| Sonic Sol II: Starlight's Mask | |
| Developer(s) | CS2, Cosmic Games |
| Publisher(s) | SEGA |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo Switch |
| Genre(s) | Action-Adventure, Platformer |
| Series | Sonic the Hedgehog series |
| Predecessor | Sonic Sol: Rise of the Tiger King |
| Successor | Sonic Sol III: Traveler's Tales |
| Mode(s) | Single-Player, multiplayer |
| Age Rating(s) | ESRB:  E 10 +
|
| Media Included | Game Cartridge, Digital Download |
| Available Input | Game Controller
|
Sonic Sol II: Starlight's Mask is a action/adventure platforming game as part of the Sonic Sol Trilogy project by Cosmic Games and SEGA. It is also the sequel to Sonic Sol: Rise of the Tiger King.
Plot[]
Main Story[]
Sonic's Story[]
Sonic's story begins in his hometown, Sonic taking a stroll over by the beachfront. On the way back home, he finds a clear blue Chaos Emerald just by the shoreline. Impressed by its coloration and beauty, he decides to take it home with him as a trinket, but before he could start heading back home he is found by Shadow the Hedgehog. Shadow demands him to give the emerald over, but Sonic refuses as he found it first, and takes off away from him in spite of the warning. Shadow attempts to slow Sonic down with his Chaos Spears, but Sonic moves too fast to get hit and manages to get away from him. After the narrow escape, he returns home with his prize and shows it off to Volt and Comet, Comet remarking how much such a Emerald would be worth as Sonic decides to ignore his advice on selling it. However, later on that night, his thoughts go back to his encounter with Shadow, wondering why he would attack him over what was just a fancy gem, as far as he knew. As Sonic looks into it, The Chaos Emerald begins to glow, and Sonic feels a strange yet strong energy from it. Sonic thinks this over, realizing how similar these were to the Sol Emeralds from Blaze's world since his last visit there. This carries over to the next day, when he gets Tails to examine it, concluding that it is indeed a Chaos Emerald. Before they could go into it any further though, Sonic is found and confronted by Knuckles the Echidna, who starts accursing him of stealing the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic tries to tell him what happened, but their encounter turns into a short yet violent fight, only broken up when Tails gives the Chaos Emerald back to Knuckles.
NOW Sonic, Volt, and Comet begin to wonder more about the situation, Tails wondering if Shadow and Knuckles are connected in some way to the Chaos Emeralds since they both wanted them from him. During their discussion, they get a visit from Rouge the Bat (much to Comet's shock, given her status as a gov' agent). Rouge goes straight to Sonic, who she revealed had seen the night prior in his encounter with Shadow, and asks him for more information about it. Sonic brushes it off though, calling it a "hit n' run" with the guy, but their chat does get Sonic interested just enough to want to know more about his involvement with him and the Chaos Emeralds. Before Rouge could leave, Sonic asks to go with her so he can figure this stuff out, which of course Rouge refuses since he's just some "blue Hedgie" (which of course ticks him off). Despite the refusal, he, Comet, and Volt decide to investigate the matter anyway: Comet working with the police force, Volt checking in on the townsfolk, and Sonic going off with Tails for some recon. Tails and Sonic fly through some part of the landscape, but as they flew along they find areas appearing destroyed and desolated. As they flew over a wrecked town, an unknown intruder blasts Tails' plane, Sonic falling off and crashing nearby. With him isolated, he finds Shadow there as well. Sonic immediately thinks he's somehow responsible, but Shadow refuses to tell unless he hands over the Chaos Emerald he had on him. Sonic fights him for the town's sake, but the fight ends in a draw when Rouge arrives on the scene with GUN agents. As the GUN agents chase after Shadow, Rouge and Sonic meet up and she gets him out of the area, Sonic only going under the condition that he stays with them to find out more about the Chaos Emeralds. Rouge only agrees "because he's cute".
