Mario: Let's-a go! When I think of Sonic in general, I think of two very special games. Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2. And since I've already done a video on the first game, I think it's time to round up the series with a video of Sonic Adventure 2. And I think you all really wanted it too. While some may consider Sonic Adventure 2 inferior to its older brother, or the other way around, I disagree. Both 1 and 2 were incredible games at the time, and are still very good today. And sure, the camera's a bit wonky and the graphics aren't mind-blowing anymore, but back in my day, that's all we had. And we liked it, too. We didn't have multimillion-dollar video games that resemble movies more than actual gameplay. No no no no. We had REAL gameplay. Kids today don't know what they miss. Oh, ahem… …sorry. I don't know what came over. So in order to keep myself from starting a discussion on Sonic Boom… I'm going to talk about the beta of Sonic Adventure 2. While Sonic Adventure 1 was developed solely by Sonic Team, its sequel was developed by the now defunct Sonic Team USA. who was in charge of localizing the original game. Development of Sonic Adventure 2 actually began shortly after this localization was complete. As anyone who played the original can tell you, Sonic Adventure 2 was developed to be a more action-oriented adventure, in contrast to the original's slower-paced gameplay. One of Sonic Team USA's goals while developing the game was to keep it running at 60 frames per second, which affected how levels were designed. The team's main goal, however, was to take Sonic Adventure's strongest points and strengthen them, while in term removing its weaknesses. The item of focus was the story. To expand it, the team chose to add some new characters to the Sonic franchise. One of these was a dark hedgehog, designed to be Sonic's opposite. In other words, it's Shadow. Ideas were torn around the table on how the character should be designed. At one point, they considered having him missing an eye. But it was eventually decided that this new character should be more akin to Sonic, at least in appearance. The original name for this character was Terios, meaning reflection and to shine brightly in Japanese. In the end, though, a simpler name was chosen, one that perfectly suited the character. That name was Shadow the Hedgehog. The absolute coolest character ever created… Okay, maybe I'm a little biased, but he's still really awesome. And then, there's other less cool characters that were added to Sonic Adventure 2, like Rouge the Bat, who was originally called Nails, but… Shadow... Oooh… Getting those chills. One idea that was removed from the game during development was the ability to change the story based on your choices. In one magazine article, the team gave an example of this: say Sonic is on a submarine and it starts to sink, the player will get two choices: 1) they could escape the sinking ship or 2) they can bring it safely to shore. The choice you make will then alter the game's story. Now it's not guaranteed that the scenario would've appeared in the final game, but it is an interesting idea that was dropped during development. In some of his earliest interviews, Yuji Naka was asked several times if Tails would be included in the final game. And every time, the answer was different, ranging from "Wait and see" to "No". Many fans were worried about the inclusion of Tails. Rightly so, Tails is awesome. He was always my favorite character. It's possible that Tails wasn't planned to be playable in Sonic Adventure 2, but after the outcry of fans, he might have been added anyway, which would explain why he's in a mech shooting things instead of flying through the air without a care in the world. With the release of Phantasy Star Online in Japan on November (actually December) 21st(, 2000), SEGA included with the game a demo of City Escape on a disc labeled "Sonic Adventure 2: The Trial". The demo was released in pretty much every region and can be picked up for around 10 bucks. Among the many cosmetic differences in The Trial, there are actually quite a few major differences too. First off, the title screen uses an early logo that changed dramatically when compared to the final version. Next, the dialog being exchanged to the start of the level differs a bit from the final game too. So take a look, at this side-by-side comparison. The incredible song "Escape from the City", my personal favorite, plays in this trial level, but is actually an instrumental version of the final song. Take a listen. Some smaller changes in the trial include different billboards, "looser" controls and physics and changed sound effects. The biggest change however were Sonic's shoes. A few months before Sonic Adventure 2 was released, Sonic Team signed a deal to have Sonic wear Soap shoes, which are actually real-life shoes designed to grind on rails. How freaking cool is that! Taking advantage of the fact that this new game allowed Sonic to grind on rails, Sonic's foot coverings were changed from his original kicks to a pair of Soap shoes. Sonic Adventure 2: The Trial was actually released before the deal was signed, so Sonic is wearing his classic shoes in the demo. And since Sonic can still grind on rails, it's obvious that the Soap shoes were an afterthought. And speaking of rails, after you finish City Escape in The Trial, you're shown a short trailer teasing the game for its 2001 release. And fun fact: Shadow is only referred to as "the ultimate hedgehog" in this trailer. The video shows off some early scenes from the game, most of which never changed… except for this part here. This part shows Sonic in the level Sky Rail. However, in the final game, only Shadow