Sonic Frontiers Should Learn From Sonic Unleashed's Casting Mistakes

gamerant.com:

Sonic Frontiers is coming later this year, and many fans are wondering how Sonic Team is going to include Sonic’s cast of friends in the title. The vast world the game is presenting shows little of where the likes of Tails, Shadow, or Amy could fit. This could be on purpose, as Sonic’s friends can be a bit divisive outside the fanbase. While some like the possibilities a different playable character with different powers and abilities presents, others see them as a distraction or an unnecessary detour to what should be the main event: Sonic himself.

In the past, this has resulted in the cast being used in strange ways. Some examples of this include Shadow working for GUN, Blaze being retconned to be from the future instead of the past, and the entirety of the Storybook series of games. However, one of the most prominent issues this has resulted in is new characters for roles or even gameplay styles that already existing characters could fit. Blaze was already a character from a far away place — another dimension — that didn’t trust Sonic, and yet Silver the Hedgehog was created. Infinite was created as an enemy to Sonic under Robotnik’s control with an array of powers despite Metal Sonic being around.

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One of the most prominent examples is the Werehog in Sonic Unleashed. Put bluntly, Knuckles should have been put in place of the Werehog. In the game, he is instead used as a background character similar to how Tails and Amy are. Despite a play style that fits him perfectly, a new character with a strange explanation for being there and with powers and abilities that are not really explained is created instead. Even if the Werehog were included, it