Shadows of the Past: Sonic Adventure 2 vs Sonic x Shadow Generations

Sonic the Hedgehog is one of the most recognizable characters in modern video game media, coming close to Nintendo’s Mario. This positive outbreak continues to grow, influencing the production of merchandise, movies, and specifically games. Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 were the start of Sega’s big break in popularity. And as of recently, games like Sonic X Shadow Generations closely retell the story of Sonic Adventure 2, further continuing the story with a different perspective on the tale that Sega fans are used to. Which begs the question, “Which one is better?” Modern or Original? 

 The first and second Sonic Adventure games introduces the recognizable gameplay of the franchise, 3D level-based obstacle courses focusing on the point of view of each character played, accompanied with the classic rings as coins. The story follows Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends Amy Rose, Tails, Miles Prower, and Knuckles the Echidna fighting off Dr Eggman’s big plan to control planet Earth. Little do they know Dr. Eggman isn't alone this time. Sonic Adventure 2 introduces iconic characters such as Rouge the Bat and Shadow the Hedgehog. The second adventure game introduces Shadow’s origins and how he became so powerful with chaos control. In Shadow’s story, the player also gets an insight into Dr. Eggman’s motives. Throughout the game, he tries to follow in his grandfather’s, Professor Gerald Robotnik’s legacy, to take over the world with mass destruction.

The most modern version of this story is Sonic X Shadow Generations. Although this is not a complete recreation of Sonic Adventure 2, it does retell Shadow’s origin story, bringing up the most important factors of Shadow’s story and clarifying things that may have been missed in the first game. Almost as a continuation of Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow’s development. The story mainly follows Shadow the Hedgehog and his journey in discovering his new powers to save the planet once again, but this also means he would have to face his traumatic past that involves Dr. Eggman’s grandfather. Although the modern version of the game is well thought out, with Shadow’s store,y it will not go over the exact story in Sonic Adventure 2.

Experience Between Modern and Original

Although the story in Sonic Adventure 2 is well thought out to share a new character in the franchise, it's often hard to understand. Throughout the game we get a different point of view of each character, making the structure of the story seem choppy and filled with information that can be harder to keep up with. If you were not paying close attention to each cut scene, you’d easily get confused on what you were even doing. Often, there would be multiple parts of one cutscene which would make the player unsure of who they’d get to play next unless they were attentive and watched the cutscene all the way through. For example, there is a cutscene further in the game that explains a specific task for each character; where Knuckles needs to find parts of the shattered chaos emeralds, while Tails tries to find an exist and Sonic fights the enemies in the way. But instead of playing the characters in the same way they were listed in the cutscene it felt randomized, the player would start off by playing Tails, then Knuckles, and lastly Sonic. The different point of view adds strong depth to each of the characters and the levels being played. Each Point of view shows the role each character has on the current plot point. Which gave the players a better understanding of the characters they were playing throughout that level. 

4/10.

In Sonic X Shadow Generations, it takes almost everything wrong with Sonic Adventure 2 and makes it right. The choppiness of the old game is worked on completely in the new game. Each cutscene followed through with each level; in fact, most cutscenes are throughout each level, instead of just at the very end or beginning. When there is a point of view switch throughout the game, it is done flawlessly. And because the cutscenes are often within the level, the switch between characters is so easy to follow and understand. Sonic X Shadow Generations makes the plot points very clear for the player and so much more easier to understand. The plot through Sonic X Shadow Generations is only the basic and quick information from Sonic Adventure 2, making some parts feel incomplete. In the beginning cutscene, which introduces Shadow’s story, some parts are less explained, specifically why he was created. There isn’t that much character building in this game, which includes not switching through different character point of view as much, if not at all. This game feels as if it cannot be the first Sonic game you play, although it gives brief summaries of the most important details, it does not go into a lot of smaller information that is needed to understand all the characters involved in this game.
 
7/10.
When it comes to experiencing the game and the stories, Sonic X Shadow Generations carries it the most in comparison to Sonic Adventure 2. Everything flowed nicely and made to understand, Sonic X Shadow Generations was made for storytelling. 

 

What carries both stories? Dialogue

The dialogue is by far one of the best aspects of Sonic Adventure 2. The dialogue carries the story; without it, there would be no story at all. All the voices that were given to each character were very different, giving each character an iconic voice that differentiated in tone, speech, and sound. All the voices made the characters sound as if they really did exist in the real world. None sounded forced or too annoying to hear; each voice sounded very real and just easy to keep listening to. In fact, you would get disappointed when a cut scene was over. However, the only problem that came with these natural-sounding voices happened during high-emotional scenes, where the voices felt awkward and sort of out of place. When a character would scream or cry or show any strong emotion, it sounded almost like those screams weren’t supposed to be loud or emotional. It gives strong scenes where a character is close to death, an awkward feeling, and something you can’t just sit through. 

8/10.

The voice acting in Sonic X Shadow Generations, within itself, is something you would hear in any game or movie. Some voices seem almost forced to sound higher pitched or more energetic to give the characters depth, but realistically, it often gives these characters an obnoxious feel instead of the realness that is given in Sonic Adventure 2. Most of the voices of iconic characters, such as Knuckles the Echidna, were changed drastically. In the original, Knuckles’ sounded clear, and despite his voice being more monotoned, it still made him sound tough and strong. While in Sonic X Shadow Generations, his voice makes him sound like all his character revolves around his strength, rather than anything else. In Sonic Adventure 2, Knuckles seems to be more sensible by calling out Amy Rose for being obsessed with sonic and telling her to relax or when he analyzed his opponent to find a weakness he can use against them, while in Sonic X Shadow Generations Knuckles does not think about strategies or weaknesses he can use against his opponent in fact he just jumps in head first. But when it comes to serious parts of the story, the voices carry these highly emotional scenes, touching the hearts of players. These voices make those emotional scenes sound so real. The voice acting, when it comes to screaming, yelling, and crying, is incredible; you can feel the grief of the character or the immense joy from another. This game knows how to show emotion through just voice, giving the dialogue a sense of empathy. 

