The Sonic Adventure 2 that almost was...

I just looked through the February issue of ODM, and there was no mention of a branching story line. I'll look through some of the other issues when I'm up to it.

What I did find was rather interesting. I'll quote some passages below:

#1
"Originally scheduled for release this spring, it has been pushed back to fall 2001 (that's the tentative US release date, anyway) to ensure that the team has enough time to make the game everything they want it to be."

#2
"Although only a few characters have been revealed so far (Sonic, Knuckles, and Dr Robotnik), sources tell us that five new characters, pulled from former Sonic games on Genesis, Game Gear and arcade platforms, will also join the party-introducing new styles of game play in the process."

#3
"As usual, of course, the bulk of the play will involve sonic facing off against Robotnik's devious machines and weapons, but in this game, you can expect to see something a little more sinister than good old Dr robotnik as well. That's right: Dark Sonic will indeed make a reappeareance in the series. There's no official word on just what he'll do or how he'll do it, but we're led to expect to see some serious challanges to our favorite blue mascot"

Does #2 mean there was a remote chance Sonic team was looking at characters from Sonic the Fighters or Chaotix?

If #3 is accurate, does that mean they originally planned to have the most playtime with Sonic, with the supporting characters having much less, similar to SA1?

My first post btw.

 

It would be so badass to play as Mighty in SA2. An interesting find. Certainly opens up room for more theories.

 

Just going from what everyone said and how there was a giant hedgehog as a final boss (I swear I read this on CulT) it does kinda sound like Heroes to me.

 

I remember an odd rumour back in 2000 where Knuckles "died" early in the game in an explosion which shattered the Master Emerald and that his levels were set in hell. He would then need to find the shards to bring himself back to life. Ahhh.....crazy crazy crazy days!

Definately remember the Nails the Bat thing though, there was a pic of an early in-game character model floating around at the time which was labeled as such.

 

North American. I left UK just before the DC hit, so...

 

Very, very interesting topic!

I remember many years ago now, I must have been about 9 or something, I used to surf the web for anything Sonic related and I found a webpage detailing the new Sonic game (Adventure 2).
It had a load of early pictures which I've seen about in a few places since and the picture of the awesome black and white logo.
The thing I remember though is sit stated the game's name was 'Sonic Adventure 2: The Shadow of Light' which I've never heard of since.
I don't know if that was anything official, but I thought it was a darn cool name!

 

as far as the secretive bit goes, I just looked though my full subscription of EGM (Jan 2000-Dec 2000) and the only mention of SA2 was in the June issue accompanied by 4 small pictures, Eggman's Torso in the Mech, Sonic in Green Forest, Sonic Running through City Escape, and Sonic with the Chao. in the Dec. Issue, it's not even mentioned in the upcoming releases for Jan or Feb.

 

Knuckles shatters the emerald to prevent it from being stolen. And apparently, the only one that can restore it is Knuckles. Silly move, but smart in a way. Strrraaaaange, isn't it? + - Imagine if he did that in Sonic 3 & Knuckles....  

Knuckles definitely got (tricked into getting) the heroes inside Eggman's base via Death Chamber though. Without Knuckles, there is no eating. Remember that.

 

Sometimes, they shouldn't listen to fans. If all the stages were only played by Sonic, Robotnik and Knuckles, it would make the story different in some ways. While I could tolerate the Mech stages, the Hunting completely ruined it for me, and I hardly play the game at all for this reason alone.

 

there was only 2 things I truly hated about the treaure hunting

Pumpkin Hill
Mad Space

The rest was tollerable XD

 

The "monster made of eyes" was probably just the Biolizard when he spreads those floating spherical eggs everywhere.

So Fang was probably replaced by Rouge.


Fuck.

 

Missed a couple words there.

