Sonic the Hedgehog Encyclo-Speed-ia lore book has been announced. Pre-orders here. It's penned by Ian Flynn, so there's someone good behind the scenes working on it, at least.
Not so sure about that. I have seen very little evidence that Flynn has respect for historical canon. He follows SEGA's modern edicts even while he mocks them in his podcasts. But a lot of what he writes is his own head-canon or his own ideas or he starts with a piece of lore and expands it in some way that is beyond the scope of the games. Ian may very well be one of the most qualified people to write the canon as it exists in 2020 (or 2021) particularly since he has seen story bibles and other materials that are not public. But if this is a historical look at Sonic's canon across 30 years, I'm not sure he's the guy for that. When he looks at Sonic 2, will he be writing it from the perspective of what the lore was and meant in 1992, or from the perspective of someone in 2020/2021 looking back at Sonic 2 and how it fits into the lore TODAY, if at all? Because that's two different things. Both have value, but I would prefer the editorial direction of the book be very clear up-front.
It sure won't be. For all intents and purposes, being that ambiguous may attract many curious people. They want to make money out of the book, not assure oldies that it'll be their saving grace, lore-wise. I don't trust Flynn, not only because of what's been said already, but also because I don't deem western sonic comics as THE canon.
I said someone good, not someone who'll be accurate. I'm fully expecting the bad ideas like the Two Worlds Scenario and everyone having amnesia in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) to make their way into the lore. Sonic is still SEGA's property, so I'm expecting the modern mandates to overwrite everything and maintain the Sonic the Alien story.
I don't think the intent was ever to say that the comics being produced are intrinsically canon to the games, just that these comics must follow the licensing guidelines Sega mandates. Honestly, Flynn is not really to blame here guys, he's just dealing with what he's given and I would say that he deals with it very well considering. I also have doubts this book will clearly explain once and for all the state of Sonic's canon or if what's written in this book will have any bearing on the series going forward. First and foremost, it's a simple encyclopedia that's probably aimed at younger audiences and doesn't have much beyond basic descriptions for characters and objects in the series. Secondly, we have a fairly established track record on the canocity of spinoff merchandise such as this, in that it typically holds no weight at all. I highly doubt Sonic Team will feel beholden to this book when they start developing the concept and story for their next Sonic game and anything written about lore that comes from them can easily (and honestly could be expected to) change eventually. I guess my point is, you can't really trust ancillary material like this when it comes to canon, just go with what's shown on screen or stated by the developers.
What I'm anticipating with this is the artwork. If it's anything like the Hyrule Historia and Hyrule Encyclopedia books, I'm most likely going to view it as an artbook over a lorebook due to the contradictions there in. But the artwork, concept art and the like, revealed quite a bit behind the scenes of how things worked in the series. Personally, I really want the artwork of the Mecha Sonic of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles. Like that recent Sonic the Hedgehog 2 art dump we had, which showed the Mecha Sonic of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 had elements we couldn't really see like a jetpack on his back, it may reveal elements we can't discern from the limited spritework. Perhaps it might show concept art elaborating on that jewel it's hiding in its chestpiece: If I didn't know better, I'd say Tails' fake Chaos Emerald in Sonic Adventure 2 wasn't the first copy of a Chaos Emerald in the franchise, though Mecha Sonic's one seems to require a charge from the Master Emerald to actually, y'know, do anything. You only see it when Mecha Sonic's taking a charge from the Master Emerald and when it's using it to fire energy blasts, which is the only attack to actively drop it out of the Super Form it's using. Still, theoretic for later.
I always interpreted it as a turbine engine like Metal Sonic or a canon since he tends to fire shots from that point. Never realized it was retractable until now. That said, some more artwork from the encyclopedia would be a plus, but honestly I'm not sure how many internal design documents from that period still survive at Sega's offices. They've been known to lose quite a lot of material internally right?
Retractable and looks to be housing some sort of jewel, considering the shine on it. I wonder, do we know who designed Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles' Mecha Sonic? I know someone asked the designer of Fang the Sniper what he was (turns out Fang was designed to be a Jerboa), so perhaps we can see if they know what that thing on its abdomen is, or if they have any of or any leads on someone who would have the hand-drawn documents on hand for Mecha Sonic. Oh, infamously so. They've lost source code for games like Sonic the Hedgehog (MD) and Panzer Dragoon Saga, if I recall correctly. But hey, let's not be complete downers about the book.
I just finished the first two seasons of Sonic X for the first time (the only two available on Netflix). So Earth and Sonic's world were the same planet in the past, but for some whatever reason it got split in two planets, each one with a different chronology. These two chronologies became two parallel universes (just like Blaze's world, I guess?). Eggman said the two worlds share the same position in spacetime, despite being in different universes. If this holds for the games as well, so I guess the two planets were the same at the time of Chaos' rampage against the Knuckles' tribe? And they got separated right after that event? And about the end of season 2. Everyone from Sonic's world had to leave Earth because the two worlds would fuck each other and time would stop running or something like that. And Eggman had to go too. But Eggman concluded that he was originally from Earth, or, at least, his family was from Earth. So how did Eggman go to Sonic's world in the first place?
