Rewrite that Generations story! (May contain spoilers)

[Milo]

Title says all.

Mostly, Generations just feels like a Big Lipped Alligator Videogame, because a lot of things it never explains.

- How did classic Tails become relevant to the story? As far as I know, he just appeared. *POOF*

- How did Sonic remember Crisis City/Sonic 06?

- How did Silver recognize Sonic?

- What's up with Blaze appearing? And how does SHE remember Sonic?

I would had liked to see classic Sonic save some of the other classic conterparts of the characters as well as long-forgotten classic characters like Mighty, Ray, and Fang.

[Mr. Awesomest]

For the most part, I'd add a lot of dialogue to make the characters seem like characters, and not tools. Perhaps flashback cutscenes to the older games as characters are released from their statue-like state, like Knuckles getting tricked into fighting Sonic, or Espio trying to clog his ears so he can't hear all the corny FRIENDSHIP and TEAMWORK lines.

- Classic Tails would get a cutscene for him showing up, where he and Tails begin to come to the conclusion that they are in some crazy limbo, and they, obviously, quickly become buds.

- Sonic wouldn't remember Crisis City; as soon as he enters Crisis City, he openly states to no one in particular that he has a sinking feeling that he's about to get shot in the back. A new idle animation is used in this level would involve him quickly turning around and hopping aside, as if to dodge a death-ray.

- Silver recognizes Sonic from the Rivals games.

- When you free Blaze, Sonic decides he's gotta know how she got to his world. Cue close up on Blaze's face, cut to flashback of Southern Island where Sonic, Tails, Marine and Blaze are chilling around a campfire at night when Sonic brings up his birthday. Cut to a bored looking Blaze drumming her fingers next to a Sol Emerald, who then looks at a hammer on the table. Cut back to present. "I improvised." "Oh, well, improvise more often." "I'd rather not."

Oh, and there HAS to be something like this somewhere in there.

Edited November 6, 2011 by Mr.Awesomest

[Salamander]

I'd have had a cutscene upon entering each level in which the characters contextualise it within Sonic's history - by which I mean, they refer to the game/adventure where they encountered that level. Essentially, like the Chemical Plant cutscene after finishing it with Modern. I'd also have made it so that the boss fights are literally the original events being encountered by Sonic through time-travel, rather than... well, it's not clear what they're meant to be, but Shadow and Silver don't seem to be fighting Sonic for any good reason - they could've done with some cutscene dialogue, too. Integrating the rescue cutscenes into their levels rather than having them give a nondescript comment while on the hub would've been a good idea, too.

Lastly, I think I'd have had Eggman Nega be the villain responsible for everything, having roped in Robotnik and Eggman to help, and used it as an opportunity to give him a finalised backstory.

Edit: Oh yeah, and have more Classic-Modern interaction, particularly involving other classic characters. Have Tails and Tails be nervous about interacting in case it interferes with the timestream, before seeing Modern give Classic a piggy-back. Have Classic and Modern Amy show at once and both leap for the Sonics, each hitting the wrong one. Have our heroes encounter Classic and Modern Knuckles fighting, each believing the other to be an impostor.

Edited November 6, 2011 by FFWF

[JezMM]

Here's the big things I would have done:

1. Introduce classic Eggman sooner. While the plot twist at the end of him appearing was nice, I sort of saw it coming, and frankly, I would have LOVED to have seen more of them. Little aside "MEANWHILE" cut-scenes like Unleashed and Colours had would have been beautiful with these guys after each boss fight or something.

2. Have the Time Eater NOT be in their control... UNTIL THE END. This would be the plot twist that replaces Classic Eggman's unveiling. The unharnessed Time Eater would be the penultimate boss, and then in an aversion of recent monster of the week trends, the final boss sees it captured and powered up by the Eggmans.

3. Most of the other stuff people have said, lol. Funny character interaction stuff could have happened before/after character-related missions too.

[SuperStingray]

I like to think that the Time Eater is actually the resurfaced and not yet fully recuperated form of Mephiles the Dark. His portrayal in 06 gives me the idea that he's the embodiment of entropy- the inevitable decay of the universe. And as such, he cannot be destroyed, merely deterred. But like with Dark Gaia, he hasn't been fully revitalized in the state he was discovered by Eggman in. But unlike Dark Gaia, this gave Eggman the opportunity to take control of his energy. Mephiles' connection to the first timeline resurfaced the events in it, hence, Crisis City.

Again, that's just my fanon...

As for Silver and Blaze, they canonically recognize Sonic in the second timeline because of Rivals 2 and Rush respectively.

