Developed by Lord Kooner, Sonic.EXE: Dark Souls Remake
is a remaster of the original Sonic.EXE Dark Souls game, made in the style of Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
The general plot is that Exezar, a demon who had been imprisoned in hell with two allies, Oxiel the Eye Being and Knight Avares, was assigned to seek a way out for all of them, which, of course, needed the Demonic Possession of a mortal to cross through and acquire the Master Emerald. Sonic, unfortunately enough, ended out becoming prey to this, and all that happens from there is determined by whether or not the heroes survive Exezar and Oxiel's assaults across Angel Island.
Level List (SPOILERS UNMARKED!)
Main Game
Sonic the Hedgehog
- Angel Island Zone Act 1
- Cursed Cave Zone Act 2
- My Head It Hurts Zone Act 3
Miles "Tails" Prower
- Green Hill Zone Act 1
- Sky Battle (VS Robotnik)
- Angel Island Zone Act 2
- Cursed Cave Zone Act 3
- Cursed Cave Zone Act Boss (VS Mecha Sonic)
- Special Stage (Sonic 2)
Knuckles the Echidna
- Angel Island Zone Act 1
- Hydrocity Zone Act 2 (Alternate Path) (VS Berserk Exezar)
- Hidden Palace Zone Act 2 (Main Path) (VS Mecha Sonic Mk. II)
- Special Stage (Sonic 3)
Dr. Ivo Robotnik
- Marble Zone Act 1 (Metal Sonic)
- Special Stage (Sonic 1) (Metal Sonic)
- Sky Battle (VS Tails)
- Angel Island Zone Act 1
- Launch Base Zone Act 2
Endings
Tails Solo
- Floating Egg Zone Act Final (VS Oxiel)
Knuckles Solo
- Floating Egg Zone Act Final (VS Exezar and Oxiel)
Robotnik/Metal Sonic Solo
- Space Base Zone Act Final (Metal Sonic)
- Floating Egg Zone Act Final (Metal Sonic VS Exezar)
Tails and Knuckles Duo
- Floating Egg Zone Act Final (Tails VS Oxiel)
Tails and Robotnik Duo
- Floating Egg Zone Act Final (Tails VS Robotnik)
Knuckles and Robotnik Duo
- Floating Egg Zone Act Final (Knuckles VS Exezar)
Good Ending/Best Ending
- Floating Egg Zone Act 1 (Tails VS Robotnik and Metal Sonic)
- Floating Egg Zone Act 2 (Knuckles VS Oxiel)
Best Ending-exclusive stages
- Floating Egg Zone Act 1 (Exezar VS Metal Sonic)
- Sunken Egg Zone Act 2 (Knuckles)
- Sunken Egg Zone Act Final (Berserk Sonic/Exezar VS Knight Avares)
Extra Story (Sonic/Raz)
- Pale Woods Zone Act 1
- Pale Woods Zone Act 2 (VS The Townlets)
- Mountain Peak Zone Act 3
Tropes present in this game:
- Adaptational Sympathy: Compared to the usual Sonic.EXE motives (as well as Exezar's original writing in the older games), Exezar is generally kinder despite the job he has to do. He looks up to Oxiel not as a minion, but rather as a close companion. And he is genuinely wracked once, despite saving him, Tails hatefully turns his back on the demon in the latter's Solo ending, leaving him feeling alone thanks to what happened. In the Best Ending, however, he is Easily Forgiven by Tails and Knuckles, alongside Sonic himself, after realising the weight of his actions.
- Adaptational Wimp: Compared to other Sonic.EXEs, Exezar lacks any of the Reality Warper properties of his predecessors, instead only being capable of using Sonic's moves and a Dark form of sorts.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- Failing a Special Stage if not getting caught by Exezar will not count as death for the character themselves, meaning the Good Ending can still be acquired should the main three survive.
- Accessing any ending for the first time will unlock it in the Data menu, meaning players don't need to replay the whole first half of the game just to see them again.
- Bad Boss: Surprisingly, in his introduction, Knight Avares averts this trope, giving the orders to Exezar not for any world domination purposes, but so that the two can be resurrected. And instead of snapping at Exezar when asked why he can't do the job himself, he simply admits that he has no way of doing so. Later, however, he doesn't take well to Exezar going against his plans.
- The Bad Guy Wins:
- Getting the Worst Ending will have Knight Avares successfully revived, nothing stopping him from acquiring the Master Emerald for his motives of revenge.
- In the Robotnik Solo ending, should Metal return in time and defeat Exezar, he and the doctor escape unscathed, leaving the world without a saviour and vulnerable to Robotnik's eternal reign.
- Bittersweet Ending: Several of the Solo and Duo endings border on this.
- Tails Solo: While both Tails and Exezar survive, Tails is completely hateful of the demon and turns his back on him for good, leaving Exezar with the one thing he feared most; loneliness.
- Knuckles Solo: Knuckles is successful in reclaiming the Master Emerald and restoring Angel Island to its rightful place in the sky, but it came at the cost of the deaths of his other companions, alongside Robotnik.
