Anyone else think Big was originally going to go to Lost World?

I had never thought about that or even realised the progression of the levels in that way either, but it's definitely a compelling theory.

When Froggy hops away in the cutscene from Bigs House, what direction does he take? I would image that if this was a last minute thing (which it could be, as they could change the bottomless water pit easily, as well as change the snake or move it slightly), then they may not have bothered changing the cutscene to reflect this change to another location either.

 

From the map on the wiki, it looks like he could be bouncing off to either location. So make of that what you will (though, admittedly, it looks slightly more angled for Lost World).

I don't see how they couldn't have justified the snake's absence for Big, though. They could've just had it so he and Sonic come in through different entrances, one of which triggers the snake, the other of which doesn't. Simple.

 

I always wondered why there was more areas in the levels to explore in as Big than the game led you to believe. The deeper I read into this thread, the more I think that Big's gameplay was to have more content and variety in it.

 

As someone who never was bothered by Big's inclusion in SA (Seriously, once you figured out the trick to setting the hook, he has the shortest stages of any character), I would have definitely thought that Big going to Lost World would make sense. Also, it would have made for a really humorous situation. There he would be, the most brain dead of any of the characters, and he's in arguably the most important location in the game, but with no way of understanding the ramifications.

Plus, why would Chaos be there in the first place? The timeline placement would put the events of the beginning of Big's story directly after being freed from the Master Emerald. From what the story shows, Eggman doesn't have a way of detecting the Emeralds, hence why he simply steals them from Sonic. With how isolated Big is, how would anyone know he had a Chaos Emerald? Perhaps Chaos went there after being released due to that being the original location of his shrine? Once he possessed Froggy, it would make sense why he would go in that direction. Oh well, just pure speculation. Is there any in-game or in-code evidence that any of this could have been possible?

EDIT: Not to mention, there was no reason for Robotnik and Chaos to be in Station Square at the beginning of Sonic's story. They didn't retrieve any Emeralds while they were there, and just headed right back to the Mystic Ruins afterwards.

What if they were following Big, who was chasing Froggy from the Mystic Ruins? By following Big, Robotnik would know where to deploy E-102, who then retrieved him. I don't know, that might lend credence to all of this.

 

I'd need to play the stage again to be certain, but in Sonic's Lost World, after the mirror lighting, and right before the boulder chase, isn't there a quick run by of an area filled with water after Sonic goes sliding down a waterfall? Maybe that could be something? Just a thought.

 

I always felt that Lost World was visited by only Sonic and Knuckles because they are the most connected to the emeralds, and are most involved against Chaos.

It's not impossible that Big could have gone there, though ST probably didn't view Big as being too important compared to everyone else to bother.

 

I did have slight theories that he might have been meant to go there, albeit largely just to the basic 'it's a water level' and 'Big's missing at least one level' points.

There are actually two bits of water for him to go into, the snake area and the small pool at the end of the waterfall in 'Leading Lights'.

It's possible it could have been a later level that he just backtracked to (he goes back to Mystic Ruins for Icecap and Froggy supposedly enters the forest area again for Tails' Sand Hill minigame, Big in that level? :P). The snake area may have been easy to remedy, there are loads of platforms so the snake itself would likely just be neccessary for unleashing the water, while the bottomless pit is moot point since Emerald Coast had them and was fixed for Big's version.

Seeing Big in Sky Chase as a final minigame would have been cooler though. How could they have neglected that?

Slight off topic, I also wondered if Amy was meant to go in other levels (Casinopolis being the most obvious choice since she enters that area for little other reason than to activate a cutscene) though they were cut due to time constaints or breaking the 'three characters per level' pattern.

 

The mirror lighting section also has water, it could be possible they were planning on using that section for big fishing. Hacking Big into that section and fishing there works almost perfectly, and the mirror lighting would add a cool gimmick. They could easily of added a new map, that was similar to that section (Like they did for Emerald Coast) for Big to fish in.

 

I think if Big's game had opened with Lost World in more or less, exactly the same way as you outlined, then many people would have probably ragequit.

It's an interesting theory - I don't recall how he got to station square in the first place. Do they even explain that?

 

No, but he most likely just used the train.

 

Yeah, I've always found it Strange that Lost World only had two characters that actually went to it, while all the others had three. Perhaps, it was Big that went to it.

Also, remember, it's Chaos' tail, not actually Chaos himself. Dr. Eggman seemingly was keeping Chaos on board the Egg Carrier, or at least that's what I've gathered from the Chaos 6 fight anyway. Though they never really explained how Chaos got around so who knows? I'm guessing that Chaos' Tail somehow broke off when he was released from the master emerald or something like that. So, it may be that Chaos' Tail has a mind of its own. It has no physical form without the main body, so it used Froggy as a vessel and possessed Froggy to gather Chaos emeralds. Of course, Big's an idiot so he wouldn't know that sort of thing. Regardless there are a lot of plot loopholes and stuff in Sonic Adventure. (along with MANY MANY unanswered questions.)

 

I was pretty sure Chaos' Tail broke off when Froggy tried to drink Chaos in liquid form. I though what he swallowed of Chaos was his tail, causing him to be possessed in the first place. Remember after the Master Emerald shattered and Chaos got away from Knuckles, Froggy was the first other being to come in contact with him.

The thing that kind of screws up this theory is that when he appears to Knuckles, he has a stub of a tail. When he appears to Sonic later, he looks exactly the same, so that stub is not the tail itself.

It could be that when Froggy drank some Chaos, it caused a mutation in Chaos' body making for a tail he didn't originally have. Or it could actually just be an unintended continuity mistake made by Sega's artists to not add a tail to Chaos 0's model for the intro in Knuckles' story.

 

I'm gonna post here for the sake of my exposing my signature to you guys.