I don't think the Retro Engine has a palette limit? I was under the impression that they could add as many as they wanted.
I don’t know but I didn’t say it does. I’m saying they implemented the color change with a palette swap as if there was a limit, rather than just redoing the colors.
I know the technical reason for this to hide draw distance, but seriously.... what is up with Radical Highway? We have skyscrapers just hovering above the bay? is the bottom actually fog that's just super dark from the lack of lights in the water? That reminds me, what's up with the bottom of Windy Valley's skybox, too? We see canyon rock faces above... water? A lake? Sky with clouds?
Half the damn level doesn't even have any support or safety railings at all, the hovering buildings are the least of our concerns!
If we ever do get SA1/2 remakes, I’m really interested in seeing the stages’ environmental designs look like they’re more part of the game world than just a video game level segmented away from the setting presented in the story.
The way I see it, the stages in SA1 are meant to be abstract and surreal, while the "adventure" hubs are meant to be more grounded in reality. I have no actual evidence for this being the intent, that's just what I feel they may have been going for. A particularly good example would be proto Windy Valley, pretty much straight out of classic Sonic. The final Windy Valley ofc is far less surreal, but still is. I mean, look at act 3 in the final, that's just a bunch of floating bits of castles connected by loop de looped grated metal catwalks. Or just look at Speed Highway, what kinda drugs were those city planners smoking? Same goes for Radical Highway, more like the architect was Radically High on some brain rot. Nobody sane would construct such insane structures for human traversal. Even the more fantastical hubs like the Egg Carrier feel more grounded in reality, like it even has a variant where it's crashed into the sea. The ruins are pretty realistic, except the floating island part (but yknow, lore). The city hub is also quite believable. I guess what I'm saying is the gameplay stages themselves are probably not meant to be taken literally and have a ton of "game-isms".
I think that's what the next mainline game should be; a mixture of both surrealism and realism. Basically what both Sonic Adventure (1) and Sonic Unleashed tried.
