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[Dark Schala]

Interesting how that Sonic RPG I'm currently playing goes from one artstyle to another as the series goes on. For example, from this in the first episode:

To this later on:

By the way, the command window UI is awful. I can barely make out some of those letters. If you're making something transparent in a semi-dark colour, you need to give it better colours. If I take a quick glance, I don't know what my maximum values are, nor can I tell what the third set of points are for. Actually, now that I look at it, the UI is kind of all over the place. I see what they were going for, but the gauges and the huge window with Tails's portrait which blocks Tails's sprite make the entire thing look extremely cluttered and unclean.

Tails is also a mage-type of character for this, so that isn't too bad. He has scan, which makes complete sense.

Like, this one is fine:

But these episodes need a consistent UI now. It's pretty jarring playing these episodes back to back with different UI all the time.

This part of the UI is good, but it needs better font. Lose the italics as well. Too bad that the stats are meaningless since it's an episodic thing. Sonic's name should not be transparent on that post-battle screen.

With that said, it's better than the other one.

 

[Nocturnowl]

I can't tell if he's angry, surprised, hungry or terrified.

 

[Anth0ny]

Let us continue on our nostalgia travels!

http://iamtherlan.tumblr.com/post/26067354049/another-version-of-sonic-fan-games-hq-and-a-far

I totally remember this site. 10 year old me loved it.

 

[BlackJace]

Interesting how that Sonic RPG I'm currently playing goes from one artstyle to another as the series goes on. For example, from this in the first episode:

To this later on:

By the way, the command window UI is awful. I can barely make out some of those letters. If you're making something transparent in a semi-dark colour, you need to give it better colours. If I take a quick glance, I don't know what my maximum values are, nor can I tell what the third set of points are for. Actually, now that I look at it, the UI is kind of all over the place. I see what they were going for, but the gauges and the huge window with Tails's portrait which blocks Tails's sprite make the entire thing look extremely cluttered and unclean.

Tails is also a mage-type of character for this, so that isn't too bad. He has scan, which makes complete sense.

Like, this one is fine:

But these episodes need a consistent UI now. It's pretty jarring playing these episodes back to back with different UI all the time.

This part of the UI is good, but it needs better font. Lose the italics as well. Too bad that the stats are meaningless since it's an episodic thing. Sonic's name should not be transparent on that post-battle screen.

With that said, it's better than the other one.

All good impressions. Ironically those are the same points I would have made, considering I want to be a UI Designer for a studio. Anyways, I'm glad your enjoying it (I think), and I appreciate you going through all of them. I think the guy is going to go to 9 or 10 before he calls it quits.

 

[Dark Schala]

I can't tell if he's angry, surprised, hungry or terrified.

Why can't it be all of them?

All good impressions. Ironically those are the same points I would have made, considering I want to be a UI Designer for a studio. Anyways, I'm glad your enjoying it (I think), and I appreciate you going through all of them. I think the guy is going to go to 9 or 10 before he calls it quits.

Well, I usually play through games to the end unless they're unbelievably bad. Episode 7 was worth it. It has a few issues with balancing and audio, and it's in desperate need of text boxes since the text cannot easily be read due to the colours they chose.

I also love it when people use Devil May Cry 3 - Battle 2 during neat fight scenes. That song's a guilty pleasure of mine.

Edit: I'll edit this in. These are from the most recent episode released. Seems like they really tried to polish it.

I miss the other UI because it was very nicely done. This is pretty good, though. At least it tells you what the attacks do in a competent manner. Gotta wonder if the guy started playing ToS/TotA and subbed in Overlimit instead of Overdrive this time, lol.

Yeah, it's gotten better. Much better than the other one.

 

[Nocturnowl]

Why can't it be all of them?

The more emotions the merrier, except they aren't very cheerful.

 

[BlackJace]

Devil May Cry 3 - Battle 2 during neat fight scenes. That song's a guilty pleasure of mine.

Ohhhh that's where that song is from. I've heard it used many times, most notably in Super Mario Bros. Z (check that out too if you haven't, its not an RPG, but a sprite film series-- a very fucking good one at that)

 

[Dark Schala]

I watched Super Mario Bros Z when I was in my undergrad. Love all the BGM choices in that.

And I was right! The guy probably played Tales of the Abyss and changed the Overdrive gauge to Overlimit because the credits theme is The Arrow was Shot. Should've used the Radiant Mythology 2 version, but I digress...

I think it's an amazing consistency that all of the Sonic story-based things I've seen are the Sonic Battle sprites doing martial arts out of Dragonball Z, and using the same sound effects. I guess it's incredibly obvious that Sonic shares many similarities with the series, and I guess that's how people want battle scenes to resemble? Some Advent Children-esque type of thing? Meh. It looks cool with the sprites as a fan-made thing.

