Analysis of Sonic Battle's Plot Sonic and Tails' Stories
Transcript
00:00Something I've wanted to do for years is make a video that reviews the plot of Sonic Battle in depth.
00:06It'll also serve as a reminder that Emerl is not supposed to talk like a generic robot like he does in IDW.
00:13Obviously the plot starts with Sonic's story.
00:16Eggman finds Emerl useless and throws him away on the beach near Sonic and Tails' house because the robot can't follow any of his orders
00:24due to his infantile mental age.
00:27Apparently he couldn't reprogram him to get him to work for him, even though he does just that in Sonic Advance 3.
00:35Somehow he's too stupid to think to use his materials to make other robots, which would also spite the robot for not responding to him.
00:43Eggman yells at Emerl to give him back the Chaos Emerl they placed in him because he wasn't following his orders.
00:50He decides to throw away Emerl because he's already used his data to create robots that will do what he says.
00:57Why didn't he have him taken apart to get the Emerl out of him?
01:01It's not like him to just accept the loss of an Emerl without even having his enemies around.
01:06He's supposed to be smart. He should know Tails could reprogram it and use it to fight him if he leaves it here.
01:12He should have been written to throw Emerl in the dumpster at least, so there'd be a good chance of his enemies not finding him.
01:19It's not the dumbest place possible.
01:22Sonic finds Emerl on the beach and actually asks him if he's alright, even though he thinks he's Eggman's robot.
01:30It's sweet, but it makes no sense for Sonic to care about a robot when he usually destroys them happily and sees them as worthless.
01:38And he looks more like a robot than Bell does.
01:41He decides to show Emerl his power.
01:44And the screen's background goes dark briefly as Sonic has an evil smirk.
01:49You have no clue what exactly Sonic did.
01:52It would have been nice to see Sonic spin dash around in a circle at the speed of sound, but nope.
01:59Okay, this phrase is actually unintelligible.
02:02Because there's clearly a lot of words missing from it.
02:05What does the word represent even in there for?
02:08I hate how Sonic keeps calling Emerl IT, and even calls him THIS THING at one point, despite him trying to be nice to him.
02:16He considers Emerl a thing, but he's still showing compassion for him?
02:21That makes no sense!
02:23After Sonic takes Emerl to Tails' house north of Emerl Town,
02:28and I glare at the game for being responsible for establishing the stupid lore in the canon that Tails has his own house despite being a kid,
02:38after Sonic takes Emerl to town, he meets up with Shadow,
02:43who is annoyed that Sonic has already established a link with Emerl,
02:47showing that he knows something about Emerl as well.
02:50So Team Dark Spies and Eggman for fun.
02:53Shadow decides to destroy Emerl.
02:56And Sonic decides to fight Shadow to protect him.
02:59After this fight, Emerl gets a move from Sonic and a move from Shadow.
03:04I assume the reason he doesn't copy abilities in IDW is because he already copied all the abilities of the main characters that he knows.
03:13And I also assume there's a limit to how many abilities he can copy.
03:17So that's why I presume he's not gonna copy Sgt. Kitt's abilities.
03:22Because there'd be no reason that the copy ability would've been taken out of him considering how useful it'd be to the heroes.
03:29Shadow says that he still hasn't regained his full power yet.
03:32And warns Sonic to not let Eggman get a hold of the Gizoid.
03:37He says he'll be back, and tells Sonic to take care of the Gizoid until then.
03:42Tails shows up, and after Sonic asks him to fix Emerl,
03:46he leaves, saying that he spotted Rouge lurking around the beach,
03:51even though he showed no signs of knowing she was there beforehand.
03:55Tails happily brings Emerl to his lab after complaining about Sonic always being on the run.
04:00You'd expect him to be conscious and wary about just fixing up a robot Sonic found that could kill him for all he knows.
04:07He has no reason not to assume that this is anything but one of Eggman's dangerous robots.
04:13Emerl clearly doesn't look like a robot of guns.
04:16So why is Tails fixing him with no qualms about it,
04:19with no indication that he's gonna look through his programming for Kill Sonic code and get rid of it?
04:25It's just weird because you never see Sonic bringing badniks to him,
04:30to do the same thing to them.
