Sonic Adventure 2

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Sonic Adventure 2 "What you see is what you get, just a guy who loves adventure! I'm Sonic the Hedgehog!" Protagonist(s): Sonic the Hedgehog Miles "Tails" Prower Knuckles the Echidna Shadow the Hedgehog Doctor Eggman Rouge the Bat Amy Rose Genre(s): Platform Action-adventure Rating(s): ESRB: E Platform(s): Dreamcast GameCube PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 Microsoft Windows Release: Dreamcast NA: June 19, 2001 WW: June 23, 2001 GameCube JP: December 20, 2001 NA: February 12, 2002 PAL: May 3, 2002 PS3/Xbox 360 WW: October 2, 2012 PC WW: November 19, 2012 Developer(s): Sonic Team USA Publisher(s): Sega Country: United States Japan Series: Sonic the Hedgehog Predecessor: Sonic Adventure Successor: Sonic Heroes

Sonic Adventure 2 is a platforming game that is apart of the Sonic the Hedgehog series and published by Sega for the Dreamcast. Being the last Sonic game to be released on a Sega console as they left the console market on March 31, 2001 and one of the last games released on the Dreamcast, the game features two new characters, Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat, rivals for Sonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles the Echidna respectively. The game was developed by Sonic Team USA for an unknown engine, directed by Takashi lizuka, and produced by longtime contributor Yuji Naka with the script written by Shiro Maekawa.

The game was first developed in September 1999 after the North American release of Sonic Adventure. Sonic Adventure 2 was released on the failing Dreamcast console on June 23, 2001 to celebrate Sonic's 10th anniversary. The game received acclaim for critics and especially from fans, calling it one of, if not the best Sonic game of all time. Adventure 2 would be the last mainline Sonic game released for two years until Sonic Heroes in 2003, and one of the first ever Sonic games to be released on an Nintendo console, the other game being Sonic Advance for the Game Boy Advance.

The game has been re-released several times, the first being Sonic Adventure 2 Battle on the GameCube in December 2001, and then a port on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on October 2, 2012, and finally the Microsoft Windows version on November 19 of that same year.

Premise

Doctor Eggman breaks into Prison Island after finding out about a hidden creation there called "Project Shadow", created by his grandfather Gerald Robotnik. Eggman meets Shadow the Hedgehog, who team up along with government spy Rouge the Bat to use Gerald's Space Colony ARK to destroy the Earth, using the ARK's laser. Shadow has memories of talking to Gerald's granddaughter, Maria, about what it would be like to explore Earth. Shadow also has flashbacks of Maria telling him to destroy the planet, which he promises to do. Meanwhile, Sonic the Hedgehog is framed for the crimes of Shadow and is sent to Prison Island until he is freed by Tails and Amy before Prison Island blows up.

During this, Knuckles searches for pieces of the Master Emerald after he shattered it to prevent Eggman from stealing it. Knuckles also forms a rivlary with Rouge. Eggman announces to the world that if his demands are not meant, then he will use the Space Colony ARK's laser to destroy the planet. He tests the laser by destroying the moon. After an interrupted meeting with Eggman and the president, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy invade the secret lair of Eggman and using one of Eggman's spaceships, travel to the Space Colony ARK.

On the ARK, Knuckles battles Rouge while Tails announces that he made a fake emerald to fool Eggman into putting the emerald into the ARK's cannon, destroying it. However, Eggman detects eight Chaos Emeralds and knows that the one they have is a fake. Eggman ejects Sonic out of an escape pod, and it blows up. However, Sonic uses the fake emerald to perform Chaos Control (the same technique Shadow used) to get out of the pod. Tails, believing Sonic is dead, battles Eggman. Sonic teleports to Knuckles and says that he'll slam dunk the fake emerald into the cannon, while Rouge questions Shadow about his past.

Sonic battles Shadow and places the fake emerald into the ARK's cannon, blowing up the laser before it can strike Earth. However, the heroes and villains must put their differences aside when the ARK is set on a crash course towards Earth, like Gerald intended. After Amy convinces him to help Sonic and Knuckles and remembering that Maria told him to protect Earth, Shadow battles the Biolizard, the prototype ultimate lifeform that Gerald created while Sonic and Knuckles use the Master Emerald to stop the ARK. Despite this, the Biolizard uses Chaos Control to become apart of the space colony, becomes the Finalhazard, and forces the ARK to crash into Earth.

Sonic and Shadow turn super with the Chaos Emeralds and defeat the Finalhazard, preventing the ARK from crashing into Earth. Shadow sacrifices himself, fulfilling Maria's wish to protect Earth, and Sonic bids him farewell on the ARK.

