Sonic CD's Mysterious Cut R2 Level Discussion - Post Origins Edition

That and the infamous example where someone showed Yasuhara a picture of Mystic Cave and the desert zone, and asked him "which one of these is Dust Hill?" and he pointed to the latter.

In the context of Brenda Ross, there was a very important difference: the community did not ask her "what was the name of the level?" They asked her "was Dust Hill the name of the level?" And that wording can mess with someone psychologically when recalling memories. It's a lot like the car crash experiment, where asking people about two cars hitting each other, as opposed to smashing into each other, causes very different results about what they remember. And I shouldn't even need to point out the issues with the Yasuhara incident. In general, the community is a lot better at not coloring developers' memories when asking them to share information.

On an unrelated note: the name for the proposed new R2 added to the 2011 version was "Desert Dazzle". It's a funny coincidence it was alliteration with D's.

 

Here's a far-off/ridiculous question.

What if the developer wrote on the paper with the planet map "R2 = Dubious Depths" (well, in Japanese writing, not English script) prior to us knowing the map's existence? And then it was presented to us today? Would we have taken it as fact if the planet map was released today?

I'd certainly think so, we'd be in awe about it.

But then it makes the following assumption: All media from the past is authentic/unaltered.

Given that we have the planet map today, if we were shown another planet map that looks the same, except with the "R2 = Dubious Depths" writing, we'd be skeptical about taking the word of the person because we'd think it's a forgery.

But then it makes another assumption: There are no copies of a piece of documentation presented.

So we can start going through a spiral of more speculation and hesitancy in taking a claim and presenting it as some fact because other questions will pop up, and we'd never settle on how to present the news we receive.

So...this seems like the case of us not being in the same room as the developers where we can 1st hand see/hear the discussions from 30 years ago.

I don't know how folks want to reconcile the unknowns that will continue to exist. A time-travel machine to go back to the past hasn't been made, as far as I can tell.

 

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At first I thought maybe Naoto was making a joke about being doubtful. Why would the Depths be Dubious? That's something a human does.
I guess it's a case of poor translation.

 

I believe the cacti are there in the Little Planet map because Collision Chaos seems to have cacti in its BG, as well as its foreground in some timezones. Same reason there are volcanoes -- they're the ones from the Tidal Tempest BG. Chances are the map was drawn after R2 was scrapped, so there wouldn't have been any need to depict it.

 

A definition of 'dubious' can mean something is unreliable or suspicious. I can see how it got it's name, by that angle.

As for the R2 mockups I've seen over the years, whether it's DukeofPalette's or Taxman's incredible stuff, I'm not sure if either really capture what comes to mind when I think of what it might've looked like. The planned theme (D.A. Garden song) gives the impression of a sort of cavernous jungle-ruins setting. The neatly laid bricks and neon colors of most takes on R2 don't really fit that for me, and the desert aesthetic definitely doesn't.

 

Do Palmtrees Panic?

 

I don't find workbenches particularly wacky.

 

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Panic is a noun there. No need to poke fun. :P

I did actually think "Dubious Depths" was a semi-sarcastic joke way to say "I don't know the name. I'm doubtful about it."

If it really was going to be a dungeon level... I admittedly would've liked "Dungeon Depths."

 

Can't believe it was a dumb luck for my fan project to be a coincidence with those elements X D

 

And when's the last time anybody saw a Speedway made of Stardust? Or a particularly Wacky Workbench? Heck, Tidal Tempest isn't exactly a violent, raging storm level, either. A level name like "Dubious Depths" would fit right in with the rest of CD's names, which oftentimes tend to be more alliterative than descriptive and all have each word start with the same letter;

1. Palmtree Panic Zone
   
2. Dubious Depths Zone
   
3. Collision Chaos Zone
   
4. Tidal Tempest Zone
   
5. Quartz Quadrant Zone
   
6. Wacky Workbench Zone
   
7. Stardust Speedway Zone
   
8. Metallic Madness Zone

It fits like a glove into the list; so if the name was just misremembered, it's pretty darn lucky that it lines up seamlessly with the rest of the level names in CD.

 

Cacti:

 

So 5 of these levels has names with "distressing" qualities to them (Panic, Chaos, Tempest, Wacky, Madness)

Don't know how the other 3 relate.

What a fun experiment, maybe soon we'll find a hidden message in these zone names.

 

Funny enough I've been slowly making R2 (yet another one) with a few friends as a mod for Sonic CD (2011 - Decompiled). We'll try to release it later this year

 

And now Mazin has tweeted that his memory is hazy but he believes what Naoto Oshima said is true.
He also indicated the initial name may have been Radical Root; I like both Dubious Depths and Radical Root. Amazing how close Radical Ruins was DVD. ;p

Art by DVD: