TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Soft Reboot Cleanup

Go To

supernintendo128 Semi-retired editor from My desk Since: Feb, 2013 Relationship Status: Is that a kind of food?
Semi-retired editor
#1: Nov 2nd 2025 at 5:51:11 PM

Soft Reboot seems to suffer from Trope Decay. It's supposed to be when a series is given a major refresh that changes up the feel of a franchise akin to a full-blown Continuity Reboot, but while maintaining the old continuity. However, it's attracted misuse where any change to the formula is considered a "soft reboot", or a Soft Reboot gets conflated with a Retool.

pee pee poo poo
supernintendo128 Semi-retired editor from My desk Since: Feb, 2013 Relationship Status: Is that a kind of food?
Semi-retired editor
#2: Nov 2nd 2025 at 5:55:23 PM

Let's start with what got me to start this thread, the Sonic the Hedgehog section. I added Sonic Adventure a few years back because it's clearly, for all intents and purposes, intended to be a soft reboot. However it somehow ballooned to almost every 3D Sonic game being a soft reboot. This was my assessment:


  • While the Adventure games defined the tone of the franchise for several years, a period lengthened by a successful transition to Nintendo hardware, Sega then decided to go Multi-Platform with Sonic Heroes, a game that expanded on the playable roster (from six "main" characters in each of the Adventure games to a whopping twelve), emphasizing straightforward and lighthearted storytelling (as opposed to the more somber elements of death and destruction in the Adventure games), and ignoring most of the existing lore. No, it's a direct continuation of the Adventure duology. It didn't "ignore the existing lore". An expanded cast, a shift in tone, and a new gameplay gimmick doesn't differentiate it enough from past games.
  • Sega then decided to exploit its then hottest character and gave him the leading role in Shadow the Hedgehog, but this proved to be such a commercial and popular failure that the next big console release — Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) — was openly described as a reboot in articles and press releases leading-up to its release (note that "2006" is not in the game's actual title, which is simply Sonic the Hedgehog, as though it were the first in the series). This game featured a massive Tone Shift away from a Doom-esque hellscape to a highly wrought and exotic setting typical of Final Fantasy, revisited Adventure-style narrative tropes like ancient evils and decades-old intrigue, removed any cartoony design elements (save for Funny Animals like Sonic and friends) — it even had a realistic Eggman. I think this can stay, the title alone gives the impression that this was a supposed to be a reboot, but remove the mention of Shadow the Hedgehog as I always got the feeling it was supposed to be a Spin-Off title in the same vein as Wario Land except taking place in the mainline continuity.
  • With the failure of '06, Sega decided to rework its approach once again. After three games featuring Sonic's substantial list of playable characters, Sega began a more experimental period in two parts focused almost exclusively on Sonic himself. The Sonic Storybook Series featured Sonic in solo on-rails adventures in fantasy worlds derived from real-life legend, while Sonic Unleashed compromised between this approach and the Sonic Adventure approach to narrative and game design, with another ancient evil plot and experimental Beat 'em Up gameplay. Another notable element of this era was the reduction of Sonic's portrayal as a goody two-shoes, which had dominated his characterization from Heroes to '06, in favor of restoring his Mascot with Attitude personality. I feel like Unleashed can stay because it discarded (but not disown, that's very important) the Adventure storyline, introduced the Boost mechanic that would go on to define the HD era of Sonic, and made Sonic the main focus of the series from this point forward as opposed to the Loads And Loads Of Characters of past 3D Sonic games. At the very least it's an Un-Reboot.
  • None of these games proved to be an especially successful new direction, prompting Sega to go back to even further basics with Sonic Colors: a pure contest of wills between Sonic and Eggman to rescue distressed critters (and in that sense a plot no more complicated than the very first Sonic the Hedgehog 1), with Tails on the sidelines to give Sonic somebody to chat with. Colors also notably employed a simple and lighthearted tone not seen since Sonic Heroes, but also an irreverent and tightly written comedic tone not seen since Sonic's early American cartoons. Colors was a hit, prompting Sega to borrow most of the gameplay and expand on its approach to the Classic era Sonic with Sonic Generations, and then providing a direct sequel to Colors with Sonic Lost World, which expanded on the outer space setting of Colors by employing design elements from Super Mario Galaxy. I don't think Colors differentiates itself enough from Unleashed to count, and I wouldn't call Lost World a "direct sequel" to Colors.
  • With the failure of Lost World, however, Sega embarked on a new project entirely in Sonic Boom, an era of the franchise spanning several years' worth of video games, a cartoon, and comic books. Boom was a spinoff that reimagined the core Sonic cast from the ground up and engaged them with adventure archaeology and mad science more in the vein of Crash Bandicoot than of Sonic's historic high-speed platforming (no doubt thanks to the creators of Boom having been involved with Crash years before). Sonic Boom was never intended to replace the mainline continuity of the Sonic franchise, it was always meant to be a spinoff, so this can go.
  • Sonic Forces, the first major core series title since Boom began, references previous titles while at the same time leaving out a lot of things from previous games. Most blatantly, there are no humans besides Eggman (there aren't even minor human NPCs anywhere), and though there's a world war going on, G.U.N. is nowhere in sight. Instead, for the first time in the games, we have Funny Animal minor characters appearing. The game also doesn't include some previous areas such as Station Square and instead takes place near a nondescript "City." However... There were no humans since Colors either, and no mention of G.U.N. since '06 because Unleashed basically did away with the Adventure continuity.
  • Tepid reaction to Forces (and certain assertations about series lore during this time) ensured that Sega once again would backtrack from this new direction beginning with Sonic Frontiers, which notably introduced an "Open Zone" structure to the gameplay formula. Frontiers and supplemental works such as TailsTube would also begin "clarifying" more controversial Word of God statements made during the Forces era so as to no longer conflict with pre-existing canon while also Canon Welding the games to other media like the IDW comics and Sonic Prime and having a stronger, more serious focus on continuity over the more self-referential and often self-deprecating humor of the 2010s (often dubbed the "Meta Era" as a result). This could probably count, since the "boost to win" formula and self-deprecating snark from Unleashed and onward were finally abandoned in favor of open-world gameplay and a script that takes itself much more seriously. Maybe more of a Retool, not sure.


