Sonic Adventure's cutscenes were made in RPG Maker

I've been wanting to make a video like this digging into the cutscenes more for a while. The way the cutscenes are made in this game are so neat to mess around with.
Downloadable Cutscene mods:
gamebanana.com/mods/cats/13567
Cutscene decomp:
github.com/X-Hax/SADX-cutscen...
Event function list:
pastebin.com/Yu1mnkJD
Links:
► SADX Modding Guide: github.com/X-Hax/SADXModdingG...
► X-Hax Modding Discord: / discord
► Twitter: / speepshighway​
► Tumblr: speeps-highway.tumblr.com/​
► Donate: ko-fi.com/speepshighway
► Commission Translations from Japanese: [e-mail]

[@leonardooliveira4627]

The cutscenes being animated at 60fps double speed and slowed down certainly explains some of the awkward pauses and the characters doing their walking animations for way more time than they should

[@Samsgm]

Yeah. Lmao it also makes the character play walking animations in place

[@Triple-Q]

Many Japanese games to this day are still programmed like this, preset animations and all--once you see it, you can't really unsee it. Yakuza is a notable example

[@sinklar7946]

It's really noticeable in FF14 which makes getting through the slog of a story that much harder.

[@mariotaz]

Yeah I noticed this also. Also I was just listening to one of your remixes ha

[@Nitroxity]

​@@sinklar7946It only bothers me in 14 (so far, on 3.2 atm) whenever my character nods in agreement but that's more due to everyone pouring their hearts out in big ways only for me to just be like "yes, indeed". The canned animation just enhances its feeling of weirdness. It is what it is, I suppose.

[@opalander]

Delete your remixes that pick on other people. Shame on you

[@Noxedwin]

@@sinklar7946 You can almost _see_ the cutscene engine processing each command in turn. You could fit an entire cutscene in a Macro. _/target "Warrior of Light"_ _/facetarget _ _/smile_ _/nod _ _/s I found this. Here you go._ _/converse _ _/handover _ _[Warrior of Light: /handover]_ _/wave _ End scene.

[@sanicsanic6890]

7:33: Eggman: “ I’ll have 2 number 9s, a number 9 large, a number 6 with extra dip, 2 number 45s, and a large soda.”

[@agentomecha634]

I never realized how intricate the cutscenes in SA1 actually were. The fact that they are done in real time but need to be locked to 30fps or else they would move abnormally fast is pretty interesting. It’s also neat how with mods, you can use these variables to create your own cutscenes in-game. I guess that’s how KZbinrs, like Jehtt make their SA1 styled parody videos with the in-game engine.

[@AccelerateHedge]

I think those KZbinrs use Meme Maker, but I agree this is very interesting.

[@m3nmin]

​@@AccelerateHedgeYeah he does, but that's how the mod worls

[@AccelerateHedge]

@@m3nmin Fair.

[@jmoney9173able]

7:30 damn eggmans wolfing down those burgers, trying to unleash a water god works up an appetite don’t it?

[@tucannYT]

I hope someone uses the meme maker mod to make an extended version of that

[@not_kjb]

Burger time

[@JP_Soup]

Would you eat burgers with Eggman? I would. Because I love burgers.

[@Marie-Annelise]

I laughed my ass off, that moment is beautiful art.

[@MoeNinjaCat]

The way all the cutscenes are essentially acted out through gameplay reminds me alot of machinima and it's weird this is basically a game dev official example of it.

[@LoliconSamalik]

I remember Sonic Adventure also being a prime target for machinima back in 2007/08

[@Noxedwin]

7:29 - Eggman is excited for his Happy Meal. Gamma is taking too long to order.

[@spaghetto181]

YEP LMAO

[@heroicgangster9981]

I like how greatly RPG Sonic Adventure 1 is. With the ambitious story direction with the multiple literally character perspectives of the same events. The Shenmue of Sonic games.

