#for reference the one and only other sonic game I played was unleashed lol

[humming-fly]

Inktober Day 25 - Alpha Gaming

Today I thought I'd go ahead and hunt down that new hedgehog game everyone’s so excited about, since I had a target giftcard and it's been a hot sec since I played one of these - was fully planning to hop on that cool winged shadow trend for the inktober to commemorate my success, but that changed 15 seconds into the first stage when I remembered I actually suck shit at sonic games 👍

[latin-dr-robotnik]

You mentioned western localizations messing with Amy. Can you elaborate if you don't mind?

Of course!

I think the first thing to keep in mind throughout all of this is that I was referring to the old notion of “Amy is a psycho girl chasing after someone who isn’t remotely interested in her”. This is the big impression Sonic games (and I guess to some extent Archie Sonic, but I don’t want to get in there) left on fans during the 2000′s, and it comes mostly due to two main reasons: 

The differences in western culture versus japanese culture (how we see relationships in general, the actual tropes surrounding Amy, etc.) 

How the actual localization process was handled for each game, like the way Amy acts toward Sonic and other characters, how the games play said acts (cute vs annoying) and the way Sonic reacts to her presence.

It’s no secret that localization works during that era were spotty at best (that’s why you hear Ryan’s Sonic yelling “teriaaaa!” in SA2, or the general weirdness surrounding SA1), and while I personally don’t blame the people that worked on localizing the games (after all, the overall quality of videogame storytelling was pretty shaky back in the early 2000′s), I can’t ignore just how damaging those works ended up being for the canon. For example, cutegirlmayra talked about the differences between japanese and western Sonic for years now, take this quote from her post, a quote that I believe nails this whole thing on the head:

America treats Sonamy much like they do their franchise, a meme or joke to be poked fun of. Whereas, with a much more refined atmosphere, Japan treats Sonamy as an endearing and lovely couple. Though both resign to say they can’t really see Sonic ever ‘settling down’ or really being focused on romance. And,… that makes since to me. Knowing who Sonic is. But even that doesn’t mean he can’t have a crush XD (The heart wants what the heart wants, lol!)

More recently, stuff like “Unfortunately, I’m not inconvenient for my girlfriend” came to light, and that’s one of many examples where japanese Sonic was way ahead of its western self. This particular quote is from Sonic Battle and in the english version you don’t get anything remotely similar to that, instead Amy is left to look like she’s a crazy stalker, or that Sonic doesn’t accept her advances to a degree (that’s one major problem, how western Sonic tends to feel like he’s actually rejecting Amy while she keeps on trying.) It’s not coincidence that Sonic Battle is regarded as one of the worst portrayals of Amy in a Sonic game.

If you start digging on what the creators actually intended for Amy, you'll find lots of good intentions toward her and the framing of her dynamic with Sonic (which isn’t the only aspect of Amy, mind you, but my claims about western localization originally came from a SonAmy post so I naturally focused on that, sorry haha.) 

For example, last year I looked into how Sonic Unleashed handled SonAmy, and while my initial research was pretty sweet (the english version of Unleashed!Amy is really good if you spend time talking to her), the real kicker came as soon as we (me and cutegirlmayra) started looking into interviews with ex-Sonic Team writer Shiro Maekawa and cross-referencing information regarding the actual writers that were involved during that 2000′s era. The result? There was an entire council at SEGA of Japan dedicated to approve the way Sonic characters were presented in all official media, and they approved all of the key SonAmy moments back then, even more that western audiences didn’t get to see (more on that below.) Most if not all the japanese Sonic writers involved in that era (Maekawa was both a writer and part of said council) left around the end of the decade, after Sonic Unleashed (2008) and Sonic and the Black Knight (2009), and ever since that most of the problems shifted from “this is how SEGA of America is localizing Sonic games” to “this is the very poor state of Sonic writing in general”, so, dead end for now.

