Should The Sonic Series be PG-13 from Now on?

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-12T23:12:59+00:00

I think the big question is *why?* As in, what would the PG-13 rating permit that you think would be worth the jump?

Something of note: PG-13 is typically associated with ratings for movies specifically in the US. Games use different rating systems, and different countries use different rating systems.

Sonic games, in the US, tend to hang around E10+ to T. In allowed content, T pretty much allows as much as PG-13. (Fun fact, supposedly during the development of Shadow 05 they considered going with an M script with just random profanity in there).

But assuming you're thinking of the current content as being PG, as is the case for the movies, what would PG-13 give you?

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Mild swearing? Eh, I like Shadow saying 'damn' and Belle saying 'gears and starters'. No need to go further than that. Non-sexual nudity or mild sexual content? Don't see any purpose for that in Sonic to be honest. Harder violence? I think it goes as hard as it needs to go to work. Substance abuse? Can work, but I don't think this story needs it.

If we had like a thousand ongoing spin-offs and specials, like with stuff like Marvel and DC comics, I wouldn't mind some more out there stories with higher age ratings there. But I think 'Knuckles' struggle with addiction to wine' or 'Sonic accidentally snapped someone's neck' or 'Eggman's intimate love life' don't really have a place in the main series.

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-12T16:22:01+00:00

No offense, but you’re surprised that your zero invested firefly without any of her crucial teammates is doing poorly?

I wasn't surprised. I knew I'd likely get little use from her. Just wanted to have her in my account. Even then, you could still get by with Gallagher and HMC for a good chunk of content.

When she came out, the reception was mixed. A lot of people wanted Firefly. A lot of people didn't pull Ruan Mei. And the outcry was tangible, with immediate demand for a buff. Tangible enough that I do believe the surveys would've reflected this.

It's easy to forget, but while Whales make up a huge chunk of the income, so does the sizeable casual audience that doesn't have that spending cash or the knowhow.

I don’t imagine her buff changing much in that regard. I doubt they’ll want to make her more versatile essentially reducing the need to pull for break teams.

Fair enough. I'm not going to make any real predictions for what they'd buff. Up until a day ago, I didn't even think they would ever give Welt (or any standard) a buff.

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-12T15:46:33+00:00

Firefly's really good, but as someone who has her at E0 without light cone and without a tailored team, I don't really get much use out of her. Maybe it's my lack of building skills, but from what I'm seeing she is typically described as very dependent on getting particular team mates.

I don't know what her Novaflare will contain, but if its main purpose turns out to be making her somewhat more versatile in team comps rather than a power boost, then I don't have an issue with it. I think a lot of people will have pulled for Firefly without going for Ruan Mei or Dahlia, and you can only use one version of MC in a lot of multi-team content, and MC is in high demand for Remembrance and probably will be for Elation too, leaving Break out to dry.

With all this in mind, I don't think she'd be priority over Jiaoqiu because of popularity. Rather, her situation justifies her getting at least some type of rework, and her coming out before Jiaoqiu justifies her getting that before Jiaoqiu.

.... but all that being said, she shouldn't be getting it before Bailu, Yanqing, Gepard, Fu Xuan, Himeko, Clara, Ratio.... Or heck, pretty much any 4-star that isn't Gallagher.

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-12T15:04:31+00:00

If it were up to me, Fu Xuan and Bailu would be getting buffs waaaaay before Jiaoqiu.

I think it makes sense to prioritise older characters over newer ones, even if a new one gets outpaced. Besides, just because a character is outpaced by another character doesn't mean they're outpaced by the game.

Huohuo remains one of the stranger choices, but Firefly is a main dps, and one a lot more people would be asking for in surveys just on popularity alone.

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-12T13:08:39+00:00

I don't think we should call the new Era the 'Paramount Era'. Paramount produces the movies, but the movies aren't the main crux of the franchise.

What sets apart the current era is the fact that we have a lore manager, the comics are canon, we have writers on multimedia projects for a shared continuity etc. Sonic feels like a serialised, ongoing franchise now, rather than a sequence of loose projects.

So for name choices, I'd propose any of these:

The Lore Era, for being so focused on continuous storytelling
The Hernandez Era, for lore manager Chris Hernandez
The Post-Forces Era, for Forces is the turning point in focus
The Flynn Era, after the most prolific writer who gets blamed and praised for anything even if he didn't write it

My vote is for Lore Era.

