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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ม.ค. 2024
- It's finally time. And after such a long break, I feel like I've gotten a lot better at making these. I didn't have to cut out almost anything from this. I think I've gotten a better grasp on what's worth talking about and what I can gloss over. While still very rambly, I think this is more focused than my older videos. Hope you like it. Let me know what you think.
/ pariah695
ko-fi.com/pariah695 - เกม
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I was a kid in elementary school, aka the target demographic when Sonic Colors came out, and even I didn't even find the writing funny back then. In fact, I vividly remember that "baldy nosehair" was the first time I had ever experienced second hand embarrassment from a GAME. I thought to myself, "I don't want my friends to see me playing this" for the first time in my life and I was no older than 10 at the time.
Did the whole bus clapped after that?
@@GianniLeonhart No, I was at home.
@@GianniLeonhartwhat kind of kid would be able to play the console version of Sonic Colors on a bus in 2010?
@@dn22pkkdd476 Interstellar amusement parks, aliens and anthropomorphic hedgehogs are cool. Bad and awful jokes aren´t.
@@dn22pkkdd476 The blue anthropomorphic hedgehog, running around an interstellar amusement park with multi-colored aliens, a planet made of candy, and a two tailed yellow fox isn't the problem.
Bad writing that's targeted towards children, that children themselves don't even find funny is the problem.
Sonic Heroes does so much with its simple story and I love it. Colors' story has such an amazing premise but does nothing with it
They each give something pretty grand to Eggman right out the gate, and in Heroes he even gives you a time limit, which is less clear in Colors in that he plans to use up the Wisps energy. The true villain of Heroes puts that game in a different perspective. It was much more frequent in that era of games to see Eggman become the secondary villain in the end. But the friends’ dynamics and banter were what made Heroes shine so much for me. I like Team Chaotix for that especially, and Team Dark became a thing in that very game.
Does what? Bring Shadow back to life but do nothing with him? Make Amy even more of an insane stalker? Make you play the same game 4 times just to complete the story? Gives Metal Sonic a ridiculously long transformation sequence but not having the time to give him an actual personality?
@@vividcolorandrichaudio6134 true, its pretty pathetic how shadow is just there to cash in on fan service and they all say cringey lines that to me at least isnt even so bad it's good like a lot of the Craig smith era it's just medium level bad
Ehhh, Heroes' story doesn't really do anything with most of its elements, to be honest. Yeah, the character banter and callbacks to previous games are cool, but narrative-wise it doesn't really capitalize on the interesting parts like Shadow coming back to life or Amy going on her own adventures without Sonic. Shadow's return is treated as if it wasn't a big deal, the characters barely even react to him and no one even tries to mention the events of SA2 to him, Amy's story seems like a logical next step for her character after the Adventure games, but then they ruin it by still tying her motivation to chasing Sonic around. Heroes is honestly pretty underwhelming in general, both the game and its story, it could have been one of the best games in the series.
@@vividcolorandrichaudio6134 Shut up, everything you just said was wrong
An interesting moment for me in this game was when Tails mentioned that he hasn't seen Yacker in a long time, while Sonic was overlooking the Nega Wisp plant, implying that Yacker may have turned into a Nega Wisp.
Except you literally see him in the ending cutscene
They address the possibility that he's turned and then do nothing with it! I wish there was a scene where we confront a corrupted Yacker, much like Sonic confronts a mind controlled Tails.
@@Zejgar in the ds version they find yacker, he was looking for his mother(who was turned into a nega wisp)
@@Zejgarwell he doesn’t have to turn into a nega wisp. It’s simply that they brought up the possibility.
The only reason it’s there is to force a “character change” within Sonic,@@Zejgar. Observe the differences in the boss fight interaction and Asteroid Coaster with any interaction beforehand, Sonic starts to get serious in that one. Hence the, “I’m gonna mess you up” line.
Sonic does have “development” in this one, with him looking like a douche but with that scene it shows he still has a heart of gold deep down. If that sounds familiar, it’s pretty much every “douchebag” major character arc ever told. The more you go into these Pontaff stories, the more it looks like they didn’t even try; no offense to them of course.
My favourite thing about Sonic Colours DS that you skimmed over is the way they handled the wisps.
In console Sonic Colours theyre like you said, just non-characters, and theyre treated like nameless damsels in distress that Sonic has to save, you only get to meet Yacker. They pose zero impact or presence in the story.
In DS Colours, you actually get formally introduced to the Wisps one by one, and get properly familiarized with their personality traits that match the abilities they give you, like Rocket being a bit of a hothead (which they reference Knuckles being so too) and Drill who loves swimming (and Sonic doesnt like that) You actually feel like you get to know the Wisps and sorta get to 'hang out' with them as you travel the park and save their fellow friends.
Theres even a tad bit of bonding between the Laser Wisp and Sonic in Aquarium Park because they're both really fast, and Sonic ALWAYS bonds with a fellow speed-demon.
In DS Colours, you dont JUST talk to Yacker, you get to slightly know Yacker's Wisp friends which really makes their transformation into Nega-Wisps ala sucking their energy out of them in Asteroid Coaster feel a tad more impactful. You feel just a bit more empathy towards the Wisps snd anger towards Eggman because you know who they are and you dont want them harmed.
Chalk another one up for Colours DS 😁
EDIT: Upon revisiting the DS cutscenes. There's even more. That classic characterization you love so much in Sonic characters is all there. Rouge and Knuckles? It's in there in Starlight Carnival. Amy? She's in there as well. Shadow and Omega are even there. Omega tells Sonic he'll reach the speed of light one day, and Shadow and Omega BOTH contribute to a part of the story that foreshadows the Nega-Mother Wisp fight at the end of the game. So they're not 100% just cameo characters.
Yeah, Colours DS really had a lot of good stuff and attention to detail that needs to be remembered.
More people need to aware of this.
I like the inclusion of the rest of the cast because the park feels less empty than it did on Wii. And even if they don't do much, seeing them interact with eachother, and written accurately, is always nice.
Eh...no they do have a impact and presence in the story. They fuel the amusement part and we even see Eggman use them in the final boss fight and it seems like they turn into the purple wisps after what Eggman does to them.
It`s not a great story...but it is something and more then the woodland creatures in the classic games at least since these ones express at least some more personality and actually help you out.
Nah. I'm with pariah on this. The cast are just the background characters of the game. NPCs that work as random people to fill the empty amusement park.
