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Sonic Adventure 2

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Sonic Adventure 2
System(s): Sega Dreamcast
Publisher: Sega
Developer:
Genre: 3D Platform

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Sonic Adventure 2 is the second of the Sonic Adventure series games made for the Sega Dreamcast. The worldwide release date of June 23, 2001 signals the Sonic series' 10th anniversary.

This game features two new characters to the mix, Rouge the Bat and Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic's counterpart, who join the evil Doctor Robotnik (Eggman) to rule the world. This game features the ability to play through both sides of the story, Hero, with Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, or Dark, with Robotnik, Rouge, and Shadow.

Each side of the story allows you to completely understand what happens in the story, with just a few changes here and there, depending upon which side you choose. Robotnik is back again, and this time, he is trying to figure out what his great grandfather's, Professor Gerald Robotnik, legacy was before he mysteriously died.

When he opens a pod, he awakens Shadow, and together they go off to rule the world by collecting the Chaos Emeralds to power the Eclipse Cannon, a cannon that can destroy entire planets. Along the way, Rouge joins up to help them take over the world.

However, due to some twist of fate, G.U.N., a police organization, arrest Sonic. Sonic escapes, and, with the help of Tails, Knuckles, and Amy Rose, they go off to prove his innocence.

Development

The original plan for Sonic Adventure 2 was very different from how the finalized game ended up. It is thought that originally the game would feature only Sonic, Knuckles and Eggman as playable characters, but, after fan outcry of key characters (specifically Tails) not being playable, Tails, Rouge and Shadow were added to the roster of playable characters (However, early reports of the game do mention Rouge [then rumored to be called "Nails The Bat"] and Shadow [originally referred to as "Dark Sonic"] as always being part of the game's plot, regardless of their status as playable characters).

Additionally, the game was to feature branching storyline pathways: at key points of the game, the character you were playing as would be presented with a choice on how to solve a situation. Depending on your answer, it would change what levels your character visited. This concept was removed midway through development, but eventually ended up being implemented in 2005's Shadow the Hedgehog. One of the examples described for Sonic Adventure 2's usage of this system was that Sonic was trapped in a submarine; he had two options: try to pilot the submarine to safety, or open the hatch and try to fight his way to the surface (despite not knowing how to swim). No submarine scenario whatsoever was in the final version of Sonic Adventure 2 nor in Shadow the Hedgehog.

This was the first game the San Francisco based Sonic Team USA had developed, and many stages in the game were inspired by the developer's new California based location; the steep hills of City Escape are meant to represent San Francisco, while the huge bridge in Radical Highway and Mission Street are meant to represent the Golden Gate Bridge and surrounding area. (Mission Street is a famous street in the city) Route 101 and Route 280 were named after actual highways in the San Francisco Bay Area. However, the backdrop of both Mission Street and Radical Highway appears to be a New York City skyline, as the Empire State Building is plainly visible.

SA2: The Trial

The original demo for Sonic Adventure 2 packaged with Phantasy Star Online differs in several ways from the final version; most notable was the fact that Sonic was still wearing his original trademark shoes. It wasn't until a few months before the retail release of Sonic Adventure 2 that Sonic Team revealed a merchandising deal with Soap Shoes. Another somewhat major change in the demo was a different script for the opening Helicopter Escape sequence. Most interesting is the fact that, in the original demo, one of the pilots actually swore; as Sonic made his escape, one of the pilots exclaimed "What the hell?" - by the time the finished game was released, this line was changed to "What in the world?". Other changes in the demo include a different logo, different road-side billboards, different sound effects, looser controls and physics, and an instrumental version of the song, Escape from the City..

Shadow the Hedgehog

Sonic Team went to great lengths to ensure the name and appearance of the character Shadow the Hedgehog remained as secret as possible. Eventually these details were leaked accidentally by toy company ReSaurus when they announced they would be producing Sonic Adventure 2 action figures. (These figures were never actually produced, as ReSaurus went out of business. However, different Sonic Adventure 2 action figures were eventually produced by Joyride Studios.) Based on texture/model file names on the Sonic Adventure 2 disc, Shadow the Hedgehog's original name was to be "Terios". In Japanese, "Teriosu" translates to several meanings - most notably, "Reflection" and "To Shine Brilliantly".

