It took me 20 Years to 100% Sonic Adventure 2 

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Sonic Adventure 2 casually vs Sonic Adventure 2 completionist is radically different, and ranges between being infuriating and making you feel like the most badass guy in the entire world. I love this game.

Alpha getting his hair done at the end is just pure comedy gold

Jacob: “we’re so close I can taste the finish” Me who’s looking at the rest of the 48 minutes left: “so true king. You got this”

I wrote an essay about this game in my eighth grade English class. I convinced my teacher it was a book and she believed me.

28:46 The Biolizard was designed after the murals in the Mystic Ruins that depicted Perfect Chaos in Sonic Adventure 1, while Shadow was designed after the murals on Angel Island that depicted Super Sonic fighting Eggman at the end of Sonic 3 and Knuckles. This is why Shadow’s quills resemble that of Super Sonic. May no Sonic fan be confused by this lore ever again.

shoutout to Noah for gaslighting Alpharad so easily, a true icon of our time

Sonic: "Wait a minute THATS-" Shadow: "That blue hedgehog again, of all places!" Sonic: "I found you, FAKER!" Shadow:"FAKER? I think YOU'RE the fake hedgehog around here. You're comparing yourself to me? HA! You're not even good enough to be my fake!" Sonic: "I'll make you eat those words!"

Jacob: "Yeah, hopefully this is the kind of video you watch over lunch, but over like three or four days of lunches" Me, binging it at 2 AM for absolutely no reason: "DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO-"

The fact that the air necklace for Knuckles is optional is absolutely insane, because as a 9 year old child I had no idea that it existed and made Cannon's Core the most difficult mission in the game. I cannot believe that I even managed to finish the mission without it.

I love the childhood story to start off, 27 year old technically unemployed Alpharad is back at it :D

The thing that's cool about Security Hall to me is that you get to collect chaos emeralds instead of pieces of the master emerald. Really feels like a cool callback to how important they were in SA1

I think what works so well for security hall is it's theming. The level itself can at times be janky and frustrating, but it nails the feels of a secure, high tech government vault, and the music gives major secret agent vibes

Honestly, mad props to the hairdresser lady for just pushing forward while her client literally plays a video game the whole time.

28:53 The reason he went from a giant lizard to a funny little hedgehog thing is because of the things he based them off of. The biolizard was based on a mural of perfect chaos from sa1, while shadow is based on a mural of super sonic.

I’m questioning my own humanity on how nobody is talking about rouge’s jiggle physics at 35:09

Alpha referencing Snapcube while playing SA2 is all I needed at life in this very moment.

me, while eating dinner on my fourth day of continuing this video: 44:00 mad respect to alpha for knowing his target group for specific videos

I have new found respect for this man, after realizing he converted 26 hours worth of footage into 1 hour.

Not lunch, but dinner, and not only eating dinner, but even making it. I am in love with your long videos alpha, thanks for being such a good cooking/eating buddy

Here's a fun lost bit from the Battle version on GameCube (which was, in fact, the codebase for the HD version): the Super Hedgehogs were going to be made playable in the revamped 2-player mode, as indicated by a few leftover bits of graphics, text, and even programming! Unique text banners reading "Super Sonic" and "Super Shadow" can be seen alongside the respective models in fully-functioning floating poses if you use a cheat device to make them selectable, though it only loads in the normal Sonic & Shadow text blurbs. Despite this, the Supers do have their own text blurb also stored on the disc: "SUPER (SONIC/SHADOW) Powered by the 7 Chaos Emeralds. Amazing speed and moves, but dies if rings are lost." There's also another leftover text block indicating how they would have been unlocked: "Congratulations! You've cleared Green Hill with Rank A. Strongest characters are now available to use in Sonic and Shadow 2P versus mode." Unfortunately, though, the actual character coding doesn't seem to exist, and so actually selecting them will just cause the game to use normal Sonic and/or Shadow.

There is actually an answer to the whole "Biolizard -> Shadow" thing. To sum it up, Gerald saw an ancient mural depicting Perfect Chaos fighting Super Sonic, and based the Biolizard on the former. He then went on to make Shadow after realising that the latter was actually the focus of the mural.

