Growing up with brothers who were the exact age to be the target demographic for Sonic 1's release meant that I was pretty much a sonic fan from birth. And I stayed that way until 2005 when Shadow the Hedgehog caused me to drop the franchise pretty suscintly.
Then two years ago I moved in with my partner who is a pretty big current sonic fan (well she liked Sonic Generations anyway) the release of Sonic Origins, the Sonic 2 movie and the IDW comics have really managed to hook me back into being a fan.
Edit: I'm not sure modern Sega would go for an RPG. The main appeal of that platform is that you get to focus on story telling and an ensemble cast, which suited 2008 Saga just fine, but since then they've been trying to corse correct and keep the focus largly on sonic.
And while Frontiers did explore the lore, it tried to do so as peicemeal as possible.
Edited by Whowho on Mar 28th 2023 at 11:30:47 AM
Well, they have expressed that they're going to at least try to give the spotlight to the other characters now. Hopefully it sticks and expands.
If they are adding classic characters then the Battle Kukku Army could work as the villains of another Tails game. They could be linked to Bean, and the Babylon Rogues. Speedy, Bean and Jet could be brothers since they all are green birds. Great Battle Kukku XV, Battle Kukku XVI / "Speedy", Dr. Fukurokov and Bean could get modern designs.
"May your heart be your guiding key"They do seem to be easing off the Sonic only focus, we're getting additional playable characters in Sonic Frontiers DLC, and I was pleasently surprised to see Rouge is a main character in Sonic Prime after she'd been largely absent from the franchise for over ten years.
Eventually the films will adapt more and more characters so the games will end up refocusing on those personalities in turn to cash in, so I guess it's inevitable that the franchise returns to an ensemble in the foreseeable future.
I do consider the playable roster in Sonic Battle to be the iconic sonic protagonists, Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Cream, Shadow and Rouge, but I'm not holding my breath for Cream to make a come back any time soon.
The iconic protagonists of the Sonic series: Gamma and Chaos.
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 me, the iconic Sonic protagonists are Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy. Four is a good number for a recurring main cast. Not too bloated, not too shallow.
Everyone beyond them are optional and should be used judiciously. Don't need to forced into stories that don't need them, but don't invent new characters to fill roles that these other characters could manage just fine.
Like. Not every Sonic adventure needs to make room for a heist somewhere in the plot so that Rouge can show up and do some stealing. But if your Sonic adventure does call for a heist, don't be like, "This is Perry the Parrot, master thief!" Rouge is right there.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Mar 28th 2023 at 7:20:21 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Seems like once again people forget that Sonic Chronicles The Dark Brotherhood exists and is basically the only Sonic RPG.
I thing the idea is wanting a good Sonic RPG.
Edited by ShinyCottonCandy on Mar 28th 2023 at 10:23:02 AM
My musician pageEh, some concepts can be fundamentally flawed. That said, trying to make another game with Chronicles' combat system is impossible anyway on current interfaces.
My musician pageIt was only a handful of pages ago we discussed Chronicles. It was after my time but I really like the story and character designs and it's a good roster of characters, but the gameplay, art and music is enough of a turn off that I have no intention of trying it.
In terms of Team Sonic, I like the idea that it at its core is Sonic, Amy, Tails and Knuckles if he's not busy with Angel Island (that boy should really deputise that job, get some stone Golems or something) and if the plot justifies it Cream, Shadow and or Rogue might be with them (though not all the time because Cream hates violence and is the youngest, Shadow doesn't overly like team sonic, he just can't trust them to leave them alone, and Rouge leads her own rich life, even if she's happy to meddle with team sonic readily)
Blaze and Silver both should be used very sparingly given that they're from different, uuhh, dimensions.
And Team Chaotix are busy with their own gig, so should likewise only be a sparing apperence when they're relevent.
Big the Cat and Omega are kind of one note in what they offer in terms of character dynamics so I kind of consider them padding.
I totally agree that the franchise should stop introducing new characters who step on existing character's toes.
A point I'll give to the film's is that they've given Knuckles a really good reason to start the story with team sonic given that he is detached from angel Island and the master Emerald is small enough to be portable.
An RPG is basically the perfect excuse to toss in all of these characters. Limiting it to just four is extremely counterintuitive. Especially when most of these characters don't get much time to shine to begin with.
Lord knows Cream could get some attention.
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.I'd imagine most sonic fans would lap up a good RPG given that the things fans clamour for (story and good showings of characters we miss) is intrinsic to an RPG.
Seeing Sonic stand still to wiat his turn is weird though.
Maybe an RPG like Panza Dragoon where all the battles are chases and you spend your time trying to figure out how to position people in relation to the baddies.
All I'm saying is if a bunch of Sonic kids (me included) were marking out over the Sonic RPG and Final Fantasy Sonic X flash games for just being RPGs with Sonic in them (albeit very limited) and had other fans trying to Follow the Leader in those regards, then I imagine a lot would mark out for an official RPG (that is hopefully better than its first attempt when outsourced).
Edited by taotruths on Mar 28th 2023 at 10:35:30 AM
A Sonic RPG could use the ATB or CTB systems used in some Final Fantasy games
, to make it so that faster characters move more often, but stronger abilities have a tradeoff of recharge time, so that you're not just spamming Sonic, Shadow, or Tails' abilities.
Shadow probably should be a recurring character for Popularity Power, but only if they can think of meaningful ways to use him that don't boil down to having to fight Sonic over and over for flimsy reasons.
Not that it's a hard bar to clear, but Shadow's story was the strongest part of 06 to me to the point where it feels like a Shadow game that Sonic's story got haphazardly tacked onto last minute.
Oissu!

Personally, I'd like Sonic to go the action RPG route the most, of any style of RPG. Feels like it would be a far more fitting angle for the speed focused character than anything turn based.