Completely unrelated, but I love the visual design for these night levels. A lot of them actually look better than the HD version, which is just "this place, but black sky". The purple hue in the sky and waters of Apotos, the underground temple in Holaska, the various scenery and starry sky in Adabat, and so much more!
I really wonder why all this content did end up scrapped. It looks amazing. Even if they were short on budget or time to deliver all 2 acts per world, it would be amazing to at least have some worlds with 2 stages.
For spagonia, my theory is that the areas didn't "meant" to be in any way. They just are prototyped sections. Probably the level designers were constructing the levels in several chunks and then joined together the best chunks to form the final level and those parts didn't make to the final stage.
I didn't really think about there being medals in the DLC stages exept for the end section in Arid Sands Act 1 night where an extra sun medal is located because I guess that stage was supposed to be longer or in an act 2 because I alredy knew that at least a few DLC levels are just levels that didn't make it to the base game BUT were in the trailers specifically the night stages and a couple you can acces with the go through walls combo with the Werehog but I didn't expect the other collectables as well that's really intresting 1:04a.m. 9/1/2024
Okay I'm absolutely going to nerd out here but the fact that you went to these efforts hopefully means I'm in good company! Absolutely, beyond words, bless you for your efforts and this extremely comprehensive video. I adore Unleashed, and while I'm less hot on the Wii/PS2 version I still always used to play it alongside the 360/PS3 version whenever I did a playthrough just to have "more Unleashed", lol. Over the years I went from noticing the unique areas used in missions, to making myself a little "playlist" of "what extra missions I should play to see all the daytime "content" each playthrough" (if I was just running through everything on my completed save), to noticing that some are seemingly connected and make up full act 2s when put together. And from there, well, figuring out like... basically EVERYTHING you covered and confirmed here has been a white whale of mine for years - that unused area in Jungle Joyride 2 especially. I recently invested the time in getting the game emulated so I could finally start digging into it with cheats myself to see what I could find, and the rabbit hole of exploring what limited resources and documentation there was for doing that stuff in the game lead me here to your videos where you've... Well, you've done it all! You truly covered every little facet and every little question I had, right down to the relationship between Areas A/B and D of Jungle Joyride Act 2. I had seen it floating up in the sky on videos of the unfinished Sonic Unleashed Wii mod for Sonic Generations and always wondered if that was true to the original game or the modder had made the decision to connect them up. I wasn't able to navigate there with moon jump myself to check so thanks for the demonstration. And... yeah, you saved me a lot of grief too, because, sadly, all this video really did in a major way was confirm that everything substantial that I had figured out existed in the game so far really is all there was. No tucked away Cool Edge Act 2 map that just didn't get used for any missions. Nothing before or beyond the Rooftop Run sewers, etc. That would have been a lot of time spent on my part to discover I really had seen everything substantial (there were definitely a bunch of unique tidbits from you too though - I had found the level files in the folders but couldn't make head nor tail of them). It really is a shame these extra maps were so poorly utilised in the final game though. Even if it was just on those few countries that have a full sequence, offering a full Act 2 for Chun-nan, Shamar and Adabat as part of the story requirements would've gone a long way to ease Werehog fatigue during that first playthrough. But I also understand the awkwardness of presenting Holoska, Spagonia and Eggmanland as "Act 1" with no further Acts beyond them (bugs me that they do that with the single act zones in Superstars too!). Perhaps just calling them "Day Stage" on single act countries and "Day Stage 1" "Day Stage 2" on two act countries would've worked. At the very least, it was always weird to me that they tucked these extra acts deep into the 100% completion content and didn't include a single one in the padding-out missions they make you do during the story playthrough. The only thing I will say is, while I now know it wasn't the original intention, Jungle Joyride 2-D did serve very nicely as a "final secret stage" for reaching 99% completion. A nice little final daytime stage gameplay challenge and all the dramatic waterfalls and rainbows made it feel like a real victory lap stage that was always intended to be a final reward type deal - or so I thought. Gosh, this is sort of the end of an era for me in terms of this particular little background hyperfixation of mine regarding this game's content. Took a decade and a half but I finally have closure on all the little mysteries this game had regarding it's extra daytime content. All I can say is thank you for this, so so much, once again!
