Sonic 3's Lost Monster Of The Week Finale

[Multikaris]

Unlike 2 or even 1, we know very little of what was outright scrapped from S3K, aside from a handful of dummied out things. 

 

 

 

Until now, that is. Discovered by a Sonic Retro user is a piece of concept art that appears to represent a character mentioned in the backstory of the game.

In a daze, Knuckles left the altar. He gazed off into the distance, powerless... it seemed like a peculiar thing had appeared around the lake. The sight of the giant, round, egg-like body that Knuckles beheld sent a shiver down his spine.

"That big egg is the dragon in the legend's...."

 

"The civilization was wiped out in a second, erased from history. Time passed, and a god descended from the sky to the newly created "mystery island". The sky god restored part of the civilization to the island, and threw the "Mighty Stone" into the open sky..."

 

 

 

 

They even made a recreation of this dragon. 

 

 

It also stands to reason that they saved this idea for later (Chaos) rather than abandoning it, and it is also referred to in the Japanese manual. I guess monsters of the week aren't alien after all.

 

edit: I also found another recreation of this dragon god.

 

Maybe this design inspired the Ifrit? Did any artbooks feature this dragon god?

[SatAMhog]

I guess that would make Sonic Adventure more of a "Sonic 4" style successor to Sonic 3 and Knuckles considering the dragon is reminiscent of Chaos and that design was used in the murals in Lost World's temple when you reach the end of that level in the original Sonic Adventure.  I always appreciated these finds...thanks for sharing!

[Marcello]

2 hours ago, SatAMhog said:

I guess that would make Sonic Adventure more of a "Sonic 4" style successor to Sonic 3 and Knuckles considering the dragon is reminiscent of Chaos and that design was used in the murals in Lost World's temple when you reach the end of that level in the original Sonic Adventure.  I always appreciated these finds...thanks for sharing!

Sonic Adventure's story is based on Sonic 3 & Knuckles' manual back story:

Quote

At the same moment, while relaxing on the beach, Sonic found a small ring washed up on shore. Sonic looked at the ring carefully and noticed some ancient characters carved on it.

The ring reminded Sonic of a legend he once heard about a "mystery island."

In an ancient time, the "mystery island" was part of the main continent. A people with an extraordinary culture inhabited it. That civilization had built a peaceful and happy society using the energy of something they called "The Mighty Stone". But at a certain point, a faction of dark-minded elders tried to steal the energy of the stone, and by accident made that energy explode.

The civilization was wiped out in a second, erased from history. Time passed, and a god descended from the sky to the newly created "mystery island". The sky god restored part of the civilization to the island and threw the "Mighty Stone" into the open sky...

A ring washed up on the shore - the legend of the "mystery island" - Sonic, feeling his excitement build, made his preparations for another adventure.

 

http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_%26_Knuckles_manuals

So, yeah, it does seem like Chaos was originally planned for Sonic 3&K in some form and they just reused the idea for Adventure. Pretty interesting. I've always just assumed they wrote some backstory for Angel Island and when Adventure came along, they decided to build on it.

[big_smile]

In the Sonic 3 manual, they even had the idea of Knuckles digging using special gloves, which wasn't possible until Adventure.

Quote

Special gloves let him dig holes, and he can break through walls.

http://www.sonic-jam.org/sisghzs:md-sonic3k-t1