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Sonic in a Story-Driven Game, and Why It Tends to Fail
Eternal Nothingness
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
In my opinion, there is a good reason why Sonic doesn't translate into an adult-storyline, and it's not just because Sonic is nothing but a scathing pile of "edgy badittude" that didn't age well since the 90s. Rather, it's because the story-driven 3D Sonic games are not about Sonic at all. Instead, they're normally about some generic sealed-away ancient villain people go to Japanese RPGs for, rather than the Sonic franchise. Sonic just appears in those abominations that dare to call themselves "games" just to satisfy the fans, while Sega hopes that not even the fans notice how mutilated their childhood-hero became. Otherwise, they'd just be a bunch of generic Japanese RPGs with all the badly-structured cliches normally expected in such games.
Now, just to let you know, I'm a huge story-buff, and I must confess, Sonic Adventure 1's concept of telling the same story through multiple characters' perspectives was what got me into wanting to create a story-driven video game. As I got older, though, I would learn that Sonic Adventure 1's story, while good on paper, was atrocious in execution. Sure, you can say that Big the cat was the worst part of SA1's story, as he doesn't do anything in that game except artificially pad it out as much as possible with his retarded fishing mini-game. However, my biggest problem with the story wasn't just that it had Big the cat, but also that it was more about Tikal and Chaos than Sonic himself. Tikal and Chaos were the only good characters in the game's storyline, as they once shared a bond of friendship with each other, only to put it aside when Chaos threatened to flood the world, and left Tikal to imprison him in the Master Emerald alongside herself. However, I don't go to Sonic for a bunch of side-characters that may have more depth than the titular-protagonist, but are still unimportant, anyway. I go to Sonic for the titular protagonist himself!!!
The years would fly by, and we'd all gain so many awful Sonic games that try to compete with the more story-driven games, but fail miserably because it wasn't meant to tell a story. And, it's all because of the reasons I've mentioned in the second paragraph above.
If it were up to me to do a Sonic game, I'd make it as much about Sonic as possible, even if at times that would mean not only adding in some of Sonic's friends, but also improving upon their awful personalities and dialogue. I'd also have Sonic make a collection of difficult decisions that determines what kind of character he is, amongst them being the following scenario:
Sonic quests to stop Eggman as usual. However, his traveling-companion, Tails, tells Sonic to rescue the small-animals along the way, but at the expense of handing the Chaos Emeralds over to Eggman. Meanwhile, Sonic's friendly-rival, Knuckles, tells Sonic to collect the Chaos Emeralds to defeat Eggman, but at the expense of the lives of all those small-animals he's supposed to rescue. This would leave Sonic to make a difficult decision that might satisfy one of his friends, upset the other, and affect the world around him. However, Sonic could always just create a potential third option that helps him balance between rescuing small-animals from Eggman's robots, and collecting and using the Chaos Emeralds' powers against Eggman.
I know because I went to a website called TV Tropes.org to study common tropes, or story-telling devices, in fictional storytelling. Amongst those tropes I've used for this scenario from the sixth paragraph were ones based after Kirk, Spock, and McCoy from Star Trek. I don't really watch Star Trek, but at least from my TV Tropes research I understand what the three main-protagonists are like. Spock is wise and calm, yet cold and calculating. Meanwhile, McCoy is arrogant and impatient, yet more compassionate and considerate. This would leave Kirk, their brave captain of the Enterprise-ship, in the middle. Due to this, whenever they and their crew get caught in a difficult situation, Spock and McCoy would argue amongst each other about their respective view-points and the methods to each problem. This would in-turn leave Kirk to decide between one of his two crewmates' suggestions, or just come up with a third option to resolve both the main-problem at-hand, as well as Spock and McCoy's arguments. If anything, it was probably one of BioWare's inspirations to do Mass Effect's Paragon/Renegade system, as McCoy is as considerate as the Paragon, while Spock is as calculating as the Renegade.
I felt that by applying the personalities of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy into Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, I might do a slightly better job at telling a Sonic the Hedgehog story than Sega. You might say it's unoriginal and stealing, but think about almost every other fictional-trio similar to Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, such as Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermoine Grengar. Ron was more emotional, Hermoine was more intelligent, and Harry was in-between his two friends. The same could've been said for Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, if Sega really wanted to apply a story in a Sonic game.
