General Sonic The Hedgehog thread

Eggman had the foresight to invoke No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup instead by destroying the prototypes. But of course not having Batman levels of foresight, he didn't have a contingency plan for if they escaped destruction and fell into the hands of the Resistance anyway (like say keeping and activating one of the prototypes to use as backup and in his eggmobile.^note though apprently the one Infinite had was also a prototype as well.)

With that said, it was also explained that the prototypes effectively had an Only the Chosen May Wield clause (or rather that the prototypes would only work for the person that first activated them, and that a being with a will as strong as Infinite were able to achieve that, but that condition is a non-issue considering you're dealing with no small amount of Determinators here and Eggman should had known that at least Sonic would had that kind of will.)

With that said, turning the Ruby's powers against Infinite would had been useful, considering the Imagination-Based Superpower aspect inherent to it and that it tricks the brain into thinking that the illusions are actual tangible things. (come to think of it that might also explain the VR flavor of the ruby's powers. the use of VR in fiction has often included a "you die in the VR, you die in reality" clause attached). And it can (and has) been used to dispell Infinite's own illusions.

Basically if the Resistance had a Phantom Ruby of their own, then they could fight fire with fire, making the plot more akin to say, a Lantern (or Justice League) on Lantern conflict. Which is why Eggmand wanted the prototypes gone.

edited 17th Nov '17 10:51:17 PM by MorningStar1337

One didn't fall out of his Egg-o-matic...?

edited 17th Nov '17 11:08:19 PM by randomness4

YO. Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie.

According to Sonic Retro folks, SF actually had around 3 years'' of development, so I'm gonna chalk this one up to lack of talent from the dev team.

Wait, do you mean Sonic Team as a whole or the three beginners they had design the levels?

The newbies; which just goes to show how awful SEGA/ST is at managing game development

This may sound weird but I kinda feel like the VideoGame.Sonic Forces and YMMV page overstate how awesome Eggman is in the game, since Infinite does most of the ground work and the characters don't treat him any more seriously than they usually do. Maybe it's different in the Japanese version? (The English release added stuff like Sonic being tortured and Tails losing it, but also cut exposition and more serious stuff in favor of jokes.)

There's also an interesting post about the Phantom Ruby being sentient given how it "escapes" from Sonic in Mania to Eggman in Forces, and corrupting Infinite given his personality and way of speaking change. On one hand I kinda feel like that's stretching it but on the other I wonder if that's what was intended and it just wasn't made clear enough. Maybe even more exposition/story details got left on the cutting room floor, like in an Ace Attorney game where the writers were working under the assumption that the killer was manipulating the investigation, but didn't relay it to the player, so it ended up making no sense.

The Protomen enhanced my life.

It's not like Infinite was any better. He gets completely punked in every encounter after the first one.

Then activates his new toy...

YO. Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie.

That doesn't work because Phantom Ruby isn't actually bonded with Infinite - it's bonded with Eggman. He finds it first(in a prequel comic strip), and is able to revoke it from Infinite at will.

The method in which he recalled Infinite that has me wondering if Infinite himself was "converted" into a VR construct from the Ruby's power?

The YMMV page says "Infinite also previously valued friendship in the form of his Jackal Squad, but later states in the main game that friendship is a waste and an illusion. Is this coming from his lust for power so he himself wouldn't be hurt again, is it to avoid the pain of losing friends, or did the Phantom Ruby corrupt him, similar to how it changed the Hard Boiled Heavies?

In general, Infinite's personality takes quite a drastic change in between the prequel comic, Episode Shadow, and the main game. In the comic and Episode Shadow, he was loud, boisterous, rough and his speech was as gruff and informal as you'd expect from a mercenary. By the time of the game, his personality has done a complete 180 and he's far more cold, subdued, composed, and menacing and his speech is far more eloquent and theatrical. And given that the Phantom Ruby is implied to be sentient, it calls into question how much of Infinite's actions throughout the game were his own and how much of it was the Phantom Ruby corrupting or outright controlling him."

Maybe that's why the Horror section on Fridge.Sonic Forces page is pretty much 'Infinite's dead' XD;

edited 18th Nov '17 12:48:14 PM by lalalei2001

The Protomen enhanced my life.

I like that interpretation, yeah. Infinite was modified by Eggman, and it first looks like it is that he was turned into a cyborg. But the last scene with him seems to instead reveal that his body is gone, and the experiments replaced it with a Phantom projection that is much stronger.

Speaking of Infinite, while Episode Shadow was suuuuper short, I do like some of the stuff that it does that makes Infinite's character a little more interesting. When he continually mocks the Rookie for being weak and says that the strong will always triumph over the weak, you can read some self-loathing over how weak he once was into that. And when he says to Sonic that the only one you can rely on is yourself, I now see that as stemming from that day that Shadow wiped out all his friends and allies on Jackal Squad. It's still not a lot to go on, but it's something. I imagine the comics will one day punch up his story a bit. Maybe add Shadow to the final battle with him.

---

Do you think we'll see the Phantom Ruby again? The story keeps using the idea that Eggman made the one that Infinite uses, and it has a different cut than Mania's Ruby, so you could infer that the original is still out there somewhere. On the other hand, Classic Sonic is returned to his world/time at the end, suggesting that the original Ruby that sent him away got destroyed.

On the other hand, Forces' Eggman kicked this off by finding Mania's Ruby. Which means that there's still one more Ruby to be found in Forces's timeline, deep under the ground on Angel Island...

I have a message from another time...

Angel Island? Where's that?

I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!

Either in the ocean or in the sky.

Depends on how it feels on a given day, it seems.

I have a message from another time...

Ah,I knew the scene was missing something

¡PONLE QUE DIGA!:"¡HUMONGOSAURIO HASTA LA MUERTE!"

I found it kinda weird that they refused to show Infinite's pre-mask face in that cutscene. His face was never really important enough to hide, except metaphorically.

Especially since the prequel comic shows his face.

I have a message from another time...

Probably so you would have to do digging to find his face and make him in the character creator?

I hope so. I kind of like how it seem to be some sort of Evil Counterpart to the Chaos Emeralds (more so in Mania at least, since the Emeralds had presence there). I don't really buy the idea of it being sentient just yet (not really denying that either though), but I like to see its powers explored more.

Honestly, you can get a pretty good look https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXHo9__fo0s at1:07 .

I am reminded just how comically juvenile his breakdown was.

I mean, he's basically your average anime emo antagonist.

*Gets beaten up and called weak once* "I think I'll stick a magic glowing DOOMROCK into my chest and become fuzzy satan!"

While I have heard worse character motivations, I haven't heard many sillier ones.

Have the tie-in comics been declared canon to the games? just curious.

A cruel, sick joke is still a joke, and sometimes all you can do is laugh.

Yes.

This has probably already been reported, but I just noticed that last month the official TMS Youtube channel added the last season of Sonic X... except for the last episode? There's supposed to be a 78, isn't there?