04:32It seems unfair that he only made an exception for him because he's as tall as him.
04:37Why did Rouge call Emerl a girl robot?
04:40Rouge challenged Sonic to a fight,
04:43saying that if he loses, he'll have to partner up with her.
04:47So I guess she assumes the only reason he would hold up his end of the bargain is his honor,
04:52and Sonic calls this getting romantic.
04:55I didn't interpret it that way, so much as Rouge trying to take advantage of him to steal jewels.
05:00Which you should know he wouldn't do regardless.
05:03Of course, with gameplay and story segregation, that's not actually the consequences of losing.
05:09I hate the way Rouge's picture looks right now.
05:12I don't like that Tails' workshop isn't in Mystic Ruins.
05:17I always picture Sonic and Tails living in a house in the Mystic Ruins.
05:21If they loved nature so much, wouldn't they prefer to live outside the city?
05:25And that Tails' lab looks nothing like you'd expect the lab of a little kid to look like.
05:30It looks like a sinister government building.
05:33Sonic encounters a grey Emerl copy robot that speaks in stereotypical robot-speak and attacks him.
05:40The fake Emerls over the course of the game go from speaking in typical robot-speak to talking more normally and intelligently,
05:47for no adequately explained reason.
05:49Sonic gets worried about Tails from seeing the robot there,
05:53and decides to rush to where he is to see if he's okay.
05:57That's pretty sweet of him.
05:58Although it is weird that he's underestimating his ability to fight robots.
06:03Tails tells Sonic that a grey Emerl lookalike has robbed a bunch of jewelry stores.
06:08Why?
06:10Rouge doesn't know how to program robots.
06:13Aren't Eggman's robots just about killing Sonic?
06:17Why would Eggman tell him to rob jewelry stores all of a sudden?
06:20Is he going to sell the jewelry for money so that he can buy robot materials on the black market?
06:25But he can just take anything he wants.
06:29Tails decides that Sonic will fight Emerl using a heavy attack.
06:33Even Sonic points out how nonsensical it is,
06:36saying that the robot looks so damaged that it's surprising he can even stand on his own.
06:40Why does Tails just say,
06:42don't worry about it instead of acknowledging his concern?
06:46He's not like this.
06:48Why is everyone so eager to beat up their friends in this game?
06:52It's bad writing and it creates a lot of unfortunate implications.
06:56Tails could have sent Nanites at Emerl that already fixed them and it would make more sense.
07:01Tails comes to the conclusion that since Emerl is powered by Chaos Emerl,
07:06he'll regain his energy and even be able to speak properly after being given more Emerls.
07:11It's a lot more intuitive that he learns to speak properly because of the social interaction he has.
07:17It just doesn't fit as much with the tone of the game.
07:21It kind of feeds the point of, he's growing up.
07:25Tails says he's discovered that Emerl can learn attack techniques by observing or being hit by attacks.
07:32Tails tells Sonic that it's all he was able to learn because his computer crashed
07:36from the massive overload of data from having Emerl plugged into it.
07:40I guess he upgraded his computer so that it was even possible for him to reprogram him in Sonic Advance 3.
07:47It's weird that characters are actually mentioned in KO battles by name in the actual dialogue and so casually at the end.
07:55Why is Sonic fighting Tails?
07:58Tails doesn't have anything against him here, so this is extremely out of character for them.
08:04Why the hell would he ever want to knock out Tails multiple times?
08:08Why would Tails agree to it?
08:10Wouldn't the kid start crying after being knocked out by his big brother figure even once?
08:13Sonic never mentioned anything about fighting Tails, so why is he doing it?
08:18After this, Sonic decides to take Emerl to Emerl's Beach.
08:22It's called Emerl's Coast, not Emerl's Beach.
08:25Tails has the idea to bring Emerl to Knuckles, and Sonic agrees,
08:30saying that Knuckles is already familiar with Chaos Emerls.
08:33But he's not usually around the actual Chaos Emerls.
08:37Sonic is a lot more familiar with Chaos Emerls.
08:40And the whole world should be familiar with the idea of Chaos Emerls.
08:45Sonic decides right here to name the robot Emerl because he's powered by Chaos Emerls.
