darkSpyro

I'm excited for the story of Sky 5. I think that we won't see as much innovation tech wise but gameplay wise we will see a ton of improvement.

I would like Skylanders 5 to be a Universe game that includes all the games(1-4) and the only new toys should be light and dark Skylanders. We should still use the portal we have now.

ssa: 5 light and dark each
sg: 2 giants each
ssf: 2 swappable each
stt: 1 traps master each(since we only got one in stt)

And of course variants:
Nitro
Legendary
Dark
Light Core

They could make good start packs out of this mix.

Quote: mastermc54

Personally, I don't need a new gimmick every year. Innovation be damned, it's a logistical and testing nightmare to offer forward compatibility of past figures (and now traps) with every new Skylanders entry. If it ever comes down to dropping the forward compatibility and dropping the gimmick, I'd drop the gimmick and be more than happy with them just introducing some new figures. I wouldn't mind a new set of Giants (including light and dark elements), swappers, and cores/reposes. I didn't mention Trapmasters because I don't mind if they get scrapped from the series...they're like Giants without the light up mechanic and their sole purpose in Trap Team is to open those lousy elemental gates.

My thoughts exactly. I couldn't care less about the gimmicks. The core characters have always been more interesting than the gimmick characters as far as I'm concerned. Instead of coming up with a new gimmick I would love it if the next game did exactly what you are talking about, add to the existing lines instead of making up a new one. I'd kill for SL 5 to only have 10-12 TOTAL characters and to put more emphasis on the old ones instead. Two Giants (light/dark), Two Swappers (light/dark), and maybe 8 core characters (4 light/ 4 dark). That would flesh out the new elements and make older character more desirable, as well as keep the character bloat to a minimum. I really don't want to buy another 50 figures this time next year.

I have to say, I liked SF a bit more than TT, so I'm excited to see VV return! They may not have the story skills, and they don't know when to end levels, but gameplay in SF just felt so much more satifying than TT. I don't need every attack to do three digits of damage, just give me back my knock mechanics!

(Also, give me a stinking open world skylanders game for pete's sake)

Quote: Jedi_Kunle

I would like Skylanders 5 to be a Universe game that includes all the games(1-4) and the only new toys should be light and dark Skylanders. We should still use the portal we have now.

ssa: 5 light and dark each
sg: 2 giants each
ssf: 2 swappable each
stt: 1 traps master each(since we only got one in stt)

And of course variants:
Nitro
Legendary
Dark
Light Core

They could make good start packs out of this mix.

I like this idea. Make it open world and we've got a best seller.

We'd need, for L/D
2 new giants
4 new swappers
2 new Trap Masters
4 new minis
16 new cores
and 6 new traps, to even out the trap selection.

I'd also love to see 3 new magic villains, and 2 new fire, light, dark, earth, air, and undead villains.

Other than the new L/D guys, there would be no other new guys to have a good amount of forwards compatibility encouragement. Yes, that means NO MORE GILL GRUNTS!

Knowing Activision,they'd make that an expansion pack DLC(maybe even actual DLC to unlock new levels with said new villains) of a game rather than the game itself. Doesn't mean it wouldn't be pretty nice.

Is it confirmed to come out?

I have loved all the games so far. as long as the keep going how they have been going I'm sure it will turn out great!

After TT people still bash on SF? Man, VV sure doesn't have it easy. Personally I'm feeling more optimistic about Sky5 since it's being made by VV and not TfB.

Quote: tvih

After TT people still bash on SF? Man, VV sure doesn't have it easy. Personally I'm feeling more optimistic about Sky5 since it's being made by VV and not TfB.

I'm not going to BE easy when a developer team just plain ignores Kaos' character of all people just so they can have their cool villain take the spotlight for a bit, not to mention the rest of the plot holes and outright dumbing down attitude.
TT played too safe and cut too much, but at least as far as I got the plot is nice and knows what it's doing.

