Chapter 0: A Review

I want to get one thing straight: I love Sonic Forces. I wouldn't be writing this if I didn't. The game, while short, is challenging and fun. The avatar is an amazing addition, and I can't stop myself from going after all the outfit pieces. I replay the stages countless times. I love the little details, like the music changes at different sections of a level and the title screen changing after you beat the game. I love how cinematic they make the levels. The mood of the game is exactly what I've hoped for in a Sonic game since Unleashed. The concepts behind it, like the reality-warping Phantom Ruby, Null Space, and Infinite himself, are phenomenal. It introduced Infinite as a new, outstanding villain, and brought back old villains for you to fight.

But it is far from perfect.

When the trailer first was revealed at Sonic's 25th Anniversary party, I started crying. It looked like a Sonic game was finally going to be taken seriously. We were going to get a dark storyline.

For those that have not read my previous stories, I tend to favor darker, more serious stories. Sonic Unleashed is one of my favorite games because it had a lot more at stake than most Sonic games. It actually tested Sonic's "unshakable" confidence. It's very rare we see genuine fear in his eyes. Part of me wanted to see that again.

Phrasing it like that makes me sound like a masochist, but I assure you, that is not the case. I'm looking at this from a writing standpoint. There is one very important thing that stems from putting your characters through unfavorable and terrifying situations: character development. We haven't seen a lot of that in the Sonic series lately, especially for its flagship character. And in my opinion, Sonic, as a character, has gotten stale. The one liners don't mean anything anymore. We get it, he's confident. But it's like that's all there is to him. We never get to see him when he's weak. Every hero has to have weaknesses. I'm not talking kryptonite, or anything related to counteracting power. This has nothing to do with Sonic's physical strength. This is about giving him a well-rounded personality.

Currently, Sonic is very one-sided. We only ever see him crack jokes and laugh in the face of danger. He's happy, confident, and loves chili dogs. Nothing ever phases him. He has been that way for years. I have no idea if this correlates, but he has lost depth ever since the voice actors changed. That, of course, is not their fault. Roger Craig Smith doesn't write the dialogue, he just delivers what he's given. The last games in which Sonic had a more well-rounded personality were Sonic Unleashed and the Storybook Series. He experienced a lot of trauma in those games, and he reacted appropriately (for the most part). He underwent painful transformations that stripped him of his speed every single night while trying to save a broken planet. He was betrayed and beaten within an inch of his life by someone he trusted, just because he refused to stand down. He was actively dying via a flame in his chest while working with artifacts of pure emotion, watched a friend die, and was forced to absorb only the negative feelings of those artifacts and to use that rage in the final battle. In every one of these games (Sonic Unleashed, Sonic and the Black Knight, and Sonic and the Secret Rings, respectively), Sonic experienced some real pain. We saw Sonic at a low point. That helped to balance out his cocky attitude and cute quips the rest of the time, shaking that unshakable spirit. Sonic Forces is the first game since then that has provided Sonic with real stakes that affect him and everyone he cares about. It was an amazing opportunity for Sonic to grow, and additionally, to see a much more in-depth story comparable to that of the Adventure series. And yet, Sonic Forces failed spectacularly.

That failure is why I am writing this. I recently rewatched all the cutscenes, and almost the entire time, I was cringing, laughing, or groaning at how poorly written it was. The pacing was all over the place, throwing you into the action without explanation and ending it before you could absorb what was going on. The dialogue was laughable and shallow. Lines that might hold weight just came across as forced because of how quickly the disaster was forced on us. Many of those lines held promise that the story never delivered, and talked about things that were never seen. This includes characters' reactions to the devastation. In a game that was about war and the total destruction of the world, it was hard not to laugh at the corny motivational speeches or "the power of friendship" vibe. Above it all, there was absolutely no development in anyone. Tails supposedly broke down after Sonic was captured. Sonic was being tortured for six months. And yet, the next time we see them, they are acting exactly the same, as if they had just walked out of an intergalactic amusement park. In fact, any character development that had been made in previous games seemed to have disappeared. The characters went backwards. Sonic Adventure made a point to give Tails a story arc in which he stops relying on Sonic to save him. What do we get in Sonic Forces? "Sonic, save me!" It could be argued that this is due to trauma or Tails "breaking down," but the game never gives us a reason to believe that other than a couple of throw-away lines. Sonic was supposedly tortured for months, but there is no indication of that in how Sonic acts. He never seems troubled in the slightest. He's making jokes and talking about chili dogs directly after escaping from the place that tortured him. It's like nothing ever happened.

Watching how the story turned serious issues like war into a joke and knowing its potential hurts my soul. I had so much belief in this game and its story. But it treats it as if the traumatic things that happened or are insinuated to have happened, just didn't happen. The entire world's destruction is comparable to that of fighting off a boss that just stole a plate of chili dogs. It's just another day saving the world. Sonic Forces had a good foundation for its story, but it's full of holes. I want to do my best to fill those in. I want to see what a good story for Sonic Forces would look like. How did Eggman actually take over the world? How was Sonic defeated? How would Sonic's friends actually react to Sonic being captured? How would Sonic deal with the trauma of being tortured? Who is Infinite? What are the potential for his powers? Those are some of the questions I will be answering through this project. I will be rewriting Sonic Forces, including Episode Shadow and the comic prequels. It will have the same foundation, but with more depth and detail. I want to see what it would look like if proper attention had been given to the most serious parts of the game. Most importantly, I want to see how I would write it.

And so, without further ado, I present Sonic Forces: Rewritten.

-:-:-:-