Why Sonic Adventure is STILL Excellent!

oh geez what game is this it's Sonic Adventure excellent is it good no okay Sonic Adventure does not hold up sorry but imma have to disagree [Music] heyyo people rubia blue here and this is why I think Sonic Adventure is still excellent however these days with how a lot of people talk about essay 1 you might be skeptical constantly whenever this game is brought up there will always be those who will comment that it's overrated that fans are blinded by nostalgia or that the game has an aged well I have even seen some cases of people outright misrepresenting the game he blasts off at the slightest half of the stick placing insta-kill drops that the camera careens your movement flaws I'm not saying the game doesn't have its flaws I dare you to find one game that doesn't I just don't think that any of those flaws are anywhere near problematic enough to warrant its reputation among contractures as for me needless to say I completely disagree with the negative reputation Sonic Adventure has gained over the years I truly believe Sonic Adventure to be an excellent game and worthy of the love and praise it gets from its numerous fans I believe the game is all-around great from the gameplay to the story to the characters to the music to the content I'm going to go into extreme detail with this game and give a detailed analysis and review of everything I think is notable in my opinion that the game is excellent but as I'll be reviewing the game I'll of course talk about the things that I think are actual flaws or things that I think could have been improved along the way I do hope to get the tractors to understand why people love this game or even get them to take another look at it even if it might be a lost cause but why do I care so much what these detractors say I'll go in to this point at the end of the video but long story short I think the smears on the Sonic Adventure series have negatively impact at the Sonic series making it so Sonic Team shied away from the adventure style when they don't need to so I want to try my best to push back against that because ultimately I want a 3d Sonic game that continues essay 1 and two's vision before I go on let me first recommend the Dreamcast conversion mod if you're playing the Steam version because it restores the Dreamcast lighting textures it has some bug fixes and so much more you can even play with the original Dreamcast models for the characters I personally prefer the DX models but thankfully the mod allows me to play with DX models with Dreamcast textures which is my preferred look I also recommend the Sonic Adventure retranslated mod which takes the English subtitles and makes them match the Japanese dialogue for those who use Japanese voices and I do things for both of these mods will be in the description but anyway now that I've laid that out let's get into the analysis proper and what better way to do that then the first thing every player will see when starting up the game the [ __ ] incredible opening full spoilers for the game story will follow the opening of Sonic Adventure is nothing short of incredible amazing visuals editing music and underlying effects on the player I just love how unapologetic this opening is about being epic getting you hyped up for the adventure and saying yeah we're not [ __ ] around this is sonic [ __ ] you're in for a wild ride we open with shots of a coastal city establishing it as the setting of the game and showing us that Sonic's world is very similar to our own and that humans live in it as well and live a modern life similar to ours all before boating camera shots of these people living their lives it's not long before [ __ ] goes down but get a montage of absolute chaos and destruction showing us that there are real stakes to this game with only short cuts to each character showing us that there are only a small part of this whole picture I love the striking contrast between the destruction and the appearance of the sonic characters the chaos and destruction is then interrupted with the chorus of open your heart the flagship song for the whole game showing us this game's number one priority is to get you pumped for an awesome adventure holy [ __ ] this is without a doubt one of the best video game openings ever they made openings like this back when games cared a lot about making a good first impression this ship blew my [ __ ] mind as a kid as I'm sure it did to many others Huff was like whoa this is like no Mario I've heard criticisms that this opening spoils the climax of the game and I agree it spoils it in the best way possible the first thing you see when booting up the game is Station Square being devastated and the giant water monster behind it all then when he get into the game itself you become acquainted with Station Square it becomes your home essentially you don't want anything bad to happen to your home do you then when it's revealed what will happen if chaos gets all the emeralds you come to a grave realization that you already know where this is headed it's like final destination or Halo Reach you're fully aware of the horrible thing that's coming so it motivates you to try as hard as you can to prevent it even if it may be in vain because you know perfectly well what will happen if you fail all in all this opening tells you you're in for something incredible as we get into the actual game now many people are quick to state that Sonic Adventure hasn't aged well looking at the game as a whole I disagree with this but there are a few areas where the game does show some rust the cutscenes first of all the character animations are mostly stock animations strung together and while they did their best to give the characters dynamic expressions sometimes it can backfire horribly however most of the time it's enough to convey what the cutscenes need to convey and you could certainly get used to it so the cutscenes credit they do feature some interesting cinematography the camera is always zooming panning or giving us interesting angle so it's not totally dated other areas where I'll concede the game aged poorly are the English voice acting camera and glitches now I played with Japanese voices so the English voice acting doesn't affect my experience at all anymore but I can definitely see a lot of places where the acting and direction fall short Oh No the camera isn't perfect but it's nowhere near as bad as it's made out to be one thing you have to understand is that the camera is automatic always pointing in such a way that it's obvious where you should go now you do have limited control with the triggers but sometimes it can be hard to get the camera to cooperate if you're not moving forward but you can still use it fine in most cases and if you really want to explore off the beaten path you can set the camera to manual mode in which you'll then have full control over the camera this game does have its fair share of glitches some of which can result in the player dying however they're very few and far between and once you know about them they're easy to avoid plus dying in Sonic games is a lot more forgiving than dying in other games I'm not saying that excuses the glitches but I don't see how these glitches are any more egregious than ones found in other games especially Bethesda RPGs those games are pretty much strewn together with duct tape and there's some of the most beloved games out there there are areas where the game is aged poorly but I don't think it's fair to expect the game from 1998 to have the same level of technical polish seen in games today when going back to older games you have to accept that some aspects are going to be more primitive thankfully in the case of Sonic Adventure these very small faults don't detract from the overall experience for me at least not too much I believe Sonic Adventure 2 have some of the best 3d gameplay the Sonic series has ever seen and that in some areas it's yet to be surpassed the gameplay in Sonic Adventure 1 is nothing short of incredible the controls for nearly all the characters are buttery smooth intuitive and extremely precise very easy to pick up and play I really want to stress how good the characters feel to control that's something that's integral to any game