Then you have situations like with Sonic X, a show handled by Sonic Team and the official Sonic writers of that era working in some of the most iconic episodes... just to see their work censored by 4kids in America and the subsequent dubs that used that version as a basis (from what I’ve heard not all dubs are censored, though.) That’s why you’ll see fans imploring you to watch Sonic X in japanese instead of the english dub, since the series was a lot more involved with the pairing and the general simbolism of some of its touching moments (they used actual love songs for them, for crying out loud), which led to some funny facts, like how the Latin American Spanish and the French dub both ignored the mandate about muting Sonic’s words to Amy in Episode 52, leading to moments like Sonic promising Amy he won’t leave her again (LatAm) or just straight up telling he loves her (the french were on fire with that one.) Sonic X was the one true vision of Sonic Team, and the way it was butchered for western audiences is still baffling to this day.

So, what’s the deal with Amy then? In theory she’s a cheerful, happy-go-lucky girl with a very strong sense of justice, super-determined to help anyone in need (even enemies like Metal Sonic) and, depending on the situation, pretty impulsive. She’s particularly loyal to her friends, and she acts like the emotional support of the group. You’ll see her filling that role regardless of how good or bad the localization is (SA2 Amy helped Shadow realize his true purpose, Heroes Amy is the beating heart of her whole team, Unleashed Amy is the only one who doesn’t lose hope on Sonic when Perfect Dark Gaia rises); yet the ways by which these traits were shown in the games varied a lot, and that’s how we reached a point where a good chunk of the fandom thinks Amy is a stalker. Japan portrayed her acts as cute, as very respectable traits of a great female character; the west portrayed her mostly as a nuisance the gang had to carry around, even to the point of misinterpreting some of her quotes that aren’t actually bad (for example: “If I had to choose between the world and Sonic, I would choose Sonic!“ in Sonic ‘06.) And while this is no longer the case, nowadays there’s a whole different discussion surrounding making Amy better by making her “more mature” (which is also another topic raised here in the west, like, this whole discussion never ends! haha)

I feel like I got lost and came back several times while writing this reply. At the end of the day, it’s a long topic to tackle and I think the best I can do right now is forward you some more information. My friend beev did some great work translating my own Spanish articles tackling the Japan vs Western differences (it’s pretty much most of this reply.) And then there’s @skull001, he’s very vocal about the ways Amy’s character was messed with (including stuff like Amy being missing from the back of Advance 1′s box, the Sonic X english dub or the fact SEGA is still reluctant to count her as part of Team Sonic), and if there’s someone I’d listen when it comes to knowing pretty much everything about Amy, it’s gotta be him... and cutegirlmayra, of course. I hope this helped, though!

[geek-gem]

My Continuation And Talk After The Sonic Movie Post

So I forgot to put Tikal's tag below it and I just did. But also it reminded me of that I guess when a friend of mine messaged me when I put talk. Because I was making this then she replied of how I was doing again. Which means this is my second time.

But okay major spoilers for anything yet just my last post. I just took a shower and the last post I discovered theirs a length of how much you can write.

Yet holy crap guys. Seriously what the fuck. I actually wrote all of that and when I was in the shower remembered it's the 10 anniversary of Sonic Rush Adventure and the official Sonic Tumblr blog made a post referencing that. I feel like mentioning that because I mentioned Blaze in the last post and tagged her too. So in a way some what of a celebration sorry yet just....

That was my fan fiction and I was gonna talk about how the fuck could you put the stories of both Sonic Adventure games into one.

Including my huge liking towards BVS Batman V Superman Dawn Of Justice and just...

It's basically Sonic Dawn Of Justice. Including Shadow is basically a mixture of Batman's character and Superman's character a bit. Because the whole concept of his character.

Along with I just....I was listening to some songs mainly some other versions of, "This Is My World" from BVS and how that film is basically the reason why I came up with the idea imagine putting well mixing the stories of Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 into one and just....

Even the death of Shadow and I call it that normal to smile only a little stop it just a little.

