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Lyric's Weapon Facility (ウエポン・ファクトリー Uepon Fakutorī?, lit. "Weapon Factory") is the third area of Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric.[1] Presumably the Abandoned Research Facility one thousand years ago, it is a futuristic marvel of a weapon production facility controlled by Lyric the Last Ancient, and a breathtaking example of the Ancients' technological prowess. It can be entered after clearing the Abandoned Research Facility.
After developing a vendetta against nature, Lyric had this facility mass-produce Sentinels to wipe out all life on earth. However, Sonic the Hedgehog and Tails, having traveled through time, came to the facility and put a stop to his operations.
Description[]
Lyric's Weapon Facility takes place entirely within a factory that is, plainly put, a marvel of engineering. The place is a sterile environment made of grey, cold and streamless metal and is lit up by white lights. The architecture of the Ancients is shown in the markings adorning the walls and floors. The facility is likewise crammed with countless forms of advanced machinery, including control panels, laser grids for welding metal, engines along the walls, wall tubes, conveyor belts, transports for glowing metal plates, and platforms-like gears which are several meters in diameter. There are also a few gabs covered in black fog. Supposedly, this place is run entirely by robots, the majority of which include Minions and a number of MAIA units.
Lyric's Weapon Facility holds a few significant rooms. There is a brightly lit control room with robot arms for misc. operations, computer screens showing schematics of Sentinels and a device similar to the time machine in the Abandoned Research Facility. There is also a security room next to the control room and a map room that previously held the map for the Chaos Crystals. The most significant room however, is an immensely large cylinder-shaped hangar containing a partially built Sentinel that is in the process of being constructed, which is surrounded by scaffolds.
Story[]
A thousand years ago, Lyric's Weapon Facility was used by Lyric to create an army of Sentinels to rid the planet of organic life and then rebuild it as a world of metal. Eventually. Lyric found a hidden map showing the locations of the Chaos Crystals and stored it in this facility.
With MAIA's aid, Sonic and Tails traveled to Lyric's Weapon Facility from the future to find the map. Due to an error however, Tails got trapped on a conveyor belt which Sonic had to save him from. The duo soon found the MAIA in this time and explained their presence. MAIA understood and she made a deal: if they cleared a path to a Sentinel which she could use to stop Lyric, she would take them to the map room. Sonic and Tails thus snuck into a Sentinel's construction room where they saw Lyric reviewing his plans with Q-N-C.
Sonic and Tails soon got MAIA to the robot which she took control of and guided the heroes to the map room before trashing the facility. In the map room, Sonic and Tails meet Lyric. Telling Lyric that they had "unfinished business," Sonic distracted him while Tails downloaded the map onto the AVA. As the heroes escaped, Sonic trapped Lyric in the map room and it was all clear to him: the reason Lyric knew him when they first met was because of this encounter, thus creating a stable time loop. Promising Lyric they would meet again, Sonic returned to his time with Tails where they regrouped with Knuckles and Amy.
Gameplay[]
In Lyric's Weapon Facility, the player moves through several control rooms and scales a Sentinel on the way to the map room. Like other areas in the game, Lyric's Weapon Facility includes a speed level section, where the player runs down a long path with speed-enhancing gimmicks while avoiding hazardous obstacles, and as well slower-paced areas for exploration and combat. It also features the standard puzzles which the player must solve with the Enerbeam mechanic and Buttons. There are also elaborate tiles puzzles where the player must find and step on a white tile, for then to press a series of blue tiles correctly to proceed.
Since only Sonic and Tails are playable, Lyric's Weapon Facility contains gimmicks for their character actions, such as Spin Ramps for Sonic, and Tails Vents and Buddy Bot sockets for Tails. Damage-inducing environment hazards found here (besides bottomless pits) include burning floors, weights crushing the ground in intervals, and moving red laser grids which either make a path more dangerous or block it. There are also moving conveyor belts that make it more difficult for the player to navigate and can pull the characters into lasers.
In one place, there is a trash compacter that can work both with and against the player: enemies send in there will be destroyed, but if the player enters it, they will be defeated instantly. Additionally, there are force fields that can block the player's paths: the blue ones are harmless, but the red ones cause slight damage to both player and enemies upon contact.
