As a funny little point of interest, the Biolizard very well could have been designed by ancient depictions of Perfect Chaos. Seeing how they're both giant lizards. After all, there are artificial clones of Chaos 0. It's possible that the ARK was attempting to recreate Chaos before finding the perfect formula of the Ultimate Lifeform
Yoyo - it’s funny because the definition of a theory is that it’s a hypothesis proven as fact, so GameTheory should actually be called GameHypothesis. Also calling this video a theory is already calling it fact.
14:35 - 14:48 the buildup and inevitable realization that shadow was the only one who could have possibly reprogrammed the ARK after every other member of the colony was wiped out actually gave me chills because of how much it made sense and how actually unsettling it is when you think about it holy shit
I believe it was the researchers who were Wipeout. Civilians were mostly evacuated, but due to Maria attempting to run with shadow made her a target for G.U.N. Shadow's the only person alive who knows how the ARK functions.
The Japanese script outright confirms it. Not only does Gerald say in his diary that he's left everything to Shadow, but Shadow outright says to Amy that everything has gone exactly as he himself planned.
It's a breath of fresh air to have someone actually introspect into the game for the answers using all the information and hints provided, but there are some things that need to be fact checked. With mistaking Shadow for Sonic, it's both. GUN most certainly knows Shadow exists, and are running a cover up operation, as indicated by Sonic's first recap. However lower levels of GUN, the police, and the news genuinely believe Shadow to be Sonic, which isn't unreasonable. They're both fast-moving hedgehogs, have similar silhouettes, Sonic has been seen before changing shape with Chaos Emeralds, Shadow was only active in the city at night, and Sonic WAS legitimately seen being chased through the city hours before Shadow even showed up there, and hours before the news got the closeup on Shadow's face, so it wouldn't make sense for them to not report him as Sonic. With Rouge working for the President, I think it's fair to say that even if the President is Rouge's client, she's still willing to break the rules. She's characterized as an independent loner who will be sly to get what she wants. At no point do we see Rouge report to him that she's working with Shadow and Eggman. I highly doubt that the President would be okay with the destruction of Prison Island, which would result in the deaths of many people just doing their jobs, as well as countless prisoners. In the same vein, I highly doubt that the President would be okay with Rouge stealing six of the Chaos Emeralds for herself, as it's shown the government took care to contain one of them in the federal reserve bank, in the same way GUN contained three in Security Hall on Prison Island; because they're dangerous. Speaking of which, you're overthinking why Rouge doesn't take the Emeralds. She leaves them because Shadow literally just threatened to kill her if she stole them. She may be jewel-obsessed, but she's seen what Shadow's capable of, and isn't suicidal. And why did she even consider taking them in the first place if she knew it wouldn't affect the cannon's firing? She outright says to Shadow she was going to leave once she took them. The only place to go would be back to the planet, so there's no reason to think removing the Emeralds wouldn't have stopped its firing. Shadow mentioning the cannon's charging time was talking about how long it would take with only six Emeralds, saying it wouldn't be ready to fire again once Eggman's timer over the country expired. And from that, we know that Rouge knows that there was still plenty of time left before the cannon fired at the country, as long as the seventh wasn't inserted. But there is truth to what you said; if Sonic was successful, the insertion of the seventh Emerald wouldn't do anything. When Eggman asks Rouge where she's been, she was off gathering intel on the last Chaos Emerald while Eggman was declaring his domination and speaking with the President. During which she found the newspaper clipping of Tails being given the yellow Emerald. Concerning Gerald's revenge plan, if you can deduce that Gerald was allowed to work on Shadow while in custody, then I don't see how we wouldn't also be able to deduce that he had access to the Ark's programming, bolstered by him writing the formula for it on his cell wall; because he was actively planning out how his revenge would happen in real time. That's a much more straightforward answer than Gerald leaving Shadow to reprogram the Ark on his own based on the writing on his cell wall. Plus, Shadow never showed concern for what Gerald wanted throughout the game, only Maria. So he wouldn't have any motivation to take Gerald's execution recording and upload it to the Ark if it wasn't already there. From GUN's possession of Artificial Chaos and Chaos Drives, we