Thanks to the Unleashed Recompiled project, I've finally been able to get my hands at playing Sonic Unleashed for the first time in my life, which is crazy to think about when I write it like that - more so when years ago I remember playing snippets of the Unleashed Project mod for Sonic Generations (although those mods look WAY closer now to making Gens look like Unleashed more than ever).
It has been quite surreal to not only play those levels I hadn't ever ran into before at Daytime, but also to experience Werehog the way it was meant to...with a sprinkle of upgrading Combat levels early thanks to a helpful hint I had read early on somewhere. Big props to the Guide at Neoseeker too for saving my ass repeatedly whenever the game decided to ask for medals out of nowhere or when it wanted me to do something before accessing a stage without actually telling me.
I have to say that whle sometimes the progress was either cumbersome to figure out [DLC gates and stupid Professor Pickle's required chatters often had me lost on where I even had to go - hence the Neoseeker guide usage] or just soccer kick to the shins to go back medal hunting [It was a decent way to get me revisiting day stages to see if I ran into one, as well as making sure I combed through Werehog stages + boss fights thoroughly in order to take any medals on the first go - but Jungle Joyride Day Act 1 asks you for a whopping 120 medals out of nowhere lmao], I did grow fond of those highlights between those frequent errands I had to run at the Hub World.
Daytime stages are quite the visual spectacle and adrenaline rush to get through, especially whether you either manage to keep a great pace on your first visit for an immediate S-Rank...or have practiced the stage several times to aim for that deathless run that you couldn't quite get in the first visit [Dragon Road and Jungle Joyride, I'll deal with you two someday]. Nighttime stages were also a neat surprise between some platforming challenges being pretty involved for what I expected [whether main path such as Cool Edge Night, or alt paths for medals in most stages], and upgrading the Werehog definitely made him more fun to fight as.
Eggmanland is NASTY though, between the frequent tight gotchas at Sonic's sections, and a combo of occasionally yet noticeably inconvenient platforming as the Werehog [UNLEASHED PLEASE DON'T MAKE THE CAMERA FORCE JUMPS OF FAITH WITH PIPES]...and those rooms with endlessly spawning enemies. Because Arid Sands Night had a noticeably long swarm of enemies to fight through once, I believed it was a VERY long gauntlet to go through and died many times on it...until I accidentally broke a fake wall with the intended switch at one of those attempts. Why.
At least Unleashed Recompiled in general offered big two things that were notable gotchas in the original console versions: Being able to turn off the VERY frequent battle music as the Werehog...and since I was running it on a capable PC, running through those blistering daytime stages + fighting through the packed nighttime stages without framerate drops. Jungle Joyride Day was wild to play through the first time...and then even wilder to see how awful the consoles had it in framerate back then lmao
Regarding the endgame though, it took me three full attempts going through the Egg Dragoon > Dark Gaia > Perfect Dark Gaia, as well as having farmed 10 lives for the third attempt and figuring out by accident after several deaths that there's actually rings in that final figh to replenish your health (the camera made it very easy to die otherwise when a few blind shots from stray rocks was enough to kill me...). Good thing the fight doesn't reset from the first shield phase once you get past it but die to the mash X jumpscare.
Use the buttons at the top or click the VMU below to return to the Memory Card menu.