Personally hated... HATED swap force... like the users before me stated, the mabu were gone, characters completely scrapped... not to mention the HORRIBLY ANNOYING rhinos (sorry don't recall their names) that you had to talk to upgrade your skylander... also the weird upgrade pods and lack of a good storyline to be honest, I dint really get not the story like I did with SA, G, and TT... that being said I was almost ecstatic to see arbo, t bone, etc. Back in TT

Btw what happened to Kaos?

#NotHatingButToysForBobIsBetter
#MyOpinion
#DontHate

SSF did play fast and loose with the lore and did change things around a bit and "misplaced" a few characters (too bad not Flynn, though), but then TT doesn't even have proper story scrolls for lore anymore. Got a few good giggles out of them in previous games, but now they're just annoying in TT.

Also, the characters introduced in SSF weren't bad or anything in my opinion, but the unskippable dialogues were pretty damn annoying. That was the main problem with the Woodburrow NPCs.

"Fast" and "looose"? "Guys, remember that lore piece that the previous game said X about? It's actually this new Y!"
Swap Force had the nasty habit of pushing their ideas over TFB's like VV thought they could do better. Kaos' mom(who no one bothered to name) over Kaos. Mesmerelda over Drill-X(VA focus). Fire Viper over The Hydra.
The characters were pretty annoying stereotypes; the nice politician,the coward(and who makes an entire level around that?!), the gadgeteer, the paranoid. At least TFB's characters have their own twists which make them memorable. Aside from Tessa(who rightfully gets a place in TT as well), everyone else is forgettable because if you look up the stereotypes, other fiction have done them to death sometimes with even the same phrases.
And if you need Story Scrolls to care about the lore in any way, then that's a problem. It's a huge bummer they're just Flynn lying about random crap, but the levels themselves make a pretty great job of worldbuilding and introducing new concepts, compared to, uh.... Fantasm Forest is actually a forest of wood firefighters... It's supposed to be funny,I guess?

I really, really wish this was just because it's their first game with this canon and not the dev team's overall idea of doing their games.The characters are the least of the problems, SF just seemed to talk down to everyone like only little children could be possibily playing this. If SL5 ends up great, I'm glad I was proved wrong. If not, I know where it started.

Quote:

"Fast" and "looose"?

Bifrost, have you actually played SF? I'm not trying to assume, I'm asking because a while ago I swear I saw you saying that you skipped it.
I have no arguments about how bad the story is (although I think TT's lore is severly lacking, no matter how anyone rebutts), but "fast and loose" is probably referring to the gameplay and in that regard I'd agree with it (the fast part, anyway). Despite the slower character movement, you move between actual action/platforming sections much faster than you go through TFB's puzzles and rewards are scattered more generously (even though there's less, it isn't stretched out like in some TFB levels).
I disagree with the looseness- I actually think SF is pretty tight, which I like. God damn Chomp Chomp Chompies- it has way fewer enemies than Kaos Mode, but they pose more of challenge, so you need to juggle them more tightly. It's different difficulty to TT, which usually just tosses more of the same enemies/hazards at you rather than change layouts or properties in an interesting when it wants to amp up difficulty (the most obvious example is how basically every fight takes place on a flat arena, with nearly no enemies standing on and forcing you to go to ledges, tossing things frthem, also the enemies have less varied attacks).

tvih said "fast and loose with the lore", and I understood that as they just went with what looked good for the story. In my opinion, it's the better lazy way to use the characters that are already around instead of creating new ones if you won't bother with developing them, so not exactly loose.
I skipped Swap Force and watched Let's Plays instead,though maybe once the CD gets cheap enough I'll give it a second chance.

Eh, I guess I just don't take the games as seriously as some do. So what if there are contradictions, wouldn't be the first game series that has them. And no, I don't "need" story scrolls, I just said they were nice and had funny tidbits. They were a nice addition. TT doesn't really fill that void with anything, since the Flynn scrolls are lame. SF's story was admittedly a bit worse than the other games, but not by miles and miles in my book, contrary to what many seem to think.

