Chao Garden: The Perfect Feedback Loop - Designing For Harmony

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Designing For is a series which looks at a level in gaming, and analyzes a theme central to that level's design. In this episode, we take a look at one of the most beloved aspects of Sonic Adventure 2, the Chao Garden, and see how it works in tandem with Sonic Adventure 2's gameplay loop to make something both incredibly addicting and unmistakably Sonic.
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Patreon: / designingfor
Twitter: / designing4games
Discord: / discord
Voiceover/Script Editing/Audio Editing/Cereal Eater/Director: Tommy Eyler/Pyrr ( / pyrrhickong )
Video Editing/Footage/Additional Direction: AuthorMan ( / authorman )
Intro Animation By: / @tarvouldsquest
Intro Theme By: / tracks
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Also check out our episode on Sonic & Knuckles' Sandopolis Zone, and how it also explores Sonic's level themes in a unique way: • Sonic & Knuckles' Sand...
Or our episode on Mario Superstar Baseball, and how its chemistry system improves the character of the Mario cast in a way they've long since yearned for: • Mario Superstar Baseba...
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The Sonic series, including Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, Shadow the Hedgehog, all characters, music, scenario, etc. is ©Sega Corporation
The World Ends With You and Final Fantasy VIII are © Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd
Resident Evil 4 is © Capcom Co., Ltd.
Pokemon Emerald is ©Nintendo Co., Ltd, ©Game Freak, Inc. and ©The Pokemon Company
Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong 64 are ©Nintendo Co., Ltd, developed by Rare.
Shovel Knight: King of Cards is ©Yacht Club Games
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Footage/Images Used:
Tikal Flashback E-102 - goodcowgames ( • Sonic Adventure (PS3) ... )
Chao Adventure VMU Game - videogameclipcollect ( • Sonic Adventure - Chao... )
Sonic Adventure 2 Battle Is STILL THE BEST 3D Sonic Game To Complete - The Completionist ( • Sonic Adventure 2 Batt... )
Grump Clips: Arin's Glorious Breakdown ( • Grump Clips: Arin's Gl... )

[@zekeram129]

To put things into perspective: The SA2 modding community only _just_ figured out how to let you turn into Super Sonic from regular Sonic mid-level. We've had massive, in-depth chao garden overhauls for years.

[@ElijahW2003]

Wait ayo for real on the first part

[@zekeram129]

@@ElijahW2003 For real.

[@Nightmare_52]

Modders knew what was important

[@BBWahoo]

Wow, never realized just *how* different the SA2 modding scene was compared to the other games

[@greenknight9000]

That was a childhood dream come true. I deadass cried tears of joy when that mod was finally made

[@SpinDash]

Chao are perfect. Sega not bringing them back is a missed opportunity and a real shame. Nice video!

[@sonicstyle3690]

Check out my channel for new Chao content!

[@gorbla1231]

I'm still holding out hope for a chao island in the new sonic frontiers game.

[@johnross5098]

The chao garden was brought back.... in the Minecraft Crossover 💀

[@zacziggarot]

@@gorbla1231 there's some real potential there. Maybe if they made it a little bit easier to get all the emblems for The chao garden. If the final races instead give different rewards for raising better chao that'd be enough. Chao give you a reason to keep trying on the same stages for better ranks.

[@agentblackbird9435]

They could’ve at least done a Wisp Garden

[@seren88]

"I do understand the feelings of a Persian cat (But the Sphinx looked so cute I had to shave it)" I'M LOSING MY MIND, THESE LYRICS ARE LEGIT! I THOUGHT D4 WAS JOKING

[@jnbplaysgames]

I kind of lost it there too 😵‍💫

[@pwney400]

that whole song makes no sense lmaoo

[@BBWahoo]

I DON'T NEED A POSSE I GET IT ON BY MYSELF

[@Dinker27]

Shout out to the homies who had to break out the Punnet squares and channeled Gregor Mendel when it came to raising chao stats.

[@LEtheCreator]

I've never really listened to Amy's theme before and now I'm scared 'Grats on getting sponsored!

[@MrSkerpentine]

I’m glad he’s getting money, but part of me does feel a bit of dread having watched his last upload lol

[@Spritesuit]

I still think the Chao Garden could make a great mobile game, especially if tied to some kind of exercise feature. Spending more time exercising gaining items faster and exploring new areas in real life earning rarer items, for instance. If they really wanted to take it to 11, they could add Pokemon Go-esce functionality, such as map areas where players can race and play karate against other people (not to mention picking up animals, chaos drives, and eggs on the map). If a person goes to such a "Chao Center" regularly (such as the end of a hiking trail or a library), it could even function as a Kindergarten where the player can check up on them regularly (or they'll feel sad and alone) to help enforce good habits. Monetization would naturally be the Chao Black Market, pretty much functioning identically. In-App Purchases aside, I think it'd be a major hit.