Overview[]
In Lyric's Weapon Facility, the player's objective is to find the map for the Chaos Crystals. At the start of the level, the player only has control over Sonic, while Tails is trapped inside an encapsulated production belt that runs parallel to the path. Inside it are barriers and heated floors that block the path. The player's first objective is to destroy the console near Sonic. This will in turn make a heated plate push Tails forward. Tails himself will take damage if he touches any hazardous obstacles along the way on the production belt. After destroying the console, use the Enerbeam to pull the latch on the right side of the destroyed console. This will lower a force-field inside the production belt tunnel, allowing Tails to press the Buttons on the other side. This will in turn move Zip Targets into place, allowing the player to cross a gap with the Enerbeam. On the other side of the gap, the player has to take out a few Destruction Troops, before pulling a latch with the Enerbeam to lower a force-field inside the production belt tunnel and then press a Button to activate a Tails Vent inside the production belt tunnel. With these elements activated, Tails can follow the production belt tunnel up to a Button that, when pressed, will move a Spin Ramp into place. Use this Spin Ramp to get up to the area above, which has Destruction Troops guarding it. There, the player has to pull a latch with the Enerbeam to open the exit to the production belt tunnel, allowing Tails to join the player's party.
With Tails on the team, follow the path on the right to arrive at a force-field blocking the path. Here, Tails must insert Buddy Bot into a yellow socket. Buddy Bot will then emerge on the other side of the force-field and take out the console powering the force-field, thereby disabling it. On the other side of the force-field, which features a Checkpint, the player has to insert Buddy Bot into another socket to make the gears in the environment move into position, forming platforms. Follow the path of gear platforms to the platform on the right side of the room and press the Button there to make more gear platforms pop out. The player must then follow the path of gear platforms to the Bounce Pad at the end and use it to reach the Tube in the ceiling. Go into the Tube and ride it to the next section. Here, the player can either use Spin Ramps or Tails Vents to scale the area. Once at the top, follow the corridor, past the next Checkpoint, into the room where MAIA is. There, a cutscene will play. After the cutscene, the player then has to defeat some Destruction Troops to make a door to the security room open. Go through this door to enter a room with conveyor belts hanging over a gap that the player has to jump across. If they fall down from there, they will have to start to manually climb up to the top and start over again. Further ahead however, is a bottomless pit. Worth noting is that on the left side of the room, next to the second conveyor belt, is a passage hidden behind a console. Go through this passage to find Young Tucker, who is connected to Old Tucker's sidequest in Cliff's Excavation Site. After Sonic and Tails has warned him not to use the bottle labeled "Poison" for his plant fertilizer formula, Young Tucker will thank them and award the player with a Power Glyph of the player's choosing.
At the end of the corridor in the security room is a tile puzzle on the floor. Upon walking onto it, the alarm will be triggered, and the player will go a few rounds with some Roller Recoilers. After defeating them, the player can interact with the tile puzzle properly. Once solved, a socket for Buddy Bot will be lowered, Send Buddy Bot into the socket and he will emerge on the other side of the force-field blocking the path and destroy a console, thereby lowering the force field. After crossing over to the other side of the room however, the alarm will trigger once more, leaving the player to defeat another wave of Destruction Troops. After defeating these enemies, the player has to solve another tile puzzle on the floor, except this time, they have to do it while dodging damage-inflicting lasers that sweep the floor by jumping over them. Once the tile puzzle has been solved though, another wave of Destruction Troops will appear. After taking them out, the player can interact with another tile puzzle. While solving it however, the player has to dodge laser again. However, this time, there will be even more lasers sweeping the floor, some of which can only be dodged with the Double Jump. After solving the tile puzzle, a socket for Buddy Bot will be revealed. Send Buddy Bot into the socket to make him destroy the console on the other side of the barrier. This will make an Ener-Rail move into place in the room where the player met MAIA. The player must thus return to this room. After backtracking there however, they come under attack by more Destruction Troops, including the new Blaster Trooper, while a red force-field keeps the player from reaching the Ener-Rail. After destroying the local Destruction Troops, the red force-field in front of the Ener-Rail will be lowered, and the player can ride it into the next section. Upon arriving there, the player will reach a Checkpoint and a cutscene will play.