Why This Game Makes You Live and Learn

1. The animation in this game, while still not decent, good, great, or perfect is actually quite a step up from Sonic Adventure's animation. There's no more of that awful mouth and ear waggling animation and that is great. The motion capture used for the characters can be very laughable and awkward at times especially during some scenes, but the cutscenes without the motion capture look decent for its time. Plus, there are some details the characters make with the animation such as Eggman scratching his butt.
2. The box arts for Adventure 2 and Battle are really well drawn by Yuji Uekawa. Your first impression of a game has to be be by the box art where, it has to make you invested and thats what the two posters do. You have the poster from the Dreamcast version with Sonic on the left side and Shadow on the right, signifying hero and dark, and also showing Earth down below, letting you know they're going to space. Battle's boxart is also great too. You got Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles on the left side with the Angel Chao, Eggman, Shadow, and Rouge on the right side with the Dark Chao, and the normal Chao in the middle of all of it. It's a bit crowded but really detailed!
3. Speaking of cutscenes and animation from WTGMYLaL#1 the opening for Sonic Adventure 2 Battle is good! It features all six characters (not featuring Amy) and introduces them in the way that they would with Shadow smirking at the camera, Sonic doing his pose from Adventure, Tails doing a thumbs up, Eggman laughing, Rouge winking, and Knuckles...barking? And it all ends with Sonic and Shadow jumping into the night sky. While it may not be as good as Sonic Adventure because this opening not showing what the game is going to be like, it does manage to say to you that this is going to be one heck of a ride. Not to mention the music is fire. The little screams in the background of the guitars saying "Live and Learn" at the last ten seconds can give you chills, and is nice foreshadowing for later.
4. The music in this game is, phenonmenal. Enough said. Well actually not. Like Sonic Adventure, the music was composed by Jun Senoue, now along with help from Kenichi Tokoi, Fumie Kumatani, and Tomoya Ohtani and boy, the music has one of the best soundtracks in video game history.
   1. It Doesn't Matter, Believe in Myself, Unknown from M.E. have different lyrics to their songs while E.G.G.M.A.N., Throw It All Away, and Fly in the Freedom are newly written songs sung by Paul Shortino, Everett Bradley, and Tabitha Fair. Meanwhile My Sweet Passion, Amy's theme song which was performed by Nikki Gregoroff, does not have any new lyrics and is the same as it was in Adventure.
   2. Escape from the City is an amazing vocal song sung by Tony Harnell and Ted Poley. The lyrics reflect on Sonic's freedom-driven character and his movesets such as "Rolling around at the speed of sound", and "Trust me and we will escape from the city" with Sonic trusting his instincts to escape from G.U.N. in Central City. And it is just a pure blast to listen to.
   3. For True Story is a both great song to listen to and a very story driven one. As it plays when Sonic and Shadow fight each other, the lyrics give us an insight on Shadow's mind about the world. "Stars don't twinkle (they're burning balls in space), moon doesn't shine (it reflects on the Earth because of the sun), birds don't sing (they chirp), the wind doesn't blow (it's the temperature) for the true body, the perfect existence." Shadow is referring to himself as the perfect existence, and Sonic as the true body. And the last lines "I'm shivering in the cold, I struggle against despair" reflect on Shadow struggling to defeat Sonic as he tries to prove himself as the ultimate lifeform. They may not seem important but in reality, the lyrics to For True Story has a lot of depth in it.
   4. It Doesn't Matter is different from its older brother from Sonic Adventure. This version of It Doesn't Matter has slightly different lyrics and has a different speed, but has most of the lyrics intact and has the same singer, Tony Harnell. Sonic carries out his goal in life saying that "It doesn't matter who is wrong or who is right" It means, no matter which argument the world disagrees on or agrees on, Sonic just doesn't think it matters to him and goes about his regular day, being the cool self he really is.
   5. Believe in Myself is, like It Doesn't Matter, almost the same song as the previous one. This time, the previous singer is gone and it is now sung by Kaz Silver. The meaning behind the lyrics are the same as the previous one, with Tails going through a character arc in the game where he learns to stop depending on Sonic and learn to be independent and do stuff by himself. This is especially true in the scene where Sonic gets launched into the pod on the Space Colony ARK where Tails says "Sonic has asked me for the first time to do something for him. I won't let him down! I won't give up!"
   6. Live and Learn is probably (if you have a different opinion) greatest song of the game and one of the greatest songs in Sonic the Hedgehog history. You have the song playing in the background with Super Sonic and Super Shadow battle the Finalhazard. The lyrics, sung by Johnny Gioeli of Crush 40, reflect on, not Sonic's character, but Shadow's character. The lyrics such as "While you can hardly swallow, your fears and pain" reflect on Shadow throwing away his original motivation of destroying Earth with Gerald's intentions and throwing away his guilt about Maria's death after originally hearing her telling him to protect Earth and betraying Gerald and defeating the prototype of the ultimate lifeform, the Finalhazard. His theme song Throw It All Away is a nice foreshadow to when he throws away his and Gerald's intention to save Earth instead of destroying it.
   7. While not a vocal song, The Last Scene really hits you in the feels, being a mix of sad orchestra and piano. It features all the characters (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, Eggman, and Amy) talking with each other and mourning the death of Shadow. The piano starting at 1:45 really hits you hard as in the background, Sonic pays farewell to Shadow. And its crazy to think that this probably could have been the last song, and quite fittingly, the last scene in Sonic the Hedgehog's history. If you think about the situation that Sega was in at the time with the failure of the Dreamcast and their previous consoles and them losing billions of dollars, it makes you wonder what could've happened if Sonic Adventure 2 was the last Sonic game ever. While it may not hit as hard because of course Shadow was bought back in later games, but it still could get a punch right in you like a 300 pound truck.