Manuals and Backstory

Levels

Hero

Dark

Final

Extra

Interesting Information

  • Big the Cat cameos in a secret location in every single stage in the game, as well as many boss fights, and even certain cutscenes. However, for some reason, most of the cameos were removed in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle.
  • Whereas in Sonic Adventure, Eggman was a derogatory nickname Sonic used to insult Robotnik, Sonic Adventure 2 establishes "Dr. Eggman" as Robotnik's new official name. However, he still uses "Robotnik" on the screen when he blows up half of the moon and as his family's last name (As evident in Professor Gerald Robotnik and Maria Robotnik).
  • Incredible attention to detail was paid to certain textures. In most games and animation, when a newspaper clipping or otherwise is shown, generally, because the viewer cannot see what the paper says, mostly gibberish is written. In Sonic Adventure 2, objects such as the Newspaper clipping featuring Tails receiving the Chaos Emerald and the printout on the Biolizard Rouge has feature actual, readable text pertaining to their related subjects; although it is very difficult to read in-game, using texture editing tools, the contents of these papers finally became readable. The printout for Biolizard details its lifecycle before the incident at ARK (making some sort of reference to the date of January 27th), and the newspaper describes how Tails received a Chaos Emerald after saving Station Square from the missile Dr. Eggman launched in the original Sonic Adventure.
  • By further digging around in the disc's contents, cut dialogue has been discovered in Sonic Adventure 2; the first pieces of cut dialogue are between the President and his Secretary - the President believes the planet is doomed, and that Sonic and Shadow won't be able to stop the Space Colony ARK in time, but his Secretary urges him not to give up believing in Heroes. This scene was restored in the Sonic X anime adaptation of Sonic Adventure 2, and is referenced in 2005's Shadow the Hedgehog. The second piece of cut dialogue is during the ending credits; as Tails and Eggman discuss Professor Gerald, Eggman begins to walk away to leave - He declares he will still conquer the world, and from there he and Tails make a pact, that the next time they meet, neither of them will hold back.
  • The game suffers from poor translation. For example, in The Last Story, When Shadow declares "Is that what Chaos Control is?", the line, translated correctly, should have read "Was that Chaos Control?" (Or, instead, simply "..Chaos Control?") Other such translation oddities include English speaking characters shouting Japanese exclamations ("Teria!", "Yosh-i!", etc; particularly in Eggman's voice).
  • One of the posters in City Escape reads, "SA2 is habit forming/Don't turn off your DC/Anti-XXXX XX2 Association". XXXX XX2 most likely represents, "Sony PS2". (In the Gamecube version, the posters simply read "DON'T TURN OFF", but with a cube logo above it.) And some of the benches say "EMERALD NOTWORK" instead of "Emerald network."
  • A comic adaptation tie-in (Sonic #98) has been published by Archie comics.
  • In addition to the standard release of the game, an exclusive 10th Anniversary Birthday Pack was released. It included many extras, such as a limited edition coin (stamped with Sonic's face), a leather bound case, a 10th Anniversary History Booklet, and a special soundtrack CD, containing music from many of Sonic's more notable videogame appearances over the last 10 years.
  • The song for when Sonic faces Shadow at the end is a remix of "Event: Strain" from Sonic Adventure. Also the song for "Cannon's Core 4" is a remix of "Lost World: DANGER! Chased By Rock".
  • All signs doting a chao with dazed, swirly eyes display the text "Drive Safety!" The text should read "Drive Safely!"
  • Originally, Shadow's blur effect when he used homing attack and spindash was meant to be black, but due to when in spin dash, it was impossible to actually see him, and thus, makes it very hard to move around, Sega changed it to the colour of the thrust from his air shoes. Another case of this was in the Super form battle at the end of the game, Sonic originally had a dark gold energy field and Shadow had a Red energy field, but the reason for the change is unknown.
  • In Sonic Adventure, there was an advertisement for a movie called "Chao in Space". In the City Escape level, there are some advertisements for the sequel "Chao in Space 2".
  • Some Omochao were added to the GameCube port near the goal rings of some levels. Touching a Goal Ring while holding an Omochao caused it to say something related to the level it is in. For example, touching the Goal Ring of City Escape holding an Omochao caused it to say "Phew, that big truck scared me." Touching the Goal Ring in White Jungle causes Omochao to say "Wow, this fog reminds me of San Francisco." It can be assumed that this can only be done in Sonic and Shadow's stages, as Knuckles and Rouge's stages lack Goal Rings, and Tails and Dr. Eggman are unable to hold an Omochao.
  • When starting the trio in Dark story, Rouge shows the a blue emerald but never actually gives it to them.
  • there are several references to an other Sonic Team game, NiGHTS into Dreams. in City Escape there are at leats 3 posters advertising a NiGHTS themed hotel. in Radical Highway, the same hotel appears towards the end of the level (there is a different NiGHTS billboard in the trial version)
  • Unlike in Sonic Adventure, shared cutscenes have the same dialogue, and are introduced with a screen that types out the Time and Location of the cutscene, presenting the game's events to be recorded in a documentary style.
  • Information has been given that the game was originally intended to have branching story paths that are determined by the actions of the player in whatever level. One such idea included Sonic ending up on a submarine which begins to sink, and presents the player with two options: either to pilot the sub to safety, or to bust out and swim to shore (which in itself is strange, as Sonic has been shown to be incapable of swiming in every water-themed level in the classic Sonic Games, and in 3D Sonic Games, falling into the water means loss of life instantly). This concept was later used as the main element in Shadow The Hedghog.

