Game:

Sonic Riders (2006)

Duration: 0:00

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For the record, this has nothing to do with the IDW comics, which recently had a Riders story arc at the time of making this video. I was working on this story since before that arc was even announced. It just so happened to come out around the same time.

I've said this many times, I feel the super story heavy, shounen action direction Sonic took was a mistake. So you may be surprised to see me write a story like this. But I do also enjoy that version of Sonic, and I can write even something I disagree with and hopefully do it justice. Same goes for Amy taking out Eggman here. I disagree with Amy being an action character, but that's the direction the series was taking in the 2000s, so I respected that. It's all about understanding what you're working on.

On that topic, to try to make the writing and characters feel as authentic as possible, in my head I write the dialogue in Japanese when I can, then translate it. In my mind the characters are speaking Japanese. Jet is calling his dad Oyaji. When the old rogues come on to the ship, Wave says, "Gale-Sama, Talon-Sama, Mute-Sama..." And so on and so forth. Some who are familiar with Japanese writing tropes might notice some things in here that are directly taken from that style, such as Gale saying Jet is 50 years too early to be taking him on. Kinda weird to say in English, but not uncommon in Japanese writing. It's all in the name of getting the feel right.

Here's a little tidbit for ya, Wave's arc was originally going to be different here. Initially I was going to challenge her loyalty to Jet. If she truly respected his father, than would she continue to follow Jet now that he's back or abandon her crew? Have her grapple with that choice but ultimately decide to stay with Jet and Storm. But I like what I ended up doing here more.

Talon was originally going to be male as well. But I thought it needed more balance. I kinda like the idea of the Babylon Rogues having a history of women being mechanics and that's just their tradition. But I didn't want to establish that explicitly, especially since Wave's dad was also a mechanic.

Huge props to the artists responsible for the character designs and art. They killed it. Dash did Gale's design, and Fred did Talon and Mute, as well as the final art for everyone.
https://twitter.com/Dash1426
https://twitter.com/StupidFred0

If anyone is curious what I was playing in the background footage, they were Sonic Riders DX and Regravitified. You can check them out here. https://www.exgearlabs.org/home

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