[@trendyy._.6365]

50 for a tails chao

[@gringusgaming]

NO for the simple fact that it will be riddled with ads and in app purchases that will ruined everything. Not just that, but there is no way they will be able to fully imitate the original experience without poorly emulating SA2s controls on mobile devices.

[@DrMecha]

@@gringusgaming We got Chao Resort Island as a Proof of concept; of course it will work.

[@DeltaFrazzle]

i dont want micro transactions in my chao garden, no matter how good of a fit of a mobile game it would be.

[@skepbeans]

@@DrMecha chao resort island, and pocket chao garden (a fanmade game for moblie devices) is just super bland and boring for me. I don’t know why tho. There’s just something missing for me

[@ShiningStar5022]

These indie devs need to implement something similar to a Chao Garden if they're making a spiritual successor to Sonic Adventure.

[@MomoTheDisciple]

Wasted so many hours of my life breeding chao

[@CompassRoseGaming]

If you want, then Poglings is a thing. Not my cup of tea, but still

[@ShiningStar5022]

@@CompassRoseGaming I heard about that game.

[@TheCh33ks]

There's a new game in the works called Bobo Bay. Maybe worth watching?

[@EEBE64]

@@ShiningStar5022 There's another indie game in development called "Star Garden" and it's a cross between the Chao Garden and City trial from Kirby Air ride.

[@woopiegoldberg]

you released this at the perfect time, me and my friend are in a friendly argument over sa2's quality as she ADORES chao garden but hates the main game. this helps us bridge the gap at least

[@GeorgeNoiseless]

How does your friend feel about SA1?

[@woopiegoldberg]

@@GeorgeNoiselessnot that big a fan unsurprisingly, shes just not into platformers in general but loves the quirky little sim mode here

[@skepbeans]

Is it bad that I relate to your friend? I’m extremely bad at platforming games and I oddly love the chao garden. Chao are just extremely adorable, I wish they exist irl.

[@GeorgeNoiseless]

@@woopiegoldberg Well then, if your friend has no attachment to SA games per se, perhaps they should look into the Tamagotchi mobile games? They still make those, I believe. And if they want Chao-flavoured experience specifically there's a free fan game called "Chao Resort Island".

[@InternetTAB]

sounds like the perfect excuse by her to play together

[@Bobb11881]

I'll tell you what it was doing in a Sonic game. It was doing the same thing everything was doing in a Sonic game back then, from the shooting and hunting stages to the stories. There is one thing all of these things were doing in a Sonic game: Being fuckin' awesome.

[@MushyRoom77]

Maybe they could make a Chao Garden game that essentially flips it, so the raising simulator is the main game and going out to explore and find supplies for your Chao is some sort of side mode instead? Not sure how it would work, but as long as it's fun to do, that's what would matter in the end.

[@basklisk]

I like this idea! I've played a couple other chao garden fangames but they solely took place in the garden (and races/minigames), they were boring... I want to work hard and then come back to spoil my chao

[@MushyRoom77]

@@basklisk Yeah exactly! Like maybe taking them out for a walk and you can explore small areas together and find things maybe?? Idk but something to help keep the game interesting.

[@Bluerockpie]

I think for that idea mixing some of the consepts from slime rancher in might be fun, along with adding some more ways for the player to interact with the Chao like with the player teaching their Chaos how to sing certain, or playing childhood games like peek-a-boo with them to improve bond, and have the chao's bond with the player be a factor in preformance in different minigames.

[@MushyRoom77]

@@Bluerockpie Yeah definitely more interactions for sure!

[@dovahkiin53839]

Cult of the lamb is a little like that!

[@DARS_04]

I'm here! Great. When I checked on my Chao they usually drowned in the little pond in the regular Chao garden but I had trained em up to swim, I felt proud for the little guy when he swimmed on his own.

[@zkitty11]

When I played through SA2's story mode I didn't like the mech and treasure hunting levels at first. Then when I realized that I'd have to get emblems for those stages to unlock more stuff for the chao garden, I gave them another chance and ended up appreciating them a lot more. The treasure hunting stages are actually my favorites now!