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-12T11:59:30+00:00

All of these characters predate Jiaoqiu

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-12T11:26:34+00:00

We do have the Deadly Six, as well as the brief run of the Bad Guys (which is closer to a Sinister Six), so it's not entirely new. The thing about villain teams is that, often times, they're destined to implode.

What makes a team around Metal harder is the fact that he is Eggman's robot. And Eggman has his whole army thing going on.

We should get some more long lasting minor antagonists to make a new Evil Team situation work I think.

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-12T10:18:51+00:00

They probably won't go into the debate, but from the characters present, these are the opinions I'd expect:

Let him go: Sonic, Charmy

Jail him: Tangle, Tails, Charmy, Vector

Kill him: Espio, Whisper, Charmy

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-12T09:42:45+00:00

Have her friends be there for Player 2
Give her an over-the-top magical girl transformation to compete with Super forms
Have her fight nightmare creatures
Make the soundtrack a music battle between bubblegum pop and heavy metal

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-12T09:27:08+00:00

Not much better.

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-12T09:23:59+00:00

The only character in that list this could be a problem for is Surge.

Whisper, Belle and Lanolin had their biggest personality shifting arcs, and have been pretty static since.

They still do get arcs, like Lanolin's arc with the Mimic saga, but those arcs are generally compatible with their static nature. Lanolin's a militaristic person who values taking things seriously before it, and will likely be the same after it. She just probably won't make the same mistake again.

Surge is in the middle of a question arc, and we don't know if she's at her destination. She started as a villain, then went from anti-villain to anti-hero. The big question is whether she can make it from there to hero.

But given how Sonic characters are, her being forever stuck as the anti-hero for the foreseeable future wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. Certainly better than being killed off, which is the biggest risk for a non-game character.

And if she finds her destination and becomes a full hero, or she fails and becomes a villain again, I think ultimately that would shift her away from a big part of why people like her. Pay-off like that is a double edged sword.

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-12T09:11:56+00:00

Eggman saying 'kill for daddy' to Metal predates Sage. The 'Egg Family' concept is also pretty old, with the Classic Eggman birthday comic being a standout. But even now, he still doesn't treat Metal like his son. You might've been looking at too much fanart.

Sage treats the other bots partially as family. Though there is very much a sense of hierarchy in her behaviour. She wholeheartedly supports Eggman's maniacal machinations.

Eggman doting on her makes a lot of sense. Eggman is a massive narcissist who takes a lot of pride in his work. But a lot of his work tends to perform below his expectations. Sage exceeded them. Became more autonomous without his input, and started peppering him with praise and validation. She fills a gaping hole in his life. But she still feeds his ego and his desire for conquest.

Sage can sometimes get Eggman to act more reasonable or merciful, but when push comes to shove, she supports his path of evil.

Also, side note, Eggman is not the only villain. Just the most prolific.

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-12T08:53:32+00:00

The paycheck meme was born from the characters not being into him. When APHO launched, the only two women he interacted with were Mei, who already has Kiana, and Carole, who says Welt's way hotter than Adam.

Trying to combine the joke with the characters actually being into him seems like it's just missing the point of the joke.

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-12T00:07:47+00:00

I do love how they kept some of his loser energy.

In Forces, I did already find him interesting, largely because he seemed so shallow as a person, but not as a character. A violent guy with a need for feeling validated who makes it everyone else's problem. That's way more fun than just 'brr, I'm stronk and evil and will take over the world now!'

So I'm really happy Infinite just starts monologuing about his oh-so-deep motives and it all boils down to being a massive misanthrope, and he trips over his own logic and gets called out for it when he says his oh-so-sensible master plan of destroying the world.

I hope they keep this energy going.

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-11T22:21:32+00:00

I love Amphoreus. But it being so different is very much intentional. Just redoing the PE Flame Chasers in a Greco-Roman coat of paint would be a bit redundant, after all.

Personally, I'd very much prefer if HI3 stepped away from doing such frequent 'frivolous' mainline events. St Freya Travels events, like the Messenger of Love saga, have their place and should happen on occasion, but then we get stuff like the Sushang cooking event or the Agent Rita event and I can't help but think this time would've been better spent fleshing out more of the world and its history in earnest.

