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Complimenting Sonic Adventure 2

Discussion in 'General Sonic Discussion' started by Sonic5993, Oct 5, 2020.

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  1. This is the true test of this site.


    I guess I'll start off by saying that I'm part of the generation that grew up on the Battle port for Gamecube and it served as my formal indoctrination in this franchise and serves as a good foundation on what I like about the series.

    I just like the variety the game offers more than anything else; every character has a unique style and stages associated with that style as well as musical motifs to go with it. No game since has really done that, and I found that extremely cool that they defined each character as much as they did.

    I'm somebody who doesn't mind linear Sonic levels, so the streamlining of Sonic/Shadow's levels from SA1 didn't bother me that much, especially since the ranking system incentivised me to focus on improving HOW I get through the stage and make me do better. Getting an A rank still feels amazing to this day. The mecha levels are somewhat worse controlling than Gamma, but whenever you aren't required to platform, they translate well enough and if every level was more similar to Weapon's Bed and Cosmic Wall, I'd love it a lot more.

    The treasure hunting levels are the obvious weak link here, but I do appreciate how they better utilize Knuckles/Rouge's capabilities in a way that doesn't trivialize the level itself; one of my biggest issues with Knuckles` abilities is how at times, the levels just aren't designed for him, and Adventure 2 just kind of eliminates that issue...for better or worse.


    And obviously, the story cuz I'm a huge Shonen Anime nerd and all of that cheesy, B-movie shit is exactly my jam. Inject more of that into my veins please, because I will eat it up every time and I have no shame in admitting that. In all seriousness though, I just love how it feels like every character contributes something to the narrative; sure, Sonic and Shadow are obviously the stars of the show, but everyone else get their moments too and regardless of how you feel about him coming back, Shadow had one of the best send offs in the entire series and is a large reason why he's such a persistent figure in the public consciousness to this very day.
     
  2. Mana

    Mana

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    Sonic controls better in 2 than he does 1, of course in WAY worse designed levels, and the Chao are really fun to play around with.

    Shadow was a cool villain and his story arc in Adventure 2 was well written. Eggman's story arc was great too.

    The multiplayer was really fun and I spent hours on it with my family.

    It's not really a bad game just much more flawed than a lot of it's defenders want to admit.
     
  3. Cynical Toast

    Cynical Toast

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    I appreciate how harsh and thought out the ranking system is in this game compared to it's sequels. There's a lot of little intricacies to the system, and I feel like mastering those and pulling off flawless runs is a really fun process. I've not traditionally been into getting A/S ranks, the only other games I've done it in are Colors(Where I felt like I had to go for S ranks to make the game more fulfilling) and Generations (Where S ranks are so easy I just kinda got them without trying.) But in SA2, I feel like I have to work to get my score, and it's not measured by nonsense criteria like Shadow "Kill only one type of enemy despite the other type shooting you the whole stage" the Hedgehog. It gives the game some extra replayability- which is great for me because I never got much out of the Chao Garden.

    Also, if we didn't get SA2, we wouldn't have gotten this gem of a clip, so uh yeah.
     
  4. Dek Rollins

    Dek Rollins

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    The cinematics are the best 3D Sonic has ever had. I actually like story despite the holes people poke in it.
     
  5. SuperSnoopy

    SuperSnoopy

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    Sonic Adventure 2 is my favorite 3D Sonic game. It took the gameplay styles of Adventure 1 and refined them into something enjoyable.
    It got rid of the pace breaking hub worlds.
    It has the best story of any Sonic game.
    The Chao were massively improved.
    Shadow is actually cool in this game.

    Got nothing more to say. Sonic Adventure 1 maybe more "classic-like" in design, but Adventure 2 figured out Sonic's identity in 3D and is still a high point of the series imo.
     
  6. Beltway

    Beltway

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    The soundtrack is pretty good, if more specialized in genres compared to Adventure 1 (although Knuckles' tracks are in retrospect tainted by Hunnid-P's later nonsense).

    I do like the attempt to recreate the first GHZ stage in 3D. Not a fan of it being locked as an absolute 100% completion reward due to the steep qualifications of getting there (A rank for every mission for every stage), but kudos of it being the only 3D game to actually try adapting an actual level map from the Genesis games into a 3D environment. A very rare novelty compared to the rest of the game that I do admire.

    The grinding mechanic, while not perfect, is easily at its best incorporation compared to what the later games did with it, since it actually is influenced by momentum/tilting.

    And the Chao Garden is still fun for what it is.

    That's about it.
     
  7. Vanishing Vision

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    Best scoring system in the entire franchise by a country mile. One of the only 3D Sonics to implement the enemy chain system from the classic games (Heroes has it in a slightly different form, and Lost World has it, but it's useless there because score competition isn't possible in that game). So many cool scoring tricks, including several stage-specific actions like the top missile handle in Metal Harbor, the three-rail chain in Green Forest, the hoops in Pyramid Cave, and the special routes in Final Rush accessed by launching up from the vertical rails. Even a multiplier, the invincibility capsule awards 2X enemy values (but not the chain bonuses) as long as it's active. Lastly, a perfectly balanced time bonus that rewards full utilization of rings/enemies/tricks with no skipping over huge chunks of the stage, but demands perfect execution and punishes backtracking.