After the cutscene, the player has to follow the path on the right up to the highest plaform they can reach. There, there will be Destruction Troops to fight. There is also a latch that must be pulled with the Enerbeam. This will in turn unlock a path on the left. Backtrack then down to the path to the earlier Checkpoint and follow the path on the left, but be careful not to get hit by the conveyor rails carrying metal plates across a gap. After the gap, there will be a Bounce Pad that will take the player to a higher ledge. In front of this new path, however, is a piston that can push the characters into a wall. Get past this piston to reach a new path with Boost Pads on it. The Boost Pads will guide the player down the path, but they can also use nearby conveyor belts. Eventually, the player will arrived at a Sentinel's thigh. Here, the player has to follow the path while dodging scrolling lasers. Eventually, the player reaches a Bounce Pad they must use to get higher up. Follow then the path through another section with scrolling lasers to reach another Bounce Pad that leads up to a maze leading across some conveyor belts. After getting across these conveyor belts, the player will arrive on a platform with a laser grid blocking the path. This laser grid can be disabled by destroying a generator hidden behind some crates in a compartment in the corner of the platform and sending Buddy Bot into a socket next to the hidden generator. On the other side of the laser grid is a forking path with Boost Pads on it, the easiest of which to take is on the left. On the right side of this path are also some conveyor belts leading into a hidden room with a Robot Scrap Chest. At the end of the Boost Pad path, the player then has to climb to the path above using either a Tails Vent or a Spin Ramp. At the top, the player will find another Checkpoint, beyond which the player has to defeat some waves of Destruction Troops, before getting introduced to the Crusher Brute.
After defeating the Crusher Brute, a door will open. Behind it is an Ener-Rail that the player has to ride to the next section. At the beginning of this section, there is also a teleportation pad hidden below some breakable crates that leads to a secret room. On this new path, follow the road on the right and cross the incoming conveyor belt with scrolling lasers along it to reach some Bounce Pads leading into a Tube. After being deposited by the Tube, the player has to go through some 2.5D layers with scrolling lasers and narrow pathways. However, the player can sometimes find safer, alternate paths in this section by breaking plates on the floor. At the end of this section, the player has to ride another Ener-Rail to a new section, where they will come under attack by Destruction Troops. After they have been defeated, a force-field will be lowered, unveiling a new path. Along this path, the player has to go through a new 2.5D maze section with scrolling lasers, Bounce Pads, and conveyor belts. Eventually, the player will arrive at a force-field where they have to send Buddy Bot into a socket to lower it. From there, follow the path through the breakable floors and along the Bounce Pads until the characters get to a new 2.5D section with conveyor belts and scrolling lasers to avoid. At the end, the player will find an Ener-Rail to ride to a new platform with a Checkpoint. Here, press the Button in the center of the platform to make two Bounce Pads appear. Use the one on the far right to enter a speed section leading along the facility's walls. Towards the end, the player has to avoid lasers that appear on the road's different lanes. At the end, the player then has to ride an Ener-Rail to the Sentinel's neck, which has a Checkpoint on it. Defeat the Destruction Troops there, and pull then latches on the back of the Sentinel's neck to trigger another cutscene.
After the cutscene, Sonic and Tails will find themselves on a descending elevator. After reaching the bottom, follow the unveiled path. Ahead, the player can use either a Tails Vent or a Spin Ramp to climb a shaft, but watch out for the scrolling laser. At the top, follow the path on the right to reach a passage with a Boost Pad on it. Go through this passage to reach a new section. Here, Sonic and Tails will split up, leaving the player will control over only one character. The player then has to pass through the top path while avoiding crushing pistons. At the end, the player has to break through the floor to go downstairs and activate a Button that will open a door on both sides, allowing the other character to rejoin the player's party. Shortly thereafter, an elevator will fall down from above, hitting the ground and exploding. Then player then has to climb up the elevator shaft using Bounce Pads. At the top is the entrance to the map room where the level ends. Afterward, the player is taken to Cliff's Excavation Site.
Collectibles[]
This level has the following total of collectable items:
- Crowns: 12
- Shinies: 4
- Robot Scrap Chests: 9
Trivia[]
- The game hints to Young Tucker's presence in this level by Sonic saying "We should check out the area around the security room" when entering the security room.
- Lyric's Weapon Facility is the only level in Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric that is not a hub world where the player can obtain a Power Glyph.
Music[]
Name | Artist(s) | Length | Music track |
---|---|---|---|
N/A (Save Tails) | Richard Jacques | 2:19 | |
N/A (Lyric's Weapon Facility) | Rischard Jacques | 3:25 | |
N/A (Battle) | Richard Jacques | 3:24 | |
N/A (Sentinel) | Richard Jacques | 1:45 | |
N/A (Sentinel/Battle 2) | Richard Jacques | 1:44 | |
N/A (Elevator) | Richard Jacques | 2:42 |
Video[]
References[]
- ↑ Sonic Toon. ワールド紹介 (16 October 2014). Retrieved on 17 October 2014.