SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS - Dark Beginnings

That very well could be intentional.

Maria is a hugger.

Then again, it's not like she has a choice when the hedgehog next to her keeps having mental breakdowns.

 

I don't see anything wrong with it; Abe calls him a freak and presumably was harassing him earlier over his connection to the Black Arms before she arrived, Shadow's is staring into the eyes of a monster, and he's doubting himself again.

It could have avoided repetition if she rejected his angst and reassured him with some other action before speaking to him, sure, but is there anything that can really outdo a hug in this department?

 

I don't want to keep dragging on the voice actor thing but I will say while Thornton's deliveries are a lot better in these I still feel like he isn't as good as being overly emotional as Humphrey or Griffith are, which is a bit of a problem when these animations have Shadow expressing more emotions than he ever has since the change to the current voice actors. His voice is fitting for the character, no doubt, but in e.g the scene where he's lamenting being part Black Arms it feels like he's still saying the lines with a weirdly flat affect when I can absolutely imagine the previous two actors having more angst in the voice.

Like, as much as that line is a meme, "where's that DAMN fourth Chaos Emerald!?" in ShtH is a line I'm not sure Thornton could do "justice" with his current direction, whereas, well...Griffith was giving it his all, ridiculousness of that line and all lmao.

 

Hey, while Shadow05 may have a high concentration of funny lines, let's not forget that his best line is from SA2.

Rouge?

 

Eeehh...
https://x.com/FakeSonicScenes/status/1839095983390756935?t=wgwD1eh8ClE8mU1UADcZPw&s=19

Like even the most ardent fans of Griffith would admit that his voice is the weakest here.


Which just adds to my earlier point about it really coming down to direction and the actual material.

Yes, your favorite actor has had shifty performances, and your least favorite can have good performances.


One of the main reasons Griffith is a fan favorite is because he came on during the height of Shadow fever (!!) and had two whole games where Shadow was a main character, of course he'd have a better performance.

Thornton came on with a racing spin off and in an era where Shadow was at his least relevant and only really making cameos. It's not a coincidence that the first piece of media to actually give Shadow a somewhat central role (Forces and now Gens) shows an overall improvement.

Every other of the New actors had to go through the same deal, but Sonic & Tails were obviously going to get there first.

 

To be clear, I don’t have any issue with Maria hugging in both shorts. It’s just that the beat was nearly identical, with the same framing and timing.



Shadow angsts, cut to medium shot of Shadow from behind, Maria quickly enters frame right, embraces Shadow silently. I wish it could have been executed a little differently from Episode 1, but this is ultimately a minor complaint.

 

I believe this hasn't been posted in here yet.

 

"Hey, it's not his speed! He must be mashing F5 to be the first one to post the link!"

 

Weeb-approved version.


Guess the game starts off on the Ark. Boy howdy, is the chunni energy off the charts.

 

I'M SORRY WHAAAAT

+ - I had the biggest grin when it was confirmed that the Commander's name is indeed Abraham Tower.  

+ - And I was ready to talk about all awesome Blue Falcon fight scene.  

BUT WHAT THE HELL

WHAT WAS THAT LAST COUPLE OF SCENES WITH + - MARIA   ABOUT?????

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

 

Curious about that intel Rouge delivered.

 

Sonic has been lying about his age.

 

Not anymore, technically speaking!

 

The opening lines for this short absolutely EVICERATED The Truth of 50 Years Ago, goddamn. RIP best backstory, time for a new era of Shadow the Hedgehog...

Curious if the mandates for Shadow are still going to be applied though; so much of Dark Beginnings pushes back against the framing that Sonic Team kept insisting on, it's not going to make a lot of sense if they push for misanthropy while the material itself sets up Shadow's development as a character as a Chekov's gun. Even the GUN commander being willing to work with Shadow plays into that kind of thing; not much reason for him to "dislike humanity" when the most obvious parallel to what he would dislike is more than redeemed. It'll just be misanthropy for misanthropy's sake if they don't adapt and let him develop at this point.

 

Obviously this is still up in the air and I haven't been keeping up with the trailers.

But seeing this made me realize that there's not a G.U.N. boss in the game despite
B-3X Hot Shot being his first boss fight and the first time he's playable.

Would've been cool fighting it like how he fought Heavy Dog in this.

 

Yeah, that's absolutely irked me. They didn't even need to include that line, but hey, they've got to mess things up somehow.

 

That was actually Blue Falcon and yes I am pedantic about stuff like this all the time.

EDIT: Took a screenshot

Spoiler