Analysis of Sonic Shuffle's Plot
Transcript
00:00Now for Sonic's Shuffle.
00:02After too long of nothing happening, there's slaps against Amy.
00:07Why don't Tails and Knuckles feel in pain after the landing while Sonic and Amy did?
00:12When they landed from a big height just like Sonic.
00:16Amy says something people find out a character.
00:19It wouldn't be so bad if her dress looked damaged or stained instead of her having no reason to complain.
00:26If it was covered in mud, I wouldn't blame the writer for having her focus more on it than Sonic.
00:32When Sonic gets slapped all the time and is fine afterwards, this is hardly the only fall he's taken.
00:38And the heroes bore me for a while.
00:41They should be wondering how they got here too.
00:44Lumina overloads them with a giant amount of exposition about the intriguing world she lives in.
00:51That's never been done in the Sonic series before.
00:54It's a good thing we get shown stuff happening at some point when she talks to make it look interesting.
01:00Usually we don't even get that so it's not engaging.
01:04We should have been shown how Void was transforming Maginary World.
01:09Who would ever name a place that? It's not imaginary in-universe.
01:14Lumina doesn't even explain why she enlisted the heroes' help.
01:18In fact, they feel like they have to tell her their names.
01:22So it's really not that she did it because she knows about them.
01:26I have to assume she got their help because she sensed a lot of magical power in them.
01:31I love Amy calling a beach beautiful.
01:35She can appreciate stuff.
01:37How can a beach be created from dreams?
01:40It'd be created from magic.
01:42It'd be either magic or technology.
01:45Void seems to be just an unbelievable character.
01:50I remember his motivation but it doesn't help.
01:53It's hardly impressive that it's yet another plot centered around a MacGuffin-ciclet.
01:58Why would people know that the destruction of the Precious Stone would destroy the world if it hasn't been destroyed yet?
02:04I have to assume the people that can sense magic were able to determine that by doing so.
02:09Lumina's an idiot thinking she can reason with a monster.
02:13So is Sonic.
02:15Why doesn't he just fight him?
02:18I'm being shown something I already saw until Tails stands up to Void.
02:22Why would the story have the same dialogue?
02:25Exactly. The same imagery.
02:28Why doesn't Tails fight Void?
02:30Void's really boring when he keeps having these pauses between what he's saying to her.
02:35I don't even know why he's saying that.
02:37Why doesn't Knuckles fight Void?
02:40Amy has such a lame line.
02:43Accusing him of trying to destroy everyone's dream.
02:46It's not everyone's dream.
02:48It's an alternate universe.
02:51The heroes wake up on a beach, and Sonic wants to state the obvious for no reason.
02:56It should be Tails, because he did that in SA1.
02:59So far, Sonic isn't in character.
03:02As in, he's not distinct from the other characters.
03:05They're all just... they're good people willing to be heroes.
03:09And that's about it.
03:11Lumina says they restored the world to its original beautiful state.
03:16Okay, so Shuffle has slightly different cutscenes depending on which character you chose.
03:21The one you chose gets to talk more.
03:24What a tremendous waste of development time.
03:29Lumina says the airship they were sent to is losing speed,
03:32and is scared it's gonna crash if they don't do something.
03:35And only the gameplay shows what they did to make it stop.
03:39Why didn't Lumina tell Sonic where Void came from?
03:43Why doesn't Void just give him a clear answer?
03:46Why does Sonic think he destroyed the precious stone if the universe hasn't been destroyed yet?
03:51Void wouldn't say he is the dream.
03:54He says he was betrayed, for no reason.
03:57And he says he's lonely, and asks Knuckles if he became something,
04:02saying pseudo-philosophical gibberish.
04:05Why does Void think he did nothing wrong?
04:08Why does he keep trying to justify himself?
04:11Why would he care what they think?
04:14Finally, he says his true motivation, that he wants to be whole.
04:18It's pretty lame that you have to play the game once with every character to get all of Void's dialogue
04:24when the game's ridiculously hard, or watch the cutscenes on YouTube.
