Sonic Adventure 2 Discussion, Speculation, Media Topic

[Barry the Nomad]

I'm working on my review for SEGAbits at the moment, and right now it's positive.

Really, I look at these rereleases like I do blu-ray releases of old classic movies. Despite the flaws, I loved SA2 on the Dreamcast. The question is, should these rereleases attempt to correct inherent flaws of the games or should they simply give us what we remember in widescreen and HD? When E.T. was rereleased in 2002, Spielberg altered all the effects and "improved" the movie which in effect gave fans what they DIDN'T want. The E.T. blu-ray released in 2012 remedied this by only including the original movie from '82, but in crisp high def. No alterations, no additions. Just as I remembered it, but with crisper visuals.

One ultra negative review of the game: http://sega-addicts.murnaumusic.com/?p=33652

I had no idea that new features in a rerelease were so make of break. If I want "new features" I await proper sequels. If I want to experience the same game, but with upgraded visuals, I spring for the rerelease. If anything, SEGA has gone above and beyond the call of duty by adding in interviews with the devs, giving a bit of a history lesson. I like that.

I just don't see how far people expect SEGA to go with these rereleases. Did they expect treasure hunting and mech shooting stages to somehow be better than we remember them? Did they want SEGA to somehow up the quality of the gameplay? How do they do this when the game is so firmly set in place? They can only tinker so much with the game before they start to waste development money on fixing a game that was already deemed finished, and who knows that kinds of problems could arise if they alter too much of the game to the point of creating new bugs.

Sonic Adventure 1 was a rushed port, Sonic Adventure 2 is a proper port, bringing us HD visuals and widescreen support and giving us the game we all remember, warts and all. These aren't remakes, they're rereleases and they should be treated as such.

[TheOcelot]

Sonic Adventure 1 was a rushed port, Sonic Adventure 2 is a proper port, bringing us HD visuals and widescreen support and giving us the game we all remember, warts and all. These aren't remakes, they're rereleases and they should be treated as such.

Having never played SA2 on he Gamecube and Dreamcast, what I wanted (on PSN) was SA2, but in proper widescreen, which is exactly what we got. Downloading this game was money well spent if you ask me.

Edited October 18, 2012 by NightwingFox

[Emmett L. Brown]

For some inexplicable reason I feel a tiny twinge of pure rage every time the vocalist in Knuckles's levels fails to say the word "Emerald".

Em-oh-roll'd ARGH!!!

[tenchibr]

*Generations comes out*

"It's too easy to get S Rank."

*Sonic Adventure 2 comes out*

"These missions are ridiculous!"

I loved the variety of Generations, but I feel like I have accomplished more getting an A rank from Route 280 on Hard Mode. And people need to stop bitching; I already have enough of that with election season.

[Blue Blood]

Sonic Adventure 1 was a rushed port, Sonic Adventure 2 is a proper port, bringing us HD visuals and widescreen support and giving us the game we all remember, warts and all. These aren't remakes, they're rereleases and they should be treated as such.

Now this is something where I think we have differences in our expectations. I'm not sure SA2 is an especially good port. It's not bad like SA1, but it's lacking in any sorts of fixes and updates. There are many problems that people have cited with SA2 over the years and this port does nothing to fix even the most simple ones.

Volume balancing is a really big deal when it comes to cutscenes. You just can't hear what anyone is saying half the time. And on the subject of voices, we have Omochao who was lazily muted when the original files didn't match up to the new controllers. Couldn't they have rerecorded all of his lines? Then we move onto the actual gameplay where every character still has all their moves assigned to a single button. With all the extra ones available they could have remapped the buttons to make use of what's there. It would have made things a lot, lot more straight forward. The last thing is the Chao Gardens. We no longer have compatibility between SA1 and SA2, which is fine really because it would have been a lot of work for something which is ultimately just an extra. But why not put back all the Eggs and that we could only obtain before from the Dreamcast's online system/GBA? The data is already there in the game.

SA2 HD plays exactly like it did originally. It works and is worth a buy, unlike SA1. But it doesn't offer anything over the previous versions where it really, really should.