So a while back I made the remark of 'maybe the devs wanted rooftop run act 1 to be the layout of act 2 but they had to change it possibly for advertising purposes' and you finding the edited files and the wall running section made me realize how true that might have been, also I never knew of that area below the stage lmao, i always thought the entrypoint was a bottomless pit.
I found footage of a demo of the wii verison, and rooftop run day had a goal ring right before the aero chaser, maybe it was a late addition. "Sonic Unleashed TGS Gameplay 3" by Tricoro
I'm not sure what media it is, but since they were already "collected" (I have a 100% save) then I guess they were bought from the shop or maybe moved to another level.
I always found it weird that they spent time making additional daytime levels only to throw them into random side missions that most people never even played. A shame too cause the Chun nan and Spagonia ones are really cool, and Adabat really could have used it considering how short the regular day level is. On the other hand, i actually kind of like how you get rewarded with extra day levels from taking the time to explore and get S ranks, so at least they're there at all.
I always wonder why so much unused stuff is left over in the final versions of games. Like do they not go through the files and remove anything unnecessary to reduce the install size?
They don't need to, most unused things wouldn't bring them down a disk size or anything unless you're talking about very old games like NES and what not. Games on disk actually tend to be PADDED to fill the space, like smash bros brawl having 2 gigabytes worth of dummy data, or animal crossing on gamecube being over 1gigabyte of dummy data (since the actual game fits entirely within gamecube ram)
So here's the rest of the disconnected Jungle Joyride Day Act 1 layout: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-G1lq9nYdRec.html Also turns out someone released a mod for it a couple of days before this video, link for it has been added to the description .
First time I do something like this, but I felt challenged and I was compelled, so here it is: every little change on the level layout compared to the final Act 1 of Arid Sands Day (that I could spot)! 29:56 one of the missile robots is way farther back than in the final act 30:04 a Power Ring is missing 30:13 a checkpoint that's not in the final act 30:18 weird camera angle change + 1-up not in the final act 30:22 Dash Ring, got replaced by a spring 30:25 lack of the "bonus rings through loop" mechanic (present throughout the rest of the act) 30:31 missing shooter Eggbot 30:43 missing 1-up in the rightmost lane 30:57 this dash ramp, which isn't in the final act 31:01 two ring lanes instead of one 31:16 missile robot on the ground + missing spring platform (where the missile robot would be) 31:23 plaltform doesn't move + spike wall in upper platform (present in Act 1-2) 31:52 less falling pillars 32:03 misplaced Power Ring (to the far left) 32:48 inverted Jump pad became a ? pad in the final game 33:06 dash rings, got removed in final game 33:10 camera is farther away from Sonic + spikes at the tip of the dash panel platform, also removed from final act 33:20 in act 1, you'd have gotten hit. The Spike Ball lane is longer there, having you jump over it regardless + missing 1-up + missing fallen pillar ahead
Gotta say, smth I appreciate in these videos is that they're in-depth, pretty well-edited, and have a sense of humour to shake things up every once in a while As someone who likes the funny, that's appreciated
They made it harder at first and babies complained about the final version being too hard. I would have love to play this version tho. So bad they didn't make it as Eggmanland act 1-2
I find it funny how the final game has three drifting methods because of the many times they changed it throughout development (say theoretically the button to drift doesn't work, so you decide to play Savannah Citadel Act 2 with the brake and drift method 💀). It is pretty satisfying once you master all three methods though ngl.
The drift really was designed for the brake and turn method, once you can pull it off it makes the drift feel much better. The august preview only has the brake method The October proto added B drifting The final added Trigger drifting
The more videos you put out, the more I’m convinced that there was a masochist on the dev team that wanted the stages to be far harder Sonic unleashed is already decently difficult, can you imagine how much worse it could’ve been? We might’ve reached metropolis zone levels of sadism
Well there are a bunch of unused Hard and very hard layouts, which are much less forgiving than the X-2s we got for DLC, But yeah most stages were originally much harder, except Dragon Road Day Act 4 which was way easier
So it is, also in the final the little path through the building at 11:50 has a breakable door and an extra life inside, but I have no idea how you're supposed to get into it.