[@Sovic91]

As a kid Sonic Adventure and Sonic 3&K cutscenes were also my favourite. Even though I didn't know anything about programming back then, I could feel that they were happening inside the game in a way SA2 cutscenes didn't. They felt grounded to most of the same rules that governed gameplay, just with the player not being able to move with the controller. As such, the cutscenes and the gameplay felt like they were part of the same world, something I was missing in SA2 as a kid.

[@danyo5786]

Honestly yeah, it helps with immersion when games do that and follow the same logic as gameplay Like you can barely climb up a volcano in frontiers, and you're telling me that sonic can just randomly jump 100s of feet into the air for some minigame?

[@gammaboost]

I loved the scene in S3K where knuckles realises that eggman is stealing the master emerald and switches sides with you, also in Mania when knuckles _remembers_ that happening and realising the robots were doing the same thing. I also like how in Sonic Heroes the characters talk during gameplay, it really makes them feel like you're actually playing with them next to you. Yes, I am an enjoyer of "Wow, my head's spinning!"

[@darkhorse744]

​@@danyo5786Yes, Sonic is obviously heavily nerfed in Gameplay because moving at actually Sonic speeds would both necessitate a Much larger map and would make Sonic pretty much impossible to control.

[@darkhorse744]

​@@gammaboostChad, absolute chad. I also love, "My head's spinning".

[@cay7809]

sup

[@MatrixEvolution17]

wow so Sonic Adventure really is Sonic RPG

[@YujiUedaFan]

THAT IS WHY SONIC AND TAILS BLINK SO MUCH AT THE ENTRANCE TO SKY DECK?! Honestly, I always thought I was the ONLY one to notice this! It bugged me for decades!

[@gmestanley2214]

Same, actually

[@alfo2804]

Aside from certain motions, like the police running away from Chaos 0, the general flow of most cutscenes is a lot snappier and better timed at 60fps. I wonder if most of them were animated with 60fps in mind, and then were changed to 30fps at a later point in development simply by slowing them down. It would certainly explain stuff like the absolutely insane shot where Knuckles walks towards Eggman for, like, ten whole seconds while neither of them say anything.

[@PKNproductions]

It would explain a lot. Wouldn't be surprised if they discovered awkwardly late in development that a lot of cutscenes that worked fine on their dev consoles did not perform well on the real consumer console, and they basically just decided to made everything run at half time rather than having to rework everything. Maybe once they did that, they then updated the most egregiously weird looking sections to work better for 30fps (thus why some parts now look too fast at 60fps) but otherwise left a lot as is.

[@OrgusDin]

I love that scene, are you trying to imply it isn't better this way? Outrageous.

[@Tsukiru]

Yeah the start of Sonic's intro works very well up until the cops start driving like they're in a furious movie.

[@tek3576]

Pretty sure the game ran at 60 fps at some point but was dropped to 30fps on release

[@woofmute]

@@PKNproductions the final dev kit hardware is equivalent to retail in performance

[@silveramyknux241]

2:47 If the pacing was fixed, I would honestly prefer this in 60fps. It doesn’t drag as much in my opinion and is a little more enjoyable to watch. Maybe that has something to do with seeing the original for so long.

[@spaghetto181]

never played or seen most of sonic adventure before, and i feel the same way, maybe 60 was just how it was meant to be.

[@cathyas3749]

@@spaghetto181the game was actually running at 60 fps before release but got cut down to thirty for performance. Maybe the cutscenes being so weirdly paced is because of that change

[@Joshthepikachu2123]

I've heard the beta title of Sonic Adventure was "Sonic RPG", so the RPG-like cutscenes definiteky support that idea.

[@robbiewalker2831]

It does; I was thinking about how it was called that before watching this video.

[@almaelma11]

3:17 has the same energy as Metal Harbors rocket launch from SA2 when you get there early lmao

[@Kuzamer]

3:38 Some things were off with this edited version, but it actually looked pretty nice when Sonic said "Whats up?" and it actually looked natural with the mouth movements.