After the encounter, Sonic and Rouge head off back to the base, Tails also present on the flight there. While traveling, Rouge explains to Tails and Sonic about what they know about Shadow: him belonging to a secret government project that went horribly wrong. Shadow manages to escape the facility after a test with the Chaos energy from said Emeralds overpowered him, causing massive damage and a worldwide manhunt for the escapee. Sonic asks about her about his intentions with the Chaos Emeralds, but Rouge isn't sure about it, only that he will do anything to get them all according to the latest eyewitnesses. Rouge then drops Sonic and Tails off back to Sonic's hometown, but before Rouge could leave, Sonic heads inside and discovers a note left behind:
Rouge suspects Shadow to be behind this kidnapping, which only freaks Sonic out even more, leaving him with the only option of finding the other Chaos Emeralds before any harm could come to Comet and Volt.
Joined by Rouge, Sonic and Tails begin their adventure to locate the remaining Chaos Emeralds. Their search lead them to numerous areas, most of which were destroyed thanks to who they presume to be Shadow looking for them as well, but they do manage to find a couple of them throughout the forest, and the next town over - with Knuckles the Echidna and/or Doctor Eggman fighting for them all along the way. They arrive over in Griffin Canyon, and while finding another Chaos Emerald, they also run into Shadow again, the hedgehog already having collected about three of them at this point. Shadow demands the Chaos Emerald be handed over to him, revealing that the canyon was actually the same spot where the ransom would take place anyway - Comet and Volt hidden nearby tied and gagged. Sonic, angry that Shadow would stoop so low, decided instead to challenge him to a fight over his brothers' freedom, which Shadow accepts. The fight itself ends with Sonic being the winner, but before Shadow could admit defeat, Shade suddenly appears and attacks them all, collecting the Chaos Emeralds as they were distracted before making her escape. Shadow chases after her, as the other three got Comet and Volt freed, and ready to return home.
Once they were brought back to their hometown (this time without any last minute changes), they all recollect over what happened before all of this. With so many questions, Sonic decides to strike out alone as everybody else stays behind so they won't get into any trouble. Sonic starts thinking over both Shadow, Knuckles, and now Shade and Eggman apparently involving these things. In his search, Sonic luckily finds Shade surprisingly close by - as in just on the edge of town. Shade tells Sonic she's been preparing to confront him again, though Sonic wasn't sure for what at first. After a short reminder, he remembers her from Blaze's dimension, being one of Fang's "goons". Their confrontation forces Sonic right back to his place. Knuckles and, to his surprise, Blaze the Cat also arrive to apparently settle things with her and with them all working together, they manage to take her down.
After her defeat, Sonic still decides to go for a run to see where Shadow had gone off to, keeping his promise to help Rouge out with him.
Tails' Story[]
Tails' Story begins at his workshop, working out some mods and additions on his plane, alongside Charmy Bee, who agreed to be his assistant just so he can test out all the contraptions he makes (with Espio and Vector's permission, of course). As they are working and getting new parts for the plane, Tails' gets a call from Sonic about the new Gemstone he discovered the day prior. Curious, Tails goes over to Sonic's place, and after some research finds out that it is indeed a Chaos Emerald! During his further studying, he suddenly looks outside and finds Sonic fighting Knuckles over it, which prompts Tails to give the Emerald up and giving it back to the Echidna. The next day, Tails ponders who both this and Sonic involvement with Shadow, until they get visited by Rouge the Bat and learn of Shadow's involvement with GUN. Despite being told no by her, he agrees to give Sonic some recon through his newly-modified Plane and, after telling Charmy to keep an eye on the shop while he's gone, takes off flying.
In their flight, they find a destroyed landscape underneath them. As they flew through the next town, Tails' plane gets shot down, and he and Sonic end up separated from one another as he crashes into a nearby field. Without Sonic to protect him, Tails starts to get worried, not sure who or what shot the plane down as he finds the wings missing several pieces on it. It takes him a while to try and find the pieces, but before he is able to take off with the plane, he finds himself in company of the infamous Doctor Eggman. Rather than dealing with the "fox boy" directly though, Eggman sends out Metal Sonic to handle him for trespassing onto his testing grounds. Tails scrambles to get the remaining parts working on the plane, but is forced to try and stand up to the robot, which while putting up a fair fight is quickly defeated by it. Tails hides behind his own plane, but Metal Sonic is quickly shot down by the arriving GUN agents, coming to Tails' aid when they realized he was there. Tails makes sure to inform them about Doctor Eggman before he boards the helicopter with them.
