Something I'd like to note on Fang as a bully, something I'm pretty sure isn't actually taken into account with the creation of the story but is neat regardless, is the way that Fang has had very similar faults Trip fell into in Sonic Triple Trouble. The way his traps would go awry, how his own missile gets sent back at him one time, how he literally get buried into the ground another, and of course how he runs off like a coward when Eggman is approaches in his jumping machine in Atomic Destroyer act 3. He's depicted as just about as clumsy as Trip can be, yet not only is he doing it out of malice, but Superstars adds onto what used to be little bits of comic relief as him pushing Trip down to make him feel better about his own shortcomings. Again, I'm pretty sure his characterization in Triple Trouble wasn't at the forefront during Superstars' development, but I just really like how that can be read into with what we know about the character of Fang regardless.
I thought the same exact thing. Fang could be bullying Trip because she reminds him of himself. But I similarly doubt that was an intentional thing, so I decided not to mention it.
@@Pariah6950 I honestly think that along with that is that he used trip as a scapegoat because of his ego, like he thinks that he is perfect and everything he makes wont be a failure and because trip comes along he chooses to blame trip instead himself( which he shouldn't do in the first place because even in his first appearance it gets turned against him. He didn't even have anyone to blame, eggman would probably get metal to sic him if he's blamed, metal would kill him if he's blamed, Knuckles? would also kill him probably although I believe the metal copied knuckles fan theory is true) and and that's why trip fighting back was a lot more powerful
I remember the creator of Fang talking about being inspired by Wile e coyote: a character who would use tricks and tools who would backfire on him. It's possible the writer took that into account even if unconciously
Also something I noticed, and maybe it's purely headcanon but Trip and Fang relationship remind me of a toxic version of Tails and Sonic. You know Sonic and Fang are confident adventurers while Tails and Trip are socially akward followers (Tails was bullied, Trip is timid) and both "followers" end up growing independant, the difference being Trip do it out of frustration while Tails simply grows up
It’s kinda insane going from Pariah’s mixed feelings in his live playthrough of this game at launch to, now, being Sonic Superstars’ strongest soldier. It’s stuff like this that makes me keep coming back to the channel, and I’m all for it.
Honestly I really liked Superstars too despite a few decently sized flaws it has, the core gameplay experience was a TON of fun for me, I'm not sure why people generally hate on it so much. I guess following Mania it seemed like a downgrade in some areas but overall it worked really well imo
To fully Understand the full wingspan of Superstars story... 1. (Optional) Read the "Seasons of Chaos" IDW comic to understand the Chaos Emerald that Fang's Gang lost in step 2 2. Read the "Fang the Hunter" IDW comics 3. Read the "Fang's Big Break" prequel comic 4. Watch the "Trio of Trouble" Animation 5. (Optional) Read the Sonic Superstars Manga 6. Play Superstars - Story Mode, Trip's Story, Last Story 7. Watch Pariah's video "Trip is the Best New Sonic Character in Ages" Why do 6/7 steps have nothing to do with the game?
Which is why I still am unsure about sonic superstars story. It all sounds good on paper, but the fact that you can’t understand the story without going into all these different sources separate from the games… I mean, I know the originals did it, but it’s 2024! A classic sonic game can fully explain a story mid game too!
One interesting detail that may or may not be intentional with thrips clumsiness is that it seems to stem from the armor itself. You see a lot in the animated cutscenes especially that the big helmet often gets in the way of arm and hand movements and that her big blocky boots often causes her to trip. Not sure if it’s the intended meaning, but I think that this is meant to convey that this kind of defense mechanism of ‘armoring yourself’ isn’t going to solve any of the problems that you have in your social interactions and will only cause you to second guess yourself.
I'm very fond of how Sonic games will take these characters who are nigh upon demigods and make them completley inept dorks in regular social situations, like Blaze with Cream in Rush or Silver with Amy in 06. Its very cute and I'm glad we got to see it continue with Trip.
this type of thing is something i’ve always loved seeing in stuff ever since i was a kid bc it’s like. you don’t stop having mundane normal person problems when you have cartoon superpowers and stuff and it makes the characters way more relatable than if it magically made all their character flaws disappear on merit alone
Blaze goes hard in Sonic Rush, it's fun seeing her be formal, but distant and hearing how many people are willing to help her, only for her to be confused and willing to shut them down on it. Same for Silver too, it's the stuff that makes me love these two
@@stardust-reverie So true. I've legit seen some braindead Twitter users, wondering why fantasy characters can't just use magic to make their disabilities and flaws disappear. Perfect characters are boring.
Being designed by the great Naoto Oshima himself helps a lot considering he knows exactly what a Sonic character entails. I hope Trip is a recurring character for future Sonic games.
@@AltKaxREAL Maybe that's why she's kinda overdesigned: to be a templeate for the modern version. I hope the rest of the classic characters gets a modern treatment too.
One thing I love about Superstars is that when you combine it w/ the Fang comic, it makes up for a really interesting dive into Fang's character : his strengths, weaknesses and ego.
Saying this is the best story since Black Knight is a bold statement, but I genuinely can’t think of any other examples. I knew there was a reason I loved Superstars’ story, thanks for the enlightenment!
I dunno if it’s ‘Trip’s story has gone over people’s heads.’ I think it’s more ‘Trip’s story is cute, but it’s really simple.’ Eggman’s motivations being muddy don’t help the remaining story either, let alone the random dragon
Eggman is a one-dimensional villain doing one-dimensional villain things and there is nothing wrong with this. It fits Classic Sonic extremely well where Eggman always enslaves a random island for little reason other than he is evil. As Pariah says, this is Trip's story and it is good how well Fang and even Amy is used within this context. It is also good that the dragon at the end is designed to resemble Trip and her Super transformation which along with the giant animals of the island give the final boss a lot of needed context.
I don't know, Sonic stories have always been pretty simple. Most of the best Sonic stories are just vehicles for character exploration and character dynamics, which I think is the series strength as far as stories are concerned
Honestly, the one big letdown of Trip’s story in Sonic Superstars is that she doesn’t get to fight the black-and-purple dragon alongside Super Sonic. Aside from being a great opportunity to control two characters simultaneously (like a more earnest version of the final fight from Sonic Forces), it would’ve been a great opportunity to use gameplay to further reinforce the story; In this case, acting as a secondary culmination of Trip’s arc from shy and scared loner to open and brave accomplice to Sonic and Co.
Agreed. If shadow, Silver and blaze can all be part of the introduction have final super fights than why can't Trip? We were robbed of a dragon vs dragon right, hl maybe even of Sonic riding a dragon into a fight.
Alternatively, she could be the black dragon herself. If she got captured by Eggman and corrupted (or reversed time to the time when she was evil in the distant past), it would work well.
@Bengt2509 Not really. He just upstages Eggman in an arc that goes out of its way to show him as someone who's make a world wiping out nano zombie plague but not make any contingency plans or just something to protect himself in case it was used against him (aka Flynn just writing Eggman as how he sees his game characterization rather than the flamboyant robo Nazi crossed with the Joker he wrote him as in Archie). That and be a way to lecture Starline on how to be a better wannabe usurper furry Eggman and be a tool for Sonic to make another speech on his ideals.
Sega just really seems to like Zavok for some reason despite him being one of the most hated Sonic characters in the fanbase, alongside the rest of the Deadly Six. I like how it went from “Everybody Hates Chris” to “Everybody Hates Elise” to now recently “Everybody Hates Zavok”.
I am all for Trip and welcoming her into the cast of these colorful characters! Her story is very deep, and I love how it once again shows Amy's true strength is her heart. I've seen some people theorize Amy reshaped her quills in her Modern design to look like Trip.
I love Trip, I think once she takes off the helmet, they should start calling her Walks to showcase her growth from being clumsy and tripping over things to walking normally. It would be very kino.
Very much so! I adore her design and her character when there's more that I didn't read about her than it seemed in my run of the game. She is an adorable lil being and she should be treated well.
I feel like people are saying “there’s no story in superstars!” Because they’re more modern sonic fans, fans of large elaborate stories that have a direct, real meaning to relate to, thus people with favorite characters like shadow and blaze and such who relate with their struggles and adventures. With the classic games, it’s more like an abstract art form. There is a story, but it’s up to individual interpretation for specific details. I WILL say, all the dragon business could’ve been hinted at better like how S3&K had the ancient murals when you fight knuckles. Superstars does kinda just blindside you into “oh yeah dragons exist here”
I love Trip, I wish she'll show up again in the future even if it's just some spin-off or another classic game learning more about her character and theming just makes me appreciate her and Superstars story a bit more
I saw a video not too long ago explaining Shadow's design and how the red striped on his quills evoked a certain cultural mask that represented, probably among other things, anger. In other words, there's a lot of depth to his design, and seeing you break down Trip's design makes me smile inside, as it's been a while since we got a character design that had this much thought put into it.