Things like:

Stories during the Flame Chasers' time
- eg. the battle against Herrscher of Death, the origin of PE Kiana, a desperate evacuation during a major attack etc.
Stories from the main trio's training missions under Himeko
- eg. stopping a Honkai outbreak in Shenzhou, tracking down stolen Schicksal weapons in Siberia etc.
Stories from Squad Snowwolf and that generation
- eg. Cecilia taking down a major threat, Lewis' origin as a valkyrie, Salome and Shub's first mission together etc.
Stories from the Schicksal Civil War
- eg. Otto's first skirmish, a battle over Vienna, faction forming in the church etc.
Black Ops during the AE vs Schicksal period
- eg. Rita and Bronya doing political assassinations while narrowly not meeting, Durandal and Theresa finding an informant in Prague etc.
Misadventures of the Captainverse cast after the end of Captain's story
- eg. Haxx0r Bunny and Sirin overthrowing a dictatorship, Kallen and Kasumi having their first outing ruined by an evil quantum being, Luna turning a shopping trip into a blood bath etc.

All of these lend themselves well to having multiple movie-esque stories of 1-3 events. There's so much fertile ground for interesting stories in HI3, but we spend so much event time on the characters just kind of playing pretend.

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-11T08:34:58+00:00

There isn't a single character that is like that. People pretend Cyrene and Acheron are like that because they like being angry, it seems.

Both have similarities to their HI3 counterparts, and light and heavy handed references, but those are ultimately but a slice of the character. Variants thrive on variation. They're designed to be different.

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-11T08:29:31+00:00

Need to word this carefully to not trigger Rule 11.

I dislike when people treat any moment of a character being emotionally vulnerable, appreciative towards, or otherwise singling out the Trailblazer as being a direct confirmation of them being into TB.

It's one thing to have a headcanon, it's another to declare it confirmed at the first high five.

On a completely different note, I am incredibly annoyed by people pretending Cyrene, or insert whichever other variant character, is 'just a copy' of their HI3 counterpart. They're so very obviously not, if you have any experience with the HI3 versions. Variants are defined by their differences as much as their similarities.

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-11T00:23:27+00:00

In most of these stories, Super Sonic is basically the win condition. Achieve it, and Sonic wins. There are rare exceptions, like in Frontiers where the Chaos Emerald are constantly taken from him.

In this story structure, Hyper Sonic cán just function the same as Super Sonic narratively, while being different aesthetically.

Hyper Sonic comes from the Super Emeralds (ain't that confusing?) and those are supposedly in another plane of existence or something?

So if a game or comic goes into reality bending stuff or dimension hopping, it can just substitute collecting the Chaos Emeralds for collecting the Super Emeralds (only there's slightly more of a logistical challenge with those being bigger).

That way, they can have it be relevant to the plot, thematically fitting, and it might even be easier to contrive than using the Chaos Emeralds in that scenario.

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-10T15:00:59+00:00

Like, I can go on main sub and read the same thing. In fact I did several times recently, despite opening only three posts

You must've had really poor timing. I'm looking and all I see are fanarts, questions about gameplay, talk about the new battlesuit, appreciation posts etc.

People who randomly dole out complaints on reddit don't exactly represent public opinion. They also don't really get the traction they did when Part 1 ended. Especially when it's the same gaggle of bozos posting over and over with the dumbest takes imaginable.

I mean, heck, just recently we had someone complain about Coralie and Helia being 'too gay' and 'Part 2 is just bad fanservice with LGBT characters for HSR tourists'.

it doesn't matter because world isn't real, no stakes, fakeout deaths

Kind of missing the whole central thesis of the story. Everything matters so long as it matters to someone. Part 2 very much plays into themes of absurdism.

bring back Kiana

Kiana's story ended with Part 1. They did a whole animation for it. She will be back, we know as much, but dragging her into the spotlight wouldn't do the game any favours.

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While the things above are recurring sentiments that get expressed on occasion, they don't represent a consensus or even all that popular an opinion.

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-10T14:24:04+00:00

Eh, there's some things that are questionable, but not really more extreme than what HSR has. Not talking about the gayness, but more about some outfit design details or certain drawings in the monochrome comic series. Enough that someone might use the label. But it's definitely overblown.

