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oh shadow the hedgehog, what can i say about this game than that it was the start of poor development on the sonic series, so allow me to explain what I would've done if i were to work on this game.
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the controllers.
one of the biggest issues this game has is the controls. if anything, i would say that grand theft auto and halo were both the games that sega intend to copy at the time that caused the game to be very problematic. a lot of fans weren't happy with shadow using melee attacks, using a gun or vehicles, as this was a trait mostly reserved for characters like Gamma or Omega. with all these combined, the gameplay became harder to control and some fans even quit before even finishing any of the story path.
if i were to changed the function of it, I'd give shadow the same controls from sonic adventure 2 battle, and when he equips a gun, you can shoot your enemies with it by pressing the R2 button, kind of like a real life gun trigger. while you must press r1 to removing it and L2 to swap it for another gun.
this is so players has the option to either play in SA2 style or in this new style.
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rides control.
rather than taking vehicles in normal stages, let's make the vehicles stages be more on racing instead. having the same mechanics as the kart racing from sonic adventure 2, except that pressing R2 will make shadow shoot from his gun.
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the story.
one big issue a lot of people have over this game is it's story. from the corniness of the characters, to the potty mouth of shadow, to the unrealistic survival rate the president has. i'd definitely change a lot for this game, but i'll only point out the most important changes that are needed for this story.
the commander - although it's interesting that he held hatred to shadow for maria's death. i think what should've been better was that the reason he hated shadow was because maria took more interest in shadow that she stopped hanging out with the commander, and that the commander blamed shadow for maria's assassination since maria was the one who launched shadow's escape pod. and the reason he joined G.U.N. was to try and hunt shadow down, not knowing that shadow was sealed away all this time. also, the reason G.U.N. didn't told him about shadow being sealed away, was because they knew he would've been capable to release shadow and try to shoot him, which could've allowed shadow to escape.
the president - when the big explosion happens, it only happens in the worst ending. also, the president doesn't survive the explosion, causing it to be the end for the heroes. this mean that one of the other missions must replace this event, so i'd say the mission where you must save cream is the best option for it.
the chaotix comforting shadow at his worst stage - although I appreciate that they put some effort in helping shadow over his identity crisis, i think that Tikal and Chaos would've been a much more better option for the scene. this being that tikal knows what is like to be under a tyrant's orders (her father) and chaos knowing of how eggman manipulated him. that both their words could've preventing shadow from ever joining eggman and black doom.
eggman's reason of lying to shadow - the best thing i could say is that the reason eggman wanted to lie to shadow was because eggman wanted to keep him away from black doom, knowing how dangerous black doom really was and that he knew that if shadow found out that he has black doom's dna, he would've joined the black arms army.
an explanation of Gerald changing shadow's memory - the best thing i could think of is that the reason gerald altered shadow's memory was because he knew that if shadow really knew what happened 50 years ago, he would've killed the human race over the death of maria, so changing the memory to look like maria launched him over an un-natural death would make shadow not know that she was killed.
gerald's anger from sonic adventure 2 - make it clear that gerald was captured some time after the death of maria, and that he sealed away shadow before gun would capture and kill him. explain that those days drove him insane and that he later wanted vengeance for maria's death. knowing that the military would capture him, he put the bio lizard in the hidden chamber of the cannon core, so that whoever tried to stop the 7 chaos emerald would have to fight bio lizard who would deal with gerald's final order of the end of the world. it's by this point in the flashback that gerald is captured and shadow's capsule is found. not letting G.U.N. know what he planned for revenge, ending the flashback with the screen turning black and the sound of gunshots.
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replacing the story path
as for the story paths having 2 optional endings, it should be changed to a story path that only has 1 ending and you can't switch around paths, this is so one isn't forced to play the same story more than 50 time. for example, when you reach mission 1, there are 3 different paths that you can choose, but you must chose 1. if you chose the mission 2 good path, you can chose the "hero, good or neutral" story lines but if you chose the mission 2 bad path, you can only chose the "neutral, bad or villain" story line. but if you pick the mission 2 neutral path, you can only chose the "good, neutral or bad path". the thing is that once you pick one of these path, you cant change them along the way until you finish the path's story. as the names suggest, each of the mission path would focus on shadow being what the path's name say.
1. the hero path would make him be against eggman and black doom. with eggman being the boss of this path.
