10:20 I think there's a misunderstanding, if the timer is set for 15 minutes, it's calculated that she needs 10 minutes to escape. Otherwise, in 15 she'd be blown up. So 5 minutes for the hunt, 10 minutes to get out.
I'm frankly, very confused as to how that was unclear. Especially because he makes the connection for the shadow's time limit. And he's going back to chaos control her out.
The reason Shadow doesn't have that many stages is because early on in the game's development, Shadow (along with Rouge and Tails) were originally not planned to be playable in the game. And were only added after people asked about Tails being playable and needing to keep the whole duality theme.
I think it was cause the dark side story is supposed to be starring Eggman, while Shadow and Rouge are his supporting cast. The game was advertised for making Eggman playable for the first time, so they made that the main focus for his story.
@@mann-nova9392 There's a pretty strong case for OP's claim. Early advertisements for the game showed Sonic in Sky Rail and for a while they lacked any gameplay footage of Rouge, Tails, or Shadow.
@@MechaKnuckles Weird to have almost a Sonic game with the blue blur and knucklehead, but not the two-tailed fox himself. I wonder why they thought of that...
this is a rumor based on the fact that the first trailer didn’t show him, Rouge or Tails as playable. the game would make no sense structurally if Eggman was the only playable guy in the Dark Story, and they didn’t have enough time after that first trailer to totally restructure the game and the story. I think fans just got upset by the lack of Tails in the first trailer and then started circulating rumors that their outcry changed the game afterward
Glad to know I wasn't the only one terrified by that damn beetle in Egg Quarters. Took me so long to get over it being scary to defeat that level, it is anxiety personified.
Final Rush in D tier is the most godforsaken criminal and vile take i have ever seen in my life man thats like by far the most satisfying and replayable stage in the entire game especially once you start doing the floor is lava challenge
@@azurelionheart they messed up rail grinding in the PC port, but it works fine on gamecube and the recently released SA2 input mod fixes the rail grinding.
@@azurelionheart true, the pc port is ass without a controller. I played it on Xbox and it was fine but later when i tried the game on a pc with a keyboard its just awful
The 100 ring mission for eternal engine is my eternal nightmare. As much as I like metal harbor I think I would put pumpkin hill at the top of my list.
Tails got done so dirty in this game. I don't mind him being in the mech in principle, but in practice they gave him the worst stages in the game. Prison lane is the best of the 4 and it's just a poor man's iron gate. Mission street, hidden base, and eternal Engine are all plauged by cheap enemy placement, awful level design, and way too few rings(mission street and hidden base literally require you to get the ring bonuses from checkpoints just to push the ring count for the stage over 100)
@@znerd3664 mission street is such an absolute nightmare to get the 100 ring mission for no reason. even when youre prepared for the enemy placement its STILL hard to avoid. i dont remember the mission for hidden base being too bad, but maybe its just overshadowed by mission street and eternal engines being so painful
@@yrrr4871 If you become a channel member you get a bunch of cool emoji’s! Check out the description for details about becoming a member or just watch ChaoGamings livestreams and you could possibly get gifted a membership :] You also get a custom chao if you become a member plus lots of other great perks
@@Choa you are dead wrong about Lost Colony, that level has some of the best music in the game and for me that level was the opposite of forgettable with how atmospheric it was.
A Rank Quotes "That was cool" Sonic "Yeah, this is perfect!" Knuckles "I did it, Sonic!" Tails "How was that, perfect like me?" Rouge "Now you know why I am the best!" Dr. Eggman "Ultimate Victory." Shadow
ngl the driving stages have really grown on me over the years. especially after realizing how to actually trigger the drift mode. i wouldnt say they are great stages but i remember absolutely hating them as a kid, especially that mission where you werent allowed to hit the walls seemed impossible to me back then
@@Beleth420 My friend always used to beat me driving backwards and laugh. Years later I learned that driving backwards (technically keeping yourself in a drifting state) uncaps your speed. He was using speedrunner tricks without knowing it.
10:17 Upon watching this video, I realized why Rouge has only 5 minutes in Security Hall even though Eggman said 15. It's so Shadow can have 10 minutes to save her in White Jungle before the island explodes. They apparently wanted the time limits to make sense in context even though by the time you're done with Security Hall, Rouge still has 10 minutes to spare so they just had her act cocky to contextualize the shorter timer. It's not the most elegant solution to keep gameplay and story in harmony, but I appreciate that they made an attempt at all to justify why you would still have 10 whole minutes after Rouge has collected all the Chaos Emeralds to save her. I think it would've been cooler if the game had a 15 minute timer that simply saved however much time you had left after Security Hall and gave you whatever was left in order to do White Jungle, but that'd be harder to implement, cause a potential problem of White Jungle being unbeatable with the given time limit, and might make for a worse experience overall since time limits can be very stressful for some people. But yeah, I just like that this little bit of storytelling actually makes sense when you consider the story context. Edit: You mentioned my theory in the White Jungle section after I wrote this, but I think it makes the most sense and makes this part of the game feel a lot more cohesive and immersive
Glad to see I wasn't the only one terrified of the beetle robot in Egg Quarters. Took me months to finish the Dark Storyline because I was so terrified of it.
I actually really like Security Hall. It's not the best stage in the game, but having the timer on it kind of made me appreciate it more. I'm a new Sonic fan who somehow just discovered this game as an adult a few months ago, and frankly, I sucked at it when I first started. Most of the treasure hunting stages took me 20+ minutes to complete the first time through. While playing through the story, Security Hall was the first stage that really forced me to learn it back to front instead of just being able to flail around cluelessly until I found the emeralds, and to my surprise, I ended up finding it really fun. Because it was a nonlinear level, instead of feeling stuck on one part, I really felt like I was improving with every attempt. It was like the only stage I got higher than an E rank on in my first playthrough. ...Although that locking mechanism truly is awful. And the time limit does bug me. Eggman says you have 15 minutes, Rouge says she'll do it in five, and then when you hit the three minute mark Eggman starts complaining that you took too long. Talk about moving the goalpost!