Yet I wanted to share that because with my mindset is off of Sonic right now. Including the last story trailer the Japanese one for Sonic Forces really put me off I have not listened Infinite's theme since that day I've seen the trailer. Including I've been thinking about other games such as Injustice and the DC universe, the Mortal Kombat franchise and Killzone 1 and 2 been playing those two games and how I've gotten really better with those games.

Despite mentioning I've finally took out the Sonic OVA DVD out of my PS4 so I can play Mortal Kombat XL.

Really just...I honestly wanna see so many of my favorite characters on the big screen. Also the exuse of Sega and Sonic Team would quickly put Shadow in the sequel Sega has learned their lesson of rushing shit out. I'm sorry to sound stupid yet...just the idea of so much shit going on in one movie. Because even I feel like I don't want to wait for Shadow's appearance in a movie so how about we risk this shit and combine the story of Sonic Adventure 2 with Sonic Adventure 1 and that is fucking insane.

But also because the themes and some other things I noticed in both games are similar. Such as Shadow and Chaos of how their characters are in a way.

Also this mixture of an idea of Chaos's first appearance in Station Square mix it with Shadow's first meeting in some what San Francisco well Shadow's first meeting with Sonic did mention that to a friend okay to smile.

But just no it doesn't suck my head says random shit.....just the idea is insane. Along with.....it's basically my fan fiction such as the idea of Super Sonic, Super Shadow, Metal Sonic, and Perfect Chaos fighting the Biolizard and the death of Shadow is such a big moment that I wanted it to have a lasting effect and how it goes with the movie.

Also I think I'll just mention the death of Shadow seriously as a joke despite like BVS very much imagine Superman before his again major spoilers but his death in that movie and Photoshop Shadow's head whether Super Shadow yet keep imagining the head of Shadow from pointing pose from Sonic Adventure 2 let me look.

http://en.sonicscanf.org/gallery/shadow-the-hedgehog-5/sonic-adventure-2-3/ okay so it's his running pose I was getting confused. It's mainly that I guess. Maybe I'm imagining things but I don't know I just wanna make this.

Including the idea for the sequel is mixing Sonic Rush and Sonic Lost World and adding Marine The Raccoon but maybe some elements of Sonic Rush Adventure in there with the rebirth of Shadow.

Where it's a visual reference of his return where's he standing on some pole with two Chaos Emeralds in Sonic X and how he can't remember who he was yet everyone tells him who he is he even see's the memorial and other stuff. It's better then the Deadly Six take advantage of his amnesia. He doesn't know if he should even try to defend the Earth and people question his existence now.

Because they find out in a way Shadow did die. Yet he was in some death like coma where his damage was so brutal it took a long time before he could break out of his grave. Basically he was slowly healing and the damage was just much it took a long time. Along with using all four of his inhibitor rings he used so much power he needed to recharge.

Including trying to and with help from others remember that he made a promise to Maria yet because of his amnesia can't have much of an emotional connection or just...he wants to help yet his other side such as his dislike for the planet comes back.

But because of others and including with the Chaos Emeralds he remembers everything now. Which he then realizes it's not just a promise he made to Maria anymore still he's keeping the promise to Maria. Yet he's basically found a new family and a new home to protect including when he meets Zavok who represents everything Shadow despises and this awesome fight scene between Super Shadow and Zavok and Zavok being very powerful on his own.

Basically even a reference to I never read the comic it was a old Sonic Universe one focusing on Shadow dealing with a new type of Black Arms such as one called Black Death yet not based upon it but... basically going a bit quick and what should of happened in the games in a way. This development of Shadow where the others tell him what happened yet he wonders about his place now and trying to remember despite having help and then remembers what he's supposed to do now.

On a silly note Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, and Shadow The Hedgehog are kind of like a Shadow trilogy.