@@TheStormsChannel Maybe they were considering on leaving this bit in the final build, replacing that sun medal with an extra life suggests it. And there are also a couple of red rings that can be found below this tower, (by one of the doors) that takes you back on top.
@@TheStormsChannelJust wanted to say that I've finally finished your video, and well done with literally everything, I've been keeping up and what you're doing is awesome! I also wanted to say that maybe perhaps I can give you something to check out on your next video. I've been screwing around with mission "No Appointment" that's in Empire City. And I've noticed that you can go even further past the goal (or where Def is located) and freely play through more of what is Skyscraper Scamper Act 1. The mission itself lasts about 30 seconds, I've only went as far as exploring the 2D section and what was left over, and also found out the Interceptor still spawns at that one bridge (which I barely made it to). Would be interesting to see that explored or what not.
Yeah I've noticed that, turns out a lot of missions have the entire main act set layout active, but also add in their own objects. In fact some missions use the "unused" very hard set file, Love is Jerky and some Rooftop Run missions.
One thing I would have loved for these stages would be to have the unused parts as actual next acts like how Act 2 here continues from act 1 Not only would it narratively progress the game/story, but would also be remniscent of the classic games, where the next acts would be a direct continuation of the former (S3&K and Mania specifically, not sure how Superstars do it) Also, after you finish the Unleashed videos, do you plan on doing the same for Colors Wii or is there someone else who already did an in-depth analysis of the old versions where the stages were still one?
Skmaric's video "The Truth Behind the Stages of Sonic Colours" pretty much covers all there is to Colours Wii, though a couple of the small "acts" do have some unused objects out of bound which you might be able to find videos on, Aquarium park act 3 is one I believe.
Ay man thanks for the shoutout! My jaw dropped at the arid sands day act 1 and jungle joyride day act 1. Now it finally makes sense why there were so many objects out of bounds of jungle joyride both in the retail version and the october prototype. Arid sands if i recall correctly only has a few objects left out of bounds in the retail but it's nice to know most of them are remenants of the old level geometry that sadly no longer exists. Are you going to cover other stages? Even though i've done videos on some of them in the past i doubt many people watched them so it would be nice for you to show them off. Anyway, loved the video! Im sure it was alot of work to research and put it all together.
I…did not know they had a bomb item/pickupable items planned, funny that picking it up turned the game into something you could have passed as a creepypasta in the 2010s Also poor sonic’s arms in the dragon road night part ;-;
Sonic exploded into hyper realistic bloody giblets, as I heard the kefka laugh from final fantasy six. About 7.636 seconds after the game over screen, I saw a horrifying video of Sonic’s body being turned into a (delicious looking) stew
11:13 Imange hearing that every single stomp you did in the final LOL! 18:12 HUUUUHHhUUUUu 43:19 *HhhhUUUUUuYYYYYaAAAaaahhHHHHH!* 1:01:06 *UUUUUUNNNNHHHHH!*
Honestly, I do wish the stages were kept as they were intended at first (except Empire City. I dislike that level so much), which could have made the levels so much more interesting and feel more complete, like this one While I am glad they were saved/brought back with the bonus DLC acts, I still wish they remained connected Maybe someday dome madlad is gonna restore the stages to their original versions Though hopefully without any bullshit obstacles and difficulty, of course lol
Well Dragon Road and Arid Sands October prototype layouts have been restored to the final game, and those layouts are pretty close to what we would've gotten had they not been split (2 weeks before final build date) And I restored Jungle Joyride as a full stage by re-enabling the beta area layout (different from the DLC act), that leaves only Sky Scraper Scamper and I guess this stage left
Actually that footage is from the final game, the early set file is present in the final stage folder, in only that water section trigger and B drifting is disabled for some reason with the beta layout.
