Sonic Forces

Sonic Forces
Developers: Sonic Team (PS4/Xbox One/Switch), Hardlight (Windows) Publisher: Sega Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows Released internationally: November 7, 2017 Released in JP: November 9, 2017 Released in KR: November 18, 2017 (PS4), December 12, 2017 (Switch) Released in CN: November 8, 2017 (PS4) Released in TW: November 18, 2017 (PS4), December 12, 2017 (Switch) This game has unused animations. This game has unused areas. This game has unused objects. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has unused sounds. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

...But what does it mean? This game has text or audio that needs to be translated. If you are fluent with this language, please read our translation guidelines and then submit a translation! Notes: Needs translation/transcription for Japanese audio files.

To do: Add Korean, Polish, Russian, and Chinese (both variations) to all unused dialogue sections. That'll be fun... An earlier revision of the script was found. Could be good for a Prerelease page. Somebody should look if there is any code left from the scrapped trick system, or at least animations or anything. There's tons of unused objects and object behavior that need to be documented. That'll probably need another subpage by the time we're done as well. I accidentally edited the missile launch parameters for Phase 1 by mistake. I'll try to upload a proper version to show in the future. The Nintendo Switch version of the game has quite a few differences compared to the other versions, even beyond the lower polygonal count and reduced post-processing. These need to be documented.

Receiving a very polarized reaction from critics and fans, Sonic Forces is the 2017 installment in the series. Featuring Modern Sonic, Classic Sonic, and a character with a pinch of your creativity added to it. Much like Sonic Mania, it was released for the series' 25th Anniversary... in the sense that it was released over a year after the fact.

Notably, this is also the first Sonic game to use an updated version of the Hedgehog Engine, which is aptly called "Hedgehog Engine 2".

Sub-Pages

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Unused Audio "Sand waterfalls are great! You can run on 'em and everything!"

Unused Object Layouts Sunset Heights and Park Avenue were one stage?

Unused Text

Unused Graphics

UI Graphics

A placeholder picture for theater previews, featuring Sonic about to get smashed in the face by rubble from the game's reveal trailer. Found in ui_title_en.pac'.

Some sort of faded-paper graphic, similar in style to the VR demo splash screen mentioned below. Found in ui_weaponselect_en.pac.

An early version of the "new item" notification graphic along with some other seemingly UI-related stuff. Also found in ui_weaponselect_en.pac.

Early Sunset Heights Screenshot

Several UI and HUD-related archives contain a screenshot depicting an early version of Sunset Heights with a bevy of differences:

• The lighting is much brighter than the final.
• Most particle effects are missing.
• Several of the buildings around the road are different.
• Most of the smaller background and foreground details present in the final are either positioned differently or entirely nonexistent.
• The bridge is undamaged and seems to be using a placeholder texture.
• The camera and object placement is identical to some of the early Sunset Heights layouts, although the presence of only Modern Sonic suggests this may be from after it and Park Avenue were split.
• All HUD elements are visible at once and all numbers are at 0, which suggests it was likely just a mockup at this point.
• The HUD is also semi-transparent, unlike the final, which is entirely opaque.
• The Burst Wisp icon is rendered at a different angle from the final.

Splash Screens

Stored within vr_stage.pac is a leftover splash screen from a very confidential VR demo.

(Source: Zoney)

An unused splash screen with the game's ESRB rating, present in ui_title_esrb_e10.pac.

(Source: RobowilOFFICIAL)

A "rating pending" ESRB splash screen, stored in ui_title_esrb_rp.pac.

Textures

To do: Replace skybox video with an image or two.

A temporary texture with "stone" written on it, with the Japanese word for it (石) above. Stored within 'w5b01_obj.pac".

Final Judgement has a unique skybox that cannot be seen in normal gameplay due to the fact that the stage takes place entirely inside.

The T-Shirts for the Avatar have an unused bottom half of the texture, which appears to resemble a pair of white shorts. This texture goes unused, as it is not mapped onto the model.

An unused cubemap, likely for testing purposes. Interestingly, The image on this cubemap seems to be a picture taken at Pixar Animation Studios, as a statue of Pixar's mascot, Luxo Jr., can be seen. Stored in debug_common.pac.