5. Speaking of The Last Scene, let's talk about it. It's emotional. Everybody is sad about Shadow's death. Rouge asks Sonic if Gerald created him to carry out the revenge to everyone on Earth, but Sonic reassures Rouge saying that he'll be remembered as a brave and heroic hedgehog. In this scene, Sonic and his friends aren't joking around, they aren't relaxing, they're just talking to each other either about their grandfathers, treasure hunting, or heroic hedgehogs. Many people's favorite scene is when Eggman talks about Gerald, saying that he always looked up to him since he was a child and questioned if he was really going to destroy him. This is many people's favorite part of this scene because this is one of the times in this franchise where we get to see a human side of Eggman. He isn't just someone who tries to kill Sonic and rule the world and build Eggmanland. Deep down, he is an actual human being with feelings, and this is the last time we would see that human side of Eggman again until Sonic Frontiers. Tails says to Eggman that he doesn't know, but they all did it together and he agrees. While many people don't like Tails' response to Eggman's sad monolouge about his grandfather, he is just a kid. Even though he's really smart, he still has the innocence of a eight year old (which he is), and he probably wouldn't know about shootings or lasers to destroy the Earth or anything that happened 50 years ago. And then Knuckles talks to Rouge about if she is going to be a treasure hunter, but Rouge says she is retiring but says she has something better then jewels she is thinking about. Sonic thinks about Shadow calling him the ultimate lifeform during the Finalhazard fight, and Amy asks him if he is okay. Sonic goes back to his carefree happy attitude and before they go home, Sonic looks at the windows of the ARK one last time. "Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog."
6. The opening for the Hero Side Story before we play City Escape is awesome. You, the clueless player who booted up the game for the first time on the Dreamcast or GameCube in 2001 has no idea what is going on, is introduced by Sonic getting arrested by the military and Sonic assaulting military soldiers (offscreen of course) and get him doing his signature line "Talk about low budget flights! No food or movies? I'm out of here, I like running better!" Followed by him jumping off the helicopter, smirking at you, and letting out a large "YEAH!" as he spins into City Escape.
7. The voice acting is a huge step up from Sonic Adventure and Sonic Shuffle, despite being kind of lackluster. David Humphrey does a great job voicing Shadow, even when since it was his first time voice acting. Deem Bristow sells it as Eggman while Lani Minella does a good job as Rouge. Ryan Drummond, Jennifer Douillard, and newcomers Scott Dreier and Connor Bringas (Corey Bringas' brother who voiced Tails in Adventure and Shuffle) do swell as Knuckles and Tails. Dreier gives a calm attitude as Knuckles while Connor gives a brave confident side of Tails that we previously saw in Adventure. Although the voice acting can be very lackluster at times, and not perfect to say the least. This was also the last time that Steve Broadie (voice of Gamma in SA1 and voice of the President in this game) would have a voice acting role before his death in August 2001. RIP Steve Broadie.
8. Marc Biagi has, no doubt, the best voice acting in this game as Gerald. When you hear Gerald's speech about losing Maria and creating Shadow to make his mind intelligent and pure, you can really feel that Gerald is about to cry and the emotion and shivering in his voice. Especially when he says "I lost everything...I went insane", it really sends shivers down your spine. Agreed, Mike Pollock did do a good job voicing Gerald in Sonic X and Shdow the Hedgehog, but Marc Biagi did an extrodinarily amazing and bone chilling job as Gerald.
9. Shadow's character arc. Despite that Shadow's character arc occurs in one story (which is Dark Story since the Hero Story features him in four scenes including the final fight), it is still amazing. When you first see Shadow after you beat the F-6t Big Foot mech, you think of him as this generic but intimidating clone of Sonic who was maybe even created by Eggman for the sole purpose of framing Sonic, but nope there is much more to that. Shadow tries to avenge Gerald Robotnik's granddaughter Maria when she told him to destroy the Earth, but Shadow can have a few scenes of empathy. For example, when he gets a flashback of Maria on the ARK on Prison Island, he goes to save Rouge just in time before the island blows up by using Chaos Control, which shows a slight moment of kindness for him, including his flashback scenes with Maria. When Amy reminds him that Maria actually told him to protect everyone on Earth, Shadow realizes his massive mistakes and rushes to help Sonic and Knuckles fight off the Finalhazard and defeat it once and for all using the Chaos Emeralds to turn into Super Shadow. And when he has Maria tell him to make everybody on Earth happy, he and Super Sonic use Chaos Control to teleport the ARK back into its original position. The last time we see Shadow is when he falls to Earth, telling Maria that this is his promise he made to her. Truly incredible character arc.
10. City Escape is up there as one of the best Sonic opening levels of all time. You transition from the opening Hero cutscene and then the next thing you know "WHOOOO!" you're on a surfboard thing and you're sliding down the street escaping from the government. The enviroment and liveliness of City Escape is a huge factor of what makes it a fan favorite amongst many. Since Sonic Team USA was in California at Adventure 2's development, they wanted to make a level based off of California, and thus there was City Escape. Along with Escape from the City blaring in the background, you also have to shoot robots and even go down a wall, showing you a front person perspective of Sonic. And oh boy, the G.U.N. Truck. The GUN Truck is so ridiculous yet its so good as well. You run in a straight line (sometimes taking boost pads to go to other directions) until the truck is destroyed by a wall. This was crazy back in this game but Sonic Generations bought back the truck and City Escape and cranked it from 100 to 500.
11. Radical Highway, while not as talked about as City Escape, is still a great zone. This is Shadow's first stage in his entire history (not including the boss fight), and they did great with this. There are several paths in the zone that you can take and lots of details to notice like the Chaos Cola advertisements, the Chao in Space posters, the clever Sonic Team advertisements, and you can even spindash across the part where you have to get the lightspeed dash, the level design in Radical Highway is absolutely great! With the Vengeance is Mine song in the background, it makes the stage more great as you go across double loops, float across a broken bridge, and get an invisibility or 1UP monitor if you jump to one of the sides of the tower with the spiral springs. The amount of details that the developers and level designers put into this level is absolutely fascinating, and for Shadow the Hedgehog's first level, they did phenonmenal. The fighter jets that G.U.N. is shown to have and the bombs that they drop from the fighter jets really shows you how determined G.U.N. is to capture Shadow.
12. While the treasure hunting stages with Knuckles and Rouge are good and the mech stages are okay, the Speed stages with Sonic and Shadow have the best gameplay in the entire game. For both Hero and Dark stories, the Speed stages remain consistent. They're great! We first have City Escape from Hero Story and then there is Radical Highway, and the other speed sections, which focus on two things: momentum and platforming. The mech stages focus on platforming while the treasure hunting stages focus on exploration, with the game being a combination of speed, momentum, platforming, and exploration. In fact, the treasure stages can be fun while playing with a friend.
