Spoiler Thread - SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS (SPOILERS!... Obviously.)

Immediately after he sees a recording of Gerald explaining why he made the Eclipse Cannon and Maria saying that she and Shadow will protect the planet. It's also a direct refudation of Black Doom literally controlling him and stating that because he is a Black Arm, he belongs to him.

What else could this possibly mean than "I fully understand my past and the promise now?" What sense does it make to go "I'm going to kill you to keep my promise" and then immediately "fuck Maria"?

When approached with two explanations of his past, he chose Maria's promise. He breaks biological mind control as well as his own angst on the sheer power of his connection with Maria.

Frankly, I prefer story discussions because that's better than talking about "Miderations", but that's just me.

 

To actually try and address this, I THINK the implication is that Doom reappearing on the ark and the 'visions' in dark beginnings unearthed any buried memories, or at least I'd bet that would be their reasoning if they were asked about it.

 

In fiction, amnesia is easy as getting hit in the head and getting your memories back is just as easy, usually through another hit in the head or a specific catalyst (like, y'know, being reminded of your closest loved one and the promise you're made to keep). The idea that Shadow getting his memories back needs more explanation than "he remembered during the game or after" is a lot of wasted effort. It's not a retcon that one thing happens after another. It's not controversial that time had passed between Shadow '05 and whenever Generations takes place.

 

Time stamp would have been helpful, my guy.

If I couldn’t find that scene quickly again, I was 100% ready to be like, “Guess I overlooked that. You have successfully made me care about Shadow as a character and his story even less than I already did, because now he is again just fighting because of what someone else wants and stuff.”

But a few seconds before giving up, I managed to actually find that.

I don’t know, my guy. he says he understands his purpose after seeing this video recording. Not that he remembers it. That doesn’t necessarily mean he got his memories back.

And that line right after the one you bolded. It sounds less like, “I care so much about this person and want to do my best to fulfill this promise to her!” And more like, “I just want to be done with all of this, resolve it, so I don’t have to deal with this crap anymore.”

 

I did timestamp I don't think the site allows that.

So you're saying that Shadow just does whatever he's currently told? Black Doom says "you're my soldier", and Shadow goes "ugghghgh I'm your soldier", but Maria goes "save the planet, actually", and Shadow goes "okay, I'll save the planet.

In which case, continuing to fulfill that promise makes perfect sense, no?

Why would Shadow, suddenly, commit to something despite having no memory, despite the fact that the whole game is a wild goose chase because he has no memory and nothing to hold on to?

What would be the significance of keeping the promise if it's just... what he's told, and not what he actually understands (which would be the emotional connection to the promise, which he explicitly did not have when he lost his memory)?

I think it's very interesting that you would rather interpret Shadow as an incredibly boring character.

Again, I'm not jiving with this fandom take that characters should just not care about anything.

 

It can be read either way, but I kind of doubt the original intent was for Shadow to be like "fuck all of this, Idc anymore"

 

I’m sensing a disturbing lack of gameplay here.

bit if you ask me, it just makes for a redux about Knuckles’ “arc” in SA1 except it actually works this time.

while knuckles wonders about his past, wastes all opportunity to learn about it instead just learning about chaos, and then concludes that it is not worth looking for, Shadow spends an entire game ACTUALLY and ACTIVELY looking to discover his past only to decide in the end it’s not worth it and reject it entirely.

It’s an actual arc. One that’s kinda’ based, Ngl.

And just because he doesn’t care about Maria and stuff doesn’t mean he can’t care about anyone else. He has reason to be invested with Rouge and Omega for example.

 

You know complaining that people aren't talking about the gameplay when you were a drag to talk to about it before isn't gonna get people to change the subject, right?

Anyway the thing you're saying is not what happens in the story.

 

I know Shadow '05 is a bad game but believing that the story is literally about how the entire thing was a waste of time and pointless is giving just a bit too little credit to the writers, don't you think?

 

The game is not out to PLAY. The fuck do you want us to talk about? I'm not about to toss my two cents on how the game plays until I either get my hands on it, or a ton of people with varying skill levels have done so and pushed out the footage. Two guys leaking isn't enough to go on.

 

Chill a little bit, my guy. I’m not THAT dumb. I know we don’t have much.

 

Huh? What?

This is such an amazingly wrong interpretations, I don't know where to even start.

Do you really think that when Shadow declared that there's "Only one thing left to do... to put the past behind me!" as he teleports the Black Comet right in front of the Eclipse Cannon, he was actually feeling exhausted "dealing with all this crap"?

Do you also believe that the credits song that plays right afterwards is about Shadow "not wanting to deal with this crap anymore"?

Really???

The pure Dark path has Black Doom constantly emphasizing Maria's death at GUN's hands to make Shadow bitter and hateful of humanity.

The Android path has Shadow believing he's a mere copy, and thus has NO past whatsoever.

The pure Hero path has Shadow realizing that his promise to Maria is more important than brooding over his dark and tragic past. He won't despise humanity because of Maria's death, neither will he despair about being an abomination created using alien DNA.

He made a promise to Maria he intends to keep. So yeah, he WILL be "dealing with this crap" for as long as he lives as he goes on to make sure that the planet, that Maria loved so much, remains safe from any danger that would threaten it.

 

why’s shit so tense in here y’all

 

Boy I sure do love Sonic games.

Anyway, Sonic Generations is a happy fun celebration of Sonic's past because he's a happy fun guy so obviously Shadow's side of the story would be the inverse of that because his past was a big source of angst and trauma, and having to relive losing the two people closest to him is obviously gonna open some wounds. It makes for a good contrast to Sonic's story and it's a good reminder of what Shadow's character should be like both for the devs and the fans while also explaining what his deal is to newcomers to the series who will inevitably pick up this game after Sonic 3 comes out, and seeing as the last game where he was relevant to the plot came out almost 20 years ago it's kind of necessary to reintroduce him.

I wouldn't want whatever story about Shadow is next to be about Maria and Gerald again, but I'm not surprised they handled it this way for Shadow Gens.

 

So I'm hearing that apparently you can swap between the old and new dialogue in the cutscenes. However, the old voice actors have still been replaced, so you're still going to be hearing Colleen O'Shaughnessy, David B. Mitchell, etc. instead of the original VAs

 

I guess there's a point to that.

It's neat, for those bothered. But it's "better" for if the new dialogue sucks.

 

I will say I haven't confirmed if that's true. I think it's entirely possible the people who've been leaking footage and shit are making stuff up to make it hard to tell what's real and what's not. Time will tell, I guess.

 

Time for the real questions if that's true.

I wonder if Ángel de Gracia going to redub the old lines or if theyre even going to bother with new dialogue and redubbing for Generations. Jonatán López stopped voicing Sonic after Boom: Fire and Ice and unfortunately had passed away in 2020. Ángel (Silver's former spanish VA) has been voicing Sonic in everything since then.

 

Idk why anyone would lie about that, but there’s been weirder fake “leaks” lol.

I really just would like to hear more about the actual gameplay… every leak is about voice acting and cutscenes and shit, I just wanna know if the levels are good and run at a solid FPS on Switch…

 

If the point was "avoiding spoilers" they are literally failing it, because the game ending were leaked already, lol.