is playable in this level. Roughly 3 months before the final release, a preview of Sonic Adventure 2 aptly titled "Sonic Adventure 2: The Preview" (Man, you gotta admire the creative title.) was sent to the press in order to generate publicity, or in terms that the younger generation will recognize, hype. The Preview was dumped and released to the public August 31st, 2008. And because of this, it's nearly impossible to find the download today. But after 8 days of searching, a 3-hour download and 3 days of failing to convert it to a CDI from my console, I decided to use an emulator. So I apologize for any graphical errors and bad quality sounds. So without further Mountain Dew, let's dive head first into this glorious pool of prototype goodness. The Preview starts with a warning screen informing the player that the game is still in development and that things are likely to change. Thank goodness they did. A lot. First things first, the title screen has "(PREVIEW)" added below the logo And pressing Start brings you to an entirely different game selection screen. You can choose to play some Hero stages, Dark stages and even some 2-player battle stages. Choosing either Hero or Dark presents you with the choice of 3 characters. Each character has a single accompanying stage, with the exception of Sonic who has two. You get certain bonuses when your name is in the title of the game. Let's start by taking a look at Sonic's first level, City Escape. The first thing you'll notice is that the cutscene voices are messed up. Like, really messed up. The reason for this is that the cutscene programming has not been implemented in The Preview, so random sounds will play whenever subtitles appear on the screen. Here, let me show you. Pilot: What's wrong? Come in, over? Sonic: Talk ab- I like low-budget running better flights! No food or movies? I'm- Sonic: This game of tag is boring! I'm outta here! Sonic: YEEEAAAH! Knuckles' and Rouge's super fun action stages changed a bit too. The "Tele-Info-Advisors", or as they're actually called, "hint boxes", (Thank you, commentors.) function correctly, but do not display any text. Also, both the characters' climbing sound effect sound very different in The Preview. Take a listen. Speaking of sound effects, tons of them changed in The Preview. First, the metal board sliding changed, and so did the sound effects for contacting rails, locking on lasers, swinging on vines, collecting animals and getting your end-level ranking. This sound is actually the one that plays when you get an emblem in the final game. As with the original Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2 has some prototype screenshots as well. Luckily, we've already discussed most of them, so there's only 3 left to show you. These 3 show off some of the original designs for the truck in City Escape. They all look quite different than the final version. Now let's take a look at what went unused in Sonic Adventure 2. Let's start from the bottom and work our way up. First up, did you know that you could originally play as Super Sonic and Super Shadow in Two-player Versus mode? Well, it's true! According to this unused block of text! If you clear Green Hill with Rank A, you would unlock the strongest characters in Sonic and Shadow's versus mode. In case if you can think of some other strongest characters that wouldn't be Super Sonic or Super Shadow. Check out these unused descriptions for two removed characters in versus mode. It appears that throughout the race, you would also had to collect rings to survive.
Which actually sounds pretty fun. Kind of wish they kept that! I'm also happy to report that just like his predecessor, Sonic Adventure 2 has a test level. There's no music or any way to complete it though. In fact, you can't die either. That's a bummer! This level test walking across bridges, grinding on rails, walking up slopes and more. It even has five unused mission objectives.
There as follows: Speaking of unused mission text, an action stage called Level 2 which never appeared in any release version of the game. Originally used the text "This stage is cool!" as its mission. Obviously though it wasn't cool enough to make it in the final game. Now wasn't. There are many unused graphics in the game's files, and while most of them are left over from various demos, there are quite a few that never made it at all. The first few I'd like to show you are intended as tutorial screenshots. Let's go through them one by one. For Sonic, this image may have describe how to use his homing attack. while this one likely
explained how to carry objects. For all the characters, this screen would have
explained how to use Mystic Melody. For power-ups these two images would likely
have explained how to use them, and for multiplayer this one would have taught
the player about Knuckles' special moves. and this screenshot likely showed how to
use Tails' versions These four images are of a Dreamcast controller and were intended for a lost tutorial detailing how to use the controller Many of the unused graphics in this game are various iterations of the system menu. First, here's an early version of the Sega logo. If you notice, the text is a lighter blue
than the final version Other than that though, they're pretty much identical. Next we have some early menu selections both in English and Japanese. I even went to the trouble of translating them all to English. Just for you! Here's another alternate system menu. Also these two textures would have been used for the two player versus screen Out of all of this though, the most interesting thing I came across was within these stage selections for two player versus mode. This list includes all of the final levels plus one extra.
