Sonic Adventure 2 Discussion, Speculation, Media Topic

[Coral]

How do you get an A rank in Tails's Route 101? EVERY single time I've tried, I've gotten a C.

For both Tails and Rouge's driving missions, it's important to keep the accelerator held down most of the time. There's no need to brake really. If you are not confident that you'll be able to get through a turn without wiping out, drift by double tapping the accelerate button (A on xbox). To get out of a drift, just make sure the car stays straight for awhile and you'll feel the controls stiffen back to normal.

Another important thing is boosting. Be sure to grab as many rings as you can and boost whenever possible on the straightaways. I believe that you get a boost for every 20 rings but don't quote me on that. Hope that helps. :>

Edited October 13, 2012 by Coral

[Burnt Ash]

Huh, didn't know you could drift in the game. Thanks!

[JezMM]

The drifting is so ridiculous, but once you get the hang of it the kart stages are way more manageable. Those stages REALLY needed some automatic Omochao hints when you die.

[Space☆Tomoki]

I'm having trouble A Ranking mission 4 for Route 101; the highest I've gotten is a B Rank. Every time I try to go fast I end up hitting a damn wall. Anyone got any tips? I hate this mission so much. I hate to see what this mission will be like on Route 280...

Edited October 13, 2012 by Spider-Man Noir

[Coral]

I'm having trouble A Ranking mission 4 for Route 101; the highest I've gotten is a B Rank. Every time I try to go fast I end up hitting a damn wall. Anyone got any tips? I hate this mission so much. I hate to see what this mission will be like on Route 280...

I usually try to go as fast a possible in all the areas leading up to the very tiny tunnel sections. If you can get to them fast enough, you'll have ample time to go slow and easy (i.e. periodically tapping the A button. Not stopping completely) through those and then book it to the end. Make sure to drift in the tunnel sections too to make sure you don't accidently hit the side while turning.

I like to cut time by saving my boosts for areas with a steep hill. When Tails goes over those really fast, I take that opportunity to cut diagonally through a turn while in the air and bypass it. Just my strategy.

Edited October 13, 2012 by Coral

[Chooch]

You know what I miss from this game? The grinding.

The grinding in SA2 was cool and although it needed some touch ups, it was the only time in the series where grinding felt like it had an element of depth due to the balance system and you're ability to fly off the ends of some ramps with the green "X"s. Not to mention the balance system actually makes sense (due to the laws of centripetal force). Going through Final Rush is immensely satisfying because of the grind system imo, and just wouldn't be as fun as in any other game.

Infact, I really want them to bring this kind of grinding back. The only change I would make would be to allow you to easily change rails by pressing the triggers (since jumping to rails that were close to you was a bit of a pain in SA2).

I'm sorry but Sonic Adventure 2 grinding was total shit. Final Rush and Final Chase are the worst Speed stages in the game for this very reason. It was boring, monotonous, nigh uncontrollable and there was no reliable way to switch rails that didn't risk throwing yourself into a bottomless pit.

It baffles me that people bitch about grinding in games like Sonic Unleashed and praise grinding in Sonic Adventure 2 when it's arguably so much worse. Sonic Unleashed has a bunch of grind rails suspended over bottomless pits? So does Sonic Adventure 2! Did people just forget?

At least Unleashed gives you full control over what you do on them and throws obstacles in your way like gaps, rainbow rings, spiked balls and enemies to make things more interesting. In Sonic Adventure 2 you just hold the crouch button until you get to the end. Sweet.

Final Rush is literally just a bunch of isolated platforms connected by grind rails suspended over one giant bottomless pit. The stage is ass. The balance system is ultimately worthless and attempting to use it does more harm than good most of the time. It fucking sucks.

I never want to go back to this. Not ever.

Edited October 13, 2012 by Chooch

[Soniman]

Now see, I disagree..

I think Final Rush is one of the best stages in the game, and this is coming from someone who doesn't really give that much of a shit about SA2.

Sure the modern games are better controlled with its grinding, but it's a hell of a lot more guided and restrictive. The grind rails used in Final Rush/SA2 is a lot more interesting, with SA2 you have grinding that doesn't strictly adhere to the "three adjacent rails mini game segment" that the modern games stick to, in City Escape you have rails used in staircases, or as vines in Green Forest, and Final Rush makes the best use of this due to it having rails spiraling out all over the place that connect part of the level in interesting ways, all you have to do is look no farther than the vertical rails you encounter about halfway through the level. Those were good examples of grind rails used in cool and unique ways.

The grinding also had shades of momentum physics (which again the modern grinding lacks) as you can really see Sonic/Shadow increase in speed the more you have a decent balance (again this proves true in the City Escape stair cast grind sequence near the end of the level).

Also I didn't really find it boring at all. A lot of the grind rails you can do tricks off of and it felt good to get a perfect run going and mastering all the challenges the rails throw at you. Final Rush really is a unique Sonic level in my book.

Not much to say about Final Chase though, it's not grind heavy and focuses more on the cylinder gravity things as a gimmicks, which is alright.

Edited December 19, 2012 by TheScroogenator

[Chooch]

I can completely understand your points there, but ultimately I care more about control than anything else. One of the main things that I feel Sonic Adventure 2 has over the original is the tightness of the controls while running and jumping on the ground.

All that gets thrown completely out the fucking window the instant that you hop onto a grind rail.

[JezMM]

Personally I'd love to see SA2's balance/speed system to grinding come back but with the polish and controllability of Modern Sonic (especially when it comes to rail-hopping).