(Source: RobowilOFFICIAL)

Unused Maps

The PC version contains leftover maps used for the game's cutscenes, some of which are prerendered in the same fashion as Sonic Colors' cutscenes, in addition to variants of these maps that appear to be unused entirely. They consist of:

• Eggman's base as seen in the beginning.
• Sunset Heights (though this is merely an edited-down version of the level geometry).
• The Resistance base (which is actually seen in an in-game cutscene at the end of the game, but uses a different model that includes the intended computer display seen in all other representations of the area).
• An unused version of Zavok's pre-fight scene map (which itself is cut down from Zavok's fight arena).
• Green Hill (which appears to be cut down from Guardian Rock's crab fight).
• Eggman Empire Fortress as seen in Classic Sonic's final scene.
• Sunset Heights as seen in the ending.

Most of these maps have collision, although it's never anything more than a flat plane or box.

Unused Abilities

Sonic

While the Wall Jump is only used by the Avatar in Imperial Tower, hacking Sonic into the stage reveals that he can actually use it as well, even though there are no places where he would normally be able to.

Likewise, Sonic can also use Shadow's unique Homing Attack chain if he is hacked into the Episode Shadow stages.

Classic Sonic

This page or section has one or more broken YouTube links. Please find an archived version of the video(s) or a suitable replacement. Specifically: The video has been deleted.

Similar to Modern Sonic's Wall Jump, hacking Classic Sonic into Modern Sonic/Avatar levels reveals that he can use rails properly (even though they never appear in his levels) and rolls on them like he does in Sonic Generations. This is likely just a leftover from that game.

Unused Models

boss_bigzavok_tes.model

Stored within BossBigZavok.pac is an unused character model for Zavok. Interestingly, the textures are taken from Sonic Lost World, the model doesn't cast shadows, and the skeleton is different from the Zavok model stored in BossQueenBeeton.pac (which is used in the final game), suggesting that this is a leftover from said game.

There are some unused terrain models underneath part of Mortar Canyon which seem to serve no purpose. They have no collision, implying they were either misplaced or hidden on purpose.

Unused Animations

Classic Sonic has some unused animations carried over from Sonic Generations and were unused there as well, implying that his model in this game was simply converted to the new formats rather than being rebuilt from scratch.

Also leftover from Sonic Generations are Goal Post animations for Dr. Robotnik/Classic Eggman. These are carried over from the missions where you are required to continually bounce a Goal Post through the air.

The Egg Pawns have an unused 'seek' animation. This was intended to play after the player leaves the enemy's search range.

300px

Silver has an unused animation featuring him in a damaged pose similar to that of the VS Infinite intro cutscene. This would more than likely have been used at the end of Luminous Forest to sync in with the cutscene when Sonic appears.

Metal Sonic has several unused animations, likely leftover from an earlier version of the boss fight. (An unused boss object for an earlier fight exists, but is non-functional apart from a short quickstep sequence during its intro). Some of these are very similar to certain animations that Classic Metal Sonic does in Generations.

The Golems from Capital City have 2 unused animations for their hands, where they wave around, almost in a violent manner.

Next are some unused gameplay animations. Something to note is that most of these only work on an older version of the skeleton, used by the radio variants of the characters. However, as the Avatar has no radio model, their unused animations are broken.

An unused (and possibly broken) Sonic Forces animation for the Avatar.

An unused (and possibly unfinished?) animation for the Avatar's Asteroid Wispon. It only has one frame.

The animation in-game.

Alternate tag team jump/post-homing attack animation for the Avatar.

Ditto, but for Sonic when the Avatar is active.

A failed/missed target animation for Cube. Unknown how it would have functioned, though it probably would've just caused the player to stumble for a moment.

Some sort of homing throw animation for tag team? The avatar's variant of this animation is broken.

Zavok has some animations that the player can't see normally, when the Queen Beeton flies high up before attacking.

(Source: The Duck Dealer)

The Queen Beeton itself has unused animations: qbe_qte_atk_end, qbe_qte_damage_right_small, qbe_qte_damage_left_small, and qbe_qte_attack_start.

(Source: The Duck Dealer)

Unused Objects/Enemy Behavior

The Motobugs in have an unused "jumping" behavior: upon sighting an enemy, they will jump and attempt to land on top of the player.

The Egg Tanks in have two unused behaviors. The first (shown in this video), is an unused attribute where gravity affects the EggTank's bullets. The other, which isn't shown, is one that fills the players' boost gauge when destroying the fired projectiles in mid-air.

