Analysis of Sonic Lost World's Plot Part 2
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AmusantTranscription
00:00After this, the cutscene where Knuckles stands around doing nothing, and Amy says sadly that everything feels cold and dead, even though there's still grass living below her.
00:12Safe? The sassy Amy I know would've called him out on it.
00:17Why is she even still there?
00:20Okay, why the hell doesn't Sonic tell Tails to bring Amy and Knuckles to the Lost Hex?
00:26He was risking their lives by telling them to stay there.
00:30What made him think people were immune and not everything else?
00:35I don't feel any tension because not many people are shown as being threatened.
00:41It's not like it's targeting a city.
00:44Amy sees greenery turn white, like it's the Generations again.
00:49The only way Sonic's able to tease the old man's eddy is by awkwardly mentioning the word school around him.
00:56Unenthusiastically.
00:58If the Deadly Six made it a lot more obvious they were based on Japanese versions of demons, that'd be a lot cooler than what we got.
01:07Eggman, for some reason, goes back to Sonic and Tails and tells them about the life-draining machine.
01:14It's interesting that Eggman uses Cubot's head to project a video, so he can conveniently show him footage,
01:20and I have to assume it's because Cubot already saw the machine in action.
01:25Apparently.
01:26He complains the machine can't be shut off, and it supposedly is being used in ways it's not designed for.
01:34When the Deadly are literally doing the same thing he was doing.
01:38At least Tails points out this.
01:40Ask him what the machine was originally designed for, then.
01:44If you know it doesn't make any sense, why are you writing this anyways?
01:49Anyways, Sonic just wants to smash the machine, logically.
01:53And Tails has no chemistry with Sonic at all here.
01:57And Sonic is thankfully annoyed with Tails.
02:00How is Sonic supposed to know that smashing the machine would cause a massive explosion?
02:05Well, that's convenient for the plot.
02:07Tails should be saying, maybe Eggman's lying that we need to work with him to stop the machine.
02:13Instead, he just magically came to the same conclusion that Eggman did.
02:18Despite not knowing anything about how the machine is built.
02:22The idea of him using a machine that drains the life from grass...
02:27Is something Saddam Robotnik would approve of.
02:30So that's cool.
02:32Tails is rude to Eggman.
02:34Consider how calm Eggman is being right now.
02:37He looks like the mature adult compared to Tails being an arrogant brat.
02:42Sure, he isn't acting nicely.
02:45But he has every reason to be annoyed with him.
02:48And like that Eggman says men up Tails.
02:51And that he doesn't like working with them.
02:53Which he didn't even acknowledge in earlier games.
02:57Why are they all making such a big deal out of working with Eggman after all the different times they had to work together?
03:03It makes sense if he explained he's just tired of having to do that because it happened so much.
03:10Sega should have told Pontiac and Graf that this happens all the time.
03:16The vast majority of the time a writer is hired to work for a franchise.
03:20They're not going to be a fan of the franchise.
03:23Overcompensate much?
03:24Tails fixes Cubot to give him his awful Kermit the Frog voice again.
03:29And after smiling sweetly.
03:31He apologizes and says the voice chip was built by a two-year-old.
03:37While he has every reason to hate Eggman.
03:39No two-year-old can build anything.
03:42This is the cutscene where Tails throws a bitch fit.
03:46In Sonic Chronicles he admires him for his engineering talent.
03:51Eggman doesn't deserve to have him admire him for his engineering talent.
03:56That doesn't mean I want to see a good person talk like this.
04:01He's being a petulant child.
04:04None of the earlier games had him call him Egg Face.
04:07For a bunch of people who hate Eggman.
04:10For most of the franchise it was pretty rare of them to call him immature insults.
04:16Normally Tails is one of my favorite characters.
04:19But here I'm just thinking stopping a whiny little bitch and just deal with it.
04:24The narrative didn't give any reason for this sudden irritating side to him.
04:30It's also really lame when Sonic and Tails both say to Eggman at the same time that he bites.
04:36It feels immature.
04:37I get it they're supposed to be kids.
04:40And I'd rather Sega acknowledge that than pretend that the characters are ageless.
04:45But if most of the franchise didn't have them act a certain way.
04:50Then they shouldn't.
04:52Because it's going to be off-putting to everybody.
04:55At least Sonic gets to try to defend himself from Tails.
04:59When Eggman says bites again.
05:01That even makes fanboys to Pontack and Graff cringe.
