More SA Viewpoints

Aoi Tsuki gives some differences between SA Limited Edition and the Japanese import. These are her FULL thoughts:

The differences in a nutshell:

Graphics-wise, some of the areas which had slowdown are improved, and the slowdown is lessened or eliminated. For instance, in Amy’s stage, the first time the robot breaks through the glass, it slowed down in the import. The US version doesn’t, although there’s a slight hiccup a little later in that scene, it’s way better. The camera is also better on character tracking.

As far as the music, it’s all the same in this version.

Voices are a mixed bag. While i wouldn’t call any of them great by any means, they’re decent, except for Big’s voice. Irritating in the import, horrendously annoying in the domestic. He sounds like a Teletubby with the pitch in it’s voice turned way down.

Sonic’s voice is okay; sounds kinda like a 15-year old. Amy’s sounds more like an actual woman compared to the hyper-kawaii voice of the import. Knuckle’s downright sucks. He’s lost the badass voice that the Japanese version had, and sounds almost like he could be Sonic’s brother. Tails’ sounds like a little kid; not bad. Robotnik (who is mysteriously called Eggman in the US version!! ^_^) sounds… fake. Can’t say why exactly because i don’t remember what it sounded like exactly.

And Tikal, well… she sounds like a tired woman. Kinda like the voice in Fighting Vipers. Kinda disappointing, since i really wanted to see her get a voice that matched her character (Amy’s is better matched).

I also got a chance to download the Chao game to my VMS (yes, these and the controllers are compatible). i’ll have impressions of that later.

All in all, i’m not as excited about playing the domestic version as i once was. The voices kinda killed it for me, but then again, i only played it for half an hour. i’m sure after playing it for a while i’ll get used to it.

And don’t forget that this is, as the title screen says, “Limited Edition”. There may be minor changes (like the music) that will be implemented in the final version, so don’t base your final opinions on anything but the final version.

A few more things…

The lip-synching isn’t the best, but i think it’s a bit better than the import, where Sonic’s lips moved two seconds after he stopped talking.

The voice acting’s not great, but it’s not Resident Evil. It’s kinda funny because i was telling my friend/co-worker and he agrees, then the customer who was watching says “Ahh… it’s just a game.”

That’s pretty much the sentiment of voice acting outside of “gamers who know better” in the US. So i didn’t expect Oscar-quality voice acting.

This view from Border is very interesting, as it indicates music changes:

…funny thing is, the first copy of Sonic Adventure that I got was not being “accepted” by the Dreamcast. It kept taking me to the music menu and when I tried to select “Play” I received an unforgiving “Insert Game Disc!” So I took both the GD and the DC back to Hollywood, they were able to make it work using a different copy of SA. Not sure why all this happened — both the GD and DC were obviously “virgin” (I set the time on the DC, the default is still 11/27/98)….I just hope Sega’s not putting out any faulty GDs….

…anyway, I haven’t played much of the Japanese Sonic Adventure to make a good comparison, but here are my impressions:

The music is cool, sort of. It essentially sounds like what happens when an American video producer re-does the music for dubbed anime: J-pop with crappy US lyrics. The music was supposed to have been re-done by Chris Vrenna (NIN), but I don’t hear any really hard stuff in there.

Sonic’s voice isn’t too bad (it sounds familiar actually), Tails’ voice is annoying, both he and Amy sound like they’re about 7 years old. Knuckles’ voice is tolerable. Big the Cat sounds like that old Warner Bros cartoon character that used say things like “Duh, Which was did he go George?….He is my pretty bunny and I will hold him and stroke him and love him and pet him…” It’s slightly comical at first, listening to him whine about his lost “Froggy,” but eventually his tone starts to grate on the nerves.

All the dialogue is super-cheesy as well…and yes, the voices are improperly synched with the characters’ lips, making it look like a poor Godzilla movies. I honestly don’t think Sega has touched this title very much, I mean, how hard would it have been to get the lip synch done properly?

…I can’t say how the game mechanics have been adjusted, but I will say that yes, there are some screwy bugs, some nasty camera problems, and noticeable (to me at least) framerate dropoffs…

…the final intersting thing to note is that there’s a menu option for “Internet” – selecting it yields a little splash screen about how you’ll be able to post times, get codes, download games, and compete over the internet. Then it says that this “Special Edition” of Sonic Adventure is not equipped for internet features, and to get the full version when it arrives.

Here are a couple more viewpoints courtesy Sonic HQ:

Sonic, wow. I’ve never really seen the import version, but from what I read, there were some problems with the camera. Well, I guess there still is. Mostly in the Adventure zones. Does’nt really bother me. I guess this is a incomplete version hence the “Limited Edition” logo. Also the voice overs are’nt synced with the lips on the characters. They put captions like in MGS but you can take ’em off. Sonic sounds like Robin from the Batman cartoons and Tails, well, sounds like a kid. Don’t get me wrong, they sound great. The graphics are SWEET! (by Cornhead)
An overall pretty fun night [the DC rental kick off party in LA), but the best moment of it was when I saw Sonic come out in his costume being cheered by the crowd. I just thought to myself that Sega hasn’t been forgotten and it looked like the crowd accepted Sega again. They came up to Sonic and hugged him and shook his hand which kinda brought a tear to my eyes =P This was the moment I knew that Sega is back, and the public seemed to forget their past. (by Sloth)