On the flight back home he learns more about Shadow the Hedgehog from Rouge alongside Sonic. Upon their return back home though, he discovers Comet and Volt had been kidnapped, and agrees to help search for the remaining Chaos Emeralds. He does take a visit back to the workshop to get some last-minute supplies, Charmy Bee meanwhile begging to go with him this time since it was so boring in the workshop. Tails, understanding his need for adventure (and wanting him to stop begging) allows Charmy to come along with him. He and Charmy tag-team as Sonic goes off alone in their search for the Chaos Emeralds, Tails finding about two of them while looking through some old ruins. During the search, he's the first of him and Sonic to find Doctor Eggman again. Eggman is found with Shade, and Tails and Charmy learn that they plan to super-charge Eggman's "doomsday metals" to conquer the world. Shade however spots Tails hiding, and quickly exposes them both before Eggman, calling them "spies". However, Doctor Eggman is pleased, as this means he can test out one of his doomsday metals on them both (A.K.A. Metal Vector). Tails and Charmy try running away at first, but it proves too fast for them and they're forced into fighting against it. With some quick examination of the giant mech, Tails confirms they can only deactivate it from the inside. Charmy Bee volunteers to fly inside as Tails distracts the robot from outside, managing to destroy the mech's power core by removing the Chaos Emerald inside it. With Chaos Emerald in hand, Tails and Charmy beeline it back to Sonic and Rouge. This becomes a shallow victory later on though, as they lose that same emerald after Sonic's fight with Shadow at Griffin Canyon.
On returning home, Tails stays behind at Sonic's home so he can remain safe, and Tails gets Charmy to go back to Espio and Vector for the same reason. He remains supportive throughout the fight with Shade.
Knuckles' Story[]
On Angel Island, Knuckles is at his post guarding the Master Emerald on Angel Island. He laments about his position on the island when the Master Emerald suddenly begins to act up. Knuckles finds somebody attempting to take the Master Emerald away from the island, which quickly makes him attack the intruder and making the intruder disappear, but not before the intruder smashes the Master Emerald and retreats. This results in the remaining Chaos Emeralds being scattered away from the island, and Angel Island collapsing into the middle of the ocean. Knuckles finds a ring on the ground by the temple, and sets off to find the Chaos Emeralds, and the Master Emerald pieces.
Knuckles facing Shadow the second time.
Leaving the island, Knuckles travels all over to find the various pieces, beginning his search on the closest land mass; including Sonic the Hedgehog's hometown. He manages to find a few of the Master Emerald shards while going through there, alongside the nearby beach, before he stumbles across Sonic for the first time. Comparing the ring he found on his island, and the rings Sonic was wearing, he accuses Sonic of stealing the Chaos Emeralds and a fight breaks out between the two. Before they could defeat one another, Tails comes to his aid and gives Knuckles back the Chaos Emerald they had on them. Knuckles soon goes off back towards town, but he runs into the same figure from before, revealing it to be Shadow the Hedgehog. Shadow demands that Knuckles give him back the Chaos Emerald he's collected, revealing to have already had one on hand and prepares to fight him for it. Worn out from fighting Sonic however, Knuckles loses the fight, Shadow warning him to stay out of his way. Angry for losing, he resumes his mission to find the Master Emerald shards.
Leaving the town behind him, he manages to find more Master Emerald shards within other areas surrounding it; finding a fair amount of Master Emerald pieces throughout the Echidna Ruins along with the nearby Jungle, and the desolated Green Hill Zone where he locates a Green Sol Emerald, mistaking it for a Chaos Emerald. As he continues to travel, he starts to wonder what Shadow would want with the Chaos Emeralds AND the Master Emerald, noting how he's more interested in the Chaos Emeralds. During this, Blaze the Cat and Sticks the Badger run into him. When they ask for his Sol Emerald, he quickly refuses, not wanting any more failures on his mission. This turns into a fight, but he and Blaze get ambushed by Shade, resulting in all of his pieces stolen from him. Flying into a rage for losing everything when so close to finishing, he storms off to try and track down Shade with Blaze, only for Sticks to stop him and bring him to his senses (slapping him in the face) to get him out of his blind rage. Knuckles and Sticks then go off to find the remaining Master Emerald shards before chasing down Shade. On their way to find Shade, Knuckles starts to wonder where she could've came from, believing for so long that he was the last of his species. Sticks expresses the idea as a conspiracy, which Knuckles just promptly ignores in spite of her insisting. Knuckles starts sensing the Master Emerald shards in full, which leads them back to Sonic's hometown. He confronts Shade there again with Sticks, and they fight her head on. Upon her escape, he manages to collects the Master Emerald shards she dropped.
