SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS - Dark Beginnings

Is “50 years ago” always going to be a permanent fixture of when Shadow’s past took place?

Is this Shadow’s “Green Hill?”

Technically we are at 74 years here, almost time for another quarter quell

I kind of figured by now that the Sonic universe timeline is closed, but infinite. We will never see the true beginning nor end. (I just got the creeps thinking how this really parallels our own existence.) Time is to bend at the will of Sega of course, but it’s more than that. I don’t think we’ve ever talked about this.

I’m just wondering if 20 years from now they will still be mentioning Shadow’s “Past” as 50 years ago…..like an Easter egg or a nod to 50 rings.

 

Then I guess what I mean is that they should not make Sonic a parody of himself like in Colors-sort-of-Forces. I liked his SA1/SA2 characterizations. Unleashed was also okay, but a bit too diluted? He had some sort of overconfidence element to his personality in the Adventure series.

 

I think mining the complexity of that simplicity is the way to go for that. Having Sonic as a mirror to Shadow is perfect for so many reasons, and bouncing them off of each other is a great way to show that, in spite of one of them having a much more complicated backstory, they're kind of both as enigmatic as each other when it comes down to it.

 

I would say that Frontiers was a step in the right direction for that honestly. He's a little down since he's trying to save his friends and the stakes are rather high, but he's still that guy who inspires others to follow their hearts wherever that leads them.

Part of the characterization problem comes from confusion created by how Sega of America handled his characterization early on. Sonic was intended to be a cool character, which Sonic Team did by making him a free spirit who values freedom above all else and follows his dream of having adventures and seeing the world. SoA got the "he's supposed to be cool" idea, but interpreted that through the lens of 90s pop culture cool which resulted in him having an edge, the "dude with the 'tude" if you will. This resulted in a cocky character with witty one-liners and an irreverent nature, sometimes to the point of making him insufferable as he kinda was in Sonic the Comic (no offense to those who like that Sonic, but I personally can't stand him). This was reinforced by the comics and TV shows that came out at the time and created this perception here in the west that, that was what Sonic is. Even the current Sonic films follow that to some extent if deconstructed, and Sonic Prime based his character arc off of that. In the case of Pontac and Graff, when you have two writers who self-admittedly didn't know about sonic besides surface-level, they're gonna veer back into that territory.

All that being said, I think following Frontiers, everyone in charge of the games is on the same page. Ian (for whatever gripes people have about his writing) understands Sonic's nature as a character. To bring this back around to this thread's topic, this series in particular seems to highlight that all parties involved understand that Sonic is supposed to be a shonen-esque series rather than a 90s cartoon series with a main character who has a 90s attitude. It's no mistake that Dark Beginnings was first shown off at AnimeFest, it has a lot of qualities from popular anime and operates very much on the rule of cool with those action sequences and style of story-telling. Shadow came from a game that really solidified that take on the franchise and kinda embodies it, which I believe is no coincidence since Maekawa was inspired by anime when he wrote the story for SA2.

This is all to say that I think we have cause to be optimistic about the direction the franchise is heading in right now if in part because of this series, and that Sonic's characterization needn't be worried about.

 

As others are saying, Sonic's appeal comes from the fact that he's a free spirit, always living in the now and doing what he wants, when he wants without shame or hesitation. It is fairly stock, but I also think it can be massively inspirational when tapped into correctly. In effect, Sonic is a bit like Goku - a flat character who changes others around him rather than needing to go through an arc himself. I don't think that means you can't examine Sonic and I think the comics and Frontiers have been trying to do that, but I think we could really do with a character piece for Sonic that really digs deep into the bedrock of that psychology and explores it in a manner that keeps Sonic as the central figure, rather than it being used to create an arc for Surge/Mecha Sonic/Sage, etc.

 

Having now seen all of the animation:
I love the first part. It had an excellent mix of action, engagement, nostalgia, and mystery. I especially like the use of an abridged memory format, as it a good way to step around any potential lore conflicts.
Overall, top marks for part 1.

But I am kind of disappointed that parts 2 & 3 revolved around Shadow getting a spaceship. Especially when the GUN commander says that GUN would have given Shadow one anyway. It felt like a pointless tale to tell.

I think they should have just made the first part longer and extended into 3 parts, ending it with Shadow deciding he needs to go the Ark. How he gets to Ark could be left to the viewers’ imagination. We’ve seen Shadow warp between dimensions, so it wouldn’t be too hard for the viewer to figure it out.

Since Frontiers, Sonic Team have developed a horrible habit of over explaining everything, often with one-liners that feel forced in.
I kind of feel bad about criticizing Dark Beginnings, because you can feel the love that’s gone into it. All 3 parts ooze with charm and care. But I really hope Sonic Team can get over this over-explaining habit.