Production Credits

Producer: Yuji Naka
Director: Takashi Iizuka
Art Director: Kazuyuki Hoshino
Main Programmer: Tetsu Katano
Sound Director: Jun Senoue
Game Designers: Takashi Iizuka, Eitaro Toyoda
Field Art Director: Hiroshi Nishiyama
Field Artists: Nobuhiko Honda, Daizo Kinoshita, Takahiro Kudo, Yoshitaka Miura
Programmers: Tomoyuki Naito, Makiko Nishimura, Kouji Ogino, Takeshi Sakakibara
Assistant Director: Keith Palmer
Scenario Writer: Shiro Maekawa
Lead Event Artist: Michikazu Tamamura
Event Scene Artists: Mika Okada, Atsushi Saito, Nanako Yarimizu, Makoto Yonezu
Lead Chao Programmer: Yoshihisa Hashimoto
Chao Programmer: Takaaki Saito
Lead Chao Artist: Sachiko Kawamura
Chao Artist: Kazuko Ito, Makoto Yonezu
Music & Lyrics: Fumie Kumatani, Tomoya Ohtani, Jun Senoue, Kenichi Tokoi
Sound Effects: Takashi Endoh, Masaru Setsumaru
Player Character Designers: Kazuyuki Hoshino, Yuji Uekawa
Player Character Programmer: Tetsu Katano
Field Designers: Takashi Iizuka, Eitaro Toyoda
Enemy Character Designers: Nobuhiko Honda, Kazuyuki Hoshino
Story Event Designer: Shiro Maekawa
Enemy Game Designers: Takashi Iizuka, Eitaro Toyoda
CG Movie Producer: Keith Palmer
CG Movie Director: Kazuyuki Hoshino
CG Movie Coordinator: Robert White
CG Movie Production: SUPER 78, CA, USA
Sound Design By: Wave Master Inc.
Recording Stuido: Wave Master Studio
MPEG Sofdec Encode (CRI): Ryo Goubara, Kengo Mikoshiba, Masao Oshimi, Katsumi Yabuno
Executive Sound Coordinator: Yukifumi Makino
Lyrics: Johnny Gioeli, Ted Poley, Paul Shortino
Sound Effects Programmer: Makiko Nishimura
Music Produced by: Atsushi Kosugi, Jun Senoue, Heigo Tani, Takayoshi Umeno
Recording Engineers: Hirokazu Akashi, Masahiro Fukuhara, Roy Hendrickson, Satoru Izaki, Chifumi Karasawa, Yoshitada Miya, Kenji Miyamoto, The Riddle, Kirk Yano
Recording Coordination: Masakazu Hiroishi, Atsushi Kosugi, Moet Nishio, Makoto Suzuki, Kiyoshi Yoshida Mastering Engineer: Isao Kikuchi
Singers: 100P, Everett Bradley, Todd Cooper, Tabitha Fair, Johnny Gioeli, Tony Harnell, Ted Poley, Marlon Saunders, Paul Shortino, Kaz Silver
Lyrics Translation: Shinobu Shindo
Motion Capture Supervisor: Matt Karnes
Japanese Character Voices: Kinryu Arimoto, Mami Horikoshi, Jun'ichi Kanemaru, Nobutoshi Kanna, Taeko Kawata, Etsuko Kozakura, Atsuki Murata, Koji Yusa, Rumi Ochiai, Tohru Okawa, Chikao Otsuka, Tomoko Sasaki, Yuri Shiratori
