Sonic Adventure 2's Ranking System Is Cool

I love Sonic Adventure 2, especially the ranking system featured. Here's what I love about it so much.
Music Featured:
Extras Menu - Sonic Mega Collection
Midnight Greenhouse - Knuckles Chaotix
Monkey Billiards 2 - Super Monkey Ball 2
Reactive Factory: Work It Out Instrumental - Sonic R
Wave Ocean - Sonic The Hedgehog (2006)
Mechanical Resonance - Sonic Adventure
Bit Crusher - Tekken 4
Soarin' Over the Space (Cosmic Wall) - Sonic Adventure 2
Bright Sound (Dry Lagoon) - Sonic Adventure 2
Rougeport Sewers - Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Arid Sands (Night) - Sonic Unleashed
The Base - Sonic Adventure 2
Special Stage: Bonus Challenge - Sonic Heroes
Prof. Omachao - Sonic Adventure 2
Victory! (Results Theme) - No More Heroes 3
Sources:
Rank letters used in thumbnail - www.deviantart...
Sonic Adventure 2 Development - info.sonicretr...
Sonic Adventure 2 Stage Points/Letter Ranks - info.sonicretro...
Social Media and also my Twitch!
/ oasis_dealer
/ oasisdealer

[@theperfectpixl]

Great video! The ranking system is a huge reason why I love treasure hunting in Sonic Adventure 2 and prefer it to Knuckles in Sonic Adventure. In the first game, the hunting stages end up being kinda boring to me because I’m not thinking about deciphering hints or planning my route to the next piece, I’m just following the radar. There isn’t a drive to go fast outside one of the secondary missions.

[@BlueEyedVibeChecker]

Fun fact, Sonic Adventure 2: Battle made it easier. 18,000 in City Escape is enough for an A rank in Battle, but in the Dreamcast version that only gets you a B rank. And all of the stages got this treatment in future ports.

[@AccelerateHedge]

Dang, this is really good. Also I personally love the treasure hunting stages lol

[@spindash64]

Honestly, Mech stages can be analyzed pretty simply: Eggman levels: good Tails levels: not good Okay, maybe it’s not QUITE that simple, but Tails tends to run into some real bullshit, while Eggman is the one who throws the bullshit at people. I find it glorious fun to plow thru Eggman’s stages at lightning speed, using the Hover to cheese past slow platforming areas or to “Mary poppins” down as I rain destruction. Hell, I remember very briefly considering trying to seriously Speedrun Eggman’s stages Tails, by contrast, has levels with far fewer openings to let you cruise by, and far MORE situations where you get blindsided by enemies you couldn’t possibly have reacted to in time. Of his 4 stages, I only enjoy 1, while of Eggman’s 6, I enjoy ALL of them As far as Hard mode goes, I’m not a HUGE fan, simply because the flow is naturally a bit less polished than Missions 1 and 4, but for the Treasure Hunting stages, I do appreciate that they set aside RNG to create puzzles for you to solve. Yes, it becomes super easy to A rank once you’ve beaten them once, but I find that to be a nice reward in and of itself for having pushed thru mastering Treasure Hunting

[@vytrondevofficial]

I think it’s because Tails was not originally planned to be playable, so Eggman’s stages were probably more planned out and Tails’ stages were just thrown together late in development

[@spindash64]

@@vytrondevofficial Absolutely. His stages aren’t unplayable by any means, but it’s very clear that less time was spent for Tails considering how players might interact with the stage, and that results in it feeling a lot “cheaper”

[@4nrew]

I liked all of Tails' stages except Route 101.

[@lks19]

@@4nrew Only Mission Street is somewhat boring. I mean, every mech level is boring, but this one takes the first place in the podium.

[@Hyp3rSonic]

@@lks19 I haven't played SA2 in a while. But I found mission street to be kinda annoying, even while speedrunning(I think?)

[@GordieKat]

Treasure hunting in SA2 is sooo much better than in SA1 imo. It's so small and basically over in 30 seconds in SA1.