know for a fact they used Gerald to make themselves stronger. But the reason he was executed was because they found out what he was up to, and saw him as a threat. About Gerald's execution video ending up on the Ark, since we deduced that he had access to the Ark while in custody, all that Gerald would need for his execution video to upload to the Ark and play once his program was activated would be for him to have access to the camera that would record the video while he was allowed to work. How you go from a giant lizard to a hedgehog is because Gerald is a mad scientist, and small hedgehogs are a lot easier to manage than giant lizards. And since we know Gerald derived a lot of his ideas from the Mystic Ruins and Angel Island, it's not a stretch to assume he was inspired by the mural of Super Sonic in Hidden Palace. While Chaos Control might be tied to being the Ultimate Lifeform, what that title is ultimately referring to is immortality, as Shadow's theme song illustrates; "You live an endless life forever". Project Shadow was a project pursuing immortality. With Sonic using Chaos Control, it's never established that Chaos Control is an exclusive ability of the Ultimate Lifeform, we only assumed such, because the only person we saw using it up to that point was Shadow. One possibility is it's something anyone with enough skill and experience with the Emeralds (which Sonic has) can perform. Shadow being able to perform it because he probably has an organ designed to do it, like the Biolizard, which is stated in the report Rouge prints. Or it's implying something much deeper between Sonic and Shadow, like you say. It could be both, but the ladder is pretty much confirmed to be the case, with all the hints dropped throughout the game, but in particular Shadow saying to Sonic he's the true Ultimate Lifeform, and Sonic contemplating the concept at the end.
He never really implied that chaos control was exclusive to the ultimate lifeform. He even said that Tails and Knuckles were able to come close to mastering the chaos energy
13:44 Maybe the president gives rouge the info on the last chaos emerald while she reporting to him from the ark. and at 14:56 Gerald's program on prison island was necessary for shadow to fulfill his warped version of Maria's final wish and it could be part of shadow's own reprogramming by Gerald to take his last words and board cast them from the Ark.
i love how you were able to make a convincing argument towards sonic being the ultimate lifeform without mentioning the part in the finalhazard fight where shadow just outright says it
Khonjin, I'm going to be honest here. This video, as of now, is the best ever video that you have ever done in the Competitive Review series. Every single piece of theory-information that you showed to us made complete sense and does not seem like it has been pulled out of a cats rear end as an half-assed attempt to look cool/smart. I applaud to you for making such of an incredible video on Sonic Adventure 2 without taking a massive dump on it. Thank you, Khonjin.
Also to confirm khonjin Sonic is the ultimate life form Theory, when you're about to lose in final hazard due to time limits Shadow will say Sonic is the true ultimate life form. It's also known that Gerald Robotnik used chaos imagery and the history of the Chaos emeralds And in Sonic 3 and Adventure, and there are two prophecies of Super Sonic one fighting Eggman and the other fighting chaos in Hidden Palace. This also explains why Shadows hair is the way it is because if you look at Shadows hair it's exactly Supersonics from the earlier games ( specifically anything before Unleashed)
rip sonic r sonic the fighters any 2d sonic game. bruh more or less of us know Shadow's hair looks very similar to Super Sonic. Oh yeah Super Sonic's hair sprung upward in Heroes and Shadow's sprung upwards too in his own game. I think because the player wastes so much time it allowed Shadow to compliment Sonic when the end was near. The Time thing also applies for Shadow the Hedgehog game (even though before Shadow faces Black Doom with Vector, Black Doom admits he is a part of him). On the Last Story vs. Devil Doom if you wait long enough, Eggman will confess that Shadow is the real one from SA2 and Heroes.
honestly if I wanted to further read into the whole "ultimate lifeform" thing you could go back to how chaos got more like a giant lizard as he got the emeralds in the first adventure game but didnt become perfect because he used the "dark evil " energy of the gems unlike sonic and also the whole "chaos is power enriched by the heart" thing tikal would say kind of implies that sonic is the "ultimate life form" because of who he is and how heroic he is, hense why people like knuckles and tails can also tap into the power, though less so. Also its interesting how evil chaos power from the emeralds to become this giant lizard thing, it could be argued that the biolizard is also tapping into that kind of power and in turn looks the way he does because of that.