    No other 3D Sonic is as much fun to replay for better scores as SA2 is. Generations, for example is a great game let down by its' absolutely miserable scoring system that rewards ignoring everything and just rushing to the goal, skipping over all the tricks and enemy combos. I desperately wish anything from SA2's system could reappear in a future game.
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2020
  8. DigitalDuck

    DigitalDuck

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    The minigames where you have to play as Sonic and co. to get rings and animals for the Chao are alright I guess, but the main Chao Garden itself is amazing.
     
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  9. Mana

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    The fandom really is divided on these games because I miss the hubworlds and feel the story tries so hard to be deep that it gets convoluted at some points. I still like the story but I feel the story arcs in Adventure 1 were more clearly defined and had a better flow.

    The hubworlds gave a better sense of world to me and Sonic's relation to where he was. Station Square was the source of this amazing adventure and every level felt ight for a tourist town, theme park, big highway, casino, beach, all made logical sense. The Mystic Ruin stages did the same thing with the really cool idea of bringing back Ice Cap for Angel Island.

    I wish they did this again honestly.
     
  10. The Joebro64

    The Joebro64

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    Sonic Adventure 2: Electric Boogaloo is my least-favorite Sonic game.

    There. I said it. I don't care if this is a complimenting thread. I just needed to say it.

    That being said it's still got some good stuff, like Sonic/Shadow's gameplay and the Chao Garden. Also the soundtrack claps.
     
  11. Ayu Tsukimiya

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    The story is pretty good if you use the retranslated mod.

    Worse emerald radar aside, Knuckles and Rouge have some pretty nice stages when they're big and open like Pumpkin Hill.

    The Chao Garden was amazing compared to SA1 and Sonic Team is stupid for not reusing it in future titles.
     
  12. Dark Sonic

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    Oh boy. Umm you know what? Despite rarely playing it I respect the hell out of this game's multi-player content. Besides 06 it's the only major 3D Sonic game that has fleshed out multi-player component (Colors had multi-player but it was restricted to that side mode). Shame they couldn't make said multi-player online in the steam port. Plus it had costumes, and only recently have character skins been a major thing in like everything, so in a way this game was forward thinking. Shame you can't use the costumes in the regular game, but that's what mods are for :specialed: oh and agreed this game's ranking system made the most sense (Heroes was similar) and getting everything actually gave you a reward. And I thought this game's interpretation of GHZ was great. It followed the same path as the original but it was 3d and it still managed to maintain the multiple routes. Why they didn't design all the levels like this is beyond me, it's literally the only Sonic stage that isn't a series of narrow straight pathways.

    Other than that... umm idk, bounce bracelet is pretty neat. Idk, I don't hate SA2 but I don't like it either. 'Meh' sums up my thoughts on this game.
     
  13. Vanishing Vision

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    Reading this reminded me of Sonic Wind-ing my friends when they were over a gap, and now I'm smiling.
     
  14. Dark Sonic

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    Now I'm remembering my friend dicking around with Amy and time stop spamming and my headache is getting worse :specialed:
     
  15. Part of the reason this game tends to be so controversial is how much it eschews the traits of its predecessors; aside from the GHZ unlock, there's VERY little design elements from both the classic games and even some from the first Adventure game in this one. Its a flawed game without a doubt, but nobody can really say that it doesn't have its' own identity and set itself apart from the rest of the series at the time, and that might be why it's still so fondly remembered...and why it's so divisive.

    I certainly can't think of a game since this one that carved it's own path so thoroughly as almost every 3D game after this one, with the exception of Unleashed, would be taking cues from the classics or, ironically enough, this game and it's predecessor.
     
  16. Overlord

    Overlord

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    The soundtrack's pretty good.
     
  17. Pengi

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    Absolutely. They got the balance spot on. A fast time alone wasn't enough to get an A-rank. Everything was incentivised, from not losing your rings to timing your jumps from ramps and poles just right. Managing to destroy the hidden Gold Beetle in time could make or break a high score. Any Sonic game with a high score/ranking system should follow SA2's model.
     
  18. SuperSnoopy

    SuperSnoopy

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    SA2's ranking system doesn't take your ring count into account actually, I used to believe it did and A ranked the whole game without loosing any rings. And then I found out I wasted my time restarting the stages over and over every time I got hit :V.
     
  19. Josh

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    SA2 was absolutely incredible in 2001, but my opinion of it seems to get a little lower every year. I think it's because the aspect of the game I _really_ loved (the high-speed spectacle platforming) was done so much better in Unleashed and Generations, and the aspects that other fans enjoy were either things I didn't really care about (Chao Garden, character variety) or things I enjoyed unironically when I was 13, but now I can only see them in a "so bad it's good" way (the story & voice acting). SA1's issues are just as obvious, but it ends up holding up a lot better in my book simply because its gameplay style has never really been attempted again.

    But hey, Battle is still one of the best multiplayer games in the series!

    And heck, it's an issue that extends through most of the games of the next decade. Take this quote from SA2's lead writer, Shiro Maekawa:

    And this is the guy that would go on to write the majority of the stories between SA2 to Black Knight. It's no wonder those games were so jarring, the guy writing the scenarios didn't like what Sonic had been.
     

  20. Maekawa shares something in common with his fans then, they don't like Classic Sonic :V
     
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