[@rollflasher89]

This was a really solid video! What I love most about it is that it really puts a big dent on the mentality that the Chao Garden warped the perception of SA2 fans and made them think the game is better than what it really is because it forced them to replay the Speed stages over and over again. I actually made a whole post breaking down the Garden and explaining why you're shooting yourself in the foot if you stick only to the Sonic and Shadow stages, since the Garden is designed to support the WHOLE game, meaning that you can't pretend the rest of the game doesn't exist if you want to get the most out of it, because of this I'm glad to see a video like this with more people realising that there's much more to this sidegame and SA2 as a whole than what those common statements would lead you to believe. After all, I doubt the Garden would be enough to warp the perception of players for a game like Sonic 06, since that package would not be enough to fully benefit from the Chao experience. Great work overall!

[@sketchsskotch1073]

I'm gonna guess you've watched Projared's video on Sonic Adventure 2.

[@babycatto173]

i am honestly to this day STILL visiting my chao garden. i love the little beans so much! ♡

[@ElijahW2003]

8:05 Actually, if I recall, the Skeleton Dog takes EVERYTHING away. It is actually often used by people for the express purpose of getting rid of changes made by animals.

[@Dinker27]

That's correct. I seem that was the case for the ghost-types in general. Legs included.

[@Schnort]

I was wondering if that was meant to be a joke. I can't really tell.

[@Rhubarb120]

​@@Schnort It was referring to a chao's stats, not its physical appearance.

[@Dell2YT]

You are the first person I've watched in quite some time that gets every Chao fact right. This does not go unnoticed. Thank you for being thorough and for the Chao signal boost. We need more people in this side fandom.

[@saffronu7621]

It's a testament to how good it was that there's an entire community, Discord and website dedicated to it. And the reason I still play Adventure 2, which is the most played game I've ever had!

[@TheBoodercg]

Chao garden definitely should come back no questions asked. When I was in 3rd grade I was a full fledged speedy, treasure hunting, sharp-shooting father. Its truly a treat when you think about how cool SA2B is alone. But I’m almost sure content like this would be an easy dlc/gacha culprit and I don’t think I could ever stand to see it if that came true. I would cry.

[@QBG]

I think I disagree with your thesis here. Chao Garden never made me want to explore more of SA2B's stages. Quite the opposite, actually. It made me seek out the fastest/easiest/most efficient ways to get stats and rings so I could get back to doing Chao stuff ASAP. That turned out to be going through Sonic's first stage for rings and farming drives from Tails'/Eggman's first stages. I had played SA2 on Dreamcast and didn't get much into the Chao Garden until my friends got obsessed with it on the GameCube version. Pretty soon I was obsessed, too. Eventually I got frustrated that some key aspects of the Dreamcast Chao experience were locked behind a VMU game that I could no longer play, so I bought SA2B _solely_ to get the better version of Chao Garden. IIRC, I never finished most of the game and played only _just_ enough to have access to all the animals for making Chaos Chao. All the other hundreds of hours I spent with that game were a mantra-like loop of running through the beginning of the same two stages over and over until I had 10 of the color drives I wanted (or in the case of rings, just playing through all of City Escape), then heading straight to the Garden to pump them into my latest Chao project. That, or just aimlessly jumping around and watching the Chao do their thing, passing time between transformations. If they ever bring back Chao in some way, my hope is that it'd be its own full experience, rather than side content for another game. There are endless ways to deepen the framework laid by SA2B's Chao Garden, which was already deep enough for players like me to consider it the real "main game". Divorcing it from the Sonic experience would be music to my ears.

[@CinnaSwirls]

Agreed, that's something I forgot to mention is before I just gave up out of being drained and uninterested I too visited City Escape on repeat. The fact it relies on the main game as it does killed all the drive I needed to do it, so I didn't do it. I did everything else, except Green Hill because I couldn't bother with the Chao Garden just to unlock it. All A ranks was much less painful.

[@chillinsquirtle]

Getting more emblems gives you more items and egg colors

[@QBG]

@@chillinsquirtle Yeah I was aware of that lol. But after the initial experience of raising Chao on the Dreamcast version to see all the different evolutions and color combinations and whatnot, I lost interest in the aesthetic aspect. My goal with the GameCube version was to make one of each of the three Chaos Chao with all S-rank stats. I finished one, but never got around to the other two.

