Sonic Unleashed. Where to begin. For starters, it was released on November 18, 2008, for four consoles: the Wii, the X Box 360, the PS 2, and the PS 3. (Why am I liveblogging it now, nearly 2 years later? I'll get to that.) The game was made in two seperate versions— one for the 360 and PS 3, and one for the Wii and PS 2. This resulted in wide variations of level design, gameplay, and several other aspects. Both versions sold well, but their critical success is another story.
As for what spawned this LB? Well, my brother and I have both showed interest in getting Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing. Sometime back in... May, I believe, he went to the store to buy it. He couldn't find it, so he rented Unleashed instead. We played the game all week, and I eventually gave my opinions on each level in the "Chatterbox: Video Games" thread (around Page 10). Over time, the posts became a proto-LB. At some point, Freezair For A Limited Time asked me if I had ever considered livebloggening. To tell the truth, I had— however, I decided against it, as my summaries were somewhat concise, and since we wouldn't be keeping the game for long. Not to mention, I've never even done an LB before. I did get a small idea, though, and someone volunteered to help me with it— he'd already done an Unleashed LB, which was eventually "archived". Cut forward to today: still no luck in finding S&SASR, so we went and purchased Unleashed. Which means... it's time.
In this liveblog, I shall be playing through the Wii version of the game. Whether or not I go for Hundred Percent Completion is still to be determined. However, I won't be the only one here; Komodin will also be L Bing, playing through the X Box 360 version. Expect a fair amount of comparison between the two games. With that in mind... IT BEGINS!
Blue Index (Wii)
- Part 1: Then...
- Part 1.5: Let's Get This Show on the Road
- Part 2: It's All Greek to Me
- Part 3: Creature of the Night
- Part 4: The First of Many
- Part 5: I Better Get Frequent-Flier Miles for This
- Part 6: Oh Hey, We're Actually Doing Something
- Part 7: 2-4 Split
- Part 8: Hedgehogs On Ice
- Part 9: Spagonian Escapades
- Part 10: Let's Not Go to China
- Part 11 (Gaia Gate Interlude): Prelude to Puzzlement
- Part 12: Big Trouble in Little Chun-nan
- Part 13: Utterly Forked
- Part 14: Re-Oriented
- Part 15: Progress Report
- Part 16: Back to Business
- Part 17: Insert Obligatory 'Deviled Egg' Pun Here
- Part 18: The Long, Icy Road
- Part 19: Back with— Well, Not Much of a Vengeance
Komodin Index (360)
- Part 1: Windmill Isle Act 1 (Day)
- Part 2: Windmill Isle Act 2 (Day); Windmill Isle Act 1 (Night)
Comments
Part 15: Progress Report
This is somewhat of a special occasion, as Part 15 happens to fall on the exact date I actually turn 15. Happy birthday to me~ To celebrate, I figured we should take a breather, and check out all the cool stuff we've gathered so far in the story. Seeing as we've already been through 3 day levels and 3 night levels, our gallery should be well-stocked by now. Let's hear the oh-so-pretty "shving" of unlocked items, and have ourselves a look.ART - A neat little gallery of concept art.
- Enemy Art
- 2 - Aero-Cannon. "These flying blue baddies launch missles at you through the air." Pricks.
- 4 - Interceptor. "A massive foe from the narrow alleys of Apotos Village." Wimp.
- 12 - Egg Flame. "A touch from these foes can burn anything to smoldering ash." We've only seen one of these so far (in Dragon Road Day, right where this item capsule is), but we'll encounter more of them later.
- 15 - Dark Bat Sniper. "This souped-up Dark Bat opens fire from above." Yeah, well, you can fuck off.
- 20 - Dark Master. "These wizards are easily recognized for their pointy blue hats." Friggin' wizards.
- 23 - Nightmare. "The lowest of the low, Nightmares are the quintessential chump baddies." Heh, chumps.
- 24 - Deep Nightmare. "Powered-up versions of the Nightmares: a little bit bigger, a little bit stronger." "Still just as pathetic."
- 26 - Little Rex. "These guys will chase you like a dog runs down the mail truck." Admittedly, they're almost kinda cute.
- 27 - Dark Fright. "The sheer numbers of these creeps make them a pain to deal with." I still call them Magikarps.
- Stage Art
- 2 - "Windmill Isle 2 - The Sun-Bleached Pathway". I would so use this as a desktop background.
- 4 - "Windmill Isle 3 - The White Tower's Great Bell". For the record, most of the stage art consists of copious amounts of Scenery Porn.
- 5 - "Cool Edge 1 - Daytime Panorama". Case in point.
- 10 - "Rooftop Run 3 (Day)". The rooftops here are actually somewhat red, when they're more orange or brownish in-game.
- 25 - "Chun-nan Village (Night)". Nicely lit little town, isn't it?