Yet I honestly had a problem like other people have mentioned about how the games treat Shadow when he returns. I will say I don't mind and like the Black Arms. But I just really don't like the...maybe they didn't have to be fully deep in his origin and really I hardly have plans for them but easter egg references are always nice. Maybe such as Gerald found a dead Black Arm and put it into Shadow's blood making him in a way related to the Black Arms. Instead of the idea Black Doom helped Gerald create Shadow. Well I meant mixed the dead Black Arm's blood with Shadow's blood is what I meant because their was some things that could help Shadow.

This is very weird. Including just...will say Red's, "The Ever" was a song I listened to. It's been a while along with, "A Beautiful Lie" and, "Fight Night" before I started writing that last post which were tracks from BVS.

Think I'll leave the tags like that ohhh

Well I remembered when getting the tags down of having the Deadly Six in the third movie because to build up to Sonic Forces as a two parter with a Sonic Unleashed movie as the fourth movie. From what just...yeah first movie is Metal Sonic Jesus I'm rushing shit I'm sounding...okay another friend of mine messaged me. But I'm sounding hypocritical.

Including people like Blaze and I put her in the third movie. Okay no offense don't put me in charge of these Sonic movies. Oh my random head no it can't suck just...meh and yeah build up to Infinite oh yeah mentioned his theme lol it's okay to smile. Got tags done lol just...I wanted to share this lol

Just chill out is okay to smile sorry other shit I forgot or just if that is all I don't know again o wanted to share this

[latin-dr-robotnik]

You know, since I started this blog and my other Spanish blog I always thought my opinions were maybe a little too strongly biased towards Sonic, even when talking about many other gaming franchises...

But hooooo boy this video is something else.

But it’s fine. This is the sort of video I would expect for the 30th anniversary next year, but having it today is nice as well. I don’t know if I would get as defensive as some of the moments of this video (specially that 20-minute long introduction), but I get it. S3K is also my favorite Sonic game, and one of my favs of all time. I played this at such an early age that -without ever thinking too much about it- this has set a standard for all things gaming for me (and I finally realize why I said what I said in this post about judging videogames harshly for their music, it’s because these games showed me so much more). It ain’t just nostalgia, it’s brilliant game design and a benchmark of how ambitious this franchise could get when it gets its shit together. I too felt sad every time Sonic 2 got all the praise while S3K was forgotten and talked only because lock-on or because MJ worked a bit on its music. I did get mad at IGN for a while for their utter disrespect to a franchise that, despite receiving fatal blows that would kill any other game franchise not only once, but twice, still lives to tell the story to this very day. But not that much anymore.

Sonic is special, very special. Just before finding this video I was wondering about why the 2D Sonic games were harder to get into (I have no plans to translate that into a Tumblr post, so it will stay in Spanish, sorry not sorry), and parts of this video not only explain that very same point, but also reach similar conclusions as I did. Being more than your traditional platformer is what sets Sonic apart, and this is a point brought on the video but not on my part, but the experimentation part of this franchise is also a very big atractive point, regardless of the result. We Sonic fans tend to complain about lack of consistency in the games, yet we still love 3D Blast, Black Knight, Unleashed, Heroes, Battle, Spinball and more. Sonic, as a character and as a franchise, never settles for less, for better or worse. That’s why is a bigger sin to have a boring Sonic game rather than an utterly broken one, and why games like Forces can be much more heartbreaking than '06.

But, even if I consider S3K this golden standard for all things Sonic and most things gaming, I have to disagree when the video asks us to refer to this very game when someone says “Sonic was never good”. I don’t need to pull out a 26-year old Sonic game -my fav in the series- to say this “was” a good franchise, because it still is. We are just coming out from one of the most successful movie adaptations of a videogame ever; we have lots of animations -official and fanmade- made out of pure love and respect from this franchise. We have some of the greatest videogame soundtracks of any videogame franchise period. We have 27+ years of varied TV series that tackled topics ranging from wacky and silly fun to serious story developments. We still have the record for the longest running comic series based on a videogame, even though said comic has been dead for some years now. We have one of the best and worst fandoms of all at the same time, filled with well-known infamous personalities, and some of the best, most talented writers and artists I’ve seen and even had the pleasure to talk to and share a laugh or an idea. We have one of the strongest fangame and reverse engineering communities out there, to the point some fans have proven to have the professional skill and love for the franchise to create one of the best official Sonic games of the past decade, while many others use their knowledge to kickstart their own indie careers in the industry. And best of all, we have one of the most iconic fictional characters of all time, even people that haven’t ever touched a Sonic game in their lives know what a “Sonic” is. 