05:06This game's writing style doesn't pull off drama well.
05:10Of course Sega was the one that came up with a story.
05:13Pontack and Graff only wrote the dialogue.
05:17Usually Tails hates Eggman because of his evilness.
05:21Not because he thinks he's a bad engineer for no reason.
05:25And he can't think that he's just lying to him.
05:28It's already bad enough that the designs of the Zeti are ridiculously childish.
05:33The younger demographic thinks kiddie stuff is lame.
05:36That's why they're all off playing Call of Duty with their friends.
05:40The next cutscene has Zavok compliment Zena's appearance to manipulate her into fighting Sonic.
05:45I thought the Zeti were proud warriors.
05:48If she doesn't want to fight.
05:51Then she shouldn't even be with them.
05:54What does her looking good have to do with her being capable of fighting Sonic?
05:58I think she knows that.
06:01And she just wants to reward him for the flattery.
06:04Why doesn't Zavok just threaten her?
06:06I'd say that because it'd be a lot simpler.
06:09He flatters her on multiple things.
06:11And the thing other than her beauty makes sense to get her to fight Sonic.
06:17So that shouldn't have been dropped in IDW.
06:21Because in IDW, he literally does just threaten her.
06:24I have to assume it's because the Zeti being beaten by Sonic caused him to lose respect for them.
06:31It would have been more interesting if she ended up not fighting Sonic.
06:34Because she doesn't like violence as much.
06:37She'd feel like an actual character then.
06:39In the next cutscene, they act like Tails' bitchfest never happened.
06:45If you're gonna have an argument between them, take advantage of it.
06:48Have Sonic try to make it up to him and have Tails feel sorry for what he did.
06:53Don't just make it feel even more out of place by having it be ignored later.
06:58I like a few things about this scene.
07:00Sonic, after beating Xena, makes a dynamic entrance and says that it was cool.
07:05And then he talks lamely.
07:07It's good that Tails cringed at that pun.
07:10It's better than him and Sonic laughing at their brilliant joke.
07:14But instead, Sonic is portrayed as a flawed character.
07:18It just happens in a way where Tails looks like he has no chemistry with him whatsoever.
07:24The only thing they agree on is bullying Eggman.
07:27Right after Sonic makes a pun, Zavok threatens Eggman.
07:31And Eggman actually has a really good line here.
07:34Zavok talks like a crazed gangster.
07:37But it never makes any sense.
07:39Because it's not like he's with other gangsters.
07:43Who also talk like that.
07:46Eggman threatens him again.
07:48And punches the ice cubes being an actual badass for once.
07:52I'm not sure why he said worlds and not just world though.
07:55Since the Zeti only have one planet.
07:58Also, it's lame to have the villain do a threat.
08:02And not get to do anything.
08:04No one wants to see him carry out those threats.
08:07But he could have done something to the Zeti.
08:10Like attack them a bit.
08:12Realistically, he holds his hand in pain after that.
08:16These lines are good for a villain at least.
08:19It's so surprising to see lines like this in a game with Zomom in it.
08:24The tone of this game is so schizophrenic.
08:27It just has dark elements there instead of playing off it.
08:32Xena shows just how one-dimensional she is to Sonic.
08:36I say that, but no other villain in the Sonic series cares about fingernail painting.
08:43I actually like Sonic's response here for once.
08:46And I like that after Xena believes him like an idealist.
08:50He reveals how sarcastic he was.
08:53But it's weird that she was naive in the first place.
08:56It makes the fact that she was extremely cynical.
08:59Thinking idealistic people were disgusting in IDW even weirder.
09:05Why is she gullible if she thinks people being nice to each other is gross?
09:10Clearly she wants people to be nice to her.
09:13The Zeti are actually less obviously one-dimensional in Japanese.
09:19The emo one is just flamboyant and melodramatic.
09:22And there's changes in tone to match the comedy attempts.
09:26I've heard colors was better in Japanese too.
09:30Robot complains about having to lug Cubot's head around.
09:33And shows a sense of humor by laughing after putting his head on a snowman.
09:38Tails sarcastically says his robots reflect Eggman's genius.
09:43Which only makes sense because it doesn't make any sense for Eggman to program them to be like that.
09:48But then says that this gives him an idea.
09:52Speaking in a horribly raspy voice while saying that.
09:56Eggman says he could do something to get rid of the Zeti using technology.
10:00And Sonic points out that this will exterminate every living thing around them.