They were also the same for Chaos' rampage in Station Square, so... I'm honestly really tempted to go through and collect every reference to this effect so that every time that claim the worlds were separate by the time of Sonic Adventure's development comes up, I can just point to them as evidence that someone's lying through their teeth. Good question, why is Robotnik exempt from the "will cause the worlds to merge" clause, considering he'd been harassing Sonic and friends for how long on Sonic's World? And then Chris goes over and goes on an adventure for who knows how long, yet the same event happening the other way doesn't seem to be on anyone's radar.
I did not notice if someone already mentioned this, but to me that Earth is not planet Earth but planet or surface. At least it could be seen that way. It is written in lower case. Spoiler
I'm aware, but the sentence reads as if it's talking about the planet's name to me: Doesn't quite read right otherwise. "I'll be able to turn the whole soil into a card!" "I'll be able to turn the whole ground into a card!" etcetc. Contextually, they're in space and he's about to attack the planet, so the name fits the best contextually as well. The problem on this one is, again, no Japanese original to determine from. So it could be your interpretation, or it could be a typo on the planet's name. Thank you kindly. I don't think it's quite worthy of wiki page, though, unless there's considerations on making an Earth page to add it to a trivia section.
So I think that is the location of each game, in my current chronological order of modern events (not exactly the release order of the games): Sonic Adventure (1998) - Earth Sonic Shuffle (2000) - Anywhere, I would say Earth Sonic Adventure 2 (2001) - Earth Sonic Advance (2001) - Anywhere, I would say Sonic's world Sonic Advance 2 (2002) - Anywhere, I would say Sonic's world Sonic Heroes (2003) - Sonic's world Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) - Earth Sonic Battle (2003) - Earth Sonic Advance 3 (2004) - Sonic's world Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) - Earth Sonic Rush (2005) - Sonic's world Sonic Rush Adventure (2007) - Blaze's world Sonic and the Secret Rings (2007) - Anywhere, I would say Earth Sonic Riders (2006) - Earth Sonic Rivals (2006) - Anywhere, I would say Sonic's world (but there's that earth quote so I don't know) Sonic Rivals 2 (2007) - Anywhere, I would say Sonic's world Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (2008) - Earth Sonic Unleashed (2008) - Earth Sonic and the Black Knight (2009) - Anywhere, I would say Earth Sonic Free Riders (2010) - Anywhere, I would say Earth Sonic Colors (2010) - Sonic's world Sonic Generations (2011) - Anywhere, I would say Sonic's world Sonic Lost World (2013) - Anywhere, I would say Sonic's world Sonic Forces (2017) - Sonic's world Is it all correct? [Edit: thanks BlachHole for the tip on the storybook games.]
Hm... y'know, it's just occurred to me that there's a shot of the planet in the X Zone with a landmass in the background. I'm going to go see if I can compare it to a location on Earth. They're set in the story book worlds. Considering one is based on the Arabian Nights (and called such), the other the legendary Kingdom of Camelot on the British Isles, I'd say they're on Earth, if a magical, fictional variant. The G.U.N. Fleet is indicative that it's Earth, but apparently there's giant rings sending Angel Island to Earth and back, so who knows? These two use Earth as the background, the one from Sonic Unleashed (which was altered at various points throughout the game, so I don't know why they either didn't just cover the landmasses with clouds) and the actual Earth in the background of the Death Egg fight in Sonic Generations. Even the filename reflects that it's Earth.
Yeah you're right. It is not likely that those stories "exist" in Sonic's world. They are a human thing. If there were GUN people on that ship maybe I would say Earth. But it is just a bunch of robots, maybe Eggman hijacked them. It would be very strange (if it is not already) if Blaze's world were a mirror to Earth and not Sonic's world. The landmasses are nonsense in most of the games. I'm putting Colors on Sonic's world only because Iizuka said so.
And if Sonic's World and Earth were the same planet, as Yuji Naka, in charge at the time, was maintaining to be the case even in 2011? It's still the presence of G.U.N., regardless of if the Humans were seen. Not to mention it's not just the one ship we see: there's a whole fleet involved. Sonic also passes by fighter jets, indicating that yes, Humans are still involved in whatever's happening. The Landmasses are generally Earths, so...
My bad wording and thought process... I mean that it's clearly not a case of the ship simply being a replica with similar robots, as the fighter jets aren't being used and the animals of Sonic's World don't appear to have much in the way of military technology. Thus, the fighter jets indicate some level of Human involvement. It was just me trying to preempt any suggestion that it's not an actual G.U.N. Fleet.
-ral City News Tod- Central City News Today So Amy has a newspaper clipping from a newspaper from the Capital City of the United Federation, Central City, in Sonic Heroes that is the only clue to their pursuit of Sonic, Chocola and Froggy. Not entirely sure why they'd jump to a different planet if the other one's showing the clue about Froggy and Chocola, but Iizuka. Note: Central City debuted in Sonic Battle, before this game. That game featured the President of the United Federation hiring Rouge to track down Emerl. It's also implied to be the city of Sonic Adventure 2 during the events of Shadow the Hedgehog, as the first cutscene takes place "Above the Capital City" and G.U.N. Soldiers state they've cornered the aliens "in the capital" during the Central City level. So yeah, I'm thinking Sonic Heroes is on Earth as well.