08:51Tails makes it clear that he doesn't like the name, saying sadly,
08:55But since he's humoring Sonic politely instead of outright calling him an idiot,
09:00he's actually sympathetic in this game instead of an annoying brat.
09:03Though I wouldn't like him being a total doormat either.
09:05Tails is right in front of him. Shouldn't he be saying,
09:08Your house?
09:10Sonic calls Eggman a cheese ball.
09:13Wow, Sonic is cheesy.
09:15I get it, he's good friendly.
09:17But he's pretty lame when he talks like this.
09:19And he's trying to be serious when he says this,
09:22so it's not just his dorky sense of humor that makes him a little endearing.
09:25Sonic from the very beginning was supposed to be cool and edgy,
09:28not lame and cheesy.
09:30After reaching Tails' house and saying,
09:32Sonic, rather than mistaking the fake Emerl for the real one,
09:35like plenty of other games would make him do,
09:37sends Emerl to fight his copy alone to test out his abilities.
09:40After this, Tails reminds Sonic they have to go see Knuckles,
09:44who is up in the direction of the Holy Summit.
09:47I thought he lived on Angel Island.
09:49I don't like that name.
09:51Instead, Sonic just goes north of Emerl Town,
09:54and he's suddenly in a town called,
09:56Sonic Town.
09:57I don't like that name.
09:59Instead, Sonic just goes north of Emerl Town,
10:02and he's suddenly in a grassy, mountainous area where Knuckles lives.
10:05I thought he lived on Angel Island.
10:08This uproar makes no sense.
10:11Why can't they simply have Tails taking the biplane to Angel Island?
10:15They meet up with what looks like Gamma.
10:18He's not Gamma, he just looks like him.
10:20Gamma starts a fight.
10:23Tails mentions that he's scared,
10:25but he still has a happy picture of himself above his dialogue box.
10:29They had one job!
10:32The cutscene presentation does exactly one thing to try to make things more clear,
10:37and it can't even get that right.
10:39Sonic and Tails go to the cave without indoor heating or air conditioning
10:43where Knuckles apparently lives.
10:45At least it's better than never showing any sort of shelter for him.
10:50Knuckles is a confrontational dick to Sonic as usual,
10:53acting like a jerk after Sonic says he needs to borrow his Chaos Emerl.
10:58Knuckles accuses Emerl of being the robot that's been robbing jewelry stores,
11:02even though Emerl is very clearly a different color from the robot he's referring to.
11:07What, does Knuckles think that Emerl got a new paint job?
11:11Well, actually, that does make sense, but they should have had him say that.
11:15But then Sonic shows himself to be an idiot as well.
11:18Rather than immediately telling Knuckles as his first sentence that Emerl isn't the robot he's referring to,
11:25instead he just tells him to chill out and starts trying to explain that Emerl is powered by Chaos Emerls,
11:31even though Knuckles is clearly not in the mood to listen to his explanation.
11:35Sonic, you're an idiot.
11:37He's been friends with Knuckles for years. Do you think he'd know to talk to him by now?
11:42This is like Sonic Rivals.
11:44Knuckles tells him to shut up and decides to destroy Emerl.
11:48And Sonic tells Emerl that Knuckles won't listen to anyone weaker than him.
11:52So Knuckles won't listen to Tails? Or Amy? What a dick.
11:57At least this isn't always true.
11:59So, in retrospect, it's more like an exaggeration of his character.
12:03In a classic example of talking as a free action, Sonic tells Emerl all about Knuckles' attacks and how to attack him.
12:12And Knuckles just stands there and lets Sonic tell Emerl about how to beat his own friend in a fight.
12:18It could have worked if they were running in a circle the whole time.
12:21After Knuckles loses to Emerl, he agrees to give Sonic the Chaos Emerl.
12:27Even though Emerl beating him in a fight did nothing to prove to him that he was wrong about his accusation of him.
12:32Tails puts an Emerl to an Emerl, and he thanks him.
12:36Is the text spelling it that way to imply that he's saying it slowly?
12:40And how does he know how to say thank you and when to do it when he's never heard it before?
12:45So he already has a vocabulary in him.
12:48Why did he say metal?
12:50He hasn't met Metal Sonic.
12:53We start out with a black background with Sonic and Emerl, with Sonic saying that he'll play with him at the beach by fighting him some more.
