Surprised, Mr. Balough? Don't lose your temper so quickly.

**Palas** · 06-08-2012, 07:40 PM

Originally Posted by TSSZ

“Do I think that Episode II is a Better Game than Episode I? Absolutely, on Every Level”

In a podcast released Thursday by Segabits.com to Youtube, Sonic 4 brand manager Ken Balough was quizzed as to why he thinks Sonic 4: Episode II has rated lower than its predecessor, Episode I. Currently, Episode II on consoles ranks in the low 60s on Metacritic.

“It is a bit perplexing and, quite frankly, to see that, you know, it’s so polarizing, that’s definitely something that I’m seeing,” Balough said. “People either really, really liked it, or they just really didn’t.”

Balough poked fun as some of the reviews marking S4E2 down on account of the music. He also wondered if a more crowded marketplace of good digital titles or even comparisons to Sonic Generations could be blamed.

“Do I think that Episode II is a better game than Episode I? Absolutely, on every level,” Balough proclaimed in the interview. “I have yet to meet a player or a press person that is not supporting of that point. Episode II is a far superior product.”

Balough was also quizzed about Episode I physics being retained in Episode II‘s Super Sonic. Balough’s response:

To be perfectly honest, we actually didn’t see a whole lot wrong with the Episode I physics of Super Sonic. Super Sonic always floats, he levitates, and he goes through a level in a certain way–he even did back in the classic days. Now, granted, I’m sure that somebody going [sic[ to listen to the podcast and go like, No, but in the classics it did this little minute thing!, but the reality is just we didn’t see a whole lot of difference with it. Now, we could be…wrong…it’s happened before, and if this is a big deal, of course, we obviously would love to hear feedback on it, but quite frankly, no one ever mentioned anything about Super Sonic in Ep.I that they didn’t like it, and…this is really the first time hearing that someone’s questioning the physics of Super Sonic.

Balough also says he wish he knew of the demand for a playable Tails in single player early on in S4E2′s development, in the hopes he could have done something more to make that a reality. No patch will be made available to play as Sonic or Tails solo, Balough says.

“The cost associated with something like that would be astronomical,” he explains. “I mean, we’re talking about millions of dollars here.”

In explaining current S4E2 sales trends, Balough also took a shot at this site, proclaiming without mentioning TSSZ specifically that “if they knew what they were talking about all the time, they’d do real news.”

Source

It's interesting that you should find it perplexing. Some people have predicted this phenomenon for ages now.

You see, there is no such thing as "analyzing the game for what it is". Is Ep. II better than Ep. I? Most certainly. But the thing is - how impressive is it? What kind of reaction does Ep. II cause? Which people will have their interests piqued by this game? What will these people expect?

This is where Sonic 4 was bound to fail from the start. It doesn't seem like Sonic 4 was crafted in unison. It feels like SEGA told each worker some kind of abstract proposal and said "work with that". From the director to Jun Senoue to the artists to the level designers. When you claim you're making a whole new Sonic adventure built from the ground up, that doesn't say anything. It just creates hype.

True, people like Sonic and classic Sonic. But what SEGA in general and Dimps in particular have failed to acknowledge is that all these people don't like classic Sonic for the same reason. Sonic, or the Sonic in the social imaginarium, is a mishmash. But this process is a continuum. The devs show Sonic, it's then built by the general public (aka hype). If they don't correspond after the medium is released, this will have an effect on further installments. This is how essence is presented and formed.

It's about standards, really. You just can't release the Sonic 4 that was released and expect it to be just acknowledged as "different", like Iizuka said it should. Expectations transform paradigms in qualities, and that's why the physics were criticized. I feel stupid for stating something so obvious, but that's what it is.

The thing is - and let's be objective now - it's not that Sonic 4 Ep. II is bad. It's just wrong - the wrong game for the wrong time. It's just not the game that people want. Simple as that. It has nothing to offer, even if it is consistent. Technical issues are not the only thing that have to be taken care of. Sonic 4 Ep. I intended to bring a specific feeling, but failed to do so (and notice how some criticize it for being too much like the classics, others bash it for being nothing like the classics). Its failure to raise a solid essence was obviously going to make Ep. II's reception cold. There is no "better" or "worse" without comparison, and people will always compare with different things. Now there are two standards to compare with -Ep. I and the classics, both being different, and the reactions of "it's meh" were fairly predictable, solid as the game may be. It's more polished than Ep. I, but Sonic 4's paradigm is just not enough. You want Ep. II to be analyzed for what it is or to compared with Ep. I alone, but that's impossible.