I kinda figured that after the Master Emerald was broken and restored by Knuckles in the previous game, he realized he could use such a power to his advantage in the future as a last resort. Eggman only happened across the M.E. while searching for Chaos Emeralds, and because he guessed he could use it for something, he was just going to take it with him. It wasn't part of Shadow's plan for the Eclipse Cannon though, therefore it wasn't really on the doc's agenda, which was why he just let it go (I mean...his persistence is part of what makes his character so grand, and he didn't know much about ARK at the time, so he couldn't think far enough ahead to foresee its eventual use at the end - in short, he really must not have needed it at the time).

Also, is it just me, or does the line "I'll look into it once I get back to the base", if you're watching the Hero side cutscene, go along with the beat of 'Unknown from M.E.' all too well?

I'm suddenly ready to play some SA2. Might roll around at the speed out sound for a bit before I get going...

How many allusions to that one cutscene can you find in this post?

 

My biggest beef with Sonic Adventure 2 (even at the time of release) is that they had six characters but only half the different gameplay styles found in Sonic Adventure. Though I didn't find Tails' missions "bad", I think it's safe to say that Robotnik's levels are a bit more polished... as are Sonic's... as are Knuckles'. It's only marginal but yeah I would place money on it only been a three person game at one stage. I do remember reading that Tails might be scrapped in an issue of the Official Dreamcast magazine, but there was no word about Rouge or Shadow. Could have been a five player game.

What's also interesting:
http://www.textures-resource.com/other_sys.../SA2/index.html
compare the textures for the spacey/mechanical stages. Lots of stuff is recycled, which although is understandable, it's a lot more than what you see in the original Sonic Adventure. Some look as if they've crashed Star Wars space ships into them but that's another story.


Both Rouge and Tails have stupid car driving levels which may have been tacked on last minute. Rouge's especially, since you never see that car again. They didn't even come up with good names for those stages.

Oh and they recycle boss battles too. Don't forget that.

 

About Sonic and Sky Rail, it could report how Sonic reached Eggman's base. The location fits close to Prison Island (from where Sonic escapes) and the pyramid area. In the story, they return to Central City, to watch the moon blow up, find the president to locate where Eggman is, and then go find the base. It's probably where most of the padding and rehashing levels are as well, Mission Street, Aquatic Mine, the two kart levels and Hidden Base, which are all copies of other more important levels. They meet Knuckles there in a clever way as well, but they could meet him anywhere after Prison Island. Since Aquatic Mine is so far away from where the emerald broke (and just an indoors Pumpkin Hill, close to all objects are recycled) it seems more like a padding level than an original one.

Well... Rouge = female Nack.

The monster with lots of eyes... the Biolizard, probably.



FinalHazard had a few eggs as well.

 

All of this makes me wonder how many major changes go into a Sonic game before the final product is completed? From what I've read, SA2 seems like it would have been an entirely different game.

It would be neat to have seen some of the original concept art.

 

1. An employee of either Electronics Boutique, Babbages, or Gamestop visited some sort of retailers conference, where he viewed and later described several pieces of Sonic Adventure 2 concept art. Among them were Good/Evil Chao, a character he called "Nails the Bat", several pieces of concept art for "Dark Sonic" showcasing everything from full-body scars to a missing eye and missing appendages, an angelic-like girl, a troll-like creature with a big nose, and a monster made up of thousands of eyeballs.
2. A magazine was given a preview of Sonic Adventure 2 where they described a branching storyline system, where at several points in the plot the player would be offered a choice in what they wanted to do. The given example was Sonic trapped in a submarine; the player was given the option to attempt piloting the sub to safety or to pop the hatch and take their chances in the water. This magazine also stated that "Chao would play a larger role in the game."
3. That Sonic, Knuckles and Dr. Eggman were originally the only playable characters until outcry regarding the status of Tails and Amy Rose forced them to go back and rework the game a little bit.
4. Early versions of Sonic Adventure 2 featured Adventure Fields like the original Sonic Adventure.

(Haven't read everything so sorry if this was brought up but...) Perhaps this very concept was reused for "Shadow the Hedgehog" which also tried taking a lot of cues from Sonic Adventure 2.