So... character types.



No need to explain them, Sonic Heroes introduced character-types, those being Speed-types like Sonic, Flight-types like Tails, and Power-types like Knuckles. All fine and dandy, many characters fit those types.

With these character-types, it's fun to think of what character-type a character not in Sonic Heroes or any of the games that implement character-types would be. And usually the answer is pretty simple.



And then there's these two. Lanolin and Whisper from the IDW comics.

I've talked about this before with some of my friends, but with the New Diamond Cutters having exactly 3 members (not counting the obvious traitors) we got to thinking which characters would fit each role. Tangle obviously being Speed-type but where do Whisper and Lanolin fall?

Whisper can do pretty much anything with her Variable Wispon, be it flight, overall maneuverability, destruction both short and long-ranged, so it's hard to put her in one decisisve type. And Lanolin... is unique....



And of course these abilities come from the Wisps they use. All powered by Wispons first introduced in Sonic Forces.



So what I'm proposing is: with these relatively new Wispons that allow ANY character to use the powers of Wisps, would it make sense for me to propose that if character-types were to come back, it would be nice to have a fourth new "Wisp-type" for characters that use said Wisps and the corresponding Wispons?

I've had this idea for a while and I'm wondering what y'all think.

to me the wispons feel like a natural progression of the type system for characters, since any wisp can be used in a wispon to give the user an ability to use super speed, fly, burst, etc. it was a unique idea in sonic forces bcuz then players weren't subjected to only "one type" for their character and they could have a fast dog, flying rabbit, things like that

I wonder abt the power balance when it comes to having a "jack of all trades" type character that uses a wispon  a similar idea could be a 1 person team with a character that uses the wisp abilities whether through a wispon or not, kind of like what sonic can do in sonic colours. but I would also love to see a variable wispon in a game or hyper-go-on being used by other characters mainstream

another cool thing could be having your team, and they all use wisps differently; for example you could switch to tails to fly, or have sonic grab a hover wisp for a longer distance flight (for a secret area) or even knuckles having the drill wisp, that would be fun to see!

I'm very interested in this idea though and would love to hear more of your thought process and any other ideas you had around it

interesting!!!

(03-11-2024, 08:24 PM)hooligan Wrote: to me the wispons feel like a natural progression of the type system for characters, since any wisp can be used in a wispon to give the user an ability to use super speed, fly, burst, etc. it was a unique idea in sonic forces bcuz then players weren't subjected to only "one type" for their character and they could have a fast dog, flying rabbit, things like that

I wonder abt the power balance when it comes to having a "jack of all trades" type character that uses a wispon  a similar idea could be a 1 person team with a character that uses the wisp abilities whether through a wispon or not, kind of like what sonic can do in sonic colours. but I would also love to see a variable wispon in a game or hyper-go-on being used by other characters mainstream

another cool thing could be having your team, and they all use wisps differently; for example you could switch to tails to fly, or have sonic grab a hover wisp for a longer distance flight (for a secret area) or even knuckles having the drill wisp, that would be fun to see!

I'm very interested in this idea though and would love to hear more of your thought process and any other ideas you had around it

The thought process was... just that as aforementioned. Simple.



When discussing comic characters with my friends, the topic of them being finally playable in a game pops up (mobile doesn't count), and how they'd play in older games and all that. Soon I realized the new Diamond Cutters are the perfect 3-man team format that Sonic Heroes uses, so I got to thinking. Naturally Tangle is a speed type but Whisper feels like she fills all roles with her abilities while Lanolin fits none with hers.

And since humanity is so obsessed with categorizing things... BAM! Characters who don't necessarily have a special ability and use a Wispon instead, kind of like a "wildcard" class for the unique abilities they bring. The miscellaneous bunch, you could say from all the unique Wisps and Wispons types that are out there.