[Jango]

My biggest gaming achievement this year XD

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb417/Jango93/IMG_20121013_200215_zpsa2acb211.jpg

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb417/Jango93/IMG_20121013_200234_zpsfd3f5d38.jpg

Yes, A rank in every misison on both Tails and Rouge kart stage, phew. And I gonna share a fail... I didn't know you could drift by pressing the X (or A) twice. I spent hours of fail attempts because of that. I always slowed down to make turns, and that affected my time, but now with the drift, Jesus, that's way easier. Once I've nailed it, I got the ranks. There's just a few more Rouge and Knuckles levels to do, them I'll have all A ranks for the first time in this game.

Anyone knows where's the last emerald in Meteor Herd? XD I've already got the one behind the door that you can break with the meteor and that one you summon a spring with the sunglasses on. This last one's hints are "sunglasses", "top of steel beam" and something like "aim to the spring"... That ain't helping me

[Lady Soniko]

A Ranking both car missions in SA2 isn't exactly hard, considering the cars drive as if they're on sheets of ice whenever you de-accelerate.

i agree with both Chooch and Soniman in different points.

SA2's grinding felt satisfying to pull off because of momentum based speed and anticipating the score you get at the end, also cool sparks.

but the balance system sucked cock, especially in levels like Sky Rail, that type of grinding system isn't great with the crazy winding rails in Sky Rail, if you even bother to crouch on those rails you slow to a snails pace, or simply cling to the side of the rail without falling looking dumb as fuck.

i still stand by Final Rush being one of the more satisfying levels to grind in because of the speed and lack of slow down you get from those rails, hell anything is better than the way SEGA handled Rail Canyon in Heroes...

[Jango]

The rail grinding in SA2 does sucks, but not completely. The sense of speed is great, there are cool sparks and the rails itselves are full of crazy loops. But switching between them, ohoho... Your chance of falling off while switching in high speed (crouching) is 99%. I only switch rails when I'm at a medium speed, because if you're slow, there's still a change of falling off too. Final Rush wouldn't be the same without looking at the planet Earth's surface while grinding super fast. I also love to do that trick when you jump off at the right time, I feel like doing an extreme le parkour lol

hell anything is better than the way SEGA handled Rail Canyon in Heroes...

What about Rail Canyon?

It seems like the more we play, more we know about the game's flaws, that way we can avoid them. I remember the first time playing SA2 and Heroes, my God, it was a shitfest of bugs, but after some months (ok, years) playing it, I knew exactly what to do and don't do (like the fast rail switching thing), and you know what? I had much more fun. Games like these are very "bash-able" the first times you play, but it becomes great once you're really INSIDE the game, seriously, at least I feel that.

Edited October 14, 2012 by Jango

[Badnik Mechanic]

When I've used my code, I'm been directly sent to my wallet, and the demo, the full-game unlock and the DLC where there available to download. I don't know what happened to you, but burst Ken with PMs.

Hmmm... oh well...

*enters the code and selects continue*

WHOA! You're right. So when you enter the PSN code, it comes up with the battle DLC first, which is why I thought it was just for the battle DLC, when you then go to continue, it comes up with the full game. Going to continue again brings you to the wallet which has the full game unlock code, the demo and the DLC too!

Hooray! I've got SA2... how long to download? 257min!? THE HELL!?

[Jango]

lol

I'm glad you made it hehe Yeah, the game is pretty big, it takes at least one hour and half to download.

[Woun]

Shoes unlocked

[Solkia]

Am I the only one who's never once had a problem switching rails in SA2? It's not hard :/

[Emmett L. Brown]

Am I the only one who's never once had a problem switching rails in SA2? It's not hard :/

[Jack / Joker]

What the hell.

[Random Rhyme]

Shoes unlocked

Look for the Locomotion Items by NDreams. Their Ninja run goes well with those shoes and shirt.

[Emmett L. Brown]

Finally done with Route 201 and 280. I think it's cute that the last mission of both is by far the easiest. Sure, it's technically more challenging than the first mission, but by the time you've memorised the track to be able to pull of the hair-pullingly frustrating tasks of avoiding all cars and never touching a wall, then simply getting to the goal slightly faster with no instant fail conditions is a joke.

[JezMM]

but the balance system sucked cock, especially in levels like Sky Rail, that type of grinding system isn't great with the crazy winding rails in Sky Rail, if you even bother to crouch on those rails you slow to a snails pace, or simply cling to the side of the rail without falling looking dumb as fuck.

Wait, people don't just crouch on every single rail? I didn't know there was any benefit to not crouching. If you crouch you can still balance with the control stick, in fact it is required to move the control stick with the grind rail to keep your speed up. And you still won't ever fall off if you're holding crouch.

I also agree with Grumpy Old Guy, rail switching is massively unpredictable in this game. Sometimes it works, sometimes I fly horizontally past the other rail, sometimes Sonic literally just flicks off the current rail by about 10 inches and falls to his death straight down.

Sometimes it works and Sonic starts grinding the wrong way.

Edited October 14, 2012 by JezMM

[Pawn]

I tend to have the opposite problem; where Sonic and Shadow fail to leave the rail in the first place, like they're stuck to it. I think it happens more at higher speeds, so I guess the game is trying to prevent me from flying off into the horizon.

[Woun]

BTW, about Sonic Heroes HD. On PSN haves PS2 ver., cost: $10.

I think, open Sonic Heroes PC ver. in Full HD now. Not need SH HD.

And well, Shadow the Hedgehog PS2 ver. not available on the PSN. I want HD ver. on PSN and PC.

[Stritix]

New big glitch discovered, which can be done on any version of the game.

I'm going to try this out on my Dreamcast later. I don't think anyone has managed to get into the Dreamcast test level.

[Eternal EX]

Wait did you die, only to finish the stage after dying? What?