IDK to say less for Knuckles. He had nearly or the same potential if you count Sonic 3 and Knuckles or Sonic and Knuckles alone. Why? Well he was able to go Super, no experience plot needed and Hyper Knuckles was an award just like Hyper Sonic for S3&K. Hyper Knuckles could just glide into a climbing area and kill the enemies in vicinity just like Hyper Sonic except because his attack remains in a ball, he has more controlling upon killing enemies on the screen. Shadow was nerfed, same for Tails but worse. Yes power is enriched but the heart which is also why Super Sonic with the positive forces of the cheering people was able to neutralize Perfect Chaos' Anger and Sadness absorbed from the emeralds because one can change their thoughts into power with the chaos emeralds and without if you count Shadow or Metal Sonic (Mephiles would the ultimate example). Still Biolizard, unlike chaos, it's learning was very weak and it was just plain trouble and probably is even more susceptible to being manipulated than Shadow has been (though you could say that Shadow was the one pulling the strings and it was his carried out plan before Amy got Shadow to awaken his true promise)
@@rejisha I find it to be a bit bullcrap that the developers hold out on explaining some very important plot points until you're about to lose a final battle. They hide these plot details as if they were Easter eggs, when in fact they should be very important and prominent.
The vitriol when he talks about "luring stupid hipsters into [his] fucking death trap" is palpable. The emphasis and punch is just perfect. Oh, and the points are all completely valid and thought out.
the amazing hammer it would seem that Khonjin’s analysis has left one gaping plot hole open to swallow all of the presented evidence, but actually careful observation of his meticulous style indicates that Khonjin has already covered Amy’s appearance-IN PART 2
Cereal How did she get on the Island? GUN. How did she know where Sonic's cell was? GUN. Why did the GUN robots not stop her like they tried to stop Tails as she moved about the base? Take a wild fucking guess.
9:54 there is actually an in-game reason for this and the next question. In Sonic Adventure 1, there is a mural with Super Sonic (without the gold coloring) and Perfect Chaos fighting. Gerald found these and based his two designs on both, and its why Shadow's spikes resemble Sonic in super form. Shadow actually is based off of sonic before Sonic was around. And it's why the Biolizard resembles Chaos.
And that Gerald used alien DNA to create the ultimate life form. The Shadow game made this to mean the DNA of Black Doom, but it's not illogical to conclude that hedgehogs are aliens. There's a long post on tumblr abt it
I've had the theory about the GUN coverup for a while now and thank god somebody else subscribes to this line of thought. Also this video is fucking astounding and has no right to be this good, Khonjin you mad genius.
That actually is kind of a revelation with that second half. Like it weirdly works and I never thought about it and just accepted the story didnt make sense for over a decade until now. Holy shit thats such... a weird feeling to have with a game I grew up on.
Man I've been waiting so long for someone to actually talk about how the story actually rather than attempt to poke holes in it. Good job! One more thing you could add, if you want to consider the games following SA2, is that in Sonic Battle it's said that Professor Gerald discovered Emarl who is a gizoid. This is odd, as in chronicles it is made clear that gizoids are echidna creations. For Gerald to find this gizoid he would have had to go to the only remaining piece of echidna culture, Angel Island. If he was on angel island he could have seen the giant mural of Perfect Chaos or even met Chaos and the Chao himself. It's not too far fetched that the prototype ended up as the Bio-Lizard if he was trying to replicate Perfect Chaos. In fact, there is some proof to this as there are several imperfect Chaos beasts roaming the ark. Food for thought.
I've heard the theory about angel island, and it could feasibly make sense, but I tried to come up with something away from that since I wanted to work more with what MUST have happened rather than what COULD have happened. It certainly could've happened but the only implication of that is from a game that came after adventure 2, which I'm trying to avoid because I'm looking at it from the perspective of a game that can stand on it's own. Although now that I think about it the chaos beasts were created from a creature linked to the master emera- oh fuck
@@Khonjin I mean, the Ark is filled with Artificial Chaos' so he had to have studied Angel Island and Echidna Culture to know that Chaos was even a thing that existed. Edit: should've read the rest of the comment first rip
I do wanna add in my two cents here real quick that Rouge did more in the plot. In order for Sonic to become super sonic he needs the power of the chaos emeralds but more than that he needs the help of the master emerald to harness that energy. So Rouge pretended to want to steal the Master Emerald to get knuckles to follow them to the ark and when confronted she just gave them to him after a moment. I used to think it was weird how she just gave it up to him but now it makes sense. She’s even the one who says that they need the master emerald to stop the Ark from crashing into earth to neutralize the chaos emeralds and gets the whole plan in motion. So once again, Knuckles unknowingly was lead into a plan he wasn’t even aware was happening. Rouge had a fail safe plan Incase it all went wrong and played Knuckles like a fiddle to get it right where she wanted it.