13. The reason people come back to play Sonic Adventure 2 is not only because of the engaging level design or tight story, but also because of the Chao Garden. The Chao Garden in SA2 improved upon the previous one in Sonic Adventure, where there is more depth and variety to the worlds. The Chao are cute and fun to interact with: and they even have different personalities depending on how you raise them: an angel Chao if you raise them good, a regular Chao (similar to Cheese the Chao who would be introduced in Sonic Advance 2) if you raise them normally, and a dark Chao if you do not raise them properly. The minigames are especially fun to play with friends as your Chao compete against each other in karate and racing, which really raises up the stakes with the enjoyable music playing in the background. There is also a sad moment that players experience when they have to give up their Chao with very emotional music playing in the background. You can use all seven characters in the game to interact with the Chao. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, Eggman, and Rouge are all selectable to play and raise their own Chao.
14. Shiro Maekawa did an exceptional job writing the story for Sonic Adventure 2. For his first time writing a Sonic game, he did great! Maekawa did the characterizations of these characters, perfectly. Maekawa may have took inspiration from Akinori Nishiyama's writing in Sonic Adventure because like that game, Adventure 2 takes elements from the game manuals of Sonic the Hedgehog 1, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles. The story in Shadow and this game hints that Gerald took inspiration from the Hidden Palace mural depicting and foreshadowing the Doomsday Zone final boss with Eggman and Super/Hyper Sonic, with Gerald initally taking inspiration for the ultimate lifeform from Eggman in the mural, but after problems with the Biolizard, took inspiration from Super/Hyper Sonic in the mural and then created Project Shadow. Although take this with a grain of salt as this has not been confirmed by Takashi lizuka, Sega, Sonic Team, or anybody else. But imagine if they did. That would be nice continuity! Sonic Adventure 2's story is on par with the stories of Sonic Unleashed, Sonic and the Black Knight, and yes. Even Sonic the Hedgehog '06. While '06 may not have been good, at least it tried. Its story, its gameplay, its characters, its music. It all tried to be good, great, or dare I say, maybe even perfect. Anyways, let's talk about the characters, who all have their seperate great arcs.
    1. Sonic's characterization is the same as he was in Adventure. Sonic is a carefree independent happy hedgehog who enjoys his freedom. Even in serious times, Sonic manages to still be cocky and cool as when he escaped from G.U.N. (Talk about low-budget flights! No food or movies? I'm out of here, I like running better!). As heard in his theme song It Doesn't Matter, Sonic does not care about anybody's opinions. If the whole world agrees on something, he does not care because when the world takes one path, he takes the other. He makes his own opinions, which shows his independent cockiness.
    2. Knuckles' character arc in Sonic Adventure and this game are the same as well. In Sonic Adventure, Knuckles didn't even know who he was and why he had to guard the Master Emerald on Angel Island, even questioning his own existence. Throughout Adventure with the help of his deceased ancestor Tikal learns about his past, the Echidna Tribe, and Chaos. Knuckles goes through this same treatment in Adventure 2, with his rivarly with Rouge, as well as finding a mysterious shrine in the Space Colony ARK.
    3. Shadow's character arc was already explained before, but there are some stuff that I did not mention. Despite his intentions to destroy Earth with the Space Colony ARK, Shadow is shown to be very calm and this is mainly because of David Humphrey's calm voice, which doesn't make him sound evil. It makes him sound like a fancy gentleman. An example of him being calm is when he talks to Eggman. Another example is when Amy convinces him to help Sonic and Knuckles. Instead of being angry or edgy at her, he's just calm. He accepts his and everybody else's fate saying that there's no reason to help them.
    4. Rouge doesn't have much of a character arc. In the hero story, she only appears in three scenes, including the fight with Knuckles in the Hero Story, but appears much more in the Dark Story where she teams up with Eggman and Shadow. Rouge works for G.U.N. and is later caught by Shadow. Rouge also tries to find out the origins of Shadow, especially when she grows a bond with him after she saves him from Prison Island. Later in the game, she finds out Shadow's past by looking at data on Eggman's monitor, but when she sees that the Biolizard is showj to be the ultimate lifeform on the paper, she questions who (or what) is in front of her.
15. Beside Radical Highway and City Escape (the opening levels for Shadow and Sonic, respectively), there are other great levels in Sonic Adventure 2.
    1. Green Forest (Hero Story) really tells you that you gotta hurry before the island blows up, and that shows from irs music and gameplay. After fighting Shadow, Sonic has to go through the island as Eggman placed a bomb on the island. It reminds you that you need to get off the island as quickly as possible. The timer at the top right part of the screen creates tension and anxiety as the closer the timer goes to 0, the more quickly you try to finish the level. The cutscene before shows you that Eggman is not playing around. Even if he has to kill hundreds or thousands of people on Prison Island, he is determined to destroy any evidence of him, Shadow, and Rouge being on Prison Island in the first place, despite the fact that immediately after Green Forest, he announces to the world that if they do not surrender to him, then he will blow up their country, and demonstrates this by BLOWING UP THE DAMN MOON.
16. The cutscene where Eggman sends out Sonic in a pod in an attempt to kill him is one of the greatest cutscenes in this game. If it wasn't for the fake Chaos Emerald that Sonic had with him, then he would have actually died. Like in Green Forest, it shows that Eggman isn't playing around. He was 99.9% close to killing Sonic, and then he would've taken the real seventh Chaos Emerald and put it into the ARK's cannon. And you can see that Sonic doesn't know if he would survive it. He even says it himself in the next cutscene after Tails' fight with Eggman: "Woah, I wasn't sure if I could pull that one off." When he tells Amy to take care of herself and tells Tails that he is counting on him, he ACTUALLY means it, he actually thinks he is going to die. Not to mention that Eggman is holding Amy hostage, which means he could literally kill any of them if he had the chance but he doesn't to make sure he has the perfect opportunity to fool them. And even worse, in the Dark Story, it is confirmed that Eggman knows that they had a fake emerald. He waits for Tails to spill the beans about the fake emerald, he just wanted to rub it in the poor kid's face, and it shows you how absolutely ruthless Eggman is. Sonic is right. Eggman HAS turned into a big-time villain. In Sonic Adventure, Eggman tries to destroy Station Square and uses Chaos for all the seven emeralds, but in this one Eggman tries to destroy the entire United States, which means the stakes are even higher! After the pod explodes, Tails says to Eggman that Sonic told him for the first time to do something for him and that he won't give up. This cutscene and entire game in general is Eggman's very peak as a character. Eggman calls Sonic his "admirable adversary" and even hangs his head down in respect for Sonic, showing you he has some respect for Sonic and a little bit of humanity in himself, even before The Last Scene.
