Saw it drop while I was at work, waited till I got to the PC so I can see it in HD; it was certainly worth it. Holy... that was just astounding. If the main story can hit some of these same beats than I'm confident that this will be the best story in the game canon since I don't know, Unleashed? The Black Knight? Also that little touch of the Sky Sanctuary theme when Knuckles was gliding around just made me smile
Hot damn that prologue animation was awesome. Can't believe the game actually releases next week. What a wild ride it's been watching everything from the big reveals up until now.
They put some new people on writing and suddenly they remember that the Master Emerald and Chao and Angel Island exist and that Knuckles has a character beyond "haha dumb joke". That's exciting! Knuckles even remembered that when something suspicious does down, Eggman is usually to blame. He was wrong this time, but points for effort!
The short was very good. I think that's probably Knuckles' best characterisation in the IP. He's obviously strong cool and Stoic but I liked the touch that he's also kind of soft with the Chao. I think Knuckles looking after the Chao is a really good idea. Never thought about it before but it fits thematically with Angel Island and Master Emerald and gives him something concrete to do other than just look after the emeralds. Some of it is was maybe a bit cheesy? When he was saying how he's alone I knew what they were going for but it was a bit too explicitly handled for me. But overall it was very good and I liked the tone of it.
PLEASE show us the origin of the Chaos Emeralds. They're really hinting at it with this animation, with the whole monologue about where the Master Emerald came from. I would be totally into that. The animation was great. I love this recent trend of major Sonic releases coming with animated shorts. And all with unique artstyles too! Knuckles' new VA will take some getting used to, but I think he sounds fine. It's hard to make a judgement so early.
Eh, they gotta get the character back on track and make sure it's covered correctly. I really wish they never do show us. I think the Chaos Emeralds should be these mystical things that no one knows the origin of, they just always were.
Even if Frontiers sucks then at least this short justified the game's existence Edit: On the subject of us getting an explanation for the Chaos Emerald's existence, I wouldn't necessarily mind it, but I feel like years later down the line, they'd wanna retcon it to try something else... I'm reminded of Ken Pender's explanation for the chaos emeralds, where it was part of a meteor shower that killed the dinosaurs :p
Gonna need a Powerhouse-made, Tyson/Ian-led Sonic show right now. I've said that on social, on SSMB, and I'll say it here. That was the best animated thing to come out of this series ever. I need more. MORE.
Short was well animated, I'll give it that. Effort has clearly gone into it. Knuckles sounds more dudebro than I recall. Spoiler Comments are illuminating, though: Kinda really does hammer home who this game is for, doesn't it. Saddens me somewhat, but yes, I'm fully aware this is my problem. "Old school"? Really? I'm done now.
Hard agree. I don’t know if this would be sustainable for a full season of animation so maybe someone more knowledgable can school me, but this is exactly the kind of thing I want out of Sonic’s TV shows. On Chaos Emerald origins, I don’t really know how I feel. I think giving them a backstory will elevate them above just being macguffins as they have been for the past couple of decades, but it is a big gamble and it could massively backfire if the explanations provided aren’t satisfying. Still, I trust Ian and Tyson and they clearly have not insignificant sway on the way the setting is developing these days, so I’m not too worried.
Spoiler I don't know man, the classics spent just as much time traveling to new islands, chasing down mechanical death-machines, fighting massive robots, digging into emerald civilization lore and doing action-adventure movie set-piece shit as the short we're looking at (especially S3K), so I'm not sure what it's doing that defies the classic era. Maybe it's between how we perceive it? Or how the west presented it at the time? Dunno. Either way, seems pretty old-school to me!
Sonic and co checking out some islands because the chaos emeralds lead them there only to find out eggman is upto something is literally the most classic plotline ever. Anchient civilisations misusing chaos emeralds has been a thing since Sonic 1, perhaps now that they've returned to that we'll finally find out why there's bird statues and carvings in labryinth and aquatic ruin. EDIT: the anchient civilasation was Sonic 2, I missremembered which manual it was in
It's nice to see some time taken to let a Sonic character be a character for a bit. It maybe risks retreading familiar ground for some of us, but it's necessary retreading for a lot of younger fans who have no idea that Knuckles isn't just a vapid guy who pals around with the main cast constantly. Or who thinks he's a...bumbling war general. I'm glad they're putting some respect on Knuckles.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Mega Drive), no mention in Sonic the Hedgehog (Mega Drive)'s manual of ancient civilizations. You can infer backtracking continuity, but it was introduced after Sonic the Hedgehog (Mega Drive).
I'm still unsure on the game itself, but I really enjoyed the Divergence prologue. It nailed the kind of characterization I'd like to see for Knuckles; independent and headstrong, instead of the gullible dork caricature he's been for too long. Also thought this was a good example of how a serious tone can be achieved in Sonic without needing to go into the arenas of grimdark and melodrama.
woops, must have confused it with the sonic 2 manual, still it was quite obviously on the table if the existance of labrynth is anything to go by. Doesn't really change my point, unless someone out there doesn't view sonic 2 as a classic game :P
