Takashi Iizuka on Sonic Team's Expansion and Shadow's Evolving Motivations - TSS Interview

Sucks that Dream Team is stuck on Apple Arcade. That description of Shadow's mission statement is... not ideal but I guess makes sense. Digital Deluxe Editions are awful and I hate that Terios isn't on the physical version - I don't care if I can buy him separately later it doesn't really make it better.

Any word on when the audio version will be available? Curious about getting the uncut interview.

It seems they are going more for the Lion King idea (original animated version) of moving on from your past with Shadow instead of what some fans expected, (not caring about Maria or Gerald at all) which tracks better with Sonic Battle and even 06. (Really Shadow the GUN agent is a path for him I wish they kept, it works so well)

Its a shame that it seems Iizuka won't let Ian explain how both versions of Ivo got back and that he seemingly against fleshing out the Sonic portion more in general.

Isn't Sonic coloring the White Space by running really fast? Running fast somehow restarts the flow of time and allows to escape the White Space, so, the two Eggmen just did this.

Knowing that Ian Flynn even asked Iizuka-san about the Eggmen in White Space was really funny.  

I'm interested in the tidbit about 2D Acts in Shadow Generations. I'm assuming there won't be a 'Classic Shadow' involved, lol  But I wonder how those will play out, and whether they will do what they did with OG Gens and translate some of the 3D Shadow game set-pieces into 2D (ala the GUN Truck in City Escape)

1 minute ago, Dreadknux said:

Knowing that Ian Flynn even asked Iizuka-san about the Eggmen in White Space was really funny.  

I'm interested in the tidbit about 2D Acts in Shadow Generations. I'm assuming there won't be a 'Classic Shadow' involved, lol  But I wonder how those will play out, and whether they will do what they did with OG Gens and translate some of the 3D Shadow game set-pieces into 2D (ala the GUN Truck in City Escape)

For those who seen my “Shadow in Metallic Madness” Status Update, let’s all pray we actually get this.

I could've sworn Shadow was about fighting stronger opponents or something. Anyone have the run down on that? Did that change?

I'm very confused by the sudden absence of the Freedom Fighters question that stirred up so much Twitter traffic and discussion before the full interview released, it just seems odd that it completely vanished overnight. Was there a stated reason that I missed?

What's going on with that?

7 minutes ago, NoneTheRicher said:

I'm very confused by the sudden absence of the Freedom Fighters question that stirred up so much Twitter traffic and discussion before the full interview released, it just seems odd that it completely vanished overnight. Was there a stated reason that I missed?

What's going on with that?

There's nothing really to talk about here. Our interviewer attempted to ask a question, and it was shot down. It happens sometimes. We made a mistake broadcasting that fact publicly, and I apologise on behalf of the site for that, because it made it seem like there was more drama there than there really was. But the short answer is, no there's nothing going on.

Thank you for the reply, that clears a lot of the confusion up!

9 hours ago, Dreadknux said:

Knowing that Ian Flynn even asked Iizuka-san about the Eggmen in White Space was really funny.  

I'm interested in the tidbit about 2D Acts in Shadow Generations. I'm assuming there won't be a 'Classic Shadow' involved, lol  But I wonder how those will play out, and whether they will do what they did with OG Gens and translate some of the 3D Shadow game set-pieces into 2D (ala the GUN Truck in City Escape)

Sorry, I can't get over the mental image of Flynn earnestly asking for the explanation for how the Eggmen escape, the the devs going like uhhhhh???

14 hours ago, GentlemanX said:

Sucks that Dream Team is stuck on Apple Arcade. That description of Shadow's mission statement is... not ideal but I guess makes sense. Digital Deluxe Editions are awful and I hate that Terios isn't on the physical version - I don't care if I can buy him separately later it doesn't really make it better.

Any word on when the audio version will be available? Curious about getting the uncut interview.

Shadow's mission statement? Can you clarify?

I am kinda glad they at least remember the original Shadow motivations in 2024, that is part of the character, but I really want to see Shadow move on from the past while acknowledging it, and I'm ready to see what his "moving on" means.

The GUN agent role was so cool, I hope they mention it at least, with the human elements involved here unlike Forces and IDW, but I'm not holding my breath... if they want to cut that, have him do something else that is new.

