The problem to me is exactly what Known Unknown said. Sega have no clue what to do with Shadow outside of having him play as a rival to Sonic, so there's always some type of forced conflict that forces them to fight.
Its kind of like what they were doing with Knuckles for a while by having him constantly thinking Sonic was the bad guy to justify a boss fight with him, no matter how flimsy it got.
Except in this case, just replace Knuckles being thick as hell, with Shadow having a huge stick up his ass.
But since Sonic and Shadow have arguably the most popular dynamic in the series, they keep revisiting it because they know its gonna sell. Look how many people are saying they had the best fight in Prime or how the third movie will basically be about the two of them fighting.
So in order to keep forcing this conflict, either; Shadow has to be huge asshole who hates Sonic (for some reason) or Sonic has to become a literal manchild who Shadow has to discipline.
It wouldn't be so bad if they actually let Shadow interact with other characters again, but Sega have all but cut him off from everyone but Sonic, so that's all he has to bounce off of.
.....God I miss Archie Shadow...I had my issues but he was very much his own character.
Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Dec 16th 2022 at 7:27:30 AM
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.Character-writing overall could just be more consistent and better.
But please, just no obscure or new characters for Shadow to have a dynamic with, and no getting rid of his dynamic with Rouge so that Rouge can be the new buddy of Team Sonic.
To complain less, Shadow not being in Frontiers is probably for the best. Ironic considering the game's more somber tone, but Sonic's personality is definitely my favorite out of all of the games and it'd probably fall apart if Shadow was trying to alpha male him through the whole thing.
Edited by FOFD on Dec 16th 2022 at 7:55:43 AM
Didn't Shadow team up with him in Sonic Rivals 2 against Eggman Nega's metal.
The dynamic between Shadow and Emerl both being weapons that were being manipulated by the doctor could easily be replicated between Metal and Shadow.
That said, Metal is usually a silent antagonist and it'd be awkward for Shadow to suddenly care about the terminator's opinion on things. Feels like something the Archie comics would probably have touched on.
If we're talking about how Shadow interacts with other characters, then I'm posting this comic with him and Cream again.
Hah. Shadow using Cream as a proxy to play pranks on Sonic would be a nice bit of character for him. A way to show he's not just all edge, all the time.
Though it wouldn't stop the asshole accusations.
More to the point, yes, Shadow, you should worry about Cream going evil. Her cuteness would catch everyone off guard.
One Strip! One Strip!Hmm...
You know, if they do commit to the "big open world game with expansive story" idea in future games, they do have an opportunity here.
Open world games are... well... big, with loads of opportunities for lengthy and well developed subplots. They noticeably don't really push that as far as they could in Frontiers (there's subplots, but they're all fairly samey and safe), but speaking hypothetically here - if they did want to do unique stuff for reach region Sonic goes to, you could have stuff like that where Shadow faces X antagonist while Sonic comes across it and helps out, and so on.
I agree that having antagonists that speak to the specific characters is a great way to make them feel more alive, but Sonic being a fairly linear platforming series has always made that hard. They could go
Plus, I like the dichotomy Shadow and Infinite has, where the more you learn about Infinite the more obvious it is that Shadow is basically everything Infinite wants to be, but he's... well... a wannabe. Do a plot where Sonic is being attacked by someone who seems like Shadow, but then it turns out to be Infinite, that sort of thing.
Likewise, you could give Tails a Battle Kukku subplot, Knuckles a subplot with Nack / Rouge / the Heavies / insert other character who'd tries to steal the ME before, Amy... I dunno, Metal Sonic or The Return of Zero? Etc.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Dec 16th 2022 at 5:33:05 AM
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I guess the logic is "Why would Shadow willingly hang out with the likes of Cream when he canonically is a loner and has literally "0" likes"
That's literally what Surge is from comics actually; she wants to be a credible rival like Shadow so badly...but she's kind of bad at it.
Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Dec 16th 2022 at 8:55:55 AM
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.Wait going back two pages
Are we really praising Mario for the repetitive use of damseling Peach and recycling the same plot sometimes even world layout game to game? It's one of the worst thing about Mario, how much it adheres to its status quo. Then Mario himself is pretty boring to where he's the main character yet less interesting than almost every other major character lol.
People who complain about Mario's status quo don't exist...
Outside of the NSMB games, Mario doesn't have one of those.
Mario just has a solid and consistent identity.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.You're talking about a game series that focuses mostly on gameplay and complaining about its adherence to the status quo and the samey plots. "Praising" Mario for it doesn't make sense but complaining about it also doesn't make that much sense when you consider that the story isn't supposed to be the main focus of Mario. It's like complaining that a story-driven RPG has too much dialogue and cutscenes.
Peach has been a fighter in a lot of Mario games, including mainline ones, just more often in RPGs and other spinoffs. (I always played as her in Mario Party!)
Back on Sonic, what do you guys think of Sonic Prime? I like the concept of the alternate worlds, but I hope they're not too one-note.
Edited by lalalei2001 on Dec 17th 2022 at 8:13:25 AM
The Protomen enhanced my life.

That's not even remotely true...
Any Meta Knight fight in the past 14 years has been the result of him being controlled or actually wanting to challenge Kirby.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.