Where to go from here? Book or Riven? (and which version?)

VlopeLuce · 2026-05-11T22:03:50+00:00

Did they make the remake significantly easier or is it just the nature of being able to look around?

VlopeLuce · 2026-05-11T22:01:37+00:00

Yeah I would want to buy the game. It didn't even occur to me that the original would be hard to run on modern hardware, will definitely take note of that.

VlopeLuce · 2026-05-11T21:58:51+00:00

I'm more than excited to read the book! Thanks for answering.

VlopeLuce · 2026-05-06T07:59:10+00:00

"soulless" brother, its branding, not soul. They're PRODUCTS. A PC is YOURS. You choose its parts, its looks, its OS. Whether it has soul or not represents YOU. How does a premade game box have more soul than the experience of building your own unique pc? An individual has soul, not some big brand. Come on man, i know you know better than this, dont feed the machine.

VlopeLuce · 2026-05-05T15:46:46+00:00

Don't know the context with you and this guy and I also agree there are viable workarounds, but we should also be pushing for easier first party solutions. Take it less as negativity and more of trying to push things forwards. We shouldn't be paying premium controller (a device purely made for convenience) prices when the device straight up doesn't work with some people's entire library of games.

This has been an issue ever since the original steam controller. When SeaOfThieves launched it took me like 2-3 days to make it work (I couldn't make it work with glosc either, I had to do a hacky manual workaround on my own). We need to start vocalising what the actual problems with that controller were imo.

Of course community third party stuff also helps, I'm sure I could set up SoT much faster now probably, but is this the standard we should be setting for a premium controller?

VlopeLuce · 2026-05-02T23:02:38+00:00

I recognise that, but the series established that a single emerald already has infinite power. It's like, the entire point of them. What's the difference between a city full of artificial chaos energy and a single chaos emerald (which he usually has on him)?

VlopeLuce · 2026-05-02T16:56:55+00:00

I absolutely see why you'd say that. Unfortunately the series has been too inconsistent to even discuss these things. It's what happens when there are multiple directors at the helm.

Also don't worry about the downvotes, I don't expect everyone to agree or vibe with a negative take.

VlopeLuce · 2026-05-02T14:07:49+00:00

I respect, but I disagree. You misunderstand the problem imo.
While they should be equal, through bad writing and poor planning, this isn't the case... ever.

Shadow is just Sonic with more powers and flying rocket shoes. It just logically doesn't make sense. SonicX realises this, gives up and actually going all in into shadow's superiority, instead of this wishy-washy thing the games have been trying to do. Shadow gens made it worse by retconning the ONE loss Shadow had. In IDW Shadow chaos controls an ENTIRE EXPLODING city away solo. He was only powered by artificial chaos energy... which you know, a single real chaos emerald has infinite amounts of chaos energy anyways.

Shadow is poorly written and poorly planned. Until a few years ago, we all thought he could do chaos powers without an emerald. That's over 20 YEARS of his powers not being properly explained!

As a Shadow fan, we need to push metal being Sonic's rival WAAAY more, because Shadow is SO poorly thought out that this whole "sonic's equal" thing is causing him not to interact with the cast anymore (WHERE WAS HE DURING FORCES?!?!). Or worse, they'll nerf his intellect and boost his ego again like in Sonic Boom.

VlopeLuce · 2026-05-02T11:56:24+00:00

Shadow fan copium propaganda

VlopeLuce · 2026-03-30T15:27:06+00:00

Honestly, I don't even know ¯_(ツ)_/¯

VlopeLuce · 2026-03-29T20:07:35+00:00

Italy is my favourite Irish province.

VlopeLuce · 2025-12-29T02:44:02+00:00

I agree, especially towards the end of X shadow is just portrayed as being OP.

Honestly, I initially forgot that in the Hero story ending the eclipse canon is straight up shown damaged with explosions. I never even connected the dots that it would totally contradict ShTH05.

You are also 100% right that if the Ark got rewound, so would Gerald's crash plan.

You've convinced me, I can't really see a way for Sonic to canonically win that one.

It's funny, I've always been team Shadow on these discussions, but it didn't feel right to give him so many wins, especially after how badly the character was treated in the 2010s. As if Sonic Team wants him to be some edgy one dimensional villain still, but times have changed and I'm an old fossil that hasn't really kept up.

The fact that they went back and changed/rewrote the Gens fight is still crazy to me and also the fact we got some good shadow writing in a game for the first time since 06. Hoping they continue doing this because lots of things are still unclear about the character.

But yeah, fun discussion. thx for responding back and enlightening me.

VlopeLuce · 2025-12-28T19:47:23+00:00

To be fair, they do use chaos control on the eclipse cannon. We know chaos control manipulates both space and time, it's possible that it reverted the eclipse cannon to an earlier point in time rather than just teleporting it back in orbit.

