More substantially, both have some idea of "potential", as seen in their earliest games, that will never be realized because the developers have other ideas. For Pokemon, a branching (in vein of RGBY) story with an entertaining difficulty curve and good tournament-style challenges afterward, for Sonic the secret formula that will make controlling him in a 3D space in a no-rails, non-scripted way an enjoyable experience. Sonic has a longer precedent of outright failure than Game Freak, but GF's been moving away from RGBY's "priorities" on progression since Black/White and their Pokemkn balance has rarely served both story and multiplayer well in the same game.