[@chillinsquirtle]

@@QBG I was into making two tone shiny chaos chao so I needed them emblems lol

[@Bluerockpie]

I think one way they could remake chao garden as it's own game would be to make it into a sort of pet or ranch simulator where the main part is taking care of the chao, and the other bit exploring the world gathering stuff needed for all the stuff you can do in the chao garden framework, heck the exploration could be used to get different chao behaviors and/or appearances, the explooration could also unlock more areas for you to let your chao explore in, like caves, beaches, forests, and more! There could also be more minigames along with the ones in chao garden where you the player can teach your chao different behaviors like singing(where you could teach them to sing different songs), or dancing or even playing childhood games with them.

[@Skyehoppers]

Loved this! It kinda blows my mind how much depth in this game has that I missed as a kid by just holding forward. Like what was that about each character having a unique melody? I have no memory of ever discovering any of that. I also love the sound effects you use! Your videos are so...bouncy! Definitely a joy to watch. Will try to work through your backlog when I find the time :)

[@DesigningFor]

Unfortunately it's not quiiiite as interesting as it sounds - each character has access to the same Mystic Melody ability, which opens up a pathway to... SOMETIMES more level but often just a secret area where the Hidden Chao is located. Like, sometimes you get a cool bonus challenge section with Shadow akin to the Crash 3 death routes, and most of the time you get "here is a room. There is a Chao in it, and sometimes rare animals". Finding the altar to activate the melody is more of a fun hide-and-seek, though - definitely more akin to the Sonic 3 & Knuckles special stage gateways in that regard! And thank you! Always love adding SFX in - getting the tonality and feel of the game experience is always really important to me, really appreciate to hear the feedback that it's working decently! And thank you just... mind the audio quality if you go too far back in the log!

[@DoctorSpacebar]

Now that the Chao Garden is in a pantheon, can I get Chao boons in Hades? They would make breaking out of Tartarus so much more relaxing.

[@hereforonereason5820]

The Chao garden is so brilliant from a replayability standpoint. Normally in a platformer like SA2, you exhaust the game of its content and put it down. Collect all the emblems, 100% all the stages, mess around with the game for a bit after, and you're done. What the chao garden does is make those extrinsic rewards functionally infinite. You raise one chao and you're already going back to levels over and over to raise its stats and customize its appearance. You've got a limited amount of inventory space though so for your one chao, you've got to make 10s or 100s of trips to the stages to fill up on chaos drives and animals, further complicated if you don't want animal parts, or you only want specific ones. You can only have a max of 999 rings (just pick a stage, go to mission 3 and loop), so even at max efficiency you need to make a bunch of trips to open up access to everything from the black market. This is for ONE chao in ONE garden. you can have 18 in the game. If you get really into chao raising you'll be replaying levels 1000s of times, building muscle memory and a more complete understanding of the game. I say this from experience, I've had the same muscle memory of City Escape I've had for almost 2 decades because of all the ring and chaos drive grinding I used to do. Picked it up on steam (and heavily modded it) last year and didn't miss a beat, still just as skilled now as I was then.

[@chocobomaster210]

I could've lived my whole life without hearing the phrase "Chaorousal"

[@deviantartguy0]

chaorousal

[@chocobomaster210]

@@deviantartguy0 It has no effect the second time. I'm dulled.

[@polocatfan]

I mean there is certain art of chao

[@BBWahoo]

I'm so chaorny

[@HeadmasterAutobot]

I barely ever used the Chao Garden (as I only ever rented SA2B), but I remember the zen atmosphere (and bizarrely intricate, replayable progression). There's practically enough for a whole other game! Really makes me wonder what the designers and programmers planned when they cooked this up.

[@Bluerockpie]

Maybe the people who made the Chao Garden portion of the game where really into Tamogachi and wanted to implement that into the game as a side mode? That's my theory on it anyway.

[@PatchworkRose567]

I feel like a Chao X Tamagotchi crossover would be perfect and I’m surprised it hasn’t been done yet. The multiple evolutions, the whole generations mechanic, and mini games would line up so well with the Chao Garden. Honestly I just want a new Chao Garden like game or experience.

[@janer1024]

@@PatchworkRose567 I would love that!

[@thajocoth]

Whenever I played through SA2 (three full playthroughs on the Dreamcast & GameCube), I just bred chao with S ranks together until I got an all S-Rank chao, force fed it chao fruit from the black market until its stats were maxed, and then watched it speedrun each event. I never gave them animals because I didn't like how the animal parts attached onto the chao.

[@shxde]

Sonic Adventure 2 Battle is my all time favorite game, still play it.