04:28And Lumina says the Firebird rose from the ashes,
04:32so it's a somehow poorly translated Phoenix.
04:36Why does the story expect me to care about Lumina's exposition about the Firebird
04:40representing people's desire to be free?
04:43So, by dream, everyone means ambition here.
04:47Amy thinks it's cool, and Lumina thanks the heroes.
04:51Amy says this was a jungle, but it still is, and Lumina calls it a jungle too.
04:57It doesn't look like it's getting destroyed.
05:00It's nice that she calls it beautiful.
05:02The world she's in is constantly made out of what people want.
05:06It's just magical.
05:08Somehow Sonic doesn't answer when asked what his dream is,
05:12and says a dumb response.
05:15So obviously he doesn't want Eggman defeated once and for all,
05:18because then his life would be boring.
05:20How's he talking to Illumina when Illumina is Void and Lumina together?
05:25She says her dream is a world full of light,
05:29coming off like a potential villain.
05:31But isn't she a magical being?
05:33Doesn't that mean she should have already made that?
05:36Void must be crazy if he's wondering why someone's trying to stop him.
05:40Tails says his dream.
05:42Why does he think he isn't strong enough?
05:44That's what Knuckles is for.
05:46Anytime Sonic needs someone with super strength, he's got Knuckles.
05:51He talks as if he hasn't already been helping Sonic.
05:55Knuckles says his dream is to do something he's already supposed to be doing.
05:59He doesn't know what dream is supposed to mean in this context.
06:03He has no dream.
06:05You'd think his dream would be that Eggman gets imprisoned,
06:10or turns good.
06:12Why does Illumina want a world full of blinding light?
06:16Knuckles is smart enough to wonder who Void is.
06:20Amy's dream is to somehow become like Sonic.
06:23Usually she's never too ashamed to admit she wants Sonic to marry her.
06:28I can easily believe she'd want to be like Sonic.
06:31My problem is if she's asked what her dream is,
06:34if she really had two dreams,
06:36she would just say both dreams.
06:39Not only say the one nobody knows about.
06:42And she definitely would have two dreams.
06:47Knuckles says the jungle's been regenerated,
06:50and I'm supposed to believe it looks different now.
06:53I can't tell.
06:54The jungle looked good the whole time.
06:57It's nice to hear her soul comfort Illumina.
07:00And she thanks them.
07:01And it's cool of them to land on a speeding train.
07:04But it can't be going that fast,
07:06or the wind would blow them off the top.
07:09Illumina says this is the world where everyone's dreams come true, obviously.
07:14Then why isn't there a place where Eggman rules?
07:17Logically there would be, and we just don't get to see it.
07:21Because this place has unrealized potential.
07:24He says it's a precious stone,
07:26and then he says it's a piece of a dream.
07:28He sounds crazy.
07:30He wants to destroy the precious stone,
07:32and people always say that.
07:34Why doesn't he destroy himself then?
07:37Clearly there isn't just one precious stone.
07:40Aside from Chip,
07:41he's got the worst dialogue of any Sonic character because of that.
07:46Most of the time he's incomprehensible for no reason.
07:50Well, I guess it's the nature of how he was made, but still.
07:54I have a feeling the dialogue wasn't localized well.
07:58Why do the heroes always just stand there and let Void conk?
08:02How do they expect to get out of here?
08:05It has to be because he's as tall as them,
08:07so they've got too much mercy because he's a person to them.
08:11He has a normal-looking hairstyle, too,
08:14so he doesn't look like a monster.
08:16The dialogue around this point is just so vague,
08:19it's completely unengaging.
08:21A whole lot of words that mean nothing.
08:24The writer seems to think he was a genius.
08:27Why is Luna being angsty around Amy all of a sudden?
08:30Why is the Temple of Light the temple where everyone waits?
08:34Nobody is there.
08:36The whole game makes it come off like all of Maginary World is a ghost town.
08:41Why is it called the Fourth Dimension?
