I'm not sure if either of you lot give the amount of time Adventure 1 & 2 were put in. I truly think they were both equally rushed based on both of your factual statements. But to me, it doesn't make the game any less playable, unless if you count the bugs, which I NEVER in-counter on a regular basis. But, as a whole, I'd rather have 31 levels with copy-and-pasted ideas for a lot of levels, Than just 11 to explore with different characters, because at least the C&P levels had new level design to offer. :/
Maybe part of my dislike of sa2's levels is that they're all so boring. Even sonic and shadow's levels are essentially "run on this path fast, chain enemies, run fast, spring chain, somersault, run fast." There are twists and turns sure but it's basically straight line the game.
What bugs me most about the game is that it feels like Sonic is ice skating. I found it really hard to be precise. Also, fuck gem hunting. I hated those levels with a passion.
I'm surprised NOBODY has mentioned the damned loop in Emerald Coast, right before the whale. It is so easy to fall through that loop that to this very day I still fall through it. I swear, the first time I played SA1 I fell through it and wondered what the hell happened. Another annoyance was bad camera angles in some stages, such as Amy's Hot Shelter: I always seemed to fall off that narrow path because the camera zooms out so far. I was only little when I first played SA1, and didn't know how to adjust the camera, so I lost A LOT of lives at this one part. Some levels were just too easy, like Tails' Windy Valley. You can skip most of the level by flying. SA2 was a major improvement over SA1. If it weren't for Security Hall and Mad Space, I'd give it a 10/10. Also, the Big the Cat easter egg was hilarious. It was so satisfying seeing that fat purple fuck get run over by the GUN truck in City Escape. I point blank hated his stages in SA1. Despite it's flaws, Sonic Adventure is still a classic in my opinion.
It's actually an interesting question. Can a number, or better, an area of reused assets be counted for both games? SA2 writer even noticed in interview, how they had to scrap a couple of cutscenes to release a game in time, which was 3 months after console died. Reusing assets also means less need to reload things from a disk.
Yeah I died first time on that glitchy island as well, that wasn't a good first impression for me. I think it was after playing Windy Valley 3 I started to think 'hey this is actually pretty good'. I don't think it was just the assets recycled, most of SA2's levels had a very similar dreary cosmetic, most of the ARK levels look like one same gloomy space hallway. That and, as mentioned, they had plotted most of them in a much more rigid and linear fashion than SA1, a lot of them are just straight corridors, with the odd left or right. The only big diversity it had over SA1 was the grinding.
Tip for that part in Hot Shelter. A well timed hammer jump works pretty well for me to get to the switch. Another normal jump with the A button, quickly when the platform moves back and starts to turn to avoid having to walk away from the switch. Doing this will make that part a piece of cake to deal with. A decent controller helps. Once you get the hang of it. It's not nearly as bad as it seems. It'll help you move through the stage more quickly when timed in the level A mission.
I will always love this game, I remember bringing it home shortly after getting my Dreamcast and thinking 'Sonics back' Good times! I also think it's aged ok, I often still play it.
I remember the lighting effects being mind-blowing to me at the time. Only a select few games before Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast used proper dynamic lighting.
The lighting effects in SA1 were fantastic for the time. Still really appealing, actually. Then SADX lost some of them.. and the PC version onward lost all of them.
I still love playing it but I realize this is only because I know the game inside and out from playing it so much as a kid that I know how to outmaneuver some of the glitchier parts. I'm sure it's a trainwreck to someone just playing it for the first time or who didn't play it much when it was new.
If anyone's interested, I'm actually trying to translate the Japanese version to see what are the differences in the dialogues. I don't really know Japanese that much, so it's basically just me putting the Japanese text through Google Translate (and eventually babylon) and trying to make the most sense out of it. For clarification, I'm using the original 1998 Japanese release on an emulator. I've finished Sonic's story and as of now I'm in the middle of Tails' story.
I thought the first Sonic Adventure was okay. It is kind of upsetting that they didn't fix hardly any problems in the ported versions though. The only thing they did in the ported versions was what? Add 60fps? Quite disappointing if you ask me. You'd think they would've fixed known issues. Although the game remains buggy and glitchy as hell, I still have a passion for it, because it played a big role in my childhood.
They did fix some item and camera layout bugs. In fact, just about every revision of Sonic Adventure changes something with either the camera or item layout, ranging from misc layout changes to bug fixes (most notably from older to newer SA1 revisions and DX GC to DX PC). Although not bug fixes, here are some changes I remembered off the top of my head: Capsule placement - Sky Deck: Japanese Release - US Release Same as above, further in: Japanese Release - US Release Camera in Final Egg (part 2) Japanese Release - US Release I personally like that Final Egg camera angle in the original Japanese release more than the US release. But alas, the US version is newer, and so its item and camera layouts are what all subsequent versions of Sonic Adventure were based on. In terms of DX GC -> PC, it was really just miscellaneous bug fixes. For example: On the path to the pipe in the second part of Emerald Coast, they added a bunch of barrier objects onto the fence separators. ... I really do need to get this stuff all documented at some point :v: EDIT: Curse you, />!
That would definitely be an interesting read; yet this here is even more stuff I didn't know about. I wonder how many changes there are from the original Japanese release and the other regions' release; I know there are bug fixes, some changes and other things, but I haven't seen a good majority of them documented somewhere yet, probably for good reason. That or my Google-fu is terrible... The two versions being different makes me wanna import the game into my collection just for that sake. :v:
Also SA1's Japanese version has the classic styled wheel of feet, which never appeared in any other 3D Sonic game until Lost World (bar classic Sonic in Generations), is in no other version of SA1. [video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUQ9NfWwAQY[/video] (Go around 6:35 to the whale chase. It's there briefly, and up close so you can see it when paused.) Was there any reason as to why it was removed? It really fit with Tails' "multiple tails" animations and everyone's jump/spin balls, and honestly looked a lot better than going without it.
US dreamcast versions have this effect as well. The effect is in SADX, however it is broken as it is implemented incorrectly. Also, the effect does not apply to the light speed shoes. EDIT: Oh god after watching that video some more you can totally see the remnants of the AutoDemo camera system. I'm so spoiled by having the US version by my first.
The shoe model swap is at least, but not the onion skin thing. Knuckles has a similar onion skin thing going on in all versions of Sonic Adventure, but the different layers so to speak aren't transparent like Tails's tails in SA1, or Sonic's... everything when at full speed in the Japanese release. I did recently discover the broken shoe swapping in SADX for myself, though.