[@waderichards-2007]

This is the reason Sa2 is my favorite game

[@Highzen]

I do hope chao garden return to a main sonic title (not mobile, I know the monetization and daily gate keeping would be insane).

[@Azure_Sandora]

Been hoping to one day understand the appeal of the Chao Garden. This was, a step in the right direction, but I still need to experiment with it myself, I think.

[@CinnaSwirls]

Finally someone else who didn't enjoy it, never thought I'd see the day at this point.

[@UltimateTS64]

Yeah same here, I feel like I've kinda been an illegitimate SA2 lover because I don't care about the Chao Garden at all 😂

[@zenvariety9383]

I would love to see Chao Gardens return.

[@theninjaofmusic]

It's an RPG. You invest your time into to main game and get to see the gains of exploring. It just works hand and hand with the main game where it gives you extra optional objectives while you're playing.

[@npetrikov3801]

go look for a channel called sapphire chao

[@BadReligi0nFan69]

The Chao Garden was for Sonic is what Nazi Zombies was for COD.

[@jnolasco24]

Came here from Chadtronic’s video about the video game he is developing, Poglings - people in the comments kept talking about Chao Garden so I needed to know what that was. Thanks for the video!

[@N0tsaved]

That YOSCH at the 5 minute mark got me so good. Perfect.

[@Hynotama]

Look, I love the chao garden, but there is something “more peaceful and nostalgic” than the chao garden. The Sonic Mega Collection Plus museum section. And some credits roll soundtracks from the Sonic Advance series. Also turns out that chao are not really linked to Chaos. Turns out Chaos is a mutated alien from Sonic Frontiers. He was just there protecting the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald and he took a liking to the chao that gathered around the shrine.

[@captainnintendo]

So, here is something of a brainstorm that I've been having for years. How about a Chao Garde that worked more as a HUB/Service/Achivement system between ALL Sega games? Something that would be cross compatible with several games. Like, Imagine, you're playing a new game in the Jet Set Radio series and whenever you earn achievements, that will then unlock some clothes, toys etc the next time you boot up the Chao Garden app and it checks your profile. And all the spray cans you pick up on a level will also be something that counts toward your Chao Garden currency. Or when you play Shenmue, all the little capsule toys that you collect could either unlock toys in the Chao Garden or powerups. I think it could be a great idea for several reasons. First of all, it would provide that amazing feedback loop and would work as a continuously thing even when you are done with whatever Sega game you were playing, cause the next game will still provide you with rewards and progress and give you a reason to come back, and the reward system would also give players an initiative to maybe explore and see more of the game to unlock some of the harder to get achievements and whatnot to unlock cool stuff in their Chao Garden. And even if you don't care about the whole Chao Garden thing, it would just be a passive tracker of your progress for your Sega games that you never have to deal with if you don't care about that stuff. Would almost be like the Achievement/Trophy system we have now but with actual tangible stuff to do with your rewards. The Chao Garde in 2022 has so much potential to deliver so much more than it did back in the day and even back then it was fun and addicting as all hell. And of course you could invite, visit, share, trade and show off your Chaos cool designs and Chao Garden online, do competitions and all that. The Sky is the limit for what they could do with this and I imagine many people could get extremely hooked on the concept. And as for Sega themselves, I'm sure they could also see a lot of profit from people who might be persuaded to get games if said games had some good Chao Garden content. As long as they keep any kind of monitization out of the Chao Garden HUB, I am sure this could be a huge success.

[@buttisholy8571]

Chao could come back in it's own small compact game, doesn't even have to be in a sonic game anymore to me.

[@elliebee3520]

I didn’t expect this video to be so in depth, but I did enjoy it quite a lot

[@CaptainAstronaut]

Great Video!! Sonic Team really didn't have to go that hard with the Chao Garden and all its mechanics. But I'm so glad that they did.

[@Sonicjan]

And that's exactly why I think it is counteractive to see the Chao World as it's own game and further separating it from the main game. Instead integrating Chao MORE into the main game should be of interest. I love how Balan WonderWorld does this with it's Tims, that discover secret Items for you and actually aport them aswell! You can also find Tim Eggs in the Levels. Imagine if we were able to discover and collect rare Chao Items in Stages, making it even more interesting to explore them. Chao could attack enemies, collect Rings and protect you from getting hit, protecting the very vulnerable Ring Count aswell, which you need to buy more stuff for your Chao. Sonic Jump Fever did this the best so far, actually. Runners was solid too. I also think that a standalone Chao Garden/World would probably have a problem holding itself up properly. There is an official one (the GBA Tiny Chao Garden) and also a few fan games, but none of them get as much fanfare, love and playtime as the Chao World in SA2. They just aren't the same.

