Imperial Tower

Imperial Tower (インペリアルタワー) is the twenty-fifth stage in Sonic Forces, and the eight Avatar stage in the game.

The stage itself takes place inside the Eggman Empire Fortress and leads up along its main tower. During the events of the game, the Avatar came here to keep a virtual sun created by Infinite from destroying the Resistance.

Overview
Imperial Tower is set inside the Eggman Empire Fortress, which is located in the center of a barren gray wasteland with barren mountains surrounding it. This high-tech fortification is located in the middle of a deep crater whose edges are surrounded by high walls. These walls extend into the depths of the crater, forming staircase-like levels. Rising up from the center of the crater is the Imperial Tower, a massive high-tech tower with tall metallic pieces forming hoops circling around it. The sky here is also completely overcast by gray clouds. One can also spot Infinite's virtual sun in the sky, which gets closer the nearer the player gets to the goal.

The Imperial Tower is surrounded by floating layers. Each of these layers consist respectively of hexagonal-based frameworks, metal barriers, and metallic platforms, the last of which make up the playable roads. Noticeably, the plaform have gears equipped to them. Also, the frameworks are equipped with surveillance orbs, and the metal barriers will sometimes emit red lasers.

Story
With less than an hour before Dr. Eggman launches his plan to eradicate any opposition to his Eggman Empire, the Resistance decides to launch one final attack on Eggman at the Eggman Empire Fortress. Although they have to win by destroying Eggman's Phantom Ruby, Tails is sad about this, since Classic Sonic will return to his dimension once the Ruby is gone.

At the fortress, the Resistance meets the Eggman Army and its hordes of replicas. Forcing their way through the replicas, the Resistance confronts Infinite, but he proves too powerful. In that moment however, E-123 Omega arrives to join the Resistance and catches Infinite off-guard for a moment. Infuriated by the opposition, Infinite puts Eggman's endgame into effect; using his Phatom Ruby prototype, Infinite creates a virtual sun over the earth which Eggman plans to burn the Resistance to ashes with. Amidst the chaos however, Tails notices the active Phantom Ruby prototype in the Avatar's hand. Realizing that the Avatar can use their Phantom Ruby prototype (which only lets the one who activated it use it), Tails theorizes that the Avatar can use it to neutralize Infinite's sun.

After some forethought, the Avatar makes their way towards the Imperial Tower in order to reach the virtual sun. While Knuckles, Espio and Vector are losing hope, Tails guides the Avatar towards the sun. Although Knuckles urges the Avatar to fall back, everyone soon realizes that the Avatar is their last hope, and begin to cheer them on. Eggman, on the other hand, believes the Avatar's efforts are in vain. Reaching the top of the tower, the Avatar jumps into the sun and makes it disappear, just before it hits the planet. Back on the tower, the Avatar collapses from the effort while their Ruby breaks from the feat it just pulled off. Flabbergasted, Eggman can hardly believe this, as he thought he had destroyed all the Phantom Ruby prototypes, only for Tails to come and mock Eggman's oversight while helping the Avatar. Meanwhile, the Resistance resumes the fight against the Eggman Army with renewed vigor.

Gameplay
Imperial Tower takes place entirely in 2.5D. The stage is composed of individual platforms, often separated by bottomless pits, making travel difficults. Imperial Tower is also the only stage in Sonic Forces where the Avatar can Wall Jump; this is possible in sections where two parallel walls are so close together that they form shafts. By bouncing between these walls with the Wall Jump, the player is able to scale such shafts. Some shafts are blocked by breakable Containers however, which must be cleared out with the Stomp.

In terms of stage hazards, Imperial Tower features blocks that generate damage-inducing electricity between them. There are also purple energy balls that move along the surfaces of platforms and cause damage upon contact; however, those can be removed with the Void Wispon. Halfway through the stage, the Avatar will also be chased by a blue death ray that slowly moves in from the left side of the screen. This laser will instantly kill the Avatar should they touch it.

Like other Avatar stages, Imperial Tower features floating targets for the player to swing around on using the Wire Attack, and numerous Wisp Capsules with Wisps for fueling the Avatar's different Wispons. However, any Wisp Capsule containing Wisps that do not match any of the Wispons the player has currently obtained will be rendered intangible and transparent until the player obtains their Wisp's associated Wispon. This means, for example, that if the player does not have an Asteroid Wispon, then the capsules with Indigo Wisps will be unobtainable.

Description
The player starts out at the bottom level of Imperial Tower. When beginning the stage, move in the rightward direction. In the rightmost part on the bottom level, the player will find a Spring. Use this Spring to get to the stage's middle level. Once on the middle level, proceed in the leftward direction. After getting to the leftmost part of the middle level, the player has to manually climb up to the top level above. Once up here, a death ray will appear. To avoid it, move once again in the rightward direction. Eventually, the player will find a Spring in the rightmost part of the top level. This Spring will take the player to the plaforms around the tower in the background.

Upon arriving at the tower, the death ray will appear and move towards the player. From there, simply keep following the path on the right. When nearing the end of the stage, the player has to run around the tower while the death ray closes in on them. Just before the death ray hits the Avatar however, the player will hit a spring that takes them to the goal on the top of the tower.

Trivia

 * Imperial Tower is the only stage in Sonic Forces which has all the Wisp usable to the Avatar and their Wispons.

Videos


Imperial Tower