Live and learn!
More Sonic pointless trivia. Since I finally managed to get all 180 Emblems on Sonic Adventure 2, I'll be focussing on that specifically this time.
SEGA of America is localised in San Francisco, which is where the game was developed. Because of this, many levels in the game are based on or named after places in San Francisco. City Escape is based on the city of San Francisco itself, while Radical Highway is based on the Golden Gate Bridge. Mission Street is named after a street in downtown San Francisco, and Prison Island brings to mind Alcatraz. Route 101 and Route 280 are named after real-life highways that run through San Francisco.
In Shadow's White Jungle stage, there's a little Easter egg to be found. At the final island where the Goal Ring is, you can find Omochao. Touching him just makes him say "Be careful not to fall!", but if you pick him up and carry him through the Goal Ring, he'll say "This weather reminds me of San Francisco" (note that it's raining in the stage). This was obviously added as a joke by the localisation team, but interestingly the line is also present if the voices are set to Japanese, complete with Omochao still saying "San Francisco".
Speaking of the Japanese voices, the game was made in America, but the Japanese script and voice acting was done first. This caused a lot of problems with the English dub, with some lines running longer than the Japanese lines, causing characters to talk over each other. This is also the first game to dispense with the "Dr. Robotnik" name for the main villain entirely and simply refer to him as Eggman. However, it's also the first game to use the name "Robotnik" in the Japanese script, as Eggman's grandfather and cousin are named Professor Gerald Robotnik and Maria Robotnik respectively even in the Japanese script.
There were a few translation errors, however. Since Japanese doesn't use separate plural forms for words, occasionally characters would use a singular when they meant a plural - for example, in the intro to Rouge's level Egg Quarters, she states that she needs to find "that key", even though the door she's standing in front of clearly has three locks. She was supposed to say "the keys". (And "That key" really only makes sense if she's talking about a key that was referenced before, which she's not.) A more glaring translation error happens during the Last Story. After Shadow defeats The Biolizard, it disappears in a flash of light. In the English dub, Shadow says "Is that what Chaos Control is?" despite the fact Shadow really should know what Chaos Control is, since he's used it many times before. The original Japanese line was "Was that Chaos Control?", as in "Did it just use Chaos Control?"
Shadow's original name was Terios, which means "reflection of" in Latin. Rouge's original name was Nails.
Originally, Shadow was planned to die at the end of the game, but he became so popular that he was brought back in the following game, Sonic Heroes, and even got his own spin-off game. Shadow's story is pretty much over now (having concluded in Shadow the Hedgehog), but he continues to make appearances in games.
The reason Sonic is wearing different shoes in this game compared to the ones he usually wears is due to a sponsorship deal with Soap shoes, which are shoes designed for grinding. This is why Sonic can grind on rails in this game. Later games changed Sonic's shoes back to their usual style, but kept his ability to grind.
There are quite a few subtle references to classic Sonic games, since this was the 10th anniversary celebration. The most blatant one is the 3D remake of Green Hill Zone that can be unlocked by collecting all 180 Emblems, but there are others too. The Egg Golem shares its name with the boss of Sandopolis Zone Act 1 in Sonic 3 & Knuckles (as I've said before on this blog, I consider Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles one game, since that's what they were originally meant to be). When Eggman tries to steal the Master Emerald from Knuckles, he uses the same machine that he uses to steal it in Hidden Palace Zone in S3&K.
The ghost enemies in this game are called Boos, an obvious reference to the Boo ghosts from the Mario games. Note however that the ghosts in Sonic Adventure 2 are called Boos in both English and Japanese (and yes, they are specifically called "Boos" in Japanese, not "Boo", even if there's just one of them), whereas the ghosts in Mario games are called Telesa (official spelling according to Nintendo) in Japan.
Another reference to Mario can be found in the Chao Garden - the "Mushroom" item you can buy from the Black Market looks a lot like the 1-Up Mushroom from the Mario games, only without a face.
There are some unused voice clips in the game files, including a clip of Shadow being startled or grabbed by a ghost, which is unused in the actual game since Shadow doesn't have ghosts in any of his levels.