[@sonicguyver7445]

I just adored the chao and what they could do. I always wished the comics would have included stories of the characters raising chao.

[@marsy24-o6b]

I've gotta admit that most of my time playing SA2 was spent replaying levels so I could buy more chao eggs XD I adore raising these chaos and actually projected Sonic having chao-babies into his motivation for beating eggman XD XD so nostalgic

[@MrSkerpentine]

D4 getting a sponsorship on the video released *right after* the video about Spamton’s desperation is kinda horrifying but also kinda funny

[@clickingaming]

Great stuff! I feel like I've grown out of the Chao mode over the years but there's no denying the hundreds of hours I loved spending in it as a child.

[@peliukun8164]

3:37 she's talkin about the quills she shaved in changin her appearance between her classic look which looks like sonic and her new look where she's shaven because persian cats are long haired cats and sphinxes have no fur. she smoothed herself out, the whole songs a metaphor about herself and her love for sonic. too many fucks misinterpret it because its sonic.

[@shieldon530]

3:03 rough how poorly any mention of Jirard has aged but honestly I can’t blame u bc I haven’t 100%ed any game ever lol

[@DeltaFrazzle]

i will never stop wanting a chao garden, and not a watered down version, btw.

[@GamerTowerDX]

YO MAH BOY D4 GETTING SPONSORS NOW? LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOO

[@jamespowers.gpa.]

It’s hard to find any solid content around SA2 Chao garden, understandably so lol, so I really appreciate the vid. This game hit at a perfect point in my childhood so I already loved the game but to this day I will still come back and it’s mostly because of this awesome Chao Garden(s). .. and if it wasn’t clear enough, I’m one of those people screaming, PLEASE Bring Back Chao’s! Honestly the way people fell into Palworld and Pokemon just doing the bare minimum the last couple games, people would kill for a Chao system done right as well as bring in a wider audience and I do believe the juice is worth the squeeze (just like I wanna squeeze those cute little Chao’s to a point where it’s almost too much just before catching myself and releasing them back into their adorable environments) Much love

[@MRDLT00]

Can you imagine if they Remastered Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 into a combined compilation game like the Spyro and Crash Bandicoot trilogies? Would be magic. :')

[@lostmagicdude888]

2:22 bookmark

[@CaptainxSupreme]

I forgot the sound of the Chao lobby theme. What a banger

[@kikiohearts]

Oh my God! Me and my sisters had a journal for keeping track of our chao. It was a must for certain looks we wanted to match the backstorys of our Chao and their little Chao families. Always a tragedy when a high level decides its time to be born anew.

[@chickenflavor9880]

I think the chao garden is a good idea but needs a little bit more interactivity imo

[@danielbetancourt1483]

Me and my boys been getting together on the weekends and playing SA2 Battle over a few beers the last few weeks. Great times

[@juliusz.9100]

Man, this is my all time favorite game. I was never really able to put into words why. Your video sums it up perfectly, though! Thanks for that.

[@thecbarpsh3215]

What a time to find this, immediately after four of my chao in Sonic Adventure DC vanish from the memory card without a trace while the game is off.

[@madnesshero4675]

The first time I listened to the lyrics to Amy's theme I was shocked at the rique lyrics. I thought it said "the pinks so cute, I had to shave it." But turns out it said "sphinx" not "pink". Glad I looked it up

[@direktexe8436]

Hey I saw your video on gradius which brought me here. One shoot 'em up series that doesn't get much attention is Thunder Force. Many of us thunder force fans recommend thunder force 3 for shmup beginners since it does a good job at introducing you to level gimmicks. Thunder Force 4 is where the fun is at. The game also encourages wise weapon choice. Take the stationary enemies in the desert level for example. They are somewhat immune to the hunter weapon but they still absorb the Hunter weapon spheres as a way to render our most reliable option useless and conditions us to use our other weapons. Its also a pain in our side since the level is littered with tank units that burrow in the sand and relocate in order to find better positioning to snipe us out of the air. You'll enjoy breaking down the game's 2-screen level size. The bosses have a slight element of random to them. The stage 4 boss is the hardest in the game since it tends to be very unpredictable. Its theme is also a banger as well. Stages 1, 2, 4, 7 and 8 are a good example of how the larger levels allow for players to choose their own path to suit their experience. There is typically a lot of different enemy types in thunder force games and TF4 hits that on the spot.

