I wasn't fond of that.
But Twitter already tired me with petty discourses about what Sonic is or isn't. It's tiresome.
To win, you need to adapt, and to adapt, you need to be able to laugh away all the restraints. Everything holding you back.![]()
For the record, this is just about the story and writing, not the gameplay.
I mean, a little overdramatic? Definitely. But its not necessarily wrong either. Sonic's character becomes heavily westernized from this point onwards and if you were more of a fan of his Japanese personality and lore well....you're SOL.
This is actually the point when the franchise leans heavily on its Western roots.
Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Jan 7th 2023 at 10:38:46 AM
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.Japanese Sonic, yeah, he has around 4 personalities.
- Aloof guy who doesn't really like to be annoyed, but has a good heart deep down. (OVA)
- Aloof guy who, when is not searching for adventures and smelling the flowers, is taking a nap in someone's roof and ignoring everyone around him. (Sonic X)
- Inspiring hero with no Fatal Flaw, adventure seeking and more of an action hero character with witty banter (Maekawa Sonic; Adventure 2, Storybook titles)
- A quiet hero with a good heart who only speaks when necesary (Adventure; Unleashed)
Usually the four traits.
To win, you need to adapt, and to adapt, you need to be able to laugh away all the restraints. Everything holding you back.Meanwhile the other side of the Pacific has:
- Radical dude willing to fight against foreign threats (SatAM)
- A fun-loving teen trying to find himself in a brand new world (Movies)
- A loyal servant of a kingdom that is basically a soldier with the personality and powers of Silver Age Barry Allen (Archie)
- A smartass that likes to mock Baldy McNosehair and sometimes other foes (Pontaff, arguably Boom and AoSTH)
with a similar mix of traits depending on other media
Edited by MorningStar1337 on Jan 7th 2023 at 8:06:35 AM
If you want what specifically Pariah is referring to, its the original character outlines by the Sega Technical Instintute.
http://info.sonicretro.org/Original_Story
Sonic's character outline specifically notes;
- Approximate age: 18 (but it's kind of hard to tell).
- Legendary blue hedgehog with an attitude.
- Is the _fastest_ in the land.
- Strong sense of justice but irreverent to authority.
- Impatient (does not like to stand around).
- Not detail-oriented (short attention span).
- Likes anything fast.
- Loyal to his friends but enjoys his independence.
- Street smart, but warm at heart.
- Loves beauty, nature, cool music and adventure!
- Not a hero, but has lots of self confidence and courage.
- But, above all else, he is FAST!
The Mascot with Attitude stuff was just the Western marketing, basically a Dub Personality Change. Kind of like what Funimation did with Goku in early Dragon Ball dubs by making him more of a heroic figure.
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.So what do you call someone who goes out of his way to save people he barely knows, and continually foils the schemes of a would be conqueror?
Because that sounds like a hero to me.
One Strip! One Strip!Its more that Sonic doesn't see himself as a hero, but just a person doing his own thing.
I mean come on man, you watch Dragon Ball and One Piece; its the same personality trait Goku and Luffy have. Sure, they're good people who do good things, but they're not interested in being heroes or being seen as such lol.
Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Jan 7th 2023 at 11:19:55 AM
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.I do.
Maybe this is an odd hill to die on...but I kinda hate it.
If you go out of your way to save people, you're a damned hero. If you do a lot of good in the world, you're a hero.
Hell, the fact that they don't do it for any glory or recognition makes them more heroic. That's what heroes do!
If you're doing it entirely because it's the right thing to do, then, whatever you think of yourself, you are a hero! If you're inspiring people to be better and help others, then you're a hero!
This thing about not liking being called a hero makes it come off as though being thought of as a hero is a bad thing. It's not.
...yeah, I can't really express this feeling well. I'm not sure why it bothers me.