how it feels to just use to controls the way the characters move make you feel like you have freedom and room for experimentation even if you're just running down a linear path at times in fact I think essay 1 does basic movement better than any other Titan 3d platformers at the time in mario 64 if you turn in a direction that is less than about 45 degrees to your current direction the character will move in an arc to face that direction you're pressing and in Spyro the character will gradually turn in that direction this can sometimes result in falling off a small platform when trying to face a different direction in essay 1 however you immediately snap to which direction you press this makes precision platforming and turning on a dime extremely safe and easy and it's something I don't think essay 1 is given enough credit for and also I have to mention just how much midair control each character has in this game that makes platforming even better again and Mario 64 midair control is extremely limited here though jumps have a nice floatiness to them and you have a great degree of control I've heard some say that the floating miss of the jumps is a flaw but I think that's part of the white platforming in this game feels so good and it's only floaty if you hold down the jump button anyway each characters move set is very simple yet it allows for death and experimentation complemented by the level design the game translated the gameplay in physics from the 2d games into 3d very nicely the level design isn't quite as layered and complex as in the classics but I think how open they are and the added dimension more than makes up for that in some areas I'd say the gameplay is even improved upon from the 2d games for one thing the fact that we're in 3d now inherently lends itself to working better with speed based platforming one of the challenges the classics face themselves with was finding the balance between cathartic speed and challenge in the adventure games obstacles you can't see coming while you're running are now mostly non-existent you can have a greater grasp of your environment and you have more room to maneuver one thing that gets us mixed reception though is the automated section sprinkled throughout such as loops and the famous will chase an amble to coast I can understand people not wanting scripted sections in these levels but the important thing is that they maintain the flow and still feel as if they're involving the player I mean the spectacle aspect of it can't be understated that [ __ ] whale is out for blood man and at least at the end of them you're flung into the air and given an aerial view of the environment so they're put to good use a short transitional segments between major areas Sonic Adventure features six playable characters that all have their own actives and movesets I really enjoyed playing as most of them and seeing things from their perspectives not only does this add some gameplay variety but thanks to the new generation of consoles at the time they were able to be fleshed out more than ever with their own stories and explicitly shown personalities I can understand people preferring to have other characters play nearly the same as Sonic with the same objective or reaching the end of the stage but I really like that the other characters had different styles and objectives to set them apart well except for one but we'll get to that Sonic Team up to now has a track record of making enthusiastic news of new hardware and tech Sonic Adventure continues this by taking advantage of the Dreamcast power to try all different styles of gameplay and to give each character their own identifying style I can't help but respect Sonic Adventure for its ambition to show what can happen when you have new toys to play with I see a lot of people say this is padding the game out and that's true to an extent but that's what a bunch of 3d games did back then mario 64 in Sunshine's mission structure ocarina of time raising the whole map once as a child and once as an adult's banjo kazooie and spyro having collectathon based gameplay in Silent Hill reusing level geometry only Knight Merrifield honestly the biggest problem I have with si 1 is that the other characters have a woefully low amount of actual levels Sonic has ten levels with all the other characters having five or less and while it was a good approach to have Sonic have the most levels I do wish there were more levels for the other characters that really flesh them out more because this is the best some of them have ever played the six characters share a lot of levels and as such they needed to be built to accommodate the ones who will be playing in them I've seen some say this is a flaw in the game design since some areas are more optimised for one character over another but I think this actually works beautifully possibly better than intended for example speed highway and lost world where sonic visits the same locations knuckles does I actually think are the best parts of those levels because of how open intricate and vertical they are I'd love to experiment and find interesting ways to maneuver these environments and that's something that permeates sonic adventures level design its size and intricacy I think I say one has the best level design out of any other 3d Sonic game it's either huge and sprawling or vertical and intricate with linear speed lines connecting each area the game adopts the 2d games level philosophy of open area to speed lane to open area and so on but even in the linear speed lanes it doesn't feel restrictive thanks to the vivid controls and character abilities to play around with and let's talk about those characters and how they shall we Sonics gameplay is just flat-out incredible and the best he's ever played in 3d I really can't understate how great he plays in this game just like in the 2d games sonic smoothly gains momentum as you move forward this allows the player to platformer comfortably but also the pick up speed when needed and thanks to the Spin Dash you have a way to instantly gain speed provided you have the skill to handle yourself some people might not agree with me but I think the Spin Dash is the best thing about Sonic's gameplay in the 2d games you had to hold down and tap a to charge the Spin Dash however in this game all you have to do is hold down and release the action button and you can turn freely while charging it up but you know what's even better you can continuously tap the action button to frigging spam it and stay at top speed I see a lot of people saying this makes it broken but I think it provides through some amazing gameplay it contributes to that feeling of freedom I mentioned the controls having because blasting off at full speed is only a button press away and the great thing about it is you still retain full control afterwards but the thing that keeps it from being broken is that it actually takes skill to use effectively make no mistake if used recklessly you'll go flying into hazards and walls but if you've mastered the controls you can find amazing ways to traverse the environments and long distances in no time I mean just look at any Sonic Adventure speeder on it'll see just how much awesome stuff can be done with this game thanks to this single mechanic these are things I think puts sonic adventures gameplay over the boost gameplay for me one of my favorite tricks is Spin dashing and jumping off an upward slope it preserves your momentum unless you reach crazy Heights I love it another addition that I like a lot is the homing attack it was included to make it easier to kill enemies in 3d however it does take some skill to use you do have to be facing the enemy's direction and you can't home in on enemies above you something great about it is that you're - slightly downwards when there isn't an enemy to target so you can use it to immediately gain momentum coming out of a fall even if you think the homing attack makes things too easy you can still kill enemies by just jumping into them which is sometimes faster than using the homing attack the thing I don't like about Sonic's gameplays one of his power-ups the Lightspeed - I like how I say - did it better where it's just a button press whereas here you just have to