So, yeah, Sonic RPG [eps x] was alright--not the best, but it was a decent effort. Definitely improved as time went on, and it showed in episodes 7&8.

Pros:
+at least showed some sort of creativity, even if that was the "original villain character DO NOT STEAL" variety
+later episodes were fun to watch
+good, fluid sprite action is something I value a lot. More of this is needed.
+at least the earlier episodes featured flash art which seemed to have been the creator's so it's an okay effort. Some of the art was traced over official art, but that's okay.
+spell animations are fine--NiGHTS's was pretty good, and I liked how it evolved in each new episode.
+skill sets are really good and makes sense for each character (Tails's set, especially)
+backgrounds are not that bad. They're more original than the other RPG's backgrounds
+It's good that if Super Sonic runs out of HP, he doesn't die and instead reverts to regular Sonic.
+Music selection is good.
+Experimenting with different types of dungeons is a good thing. We had a top-down view in one episode, and then a linear one with one battle in another.
+No asinine QTEs like the other RPG, thank goodness.

Cons:
-Fix your balancing. Balance attack and defense values against high enemy HP values. The current balancing would be all fine and dandy if I had buffs and if healing cost less, but as of right now, it's really bad. The very last episode seemed to work alright with regards to this, but man some of the HP values were ridiculous earlier on. Regular battles should never ever take a long time (and neither should regular boss battles). Ever. The only time that sort of thing is okay is if you're fighting an optional boss.
-Why is it that in one episode I felt that even though Super Sonic had higher HP value and strength stat, his defense seemed poorer compared to regular Sonic? That makes no sense at all.
-Needs consistent UI
-Needs better text presentation. I read the text all the time in RPGs out of habit. I shouldn't have to feel like it's unreadable. Fonts are fine, but don't ever use something like Courier New in a text subtitle. It worked for that one battle UI because it meshed well with the characters. At least it isn't Comic Sans, I guess.
-Voice acting isn't... um, well, it isn't very good. Sorry. With that said, I could barely hear the voice acting over the BGM. Needs better mixing.
-Needs editing and spell-check badly. Prose isn't very good. It says something when the villain's name is spelled wrong almost all the time (but it's a silly name anyway).

Neutral
#I'm guessing they all run on a template because you sometimes had the same commands and gauges as the other RPG? I was hoping for more commands, specifically a Parry/Defend option. There were times I felt I needed that.

So it isn't bad. I'm pretty patient and can sit through a lot, but Episodes 6-8 (well, mostly 7-8) were fine. I don't know if others will come to the same conclusion, though.

The more emotions the merrier, except they aren't very cheerful.

Is Robotnik ever cheerful?

He even looks upset when his mother's around!

 

[qq more]

Ew at the UI's windows. So much ugly photoshop shit.

 

[Professor Beef]

RoBUTTnik's mother is one large woman.

 

[Kokonoe]

My favorite cartoon Robotnik is the one from SatAM. Wonder who did his voice?

 

[qq more]

My favorite cartoon Robotnik is the one from SatAM. Wonder who did his voice?

IIRC He was a singer. He passed away in the same year the pre-4kids game Robotnik's voice actor did. :<

 

[Professor Beef]

My favorite cartoon Robotnik is the one from SatAM. Wonder who did his voice?

"In Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Robotnik is voiced by British blues singer Long John Baldry."

 

[Kokonoe]

IIRC He was a singer. He passed away in the same year the pre-4kids game Robotnik's voice actor did. :<

What a shame, both are great voice actors. But yeah, the voice he did in the cartoon is just perfect. He could have voiced some other villains pretty well.

"In Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Robotnik is voiced by British blues singer Long John Baldry."

Thank you, Prof. Beef.

Spoiler

Digimon Professor?

 

[ShadiWulf]

Sonic1/Mariotehplumber has posted a youtube update

- says Sonic 4 episode 2 let's play is still in progress and will be released "WHENEVER THE FUCK" he wants it to be

- Whines about New Super Mario Bros being rehashed junk. Now, this is really surprising, coming from him. I guess that means you really are milking and rehashing a franchise if Sonic1 says you are, considering hes someone who likes the same things over and over and over.

- Spazzes out about Sony's All-Stars fighting game

- and much to DarkSchala's delight, he says if people tell him that they want more song remasters, that he will put up more on his sonic1sonichedgehog youtube channel.

Overall, a very entertaining video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0hiqCOONXE

edit: i've just sent him a message on steam asking him to do a remaster of live and learn =) i know he will do that song justice, he loves modern Sonic.