13:01I hope Emerl can't feel pain.
13:03The end of the game reveals that he can feel pain.
13:06So then why is he okay with this?
13:09I guess he only feels pain when he's visibly damaged.
13:13Because only then would pain actually be worthwhile.
13:17Then we see Tails looking sad that Sonic is spending all of his time with Emerl, beating him up.
13:23Oh, I wish Sonic was beating me up.
13:26This plot is stupid.
13:28Tails decides to find out more about Emerl by using the computer in the central lab.
13:33Why isn't Tails' own computer better than the computer in the central lab?
13:38When he's supposed to be the smartest person on the planet.
13:41Sonic just said that right in front of you.
13:44Or did he?
13:46The presentation is so awful he might not have and I wouldn't know.
13:50Sonic challenges Tails and Emerl to a fight where whoever gets 10 KOs wins.
13:56Again, why does Sonic want to beat up his little brother so badly?
14:01Has he been replaced by an evil twin?
14:03After the fight is over, Tails talks like a whiny little kid.
14:07Tails talks like a whiny little kid.
14:10And for some reason, he insists on taking Emerl to the central lab by himself instead of going there with Sonic.
14:17I guess what he has against Sonic is him spending all of his time with Emerl.
14:22Emerl doesn't obey Tails until Sonic gives him permission to.
14:27In Central City, you see a building with a Sonic Team sign on it.
14:32And Central City has a neon sign on the side of it saying the word Sonic vertically.
14:37It doesn't make much sense in-universe.
14:40Because Sonic doesn't own that lab.
14:43When Tails gets Emerl to Central Lab, the security guy refuses to let him in and do what he wants because it's a restricted area.
14:51Even though Tails is one of the heroes of the world and you'd think he'd have special privileges.
14:56Of course people would know who he is.
14:59Some of the civilians are so ungrateful.
15:02Rouge comes up to Tails asking if he's lost his mama.
15:05Again, acting out of character.
15:08She said that when Tails clearly doesn't have a mother.
15:11She just gets away with being condescending to him for no reason.
15:15She tells him that she'll let him into Central Lab because she's an agent for the president.
15:22Really, Tails? I don't remember very many times where Rouge was mean to them.
15:27The idiotic Team Dark fighting Sonic Heroes was an exception.
15:30Tails, you met Rouge before. How is she a stranger?
15:34The sentence you just said contradicted that.
15:37Oh god, the translation for this game is horrible.
15:41Why does Sonic tell Tails never to talk to strangers?
15:45When you'd think he'd be encouraging Tails to be more social like him rather than shy like he was at first.
15:51Because that's the only way to be able to get him to get out of his shell and stop being afraid of humanity.
15:57Rouge tells Tails that if he and Emerl win a 10 KO battle fight with her, she'll give him the Lab Pass.
16:04I have to assume she's doing this because she wants to make Emerl stronger.
16:08Tails says that he doesn't trust Rouge.
16:11Which makes sense because she doesn't explain that to him.
16:15After Tails defeats her with Emerl, Rouge says something sweet.
16:20After Emerl doesn't respond, Rouge mentions that he doesn't listen to Emerl.
16:24After Emerl doesn't respond, Rouge mentions that he doesn't listen to anyone but his master and leaves.
16:30And then Tails, who's supposed to be a genius, doesn't know what a master is.
16:36And you'd think he would've heard Eggman call himself the master of his robots after dealing with him for years.
16:42Who translated this?
16:44Tails goes up to the security guard.
16:47Okay, did anyone proofread this game?
16:50Tails uses the Lab Pass to get in and plugs Emerl into the lab's computer.
16:56Tails decides to examine Emerl's structural data.
16:59Unfortunately, the computer was unable to access any data from Emerl.
17:05Tails decided to bypass Emerl's security protocols to get an idea of his basic structure.
17:11Tails finds out that this weapon was discovered in the ancient ruins.
17:16So he really was discovered in ancient ruins and he's just moved to a weird house.
17:21And finds out it's called the Gizoid.
17:24Tails finds out that Gerald Robotnik had found Emerl.
17:28And that Emerl could potentially go out of control.
17:31Most of what he finds out is something we already know about.
