Sonic Adventure 2 is a game defined by dichotomy. It’s the game that split the fanbase in two. It tells a story of a Hero Side versus a Dark Side.
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SONIC ADVENTURE 2: The Icon Reborn | GEEK CRITIQUE
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Great vid! But as a music nerd, I gotta chime in on the soundtrack comparison between SA1 and SA2~
I will certainly agree that SA2 doesn't have the scope and variety as SA1's OST, but I think the reasoning further echoes a point you made earlier in the video, in regards to SA2 being a more mature experience.
SA1 was certainly experimental, bringing Sonic into true 3D for the first time. But as Sega and Sonic Team tried to reimagine the critical elements of 2D Sonic in 3D, along with it came the music. Yes, SA1 has a lot of banging rock tracks, but most of the music (save for Character Theme Songs) were well rooted in composition styled familiar to 2D Sonic games. You could swap out the instruments for Yamaha YM2612 synths and most of those songs would still be bangin', and fit just perfectly into a 2D Sonic game!
But as SA2 stepped up their game, aiming for a more modern, more grounded-in-the-real-world vibe, the OST got an upgrade as well. It wasn't enough to simply have a character theme- each character had that same theme's motif, instrumentation, general feel- carried over into each of their levels as well. It gave many of the levels a cinematic vibe and rooted the experience more as being "realistic."
While many SA fans would argue that SA2's soundtrack lacked a lot of the vibrance and variety that the first game's OST had, I would argue that there is a level of creative brilliance in successfully writing theme songs for each character, with distinct style and motifs, and carrying all of those same elements along for the ride with the character into each of their levels. It certainly adds an extra level of character and cinematic flair to a game that aims to suspend the disbelief of anthropomorphic animals living alongside humans in a "realistic" world. As a game aims to take itself more seriously, so to does it's soundtrack.
SA certainly does a wonderful job of setting atmosphere and ambience, expressing the mood of the levels and being their voice- much liek the classic 2D Sonic games. But SA2's score aims not to speak for the set-piece, but for the character's mood and personality itself, in that moment in time. It sets the tone for what the character stands for, how they feel in that moment, and what they're trying to accomplish. And I think both soundtracks accomplish what they were intended to evoke in that regard.
tl;dr – SA2's OST sacrifices variety and melodic novelty in favor of playing to a character's specific traits in music form, and that's rather brilliant for a game of its time period.
But that's not really anything that we didn't already know or speak of anyways. Just felt the need to reiterate. 🙂
Can ya link that sa1 zone name test?? So I can BLOW YOU OUTTA THE WATER!!!!
I am heavily biased. This was one of my first games ever, and it remains to this day one of my favorite games of all time. But there's a reason I love it so much. This video points out something that I've been trying to tell people forever: All the characters (Besides the mech characters a bit) control pretty well. Like obviously there have been some aging issues, but overall it's not really the controls fault for why the treasure hunting stages and mech stages are so less fun than the speed stages. It's mostly the level design. I mean, for some people it might be because they're too different but sa1 showed that those can work pretty well. The majority of the speed stages are amazing and designed in a way that encouraged replay ability. The other characters, not so much. Like don't get me wrong, cosmic wall is one of my favorite stages in the game. It shows how mech stages should've been designed. But them more I think about it and the more I replay the game, the more I realize how people can hate those stages. Just most of them aren't designed well. Of course the nerfed radar for the treasure hunters defiantly hurt it, but yeah. I think the perfect sonic game would be the level design of sa1 or heroes, the controls of sa2 with tails controlling like he did from sa1 (While fixing some aging issues,) and some moves from the boost games (Such as the drift, and the boost being a reward for maintaining high speed instead of being able to hold it down constantly when the levels allow it.)
cybershell came back!
4:36 i jus realized the comic sans lol
Nintendo's Mario 35th anniversary = Super Mario 3D all-stars
Sega's Sonic the hedgehog 30th anniversary = Sonic Adventure 1 + 2 HD remake
or
Sonic Adventure 3
What do you guys think?
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Easily the most divisive Sonic game to this day
I'm 100% convinced sonic fans only appreciate sonic games in retrospect.
After years go by, after new games come out and as they get older. They realize the games they hated…weren't actually that bad.