 

Tomoya Ohtani seemingly confirmed that the vocal song we heard in episode 3 is called "Without You" I need a release of this on Spotify dammit...

 

Eh, the spaceship stuff was mostly in the background. Ep2 was mainly about reintroducing Team Dark and Shadow's relation to it and how they seamlessly co-operate all together to take down threats larger than them, while Ep3 introduced the GUN Commander and how he relates to Shadow and Shadow's current view on GUN in light of his past conflict with them.

Perhaps, but then it would miss out on Team Dark and Abraham. You seem to think that "How Shadow got back to the ARK" was the main plot of these shorts, when it really was about reintroducing character dynamics to an audience who did not see Team Dark or the GUN commander for many, many years (if ever). The spaceship is not the focal point, and we don't even get to see it reach the ARK.

Sonic Adventure 2 is 23 years old. All the "over-explaining" is not aimed at you. It's aimed at new fans who never played the old games and thus don't know all these plot points. Had Generations been aimed only at old fans, I'm sure Sonic Team would have spent less time explaining the story. But new fans do need a little help to introduce to them who these characters are and why they are working together.

 

Just to clarify: The over explaining part wasn't about the character dynamics. I was perfectly fine with that (although the dialogue did feel a little forced at times). The over explaining I was referring to was solely about spending 2 episodes on Shadow boarding a spaceship. I think you could have used a different story to introduce the dynamics.

To their credit: They did make the spaceship aspect very exciting with all the action that goes with it. So top marks for that. But at the same, especially when Abe says GUN would have given a ship, it also made the story aspect feel a bit redundant. We had all that awesomeness for something that could have been dealt with a request!

At times also, I felt like the animation was trying to juggle too many goals. I absolutely loved the first part with Emerl, but worried that it might be too confusing for newcomers. Maybe they should have used a Tails Tube to introduce the characters.

I do love these animations overall. Like I said, they ooze with charm and care. I am not someone who really likes Shadow, but the first part got me excited for him. So I think they've done a phenomenal job to make me warm to the character. But it was just the spaceship better that was a little wobbly for me. I wish Shadow was doing something else.

Like I said I do feel bad about criticizing Dark Beginnings, because it is excellent. I guess the first part was so awesome, that it made the wobbly part about the spaceship stand out more than it otherwise would have!

 

I'm with you. I thought Episode 1 was good. Episode 2 and 3 were visually cool, but it just felt flat for me and left me wanting more from this project. I wish we would get an actual full show with this level of polish instead of just glorified commercials where the ending is "BUY OUR VIDEOTOY!".

 

Every time they try to make Sonic "complex" they always ruin him, so naw.

It's kind of sad that because of how the character was conceptualized in other territories, not many can appreciate the simplicity of Sonic.

Characters like Shadow work as well as they do because they serve as contrast and juxtaposition to Sonic's simple nature.

Making him "complex" just ruins the whole dynamic.

 

Shadow is the coolest thing in Sonic Adventure 2 up until that cutscene when Sonic drops that line and reminds everyone exactly who he is. No grand speeches about saving the world, fighting for justice or he's a hero. He's him.

 

I just took that as implying that SA2 and Generations happen close enough together that Shadow's origin is also roughly 50 years before Generations.

 

Someone appears to have taken on the job of joining all three episodes...


Another someone managed to cut the dialogues, so we can hear it whole...

 

I know I shouldn't base my expectations for the game's ending off of yet-to-be-incorporated songs, after Vandalize happened, but I can't stop thinking about what it might be like with lyrics like that...

The 22nd needs to get here sooner, augh

 

There's no way Shadow doesn't have to lose Maria all over again at the end of the game - probably won't be the final scene but it's going to be the emotional climax, surely.

 

Lyrics got posted: Link

Casey also doesn't know when the song will be released officially, so anyone's guess. She didn't respond to any questions on if this is all there is or if there's a longer version of the track.

 

re: plot quibbles, honestly I can't really think of anything that has had an ironclad 20+ year canon, and the chance for discrepancies goes up and up and up when you consider different writers, dev teams, translators for the stuff that is written, this series having time shenanigans like how 2006 literally retcons itself out of existence so literally none of its plot applies to anything... I have a hard time really caring about a perfect "canon" with this series.

also, I like to think of Sonic as a trickster god lol, he's there because he wants to be there, and it just so happens that his Chaotic Good moral compass means that he wants to help when he's there.

 

So I've heard on twitter that someone streamed a steam review copy. someone on twitter posted screenshots and clips of cutscenes, I saved them to a google drive folder if u want to see them.

Spoiler

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VZdCEOf_HgvH4-ZvY-9m7ckr141dIUbh?usp=sharing