SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS - Dark Beginnings

How are we not talking about the fact that it says present day instead of June 2011?

Spoiler

I'm just joking btw

I'm still wondering what's going to happen in episode 2.

The episode titles are self explanatory. Finding the Way seems like he's going to look for Rouge and Omega and figure out how to get to space?

I'm still excited to see how they're going to justify bringing back Black Doom. Seems he's already active unless Shadow has premonition powers.

Maybe Eggman and the Time Eater are already active so that gives a window of opportunity to a past version of Black Doom the same way Thanos did in Endgame.

 

the actual gameplay still leaves a lot to be desired which is why i specified narrative content, but if sonic games are shallow mechanically butwith lots of fun story beats and setpieces i'm fine with that

 

Frontiers was pretty fun and a breath of fresh air for the franchise

(And yes, I realize the irony of calling a trend-chasing game fresh)

 

I enjoyed this short a lot. Did Tyson work on it? I didn't see his name in the credits?

 

Rouge's current VA doesn't sit right, still. Comparing the EN and JP VAs, though, the pitch is very close. The timbre and breathiness are what feel a bit off.

 

That was really short. Rouge's voice is at least better than Dream Team at least.

 

Spoiler

ABE?

 

I CALL DIBS!!!

Spoiler

 

Now I wish the games could get the budget to make the fights look this good. Goddamn.

 

Missed opportunity of appealing to my edge lord desires by having Shadow take and then use the sword.

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I wish they would have the Rouge VA deliver her lines like she did with her last line in the short. I like how she sounded there.

Spoiler: Monkey Time with Chimpo

In the middle of playing Sonic 06. Can't help but notice how much they nerfed Rouge's diamonds in this and other recent material.

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Honestly I don’t think Karen Strassman has been a good VA since the mid-10s. She put in a good performance as Anna in Fire Emblem Awakening and in every instalment since then she’s just been this shrill, raspy shade of her former self. It’s the same story with Rouge, really - what we’re getting here isn’t a patch on her performance in Generations.

 

This is (so far) the most obvious ‘I was made in Blender’ episode of the trilogy. Some things that I would critique, but the output all in all is superb and whatever nitpicks I have are probs due to the constraints of working around the engine and models themselves.
As someone who has worked with this engine before, there’s parts that make enough internal sense as to why it doesn’t immediately work, but for those out of the loop just understand that the animators are working hard and probably understand the issues already.

Rouge’s voice whips back and forth from being what I missed from the actress, to the criticism I’ve recently heard - I do think she’s having some difficulties during more active segments, but perfectly sultry when she’s calm and endearing (Needy? Wanton? What’s the term to describe this inflection?)

Spoiler

“I do this for you and you’ll have to come to Sonic’s birthday party” is some of the campiest shit I’ve heard from this series in a long time, I love it.

Also, Commander Abe (Yes I know it’s probably Abraham) canonization?? Finally???

Also also, I’m sort of stumped by how the song during the end credits is a rendition (remix) of Throw It All Away, probably the most industrially grating of the SA2 tracks… And now it’s the softest, silkiest lo-fi vibe. There’s something ironic about that. It’s certainly an interpretation I dig enough, though I wish more liberties were taken to getting it more melodically similar... Or maybe it’s a tempo thing? Now I wanna find out what they were thinking.

 

Isn't Abe in ShTH?

 

He was, but he was only known as the Commander there. Abraham Tower was the name Ian gave him in Archie, and it looks like they're canonizing it.

 

Karen Strassman has always made me curious, because I can't tell if her voice is the problem, the direction, or both.

If you look at her main work up till Forces, honestly thoughts on that from anyone around here?

Early On:

(Generations)

Free Riders

(Forces)

And then it just seems like after Forces, the voice or in theory, voice direction just drifted from the above. At least to me?

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Current:

(Team Sonic Racing)

(Dream Team)

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And right now, it FEELS like you could go, "Yeah the issue is Karen, likely."

And then you just look through her Portfolio and well.

KAREN STRASSMAN VOICE DEMO - and it's like "Damn, you actually can do range and other actual actress roles that are pleasant." So it just leaves me asking if with proper voice direction, could she make for a better Rouge or is it just completely impossible?

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But I think what gets me the post, aside from her voice demo, is that her delivery in Dark Beginnings (Specifically 3:35 - 3:37) in my opinion would make for a great basis. If she sounded like that as the default with range leading her higher or lower, that might be what she needs.

I appreciate any thoughts on this because I got nothing here.

 

Karen's Rouge sounds just as good now as she did back in 2010, I'm not hearing the issues with her which very much apply to Kirk's Shadow who I admit has improved recently. I have a suspicion for why there's so much criticism of Karen's voice but that's not for this forum.