- 29 - "Movie Still 2 - Crashing Surf". Aka, the "obligatory shoop-da-whoop-reference laser". The movie stills are more like storyboard images, rather than actual frames from any of the cutscenes.
- 35 - "Professor Pickle's Lab". Complete with the
manDan himself.
- Villager Art - Most NPCs in the game have their own page of concept art, which is nice. No two people share the same model, and they're all very Pixar-esque.
- 1 - Apotos Village - Alexis
- 2 - Apotos Village - Lambros
- 3 - Apotos Village - Eric
- 4 - Apotos Village - Gregorios
- 5 - Mazuri Village - Kwami
- 7 - Mazuri Village - Kofi
- 10 - Holoska Village - Jari-Thure
- 15 - Spagonia Village - Otto
- 16 - Spagonia Village - Denise
- 18 - Chun-nan Village -
Useless NPCShuifon - 19 - Chun-nan Village - Zonshen
- 21 - Chun-nan Village - Hualin
MUSIC - The game's incredibly awesome soundtrack. Is there anything else to say?
- 4 - Day Stage - Windmill Isle
- 5 - Day Stage - Cool Edge
- 6 - Day Stage - Rooftop Run (Not providing a link, 'cause we haven't gone there yet. I'll give it a proper introduction when we actually take on that level.)
- 13 - Night Stage - Intro: Windmill Isle (By the way, the 6-to-8 second intros for the night levels are given their own seperate tracks in the OST. I find this amusing.)
- 14 - Night Stage - Windmill Isle
- 19 - Night Stage - Intro: Dragon Road
- 31 - Village - Gaia Gate
- 33 - Village - Apotos - Night
- 39 - Village - Spagonia - Night
- 40 - Village - Chun-nan - Day
- 41 - Village - Chun-nan - Night
- 42 - Jingle - Stage Clear
MOVIES - Cutscenes.
- 1 - The Werehog's Fall
- 2 - Chip and the Chocolate Sundae
- 3 - The First Night
- 4 - Tails in Trouble!
- 5 - The Kidnapped Professor (And a whole pack o' robots!)
- 6 - A Daring Rescue
- 7 - The Gaia Manuscripts (Rrrrrr...)
- 12 - A Case of Mistaken Identity
- 13 - Amy's Shake-up
SECRET DOCUMENTS - Now, I'm actually not gonna bother with these. They're pretty much hints for the game, ranging from using various moves, to where you can find various items capsules; most of which you'd likely have already found. I will, however, let you know that I have documents 1, 3, 9, 11, 17, 20, 21, and 22.
TOTAL COUNT:
- 28 Illustrations
- 12 Music Tracks
- 10 Movies
- 8 Secret Documents
- 58 items in total.
Part 16: Back to Business
Sorry for the delays. I've been real busy lately— actually, I haven't. I've just been procrastinating. Anyway, it's now time to go for the Spagonia day stage, which we probably should've gone to before Chun-nan. But whatever. Music: "Rooftop Run - Day"; by Tomoya Ohtani. Widely regarded as one of the best songs in the game, and here it is in all its glory.Day Stage 4 - Rooftop Run
- Go for the goal ring!
- RESULT: A Rank; two Moon Medals.
- ITEMS OBTAINED: Document 7, Illustration 37.
- Collect rings at top speed!
- ITEMS OBTAINED: A tablet fragment, if you can call that an item.
Now all that's left to do is see the Professor. We'll deal with that next time, but there's something I want to show you before I go. After completing Rooftop Run Day, you unlock a couple of missions. One of them... is a tutorial. For the Wall Jump. Which you've probably used a few times already. ... WHAT IS THE POINT
Part 17: Insert Obligatory 'Deviled Egg' Pun Here
It's been a while since we've had a boss, hasn't it? Well, first things first— stuff to collect. It was brought to my attention after Part 15 that I was too lazy to go and grab some records from the NPCs. We have plenty of time, so let's deal with that. (By the way, whenever you've beaten a world, you can switch between day and night at will. I CONTROL THE SUN AND MOON. I AM YOUR GOD. So, an old man in Apotos gives us Soundtrack 32. (And a secret mission, to boot!) A young man in Mazuri has AAAAAAAANGST during the night, but an older man gave us Soundtrack 35 for answering a question. (I actually chose the wrong answer first, just to see what he'd say.) A woman at the village shop gave us Soundtrack 34. (Free of charge, I'm assuming— we never actually get to buy anything in the SD version, anywhere.) A young girl in Holoska gave us Soundtrack 36, while a different girl in Spagonia gave us #38. Nice people. Speaking of Spagonia, we've got shit to do here; let's get on with it. By the way, what is it with old men being able to put together tablet pieces? Without further ado: Boss!Boss 3 - Egg Devil Ray
It's another daytime boss. This one is actually rather enjoyable— not too easy, but not too cheap. Oddly enough, this particular mech resembles a fish more than any type of ray— perhaps Eggman needs to do a little more research? Ah well, I guess "Devil Ray" invokes Rule Of Cool here. Surrounding the actual machine is several smaller turrets, which will fire lasers. After trying to laser you for a while, the Devil Ray's shield will go down and you can score a hit on it. The battle will sometimes transition to a 2D section, or a 3D top-down view that vaguely resembles a Bullet Hell.