The reason you find Trip so fascinating to you is not only does it carry the spark from the original genesis Sonic games but that lizuka managed to craft another well compelling character that is not only simple but complex in how it is handled metaphorically and subtly and how it fits on par with the series staple of making positive differences that is akin to how Sonic's actions have a positive affect to the people around him, which is evident when Amy starts to allow Trip to open up, to not let her insecurities get the better of her, and for her to stand up against those who don't understand the real her underneath that armor she's been shelling herself I think the sentiment that Trip's story is a rehash of 3&K sounds like people looking down on the story at surface level, I think you did a gj trying to point out based on what was available from evidences not only in the game but also in the comics and animated shorts and cutscenes
It would be cool to see her in modern Sonic games, but they for some reason want to keep characters in the classic style games separate from the modern style ones. Kind of off topic, but it's weird how we've never seen the Chaotix in a classic style game in a long time despite being introduced in the classic style.
You might say something that gets me annoyed at you down the line, but I'll admit, I'll respect you for having the huge fucking balls to say you liked Superstars' story over everything between it and Black Knight Mad respects for that, genuinely got surprised by it, but I am happy that you do like it that much, seeing as I saw so many negative opinions on Superstars all around
Don't worry about that first bit btw, there's a lot of ytbers I like that say something I utterly disagree with and makes me a bit upset, so don't dwell on it Plus, I'll most likely keep it to myself so you won't have another fly to deal with lol
Great vid but I'm surprised to see you didn't catch something about Trip's design when you were mentioning how some concept art clearly looks more in-line with Sonics artstyle and better for her. Trip's head in particular looks a lot like modern Amy's and considering this is set before Adventure and Amy and Trip's friendship is very prominent here yet we never see Trip again for the entirety of the modern series, Sonic Team retroactively making it so Amy "remembers" Trip by wearing her hairstyle (quillstyle?) is another great element to this story imo. They actually managed to weave in something new from the classic era that effects modern in a sweet way.
I'm sure that they could've reused the concept of a dragon in Sonic Adventure, the manual of Sonic 3 & Knuckles mentions the dragon of the legends of Knuckles' people, and probably since the dragon was unused they saw as a good opportunity to make Perfect Chaos, since it's also tied with the Echidnas story and it is a legend among them, it eliminated almost their entire race But since it was originally a concept from a 2D Classic Game, I think they wanted to also reuse that idea in a new 2D Classic game, but with another story tied to the dragon, not related to Knuckles, the guardian of Angel Island which Sonic 3 takes place, but related to Trip, the guardian of Northstar Islands where Sonic Superstars takes place
I really want more games in the style of Sonic Superstars. The multiplayer took a bit to get used to, but i genuinely had a good time playing it with my son.
I didn't know a lot of these details! That's really cool! But yeah, hard agree on her design not being the strongest, my main problem is actually the face, sonic reptiles like espio and vector have really distinct faces with unique stuff like espio with his horn and how in the classic design his eyes are actually separate, the black around his eyes helps out the design a lot. But Trip has a pointy Mighty-esque nose, regular eyes and even has bits on her head that make it look like ears, she's almost like victim of design template curse where a lot of sonic designs have to be tied down by these basic eye shapes and stuff without a lot of experimentation, which really REALLY sucks 'cause it absolutely harmed my impression of her, to the point i even want her to stay masked, hidden in her shell.
Hopefully "Superstars'" mediocre sales performance (or the weird flip-flopping regarding whether or not the modern Classic games are their own continuity) doesn't preclude Trip making an appearance in a modern game one of these days. I think that she'd fit into the modern titles real well, and I would certainly like to see how they might update her design to fit the rest of the cast.
I know it may be very far-fetched, but I don't understand exactly why Trip has this social anxiety. Tails was with a lack of friends and insecure because he suffered harassment from other inhabitants; Knuckles is violent, somewhat innocent and knows the place because he is the last of his kind, he lives in solitude.But Trip, despite belonging to a lineage of guardians, we do not know if they are still alive, if they are then they are very bad at their job, if they are not, what Trip went through to suffer this shame and ignite her social anxiety?
Why do you assume she's from a lineage of guardians? We know almost nothing about her people or what she does before everyone arrives. Does it really matter why she has social anxiety? Some life experiences that occurred in her past caused her to develop it. That can be easily assumed, and that's all we need.
I remember watching a Ace Card Gaming video when he was going into depths of Trip as a character. That not also really made me appreciate Trip as a character, but as a person with ASD who grew up with lots of social anxiety, I can relate to her struggles and personality on a deeper level. That’s the kind of deep characterization I feel like storytelling in modern media has been heavily moving away from. Keep up a good work man!
Golden Capital IS the Sonic 1 concept art. The name of the zone in the art is what we got in Superstars. It’s like that one cut Sonic 2 desert level that became Mirage Saloon in Mania, but much more direct
What a great video! I really love Sonic Superstars and already loved Trip a lot as a character, but this helped to provide a lot more insight and details about who she is and why she's important. The added bit about the armadillo lizard making itself into a "wheel" is fascinating! Thank you so much!
After watching your video and getting to hear all the story details we know about from start to finish, I think I’ve figured out the story of the Black Dragon and Eggman’s base! So as we see in the opening cutscene of the game, Eggman already pays Fang for capturing the large animals of the island, but still promises a bigger reward if he can find the Black Dragon’s egg. In the Fang the Hunter comic series that recently came out, it’s been made very clear that Fang wants to use any rewards he earns to upgrade his Marvelous Queen. During Fang’s boss fight you can see he’s not only gotten these upgrades but seems to be using the entire location as a smelter to build the robotic Fang used as Trip’s final boss. I don’t think Eggman would be so generous as to let Fang just do whatever he wants while he’s supposed to be looking for this egg, rather I believe Fang DID manage to find the egg off screen and this whole Golden Capital is his reward for delivering it to Eggman! So how does the Egg Fortress’ time travel mechanic play into this? Well as said later in the video, there’s this whole theme of the ouroboros. A cycle. Perhaps Eggman was using his Egg Fortress to break a lock that was put on the Egg long ago by Trip’s ancestors as shown in the mural, so he invents this hourglass device that can move everything inside the base back through time at a rapid pace. It could be possible that while using the base’s time travel to fight Sonic he had unintentionally put the egg through enough time travel that the seal was removed, and by the time the base was destroyed with everything flying back down to Earth, the Black Dragon was finally able to free itself. And so when Super Sonic battles the Black Dragon and Trip reseals it using the same egg as before, they are essentially repeating what Trip’s ancestors did before, they went through the same cycle! Not sure if this is what Sega intended with some of these details since supposedly there’s a lot of lore about this game they’ve kept under wraps for whatever reason, but I feel like it works really well and wish they made some of these story beats a little more obvious if they turn out to be true.
I LOVE her final design over the concept, but that may just be me. Even if it is an analysis many other RUclipsrs have done, you've still done a fantastic job at this, very thorough, good video!
Zavok oddly does have a lot to him in that he is abused by his master to do the things he does and has genuine wisdom and considerations of philosophy.
i liked trip because she seemed different from the cliche "misguided bad guy turns good" trope we've seen quite a lot in Sonic. Trip just seems like a kid who knows this island so well the animals all trust her, but she's either forced to help eggman or is misguided that sonic and everyone else is evil. One thing is we see in the trio of trouble video that she cares about the animals and that she's conflicted when it comes to helping fang and eggman. Also, there's a bit of mystery because the helmet she wore was worn by some ancients so do with that what you will. It was fun to have her join in at the end although i wish we got to see her dragon form go against the giant dragon in the finale.
Thank you for making analysis videos like these. Even simple facts like the armoured lizard name are so cool to hear. A shame that Trip gets a video before Zavok but hey I know we'll get the "Zavok is the Bestest New Sonic Character in Ages" video eventually
Headcanon Related to the Bigger Story: The stone was a standalone power gem, like the Phantom Ruby, Warp Topaz, and etc. Whoever the bad guy used to be, they abused the stone's power and became what we see at the end of SuperStars. The Sungazers used the Chaos Emeralds to seal the Dragon back within the Onyx Stone(does it have an official name? I forgo). Then Eggman attempts that time rewind thing in Egg Fortress to turn back the clock on Northstar Island, unsealing the Dragon. He initially fails, only rewinding the Island back to its state at the start of the game. Then Fang and Egg Robo take charge, and THIS TIME, the Rewind succeeds. Super Sonic (and Golden Dragon in my au) defeat the villain and seal 'em back up in their own power source again.
