Sonic Forces/Unused Object Layouts
This is a sub-page of Sonic Forces.
 | 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. |
A huge amount of unused object placement is left in the game's files, with both entire object layouts and unused/misplaced objects in final layouts being present.
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Contents
Unused Object Layouts
Null Space
Hacking Null Space to start the player further back and lock their Z position reveals that there was originally to be a Quick Step section before the Double Boost. Also, the Phantom Ruby cube obstacles don't have their usual effects: rather than distorting the playfield, changing the object layout, and stopping the music, these simply damage Sonic normally.
Mortar Canyon
Mortar Canyon was going to be much more difficult and much less automated initially. Some differences include the relative scarcity of rings compared to the rest of the game, interesting camera angles, and the overall challenge.
"City"
Sunset Heights, Park Avenue, and Red Gate Bridge were originally intended to be one long stage. The layout lacks a spawn point, so you end up spawning at the origin point of the stage. Considering the overall layout and presence of the Red Gate Bridge QTE, the level was more than likely a Tag Team stage at this point. Some differences include a smaller amount of rings and interesting camera angles in the 2D section (the camera pans ahead to show oncoming obstacles and such, unlike the final which simply moves to the right), and exclusive usage of the silver machine gun Egg Pawns.
Something else in regards to this layout that was not shown in the video (found upon inspecting the stage's object layout in HedgeEdit, an object layout editor for Sonic games) is that there are enemies, wire targets, and rings placed completely outside of the final stage's normal 2D section geometry. It seems that the stage would have been much more expansive, and would have gone on around 3-4 minutes with the rest of Red Gate Bridge's terrain added onto the end as well. There is also an unused Double Boost section (lacking terrain or collision) that seems to spiral around and eventually end up at Red Gate Bridge's starting point.
Sunset Heights has a second object layout from much earlier in development. After about 30-40 seconds of play, it stops syncing with the level geometry, so it can only be speculated as to what it was for.
A third layout exists for the stage, which is from after the stages were split up. This layout is extremely strange in that the player never gains control over Sonic at any point.
Egg Gate
Perhaps the least interesting of the early object layouts so far, with the only notable differences being the triggers for some otherwise unused dialogue at the beginning. In tandem with the other two object layouts, there are more camera angles, and Sonic overall seems to be faster for some reason. Unlike those two, however, this still has the excessive rings of the final version, suggesting that this layout was further along to what ended up in the final game.
The unused dialogue is as follows:
| Japanese | Transcript/Translation | English | Transcript |
|---|---|---|---|
| ヒューッ！久しぶりにいい運動になったぜ。 Whew! I haven't had a good exercise in a while. |
Phew! I needed a good workout after all that rest. | ||
| 身体のキレも文句なしだ。 My body is nimble as ever. |
I haven't lost my edge. |
Luminous Forest
Luminous Forest's unused layout seems to be very early in development, not containing much at all aside from a slightly more challenging starting area than the final game's. The user who posted the video also disabled the level geometry for some reason, but this appears to fit correctly onto that of the final.
Test
Three object layouts for what appear to be test levels exist, though the associated geometry has yet to be found, as has the collision from the latter two. Interestingly, one of these layouts contains an unused variant of the Avatar's grapple point that functions like the swinging bars from (most recently) Sonic Generations, locking onto it when homing attacked and sending the player higher when they press the jump button at the right time. Opening up one of the unused layouts (w0c04_eff_all) in a Hex Editor shows that there are several unused objects, including an alternate Balloon Object (which would function identically to the balloons in Generations), the Dummy Spring from Unleashed, Colors, and Generations, and two unused Enemy Types: EnemyGaniganiFV, and EnmPotosRed. 'GaniGani' is Crabmeat's name in Japan. The Crabmeat Enemy is not imported from Sonic Lost World, as its object name is different, and renaming and importing the object template for it into HedgeEdit results in jumbled parameters. The same can be said with EnmPotosRed, as well as the Dummy Springs.
Unknown
Another extremely early layout. This one in particular doesn't match with any level in the final game at all, and consists only of rings and the more powerful silver Egg Pawns. Opening the layout in HedgeEdit reveals that it is a very early version of Sunset Heights/Park Avenue, as the Red Gate Bridge sequence is located near the end of the stage. It is also built similarly to some of the other unused Sunset Heights layouts. The layout itself seems to be impossible to complete.
Episode Shadow
The Switch version of the Sonic Forces Demo has two layouts in its files from Episode Shadow, these being Enemy Territory and Virtual Reality. Enemy Territory has an incomplete version of the Buzz Bomber spawner and a vastly different object layout for the 2D section, while Virtual Reality borrows most of its object layout from Guardian Rock with some alterations to fit in with the boost gameplay. It also has two cameras for the intro and is a lot shorter than the one used in the final game.