charge it up but it's mostly optional and for alternate routes and levels and it's charging time can be cut down by another powerup the crystal ring so it's not a big deal at all though a powerup I do like is the Lightspeed attack or one instances Sonic's story it's entirely optional but I'd love to charge up and decimate large groups of enemies with it sometimes it can go weird he's gonna be stuck spinning around an enemy no you can easily control the attack a bit with the control stick and get out of that loop though I must say it is kind of entertaining when that happens you can actually do double damage on chaos 6 if you used the Lightspeed attack on him which was a really nice touch though as far as I know he's the only boss that you can do it on so it's a bit inconsistent in that aspect another nice touch is that Sonic's levels all feature different acts with their own music tracks just like 3nk did however these are all considered the same level and flow right into each other each act will have something unique about it speed highway is the best example of this the first act has you running atop the buildings and through the roadways in the skyline at night the second act is a transition running down a skyscraper while dodging obstacles the third act as you reach the ground level of the city where the Sun has begun to rise speed highway just might be the best level in Sonic Adventure maybe a no love 3ds sonic this level was chosen for generations for good reason it's just a shame it didn't have the ground level balance section overall Sonic's gameplay has a lot to offer but a lot of death and a skill gap accommodating all players whether you're blazing down a slope or exploring using the smooth controls I hope you understand why I say this is some of the best 3d Sonic gameplay we have to date likewise with Sonic s a1 features the best 3d tales no the best tales gameplay we've ever seen because in the classics tales this flight was relatively slow especially vertically here it's lightning fast and you have a great degree of control over it at the risk of sounding repetitive his flight controls feel super good to maneuver and are easy to understand he's at as fastest when flying in fact even more so when you get the jet anklet powerup which is available as soon as you start tales of story and you actually have a lot of control of her tails as flight patterns if you hold the action button while flying tails will descend extremely quickly which you can use to great effect to make an absolute joke out of his windy valley if you know your way to the end and also you can preserve tails energy if you let go of the jump button at the cost of descending slowly so you won't run out of energy and drop rapidly so you can get extra distance this way tails unlike sonic doesn't have a spin - like you did in the 2d games instead he can roll into a ball while running which still does damage it is for picking up momentum down a slope something I love is that in windy Valley when rolling down a slope if you bump into the wall you'll get flung into the air which you can then chain into flight even if it's a glitch I think it's actually really fun to take advantage of tails this primary attack this time around is his tail attack which gets upgraded later into a continuous twirl the cool thing about it though is that you have to do more than just hold down the action button while your tails will kill enemies if they hit you can still take damage if you just rush in and tails his body makes contact with the enemy you have to keep a good distance but also spin the control stick in the direction tails is moving which makes him spin twice as fast just goes to show how something as seemingly simple as this attack can actually have some death to it something that lets tails is campaign down a bit is how much of it is pretty much the same as Sonics they both fight the egg Hornet chaos war and both have both acts of sky chase because of this I recommend tails be the last character you play so it doesn't feel as repetitive thankfully most of tails as levels play completely different from Sonic's thanks to his unique abilities and at the very least tales of speed highway is a masterpiece of a level definitely one of the best levels in the whole game and his final boss is a fun one that he gets all to himself I might be overreaching here but I find tails his objective of raising a character to the end of the stage to be very fitting considering he spent so much time living in Sonic Shadow and that successfully beating him reflects his story's theme of him growing into his own and believing in himself as amazing as tails as gameplay is it's sadly underutilized tales in essay 1 is the epitome of there not being enough of a good thing he only has five levels one of which is just snowboarding and then another his weights you can find did properly take advantage of tails of light and while the other three can make great use of tails it hurts me that he doesn't have more levels because I love him in this game and we haven't had a man worth while on foot tails gameplay since here's to hoping we get this kind of tails gameplay again at some point because it is brilliant knuckles like Sonic and Tails has been very well translated into 3d likewise with improvements like knuckles no longer loses all momentum after landing at glide and instantly starts running after hitting the ground though now he's lost to spin - like tails and can also roll into a ball while running I actually prefer it this way since it puts emphasis on Sonic as the crazy speed character Tails and Knuckles are still very speedy themselves but I feel the Spin Dash is something that should be exclusive to Sonic another improvement from the classics is Knuckles climb is now way faster these are things I found strange that maybe it didn't take note of when including Knuckles same goes for tails too come to think of it anyway Knuckles gameplay involves nonlinear hunting for three shots at the Master Emerald so it's a slight change of pace from Sonic and Tails but functionally the same only the focus here is on speedy exploration knuckles move set in three and k already facilitated increased exploration so I find this objective for knuckles levels very fitting and it takes advantage of his moveset very nicely and like I said I think his sections actually make for the best areas in Sonic's level when he has to go through them because of how open and vertical they are this is just a shame you're not ranked for your performance in this game because there are tons of huge areas filled with enemies to kill and items to collect but you don't need to do anything other than find the Emerald charts to complete the levels I like to go after items and enemies on my own volition but it would have been nice if we had more incentive to do things after then collect the emerald shards well I do like SI toos hunting stages more than these they raid our system in this game is much better it works on all pieces at a time which means you can go after them in any order I understand why it was changing in essay 2 but this system does feel more intuitive and natural knuckles also gets a powerup that enables him to do the maximum heat knuckles attack it's functionally identical to Sonic's Lightspeed attacks so naturally I love it and just like Sonic & Knuckles can use it to do double damage on chaos 6 I can't talk about knuckles without mentioning his casinopolisbort ale in an entire second floor sonic couldn't access featuring pirate ships with animatronics a sexy cowgirl sign and a giant freaking lion statue but the best part about his casinopolisbort in with the ring sea deposit you can go up to it and freak and destroy the thing an emerald shard is sometimes even hidden inside it I just love this because that implies knuckles hate Sonic's bloated ego that much and doesn't give two [ __ ] about tearing it down literally I definitely appreciate knuckles in this game for shaking things up a bit and I really enjoy playing as him so now we move on to a mero is a bit more of a divisive character some people don't like playing as her other people do as for me I'd like her gameplay it's more of traditional platforming compared to the other characters and