 

[nintendoman58]

IIRC He was a singer. He passed away in the same year the pre-4kids game Robotnik's voice actor did. :<

I thought he was voiced by Jim Cummings?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Cummings#Television_series

EDIT: Just realized that it was SATAM where Cummings did the voice and not Adventures.

 

[Professor Beef]

I thought he was voiced by Jim Cummings?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Cummings#Television_series

"in an unaired pilot episode."

It even says in the SatAm page that Long John voiced Robotnik. C'mon, son.

 

[Lijik]

IIRC He was a singer. He passed away in the same year the pre-4kids game Robotnik's voice actor did. :<

John Baldry
The local college radio station played one of his songs this morning and ... I was pretty shocked at his actual voice

The man was also a strong advocate for equal rights and came out back in the 60s when such a thing was fairly taboo

 

[Dark Schala]

- and much to DarkSchala's delight, he says if people tell him that they want more song remasters, that he will put up more on his sonic1sonichedgehog youtube channel.

He sounds drunk, and I don't think I'm too surprised he said that about NSMB. If he's a fan of Classic ___, I think that might apply to Mario too.

I'd love a Live and Learn remaster from him, haha.

Ew at the UI's windows. So much ugly photoshop shit.

Yeah, that's really the only thing that bugs me about the UI. The design is fine. The execution is a little iffy. The spell effects also appear to be done in PS, but I guess I can forgive it since it's a lot of work to get the effects done with sprites? I dunno.

Overall, I'm just happy that it was more intriguing that the other one.

RoBUTTnik's mother is one large woman.

You're not concentrating on the fact that she has a big bushy moustache for no reason? :lol

 

[BlackJace]

I really appreciate you playing through all of the episodes, Dark Schala
I pretty much feel the same way about most of the pros and cons.

The guy did put some more noticeable efforts that a lot of fangames don't. It's not the best fangame, but it was entertaining, which is all I can really ask for.

 

[BHZ Mayor]

So how many people knew that you could do this in Sonic 3?

 

[BlackJace]

So how many people knew that you could do this in Sonic 3?

I did not. I lost to Big Arm many many times...

 

[Psxphile]

So how many people knew that you could do this in Sonic 3?

Most people who abused the instashield knew how broken it could be. I was pissed that the W Kaiten attack present in the Sonic Advance games didn't have invincibility frames. I was too dependent on that shit lol.

 

[Professor Beef]

So how many people knew that you could do this in Sonic 3?

I did. Insta-Shield nearly removed all challenge from the bosses.

 

[Nocturnowl]

So the aerial spin-a-majig actually gives you a split second of outright invulnerability? and here I was thinking that it was just a very slight range increasing move.

 

[ShadiWulf]

He sounds drunk, and I don't think I'm too surprised he said that about NSMB. If he's a fan of Classic ___, I think that might apply to Mario too.

I'd love a Live and Learn remaster from him, haha.

"THE GAMEPLAY, IT'S FECKING AWESOME. NOW THE MOST IMPORTANT PART, THE CHARACTER DESIGN, IT'S GOTTA BE THE CLASSIC MARIO 1 MARIO, WITH THE ORANGE FACE, BLACK EYES, AND RED PANTS. NOT THIS MODERN NEW SUPER FEGGET SHIT! THE GOOMBAS IN THIS GAME LOOK FECKING STUPID, THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO HAVE BLACK FEET, NOT BROWN SHOES WITH BROWN SOLES, WHAT THE FECK!"

lmao

 

[qq more]

He's the best Sonic troll ever.

 

[TheOGB]

So how many people knew that you could do this in Sonic 3?

Instashield was the most under-utilized move in Sonic 3 for me

feels bad, man

 

[nns3d]

As a kid I didn't know that the insta-shield gave Sonic invincibility for a split-second, I always used it just to expand my attack range.

 

[Link1110]

Anyone see Brentalfloss's new Lyrics101 video? He does a short lyric for Green Hill Zone as an example.

 

[BlazeHedgehog]

So the aerial spin-a-majig actually gives you a split second of outright invulnerability? and here I was thinking that it was just a very slight range increasing move.

Both! It also has a third function: If you spindash and jump out of the roll, normally you don't have air control - unless you instashield, then you regain air control of Sonic.

 

[BlackJace]

So I just found out that Netflix has all of the old Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons. I'm tempted to watch....

 

[Diablohead]

I think the instashield would work in a 3d game replacing the homing attack, the range from the move would have to be bigger then in sonic 3 but it would help you hit enemies in a 3d environment.

It's the one move in sonic's history which required skill to get the most from, and sega binned it...