[@tastyboi77]

Its crazy, I was just going through these thoughts last week when 100%ing the game for the first time. The next game could easily have a companion app for smart phones if they just gave us what we wanted lol

[@theBolderBoulder]

If this mode makes it onto Sonic Frontiers… Tha alone would sell me on the game! I’m a big fan of SA DX and SA2B, so seeing something like that return would be amazing!

[@cristinagomez3283]

"instant chaorousal" is a phrase that will inevitably end with an illegal chao fight club and/or chao skrip clup if you catch the drift I'm wooding. And it'll probably be run by robotnik.

[@EduSolsa]

I barely touched the Chao Garden when I played SA2, never appeal to me. Pretty cool to see how deep and complex it is

[@danielandersson5345]

Its the best its so unique and fun in a way i cant say

[@giornogiovanna8476]

I know this is 2 years old, but I also wanna bring up the lore implications the Chao have, specifically with Sonic himself and the existence of the pure speed neutral Chao has some interesting implications on Sonic's potential origins, especially alongside Sonic Frontiers

[@ParmMannREBORN]

From the title alone I know this is gonna be a great video

[@EternaMidnight]

This is why SA2B is one of my favorite childhood games

[@BAIGAMING]

16:50 I like it when a game has card games, like FF8's Triple Triad card game, The Witcher's Gwent, or even Cold Steel's Vantage Masters. Something is wrong when even the developers in Cold Steel 4 were making a joke, where you do a card game battle against the private military company's leader instead of actually fight him 😂

[@jamesguitarist]

I booted this up yesterday just to freshly start a new chao garden. The grind begins.

[@felonyx5123]

Got recommended this and then watched your Dragon Quest 5 video, I'm impressed.

[@ShockwaveITB]

I spent so much time on the chao island website. Just looking at all the different chao. Let alone time spent in the garden(s). Part of why SA2B is my favorite game of all time. (I’m also a fan of the speed, mech and hunting levels ...even if I’m not good at the hunting levels). The CHAO garden just makes the game even better.

[@TarvouldsQuest]

YOSH. He said, eating some delicious Magic Spoon. I seriously miss the Chao garden. Aside from having a blast running around as EGGMAN and Brady'ing my evil children into the stratosphere, I did really enjoy watchin' dem numbers go up, and my babies getting shinier and more beastly. I 100%'d this game once on Gamecube and after I did I said the Chao Garden was by far the worst. Yet years later I only have fond memories, so what did I know? I remember also mastering City Escape BECAUSE of the Chao Garden. I would only buy the fruit that raised all stats, so I would blast through City Escape and get almost every ring I could as fast as possible to fund my baby. Eventually becoming speedrunner-esque in nature for that one level. And THAT was super fun too. I connected it with the GBA and Sonic Advance, faught my friends Chaos (hate the plural of this word btw), and made any girl that would talk to me at the time go "AWWWWWWW." So clearly I owe this side game a lot. Love it. How is this not a mobile game yet?!

[@thebigbean8783]

Wow. I haven't even thought to go super mega deep in the chao garden. I've done quite a bit on one, but never a whole fleet. He's aging so maybe someday he'll become a chaos chao, but dang it. We need another chao garden. Why haven't we seen it again

[@DarkHeroAkutare]

"Do I think that Chao Garden is this transcendent feature that every game should aspire to have, or that it utterly completes Sonic Adventure 2 and ignoring it means you're playing the game wrong?" Man... I was seriously hoping you were just going to follow that up with "yes."

[@CinnaSwirls]

Well, there are also people who hated it so I think "yes" would be awful and gate keeping.

[@DarkHeroAkutare]

@@CinnaSwirls it's joke

[@lukezyx8031]

Awesome video man

[@TanukiTracks]

"Skeleton Dog, which super charges a Chao's stats without taking anything away" Objection, that Chao lost his legs! (Not kidding, that's what the skeleton effect is)

[@tikkelbikkel]

For a good while I considered the Chao Garden to be the main course of this game and the actual levels and story mode more of a side. My friends felt the same way, we'd go as far as lending/trading Chao. It is by far the most fond gaming memory from my childhood.