17. Several quoteable lines in this game that can be cheesy, hilarious, serious, and sometimes even sad.
    1. "What you see is what you get, just a guy who loves adventure! I'm Sonic the Hedgehog!" - Sonic the Hedgehog
    2. "I see, but you know, I can't let you live. Your adventuring days are coming to an end!" - Shadow the Hedgehog
    3. "Have no fear, Amy Rose is here!" - Amy Rose
    4. "It all starts with this, a jewel containing the ultimate power." - Shadow the Hedgehog
    5. "I got it! Before the cannon fires, I'll slam dunk it in there!" - Sonic the Hedgehog
    6. "Sonic has asked me for the first time to do something for him. I won't let him down. I won't give up!" - Miles "Tails" Prower
    7. "Long time no see treasure hunter. Did you find my emeralds?" - Rouge the Bat
    8. "You know, what can I say? I die hard!" - Sonic the Hedgehog
    9. "What was that all about? And look what you did to my emerald!" - Rouge the Bat
    10. "You're not Sonic, who are you?" - Amy Rose
    11. "Say something, you fake hedgehog!" - Sonic the Hedgehog
    12. "You? You haven't given up yet?!" - Knuckles the Echidna
    13. "The ARK was shut down under the premise that there had been an accident. I found Maria's name among those who died when the ARK was shut down. She meant everything to me! And I couldn't bear the thought that she died because of my research. I lost everything! I had nothing more to live for! I went insane! All I could think about, was to avenge her! Somehow, someway, I got scared as I no longer was able to control my thoughts. All I could think about, was that I wanted it all to end. Based on my original projections, I was able to complete my project; Shadow. I designed its mind to be perfect, pure. I will leave everything, to him. If you wish, release and awaken it to the world.." - Gerald Robotnik
    14. "Wait, don't pull that lever! WOOOOAAAHHHHHH!!!" - Sonic the Hedgehog
    15. "This is a death sentence for every human being on earth. If my calculations are correct, the Space Colony ARK will impact the Earth in twenty-seven minutes and fifty-three seconds. All of you will be destroyed, along with your beloved planet Earth." - Gerald Robotnik
    16. "Hey, take care!" - Sonic the Hedgehog
    17. "This time, I'll let you go. But the next time we meet, you won't be so lucky." - Doctor Eggman
    18. "TERIAAAAAAA!" - Sonic the Hedgehog
    19. "But, if this picture is of the real ultimate lifeform named Shadow, then exactly who, or what, is standing in front of me?" - Rouge the Bat
    20. "There has to be! I know that people fight over the most trivial things. Some people may be selfish, like the professor said... but they're basically good, if they try their best and never give up on their wishes. They always have a reason to be happy; that's why you should help them out! Saving them is a good thing! Shadow, I beg you, please do it for them! Give them a chance!" - Amy Rose
    21. "Say something! You fake hedgehog!" - Sonic the Hedgehog
    22. "Hah, hah, hah! Citizens of Earth, lend me your ears and listen to me very carefully! My name is Doctor Eggman, the world's greatest scientist, and soon to be the world's greatest ruler! Now, witness the beginning of the greatest empire of all time!" - Doctor Eggman
    23. "No way! Eggman Empire, yeah right." - Sonic the Hedgehog
    24. "The servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power, power is enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos. Only you can do this; stop the Chaos Emeralds!" - Knuckles the Echidna
    25. "Talk about low budget flights. No food or movies? I'm out of here, I like running better." - Sonic the Hedgehog
    26. "Maria, this is what you wanted, right? This is my promise I made to you..." - Shadow the Hedgehog
    27. "I found you, faker!" - Sonic the Hedgehog
    28. "Faker? I think you're the fake hedgehog around here! You're comparing yourself to me? Ha! You're not even good enough to be my fake." - Shadow the Hedgehog
    29. "I'll make you eat those words!" - Sonic the Hedgehog
    30. "You little thieves! Did you really think you could get out of here alive?" - Doctor Eggman
    31. "This is the ultimate power!" - Shadow the Hedgehog
    32. "I'll use your technique! CHAOS CONTROL!" - Sonic the Hedgehog
    33. "Hey! Wait for me, Tails!" - Amy Rose
    34. "Where is Shadow?" - Rouge the Bat
    35. "Do you really think the professor created him, Shadow, to carry out the revenge of all those who live here on Earth?" - Rouge the Bat
    36. "He was what he was. A brave and heroic hedgehog, who gave his life to save this planet. Shadow the Hedgehog." - Sonic the Hegehog
    37. "I guess you're right." - Rouge the Bat
    38. "As a child, I looked up to my grandfather because of all the great things he accomplished in his life. He was my hero, and I wanted to be a great scientist like him. But...did he really mean to destroy us?" - Doctor Eggman
    39. "I don't know, but what I do know is, we all did it together!" - Miles "Tails" Prower
    40. "You're right." - Doctor Eggman
    41. "So what's next for you, Rouge? Off again to find those jewels you love so much?" - Knuckles the Echidna
    42. "Nah, I think I'm gonna give up this line of work. Too much work, for too little pay. Anyway... I've got something better than jewels that I'm thinking about right now. It'll all work out, you'll see." - Rouge the Bat
    43. "If you say so." - Knuckles the Echidna
    44. "Created...the ultimate lifeform." - Sonic the Hedgehog
    45. "What's the matter, Sonic?" - Amy Rose
    46. "Oh it's nothing! Come on, let's go home! To the planet as cool and blue as me!" - Sonic the Hedgehog
    47. "Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog." - Maria Robotnik and Sonic the Hedgehog
18. The emotional scenes of Maria and Shadow. The flashback scenes Shadow has on the Space Colony ARK with Maria are very light-hearted, as they talk about what it would be like to live on Earth. It makes it even more sadder when you realize that Maria never got to experience Earth, which gives both Shadow and Gerald motivation for his reason to destroy Earth, along with all the scientists on the ARK who died in the shooting. The dynamic between Maria and Shadow is great as you realize Maria had a terminal illness (NIDS similar to AIDS) and she barley interacted with anybody but her relationship with Shadow was special.
19. Trying to get an A or S-Rank in fast-paced stages like City Escape, Metal Harbor, Green Forest, and Radical Highway is really fun and it tests your speed, which is what makes the replay value in SA2 so fun!

