All the S@nics - the end

[TiKi]

a seer warns of a deadly fate

[LunarRainbowShyGuy]

I never knew you could just shoot at Black Bull from the ground in this fight. I would always just stock up on a bunch of ammo before going up to the rail, and then make use of the fact that Shadow hovers in the air if you shoot after jumping to shoot the boss as much as possible before it attacked me, and then I'd repeat the process until my hero gauge filled up and I could just use Chaos Control and finish it off. Now I'm learning that that entire process is unnecessary.

Speaking of Chaos Control, I recently discovered that during boss fights you can cancel it with the X button. I don't know why they didn't just make the button for cancelling it the same as the button to activate it considering that the X button actually has other uses whereas the Y button does not (I actually only found this out when I was trying to use the X button to swap my weapon). Also, for some reason you can only cancel it in boss fights, where there's almost no reason to do so, and not in levels, which would have at least made it a little bit more usable when trying to do the hero missions.

[Paragraph]

I thought you could cancel it in normal levels, at least I saw speedrunners do it, but I didn't figure it out myself - maybe they only were able to cancel it if they activated it with the infinite-use-glitch on the checkpoints?

Anyway, DEATH RUINS is an okay to fine level that mostly suffers from the usual Shadow Level Design trappings: path choices where it's impossible to tell which one will lead to your objective (where's my GO DOWN, Rouge?), bonus areas that make it very unclear that they're just that and are hilariously risky to access (there's even more platforms just floating off the side in the grinding segments, and getting back to the rails is a crapshoot at best), and of course standard jank like the gun beetle that will always knock you off the rail (unless you go super fast).

It's kinda fun to explore around in, though. One of the levels that makes me think it might be interesting to go hunt for keys.

[helucard]

Feel free to bop me with a "we've talked about this, we're [etc]," if that's the case, but...

So once all 10 final routes are done, will there be any cleanup for remaining mission endings? The last 3 columns on the stage select show that there are exits in this arrangement:

• 2 - 2 - 2
• 3 - 3 - 2
• 3 - 3 - 2
• 3 - 3 - 2
• 2 - 2 - 2

10 runs through the game aren't gonna be enough to see all three endings to each of those central missions except for the final column where there are only 2 missions.

Is cleanup on the cards? Or are we not going back for those?

[Crow]

there will be 6 missions left. i've already given raocow a list of what those missions will be.

i don't think there are unique cutscenes for any of them, levels tend to have at most a "post-level cutscene" and a "pre-level cutscene" and that's about it. westopolis is i think the only level that gives you unique post-level cutscenes based on the mission completed

[KobaBeach]

sonic is one of those series where i feel like incompetence, lack of effort, and lack of time all get equal representation

and with the last one i feel like i can tell the difference between games whose lack of time informed their scope (most dimps games, 7 zones, 7 special stages, super sonic boss) and where the deadline did NOT inform there scope and there was no schedule until someone notices it's three months until the gold mastering date and everybody has to stop producing New Content and start trying to turn whatever they have into something that kind of looks cohesive (example: the sonic adventures)

again this is really funny to me because both the adventure duology and the advance/rush series are some of my fave sonic games (adventure 2 and rush adventure less so, not counting colors ds because i don't like it as much)

[Bean]

Well, I'm less than two weeks behind now after being nearly three weeks down. On and on we go in the great race to catch up. Working through the intended all-dark mode run and once again being reminded why I always talk myself out of giving this one a play.

[Grounder]

worst best face poll

babby gun commander, or ?

the comma means you can't choose "yes", "no", or "maybe"

[LunarRainbowShyGuy]

When you're not trying to hunt down all the artificial chaos here this level actually goes by fairly quickly (or at least, it does if you know that you can hold the A button to speed up the gun lifts). Given how long the hero mission can take even when you already know where everything is I appreciate that the normal mission just lets you go straight to the end without having to go down every single pathway to find all of the artificial chaos.

[Matt is me]

(If anyone's reading this later and curous, this post refers to episode 685)

This may be my favorite thumbnail of the entire "All the Sonics" series.

[Heavy Sigh]

Mmm, I would disagree that this ending where Shadow becomes Space Knuckles (Pre Sonic 3) would be a good ending for him. He's not consumed by a desire for vengeance or hostile to humanity here, but as a person he's still fundamentally trapped in the past, and has abandoned the connections he has in the present (Rouge, Omega, Sonic) in order to simply exist as a living monument to/guardian of an empty, broken down ARK. It's a life resigned to loneliness that neither Gerald or Maria would have wanted for him.

He's been fully consumed by his trauma, and will never move on from it.

[Grounder]

Mmm, I would disagree that this ending where Shadow becomes Space Knuckles (Pre Sonic 3) would be a good ending for him. He's not consumed by a desire for vengeance or hostile to humanity here, but as a person he's still fundamentally trapped in the past, and has abandoned the connections he has in the present (Rouge, Omega, Sonic) in order to simply exist as a living monument to/guardian of an empty, broken down ARK. It's a life resigned to loneliness that neither Gerald or Maria would have wanted for him.

He's been fully consumed by his trauma, and will never move on from it.

I mean, he's gotta come down to Earth for food eventually. I think he'd get back in touch with the first two at some point. At least before the stupid "Two Worlds" retcon everyone dances around.