*Hates rail grinding *Puts Final Rush in D tier, right next to Death Chamber *Shows footage of rail grinding on a keyboard going poorly *Puts Grind Race, the stage made of grind rails over death pits, in A tier
Yeah nope, Lost Colony's theme is a fantastic atmospheric piece that hints well at the dark secrets that G.U.N. holds, I'm not super fond of the stage but I find its song more memorable than the majority of the Eggman songs in the game, which all blend a little much (besides Sand Ocean, that tune is nice)
I honestly loved the treasure hunting stages in this game, sure the radar change is a big L , but these stages are made with treasure hunting in mind unlike SADX's treasure hunting stages which were just modified sonic stages
Never again will we have such satisfying controls for Rouge and Knuckles either. They moved like butter and felt like they actually had some speed. Heroes onward did them dirty.
Bro Mission Street, what a jam. Also a musician here, the harmony and melody are out of this world satisfying. The turnaround is the perfect use of a bvii chord, nice use of technique in the melodic lines with little embellishments here and there. Probably my favorite sonic track of all time for sure.
Nice list, didn't expect those multiplayer stages to show up in the ranking either so that was a nice touch. Now awaiting that Sonic Adventure DX Stage Tier List :)
i recently picked this game up again and i’ve been playing every day for weeks lol. i never even got close to beating it as a kid but i’m 29 now so it’s way more fun now that i understand everything, especially the chao garden!!! love the video!!! i learned a handful of tricks just from your brief explanations!!!!!
This was a great video. Sonic Adventure 2 is up there as one of my favorite Sonic Games and I enjoy hearing the level breakdowns. Never knew of Green Hill Zone Bonus Stage.
Extremely well made video! I found it quite interesting that the list was so evened out between all of the tiers. I’ve also been attempting to get all of the emblems in SA2, so now I know which stages to look out for.
I feel like I’m the only person who puts Eternal Engine as the best mech level and one of the best levels in the game. I’m not sure why, but the punishment of the dynamite packs combined with their benefit to destroy due to the score and combo bonus was always exciting to me. Combine that with one of my favorite tracks in the game and it’s one of my favorite levels ever
I love that you take into consideration both ups and downs of all stages. I might be biased at some since I didn't experience them that badly, though :v Great video, almost an hour and didn't get bored all the way to the end! Your editing makes it enjoyable uwu Shoutout to the hell that is A-Ranking Eternal Engine and Mission Street's 100 rings challenge PS: Those sections at Cannon's Core that look like that one stage on Ancient Ruins are probably not laziness from developers, but part of the lore of the ARK and its relation to those ruins Gerald used to base his project
I loved this so much, and it’s awesome to find other sonic adventure 2 fans that validate all the hours I spent as a kid playing this and just being in the chao garden 😂 keep up the great work!
Am I the only one who whole heartedly likes the SA2 treasure radar over SA1? I just like how the game has a kinda high skill ceiling if you can memorize the locations based on first hints while still being fast enough with your movement to get the pieces with a decent enough bonus for an A rank. I like how they're more difficult because getting faster at them gives them their own replay value.
"High skill ceiling" You mean fighting the controls and camera because the game is actually terrible? The only treasure hunter stage of any real difficulty is Mad Space, and even then it follows the exact same formula to A rank. Blitz around the stage checking the major areas, if you didn't get a shard or two, exit out and restart the level and try again. Its not "skill", its RNG nitwit.
Was everyone in this comment section a coward as a child? I was playing Doom and Resident Evil at that age and heres like 50 people in this commeny section crying about a robot in a Sonic game "traumatizing" them. It's not cute or funny, its pathetic.
Thank you for making this video. My frustrations with some of the levels feel validated. Still love this game very much. Hope the new sonic game coming out has a chao garden in it!
Note: The password isn't 5 letters, as you can see he only types "3" characters, which is equivalent to the Katakana reading of "Maria" which is "マリア" (or ma-ri-A, as he correctly states in the dialogue). So yeah, it's an even WORSE password in Japanese.
Oh my goodness, I was terrified of the robot in Egg Quarters as a kid too. I seem to remember making my older brother play it for me because I hated that thing so much xD As an adult now it’s no big deal obviously, but that’s good to know I wasn’t the only one
Shadow was supposed to get even less stages at first, but then they decided to give him Sky Rail which was originally a Sonic level. Sky Rail's song was originally called Mr. Smiley, but since Shadow took it over, they changed it to Mr. Unsmiley.
I do replay Cosmic Wall semi-often but solely because its one of the easiest stages to do the Chao Key glitch in (its funny to see Eggman roam around in City Escape)
I'd personally put White Jungle at the top and Aquatic Mine at the bottom. Personal preference on the former, but as for the latter: Mad Space at least has visually-distinct and open sectors so you can quickly sweep the trail (center -> moon -> capsule -> holy -> spire -> surrounding -> center) for radar blips. Aquatic Mine, you just CANNOT do that, because the side areas are all so far out that they won't pick up on radar unless you're in them already and it's super cramped and _everything looks the fucking same._
6:59 YES! THAT STAGE WAS A HORROR GAME UNLIKE EVERY OTHER STAGE! I did not want to play Dark Story as a kid JUST BECAUSE OF THIS ONE STAGE I hid in the shadows all the time for like 20 minutes, thank god I'm not alone on that.
