In Part 1, I went over both forms of gameplay in detail, and covered some of the plot. Let’s do more today!
In a pickle
Heh. I couldn’t resist making the pun.
Exposition time? Chip isn't listening, he only likes exposition when he's the one telling it.
Tails takes Sonic and Chip to Spagonia to look for Professor Pickle. In Spagonia, we first meet the professor’s aide, who is also looking for the scientist. Pickle has been kidnapped by Eggman. He is found one continent over, in Mazuri, where he is promptly rescued by Sonic and Tails. The professor asks Sonic to retrieve the contents of a nearby safe, which the hedgehog (in werehog form) does by smashing it open. Well, that was quick! Back at the lab, the man explains that the parchment in the safe is known as the Gaia Manuscripts. Those detail the existence of Dark Gaia, which lives in the planet’s core and is responsible for breaking it apart. In fact, it has done so before. The only way to correct everything is to find the Gaia Temples, one on each continent, and use them to restore the Chaos Emeralds, which will put the planet back together.
My one minor complaint with the Eggman battles in this game is that all three battles are set against robots that look and are defeated the same way, even if they do employ new gimmicks at each fight.
It's not going to be simple, as Eggman is also looking for the temples. Thankfully, we have a foot forward; off to Mazuri again, where the mad doctor is threatening the population. Sonic saves them and Eggman goes away, and the villagers thank Sonic. The village elder reveals that he knows all about the Gaia temples and can even help them by fixing the planet tablet they’re carrying. Each continent has someone, usually an elder, whose duty is to watch over the temple.
At the temple in Mazuri, (regular) Sonic confronts Eggman and battles the doctor’s Egg Beetle. Not a tough fight, though one with a few tricks to be wary of. When that robot is defeated, Sonic gains access to the temple’s main chamber, where a pedestal rises. He puts a black Chaos Emerald in it and it is restored to its original colors. And, bonus, it reattaches the continent to the core. That's one down, we've got six more.
And so the planet-sized puzzle begins putting itself back together.
Upon their return to Spagonia at night, Sonic (in werehog form) is walking down the streets when he gets tackle-hugged by an old friend: Amy Rose. It takes her a moment to realize she’s hugging something much fluffier than her usual Sonic, so she apologizes and runs off, thinking he's a stranger. Oh the irony Methinks, she needs glasses. I bet Sonic right now thinks this new form has its perks after all. ...Or rather, I would have said that before, but it seems this time he's genuinely hurt by this.
Wonder what Sonic thinks of suddenly having super strength. That's usually Knuckles' wheelhouse.
Too cold? Too bad, Sonic doesn't like clothes.
More people seem to be in a funk; even Professor Pickle’s assistant lashes out! Pickle explains that Dark Gaia’s influence is felt more harshly at night, and negatively impacts the emotions of people. He urges Sonic to find the temples in Spagonia and Holoska. Spagonia at night first, which grants us a tablet fragment. Then it’s off to Holoska, the great North, with people living in igloos. Sonic doesn’t get to visit it with his new warm coat of fur just yet, as we play the day stages first.
Temples & Tablets
Unless there's a relationship upgrade between them that I'm not aware of, it seems Sonic and Amy are be a bit more than just friends this time around. I'm no shipper, but...
With Holoska done, Sonic and Chip return to Spagonia at night, and see people dancing as if under a trance in the street, with Amy stuck in the crowd. There are shadow Gaia monsters in the area, and their aura is controlling the townspeople into acting irrationally and weird. Defeating those monsters returns the citizens to their senses. Sonic flees, but Amy has now recognized him; and Professor Pickle, who arrives on the scene, confirms the werehog’s identity. When Sonic and Chip visit the lab, they see that Amy has elected to help the professor in the research on Gaia. Hey, can't complain if she can be useful to the quest!
Pickle explains that Dark Gaia, the creature in the core of the planet, awakens every few million years to destroy it, and its counterpart Light Gaia puts its back together for another cycle – but Eggman’s shenanigans awakened it far too early, meaning it’s not at full power. However, it’s still got plenty of energy that Eggman can sap to build his dreaded Eggmanland.
If you thought this Sonic game would be the same kind of platformer you may be used to when playing the franchise... oh, you'll be in for a surprise.
The bonus missions about collecting rings aren't so bad, but I don't really see the point. It's not like you get to keep those rings afterwards...
The main stages grant three Sun or Moon Medals, but the game still forces you to play through the extra missions, especially in the day. This was likely done to extend gameplay, since regular Sonic gets the short end of the stick otherwise; but each time, it’s merely a repeat of the stage, or a part of it, with new objectives. Usually one of three: “Collect X rings”, “reach the goal without getting hurt once”, and the absolute worst: “Reach the goal in a time limit”. Said time limit is too short, but you can extend it by passing goalposts. I get it, padding is justifiable. And some of those stages can be unlocked but aren’t mandatory, and can instead be accessed from the world map. Keyword being “some”. Others… are mandatory. Why? It’s going through the same stage we’ve just completed! Why are we obligated to do them?
On the plus side, every time you fail, you get to hear a hilarious rendition of the game’s main theme, a rendition that sounds like it’s being performed by a music class full of talentless kids.
World-class trolling.
Admittedly, Sonic does get some long-range moves to compensate. Maybe switching to the Classic Controller could have helped. Who knows.
There are more Werehog stages, and though remixes are included on that side (one example being “Finish the stage without breaking anything”), those are rarer, and even fewer are mandatory. To compensate, we have more full-length stages, often 3 in a row. The thing that annoys me with the Werehog stages is that we lose Sonic’s homing attack, and it is never replaced by anything else; you cannot aim when fighting. Keep swinging until you hit something. When it’s combined to the occasionally troublesome motion detection, it makes some of the combo moves gained as you level up from Gaia energy tricky to pull off, and you might end up doing them more often by accident than on purpose.