Dude...you did it. You found a way to fix a story in the eyes of so many people, who thought it was broken for so many years. Now I can enjoy this story in peace. And when someone says how many flaws this story has, I'll just show them this video.
Looking forward to part 2 (if it ever comes). Good theory, but a couple disagreements. As you make your way through Cannon's Core, you notice that the design of the place starts taking more and more cues from ancient Echidna ruins and it all ultimately leads to an exact copy of the Master Emerald shrine. Where is that shrine? Angel Island. This means that Gerald Robotnik obviously takes inspiration from that island. And you know what else is on Angel Island? A mural prophesizing Sonic's encounter in Doomsday Zone in Sonic 3 seen in the Knuckles fight. Gerald Robotnik must have based Shadow's hedgehog design on that mural. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
I don't think that necessarily goes against Khonjin's point. If anything, it almost reinforces it; the coming of the Ultimate Lifeform to fight back against darkness was prophecized. It also partly explains the Biolizard, as logically Perfect Chaos would be the runner-up for ultimate lifeform status, given its deep ties to the Emeralds, and would therefore be a close second design for an Ultimate Lifeform. It also explains the chaos robot things on the ARK levels.
@@zekeram129 Correct. I never realized these call backs cause when I played Sa2 years ago, I didnt play Sa1 yet so the lore was absent from me lol. This is actually one of my fav pieces of lore in the series. The implications are intriguing. Also apparently, in the S3&K's manual, its mentioned that Knuckles saw and was afraid of an "legendary dragon from a huge Egg" that would bring catastrophe to Angel Island however it was only just Eggman he was looking at. That line could be a precursor to Chaos since he was originally a normal Chao but was mutated, Perfect Chaos has a reptilian appearance like a dragon, and the fact that Chao do hatch from eggs. I could be streching but just food for thought ig. Here's a source: www.sonic-jam.org/sisghzs:md-sonic3k-t2
One thing I just want to bring up regarding the story. The reason the next phase in the "ultimate life" goes from a giant lizard to a small hedgehog is the same reason there's an alter from Sonic Adventure 1 in the middle of the ARK. Gerald went to the lost world area in SA1 and discovered the alter which could control the chaos emeralds, and saw the mural there which prophesied Sonic saving the world. He believed that it predicted his creation, hence why he altered his plan to more closely create a literal copy of Sonic. No, I don't know how or why I know this.
As much as I love SA2 and its story, I never knew that the "plot holes" were actually explained IN the game. I always assumed they were like that due to poor localization or something similar. I honestly have an even deeper respect for the game now that I know that everything IS explained but you just have to play close attention and I think thats what Sonic Team wanted the whole time. Even though I thought I knew everything about everything in the Sonic universe, I guess this shows that there's so much more out there that even I don't know. Seriously fantastic video, you just earned a subscriber. :)
well supported. It truly is a breath of fresh air to see a review that rather than reinforcing the internets perception on the narrative instead challenges it, and accompanied with khojin's patented sense of humour. Appreciate the work put into this.
Holy shit. The stuff you said near the end about themes of legacy and its connection with the games own position as the potential final Sonic game outside the fourth wall is fucking genius.