that's fine you're putting the shoes of a character with no extraordinary abilities and you're chased through each stage by an egg man robot called zero this makes her stage as some of the more tense in the game since you can't destroy 0 you can only stun him with Amy's Piko Piko hammer speaking of which have loved that they decided to give Amy a cutesy hammer I think it reflects her brash and headstrong personality nicely and thanks to it amy is able to perform acrobatic maneuvers that could be mastered to efficiently traverse the environments and interesting ways and even skip over some parts her acrobatics add a nice layer of depth to her gameplay and it's good that her gameplay can provide a way for skilled players to optimize their gameplay at some points in the level you can hide from zero by hiding in barrels and moving around in them I never used them but newer players might do well to take advantage of some stealth until they can get the hang of Amy's acrobatics the main two problems I have with Amy is that I wish he had more levels and that I wish he had a faster movement acceleration amy only has three levels meaning most of her story is just cutscenes and that's a shame because I think there's real potential for Amy to shine here as for the latter issue Amy does move a bit too slow for my liking well it's more that she has a really low acceleration rate the low acceleration works on the other characters because their top speed is significantly faster however since Amy's slower you don't need a lower acceleration though this issue is relatively minor since all you have to do to instil eek pick up speed is jump and that'll be enough to chain into Amy's acrobatics there are points in Amy's levels where you must complete certain tasks to progress such as heading through switches or placing keys into the correct holes I hesitate to call these puzzles but the fact that zero is usually chasing you during these does add some intensity I know I was definitely pretty scared during Amy's levels as a kid especially in that creepy-ass mirror house act of twinkle Park [Music] overall I really like Amy's gameplay I just wish she moved a bit faster and that there were more levels though her stages do well to maintain a skill gap to where experienced players can still find ways to improve their gameplay and it did offer a contrasting experience of vulnerability and tension that none of the other characters had I hope at some point they expand on the ideas with Amy laid out in this game particularly her hammer acrobatics next up is a 102 Gama this guy's gameplay features shooting up lots of enemies while constantly moving forward you're actually on a time limit and you have to chain together combos on enemies to earn more time naturally since these stages feature a bunch of shooting destruction and explosions I find it very satisfying obviously it's more primitive compared to SI toos more refined shooting stages but I do think Gama stages have some things over it for one thing gammas movement is much more unchained than the mechs in SI 2 he has a much wider array of movement and as just as buttery smooth as the other characters his jump height is also easily four times of that of the mechs though his jet booster power up sadly doesn't preserve his upward or forward momentum like the Boosters did in essay 2 a nice little touch is that after running for a while gamma will transition to a wheeled mode which is faster making it easier for him to traverse long stretches and his levels and on the adventure fields and also whenever you need to cross a body of water gamma will transitioned into a hover mode these didn't need to be included by any means but they are and I think they're a nice attention to detail and pretty charming my favorite game and level by far is the hot shelter which contains pretty fun segments exclusive to him where you're riding atop these trains and gunning down all the robots in your path good stuff gammas bosses are pretty hit or miss and three of them you only have to mash the action button but the Zeta boss fight is actually pretty interesting in which you must hit all the targetable spots when running around and dodging incoming missiles the final beta boss fight is by far one of the best in the game not counting the emotional weight behind it you have to dodge his flurry of attacks while also trying to break through his defenses with some of your own in some ways I definitely think sa-2 improved on the formula for example the more in depth combo system in some ways I think si1 had better movement controls so it's really up in the air which I like better I hope if this gameplay style ever comes back they can combine the best aspects of both at the end of the day though I had a lot of fun with gamma now now you all know what's coming big the cat there's no pussyfooting around it big the cat is the worst part about the game it's not even that I hate his gameplay I think it has some redeeming qualities it's just that big is required to unlock the last story when his story barely adds anything to the overall narratives and his game plays such a pace breaker but let's go into bigs gameplay anyway his gameplay involves fishing for his friend froggy another optional fish and to be fair his stages can be completed extremely quickly provided you know how the fishing system works and I can't go on without mentioning his one boss fight which can be completed in less than three seconds alaria sley you fish by casting your line into a body of water and swinging the line left and right while reeling in once something bites you have to reel it in while making sure your line doesn't break as indicated by the meter you can hold the jump button to reel in fast or the action button to reel in slow sometimes reeling in can go on for minutes at a time and it's actually pretty intense especially with the more valuable fish the crazy music being the main factor here [Music] once you catch froggie the stage is complete but you can catch other flesh which will increase your score there's actually a wide variety very unique fish to catch like sharks eels robot fish and what the [ __ ] levels are actually a lot more expensive than you could think there are lots of secret areas for him to explore where you can find rare fish and more power-ups than any other character I mean good god they put a lot of thought into bigs icecap his most intricately designed level by far to the point where it's the only level which contains a powerup it's crazy to think how much work they put into these areas purely exclusive to big at the very least I give them points for trying to make it good in its own right but why is it in this game make no mistake big really is an outlier in this game but truth be told the amount of detail and thought they put into his gameplay in levels I got a respect even so either big shouldn't be required to unlock the last story and should only be a joke side mode or they should have made big play in a way that fits more in the game I mean could you imagine if big scheme play involved him smashing through enemies with this huge body and smacking them with this fishing rod like another game hell you could go a step further and how big uses fishing rod as a [ __ ] grappling hook to swing around the environment like Tarzan he does live in the jungle after all but as he is right now he's definitely something of a blemish on this otherwise great game but in no way does he detract from the other style so overall not a big deal and speaking of the last story let's talk about the perfect chaos boss fight which you go head-to-head with him as supersonic the cool thing about this boss fight is it puts the momentum systems of game to good use you have to gain and preserve speed in order to damage chaos otherwise you'll fail to do anything and all the while chaos is launching mini hurricane shooting energy Spears and firing laser beams to stop you cut dam isn't fun to skate across the water navigating around his attacks than blasting the giant bastard from the inside out the boss fight isn't too difficult but god damn is it exciting the music and story wait of course contributing to this feeling the only questionable element here is the music the boss fight has two