Man, I spent SOOOOOOO much time in pumpkin hill cuz I breezed through the first knuckles stage and kinda just wandered around being confused by the ghost train for half an hour
Glad to see that I wasn't the only one scared of Egg Quarters as a kid. I'm surprised you ranked the driving stages so low. I liked those stages as a kid, and they unlocked the kart racing minigame.
Looking back, a huge part of why I loved this game so much as a kid is because the music is SO good and so atmospheric. It pulls you right into every stage, even if the stage itself is repetitive or annoying. Edit: Also the chao garden is so fun I originally only bought this game for that after seeing my cousin play it
Same. I feel like it's especially true with Rouge's stages for me because like for example, Mad Space easily is one of the worst stages but yet at least for myself, I LOVE the song and it actually helped keep me distracted from how annoying it can having to traverse the stage which really is a pain in butt lol. Same with Hidden Base and Eternal Engine, great songs that can pull you in.
@@warvdine Oh for sure, the music for her stages, ALL of them were good. Very jazzy and energetic with a "spy-like" feel to them. There's just never a dull moment with her songs.
My heart broke in two pieces when you said that you don't like the music track "Trespasser". 💔 But man, you are right about the Knuckles music. Absolut high class OST
Same,. I won't disagree that the stage isn't all that exciting on repeat playthoughs but the song is beautiful, it's one of my favorites from the OST as well hehe.
I played this on my older sister's dream cast years ago it was a whole lotta fun, now I own it on Game Cube and though most of it is frustrating (I'm looking at you 4; finish said level in blah time 😤) I still hv fun with the game even though I'm not 100% complete with all levels.
It's so fun hearing opinions on these stages. I personally love final rush so much. I think that once you get a handle on some of the weird rail grinding, it genuinely feels so good to pull off. It just has this flow state effect. I'm in the same boat in regards to unlocking green hill zone. I've gotten A ranks on almost everything, but that dang eggman sand level is just so hard for some reason. I go back and try it from time to time. Probably about time for another attempt! Also the 2 player rail level is so fun! My friend and I used to just play that level over and over and jump from above and try to land on the lower rail section.
I don't think Shadow dies at the end. The start of Shadow the Hedgehog he wakes up on earth (presumably after the fall) and lost all his memory but Marias name triggers flashbacks.
He got "rescued" from his death by one of Eggman's robots. Eggman said it himself in the true ending of StH, during Black Doom bossfight. And yeah, it's implied that Shadow from Sonic Heroes is the real Shadow, so - he was just doing his stuff at the start of StH, after the events of Heroes.
I get that it's all opinion but idk it feels really biased towards the speed stages without taking consideration for what the other 2 gameplay styles truly offer or why certain decisions were made like tails being in a mech (he was added after the hero dark split and was clearly built off of eggman to keep the sides even) shadow not having many stages(he was added pretty late into development even having sky rail being given to him despite originally being sonics stage, this also led to certain story decisions since there wasn't time to make more shadow stages)
-There's no way any of the stages in your E-tier are worse than Aquatic Mine or Death Chamber. -I think Cosmic Wall and Meteor Herd are A-tier -Metal Harbour is honestly B-tier and below Green Forest
I mean, it's generally a thing with playing games as a kid. I remember playing WALL-E game in my childhood and was absolutely scared of those parts of the levels, where it was pitch-black and you had to attract the flashlight robot by music for moving with you. And add to this a fact that there were mice-like robots who were attacking you, if you were going there without the light. Damn, sounds like alot for a kids game, isn't it?
You ain't alone that Flying Robot scared the heck out of me too when I was a kid especially always hated it when looking for keys especially when it gets louder when close
It took me many years to find out about the last story too, but for me it was the rouge stage with the timer. Years later I replayed it and had absolutely no problem. Was pretty weird not sure why it was completely impossible for me before.
Speedrunning truly changed my perspective on this game than what I had as a kid. So much more to it. Regardless still one of my favorite games of all time!
Really I love Sonic adventure 2, but the thing that got me about it was all the stages with those little pop up ghosts in it. Those where serious roadblocks for me. So I'm glad I got the steam version because I was able to download a mod that got rid of them all so I could finally 100% the game, and I did a few months back (the mod is called boos begone, and it gets rid of all ghosts, sure, but it's better than nothing. As long as they didn't have these dumb surprise boos)
Cant believe I sat through a hour long video lol, that just shows how great it was! I always loved the treasure hunting levels and the fact that the levels where big made it more fun to explore for me. I would put Pumpin Hill as no 1 just for the music alone.
Honestly the Knuckles/Rouge stages were really easy, even with the downgraded radar I never had much of an issue. The only stage i really had a problem with was Made Space due to the huge size. For the most part I’d argue they are faster than the Sonic levels. If you know what you’re doing you can beat then even faster than the speed stages
32:24 Maybe that person just saw the classic Sonic cartoon then wrote brown without realizing he never been brown in the game, cause in that cartoon Tails was indeed Brown. Lol XD
I spent so much time on the pyramid grind race level by just goofing around. My friends and I found out that if you jump onto the outside of the pyramid and spin dash up a certain side of it, you'll hit an invisible wall, but if you mash the control stick in the opposite direction, you will begin to rapidly moon walk high into the sky and eventually land on invisible collision geometry. Then we'd just run around.
Hello, I just wanted to say that I enjoyed this video. You got to the point for most of the video and the editing is great! keep doing what youre doing!
WHOA, Lost Colony doesn’t have great music??? “Trespasser” is amazing (and also has ab amazing title considering the context of what Eggman is doing)! It gives off the vibes that there is something hiding just around the corner, and that you shouldn’t be here. It’s awesome music, despite what you may feel about the level design itself.