Though merging the character-types with the Wisps also interests me. Truth be told, I wasn't thinking much gameplay more than I was thinking of how to categorize characters that don't fit the mold, so that can be expanded on a LOT.

But I think what I said works. The unorthodox character. Capable of crazy movement and combat taken from the 3 main character-types, but requiring some sort of meter management, or overall tricky controls to properly apply them. It's how envision a playable Whisper, at least. It's the mastering of the tools that takes you far.

... Or on the other end of the spectrum, the challenge character. With one useful albeit situational Wisp ability at the cost of all other benefits from the character types, forcing you to use that one ability to it's fullest and make it work no matter what. I obviously think Lanolin when I think this.

Really, I think Wispons have a lot of gameplay potential since they've been introduced in Forces for more out there characters that can fit any formula. 2D, Adventure, boost. Get Wisps more relevant than just little powerups, y'know?

(03-12-2024, 01:55 PM)Tominique Wrote: The thought process was... just that as aforementioned. Simple.

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/J9LAS1F.png]

When discussing comic characters with my friends, the topic of them being finally playable in a game pops up (mobile doesn't count), and how they'd play in older games and all that. Soon I realized the new Diamond Cutters are the perfect 3-man team format that Sonic Heroes uses, so I got to thinking. Naturally Tangle is a speed type but Whisper feels like she fills all roles with her abilities while Lanolin fits none with hers.

And since humanity is so obsessed with categorizing things... BAM! Characters who don't necessarily have a special ability and use a Wispon instead, kind of like a "wildcard" class for the unique abilities they bring. The miscellaneous bunch, you could say from all the unique Wisps and Wispons types that are out there.

Though merging the character-types with the Wisps also interests me. Truth be told, I wasn't thinking much gameplay more than I was thinking of how to categorize characters that don't fit the mold, so that can be expanded on a LOT.

But I think what I said works. The unorthodox character. Capable of crazy movement and combat taken from the 3 main character-types, but requiring some sort of meter management, or overall tricky controls to properly apply them. It's how envision a playable Whisper, at least. It's the mastering of the tools that takes you far.

... Or on the other end of the spectrum, the challenge character. With one useful albeit situational Wisp ability at the cost of all other benefits from the character types, forcing you to use that one ability to it's fullest and make it work no matter what. I obviously think Lanolin when I think this.

Really, I think Wispons have a lot of gameplay potential since they've been introduced in Forces for more out there characters that can fit any formula. 2D, Adventure, boost. Get Wisps more relevant than just little powerups, y'know?

Hmm. Good idea making the Wispon more relevant, but there are a lot more issues hiding behind that. (1), being the fact that the Wispons came shrouded in a game that at best, is fine, despite having better reviews with the game 2 months before it. (2), The fandom being really stupid and unreasonable, some will like it, some won't. The game play style of Heroes? Bad reception, never brought back. Same with the Storybook series. 

Getting them into other games is much well crafted. It would be nice, especially Adventure, and if the gameplay style is Forces-SRB2-esque, could act as a exploration filled characters. Spindashing from the beginning of Speed Highway? We're gliding. Get to the upper path in the beginning of Emerald Coast? We're double jumping.
 
 Putting these characters here is absolutely a treat, but not as well with the boost. You see, the way the boost is meticulously crafted makes it feel good to play around with, and the gameplay reflects that, but adding 2 or more abilities with the Boost Dash (technically not an ability), Stomp, and not even considering the amount of abilities in Frontiers, really begins to become a hassle. If you were to show me the controls for Frontiers plus the New Diamond Cutters, I would die of cardiac arrest.

Jokes aside, this is a overall good idea. The execution of it would depend on Sega's mood (if they ever did it) but this idea leads up so much more.

(03-12-2024, 01:55 PM)Tominique Wrote: The thought process was... just that as aforementioned. Simple.