SEGA of America is localised in San Francisco, which is where the game was developed. Because of this, many levels in the game are based on or named after places in San Francisco. City Escape is based on the city of San Francisco itself, while Radical Highway is based on the Golden Gate Bridge. Mission Street is named after a street in downtown San Francisco, and Prison Island brings to mind Alcatraz. Route 101 and Route 280 are named after real-life highways that run through San Francisco.
In Shadow's White Jungle stage, there's a little Easter egg to be found. At the final island where the Goal Ring is, you can find Omochao. Touching him just makes him say "Be careful not to fall!", but if you pick him up and carry him through the Goal Ring, he'll say "This weather reminds me of San Francisco" (note that it's raining in the stage). This was obviously added as a joke by the localisation team, but interestingly the line is also present if the voices are set to Japanese, complete with Omochao still saying "San Francisco".
Speaking of the Japanese voices, the game was made in America, but the Japanese script and voice acting was done first. This caused a lot of problems with the English dub, with some lines running longer than the Japanese lines, causing characters to talk over each other. This is also the first game to dispense with the "Dr. Robotnik" name for the main villain entirely and simply refer to him as Eggman. However, it's also the first game to use the name "Robotnik" in the Japanese script, as Eggman's grandfather and cousin are named Professor Gerald Robotnik and Maria Robotnik respectively even in the Japanese script.
There were a few translation errors, however. Since Japanese doesn't use separate plural forms for words, occasionally characters would use a singular when they meant a plural - for example, in the intro to Rouge's level Egg Quarters, she states that she needs to find "that key", even though the door she's standing in front of clearly has three locks. She was supposed to say "the keys". (And "That key" really only makes sense if she's talking about a key that was referenced before, which she's not.) A more glaring translation error happens during the Last Story. After Shadow defeats The Biolizard, it disappears in a flash of light. In the English dub, Shadow says "Is that what Chaos Control is?" despite the fact Shadow really should know what Chaos Control is, since he's used it many times before. The original Japanese line was "Was that Chaos Control?", as in "Did it just use Chaos Control?"
Shadow's original name was Terios, which means "reflection of" in Latin. Rouge's original name was Nails.
Originally, Shadow was planned to die at the end of the game, but he became so popular that he was brought back in the following game, Sonic Heroes, and even got his own spin-off game. Shadow's story is pretty much over now (having concluded in Shadow the Hedgehog), but he continues to make appearances in games.
The reason Sonic is wearing different shoes in this game compared to the ones he usually wears is due to a sponsorship deal with Soap shoes, which are shoes designed for grinding. This is why Sonic can grind on rails in this game. Later games changed Sonic's shoes back to their usual style, but kept his ability to grind.
There are quite a few subtle references to classic Sonic games, since this was the 10th anniversary celebration. The most blatant one is the 3D remake of Green Hill Zone that can be unlocked by collecting all 180 Emblems, but there are others too. The Egg Golem shares its name with the boss of Sandopolis Zone Act 1 in Sonic 3 & Knuckles (as I've said before on this blog, I consider Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles one game, since that's what they were originally meant to be). When Eggman tries to steal the Master Emerald from Knuckles, he uses the same machine that he uses to steal it in Hidden Palace Zone in S3&K.
The ghost enemies in this game are called Boos, an obvious reference to the Boo ghosts from the Mario games. Note however that the ghosts in Sonic Adventure 2 are called Boos in both English and Japanese (and yes, they are specifically called "Boos" in Japanese, not "Boo", even if there's just one of them), whereas the ghosts in Mario games are called Telesa (official spelling according to Nintendo) in Japan.
Another reference to Mario can be found in the Chao Garden - the "Mushroom" item you can buy from the Black Market looks a lot like the 1-Up Mushroom from the Mario games, only without a face.
There are some unused voice clips in the game files, including a clip of Shadow being startled or grabbed by a ghost, which is unused in the actual game since Shadow doesn't have ghosts in any of his levels.
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