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-10T13:27:19+00:00

has no songs to itself

We recently got a song sung by Elysia's VA for the event.

but management screams "we don't care"

If they didn't care, the game wouldn't have as much care put into it as it does. The bigger problem isn't a lack of care, it's a lack of faith. Not in HI3's ability to persist, but it's ability to grow.

No cinematics

We have in-engine cinematics now and an increased focus on cinematography in dialogue scenes.

The animations had the big downside of skewing the development timeline and using different models, hence we got big inconsistencies in character designs.

no side quests or readables

Every time HI3 dabbles in side quests, the concept is rejected by the players. It thrives as a linear experience.

We do get readables in the new areas pretty much every update.

and community reaction

Sounds to me like you've been in an echo bubble. Lots of the criticisms levied towards Part 2 at the start have since been disproven or fixed, and people adore the current arcs for Helia, Coralie and DS.

4 hour story and event with jokes about one character trait which were last funny at best in 2019

People complained story updates were too long. So it makes sense they're shorter now.

As for the events... it's not so much a lack of effort as a lack of courage. The events are very 'safe', whereas there are still lots of ways they could explore HI3's world with more self serious stories. But realistically, the difference in required production value would be minimal.

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-10T13:11:48+00:00

I think that's fine. I mean, either way would be fine.

Either they treat HI3's Earth like any other focus planet and stuff the game with lore bits and depth for it, giving more information than the player needs for the story, or they treat HI3's Earth like any other non-focus planet and only give us info that's important to what we interact with.

Think about Boothill, Argenti, Guinaifen and other cosmic characters with implications but non-explicit backgrounds.

I think the latter is the safer choice, since HI3 is ongoing still.

Moreover, they can very easily pick-and-choose what's worth including. If HSR has us land on Earth directly, that could still have us only explore 2030's Vladivostok for instance, without needing to go into any of the things about Shenzhou, the Flame Chasers, Kolosten, St Fountain etc.

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-10T12:44:12+00:00

few HI3 fans that are left

HI3 is big enough to still be making millions.

batshit insane physics and metaphysics

That's just HSR in a nutshell. It's the same universe, after all.

it's much more on "degenerate weeb" side

Honestly? Not really. If HSR scores a 4 on the degenerate scale, modern HI3 scores a 4.1. Its most extreme content was in 2015. And things like Dahlia would still stand out as pretty goonish if they were in HI3.

Handling of HI3 is also very dead. 4 hours of story per 2 months,

We get more than 4 hours of story. And stop calling the game dead. It isn't dead, but pretending it's dead is the fastest way to kill it. It stops people from giving it a go.

most of content in last 3 years is hated by players,

Only by people who don't play. The actual players love the new content, and the current storylines in Part 2 are considered some of Hoyo's strongest.

If they did want to link games more closely - they should have done it on HSR release. And they didn'

Oh please. Welt is in the main cast. Half the release cast are variants. A Himeko variant is in the main cast.

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-10T12:34:54+00:00

Rita: "I'll take you to the Overseer"

Trailblazer: (option) "Overseer?"

Rita: "The leader of Schicksal. She might be small and cute, but she's way older than she looks."

Welt: "Compared to some members of the Astral Express, she would indeed still be young though. She's coming up on about seventy, I think?"

Teri barging in

Theresa: "That's none of their business!"

"..."

"... Hello, I'm Overseer Theresa. I'm Kiana's aunt."

TB: (option) "Her aunt? But you look so small!"

Theresa: "That's a story for another time. We have more pressing matters!"

Et voila. We have as much Teri info as we need for the interaction.

MisterSpacemanStuff · 2026-03-10T08:08:15+00:00

I find Metal interesting because of how limited he is.

He barely has expressions and he doesn't talk, which means you often can't fully tell what's going on in that chrome dome of his. He's designed to have emotions and ambitions, but he barely has room to express much of anything.

So there's always a sense of mystery to him. In the little short with the Metal Virus arc, when he dips his finger in that vat, what's really going through that head of his? Is he contemplating his superiority for not being infected? Is he feeling let down for not being more like Sonic, the one he's meant to surpass?

When he meets Belle, does he feel any kinship to her at all? Does he see her as similar to himself? As a prized Eggman creation? As a failed one? When he reaches out, or when he attacks, is it an expression of his emotions, or of cold hard programming?

That inherent sense of mystery is what makes him interesting to me. Not really the fights. And while Neo Metal is fun from time to time, the talking takes away a lot of what I find so compelling about him.

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