@jaydenc367 When talking about "impact" in this context, it's to the player rather than the story, and adding characterization does add that - we have other stories where technically their existence do contribute to the plot but are practically NPCs that they're well, less impactful.
I want to highlight this, but after Yacker has exposited all he can, he just disappears from the plot entirely. Until a cutscene in Asteroid Coaster where they imply that Eggman may have captured him and is draining his energy at this very moment. Tails highlights this and he's very sad about this before Sonic runs off to smash a generator, there's this one shot of him looking at the energy sapping machine that Yacker could be in right now. After the Asteroid Coaster boss, Tails verbally hopes that Hacker is ok and Sonic is just like "eh he'll be fine." LIKE LMAO????
Yacker appears again at the end of the game to thank them and Tails or Sonic just do not acknowledge this or say his name to even reestablish it's him. Tails does not express joy that Yacker is alive and well. And what's even funnier is that the goddamn DS version actually has Tails celebrate Yacker's survival. Absolutely incredible.
Just like the shoving Tails into an elevator thing, it seems to be very forced drama to create some sense of stakes that was sorely missing from this game cuz it's more in favor of bad stand up routines. I kinda wish you brought this upbut the fact you didn't is just the most telling thing about how utterly useless and unnecessary this plot detail was.
Didn't you try to cancel a sonic artist for making a "rcist" joke and then a month later you defended someone who has a fat fetish when you were on the same server because you shares the same kinks and you were talking about hot armpit are because you have a fetish for it and you tried to make the argument that you want people to believe that its about body disforya and bigotry when its not and you use that argument because you didn't want to be mocked or humiliated?
I appreciate that you have been impartial with the history of Sonic Colors because it is very difficult to find someone who talks about the history of Sonic Colors without getting carried away by their prejudices or their tastes. I also liked that you mentioned the fact that it was Sonic Unleashed that really started this trend of creating simple stories without Sonic's friends, I say this because it seems that people forget that it was in Unleashed where the character of Tails became a complete useless...
On the other hand, I still find it very interesting, and at the same time strange, that for the story in English, they completely changed the characterization of the characters, but for the story in Japanese, the characterization of the characters was not changed at all and even to a certain extent, it is consistent with what has already been seen in previous games. And this is not only applicable for Sonic Colors but also for all Sonic games from the 2010s. It's like if Sonic Team had said: "If Western audiences don't like Japanese writing, we'll change it according to what they want, but at the same time, we won't make any changes for Japanese audiences."
It wouldn't be so crazy if you asked me. Lol
🤡 and sonic is made for America.
🤔 but I gotta ask. What do Japanese audiences think about sonic? What do they think about his friends and the lore? Was cream popular in Japan? And how popular was she?
Roger van der Weide's "Sonic Dissected" series did a great job at deconstructing exactly why this story falls apart, and why it fails even from a "Saturday morning cartoon" perspective. Anything vaguely resembling a conflict is usually dropped after one scene (The mystery of what Eggman's up to, Yacker being abducted, the entire "mind control beam" angle.) Orbot and Cubot do literally nothing but crack jokes while Scratch and Grounder would at least TRY to get in Sonic's way, and while DIC!Sonic was definitely more prone to snappy/cheesy dialogue, he'd never get the chance to stand still and just "banter" for as long as Colors!Sonic does. When you look at the cutscenes of Sonic Colors, completely divorced from the gameplay, it feels less like a zany fun adventure and more like some "office job" where every character just goes through the motions until it's over. No passion, no worries, just Baldy McNosehair doing his thing so we gotta stop him or something.
Speaking of which, he has an interview with Pontac and... Colors isn't exactly the first Sonic game written by American writers. And nepotism is the reason why Pontac got the job.
No way, we did the Marvel humor.
That’s exactly what I was thinking!@@spritvio639
Modern Sonic was late stage MCU before it was “cool” (in other words lame and shit) to do.
@@jasonnguyen1072*turns to camera*
"Ummmm did that wisp just talk or am I losing my mind?"
the Sonic Boom tv show is when they fully embraced the sitcom formula. I mean Bill Freiberger as co-executive producer was hired and pitched because of his experience on The Simpsons I've heard
Orbot and Cubot are personally my favorite part of Sonic Colors. They really are so cute, I just wish they are used more often when it comes to controlling Eggman robots and not just stuck in cutscenes most of the time. Also they should totally be written as Sage's godparents/babysitters. They both give funny dad couple energy.
I’m looking forward to seeing Orbot and Cubot interact with Sage. I’m imagining her being the serious yet naive and occasionally literal-minded younger sibling to their goofy older sibling dynamic
@@luhyzi5012 SEGA DOES WHAT NINTENDONT TRULY (Wapeach mention)
“When you consider what we’re doing from a robot’s point of view, it’s actually pretty gruesome.”
Agreed I like the little family Eggman has now with Orbot Cubot Sage & Metal Sonic
Would honestly love a comic series with them all just vibing as a family
They're Sage's big brothers.
My favorite part of Sonic Colors story is how it pays homage to the Japanese series, Kamen Rider, it's in the fact that Sonic and Eggman are both utilizing the same thing in order to combat each other, similar to how Kamen Rider's use or gain similar abilities to the villains they fight, it's clear that it was a intentional reference since in the Japanese version the Wisp announcer is the Narrator and Gaia Memory announcer from Kamen Rider W, Fumihiko Tachiki, he even uses the same voice. Not a super important detail, but as a KR fan it was always something I appreciated.
You're gonna like my rewrite.
@Pariah6950 You're rewriting the series?
Best line in this video is when you say ‘it’s for kids’ is not an excuse for making shit! Thank you!!! That needs to be said way more!
7:26 another cool thing about planet wisp the purple water isnt actually natural to the planet you can see from space the planet has blue water the purple water is actually the result of eggman poluting the water which is another cool detail people dont seem to notice
I’m not that big a Sonic fan, but I find the Sonic fandom so fascinating, so I’m glad to get that perspective, well also acknowledging the validity of the Saturday Morning cartoon approach, even if you don’t personally care for it
yeah man I've been here for as long as i can remember and i can comfirm, this fandom is a whole different beast
I’m probably kinder to Colours’ story the most. Though I cop to my bias that it’s partially a mix of nostalgia (it was the last Sonic game to come out when I was a kid) and I wonder if I went to bat for a little more because I was SO tired of a lot of the internet talking points in the fandom throughout the 2010s (even the ones I agreed with). Looking at it now, there’s a lot of aspects I’m still fond of but a lot I can’t defend.