[@AL4IGH5]

the problem are the hints, the hints are SOOO ASS. Whoever made them didnt think of how it made sense

[@LaymoSupraymo]

I know right? Some people just need to get good instead of blaming their problems on the game.

[@Mimikium778]

@@AL4IGH5 im a huge fan of the treasure hunting, its my specialty whenever i go back to replay the game and i even got some scores i was happy with on Xbox 360, but i always found the hint system frustratingly useless even when i knew every level in and out like i did 6 or 7 years ago. mad space is the WORST offender of all, because not only are they as vague as other hints, if you dont have them memorized you have to decode them which can add extra minutes per attempt. when the difference between an A and B rank can be 5 or 10 seconds and you got bad peice rng, thats decoding time wasted for no benefit other than maybe pattern recognition if mad space continues to screw with you for 20 or so attempts, like it did during my most recent M1 A rank attempts. M4 was much nicer to me though.

[@Mimikium778]

and @GordieKat i like the feel and flow of SA2's treasure hunting more, the levels are much more catered to the movesets and dont take to long to explore outside of mad space, death chamber and meteor herd, which all wouldve benefitted from SA1's emerald radar pretty significantly.

[@Namless_Namek]

How does this video have so few views?? This is an amazing breakdown of the SA2 rank system and a really solid production all around. The ranking system is something that I have only recently come to appreciate in recent years after finally going for and getting all 180 emblems. The whole Score Attack aspect has given me a really fresh perspective on the game and is really the thing that ties the whole game together. Like straight up, I always found SA2 really overrated compared to SA1. I always liked the game, but I never truly loved it like the first Sonic Adventure. But after being forced to interact with the rank system for the A ranks, do the extra missions for each stage, and even raise chao, I can honestly say that SA2 is superior to SA1 as a complete package. I'll always hold that SA1 has the better level design, is a better conversion of the classics, has a more "adventurous" feel, etc. But SA2 is a more focused and robust game that just has so much more content. In my opinion, the rank system and Score aspect of SA2 raise the game beyond just "one of the best 3d sonic games" to "one of the best 3d platformers ever created." It is that much of a game changer.

[@Blanktester685]

its not overrated when it does damn near everything better then sa1 in terms of gameplay lmao.

[@Namless_Namek]

@Blanktester685 The story forcing alt playstyles in SA2 as opposed to just being able to play Sonic if you want, the emerald radar being worse, the levels not being as open as SA1, etc. I am not saying I dislike SA2 at all. Just that on release, I didn't like it as much as SA1 because of these reasons. Now, I can appreciate its tighter design philosophy and especially its score attack system. The minor complaints listed above are still things I think SA1 has over SA2, but nowadays, I think both games are equally good for different reasons.

[@KOTEBANAROT]

The only Sonic game where I felt really rewarded by playing it well. Mastering the tricks is really tough, I could never pull off the rocket launch fast enough, so I resolved to get A rank without it. Surprisingly its possible. I never use the hints in treasure hunting stages. In fact I played these stages so much I often have a fifth sense about where the next piece is gonna be, because I think RNG generally favors distributing them evenly, for example after I get emerald up high, the next is probably in the middle. But sometimes Id judt get a feeling its hiding in a completely different location. That feeling is really cool, its like youre really a treasure hunter. Just circling the area and going up and down methodically youll get really good at it. Youre not trying to just find the emerald, youre learning the layout and get a feel of the level and how to cover the ground optimally. The monitors make you stop and interrupt that flow and I think it makes you think "wrong" about the level by focusing on one piece at a time. This is the reason I believe why people are so bothered by the locked emerald radar, and why I was never bothered by it because I would focus on my path and flow.

