4/5 ★ – Kalle_Deimos's review of Sonic Adventure 2: Battle.

TLDR: I don't even like Sonic, but I love this game. Gameplay: 2D Sonic? Nah. Boost Sonic? Nah. I don't even know what Frontiers is tbh but nah. This is probably the most important and best Sonic game in my totally biased opinion. Something the later Sonic games miss in my opinion is the freedom to stop and look around. Sonic Adventure 2 does feel like a real adventure in a way, and not an on-rails experience like the later Sonic games. What also makes this an adventure is the 6 total characters to play as seperated into 3 gameplay styles that are actually good! I like the Sonic / Shadow stages. I like the Knuckles / Rogue treasure hunting stages. I even enjoy the Tails / Eggman Mech stages. It's a good way to break up the gameplay. All of them have bosses, all of them have secret upgrades and such. So much good stuff. It's just fun to play. Especially the homing attack, the game just functions in a way that no other sonic game has replicated and I love it. I can replay this game over and over and over again. But probably not 100% it. Story: You can likely play this game as your one and only Sonic game and get a full experience and then never have to think about Sonic again. That's kind of how I see it instead of trying to understand whatever the continuity is now. I know I'm biased about a game when I love it but don't really know how to explain it. It's just a good story. There's a Biolizard. Eggman blows up the moon. Just play it. Graphics: I love the way this game looks. I don't really have any issues with it at all. Every aspect of it is A+ for me. I do have a lot of nostalgia for the designs, cutscenes and character models but I do think the visual design of this game is top-tier. I really love the visual upgrades everyone gets on their character too. Sonic's bounce bracelet fits him perfectly, and Knuckles with those metal knuckles, air necklace and sunglasses looks absolutely amazing. Sound: The VA's are what I think of when I think Sonic. Sonic and Shadow, Knuckles and EGGMAN. This is the best Eggman voice actor, I can probably listen to him read a book to me. The sound effects are iconic. The Rank Results sound is ingrained in my mind. And the music is of course, peak. My personal favorite detail about the music is that every character is a different genre. Sonic is high energy rock, Knuckles has this hip-hop rap vibe going on with absurd lyrics. Rouge has SPY JAZZ. It's awesome. I listen to this soundtrack as actual music and have had several people ask me what it is, that's the power of the SA2 soundtrack. And yes, it is very cringe when I have to explain. Extra: The journey to 100% is pretty ridiculous. Every stage has 5 missions. This is all fine and good. What's not as fun however is that if you want to 100% the game you NEED to A-Rank everything. On EVERY. SINGLE. STAGE. Which is genuinely batshit crazy I think. All with their own score requirements and time requirements. And then some emblems tied to the Chao Garden which is a fun novelty but the only problem is that raising a Chao takes ages and there is really not that much to do with them. You can feed them, give them animals / chaos drives and pet them. And that's kind of it. And when time only flows in the Chao Garden you may be letting your game run while you cook dinner or something. Favorite Thing: In the "Death Chamber" track part of the song is a conversation between Sonic and Knuckles with the singer playing both parts and it's really funny. Not My Favorite Thing: The PC version has this issue now where it freezes occasionally and you have to alt+tab to fix it and it's really annoying.