[@coyotix]

You know? This explains why the characters interrupt each other so often in the Adventure games. Not just because of awkward dub timing, but because of the different animation speeds making it harder to splice the audio right.

[@lpfan4491]

Except it doesn't. SA1 actually has the issue that *they speak too far apart* due to the cutscenes being messy, causing weird pauses. And SA2 only has two moments of dialogue overlapping/cutting off in japanese(One of them during gameplay, the other during a prerendered cutscene, meaning nothing related to regular cutscenes), everything else comes from the timings not being touched a single iota for the english audiotrack.

[@JoseAlberto-dh8pf]

Sonic Frontiers dialogue for Sage and friends cutscenes also work in a similar way having pre-set animations, these are different from the fully animated cutscenes This kind of cutscene production is very common in the industry, a lot of RPGs do this as well

[@Turbulation1]

They are likely used as time saving cutscenes when there’s not enough production time to fully animate them.

[@lpfan4491]

Yeah, games not doing this is actually less common in a way. Though Frontiers is a weird case where just like the custom cutscenes, these are also prerendered, despite the actual conversation-system used to make them still being in the game unused. The reason this is a noteworthy thing is...because it argubly sucks. Prerendering something like this that should be dynamic is just poor because it locks out potential for improvement by making better animations for it to pick. People can't mod it, they can't update and it is more work on a potential remaster/remake 10 to 15 years in the future.

[@3dmarth]

Good video, fascinating stuff... but that title is misleading. You had me hoping that there was evidence from the code that these cutscenes were literally made in a modified version of RPG Maker.

[@Super-Suchi]

Eggman fuckin devouring a burger like a feral animal at 7:30 is so funny to me

[@Tsukiru]

I figured SA1's cutscenes were all done in engine but never knew it went this deep. I kind of want to do something similar one day. Appreciate yet another deep dive into these games!

[@Leymora]

So no one is gonna talk about how SonicTeam themselves misspelled Tails as Tales in their own code? 5:20 MilesTalesPrower

[@memnob4262]

Sonic Team being Sonic Team 🔥🔥

[@romolooscorlot5544]

This isn't the original source code, it's a decompilation. Things like variable and function names are lost when compiling unless the developers included debug symbols with their build. That happens sometimes but not with this game. So whoever was making the decompilation just used their best judgment when naming things.

[@LoliconSamalik]

well, can't blame them, since english is not their first language.

[@TheMemeLiker]

Ya know, I was about to say its better to be hidden in the code outta sight from the player, but ya know then again, if you have a misspelling somewhere in the literal fucking code, thats probably going to lead to more Sonic Team Moments™for co-workers not in the know.

[@AxZelAnimations30]

It does kinda makes sense considering how Sonic Adventure was supposed to be an RPG game.

[@ProtoMan0451]

it was worth staying up all night just to see a new speepshighway video at 6am

[@ilEagle3696]

Not surprising considering it was meant to be an rpg at first

[@DarkCloudVA2]

Wait was it? That one I didnt know.

[@wonder-games3579]

Pretty sure that codename was more for its more story focused approach and not it actually being an RPG.

[@ilEagle3696]

@@DarkCloudVA2 it becomes obvious once your realise just how much dialogue the NPCs have

[@italian504]

​@DarkCloudVA2 it makes sense when you also look at the implementation of "upgrades" like the lightspeed dash and flotation ring. It has some of that Zelda feel of progression and unlocking areas previously unaccessible through them.

[@OrgusDin]

it is one, you play the role of sonic

[@DonAsirobi]

Very informative as always ,glad you are still making these videos.

[@xord5293]

Watching your videos in an endearing experience for me because they remind me of my sweet childhood days with this game! Thank you!

[@staticfanatic]

Video title: Sonic Adventure's cutscenes were made in RPG Maker Video: Sonic Adventure's cutscenes were not made in RPG Maker

[@SPEEPSHighway]

KZbin comments be presenting evidence to the judge for my metaphor crimes

[@osc-omb47896]

I really want to see all the cutscenes at 60fps now

[@MainMemoryPlays]

I really want to try to make an easy text-based scripting system for making events, so people can do stuff without having to write C code.