2. the good path focus on him helping his friends only, where he finds out that some of the soldiers from the past were actually being controlled by the black arms.
3. the neutral path is of him doing both good and bad deeds, the boss of this path being a giant black arms boss.
4. the bad path has him doing bad deeds to sonic and his friends, the boss of this path being sonic and eggman.
5. the villain path has him attacking sonic and his friends as he intends to kill off the G.U.N army and the president.
this could've made the game's stories paths better. also, rather than being a 6 mission path story line, it should be 9, just to extend more on the story. and that one mission of each path would focus on shadow riding a vehicle where his main objective is to destroy a specific target before they can escape.
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replacing all fake endings (not the true endings)
the ideas of these endings are that you're still determined to find out if shadow is the real one. and since the good ending is always the first "go to" for everyone, the worst ending should be the one to establish that shadow was the real one all along. Rather than yes or no endings, there are only one ending each.
the hero ending - shadow makes eggman plead for mercy as he gives G.U.N. the chaos emeralds. stepping down as he claims that he should've never been involved in the war in the first place. in this ending, he isn't certain if he's the real shadow or not, leaving him to just forget what happen in the past and never bringing it up again.
the good ending - shadow weakens the gun soldier that shot maria (who was actually corrupted by the black arms at the time maria was killed) as he reveal to the commander who was really responsible for maria's death. shadow steps down, claiming that because of him looking for the one responsible for the death of maria, black doom has already won the battle because of the commander's self pity in wanting to kill shadow. in this ending, he think he's the real shadow, but doesn't know if it's true or not, but it ends with shadow and GUN army joining forces to try and fight the black arms again.
the bad ending - shadow makes sonic, eggman and the commander plead for mercy as he traps them in capsule, where black doom claims that he'll experiment on them. in this ending, he believes he's a shadow android and smiled as he saw eggman begging.
the villain ending - shadow kills the president, the commander and sonic as he joined dark doom's forces. in this ending, he finds out he's the real shadow and just like in sonic adventure 2, he wanted sonic gone so he can be the fastest in the world.
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the missions
some of the missions don't make sense, like how black doom tells shadow not to destroy his team, despite his team having what he's seeking. i would've replaced the aliens for the gun robots to make it look like they're trying to prevent shadow from helping black doom, while black doom's army are trying to prevent shadow from helping the heroes.
also, getting the highest rank on the mission will give you a painting of shadow in that said level doing the said mission. just to give it a reason why you should get the highest ranking.
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the characters' models.
i'm ok that they used the sonic adventure 2 / battle and the sonic heroes models. but one problem i have is Maria's model. first they removed her blue sleeves for no reason, and then they give her these big pupils that makes her look like a pug. i would've given the sleeves and make her pupils smaller.
also, i much prefer gerald robotnic's sonic adventure 2 / battle appearance over the more fat and hairier version they made in this game. and here's why. gerald robotnic's first appearance depict him to be much skinnier, with an innocent face and a mustache that doesn't look like he has maintained it for a while. this is a great detail appearance cause it makes it look like he didn't care if he was starving or if he was all raggedy, as all he cared was to find the cure for maria. while the shadow the hedgehog design depict him much fatter as if he has been eating 5 meals a day and a mustache that looks like gets treated in a salon. if anything, i'd replace his depiction and give him his original design back.
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the speaking.
obviously this game has a lot of problem with the talking, so i'd definitely change some of the script, keep some of the potty mouth moments and make each character's speech better.
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the final boss fight extension.
while sonic adventure, sonic adventure 2 and sonic heroes final boss has a 2 phase battle. shadow the hedgehog's final boss only has 1 phase, so
first you fight against black doom who, just like the neutral path boss, brings shadow's memory of failing to save maria. after a battle, comes phase 2, where it shows black doom transforming into devil doom, where he lift the black arm comet and intend to ram it against the planet, so the final boss fight could be more of a combination of final hazard from sonic adventure 2 battle and metal overlord from sonic heroes. where you must try and attack his weak spots before time runs out.
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more characters should've been involved.
tikal and chaos - as i established earlier, Tikal and Chaos should've appeared. meanwhile, there are other characters that could've helped out as well.
Lumina and Void - the world is at war, there's no dream for one to have. Lumina and Void could've appeared in this game wanting to stop black doom due to both maginaryworld and the precious stone disappearing due to there no longer being dreams.