6/10.

The dialogue between both games is incredible, the voice actors were made for the character they played. Sonic Adventure 2 shows this the most especially with a lot of characters, the voices really give each character so much depth outside of what they are known for something Sonic X Shadow Generations seems to lack. Even if the emotional scenes surpass Sonic Adventure 2, the lack of depth of each character gives Sonic Adventure 2 the advantage.

The Use of Music in Both Games

Despite the dialogue being a really good aspect of Sonic Adventure 2, the music definitely comes in as the absolute best part of the game. In any other game, their soundtracks often stick to instrumental, but that’s not the case for Sonic Adventure 2. The soundtrack consists of vocals and different kinds of instruments, including bass and electric guitars being the leading instruments. The rock music in the game makes it so much easier to play through long levels, because it's not all the same and constantly repeating, making it much more enjoyable. The songs differentiate from all the characters played, all of them had their own soundtrack that plays when you are playing through their point of view. It gives the characters more depth and understanding of the situation they are currently in. Specifically, the first level that introduces Knuckles plays the song “Wild Canyon,” which is the name of the location he was currently at, and throughout the lyrics, you begin to learn about Knuckles’ character. The lyrics start of by “This is Knuckles and I'm back” introducing him altogether, the lyrics continue saying, “I'm finding my Master Emerald, those fools who mess with my emerald are messing with the wrong guy,” this further shows that the Master Emeralds are important especially to Knuckles, those lyrics also show that he is willing to put up a fight if anyone were to mess with his treasure. The music shows how each character feels during those situations. Sonic’s soundtrack is more upbeat, showing his carefreeness, while Shadow’s feels more intense, showing the anger he feels throughout the game. There is no way someone won't like any song in the soundtrack; at the very least, they would like one song. 

10/10

The music is the best aspect of both games; the only difference is that in Sonic X Shadow Generations, the music is limited to just being instrumental. The music still keeps the same aspects of the original game, leading guitar and bass solos and an intense feel throughout the levels. The music for Shadow in both games stays relatively in the same genre. When it comes to the soundtrack itself, it's very good and sets up each level of the game, picking up speed when there's a Boss battle and slowing down if it's just adventuring. It also keeps Shadow’s characteristics compared to Sonic Adventure 2, staying on the more intense side of rock. While the music in the modern version of the game is very good, it cannot compare to Sonic Adventure 2.

 8/10. 

The music is by far the best aspect of both games; they both stay in the same genre of music and leading instruments, but if Sonic X Shadow Generations had kept the vocals for the soundtrack from the original, both games would be tied in this category. But Sonic Adventure 2 has the best soundtrack, and it's because of the vocals and lyrics for each song.

The Evolution of Animation

Sonic Adventure 2 came out in 2001 on the Dreamcast, making it 24 years old, but despite this factor, for its time, it was a very impressive. It had only been 3 years since games became HD graphics, and for its time, the game was able to render far distances while running 60 frames per second at 640x480 screen resolution. The 3D modeling was smooth, and the animations were very fluid, giving the characters more personality. Technology had developed drastically within the 24 years between Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic X Shadow Generations, especially in resolution. Currently, the highest resolution possible is 3720x1720 pixels, and Sonic X Shadow Generations was not fair from that being at 1080 pixels. The animation didn't just include body movements, but it included facial expressions and lip-syncing as well. That kind of animation was difficult to produce, especially within a game during that time. Unfortunately, because this kind of animation was one, especially for 3D games, there would often be errors. The lip-syncing would often be very delayed to the voice acting or would be played too early, making some of the cutscenes feel awkward. 

6/10

Sonic X Shadow Generations came out only a couple of months ago from now, on the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation, making the animation much more cleaner and smoother. The fluidity of each cutscene and animation of each character gave them so much personality and depth. Without knowing the characters personally, just by watching their animations, you can easily tell how exactly they are and what their personalities are. The game can render very far distances while still being incredibly smooth. The rendering of the world is done so beautifully it almost makes you lose track of the level you are playing. Throughout the game, there are so many details to pay attention to, it can be very overwhelming and overloading for a new player. This can cause you to fail the level or not understand what is being asked for. 

7/10. 

Sonic X Shadow Generations had by far the best visuals in comparison to Sonic Adventure 2. The cutscenes were animated beautifully, and so smoothly that it almost felt like watching a movie. And the world was filled with diversity of movement; it was hard to progress in the game due to the beautiful scenery.

In the End

Overall, to get the most understanding of Shadow’s story, it would be best to play Sonic Adventure 2. The story may feel choppy and hard to understand due to the point of view changes, but it sets up for really well-done character building as well as the music for each point of view. The voices feel almost refreshing to hear because of how natural they sound. Especially if you are an older player or someone who enjoys knowing every detail of the story, without being overwhelmed with visuals, Sonic Adventure 2 is the best game for you to play. But for newer players who are not very aware of the story in Sonic Adventure 2 and want a fun, easy game with beautiful visuals and clear storytelling without missing much of the story, Sonic X Shadow Generations will do just that. The basic storytelling gives the player a chance to admire the details of the worlds they are playing in, while feeling like a classic Sonic Game.