Sonic X Shadow Generations: Shadow's story and details of the new game

Hello everyone, I'm Rodrigo, you might know me best from the Pokémon TCG articles and the recent Castlevania article.

It’s with great satisfaction that I return here with more information about another franchise that I hold dearly: the Sonic franchise.

And since many fans are being well served with the recent cinematographic works they are receiving, especially the third film in the franchise with the adaptation of the games for December 2024, they are also looking forward to the game that will be released on October 22nd this year, the "Sonic X Shadow Generations", where the game transitions a bit from the continuation of the concept of its predecessor “Sonic Generations”, but focused on the franchise's most acclaimed anti-hero, Shadow the Hedgehog.

But before continuing with the article, do you know the story of the hedgehog? Would you like to stay up to date to understand the details of the plot and how they affect the franchise?

Brief character introduction

Creation of Gerald Robotnik, Shadow is known as "The Ultimate Life Form", as his powers are incalculable, due to his creation with the DNA of the alien race known as Black Arms with experiments with energies of the Chaos Emeralds, with the main objective of finding a cure for his granddaughter, Maria Robotnik, from a rare disease known as N.I.D.S.

Shadow can use Chaos Control when in possession of any Chaos Emerald, shots of energy consolidated into spear forms known as Chaos Spear and bursts of raw energy known as Chaos Blast .

The character was designed by the director of the franchise, Takashi Iizuka to be a counterpoint to Sonic, as a rival who aesthetically resembles him, but whose ideologies were opposite and even extremist, where even though he was cold, he would be extremist in making crucial decisions on objectives or missions that crossed the black hedgehog's path – making the story denser and with more points outside the curve than the franchise normally is.

Takashi Iizuka, franchise director, creative director and currently responsible for Sonic Team, he was part of the team who designed Sonic's “Adventure” phase in the Dreamcast era, where Shadow was introduced.

Gerald's primary objectives for creating the hedgehog

Shadow was an experiment made by Dr. Eggman’s grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, seeking out a way to try to cure his granddaughter, Maria, of a terminal illness known as N.I.D.S. (Neuro-Immune Deficiency Syndrome), which inflicted her with a gradual neurological and bodily disability when being inside the Earth's atmosphere, forcing her to live in the ARK space colony to alleviate the side effects.

The project itself was carried out after the encouragement of the president of the United Federations, who had previously suggested a military and medicinal program which was vetoed by the scientist for fear that it would be used in a wrong way and would cross scientific ethics; however, out of desperation due to his granddaughter's health, he agreed to be financed, in favor of her cure.

Fruits of field research, project studies and scientific advances

Gerald then began his research into ancient civilizations on Earth during his travels and in these field activities he had some contact with the ancestral culture of the Echidnas regarding the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald, in addition to studies on the entity Chaos; since from this point on, in addition to building a replica of the altar of the Master Emerald inside the ARK colony, he also began to carry out his studies regarding this source of energy; he also created the Chaos Drives, synthetic energies replicated from emeralds, which were later used as energy for and also to create the prototypes of the entity Chaos, known as Artificial Chaos as well as the robots and machines of G.U.N.

This was an initial step towards starting the prototype of the Ultimate Life Form, which would initially be the Biolizard; and finally, the creation of the Heal Unit, as an efficient medication and potential prototype for the cure of Maria.

In addition, there were also other field trips, in which the scientist found an ancient gizoid robot called Emerl created by the Nocturnus Clan as a war model (lore told in more detail in Sonic: The Dark Brotherhood) from more than 4,000 years before in the story of the planet, which was fundamental for his studies on the Chaos Emeralds and his project as a whole, since the robot through his programming could absorb this energy and copy anything he could see; and afraid of his original programming, the scientist reprogrammed him with feelings and emotions like those of a human, basing himself off his granddaughter.

The consolidation of Shadow and the beginning of the tragedy

Even with the promising advances and the creation of the prototype of the Ultimate Life Form, Biolizard, it still displayed violent and irrational behavior, causing problems for the scientist and his team, who chose to seal it inside the special colony and encapsulate it; this incident led to some leaks of these secret experiments to the government and G.U.N, who kept an eye out.