I will say that I can buy that Goku doesn't count, because while he does care about his family, he's shown he'll put his fight boner ahead of everything quite often. Sometimes, there's an in-universe justification for it, and sometimes he waits three years for murderous androids to show up so he can fight them.
Luffy (who also hates being a hero because he hates sharing meat) is more of a hero than Goku, because when push comes to shove, he'll put a bitch down without caring about how fun the fight is or not.
Sonic is a hero. There's nothing wrong with that. But when the narrative goes out of it's way to say, he's not a hero while having him do heroic things, it seems like they're ashamed of it or something.
Again, maybe this is just me. I don't know.
Edited by HandsomeRob on Jan 7th 2023 at 8:27:06 AM
One Strip! One Strip!(Shrug) I'm just explaining is all. You don't have to agree or like it.
But yea, since Sonic is more popular in the West, the creators basically said "Fuck that" to the original vision of the character and now we have his Mascot with Attitude personality that everyone essentially associates with him nowadays.
Its not that uncommon; American Kirby Is Hardcore is kind of related here.
Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Jan 7th 2023 at 11:30:52 AM
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.I think Colors is the only Pontac-era game to nail the Saturday Morning Cartoon vibe that era seemed to be going for. The plot flows quick and snappy, clearly defined stakes, story and characters, and a good number of scenes each zone without a lot of padding.
The later games go steadily off the rails though, in part because they seem to want to do both the Saturday Morning Cartoon thing and more dramatic stories (leading to, say, the utter absurdity of Sonic having a goofball adventure in between scenes of all his friends apparently dying in Lost World), but also because the more characters that era had to work with the more it became clear characters were not the writers' strong point at all, especially when there were a lot of them being used at once.
So maybe one of the reasons Colors' plot works is because it's literally just Sonic, Tails, Eggman, Orbot and Cubot, and Yacker (who doesn't talk), and focuses very heavily on dialogue for its plot.
Let me quote Goku:
"I'm not a hero of justice, but I won't forgive anyone who hurts my friends"
Hero, in this context, just means someone who looks to do things for noble concepts like justice or peace or truth or the american way. Sonic just does good things on a whim.
To win, you need to adapt, and to adapt, you need to be able to laugh away all the restraints. Everything holding you back.I think Colors is fine for what it is as a story, but yea, it's super jarring after an entire decade of the more Adventure-esc, high stake stories.
Sonic games definitely needed to tone down how melodramatic and convoluted they were at that point, but then over-corrected and ran into the opposite problem of the stakes being essentially non-existent and nobody Sonic ever being allowed to do anything or matter.
And with the exception of Forces, its' the essentially the last time Japan handles the series' lore and characters as it will mainly be American writers who penned Sonic afterwards and uh...depending on how you feel, that may or may not be a good thing.
Me personally, I'm...fine with it, mostly? I do think certain characters like Shadow have particularly suffered from the shift though. And the writing has gotten way more Anvilicious imo in depicting its themes
Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Jan 7th 2023 at 11:38:26 AM
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.![]()
Right.
I guess that's the problem. They seem to imply that you can only be a hero if you do things for those reasons.
But no. You can be a hero just by helping someone cross the street, or some other shit.
It's a false dichotomy that problem stems from the obssession with the Order vs. Chaos dynamic that we often see in Japanese works.
But that's me getting off topic.
I'm really curious as to how they'll incorporate other playable characters in the future. I've said before that an Open World game might be the best way to get alternate play styles back into the series. I stand by it.
Edited by HandsomeRob on Jan 7th 2023 at 8:37:16 AM
One Strip! One Strip!For Sonic it would be "The American Way"...
For Goku it would be "The Way" of whatever nation he lives in...in the Dragon Ball universe.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.

Jumps from when to the QTE? Let me just look...
The only thing that gets skipped is the Ikaruga section. Everything else is there, including the lead up to the scene, and the bit after it. I had thought that maybe it was one of those things where the game ends earlier, and if you finish on hard, you get more stuff after the first ending.