phases the first having the amazing theme song of essay 1 open your heart the second having a more suspenseful disasterpiece type of track I like the second track and all but God damned if it isn't is a pointing that open your heart doesn't play throughout the entire fight however I can't say the music really detracts from how freaking epic despite is and that's the most important thing the supersonic fight so I want to stop for a second and talk about how the playable character system works in this game you have six campaigns and you choose to play one at a time though you can exit out of one and start another anytime you want I like to call this the character roulette system I like this system and I think it has some benefits over how sa-2 handles it the great thing about this system is that it doesn't force you to change characters and subsequently played a different gameplay style when you might not want to not counting the minigames in SA one and I think that's a good system the forced character switching is one of SATs most contentious issues after all however it does have a downside in that you're going to be retraining a lot of already covered ground I mean watching the same cutscenes doing the same bosses and even the same minigames in a lot of cases however I don't think these flaws are intrinsic to the system itself more so that sa one doesn't change things up enough between each story without a doubt the most tedious part of the game everyone can agree on is the chaos for fight which you have to wait around for him to expose his weak point if you have to do with three times as Sonic Tails and Knuckles and also tails does the exact same sky chase minigame Sonic doesn't his story I can understand if they didn't really have time to make each character scenarios really different from each other but it would have been nice if there were more to shake things up in between each story and actually there is in the cutscenes particularly with the English dialogue a really nice touch in the dub of Sonic Adventure is that the dialogue is different for each story it conveys the same thing but it takes advantage of the English language's ability to word things in a whole bunch of different ways [Music] so while the cutscenes are still very similar between stories there are at least different enough in the dub to warrant watching again this I think is the one thing the English voices have over the Japanese ones but although you have the same cutscenes time and again between stories at least in the DX version you can skip them throughout each characters stories particularly sonic tails and Amy the gameplay will occasionally be broken up by a mini games such as pinball snowboarding whack-a-mole or the aforementioned sky chase I can see how this might break the flow of the game for some but I actually have a lot of fun with them and I think they had a nice charm to the game particularly the pinball games in Sonic's casinopolisbort in ball game and a Knights beam pinball game sure they bored me as a kid but as I've grown older I've come to have a lot of fun with them and seeing that they're actually really well done and in depth the only thing I don't like about the Knights one is the automated segments which I tend to accidentally activate all the time it's cool the first time you see it but after that just gets a bit tedious the great thing about Sonic 2 casinopolisbort in ball to get rings to complete the level then you can get a ejected into the trash and collect rings in a more traditional style level format if you lose all your balls with less than 100 rings the metaphor at play here is genius the game is saying this is where you'll end up if you gamble irresponsibly take notes kids overall I don't think the minigames are unique gameplay segments overstay their welcome and I think they add some charm to essay 1 such that it wouldn't be the same without them something that adds a whole new level of charm to Sonic Adventure as the adventure fields the hub worlds where all the levels are connected and where power-ups can usually be found there are three main hubs Station Square is basically your home throughout the entirety of the game it being a friendly welcoming place notable places include the entrance at the twinkle Park which houses the entrance to the respective level but also the twinkle circuit minigame the hotel which houses the entrance to the station square Chao garden and Namur old Coast a burger shop with a weird interactive statue and an ongoing story that I'll talk about later and the antique shop where you can find a golden chalak there points in each character story where you'll find an easter egg of cream flying about the mystic ruins is the largest hub and Angel Island having crashed back into the earth is counted as part of its intent the jungle is a vast part of the mystic ruins that is actually quite easy to get lost in the jungle is also where Eggman's base can be found in certain parts of the story notable locations in the mystic ruins include tails's home and workshop the altar of the Master Emerald bigs house in the jungle the ice cavern where he can access ice cap a returning level from Sonic 3 the ruins of the echidna temple which is the entrance for lost world and the lake where the silver chili can be found connected to the mystic ruins is the offer mentioned Eggman base where you can find really cool callbacks to the classics in the form of metal sonic and mecha sonic the egg carriers by far the most detailed hub though there's so much cool stuff to find and look at and because of all this detail we get a look in the egg men's lifestyle we see that he uses his intelligence to build himself a life of luxury just about every part of the egg carrier is notable but there is Eggman's private quarters that includes the bedroom the game room the swimming pool and the bridge where the black chalak can be found this hubs Chow garden is unique since it requires you to spell out Eggman's name to access it there is another adventure field that is only accessible in the story and that's the mystic ruins in the past where we get a look at the ancient echidna civilization the city features many buildings and roaming warmongering citizens and the temple that is buried under the jungle and in ruins in the modern day the other part of this hub is the altar of the master and while still intact and also housing the Chaos Emeralds may be the super emeralds given their size it's awesome enough that they let us cool down from the levels in these hub worlds but what makes it even better is that you can talk to any NPC and they'll tell you a bit more about the world or even their own ongoing story and there's a lot of those throughout the story a lot of NPCs have story lines that progress as you clear levels stand out examples include a girl waiting for her father at the train station disgruntled employees at the train station man who cheats on two girls with each other a boy whose mother has a gambling addiction a girl who must work up the courage to confess her love to the burger shop employee a woman whose husband is an explorer whom you can actually meet in the jungle and so so much more you could eat some particularly funny dialogue if you talk to NPCs as big or gamma the adventure fields are integral to Sonic Adventure 1 and make the game an adventure sonic team had the goal of taking advantage of the Dreamcast to really flush out the world and characters of the Sonic universe by implementing small but jam-packed hub worlds for the player to discover things in if they want to all of this stuff is optional you can totally just go from level to level without interacting with the world much but it's there if you want to know more about the sonic world and the people who live in it this is the stuff that gives si1 life and makes the whole game rich in content you're left uncovered by yourself the adventure fields give si1 a charm that will be remembered forever in the three adventure field to find the entrances the three distinct Chao Gardens the tower virtual pets which you raise to your liking where you can compete in races and earn prizes the small animals you collect in the stages are used in the chao garden to alter your Chows look and increase