10:05That's a good character moment for Eggman.
10:08Then as Cubot tries to attack Tails with a crab meat body.
10:12Annoying circus music plays.
10:14And Eggman saves him.
10:16Which isn't explained at all.
10:19It's good that Tails at least thanks him gratefully.
10:22Cubot sadly apologizes saying that he suddenly felt mean.
10:27Showing that he's not really that bad a guy.
10:30Which makes it all the more annoying that he still works for Eggman.
10:34I like Eggman's snark there.
10:36He definitely has the best lines in this game.
10:39But it's called badnik.
10:42Who calls them battle bots?
10:45Tails had said that Robot and Cubot were such a reflection of Eggman's stupidity.
10:49But didn't recognize the irony when he did something stupid himself.
10:54I get him wanting to give him a body again to be nice.
10:58But why give him a body that's completely useless to him?
11:03What's he supposed to do with those giant hands that's productive?
11:08It's good that Sonic said genocide.
11:10Reminding us that Eggman is indeed evil.
11:14But when Eggman says he's complicated.
11:16I don't think it's seriously at all.
11:18No you're not. You're a one-dimensional cliche.
11:22Like there's only one way he's not.
11:24It doesn't even make any sense that he did save Tails.
11:28He could explain that he saved him for being a genius.
11:31But he should know that all he's ever gonna use his genius for is fighting him.
11:36If he could turn Tails to his side.
11:39Which he could only do with technology.
11:42Then it would make sense that he saved him.
11:44If he did it specifically because he was planning to do that to him.
11:48And killing him would just be a waste at that point.
11:52I like that Sonic shows a parental protective side by scolding Tails for almost getting himself killed.
11:58And it's good that he wasn't too scared to use the word killed.
12:02And Tails actually looks sympathetic here.
12:05After this we have another pointless scene with the Zeti.
12:08Why the hell are there so many cutscenes devoted to these one-dimensional characters who only dare to be boss fights?
12:15This scene has Zavok and the old man decide to try to make Sonic a robot.
12:20It's bringing the roboticization concept into the games.
12:24I always thought it was a dark concept.
12:27Straight out of a science fiction horror movie.
12:29But to be fair I can only think of one other franchise doing something like this.
12:35It just seems unfitting in a game that's severely focused on bad mix.
12:41This does add a sense of tension to the story.
12:45But it's obvious fake tension because we know they won't succeed.
12:49They could have had him get roboticized really temporarily.
12:53It happens to him and Archie.
12:55The way roboticization was in Sonic Lost World worked perfectly.
13:01So there's no reason Eggman would not do that in IDW.
13:06The next cutscene has Tails get kidnapped.
13:09Sonic says sadly that he was too slow to save his buddy.
13:13Ignoring that it was him reacting quickly that got him in that situation.
13:19And Eggman doesn't lampshade this.
13:21Instead he comforts him.
13:23This is so stupid.
13:26Eggman doesn't do this.
13:28He has no reason to do this.
13:31If Tails was as awesome as he built himself up to be.
13:35He would have pulled a gadget out of his shoe.
13:38And broke out of it himself.
13:41If Sonic had been the one captured.
13:44Then we would have gotten an excuse to play as Tails.
13:48We get introduced to the emo character.
13:51The annoying thing is Sonic doesn't just punch him in the face.
13:54Since it's right up to him.
13:56And almost does it to threaten him.
13:59That's the biggest hole in these cutscenes where the Zeddy introduces himself to Sonic.
14:04Why the hell doesn't Sonic just attack them?
14:07He has no problem fighting them in the boss fights.
14:10So he's not morally opposed to it.
14:13And they keep bantering with him in the boss fights.
14:17So it's not that they're talking to him.
14:20And he's too polite to interrupt them.
14:23He interrupted Shadow in SE2.
14:25Sonic is supposed to be impatient.
14:30Absolutely low that Tails is in this cutscene.
14:34When he comes out of the animal capsule.
14:36He's not scared at all.
14:38He's just looking uncharacteristically angry with the draw me like one of your French girls pose.
14:44And looks very jarring and creepy because he never stops doing it.
14:48And his eyes are half closed.
14:51This would make more sense for Amy.
14:53Why the hell doesn't he just get up and run away or attack them?
14:58He doesn't look like he's restrained.
15:01Why isn't he scared?
15:02This isn't Tails.
15:03I don't even want to look at this.
15:05If they want to make him look sassy.
