knight of void moments

100.Qxe+ To your inevitable failure. ...Kb5 0-1

I can't tell if this is a Steddiebang no context spoilers or just a mood board lol

. spoilers.

kinda want to go back to reading vast error. i feel like i stopped right before it was going to hit its stride. but i'm in a weird brain error loop where i want to finish snowbound blood first. but i feel like i should read more ve first because i kept running into spoilers and stuff that i needed to read the comic to have context for. but i like secily more than the comic's main characters. but i should get further in ve first. but i want to read sbb more. but i

It's been about a week, so I feel like I can give my thoughts on how I feel about the new Sonic Frontiers ending that one will ever read, specifically regarding the final boss sequence. Spoilers for the new update, Persona 5, and Final Fantasy X after the break (bear with me on those last two).

So, Update 3 added a new phase to the Supreme fight, and it's pretty good, despite having a mechanic that's not all that intuitive, but that's a different issue I have. It also changed the fight against The End from the base game. Now it... doesn't happen. It's the fight against Supreme like in the base game, then The End appears and takes control over Supreme, and you fight Supreme under The End's control and destroy both at the end with Supreme's rifle charged with a berserk Super Sonic 2 (I think Supreme gets destroyed, anyway). Overall, the fight's pretty good, definitely one of the better Titan fights (I still think Giganto's the best), but I was left feeling a little disappointed both gameplay and narrative-wise.

I was always someone who was fine with The End's fight after Supreme in the base game. It brings back fighting beings we can't comprehend, something we haven't had since, man, Unleashed? Black Knight, I guess could also count? Basically, it's the first final boss we've had in quite a long time that wasn't related to Eggman. I think that's really cool.

What I really liked was The End talking smack to you for 3/4 of the fight. Going on about how the ancients failed to contain it despite sacrificing themselves and their society to do it. Then it asks Sonic and Sage "...and you?" So fucking cool.

This isn't in the updated fight.

The End just shows up in its moon-y glory and just hijacks Supreme saying "this is mine now" and the fight happens and it dies. The entire monologue is gone. To me, it makes The End not have a lasting impact. You beat up Supreme, then you fight Supreme again, only The End has it on a leash, then you beat both in a QTE/cutscene. There's nothing wrong with an enemy that doesn't get its hands dirty, but if you don't confront them directly, the conflict just doesn't feel that great, at least to me.

It's like in Persona 5 how I didn't really think much of the Okumura "boss". It's just a few waves of enemies with a larger one at the end, then you win. You don't actually fight him directly except at the very end where he doesn't do anything. Compared to the other palace bosses, it's just not good. We don't fight The End here, we fight a puppet and kill the one holding the strings in a cutscene. It doesn't feel good to me, despite the spectacle.

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On the gameplay side, the base game fight kept the tradition of the final-final fight not controlling like usual but still feeling a little familiar. The Perfect Chaos controlled like normal-ish but you had to build up speed to damage him, Metal Overlord utilized Team Blast, Perfect Dark Gaia used the boost, etc. This time, The End controlled like the Ikaruga hacking minigames, only you had to actually try this time. I like shmups, so I was okay with it, but I also understand why people might not have liked it.

Again, this fight is removed.

This is probably just a me problem, but a Sonic game ending with a boss that handles the same as the base game just feels wrong to me. It's why I'm not big on Nega Wisp Armor, the final boss of Lost World, or Forces' Death Egg Robot (outside of the fact that they're all the same boss). The spectacle of a Sonic final boss is missing when the final boss is more of what we've already done. "Supreme End" is just another Titan fight. A good one, but we've done four of them already, and we're going to end on a fifth one? I dunno, it falls kind of flat to me.

Here's where my Final Fantasy X comparison comes into play. At the end of the game, we fight Braska's Final Aeon (BFA) and then do the Summoned Beast Battle sequence (SBB) where we fight our aeons and then Yu Yevon in what's basically a victory lap since the only way to die is to get the entire party petrified or ejected somehow since Auto-Life is always active. Base Frontiers would be like if we only had phase 1 of BFA (but with half the amount of HP to make it basically a non-issue) and then go straight into SBB. Then there's an update where, instead, we get that same phase 1 of BFA, but then we get the phase 2 of the fight (with 150% HP to get us back to the normal amount BFA has), but SBB is cut completely and Yu Yevon is defeated in a cutscene. Sure, BFA would be a cool fight, but I think something would be missing.

To tie this comparison back to the narrative issue I have, if you use Scan one of your possessed aeons (or have a weapon with Sensor), each aeon has something to say to you, essentially telling you that they know what needs to be done. That'd also be missing in this hypothetical scenario which would be a real shame since it's so cool and heartbreaking.

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I dunno, I think the update should still have had the shmup segment or have something where you fight The End directly while it does its monologue to REALLY be awesome, as it feels a little lackluster to me. I know there's a mod that adds "Supreme End" as a phase between Supreme and The End to the non-update version of the last island, but it can only do so much with the assets the game has to offer, so it's a little awkward despite feeling better than both the base game's and update's ending.

spoilers about the lastest sbb volume

its 3 am

Way more depressing than i anticipated, honestly. Not that dark stories are a bad thing, I just assumed sbb was going to follow classic tragedy rules. But secily dies at no fault of her own, shes just physically overpowered. I mean she did doom herself by continuing the mission, I guess. I actually preferred the alt!secily ending where she goes after aumtzi instead of saving necron and ends up being absorbed by gaiaeon. Giving everything she had in the belief that it would serve a greater purpose was her “tragic flaw” and i feel like this ending portrayed that better. Even though its supposed to be an hyperthetical secily who is technically not secily anymore. It was also a nice tie in to the greater story. I KNOW THERES ONE MORE VOLUME AND AN EPILOGUE LEFT but ehhhhh whats even going to happen. Secily is super dead. Which bums me out because I was expecting a closer look at Secily’s relationship with Ahlina. There’s no way the Secily that Ahlina knew is going to be the same Secily that’s gonna meet her in the afterlife. So when that line popped up thats like “secily can finally rest w her wife in the afterlife :)” i was like. theres no way. I thought the fact that Ahlina was barely a character was intentional. Like despite her perfect recall, pain and grief has warped Secily’s judgement to the point where she worships Ahlina as a god. I was expecting the story to mention SOMETHING about that! And maybe it will actually fingers crossed. 

LET’S PAY THE TOLL ROAD’S FEE.

❤️ For anyone who might be worried about the SBB finale.

Me too. Me too.