sonic stagger thinggg
Wisps function like elemental shields, getting hit doesnt cause you to lose rings, but it also removes the wisp entirely, they also have their actions bound to R2, and stop you from being able to use your insta shield
you can collect wisps, some have a meter and run out when an action drains from the meter, or the meter goes down over time, or you only lose the wisp when you take damage (these are the best ones). if you take a wisp to the end of a level, you get a color coin, you can add 3 of any kind to your Wisband, each color coin has a different upgrade that gets added as a passive effect, there arent upgrades for all of the wisps, but some wisps will give you the same type of coins, some coins are more overpowered and can take up 2 slots on the band (you get 3 slots), speed and flight characters have slightly different changes to their upgrades, but the all function the same over characters in the same type, so sonic and amy would have the same wisband upgrades, but the same color coin would be changed to a different upgrade that suits the flight moveset for knuckles and tails
Wisps ==
Boost Wisp, functions like normal boost (action drain)
Drill Wisp, functions like knuckles' battle dig attack; you go underground, you cant see yourself, but there's a little drop shadow for where you are, symbolizing you're underground, the longer you go underground, the higher youll shoot out of it when you surface. you can use this dig to quickly avoid obstacles, or for example, there's a hallway with laser gates completely blocking the way through, you can dig under to bypass that (I hate locking paths off by powerup, so maybe that'll just be an introduction area that teaches how the wisp works) it can also be used the same way on walls and cielings, and it can be used as a slam that does more damage the higher you fall from (damage drain)
Laser Wisp, shows a reticle on the wall your facing, and it will teleport you there, it has a set distance, but you can use it to skip wallspin sections, it also uses the homing reticle and keeps the lazer beam in the entering direction, it can also rebound off of enemies to do a lightspeed attack but you have to aim it differently, it works a lot like shadow's chaos shift ability in sonic dream team (action drain)
Burst Wisp, gives you a dire dash, it shoots you in the direction you hold, if you hold no direction, it bursts up this also keeps your momentum, you can also hold it to charge, giving you a bigger burst, you can charge 3 times, a 3x burst uses all 3 of your normal bursts, but it launches you as high as 4, and a 2x burst, launches you as high as 3, so it could be good to do 1x burst upwards, then a 2x burst forwards sometimes (damage drain)
Spike Wisp, makes sonic's jumpball bigger and does 3 damage, also increases the damage done by spinblade, and makes wallspin lossless, so you dont lose height, its parallel. it also keep ALL of sonic's momentum up an incline or wall when curled, as opposed to before where you lose all of your momentum and traction in a ball (damage drain)
Hover Wisp, when held down, sonic floats, he keeps his momentum, but he loses it slowly over time, you can pair this with different moves to change the trajactory, like doing it right fter a bounce to go upwards fast, or after a ring rush (action drain)
Cube Wisp, alters the slam attack to make a shockwave, the shockwave freezes all enemies in cubes, the cubes make them take more damage, also, just having the shield can turn blue rings into platforms, when you get close enough (damage drain)
Eagle Wisp, gives sonic the flight characters glide (time drain)
Lightning Wisp, allows you to create a burst of lightning that staggers all enemies, also doing a homing attack does damage to surrounding enemies because of the lightning burst, and the magnetizes silver rings as an idle effect, but it sucks up gold rings caught inside the burst, this is so that you can still use a neccesary ring rush without ruining it, just because you have a wisp (time drain)
Ghost Wisp, lets you walk through enemies without taking damage, it can also phase through walls that would normally only be able to be broken by knuckles or amy, and obstacles like spikes (time drain)
the wisps are designed to be extensions of your moveset, instead of how they can function in sonic colors, where the effect of one completely halts your flow and makes you focus in that type of gameplay (like the colors hover wisp (I don't like the colors hover wisp)), so in theory, you don't have to slow down with any of these wisps, which helps because the game uses momentum, and having a wisp that doesn't blend well with that momentum wouldn't be very fun