Also, really excited by the IDW in the games answer, good chance, and it hints that they will be in upcoming mobile games, maybe?

20 hours ago, nuckles87 said:

TSS: Now this next question is from Svend Joscelyne (or Dreadknux, my boss): Are the stages and White Space in the Shadow side using an adapted version of the Frontiers engine, or is it running on the same engine as the original Sonic Generations?

Iizuka (via interpreter): Even with White Space involved, when we talk about the 'Sonic Generations' portion of Sonic X Shadow Generations, that was all originally created with an older version of the Hedgehog Engine. And so for this game, [we] kept that older version but, kind of, made some improvements - but kept it in that older version. For the 'Shadow Generations' portion, that was used with a version of the Hedgehog Engine that was many versions more advanced. So both versions of the Hedgehog Engine are powering this game, but it’s using different versions of the Hedgehog Engine.

So if I'm reading this correctly, if the original part if the game is still using the old engine, would the mods from the original game be compatible with Sonic X Shadow generations?

21 hours ago, The Swordsman said:

Its a shame that it seems Iizuka won't let Ian explain how both versions of Ivo got back and that he seemingly against fleshing out the Sonic portion more in general.

Very much disagree with this. It doesn't actually matter how they escaped, all that matters is that they did. By bogging down the already extensive and contradictory lore of this franchise with details that hopefully will never even get mentioned again (I do not think the Time Eater and White Space should become recurring elements of the series) it only serves to further complicate things without any real benefit.

Besides, nearly any official answer they could come up with will be a let down compared to the infinite possibilities you can imagine. Better to just let fans dream for themselves what might have happened.

1 hour ago, Metal said:

Very much disagree with this. It doesn't actually matter how they escaped, all that matters is that they did. By bogging down the already extensive and contradictory lore of this franchise with details that hopefully will never even get mentioned again (I do not think the Time Eater and White Space should become recurring elements of the series) it only serves to further complicate things without any real benefit.

Besides, nearly any official answer they could come up with will be a let down compared to the infinite possibilities you can imagine. Better to just let fans dream for themselves what might have happened.

Yeah we aren't going to eye to eye because I disagree with practically everything you said here. I do not find the lore contradictory and I outright welcome the return to how things were handled before the Meta Era. The Sonic franchise's focus on it's lore and characters is one of the things that sets Sonic apart and makes him better than Mario IMO.

As for the Time Eater and White Space becoming recurring elements, no one said that? At best someone else in another topic suggested that Ian may canonize his theory about Mephiles but that doesn't mean the Time Eater will return in a future game.

1 hour ago, The Swordsman said:

I do not find the lore contradictory

Where/when are Blaze, Eggman Nega, and Classic Sonic from? When does Sonic Chronicles take place? Is Spinball canon, and if so, is SatAM? What about Mean Bean Machine and AoStH? Where did the Super Emeralds go, and why did the number of regular Chaos Emeralds change so much in the games before Sonic Adventure? How did they un-explode the moon? Etc. Sonic is fun, but don't pretend that it's consistent.

2 hours ago, The Swordsman said:

As for the Time Eater and White Space becoming recurring elements, no one said that?

Yeah but, what difference does it make how Eggman escaped if they don't show up again? Whatever the answer may be, if Eggman doesn't need to escape White Space and/or the Time Eater then he will not have an opportunity to use this method in the future.

Like, let's say that using the wreckage of the mechanical components enslaving the Time Eater, Eggman was able to create a tachyon cascade emitter that destabilized White Space and spat him back out where he entered. Or some equally sci-fi jargon-y answer. That's a fun fact I guess, but if he's never trapped in White Space again then it won't come up again. It's something you could ask on a trivia show, but absolutely pointless to the story of Generations and the franchise as a whole. So why bother when you could just let fans come up with their own ideas?

Let me phrase this in a different way:

Sonic Generations has the tone of a goofy cartoon, and it has a goofy cartoon ending where its goofy cartoon villains getting stuck is the closing joke. Then in 2013, Sonic and Eggman are at it again in their wacky Lost World hijinx.