So in summary: Dimps wanted to add more content than they managed to do, but perhaps due to the capabilities of the Wii (being a weak console) or due to lack of time it could not be finished and the content ended up being cut a lot, overshadowing the daytime sonic with a single act and nighttime sonic with 3-5 acts depending on the continent(For Example: EGGmanland)
It's a common trend for sonic games to remove/cut up content due to time restrains. Even for the HD version the DLC stages were originally part of the base game (indicated by their existence in the august preview build, and the fact they still have entries in the files in the base game) but were pushed back to being DLC stages. And some night stages were cut in half for DLC too.
@@TheStormsChannel Well, obviously this has happened since they created Sonic 1, so I'm not very surprised that there was content cut, but rather that Dimps tried to take advantage of the maximum potential for the unleashed wii but it ended up unfinished and they had to cut a lot of content from daytimes and Night Time stages Lmao.
also something I noticed, usually the different acts have a different focus so to speak entirely, like how day act 3 of windmill isle is rails on the outskirts, or rooftop run night dlc is the moving handles in the aqueducts, or the shitty night mazuri act is the tightropes in the baobab tree, yet if you look at the Jungle Joyride Night act 2 it teaches how the mechanic that would have lead into the beta area works more naturally than... making you experiment that is.
another thing i noticed, act 1 and 2 seem to take place at the same time of day whereas every other extra act takes place at a different time of day except for chun nan if I'm remembering right.
well roughly the same time, i'm not sure if the skyboxes can change but I get the feeling that it would have gotten darker to coincide with the cutscene where sonic and chip are talking, thyen it turns dark enough for sonic to transform and grab chip before he flies away
so I tinkered a bit with the prototype build myself, and it actually lines up for the most part. starting island on both is the exact same shape as eachother and they go in different directions. Not sure about size but things could always have been scaled and moved between them
So you used some flags in the debug menu to re-enable them didn't you?, is there a simple way to turn it into a mod? probably not because of the incomplete unused layouts Also great video, made me laugh at least 5 times, and also very interesting
I added entries for the medal.set in the stage.stg file to reenable the medals. Also for the beta layouts I simply disabled the final stage set final and enabled the early one in the same way. As for mods, DLC stages can't be changed with the unleashed manager, and instead the files must be manually placed in the DLC folders. The only real issue is Dragon Road act 4s broken ziplines.
I didn’t know that werehog clap attack got cut from the HD version. Odd that it remained in the Wii version. I’m curious about what builds DIMPS were given to work on the old-gen version
I enjoyed watching all your videos of Sonic Unleashed. I happened to stumble across your channel remembering how slightly dry cut content and other kinds we're being found from Sonic Unleashed after the prototypes and trailer. Played Sonic Unleashed Wii initially in 2009 and then Xbox 360 version in 2019 which I now play on the Xbox Series X. I'm happy you're devoting your time to create these kind of contents for us, you deserve a sub. :)
Honestly I find it interesting they kinda just left the last room of act 1 in the beginning of act 4, makes sense act 1 & 4 are connected at one point, there’s just too much evidence to show it’s not. Also screw act 2 I will agree there, that stage makes me so anxious lol
Well in act 4 the wall is placed much further back than it would've originally been, likely they just used the same terrain model to save time, and to cover up the empty space left behind. And yeah I hate the balancing mechanic.
Regarding the towers, they might’ve been used as bridges to cross over paths, kinda like the pillars in Shamar. Or you had to knock them down in order to get past, like wooden walls and the like
I feel that they would be way too large to be used like that, perhaps after being launched from the bendy pole you'd crash into them and they'd fall down.
I had a feeling something like this was the case especially because of how in the final release, Jungle Joyride Night DLC Act has everything except the water visuals functional in act 1
The town hubs have mostly the same layout, but npcs have placeholder text due to a lack of a story state. Also there are much more non-talkable npcs walking around, especially in Spagonia. As for entrance field, they're very unfinished, they all have the gates placed at the start, and some are much smaller than they are in the final. Spagonia, Holoska, and Mazuri Day (night is same size as the final) are very small and unfinished.
@@TheStormsChannel They did a good job with the entrance stages if everything was so unfinished close to the deadline. Or is it possible that different developers were working on these things on different machines in parallel, and only merging with these big milestone builds periodically?
I just accidentally stumbled across this video, and it seems super interesting and well made. Looks like I'm about to watch through all of these videos soon.