[Shard1697]

there are two things that strike me wrt raocow's talk about sonic/shadow:

• When raocow talks about how shadow is constantly searching for meaning in his life and it makes sense that evil pete could recruit him by essentially offering him meaning, it immediately makes me think about how real world extremist groups target do actually socially isolated people in order to recruit them by offering them meaning(that meaning often being something like pseudoscience/worldviews that revolve around race and make them special due to their genetics)
• and when he said sonic seems like "an adult that never seems to struggle"-first off, that's true. but also the assumption that sonic is an adult is interesting to me because it's an assumption that adults frequently make, but basically all the important sonic characters are canonically teenagers or younger, sonic included.
  it's definitely a decision made with kids in mind who think of teenagers as being older and cooler, but it's weird when you're an adult and clock many of these characters as being way older than they actually are due to their voice acting and sometimes characterization. like how sonic and knuckles both sound like dudes in their 20s but are 15/16, and Rouge is 18 because they definitely knew they couldn't get away with her being any younger but even that is pushing it because she sounds like she's around 30 and is a government secret agent/international gem thief

I mean, he's gotta come down to Earth for food eventually.

speaking of you'd think this would pose a problem for the "shadow believes he's an android" endings. unless shadow just doesn't have to eat somehow

[LunarRainbowShyGuy]

It was interesting hearing raocow's analysis of Shadow's character. Getting to see how Shadow acts in a variety of situations is definitely one of the things I really like about this game. The story of this game might not be the most well executed thing at times, but I still really like the end result.

[Leet]

but also the assumption that sonic is an adult is interesting to me because it's an assumption that adults frequently make, but basically all the important sonic characters are canonically teenagers or younger, sonic included.

raocow mentions this explicitly in this exact scene, and says that the age stuff in sonic is basically meaningless, which i completely agree with and have also said before in the past. none of this is even stated in the games, it's all in manuals and the actual writing treats them all as adults (except cream of course). they are all written as extremely independant people who travel around freely if possible. amy lives alone in an apartment in the big city and buys her own groceries!

personally i think it is very silly to treat those manual ages as Fact for a series like this where everything about the way the characters and even the setting is externally presented is subject to the whims of a particularly capricious marketing team. all i can really say is, if we're going to be engaging with the actual stories presented in these games, what do those stories say (though, very soon the entire setting we've built up since the first game is going to start being totally ignored, at which point the characters will cease to be children or adults)

[helucard]

Shadow becomes Space Knuckles.

Wow, I logged in to say this EXACT thing.
But yeah, seeing how this particular stage ends with "being neutral, you charge singlemindedly to your goal, you become the Ark's guardian and live in solitude" vs "being good, you FIND THE COMPUTER ROOM , and then you become depressed," ... This is one of the rare times that Apathy was useful for something.

Either way, regarding:

I mean, he's gotta come down to Earth for food eventually.

Not too much of an ordeal for someone who has all the chaos emeralds to casually breach the atmosphere every so often. We've seen it multiple times in the series, so this isn't a case of constantly finding more rockets to plough straight through the Ark he's supposed to be protecting. So yeah, he can (and likely will) end up occaisionally zipping on over to the Earth for some hot dogs. Or learn how the Ark originally produced its food (maybe there's a space-age greenhouse in there growing veggies n stuff iunno) that he could figure out how to fix up and maintain. Iunno. Food is something Knuckles has to deal with on Angel Island too, so hey.

[Shard1697]

the age stuff in sonic is basically meaningless,

Well, yeah. I'm not saying it matters, I'm saying it's funny how big the gap between official and percieved ages of these characters are, and how unlike adults kids playing these games can totally read these characters as teenagers since their concepts of adulthood are kind of vague.

[Mata Hari]

Food is something Knuckles has to deal with on Angel Island too, so hey.

Echidnas eat worms n shit

[Grounder]

omomomomomomo

guest starring the SUCC egg

[LunarRainbowShyGuy]

I find it weird that this level forces you to do the first objective for the dark mission in order to proceed. Especially since this is the only level to do so (unless I'm forgetting something, which considering how often I look at a spot on the level map and just can't remember what level goes there, that's a real possibility).

One random little thing I realized when raocow got a shield from a capsule that shuffles between various prizes: one of the other things available is 20 rings; in most Sonic games the shield would be the better item, but since in this game you only lose 10 rings each time you get hit the 20 rings is actually better here. Of course, you tend to get so many rings in the levels in this game that the only way you'll realistically die is by falling in a pit, so it's not like it really matters what these capsules give you.

[Crow]

forgot to post it yesterday but here's what levels are Done Forever as of the end of the last route!



will update this at the end of each route. 6 levels will remain incomplete at the end of the 10th run, mind you. cleanup!

[Matt is me]

Glad rao "didn't notice" the key counter and thought it was a "trick of the eye". Equally glad he didn't notice that the library lists every path you've taken. Surely he won't be tempted to do one, very very long clean up video where he finishes out the library.... ;) ;)

[kitikami]

Shadow's awkward crush on Amy is my favorite part of this LP.

[helucard]

This has to be a new record for the series:
Episode 687 of All The Sonics: Acquired 4 A ranks in a single video.

[Paragraph]

The 10/71 is now higher, because you aquired some A-Ranks - that's their total number. You're getting there ;) ;) ;)

Honestly though, getting the A-Ranks in this game isn't hard at all, mostly because the scoring system is quite simplistic and the pace is so leisurely by design that they can't force insanely tight timers on you. Often, there's a weird balance with the levels where if you take your time to kill enemies, you get enough score from those that it outweighs the time bonus lost, unless of course you kill the wrong kind. There's even some levels like Mad Matrix where a mission is so asinine (Dark, in this case) that the developers took pity on the player and you can get a time bonus of 8000+ after 15 minutes of trundling away, and that's still enough for an A. Central City is similarly lenient.

The only really tough A-Ranks are, surprise surprise, in the exploratory levels where you have to kill all enemies. The Doom and Lost Impact are probably the worst, for all their missions, so that's extra fun to have to replay.

Toldya bout the keys tho:

[...]

I didn't get all the keys, though, if that matters. Those are honestly kinda fun to look for. And they're indicated on the progression screen here ...