Sonic the Hedgehog is not merely Sonic Adventure 3 in all but name: it is 3 games in 1. It still has that Sonic series balance of being able to finish one quest in an hour or less if sped through, or the option to take the time mastering each through gaining all collectibles and achievements (the latter having been a part of the series long before the term came into new context with the Xbox 360). This author being the completionist type option 2 was taken and, with due patience, it was a real blast.
Shadow's story, carried out by Team Dark that finds themselves coming back together since their quest in Sonic Heroes, has the most combat-oriented action of them all. While Sonic would generally speed through acts (with obstacle-clearing help from Tails and Knuckles), Silver's acts were each a sophisticated obstacle course requiring judicious use of each team member's special abilities. These methodological differences are illustrated right at Shadow's beginning in White Acropolis: Team Sonic slips through the opposition, Team Silver outmaneuvers it, but Shadow is best when annihilating everything in his path. Enemy force makeup is adjusted accordingly: for Shadow's acts getting enough points for S-Ranks is not the issue but rather keeping them all by surviving until the end.
Backlash from Shadow the Hedgehog resulted in letting the black antihero going unarmed save for his chaos powers, but vehicle use was carried over into this game and they are all armed well if utilized well. The other team members are anything but unarmed: Rouge is handy with her new bomb arsenal while Omega is even more powerful than he was in Sonic Heroes. Even though there exists the usual portion of frustrating level design (or results of this game being incomplete, depending), laying total destruction in the paths of all three of these characters is literally a blast (yes, pun in the first paragraph).
And all this power is greatly-needed. While Team Dark's quest in Sonic Heroes was simply all the same stages with greater opposition faced, in this game they are the one team dealing with Solaris' hellish monsters more than they encounter Eggman's robots. This happens because Shadow and Rouge start with investigating Eggman's connection to the reawakening of Solaris only to inadvertently help cause it themselves, which is the point they need Omega's strength and firepower.
Sonic Adventure had a total of 11 action stages, not visited by all characters but they would be the same stage structure even if from different angles. Sonic Adventure 2 changed to all stages having different names yet with only a small handful being truly distinct between the Hero and Dark story arcs, while Sonic Heroes went the other way having all teams pass through the exact same stages with differences only in enemy makeup and puzzle elements. Having now played through all 3 character episodes it is clear the acts in this game most closely follow a hybrid formula of the first Sonic Adventure with some of Sonic Heroes. Elements will be very familiar but things do not get too redundant because they can be tackled in different ways.
Sonic's primary nemesis is Eggman as usual, Silver worked to remove Iblis from his world, while Shadow and his allies pursue the other half of the deranged Solaris: Mephiles the Dark. He may be the most evil and cunning Sonic villain ever, as well as unbeatable. Iblis may a gargantuan destroyer of worlds but can at least be beaten back with direct physical assaults; not so with Mephiles who is invulnerable to attack outside use of Shadow's special chaos powers and is even worse when powered with any of the Chaos Emeralds. Mephiles (whose name is a variant of Mephistopheles, the Faustian deceiver) exhibits much personality but no positive attributes thereof, taking Shadow's form and obsessed with converting Shadow to his cause.
It is believed the inspiration for the distinct parts of Solaris were derived from the unholy triumvirate of Revelation: 1) Solaris stands for the Devil, the root instigator of evil in the world; 2) Iblis is the beast from the sea (Antichrist), master of the world in its new era of darkness; 3) Mephiles is the beast from the earth (False Prophet), chief agent ensuring their cause prevails. This parallel seems valid with how Iblis lives in a sea of fire and Mephiles goes around manipulating the characters while having affinity for taking cover in the ground. It also suggests that for the first time in the Sonic series creators were contemplating a villain truly and irredeemably evil: not the overambitious but at times helpful Eggman, nor the scorned Chaos or Gerald only driven to evil out of grief, but a being who cannot be related to at all because it only wants suffering and destruction for everyone and everything.
What is certain is how freaky Mephiles is. From his attunement to shadows to the high-pitched cackle his clones make turn Sonic the Hedgehog into what feels like a game appropriate to playing Halloween season. Sonic bosses and villains have ranged from gross to ridiculous, but Mephiles is the first to be really creepy. It so happens the time of this writing is the weekend before Halloween 2021.
As this author anticipated, Shadow's episode was the best in this game since it ties the others together and uncovers the deep mystery by shedding light on the motivation and involvement of Mephiles, who as the brain side of Solaris (Iblis being the braun) is the real force driving events to the end. Obviously this gets resolved in the Last Episode, but Shadow's chapter also functions as its own sequel to Shadow the Hedgehog and that is something this author appreciates. This oft-neglected game is punctuated by the one line that sums up why Shadow is the author's favorite and most-identifiable character in the Sonic universe: "If the world chooses to become my enemy, I will fight like I always have!"
Anime Sonic X, still the most successful Sonic animated series as of this writing, finished its American run earlier the same year Sonic the Hedgehog went gold. While set in different canons the anime series and games shared a great deal of elements and influence of the final season dealing with the Metarex shows both in this game and Shadow the Hedgehog. Shadow making the previously-quoted statement while removing his Inhibitor Rings is this series' equivalent of Count Dooku's Force Grip lifting Obi-Wan in the air as something that can only be truly-appreciated by those who explore more than the base form of a multimedia property.
Last Episode follows the usual Sonic formula in the 3D era and will be covered in a later post along with this game's downloadable content. Very basic DLC (much of it promotional) was exclusive to Dreamcast versions of the first two Sonic Adventure games before taking a hiatus until the 7th console generation. It is both interesting that DLC exists for Sonic the Hedgehog at all and that it is new takes on familiar challenges that actually make them worth considering. That consideration, however, may be some time in the future as mastering the Sonic the Hedgehog base game over these past couple months has left this author ready to take a break for something else.
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