There are some parts of the story that really needed fleshing out (like what the deal was with the black dragon and what Eggman was trying to do with that time-reversing machine), but Takashi Iizuka absolutely cooked with Trip.
You know what, I really agree with everything you've said here and learned a lot more about Trip's character than I thought I knew even though I still have a fair few problems with Superstars' story. Now Trip is a saint. She's a great actually well thought out character in Sonic's world and everything having to do with her I have no notes on. A character like her has been long missed. What I do have notes on is basically anything not having to do with them. Firstly, I don't like that the prequel media isn't just in the game. To be fair, this is petty since both are free but I've never liked the concept of going to external sources of media for more of a game's story that isn't in/with the game itself. Secondly any remaining Chaos Emeralds being in locked away in Golden Capital...for some reason. Yes, I know they're needed for Trip's big moment, but they are almost at the level of contrived that Tails bringing the real yellow emerald to the ARK for the sake of that awesome Eggman cutscene. Thirdly Eggman. What is he doing in this story? Yes, he is the bad guy and out for the Black Dragon but it never feels like it. Fang and Trip are more antagonizing Sonic than doing anything related to the Black Dragon and when we get to the Egg Fortress, Eggman built a machine that reverses time on the fortress...why? What does that have to do with anything? This is the last we see of Eggman for the entire rest of the game and he has taken zero steps to what's supposed to be his target. Finally the Black Dragon. This has to be the worst executed "big creature Eggman releases" plot in the series and that *includes* the Time Eater. Eggman doesn't even release it, we don't know how or why it's released. It just is and then is resealed by the stone Trip randomly uses by the end. This feels tacked on just for the sake of a Super Sonic boss fight. This is the story's climax and to me it feels like we could have literally not involved the Dragon whatsoever and actually would've been better. Think about it, what if the Chaos Emeralds were mystically drawn to the North Star Islands which leads Eggman to researching the islands and finding out about the large animals and the fact that the Emeralds have special powers exclusive to them, prompting him to go hunt for the emeralds and hire Fang. I feel like that would be a simpler but much more sound story all around which removes that terrible Super Sonic boss so one less boss to deal with. I know these 4 things lean more to the nitpick side but they come together to make me think the only thing the people making the story really thought about was Trip which is both a very good and kinda bad thing in my book.
My guess is the idea was supposed to be that Eggman was trying to reverse time on the island to before the dragon was sealed away. But it's very unclear if that's the idea. As is how or if he even found the egg it was trapped in.
I did really like how it's Amy who gets Trip to open up. We're always told Amy is the heart of the group, but we usually never see it. The fact that a simple act of kindness from her is what helped Trip finally stick up for herself is really sweet in my opinion.
I really enjoyed Trip as a character, she's already among some of my favourite Sonic characters, and I did enjoy Superstars' story for the most part, but I do feel it leaned WAY too heavily on "show, don't tell" for its own good. Especially with the whole Black Dragon thing; it makes sense in context (and with a little bit of dot connecting), but if you take only the stuff in-game it just feels random and out of nowhere. Which, speaking of, it's a letdown Trip wasn't the one to fight the final boss dragon; even a Sonic/Trip duo would've sufficed. Would've been epic to see the two brawl out.
i kinda just wish Trip is not stuck in a classic game where she and her own plot were stuck to silent storytelling. Overall, I kinda wish Sonic Superstars broken the mold more of what a classic game should be cuz IMO, a classic sonic game where only sonic is silent like how he is in Generations would actually be fine for me.
That could also be a great chance to re-introduce Fang. Maybe make them unlikely toxic duo. Fang abusing Trip yet he clearly cares about her enough to actually treat her more nicely, maybe work on himself and even get more humble, like in all relationships of this kind, the abuser will show compassion, either as a manipulation or genuine moment of self reflection towards victim reinforcing their belief that there is good in the abuser, thus staying with them. Maybe Trip's modern design will have a hoodie which she will cover her head with when she feels sfressed out.
@missmarshmallow5775 I think Fang’s story in this game is about him realizing the emptiness of money but him making the wrong decisions because the abandonments are getting to him into the point of him outright being vengeful.
Heres what if i made a sonic game... Sonic & Trip The modern era sonic game, with a Modern Trip Design! Eggman has found a new area known as the Vista Isles, and to make matters worse, he kidnapped sonic & trip's friends & Put them in Indestructible Capsules! Will sonic & Trip save them?!
Another interesting notion between the natural opposition between Trip and Fang is that Trip is the dragon and Fang is the treasure hunter out to steal the dragon's treasure (the black egg) which just happens to house an ancient evil that the dragon was keeping sealed. It is a classic situation. Also the golden capital being full of lava or molten gold is incredibly fitting for a civilization of dragons.
That explains a lot of their thought process when they had to redesign Fang into a mainline character, since Trip and Fang were introduced as a duo. And it shows quite a lot in their artwork and how Fang changes to the point he throws the money to be absolutely vengeful.
I dont think the trip part of superstars story is the thing most people raiwe their eyebrows against, its more the random giga dragon in the end that was barely set up in game except for the fact that a random egg existed
I was also pretty impressed at the thought and emotion, the overall feeling they put into the story through Trip. I like her. What's really sad is that no one seems to be able to understand Sonic stories these days unless, like you said, they're spoken to the player over dozens of paragraphs of spoken dialog and hours of video sequences pulling you out of the game to demand your attention. People are just dumb in the 2020s; I can't really put it any nicer than that.
I like Trip too, but I think there's something that people need to come to terms with; she's not a Classic Sonic character! She's a new Sonic character who is being marketed as a Classic character. And this I don't really understand. I don't really agree with it because it's implying that the word Classic in the Sonic series has become nothing more than a marketing term. It no longer means "Characters and elements created between 1991 and 1998." It's become more "Characters with shorter, stockier appearences, and black eyes who don't talk!" Or basically "Not Modern, so therefore good!" I just don't agree with that. I know that she's still fairly new, but I find it kind of strange that a certain faction of the Sonic community, let's call them the "anti-Sonic community" (i.e. the Sonic haters and detractors and critics who think that dumping on Sonic makes them cool and funny), isn't unfairly lumping her in with the rest of the Sonic supporting cast and unfairly labeling her as "another stupid addition to Sonic's bajillion stupid friends!" Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that this ISN'T the case, I just find it strange that practically every time a new Sonic character is introduced, they inevitably get hated on, and yet Trip hasn't. It makes me wonder if people's attitude is "oh but that's cos she's a Classic Sonic character! A TRUE Sonic character! Not like those lame-o Modern characters like Shadow and Silver! Stupid emo, edge lords! Don't like 'em! Sega should just get rid of 'em and have Classic characters from now on!" It's one of the reasons I can't stand this Classic/Modern divide.
Well, she is a classic character in the sense that Sega labels things as classic or modern, and they cannot exist in the other because branding. Trip will only ever exist in classic stuff.
@@Pariah6950 But that's just so limiting for this character. One of the things that always got me excited for new Sonic games was hearing what the characters sounded like, and it was cool to see more obscure characters like the Chaotix getting updated designs and voices. Many fans would love to see characters like Mighty, Ray, Fang, and even Trip get the same treatment, and it would allow for more character interactions. Imagine Shadow teaming up with Mighty, or Rouge battling Fang, or Cream making friends with Trip? Sounds awesome to me! But nope! Can't have that! We've got to separate these characters based on their eye colour! And all because a bunch of whiners complained about Sonic's damn eye colour in Sonic 4! Give me a break!
@@justice8718 The thing is, what's stopping Sega from "modernising" these characters? It's basically just giving them slightly longer proportions, coloured irises and an actual voice. It literally feels like the only thing that is stopping Sega from doing this is their fear of upsetting all of the whiney fan boys who complained about Sonic's darned eye colour in Sonic 4. I don't understand why this has become such a taboo subject when it comes to the Sonic series.
@@bowmaj8666 Simple Fang and Trip are supposed to be clear indicators and materials for the classic era of games. If you modernized them, you will severely limit what they can do in the classic games.
Trip and Sage are two of the best Sonic characters to be introduced recently Not only are they equally adorable but they are actually interesting characters that fit into the Sonic universe and don't look like a bunch of Online Monster Pet Game rejects *ahem* Deadly Six *ahem*
Care to elaborate your take... like at all? Shadow's way cooler, and considerably stronger. (Until you include Frontiers combat moves) If you're talking character personality... explain.
That was quite a great video. Details like these just makes things so charming, she reminds me of Blaze as well. It’s a shame everyone looks past this and only look on the negatives. Underrated game honestly
IIzuka should've been the writer of the Sonic stories in the 2010's, He could've made the story of Sonic Colours, lost world, forces way better than what Pontac and Graff did.