First I’m glad you touched on aspects like the focus on environmentalism and the wordless storytelling in the levels. For as many times as Sega has talked about ‘taking Sonic back to his roots’ Colours is one of the few times I think they’ve managed that in more than just surface level aesthetics. I also enjoy breaking up the bigger scale stories with smaller scale adventures like this. There’s a lot of scenes in Colours where the plot slows down and Sonic, Tails and Eggman get more opportunities to bounce off each other, rather than shoving every recurring character into every game and giving none of them anything to do. Eggman’s Interstellar Amusement Park is one of my favourite settings in the series. There’s a lot about Colours’ change in direction that I do think was the right call, especially at the time.
Unfortunately, even if distancing the series from big, over the top anime stories made sense ay the time, their issue was much more execution, than concept, and Colours merely ends up being different, not better. Sonic stories are typically at their worst when they feel like a pale imitation of something I’ve already seen. 06 tried and failed to be a Final Fantasy esque spectacle. Meanwhile Colours wants to be a Saturday morning comedy, but so many other works do what it does, and do it better. There are so many kids shows that have much smarter and better written jokes. And hell, even in terms of games, I think Ratchet and Clank achieves a lot of what Colours is going for much better. Ultimately, as with many Sonic stories, execution and writing ends up being the stumbling block.
As for the characterisation point. Again there are aspects I like. I enjoy that Eggman gets to be the main antagonist after so long and more focus is put on his role as a ruthless industrialist exploiting nature. And I like the idea of a game where Sonic and Tails slow down and get to talk more as actual friends rather than just rushing off to the next plot beat. Hell I even kinda like the more playful, jokey banter between the two that they’re going for. I kinda like Tails being confident enough to gently rib Sonic sometimes. Hell, I actually really like these new voice actors, particularly Kate Higgins as Tails. But putting that English and Japanese clip side by side does demonstrate that it’s just…not the same dynamic, even if it’s not a bad one in a vacuum.
Your point about putting it in the context of American adaptations like AOSTH is very apt, and explains a lot about why the people I’ve seen who this tone for Sonic enjoy it, and why those why don’t do not. But yeah, when you put it in that context of trying to ‘remove’ Sonic’s Japanese influence, it feels a bit skeevy. Makes it feel like a 4Kids dub.
Does this take away from my enjoyment of Colours? Not really. There are enough things going on around it that I appreciate, I still have a blast with the game itself. And I think the atmosphere carries the narrative for me over any faults. Even if some of the quips make me cringe, the game just evokes a sense of good vibes for me like few other Sonic games. And the more grating parts are a lot less egregious than they would become in future titles.
As for the wider story direction Sonic took in this era (I’m not calling it the Meta Era because I’m so, SO tired of the fandom talking about this incessantly for years), I don’t hate it as much as some people do. But it is another example of my biggest issue with Sonic. Throwing out a concept just because the execution was flawed, and chasing after trends rather than trying to be itself. It’s not the first time the series has done this and it probably won’t be the last.
So yeah, I like Colours, and I think it’s far from the worst Sonic story (I enjoy it a hell of a lot more than Heroes, Shadow, 06, Lost World, Forces’ stories) but I understand the criticism. I feel like somewhere between this game’s sense of atmosphere, classic influences and small scale adventure, and the more loyal localisation and sincerity and just…general momentum of stuff actually happening, of something like Unleashed or Black Knight, you’d have exactly what I want in a Sonic story. But this unfortunately isn’t that.
I’d definitely be interested to see you attempt a rewrite though. I’ll look forward to that video.
On that whole "the japanese version was vastly different", I believe this was because Sonic had a completely different reception in Japan.
You see, where people hated Sonic in the west, the Japanese audience had no issues with the so-called bad Sonic games (in fact, I think even 06 was rather well recieved there), so all of the changes that Colors brought would've felt completely out of left field for Japan, therefore they had to make all of those changes to make sure Sonic is still the way he was in Japan.
From what I've read, 06 still has a general negative reception in Japan (mainly the loading screens), but it's not the end of the world like the anglosphere make it out to be. Some Japanese Sonic fans look back to it fondly over the story and characters.
Japanese Sonic was always relatively consistent. He's been the same in the classic games, and the adventure games. Unfortunately the quality of the Japanese scripts are going downhill from here.
@@kilometersperminute4113 Yeah, I heard 06 somehow just got a "ah man, this could have been better" and Shadow not being popular was covered by games of "edgy" games of its type not being popular in the country anyways, so nothing unusual there.
I actually wonder if the less critical reaction to the controversial years comes from how only dedicated people were playing the games over there anyways. Sonic Jam was half made because JP people didn't know what a Sonic was and that popularity boost only lasted the series until SA2, after which it basically vanished from the face of the country until Frontiers dropped.
@@kilometersperminute4113japanese do like how sonic handeld because the 90s had the real not the western sonic that was created to apeal to western audiance
That people thought thats how always sonic meant to be
30:17 Tails changing into a snarky tech know it all guy is the worst thing they’ve done to his character. He’s way more appealing as an insecure (less so after his development) tinkerer that still idolizes Sonic. A lot of people like it because they think it’s more how brothers act but this bantering relationship between them is so goddamn insufferable I can’t stand it. I don’t want them to act like “normal” brothers. I want them to act like Sonic and Tails.
The situation with Warren Graff and Ken Pontac seems to be a bit different from what you mentioned in the video, from what I've seen it seems less like they were purposefully and intentionally chosen for thought out reasons on how the series should continue, but rather as "emergency" replacement writers after the poor reception of the writing of the prior games.
They worked on MadWorld before they worked on Sonic, and they had connections to the SOA CEO at the time, those connections they had with Sega were the reason they got hired, and there's no evidence to suggest they were hired for their lack of knowledge on the Sonic Series, according to what they said in interviews, they indeed did mostly just write dialogue for scenes based on an outline Sega gave them for the story in Colors, but for Lost World they had significantly more creative control. This implies that for Colors they were hired after pre-production had already finished, which gives slight credence to them being "emergency" writers but also gives credence to what you said in regards to their involvement.