 

[Sciz]

I think the instashield would work in a 3d game replacing the homing attack, the range from the move would have to be bigger then in sonic 3 but it would help you hit enemies in a 3d environment.

I've wanted to see one of those 3D fangame projects try this for years.

 

[BlazeHedgehog]

The most recent version of the Blitz3D Sonic Freerunner engine I tried (back when I made this video) replaced the typical air-dash maneuver with a 3D instashield. I didn't like it.

Even though Sonic Freerunner has moved on to working in UDK (with Sonic GDK) and may or may not have been canceled, one of the coders behind the Blitz3D version of Freerunner has recently revealed "Sonic 3 Adventure".

Would not surprise me if the 3D instashield makes an appearance there. Hopefully he can get some kind of lightmapping system working (they were researching methods for Freerunner, I know that) because the lighting looks REALLY bare.

 

[OMG Aero]

It's the one move in sonic's history which required skill to get the most from, and sega binned it...

Well they brought it back as a skill in Generations so they didn't entirely get rid of it.

 

[Diablohead]

Well they brought it back as a skill in Generations so they didn't entirely get rid of it.

For what I remember it's completely different, also you don't really get those skills until you finish most of the game unless you know how to unlock it so it becomes slightly pointless

 

[Dark Schala]

Just got back from Canada Day fireworks at the lake! It was pretty awesome!

I just wanted to mention that I saw something that reminded me of when I was a kid: a bunch of kids playing what looked to be Sega vs Nintendo or Smash Bros cuz this kid was yelling that he was supposed to be the fastest because he was Sonic, but the other kid was saying that he was Pikachu so he's supposed to be just as fast. :lol And then one kid was saying that he's the strongest since he's Donkey Kong.

I thought it was cute.

Both! It also has a third function: If you spindash and jump out of the roll, normally you don't have air control - unless you instashield, then you regain air control of Sonic.

I didn't know you could do that. I just used Instashield to defend or increase range.

I really appreciate you playing through all of the episodes, Dark Schala
I pretty much feel the same way about most of the pros and cons.

The guy did put some more noticeable efforts that a lot of fangames don't. It's not the best fangame, but it was entertaining, which is all I can really ask for.

I usually try everything once. Well, not everything, but I try to give things a legitimate chance. Yeah, it was pretty entertaining, especially the later episodes--but that's partially because the presentation got better as time went on.

 

[BlazeHedgehog]

I didn't know you could do that. I just used Instashield to defend or increase range.

I didn't either until a few weeks ago when people from Sonic Retro were nitpicking a thing I'm making.

 

[Diablohead]

One thing I always used instashield for is for those drill shell crab things in hydrocity, if you jump as you see one then instashield you just pass right through their shell projectile like it wasn't there, in a way it's why that enemy shoots like it does instead of across the ground.

 

[Shadow Hog]

I used them to take out the otherwise-impossible-to-kill-without-getting-hit Orbinauts in Launch Base Zone. Not sure if I regularly use it beyond that.

PS: not having power at home for two days straight suuuuuuuuuuuuuucks

 

[Hot Coldman]

That song at the end of Sonic and Sega Racing is ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

[Shadow Hog]

That song at the end of Sonic and Sega Racing is ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Is it worse than the songs of Sonic R? (Outside of the whole cheesy kitschy so-bad-it's-good angle, anyway.)

PS: Power's back, apparently. Took 'em two and a half days. Sucks, but better than the seven-plus some in the area were looking at.

 

[OMG Aero]

Let's Play 20 Years of Sonic Pt.136 - Sonic Colors (4/7)
dat music
dat level intro
dat sound effect of the grass rustling as you run by
dat

Spoiler

realisation that the hover wisp has a light dash

 

[Seven Force]

dat music
dat level intro
dat sound effect of the grass rustling as you run by

One thing I love about Colors is that it knows exactly what kind of impression it wants to make on the player.

dat

Spoiler

realisation that the hover wisp has a light dash

Was I the only one not caught off guard by this? :|

 

[Box of Bunnies]

Was I the only one not caught off guard by this?

Naw, only The Capn Crew, Keith&Kyle and

Spoiler

our Billie

were.

 

[Lijik]

Was I the only one not caught off guard by this? :|

To be honest, looking back I feel like the main reason I wasn't was because I was watching the wisp demonstration videos Sega put out before release. Its not exactly an intuitive thing.

 

[TheOGB]

It was in the manual

I read the manual

 

[Emitan]

It was in the manual

I read the manual

pffft

never read those things

 

[Edgeward]

Being able to play Sonic Generations on my new pc feels so good. 60 fps, no drops. Silky smooth. That said, fuck Vector and pass the beat, dodgy ass homing tracking. FUCK FUCK FUCK