[@Captain_Jay_T]

Wow thanks so much for making this vid! The first Sonic Adventure is my favorite sonic game of all time (which people are always surprised to hear when SA2 exists, but I don't think SA2 has the same charm as the first game). The inner workings of this game have always fascinated me and to see it put into words here is great.

[@TheHylianBatman]

Man, I knew the cutscenes were unique, but I had no idea it was this unique! I love this game a lot, so it's great to see you really dig your teeth into it.

[@aortaplatinum]

I remember figuring out how the story scenes worked as a preteen and it made so much sense why they animated so jankily. It was funny seeing the exact same issue come up in Frontiers with it's optional Memory Token cutscenes, where characters just interpolate between preset poses and it looks terrible in motion

[@Horizons1]

Perfect day to upload another Sonic Adventure video.

[@starman2517]

I’m so glad this channel came back

[@DataDigi151]

I always love seeing how games work and SA1 is one of my all time favorite games, so this is a double win for me.

[@SoniMarSponge]

Here's my rumour about Amy's bird being in Gamma's death. In Sonic X: Amy was there with her bird when Gamma died, so there's a chance that was supposed to happen in the game aswell, but due to (possibly) time constraints, it didn't happen. Maybe Gamma's story was one of the last stories cutscenes to be worked on, like they wanted to work on the more important stories first like Super Sonic

[@SocksFC]

I always saw Sonic X being a way to show what the true intentions were with the game's story

[@geoffreyrichards6079]

@@SocksFCWell… so long as you ignore all the elements centered around Chris Thorndyke and the whole “two-worlds” premise.

[@tylerherr4288]

idk the situation or release dates and i dont care to google it but tie in stuff like the whole sonic adventure and sa2 part of sonic X are frequently based on early versions of the scripts the transformers tie in novels are good examples of this

[@SocksFC]

@@geoffreyrichards6079 yeah I meant the games themselves, none of that new stuff they added

[@geoffreyrichards6079]

@@tylerherr4288 And in some cases (mostly in the western territories), the adaptations were only based on 2nd hand information passed down from those who played the game rather than being given any official reference material from SEGA - which is what happened with the Archie Sonic tie-in with SA1 and all its odd changes to the source material. It would also explain why “Sonic Underground” bore hardly any similarities to the game, despite being created in order to promote it. SEGA was kind of a jerk back then.

[@chantingmammal]

I always love seeing how games work, and SA1 is onle of my all time favourite games, and I think it kinda makes sense since SA1 was supposed to be an RPG game back when it was first developed for the Saturn before becoming a platformer, and moving to the Dreamcast in 1997 (The Remains of the Saturn Version appeared under the name of "Sonic World" in Sonic Jam in 1997), and I really want to see these cutscenes next in 60fps, but hopefully, this is very informative in my opinion (also happy belated anniversary to the Dreamcast).

[@sethisevilone02]

Based sa1 enjoyer

[@lylakacey]

In SA2 It is possible to move the characters in some cutscenes using the debug code. One of them is the cutscene that plays right before you start green forest

[@Hysteria98]

Explains why you can distinctively see in-level elements running in the background.

[@ca_lcium]

I love Sonic Adventure. Always happy to learn more about it.

[@_G.C]

The best thing about this games cutscenes are the incredibly abrupt music changes

[@blindedjourneyman]

its incredible the way they worked around limitations back then! while it is similiar to RM Id say its still far above the base tools we get with it. some crazy stuff lol, the fact they even have a bit of li sync based off language is awesome!

[@joethemanager1]

Wow, the English voice actors sound very similar to their Japanese counterparts.