And returning to square one, Gerald went back to researching other ancient ruins and civilizations, until he found the Glyphic Cannon, where he had access to more information about the alien race Black Arms: they passed every 50 years in a meteor over planet Earth, and that led the scientist to secretly contact their leader, Black Doom, and he provided his DNA to the scientist's project, as it was close to the main objective, but in exchange for possession of the seven Chaos Emeralds when he returned to the planet in the next 50 years so that his “ship”, the Black Comet, could land within the agreed period.

But at this meeting, one of Maria's human friends, Abraham Tower witnessed these proofs and was in shock, which also strengthened the distrust and fear; which made Gerald look back on his attitudes and there was remorse for the terrible decision made previously – and with that, he decided to create the Eclipse Canyon in the outer area of ​​the space colony, which had the objective of destroying the Black Comet, when it comes to Earth in 50 years to protect the planet and correct its mistake. But, with the creation of the cannon, the G.U.N. became even more suspicious.

Abraham Tower who was a witness to the Black Doom pact, and it triggered his trauma in the future. The image on the left is during his childhood, at the same time as Maria Robotnik, and the one on the right is during his phase as commander of G.U.N., 50 years later, in the present.

However, the prologue of the problems with the G.U.N. comes from the pressure to deliver weapons results on the project; otherwise the partnership would be cancelled, and this is why Gerald in a palliative way, to allow more time for Shadow to develop, gaining experience and sociability (mainly using his granddaughter's conduct as a moral compass), in addition to the matter of further studies on his immortality, he handed over the gizoid Emerl to the military group.

But then, there would be a misfortune with another one of Gerald’s creations, the Artificial Chaos, where due to a system failure unintentionally caused by him, they collapsed due to the change of polarization in their programming and started attacking anyone in the colony; which was the last straw for the G.U.N. with these leaked incidents and due to all the history that they had been “tolerating”; and to avoid further similar or even worse catastrophes and fearing Shadow, the military organization decided on a brutal invasion of the colony and ordered the execution of anyone who stood in the way.

In danger, Maria takes Shadow to the escape pod room, but unfortunately, she is shot for pressing the eject button.

And so that the media would not know about the incident, the military organization covered up all the evidence and leaks and lied, claiming that it was an “alleged accident” as a result of the experiments carried out in the space colony; They closed the colony to prevent curious people and later, they recovered and confiscated the capsule where Shadow had crashed.

Taken to Prison Island, Gerald Robotnik discovers that his granddaughter was one of the casualties of the invasion, leading him to freak out and blame himself for the event, and still being pressured by the military organization to continue with the project under surveillance, a feeling of ingratitude, hatred and resentment dominated him, seeking revenge over humanity, by whom he felt wronged, thus creating a retaliation plan, where he secretly deceived the soldiers in his confinement, recalculating the route of the space colony when it had the seven Chaos Emeralds attached to the control panel, in addition to also reprogramming Shadow with false memories and putting in his mind the mission of finding the emeralds at any cost, also using the pain of losing his friend as a trigger for hatred towards humans.

In the end, Gerald was executed by G.U.N. and Shadow was placed in cryogenics, under the organization's custody and within the facilities of Prison Island.

After the events of the past, 50 years have passed, at the point the current events of the modern-era Sonic franchise are set.

Dr. Eggman, grandson of Gerald, discovers his grandfather's diary about Project SHADOW, and is curious about it and goes to check on this information by invading Prison Island, where he finds Shadow's chamber, without knowing what its content was, until he was surprised to find out that it was not warlike power, but rather a living organism, the blueprint of the Supreme Life Form.

With this, they form a partnership since they both need the Chaos Emeralds, each for their own purposes: Shadow presenting the space colony's cannon to Eggman (secretly wanting to activate the station against the planet without the doctor knowing) and Eggman pleased to have a weapon with destructive power capable of decimating the planet – and that, of course, incriminating Sonic for the theft of a Chaos Emerald at the start of the story.

At the end of the game, after the clash between Sonic and Shadow in the space colony, Eggman manages to gather the seven emeralds and activate them on the station's main panel, being then surprised by the countdown and the plan that Shadow had been hiding, where he feels no remorse and awaited his end with the collision of the station; until the words of mercy from Amy Rose revived their memory regarding Maria, and made them question their morals, and finally decided to help the heroes to reverse the situation, trying to prevent the colony from colliding with Earth; and with the help of Sonic, both enter Super Form to perform a greater-range Chaos Control and take the colony off the collision course and place it back in orbit of the planet, out of any danger, but at the cost of Shadow's disappearance.