28:56 The lore states that the Biolizard was based on Perfect Chaos, from discovering the ancient mural inside Lost World from SA1. 56:09 The way you're SUPPOSED to do that, by the way, is to use the Sunglasses. A trail of rings appears by the correct one.

As someone who is 25 years old and relates to your story so much, i did this last year, and it was the most vindicating experience of my life. The hill is real boys.

This truly was a great time watching Alpharad Live and Learn.

"Alpharad setting up a challenge and wildly misjudging how long it would take" is a whole series at this point

Getting Green Hill Zone was hell as a kid... and I know I'm going to have to do that shit again.

I remember playing this game as a kid, and I discovered the super bounce on my own, but I also discovered that with a chao if you drop the stat increasing items in front of them instead of running into them they give the item back and you can use it again so I used that to get chaos stats really fast

I'm scared Sonic 3 is just gonna either have a orchestral version of live and learn or just a leitmotif of it instead of putting in Crush 40's bangin lyrics like I NEED to hear that "Yeah yeah yeah!" In theaters please

EVERY SNAPCUBE REFERENCE: 3:55 "There goes Hawaii" 4:23 "I've come to make an announcement"

For what it's worth Alpharad, Pyramid Cave fucks with everyone. I had a B rank staring at me for literal years so the fact it only took you 2 days is genuinely impressive.

835 eggman's robots disliked.

this was not a video i watched spread out over four lunches, but a video i watched all in one go whilst crocheting a blue bunny. its absolutely gonna help me when i finally go back to tackle cannons core tho !!

"As a child who loved games, I was not very good at games." This is somehow the most accurate way to describe the childhood gaming experience.

paused on the Tier list for levels. i've never agreed any harder on someone's tier list about anything. it's perfect.

The feeling of fighting as super sonic at the end with the music and the catharsis was beyond anything at the time, i remember playing the final fight and being both super stoked that there was an epic ending and upset that such an amazing moment lasted for just a few minutes, i remember replaying the end several times just to relive the moment of being super sonic and jamming out to a kickass soundtrack.

one of my favorite youtubers, playing my favorite childhood game, for over an hour. i watched this over breakfast and was filled with joy the whole way through; it was truly fantastic seeing how much you love this game, and my only regret is that i didn't manage to catch the experience live. thank you for this, and congrats on the 100%!

Never apologize for long videos, it's my favorite thing in the world to put on something for like 3 hours in the background while I draw (although I don't usually tend to split them up over multiple days, my bad)

Getting your hair done while 100% completing Sonic Adventure 2 is honestly such a power move.

I will say, honestly, that this kind of video is GREAT and I totally don't actually mind you explaining stuff at all. Good stuff!

51:13 I didn't, but I'm sorry, please don't hurt me

Green Hill being considered special and important enough to be made a secret level in SA2, while every single Sonic game of the past 15 or so years has Green Hill in it just for "nostalgia" sake, is truly one of the things of all time.

Honestly, mad respect. Not for this insane challenge run, but for your ability to keep composure and commentary while having your hair bleached.

I love that you called out exactly what I do with videos such as these, which is to watch in chunks while eating; made me feel seen lol. Subbed! And bravo!

"Sonic Jr" and "Shadow2" are so incredibly in character I can't explain it i just love them so much

3:56 There goes Hawaii🎵 There there there goes Hawaii 🎵Oh there goes Hawaii, the island is gone

A-Ranking every mission in Sonic Adventure 2 took my sanity

I'd never seen any Alpharad content before this video and I can gladly say, I'll be checking out a bunch of his previous videos. The amount of nostalgia that came flooding in after seeing this in my recommended section was just too much to pass up on. This video delivered and had me nodding my head in agreement at so many moments. I'd not thought to revisit this game (aside from a few plays through City Escape and SO MUCH time spent in Chao Garden!) in quite a while. I just might have to dip my toe back in sooner rather than later! Thank you for such a fun video (that I definitely did watch over a couple of days on lunch breaks!)! ❤

Thanks man! I really needed a video while i do the dishes, the house chores and the cooking of the day! Lots of love

Shadow bending time and space (cheating) to make Shadow2 (his son) the most powerful Chao in existence is more accurate to his character than most of his own game.

