So...you want a Sonic Adventure style "revisit" to Angel Island?
Where we have an Ice Cap level that isn't actually Ice Cap Zone.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.There are Zones that haven't come back that should like Spring Yard Zone, Aquatic Ruin Zone, Marble Garden Zone, Mushroom Hill Zone.
There are ruins in the Mable Zone, Labyrinth Zone, Aquatic Ruin Zone, Rusty Ruin Zone. Do they have any connection with the Ancients, Echidnas, or Black Arms?
"May your heart be your guiding key"- Sonic: Knuckles, I was fighting Eggman and got thrown from his mech, and I landed in this mysterious ruin. What do you know about the old ruins nine miles southeast of here?
- Knuckles: Nothing whatsoever.
- Sonic: What? Really?
- Knuckles: Nope.
- Sonic: Huh. I thought you'd be a little more helpful than that.
- Knuckles: Look, I need to level with you. I don't leave this podium except when I'm hanging out with you and Tails. I have no idea what's on this island.
- Sonic: That's disappointing.
- Knuckles: I don't know what you expected. The job title is "Guardian of the Master Emerald", not "Angel Island Cartographer".
Edited by TobiasDrake on Apr 24th 2023 at 10:51:18 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Speaking of, if there's one thing I'd love to see brought over from the Boom continuity (besides Sticks, beyond a throwaway reference), it's Amy's interest in archeology.
There's so much ruins and antiquity in the Sonic series that it would make a good easy story reason for some levels or certain plot directions.
There actually was an archeologist character introduced in the post-Rebooted Archie continuity and she was part of Knuckles' supporting cast on Angel Island.
And it didn't click until then just how much that makes sense.
It helps Knuckles so much feel like his own character with his own problems to deal with as opposed to being just another one of Sonic's friends.
Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Apr 24th 2023 at 1:57:57 PM
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.If Forces had gone all in on "Sand Hill" and "Nuclear Winter" as new zones instead of calling them Green Hill and Chemical Plant, I'd hope the complaints would've been less. It didn't even need huge changes. Just more sand in the former, and more snow effects and recoloring the Mega Mack green in the latter (and maybe giving it instant death effects).
Forces was always going to be divisive. It's a game where canon characters take a backseat to the Sonic OC you've always wanted to design in canon!
That's inevitably going to be a major appeal for a huge subset of Sonic fans, and also a point of contention for another subset of Sonic fans. Self-Insert Fanfic games in an established franchise are always like that.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Apr 24th 2023 at 11:08:15 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.There wasn't really that much of a backseat though, as Sonic, Sonic, and Shadow still were about 3/4ths of the game, and the avatar customization was mostly praised. Considering how long it had been since anyone other than Sonic was playable, it was a bit of a step forwards. If any of the main cast was pushed aside, it was Tails, but for Classic Sonic, not the Avatar.
I still maintain that the glaring issues in Forces were that the levels were too short and Tails' characterization. Some other people have criticized the writing in other regards. But I still think it was over-hated.
Having the Ruby make copies of copies wouldn't have made any sense, though. None of the villains were their original selves though. They were all Ruby Illusions made as copies of the originals. Could the marketing have made that more obvious? Sure. At least the opening cutscene did show them all with the red glitching when they first showed up.
Edited by wanderlustwarrior on Apr 24th 2023 at 1:31:39 PM
Shadow's the My Friends... and Zoidberg of Forces. It's a consequence of the decision to carve him out for DLC.
The main characters of the game are Sonic, Sonic, and Fanfic OC. But if you really like Shadow, you can pay for a totally skippable bolted-on set of levels where Shadow exists and does things that are, by definition, not actually necessary to see in order to experience the full story. Sonic, Sonic, and OC undergo a story with the support of Sonic's friends, and also Shadow is as involved as you want him to be.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Apr 24th 2023 at 11:34:06 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
The Shadow content is free DLC, not paid. At least in the digital versions, it's not really DLC, being including in the base download (or at least that was the case when I got it). Maybe it was more an update than DLC that added it for the physical version too.
Edited by ShinyCottonCandy on Apr 24th 2023 at 2:35:16 PM
My musician pageOh, my mistake.
So then it's like the playable Amy, Tails, and Knuckles sequences that are upcoming for Frontiers. Cool, but still not really necessary to experience the full story. Just a neat bone to throw to fans of the characters.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Apr 24th 2023 at 11:36:05 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Forces is bad mainly because it's pretty blatantly unfinished. Not to the same extent as 06, but yea.
If you looked at the concept art, there was a lot of stuff left on the cutting room floor so that they could reach a deadline
Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Apr 24th 2023 at 3:00:36 PM
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.
Can you elaborate, for those of us who don't know anything about Dragon Ball Xenoverse?
Xenoverse is a game where you play as a Create-A-Character and get recruited into a Time Patrol organization where you are assigned missions to stop disruptions in the timeline. Also, you become best friends with Goku and fight the final boss alongside him.
Forces, except for the time travel aspect, is clearly heavily inspired by Xenoverse. I noticed that within the first 30 minutes of watching a playthrough of Forces.
And Harry Potter started a trend of movies releasing in Parts 1 and 2 that lasted for a couple years before everyone started hating it and the trend died.
Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Apr 24th 2023 at 12:41:49 PM
Create a character centered story modes have existed long before Xenoverse. Soul Calibur 3, off the top of my head. Plus a variety of sports games. Heck, Sonic Battle's Emerl had everything except species selection.
Kinda just recycled all the eligible villains that weren't some sort of force of nature or giant thing. Basically that's the extent of Sonic's rogues gallery at the time, unless you throw in Jet or Nega or Johnny, none of whom were mainline.
Edited by wanderlustwarrior on Apr 24th 2023 at 3:29:26 AM
I still don't get what was the idea with the Phantoms. Why did Eggman make copies of Zavok and Metal Sonic, of all people? Chaos and Shadow I get, god of destruction and ultimate life form.
But what is so special about Zavok? Explain game, explain!
To win, you need to adapt, and to adapt, you need to be able to laugh away all the restraints. Everything holding you back.

Its one of the main reasons Frontiers gets praised so much. While the setting and locales don't have much to do with Sonic, it's callbacks and references to prior events makes it feel like an actual part of the universe as opposed to being weirdly disconnected like post-2009 games?
But Unknown makes a good point; you can say what you want about the games 2000's games, but they most definitely capitalized on edgy Anime Shonen feel of that era, because that's when Naruto, One Piece and Bleach were at the height of their popularity. Sure, it dated the hell out of the series, but given Sonic Adventure 2 is still hailed as the greatest 3D Sonic game, you can't really say that it didn't leave an impact despite it all.
The 2010 games just kind of stripped everything down to its bare necessities. Sure, it was a response to the growing controversy surrounding the quality of the games but still, the impact left by them is much more muted than what came before.
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.