I like the fact that you gave each stage a fair reason for it's placement, talking about specific sections, later revisits, your experience with 100% and fun glitches. I personally didn't mind some of the Eggman stages as they felt like the gameplay shift from Sonic you would expect; although by the end I agreed with Tails' stages being morre difficult and less fun overrall, which imo doesn't do the Mech sections of this game justice. (Seriously Mission Street should be called Mission 2 Street) I give this review a Sub and Chao Garden?! notification bell/10
Despite being a huge Sonic fan my whole life, I never really got to play most of the more iconic games in the series when I was younger so I only very recently got to play SA2, and it didn't disappoint! I'm having so much fun with it, and I'd say my favorite is White Jungle! Second would be Dry Lagoon purely for the atmosphere haha, it's just sooo pretty and the music is really nice (the turtle going MMM in the background is really what makes it). My least favorite is probably Sky Rail, it's not horrible but I have a gripe because I can never quite lock on to those bounce pads and have homing-attacked down to my death many times lol. BTW I stumbled upon this channel while looking for Chao Garden mods and I'm glad I did, really good Sonic content :]
0:48 Regular version of SA2 with no multiplayer? What version is that? The Dreamcast version has multiplayer. Is there like an Xbox live arcade version that doesn’t have multiplayer?
I will consider making one like this for SADX. Not too sure how I would do the stages though... do I just consider the stage as every character or rank each characters version separately? (For ex. Big in emerald coast and sonic in emerald coast, should they be ranked the same?)
@@Choa I personally would probably rank them separately because I think besides Tails, all the levels are different enough between characters that they feel like overall separate experiences. Even tails have some stages that are pretty different, like Speed Highway and Casipolis. Probably a good rule of thumb, if it feels like a different experience, consider it a separate level.
City Escape and Pumpkin Hill should get an S rank. I'd argue they're two of the most iconic stages in the whole franchise. Do DX next!
Agreed and the 2 best songs in the game
city escape is super overrated
@@FlamingZelda3 wdym? I’d say its well rated, it even had a stage in generations.
@@FlamingZelda3 it's overrated because of the song not because of its design.
None of the treasure hunting stages deserve an S.
10:20 I think there's a misunderstanding, if the timer is set for 15 minutes, it's calculated that she needs 10 minutes to escape. Otherwise, in 15 she'd be blown up. So 5 minutes for the hunt, 10 minutes to get out.
I'm frankly, very confused as to how that was unclear. Especially because he makes the connection for the shadow's time limit. And he's going back to chaos control her out.
Yeah but isn't that just assumed? Eggman says the timer is set for 15 minutes, but when you start it's 5.
He also didn’t mention Flying Dog, which adds more time to Rouge’s clock.
The reason Shadow doesn't have that many stages is because early on in the game's development, Shadow (along with Rouge and Tails) were originally not planned to be playable in the game. And were only added after people asked about Tails being playable and needing to keep the whole duality theme.
This is the prevailing theory. Though I don't know if we can say it is the case for certain.
I think it was cause the dark side story is supposed to be starring Eggman, while Shadow and Rouge are his supporting cast. The game was advertised for making Eggman playable for the first time, so they made that the main focus for his story.
@@mann-nova9392 There's a pretty strong case for OP's claim. Early advertisements for the game showed Sonic in Sky Rail and for a while they lacked any gameplay footage of Rouge, Tails, or Shadow.
@@MechaKnuckles Weird to have almost a Sonic game with the blue blur and knucklehead, but not the two-tailed fox himself. I wonder why they thought of that...
this is a rumor based on the fact that the first trailer didn’t show him, Rouge or Tails as playable.
the game would make no sense structurally if Eggman was the only playable guy in the Dark Story, and they didn’t have enough time after that first trailer to totally restructure the game and the story. I think fans just got upset by the lack of Tails in the first trailer and then started circulating rumors that their outcry changed the game afterward
Glad to know I wasn't the only one terrified by that damn beetle in Egg Quarters. Took me so long to get over it being scary to defeat that level, it is anxiety personified.
Dude that green light the bug has actually made me so afraid. Everytime i saw the light i immediately paniced and ran as far as i could(ingame).
I had to get my brother to play that level for me because I got so much anxiety from the flashing green light.
Exactly that used to be so scary and i still have that energy in me
Even as an adult that stupid bug still gets me anxious 😂
Personally I was scared of the ghosts
Final Rush in D tier is the most godforsaken criminal and vile take i have ever seen in my life man thats like by far the most satisfying and replayable stage in the entire game especially once you start doing the floor is lava challenge
You do have a fair point, this stage is more fun once you are actually good at it. Problem is that most players aren't great at it though
Yeah, sure, if the rail grinding mechanics in the PC port weren’t painfully sensitive and easy to mess up…
agreed, this is a crime. Final Rush is easy my favorite level in the game.
@@azurelionheart they messed up rail grinding in the PC port, but it works fine on gamecube and the recently released SA2 input mod fixes the rail grinding.
@@azurelionheart true, the pc port is ass without a controller. I played it on Xbox and it was fine but later when i tried the game on a pc with a keyboard its just awful
The 100 ring mission for eternal engine is my eternal nightmare. As much as I like metal harbor I think I would put pumpkin hill at the top of my list.
Pumpkin Hill is a good choice! And I agree about the 10p rings being awful
Tails got done so dirty in this game. I don't mind him being in the mech in principle, but in practice they gave him the worst stages in the game. Prison lane is the best of the 4 and it's just a poor man's iron gate. Mission street, hidden base, and eternal Engine are all plauged by cheap enemy placement, awful level design, and way too few rings(mission street and hidden base literally require you to get the ring bonuses from checkpoints just to push the ring count for the stage over 100)
@@znerd3664 mission street is such an absolute nightmare to get the 100 ring mission for no reason. even when youre prepared for the enemy placement its STILL hard to avoid. i dont remember the mission for hidden base being too bad, but maybe its just overshadowed by mission street and eternal engines being so painful
The editing on this video was insane, great job Chao
Thank you!!