Damn this game hit me as a kid how shadow died even now
You sound like the hiveleader
I actually really enjoyed Sonic Adventure 2, I guess I'm on the love it side, better for me and sucks for the ones that didn't enjoy it.
Jesus…..imagine liking the series of games that have made your "favorite" character a joke of the gaming industry.
Okay, to be fair, Sonic fans did that on their own, but still.😂
I gotta question if you were paying attention to the story, because it's explained that Rouge's ulterior motive for teaming up with Eggman was that she was assigned by the President to look into Project Shadow, and she was driving a car across a highway in the sky to find Tails, who had a Chaos Emerald that he got as a reward for saving Station Square in SA1 (the highway being in the sky when it transitions to the region Pumpkin Hill and Sky Rail take place is probably just because they were too lazy to make new assets for the driving section). As for why he stayed in the room with the Eclipse Cannon in it for so long while Knuckles was going through Meteor Herd, he wasn't; the setting card shows that Meteor Herd and Knuckles' fight with Rouge take place before Sonic went to the cannon room, they just put it in between the scene preceding Crazy Gadget and the stage itself for some reason; it's also implied that Eggman might have killed Amy if Sonic put the Fake Emerald in the Cannon, but it is kind of easy to miss. Speaking of that scene, I don't see what's wrong with it not showing how he got there; you could easily fill in the blanks yourself, and in my opinion showing it would've broke the flow a bit; same thing with Knuckles and Amy seeing Rouge and Eggman going into the pyramid, although you could at least argue show, don't tell in that case, even if it would require a major retooling of the script to work as well as it does in the final game. As for what caused Shadow to die but not Sonic, it's implied that he simply ran out of chaos energy and/or may have been badly damaged by the energy due to lack of experience and as a result, misuse, although the latter point was lost in translation, as the the line that established this, which in Japanese is Sonic stating that the Super Form can damage its user, was translated to English as "Shadow! Continuous use of your super form will cause you to disappear! Get back to the Colony!", and it's possible to not hear the line at all since it only triggers in a certain context that I personally have never had happen.
Sega's problem is trying to please their audience without taking the adequate time to actually make what they add really good. It's called lazy game design in hopes that it will please…sorry sega (take notes from Nintendo)
This is, by far, my LEAST FAVORITE SA2 REVIEW!!! For a lot of reasons. Like saying that the mechs or treasure hunting are "the worst parts of the game", or the "plotholes" that people don't understand, or that the game is "less than the sum of its parts"(seriously I hate it when you bring up that f*cking point. It makes me pissed off.). And personally i prefer Ruby Of Blue's sa1 and 2 reviews. But I still am subbed. This and the heroes review aren't enough to make me hate hate you. Also no. Removing the radar nerf wouldn't help you much. You just need to get good.( i know that sounds superfluous but it's true. You need to be skilled at the game to get the A rank.)
Actually, Knuckles did see Eggman go to the pyramid in the first cutscene he was in, but who the hell cares?
Edit: Ok, I rewatched the scene, and Eggman didn’t actually enter the pyramid, but he was heading in the general direction of it, so it still counts.
Shadow died because unlike Sonic, he wasn't used to the power of being super, and ended up overusing his power. Gameplay and Story are equally important for a real Sonic Veteran. As far as the other gameplay styles besides the speed stages…learn to play properly and actually analyze the pros and cons.
Sonic Adventure 2 Battle rates 6.9 out of 10.
Nice.
Of course, a bunch of stupid nintendrones like ProJared hate this game for shit “reasons”
I didn’t play any Sonic games when I was a kid. Now I’m almost 20 and just now getting into Sonic. I love Sonic Adventure 2 even though I don’t have the nostalgia factor.
Bruh this shits already a year old? Wtf I remember getting the notification for this like a week ago!!! I still love this game and video
In the final battle against the Biolizard, Sonic says Shadow’s not used to the super form. That’s why he “dies” and Sonic lives since he had far more experience with the super form at that point (S2, S3, SA1)
I love this game I played this game still!
I disagree with just about everything you said but still, great video!
Idk I preferred SA2 level design way more than the first SA2 is just one of those sonic games we will never get again