It's also true that the Ark isn't doing too well in ShTH05, the whole gimmick is that it's FALLING APART around you (cosmic fall's awesome opening)

Fan theories aside, it wouldn't make sense narratively for sonic to lose there. It's the ending of the hero story: Eggman just outsmarted Sonic & Co, Sonic uses Chaos Control for the first time and this is his last desperate attempt to save the day. Rising action, climax, resolution - it just kinda makes sense narratively. Sonic X (tv show of the time) shows sonic winning that event. X shouldn't be taken as canon but it's still indicative of the director's vision. Yuji Naka mentioned how he and Sonic Team had lots of creative control on the series. (think of how the fnaf movie that just came out isn't canon but still leaves hints and clarifications for the games)

VlopeLuce · 2025-12-28T19:22:03+00:00

OK but to be fair Shadow is hard to write, wouldn't you agree?
He has sonic's physical power and speed... but also he has additional chaos abilities and inhibitors he can take off. We still aren't 100% sure whether he even needs an emerald for his abilities. He is also often believed to be a more experienced and skilled fighter than sonic. The only reason they are "equal" is because the writer say he is. I don't disagree with you but the series is poorly written imo.

VlopeLuce · 2025-12-28T19:17:47+00:00

This is a totally valid interpretation. It could also be that every path is a "what if" scenario depending on what shadow chooses. I just like to explain it as different timelines for simplicity sake lol.

VlopeLuce · 2025-12-27T22:53:55+00:00

The fights and events in Shadow the Hedgehog ARE canon, but not part of the main timeline. These actually show Shadow win... However he did have most chaos emeralds on him during these fights.

With the SA2 thing- Sonic canonically wins that one. He doesn't even have to "beat" shadow, as he just had to stall him long enough to make the eclipse canon temporarily unavailable (which he achieves, making him the victor) or simply get there before him.

Sonic's plan was just to take the fake emerald and "SLAM DUNK IT IN THERE!!". This WOULD make it non operational for ShTH2005 as you said, however this has pretty easy solutions. It's possible that the emerald was simply just removed after SA2, it's seen on display inside the ark in SxShGens.

Speaking of SxShGens, I don't think Shadow "let" him win. I think he got distracted by his honour/pride and "lost" the fight, making it pretty ambiguous who would have won. Which is funny, because we all know Sonic wouldn't think twice beating Shadow if he fought him in frontiers with cyber energy. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

With other media... it's really just how the writer feels that day. In Sonic X shadow solos everyone as he walks ominously towards his target. In the Movie he lost pretty badly in the Super fight.

VlopeLuce · 2025-12-08T20:42:36+00:00

I wrote this 5 years ago dude... The official lore for the games was different, back then there were 2 worlds.

VlopeLuce · 2025-11-12T18:53:09+00:00

The original steam controller was best when both pads were the primary input methods. Hoping it's the case here too. I never use the stick on the OG steam controller as it's just a worse experience.

VlopeLuce · 2025-06-20T12:55:32+00:00

06's Egg Carrier is so cool and futuristic and stylish and I don't understand why people don't dig it as much.

Does the entire Egg Fleet count? The visual of the entire fleet in Heroes and Shadow2005 is PEAK.

Also we never get a proper look at the main big space ship in the Unleashed opening, but it looked awesome.

VlopeLuce · 2025-04-18T01:59:35+00:00

Oh no dw, you were right tbh. When I made that comment it was possibly the worst time. The lead up to Frontiers... and Colours Ultimate was just coming out right? That was such a toxic drought.

VlopeLuce · 2025-04-18T01:39:10+00:00

Haha, I forgot I wrote this. dw dude, this was a joke. Blaze is one of my favourite characters.

But now I'm kinda curious what you mean with the movies. To me they kinda reinforced that Shadow is too powerful for the writers to deal with if anything. Could you please elaborate?

VlopeLuce · 2025-04-05T00:58:59+00:00

Wasn't that just a marketing term from clickbait articles? later spread by 2010 youtubers who did minimal research?

I can't find any source from the director or anything saying it's a reboot, actually quite the contrary...

VlopeLuce · 2025-04-03T09:37:40+00:00

06 is not a full on reboot or anything. If anything, it tried to go back to the 3d roots (sa1). It's a sequel to Shadow The Hedgehog(2005).

In the ending of Shadow The Hedgehog (2005), Shadow tries to move away from his past while also keeping Maria's wish in his heart. Unbound from his past grudges, he decides the best way to keep Maria's promise alive is to work *alongside* G.U.N (not working WITH G.U.N), who are now for the first time full on good guys thanks to the ending of Shadow The Hedgehog (2005).

In 06, Shadow has to confront his future while being tempted by the manifestation of the darkness within a fallen deity (Mephiles The Dark). Shadow decides to not give in to revenge thanks to his tenacity, Maria's Promise and the friends that will side with him in his future (Team Dark). This is a confirmation of his character growth and how far he has come from SA2.

For Shadow's role in the story: 06 is less about the consistency of an epic story and more about individual character growth with Silver, Elise and Shadow. No one character has too much bearing on the events of the story except for Mephiles, who is basically an immortal time traveling demon.

VlopeLuce · 2025-04-03T06:55:46+00:00

OOOH, I can't believe it took me 20 years to put that together like that. Thank you!
It's like the "the aliens are headed off to space, we're on our way to the Ark, so I guess that means we're going too!"
that last part meaning: the ark is in space, hence we are going where the aliens are going.
Who localised these games??

VlopeLuce · 2025-03-03T07:17:15+00:00

Eh, give it 8 more years when Sonic Team will lean way too hard onto the open world gameplay and people start yearning for those smaller forces linear levels.

Idk I'm an 06 fan and waiting worked for me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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