- Metal Sonic Solo: Despite being successful in defeating Exezar, Metal was too late to make it back for the fight, as Robotnik was killed before he could arrive at the Floating Egg. Despite this, he carries the doctor's corpse away and has plans to continue his legacy however possible.
- Tails and Knuckles Duo: While surviving Exezar's wrath, the demon falls into the Despair Event Horizon upon having failed his mission and flees. And while Knuckles gave up the hunt and restored Angel Island with the Master Emerald, Tails remained restless about it, trying to find out the answers to all his questions, as well as to where Sonic and Robotnik ended up in the first place.
- Tails and Robotnik Duo: Robotnik succeeded in slaying Sonic and Exezar, and with the Master Emerald in his grasp, he had all he needed to conquer the world. However, Tails also survives, stepping up to defend Earth in Sonic's stead and being a thorn in the doctor's side for days to come.
- Knuckles and Robotnik Duo: Knuckles succeeds in beating Exezar and restoring the Master Emerald to its rightful place on Angel Island. However, Tails is gone and Robotnik is still out there, likely ready to strike again at any time.
- Canon Discontinuity: The old version of events from the original Sonic.EXE Dark Souls and its sequel, Sally.EXE Darkest Soul, are no longer considered canon.
- Dark and Troubled Past: In his early days, as revealed on the Sonic.EXE wiki, Exezar's life was full of mistreatment, loneliness, and betrayal, and a grave accident that was his fault got him cast into hell for his troubles. To fix this, he had to make a Deal with the Devil; his soul and freedom in exchange for the lives of those that died in the accident. This backstory is explored in the extra story.
- Driven to Suicide:
- In the Tails Solo ending, Exezar crosses the Despair Event Horizon after failing to reason with Tails. Though, while he does consider the idea of killing himself to return to hell, he can't bring himself to, since that would mean harming Sonic as well.
- The extra story reveals that Raz underwent this to kill the demon residing in his body, since it was said demon's fault that even his father was killed off.
- Golden Ending: Naturally, the Best Ending is this. Not only does everyone survive, but they have all the Chaos Emeralds on hand. And thanks to Sonic advising Exezar in his mind, the demon takes the chance to take down Knight Avares personally to gain his closure.
- Harder Than Hard: There are a couple of harder bosses off the beaten path that usually need bypassing. While not mandatory to beat them to survive, they each grant you a Chaos Emerald upon defeat, meaning the character instantly survives if successful and they don't have to go through any further levels to survive.
- Heel–Face Turn: Exezar finally realises the error of his ways in the Best Ending thanks to Sonic, siding with the blue blur (while still in control of his body, mind you) to give Avares a much-needed reality check, finally giving him the closure he needed.Exezar: For your information, Avares... We did not do this for revenge! We did it to protect this planet... to protect the people we care about... to protect the people I care about. You see, Avares, Sonic helped me open my heart. And in the end, I got closure, and you didn't. [...] Thank you, Sonic. Goodbye.
- High-Altitude Battle: Apart from the Worst Ending, every ending always involves a fight of some variance on Robotnik's airship, the Floating Egg.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Overall, one of Exezar's fears is being alone and lonely, with Oxiel and Avares being his only true companions. This is shown with the text before the Tails Solo ending's credits being "Loneliness, my old companion".
- No Ending: If you reach the penultimate fight of the Best Ending without all the Chaos Emeralds, the game will end after Oxiel's downfall, leaving the remainder of the story locked behind acquiring those Emeralds.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Upon realising from Exezar that he's no shapeshifter and is indeed possessing Sonic's body in the Tails Solo route, Tails goes back on his initial trap, bringing him to safety before the Floating Egg explodes and begins its descent to the surface.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: After Exezar/Raz reached his breaking point following his Flicky companion's demise, he went and burned down the house of the bullies that killed it. However, the fire spread and burned down the whole village, much to Raz's horror.
- This Cannot Be!: Avares's temper really wears thin after finally being defeated by Exezar.
- This Is Unforgivable!: While he does save Exezar from death in his solo route, Tails still refuses to forgive him for what he did, even as he tries to explain himself. And with there being no way to reverse the Demonic Possession, the kid plans to outright murder Exezar if they ever cross paths again. Fortunately, in the Best Ending, he and Sonic do find it in them to forgive Exezar for his misdeeds.
- Timed Mission: There are a few within this game, aside from the typical timer in Sonic games.
- In Angel Island Zone for Tails, you have only a few seconds to reach the end of the path before the island crashes down on the ocean's surface.
- For Space Base Zone, Metal Sonic only has a few minutes to acquire the Sword and head back to the Floating Egg to take on Exezar. You can still fight Exezar if the timer runs out, but it means Robotnik will have died by the time Metal returns.
- In Sunken Egg Zone Act 2, Knuckles only has one minute to find and claim the Master Emerald before Avares can get to it.