Anyone ever come back to this video wishing for a part two. Like a pilgrim to his holy land I treck back to this corner of the internet hoping to one day see "PT 2" in my sub feed
Khonjin, I the work you've put into this episode of the Competitive Review is astonishing. Your take on Sonic Adventure 2's plot and how it goes about it's storytelling is a fascinating trip and as soon as you finished the episode I was floored as to how deep the rabbit hole went. However, I will say that the fact that the story was so hard to grasp in the way you did shows something of a flaw. The fact that it's taken such rigorous combing through Lore Details, the Re-Cap segments that are only seen/read if you put the game down and pick it back up, as well as Jerald's Diary which I believe was in the Manual for SA2 goes to show that while the story itself is as well thought out as you said, has a fatal flaw in it's execution. Although I feel like that stems from the English dub, as it was improved. While I do not have a source and will try and supply one if I can find it, Ryan Drummond had said on an old Sonic Forum that the entirety of the Sonic Adventure 2's voice acting was improved. While they had a basic idea of what was going on in the scene and what the characters were doing, the small details were done on the fly, so the story loses some of it's nuance. That being said I don't know much on the Japanese Voice Acting, but as you said in the video there were a lot of details left in the Japanese cut that weren't present in English. That being said, it's impressive how you were able to put together such details and the fact that you brought up that SEGA thought that SA2 would be their last hurrah to Sonic also puts a lot of things into perspective. I distinctly remember that US Trailers for SA2 specifically said the line "Farewell, Sonic...Forever." While I still stand firm in the fact that SA2 has flaws in how it relays information to it's audience, especially in it's English Incarnation, I cannot deny that you've breathed new life into how I see the plot. Even before this video, I liked it's story. Despite the campy nature of the story and how silly it could come off as at times, for a Sonic game it did what it had to do and did it in a way that could still entertain me. But now I look back on it and want to see what else could lie beneath. I eagerly await Part 2, as I imagine your take on SA2's gameplay will also be fascinating to hear.
I think I figured out how Amy got to Prison Island, as well as how she managed to have a key card to unlock Sonic's cell. We all know it doesn't make sense that she "caught a ride with Tails", since Tails clearly states while flying to the island: "What's Amy doing here?" And with him also mentioning how strong the prison's defenses are, there's only one explanation: Amy is an escaped convict. Think about it, she has no means of transportation to get to the island, so the only way she could be there is as a *prisoner*. This makes some sense of why Amy lies to Sonic about "catching a ride" with Tails. Since Amy is madly in love with Sonic, she wanted to give some excuse as to why she could be on the island, without jeopardizing her reputation. She couldn't tell Sonic she was arrested, what would he think of her then? This is all further supported by her having a security card. It's simple, after breaking out and taking out most likely multiple guards, she would acquire such items to get around the interior. Now, you're probably wondering, "why would Amy commit a crime worthy of having her be locked up on *PRISON ISLAND*?" Well that's the thing, if there's one thing that defines Amy's character, it's her insatiable obsession with Sonic. This is further cemented in her theme song in this game, "My Sweet Passion" where Amy cryptically details all the things she's done and presumably will do to achieve her dream of being extremely close to Sonic. So, Amy, noticing the news reports claiming "Sonic" is running rampant, and eventually apprehended, she knows just where to go to find him. *Prison Island*. This also makes Amy's instant reaction to seeing Shadow make a lot more sense. Since Shadow has been the one in all the news footage, his image is more fresh in her mind, and in her mad desperation, seeing Shadow, who's the exact same shape, height, etc. of Sonic, and matching that image up with everything she had just used to track him, she mistakes him for Sonic. But of course, being obsessed with him, she quickly notices that Shadow is, in fact, *not* Sonic. Amy does all this to paint herself as a hero to Sonic. Almost rubbing it in that she's the one saving him with lines like "are you sure you don't need my help? It looks like you could use it!" So in conclusion, Amy lies to Sonic about "catching a ride with Tails" so she can appear to Sonic as his knight in shining armor rather than a crazy freak who got her self locked up just to be with Sonic. However, in the end, this image is shattered, as Amy gives in to her desperation when Sonic asks where Shadow is by saying "If I tell you, will you marry me?" So sadly, her charade was all for naught... So ends the tragic pursuit of romance, for Amy Rose.
I think it’s cool how the ultimate life form’s transition from the big Biolizard to Shadow the Hedgehog reflects how reptiles and dinosaurs once ruled the Earth. They were the “ultimate lifeforms” of their time, and once they all died, small mammals took over.
To add on top of that, the Biolizard is the splice-up of the top half of Brontosaurus with the bottom half of Plesiosaurus in genetic modification. So he had dinosaurs in mind I believe before he used that mural as an inspiration.
It is a DAMN shame these reviews didn't continue. Only now am I revisiting this channel to see what you're up to and I find such a fascinating and positive take on a game people just love to dunk on and move on. It's be so sicc to see more reviews like this one, about literally anything. You've got an infectious energy and an analytical mind, at least from what I gathered in this vid.