How you get those emoji's?
@@yrrr4871 If you become a channel member you get a bunch of cool emoji’s! Check out the description for details about becoming a member or just watch ChaoGamings livestreams and you could possibly get gifted a membership :] You also get a custom chao if you become a member plus lots of other great perks
@@Choa hey now Sonic 06, Heroes and Shadow are good games.
@@Choa you are dead wrong about Lost Colony, that level has some of the best music in the game and for me that level was the opposite of forgettable with how atmospheric it was.
Really impressed with the amount of effort and editing in this one!
I agree!
Thank you!
Wait a min, how did you do those custom emoji's. That's so cool.
It's over, I'm old, I'm getting left behind. Lol
@@rell660 it's because I have a RUclips membership for ChaoGaming
@@BoneTheCat10 ........... That is so cool.
A Rank Quotes
"That was cool" Sonic
"Yeah, this is perfect!" Knuckles
"I did it, Sonic!" Tails
"How was that, perfect like me?" Rouge
"Now you know why I am the best!" Dr. Eggman
"Ultimate Victory." Shadow
ngl the driving stages have really grown on me over the years. especially after realizing how to actually trigger the drift mode. i wouldnt say they are great stages but i remember absolutely hating them as a kid, especially that mission where you werent allowed to hit the walls seemed impossible to me back then
Drifting makes them better for sure. Sucks the game doesnt tell you about that at all though
Route 208 Act 4 is absolute torture, even when you know how to control drift. They put you through a veritable gauntlet of tight corridors at the end
@Devin Garcia Shadow for sure
@@Beleth420 My friend always used to beat me driving backwards and laugh. Years later I learned that driving backwards (technically keeping yourself in a drifting state) uncaps your speed. He was using speedrunner tricks without knowing it.
10:17 Upon watching this video, I realized why Rouge has only 5 minutes in Security Hall even though Eggman said 15. It's so Shadow can have 10 minutes to save her in White Jungle before the island explodes. They apparently wanted the time limits to make sense in context even though by the time you're done with Security Hall, Rouge still has 10 minutes to spare so they just had her act cocky to contextualize the shorter timer. It's not the most elegant solution to keep gameplay and story in harmony, but I appreciate that they made an attempt at all to justify why you would still have 10 whole minutes after Rouge has collected all the Chaos Emeralds to save her.
I think it would've been cooler if the game had a 15 minute timer that simply saved however much time you had left after Security Hall and gave you whatever was left in order to do White Jungle, but that'd be harder to implement, cause a potential problem of White Jungle being unbeatable with the given time limit, and might make for a worse experience overall since time limits can be very stressful for some people. But yeah, I just like that this little bit of storytelling actually makes sense when you consider the story context.
Edit: You mentioned my theory in the White Jungle section after I wrote this, but I think it makes the most sense and makes this part of the game feel a lot more cohesive and immersive
Glad to see I wasn't the only one terrified of the beetle robot in Egg Quarters. Took me months to finish the Dark Storyline because I was so terrified of it.
It and King Boom Boo for me.
What kind of pampered childhood did you have that you found that crap scary?
I actually really like Security Hall. It's not the best stage in the game, but having the timer on it kind of made me appreciate it more. I'm a new Sonic fan who somehow just discovered this game as an adult a few months ago, and frankly, I sucked at it when I first started. Most of the treasure hunting stages took me 20+ minutes to complete the first time through. While playing through the story, Security Hall was the first stage that really forced me to learn it back to front instead of just being able to flail around cluelessly until I found the emeralds, and to my surprise, I ended up finding it really fun. Because it was a nonlinear level, instead of feeling stuck on one part, I really felt like I was improving with every attempt. It was like the only stage I got higher than an E rank on in my first playthrough.
...Although that locking mechanism truly is awful. And the time limit does bug me. Eggman says you have 15 minutes, Rouge says she'll do it in five, and then when you hit the three minute mark Eggman starts complaining that you took too long. Talk about moving the goalpost!
The stage is 3 square feet in size, anyone complaining about the timer is blind.
Mad Space deserves a tier of its own.
*Hates rail grinding
*Puts Final Rush in D tier, right next to Death Chamber
*Shows footage of rail grinding on a keyboard going poorly
*Puts Grind Race, the stage made of grind rails over death pits, in A tier
Yeah nope, Lost Colony's theme is a fantastic atmospheric piece that hints well at the dark secrets that G.U.N. holds, I'm not super fond of the stage but I find its song more memorable than the majority of the Eggman songs in the game, which all blend a little much (besides Sand Ocean, that tune is nice)
His hatred for eggman is very apparent
Lost Colony is a B Rank for that theme alone. (End the bias against Eggman)
"...some of you even might remember some of the lyrics to City Escape"
Me: SOME OF THEM!? *begins to sing* LOL
I honestly loved the treasure hunting stages in this game, sure the radar change is a big L , but these stages are made with treasure hunting in mind unlike SADX's treasure hunting stages which were just modified sonic stages
Never again will we have such satisfying controls for Rouge and Knuckles either. They moved like butter and felt like they actually had some speed. Heroes onward did them dirty.