Unadventurous Qualities

1. As listed before, the treasure hunting stages and mech stages have their fair share of problems. The problem with them are the space stages starting with Meteor Herd and Sercurity Hall. The mech stages have a ton more problems. The gameplay is very boring and sometimes you have to stand around and hold the B button shooting at several robots and the noise that it makes can get on your nerves really quick.
2. The animation, while a huge step up from Sonic Adventure, is not great. One part of this is mainly because of the motion capture, where almost all of the characters move with motion captured actors. These motion capture animations can look very awkward especially when a character is running and very very laughable. Of course, its not the animator's fault as they might've faced difficulties animating the characters so they had to resort to motion capture. Like New Frame Plus said in his review of Sonic Adventure 2's animation, "Why would you intentionally take a heavily sylized animated character, a character who owes a lot of their design to animation icons from the 1920s and 30s, and have their animated performance be copied and pasted from a real life human being's movements on stage? Why would you intentionally constrain their movement to the limits of human motion?"
3. As mentioned before, the voice acting for Sonic Adventure 2 is a step-up from SA1 but it has its flaws. While many lines can be great, the characters' voices: you probably won't hear them or another character interrupts then. The reason for this is because of the infamous audio mixing. The characters were made to lip-sync with the Japanese actors and they didn't bother changing the timing of the lines when switching from Japanese to English. So since the Japanese lines were shorter, they just overlap constantly. So because of this, the Japanese version of SA2 is fine, but not the English version. There are several instances during cutscenes or gameplay where the music in the background just drowns out what the character is saying. Plus, there are times when many sounds are playing at once to the point where its just obnoxiously loud. There are also times when characters interrupt each other or when the characters interrupt themselves. Examples include:
   1. The scene before Sonic and Shadow's first boss fight in the forest:
      1. Shadow: You're comparing yourself to me? Ha! You're not even good enough to be my-
      2. Sonic: I'll make you eat those words!
   2. The boss between Sonic and Shadow on the ARK
      1. Sonic: I'll use your-Chaos Control!
   3. G.U.N. Soldier to Sonic when he is arrested:
      1. GUN Soldier: Don't move, stay where you are! Keep your hands up-
      2. Sonic: Not again...
   4. The annoying ecchoing of the G.U.N. Soldier's voice (only in the Dreamcast version)
   5. The infamous space shuttle scene (Note: the characters talk over each other. The characters finish their sentence, but Sonic and Knuckles talk over each other).
      1. Tails: Is everyone alright? We should be landing soon!
      2. Knuckles: Oh no, the hatch doors are open!
      3. Sonic: Don't sweat it, Knuckles! The only thing in the cargo bay are those Master Emeralds?
      4. Knuckles: What do you mean "don't sweat it"? Land the shuttle and let me out!
      5. Sonic: Right? Knock it off, Knuckles! You're gonna crash this thing if you keep that up! OH NO! DON'T TOUCH THAT LEVER!
      6. Sonic, Amy, Tails, and Knuckles: WOAHHHHHHHH!!!!
4. While the original Dreamcast version and the GameCube port are arguably the best versions of Sonic Adventure 2, the same cannot be said for Sonic Adventure 2 HD, a port of SA2 similar to Sonic Adventure DX released on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Windows. While not as bad as DX, it is not very good either. While the GameCube version has better model quality and textures, the same can't be said for this. The lighting on the characters and setting is very bad, and the sound design is even worse in this one. In a very detailed video of SPEEPSHighway on YouTube explaining the problems with the ports. In the GameCube version and onwards, Amy, for some reason has her eyes really close to each other, making her look cross-eyed, making her look weird. Speaking of the lighting, of course the GameCube version is not perfect. The characters are more darker and this is noticeable with many of them, including Knuckles and Rouge. And there are barley any shadows in the ports unlike the Dreamcast version where there were plenty of shadows. There are also transparency issues, missing effects, and inconsistent edits.
5. Speaking of the ports, many people consider Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 to have not aged well because of the ports themselves. Unlike in Sonic Adventure where the Dreamcast version was the only good version (the others looked really ugly), Adventure 2 keeps the same style as the Dreamcast version which is nice but there are other problems with the game that make people consider both games to not have aged well, and for Adventure that was true. The later ports of Adventure had different models of the characters, models that made them look really ugly and the lighting was gone. It may have fixed the massively distorted and compressed sound that the Dreamcast version had, but the characters looked hideous, the shadows and lighting was almost non-existence, and interesting details from the Dreamcast version was removed. For Adventure 2, while it may not have many of the same problems that the Sonic Adventure DX ports had, as mentioned before, the lighting is almost not there, and the sound design is worse then the Dreamcast version which is odd because Adventure and Adventure 2 were released on much powerful hardware in 2010 and 2012, respectively. These were the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 ports. Couldn't they at least try to fix the sound design on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 ports by bringing back some of the old actors and having them record most of the Japanese lines instead of the English ones? It's examples like this that make people think that the Adventure games aged horribly, giving birth to the infamous statement: "Sonic had a rough transition to 3D." The rough transition bit does not make any sense. Sure, Sonic may have had a rough time going to 3D with the cancelation of Sonic X-treme and the release of games like 3D Blast or Sonic R, but that doesn't mean his first 3D games were rough.
6. The camera in this game sucks. It's pretty rough to use and its locked for a portion of the entire game. Somehow even the ports' version of the camera wasn't fixed. Sometimes the camera will just move up and down when you press a different button other then the left or right trigger, which can get annoying.
7. The voice acting, while mentioned before is a huge step up from Adventure where it was bad, sill has some flaws. You can tell the actors have improved on their performances especially with Ryan Drummond. Most of the time you can barley hear the character's voices due to how loud the background music is. Connor Bringas as Tails is understandable since he was young at the time but some of the lines he says can be hit or miss, along with the other voice actors. But again, this is understandable because Connor was young at the time and voice director Lani Minella was told by Yuji Naka to have young boys play Tails. But other then that, the actors did a solid job.
8. SA2 has a great story, but has a lot of flaws. There are a ton of plot holes and inconsistencies in Sonic Adventure 2. For example, how did G.U.N. mistake Sonic for Shadow if they were keeping Shadow at Prison Island heavily guarded for 50 years? Although the script for SA2 was probably already written when Shadow was being developed to look more like Sonic (and when his name was originally Terios), so it is understandable. But why didn't G.U.N. give Rouge the Chaos Emeralds instead of making her break into Sercurity Hall, since Rouge works for G.U.N? How did Amy get onto Prison Island? She said she hatched a ride with Tails while talking to Sonic, but when we see Tails get to Prison Island, its his first time going there and Amy definitely wasn't with him.
   1. Speaking of plot holes, things really start to fall apart in The Last Story. In the Last Story, we see that Eggman hands Rouge a copy of Gerald's diary on a CD-ROM. When Gerald find out about Maria's death, he went insane, and he programmed the ARK to collide with Earth when the Emeralds are put inside. Gerald was still in prison so, how did he do this? When did Shadow know about this? Should he have done everything himself?