Can you guess what it is? Time's up! It's Green Hill. Well this Action stage is indeed unlockable in the final game, it was only an action stage. Not for versus battles! So likely was originally meant to be one! Also within these menu selections, are lists of areas in Chao World. Of these the playground and library aren't found in the final game, and the Black Market though it was added into later versions was only accessible by going through a website within the game In addition to the Black Market appearing in the options there's also some images associated with it as well. This first one is actually from the website that was used in the final Dreamcast version. There are also some textures that match the objects that appear in the image. The presence of these textures could mean that the team was planning on making the Black Market seen a 3D model like what appears in the GameCube version. Now let's move on to the playground. This image found within the game's files, definitely proves that the playground was intended for your Chaos. Some textures were found within the game as well. In the PC version of Sonic Adventure 2, the actual model for the playground was discovered and rendered with the textures for your enjoyment. Lastly let's talk about the library. Based on its file name-- Cautious. It was likely intended to be in addition to the Kindergarten. Along with these models and textures, there's also some unused text that will help us the mystery of what the library was for. Here's the text! To start, let's focus on the first couple.
Chao Adventure 2 was a VMU or Virtual Memory Unit game, that would have been used to train your Chaos and have them per take in various activities on the go. The library looks like it would have been used to create stories and transfer them to and from the VMU. While it wasn't completely implemented into the VMU game. The game still is designed to contain up to 10 stories. Inside Sonic Adventure 2, the file OSAMPO2S, is actually a blank Chao Adventure 2 Program, with no Chaos or stories in it. It can be run on a VMU with no issues. but when you do so you're
only presented with a screen saying "No Chaos Available!" Little-known to most people the Dreamcast had a wide variety of Internet features. The first Sonic Adventure even had an online leaderboard and DLC. Well it turns out that in Sonic Adventure 2, it was originally planned to include an online leaderboard called The World Ranking System. or in some leftover text: The Sonic Network. After reading through a ton of unused text related to The World Ranking System, It was revealed how it would have worked. By registering for an account, a player would be able to search rankings based on country and name. And it's obvious that the system
was worked on a lot. As the text has been translated to English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish. include a width text are some unused images that would have been used for the system. Here are four images of menu text that would have been used. And here's some character portraits that would have appeared next to the ranking These flags would obviously have been used to show
what country the ranking was made. in this image is of a giant emblem, the last image is for a messaging system Likely used to exchange emails or post on a
message board. In Sonic Adventure 2, there are over 46 removed audio clips from various points in the game and sadly if I let you listen to them all, This video will be longer than a Knuckles' stage with no radar system. So I'm going to highlight some of the most interesting clips and of course you can listen to all the rest by following the link in description. Okay, let's get started!
This first clip doesn't exactly need an explanation to understand why it changed. So please, take a listen! Here's one removed clip for Knuckles, which would have been said before the King Boom Boo battle. After Eggman's-- Oh, excuse me! Dr. Robotnik's first encounter with Rouge, they would have exchanged these two pieces of dialogue. These next clips were likely removed because they would have bogged down the plot. These three clips would have been played right before the credits and they.... just warm your heart. This short conversation with Tails and Egg-- Robotnik would have been played during the end credits Omochao served as the players personal guide throughout the game Remember when we talked about all those removed Chao World features, well Omochao makes a few references to them in these unused voice clips. Take a listen! it also appears that the Chao Kindergarten would only have been available online. Omochao also has a few various removed clips as well, We don't really know where many of
these were intended to be said, so why not come up with your own conclusion and leave a comment down below. Who knows, you could win a million dollars that if I
was doing that of course which I'm not It's a nice day! It's not easy to give
you a hint! Don't play a TV game over one hour. I want to wind a spring. Made in the USA for our fans. My allowance is all gone. I have a stomachache. Don't make fun of me. Chao! Chao! Chao! I want to go outside! Oh, I'm tired! I lost my contact lenses. I'm late again. Am I annoying you? Omochao knows everything. Omochao wants to be Chao. I'm resting now. So that's the beta of Sonic Adventure 2. I have to admit at first I didn't think
there was a lot in this game that was removed. But the more I researched, the more I found. Until eventually this video became twice as long as I thought it would be. For a sequel, this is quite incredible. A lot of sequels don't have nearly as many unused objects, let alone an
interesting development story But Sonic Adventure 2
pulled through. Good job! So this has been Beta64 with the Sonic Adventure 2 beta. Thanks for watching!