It's wasn't written with the intent to have meaningful, long-lasting consequences. When you write a non-serialized cartoon, as Sonic in that decade leaned towards, you generally don't build it around laying out how one episode ends and the other begins. And even if they did, it's probably not going to be an especially interesting answer, because the actual narrative goal is "We needed enough of a reset to just be able to make whatever our next game is happen."

It might not be a satisfying answer if you firmly believe the series needs to have a structured and document-able continuity of events, but not all answers are satisfying, and Sonic as a series has rarely proven itself very interested in giving us that.

Really it's a miracle Generations even directly ties in to Colors' ending in the first place. 

47 minutes ago, jungle_penguins said:

Really it's a miracle Generations even directly ties in to Colors' ending in the first place. 

And even then, it's only really that Sonic Team-Rocket'd him into space, and then they decided that there was a portal in space.

I honestly thought Shadow moved from Maria's wish being his only motivating factor in saving the world, so I'm a little disappointed to hear Iizuka say that Shadow's only real motivation is still doing what Maria told him to.

22 hours ago, Metal said:

Where/when are Blaze, Eggman Nega, and Classic Sonic from? When does Sonic Chronicles take place? Is Spinball canon, and if so, is SatAM? What about Mean Bean Machine and AoStH? Where did the Super Emeralds go, and why did the number of regular Chaos Emeralds change so much in the games before Sonic Adventure? How did they un-explode the moon? Etc. Sonic is fun, but don't pretend that it's consistent.

Blaze: Alternate dimension

Eggman Nega: Future

Classic Sonic: Past (Seriously how is the continuity error ridden mess that is Forces still given more credibility over the multiple statements and Tailstube episodes, given it that doesn't even mesh how every other game does time travel?)

Spinball canon? Yes. SatAM no. Those were just neat cameos for the minigame real pinball stages in the game. (You even see Sonic's reflection playing)

Mean Bean Machine and AoSth canon?: No best you're getting is the Mania reference.

Super Emeralds: This is a issue? They're are just the empowered Chaos Emeralds, they transformed back and drifted off like normal. (hence the term super) As for Sonic Mania, "According to Christian Whitehead, these are stone relics which were created in the absence of the Super Emeralds, as the Chaos Emeralds had drifted off into the Special Stage." -Sonic Wiki Zone.

Moon: Though its a very unsatisfying answer I'll admit. the moon is just turned to show it's undamaged side. Frankly they should've just copied Sonic X but I digress.

Now I purposely saved this one for last because it is the only one that you have a point on. While the extra emerald from Fighters has been attributed to Eggman copying your selected fighter with then Ian trying to extrapolate that to also suggest  Ivo has used fake emeralds for other stuff like the Pinball Fortress and they'll coyly reference it why strictly saying there was only 7 Chaos Emeralds and 1 Master Emerald, SEGA and the lore team has been very reluctant to actually address the issue. Which something disappointing about the Fang mini series.

While some of these like Classic were the result of the current lore team fixing the mess the Meta Era made of the continuity, others like Blaze and Eggman Nega were settled years ago. I do not ignore what happens with lore, I simply acknowledge the work taken to repair it.

On 6/12/2024 at 3:03 PM, Metal said:

eah but, what difference does it make how Eggman escaped if they don't show up again? Whatever the answer may be, if Eggman doesn't need to escape White Space and/or the Time Eater then he will not have an opportunity to use this method in the future.

Like, let's say that using the wreckage of the mechanical components enslaving the Time Eater, Eggman was able to create a tachyon cascade emitter that destabilized White Space and spat him back out where he entered. Or some equally sci-fi jargon-y answer. That's a fun fact I guess, but if he's never trapped in White Space again then it won't come up again. It's something you could ask on a trivia show, but absolutely pointless to the story of Generations and the franchise as a whole. So why bother when you could just let fans come up with their own ideas?

Because by all accounts the bad doctor should've been doomed, it's a cop out. What wreckage? Seriously what wreckage? There is nothing but a blank white void and the two Eggmen. We are given literally nothing to actually speculate with. This type of thing is why there is very little videos from the Zelda lore community on Tears of Kingdom compared to Breath of Wild. A mystery is only interesting if it is solvable and the method, considering it works on White Space, could work on a similar situation that isn't strictly White Space.