If anything, we Sonic fans tend to undersell the value of this franchise, and while I can and will keep on referring to this game when the “best game” discussion pops up, I don’t really have to look that far back to find signs of Sonic’s greatness.

Even at its worst, this franchise keeps on chuggin’ along. (And there’s a reason why it keeps on going where other competitors have simply vanished from existence or been recently brought back for a quick nostalgia-check.)

On a different note, every time the Sonic fandom is brought up and how “Sonic fans keep fighting at each other when it would be better to leave our differences and join all together”, I can’t stop myself from thinking about this place, the Tumblr Sonic fandom, a place that can get a little bit tarnished due to the overall reputation of the site (it’s a constant love-hate relationship, I admit.) The place where we disagree from time to time but don’t really go nuclear on each other (at least not that often lol); the place where posts like this one pop up all the time, some with an astonishing amount of research and understanding of all the aspects of this franchise; the place where most people I’ve known (and even myself) said it’s “the best corner of the fandom.” And for that I raise my drink to all of you, thank you for sharing this passion together. 

(Now, can we get Nick to look at this place? :P)

“There’s a moment when you realize you’re playing your favorite game”

You know when I realized that? As soon as I found the very first giant ring on Angel Island Act 1.

[latin-dr-robotnik]

Closing thoughts on Sonic Unleashed’s character presentation and development

The year is coming to a close, and so it means my year-long adventure with Sonic World Adventure has come to an end aswell. Since April of this year I started taking notes on some of the underlying themes going on in the game, and it seems I struck a vein of interest in the fandom by doing so, so I kept digging and documenting each optional dialog from Amy till we reached this point, and now I would like to offer some closing words.

Edit: Buckle up, folks, turns out it’s a long post below.

Sonic Unleashed did a lot of things well with its characters, but I can’t shake off the feeling that it also was the first symptom of something that is a real issue nowadays: Tails gets the short end of the stick constantly in this game, not only because of Chip -the “sidekick of the week” if you like-, but also because of Professor Pickle. The way he flew away from Dark Gaia’s monsters at the start of the game gave me war flashbacks of Forces!Tails (not to the same extreme, of course), and after reaching Spagonia he just vanishes from the plot in favor of Pickle taking the helm as Sonic’s guide to each Gaia Temple. By the end of the game, Tails served only as a mean to Sonic and Chip’s end (fly them to each country), and he gets wiped from the climax of the game in an unceremoniously way, as he is shot down while flying over Eggmanland by what I believe was the Egg Dragoon. Only at the very end the game remembers “Oh, hey! Tails was always supposed to be Sonic’s best friend!” and gives him that closing moment when he finds Sonic in Apotos and they both blast away as credits roll.

Then there’s Chip. As a disclaimer, I want to say that I don’t think Chip is a bad character, but he didn’t grow on me like it happened for other fans. 

My biggest gripe with Chip is that, since he doesn’t remember anything about his real self until the Adabat temple is restored, he’s just a clean slate for 4/5 of the game, and the game itself does a weird thing with this: on one hand, it relegates all Sonic and Chip’s bonding moments to optional stuff (you have to feed Chip things he likes to raise the hidden friendship meter and get some of his more heartfelt lines and questions, or even those sweet CG clips), something that I did experience (since that’s how I like to play RPGs in general, get the sidequests first then the main one) but many others won’t bother; and on the other hand, the game puts all focus during the main campaign on what little we know of Chip and how he reacts to each location he visits with Sonic as they look for the Gaia Temples. 