Exactly this game has the absolute best knuckles and rouge controls. They are almost as fast as sonic and shadow while being smooth to control
@@TheNadroj10 I can just hear the lagoon music in my head as I power walk around with Knuckles at light speed lmao
8:27 I LOVE the mysterious vibe from the music in that stage... So it's not forgettable in my opinion
14:39 Sky Rail is dope
30:30 Pumpkin Hill. Halloween themed levels are some of my favorite type levels
Bro Mission Street, what a jam. Also a musician here, the harmony and melody are out of this world satisfying. The turnaround is the perfect use of a bvii chord, nice use of technique in the melodic lines with little embellishments here and there. Probably my favorite sonic track of all time for sure.
i like to imagine an actual brown fox with blue eyes got arrested due to the misinforming wanted poster in mission street
Nice list, didn't expect those multiplayer stages to show up in the ranking either so that was a nice touch. Now awaiting that Sonic Adventure DX Stage Tier List :)
I like this idea!!
i recently picked this game up again and i’ve been playing every day for weeks lol. i never even got close to beating it as a kid but i’m 29 now so it’s way more fun now that i understand everything, especially the chao garden!!!
love the video!!! i learned a handful of tricks just from your brief explanations!!!!!
The Chao garden is a needless time sink and they should of spent less time on it and more time making the game less crap.
Chao you did an insane job on this. Great editing and one of the best videos I have seen yet! Well done. Great information.
21:28 that shadow voiceline killed me
MaRIaH
It reminds me of the voice clip of Peach saying “Mariooo!”
This was a great video. Sonic Adventure 2 is up there as one of my favorite Sonic Games and I enjoy hearing the level breakdowns. Never knew of Green Hill Zone Bonus Stage.
Thanks for watching!
Extremely well made video! I found it quite interesting that the list was so evened out between all of the tiers. I’ve also been attempting to get all of the emblems in SA2, so now I know which stages to look out for.
This video is so good! Glad you did this. The editing probably took awhile but some things I definitely agree with.
Final Rush in D-tier? That’s a hard disagree from me. Best level in the game. Even had fun A ranking it, which I can’t say for many other levels lol
Yeah he hates grind rails. Final rush is a perfect level to end off hero story. It’s atleast a B tier, honestly A tier for me
>Any space level is good
Lol
Lmao even
Did you know rail hopping barely works at all in this game buddy?
I think final rush is just way too long
fr, its really cool especially since this is the game the introduced grinding on ralis
I feel like I’m the only person who puts Eternal Engine as the best mech level and one of the best levels in the game. I’m not sure why, but the punishment of the dynamite packs combined with their benefit to destroy due to the score and combo bonus was always exciting to me.
Combine that with one of my favorite tracks in the game and it’s one of my favorite levels ever
I’ve never paid attention to Tails’s wanted poster but I’m glad you did. That was hilarious
I love that you take into consideration both ups and downs of all stages. I might be biased at some since I didn't experience them that badly, though :v Great video, almost an hour and didn't get bored all the way to the end! Your editing makes it enjoyable uwu
Shoutout to the hell that is A-Ranking Eternal Engine and Mission Street's 100 rings challenge
PS: Those sections at Cannon's Core that look like that one stage on Ancient Ruins are probably not laziness from developers, but part of the lore of the ARK and its relation to those ruins Gerald used to base his project
Thanks for watching, and you are most likely correct about the ark and SADX textures
I loved this so much, and it’s awesome to find other sonic adventure 2 fans that validate all the hours I spent as a kid playing this and just being in the chao garden 😂 keep up the great work!
The flying robot in Egg Quarters was absolute nightmare fuel you are definitely not alone XD
Am I the only one who whole heartedly likes the SA2 treasure radar over SA1? I just like how the game has a kinda high skill ceiling if you can memorize the locations based on first hints while still being fast enough with your movement to get the pieces with a decent enough bonus for an A rank. I like how they're more difficult because getting faster at them gives them their own replay value.
"High skill ceiling" You mean fighting the controls and camera because the game is actually terrible?
The only treasure hunter stage of any real difficulty is Mad Space, and even then it follows the exact same formula to A rank. Blitz around the stage checking the major areas, if you didn't get a shard or two, exit out and restart the level and try again. Its not "skill", its RNG nitwit.
Your love-hate relationship with Crazy Gadget is the same than Aquatic Mine for me. One year to beat it (because of those **God's dam** ghosts)
Can confirm on Egg Quarter, still have trauma from over a decade ago and have yet to fully get over it lol
I hated egg quarters too when I was younger lol that beetle always scared the shit outta me
Was everyone in this comment section a coward as a child? I was playing Doom and Resident Evil at that age and heres like 50 people in this commeny section crying about a robot in a Sonic game "traumatizing" them. It's not cute or funny, its pathetic.
@@ScumSookar gross this is even more cringe
I have done 180 emblems twice now and I can confirm majority of the normal ones are OK but majority of the space ones are a pain in the ass xD
Thank you for making this video. My frustrations with some of the levels feel validated. Still love this game very much. Hope the new sonic game coming out has a chao garden in it!
This was a fun video, great job
Thank you!!
Has to be the highest quality teir list ever, well done! great use of the soundtrack
Driving stages where you can't hit other cars or the walls are terrible.
Note: The password isn't 5 letters, as you can see he only types "3" characters, which is equivalent to the Katakana reading of "Maria" which is "マリア" (or ma-ri-A, as he correctly states in the dialogue).
So yeah, it's an even WORSE password in Japanese.
watched this in one sitting , great video !
Thanks for watching :)
Loved this video, really threw me back to not just playing the heck out of this during the Dreamcast days, but in the Gamecube era too. +1subbed
Glad you liked it
Great video! City Escape & Metal Harbor are some of the best Sonic levels of all time!
Oh my goodness, I was terrified of the robot in Egg Quarters as a kid too. I seem to remember making my older brother play it for me because I hated that thing so much xD
As an adult now it’s no big deal obviously, but that’s good to know I wasn’t the only one
Shadow was supposed to get even less stages at first, but then they decided to give him Sky Rail which was originally a Sonic level. Sky Rail's song was originally called Mr. Smiley, but since Shadow took it over, they changed it to Mr. Unsmiley.