The Valkeens have several unused behaviors in the game (which makes sense, seeing as they are only used in one stage, most of the time being used as background elements). These are all very similar to how they behave in Lost World.

There is an unused object intended for Casino Forest that emulates the same function as the rolling thorn balls from Spring Yard Zone in Sonic 1.

There is an unused variant of the Rotation Blocks from Casino Forest and Chemical Plant which were intended for the Death Egg Stages (likely Classic Sonic's). They function identically to their counterparts.

There are unused settings in Zavok's boss fight. These include the ability to homing attack Zavok when he is charging at the player in phase 2, an unused Beeton type that charges at the player instantly rather than locking on and then charging, another unused beeton type that remains idle, an unused camera setting that does not seem to function anymore, a super ring object setting (normal rings are used instead), and a chain explosion that goes through the beetons if they are close together.

There is an unused parameter for phase 2 of the Final Boss has the option to spawn Valkeens alongside Egg Pawns. Normally, this is unused in-game. The video above shows it restored and in action. It isn't guaranteed that this is how the Valkeens would have behaved, but it is likely they would have behaved in a similar manner.

Phase 1 of the Final Boss has a missile launch attack that goes unused. The attack is set in the bosses' attack pattern, but it is skipped as the values for this attack are set to a negative number. By changing this, you can get it functioning in game.

Revisional Differences

November 7, 2017 Update

Released on launch day.

• Fixed issues relating to unsteady performance and game crashes.
• In the initial version of the game, players could not re-collect lost rings, unlike previous games. This was changed on launch day so players could re-collect rings.

November 23, 2017 Update

• Fixed stuttering gameplay/cutscene issues.
• Fixed crashes for some users with older or below min spec CPUs.
• Fixed light flickering issue during the Zavok boss battle (Stage 5).
• Various minor performance improvements.
• Fixed Rental Avatar issue where they were not shown from the correct areas of the leaderboard.
• Fixed Episode Shadow music issue.
• Fixed Shadow trail effect color issue.
• Fixed minor audio issues in front end.
• Improved anti-cheat for leaderboards.
• Fixed controller issue (fixes to deadzones and D-Pad mapping on controllers).
• Fixed Steam achievement stats issues.

December 13, 2017 Update

• Additional fixes to crashes experienced by users with older or below-minimum spec CPUs.
• Save file system now functions for individual Steam users when the system is shared by multiple Steam users.

Platform Differences

• The PlayStation 4 version outputs at 1080p, while the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch versions output at 720p.
  • The Nintendo Switch version's pre-rendered cutscenes are also only rendered at 720p, whereas all other versions have them rendered at 1080p.
  • Interestingly, when played on a Xbox One X, some stages have the game output at 1800p, while others only go up to 1080p.
• The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions both run at a locked 60fps, while the Nintendo Switch version is locked to 30fps.
• The Xbox One version utilizes an adaptive v-sync system, which can result in minor screen-tearing. This is not present in any other version of the game.
• In order to improve performance, the Nintendo Switch version uses lower polygonal counts on stage terrain (with some stages even having completely different terrain meshes in areas), and textures are in lower quality (with some being completely different). Post-processing has also been simplified.
  • As a result of the polygon/texture quality reduction, the Nintendo Switch version's file size is 6.8GB, whereas all other versions are 17GB in size.
  • Playing the game in portable mode disables anti-aliasing, as well as some effects (such as the ripple distortion when Modern Sonic's boost is activated).
  • Set data also appears to have been simplified in some stages, such as there being less wisp capsules in Arsenal Pyramid and Luminous Forest.
• A credit for Simplygon appears during the initial splash screens on the Switch version, after the SEGA and Sonic Team logos. It also appears during the credits.
• As the game was ported to PC by Hardlight, a credit for the studio appears in the game's credits in that version.
• Presumably due to an oversight, the left stick can only go in eight directions in terms of movement for the game on PC. This does not occur in the console versions.
  • Oddly, moving the left stick forward on the Switch version always counts as a full tilt, making the player reach full speed regardless of how little it's moved. This isn't present in the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC versions.
• The d-pad only works in menus and doesn't control the player in the PC version. Again, this does not occur in the console versions, where the d-pad can control the players in addition to the menus.