The tone and style of Colors seems to mostly stem from the NSMB and Mario Galaxy games respectively from my estimation. (upbeat, simple small scale "old school game" tone from NSMB, Environmental storytelling and sci fi theming from Galaxy) The reason why the Sonic Series changed the way it did in the 2000s was mostly because of Sega feeling uncomfortable with having to sell a game franchise like Sonic in a marketplace where mascot platformers and kids games in general were falling out of favor, Colors doesn't seem to exactly be the result of just fan feedback fully, as Sega had been keenly aware of it by at least 2005 (look at 2005 interviews with the producer of Unleashed for reference), and continued on the path they were heading anyways. and infact, it seems that in regards to listening to fan feedback, Unleashed was the game most catering to that from what the developers stated.
Of course Colors is also helping in furthering that goal intentionally but i believe the major reason i think it is the way it is is not because of fan feedback (see Unleashed as being almost entirely molded by it yet still clinging onto a lot of Adventure conventions) but because of the success of the NSMB and Mario Galaxy games giving Sega the confidence that pursuing "cutesy simple" games could be very profitable and accepted by the market on certain platforms (Wii and DS), which wasn't the case for the majority of the 2000s.
50 minutes analysis is the community equivalent of a declaration of war.
Now this is what I subbed for!
The biggest thing about this game to me is that it basically ruined any and all Sonic discussion online, to the point that I actively avoid talking about it anymore because it annoys me that much. From both sides, the people who hate this game and think it killed their family and those who fanboy over this game like their life depended on it. Warren Graff and Ken Pontac literally got death threats over it, that should tell you how toxic this whole shit became.
All in all, I understand why Sonic Colors is the way it is; whether anyone likes it or not, Sonic is more popular in the West than he is in Japan and always has been and most Western Sonic fans who aren't clued in to the Japanese side of things grew up on those Western cartoons, so it makes a ton of sense to cater the game to them. And it worked because Sonic Colors was extremely well-received at the time it came out. Things like "It broke the Sonic cycle" or "The first good 3D Sonic game" were all over news outlets when it dropped. It was, from a commercial and financial standpoint, a success, so understandably Sega made every game like it afterwards.
Its a whatever to me at this point; I've gone from loving it, to hating it, and now I'm just kind of indifferent. I've been on both sides of the discourse and I think Sonic Colors was the point when my fatigue for this franchise constantly changing and being inconsistent really started to settle in. I started to get into Fighting games more around this time and it was one of the best decisions I could have made and finally move on to playing and talking about games I actually liked. I don't think Sonic Colors is a bad game overall, its actually pretty solid all around and I can easily recommended it to my non-Sonic friends who might be interested in the series
But talking about it with actual Sonic fans is one of the worst experiences I've had to endure and its STILL going on to this very day on social media sites like Twitter.
That sucks. You need to remember though that the majority of Sonic fans are small children, by virtue of Sonic being a small cute cartoon hedgehog. So of course there is going to be toxicity. I recommend staying away from the fans.
@@kingstarscream3807 Well, they are children, just mentally, not physically.
And that's basically what I do now; much better for the mental health and it allows me to be a bit more impartial with the games.
Fun Fact: The writers of this game also wrote for "Happy Tree Friends".
That explains why the writing is so crappy
Why the r*ng does this game have no violence and fatality?
@@crimsonzone8984thats more of a joke than complianing
Sonic games doesn't need this
This was only few in stories like sa2 sa1 or even 06
What u said is properly referance to the shadow game
@@FlashBiduan wayta? What I said is reference to Happy Tree Friends and the fact that this is the same writer who wrote for that carnage.
I think it's good character development that Sonic has been more joking at exactly this game. I believe the events of Shadow the Hedgehog really influenced many characters, including Sonic. It was violent, genocidal onslaught that left Tails without his bravery and Sonic from his energy. The next two branches of following events - 06 and Unleashed had Sonic much more toned down, focused on the mission. Only after the fun of world adventure with Chip Sonic learned to have fun again, to be strong against his inner darkness. That made Sonic crack more jokes even during dire times, which made him resilient enough to even joke in Forces despite long months in captivity. But that's only my headcanon.
That… is absolutely perfect and completely believable. Actually puts the way things were written during that decade of Sonic make more sense
And I actually LIKE a lot of the stuff from 2010s Sonic games, so reading this put a smile on my face
So instead of taking anything seriously he just decides to make awful reddit one liners all the time. Sounds kinda unhealthy lmao
I want to preface this by saying I'm not here to change your mind; God knows all us sonic fans have at this point is our headcanon to patch up the insane weirdness of the sonic continuity. What you're saying is fairly believable and would even make sense to me... if I didn't think sonic *shouldn't have* character development in the first place.
It's just kind of odd given that sonic is supposed to be the only "constant" in the sonic universe besides eggman. Again, not arguing with you, just pointing out the reason that I don't *also* have that headcanon, if that makes sense
While that sorta makes sense, it’s kinda antithetical for Sonic to change like that since character arcs are something he doesn’t really do
@@surenderreddy8144he does character arcs, just flat ones, rather than dynamic ones (at least, until lost world... I think? I didn't notice a particularly large change in Sonic's behavior in forces, but I'm rambling)
Something I noticed in the credits after watching this video is that the character supervisors (pretty much uncredited up until now, Maekawa mentioned he was one of them back in the day) are always listed under Sega of Japan and along with the people who localize it into Japanese and not along with the people who wrote the story so the characters being more in-character in Japanese makes so much more sense now & adds to your points of them wanting to make seperate Sonics for different reigions again.
Edit: what character supervisors are, as Maekawa explained in a interview with Emi Jones are people who make sure the characters don't swerve off course from game to game.
Really great video! Probably the best video I’ve seen on Colors’ story! Can’t wait for your rewrite!
Another excellent video by Pariah, looking thoughtfully and with nuance at a story people generally write off.
I love to see it!
I love how you just start saying Sonic, Tails and Eggman in Colors are like the fake versions of em just because of the like personality/writing changes. Not even in like cynical way but thats just like my sense of humor. Even if it wasn't meant to be like a joke it was still a great little segment of the video. Made me very happy to listen to.
Because now im thinking of like these versions of the characters as like fake versions similar to like Fake Crash in Crash Bandicoot but instead they look like washed old man Sonic and Tails.
I honestly would've loved to have true hubworlds in colors
The reason they Didn't do it is cus the game is trying to emulate the nsmb games to a degree
12:32 Just a reminder from a previous post of mine, but Sonic Team mindset with Colors is not that different that with Unleashed. Sonic Unleashed also hired a freelance writer in Kiyoko Yoshimura, who had experience with Sonic, as she was the main writer of Sonic X. I heard the main writer of Forces is also a freelancer.