Just as there wasn't any need for the stupid human-characters, the awful and gratuitous playable-cast, and various other half-assed gimmicks, there also wasn't any need for a bunch of imprisoned ancient villains that would just steal too much of the spotlight from Sonic anyway. All it needed to be was about Sonic himself, not as some aged and decrepit byproduct of the 90s, but rather as a well-rounded hero with thoughts, emotions, and flaws as expected in a hero.
Now, just to let you know, I'm a huge story-buff, and I must confess, Sonic Adventure 1's concept of telling the same story through multiple characters' perspectives was what got me into wanting to create a story-driven video game. As I got older, though, I would learn that Sonic Adventure 1's story, while good on paper, was atrocious in execution. Sure, you can say that Big the cat was the worst part of SA1's story, as he doesn't do anything in that game except artificially pad it out as much as possible with his retarded fishing mini-game. However, my biggest problem with the story wasn't just that it had Big the cat, but also that it was more about Tikal and Chaos than Sonic himself. Tikal and Chaos were the only good characters in the game's storyline, as they once shared a bond of friendship with each other, only to put it aside when Chaos threatened to flood the world, and left Tikal to imprison him in the Master Emerald alongside herself. However, I don't go to Sonic for a bunch of side-characters that may have more depth than the titular-protagonist, but are still unimportant, anyway. I go to Sonic for the titular protagonist himself!!!
The years would fly by, and we'd all gain so many awful Sonic games that try to compete with the more story-driven games, but fail miserably because it wasn't meant to tell a story. And, it's all because of the reasons I've mentioned in the second paragraph above.
If it were up to me to do a Sonic game, I'd make it as much about Sonic as possible, even if at times that would mean not only adding in some of Sonic's friends, but also improving upon their awful personalities and dialogue. I'd also have Sonic make a collection of difficult decisions that determines what kind of character he is, amongst them being the following scenario:
Sonic quests to stop Eggman as usual. However, his traveling-companion, Tails, tells Sonic to rescue the small-animals along the way, but at the expense of handing the Chaos Emeralds over to Eggman. Meanwhile, Sonic's friendly-rival, Knuckles, tells Sonic to collect the Chaos Emeralds to defeat Eggman, but at the expense of the lives of all those small-animals he's supposed to rescue. This would leave Sonic to make a difficult decision that might satisfy one of his friends, upset the other, and affect the world around him. However, Sonic could always just create a potential third option that helps him balance between rescuing small-animals from Eggman's robots, and collecting and using the Chaos Emeralds' powers against Eggman.
I know because I went to a website called TV Tropes.org to study common tropes, or story-telling devices, in fictional storytelling. Amongst those tropes I've used for this scenario from the sixth paragraph were ones based after Kirk, Spock, and McCoy from Star Trek. I don't really watch Star Trek, but at least from my TV Tropes research I understand what the three main-protagonists are like. Spock is wise and calm, yet cold and calculating. Meanwhile, McCoy is arrogant and impatient, yet more compassionate and considerate. This would leave Kirk, their brave captain of the Enterprise-ship, in the middle. Due to this, whenever they and their crew get caught in a difficult situation, Spock and McCoy would argue amongst each other about their respective view-points and the methods to each problem. This would in-turn leave Kirk to decide between one of his two crewmates' suggestions, or just come up with a third option to resolve both the main-problem at-hand, as well as Spock and McCoy's arguments. If anything, it was probably one of BioWare's inspirations to do Mass Effect's Paragon/Renegade system, as McCoy is as considerate as the Paragon, while Spock is as calculating as the Renegade.
I felt that by applying the personalities of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy into Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, I might do a slightly better job at telling a Sonic the Hedgehog story than Sega. You might say it's unoriginal and stealing, but think about almost every other fictional-trio similar to Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, such as Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermoine Grengar. Ron was more emotional, Hermoine was more intelligent, and Harry was in-between his two friends. The same could've been said for Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, if Sega really wanted to apply a story in a Sonic game.
Just as there wasn't any need for the stupid human-characters, the awful and gratuitous playable-cast, and various other half-assed gimmicks, there also wasn't any need for a bunch of imprisoned ancient villains that would just steal too much of the spotlight from Sonic anyway. All it needed to be was about Sonic himself, not as some aged and decrepit byproduct of the 90s, but rather as a well-rounded hero with thoughts, emotions, and flaws as expected in a hero.
Eternal Nothingness on
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