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/J9LAS1F.png]

When discussing comic characters with my friends, the topic of them being finally playable in a game pops up (mobile doesn't count), and how they'd play in older games and all that. Soon I realized the new Diamond Cutters are the perfect 3-man team format that Sonic Heroes uses, so I got to thinking. Naturally Tangle is a speed type but Whisper feels like she fills all roles with her abilities while Lanolin fits none with hers.

And since humanity is so obsessed with categorizing things... BAM! Characters who don't necessarily have a special ability and use a Wispon instead, kind of like a "wildcard" class for the unique abilities they bring. The miscellaneous bunch, you could say from all the unique Wisps and Wispons types that are out there.

Though merging the character-types with the Wisps also interests me. Truth be told, I wasn't thinking much gameplay more than I was thinking of how to categorize characters that don't fit the mold, so that can be expanded on a LOT.

But I think what I said works. The unorthodox character. Capable of crazy movement and combat taken from the 3 main character-types, but requiring some sort of meter management, or overall tricky controls to properly apply them. It's how envision a playable Whisper, at least. It's the mastering of the tools that takes you far.

... Or on the other end of the spectrum, the challenge character. With one useful albeit situational Wisp ability at the cost of all other benefits from the character types, forcing you to use that one ability to it's fullest and make it work no matter what. I obviously think Lanolin when I think this.

Really, I think Wispons have a lot of gameplay potential since they've been introduced in Forces for more out there characters that can fit any formula. 2D, Adventure, boost. Get Wisps more relevant than just little powerups, y'know?

I HAVE THE COMIC THAT IMAGE IS FROM! :3

(03-14-2024, 03:25 PM)Neo Wrote: Hmm. Good idea making the Wispon more relevant, but there are a lot more issues hiding behind that. (1), being the fact that the Wispons came shrouded in a game that at best, is fine, despite having better reviews with the game 2 months before it. (2), The fandom being really stupid and unreasonable, some will like it, some won't. The game play style of Heroes? Bad reception, never brought back. Same with the Storybook series. 

Getting them into other games is much well crafted. It would be nice, especially Adventure, and if the gameplay style is Forces-SRB2-esque, could act as a exploration filled characters. Spindashing from the beginning of Speed Highway? We're gliding. Get to the upper path in the beginning of Emerald Coast? We're double jumping.
 
 Putting these characters here is absolutely a treat, but not as well with the boost. You see, the way the boost is meticulously crafted makes it feel good to play around with, and the gameplay reflects that, but adding 2 or more abilities with the Boost Dash (technically not an ability), Stomp, and not even considering the amount of abilities in Frontiers, really begins to become a hassle. If you were to show me the controls for Frontiers plus the New Diamond Cutters, I would die of cardiac arrest.

Jokes aside, this is a overall good idea. The execution of it would depend on Sega's mood (if they ever did it) but this idea leads up so much more.

Frankly, as much as I love the Sonic franchise as a whole, I keep my expectations low for future games, I doubt we'd ever see Wispons being used in a major way given how Sega has a tendency to learn all the wrong lessons from bad game reception, even if they finally seem to be loosening up a after 2006.

If they show up again at all, actually. Though given how it seems that it's not off the table we get IDW comic characters in the games sooner rather than later, and one of the most important comic characters uses a beefed up Wispon, it's kind of hard to ignore them.

Really, there's no telling. On one hand, the Wispons finally give the Wisps a bigger purpose as weaponry available to the common folk of Sonic's world that makes them not feel tacked on. But in the other, why bring back the Wisps if their overall reception ever since Colors wasn't in favor of them? It's like Green Hill, the problem isn't that it keeps coming back, it's just that it's not given a greater purpose... which the Wispons grant!

They're versatile-- oop, the image of Professor Pickle with a Wispon just popped into my head and I thought I should share it --They're versatile, making for near endless gameplay possibilities, and spin-off potential.

I think the point I'm trying to make is that the Wispons are a great idea that we need to pray continues to be a thing and handled properly. Which... is actually what you just said. Oops.