certain stats you also use the Rings you collect to buy various things from the black market like Chows fruits equippable items and so on the system in the DX version was actually carried over from si 2 which I think has the superior Chow system so I'll save my analysis from the Chow garden for that game but I will say this you can visit the chao garden at any point in the story and it serves as a very nice cool down from the story if you want it even if the system is better in si - the showers still very deep and there's a lot of fun to be had in the chao gardens through the story you'll collect two emblems by clearing each stage each stage also has three missions but their own objective and their own emblem to gain but you can also find a blooms hidden throughout the adventure fields and within the stages themselves speaking of emblems mission mode is a mode where you must complete an objective based on an obscure hint that tests your knowledge of the game objectives like tails cutting grass around his workshop fishing for a mecha fish in the hotel pool or finding a ghost prisoner in Red Mountain beware though there are two missions that are stand out really difficult and you'll probably spend a lot of time on them I never give up on these challenges I persevere and I get it that's an important message in life kids to take away from keep persevering and you always achieve your dreams each mission completed yields an emblem but what are all these emblems for well the more emblems you get you unlock more and more of the lesser-known classic games like Sonic drift sonic labyrinth triple trouble The Game Gear games tales of sky adventure and so much more Sonic Adventure is so content rich it has games within its own game but for collecting all of the emblems you will unlock a playable Metal Sonic in all of Sonic stages even after the story is complete sonic adventure offers a ton of content that will keep you busy for hours even if some of it might not interest you there's probably something that will this is by far the most content rich Sonic game ever released to this day and that's definitely something worthy of praise so there you have it sonic adventures gameplay and content is some of the most fun and rich in the entire series at the surface you have fun satisfying an intuitive gameplay with a lot of death featuring memorable detailed levels but if you're interested there's a whole new world of content waiting to be uncovered I frequently revisit this game and that's a sign that this game has content that has long lasting and able to withstand the ages the gameplay might not be for everybody's tastes hell no game is and of course the game does show some cracks and rust being made in 1998 just like every other early 3d game but I still think this games gameplay is some of the best in the series yet and is worthy of the love and praise it gets and it set the table perfectly for future games to expand on the ideas laid out so the story is something I barely see Sonic Adventure one given praise for at least nowhere near as much in comparison to Sonic Adventure 2 NSI 2 does deserve it but I think si1 story is sorely underrated probably because of the dated cutscenes however I'm more than willing to get used to the old cutscenes but sonic adventure offers an awesome narrative filled with excitement [Music] laughs tension character and world building Okinawan minutes [Music] [Music] [Music] and deep themes that we can apply to our real lives in keeping with Sonic teams have a look excitedly using new technology they took this opportunity to flesh out and expand everything laid out in the classic games and then some it's a logical evolution of the classic simple but good stories when you have more powerful Hardware to work with Sonic Adventure story serves as a great introduction to the Sonic universe for newcomers while also fleshing out and expanding on everything the classics laid out you don't need to know what went down in the classics to enjoy the story of this game but there are still a bunch of continuity knots to them that older fans will enjoy I know I did least not show that Sonic team were really on top of their game when it came to weaving together a cohesive world a narrative in particular Sonic's story the only one available when starting up the game introduces the world and characters very well and also establishes the overarching conflict sonic story is simple but that doesn't mean bad it's a good and exciting one that is very nicely paced and well-structured you see Sonic's story is a major change of pace compared to the classic games in the classics you had sonic constantly pushing Eggman's grip on territories back freeing animals and wrecking his robots liberating areas but in essay 1 this dynamic is flipped on its head and it's the heroes who are constantly losing ground to Eggman not only is this an interesting change of pace but it also boosts Eggman in the eyes of the player because how he achieves his victories in this game is genius at the start he confronts Sonic and Tails and outright tells them what his plans are which is something he never did before that he's going to collect all seven Chaos Emerald stuff chaos up and destroy Station Square he baits Sonic and Tails into collecting the emeralds for him in an attempt to keep them away from him and time and time again he ambushes them and steals the emeralds they've collected while also collecting other animals of his own it can't be understated how important it is to have Eggman may a competent villain and a credible threaten the eyes of the player because it makes it that much more satisfying when he finally goes down and what brings Eggman down in the end is his own overconfidence and the chaos 6 boss fight Eggman tries to help chaos kill Sonic by freezing him with nitrogen capsules but Sonic using his own smarts manages to use them against chaos and that's how he takes him out had Eggman not done this Sonic wouldn't have been able to harm Chaos six whatsoever I find Eggman's hubris being his downfall fitting since earlier in the story of his Sonic and Tails his own carelessness that saw them getting shot down on their first assault on the egg carrier so they've learned from their mistakes the second time they assaulted and that's another subtle thing I like early in the story Sonic in dangers both tails and Amy because of his carelessness so by the time things start getting really deadly the egg carrier losing altitude and going to confront chaos 6 he tells them to escape while they still can this is what makes Sonic likable he's not just a snarky hero he's a snarky hero who knows how to use his mind and take responsibility this game in particular shows us how Sonic interacts with the other characters and his relationship with them the game flushes out Sonic and Tails is his brotherly relationship I love how at the end of Sonic and Tails this story they both ended off by telling each other about their adventures that they had also I love these funny little moments between them [Music] [Music] and with Sonic and Amy even though we see that Sonic has a distaste for her fan girlish attitude he still won't hesitate to help her out when she needs it tails a story is very similar to Sonics reach writing a lot of the same ground but he does have a lot of stuff unique to him his story is all about him growing into his own and learning to believe in himself and stop relying on Sonic we can see since the classics he's harnesses immense intelligence and is now building planes of his own powered by the Chaos Emeralds near the beginning of the story he crashes two planes later he built an even more badass plane learns from his mistake and successfully defeats the egg carriers defenses and it ends with him saving Station Square from a missile attack from Eggman and defeating his huge mech all by himself this kind of progression from zero to hero is intensely satisfying and it's especially powerful for younger players because it's centered on a young boy this game is the main reason tails is my favorite character I just can't help but smile every time I see how happy tails is with himself after defeating Eggman ozone we also get to see how tails met Sonic in a flashback tails was a lonely kid