Team Dark, composed of Shadow, Rouge and Omega.

Right after the events of Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow is found again by Dr. Eggman and is placed in deep sleep, in a suspension capsule, being watched by the robot E-123 Omega.

Rouge, a G.U.N. agent (who also appeared in Sonic Adventure 2 to spy on the scientist and working as a double agent) returns in the game and tries to find out again what Eggman plans, until she’s shocked to find out that Shadow was alive, but had lost the memory of who he was or what he was.

Alert to the presence of the invasion, Omega tries to neutralize Rouge, but is saved by Shadow, and she ends their small fight, relieving both sides.

Also dissatisfied with the occupation that the scientist placed him in, Rouge convinces Omega to get a new meaning for his life and Shadow joins the group searching for answers from his past and to try to get out of this amnesiac condition, where he mistakenly “believes” that he is a “robot” created by Eggman.

In this game, Shadow explores his past more with the alien DNA that runs through his veins, and this event coincides with the 50th anniversary promise made by Black Arms, where an emissary of Black Doom, Doom's Eye , guides the hedgehog on his journey of union with the cause, where he finds himself conflicted about his choices, whether to be on the side of humans or on the side of Black Arms.

The appearance of Abraham Tower, current commander of G.U.N. is more notable in this game, since because of being a victim of the incident 50 years ago, when his parents were killed in the space colony incident, he still harbors a grudge against Shadow, believing that he is guilty of all the tragedy that involved his family, thinking that he was part of Black Arms.

In the end, he discovers his true nature and recovers all his memories, while Black Doom takes possession of the seven emeralds and places the Black Comet on planet Earth, and Shadow takes Super Form to deal with the problem, using Chaos Control to send the comet into the planet's orbit, in the same direction as the ARK space colony's Eclipse Cannon to fire it and destroy all the aliens and their nest, choosing the side of humanity, but in his own way, in his solitude, in his way of living, and later, with the gratitude of Abraham Tower, and promoted as an agent of the G.U.N..

The title has a similar premise to Sonic Generations, where Dr. Eggman creates an omniscient machine known as Time Eater, who creates anomalies in time/space at specific moments in Sonic’s history, both in the Adventure/Modern era timeline and in the classic GENESIS/Mega Drive era.

Time Eater, the machine created by Dr. Eggman “Modern” and “classic” to defeat both Sonics in the previous temporal anomaly-themed game.

Both Sonic defeated this machine, but apparently, in the game trailer we see this machine bringing the Shadow back to these lapses in space/time like Sonic, shown precisely at the 1:26 timestamp.

What will be the mystery of this machine's return? This is what we will find out about the game when it launches on October 22nd.

Furthermore, with these temporal anomalies, Shadow will revisit specific moments of his journey, stages of games where he was present, and, at the same time, discover new powers from his alien DNA.

How will the Black Arms’s plans affect Shadow and his development, even in the space/time anomaly?This will also be part of the mystery of this game.

Complementary media for the game

Manga

Art by Yuuki Yamada, the manga will be released with the game, by CoroCoro magazine.

Prequel Animation: Sonic X Shadow Generations - Dark Beginnings

With three episodes made available on the official SEGA/Sonic channel, the animations tell the prelude to the game's events, to prepare fans with the hype for the character, and to satisfy the nostalgia for the events that happened in his past.

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EPISODE 1

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EPISODE 2

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EPISODE 3

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For beginners who are getting to know the franchise, I recommend that you start with Sonic Generations, to be able to provide a starting point with the vibe that the game brings about space/time anomalies -- and also being an easy and educational game for anyone, the experience is very pleasant and casual.

And for veterans, I recommend the experience of playing Sonic Adventure 2 to remember the experience of the story that many were enchanted with; and also those mentioned where Shadow appears.

Also, personally, it will be a great pleasure to hear the new remixes of the character's signature themes such as the song "Vengeance is Mine", Supporting Me, Highway in the Sky ; I hope to hear variations of the G.U.N. machine themes with the Big Foot, Hot Shot and Blue Falcon themes, and the Black Comet theme.

And what about you, what are your expectations for the game? What is your favorite soundtrack from the Shadow-focused Sonic franchise? Comment here below.