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Sonic Forces: The Sonic "Original Character" is now canon

Edited by GreenReaper as of 20:08
Your rating: None Average: 4.8 (6 votes)

On May 16, a trailer for the upcoming Sonic Forces revealed a surprising direction for the hedgehog’s latest 3D venture. The new character that will be joining the blue blur in his adventure would not be just another Sonic Team-crafted sidekick. Instead, it will be a character you yourself develop that will team up to take down the meddling Eggman.

That’s right, the infamous Sonic "Original Character" is now canon. But how much can you customize to bring your dream character to life? Let's take a look at what's known so far.

OC Do Not Steal.jpg
Art "stolen" from RKSparkster with permission
Example characters from the trailer include: a lanky green cat, a black bunny, and a red wolf with black rimmed glasses, who was used in the cut-scenes. Some of the features that can be customized according to the trailer’s avatar creator are:

  • Upper Headgear - includes various hats
  • Middle Headgear - includes various styles of glasses
  • Lower Headgear - includes bandanas, mouthpieces, mustaches
  • Gloves - fingerless, knuckled, plain
  • Footware - boots, sneakers
  • Body - includes various jackets, bowties, backpacks, chains, and other items.
  • Body Suit (options not shown in trailer)
  • Skin Color (options not shown in trailer)

The scroll bar on the avatar creator was not all the way down, so there may be about three more options in the current build not listed here.

Following the quick glimpse at the character creation tool, the trailer seems to indicate that the user-created hero will be some type of gadgeteer. It is yet to be known how much customization you can do to your creation’s move-set.

News has come out on the different species available.
Each has its own underlying ability:

  • Bear — Blows away enemies with a homing attack
  • Bird — Flies high with double jump abilities
  • Cat — Keeps one ring after being hit
  • Dog — Restarts with five rings after the player dies
  • Hedgehog — Collects rings when getting damaged
  • Rabbit — Has longer invincible time after receiving damage
  • Wolf — Automatically draws in rings when near them

This interesting direction for the franchise has created new-found excitement in Forces, slated to come out this holiday season. More details on how many tools and options there will be to make your fan character come to life will surely emerge between now and then, so stay tuned.

Comments

Your rating: None Average: 5 (5 votes)

I think this is a great idea which may help bring back a spark of interest into the Sonic franchise... which frankly a lot of those games have been floundering. We've seen customization in a lot of other games, usually rpg's, it'll be interesting to see how it works in a long standing franchise like Sonic. But anyone familiar with the Sonic universe (especially the comics) will know there are TONS of characters - so this sort of thing makes sense. Kinda wish they added a few more species options, maybe skunk, echidna, badger, and definitely lynxes :)

Would be fantastic if they could bring this sort of idea to another game franchise - I'm thinking Star Fox. Add in a sort of X-Wing Academy storyline where you create your own character, go through training, go through increasingly difficult missions, then finally you join either directly or indirectly with the Star Fox team in major battles. That could be for single player, then you also add in a multi-player where players can join forces, battle other teams, etc online. That'd be a nifty twist to what I see as another game which has gone a bit stale story-wise.

Your rating: None Average: 5 (4 votes)

Had an idea similar to this, but my idea was having a first mission where the difficulty would gradually increase until end game difficulty. The mission is basically designed for you to fail eventually, but depending on how far you get you would unlock the various paths. Like if you got to a point you'd be able to pick the hardest path.

Your rating: None Average: 4.8 (5 votes)

I wish the game looked more like the trailer...

Though the gameplay is still more important than visuals.

Your rating: None Average: 5 (4 votes)

Indeed. That being said it has been brought up rightfully that CGI cutscene with custom characters would be a very difficult feat to pull off; since graphics have to be pre-rendered.

That and would the character have a voice? If so would they have a male and female voice? If the name is customizable would they not mention the character by name?

Your rating: None Average: 5 (5 votes)

I will surely get it if I can choose to be a golden dog with floppy ears. Otherwise I won't. Such is my condition.

Nice idea :3

Your rating: None Average: 2.2 (6 votes)

That is the fucking greatest headline ever.

Your rating: None Average: 5 (4 votes)

Not entirely original I'm afraid to admit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QoBH_2I7Xg

Special headline, do not steal.

Your rating: None Average: 5 (4 votes)

This game has released and I will be streaming it on Fridays at 8:30 Eastern on my channel.

First episode is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAyknpk5tsg

Will be streaming it probably until MFF time (obviously won't have an episode then as I'll be away).

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