New Sonic 2 development lore drop - Genocide/Cyber City palette and art!

>Fire Hill
>Dust Hill

How long until Water Hill and Air Hill?

 

Are Splash Hill and Windy Hill close enough for the joke?

 

I suppose so

We have all the element hills

 

Oh snap! Sounds like the zone took place in the volcano that previously erupted in the past during the second visit. Perhaps the idea was that after the Death Egg escaped into the past from the future, it landed onto the volcano before launching into space?


S3&K strikes once more?!

Seems like the idea got cut pretty early, and that they revisited the idea of a zone before the Death Egg later with Neo Green Hill.

 

What if...?

 

My kanji is basic, but it really does look like 火の山, meaning straightforwardly "fire mountain".

 

Everything including Green (Earth), Air, and Water Hill changed when the fire nation attacked.

 

Is that kanji also used with Green Hill and Hill Top? If not, then it's a mountain. But that kanji can also mean "Hill".

Maybe Fire Hill is the zone Craig was talking about, with burning trees...

 

Aquatic Ruin keeps proving itself to be the massive outlier, huh?

 

For comparison, here's the kanji regarding the volcano's eruption.

 

Yup.

I'm still not buying the idea of it being a past level, though. Like, if the place was already in flooded ruins by the time of the dinosaurs, then how fucking old is it?

 

Could be an imperfect translation but it's really looking like there was meant to be some kind of firey zone/event that's slipped under the radar. Has any other S2 dev ever referenced something like this outside of Craig that one time?

 

Death Egg Zone song goes very well with a chaotic scenario such as an active volcano. Not as well with GCZ, DEZ, WFZ, or any of the other suggestions I've heard.

 

The translation we currently have is "volcano eruption" and is mentioned for the second visit to the past map. After Blue Ocean and Hill Top, Sonic warps to the future map. After the 3 future stages, Eggman escapes into the past with the Death Egg and Sonic follows. Death Egg zone then takes place in the past, up in space.

Between the two documents, the idea for this "Fire Mountain" Zone was considered, taking place in the past prior to the Death Egg. The idea was scrapped though and scribbled out.

The revised text after it was cut states that the only zone played was Death Egg, and that it was located in space on the past map.

 

Yeah I'm thinking they were going for a lava-addled bad future/ruined past zone for Green Hill or Hill Top, but it apparently never made it past the planning stages. Though that further calls into question what exactly Craig was talking about.

 

Isn't Aquatic Ruin Zone just Emerald Isle Zone?

 

I would still argue that "fire mountain" is a rough translation for "volcano". It explains the reason behind having a volcanic eruption on the past map, and the mention of lava blocking Sonic's path.

It's important to keep in mind that this idea was cut extremely early, between the two time travel documents, during Sonic 2's conceptional phase of development when they were still figuring out what kind of game they wanted to make.

 

I was just thinking of this with this newly translated “Fire Mountain” text. So they brought back the Volcano for S3&K. I’m honestly not surprised.

So interesting to see so many ideas. Incredible that the final product had to select and tighten things because it was all too much, but still turned out to be epic. I find it amazing that even Hidden Palace changed purposes a few times before it was ultimately scrapped last second.

Have we even realized how lucky we were to get the Death Egg? Yes, we didn’t get a full zone, but the game could have easily ended at Metropolis Act 3, with a slapped together final zone. There was still a drive to ensure that last battle was going to be in space some way, some how. Sky Chsr and Wing Fortress helped immensely to round out the story in the 11th hour.

 

That's why Sonic 2 SMS came to my mind. Looking back at correlation between Sonic 1 SMD and Sonic 1 SMS, I think Aspect (was it Aspect, or Ancient?) based Underground Zone on some early ideas from the bigger version of the two. Underground Zone already had strong Madness Mountain zone vibes, and now the Fire Mountain, which can be a Volcano...

 

I mean Hill Top is kinda already a volcano. The lava and the dinos always did seem peculiar in what's otherwise such a grassy, breezy zone...