There is a mistake from your part Pariah, as while it's true the duo is credited as writers, they were mostly localizers. However, the game did get directed based on the localization, but still. I know the guys didn't know shit about Sonic but Sonic Team ain't that stupid to make them write the game without anything on hand. It's only in Lost World where it truly becomes an issue.
Watching Orbot and Cubot makes me miss Decoe and Bocoe from Sonic X, at least they were actually funny sometimes. I remember that one time they fused and it was basically one of them standing on top of the other.
I remember that too!
Good point on the new writers.
I think they were writing the Colors game as if it were a Saturday morning cartoon, which is why the dialogue feels overall jokey compared to the previous games.
27:34
Every other line form Sonic might as well be "please laugh"
Yeah, Sonic in these Pontaff stories feels less like himself and more like a 2010s redditor emulating his favorite heroes. Namely Tony Stark, BBC’s Sherlock, Rick Sanchez, Jeff Wringer, Buffy the Vampir….
I never really minded Orbot and Cubot...or rather I don't mind Orbot a lot of the time. Cubot over the course of his entire existence in the Sonic series has made me chuckle once and it was in the comics at that. Orbot's fine enough to where he doesn't really bother me. I get mild enjoyment out of him basically being an employee that doesn't like his job too much and basically tries to get as much out of it as he can. I feel like their main problem is that they don't do anything but make jokes. Say what you want about any other Eggman lacky but at least they try to do something useful. When you're left with characters who especially in this game have nothing but a baf punchline to say, it greatly diminishes their value when they can't even do the one thing they were made to do. I do think Colors is where they're at their worst. They're negligible in Lost World, barely exist in Forces and straight up don't appear in Generations and Frontiers.
(Sorry for the long text)
I recall articles of how Sonic was the soft introduction to anime for many kids in the U.S.A. that grew up in conservative religious homes, Sonic being so kid-friendly in premise made it slip under most parents radars in ways something like Pokémon didn't.
It also somewhat explains the reception of the Sonic games story, in the 90's the games were promoted trough saturday morning cartoons and american/british comic books, so the more agressively japanese anime direction alienated the pre-existing fandom, as well as a generation of english-speaking kids that grew up to be jornalists or internet celebrities focused on gaming. And then Colors is like "ok, let's hire american writers to make something more similar to kids media in the west since that's where Sonic is more well known" and now in turn we alieante the generation of 2000's kids and teens that watched Anime AMVs.
In a way what happened to Sonic kinda mirrors Transformers; that franchise also had a more japanese focus in the early 2000s by importing anime, "The Unicron Trilogy" as they call it which pissed off the pre-existing american and british fanbase that grew up with the 80's cartoon and comic. That Anime direction persisted with "Animated" in the late 2000s before getting a more american inspired direction with "Prime". But then they saw the show bleeding money and the poor reception in japan, so they made Robots In Disguise to be something more simple and lighthearted so a foreign market actually buys their toys.
Sonic and Transformers are not the only franchise that went through this, a lot of things I recall getting lighter and softer in the 2010's but now we're at a point we're ironic humor and bathos is frowned upon in favor of something more earnest. At least that's how I see it.
This was really good! Once again it's nice to see you go more in-depth in this story, I never would have thought that Sega was pushing two different interpretations of Sonic at that time. It's very weird indeed
Curious to see how you rewrite the story!
orbot and cubot are lacking in the main games but imo they're handled way better in the sonic boom tv series
theres even a whole episode about orbot becoming more of a villain than eggman and i found it enjoyable
I think you're referring S2E102: Return to Beyond the Valley of the Cubots.
That one is actually written by Ken Pontac and Warren Graff (credited as Pontaff), and from what I hear from people who watched Sonic Boom, that episode in particular is very good. Maybe it's Pontaff in their natural habitat.
@@kilometersperminute4113 i was actually referring to "The Evil Dr. Orbot", the episode you just named is about a valley of abandoned cubot prototypes, but yeah that was also pretty good
Excellent work pariah completely gives my thoughts and opinions of colours and that's someone who loves the Meta era and think the story are pretty ok
Sonic Colors artstyle is one of my favorites of all the franchise, is so unique and the idea of an amusement park is so cool in a Sonic game.
A great example to look to in order to compare Sonic Colors' style of writing with something that actually works is pretty much Kid Icarus Uprising. Sure, the games before didn't have much of a story at all, but Uprising specifically was written to appeal more to a younger audience (at least the localized version) and has that vibe of a saturday morning kids cartoon, but it's actually written WELL and is still really enjoyable to older players, employing proper setup for plot beats and jokes that actually land. I wouldn't mind Sonic being more lighthearted, but I don't want to feel like I'm cringing out of my skin while playing it.
Kid Icarus Uprising is honestly closer to the usual Sonic story than the thing Colors was supposed to go for specifically.
It's actually surprisingly involved with it even brushing against the faults of human nature(one of the passive plotpoints is a war starting over a lie) and even multidimensional politics(One moment where Dark Pit, who at the time is not part of the system of the world, deconstructs the faults and injustices of each and every major faction in it, basically laying the cards on the table for how things could go wrong to begin with)
TAKE OFF AT THE SPEED OF SOUND 🎶
Pariah. I´ve been watching many of your story videos. I really like the way you analize the stories technically, themes, characters and stuff. As an aspiring writer, is there any book for instruction in the matter you would recommend? I´ve heard that Screenplay by Syd Field is pretty useful.
To be fair I do think that the fact that the game's story works entirely through gameplay without having to watch any of the cutscenes is something I do appreciate about it.
Like all of the game's big story beats, even in the finale, happen entirely in gameplay. You fight the final boss and you fail to run away from the black hole all in gameplay (and continuity-wise, having Terminal Velocity Act 1 lead directly into the boss fight makes more sense since you're already running down the giant elevator in the level, there'd be no reason to make a pit stop like they do in the cutscene)
Even the credits, which are technically "gameplay", serve as a stand-in for the ending with the Wisps bringing Sonic back to Earth.
Obviously it's a bit of a back-handed compliment, but it's not like the other Sonic games have a coherent story you can parse entirely from the gameplay like Colors does, I think it speaks to the effectiveness of its premise and the environmental design and brings it to par with the classic games in that regard.