@@sonic5993the overarching plot of Shadow is unnecessary but imo it’s not bad at all. it slightly complicates things but when examining it all it makes sense just fine
While Iizuka properly would have done better so it's it worth noticing that he too is the person that made eggman Nega's backstory a mess by ignoring Rush when writing the rivals games and that he is at least partially responsible for the unpleasant mess that is free riders story. He is certainly not perfect is what I want to say.
It was said that there are a lot of things about Sonic Superstars story that weren't told to us, and maybe they could be told in the future, maybe not, but I like theorizing anyway, there are a lot of things about the past before Sonic and his friends were born that we don't have many awnsers or know the full story, the Black Arms, the Echidnas, the Ancients, the Gizoids, the Four Great Civilizations, etc. So I'm okay with that, but still hope that some day we'll get those missing details, especially about the dragon because although I agree the main story is realyl good the way it is, it manages to tell something cool and deep without any dialogue and just animated transition cutscenes like Sonic 3 & Knuckles has, and it has a great character development on Trip until the point where she finally takes her armor off, and after that point up until the final bosses of both the Main Story and Trip's Story are good enough and fill their role as a competent story, the Last Story really is something that everyone agrees that it comes out of the blue, probably the dragon has its backstory, probably tied to Trip, the Chaos Emerald special abilities, her tribe and the giant animals are all involved on that dragon's backstory, especially since the mural shown in Golden Capital Act Knuckles and Trio of Trouble has all those elements in it I think it's fine the way it is as I said, but I really do wish the Final Story was a bit more well developed, as I said, I don't mind if they don't reveal the backstory of the Dragon, or at least for now, we can always theorize, but I wish the story told, with Sonic and his friends could have a better build up and be written with a bit more of details, I actually even rewrote the final story of Superstars, without giving the dragon a backstory or anything, I just rewrote the gameplay part, where you actually play as Sonic, and I'll give a quick summarize: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Trip are on Bridge Island celebrating their defeat on Eggman and Fang in Bridge Island (like the final cutscene of their stories), when they see both of them flying by on their destroyed mechs heading towards Speed Jungle, they decide to follow them and getting there, Eggman makes them lose time while Fang ambushes them to steal the emeralds like he did with Knuckles in Golden Capital, he heads towards the purple gem to free the dragon with the 7 Chaos Emeralds, Trip runs trying to stop him since she's the only one who knows about the dragon and what he really is, it looks like she was trying to warn Fang during the whole game, in the intro cutscene when Eggman asks Fang to find the dragon it looks like Trip was desperate trying to warn him but ends up tripping by accident on him making him mad and screaming at her, I would assume that dragon is a legend among her people especially since he was painted in the mural Trip doesn't manage to catch up to the Marvellous Queen, Fang uses the Emeralds, frees the dragon, Eggman tries to give the dragon orders, the Dragon does something like Dark Gaia or Chaos attacking Eggman, Fang notices what he has done and that there was no way to control the dragon, so he just gives the emeralds to Sonic and decides to do a temporary team up, Sonic goes Super, the regular fight happens, and just like the ending cutscene we got in the game, Trip traps the dragon back on the gem and they start to celebrate once again in Bridge Island That's basically it, although I wrote an ending where Trip gives Fang an apple just like Amy did to her in Lagoon City, since he helped them even if out of pure desperation by giving the Emeralds to Sonic and Fang accepts with an annoyed/embarassed face, and just like the regular game, Eggman's drawing of the Dragon falls into the ground and the game zooms in, and the story ends there As I said, I think Superstars story is acutally really deep and cool full of small details where you can connect and theorize, even come to some conclusions, and I think the way it is presented is totally fine, we have lots of cool trivia and small things as you pointed out in the video, the Ouroboros, the final dragon looking like Super Trip, Trip being a Sungazer Lizard with all the sun, having a dragon form because those lizards are called Dragons, having an armor because those lizards are called Armored lizards, the story is full of those small cool details, and even though I wish the Final Story was told differently more complex, without changing or explaining the past backstory, I still think it does a good job and has lots of these cool details
Off topic: The original plot of Sonic Synergy or Boom Rise of Lyric was about Sonic's origin story but it was scrapped because Sonic Team wants to tell their origin story first. When the hell will this ever happen?? Do you think it will happen or it was just ST shushing BRB?
![Twenty One Pilots - “The Line” (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/E2Rj2gQAyPA/mqdefault.jpg)
Something I'd like to note on Fang as a bully, something I'm pretty sure isn't actually taken into account with the creation of the story but is neat regardless, is the way that Fang has had very similar faults Trip fell into in Sonic Triple Trouble. The way his traps would go awry, how his own missile gets sent back at him one time, how he literally get buried into the ground another, and of course how he runs off like a coward when Eggman is approaches in his jumping machine in Atomic Destroyer act 3.
He's depicted as just about as clumsy as Trip can be, yet not only is he doing it out of malice, but Superstars adds onto what used to be little bits of comic relief as him pushing Trip down to make him feel better about his own shortcomings.
Again, I'm pretty sure his characterization in Triple Trouble wasn't at the forefront during Superstars' development, but I just really like how that can be read into with what we know about the character of Fang regardless.
I thought the same exact thing. Fang could be bullying Trip because she reminds him of himself. But I similarly doubt that was an intentional thing, so I decided not to mention it.
@@Pariah6950 I honestly think that along with that is that he used trip as a scapegoat because of his ego, like he thinks that he is perfect and everything he makes wont be a failure and because trip comes along he chooses to blame trip instead himself( which he shouldn't do in the first place because even in his first appearance it gets turned against him. He didn't even have anyone to blame, eggman would probably get metal to sic him if he's blamed, metal would kill him if he's blamed, Knuckles? would also kill him probably although I believe the metal copied knuckles fan theory is true) and and that's why trip fighting back was a lot more powerful
That kinda reminds me of Infinite, which hated his old "weak and pathetic" past self and thought he was invincible when getting Phantom Ruby.
I remember the creator of Fang talking about being inspired by Wile e coyote: a character who would use tricks and tools who would backfire on him. It's possible the writer took that into account even if unconciously
Also something I noticed, and maybe it's purely headcanon but Trip and Fang relationship remind me of a toxic version of Tails and Sonic. You know Sonic and Fang are confident adventurers while Tails and Trip are socially akward followers (Tails was bullied, Trip is timid) and both "followers" end up growing independant, the difference being Trip do it out of frustration while Tails simply grows up
It’s kinda insane going from Pariah’s mixed feelings in his live playthrough of this game at launch to, now, being Sonic Superstars’ strongest soldier. It’s stuff like this that makes me keep coming back to the channel, and I’m all for it.
I'm pretty sure he had positive feelings at the end of his first playtrought
I think the fact he ended up loving Superstars more and was indifferent towards Wonder might be showing up which is the better game in hindsight lol
@@tphofficial64 yeah, Wonder
Time Attack changes a man
Honestly I really liked Superstars too despite a few decently sized flaws it has, the core gameplay experience was a TON of fun for me, I'm not sure why people generally hate on it so much. I guess following Mania it seemed like a downgrade in some areas but overall it worked really well imo
To fully Understand the full wingspan of Superstars story...
1. (Optional) Read the "Seasons of Chaos" IDW comic
to understand the Chaos Emerald that Fang's Gang lost in step 2
2. Read the "Fang the Hunter" IDW comics
3. Read the "Fang's Big Break" prequel comic
4. Watch the "Trio of Trouble" Animation
5. (Optional) Read the Sonic Superstars Manga
6. Play Superstars - Story Mode, Trip's Story, Last Story
7. Watch Pariah's video "Trip is the Best New Sonic Character in Ages"
Why do 6/7 steps have nothing to do with the game?
Fang the Hunter is optional, I would have prefered it as a serperate adventure from Superstars.
Which is why I still am unsure about sonic superstars story. It all sounds good on paper, but the fact that you can’t understand the story without going into all these different sources separate from the games… I mean, I know the originals did it, but it’s 2024! A classic sonic game can fully explain a story mid game too!
And now Knuckles' 30th anniversary comic.
One interesting detail that may or may not be intentional with thrips clumsiness is that it seems to stem from the armor itself. You see a lot in the animated cutscenes especially that the big helmet often gets in the way of arm and hand movements and that her big blocky boots often causes her to trip.
Not sure if it’s the intended meaning, but I think that this is meant to convey that this kind of defense mechanism of ‘armoring yourself’ isn’t going to solve any of the problems that you have in your social interactions and will only cause you to second guess yourself.
