Sonic X Shadow Generations thread, movie level out now

Wouldn't complain if the jumpball in the games started looking like that. If Sonic Team is gonna be borrowing visual elements from the movies then they should borrow that

 

Nah, what they obviously need to borrow are the shoulders, smaller eyes, human-like teeth which can be seen individually, and the furry texture placed all over their body. :D

Yeah, to be honest I like the jump ball too. I think it’s cool. But I don’t really know if it says good about the movie designs that my favorite depictions of them (the only one I like actually) is when you can’t actually see most of them.

It is funny, though.

 

Shadow Generations' OST is getting a physical release in Japan on December 25th
It's titled Perfect | Reflections and will cost ¥3850 after taxes.

 

NGL, I’m not a fan of Shadow Generations 2D levels. I think it has more to do with perspective and control than it does anything else. I think if it was true left/right/up/down not sometimes diagonal, I wouldn’t have such a complaint. These angled “Sideways 3D” sections are annoying and I can’t even move the camera.

 

...moving the camera in a 2D level?

Preposterous.

 

I don't remember having to input a diagonal input input. Forward was always forward.

 

Shadow Gens' 2D levels are very evidently an afterthought to pad the game's length. And I don't mean that negatively, because Sonic Team at least put 110% into the Act 1s which I'm more than happy with.

 

So I rewatched the cutscenes of this game and I think for me ultimately the worst thing about this games story, more so than the generic dialogue even, is that we learn absolutely nothing new about any of the characters by the end.

A character interaction in a good story should end with us learning something new about the character due to their interections with situations of the story or the plot moved forward in some way. I feel the latter is ALL we recieve in shadow generations and it doesn't compel me to care about the characters anymore than I did before.

We see that Gerald Robotnik was once a kindly old man before Maria died...something we already knew. Because of SA2. Because of the space laser in Shadow the Hedgehog meant to protect the planet from his mistakes. Seeing them actually interact and talk doesn't add anything to this or makes me recontexualize anything before or after.

We find out...Maria is a smart thoughtful little girl. Again something we already knew. From her conversations with Shadow about the Earth and the nature of humanity in SA2. To her asking Shadow to protect the people of earth in her dying moments instead of wishing revenge on those who wronged her.

Her being the one who named Shadow doesn't really add anything to the story for me or even feel like anything less than forced so at least one "new" thing happened.

I mentioned this before, and Sonic 3 did it perfectly, but to expand on Maria and Shadow's relationship they could have shown them interacting more. In jokes together, experiences they both liked, maybe a favorite snack they both used to split. But no time is used on anything like that.

Maria in SA2 was ultimately more of a symbol than a character. A representation of the innocence Shadow and Gerald lost that pushed them to hate all of humanity. I don't really think that's a bad thing either because I've seen this type of character in other fantastic fiction.

Sauron is the main antagonist of Lord of the Rings but they never meet him in story. He symbolizes unfettered ambition and fhe cruelty people will take for their ambitions. Who he is and what malice he represents is seen in the cruelty of his lackies, the despairing state of his realms, and the fact that even the strongest characters we meet know they can't touch him. All this was expertly portrayed without ANY interactions. I feel Maria's few on SA2 did so properly for what she was supposed to represent.

In The Godfather, the main character Micheal Corelone, shoots a police officer and high ranking Mob boss to avenge his father, who was in the hospital after a failed assassination attempt and has to flee to Italy. There he meets a beautiful girl named Apolla and falls in love instantly and they wed after a brief courting period.

A few days after their wedding she is killed by a car bomb as revenge for the death of the mob boss and police officer. She represented the beauty and innocence that Micheal will never be allowed again due to his choice. Her death pushes Micheal to becoming the ruthless Godfather he would later become. And this all happens in 5 minutes.

I don't need 10 scenes with a character to like them or understand their point in a story. And if I see them again it should be because they've found something new to do or say with them in a new environment or situation.

Yes WhiteSpace was a new place for Gerald and Maria but given we know no more about them as people than we did before, I can't say it was worth it.

 

Right, no time was ever used on food talk at all. You know this because you watched only the cutscenes, and nothing more.

 

Overall, this little Year of Shadow wound up being one of the coolest and best years of the entire franchise. We got one of the best anime shorts so far in a franchise with a pretty long history of great animated shorts, easily the best 3D sonic game ever, and a big budget hollywood blockbuster adaptation of Sonic Adventure 2 that wound up being the highest rated video game movie ever.

What a return to form for Shadow!

 

What did we learn new about Maria? That the food on the Ark sucks and she doesn't like coffee? Okay?

That doesn't change my ultimate point and I mentioned food as a random example of something they could have done to show more of their interactions.

And I shouldn't have to seek this stuff out separately either. It should be part of the story they're trying to sell to me.