On collecting them all, he returns to Angel Island and gets the newly-restored Emerald back where it belongs, the island floating in the sky once again. Despite this, he still decides to leave to re-locate the Chaos Emeralds.
Blaze's Story[]
Blaze the Cat is looking out over the Sol Empire during the night, reminiscing about the peace that her kingdom's had since the defeat of Eggman Nega. She also remembers what Eggman Nega did to Fang the Tiger King, thinking how she's unable to get the idea out of her mind. During this, one of the castle servants comes in to check on Blaze, giving her the report about the current state of the castle. Blaze leaves the castle to handle some personal training out in the courtyard. During her combat training however, the guards raise an alarm, and report to her that the Sol Emeralds are being stolen. Alarmed, Blaze finds the thief before she could escape with them, the thief revealing to be Shade the Echidna. Shade and Blaze immediately begin a duel over the Sol Emeralds, but thanks to their power, Shade easily overpowers Blaze. After the fight, Shade warns her to stay out of her way, or she'll "take her world down with her", before she opens a portal with the Sol Emeralds' power. Blaze immediately follows after Shade through the portal and the two duke it out within it, which ends with Shade knocking Blaze unconscious.
Blaze wakes up on what seems to be a shoreline. After gathering her senses, she remembers how she got there and starts to conclude that she's in a different world, working off of what Shade said beforehand. After getting a lay of the land, she starts looking more inland to find any signs of the Sol Emeralds and/or Shade. She goes from the beach towards the nearby forest, where she starts hearing someone following her. At first she acts defensive, and tries to get away from the encounter, but soon is found by Sticks the Badger. Sticks quickly accuses her for being a spy of sorts, which that itself causes her to lash out at Blaze. After a fair fight though, and calming down, Blaze corrects her fast before Sticks could go any further, and she explains her mission to find Shade and the Sol Emeralds. Sticks starts to relax and introduces herself more "properly". Sticks later explains that she's been on edge lately since "funny people" started showing up and causing trouble all over the place. At first Blaze isn't too troubled, thinking she shouldn't get involved in otherworldly problems. Sticks, however, mentions seeing some "fancy rocks" being used, and after some thinking Blaze confirms them to be the Sol Emeralds! Seeing that their goals align towards them, Blaze decides to join her in collecting the Sol Emeralds before they destroy the world. On this promise, Blaze and Sticks travel further inland, until they find Green Hill Zone, transformed into a wasteland. Blaze senses the Sol Emeralds not too far away, and she starts tracking them down (with Sticks' help in survival skills) until she and Sticks find Shade and Doctor Eggman with the Sol Emeralds again. Blaze immediately demands the return of the Sol Emeralds, but Shade reminds her about the warning she gave her before leaving her dimension. Unfortunately, Shade uses the Sol Emeralds to disturb a giant Sandworm, forcing Sticks and Blaze to retreat out of the desert and giving her and Eggman a chance to flee.
Sticks and Blaze regroup just on the edge of Green Hill Zone, Blaze frustrated about the whole thing, but she gets encouraged by Sticks to keep fighting even if she keeps getting kicked down ... and to stop acting so formal outside of the castle. While promising to be more open, Blaze still suggests that they need some more help to stand against Shade and the Sol Emeralds. With that, she travels away from the jungle to look for Sonic the Hedgehog, Sticks staying with her as she thinks Blaze would need her help getting out of the wild. On their way, they run into Knuckles the Echidna. They quickly find out about Knuckles' Sol Emerald, but their encounter quickly turns into a fight when he refuses to give it to Blaze. Shade reappears during their fight, however, and after they tire themselves out she steals the remaining Sol Emerald along with the Master Emerald pieces in hand. Shade disappears before they could get them back, and Blaze rushes off to try and catch up to her, leaving Sticks and Knuckles behind. Blaze finds Shade nearby a familiar town, and stops her when she finds her confronting Sonic, Knuckles, Comet, and Volt. Blaze warns them about Shade, and joins them in their fight against her. Upon Shade's escape, Blaze manages to regather the Sol Emeralds she dropped, but notes that it's not all of them. She does consider it a victory however, believing Shade won't be a threat anymore.