Vanilla, Big and chocola - since cream has gone missing, i'm sure these 3 would've gotten involved in trying to find cream and cheese. as npc.
Mighty, Ray, Honey, Fang / Nack, Bark, Bean, Heavy and Bomb - don't know what they could've done. but i guess either cameo or even npc. remember that there's a war going on, and i'm sure the least they could've done was to take survivors to a safer place.
the witchcarters and the grand kukku empire - i think having them around would make sense as allies for the villain missions. from the witchcarters such as hocke-wulf, bearenger, carrottia and witchcart. to the grand kukku empire such as battle kukku XVI "speedy", Dr. Fukurokov and grand battle kukku.
when sonic, knuckles, tails, amy, rouge, omega and eggman are frozen - it's never established who saved them and I doubt anyone would be able to do so if black doom still used his power to freeze them. so the best thing i would've said was that since Tikal is a spirit, Lumina and void are fairies, and chaos is a god. black doom's curse wasn't strong enough to stop them from rescuing their friends. also, to add cream and cheese among the crowds that are frozen.
the ending - when sonic and his friends are all looking at shadow destroying the meteor, sonic's other friends who did not appear along side him joined in to remark about the end of the alien invasion. this includes the chaotix, cream and cheese, as well as all of the other characters i would've added to the game as well.
Shadow’s ending - standing in the same place where he last saw maria, shadow looks at planet earth. He can still remember Maria’s voice as a tear shred from his eye. Shadow turns around and heads to the hallway, only for him to look back one last time and said “rest well, maria” with a photograph appearing on screen, depicting shadow and maria holding hands while walking together on a hallway.
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2P mode.
although it has a 2P mode where you can play as 6 different shadow androids. i would've given them the same control style i said i would've given for shadow. only difference is that the shadow androids with the gun for a hand can't replace their weapons.
also, i would've added a new 2P mode where you have a speed, treasure hunting and mecha fight competition like in sonic adventure 2 battle. granted, that's the only way Player 1 could ever play as anyone else beside shadow.
speed
1. shadow (has the yellow android as an alt)
2. sonic (has mighty as an alt)
3. amy (has honey as an alt)
4. metal sonic (has neo metal sonic as an alt)
5. espio [unlockable] (has nack the weasel as an alt)
6. green shadow android [unlockable] (has the orange androids as an alt)
treasure hunting
1. knuckles (has metal knuckles as an alt)
2. rouge (has her sonic heroes outfit as an alt)
3. tikal (has lumina flowlight as an alt)
4. chaos (has void as an alt)
5. omega [unlockable]
6. pink shadow android [unlockable] (has the blue shadow android as an alt)
mecha fight
1. tails (has ray the flying squirrel as an alt)
2. eggman (has bark the polar bear as an alt)
3. chao (has heavy as an alt)
4. dark chao (has bomb as an alt)
5. the commander (on big foot) [unlockable] (has bean the dynamite as an alt)
6. hero chao [unlockable] (has vanilla and chocola as an alt)
kart / bike racing.
01. Shadow the hedgehog
02. Sonic the hedgehog
03. miles Tails prower
04. Knuckles the echidna
05. Rouge the bat
06. dr eggman robotnic
07. team rose (on sonic heroes bobsled)
08. e-123 omega
09. omochao
10. maria robotnic (shadow's alt) [unlockable]
11. metal sonic (sonic's alt) [unlockable]
12. chao (tail's alt) [unlockable]
13. tikal the echidna (knuckle's alt) [unlockable]
14. chaos 0 (rouge's alt) [unlockable]
15. dark chao (eggman's alt) [unlockable]
16. team chaotix (on sonic heroes trolley) (team rose's alt) [unlockable]
17. e-102 gamma (omega's alt) [unlockable]
18. vanilla the rabbit (omochao's alt) [unlockable]
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so that's all of the changes I would've done to this game. now I bet some of you would ask why I don't hate this game as much as sonic forces. well here's my answer. unlike sonic forces, where the villain is pathetic and the story doesn't follow with sonic games logic or brings anything to the table, shadow the hedgehog had a more understanding logic. black doom is this blood thirsty monster who's main goal was to use the human race as his experiments, shadow tried to recover his real memories and that there was more to the story of what happen 50 years ago.
so you tell me, do you think these changes would've made the game much better?
game cover from nintendo sega.
furry character is from me.