[@lks19]

spin dash + jump over the chain of enemies quickly, it's the best way. Metal harbor is the easiest one to get the a rank, since all you need is to get all the 174 rings :)

[@EmeraldMage7188]

I’ll be honest in the grand scheme of things I’m not really that interested in how this game works in its scoring system but this guy’s buttery smooth voice is the only real reason I stayed on this video after randomly getting auto played onto it

[@flyingbowser8138]

Kk

[@flyingbowser8138]

Jm

[@kahuna_44]

absolutely great video i will always praise the ranking system for sa2 for the hunting stages, the limited radar makes sense due to the fact of the better mobility you have in the games and the hints as well. its nice being challenged with knowing your moveset and learning the best way to navigate the level such as the trick where you can maintain your acceleration and speed in your glide with knuckles and rouge by drilling down for just a second and jumping back to your altitude or using punches and combos to get to different places! the learning the level design is a pain (i remember spending almost half an hour on death chamber and mad space my first time playing them) but after you figure it out its really fun to play

[@spindash64]

Yeah, the biggest issue with Treasure hunting is that it’s only fun once you’re at least somewhat good at it, and the game doesn’t really push you to become good at it before you get thrown into Egg Quarters and Aquatic Mine

[@kahuna_44]

@@spindash64 i had a harder time with mad space (who didnt) and death chamber tbh 😭 i remember clocking in at 36 minutes my first time for death chamber it was horrible but at least the music hits for them

[@spindash64]

@@kahuna_44 Oh, don't get me wrong, those are worse. The two I mentioned are just where players get thrown into the ocean with an uninflated pool floaty

[@sofiatoney8064]

I’m trash at Sonic’s stages now 😩

[@bicarbonateofsoda117]

My dude. That sonic mega collection music from the history section is hitting me right in the feels man

[@thorstenmarquardt7274]

shadow using chaos control to slow down time was the coolest thing ever for my teenage brain.

[@bored90sgamersbox68]

This game is SO AWESOME! Very nice video btw! ^^

[@chaddross1920]

Sonic adventure 2 was the last 3d sonic game where the speed of the character felt like it was enough it matched the pace of the level..forever thankful for being able to experience this game

[@bobdabuilda5463]

Epitome is pronounced uh pi tuh mee not Epi tome

[@Aziruf]

fantastic video of fantastic quality hope the algorithm picks you up

[@mushroomdude123]

Never in all my years playing SA2 (even 100% completing the game twice) did I know about the Perfect Ring thing.

[@CatCraft301]

11:42 "Metal Bed" 💀

[@lks19]

Bro's not sleeping well tonight with that one 🔥🔥🔥

[@teiuq1614]

6:50 “ehpihtome”

[@mikerice868]

I haven't even watched this yet, but YES! It's the only ranking system Sonic has ever had that I felt was properly challenging and felt good to master. I'd go so far as to say that the game doesn't even feel that good to play unless you're trying to achieve higher ranks since they force you to play stylishly

[@kingstarscream3807]

My comment keeps disappearing. Anybody else use the old Dreamcast web browser to get the A-rank tips on the website?

[@deepfriedwoomy6969]

great video! you prob get this alot but its honestly criminal you only have around 200 subs, this video is so well put together i loved every second of it

[@droidhusbands]

me and my friend played for the first time a few days ago. never played a sonic game in our lives (except a racing game i played when i was younger..) and we are god awful at it LOL we didnt get a single a rank outside of a single rouge and eggman level. maybe one day i'll be able to sit down and try to get A ranks on everything ... maybe . ill be honest this is the only game we've ever felt motion sickness playing and both of us actively play vr a bit embarrassing to know we're struggling on the same level as a 5-6 year old but it is what it is,, im ashamed to admit we spent a good 40 minutes on the first knuckles level its fun to see the perspective of someone who grew up with the game and has much more experience than we do :) thanks for taking the time to make a video about this!

[@linkkicksu]

I think the mission street spring is a leftover from Radical Highway's use of that same bridge prop, where that spring was used as a shortcut to the top of the bridge

[@FionnMartin-qp3io]

Thumbnail: BASED Me: Why did he put the ranks in that order Also me: Oh

[@Logan-tinyplanetss]

delightfuk video, thank you!! i'm super slow and verrrrry trial-and-error with all videogames but i have a lot of fun with my extremely low rankings and never really thought about the higher ones.

[@bbmaster3261]

nope nope i call instant skill issue, because i played sonic heroes at only 2 and i mastered it by like 4 and 5, and it took till i was at least 6 i think to finally get the final emerald because for some reason the only skill issue i had was not being able to get a A rank on ocean palace, power plant (team rose) and struggled with the yellow emerald for some reason, which is weird because i was really good at the 7th and 6th emerald but not the 5th one....5th was yellow i think it might have been 3rd or 4th but i digress.