I really just want to thank you for the ban list. Thank you so much. EDIT: I just finished the video, and oh my god, this is possibly one of the best videos you've made. Not only did you not make a joke every minute at the expense of the Sonic series like so many content creators love doing, you stood up for Sonic Adventure 2 and really went in-depth on the story. You even solved all of the plot holes/mysteries! ( Except for how Amy got to Prison Island and why she went to the ARK with the good guys, but she only does one useful thing in the story anyway, which Tails was already going to do, so no harm done. ) I'm extremely excited for the second part of this.
Vermilingus Oh, my bad. I couldn't hear anything during that part of the video, because of a stupidly loud engine in a plane made by one person. Now, I hear you asking "Why did you get on a plane in the middle of watching the video?", well, if you gotta know, I hitched a ride with Tails.
I love at 3:47 he is holding back laughter about shadow being the only one able to use chaos control. Works for both the literal game plot and the game theory
Wow, I never thought I'd find an SA2 review that DIDN'T suck. This one is different from all the other reviews that I've seen, this review is actually really great. and I see SA2 in a new light now. good shit. I definitely like how you threw shade at the (as you worded it) Basic Bitch reviewers, who half-assed their explanation of the story, and then you swoop in and explain stuff in the story that nobody would even think of. like how rouge works for the president but not GUN. Gun framing sonic as a criminal in order to keep Project Shadow a secret, since that skeleton in GUN's closet just happened to slip out thanks to a certain mad scientist. And about how SONIC was the true ultimate life form all along... the way you explained it, it makes perfect sense. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this review.
Khonjin, that was a masterpiece. From a thousand year door, to a hat in time, I always enjoy your competitive reviews. I look forward to seeing future content.
I dont know what is taking you so long to make a part 2 to my favorite video about my favorite video game, it made me rethink the whole story. I have waited 3 years for this khonjin and I am growing impatient, now shut your ass up and get in gear.
I get Shadow's reason for being a slow-mo, but why does Eggman want to destroy the world? What would he gain from just living on a space laser by himself for the rest of his life?
He didn't want to destroy the Earth, he wanted to cement the ability to reign over the Earth with the planet at figurative gunpoint. So long as he has exclusive access to the working Eclipse Cannon, he has free reign over pretty much all the Earth's leaders for fear of Armageddon by the ARK. The reason I know he didn't want to destroy the Earth is because right when he was aware the cannon would fire regardless of his input, he teams up with his archenemies in order to stop the cannon firing. Because he doesn't want it to fire.
Even if I have to suspend my disbelief to enjoy it, this whole theory is fucking rad and the video is pretty damn funny as well. I love it, great job, hope to see more stuff like this in future.
I was looking for this review specifically. There's a reviewer named Running Shine and his style reminded me a lot of yours. Even if I don't necessarily agree with everything, this review and it's points are well explained. This video makes me laugh and think a ton. Hope your channel grows, man!!
This has no right being so good. Well done! Well done! You went right past the points most youtube reviewers would ignore or refuse to look deeper into, and gave the kind of respect and consideration the game deserved while still remaining critical.
Not to mention the Artificial Chaos on the ARK all the GUN robots that run on Chaos Drives, which can power up chaos because of their relation to Chaos. As for how Gerald knew about Sonic decades before he was born, he probably discovered the Hidden Palace mural from S3&K. He clearly researched Chaos more, given how many more Chaos-based things there are on the ARK, but he made a complete about face when he saw the mural of Super Sonic and made Shadow. This also explains why Shadow's spines spike upwards.
Khonjin, you are the true MVP. You have not only explained almost every perceived plothole of SA2, but you've helped me see this game and what it stands for in a whole new light. -...Also, Amy being on Prison Island can be explained by the fact that she dabbles in witchcraft and the occult.-
THANK YOU FOR NOT BEING LIKE EVERY OTHER REVIEWER IN THE WORLD Thanks for especially using the games before and not after too This is why i love your videos
I'm not sure I'm convinced that the story isn't dumb, but this certainly is a refreshing review after all the other Sonic Adventure 2 reviews that have been. Either way, your plot synopsis at the beginning is freaking hilarious. I love how it's as though I can feel your consciousness breaking down further and further with each plot point.
Dude seriously this was an amazing video and the shit you said made me see this game in a whole new light, I love this game I love you please do part 2