Edited November 7, 2011 by SuperStingray

[SoniClub]

I'd add a heck of a lot more self-parodies and in-jokes; the cutscenes themselves just felt so pointless, with some of them lasting only 10 seconds long. A complete waste when you think of all the humour they coulda' gotten in there. (eg; where was the scene where both the Sonic's and Tails' look at eachother and have a moment of bewilderment? Why was there no mention of green eyes? C.Tails = "Are you wearing contacts")

I'd also probably have C.Amy and C.Knuckles show up at some point, even for a brief cameo. C.Knuckles would somehow get tricked, leading M.Knuckles to be like, "Yeah, people do that to us a lot." And Metal Sonic was just the perfect opportunity for C.Amy to appear and get kidnapped!

And in general just a load more of character interraction, there was barely any and all of it was pretty boring. (M.Sonic doing the midair boost and C.Sonic doing that corny thumbs up. Sure, it was cute in the last scene, but the very fact that it was a whole cutscene left me very disappointed.)

Edited November 8, 2011 by Wordy

[#EndyGate]

You know, what I would've liked better is that in the cutscene where Sonic saves a character/is about to challenge a boss, I feel that they should've shown a compilation of clips showing that character, how they met Sonic, and a few other aspects of their character, whether they be refined for the game, preferably remade for the game, or the original clips from their respective games

Like Tails for example, there could be remakes of how Sonic & Tails met, Tail catching Sonic after his drop from the Death Egg (Sonic 2), the endings to Sonic & Tails' stories in Adventure, Colors' brofist, etc.

Cream could have Sonic's meeting with her in Sonic Advance 2 (even showing him running away from her), a scene having Sonic bring Vanilla to Cream and the others after advance 2's final boss. Maybe a bit of her and his interactions with Emerl and Gemerl, plus him comforting her after Blaze goes away in Rush

Blaze could use Sonic and Blaze's first encouter in Leaf Storm, their meeting in Coral Cave, their hand shake and separation after Exception

Shadow - Sonic meeting him in Sonic Adventure 2, a small clip from before his boss fight, Shadow saving Sonic in 06, their transformation together in Adventure 2

Death Egg Robo could show a few clips of sonic facing several Eggman mechs from the classics, whilst Egg Dragoon shows clips of modern egg mechs.

Perfect Chaos could not only show off several of his forms, but also give a few nods to a few other God Monsters Sonic has encountered

Just a few ideas

Edited November 8, 2011 by Gonza

[EXshad]

The story would start in the same way: Classic Sonic running through Green Hill. While doing so, he'd run into Classic Tails, who waves and flies over next to him. They smile at each other and run off into the distance, expressing their emotions through their actions. Then, Time Eater would appear, much like he did originally, and the sky would blacken. Classic Sonic and Tails would look on in horror as their world begins to lose color, and then we'd flash forward to the birthday party, which would play out the same as before.

Modern Sonic would wake up in the white world, and run off into the distance like in the game, however, once he's in the distance, Classic Sonic and Tails would run over to where Modern Sonic was previously rendered unconscious. "This is so weird... what happened to everything, Sonic?'" Classic Tails would say. Classic Sonic would just imitate Time Eater's behavior, and then mimic how the worlds lost their color by growing pale. Classic Tails would say, "Thanks for stating the obvious... Well, whoever's behind this has to be stopped, let's go Sonic!" Classic Sonic would smirk, give the thumbs up, and run into the distance, as Classic Tails hangs behind, thinking to himself, "Could he be behind all this...?" As the screen goes black.

Beyond that, I'd have a lot of the story play out the same way. Of course, as you saw in my idea, Classic Sonic would be much more expressive through his actions, such as imitating situations in a sort of Scooby Doo-esque fashion, yet it wouldn't be any more over the top than the example I posted, and his "too-cool-for-you" attitude would still be the cornerstone of his character.

I'd also add more cutscenes, just to give the story more substance. Perhaps one for both Classic and Modern Sonic and Tails before and/or after each level, so we can see Classic Sonic and Tails reaction to these strange new worlds that they're experiencing for the first time, while Modern Sonic and Tails recollect their past adventures. Likewise with the boss battles. It would be a great opportunity to both experience them again, as if we were going there for the very first time, as well as allowing the Modern duo to playfully recollect these iconic locales with witty writing and meaningful references tailor-fit for the hardcore fan.

Now, bosses. Perhaps before the Perfect Chaos battle, Modern and Classic Sonic would find themselves in a similar room as the one that they found themselves in before the Death Egg Robot battle. Before the battle with Chaos, both Sonics would be walking towards the glowing door, but through it, Chaos' roar pierces the silence. Classic Sonic starts to run towards the door, knowing an evil force that must be stopped lies behind it, but Modern Sonic, full well knowing how powerful Chaos is, dashes in front of him, saying that he should take this one since Classic Sonic took on Eggman before. He thinks to himself, "Last time I fought him, I had the power of the Emeralds on my side.. can I really face him without them?" But as he says this, he musters up a determined look and dashes off to face his enemy. Likewise, for the Egg Dragoon fight, Eggman would once again taunt Sonic, but this time, Modern and Classic Sonic smirk at each other before racing towards the open door. But before Classic Sonic can jump through, Modern Sonic leaps into the air and boosts through, as Classic Sonic looks on in awe. After the door closes, we could get a cute little image of Classic Sonic having an expression of "That's so awesome!" on his face, before the screen fades to black and the Egg Dragoon battle begins.