17:36Maybe we should've only gotten diary entries from Gerald after this point.
17:41Because it'd be more impactful to find out about Gerald being the one who found him if we saw it through the lens of the main character.
17:49Guard robots were sent after Tails because somehow the building found out that restricted data was access that only the government is supposed to know.
17:58But all Tails has to do is destroy all the robots and the government won't come after him.
18:03There wasn't any record cap of what he did or anything.
18:06He wasn't caught on camera.
18:08How?
18:10Because since it was Tails, they didn't care.
18:13After that fight, Tails and Emerl run out of Central Lab.
18:17Only to have to fight even more guard robots.
18:20Tails and Emerl run into Shadow in front of Central Lab.
18:24Why was Shadow there?
18:26I guess he was stalking them?
18:28And Shadow asks why Tails doesn't destroy Emerl now that he knows who he really is.
18:33Even though he could fight Eggman.
18:34Shadow insists that there's no need to repeat past tragedies and no one needs to go through what he has.
18:41He becomes determined to protect his friend from Shadow.
18:44Who says that builders will never know how their creations truly feel.
18:49Is he insulting Gerald Robotnik when he says that?
18:52I thought they had a good father-son relationship.
18:55Maybe he's only saying that because of his friend Omega's experiences with Eggman.
18:59Rouge shows up telling them to stop fighting and leave before guard robots catch up with them.
19:05She implies that Shadow is injured and she was nice enough to take care of him.
19:10So it sucks that we didn't know that until now.
19:13And because of the horrible cutscene presentation, I have no idea what Shadow actually did.
19:18And Tails decides to let Sonic and Knuckles know what he discovered about Emerl.
19:23He decides to take out the guard robot blocking the east way out of the Hob World to escape the Holy Summit.
19:30When the two of them reach Knuckles, his dialogue implies that he at least trusts him.
19:36When Emerl doesn't say anything to him, the way he talks causes another fight with Knuckles.
19:42Tails tells Knuckles to go with him to Emerl's beach to tell him and Sonic something.
19:47There's another fight with Gamma.
19:49Eventually, Tails leaves without Knuckles and is just about to tell Sonic what he discovered about Emerl when Rouge shows up.
19:57And does it in a scarier way.
19:59And after Sonic gets offended at hearing that, Tails tells him it's true.
20:03Rouge gets the idea to give Emerl all 7 of the Chaos Emerls like Shadow didn't want
20:09and reset Emerl to turn him into an ordinary robot, erasing his data as a battle weapon.
20:14Why don't they get Tails to erase his data as a battle weapon right now?
20:18With a better computer, obviously.
20:21Why would they give him all of the emeralds?
20:24Why would they think an all-emerald Emerl wouldn't crash the computer?
20:30He would be especially powerful.
20:32Tails decides to power Emerl up and then figure out how to reset him afterwards.
20:37Great plan.
20:39That's something Sonic would come up with, not Tails.
20:42Ugh, it's the kind of plan that only happens to cause the plot to keep happening.
20:48Sonic and Tails don't trust Rouge, thinking that she only does good deeds to benefit herself.
20:54I mean, it does come from somewhere, because she was working for G.U.N. because she was being paid in jewels.
21:03And she thinks being a jewel thief would be more difficult if Eggman took over the world.
21:08She doesn't explain why, though.
21:11So I'm forced to assume it's because she thinks flying robots will be constantly patrolling the streets.
21:17I like how Rouge is about to call Emerl IT, but then starts calling him a HE.
21:22She says that he won't even talk to her without Sonic ordering him to do so.
21:27This always confused me.
21:30You'd think he would have to be ordered NOT to talk to people.
21:34Sonic has the brilliant idea to tell Emerl that he has to listen to Rouge, even though she's a jewel thief that he doesn't trust.
21:42Was Rouge really an essential part of his development?
21:47Rouge immediately leaves after Sonic says that, because she got what she wanted.
21:52And Knuckles shows up afterwards.
21:55Sonic is a dick.
21:57All of them run off, with Tails being upset at Sonic and Knuckles not getting along.
22:03And we get another Dariachi from Jail Robotnik.
22:07I guess it was too nice to get rid of him after he thought he was a horrible weapon.