[@Legionary219]

The chao garden in Sonic Adventure 2 and breeding fish in Dark Cloud 2 took up so much of my free time

[@SuperVoodude]

I know a lot of folks have talked about Chao Garden being good enough to be a standalone game. But as shared here, and from what I've seen from some very nice fan-made attempts, it doesn't have the same luster without the main game imo. (Please note that I didn't say it was "worse".) Like a scale, the chill and simple Chao gameplay is balanced with the faster paced main gameplay. Anytime you've had too much of one, you can go to the other. With the fangames being chill and nothing else, I found myself getting bored much faster.

[@Galeforce017]

Perfect video for making me wanna slap the game on and spend the next 12 hours in the Chao Garden.

[@CrossKnights]

Whoa! Congratulations on the sponsor guys!

[@Multigameguy35]

5:40 nice shirt

[@UliTroyo]

This was fun! I only knew of the chao from Hazel's video about Sonic Adventure; I had no idea it got this wild.

[@BELIEVETHEHEAVENLYFATHER]

8:58 sonic:AAAA IT BURNS

[@Palendrome]

Chao Garden in SA2 felt like "Home". You go run around, then you head home to see your buddies. Actually it would be awesome, in a game that is either open world, or hub world like SA1, if the Chao Garden was literally at your home base in the open world, rather than sectioned off. Like, they should have done that in SA1

[@DeluxeFlame]

I remember constantly grinding on the GBA link cable for this game instead of playing the levels, no idea if it was better but it was what I preferred at the time.

[@Triplebrc]

It was meant as a side mode, but anyone I ever talked to about this game agreed that it was the main mode. All the mission progress and earning of emblems was only ever to unlock more chao stuff

[@basklisk]

so true my friend now I want to get back to playing it lol I have so many mods and nearly all of them are solely for enhancing the chao garden gameplay and visuals... I want a newer version so bad, but I'm glad there's a huge dedicated community constantly improving it still

[@Daan_Knobbout]

We will never stop calling! Though a standalone experience would be best, I fear that when Chao make a return it will be a F2P feature. Call me delusional but I would welcome even a bastardised shadow of it's former self. Although there would be not much reason to play it over modded SA2...

[@Prince_Cheddar]

Chao tap into a kind of parental instinct, the desire to look after things and make their lives good. It's a bit like The Sims. Plus they're adorable blob fairies you can engage in blood sports with. I think the ideal way to bring them back would be to have standalone software that interfaces with Sonic games. Playing Sonic games grants you items directly and rings to spend in the chao garden software. New Sonic game comes out, the chao software updates with new content, and you're incentivized to go and buy the new Sonic game, so you can get new items in a fresh new adventure.

[@sonic-bb]

I never heard of anyone hating on the other character gameplay styles until 10 years after the games original release

[@JG-ni2yi]

I remember playing 100 hours or more just to get all 3 chaos chao. So much fun

[@devilsadvocateproductions]

To me the chao garden was the main game. All the stages and finding upgrades and secrets was just to unlock more garden stuff and things in the chao shop. New eggs and whatnot.

[@WikiSorcerer]

I remember investing a lot of my time in the SA2 Chao Garden when I was younger. Then a year or two ago, I found out I could have the game on my PS3 and it happened again.

[@ararebeast]

I didn't even know the Chao Garden had this many components before today, much less hidden data packets? No wonder none of my Chao ever did much!

[@espurrseyes42]

It was surprisingly deep for a pet simulator in a Sonic game. Sega would never have something like this in modern games given how the games themselves have been since Colors.

[@MagillanicaLouM]

"what's it doing in a Sonic game?" THE ANSWER IS NIGHTS

[@Sonicfalcon16]

I also like the 5 extra goals for each level. That made me want to play more

[@jadthecat387]

With the rumors of the chao garden coming back, this video is perfect

[@329link]

If that upcoming sonic game is open world like I think it is, the chao garden would make for a great hub of sorts. One of those major areas you find yourself repeatedly going back to for various reasons, like whiterun from skyrim. Plus, they could have chao stuff as collectibles scattered around, kinda like the special eggs you could find in SA1.

[@FracturedPixel]

SA2 was the peak of Sonic, and the chao garden was a big part of that

[@kharmachaos667]

Doing a a rank run right now. Chao garden is such a nice reprieve especially after getting a's on final rush 🤣 (fun fact: to get an a rank on the steam version for find chao on final rush, since tou can't use lightdash on the ring trails for the stair-rails, you have to use at least two speedrunner tricks: skipping rails by boost jumping, then facing away, jumping, then bouncing to get up that last rail that is almost completely broken)

[@hinata5734]

What a perfect game. Take back to ‘02 plz I just want to experience this game for the first time again