I'm very fond of how Sonic games will take these characters who are nigh upon demigods and make them completley inept dorks in regular social situations, like Blaze with Cream in Rush or Silver with Amy in 06. Its very cute and I'm glad we got to see it continue with Trip.
this type of thing is something i’ve always loved seeing in stuff ever since i was a kid bc it’s like. you don’t stop having mundane normal person problems when you have cartoon superpowers and stuff and it makes the characters way more relatable than if it magically made all their character flaws disappear on merit alone
Blaze goes hard in Sonic Rush, it's fun seeing her be formal, but distant and hearing how many people are willing to help her, only for her to be confused and willing to shut them down on it.
Same for Silver too, it's the stuff that makes me love these two
@@stardust-reverie So true. I've legit seen some braindead Twitter users, wondering why fantasy characters can't just use magic to make their disabilities and flaws disappear. Perfect characters are boring.
@@raythepony ikr????? twitter knows nothing lmao
Being designed by the great Naoto Oshima himself helps a lot considering he knows exactly what a Sonic character entails. I hope Trip is a recurring character for future Sonic games.
they've already teased her as a modern character among the cast in a Tails Tube, i REALLY wanna see what the heck they're trying to set up
@@AltKaxREAL Maybe that's why she's kinda overdesigned: to be a templeate for the modern version.
I hope the rest of the classic characters gets a modern treatment too.
@@StellaFangX When you say the rest of the classic characters... *_Who exactly are you referring to?_*
One thing I love about Superstars is that when you combine it w/ the Fang comic, it makes up for a really interesting dive into Fang's character : his strengths, weaknesses and ego.
Pariah Fang analysis when?
@@charmyzard He said his opinion in the comments.
Nack is a better name. Fang the sniper? He doesn’t even have a sniper rifle.
@@kingstarscream320 Cool for you but Idc.
@@DaYapGuy Just my two cents.
Saying this is the best story since Black Knight is a bold statement, but I genuinely can’t think of any other examples. I knew there was a reason I loved Superstars’ story, thanks for the enlightenment!
You too, Pixel!? I thought it was just me who actually enjoyed superstars
@@patrickquinones2533 I love Superstars!
superstars is good game
I dunno if it’s ‘Trip’s story has gone over people’s heads.’ I think it’s more ‘Trip’s story is cute, but it’s really simple.’ Eggman’s motivations being muddy don’t help the remaining story either, let alone the random dragon
The dragon was an homage to Wonder Boy
Eggman is a one-dimensional villain doing one-dimensional villain things and there is nothing wrong with this. It fits Classic Sonic extremely well where Eggman always enslaves a random island for little reason other than he is evil. As Pariah says, this is Trip's story and it is good how well Fang and even Amy is used within this context. It is also good that the dragon at the end is designed to resemble Trip and her Super transformation which along with the giant animals of the island give the final boss a lot of needed context.
@@kingstarscream320Actually I think it's a reference to the dragon egg nentioned in the Sonic 3 (Japanese) manual
I don't know, Sonic stories have always been pretty simple. Most of the best Sonic stories are just vehicles for character exploration and character dynamics, which I think is the series strength as far as stories are concerned
Her jump also is from Vector in Knuckles Chaotics
Honestly, the one big letdown of Trip’s story in Sonic Superstars is that she doesn’t get to fight the black-and-purple dragon alongside Super Sonic.
Aside from being a great opportunity to control two characters simultaneously (like a more earnest version of the final fight from Sonic Forces), it would’ve been a great opportunity to use gameplay to further reinforce the story; In this case, acting as a secondary culmination of Trip’s arc from shy and scared loner to open and brave accomplice to Sonic and Co.
Agreed. If shadow, Silver and blaze can all be part of the introduction have final super fights than why can't Trip? We were robbed of a dragon vs dragon right, hl maybe even of Sonic riding a dragon into a fight.
Alternatively, she could be the black dragon herself. If she got captured by Eggman and corrupted (or reversed time to the time when she was evil in the distant past), it would work well.
@@rynobehnke8289 Oh darn, Super Sonic riding Dragon Trip into the fight would have been sick, we were robbed.
@@legoboy7107 See you get it. That would have been so cool.
It has an incomplete story, the dragon come out of nowhere
You just know that they're gonna bring Zavok back more than trip tho. Sonic Rumble is already proof of that
All hail Zavok
I want hard boiled heavies
ok but idw zavok is actually pretty good
@Bengt2509 Not really. He just upstages Eggman in an arc that goes out of its way to show him as someone who's make a world wiping out nano zombie plague but not make any contingency plans or just something to protect himself in case it was used against him (aka Flynn just writing Eggman as how he sees his game characterization rather than the flamboyant robo Nazi crossed with the Joker he wrote him as in Archie). That and be a way to lecture Starline on how to be a better wannabe usurper furry Eggman and be a tool for Sonic to make another speech on his ideals.
Sega just really seems to like Zavok for some reason despite him being one of the most hated Sonic characters in the fanbase, alongside the rest of the Deadly Six. I like how it went from “Everybody Hates Chris” to “Everybody Hates Elise” to now recently “Everybody Hates Zavok”.
I am all for Trip and welcoming her into the cast of these colorful characters! Her story is very deep, and I love how it once again shows Amy's true strength is her heart.
I've seen some people theorize Amy reshaped her quills in her Modern design to look like Trip.
I love Trip, I think once she takes off the helmet, they should start calling her Walks to showcase her growth from being clumsy and tripping over things to walking normally. It would be very kino.
Who would've guessed that Pariah would like a "classic" sonic game
Life can be so predictable at times. And so can we humans.
22:13 You say her final design is more busy compared to the other image??? How in what way?!?!
"More characters like this please, and less characters like Zavok" killed me XD
I want the hard Boiled heavys back
@@jurassicarkjordanisgreat1778
They've been destroyed and Eggman will NEVER rebuild them I think
@@shelbybayer200 he didn’t really egg robos took the Phantom Ruby and transformed themselves
@@shelbybayer200they were straight up left stranded in the middle of the ocean on a sinking ship
@@PikachuGamerSMT
They Heavies still aren't coming back
I love Trip. She's adorable.
She’s really cute in my opinion
I'm glad you can see it too
@@patrickquinones2533 you welcome :)
Very much so! I adore her design and her character when there's more that I didn't read about her than it seemed in my run of the game. She is an adorable lil being and she should be treated well.
@@SN64YT same here as well
I feel like people are saying “there’s no story in superstars!” Because they’re more modern sonic fans, fans of large elaborate stories that have a direct, real meaning to relate to, thus people with favorite characters like shadow and blaze and such who relate with their struggles and adventures. With the classic games, it’s more like an abstract art form. There is a story, but it’s up to individual interpretation for specific details. I WILL say, all the dragon business could’ve been hinted at better like how S3&K had the ancient murals when you fight knuckles. Superstars does kinda just blindside you into “oh yeah dragons exist here”
I love Trip, I wish she'll show up again in the future even if it's just some spin-off or another classic game
learning more about her character and theming just makes me appreciate her and Superstars story a bit more
"Mom we can we have classic chaotix"
"No honey we have classic chaotix at home"
classic chaotix at home:
knuckles 30th anniversary special will (hopefully) come in clutch 🙏
@@maximyllionhis anniversary was technically back in February lmfao
And the best part is Trip knows how to make pancakes some of the time
I saw a video not too long ago explaining Shadow's design and how the red striped on his quills evoked a certain cultural mask that represented, probably among other things, anger. In other words, there's a lot of depth to his design, and seeing you break down Trip's design makes me smile inside, as it's been a while since we got a character design that had this much thought put into it.
I wholeheartedly believe Trip and her character arc are the best part of Sonic Superstars: I really hope they bring her back in Future classic games.
The reason you find Trip so fascinating to you is not only does it carry the spark from the original genesis Sonic games but that lizuka managed to craft another well compelling character that is not only simple but complex in how it is handled metaphorically and subtly and how it fits on par with the series staple of making positive differences that is akin to how Sonic's actions have a positive affect to the people around him, which is evident when Amy starts to allow Trip to open up, to not let her insecurities get the better of her, and for her to stand up against those who don't understand the real her underneath that armor she's been shelling herself
I think the sentiment that Trip's story is a rehash of 3&K sounds like people looking down on the story at surface level, I think you did a gj trying to point out based on what was available from evidences not only in the game but also in the comics and animated shorts and cutscenes
2:24 should’ve said “just follow the Polaris star in the sky. It doesn’t matter where it is, if you follow it, you’ll always find the island.”