Let's be honest chao world is S tier
21:28 Why did that sound like Binky Barnes from Arthur screaming "Mario!" !?!?
incredible video from start to finish, congrats on living the dream of beating it 100%
I do replay Cosmic Wall semi-often but solely because its one of the easiest stages to do the Chao Key glitch in (its funny to see Eggman roam around in City Escape)
I'd personally put White Jungle at the top and Aquatic Mine at the bottom. Personal preference on the former, but as for the latter: Mad Space at least has visually-distinct and open sectors so you can quickly sweep the trail (center -> moon -> capsule -> holy -> spire -> surrounding -> center) for radar blips. Aquatic Mine, you just CANNOT do that, because the side areas are all so far out that they won't pick up on radar unless you're in them already and it's super cramped and _everything looks the fucking same._
6:59 YES! THAT STAGE WAS A HORROR GAME UNLIKE EVERY OTHER STAGE! I did not want to play Dark Story as a kid JUST BECAUSE OF THIS ONE STAGE I hid in the shadows all the time for like 20 minutes, thank god I'm not alone on that.
I used to be so scared of that stage too, I had my brother do it for me hahaha
Man, I spent SOOOOOOO much time in pumpkin hill cuz I breezed through the first knuckles stage and kinda just wandered around being confused by the ghost train for half an hour
Glad to see that I wasn't the only one scared of Egg Quarters as a kid. I'm surprised you ranked the driving stages so low. I liked those stages as a kid, and they unlocked the kart racing minigame.
What would've been cool was if they used a combined 15 minute timer for both Security Hall and White Jungle
6:47 can someone tell me how he made shadow do that smooth ass flip off the grind rail here??
You have to jump right as shadow is about to ride off the rail
Looking back, a huge part of why I loved this game so much as a kid is because the music is SO good and so atmospheric. It pulls you right into every stage, even if the stage itself is repetitive or annoying.
Edit: Also the chao garden is so fun I originally only bought this game for that after seeing my cousin play it
Same. I feel like it's especially true with Rouge's stages for me because like for example, Mad Space easily is one of the worst stages but yet at least for myself, I LOVE the song and it actually helped keep me distracted from how annoying it can having to traverse the stage which really is a pain in butt lol. Same with Hidden Base and Eternal Engine, great songs that can pull you in.
@@decadentgamer3108Mad Space's soundtrack was amazing. I loved all of Rouge's stage music because it had more jazzy elements and instruments
@@warvdine Oh for sure, the music for her stages, ALL of them were good. Very jazzy and energetic with a "spy-like" feel to them. There's just never a dull moment with her songs.
My heart broke in two pieces when you said that you don't like the music track "Trespasser". 💔
But man, you are right about the Knuckles music. Absolut high class OST
Was hoping someone else was going to agree about Lost Colony's music, one of the best tracks in the game!
Same,. I won't disagree that the stage isn't all that exciting on repeat playthoughs but the song is beautiful, it's one of my favorites from the OST as well hehe.
Lost Colony is almost a good stage JUST because of the music.
@@onlyfrons Totally right. Soooo relaxing. :)
Same, I love Lost Colony, my favorite Eggman stage theme, with Iron Gate in second and Weapons Bed in third
Don’t worry I was also terrified of the big beetle robot in egg quarters as a kid and would turn the game off if I was at this stage
I enjoyed & understand your perspective cause even I had my same problems with these stages playing SA2 myself. Great work to a great game
There's a special spot in the depths of hell for Final Rush
I played this on my older sister's dream cast years ago it was a whole lotta fun, now I own it on Game Cube and though most of it is frustrating (I'm looking at you 4; finish said level in blah time 😤) I still hv fun with the game even though I'm not 100% complete with all levels.
It's so fun hearing opinions on these stages. I personally love final rush so much. I think that once you get a handle on some of the weird rail grinding, it genuinely feels so good to pull off. It just has this flow state effect.
I'm in the same boat in regards to unlocking green hill zone. I've gotten A ranks on almost everything, but that dang eggman sand level is just so hard for some reason. I go back and try it from time to time. Probably about time for another attempt!
Also the 2 player rail level is so fun! My friend and I used to just play that level over and over and jump from above and try to land on the lower rail section.
Have you managed to get all As? Also, I love Final Rush as well
I was scared of egg chambers too growing up
"I was a stupid cowardly child afraid of a frigon Sonic game."
Good for you pal.
this video was great , tuning into your channel is always a treat, keep up the good work
I don't think Shadow dies at the end. The start of Shadow the Hedgehog he wakes up on earth (presumably after the fall) and lost all his memory but Marias name triggers flashbacks.
He got "rescued" from his death by one of Eggman's robots. Eggman said it himself in the true ending of StH, during Black Doom bossfight. And yeah, it's implied that Shadow from Sonic Heroes is the real Shadow, so - he was just doing his stuff at the start of StH, after the events of Heroes.
I get that it's all opinion but idk it feels really biased towards the speed stages without taking consideration for what the other 2 gameplay styles truly offer or why certain decisions were made like tails being in a mech (he was added after the hero dark split and was clearly built off of eggman to keep the sides even) shadow not having many stages(he was added pretty late into development even having sky rail being given to him despite originally being sonics stage, this also led to certain story decisions since there wasn't time to make more shadow stages)
-or the fact that the mech stages have so many enemies due to the gameplay
When 100% SA2 i would often do Cosmic wall as a stress reliever. You might find it average but it is my favorite stage
>Final Rush in D
That's a spicy hot take.
-There's no way any of the stages in your E-tier are worse than Aquatic Mine or Death Chamber.
-I think Cosmic Wall and Meteor Herd are A-tier
-Metal Harbour is honestly B-tier and below Green Forest
You think Mad Space is better than Aquatic Mine and Death Chamber?