4:12 it also had a gameplay function in sonic adventure 1 and 2 where you can take the animals that you rescued to the chao garden to level up your chao
That's true, but that gameplay function is related to something completely unrelated to the main gameplay of those games. By technicality, it counts, but it still seems a tiny bit like a stretch
As if story is necessary for a game to be good.
Sonic 2 is literally "stop Eggman from completing the Death Egg".
Colors is meant to be a self contained story where he saves aliens from the evil doctor's schemes. It's literally a comeback to the Classic games but where the flickies got replaced by small aliens (like how Chaos replaced the flickies in the Adventure games).
an awesome video as always
...
I don't know how to say this but would you consider making a video diving into the details of the different ring systems throughout the different Sonic games and maybe give your idea of what would be the ideal system for the rings
Cool Video. I wonder what the Wisps do while they're inside Sonic's body when they go into his tummy. When you're not using their power.
Love the breakdown of the theming of planet wisp
Damn right Decoe and Bocoe ARE the best. Underrated characters, imo.
Bokkun, too.
I haven't beat a game after heroes and colors really because the stories and gameplay left adventure in the dust. You nailed it with them alienating their audience. Rip sonic let's hope adventure gets a remaster
Lately I started rewatching and playing these games rom that era, and sure the story is hard to really take seriously, but if you go in it expecting cringe humor there is something to laugh about, not because its clever humor but because it so bad that it becomes funny.
I understand why you think Orbot and Cubot are unfunny but I personally love them
I feel like this sonic is a sonic that has been taking a long break from fighting eggman and has mellowed out.
I really love the themes and the premice Colors is going for; the amusement park, the wisps you have to save, the lighter tone... Everything here just feels so appropriate for Sonic, that I feel if the actual story was told correctly, it could have been hands down the best Sonic story ever told.
I feel most of Color's issues come from cultural differences. That's unavoidable, that's part of the package when you try to export your games overseas. However I think ST made a mistake in trying to separate once again American and Japanese audiences. They could have just looked back on their classic games and try to tell a more lighthearted story themselves based on those, but this shows they absolutely do not understand their American audience, and clearly don't try to. They clearly care about their perception of their games overseas and try to shake things up from time to time to try to keep us engaged... But at the same time, they are like "go do your own thing, we don't care" and then complain when the vision of Sonic the west has doesn't match theirs.
Personnally, I don't really mind Color's story being so bland in this one instance, because it was a bit refreshing after so many Adventure style games, but the bad humour eventually started to irritate me. But again, at the time I was a pretty new Sonic fan as far as mainline games went, so I understand long-time fans might get upset at this one.
Honestly....I would say the story isn`t that bad....just very simple which at the time was not a bad thing at all. Tbh like you I was a new Sonic fan and it was my own first mainline Sonic game.
Maybe sonic team was just ignorant. And thought that having any American handle the games without proper guidance and thought things would all work out right away.
22:59
That’s one part I liked about Sonic’s writing in a vacuum. The fact he reminds me of his American Saturday Morning writing with some of his lines. Not all of it obviously, but some of it is still enjoyable just fine for me.
"There are no Sonic characters in this game" is funnier than any "joke" in this awful story lmao
I very much agree with how strong the premise and environmental design/storytelling is though
For the Sonic and Tails interaction I viewed it as two brothers more than anything else friendly shit talking to each other. While in the Japanese it just felt like a fan boy and his hero.
Man, I wish the concept of brainwashed Tails could have had more done with it. It feels like such an interesting concept that the writing could have had so much fun with.
If the hero's best friend is gonna get mind controlled and join the dark side for a bit, you gotta go all out with it. If I had any control over the game's execution, I would've at the very least given Tails a boss fight where Sonic doesn't want to fight Tails, but he knows he has to. Also, I would've played with the symbolism of foxes. Tails' character has always focused on representing the good side of fox symbolism: the intelligence, wisdom, and nobility. But fox symbolism has its dark side that Tails' character doesn't get to represent: the decitfulness, manipulation, and trickery. Having Tails get mind controlled into being a bad guy is the perfect chance to explore all the sides of this fox symbolism. What if mind controlled Tails was able to defeat Sonic, not through out fighting him or out powering him, but through trickery? For example, what if instead of the mind control immediately wearing off, we instead get a boss fight with Tails, Sonic wins the boss fight, cause of course he does, and then we get a cutscene where Sonic tries to make Tails snap out of it, and it works. Tails breaks out of the mind control and everything's normal again. Or so it seems. And then towards the end of the game it's revealed that, plot twist, Tails never broke out of the mind control. What happened was Tails realized he couldn''t beat Sonic, so he decided to fake being snapped out of the mind control so that he could get Sonic to assume he's won, lower his guard, and then Tails can backstab Sonic when he least expects it and truly defeat him. I think this would be a neat way of subverting the trope of someone trying to snap someone out of mind control by just talking to them. Like oh, you thought begging me to snap out of it would make me snap out of it? Lol, that only works in the movies! And of course Sonic would get saved from getting backstabbed by Tails, and the game would have a happy ending where Tails finally does get freed from mind control, Tails and Sonic defeat Eggman, and all the wisp planets get saved.
In my rewrite, mind controlled Tails wouldn't act like a mindless puppet, cause having him act like a mindless puppet would just be boring. Nah, instead Tails would be fully aware and have his full mental faculties. By keeping Tails as a mind controlled villain for a longer portion of the story and changing mind controlled Tails' personality to someone who is totally fine with being evil and serving Eggman, it establishes that this mind control weapon is a serious threat that can really srew up a person's mind. The way the game made the mind control wear off immediatly in a cutscene just made the weapon, and by extension, Eggman, look like a joke instead of a threat, and I like having Eggman as a real threat instead of a joke villain or a redeemable villain.
I little detail about the Wisps I kinda like is that they nicknamed Eggman baldy mcnosehair, I wobder it that could it be a reference to the classic games in which they nickname people as they did with Knuckles?
I wasn't sure what to expect from this video, but I think you came to some really smart conclusions here. I also thought the writers being replaced was a bit stupid, but you convinced me it was a smart move, even if it didn't work out. The environmental storytelling you mentioned is good observation, I think. I think it's hard to notice details like that. For me, that only happens when I go through something over and over and my brain just randomly makes the connection.
22:34 That was cruel, man. That is one of the biggest verbal middlefingers I've ever witnessed. It's about as heartless as betraying the order in Papers, Please at the very end.
41:26 I guess the game just needed to get rid of Tails for the last fight. Maybe that's not the only reason, but I suspect it's mostly a gameplay decision.