but it was excited the moment he saw Sonic and the fact that he was able to keep up with Sonic was enough for them to become friends also can I pause for a moment and see how it's just another point of badassery for Eggman that he had a missile prepared just in case his plane with chaos failed I mean even if it wasn't dud knuckles story is all about him trying to restore the Master Emerald so he can return to how things used to be which is quite a relatable goal I love that knuckles doesn't even know why he's guarding the Master Emerald he's just accepted that that's his job and that's enough for him Joseph straightforward he as as a person through his endeavors he must contend with his lineage his people's history being forced upon him repeatedly via visions of the past by Tikal even if he may not want it and we get another badass point for Eggman as he manages the trick knuckles again into getting him to fight Sonic's Oh Eggman can make it easier for himself to snatch the Emerald from him this isn't so much a point against knuckles intelligence but more so a point towards Eggman's I mean it makes sense knuckles being all alone most of the time definitely has pre unrefined social skills and he only antagonized sonic after he mistook the green emerald he was holding for a piece of the Master Emerald by the end of the story Knuckles decides he's better off not knowing his peoples history because he wants to maintain how things are this shows how someone even as rugged and tough as knuckles can be scared scared of his lifestyle being disrupted by the knowledge of what his people did so he'd rather stay ignorant quite a solemn toned end on but damned if it isn't effective for his character korekara mo kono sora nu cusamano masta emerado story Mamata so Noemi sabatello shiranai Hawaii no kimochi tonight she Reba Nani kana Akira king Asuka Amy's story starts with her bored of her everyday life and longing for the days back in Sonic CD when her life was filled with excitement thanks to Sonic another relatable feeling longing for the good old days it's not long before she gets what she wishes for though she meets a tiny bird and must protect it from an Eggman robot zero because it's carrying a Chaos Emerald after which she meets Sonic and straight-up asks him to look after the little bird this makes me laugh because of how bold and innocent she is in this she just asked someone as busy as Sonic to be a birds bodyguard even funnier if you remember at this point in Sonic's story he's trying to find tails after getting the tornado shot down by Eggman Amy's carefree and bouncy nature continues to cause sonic trouble as he insists they go on a date to Twinkle Park and ends up getting herself captured I liked how through Amy's story she's doing her best to protect and care for the birdie which shows her kind and loving personality and I think that's the most important aspect of her personality sure she might be good for comic relief in a sense of lightheartedness with her bouncy attitude but at her core amy is the humanity of Sonic's friends the one whose greatest weapon is her words and kindness and this is shown in her brief but touching friendship with gamma even if he's an Eggman robot Amy still tries to reach out to and reason with him and it works with more help from the bird that she knows but still and later she even returns the favor by stopping Sonic from destroying gamma and I love how resolute she isn't telling Sonic to stop after which Gama questions why and all she has to respond to is we're friends can you feel the heart warm yet ami decides to take things into her own hands and help the burb find its parents they searched high and low and eventually find them but soon after zero injures the bird and ami goes berserk on him and [ __ ] destroys zero all on her own even if her most powerful weapon is her words and she doesn't have any super powers she's still not afraid to kick some ass even ami understands that sometimes even words can't do everything and it shows just how loyal she is to her friends super satisfying conclusion Amy's story is all about her living by Sonic's example doing good and taking matters into her own hands and it ends with her resolving to make Sonic respect her [Music] I can't understate how great of a role model Amy is for the kids playing the game big story is largely inconsequential which shouldn't be all that surprising like knuckles big story features him trying to return things to the status quo by trying to get his friend froggy possessed by Kaos his tail the only thing we learn in big story is where chaos is tail went and how Eggman got the yellow Chaos Emerald gamma story is by far the most tear-jerking one it starts with us getting a closer look into how Eggman operates with a completion or birth of gamma gamma gets pitted against his older brother beta which he'll find to be a rather fitting name and a rivalry is born gamma then serves aboard the egg carrier along with his other siblings he helper forms them all which results in this charming little moment that I love oh why do I have to get in so little time egman then deems the rest of them worthless and banishes them from the egg carrier and we get this moment which plants the seeds of gamma turning against Eggman after that Gama stumbles upon beta undergoing significant reconstruction and augmentations and I just love how even though he barely speaks the scene conveys gammas disturbs so well bad [Music] Hale machi night now you all done soon after after Gama experiences Amy's kindness and is strangely affected by the Bluebird he abandons Eggman and this scene geniusly conveys Gama's struggle to make a decision by sorting through his memories of khadija his mission then becomes to quote unquote rescue his robot siblings who have all now taken refuge in various locations and are trying to make themselves stronger because of the blow to their pride by Eggman and that means destroying them bring the animals within them they aren't all too happy to see Eggman star pupil once he shows up to their lairs though emma is successful up to the point where he realizes that if he himself were to be saved that would essentially mean committing suicide notable here is that this is the only time Gama refers to himself as boku showing his non robot heart is shining through boku wa but before he can beta shows up again and it's now one last battle with a double purpose one to free the animal from within beta showing Gemma's kind-hearted nature and to a battle of robot pride to truly see who is the strongest in the end and amazingly even with all of betas augmentations gamma still comes out on top and frees the animal within him well almost beta strikes a killing blow right back on gamma [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] after which it's revealed that it was the bird from a me stories family that were forced to fight each other this whole time god damn that's some powerful stuff it also means if the pink color is anything to go by Gamal was female this whole time so while we should by all means be happy that the animals are free it's still bittersweet because for better for worse the gamma we know is dead but I think this also gives new light in context to all the animals we've seen trapped in Eggman's robots and what he's been doing to them and putting them through this whole time I think it's a unique case of sonic adventure story retro actively enhancing the classic games by giving that much deeper meaning to our gameplay in that the robots we destroy are effectively torturing the animals inside of them it really makes me think twice about running past those mechs when I think about what those animals must be going through gama's story is nothing short of amazing an amazing story about pride and freedom through all of Sonic Adventure 1 there is an overarching narrative about chaos the Master Emerald the Chaos Emeralds and the Echidna tribe in each character's stories - Cole shows them visions of the past and depending on the order you play the characters end it's shown out of order more or less I love this style of storytelling because you have to piece together all the information to get the bigger picture I've heard people say it doesn't make sense that