15:08It just makes me wonder why isn't fighting them.
15:12At least I giggled at how the emo runs in saying they don't have Sonic and all the deadly six say we know.
15:19That's pretty relatable.
15:21The next cutscene is the emo resently look at Sonic from above wasting your time.
15:27I like that or about would rather work for Sonic.
15:30Can I be your sidekick?
15:31And Eggman deserves to have to hear that.
15:34So I guess the only reason he's still working for Eggman is it's the only place available to him.
15:40The only reason he's working for Eggman is every other role is built.
15:45I really like that or about admires him for the right reasons.
15:49He should have said friend instead of sidekick saying he'd replace tails was a recipe for disaster.
15:56Xavit tries to intimidate Sonic and Sonic takes it seriously, which is good.
16:03Did Sonic really need to say that's horrible?
16:07That's mood whiplash.
16:09Cubot says being a robot isn't so bad.
16:12It's too bad.
16:13That's all he's allowed to say because it could have provided some nice insight instead of or by mentioning the downsides.
16:22He just complains about his head being on his body.
16:25This is a problem only a robot could have but it's also a very rare problem.
16:31So it doesn't get the point across because it's never going to happen.
16:34It tails Sega's clearly doesn't know what tone to go for with this game.
16:39I thought forces would start the transition.
16:42Oh the comedy era, but really this is where it started.
16:46Now for a very dramatic scene where Amy says to Sonic that she doesn't know how much longer she'll be able to live.
16:54And we're actually supposed to believe she never told Sonic she loved him before this.
16:59How are we supposed to take this seriously when she made it blatantly obvious?
17:03She loved him the entire franchise.
17:08Then she loses contact with Sonic for good.
17:11What was it like for them after they were sucked up by the life-draining machine?
17:16I don't think it was like anything.
17:18I think they just were unconscious.
17:21I'm guessing the Grim Reaper was perfectly fine with Sonic resurrecting everyone who died to that machine.
17:27It's good to have this cutscene because otherwise there'd be no focus on the threat.
17:32The Zeti pose and it's against someone you're supposed to care about not some random city.
17:39This cutscene is really stupid.
17:41The Zeti strap tails to roboticizer and just leave for no reason.
17:46So of course tails is able to reprogram it.
17:49If they only do this to him out of sadism.
17:52Why wouldn't they watch it?
17:55Why did Solomon leave his sandwich there with a toothpick for tails to use it?
18:00Of course, everyone can get full sometimes but saw mom doesn't give you the impression that he gets full.
18:07He's eating almost every time you see him.
18:10So he's going to get full inevitably, but he still want to leave his sandwich behind for tails to eat it.
18:16And why is there a toothpick in a sandwich?
18:18Anyways, tails manipulates his tail for like fingers to somehow reprogram the machine with a toothpick.
18:27He hits green keys in the keyboard with it.
18:30When he can't even see what he's doing.
18:33So how's he supposed to even know what they do?
18:36Why is there a mechanism into the roboticizer that just dress tails up as a cyborg that could be accessed by pressing the right buttons?
18:45You'd have to program that mechanism into it intentionally.
18:49So tails must have done it.
18:52Roboticizer by definition turns organic into inorganic.
18:56So the only way to get around that is to have it roboticized only the air around his body.
19:03He should have explained that.
19:06Why don't they restrain his tails too?
19:09After the deadly six throw boulders at Sonic and Eggman.
19:13Eggman then seemingly sacrificed himself to save Sonic.
19:16Which only makes sense if you think that he thought he was going to survive.
19:21And he only saved Sonic so he could fight the Zeti for him.
19:24But of course he'll be revealed to be alive later.
19:27This is one of the only pieces of evidence for unvaluing Eggman's life.
19:33In the classic games, he's very careless with his life.
19:37There's a dramatic scene where Sonic still is out of contact with Amy and Knuckles.
19:42And stares into space for a moment sadly.
19:46This is one of the only times I ever felt sympathy for Roger Sonic.
19:50Right after this is a cutscene where Sonic's exasperated with the Zeti.
19:56I guess he thinks he has to keep up the act to avoid looking vulnerable.
20:00This is a scene where Tails shows up roboticized.
20:04I hate seeing his creepy stare before he awesomely says never and shoots them.
20:09Sadly, he doesn't accurately hit them for literally no reason.
20:16How does he change his eye without it being permanent?
20:19It looks like he has a cyborg eye, which could've come in handy despite looking awful.