And SF did improve the gameplay part - in terms of movement and combat - in my books. I wasn't referring to that with the fast and loose, but gameplay is the main point I liked over the previous games. Jumping was a great addition, thank goodness TT kept that at least and even improved it by allowing attacking while jumping. Admittedly one gameplay-related aspect that wasn't so great with SF was the long chapters, though in practise it didn't end up bothering me that much. Mostly an "issue" when combined with having to complete the chapter for any new places/treasures/etc found to be taken into account for your save (unless I remember wrong) and of course it taking a bit long to look for them from such big levels.

Also, about this: "SF just seemed to talk down to everyone like only little children could be possibily playing this." It strikes me as a bit funny, at least considering the whole TfB vs VV thing, since the friend who introduced me to the series a bit over a year ago just said - as we were discussing TT's shortcoming the other day - that one of the main things she dislikes about TT is the overt handholding. Every puzzle is very short and simple - like moving square rocks / turtles or the turning laser beam things - and basically presolved by the NPCs and camera telling/showing you what to do. I hadn't really consciously thought about it, but in retrospect that is very true from what I've seen of TT so far (first 11 story chapters, Mirror of Mystery and Nightmare Express). So TfB seems to be doing with TT exactly what you hated about SF, and frankly I never really noticed that about SF (unless you want to count the "Rufus speech" every damn time you loaded into Woodburrow).

Overall there are many many things "wrong" with TT, things that, as I said before, make me more optimistic about Sky5 being made by VV rather than TfB. I'd have to do a proper article encompassing the entire series to really get to the bottom of it, rather than these short posts, but probably no one cares enough about what I think to make the effort of writing it worth it.

Every game has the handholding. In fact, the difference is which one has voiceover or just the obvious tip in the corner of the screen. But this is a kid' game,handholding is normal. I mean the writing - TFB might get some really corny humor sometimes but usually they treat the dialogue like most other games. Swap Force just seems to beat you over the head with anything - a certain gag sounded funny? Time to repeat it a ton to make sure everyone got it. There's this really cool thing about this piece of lore? Let's say it throught the level over and over, kids obviously won't remember it just once! Motleyville-- OH LOOK HE'S SUCH A COWARD, LET'S INSIST ON HOW MUCH OF A COWARD THE VILLAIN IS BECAUSE HE RUNS AWAY.
I think you didn't get the part where I don't talk much about the gameplay(except the balancing but that was my focus weeks ago if at all). I didn't play it, I saw the LP in the internet and the writing just scared me off - maybe the soundtrack as well, since it's "find the song from Giants/SSA" except for very short overly repeated sections(Fire Viper and Mesmerelda have sections of about 10-20 second songs which repeat over and over) and the few gems that don't even stay around for long. I care a lot about the plot not in the way of being deep or being complex; just the writing being clever, with humor,and even a few dark undertones which make everything feel like they know what they're doing. I didn't find this in Swap Force, and I only hope it is because it was VV's first console game(they didn't really need to mess with plot in Lost Islands or the 3DS games).

But the puzzles and their solutions - well, except for some lock puzzles, I suppose - are simpler than in previous games. Of course they were already simple before, but it never felt as being like so to this degree. Also I never felt the writing to be repetitive, at least not so that it would've bothered me. I have played through each chapter a few times at least, some more often than others. It just seems to me to be pointless to overanalyze the game. Then again same goes for movies and such where I can watch something like Sharknado and enjoy it for what it is. I guess I'm just that good at not being bothered easily

And yes, I got that you hadn't played it. The gameplay part wasn't really aimed at you specifically, more general commentary on the topic.

What we need is a huge online Skyland with an actual online gameplay element and world where players can interact, do quests together and even co-op missions together. Just make a single player story for those parents that want their child to play by themselves and give the older players, like all of us, the opportunity to do more in the Skylanders universe.

