by Hukos » Thu Jun 23, '16, 8:08 pm
I think in regards to Sonic, I feel like it should be noted that Sega's had awful issues regarding management (read: Sega of Japan is run by a group of monkeys with extremely fragile egos) since the 2000's and that's probably had an effect on the quality of their games.
I think Sonic's issue in 3D is more there isn't a coherent focus on what the series wants to do in 3D. Some people like the adventure style, some people like the boost gameplay from Unleashed - Generations, some people want something completely different and satisfying all of those camps is going to be really hard. This becomes a problem because it's much harder to pinpoint and fix any issues you have with a particular style when you're changing it all the time. I much prefer to leave the mainline games in a franchise in a fairly conservative manner, only making small changes here or there when necessary. Leave the experiments to spinoffs, and if those spinoffs prove successful, then continue those mechanics but in that respective spinoff. Think classic Megaman versus Megaman X. X's mechanics are different enough to differentiate itself from classic Megaman, but if you tried including the things X did well into classic Megaman, it'd just get kind of awkward.
Also Sega releasing a Sonic game every year for god knows how many is a factor in their quality, I imagine. If Sega had a release cycle of one major game every 3 years or so, with spinoff games filling the blanks I think that would be better for the individual level of quality for each title. But really, that series just needs to pick a style and try to hone in on perfecting it as much as possible. It doesn't really know what it wants to do.
Which is a shame, because how I feel about 3D Sonic is that it has moments of sheer brilliance which make you appreciate how a focused effort on those things would be, but then Sega realizes they can't be possibly be consistent and makes everything else surrounding those good points unbearable. Like, I legitimately enjoy Sonic's stages in Adventure 1, that's a pretty good building block. Its just... everything else surrounding Adventure 1 (voice direction, animations, technical issues, fluff) is pretty hard to swallow. But I personally have no issues going back to my Adventure 1 save file and replaying Sonic's levels whenever I feel like it and ignoring the bad parts of the game. That's something you could take, build upon in a future equal and just fix the rest of the game's numerous technical issues. The weird thing is the franchise just kind of switches gears with almost every single 3D iteration past that point. Adventure 2 goes for a more streamlined type of game but ultimately just kind of falls flat for me, Heroes changes again to a system of controlling 3 people at once, Shadow is infamous for its gameplay, 06 is just 06, etc. There's no consistency in terms of establishing a particular style. So yeah, as far as I'm concerned I think it can work in 3D, but Sega needs to have a consistent focus on what its going to do in 3D, and then work on making incremental gains on having it function properly.
I will legitimately defend Unleashed/Colors/Generations, but those games have their share of 2D platforming in them as well.
I've actually never played any of the 3D Castlevanias before, that's a bit of a blind spot for me. I have access to CV64/Legacy of Darkness, but I haven't gotten to even starting them yet. They're buried deep in the good old backlog.
I feel the way you would