Some people might not enjoy such a long video about a 22 year old game. I am not some people. This game had a choke hold on my entire childhood and when Jacob mentioned he was working on this I got so happy. I watched this video TWICE EVEN

28:47 the answer to how gerald went from the bio-lizard to shadow is in sonic 3, in the knuckles boss fight we see a mural of super sonic fighting perfect chaos. we know gerald studied angel island since the space colony arc uses the chaos emeralds and the biolizard arena is a recreation of the master emerald shrine. Gerald first tried to design his ultimate lifeform after perfect chaos which is why there are artificial chaos on space colony arc and how he made the biolizard. the biolizard was a failure so with extra help from the black arms geralds next design was based of super sonic and was a success, this is also why shadow has natural chaos powers and his spines curve upwards like super sonics. TLDR, biolizard was based on perfect chaos, Shadow was based on super sonic.

I sat and watched your entire video in one sitting. Very entertaining, very fun. Congrats on accomplishing your dream bro!

Doing the 180 Emblem collection and unlocking Green Hill Zone was one of the greatest accomplishments of my childhood. Thank you for giving us this and congratulations for achieving it as well.

30:14 I love how Shadow tries to rack an M16 like you would rack a Mossberg

Honestly I had this on in the background as I was unpacking my new room and it was such a great watch. Not to distracting so I could keep working but still watch and be in awe of all the stuff I didn’t know about this and seeing your incredible progress

I don't exactly know why but hearing so many of my absolute favorite Sonic tracks in an Alpharad video really warmed my heart for some reason. Especially the more niche ones like The Palace That Was Found and Catch Me If You Can.

Ahhh the game that gave us everyone's favorite iconic dark furred brooding hedgehog. I never got to play this game when it came out. I was introduced to the Sonic franchise via Sonic X. And that show absolutely is why Shadow is my favorite character of all time. When Shadow is done well, he's essentially quiet kid reality. Mutli-faceted, has a small friend group, deeply cares but tries not to show it for fear of losing people, he's complex and collected, calculating. Nuanced. When Shadow is handled disrespectfully he's the embodiment of every single "quiet kid" stereotype meme. Shadow is my favorite not because of a lot of typical reasons. Shadow was created to be perfect. He's immortal, he is the pinnacle of human ingenuity. And yet, because he was created by humanity, he inevitably has flaws. And Shadow the Hedgehog is potentially one of the most flawed Sonic characters out there. And because of those flaws, it makes for a very fascinating character. Shadow is so much more than just an edgelord. And my God it felt great to see him back to form in Prime.

I wasn’t expecting a 1 hour video! I’m here for it!

Thank you for putting so much time and effort into this video! To write a script this long and keep it interesting I’m sure was difficult! Loved this video!! Also when is your merch store gonna open back up 😭

Even if you feel like you were being overly repetitive, I’m just happy that you were able to tend to your inner child and accomplish your dream of getting all the emblems. Great video🎉

The fact that Alpharad can make "The fourth Mission easy haha" still entertaining after 50 minutes is crazy

You can't truly call yourself a Sonic fan until you've made the pilgrimage that is 180 emblems in SA2

28:55 My personal headcanon has been that Gerald was working on something different but somehow saw sonic in his super form and basically scrapped all his work to try and recreate that which is why Shadow looks more similar to sonic in super form with the upwards quills I dont know the comics but they may have explained it similarly. Sonic X also I believe has some implications of this

29:50 so I'll attempt to explain this part to whoever is curious. During the Finalhazard boss fight the player controls both Sonic and Shadow, switching between the two. The boss is damaged by hitting those tumor weakspots with the dash attack, and with each successful hit the boss reinforces its defenses by firing laser beams and conjuring up protective layers of eggs or whatever those are. The weakspots change locations if the player takes too much time to hit them. Switching characters is done in two ways: by hitting a weakspot, or by flying to the other side of the boss. The latter method gives the player a bit of extra rings, but does not damage the boss. The characters comment on this during the battle, saying stuff like "I'll attack, you go collect rings". So what happened here is that the weakspot moved, Alpha dashed into it and defeated the boss, but the dash carried Shadow to the other side, which switched him with Sonic while Finalhazard's death animation was playing.

