I really hate the "blame the hardware" bit, especially if they had plans for PS3 anyway.
Except I'm reading that Japan required a stronger emphasis on speed...?
Which part of that is this a response to, regardless from what i'm reading is
A designer presents to SEGA the idea of making a Sonic TV show. It was supposed to be separate from the game, but about 8 months before the game's launch, SEGA gave them control of the series, changing big parts of the story and returning Knuckles silly among other things, forcing them to create characters for A richer world that was totally excluded in the series and create scenes and levels stuffed due to the change of history. (I have no information on the previous history, only that the elders would be much more important) Changing big parts of history and returning Knuckles fool among other things, forcing them to create characters for a richer world who were totally excluded in the series and create scenes and levels stuffed due to the change of story.
This part, which is also interesting because it seems like... the reason that the games were so "lore rich", wasn't because of the ROL it was because the TV show team, who were now in charge... wanted that. Despite the show... not being that, which is weird. And forced them to put show characters that weren't really intended to be in the game, to begin with. Because it seemed like " sonic synergy " was supposed to be a much smaller game in scope. This is also where it is mentioned that in they actively made knuckles stupid and sega said it was fine.
And then there's this bit
Designs: Several designs of Sonic and company were discarded for getting too far away from the "Legacy" designs, making them more similar.Several NPCs had to be changed due to violating Sonic Team design guidelines. (Cliff was originally an inventor, but Iizuka said the only inventors should be Tails and Eggman).
Story: The original story was completely eliminated, they flatly refused to tell Sonic's origins, and said they would explain it someday.
So the first part is expected, after the... fuckery that was a lot of the comic for a while , this is completely understandable. I mean... its kinda contradictory to knuckles's design, but for the most part yeah I get them. You don't want any atrocities running around on your brand
However, it doesn't really explain why they let the show team create a more lore filled world, which is contradictory to the next part. That Tails and Eggman could be the " only builders" this doesn't make sense, in a very contained storyless vaccume with no " lore" that works, but when they are trying to create a world, like they let and encouraged the TV team to do with this project. Limiting jobs like that sounds like they didn't know what they wanted. Characters have to be able to exist and be of use to the world at large, that's how a " living world" works.
The sonic origins line is funny to me, I just read it as " when we are ready we will ruin this ourselves"
That all just makes me feel it was an ill-fated idea from the start. Damn shame how it all played out.
it really sucks, and it will suck worse if the tv show dies, because it will be just this thing that happened.