tikal would show so many uninvolved people these flashbacks but if you think about it it does - Cole is frantically trying to warn everybody about the impending disaster that's coming albeit very haphazardly and every time she shows a vision of the past to somebody they're involved in some way she only shows it - tails big and gamma when they're chasing after froggie who is possessed by chaos is tail and holding chaos emeralds and when amy is trying to protect the blue bird who was holding the light blue Chaos Emerald - sonic when she leads him into the ruins and shows him the mural of chaos and if you notice she shows most of the flashbacks the knuckles her descendant so it's not like she's doing it without purpose these flashback sequences are really well done and it turns the overarching story into something of a puzzle and that puzzle builds up - and culminates in the last story which you unlock after completing all the other stories thanks to everybody letting their guard down thinking chaos is dead chuckles gathering six of the Chaos Emeralds in one place Kaos is able to sneakily gather the emeralds on his own with ease and with that the impending disaster the opening and tikal warned you about has come to fruition I can't understate how powerful it is that min Sonic's first 3d venture you ultimately fail thousands of people are now dead an entire city destroyed and all of this happened because one man closed his heart chaos was revenge on the world because of what pocket comic did to the Chou in two calls own words he's filled with anger and sadness and is unleashing all of that and on the world all along Tikal was urging for her father to open his heart to others since he was always seeking others countries stealing and killing so that the cycle of hatred could finally end but even now to call his closed her heart to chaos and proposes imprisoning chaos back in the Master Emerald [Music] very nice dramatic irony there amazingly enough it's Sonic who leaves his heart open to chaos so they je my mother donut ginika [Music] because he of all people would hate to be trapped in one place for all eternity stewing in anger and sadness I just love how even though Sonic was fairly static in his own story in the last story his character personality is pivotal it doesn't matter who is wrong or right indeed tails knows how they can end this nightmare though the Chaos Emeralds turn people's thoughts into power right well chaos is thoughts were purely that of anger and sadness so therefore that is what he drew out of the emeralds so logically Sonic should be able to draw power from the polar opposite kindness and empathy and so that's enough to let Sonic go supersonic in one of the most badass moments in all of gaming [Music] [Music] look at my money for my or about that it's so [ __ ] Shonen I love it Sonic is going to bring chaos down being powered by the positive feelings of him and his friends this fight is more than just super sonic versus chaos it's a metaphor for kindness and empathy versus anger and sadness clashing because Sonic was able to open his heart to chaos and understand how he was feeling even chaos is now able to have a happy ending even if he may not deserve it super sonic erased the negative emotions boiling with in chaos and because of that chaos is able to see that the Chou he protected so long ago have continued to live and prosper with the humans will yo yo and with that he and tikal can finally be at peace knowing that the child can live in peace 20 good and sonic his job being done rides off into the sunset gods in this game's story is underrated this seriously deserves just as much praise as si to his story good if not more so because this game's story briefs so much life into the sonic world develops its characters provides a wide array of emotions and ends off with a powerful and very real message the message of when you close your heart to others all you create is a cycle of hatred but if you open your heart and empathize with others and understand where they're coming from you can end it and achieve something great [Music] it's a parasitic little indicator even if no one else does I appreciate essay 1 for its amazing narrative immensely and I will always remember it in its characters for the great impact it had on me as a person and how I can enjoy it every time I return to the game [Music] so the last thing I want to talk about is the soundtrack this game has one of the greatest video game soundtracks ever created it's certainly my favorite ever the music ranges from funky [Music] - adventurous [Music] - fun [Music] so bad [ __ ] ass [Music] [Music] or any combination of those things in large part thanks to the main composer of sa one among several other sauna games the brilliant genius Joon's annoy my favorite sonic composer he even went so far as to remix some of the tutti wrote in past games [Music] but you know what's even more awesome every character has their own theme and they're all awesome even if some of it might not be to your taste the lyrics are just delicious you gotta admit these themes do an amazing job of fleshing out the personalities of the whole cast and you can get some real insight into who they are if you just listen to the lyrics and of course you can't forget about open your heart the flagship theme for the whole game good gravy [Music] each character theme has some intense meaning behind it so maybe I'll make a video in the future dissecting them I really can't describe to you how amazing the soundtrack is just come listen to it yourself all I can say is the soundtrack does an amazing job to convey all of the feelings of the adventure whether it be fun serious suspenseful or action-packed I think Sonic Adventure 1 is still excellent I know not everyone will share this opinion I just believe this game is given a raw deal these days when I completely disagree with I hope I've laid out to you just why that is I just want to point out that the treatment of the Sonic Adventure games can have and has had a negative effect on the Sonic series it's because of the attention garnered by oh-6 that the adventure series is now considered retro actively bad by association and ultimately I think it's the main reason Sonic Team is so shy of making an adventure 3 they think it's a risky move when it's definitely not the adventure games are still highly regarded by many many people unsold extremely well but speaking to the detractors directly you need to realize that those many people feel the way they do about the game for a reason other than just nostalgia and frankly I find trying to downplay their enjoyment of the game to be wrong Sonic Adventure is one of my favorite games of all time and I'm not afraid to say I think it is an incredible game every time I come back to what I find another thing I love about it it's a game I can enjoy for nearly everything about it and I think it deserves to be regarded just as highly as mario 64 or ocarina of time this is the type of Sonic game I want to see come back more than anything and that's why I made this analysis to show people what's so special about the game and to get them to open their hearts to us adventure fans I hope I've made you understand why I and many other fields Sonic Adventure was excellent and still is thanks for watching it's been a pleasure diving into this game so deeply a game that I love so much peace out [Music] hey yo people thanks for watching the video next up is my sonic adventure 2 analysis but don't forget to also keep an eye out for my Let's Plays and animated series the manifest art thanks again for watching everybody

Channel: Ruby of Blue

Views: 143,902

Keywords: sonic adventure review, sonic adventure analysis, game design, game analysis, why sonic adventure is good, sonic adventure is good, game review, sonic adventure game design, sonic adventure design, sonic analysis, sonic review, sonic is good, sonic, sonic the hedgehog, why i love sonic, what made sonic so great, sega, sonic team, sonic adventure, sa1, sa2, sonic adventure 2, dreamcast, analysis, discussion, sonic mania, sonic forces, review, chaos emerald, sonic adventure 3, sa3

Id: P7AuitP5FIE

Length: 63min 19sec (3799 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 28 2018