[@mathewbouse1105]

No the fuck they dont LMAO

[@groove.mp4]

ur videos are always so cool. tails standing there the whole time in the back is killing me tho 😭

[@kenpanderz]

Pachacamac taking a shower is not something i expected to ever see, but here we are

[@paperfishstudios3144]

the cutscenes of the genesis games are handled almost the same way from memory so its kinda cool seeing that it was adapted for 3D when they moved to adventure :0

[@ali-kun7038]

Wake up honey, SPEEPSHighway just uploaded

[@SparkyMK3]

Ive played this game so many times, but only now did I notice that policeman in the background running in place at 3:27!

[@thesmilingman7576]

1:21 I mean SA1 was originally supposed to be an RPG at one point in development (don't think it would've been as weird and obscene as the ones you made though)

[@thesmilingman7576]

Not an insult those games were funny

[@WindiiGitlord]

1:01 wow he even speaks nihongo with his mouth

[@stevep9177]

For anyone trying to look at the modding guide in the description and getting a 404, just replace the "G.." in the url with "Guide"

[@SPEEPSHighway]

Fixed, thanks

[@LuneNova]

Blinks at Sky Deck entrance make a charm to the windy environment anyway so it doesn’t matter if they forgot or bugged to remove the animation.

[@user-yi4sd8br3q]

7:30 eggman's hitting the griddy

[@axelprino]

This explains quite a bit of the cutscenes' awkwardness

[@ScourgeTheHedgehogYT]

3:17 Cop: lock on target men! re- Everyone else: *gunshots firing*

[@DavidsDump123]

7:40 i wonder what eggmans eating?

[@spaghetto181]

idk cookies. yumyumyum

[@thawkade]

Eggs, man.

[@ThatKidBobo]

The legend is back

[@SgvSth]

*Since February

[@mortarman83095]

Guys his last upload was literally 2 weeks ago

[@HOTD108_]

@@SgvSth Wtf are you on about? There have been plenty of videos since February.

[@ThatKidBobo]

Uploads are much more frequent then before thats what I meant

[@kotoneshiomi8882]

0:10 I'd say "classic"

[@SaviorAssassin1996]

I like that you used DX Sonic for the thumbnail.

[@drgabi18]

Watch out, you're gonna crash!

[@SagaHanson25]

Man, I need to toy around with this and try

[@thesmilingman7576]

Is it just me or is the lip syncing more accurate once the scenes are 60 fps

[@AidGum]

I think this explains stuff like Tails continuing to move after he stops in Super Sonic's story, or Eggman walking in place in Gamma's story as shown in the video.

[@LuneNova]

5:30 no one had noticed Tikal’s father in the casino shower SpeepsHighway made in the background 😂

[@benceszarvas5464]

For that Lily part bit it seems that in some points Amy would have seen Gamma die. We already know that Sonic X used scrapped ideas for SA2's story. Now i believe it happened with SA1 as well. What they couldn't achieve in the games,they used it in the anime.(excluding the anime's humans of course)

[@Haywire_HotRod]

I understood very little of this but was intrigued anyway

[@SonicBoone56]

The way you described how animations here makes total sense when you look at SA1's animations. They don't look animated by anything, it's just actions in-game. Reminds me of machinimas or Gmod.

[@TheGamePixelz]

This is really interesting and explains a lot about why the cutscenes are so strangely unique. I didn't see any on gamebanana but is there any mod elsewhere or in the works that restores the original intent of the cutscenes (restoring the broken animations, effects, and character placements as well as a framerate fix that would probably need some animation tweaking)? I think it would be a great way to do what current sonic modding has already done to the gameplay to the cutscenes in making it faithful to the original but enhanced.

[@wayback10]

7:33 eggman is so angry that he starts eating

[@GooTheMighty]

This honestly explains a lot of what went wrong with Sonic Boom. It had in-engine cutscenes too, it seems, but waaaaaaaaaay more janky.

[@ZoobiethePopplio]

It makes sense, this game was originally an RPG

[@iMernerner]

best clickbater i've ever known. The sonic adventure expert.

[@STICKOMEDIA]

Knuckles just dies at the end lmao

[@user-ko8kp6mz2u]

Cutscenes are sometimes created in this way in recent games. It's easy and fast to make.