Trip is also one of my favorites. Best character since Blaze and a top tier character for sure
It would be cool to see her in modern Sonic games, but they for some reason want to keep characters in the classic style games separate from the modern style ones. Kind of off topic, but it's weird how we've never seen the Chaotix in a classic style game in a long time despite being introduced in the classic style.
I’d love to see a modern version of Trip. I wonder who’d do her voice.
You might say something that gets me annoyed at you down the line, but I'll admit, I'll respect you for having the huge fucking balls to say you liked Superstars' story over everything between it and Black Knight
Mad respects for that, genuinely got surprised by it, but I am happy that you do like it that much, seeing as I saw so many negative opinions on Superstars all around
Don't worry about that first bit btw, there's a lot of ytbers I like that say something I utterly disagree with and makes me a bit upset, so don't dwell on it
Plus, I'll most likely keep it to myself so you won't have another fly to deal with lol
I hope trip comes into modern 3d games like knuckles
Great video, well researched, well thought out, well delivered - excellent. You've given me so much appreciation for this game and character
I call the finalest boss What's his name the sunblocler, it feels appropriate since he's so big and dark while clearly being related to the sungazers
That name goes pretty hard
next video: “the problem with sages existence”
Oh I hope we will get this one someday
I strongly dislike Sage
@@tadaokou4919 I think she's fine in Frontiers, but I struggle to think what she's gonna add long-term given the ending.
@@sonic5993 The ending in which Sage is alive? Even though she's alive in the original too. She can be his daughter and help him with his plans.
Sage is such a dumb character lmao
@@prufan so what you’re trying to say is she’ll be orbot and cubot but have the personality of Chatgpt
I really hope we get more of her in the future. She's fun to play.
Really hope SEGA doesn't just abandon Classic Sonic in the future
you know a good part of the fans are just waiting for that to happen
@@AltKaxREAL They're obnoxious 2000's fans. They care about ''shonen, long quills, free as the wind, flawed but ambitions'' then anything else.
@@ECartmanist And I'm proud of it. I'll take it over the bland, dry, samey Classics any day.
@@milesstorzillo7650 so you're just stupid?
exactly!
@@milesstorzillo7650Hell yeah brother. Classic Sonic never innovates or evolves
Great vid but I'm surprised to see you didn't catch something about Trip's design when you were mentioning how some concept art clearly looks more in-line with Sonics artstyle and better for her.
Trip's head in particular looks a lot like modern Amy's and considering this is set before Adventure and Amy and Trip's friendship is very prominent here yet we never see Trip again for the entirety of the modern series, Sonic Team retroactively making it so Amy "remembers" Trip by wearing her hairstyle (quillstyle?) is another great element to this story imo. They actually managed to weave in something new from the classic era that effects modern in a sweet way.
I always thought the dragon in the Japanese manual for S3&K might’ve been perfect chaos. But this does make sense as well.
The concept art of Super Sonic fighting a reptile in space immediately made me think of SA2.
I'm sure that they could've reused the concept of a dragon in Sonic Adventure, the manual of Sonic 3 & Knuckles mentions the dragon of the legends of Knuckles' people, and probably since the dragon was unused they saw as a good opportunity to make Perfect Chaos, since it's also tied with the Echidnas story and it is a legend among them, it eliminated almost their entire race
But since it was originally a concept from a 2D Classic Game, I think they wanted to also reuse that idea in a new 2D Classic game, but with another story tied to the dragon, not related to Knuckles, the guardian of Angel Island which Sonic 3 takes place, but related to Trip, the guardian of Northstar Islands where Sonic Superstars takes place
i dig the concept o trip the clumsy dragon and her friendship with amy is much appreciated.
I really want more games in the style of Sonic Superstars. The multiplayer took a bit to get used to, but i genuinely had a good time playing it with my son.
I didn't know a lot of these details! That's really cool! But yeah, hard agree on her design not being the strongest, my main problem is actually the face, sonic reptiles like espio and vector have really distinct faces with unique stuff like espio with his horn and how in the classic design his eyes are actually separate, the black around his eyes helps out the design a lot. But Trip has a pointy Mighty-esque nose, regular eyes and even has bits on her head that make it look like ears, she's almost like victim of design template curse where a lot of sonic designs have to be tied down by these basic eye shapes and stuff without a lot of experimentation, which really REALLY sucks 'cause it absolutely harmed my impression of her, to the point i even want her to stay masked, hidden in her shell.
Hopefully "Superstars'" mediocre sales performance (or the weird flip-flopping regarding whether or not the modern Classic games are their own continuity) doesn't preclude Trip making an appearance in a modern game one of these days. I think that she'd fit into the modern titles real well, and I would certainly like to see how they might update her design to fit the rest of the cast.
I know it may be very far-fetched, but I don't understand exactly why Trip has this social anxiety. Tails was with a lack of friends and insecure because he suffered harassment from other inhabitants; Knuckles is violent, somewhat innocent and knows the place because he is the last of his kind, he lives in solitude.But Trip, despite belonging to a lineage of guardians, we do not know if they are still alive, if they are then they are very bad at their job, if they are not, what Trip went through to suffer this shame and ignite her social anxiety?
Why do you assume she's from a lineage of guardians? We know almost nothing about her people or what she does before everyone arrives.
Does it really matter why she has social anxiety? Some life experiences that occurred in her past caused her to develop it. That can be easily assumed, and that's all we need.
people have social anxiety all the time harry
I remember watching a Ace Card Gaming video when he was going into depths of Trip as a character. That not also really made me appreciate Trip as a character, but as a person with ASD who grew up with lots of social anxiety, I can relate to her struggles and personality on a deeper level. That’s the kind of deep characterization I feel like storytelling in modern media has been heavily moving away from. Keep up a good work man!
Golden Capital IS the Sonic 1 concept art. The name of the zone in the art is what we got in Superstars. It’s like that one cut Sonic 2 desert level that became Mirage Saloon in Mania, but much more direct
What a great video! I really love Sonic Superstars and already loved Trip a lot as a character, but this helped to provide a lot more insight and details about who she is and why she's important. The added bit about the armadillo lizard making itself into a "wheel" is fascinating! Thank you so much!
After watching your video and getting to hear all the story details we know about from start to finish, I think I’ve figured out the story of the Black Dragon and Eggman’s base!
So as we see in the opening cutscene of the game, Eggman already pays Fang for capturing the large animals of the island, but still promises a bigger reward if he can find the Black Dragon’s egg. In the Fang the Hunter comic series that recently came out, it’s been made very clear that Fang wants to use any rewards he earns to upgrade his Marvelous Queen. During Fang’s boss fight you can see he’s not only gotten these upgrades but seems to be using the entire location as a smelter to build the robotic Fang used as Trip’s final boss. I don’t think Eggman would be so generous as to let Fang just do whatever he wants while he’s supposed to be looking for this egg, rather I believe Fang DID manage to find the egg off screen and this whole Golden Capital is his reward for delivering it to Eggman!
So how does the Egg Fortress’ time travel mechanic play into this? Well as said later in the video, there’s this whole theme of the ouroboros. A cycle. Perhaps Eggman was using his Egg Fortress to break a lock that was put on the Egg long ago by Trip’s ancestors as shown in the mural, so he invents this hourglass device that can move everything inside the base back through time at a rapid pace. It could be possible that while using the base’s time travel to fight Sonic he had unintentionally put the egg through enough time travel that the seal was removed, and by the time the base was destroyed with everything flying back down to Earth, the Black Dragon was finally able to free itself. And so when Super Sonic battles the Black Dragon and Trip reseals it using the same egg as before, they are essentially repeating what Trip’s ancestors did before, they went through the same cycle!
Not sure if this is what Sega intended with some of these details since supposedly there’s a lot of lore about this game they’ve kept under wraps for whatever reason, but I feel like it works really well and wish they made some of these story beats a little more obvious if they turn out to be true.
I LOVE her final design over the concept, but that may just be me.
Even if it is an analysis many other RUclipsrs have done, you've still done a fantastic job at this, very thorough, good video!
Trip's cool, and all, but let's be real here. She'd get mogged by the sheer epicness of a REAL dragon character like the mighty Zavok.
Zavok oddly does have a lot to him in that he is abused by his master to do the things he does and has genuine wisdom and considerations of philosophy.
i liked trip because she seemed different from the cliche "misguided bad guy turns good" trope we've seen quite a lot in Sonic. Trip just seems like a kid who knows this island so well the animals all trust her, but she's either forced to help eggman or is misguided that sonic and everyone else is evil. One thing is we see in the trio of trouble video that she cares about the animals and that she's conflicted when it comes to helping fang and eggman. Also, there's a bit of mystery because the helmet she wore was worn by some ancients so do with that what you will. It was fun to have her join in at the end although i wish we got to see her dragon form go against the giant dragon in the finale.