 

Dark Brotherhood is part of the Playstation version of the game, and I'd say that actually did a good deal to flesh out the backstory between Maria and Shadow, more so than any other time they've been shown together. Dark Brotherhood was the first time I really got how much Maria meant to Shadow and how much he loved her. I liked how it showed shadow being bullied by Abe, and how lonely Shadow was without Maria, and how insecure he was about himself and how she made him feel like he had self worth. I also like how they'd give little quotes from Maria to give context into Shadow's mindsets, like when he's remembering her saying "You'll find other friends along the way" before meeting up with Rogue and Omega.

Even though I played the PC version of Shadow Generations, I very much consider Dark Brotherhood to be the Sonic CD-Style intro to Shadow Gens and part of the game.

ALSO, I think Shadow Generations generally had the most uplifting moment of the entire series when Shadow tells Maria that he's letting go of his destructive anger and smiles. I liked that scene a lot and it paid off to see Shadow get to smile at Maria.

I would actually say taking in everything associated with Shadow Gens, including the Anime, that it overall had the best story, cutscenes, and direction of anything in the entire series. It was the first time a Sonic game actually made me feel something for the story. It landed, and did so well. Not just paying off in multiple instances (like when you see Abe 50 years later in the anime, or the above mentioned Shadow smile), but also in how it could just be so cheesy cool yet earnest. Peak Sonic story telling IMO.

 

Yeah I wasn't fond of how they stuffed the fluff in missable moments. It didn't occur to me that I should talk to everyone in the hub after beating a level after I was already several levels in and by that point I gave up bothering to talk to anyone since I already missed so much.

It was way worse in Sonic Frontiers where all the Eggman/SAGE stuff was locked in video recordings that you had to buy, in a fishing mini game that isn't in the main zone areas. Made the emotional moment at the end of that game feel really bizzare.

 

Spoiler

 

You have yet to post anything we didn't know from SA2 and Shadow the hedgehog or that expands Shadow and Maria's interactions or relationship.

We already knew she was dying. That's not new information. And specifics about her disease don't expand her relationship with other characters unless it changes in how she interacted with them.

 

I didn't know Abe bullied Shadow and that Maria stuck up for him. From Shadow the Hedgehog, I always assumed Abe was scared shitless of Shadow on the Ark, not that he bullied him. Maria sticking up for Shadow and helping him through his bullying was new to me and made his devotion to her feel a lot more understanding and realistic. It wasn't just that she was nice to him, it's that she was his safety blanket. It makes Maria's focus on Shadow's anger make a lot more sense in the game because she's worried about him.

This shifts Maria's focus in multiple games towards Shadow's anger specifically, as in it's a character trait he's been dealing with since *BEFORE* Maria died and it was a concern. Anger has been a problem for Shadow for a very long time. With the context of being bullied, it makes her concern and focus on Shadow letting go of anger feel much more appropriate and natural. Where as before, Maria was summed up as "Fight to make the earth happy!" she's now more like Shadow's therapist with her motivations beyond being generic "peace on earth." She's clearly focused on Shadow growing beyond his hang ups, and giving Shadow some closure on this topic after 20 years and multiple games of anguishing over it felt earned.

"Fight with my wish in your heart" isn't about Shadow protecting the earth so much as it's about Shadow realizing he's not a freak and letting go of his anger towards those who don't understand him.

 

I have no problems at all with how Shadow Generations handled its scenes and optional text. This issue with info being new or not seems super arbitrary to me, especially since Shadow's having in-person interactions with otherwise dead characters that we typically wouldn't expect to see, and really... we simply hadn't yet to this degree. It's all great stuff. A lot of it was new to me, anyways.

 

I also appreciate that these appearances with dead characters aren't a mulligan. They don't undo the traumatic past. They aren't like the follow up to Jurassic Bark where Fry secretly lived a long happy life with Seymour because the original ending was too sad to endure. Maria still dies, Shadow still goes through that Trauma. It's just that we get to see Shadow dealing with these people now after many years of growth. It makes so much sense that the emotional climax and conclusion of shadow's entire character arc ends with him willingly leaving Maria and Robotnik while shedding a tear.

 

Spoiler

Totally 100% agreed. I love how the game introduces the possibility of saving them right at the jump but then dismisses it as chasing ghosts at the very end. It worked very well for Shadow's story and prior development here.

EDIT: saw Cooljerk's edit and spoilering just in case

 

Spoiler

Shadow basically outright telling her she's gonna die and her saying she's ok with it, because she'll always be in his heart is straight up cathartic to Shadow. Dude has been having panic attacks over the guilt and anger over her death and we got to see it for 20 years. Like the anime said, she's the only person who could ever talk Shadow down. So for her to finally tell him to his face that it's ok, to move past it, that's real growth.

EDIT: Didn't realize this wasn't the spoiler thread