There's also a section on Archer that states that every season after Season 5 is a soft reboot. I haven't watched Archer, so I'll leave that to someone else, but just by reading it I'm pretty sure they count more as retools than reboots.

Edited by supernintendo128 on Nov 2nd 2025 at 8:01:12 AM

pee pee poo poo
SpaceKABOOM Since: Jul, 2016
#3: Nov 6th 2025 at 6:07:18 AM

Those examples are indeed excessive.

taotruths Live Jet Reaction (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: I sleep in a big bed with my wife.
Live Jet Reaction
#4: Nov 6th 2025 at 8:25:13 AM

agreed, these are retools and not soft reboots

FirstAidRules He/Him from House (Experienced Trainee) Relationship Status: Singularity
He/Him
#5: Nov 6th 2025 at 11:16:31 AM

Checking the list for video games: Pokémon Black and White don't count because the only stated reason is "new Pokémon with no way to get the others until post-game". Paper Mario: Sticker Star doesn't count because Origami King makes it clear the first three games happened (there's a room on The Princess Peach with pictures of Peach's looks from the first three games), though in Broad Strokes (Bowser never mentions his marriage to Peach). WarioWare Gold doesn't count because it make it clear the other games happened.

Hi!
king15 Have Faun Since: Mar, 2024
Have Faun
#6: Nov 6th 2025 at 11:25:27 AM

[up][up][up][up]Sonic Adventure, as you mentioned, and Sonic Unleashed are the only two major Soft Reboots. There are three gameplay eras in the series (2D, Adventure and Boost). Adventure debuted in Adventure and Boost in Unleashed. Both games represented a major change in gameplay, tone, narrative, characters etc. ''Unleashed', for example, represented an attempt to move away from the more serious previous games and reduced the core cast of characters.

The others are just games that tried to do something different. Sonic Colors has a slightly different gimmick, but is just more of Unleashed. Lost World was a spinoff, Boom is clearly meant to be a spinoff series set in a different canon, Forces changed things but for all intents and purposes is a Boost game (with some minor tonal and narrative similarities to older Adventure games). Frontiers I could maybe see being a Soft Reboot due to being another major change in gameplay, tone, narrative, characters and so on, but even then I'd say it's fairly close to the Boost games. Maybe wait to see where future instalments go until deciding on Frontiers?

Edited by king15 on Nov 6th 2025 at 7:26:35 PM

PhiSat Planeswalker from Everywhere and Nowhere Since: Jan, 2011
Planeswalker
#7: Nov 6th 2025 at 11:31:45 AM

I don't even think Unleashed counts. Its Japanese title is Sonic World Adventure, clearly tying it into the other Adventure titles.

Oissu!
supernintendo128 Semi-retired editor from My desk Since: Feb, 2013 Relationship Status: Is that a kind of food?
Semi-retired editor
#8: Nov 6th 2025 at 4:29:40 PM

[up][up][up]You got it all wrong. A Soft Reboot means the previous events in canon did happen.

Sticker Star can stay since it's such a drastic departure from previous games in both tone and gameplay.

I agree that Wario Ware Gold has to go but for different reasons: a new art style and being a retelling of the first game do not make it a soft reboot, the former is Art Evolution, and the latter, Wario Ware games are pretty light on story. Don't they all follow the formula of "Wario and friends make game > Wario gets greedy and tries to take all of the profits for himself > Wario fails and gets punished > THE END" It's a clear shoehorn and is getting cut immediately.

I seriously doubt Black and White was intended as a reboot for reasons you just stated, and I don't think Ruby and Sapphire count either. And "considered among the fandom"? This isn't YMMV.

[up][up]What about Sonic 06 since it was explicitly intended to be a reboot?