Thank you for making analysis videos like these. Even simple facts like the armoured lizard name are so cool to hear. A shame that Trip gets a video before Zavok but hey I know we'll get the "Zavok is the Bestest New Sonic Character in Ages" video eventually
Yes! I can't wait for the Zavok video! Very complex character, so I wonder if he can keep it under 3 hours...
I guess we will get it on 01.04.2025 or 2026~
She's great. Another introverted character in this series that I like a lot
Headcanon Related to the Bigger Story:
The stone was a standalone power gem, like the Phantom Ruby, Warp Topaz, and etc. Whoever the bad guy used to be, they abused the stone's power and became what we see at the end of SuperStars. The Sungazers used the Chaos Emeralds to seal the Dragon back within the Onyx Stone(does it have an official name? I forgo).
Then Eggman attempts that time rewind thing in Egg Fortress to turn back the clock on Northstar Island, unsealing the Dragon. He initially fails, only rewinding the Island back to its state at the start of the game.
Then Fang and Egg Robo take charge, and THIS TIME, the Rewind succeeds. Super Sonic (and Golden Dragon in my au) defeat the villain and seal 'em back up in their own power source again.
Fang works with eggman reminds me when he help Robotnik in STC shanazar arc
There are some parts of the story that really needed fleshing out (like what the deal was with the black dragon and what Eggman was trying to do with that time-reversing machine), but Takashi Iizuka absolutely cooked with Trip.
You know what, I really agree with everything you've said here and learned a lot more about Trip's character than I thought I knew even though I still have a fair few problems with Superstars' story. Now Trip is a saint. She's a great actually well thought out character in Sonic's world and everything having to do with her I have no notes on. A character like her has been long missed. What I do have notes on is basically anything not having to do with them.
Firstly, I don't like that the prequel media isn't just in the game. To be fair, this is petty since both are free but I've never liked the concept of going to external sources of media for more of a game's story that isn't in/with the game itself.
Secondly any remaining Chaos Emeralds being in locked away in Golden Capital...for some reason. Yes, I know they're needed for Trip's big moment, but they are almost at the level of contrived that Tails bringing the real yellow emerald to the ARK for the sake of that awesome Eggman cutscene.
Thirdly Eggman. What is he doing in this story? Yes, he is the bad guy and out for the Black Dragon but it never feels like it. Fang and Trip are more antagonizing Sonic than doing anything related to the Black Dragon and when we get to the Egg Fortress, Eggman built a machine that reverses time on the fortress...why? What does that have to do with anything? This is the last we see of Eggman for the entire rest of the game and he has taken zero steps to what's supposed to be his target.
Finally the Black Dragon. This has to be the worst executed "big creature Eggman releases" plot in the series and that *includes* the Time Eater. Eggman doesn't even release it, we don't know how or why it's released. It just is and then is resealed by the stone Trip randomly uses by the end. This feels tacked on just for the sake of a Super Sonic boss fight. This is the story's climax and to me it feels like we could have literally not involved the Dragon whatsoever and actually would've been better. Think about it, what if the Chaos Emeralds were mystically drawn to the North Star Islands which leads Eggman to researching the islands and finding out about the large animals and the fact that the Emeralds have special powers exclusive to them, prompting him to go hunt for the emeralds and hire Fang. I feel like that would be a simpler but much more sound story all around which removes that terrible Super Sonic boss so one less boss to deal with.
I know these 4 things lean more to the nitpick side but they come together to make me think the only thing the people making the story really thought about was Trip which is both a very good and kinda bad thing in my book.
My guess is the idea was supposed to be that Eggman was trying to reverse time on the island to before the dragon was sealed away. But it's very unclear if that's the idea. As is how or if he even found the egg it was trapped in.
How much do you wanna bet that Big is from the Northstar Islands?
Superstars would have been better if the end of the main story hinted more about the dark dragon.
The dragon feels like a final boss that is the in-between link to get Eggman to show up again.
Iizuka is the dark horse of Sonic writers
Meaning?
@@DaHeisHe needs to be sent to the glue factory
@@SwizzleMix OP haven't answered yet so i'll take that as a no-no.
someone in Sonic Team especially the JP side has had to have a storytelling formula chart somewhere
I did really like how it's Amy who gets Trip to open up. We're always told Amy is the heart of the group, but we usually never see it. The fact that a simple act of kindness from her is what helped Trip finally stick up for herself is really sweet in my opinion.
I really enjoyed Trip as a character, she's already among some of my favourite Sonic characters, and I did enjoy Superstars' story for the most part, but I do feel it leaned WAY too heavily on "show, don't tell" for its own good. Especially with the whole Black Dragon thing; it makes sense in context (and with a little bit of dot connecting), but if you take only the stuff in-game it just feels random and out of nowhere.
Which, speaking of, it's a letdown Trip wasn't the one to fight the final boss dragon; even a Sonic/Trip duo would've sufficed. Would've been epic to see the two brawl out.
very nice video. Can't wait for the Eggman video.
Trip also has Metal counterpart in this game, in the form of Metal Trip.
Damn, I’m just watching the last segment of your video and I’m like “Wtf!? Went so hard with this character for no reason!❤”.
16:19 Ha, you said "giant members"
The fact you got all of this from the pictures of the game is honestly very cool man
the plot was right in front of us this entire time.
i kinda just wish Trip is not stuck in a classic game where she and her own plot were stuck to silent storytelling. Overall, I kinda wish Sonic Superstars broken the mold more of what a classic game should be cuz IMO, a classic sonic game where only sonic is silent like how he is in Generations would actually be fine for me.
That could also be a great chance to re-introduce Fang. Maybe make them unlikely toxic duo. Fang abusing Trip yet he clearly cares about her enough to actually treat her more nicely, maybe work on himself and even get more humble, like in all relationships of this kind, the abuser will show compassion, either as a manipulation or genuine moment of self reflection towards victim reinforcing their belief that there is good in the abuser, thus staying with them. Maybe Trip's modern design will have a hoodie which she will cover her head with when she feels sfressed out.
@missmarshmallow5775
I think Fang’s story in this game is about him realizing the emptiness of money but him making the wrong decisions because the abandonments are getting to him into the point of him outright being vengeful.
I trip like a character
I'm gonna wait until I've played the game myself before I watch this video
I talked about this earlier and yes I agree that Trip is the best in ages.
Heres what if i made a sonic game...
Sonic & Trip
The modern era sonic game, with a Modern Trip Design! Eggman has found a new area known as the Vista Isles, and to make matters worse, he kidnapped sonic & trip's friends & Put them in Indestructible Capsules! Will sonic & Trip save them?!
Another interesting notion between the natural opposition between Trip and Fang is that Trip is the dragon and Fang is the treasure hunter out to steal the dragon's treasure (the black egg) which just happens to house an ancient evil that the dragon was keeping sealed. It is a classic situation.
Also the golden capital being full of lava or molten gold is incredibly fitting for a civilization of dragons.
That explains a lot of their thought process when they had to redesign Fang into a mainline character, since Trip and Fang were introduced as a duo. And it shows quite a lot in their artwork and how Fang changes to the point he throws the money to be absolutely vengeful.
I dont think the trip part of superstars story is the thing most people raiwe their eyebrows against, its more the random giga dragon in the end that was barely set up in game except for the fact that a random egg existed
Even though it was technically a flop, I hope we get another classic sonic game in a couple years and Trip isn’t left behind.
I was also pretty impressed at the thought and emotion, the overall feeling they put into the story through Trip. I like her. What's really sad is that no one seems to be able to understand Sonic stories these days unless, like you said, they're spoken to the player over dozens of paragraphs of spoken dialog and hours of video sequences pulling you out of the game to demand your attention. People are just dumb in the 2020s; I can't really put it any nicer than that.
I love Sonic Superstars story (outside the actual game)
FINALLY SOMEONE RESPECTS SUPERSTARS RESPECTS MAN
Such an underrated game, hope people just get over the sonic mania 2 begging stuff and appreciate superstars
ok, Trip is invited to the cookout
I like Trip too, but I think there's something that people need to come to terms with; she's not a Classic Sonic character! She's a new Sonic character who is being marketed as a Classic character.
And this I don't really understand. I don't really agree with it because it's implying that the word Classic in the Sonic series has become nothing more than a marketing term. It no longer means "Characters and elements created between 1991 and 1998." It's become more "Characters with shorter, stockier appearences, and black eyes who don't talk!" Or basically "Not Modern, so therefore good!" I just don't agree with that.
