If you have nothing to add to the conversation, SAY. NOTHING! AT ALL! KEEP SCROLLING! GO AWAY!

If you think the model doesn't need changing, I disagree with you, but at LEAST if you sincerely believe that and aren't just blindly shutting down critique, and are willing to articulate a defense of your position, I can at least respect that, and you're not being an annoying fucking dickhead.

If you have nothing constructive to add to the conversation, if you think the model is FINE and shouldn't change, DEFEND YOUR POSITION. Break down the strengths of the model on a technical artistic level. Why it works. Why it fits the character and art style of a given game. Don't just go "NUH UH!"

"Sonic fans, always complaining, never satisfied" UH HUH :) That's how CRITICISM works. You DO it, until the problem is FIXED. You don't fucking SHRUG and go "Eh, it won't improve anyway, might as well say nothing". SHUT UP! STOP! Critique is an essential part of improvement and growth.

Like FUCK! "No, never ever get a new, better model. We want the same one forever no matter what the art direction or the improvements that could be made. Even if it makes the game worse. Even if it makes the SERIES worse. Keep it the same. It's fine. Do nothing. Improve nothing."

All of my HATE!

You wanna know when they DID do what we're talking about? Sonic Adventure 2, after Sonic Adventure 1. They updated his MODEL, to better reflect the art direction of the game it was in. The only addition to his CHARACTER DESIGN was the SOAP shoes...and the accessories. Sonic's DESIGN stayed the SAME.

7) Cards would fill the role of DM, basically a system keeping track of all the nuanced, more abstract rules and behaviors an action might lead to. Probably some kind of physics/chemistry system so things aren't just scripted responses. I dunno.

6) This would require an ENORMOUS number of cards and different interactions with the game environment, plus all the objects and characters for the cards/Pokemon to interact WITH, but it would allow things to be more freeform and expressive.

5) Maybe different monsters have sets of cards for specific actions based on their designs. A bird pokemon has flying actions, or pecking actions, but something more mammalian or quadripedal would have things like running, or climbing. Interacting with the world based on cards and context.

4) But I'd want a videogame, Tabletop Pokemon exists, it's natural for fans to make something like that given the popularity and modularity of it.

Maybe cards? Simple action cards for specific behaviors and more complex descriptions for unique monster abilities?

3) Like you can't use Absol's ability to predict danger in Pokemon games, that's just flavor text for the creature design.

What I'm talking about would require using less numerical systems like that. More like a tabletop RPG. D&D and the like, with more complex descriptions defining behaviors.

2) Because as it is, on a gameplay level, they're just stats. Combat modifiers. Numbers. Menuing and battle screens. That's not really the fantasy of Pokemon. The fantasy of Pokemon is catching the ones you like and making a team of them that's unique to you.

5) And don't even get me STARTED on the character models. I intend to go into the issues THERE at some point, but I want my thoughts and arguments to be more put together and in order. Suffice to say, the shape language is garbage, Sonic was designed as a 2D character, you have to leverage that.

4) Like this is a nitpick, but it's a nitpick that contributes to some of Sonic's current blandness (which is being addressed). Like with character and art design, little details add up a LOT. Grounding the sounds in realism makes them stand out a lot less than something more identifiable.

3) In Mario Wonder, it's replaced with a plucked string, but it's still meant to sound like and evoke the original Super Mario Bros. Jump sound. Sonic Adventure had its own version of the original jump sound and it works great. Still feels very cartoony, which fits a rubber hose character like this.

2) Which isn't to say it's always NECESSARY, the Mario series dropped a lot of its classic sounds the literal second it got adapted to 3D, and the jump sound is still missing in 3D games, but I think when it IS present, it improves the aural identity of the game by tying it to its source material.

They mean to hurt you. To control and cage you. To bend you to their will. If you value your life, your happiness, your freedom, you must fight them, always. Do not EVER bend the knee. Abandon the map for the territory. The rules are made up, but life is not. Cruelty must not be what defines it.