Do not forget the three alternate endings that are based on your choices: By ignoring or failng to recollect the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic is unable to capture the Master Emerald - leaving it floating in space. He is not strong enough, and it is lost forever, thus Angel Island remains in the sea. If he collects just the Chaos Emeralds, then Super Sonic will be strong enough to take the Master Emerald with him. However, the Master Emerald has not attained its full power by attuning to the full strength of the Chaos Emeralds, and it always left me with doubt that the Master Emerald could hold Angel Island up without it, thus it could fall on its own or be even more vulnerable to being taken. But, if he collects the Chaos Emeralds, and the Hyper Emeralds, then the Master Emerald will be fully attuned and empowered by the Emeralds, and thus will see Angel Island thrive thanks to the power of the Master Emerald. Truly this game is a work of art.
I didn't even really think about that! I think that just the normal emeralds would still be enough, but what I like to think is the reason the super emeralds came into being is because the Master Emerald basically knows what's happening and gives the power required of the situation. That's why when presented with the chaos emeralds, it powers them up further. Because in that situation it's guardian had turned, so it needed to bestow power enough to guard itself. The master Emerald itself can lift the island, it was just a matter of getting someone to bring it back. Sonic can't alone, so he needs the chaos emeralds, and though that's enough, the super emeralds guarantee it's safety
I always saw the chaos emeralds as shards of the super emeralds, while angel island floated without them, the dull super emeralds werent strong enough to recover from the removal of the master emerald. Chaos emeralds fuse with super emeralds, give em that charge and back to the sky it goes. I didnt like that sonic adventure turned everything variable sized, i liked the hidden palace with these huge emeralds... now everything fits in your pocket, even if you dont have pockets
@@ColeTheFactGuy "Hydrocity" resembles scientific terms, which is inconvenienced when talking about a level in a sonic game, so I would prefer going with "Hydro City" while still writing it as Hydrocity (because it's written that way in sonic 3)
7:37 True Answer: Brad Buxer wanted to put "Hard Times" in the game, and when it was his turn to do Act 2, like in all the songs he wrote, he removed instruments. I agree with everything else in this video
Good video, I feel Sonic CD also does its story very seamlessly (if not as seamlessly), Outside of the cutscenes bookending the game and the few in game sequences, most of the games narrative is told in the artistic direction and level design of the zones both in their timeline variants and in their order (So that eggman's influence over the zone becomes more and more apparent until your in the fully Eggman controlled zones. Oddly enough I think the classic Sonic games always wanted a progressive narrative of sorts (more on the CD vein, where level progression follows a theme), Sonic 1's levels were designed to be more industrialised as the game progresses (with Nature in Green Hill, followed by Overtaken Ruins in Labyrinth and Marble, and modernity with Star Light and Spring Yard before Scrap Brain Zone, also the 8-bit version where progression is marked with upward movement), and Sonic 2 famously had a time travel plot where the game's zones would be split four ways (Now, Past, Now 2 and Future). In that way, I think Sonic 3 was them realising something they wanted to for a while (even changing the progression to account for cutting Flying Battery Zone from Sonic 3)
Advanced detail that I fucking love pointing out: Even the flow of time makes sense. You can track the game taking place over 3 days. Angel Island- Day Marble Garden- Evening, transitions to night at the end Carnival Night- Night Ice Cap- Early morning, sky gets lighter at the end of act 1 Launch Base- Late morning Mushroom Hill and Flying Battery- Afternoon Sandopolis 1- Sunset Lava Reef- Presumably night Sky Sanctuary- Day
Awesome video. BTW Sonic 3 was supposed to be even MORE cohesive. Originally Flying Battery was supposed to come after Carnival Night. Afterwards you would use the door from FB as the Snowboard in Ice Cap.
And Flying Battery was originally Eggman's blimp that was parked at the top of Carnival Night. And with that, since it would've been destroyed by Sonic, Knuckles would dig a hole into his own exclusive zone as his way into Ice Cap. All of this according to concept art btw.
something you forgot to mention is the mural on the wall pf hidden palace depicting what appears to be super sonic battling a giant robotnik holding the master emerald, representing doomsday zone
Oh I totally forgot about that. I think it's cool. I like the idea of the master Emerald knowing this is the time predicted and creating the super emeralds in response
@@ColeTheFactGuy sorry, its gen cus i've NEVER seen your channel ever, considering the views and the subs at the time of me writing the og comment, i just assumed.
Pantomime storytelling is great. I think my love for that came from this and the spy vs spy comics from mad magazine. Rocket Knight Adventures also does a good job of contexualizing why you're where you are and why you are where you're going in between levels albeit not nearly as good as Sonic 3k did it.
I like what they're trying to do, but it was just so dumb to me. Knuckles punching the emeralds out of Sonic. Nonsense. Sonic stands idly by as Knuckles blows the bridge out from under him. Nonsense. And those are just the first two