[@Cakepants]

An engine that wouldn't be out for 9 years

[@carlosbraw6169]

Pretty cool

[@GigglyMan42069]

hey speeps, can you add blinking to the active mouht mod? as fast as that is, i still think it looks pretty nice

[@thesmilingman7576]

Is their a mod that adds the NPCS that are missing during the cutscenes sometimes the NPC disappear during a cutscene and then reappear once it's over

[@alicesacco9329]

SA1 has awkward graphic, but is a nice game. I had lots of fun when i played it.

[@SejhaIsHere]

I wish you hasnt lied in the title bc this is a fascinating video with cool information of its own merit.

[@SPEEPSHighway]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbole who the hell thinks this game was actually made in RM?

[@goshator]

​@@SPEEPSHighwayyou, according to the title

[@tealover70]

Nice to know.

[@SPEEPSHighway]

ty

[@GreatChadhan]

Might use this kniowledge is make an sonic adventure abridged mod

[@ezekieldoughlin1091]

Fun Fact: Sonic Adventure was originally going to be an RPG, which explains the cutscenes, NPCs, key quests, and interconnected hubworlds.

[@user-cy4pm6ob5n]

7:29 eggman the glizzy gobbler

[@Eevee860]

The bird's in Gamma and Beta are the siblings of Birdie, that's why Birdie would have appeared at the end of Gamma's story

[@LokiScarletWasHere]

The mismatched framerates explain the rigid and slow action flow of cutscenes. I'm guessing some of the cutscene content was made at 60fps and some was made at 30, making it impossible to get a perfect version of them.

[@TGVBT640]

as a person currently working on my own rpgmaker game, ok

[@metalgamerjonny6410]

yno, ive always wondered why eggman walked in place for so long after talking to gamma in that one scene...

[@shalpp]

Is there anything that explains 8:50's sharp return to default face?

[@SPEEPSHighway]

EV_ClrFace

[@thesmilingman7576]

Any mods that restore or fixes these cutscenes

[@averystupidchannel31]

Oh no!

[@ChosenMii]

Great video but I have an unrelated question: Aren’t you the one who made the Five Nights at F***boys games from years ago? (Assuming you’re still making insanely good RPG stuff)

[@SPEEPSHighway]

yup

[@ChosenMii]

@@SPEEPSHighway Wow!! What an honor it is seeing you!! I really loved your FNaFB games! Hope we see more RPGs from you!

[@matthewfontanez8646]

3:03 The 60fps is top fast

[@lpfan4491]

Really, the cutscenes are better at 60 FPS. Faster pace(That also mostly hides that some characters just stand around when they should move in to potentially win the confrontation) and less overly long pauses. Heck, even tho animations go too fast, some of them look better fast, they actively look like they are in slow motion for the reaction the character should be having. There should be a mod to fix these double speed-versions to get rid of the jank and we are golden...comparatively speaking, anyways. Of course, the cutscenes themselves aren't great, but that's argubly overscope. 8:18 Why was this even removed? 8:43 Bugged/Improperly set details that are actually kinda cool. 9:00 Wait...so this ISN'T internal dialogue? Man, cutscenebugs making stuff harder to understand even before SA2B did it... 9:26 They remove ONE upgrade that Tails isn't supposed to have? Nevermind that you cannot have that one yet, he really should have none of them because this is a flashback to before the game, but weird choice by the devs.

[@Samsgm]

Good thing the new sa mod manager has a fps limiter

[@milkkr]

“this isnt what youre aski- EUGH” 4:21

[@Shaddytheguy]

Sounds like there is a thick layer of spaghetti between this game and 60FPS cutscenes. A shame.

[@Aaronsstuff_Real]

spam the number key "7" while watching the video XD

[@AlphaOblivion7]

So could a lot of these things be adjusted, fixed, or added back in via a fan patch? I know things like BetterSADX exist

[@WindiiGitlord]

Don't use BetterSADX.