Nothing will ever beat, "Where's that DAMN fourth Chaos Emerald?"
Irony itself that the two main special powers of the game are against the game itself, since if you use them, you'll either miss an objective or kill someone you shouldn't.
I reiterate that, gameplay-wise, there is no such thing as an enemy you should not kill. If you've ignored one enemy of the "wrong" team, you're safe. The occassional Chaos Blast doesn't get in the way of anything. And I find it perfectly plausible that a character whose good/evil allegiance is player-dependent shall be depicted as a loose cannon. There are certainly worse gameplay phenomena out there that fly in the face of storyline. Ever go Laguz-slaying as Zihark in Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn? And don't get me started on how MMX5's system completely contradicts the storyline rationale for X's and Zero's respective ranks.
That and there
are neutral mission objectives in Shadow The Hedgehog, where you can just run for the goal and leave it at that, although taking them through the whole game gets you that stupid Shadow Android ending. There's no question that the Last Story is better for having no missions and actually giving some focus to Chaos Control. So, yeah, could have been better, could have been worse. That's my take anyway.
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