Production

Sonic Adventure 2 began development in September 1999 after the North American release of Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast. It was instead developed by Sonic Team USA, an American divison of Sonic Team, the company who develops the Sonic games. The game was produced by Yuji Naka and once again directed by Takashi lizuka, being designed to be more action oriented then the slower paced Sonic Adventure. Enviroments of the levels were inspired by Yosemite National Park and San Franciso (the most notable example is City Escape Zone) when Sonic Team USA went to these locations, even using backgrounds from there into the game. Sonic was given a variety of actions rather then going fast. Jun Senoue served as the lead composer and sound director. Other composers were Fumie Kumatani, Tomoya Ohtani, and Kenichi Tokoi. The main theme song Live and Learn was sung by Johnny Gioeli of Crush 40, who also sung Open Your Heart from Sonic Adventure and also works with Jun Senoue on the Crush 40 band. There are pictures of the development of SA2 where Sonic Team USA had gone to San Franciso and Yosemite National Park. Many of the theme songs for the characters had been re-worked, keeping the same style but having different lyrics. For example, Tony Harnell sings It Doesn't Matter in both SA1 and 2 and while the song keeps most of the lyrics from the first game, it's faster and has a different melody and arrangement then its predessecor but keeps the same singer and the same lyrics. Kaz Silver sings Believe in Myself while Hunnid-P sings the Knuckles stages and Unknown from M.E. The only song that isn't changed in the game is Amy's song My Sweet Passion, still sung by Nikki Gregoroff. The concept of a Sonic clone had been kept in mind since the first Sonic Adventure game. The team wanted to make what made the previous game successful and make it better. They thought of this by making another new character (like Big the Cat, Tikal, or Chaos). Takashi lizuka thought of a "Dark Sonic" in the game, and this many sketches were made, with the character with only one eye.

Good hedgehog.

The character was named Terios, meaning "reflection of" or "to shine on" but was later scrapped in favor of Shadow the Hedgehog. David Humphrey was cast as Shadow the Hedgehog after his friend Ryan Drummond offered the producers to give him the role. Rouge the Bat was also created, almost being named "Nails" similar to "Tails" but the name was scrapped in favor of "Rouge" instead. Voice director of Adventure and Sonic Shuffle Lani Minella provided the voice of Rouge. In May 2000, Sega officially announced that the sequel to Sonic Adventure was in development, showing off a trailer with Sonic, Knuckles, and Eggman, who were originally supposed to be the only playable characters. Late into development, Sega announced a deal with Soap Shoes to feature a modified version of their shoe for the sole purpose of grinding to be worn on Sonic. Soap Shoes had made a deal with Sega to feature their shoes in later games, but this never happened. The original Hero Story opening on the Dreamcast version of SA2 featured Sonic's other (and more iconic) shoes, but this was fixed in later versions of the game. A preview titled Sonic Adventure 2: The Trial was packaged with the game Phantasy Star Online, where it showed a teaser of SA2 as well as the first appearance of Shadow at the end of the teaser. Many people didn't know who Shadow was for many months (they didn't know Rouge even existed) until their names and appearance were leaked by toy company ReSarus, who had planned to launch toys of SA2 but they were never released for some unknown reasons.

Evil, sinster, malcontent hedgehog.

Sonic Adventure 2 was also going to have branching pathways story-wise in the narrative, providing a different experience. One example would be when Sonic is trapped in a submarine. He would either bring it to safety or escape and try to make it back to shore. For unknown reasons, this was dropped from the final game. The english voice cast of Adventure and Shuffle returned to the game, with the new people in the main cast being David Humphrey as Shadow, Scott Dreier as Knuckles (replacing Michael McGaharn and Ryan Drummond), Connor Bringas as Tails (replacing his brother Connor Bringas), and Lani Minella as Rouge while Ryan Drummond, Jennifer Douillard and Deem Bristow reprise their roles. Drummond voices Sonic, Douillard voices Amy, and Bristow voices Eggman. Sonic Adventure 2 was originally supposed to be released in Spring 2001 but was eventually delayed to June 23rd with the extra development time allowing the game to be released in time for Sonic the Hedgehog's 10th anniversary. Sonic Adventure 2 was marketed by Sega as the last Sonic game to be released on the Dreamcast as well as the last Sonic game to be released on a Sega console ever as on January 31, 2001, Sega announced the discontinuation of the Dreamcast and announced that they would be taking a shift to third-party developers and making games for Nintendo, Sony, and new competitor Microsoft. On March 16, Sega president Isao Okawa died, but before his death, he had loaned all of his debt to Sega, just barley keeping them alive for the third-party transition. Several advertisements and promotional art were made for the game.