Edited October 18, 2012 by Blue Blood

[Jango]

*Generations comes out*

"It's too easy to get S Rank."

*Sonic Adventure 2 comes out*

"These missions are ridiculous!"

I loved the variety of Generations, but I feel like I have accomplished more getting an A rank from Route 280 on Hard Mode. And people need to stop bitching; I already have enough of that with election season.

But Hard Mode in Route 280 is fucking easy. The 'don't hit the walls' tho...

[Emmett L. Brown]

*Generations comes out*

"It's too easy to get S Rank."

*Sonic Adventure 2 comes out*

"These missions are ridiculous!"

I loved the variety of Generations, but I feel like I have accomplished more getting an A rank from Route 280 on Hard Mode. And people need to stop bitching; I already have enough of that with election season.

Actually, those are the same complaint:

Sonic Adventure 2 comes out:

"These rank requirements are too unbalanced!"

Generations comes out

"These rank requirements are too unbalanced!"

When White Forest will give you an A-rank just for showing up, while Route 280 demands polygon-perfect precision and latent psychic powers, then you've got some pretty darn unbalanced ranks.

I think Sonic Team got a lot better at it in Sonic Heroes. Apart from the moronic score-resets-to-zero-every-time-you-die thing, A ranks were nicely challenging but never downright unfair. And Sonic Generations, to be fair, uses a somewhat different system altogether. Getting an A rank in Sonic Generations isn't much harder than an A-rank in Sonic Unleashed - and the only difference is that the S-rank is a no-death-run reward instead of a higher point requirement.

Anyway, we're in a Sonic forum. Everyone will bitch about everything forever, whether it be for valid reasons or completely inane ones.

[Semi-colon e]

Actually I found most of Heroes's A ranks to be pretty easy, just kill a lot of stuff without breaking the flow too much and don't die. Aside from a few bosses which rely on time alone, perhaps.

Speaking of SA2 ranks, Crazy Gadget mostly requires you to not die to get the A rank, while Metal Harbour is insanely tough. Generations is just don't die and you'll get it aside from the missions such as that fucking ridiculous clock tower balloon one in Classic Rooftop Run which has one of the most insane requirements ever.

[Emmett L. Brown]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap_shoes

I got curious. Never knew that "soaping" was a real thing, or even that it had any popularity whatsoever. I knew the Soap Shoes were a real thing, but I kinda just assumed that the brand failed immediatelly.

[TheOcelot]

Something I find rather interesting in SA2, is the placement of item boxes, such as rings, shields (green and magnetic blue) and extra lives.

Please correct me if my facts are wrong:

In the normal Sonic/Shadow and Tails/Eggman levels, If you have a certain amount of rings (over 50 perhaps), when you go through a checkpoint, you might get an additional 5 or 10 rings. If your ring total is over 100, then when you go through that checkpoint, you get a green shield. If it's higher still, you get the magnetic (ring attracting) blue shield. I just find that a really interesting idea. It, in a sense, rewards the player for doing well for collecting rings and not getting hit, and effectively gives extra protection (the shields) nearer the end of the level. This is really helpful for A ranks attempts. It's just a really clever way of using the item boxes. Got to give Sonic Team credit for coming up with that idea.

The same could be said for the Rouge/Knuckles treasure hunting levels. You can dig into walls/surfaces, and you could again find shields, rings and extra lives. I don't know if the placement of these item boxes is random or fixed. Even so, it's very hard to remember where the boxes are. Stil, it's a great idea, and stops the player getting totally frustrated. "No emerald, damn! Oh wait, a shield, cool!"

I just think that the item boxes were used extremely well in SA2.

Edited October 18, 2012 by NightwingFox

[Coral]

The same could be said for the Rouge/Knuckles treasure hunting levels. You can dig into walls/surfaces, and you could again find shields, rings and extra lives. I don't know if the placement of these item boxes is random or fixed. Even so, it's very hard to remember where the boxes are. Stil, it's a great idea, and stops the player getting totally frustrated. "No emerald, damn! Oh wait, a shield, cool!"