Final Story[]
Not too long after fleeing from Sonic and company, Shade laments in shame about how she allowed Sonic to best her AGAIN, especially when she was so close. During this moment, she finds Shadow the Hedgehog there too, planning to even the score with her for her attack back in Griffin Canyon. Shade however manages to turn the fight around by striking a deal with the hedgehog: that she'll keep the GUN agents off of his back if he collects the remaining Chaos and Sol Emeralds for her. Shadow reveals to Shade he's already collected the remaining Sol counterparts (the Chaos Emeralds mostly collected by Eggman as it is) but questions what she needs the Sol Emeralds for. Shade doesn't exactly answer him by questioning why he wants the Chaos Emeralds, which he also doesn't answer directly. In the end, they both agree to the deal since Shadow ends up finding her similar to him in some way, and Shade points over towards Sonic's hometown.
Blaze fighting Shadow during a cutscene.
Back in town, Blaze says her goodbyes and she starts off on her own once again to relocate the remaining Sol Emeralds. It doesn't take very long though before she is found by herself by Shadow, who working off of what Shade said has the remaining Sol Emeralds on her. Blaze tries to avoid fighting Shadow due to the fight with Shade earlier, but Shadow still demands the Emeralds off of her "nice and easy". This ends up becoming a one-on-one duel, which ends shockingly with Blaze winning the match with him. This defeat sends Shadow overboard and he removes his inhibitor rings to pummel Blaze, saying he will not lose to a "lower lifeform" again before taking the Sol Emeralds away. The fight leaves her passed out and not awaking til the next day, strangely inside Amy Rose's home. Amy explains that she heard all the commotion and found her unconscious, so she brought her back home to keep an eye on her just in case. Blaze takes a mental note of Shadow's power, claiming it to not be natural, before attempting to try and go after them again. Rather than let her run off, Amy just gives her the phone to call Sonic instead. She gets this information told to Tails and company, Sonic running around during that time to find Shadow. Meanwhile, Sonic runs through a deserted Green Hill Zone, when he stumbles onto a carnage of destroyed robots, with Eggman being apart of them. Despite their previous involvements, Sonic checks in on him and learns that Shade had taken the Chaos Emeralds from him. Sonic starts asking him about Shadow, to which after getting him out, Eggman reveals he doesn't know anything more about him than the GUN agents do. On the way back, he gets a call in from Tails, warning him not only about Shadow, but the Sol Emeralds as well. Sonic tells them about Shade and the Chaos Emeralds on his way back.
In the Echidna Ruins, Shade and Shadow both meet up there to make the proper exchange, Shadow feeling satisfaction for seeing the Chaos Emeralds away from the Humans "once and for all". To both of their surprise though, Knuckles arrives before anything could happen. Knuckles asks them one final time to return the Emeralds they have on them before they do anything crazy. Shadow is prepared to fight him again, but Shade actually tries to get some sympathy out of Knuckles, for the reason being he's the only known Echidna left besides her. Shade reveals that her entire species in Blaze's Sol Dimension is also gone, just like Knuckles, and that nobody in her dimension would willingly help her throughout her life. She thought she finally found a home with Fang the Tiger King, but then Sonic and Blaze took that away from her too, leading her to finally conclude that her life will never get better, and she'll "return the favor" for both worlds taking her life away. She also adds that she did plan to leave her old world alone, giving the others a chance to "start anew somewhere else", but thanks to Blaze constantly chasing after her, she gave up on it. Knuckles tells her that it won't do her any good, since all this has done is make everyone else hate her even more, and the world miserable (partially the same reasons why he himself didn't take revenge on the world like she's doing). However, she concludes that it's too late to try and make everything better, believing that it's impossible, but Shadow turns on her during this point as all he wanted to do was get rid of the Chaos Emeralds, not the whole world.