It's a bad idea to run near the water, Sonic! But you should know that already...
Another annoying instance in Werehog stages involves Sonic having to walk across a thin bridge, over deadly waters or an endless pit. For Sonic, whether water is deadly depends on the game; I swear, if I ever meet him in person, I'm buying him a goddamned kiddie pool. Sonic in any form feels difficult to control in a straight line, and it’s especially true of the Werehog form whenever dashing. Worse even, since dashing is achieved by pushing the control stick twice in any direction, you can activate it completely by accident, even when you’re in a section requiring precision. Dashing is also difficult to stop; the only way to do that, aside from hitting an obstacle, is to double jump. This was likely to allow Sonic to double jump while dashing to reach further ledges, but the result is that in some situations, you have no easy way to turn off the dash.
The day of Eggman, the night of Gaia
Eggman is still around, using large robots to stop Sonic, though his machines almost exclusively attack our protagonist during the day. That’s all good.
Just a casual encounter in the middle of the day. Happens all the time.
The quest next takes us to Chun-Nan, a continent based on China. The village’s elder has gone missing, but we’re still able to find the tablets and the sacred shrine from speaking to people. In the following night levels, we encounter a new gameplay mechanic involving fire, and barrels of water that the Werehog can throw. Some enemies can be on fire, and thus will damage Sonic if he attacks them, so they must be put out first.
Is it weird that I'm less worried about the phoenix being covered in dark Gaia energy, and more worried about the phoenix being on fire?
We find the elder of Chun-Nan, passed out on the ground on a large place near the temple. Near that: A giant phoenix on fire, corrupted by Dark Gaia’s energy. During this fight, Werehog Sonic must first toss water barrels at the firebird to extinguish it, then attack when it lands to rest and reignite. Not a tough fight, but that’s to be expected from the second boss. The phoenix frees itself from Dark Gaia’s influence. The elder, Zonshen, awakens and gives us the Planet Tablet as thanks for rescuing him. This leads Sonic and Chip to a pedestal on which they place another black Chaos Emerald, restoring it. More day stages in Chun-Nan and Spagonia, then a battle against Eggman, and then we restore one more emerald in Spagonia. Progress!
Doesn't matter how much fur you've got on you, Sonic; you get frozen solid, I predict a cold in your near future.
Holoska at night – the cold weather is nice in werehog fur. This is topped by a fight against a second Gaia monster. That one is known as the Dark Moray, and it is entirely made of Gaia energy. That’s fine, it can be punched into submission like all the others. This fight’s a bit tougher, but manageable. You must freeze this thing in place to get a chance to harm it significantly. And just like that, one more Chaos Emerald and continent restored.
Oh, right, there's also the occasional bonus mission of "Finishing the level without breaking any pots". Not easy, with how fast Sonic tends to go...
New continent: Shamar, inspired by the Middle East. And to make it simple, Professor Pickle moves his laboratory there. In the following day stages, more than halfway through the game, we learn Sonic’s final move, the Light Speed Dash, which lets Sonic instantly follow a line of rings by floating, letting him cross chasms. We find another continent, Adabat, inspired by Indonesia. Night stages in Adabat, night stages in Shamar. The latter’s boss, the Dark Guardian, felt very easy to beat.
Oh! I was about to forget! Early in the game, you only have three lives when starting a level. Those replenish at each new level, or after a Game Over. You can never find extra lives within levels, either. The only way to get more is to enter the special doors in the Gaia Temples, once you have enough of both Sun and Moon medals to do so. These lead to puzzle/platform rooms in which you can find extra lives and additional unlockable goodies. The extra lives get added to your total and will replenish anytime you start a level. Your limit is no longer 3: It's 4, or 5, or however many you found.
Not sure who decided that a platformer boss had to end up looking more like a shmup boss, but.... Okay! Sure!
We defeat Eggman’s Egg Lancer in Adabat and restore the sixth Chaos Emerald. However, while Chip was studying the wall carvings in the Gaia Temple, the wall glows and sucks him in. In the ensuing astral voyage, Chip meets a light that speaks with his voice – the whole of him, the memories that were missing. He is Light Gaia, the spirit of day, light and rebirth, the good side that rebuilds the world anew after Dark Gaia has destroyed it. He emerges from the wall, with his memories back, and the weight of his task on his fairy chihuahua shoulders.
Poor guy's cosmic job is literally to remake the planet every few million years, and he never actually got to live on it! Until this adventure.
He explains all this to Sonic as the sun sets over Adabat, and Sonic transforms for the night. Sonic wonders if Chip’s presence around him is the reason he doesn’t lose himself to the Werehog form, since it’s made of Dark Gaia’s energy, which makes other people go crazy. Chip replies that he had nothing to do with it; Sonic’s will is too strong to fall prey to the energy. With the planet almost fully repaired now (only a tiny continent remains), and his memories restored, Chip is ready to leave. He’s sad to go, as it is the first time his godly being got to experience living on the planet, since he’s always sleeping except when it’s time to remake it. He flies off, but Sonic extends his arm and pulls him back, offering to help with what remains to be done.
Besides, there’s still one Chaos Emerald that needs to be restored. But where is the seventh Gaia Temple?
Well, Sonic's allies answer that for us: Doctor Eggman built his dreaded Eggmanland right on top of it. So if we want to restore the whole world, we have to go through it. That sounds like a final world. It’s gonna be a tough one. See you for Part 3!
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