- RESULT: S Rank; one Moon Medal.
Here's another question for you— why do we always end off having to go visit Professor Pickle? Oh, who cares.
Part 18: The Long, Icy Road
So, according to the Professor, our next destination is Holoska. We head over there, talk to some people, and get ourselves a Moon Tablet. On to business! Music: "Cool Edge - Night"; by Fumie Kumatani. Love it. Probably the second best night theme in the game.Night Stage 4 - Cool Edge
- Act 1 - The Aurora Snowfields
- RESULT: S Rank; three Sun Medals.
- ITEMS OBTAINED: Illustrations 19, 34, & 35.
- Act 2 - Ice Floe
- RESULT: S Rank; three Sun Medals.
- ITEMS OBTAINED: Illustrations 18, 72, & 75; Movie 8.
- Act 3 - The Temple of Ice
- RESULT: S Rank; three Sun Medals.
- UPGRADES: Larger health meter.
- ITEMS OBTAINED: Illustrations 13, 39, & 83; Movie 14. And a tablet piece.
Back to the professor, then? Typical.
Part 19: Back with— Well, Not Much of a Vengeance
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISE! Well, it's been a while. Two months? To be honest, I forget where we left off. ...? Oh, that's right: a boss. ... SON OF A—- Boss 4 - Dark Moray
- RESULT: S Rank; one Sun Medal.
We restore the Light Blue emerald, and that's enough for now. Not much of a way to kick things off again, but I'll take it. See you next time!
Part 20: Turning Up the Heat
(This is the first update after the forum was archived and the LB moved over here. It kinda bugs me how I can only post in comments, since it means I've essentially been Demoted to Extra in my own damn liveblog.) Professor Pickle has decided to move! Can I have your lab now? Anyway, it seems he's moving to our next destination— Shamar. Music: "Cutscene - Project Dark Gaia"; by Hideaki Kobayashi. Oh, quick cutscene. Eggman has an idea! Wonder where that will go.Music: "Shamar - Day"; by Kenichi Tokoi. Pretty damn catchy. We quickly fly off to Shamar, and upon talking to people, we find that they got here before us. How? Oh, forget it. More text, get tablet, Gaia Gate. This particular temple resembles some sort of Arabian palace, with fire and such. Pretty neat, but that's not what we're here for. Music: "Arid Sands - Day"; by Tomoya Ohtani. Pretty average, as far as day music goes.
Day Stage 5 - Arid Sands
- Go for the Goal Ring!
- RESULT: B Rank, 1 Moon Medal. I was a little reckless. Sue me.
- ITEMS OBTAINED: Illustration 6.
- Gather rings at top speed!
- Don't break anything along the way!
- Gather rings at top speed! Again!
- ITEMS OBTAINED: Soundtrack 8, and a tablet fragment.
Vague stuff from Chip, and back to the conveniently-located professor. I'll be away from home for a week or two, so I likely won't have another update until January. Happy holidays, everyone!
Part 14: Re-Oriented
The viewer hath spoken! Yes, singular. It looks like we're heading back to Chun-nan next. We're in for a treat— this level is awesome; the music, the scenery, everything. Shall we begin? Music: "Dragon Road - Day"; by Kenichi Tokoi. I. Freaking. Love. This song. The best day theme, if not the absolute best song in the game.Day Stage 3 - Dragon Road
- Go for the goal ring!
This stage is actually somewhat of an interesting case. There are several extra paths that use various techniques you haven't been taught yet, like the Lightspeed Dash or (if you went here instead of Spagonia) the Wall Jump. It's also an area where you can't collect every item in one go— near the beginning, the path splits into three routes— two of them have a capsule. This level is actually somewhat of a challenge— most of it is over water, and some areas will throw spears at you. It seems like you should've taken on Spagonia first, despite a certain factor that will come into play later that makes this appear to be the canon order. All in all, a really fun stage. No dragons, though. Strange...- Collect rings at top speed!
200 rings? That sounds like a bit much for this point in the game. Well, the path is littered with rings, and most of these missions will let you loop back to pick up more. You can't go all the way back, though— if you don't collect enough rings by a certain point, then you're basically screwed.- Don't break anything along the way!
Heh. Oddly enough, this one isn't quite as difficult as Holoska. Most of the pots are placed near the walls, so as long as you take it slowly and stay near the middle, you should be fine.Well, that was neat. Next time, we'll hit up Spagon— actually, we won't. I have a little something special planned for next time. See ya!