43:58 I'm replaying Sonic Rush now. It has a similar theme and I think it's executed a little better there. But the Wisps aren't really characters, so I guess that was doomed to fall flat.
46:09 I only played Colours shortly after release. If I replay it, I'll try to follow your advice. Thanks.
Adventure 1-2 built up story, heroes changed it but built something, shadow went in a interesting direction and then 06 made it even more interesting, there was a general tone, unleashed shifted away from all of that but it was still interesting, but then colors took it way too out of my interests to the point I didn’t even think about the series till forces.
40:51 this scene is also kinda odd we see a bunch of purple beams fire out of the cannon one hits the moon and starts spreading on it but its never followed up on the game never explains it personally i think there was orignally gonna be a super sonic final boss on the moon vs the mother wisp like in the ds version
At least it's fun to play, which for a video game is the most important part (we don't talk about 06 and Boom). Plus, it was my (and my siblings) first sonic game, so it will always have a huge place in my heart, because without it, we wouldn't have gotten into the series. On that note though. yes, the story could've been a little better, even if they stick to the simple story premise.
I talk about RoL, why wouldn't I talk about my 2nd favorite game in the series.
id aurgue the only actually funny peice of writing in sonic colors are eggmans announcements that play during the levels those are actually pretty good they even include a refrence to crazy taxi another sega ip
25:26 can we just appreciate how cubot just casually disappears for a few frames when the camera moves? (maybe go into 0.25 speed or something if you dont see it idk)
Let me get this straight, after the failures (?) from Heroes (or earlier) to Colors, SEGA and Sonic Team decided to distance the series from the 2000s by changing the voice actors, changing the Japanese writers to American ones who had no knowledge of what Sonic is and not even good writers, while Sonic Team keeps the basic theme of Sonic and makes the changes for Japanese version to maintain what Sonic was in the Japanese version. And the whole American version does clash with the Sonic Team vision and the Japanese dub fixes only so much. I only have one question, what were they thinking?!
Here is the thing. It's not Sonic Team's fault and maybe not even SEGA's fault either. (well sort of) I mean since Sonic Adventure (or earlier) SEGA was a huge mess of a company that isn't doing well financially. It was eventually stabilized only to be acquired by Sammy in 2005 and now it's known as SegaSammy. It's like Activision Blizzard and Square Enix.
And to be clear, Sammy is the one who is in charge of SEGA, not the other way around. Sammy (or SegaSammy) is much more interested in Sonic as the face of a hero for children rather than as a franchise, it has no interest in Sonic having quality games. I can imagine that the Sonic Team had to deal with a lot of corporate meddling, dumb mandates that may or may not harm the game, and rushed development cycles. There is certainly a good reason why Yuji Naka left the Sonic Team.
Also, SegaSammy is the reason why SEGA is so lenient towards Sonic fan projects made by the community. Anyway, I felt I had to tell you that.
I genuinely have nothing major to add. Bravo!
The point about the premise and setting being by Sonic Team in particular is incredibly important.
I get annoyed when people insist for example that the Deadly Six are a product of Potaff..which makes no sense.
I will add that apparently Pontaff DID beg for Orbot & Cubot to return after Colors even though they weren't meant to. So...that's just peachy...
Im glad you brought up the discrepancy between the English and Japanese scripts.
Colors' premise is incredible and its a shame imo it gets overlooked in the wake of the other issues people have with the game.
If i had to point out my 1 main issue with Potaff' writing is not only do they make very shallow jokes, they reqlly dont know how to let them lie. They always always over explain their jokes and then explain tonyou why its supposed to be funny and then explain why you are lame for not finding it funny.
It's annoying. Even jokes that could be okay get ruined by this. It's actually painful.
Edit: Oh the Nega Wisp scene. The SINGLE scene that had the potential to be good, never goes anywhere. Always annoyed me.
I actually dont have a problem with how hands off Sonic's Friends are in Colors DS. The story itself is very laid back and treated as low stakes ultimately, so it doesn't come off as trite to me as it can in other entries.
21:28
I personally agree with you on these points. I wouldn’t want that to happen now, as I prefer to have the world and cast of characters we have still together. But like, when these games were still in development, I don’t mind.
And we kinda got that when Sega once treated Classic Sonic from another dimension. The Classic games necessary for the Modern games I think were still cannon, but anything like Mania never happened in the Modern dimension.
Yay new video!
We'll keep 50:14 in mind. Thank you for feeding us so well today!
Back when I played this game, all I had previously were Sonic 1 and 2, so I didn’t mind at all. And even now, despite loving story driven rpgs, when I play Sonic, I am fine with a shallow or no plot. It’s like a little icing on the cake if it’s actually a good Sonic story, not a dealmaker.
25:07 Yes, they are useless comic relief, but they’re our useless comic relief. They don’t necessarily have to appear all the time, so long as they’re not retconned or ignored
23:32 this line goes so hard
I love how sonic fans love to ignore that sonic team where looking at games like Ratchet & Clank and Jak and Daxter when making these games at the time like Shadow the hedgehog.
Does anyone know if the space-park is supposed to have any connection with the ARK?
This was actually a question I asked when playing Colors last year. Did the ARK get destroyed during Shadow, or was it last used during Unleashed during the intro when Eggman blew up the Earth to release Dark Gaia? And like: did Eggman convert the ARK into the park to make use of the giant laser tech, and this game is the last we see of it?
Or maybe a bootleg Death Star isn't gonna fly anymore after Sonic 3, so Eggman gets these same-y looking orbital death rays instead...
@@ohgodwhy5626 I mean yeah, this is probably how it is. Just bothers me that the ARK would be a still hanging story-thread, when there is a nice way to connect the games & have a final conclusion to it by combining elements from Classic Sonic animals, CD Chained planets, & SA2 death-ray.
Also! Space pARK!
At long last, here it is! It's too hot for popcorn down here so I'm having some nice ice cream for this one, it's gonna be real good... >:)
I think the whole meanings you find in the Tails and Sonic and Wisps about "you need help from others" ecc, its just something you are seeing yourself, speculation, probably searching for a meaning to a story that has none, I think Sonic Team wanted to follow Miyamoto and Nintendo philosophy, which is that plot only ruin games and there needs to be the last as possible and point everything on the gameplay. There is not story in Sonic Colors, its just unfun comedy skit after unfun comedy skit.
Very much unrelated, but the Aquariaum level is where I see Eggman weeb personality from Prime coming from.