I just think that the item boxes were used extremely well in SA2.

I think their placement is random. Usually if I get desperate in the 100 ring missions for Knux or Rouge, I'd first resort to randomly digging in the ground. Usually don't find anything. :/ There are some places that are set in stone I think. Like in the pyramid levels the scorpion picture box things usually have either an emerald shard or an item. Guess it depends.

[Woun]

I rip all new icons:

[Emmett L. Brown]

I like all those new icons except for Sonic's. That his mouth is facing away makes his head look really tiny.

[Woun]

Some time later. I found more icons in 84 textures. Phew.

[Emmett L. Brown]

It's funny noticing stuff about this game I never saw the first time around. For example, I never noticed back in the old days how really mutilated the Biolizard is in Finalhazard. One of its front legs has been torn off entirely, and it's got gaping yellow wounds on its back and neck.

Sure, it's supposed to be sorta immortal since it's the prototype Ultimate Lifeform, but Finalhazard is practically the zombie Biolizard.

[SilJeff]

It's funny noticing stuff about this game I never saw the first time around. For example, I never noticed back in the old days how really mutilated the Biolizard is in Finalhazard. One of its front legs has been torn off entirely, and it's got gaping yellow wounds on its back and neck.

Sure, it's supposed to be sorta immortal since it's the prototype Ultimate Lifeform, but Finalhazard is practically the zombie Biolizard.

I'll need to look at this. I've always hated Final Hazard, so I've always been more concerned with getting done with the fight ASAP and never paid attention to details.

[Lady Soniko]

Was surprised at myself with how fast i dealt with Final Hazard when i got to him, i remember him being much harder as a kid...

[Jango]

Was surprised at myself with how fast i dealt with Final Hazard when i got to him, i remember him being much harder as a kid...

Wait, are you sure you're not confusing with Biolizard? But to be fair, this one is still pretty hard 'till today.

[Lady Soniko]

No, Final Hazard where he attaches himself to the ARK and sends it hurtling towards Earth? i took him out super fast when i normally struggle to avoid the lasers and meat balls!

[Andrew Albacia]

I haven't actually sat down and played the release for any length of time yet... just the first few Hero levels and Chao throwing. Too much of a backlog. :/

I think the fear of the all A's again is making me reluctant.

Edited October 20, 2012 by Andrew Albacia

[Jango]

No, Final Hazard where he attaches himself to the ARK and sends it hurtling towards Earth? i took him out super fast when i normally struggle to avoid the lasers and meat balls!

Oh, ok. I thought you were actually talking about the Biolizard, since this one was/is the hard guy hehe It somehow worked as a warming to me back in the day, I remember beating Final Hazard in my first try, but lost about 20 or more lifes on Biolizard :/

Edited October 20, 2012 by Jango

[TheOcelot]

I have now A ranked all of Rogue and Knuckles stages. No more Mad Space and Meteor Herd, bliss. I am a few shy of 90 A ranks.

That Green Hill level better be worth it....

Currently having trouble with Sky Rail Mission 4 (time trial-2 minutes). Getting a big enough score is proving quite tricky.

[Lady Soniko]

I have now A ranked all of Rogue and Knuckles stages. No more Mad Space and Meteor Herd, bliss. I am a few shy of 90 A ranks.

That Green Hill level better be worth it....

Currently having trouble with Sky Rail Mission 4 (time trial-2 minutes). Getting a big enough score is proving quite tricky.

Near the start, where you take the first rocket, jump past it to the land with the chao box, jump past the chao box and homing attack the enemies that appear, then use the light speed attack on the line of enemies to get a nice bonus, also make sure to stunt jump off as many rails as you can (the starting rail, the long grinding rail that takes you to the skulls breathing fire, and the very end rail before the goal ring) you should be fine.

[Chooch]

That Green Hill level better be worth it....

It's not, really.

[TheOcelot]

also make sure to stunt jump off as many rails as you can (the starting rail, the long grinding rail that takes you to the skulls breathing fire, and the very end rail before the goal ring) you should be fine.

I am glad you brought that up. How do you stunt jump off the rail?