23 hours ago, GX -The Spindash- said:

Let me phrase this in a different way:

Sonic Generations has the tone of a goofy cartoon, and it has a goofy cartoon ending where its goofy cartoon villains getting stuck is the closing joke. Then in 2013, Sonic and Eggman are at it again in their wacky Lost World hijinx.

It's wasn't written with the intent to have meaningful, long-lasting consequences. When you write a non-serialized cartoon, as Sonic in that decade leaned towards, you generally don't build it around laying out how one episode ends and the other begins. And even if they did, it's probably not going to be an especially interesting answer, because the actual narrative goal is "We needed enough of a reset to just be able to make whatever our next game is happen."

It might not be a satisfying answer if you firmly believe the series needs to have a structured and document-able continuity of events, but not all answers are satisfying, and Sonic as a series has rarely proven itself very interested in giving us that.

You are correct, this is indeed the original intent, it was made during the Meta Era where they were chasing Mario and his way of doing things after all. Its just that I had hoped that the Sonic portion would also see the fruits of what seems to be a revival of the continuity that the Meta Era wanted to move away from.

38 minutes ago, The Swordsman said:

You are correct, this is indeed the original intent, it was made during the Meta Era where they were chasing Mario and his way of doing things after all. Its just that I had hoped that the Sonic portion would also see the fruits of what seems to be a revival of the continuity that the Meta Era wanted to move away from.

It is an enhanced port of Sonic Generations. It's not a retcon of the Sonic side of the story into something else it isn't.

I’m not especially bothered by the lack of story in Generations. It was always intended as a greatest hits album of levels that were chosen based on popularity without any in-universe cohesion. Like, he’s in Crisis City because it’s the most well-known location in Sonic 06. That being impossible continuity-wise doesn’t matter for this game

While I do really like Flynn’s writing, sometimes I do think he tries to over-explain things that are simple by design and it sometimes gets close to Disney+ Star Wars territory lol. I’m excited to see what he has in store for Shadow Generations, but I think it’s for the best that the original is untouched

18 hours ago, The Swordsman said:

Blaze: Alternate dimension

That's not what 06 says.

18 hours ago, The Swordsman said:

Eggman Nega: Future

That's not what Rush says.

18 hours ago, The Swordsman said:

Classic Sonic: Past 

That's not what Forces says.

And you didn't even address Sonic Chronicles. This is what I meant when I said the lore was contradictory. If multiple sources say different things that cannot both be true, that is the definition of contradictory. And that's the case whether or not they try to fix that mistake later, usually outside the games themselves so only super fans like posters here would even know they did.

18 hours ago, The Swordsman said:

What wreckage? Seriously what wreckage?

Much like your moon answer, it's unsatisfying, but it was just offscreen. They just needed to walk a little further to find it. Like that's the level of explanation you're probably gonna get from an official source if you ever push hard enough to actually force them to come up with something.

1 hour ago, Metal said:

That's not what Forces says.

And you didn't even address Sonic Chronicles. This is what I meant when I said the lore was contradictory. If multiple sources say different things that cannot both be true, that is the definition of contradictory. And that's the case whether or not they try to fix that mistake later, usually outside the games themselves so only super fans like posters here would even know they did.

Like it or not retcons exist.

I apologize on Sonic Chronicles, to be honest I missed it while looking up the information. That game is straight up non canon, so it doesn't take place anywhere. (I assume it was thrown out due to Ken Penders, though I could be wrong due to them never trying to get that sequel from Bioware)  You don't need to be a super fan in able to watch Tailstube or in able see the wiki.

1 hour ago, Metal said:

Like that's the level of explanation you're probably gonna get from an official source if you ever push hard enough to actually force them to come up with something.

The thing is and what started this argument, is I wanted Ian to do so like he apparently wanted to but was denied from doing, not Takashi Iizuka.

19 hours ago, GX -The Spindash- said:

It is an enhanced port of Sonic Generations. It's not a retcon of the Sonic side of the story into something else it isn't.

That has a whole segment dedicated to Shadow that is bound to impact the story somewhat. The FRLG like additions Ian presumably had in mind isn't going to change the game into something it isn't.