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

I'm honestly surprised no one has mentioned the phrase "first half" potentially referring to the game's development itself. Like it's a stretch, yeah, I've got nothing to back it up, but recontextualizing it reads something like "Act 3 was part of a cut zone once planned to be in the game, but was cut during the first half of development." Just wanted to put this out there, since it seems like people are reaching for the farthest possible explanations and not really considering the simpler ones? Idk, I don't even speak Japanese, so what do I know?

 

I don't see how that's a simpler explanation. Why would he mean the development without saying "development"? I don't think he'd be that vague if that were the case. If he says "previous zone...in the first half" and this is for a strategy guide, it's far more likely he means it in a "earlier in the game" kinda way as the reader is following along.

That's possible, but it's weird to think that this act 3 map supposedly was the first one ever made for the game.

 

Spoiler: ?)))

You're disappointed the fact that I'm not so old, or the fact that you're not so young?)

And I'm not understand, MTZ act 3 was based on Genocyber city, or not?

 

Could the zone he's referring to in the "first half" be Wood Zone? Honestly to me that makes even less sense but it would help explain if he meant a zone in the "first half" of the game.
It's most likely a reach as I can't see some of the gimmicks in Metropolis fitting a zone like Wood.

 

Does he actually say "previous zone"? Because I've never seen that myself and all I have to go off of is your word currently, which strikes me as inferring a bit based on assumptions (as though I'm not lol, but I need to make sure everything is set straight. We do have the original Japanese version of the interview answer, yes?)

 

I'm getting the impression that the MZ3 map layout is implied to be recycled from another zone map that would've occurred earlier in the game, but there's no indication or evidence as to what zone it specifically belonged to.

 

I guess a more literal translation would be "a zone in the previous half".

If you want to take a crack at it, be my guest.

 

What if Metropolis Zone was cut from the game, but they didn't liked how genocide City looks, and changed palette and add gimmicks to make it looks like steampunk unused zone.
Think about it: it's placed closer to end, and palette from documents is looks too good with final art. And bg. It doesn't similar to any of concept bgs that we saw, and it looks like technical zone, with different lights and hydraulics presses.
Badniks? HA! They has a hundred of unused badniks that can be used for every level and can be changed. And knowing this, the words of Naka can mean, that for new Metropolis was used the map from old Metropolis, that wasn't a fast reskin for Cybercide city..

Ye, it's stupid joke, but just imagine if reality was like this

 

And it's this discrepancy that's gotten me thinking that when Naka supposedly says "previous/first half" of the game, he's actually just talking about the development process on a basic level. It seems a tad strange to me, especially for the time period, for Naka to just come forward and outright tell people exactly where the level came from, why they cut it, how things were changed around, etc. "It was cut from the first half of development of the game" is generalized enough and makes more sense to me than "It was cut from the first half of the levels in the game" which feels uncharacteristically specific- again, in my own opinion. Feel free to bring up evidence to the contrary and I will gladly change my tune.

 

前 can mean "first", but usually, and far more commonly, it means "previous" or "earlier". It'd be far more weird for him to say "the previous half of development" as if somehow we were now in the half after that, as if the game wasn't done yet. It makes more sense if he's referring to the levels themselves.

 

Yet by your own admission, he could also be referring to "the earlier half of development".

I genuinely think the gurus should get on this, because with all the recent info that's coming to light, the quote translation that's been floating around is starting to strike me as incorrect and misleading, and I'd really enjoy seeing full clarification on the matter, regardless of which way the verdict swings.

 

I...never said that? That was your idea. I've vehemently denied the idea that he could be saying that. Context is key here, and the context of the strategy guide this was written up for strongly suggests he is talking about the levels, not the development. Disagree if you want, but don't put words in my mouth.

 

I'm talking about this. You literally said the word in question can mean earlier, and I still don't know what part of the original quote says the mysterious act 3 was cut out of another section of levels entirely- afaik, it just says "the previous/earlier/first half". Where was that gleaned from?

 

I'm not breaking down the quote kanji by kanji, if that's what you want.

Doubt me if you want, but I gave you the best possible translation of it I can.

 

I assumed it was referring to the first half of development when I scanned the text, but I’m not 100% sure as it’s typical Japanese vagueness.

Is it possible that there are texts before this that provide the necessary context? As in, Naka says that something happened in the “second half”/後半 of development? Like “創作の後半…” or something?

 

Isn't it possible Naka was just misrembering? I think we put far too much stock into developer interviews honestly.

 

We just haven't anything else to pay attention

 

Sure it is. But this interview would have taken place 5-6 years after the fact. That's a little removed, but it's closer to the event than our own community's very first interview. So his memory probably isn't all that bad here.

What I think is more likely than bad memory is him being genuinely confused about what took place and believing a map was reused when it wasn't. I'm not endorsing that idea, only putting it out as a possibility.

 

I can actually see some elements from metropolis being retooled from wood zone, the conveyer belts are already there for a start, the presses and various pistons could be for making wood pulp and those rhombuses could be saws cutting through wood (would make more sense than whatever they were supposed to be in metropolis), and the genocide city bear trap makes much more sense in a wooded zone.

 

There is something interesting I noticed.
This:


And this:


Maybe objects were not all reused specifically for WFZ after all.