Now, another thing I'd do is slightly tweak the unveiling of Time Eater's identity. When Classic Sonic takes down the Death Egg Robot, he'd run to the wreckage to catch Robotnik in case he tries to escape, but Classic Sonic wouldn't find anything besides an Egg Robo, spouting pre-recorded Robotnik lines. Also, when defeating the Egg Dragoon, it would be specified that the Eggman he defeated is the Eggman of that time period (when the Egg Dragoon was originally fought), as he has no idea of the events that are happening around him, and when questioned about the dummy controlling the Death Egg Robot, he has no idea what they're talking about, debunking the theory that Eggman is behind any of this.

Now, here's where I'd make a big change: when the 2 Sonics reach Time Eater, and it's identity is revealed, the shade would pull away, revealing a mechanical cockpit, and a being covered in black mist. The mist would pull away to unveil non other than Classic Eggman, or Robotnik. The story behind Time Eater would be similar as it was in the game: Modern Eggman, while drifting through space, stumbled upon a mysterious bio-mechanical creature that can eat through time, and he wants to perfect it, but needs the help of his Classic self. He goes back in time and meets up with Classic Eggman, but after eating through time and seeing all the times that Modern Eggman has failed, he decides that he becomes nothing but a miserable failure, and launches Eggman back into space, while Robotnik has full control of the operation. This explains the decoy in the Death Egg Robot. He decides to undo all the times his future self has failed in order to keep himself from becoming such a "loser". I'd also love a bit where Modern Sonic calls Robotnik "Eggman... well, past Eggman" and Robotnik bellows "My name is Dr. Robotnik! RO-BOT-NIK!!! I will NOT allow myself to be mocked by that stupid name!"

Classic and Modern Tails would then hypothesize that, even though they've restored color to the different locations via the acceleration of the 2 Sonics, everything will still be trapped in the white world until the source of the spatial anomalies is eliminated, in this case the Time Eater. So naturally, with the support of their friends (Robotnik does not recognize any of them), they go super and take out Robotnik and his machine.

After the battle, the 2 Sonics, while still in super form, fly through the white world, watching the locations vanish as they return to where they belong. A bright light is nearing, and the Tails say that time is repairing itself, and that all the effects Time Eater has unleashed will be undone. Modern Sonic smiles and looks at his younger self, saying, "I guess this is sayonnara, little me.. just remember, you've got an awesome future ahead of you. Just keep on running and don't look back." Classic Sonic smiles and nods back, and they stare into the white light as it swallows them both and the scene ends.

The scene then goes back to the picnic, like when the game began. Modern Sonic grabs the chili dog from the beginning, making his funny little quip about time travel, and the festivities would continue as Sonic's friends return. To the side however, Sonic and Tails would talk to themselves, "Hey Sonic.. do you think that our past selves are gonna remember any of this? I mean, time fixed itself and all, but if we remember this..." Sonic would just smile and close his eyes, as we'd cut to Classic Sonic and Tails running through Green Hill, bopping enemies and looking cool. The scene would end with Sonic leaping into the air and imitating Modern Sonic's air dash with a big smile on his face, as the game would cut to a freeze frame of that image as the scene slowly ends and the credits begin to roll.

Another funny thing could be that, after the credits, Modern Eggman is seen still drifting through space again, having been jetisoned by his classic self, as Orbot and Cubot continue to push him, mocking how even his past self thought he was joke, questioning where his life went so wrong. Modern Eggman would be livid, saying that he's through failing and now he's serious, saying he still has his revenge scheme up his sleve that will destroy Sonic once and for all, commenting that he may not have been able to change the past, but that he'll change the future.

Anyway, that's what I'd do differently. This post got way longer than I originally planned, but hey, I got my nerd on.

Edited November 9, 2011 by EXshad

[RhikoruFa-La-La-La-♪]

*long well written post*

I really like this idea! Generations by no means has a bad set up, it just is missing SUBSTANCE. Little moments between here and there that show that Sonic and Co. acknowledge what's going on without have to go into lengthy and drawn out cutscenes. None of these scenes would have to take long, they'd just add those little pieces of dialogue that nod to the past, rather than ONLY having the gameplay make the nods.