[@void_guy1234]

Blud pulled out the fake s rank 💀

[@Bad_Cane]

6:49 super fucked up way to pronounce “epitome”

[@James-lw9ih]

I'd say that treasure hunting is better than mech stages Use them hints

[@jaydenluvsmenot]

pls make more vids like this i wanna subscribe

[@mallowtonmouse]

That gadget solution is big brain

[@JoshTheWoz]

Please make more videos! You'll get somewhere!

[@hamzamohamed6774]

THE THUMBNAIL IS PRICELESS

[@Alph4Falc0]

This video needs more exposure, good editing

[@nathanbraun2067]

only ranking system I like. every other game s ranking system sucks

[@monstersmike4585]

preach mai Chao brother

[@allohtoffbaqphat4547]

3:13 Im sorry, im trying to pay attention but that Chaotix music is just ✨️😌👌✨️

[@LittleishBites]

Make more videos

[@dinguspunch2379]

THIS VIDEO IS AWESOME I LOVE SONIC

[@polocatfan]

it's cool when I don't miss A Rank by 300 POINTS after feeling like I did a flawless run.

[@sithlordmikeyp]

6:50 your pronunciation of epitome reminds me of Brian Regan. 17:40 onscreen text made me laugh

[@eggymens]

honestly i found myself in the same boat when i was younger where i felt as though i somehow had to do something unintended to continue each time because i couldn't figure out exactly what it wanted from me specifically until later on or after looking it up or something.

[@割]

this video deserves so many more views!

[@xraygaming1193]

this guy needs more subs, great and amazing vid!

[@Squerfatchi]

B and A's are rare for me. but i DO gt them. WEEHEE YAAHOO

[@timothypickarski5234]

Regarding the All Rings challenge, a lot of levels have a big cluster of rings at the level’s 0,0,0 point since any extra assets in the level were just turned into the default item (rings) and sent there. That’s another way tons of rings aren’t accessible

[@Halo2glitchlover22]

I was thinking about this too. It’s kind of messed up that the developers did that and made getting all rings impossible. Very lazy and thoughtless of them, in my opinion.

[@CoralCopperHead]

I think the devs knew that the treasure hunting stages were an even bigger slog than they were in SA1. Why else would they have made Rouge the Dark team's treasure hunter? It was the late 90s/early00s, we still thought eye candy could pick up some slack in game design.

[@Stupidhedgehog]

How do you have a thousand views but 84 subscribes?

[@jboyathegamer]

A ranking the game is to hard

[@lks19]

It's just almost any other Sonic game. Like the video said, you have to master the levels first, but more specifically you need to: accumulating good score by destroying enemies and performing tricks while beating the level in a good time in speed levels, tracing effective routes for treasure hunting stages and making the highest combos in mech stages. There's no secret formula, even the tutorial explains it well. The only "secret" (tip) I can give is to get the highest number of rings. Also always destroy the golden beetle. The 1k points can make the difference.

[@chriswoods7774]

I still hate the Knuckles and Rogues finding the little pieces of the emeralds, I often get E's when I take too long.

[@Hyp3rSonic]

I respectfully disagree. I feel like this was 1 of the worst ranking systems in the entire series

[@CatchyCauchy]

Why

[@Hyp3rSonic]

​@@CatchyCauchythe scores aren't consistent on every level, and also, going for score means to do extra things in each level, instead of speedrunning the levels. It's why I prefer that getting ranks is based on ONLY time. I never cared about scores or ranks, only speedrunning.

[@lks19]

The score system is OK. An A rank comes from both score and time (and ring count in some cases).

[@Hyp3rSonic]

​@@lks19I respect your opinion

[@lks19]

@@Hyp3rSonic I also agree and respect your opinion. I just wanted to say that what you suggested would work 100% in another game with different game design choices. I don't think it would be a good thing to only praise the players who are skilled enough to pull unintended skips and strats (in SA2 at least).