20:25He'd only fake roboticization by having it so that the air around him is roboticized.
20:31If he can have it on, then why can't he put it back on and use it again?
20:37Why doesn't he use the laser shooter ever again?
20:41Why didn't Sonic bring Tails with him to take advantage of his Mega Buster?
20:45Why wasn't Tails playable like this?
20:49He was playable in Sonic Boom.
20:51He was playable in the DLC and Frontiers.
20:55Eggman shows up in a giant mech to be the final boss for no reason.
20:59Sonic has a really lame and awkward comeback, which even FDA doesn't like.
21:06Tails returns life to the planet, which has to be what brings Amy and Knuckles back to life.
21:12Eggman says the Zeti will be his once again.
21:15This was clearly written because they overestimated the popularity of the Zeti.
21:21Eggman tries to jetpack away, but thanks to Sonic, he falls off the Lost Hex because Sonic stole the Exhaust Pose.
21:30How did Eggman live through that?
21:34It's smart of Sonic.
21:37So this is living by his own feelings by impulsively spiting him because of his anger.
21:44But it's ignoring his past feelings.
21:47He really does live in the present.
21:50I guess the reason he didn't try to kill him in Sonic 1 is that he didn't think he would be able to handle it.
21:56And now he knows better.
21:59What a great way to end this story by Sonic sleeping.
22:04That's exactly what this game makes you do.
22:07This is a painful story to go through.
22:10Whether this story is charming entirely depends on how funny you think the comedy is.
22:16And if you don't laugh at the comedy, you're only going to focus on how obviously out of place it is for the Sonic games.
22:24And see how lame it really is.
22:27So most of the story is lame.
22:30And it's not memorable in a good way even without that.
22:34Because whenever I think about the story, one of the only things I think of is that everyone's standing around in a field.
22:42At least it looks Sonic-like.
22:45It's not realistic looking grass which would immediately repel me.
22:50Tails throws a bitch fit with no real consequences.
22:54He's in general a completely insufferable brat that never gets called out on as if he's a Gary Stu creator's pet the whole game.
23:03The Deadly Six are one-dimensional and spend too much time on screen.
23:08And the story has no sense of proper flow and foreshadowing to it.
23:13It's written like a TV show.
23:15A lot of stuff is never explained about the Deadly Six.
23:18Like why they became the Deadly Six.
23:21Why they're sealed away.
23:23Why are they the only Zeddy.
23:26And their ultimate fate.
23:28It makes sense for Sonic to make a mistake like kicking away the conch.
23:32How does he deal with the mistake?
23:35He insults Eggman.
23:36He trivializes his friends' worries by one-upping them.
23:40And Sonic never can prove that he learns his lesson.
23:44Because when Tails gets captured, he blames it on him not reacting quick enough.
23:49Usually Tails is supposed to be the mediator when two enemies working together are fighting.
23:54To have him be one of the ones fighting is a betrayal of his character.
23:58It's about as wrong as Cream being this way.
24:02At the very least, the story does do a few things right.
24:06It has tension and threatening lines from the villains.
24:09It makes you feel sorry for Sonic at one point.
24:12And portrays Sonic as a flawed character because of a canon personality trait he has.
24:17It has Tails be upset at one point.
24:21And they try for a darker tone.
24:24But they don't try hard enough.
24:26I'd still prefer Heroes' story over this.
24:29It had really short cutscenes.
24:32They knew how bare-bones the plot was.
24:35So they had the amount of story content match it.
24:38Most of the cutscenes in this game only exist to have a joke in it.
24:43The light-draining machine is only there to give tension.
24:46I like that it goes against nature.
24:49That's a Satiem Robotnik thing.
24:51It's Eggman going back to his roots.
24:55Aside from Tails, Deus Ex Machina rescuing himself instead of Sonic saving him.
25:00At least the story makes sense.
25:03Aside from the fact that the Lost Hex even exists.
25:06But at least the fact that it says Hex in its title makes it easy to figure out.
25:12It's a hex, so a witch made it.
25:15That immediately makes me wonder, why did a witch make it?
25:20So now I have to assume they made it
25:23to have a place to exile the Satiem.
25:26So it has to be a little planet situation.
25:29Where it constantly goes back and forth between one planet and another with teleportation.
25:36It makes sense in a world with magic in it.
25:39But they still should have explained it.
25:41Because without it, it just feels like it only happens for the sake of having a plot.