Edited by supernintendo128 on Nov 6th 2025 at 6:32:13 AM

pee pee poo poo
FirstAidRules He/Him from House (Experienced Trainee) Relationship Status: Singularity
He/Him
#9: Nov 6th 2025 at 5:53:55 PM

For Anime and Manga, the Pokémon Horizons: The Series is the only one that can stay for Pokémon the Series due to the new protagonists. Sticker Star I'm still not sure about. At best, you can say the first three games are Broad Strokes by Origami King.

Edited by FirstAidRules on Nov 6th 2025 at 5:55:01 AM

Hi!
supernintendo128 Semi-retired editor from My desk Since: Feb, 2013 Relationship Status: Is that a kind of food?
Semi-retired editor
#10: Nov 6th 2025 at 8:54:00 PM

[up]In Sticker Star, you can find a thrown away letter from Goombella as an easter egg, so I'd say the previous games are canon (or at least as much as the loose canon for Mario allows for)

I agree that only Pokemon Horizons is the only real reboot of the anime.


  • Dragon Ball Z:
    • The Android Saga does to the manga as a whole in regards to the Earth cast. Prior to this Story Arc, Earth was portrayed as a world full of wonders, anthropomorphic animals, powerful martial artists, among other things that made the world have a very cartoony feeling. By the Android Saga, most of Earth's population consisted only of humans who can believe some nobody is the savior of the planet and diminish anything impressive the main cast does as "cheap tricks". This tonal change also applies to the next (and final) story arc, the Buu Saga; despite being Lighter and Softer, it still uses the previous arc's concept of Earth. I think the more mythical parts of Earth falling Out of Focus is a very flimsy excuse to call this a Soft Reboot
    • The Saiyan Saga counts as one for the manga in general, beginning with a Time Skip and full-blown Genre Shift that completely changes the status quo, introduces concepts that become franchise mainstays going forward, and establishes a very different tone compared to the original Dragon Ball. That it serves as a decent introduction to the overall series despite being in the middle of it is one reason Dragon Ball Z managed to be such a success in the States despite getting localized before its predecessor. This could probably count, the arcs after the Piccolo Jr. Saga were distinct enough to warrant it's own separate anime series despite being based off the same manga
    • The Buu Saga could be seen as another attempt on Toriyama's part of doing one for the series. Coming off the heels of the Cell Saga ending with Gohan becoming the new protagonist and Goku Killed Off for Real, the Buu Saga starts with another drastic Time Skip, this time seven years into the future. Gohan is now a teenager, his younger brother Goten is introduced to the series, and the series now follows Gohan attending high school as a Fish out of Water, both as a superpowered martial artist among a cast of normals and as someone who had up to this point being homeschooled. I don't think a Time Skip is enough grounds to be a Soft Reboot


I may do a full write-up of the page later. But who else supports the notion that "something changes between seasons" is not a soft reboot unless the change is so drastic it could be a different show? (Like Pokemon Horizons focusing on a new cast) I think to call every other season a Soft Reboot like Archer is completely ridiculous and seriously dilutes the meaning of the trope. That's like saying:

"Troper Adventures Season 2 introduced this weird gimmick where everyone wore energy dome hats in every scene and they all randomly speak Esperanto. Soft reboot!"

Or:

"Scrimblo Bimblo: The Animated Series Season 4 gave Scrimblo a love interest and killed off Dr. Disaster to introduce new villain Captain Catastrophe. Soft reboot!"

I know there are only 4 or 5 instances of this on the page but it's a massive pet peeve of mine.

Edited by supernintendo128 on Nov 6th 2025 at 11:20:36 AM

pee pee poo poo
taotruths Live Jet Reaction (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: I sleep in a big bed with my wife.
Live Jet Reaction
#11: Nov 7th 2025 at 7:34:08 AM

No I agree, those are all stretches.

king15 Have Faun Since: Mar, 2024
Have Faun
#12: Nov 7th 2025 at 7:37:33 AM

[up][up][up][up]I'm unsure, because in terms of gameplay, cast of characters and tone it is quite similar to the Adventure games, but in terms of art style and elements of the story, it is quite different.

[up][up][up][up][up] I think Unleashed counts, even if it is connected to the Adventure games. It represents a clear attempt to separate itself from the older games, completely changing the gameplay, lightening the tone and reducing the cast of characters.

Edited by king15 on Nov 7th 2025 at 3:37:42 PM

FirstAidRules He/Him from House (Experienced Trainee) Relationship Status: Singularity
He/Him
#13: Nov 7th 2025 at 5:48:04 PM

Does Transformers: Robots in Disguise count? It was originally stated in promotional material to take place in the G1 cartoon. Then the show itself didn't indicate this so the dub turned it into a full reboot. Then, years later, Japan said it did take place in the cartoon timeline, using the formerly non-canon Battle of the Star Gate manga which ends with the G1 Transformers caught in the backlash of the Trigger's explosion and tumble down to Earth in flames and are missing and believed dead for quite some time, thus allowing the Robots in Disguise anime to take place. U.S. has it as a firmly separate one with Vector Prime explaining that due to the events of Cybertron is in Grave Danger!, one of the effects was portions of Viron (the Robots in Disguise continuity) overlapping portions of Primax (G1).

Hi!
Add Post

Total posts: 13
Top