Great video keep up the good work
I think it’s cool you compared the American & Japan story’s since it’s the first time Americans wrote a main line game
I know you have done in for other videos but it feels like it’s been a minute since you compared both regions story
Are you going to do this for all the stories written by Americans or would that be a waste of time for story’s like lost world
Also if you do end up rewriting the game I think it would be great I definitely hope end up writing for the actual games one day or just your own idw series
46:07
I completely agree.
Stilll interesting that from Pontaff one of the guys worked on Lazytown and the other on Happy Tree Friends
I actually don't completely hate this game's story either. There's so much going on that most people won't pick up on. I commend you for appreciating this game's story. I get that it has its issues, but it's still good. I also get that people don't like Pontac and Graff, frankly I don't like them either, but their stories aren't that bad. After the horrendous mess that was the 2000's games, it was a good direction. And Colors was a... mediocre start, but the games after that got it a little better. Unleashed was best though, not gonna lie about that. I don't think the VA change had anything to do with that though, I think their deal with 4Kids ended. You say Sonic was super Japanese, but the original Sonic was very geared towards Western audiences. Yeah this game's story could be a lot better, but it's not that bad. I'm cool with long videos about children's games, I'm a huge Sonic nerd too.
39.30: Funnily enough, Tails getting mindcontrolled IS an actual episode in AoStH.
I thought that Silver was part of the DS story because id only ever seen his side mode conversation without context
Story was good
25:17 i mean to be fair i do think they get better in later games and actually manage to say something funny
Kind of an old thought of mine, but Sonic Boom is SoA's effort to make a true American Sonic while SoJ holds onto the main series (or "Legacy Sonic" from what I've heard). But Sonic Boom bombed (because of Sega's incompetence) so eventually they had to do the Japanese - American segregation in the main series again.
11:20
Random thing I noticed/nitpick: The way you wrote that line, made it sound like that the simple fact that these are English writers is the exact reason why Sonic Colors’ story is the way it is.
I know that’s not what you meant. As the immediate next line says that the writers didn’t know anything about Sonic. But it still did confuse me for a second there, lol.
You should do video on Story of Valkyria Chronicles 4.
Orbot and Cubot are amazing in Sonic Boom
43:28
That’s supposed to be a black hole is what I hear all of the time.
So should I ask what your opinions are with Blaze feeling like she knows who silver is in the DS version?
He doesn't like that pairing.
@@spritvio639 oh I know, I’m speaking more on sonic colors references the events of Sonic 06 with the two. Further establishing the retcon of Blaze’s original character, despite Sonic Rush Adventure being a direct sequel to Rush.
@@CosmicMetalMan Blaze wasnt affected by what Solaris did when remaking the reality for Sonic and Elise so that's not a retcon.
That’s such a cute choice for the thumbnail! I love it
24:44 yea, take a listen to eggman's dialogues in stage. The announcements he makes are hilarious, trust me. If you can't hear them, it should be there online. Us sonic fans love to over analyse things...
For what it's worth, I still enjoy a lot of this game's story for what it is. Obviously now that I'm older and can look back on things, I can see a lot of the writing's dogshit qualities, but I really just can't bring myself to hate it. That being said, the fact of the matter is, it did unfortunately start a downward trend in the quality of the writing, which can be seen in later games that I am much more willing to join the dogpile on. I am definitely glad to see that the story has finally been taken more seriously in the past few years though and I am looking forward to seeing how things play out moving forward.
I'd like to say that it was a good return to basics battle between Sonic and Eggman, although there were a lot of jokes that weren't funny.
When I played colors when it came out I literally couldn't' register the cutscenes in my head. I heard wut they were sayin but for some reason non of it processed properly so I never got any of the jokes at the time lol. I feel the exact same when it comes to the extra characters even if I like most of the interactions. I won't lie I genuinely like the final cutscene of the main game but it's so ill-fitted wit the rest of the direct story it doesn't save that aspect cus it's the 1 pretty "good" cutscene. It's environmental storytellin is the most incredible to me since CD while the direct stuff is meh at best tho I don't hate it, jus wish they didn't continue it for so long afterwards but it's wut worked so oh well. Also the story kept droppin random stuff like yacker "missing" at 1 point which jus felt odd. Adore colors but the direct story was never one of those reasons lol
Technically Colors is the second game written in English after Sonic Chronicles, but it's a technicality.
Be honest though, how often do you actually hear people talking about that... Thing?
Pariah: no one gives a fuck about orbot and cubot
Me: *feels offended since they are my favorite characters* 😢
I havent checked much of DS Colors but from what I have seen, it's already way better than Console Colors.
Honestly the story of Colors isn`t all bad really.
Like the ending with the final battle and the final moment against Eggman doesn`t really fall flat as the story has built up to this and earned this moment adaquetly since we see multiple times throughout the game how Eggman is using the wisps for his amusement park and how horrible it is and how he is still evil, from the factory to Planet Wisp etc. And throughout the game you help free the wisps and they help you back with their powers so to see you all fight back against Eggman like that is very fitting and deserved really.
We have had real theming of these kinds of things going on, again we see Eggman capturing and using the wisps and stuff like that. It wasn`t just characters making stupid jokes and they took stuff seriously for the most part despite the jokes they made at the same time, it`s kinda like how Spider-Man quips when fighting villains, not as meaningful but still.
I mean they do sort of build up that theme but mostly in the gameplay with you having to work with the wisps to get through and beat the levels. So it does work tbh. And what it tries at the end of the game honestly works too and further showcases what I mean.
It being in the last minute of the story is fine I mean it`s not the first time Sonic has needed help in this game so far and it really isn`t poorly done like how is it?
Talk about low budget flights!
As GO!! Light Up! put it:
The world has turned
And so many had burned
It's high time we take the blame!
I probably don't dislike the story of this game that much only because of how garbage the plot of Lost World and Forces are in comparison. I don't really know who's truly at fault for the direction of 2010's Sonic (also known as the Meta era) but I'm glad Ian Flynn completely disregarded the stupid soft reboot direction Sega were trying to pull during the 2010's.
It's funny, this game's story failed because there was basically none of it, where lost world and forces at least tried, but they just made critical errors (lost world tried to give sonic a dynamic arc, which is abnormal for sonic, and forces tried to give the avatar a dynamic arc that's inspired by sonic, which is good, but the tone completely disassociates from the fact that there is a fucking *war* going on around the Sonic Characters™️