Concept and Creation
After the success of Sonic Adventure, it was hoped that its sequel would be for the Dreamcast what Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was for the Mega Drive. A portion of the team responsible for Sonic Adventure title was thus sent off to work at Sega of America. It was led by director Takashi Iizuka, while Yuji Naka remained back in Japan to work on other properties, including Phantasy Star Online. With the team in place, brainstorming soon began on what form Sonic Adventure 2 would take.
Early on, it was decided that one of the main themes of the game would be the dichotomy between good and evil. To help explore that, the creators came up with new characters that would both assist Dr. Eggman and challenge the established cast of heroes. Though Yuji Uekawa was tasked drawing the final design of the character, it was Takashi Iizuka who conceived the idea Shadow, coming up with the idea to use a dark, anti-hero figure who was similar to Sonic in shape, but not in personality. While creating Shadow, there was a proposal to create a character that was as cool as or better than Sonic. Several early designs of Shadow ranged from having long spines with tufts of fur in front of his eyes, to having capes, shades or even a missing eye. Shiro Maekawa was the one who came up with Shadow’s final design, and considers himself to be Shadow’s creator. He states that there are times where he feels a stronger bond with Shadow than his real relatives.
When being designed, the character’s original name was “Terios,” which translates to “reflection of,” more than likely to play off of the hero/villain dynamic within the game. According to Kazuyuki Hoshino, Shadow’s red stripes were inspired by Kabuki makeup. Once Sonic Adventure 2 was announced, the identity and nature of Shadow was a heavily-guarded secret. The character was first shown to the public in the first game trailer for Sonic Adventure 2; however, his name was not revealed. GameSpot described what little was shown as Anti-Sonic – similar in appearance, but with darker skin, more angled eyes, and a fearsome scowl instead of Sonic’s trademark grin.”
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