@@Choa Yes
Cmon the music in lost colony is like the one outstandingly GOOD thing about it
I was also scared of the flying thing in Egg Quarters. I replayed recently and thought "wow I was such a baby"
I mean, it's generally a thing with playing games as a kid. I remember playing WALL-E game in my childhood and was absolutely scared of those parts of the levels, where it was pitch-black and you had to attract the flashlight robot by music for moving with you. And add to this a fact that there were mice-like robots who were attacking you, if you were going there without the light. Damn, sounds like alot for a kids game, isn't it?
You ain't alone that Flying Robot scared the heck out of me too when I was a kid especially always hated it when looking for keys especially when it gets louder when close
So much anxiety 😭
6:05 He survived to his fall, we learn it in Sonic Heroes.
It took me many years to find out about the last story too, but for me it was the rouge stage with the timer. Years later I replayed it and had absolutely no problem. Was pretty weird not sure why it was completely impossible for me before.
I like Lost Colony’s music.
Imma be real I don’t think Sonic killed those soldiers at the start, lol. More than likely just incapacitated them.
Already know its gonna be a great video
my favourite part with the treasure stages is their hard modes being the same every try so you can build the most efficient route
YOUR TRANSLUSCENT PURPLE DARK CHAOS CHAO IS SOOOOOO BEAUTIFUL!!
Speedrunning truly changed my perspective on this game than what I had as a kid. So much more to it. Regardless still one of my favorite games of all time!
Really I love Sonic adventure 2, but the thing that got me about it was all the stages with those little pop up ghosts in it. Those where serious roadblocks for me. So I'm glad I got the steam version because I was able to download a mod that got rid of them all so I could finally 100% the game, and I did a few months back (the mod is called boos begone, and it gets rid of all ghosts, sure, but it's better than nothing. As long as they didn't have these dumb surprise boos)
Cant believe I sat through a hour long video lol, that just shows how great it was! I always loved the treasure hunting levels and the fact that the levels where big made it more fun to explore for me. I would put Pumpin Hill as no 1 just for the music alone.
Honestly the Knuckles/Rouge stages were really easy, even with the downgraded radar I never had much of an issue. The only stage i really had a problem with was Made Space due to the huge size.
For the most part I’d argue they are faster than the Sonic levels. If you know what you’re doing you can beat then even faster than the speed stages
So you think crazy gadget is hard? No Final rush is the level that made me cry. And I still didn’t beat it.
this video was so worth the wait!! and omg, ebi makes yet another cameo 😂
Classic Ebi, always on camera
Great ranking video of Sonic Adventure 2!
32:24 Maybe that person just saw the classic Sonic cartoon then wrote brown without realizing he never been brown in the game, cause in that cartoon Tails was indeed Brown. Lol XD
2:45
it's not even 5 letters, it's 3
the Japanese spelling of Maria only uses 3 letters:
マリア (Ma-ri-a)
and that's why he hits three keys
Excellent security from GUN lol
I spent so much time on the pyramid grind race level by just goofing around. My friends and I found out that if you jump onto the outside of the pyramid and spin dash up a certain side of it, you'll hit an invisible wall, but if you mash the control stick in the opposite direction, you will begin to rapidly moon walk high into the sky and eventually land on invisible collision geometry. Then we'd just run around.
Hello, I just wanted to say that I enjoyed this video. You got to the point for most of the video and the editing is great! keep doing what youre doing!
Thanks Zach!
WHOA, Lost Colony doesn’t have great music??? “Trespasser” is amazing (and also has ab amazing title considering the context of what Eggman is doing)! It gives off the vibes that there is something hiding just around the corner, and that you shouldn’t be here. It’s awesome music, despite what you may feel about the level design itself.
I like the fact that you gave each stage a fair reason for it's placement, talking about specific sections, later revisits, your experience with 100% and fun glitches.
I personally didn't mind some of the Eggman stages as they felt like the gameplay shift from Sonic you would expect; although by the end I agreed with Tails' stages being morre difficult and less fun overrall, which imo doesn't do the Mech sections of this game justice.
(Seriously Mission Street should be called Mission 2 Street)
I give this review a Sub and Chao Garden?! notification bell/10
Sonic adventure 2 fans when they have to actually play the other 2 3rds of the game
The crazy gadget level felt impossible as a kid. I couldn't for the life of me figure it out!
Glad im not alone!
Despite being a huge Sonic fan my whole life, I never really got to play most of the more iconic games in the series when I was younger so I only very recently got to play SA2, and it didn't disappoint! I'm having so much fun with it, and I'd say my favorite is White Jungle! Second would be Dry Lagoon purely for the atmosphere haha, it's just sooo pretty and the music is really nice (the turtle going MMM in the background is really what makes it). My least favorite is probably Sky Rail, it's not horrible but I have a gripe because I can never quite lock on to those bounce pads and have homing-attacked down to my death many times lol. BTW I stumbled upon this channel while looking for Chao Garden mods and I'm glad I did, really good Sonic content :]
0:48 Regular version of SA2 with no multiplayer? What version is that? The Dreamcast version has multiplayer. Is there like an Xbox live arcade version that doesn’t have multiplayer?
I would love to see you try this with SADX eventually, I know you share my love for it and it would be intersting to see. Very good video
I will consider making one like this for SADX. Not too sure how I would do the stages though... do I just consider the stage as every character or rank each characters version separately? (For ex. Big in emerald coast and sonic in emerald coast, should they be ranked the same?)
@@Choa I personally would probably rank them separately because I think besides Tails, all the levels are different enough between characters that they feel like overall separate experiences. Even tails have some stages that are pretty different, like Speed Highway and Casipolis. Probably a good rule of thumb, if it feels like a different experience, consider it a separate level.