For deeper comprehension of this matter, please read this thread.

I hope I've helped.

EDIT: tl;dr: nobody cares about Sonic 4, and nobody wants to care.

**Lunar Savage** · 06-08-2012, 07:53 PM

Balough also says he wish he knew of the demand for a playable Tails in single player early on in S4E2′s development, in the hopes he could have done something more to make that a reality. No patch will be made available to play as Sonic or Tails solo, Balough says.

“The cost associated with something like that would be astronomical,” he explains. “I mean, we’re talking about millions of dollars here.”

^...this is the only thing I take issue with.

Ken, had you read the boards or talked to anyone outside of SEGA for all of 1 minute, it would have been very obvious that playable Tails was a must for a game like this. In fact, it was generally assumed that Tails would be playable. Anyone who suggested that he wouldn't be would have been written off as crazy and a doomsayer.

Also, millions of dollars to make him playable in single player? Wtf was the budget for this game in the first place?? If you guys spent millions to create this, it probably explains a lot about why SEGA is going through financial hardship right now.

Sorry, I know that seems rude, but this just struck me as horrendously wrong and a pretty grievous error.

**thechaostrigger** · 06-08-2012, 08:00 PM

Millions of dollars to have Tails playable? Yeah okay, sure.

**Theadvisor1234** · 06-08-2012, 08:08 PM

Millions of dollars? Millions of dollars are what SHOULD have gone into this game. I'm no expert, but somehow, I doubt that even $1 million was put into this game. To be honest, so many of these problems would've been solved had anyone at Sega used common sense. Like one guy said, just talk to the fanbase for a few minutes, and you would've seen how we felt. However....I don't blame Ken. He says that he talked to Iizuka once a week for several weeks over this. Therefore, we can only look at the big man himself for the answers to our burning questions. However, it seems that people at Sega are almost conditioned to give an excuse to any such questioning.

**ShadiWulf** · 06-08-2012, 08:12 PM

Originally Posted by Theadvisor1234

Millions of dollars? Millions of dollars are what SHOULD have gone into this game. I'm no expert, but somehow, I doubt that even $1 million was put into this game. To be honest, so many of these problems would've been solved had anyone at Sega used common sense. Like one guy said, just talk to the fanbase for a few minutes, and you would've seen how we felt. However....I don't blame Ken. He says that he talked to Iizuka once a week for several weeks over this. Therefore, we can only look at the big man himself for the answers to our burning questions. However, it seems that people at Sega are almost conditioned to give an excuse to any such questioning.

Don't talk vain in the name of Iizuka-san. He is the professional, leave it to him.

Sonic 4 is a digital game, digital games have small budgets, Iizuka-san isn't going to allow Sonic 4 to be a big budget game, he needs all the money he can get for his next 3D masterpiece.

**Palas** · 06-08-2012, 08:14 PM

Ken's job is a harsh one. He doesn't seem to have more power than his privileged opinions. Still, he seems to genuinely not understand why is this happening and I think we can enlighten this much to him.

EDIT: the question remains: why leave a low budget to a game named "Sonic 4" and still want to cover all the expectations it generated just by having this name?

**thechaostrigger** · 06-08-2012, 08:14 PM

Everything sonic team/dimps does always has to be extremely hard and impossible. It really doesent take effort to replicate the physics of the genesis games. Nor does it take much effort to let you play as tails. I don't understand what their problem is honestly.

**Theadvisor1234** · 06-08-2012, 08:17 PM

Originally Posted by Palas

Ken's job is a harsh one. He doesn't seem to have more power than a privileged opinion. Still, he seems to genuinely not understand hy is this happening and I think we can enlighten this much to him.

To be honest...does it matter? Sure, we can enlighten him, but he has absolutely no power to change the game. Iizuka's in control, and I'm getting the impression that he just wants the game over and done with and then pushed aside, because he now realises that the Sonic 4 name requires too much effort. He can't make another Rush, but that's all he knows.

Sigh...it's poor communication and power struggles like this that I feel is going to potentially devastate this company. If the guys up top don't care, it doesn't matter. Nothing matters.

**B-rad** · 06-08-2012, 08:20 PM

Originally Posted by Palas

EDIT: the question remains: why leave a low budget to a game named "Sonic 4" and still want to cover all the expectations it generated just by having this name?

I heard they were going for a different title during development. Then SEGA America thought it would be better to call it Sonic 4 so it would sell well, and it did.

If the guys up top don't care, it doesn't matter. Nothing matters.

Jeesh, that's pretty depressing to say.