I know that she's still fairly new, but I find it kind of strange that a certain faction of the Sonic community, let's call them the "anti-Sonic community" (i.e. the Sonic haters and detractors and critics who think that dumping on Sonic makes them cool and funny), isn't unfairly lumping her in with the rest of the Sonic supporting cast and unfairly labeling her as "another stupid addition to Sonic's bajillion stupid friends!" Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that this ISN'T the case, I just find it strange that practically every time a new Sonic character is introduced, they inevitably get hated on, and yet Trip hasn't.
It makes me wonder if people's attitude is "oh but that's cos she's a Classic Sonic character! A TRUE Sonic character! Not like those lame-o Modern characters like Shadow and Silver! Stupid emo, edge lords! Don't like 'em! Sega should just get rid of 'em and have Classic characters from now on!" It's one of the reasons I can't stand this Classic/Modern divide.
Well, she is a classic character in the sense that Sega labels things as classic or modern, and they cannot exist in the other because branding. Trip will only ever exist in classic stuff.
@@Pariah6950 But that's just so limiting for this character.
One of the things that always got me excited for new Sonic games was hearing what the characters sounded like, and it was cool to see more obscure characters like the Chaotix getting updated designs and voices. Many fans would love to see characters like Mighty, Ray, Fang, and even Trip get the same treatment, and it would allow for more character interactions. Imagine Shadow teaming up with Mighty, or Rouge battling Fang, or Cream making friends with Trip? Sounds awesome to me!
But nope! Can't have that! We've got to separate these characters based on their eye colour! And all because a bunch of whiners complained about Sonic's damn eye colour in Sonic 4! Give me a break!
They designed Trip for Fang. Making a classic duo.
@@justice8718 The thing is, what's stopping Sega from "modernising" these characters? It's basically just giving them slightly longer proportions, coloured irises and an actual voice. It literally feels like the only thing that is stopping Sega from doing this is their fear of upsetting all of the whiney fan boys who complained about Sonic's darned eye colour in Sonic 4. I don't understand why this has become such a taboo subject when it comes to the Sonic series.
@@bowmaj8666 Simple Fang and Trip are supposed to be clear indicators and materials for the classic era of games. If you modernized them, you will severely limit what they can do in the classic games.
YES YES YOU MENTIONED THE DRAGON EGG FROM THE SONIC 3 MANUAL THAT'S PERFECT I ALSO THOUGHT ABOUT THAT
Trip and Sage are two of the best Sonic characters to be introduced recently
Not only are they equally adorable but they are actually interesting characters that fit into the Sonic universe and don't look like a bunch of Online Monster Pet Game rejects *ahem* Deadly Six *ahem*
Welp in the comic there are a lot of GREAT characters that only appear in there, especially in IDW.
Trip is better than any Sonic character introduced in the 2010s by a HUGE MILE.
i never thought id relate to trip..,,
Honestly I can say she's like the _one_ compliment superstars has because she's genuinely a gold idea
This will do great while we wait for the Eggman video
tbh one of my favorite parts is that she's girl AND gets to be cool in design and moveset with no joke or strings attached
oh now I love she has chronic anxiety and avoidance of conflict just like me fr
@@miraclewillow1 she's girlfailure representation in sonic imo
best MAINLINE new ager (I am in love with surge, whisper, and tangle's characters)
Too bad she's never going to appear in a Modern game, despite being confirmed to still be there during the Modern era.
Trip looks like modern Amy with a helmet.
Sonic > Shadow but y’all not ready for that convo tho
Based ass opinion bro
@@EJElijahwhat about Sonic = Shadow
Which one is sonic?
@@raptortown The black one.
Care to elaborate your take... like at all?
Shadow's way cooler, and considerably stronger. (Until you include Frontiers combat moves)
If you're talking character personality... explain.
I'd really love to see her become one of the boys, the way Knuckles did.
That was quite a great video. Details like these just makes things so charming, she reminds me of Blaze as well. It’s a shame everyone looks past this and only look on the negatives. Underrated game honestly
IIzuka should've been the writer of the Sonic stories in the 2010's, He could've made the story of Sonic Colours, lost world, forces way better than what Pontac and Graff did.
He wrote Shadow's game so don't give him too much credit.
@@sonic5993the overarching plot of Shadow is unnecessary but imo it’s not bad at all. it slightly complicates things but when examining it all it makes sense just fine
While Iizuka properly would have done better so it's it worth noticing that he too is the person that made eggman Nega's backstory a mess by ignoring Rush when writing the rivals games and that he is at least partially responsible for the unpleasant mess that is free riders story.
He is certainly not perfect is what I want to say.
@@sonic5993 Nah Shadow's story gives him more credit, that story is very misunderstood and better than people make it out to be.
@@legoboy7107 in what way?
It was said that there are a lot of things about Sonic Superstars story that weren't told to us, and maybe they could be told in the future, maybe not, but I like theorizing anyway, there are a lot of things about the past before Sonic and his friends were born that we don't have many awnsers or know the full story, the Black Arms, the Echidnas, the Ancients, the Gizoids, the Four Great Civilizations, etc.
So I'm okay with that, but still hope that some day we'll get those missing details, especially about the dragon because although I agree the main story is realyl good the way it is, it manages to tell something cool and deep without any dialogue and just animated transition cutscenes like Sonic 3 & Knuckles has, and it has a great character development on Trip until the point where she finally takes her armor off, and after that point up until the final bosses of both the Main Story and Trip's Story are good enough and fill their role as a competent story, the Last Story really is something that everyone agrees that it comes out of the blue, probably the dragon has its backstory, probably tied to Trip, the Chaos Emerald special abilities, her tribe and the giant animals are all involved on that dragon's backstory, especially since the mural shown in Golden Capital Act Knuckles and Trio of Trouble has all those elements in it
I think it's fine the way it is as I said, but I really do wish the Final Story was a bit more well developed, as I said, I don't mind if they don't reveal the backstory of the Dragon, or at least for now, we can always theorize, but I wish the story told, with Sonic and his friends could have a better build up and be written with a bit more of details, I actually even rewrote the final story of Superstars, without giving the dragon a backstory or anything, I just rewrote the gameplay part, where you actually play as Sonic, and I'll give a quick summarize:
Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Trip are on Bridge Island celebrating their defeat on Eggman and Fang in Bridge Island (like the final cutscene of their stories), when they see both of them flying by on their destroyed mechs heading towards Speed Jungle, they decide to follow them and getting there, Eggman makes them lose time while Fang ambushes them to steal the emeralds like he did with Knuckles in Golden Capital, he heads towards the purple gem to free the dragon with the 7 Chaos Emeralds, Trip runs trying to stop him since she's the only one who knows about the dragon and what he really is, it looks like she was trying to warn Fang during the whole game, in the intro cutscene when Eggman asks Fang to find the dragon it looks like Trip was desperate trying to warn him but ends up tripping by accident on him making him mad and screaming at her, I would assume that dragon is a legend among her people especially since he was painted in the mural
Trip doesn't manage to catch up to the Marvellous Queen, Fang uses the Emeralds, frees the dragon, Eggman tries to give the dragon orders, the Dragon does something like Dark Gaia or Chaos attacking Eggman, Fang notices what he has done and that there was no way to control the dragon, so he just gives the emeralds to Sonic and decides to do a temporary team up, Sonic goes Super, the regular fight happens, and just like the ending cutscene we got in the game, Trip traps the dragon back on the gem and they start to celebrate once again in Bridge Island
That's basically it, although I wrote an ending where Trip gives Fang an apple just like Amy did to her in Lagoon City, since he helped them even if out of pure desperation by giving the Emeralds to Sonic and Fang accepts with an annoyed/embarassed face, and just like the regular game, Eggman's drawing of the Dragon falls into the ground and the game zooms in, and the story ends there
As I said, I think Superstars story is acutally really deep and cool full of small details where you can connect and theorize, even come to some conclusions, and I think the way it is presented is totally fine, we have lots of cool trivia and small things as you pointed out in the video, the Ouroboros, the final dragon looking like Super Trip, Trip being a Sungazer Lizard with all the sun, having a dragon form because those lizards are called Dragons, having an armor because those lizards are called Armored lizards, the story is full of those small cool details, and even though I wish the Final Story was told differently more complex, without changing or explaining the past backstory, I still think it does a good job and has lots of these cool details
17:09 I hope someone finds that concept art of super sonic fighting that green dragon it looks like really cool artwork
Sticks the Badger, Whisper the Wolf, Tangle the Lemur are standing right there.
Off topic: The original plot of Sonic Synergy or Boom Rise of Lyric was about Sonic's origin story but it was scrapped because Sonic Team wants to tell their origin story first.
When the hell will this ever happen?? Do you think it will happen or it was just ST shushing BRB?