Voice Recording Producer: Hiroyuki Inage
Recording Coordinator: Akinori Nishiyama, Keith Palmer
English Character Voices: Moriah Angeline, Marc Biagi, Conner Bringas, Deem Bristow, Steve Broadie, Jenny Douillard, Scott Dreier, Ryan Drummond, Shelly Fox, David Humphrey, Lani Minella, Sue Wakefield
Voice Recording Director: Eriko Kimura, Lani Minella
Postrecording Editors: Rick Bowman
Product Support: Akinori Nishiyama, Yuji Uekawa, Masanobu Yamamoto
Server Program Support: Akio Setsumasa
Executive Management (Sega): Tetsu Kayama, Hideki Sato
Promotion Management (Sega: Masanao Maeda, Seijiro Sannabe, Yasushi Yamashita
Marketing (Sega): Takayoshi Ohuchi, Naoko Ooka
Marketing Research (Sega): Ayako Hino, Tsuyoshi Sawada
SOA Executive Management: Peter Moore
SOA Executive Coordinator: Jin Shimazaki, Shinobu Toyoda
SOA Product Manager: Robert Alvarez
SOA Public Relations: Gwen Marker
SOA PC Support: Greg Drumheller
SOE Associate Director of PD: Kats Sato
SOE Localization Producer: Kuniyo Matsumoto
SOE Test Manager: Jason Cumberbatch
SOE Lead Tester: Mathew Brooks
SOE Translators: Jens Geffert, Enrique Fajardo Gonzalez, Caroline Ruiz
SOE Product Manager: Mathew Quaeck
SOE PR Manager: Stuart Turner
SOE Marketing Executive: Amy Thom
SOE Marketing: Esther Barral, Laurent Boby, Alan Jones, Tina Sakowsky
Executive Producer: Isao Okawa
Marketing Product Manager: Robert Alvarez
Associate Product Manager: Cord Smith
Director of Marketing: John Golden
Creative Services: Arianne Pitts, Angela Santos, Robert Schonfisch
Public Relations: Teri Higgins, Gwen Marker
SOA Localization Producer: Osamu Shibamiya
SOA Lead Tester: Steve Peck
SOA Assistant Leads: Brian Ivanhoe, Shaheed Khan, Ronald Rodriguez
SOA Translators: Kyoko Drumheller, Klayton Vorlick
SOJ Manual Production Text & DTP: Makoto Nishino
SOJ Text Advisor: Hiroki Osawa
SOJ Designer: Takashi Nishimura
SOJ Supervisor: Yoshihiro Sakuta
Special Thanks: Yukio Aoyama, Charles Bellfield, Sandra Castagnola, Joe Culley, Kelley Electa, Chris Gilbert, Takahiro Hamano, Kathleen Joyce, Takafumi Kaya, Scott Lambert, Keiko Lull, Chie Maekawa, Yasuko Maruyama, Shinya Matsunami, Peter Moore, Peter Nguyen, Jin Shimazaki, Sawako Sogabe, Gregory A. Thomas, Jane Thompson

Resources

Box Art

  • US cover

  • EU cover

  • JP cover

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