On June 19, 2001, Sonic Adventure 2 was released in North America and on Sonic's 10th birthday on June 23, it was released worldwide. The game definitely did not sell as well as its older brother, selling only around 500,000 copies worldwide. It was a miracle that this game ended up being popular despite how low it sold. Sometime after the game's release, Sonic Team began development on a port of the game for the GameCube. On December 20, 2001, the port, now titled Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, was released in Japan and in NA and PAL regions in February and March of 2002. Faring much more better in sells then the Dreamcast version, it sold 1.2 million copies worldwide by July 2006 and in total has sold 1.73 million copies, becoming one of the highest selling games for the GameCube as well as best-selling third party game on the console. The popularity of Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (1.73 million copies), Sonic Mega Collection (1.37 million copies), and Sonic Adventure DX: Directors Cut (1.60 million copies) lead to Sonic becoming one of the best-selling GameCube franchises (4.7 million copies in total). The game would later be released on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 on October 2, 2012 and PC on November 19, 2012, bringing even more popularity to SA2.

Reception and legacy

Upon release, Sonic Adventure 2 received universal acclaim from critics, audiences, and especially fans of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. The game was praised for its stunning visuals at the time, plot, gameplay variety, and soundtrack with some praise for Shadow's character development throughout the game. However some critcism was pointed towards the camera, voice acting, and even plot as well. It was named the tenth greatest Dreamcast game by GamesRadar and the fifth best Dreamcast game by ScrewAttack. The Chao Gardens were especially praised and considered as an improvement to SA1, which the first one felt like a prototype to some people. As stated before, the camera was largely panned and the voice acting was criticized but Senoue's soundtrack received praise especially for the song Live and Learn. The level City Escape Zone has seen praise from several Sonic fans, even returning in Sonic Generations (2011). To this day, Sonic Adventure 2 is considered to be one of, if not, the best Sonic game of all time.

Since SA2, Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat have appeared in several more games, the first mainline instalment being Sonic Heroes. Originally, Shadow was supposed to die in this game, but due to massive popularity among fans, he was bought back for Heroes. Other games they would appear would be: Sonic Battle (2003), Sonic the Hedgehog '06 (2006), Sonic Heroes (2003), Sonic and the Black Knight (2009), and even Shadow got his own spinoff game titled Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) released for the PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox. They continue to appear in Sonic games to this day, with Shadow having his own story in Sonic Forces. Shadow and Rouge have also gained popularity for their friendship/team-up in Team Dark, a team that was established in Heroes featuring Shadow, Rouge, as well as new character E-123 Omega.

Trivia

• Sonic Adventure 2 was one of the first Sonic/Sega games to be released on an Nintendo console. Both Sonic Advance and the port of the former game Sonic Adventure 2 Battle were released on the same day of December 20, 2001. The first Sega game to be released on an Nintendo console was Super Monkey Ball, a port of the Sega arcade game Monkey Ball, released on October 14.
  • Coicidentally, the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 film (which will follow the story of Adventure 2) will release in theaters on December 20, 2024, 23 years after both Advance and Adventure 2 Battle were released.
    • Another thing about Sonic Movie 3, both it and the Knuckles TV show were announced on February 15, 2022. This may be a coincidence or not because it is a reference to Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the lock on game for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles.
• In 2022, a reanimated version of Sonic Adventure 2 titled Sonic Adventure 2: Reimagined was released on YouTube for its 20th anniversary. The project was headed by Acruxicon, and features lots of talented artists and animators as well as voice actors for Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Eggman, Rouge, and Shadow.
• Ryan Drummond, the voice of Sonic, was originally offered the role of Shadow. However, Drummond declined and gave the role to his friend David Humphrey, who ended up voicing him in the final game. Although in the final boss, Drummond provided most of the voice lines for Shadow as Humphrey was unavaliable.
• Connor Bringas, who voiced Tails in only this game, is the brother of Corey Bringas who voiced him in Adventure and Shuffle.
• Sonic Adventure 2 is not the last official game released for the Dreamcast, as there were other games released before and after the game such as 21 Two One released on December 27, 2001, Puyo Pop Fever on February 24, 2004, Space Channel 5: Part 2 released in February 2002, Under Defeat released on March 23, 2006, Trizeal released on April 7, 2005, and Border Down released on September 25, 2003. The last officially licensed Dreamcast game would be released on March 8, 2007 being titled Karous. Despite this, there are still homebrew fan games for the Dreamcast being released to this day, including Pier Solar and the Great Architects in October 2015 and Xeno Crisis in June 2020.
• There is footage on YouTube of Ted Poley, one of the singers of "Escape from the City", re-singing the song for the Sonic franchise's 20th anniversary.
• Sonic Team USA had 11 people develop Sonic Adventure 2. Despite this, lizuka has gone onto say that the small amount of crew members did not affect SA2 at all.

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Gallery

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  Good hedgehog.

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  Evil, sinister, malcontent hedgehog.

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  Dreamcast cover art.

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  GameCube cover art for Sonic Adventure 2: Battle.

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  Sonic Adventure 2's logo.

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  Sonic Adventure 2 promotional art featuring a render of Sonic.

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  Concept art for the game that was posted on the Sonic facebook account in November 2020.

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  Another concept art from the game that features Eggman in his mech.

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  Original character designs for Shadow the Hedgehog, who was originally named Terios.