This mess ended up leaving me with two feelings: a good one, since I can sit back and enjoy the world adventure at my own pace and without having to constantly follow a potentially convoluted plot (I can lose myself for 20 minutes in a night stage and have fun); and a bad one, since I was going through the game with this lingering feeling on the back of my head that Chip was just an egotistical prick that only cared about his journey through the world, and not at all about Sonic and that monster form he’s getting used to at least until the second half, or what the rest of his friends are doing (which is, by the way, the main reason why I play a Sonic game in the first place, my order of priorities goes as follows: Sonic -> Eggman -> Amy -> Tails & Knux -> Team Dark -> everyone else). 

By the end those thoughts kinda dissapeared so I can safely say I don’t hate Chip at all, it’s just that the game gave me a wrong message about him. Though the best thing I can extract from his relation with Sonic is the following quote, perfectly summarizing what Sonic is all about.

Finally, there’s Amy. I’ve talked a lot about her in my other two posts, but I still have some things to say. First of all, just like @skull001​ pointed out a while ago, she’s the only one that does not lose hope on Sonic when Perfect Dark Gaia is fully unleashed, as everyone else thought the world was doomed, even Professor Pickle himself. This is because of two reasons: 1) she’s Amy, so she’s always the optimistic one (duh); 2) Amy knows Sonic better than everyone else, and also she was there for him all along, checking on his progress and encouraging him to keep going (even lamenting she couldn’t go adventuring with him). Amy does understand how dire the situation actually is, but she knows Sonic always has a plan, y’all just need to have some goddamn faith (+1 for that RDR2 reference, amirite?). She even looks at the sky as the cutscene jumps back to Sonic’s perspective, like when two characters are telepathically communicating (something this series isn’t a stranger to, I remember reading a post here on Tumblr about Sonic X doing that stuff some time ago)

Sidenote: Also, another funny thing I just realized is that, if you as Sonic refuse to go on a date in the final optional dialog just before Eggmanland, Amy will exclaim: “Give a gal a little hope here, Sonic!” She’s willing to put all her hopes that Sonic will end up saving the world (insert the obvious “If I have to choose between the world and Sonic, I’d choose Sonic!” ‘06 line), how hard could it be for Sonic to give her just a little hope? It’s kinda interesting when making the comparison, Amy just asks for the smallest hint and she’ll keep going strong, pretty much like every shipper out there lol.

(Back on topic.) The beautiful part is that Amy actually gets her “I told you so!” moment with Professor Pickle in the very end of the game, and just as he’s being exposed, the old prick goes on a tangent about how darkness and light are part of the world’s balance, and that the cycle of Dark Gaia vs Light Gaia will keep repeating itself. What does Amy think about this?

Yeah, fuck off, Pickle. This is low-key one of my favorite Amy moments ever. She doesn’t care about the balance of the world or any of that philosophical bullshit Pickle was saying, she knew Sonic was there saving the world’s ass, she knew he was the one that made all the difference down there in the Earth’s core, and that is all it matters in the end. Now let’s go and wait till Sonic’s return so we can have a welcoming party and chill since this plot is over. Perfect ending.

So, that’s Sonic Unleashed for ya. Certainly one of the most interesting cases for me to talk about all year, and top 3 favorite 3D Sonic games for sure. There are lots of flaws and scary things that later would become actual issues with the Sonic franchise present in this game, but it also did so many things right I can’t help but applaud Sonic Team for the effort they put. For all intents and purposes, I’ll be thinking on this game a lot when it comes to character presentation and development in future Sonic games, now fully knowing what’s on display, and what lies beyond, deep in optional stuff. I hope you enjoyed reading or even taking part in the discussions I’ve had along this path, and I hope that, just like me, you might have learned something interesting.