Not a bad idea GatorShea...but Activision or Toys for Bob is not going to do that.

Quote: Phoenix_Lord

Not a bad idea GatorShea...but Activision or Toys for Bob is not going to do that.

Given the option of doing that vs closing the franchise...I wouldn't be so sure they wouldn't. I would argue we're ready for a game renaissance of some sort. They've been doing the same thing now for four games, and I for one won't reward them for another repeat. I can honestly say that it's not as "fresh" as everyone says it is.

Swap Force took me quite a bit of time to 100%, while it only took until wave 3 to 100% Trap Team.

Swap Force had a TON to do in it, and the levels were longer to boot. The only complaint I have about Swap Force, was some chapters being nothing but boss fights. Had each chapter been a chapter, longest Skylander game confirmed. It still is in many regards.

Trap Team is sorely lacking in content compared to Swap Force.

If VV develops Sky 5, they need to make each chapter a chapter, make 4 Adventure Packs, more Light and Dark Skylanders, Series 2 characters of SSA characters who have yet to get one, and have as many game modes and challenges as Swap Force did, and it should be a masterpiece.

im really curious how stt is doing and its about 20 days until the quarterly results for acti... it may be a skylanders death knell.

Quote: GatorShea

What we need is a huge online Skyland with an actual online gameplay element and world where players can interact, do quests together and even co-op missions together. Just make a single player story for those parents that want their child to play by themselves and give the older players, like all of us, the opportunity to do more in the Skylanders universe.

you can always go play destiny or diablo3... because that is never gonna happen. a more realistic thing that might happen is a online co-op option for the single player/challenge arenas/pvp battles.

No, Skylanders Universe existed once. They just need to remember how sucessful it was to generate hype for the main games and actually make it functional again(since the Giants update made it borderline unplayable)

Yeah CountMoneyBone...remember the past before you say that....Skylanders Universe was rather cool...why they removed it i'll never get. They had a lot of members playing it....and liked it.

Also don't double post...you have been here long enough to know better.

They probably decided to axe it to save resources, because the servers were always full, it took forever to load, and the Giants characters and the new games loved to make it crash. But in concept and popularity it was huge, so really hoping that they don't stop at using the models in Lost Islands or leaving the games at the website - a MUCH better Mainland, better servers, and some more customization options for the home islands because dear Eon the Elemental themes were beautiful.

Forget Cali, Flynn, Tessa, etc.. My son and I want the actual stars of the show to have personalities and stories. Since there's no Skylanders series in the future, it'd be nice for at least some of the characters we've invested in have some sort of story arc. I know it's impossible for all the characters to have dialogue, but if they could incorporate just a handful of them into the story that'd be a step up. Have the new game be about Eon's elite getting captured; have villains call out specific SLers; have new characters seek out old characters for wisdom. Make these guys collecting dust on my display relevant again. I can't get behind purchasing another 30-50 soulless characters.

If they were to make it open world, that'd make expanding the characters even easier. This may sound silly, but I get really excited when they come out with a new house specific to a Skylander in Lost Islands. Anything to add to their personality.

That being said I am excited about VV doing the next game, as long as the levels are shorter and you can skip the cut scenes. I actually think the dialogue in Trap team (at least Flynns) is horrible. The levels are nice, but there's a severe lack of things to do. No PVP and trapmaster-only gates make it really difficult to get mileage out of older characters. I do love the villains and the light and dark characters so far.. But it bothers me that they give all these villains a story, and I'm still wondering what the heck makes Stealth Elf and Chop Chop tick.

I know it's impossible for all the characters to have dialogue, but if they could incorporate just a handful of them into the story...

So what happens when you are playing that char and they end up talking to themself?

I actually enjoyed Swap Force a lot! I think the updated graphics just stole my heart and I found the story and levels really fun. I agree that the swappers were slightly bland as characters, but the mechanic is truly ingenious, not to mention how fun Swap zones were! I am excited to see what hey have in store for us.