Sonic, Blaze, Tails, and Knuckles fighting against Chaos Ultimate
The ritual commences, and thanks to the combined powers of both the Chaos Emeralds and the Sol Emeralds, their energy mutates and transforms into the monstrous form of Chaos, overcharged with both forms of energy and bent on destroying both worlds. Knuckles and Shadow watch as the world distorts around Chaos, turning the entire realm into a Null Space. All of this commotion and destruction can be seen even back at Sonic's hometown, where everyone tries to go and see what happened - Sonic also seeing it and doing the same from not too far away. On them all arriving, Knuckles and Shadow tell them what Shade had done, Blaze terrified that not only because of the immense destruction of Chaos Ultimate, but also the risk of the Sol Emeralds and Chaos Emeralds collapsing both dimensions since both can't exist together at once. Shadow also reveals to them why Shade wanted this to happen in the first place, and Shadow himself calling himself a fool for agreeing to her deal. With all this information together, they decide to take a stand against Chaos Ultimate in spite of the grim odds. Regathering both Emerald groups, they gain the remaining energy from both to channel in their super forms (Super Sonic, Burning Blaze, Super Tails, and Super Knuckles) to face Chaos, all the while Shade (who is powered by the negative energy of the Emeralds) fights them all along the way. In the end, Chaos Ultimate is defeated, saving both dimensions from Chaos, and Shade is freed of the negative energy.
After her final defeat, Shade readies herself to end everything, completely giving up after everything that's happened. However, now knowing the full extent of her story, Sonic and company offer to let her stay with them instead much to her shock. While at first she thinks they'll just be taken away from her again, Sonic reassures her it won't happen (especially since they just defeated Chaos and all). After some thought, she concludes that she's got a lot of fixing to do, and accepts Sonic's friendship.
In a post-credit cutscene, Shadow looks on to the ending battlefield, promising that they'll meet again before leaving the group behind.
Gameplay[]
Single Player[]
Sonic Sol II: Starlight's Mask has similar mechanics to that following the previous installment, with similar abilities shared by all of the characters (jumping, moving, and homing attacks), with the exceptions being Knuckles and Rouge. Like the previous installment, each playable character shares a special ability the player can use to differentiate from one another, but each character also possesses a "max ability" - a ultra-powerful attack the player can charge up by attacking enemies until the attack button unleashes it. These special abilities aren't carried over into multiplayer segments however.
Unlike the last installment, the level structure within Sonic Sol II follow a similar pattern to the "Sonic Adventure" Games (specifically Sonic Adventure): each story becomes unlocked as the player meets new characters with Sonic's Story being the first playable story. Each story arc takes place during the same time, and upon completing all of them unlocks the final story. For each story (excluding the final story), each one has a main playable character, and a "partner" character mixed within each story with their own exclusive levels coinciding: Sonic's story has Rouge the Bat, Tails's Story has Charmy Bee, and Blaze has Sticks the Badger.
Sonic Sol II has two main level types:
- Race - A running-style level to reach a particular goal. These levels sometimes include time limits to reach a goal in, the player losing if failing to complete this task. These stages are more common within Sonic and Blaze's Stories.
- Explore - A platforming/puzzle level where the main goal is to exploration. The objective itself can vary between reaching a particular goal, or to find an amount of items such as Master Emerald shards. These stages are more common within Tails and Knuckles' Stories.
Multiplayer[]
Throughout the game as you progress, you are capable of unlocking multiplayer levels and challenges. The multiplayer levels mirror that of Sonic Adventure 2, though it excludes the battle mode that SA2 originally had in favor of Explore and Race stages. Up to 4 players can play at one time, and while many of the story-mode characters can be played, some multiplayer-only characters can be unlocked by completing specific requirements.
Characters[]
The characters that appear in the game carried over from the previous installment, but compared to the first game, more original characters make an appearance within the game. While most of them are supporting characters, some are only available to play within the multiplayer games.
.png "Charmy(Modern).png (420 KB)")
.png "Shade (Original).png (2.91 MB)")