08:44That name tells people nothing.
08:47Amy thinks something's beautiful, and it has no impact on me.
08:51Only a magical being could create a world like this
08:54with it still having a breathable atmosphere.
08:57Illumina is magical, so it makes sense.
09:00Illumina again asks Void why he wants to destroy the precious stone,
09:04and he asks if he's alone for no reason instead of properly explaining,
09:08and then says he isn't.
09:10He confused me again, saying everyone ran from him,
09:13and he failed to try to reach them.
09:16Everyone makes fun of when he asks why he was born.
09:20The problem isn't that he's depressed,
09:22it's that the cutscenes fail to make you sympathize with him by the time he says this.
09:27Because of the awful script, for one.
09:30Illumina whines that all is lost, and the heroes comfort her one after the other.
09:35Why does Void wonder why he's hated and think he and Illumina are the same
09:39despite everything she said to him?
09:41It looks like Sonic's holding a black Chaos Emerald.
09:45And all the heroes talk about dreams a lot, stating the obvious.
09:49Knuckles defends dreams even though he's never had one, apparently.
09:53It's not even worth talking about what they're saying.
09:56Illumina thanks them and gets given the black gem, and she walks away with it.
10:01Before I read Archie and became used to the idea of fantasy elements in Sonic
10:05because it's about magic,
10:07and stopped having a problem with it,
10:09I used to have a problem with fairies in a Sonic plot,
10:12but now the fairy wings are the only part of her design that I like.
10:16Otherwise, she looks really weird.
10:19It's so easy to think something's not Sonic-like,
10:22but if you think about it, you're only saying that because it's never been a Sonic game before,
10:26and with that logic, Sonic games wouldn't be allowed to do anything they haven't done before.
10:31She puts a black gem in a place, and suddenly she looks happy in front of Void for no reason.
10:36Nothing compelled her to grab his hands and become Illumina.
10:40Why did she not want to be whole again?
10:43Why did only Void know that he was un-whole?
10:47It's just a coincidence.
10:49They split, and he got the info.
10:52You know what?
10:54Void's male. No wonder he wanted to be whole again,
10:57because being whole meant being female again.
11:00Illumina apologizes for being unhappy.
11:03The only dream she mentioned having was the dream to make the world full of light.
11:07Hopefully she didn't literally mean having light in every possible spot,
11:12just in enough spots that shadows aren't a thing anymore.
11:16She wants everywhere to be well-lit,
11:19because pitch darkness is an inconvenience.
11:22Or she's just that afraid of the dark,
11:25so she wants everywhere to have a nightlight at the very least.
11:28Any place brighter than nightlight will be hard to fall asleep in,
11:32so she's very selfish if that's what she means.
11:35Everyone here should have known she was the villain as soon as she said that.
11:39The story would have been more interesting if its climax involved her actually achieving her goal,
11:44and then the heroes have to undo it.
11:46I didn't want to hate this plot, because its premise is new for Sonic.
11:51But it's so boring.
11:54It's just so much philosophical dialogue that's the writer thinking he's smart.
12:00But nothing is actually happening at any point.
12:03Void being completely insane without being emotional enough to be entertaining
12:07doesn't help make it engaging either.
12:10I know why it's called Void now.
12:12The void is his lack of sanity.
12:15Illumina is so big that obviously Illumina is the better form,
12:18because in this form she gets to go into buildings that are too big for Illumina.
12:23But if she's really a magical being,
12:25she should be able to shrink herself at will regardless.
12:29But I was never told she's capable of literally any power, let alone that.
12:34I think what's confusing about Void is,
12:36it's not like they're literally opposites in every way,
12:39because both of them are angsty at times.
12:43He should have gotten all of her angst.
12:47She should have been cheerful.
12:49It's a shame for Sonic's planet that none of the heroes thought to ask her
12:53if she could magically imprison Eggman.
12:56Come to think of it, there was a fairy in Sonic Underground.
13:00So the only way Illumina is new
13:03is that the only thing fairy about her design is the wings.