One thing that I find kind of silly is that it seems that Silver and Shadow both are their "Modern" present-day versions. They go "I WILL KILL YOU" to "YOU CAN DO IT SONIC". Wha? I'd much rather have a little cutscene showing their past selves conducting as if Modern Sonic was the Sonic of that time. "Hey Shadow, what are you doing here?" *Shadow starts schpiel from SA2, Sonic decides to play along, maybe have a little 4th wall moment, then battle breaks out ala cutscenes already present*

Silver would just be nice having a nod of him going "URRRR IBLIS TRIGGER MUST DIE!" with Sonic just COMPLETELY oblivious as whats to going on. "Hey Silver!" "You....! The Iblis Trigger, here? YOU MUST DIE!" "Wait wha-" *original cutscene starts playing, battle ensues*

[Sean]

The whole Time Eater plot would have mainly been a backdrop for modern Sonic's trip through revitalized memories and how they each have affected his current outlook and character. Sonic and the others would reflect and reference each stage they encounter in some meaningful way. Crisis City in particular would be an interesting case since it's a lost memory in a very literal sense, as Sonic learns of a pocket in time that technically occurred but was wiped clean from history (essentially, a time when he saved the world and no one, not even himself, knows about).

Classic Sonic would be a way of physically manifesting modern Sonic's retrospect - even though classic has only experienced Sonic's earliest memories during the Genesis days, aspects of his past self also eventually have some influence on the actions he does in later adventures, and even today. Each character that Sonic rescues also plays some role by indirectly relating how Sonic met them and how things have changed since. In order to avoid tiresome exposition, Sonic would probably encounter these very same meetings, such as facing off against an antagonistic Knuckles right before Sky Sanctuary, or rescuing Amy from Metal Sonic for the first time. Naturally, this would mean that not every character is just some white statue that needs to be revived, like in the actual game.

Sonic's whole life philosophy is to never look back, so this would have been an opportunity for him to do just that for a change in pace while reinforcing his modern perspective. Sonic has always been a static character so I don't expect him to undergo some serious change or learn some big life lesson, but at least by the end of the game he would come to value these last twenty years a little more than he thought he did, not just due to how they affected him but also how Sonic himself has impacted other people, and Sonic would see just how every past experience, both good and bad, has played a major role in shaping his contemporary self and the world he resides in.

Or maybe I'm just talking out of my ass and nobody else really wants this sentimental shit in their Sonic game.

[Soniman]

missedoppurtunitues.

Wow, for some reason, I suddenly hate Generations' story a lot more after reading this (and I was fine with it beforehand).

[RhikoruFa-La-La-La-♪]

Wow, for some reason, I suddenly hate Generations' story a lot more after reading this (and I was fine with it beforehand).

;A;

Agreed on that about Sean's post.

That would've been wonderful. Honestly, my favorite part of the entirety of SA2 is that little sentimental moment at the very end where Sonic takes a moment to pause about Shadow. Just a little moment like that at the end of Generations' would've been wonderful, to be honest.

Edited November 9, 2011 by RhikoruNa

[Pelly <3's U]

magic ~

This, with interaction between characters that aren't just sonic....and I would be like in love with the game for the story alone ~~

[azoo]

Sean and Exshad just made me wish the story was that more well thought-out and meaningful than it was. Give me a good mixture of what they both said. Both Exshad's story rewrite and Sean's "sentimental shit" melted my heart more than it should have.

Also, I would've liked more interaction between characters. Characters, at most, only said one or two lines of legitimate dialogue to each Sonic (or, just one for Vector). Seeing more natural banter and discussion with Sonic and all the other characters would've been grand. Maybe some things like extensive dialogue, similar to how they did in Unleashed with the humans throughout the hubworlds; like questions with multiple answer choices and branching conversation.

I would've nicely preferred Knuckles and Amy's classic forms to appear at some point. Maybe not as a dynamic part of the storyline like classic Sonic & Tails are, but at least they would've appeared in scenarios related to the Sky Sanctuary and Stardust Speedway stages; and alongside their modern/older selves at the "motivational speech" segment of the pre-final boss cutscene. Just imagining some times where both Amys would jump the wrong Sonics, and Knuckles picking a fight with himself, thinking of one as an impostor..

On one final note; I had this rumor to where the time energy used to create Time Eater was remnants of Mephiles; caused by events happening but being retconned at the same time. Being removed from the timeline didn't remove the dark, misty and gooey time-warping matter from ever being, but instead sent it into a weird and murky limbo of semi-existence flowing through space, without sentience or motif, that is until Eggman used it for his project.

Of course, this shan't be of any real importance to anything, especially considering that noone would remember Mephiles' happening, but at the same time it makes sense for the fact that Crisis City was pulled into this somehow (which was also from a now-removed timeline), and Mephiles is connected to Iblis which is the creature behind the creatures that infested and destroyed CC. And besides, no one remembers CC either, so this wouldn't have hurt for a small mentioning.