#yes i am conflating the plots of sonic heroes and shadow the hedgehog to prove a point i promise i know my sonic lore but also i don't care

[sunriseinorbit]

okay i want you to picture a video game where at the start of the game the main character is framed and arrested for a crime that they did not commit. over the course of the game, this character forms a rivalry with another character, and this rival character has had it ROUGH. a female family member died when they were at a young age, which fueled their quest for revenge and led to them working with the game's secondary (and more prominent) villain while secretly furthering their own agenda, only for them to be at least somewhat unwittingly strung along by the main villain behind the curtain to attempt to destroy the world. the rival character performs a heroic sacrifice at the end of their debut game but is immediately brought back in the next installment because they got too popular and sega needed more money, and when they were brought back, it was in a significantly edgier capacity than before, though this time, they and the main character were staunch allies while keeping their rivalry intact.

which game were you thinking of?