Sonic Adventure 2, Why So Much Hate?

To be honest, that's what made me enjoy the game the most. You were no longer given hints that just showed the absolute location of the Emerald, you have to think about them. And that they worked only one at a time meant that you weren't about to abuse the radar so much. Everything about the hunting is better in SA2, while the shooting and 'standard style' are worse. However, I can totally see where anyone is coming from when they say they dislike it.

 

I don't hate Sonic Adventure 2. In fact, I think it was the 2nd best 3D sonic game to date, next to Sonic Adventure of course.
But, like Chimpo said in the 1st page, it marked the beginning of the downward spiral into complete failure (not his exact words but it's close).
I also think that Shadow is the best character to be added to the franchise since Knuckles, and SA2 was his debut.

EDIT: He (shadow) did become a pretty lame character and the grinding on rails with those shoes was retarded. It really reflects pop culture of the time; trendy 'SOAP' shoes. LAME.

 

To me, it's probably my favorite 3D-Sonic game - Sonic's gameplay is a HUGE improvement over his SA(DX) style, because he doesn't jump like he's on the freaking moon, it's pretty fun, less glitchy and the scripted areas actually WORK 99% of the time. The other character's gameplay was just as fun and a welcome variation from the rest of the gameplay.

The soundtrack was superb, again, a huge improvement over Sonic Adventure, where, in my opinion, only the boss-themes sounded good (and even then, sometimes only remotely). The voice acting was improved though still lacking in some areas (read: Tails).
The story was one of the best in the series so far, and I personally prefer the darker, more mature approach they tried here - we grew up, why can't the same be true for the series?

Overall, it's one of the, if not the, best 3D-Sonic games I played thus far.

 

SA2 ranked higher than SA1 for one reason and this reason only: Tails' stages in SA1 were this same repeated them: Tails has to race somebody to the goal whether it was Sonic or Eggman. At least SA2 gave Tails a stage where he could run off and do his own damn thing. For that reason, his adventure theme wasn't a very good fit. It was about breaking off and doing his own thing... while chasing Sonic around. I enjoyed Tails in a mech because it introduced something new into the Sonic universe instead of the same damn thing repeated.

 

"I found you! Faker!" etc.

I like the game up until Cannon's Core, because I cannot be doing with it. Also that one area in Crazy Gadget. You know the one. You're on the ceiling at the time, and you have to Light Dash across a trail of rings to the other side of what appears to be a pit of sulphuric acid, but you hit the button and instead of your Light Dash you Bounce Attack right down (up?) into it and have to start again

Not that I'm dissing the game. I'm actually very fond of it, though I did miss the Adventure Stages, and some parts of the plot didn't make sense (like Tails being awarded a Chaos Emerald Cháosémerald for saving Station Square even though it was later destroyed by Chaos)

 

Sonic Adventure 2 was actually a really good game.
So was Sonic Adventure. In my opinion, the 'downward spiral' was really started by Sonic Heroes.

Oh, fuck you guys, now I want to play them both again. Buying a new Gamecube controller...

 

I still have 4 X3

I just played me some sa2b

*Rolling around at the speed of sound, got places to go, gotta follow my rainbow*

Best... Opening... Level... EVER!

 

I stopped during Final Egg. I don't remember it being such arse =P
Also refusing to play Big's adventure

I don't even know why I still have Herpoes

 

Personally I still enjoy playing Sonic Heroes. I can understand perhaps why some people might not like it, but seriously. Proper Sonic levels, act 1, act 2. Good gameplay, music etc. A nice simple short story, like all Sonic games should have. Not some over-complicated crap regarding time travelling and aliens. I personally didn't have a problem with Heroes at all. I really enjoyed it.

I think the downward spiral, was more reviewers being dicks over the gamecube Sonic Adventures, followed by the craptacular STH and Sonic06.

Trust me, there are times where that emerald detector just doesn't work.
Death Chamber being the main perpetrator. It would detect emeralds in all the wrong places, because of walls and irritating shit like that. I remember that level taking me around half an hour. Thats just not even funny.

 

Nice, short story, proper level format, good gameplay, terrible controls, dodgy camera, scripted "hazards" (for instance, collapsing ruins in one of the opening levels) that you can't actually dodge most of the time, a special stage that is actually out to get you...

Oh, and even as early as SA2, I found the idea of pressing L/R and then A to switch rails while grinding to be incredibly hit or miss.

But please, tell me I'm just shit =]

 

I liked the hints as well, more than Tikal showing the way (who doesn't?). Not detecting more than one shard is retarded though. In the worst chance, you have to go through the level three times to find them all, when with it detecting all of them would just need one. It makes more sense as well.

 

That's what was really annoying about SA2 and where SA1 was more superior. I was lucky enough in most cases to happen to back into the second or third emerald shard on most occasions. The second shard was always just out in the open.

 

I actually rarely have camera trouble in Heroes. I remember the PS2 was buggy at times, but the xbox version which I have now has worked just fine. After playing both versions, I think that the PS2 version was simply messed up.

I agree about the rail grinding thing. It took Sega until Unleashed, to start using the shoulder buttons to switch rails. Something they should've figured out several years ago.

 

I think the reason that people hate Sonic Adventure 2 so much is that it (Sonic Adventure 2 Battle in particular) introduced Sonic to a whole new generation and a different console userbase. This game, being the first Sonic for many people, introduced them to things that Sonic just wasn't about; a captivating storyline, angsty anti-heroes, grinding, many many characters, etc. When more of this was demanded, Sega made an effort to please both branches of the fanbase, the "Sega fans" and the "Nintendo fans", which ended up as Sonic Heroes. After that "failed", Sega tried and tried to please both ends, but they ended up alienating the fanbase further.

Long story short, Sonic Adventure 2 split the fanbase, and Sega's efforts, in two, causing the downward spiral lasting from Sonic Heroes to Sonic 2006. Thankfully, Sonic Unleashed seems to be the closest they've got to pleasing both ends of the spectrum.

As well, Shadow is more than likely the cause for the recolor/fancharacter movement. If Sonic Adventure 2 hadn't involved Shadow, I don't think we would be seeing quite as much of that portion of the fanbase.

 

But if the other games hadn't revived Shadow....

 

Then he would have lived on in fanfiction.

 

Shadow was perfectly fine in that game. The only thing I can think of that was debatable about him, was the fact that the story ended up focusing a lot on him, which some may not like, but at least it was interesting; he actually had mysterious origins at that point and it hadn't become completely retarded yet. It's everything that followed, from simply bringing him back to life to giving him irritatingly stupid lines and characterization and fucking ridiculous background.

 

I agree, but it's not Shadow that I'm hating on here. It's the fans that he created. Which in turn, created shit like this;

And this.

And the top of the shit sundae, THIS.

 

I couldn't agree more if I tried, it's retarded. Some people are decent artists and can make nice characters, but for every one of those there's a ton of fucking shit like that last one you linked to.

 

Those ain't shit. 'cept the fact they're gen8-dollmaker-designs, obviously, they are some of the better examples of a fancharacter, sheesh.