What would you want from another game starring Shadow?

One option Sonic Team has right now is to treat G.U.N as an antagonistic force again.
Personally I'm not a fan of this idea, it feels regressive and comes off as a rehash of SA2, but it is an option that doesn't involve coming up with new antagonists, and it is something I can see Sonic Team revisiting, even with all the developments.

 

I wouldn't mind if Sonic and Shadow fought here and there again. They're both heroes to an extent but they both have very different outlooks, there's plenty of things they could butt heads over (and they do in Prime and in the comics so I dunno why the games wouldn't be able to follow suit).

 

I think it's funny that it took so long for his artificial anatomy to have led to abilities beyond "chaos power" stuff.

 

His death.

 

Shadow's trip straight to hell sounds like a bad ass game. I'm in.

 

I think G.U.N. could've been a great enemy force besides Eggman.

Once they introduced Abraham, though, and how things ended up after that game, I do think they're sort of in the same position as Shadow.

They can still be obstacles to the protagonists, but it would be weird to have them be outright bad guys.

Not that it's impossible, or that they have to be "evil," but I think they had more potential to be used in other ways.

That said, Infinite could be Shadow's main antagonist.

His final fate is being consumed by the original Phantom Ruby, so they could find a way to bring him back—sort of like in the "otherworlds" storyline.

They did introduce the concept of mercenary groups through him, so that could be the new faction. Maybe ex-members of G.U.N. and other anthros or humans who think Shadow and the others are dangerous could join him.

That would bring back the plot point about humanity sealing Shadow in the future out of fear of his powers, with Infinite taking advantage of that.

 

I think what SEGA should play into, if they do a Shadow game, is the fact that he's immortal. Make a game set in the far far future dealing with the conflicts in a future civilization. They can get really creative with it I think.

The only issue is the existential dread you'd give kids by making a videogame where the entire Sonic cast has been deceased for centuries.

 

Megaman fans dealt with that okay, and they don't even get new games anymore. I think we'll be fine.

 

New characters, and I don't just mean bad guys. I mean like a cast. Its clear at least in things like idw and prime that the writers for whatever reason cannot or have no interest in having shadow interact with the characters they have created in any meaningful way. And he needs a cast, so it would be interesting to expand the world a bit, and create them. I like the idea in idw that mercs knew of shadow, I can imagine shadow knows all sorts of people who could help him do all sorts of mayhem. Ex GUN scientists , explosive experts , hackers, all sorts of folks. Fill out the world. Do new stuff.

Now some people might say " what about the idw cast " and that might have been a good idea , but shadow in idw doesn't interact with them in any meaningful way. Shifting characters to fit in a game i imagine would feel awkward especially if the comics don't reflect these shifts. There was a time to establish rapport and that was sever years ago.

 

This is what I struggle the most with. I felt that there were major holes in Shadow's past that were unresolved (such as how real his memories actually were), but Generations finally closed those gaps. Pretty much all of them.

And 06, flawed as it was, matured his character arc to a complete state (he was now a confident, secure anti-hero, despite his story in generations taking place afterwards). The end lines in his story arc were the the last console based shadow-centric story content we got for more than a decade, and for good reasons.

The one big problem with Shadow is that he's now a fully grown character. He's effectively at the peak of his abilities, and it's hard to develop him further. While being a static character works for Sonic because his emotional stability, confidence, and resilience is a constant thing about him, Shadow's harder to further develop in the same way. He works best as a supporting character who helps fight off bigger threats, as of now.

About the only thing you can do is typical shounen tropes of making him face increasingly deadlier threats and struggle against those, but that's already what we get with Sonic. Frontiers DLC went down that exact path.

I mean, I guess they could write a game where Shadow actually fights to the death, a last hero kind of story, something to give his life itself closure and meaning... but I don't think I have to explain why that won't happen.

 

Didn't Maekawa say something like that when asked what he'd like to do with Shadow? Shadow awakened in a far off future by someone who needs his help, like Zero in Megaman Zero. That'd be cool, and they could just make a completely original setting, world and enemies to go with it so it is truly "Shadow"'s game, divorced from everything else.

just literally make the plot to Mechanical Violator Hakaider but with Shadow the Hedgehog including this scene

 

Shadow metroidvania. Make all the zones interconnected and able to be revisited. As you unlock new Doom powers, you can get to new areas which open up new paths. Maybe tie rings collected into some sort of EXP currency to buy powerups or something. Also find some way to give Shadow and Fang the sniper serious beef, so Fang can become a reoccurring character as a permanent Shadow rival.

 

I never knew he said it, but I'm glad he'd be on board with it.
I'll have to check out that Hakaider movie.

 

I think Shadow’s next game should have Mephiles as the main villain. I do think they should wait 5 plus years to make another Shadow game. It’s a lot that needs to be done carefully. You have to make sure the story is good, revamp the gameplay to momentum based physics but also make it as fast as boost speeds (not adventure), make completely new power ups except for chaos control, and add a random playable Character like Rouge, or Omega, and lastly take some of the features from Dream Team. I like Shadow Generations. That’s the most fun I had with a main 3D title since Sonic Generations. I just don’t want them to do the exact same thing this game and people get tired of his gameplay. Give his game the same care and love you’d put towards a main Sonic title. Then after that please give Knuckles and Tails their own game. It’s well over due but we can stay on topic because that’s another story for another day lol.