#which makes it easy to miss cool lore implications at least for me

[antirepurp]

i don't think sonic translates particularly well into open world environments so it probably would be for the best if future games didn't go the same route as frontiers HOWEVER. they should return to the formula of huge hub worlds to give us a space to run around and goof off in like in frontiers. i want them to take sa1 06 and unleashed and expand on what they did. maybe make seamless transitions from hub world into stage environments who knows!!

#soda offers you a can #idk open worlds are about exploration and sonic games aren't really exploration games bc you're supposed to go fast yeacool #and frontiers i think has trouble rewarding the player for exploration in meaningful ways? #you're given so many resources so easily in the base game that you kinda don't need to explore that much unless you go for completion #the dlc handles it a bit better by making skill points easier to get through exploration and doing the platforming challenges #and making some map expansions only accessible that way #and like even when you find cool environmental storytelling it's not always acknowledged in the moment #which makes it easy to miss cool lore implications at least for me #but fucking around in big spaces is fun! and i think that would translate well into hub worlds #bc those don't need to be huge platforming and speed experiences. like they can have those but they're optional you know? #idk im spitballing and im not a gamedev or anything i don't know things but something like this could be rly cool going forward?

[galacticnova3]

I think what makes Kirby lore so unique(besides presentation) is how it’s built on over time, but not in any clear-cut pattern that you can figure out and predict. It keeps itself vague and open ended enough to allow for creativity, and leaves room for information to be added later. Importantly, it does that without feeling like new stuff exists just to continue the old.

Nova is a good example of how this kind of thing happens from start to current times. Nova starts out as just a powerful mechanical being that exists in space and grants wishes, but we know nothing else about them. KSSU came along and left the potential for some connection between them and Galacta Knight, a mysterious, powerful warrior who sealed away out of fear and is accompanied a visual implication that they were violent/destructive. Return to Dreamland comes out and has obscure dialogue from Magolor that confirms there are more of the type of being Nova is, referring to them as clockwork stars, and reveals they(and the Lor, who is maaaybe sentient but who knooooows*) were made by a mysterious group known just as the Ancients. Galacta Knight also makes an unexplained return here which is never explained, and there’s concept art of funny egg who would never lie to anyone that just straight up namedrops Christianity, “but surely that won’t be important beyond the directly stated symbolism of yellow = betrayal” thought everyone including me.

Years later, seemingly out of nowhere, Planet Robobot just straight up introduces another clockwork star in the form of Star Dream(or the Access Ark if you’re like me and see them as semi-separate entities), confirming the previous information and giving the concrete possibility that Nova was also sapient(in case the very obviously shocked expression they give when Meta Knight makes his wish wasn’t enough indication), and also oh hey everyone’s favorite magenta murder orb is back because Star Dream fucked around and found out! Star Allies goes on to elaborate a bit on those Ancients and Galacta Knight, with the reveal that the Ancients likely consisted of multiple different people groups and one might have banished another. There’s side material that heavily implies GK was a hero that casts doubt on the previous idea that they were sealed for purely defensive reasons(but we aren’t telling you for sure), the funny boat from RtD may or may not have connections to some place called Paradise(but we’re not telling you for sure), and Kirby has some connection to an ancient godlike entity of destruction(but we’re not telling you what it is). Return to Dreamland Deluxe becomes a thing and clarifies that yes the boat is sentient actually who would’ve thought*, but we’re not gonna elaborate on what she’s like at all, also hey remember that Magolor concept art with yellow in it, yeah we’re leaning into the biblical symbolism now check out this cool tree that people on the internet will definitely be normal about.

*I did the whole time and will never stop pointing and laughing maniacally at everyone who ever gave me shit for it

What makes it so fun is that all of these connections are super easy to miss out on, or at the very least it all lacks the same impact if you don’t have some idea of previous information. Star Dream/Access Ark would probably just come off as weird and nonsensical to someone who played Robobot with no knowledge of Super Star. Lor = Paradise is just a word translation if you don’t know about the boat, and Galacta Knight is kinda just A Guy Who Exists Apparently without KSSU. Maybe you played KSSU before Robobot, though, so you can point and go “oh hey the evil computer is actually like that weird cat clock from before!” “wadda hell GK back????” and appreciate the callbacks, but otherwise not see a huge amount of significance. If you played KSS(U) and RtD with attention to detail, you could infer that these people called the ancients built the weird cat clock as well as a magical boat. If you played all four games(KSS(U), KRTD, KPR, KSA) and payed close attention to the connections between them, you can have fun with the fact that a group called the Ancients created multiple sentient machines capable of bending reality to varying degrees, the sentient boat has implied ties to Paradise while the two clocks interacted with a possibly ex-hero(even possibly wrongfully imprisoned hero) the Ancients wanted to get rid of for one reason or another, and we don’t know where these people went or what else they were capable of or who else they’ve impacted one way or another.

And you never know what’s gonna be elaborated on next! If the lil butterfly that showed up a few times was revealed to be the fuckin grim reaper essentially, what else is gonna gain entirely new implications? Given the existence of Void Termina and their ties to Dark Matter, will we finally get more information about what their whole situation was? Also the powerful orbs?

On a related note, I feel like this is a reason why Forgotten Land didn’t really hit for me in the long run(though far from the biggest reason but I’m still trying to move past that whole situation). It’s a good game, but feels disconnected from everything else in a lot of ways. Sure, you have callbacks in the form of a couple songs, stage design reminiscent of Kirby 64, and Morpho Knight, but that stuff’s just kinda… hollow. There’s not much of a thread between it any everything else, nothing that was built on previously established information or that hints at possible connections to be drawn. It doesn’t even take place in the same world. I guess it’s like, I dunno… The only reason it has any relation to Kirby is because Kirby and co got dragged through a random portal at the beginning. Other than a line of dialogue that has a million different potential valid interpretations that include some involving Dreamland, there’s nothing else concrete. It isn’t like the Mirror World or Halcandra, which are different worlds yet have established relevance to the series as a whole. It isn’t the same as places like Patchland or Seventopia, which, sure, weren’t super connected, but also weren’t exactly in games hyped up to be significant for the series and have way better character designs overall imo but thats just my humble onion. It literally feels more like a game that was its own thing turned Kirby game than Epic Yarn, which was literally its own thing that was turned into a Kirby game later.

I dunno how to end this off I just got thinking and wanted to spit my thoughts out before they disappeared into the void. I wonder how that anon who called The Claykken a dilf is doing these days, I bet they would love Splatoon

#rambling