This game was a HUGE part of my childhood. I never comment but this made my 30 year old heart swell up with joy, this satisfied my need to 100 percent the game.

If you’ve ever heard people say any of the upgrades are “optional” they mean to complete the main story of the game. Because BELIEVE IT OR NOT, you actually can beat the game without the air necklace and most of the other upgrades. Yes, even the knuckles section. It’s just VERY hard.

44:05 No Alpharad I binged the whole thing 💀💀

Thanks for making this. I had the Prima strategy guide too as a kid and it told me at the end that I could get a reward for all A ranks, so to strap in and get some toilet paper and snacks. I knew I’d never make it, being a kid and more concerned with school, but it was a fun effort. Good memories you brought up for me.

Gotta go fast!

the fact that he was getting his hair re-done while finishing the game is so funny to me for some reason

“I hope this is the kind of video you watch while eating lunch spread over four days-“ I have been glued to my phone for the past 44 minutes watching the entire thing

I’m literally 5 minutes in, and I will watch this whole thing due to me reliving my favorite game ever through you. Thank you. Haha

I'm just glad I finally get to see someone who _gets_ how awesome Cannon's Core is. It's got more than a few problems (like the rest of the game) but the relay race aspect with the in-story aspect of facing a ticking clock to save the world just gives a feeling of excitement like few other games have ever given me.

I know you’re probably not going to see this but don’t apologize for longer content. You made it engaging the entire time. Thanks for highlighting one of my favorite games

I felt inspired to do this as well. Just got all 180 Emblems off a fresh save file. It took me 22 hours spread out across 4 days, but I did it. And I can flex because I didn't use no damn spreadsheet or walkthrough or exploit or anything. 22 years of playing this game has finally paid off

25:20 Rouge said "Fox Boy" not *PIANO* Boy

Props to you doing this. As a kid, I must've only gone halfway on the emblems and focused most of my time on the Chao Garden, and that was with a game guide to do the missions. I don't think I'll ever have the patience drive to legitimately get all emblems, but props to anyone who has.

I remember playing this game a few years ago (11 years old) and saying out loud: “people love this?” And I’m now one of those people I made fun of years ago, bc I too have been Sonic Adventure 2 pilled

I'm planning to unlock Green Hill in my save so every tip you dropped here is a blessing. Keep up the good work, Alpha.

I remember grinding all of this back in the summer of 2003 after having the game for a year or so when I was 15. I completed Tails, Rouge and Knuckles first. I will never forget the struggle of getting the A for the 4th mission of Radical Highway. It was awful. We didn't have online tutorials to see speed runs and skips, and so a lot of it was using a magazine guide and a lot of effort. It was so rewarding to complete, but yeah, the Green Hill Zone is a little anticlimactic though lol. It was such a trip down memory lane watching you go through this. It's been 20 years since I did this.

I listened/watched the streams on my way home from my new job. I want to let you know it was the exact nostalgia-comfort I needed navigating a new disheartening work situations

Already watched ALL of the VODs of the 180 emblem journey a couple months ago. Now condensed into a montage to relive the journey all over again is such a treat. SA2 hands down one of the top Sonic games ever. 👍🏼

I'm so happy someone highlighted how hard it is to complete this game

The way you narrate these videos makes them extra special. This was the first game I ever beat, but I never 100% it. Congratulations and thank you from my kid self.

Loving the fandub references, great video Jacob! Keep it up :) I wish you all the best and hope you have a great day:)

This is, no joke, my favorite video game. So happy to see you commit yourself to this!

Watching this stream was amazing. glad to see a video on it with the same energy

To explain how he switched to sonic during the biolizard fight when the biolizard was already dead: the game gives you the ability to manually swap between both of the hedgehogs during that fight. The reason for this is because the devs wanted to give you an easy way to save yourself if you were taking too long as one character and running low on rings as them. I think this also lets them replenish a small amount of rings. Kinda useless in practice but if you somehow suck at final hazard than maybe it could save you?

29:30 This is the genius that can happen when you don't overthink it. This is the brilliance that you scrub out when you revise too hard.

I love it when Mr. Rad puts on a suit for an ad read. Really trying to make it feel more professional. It was an especially nice touch to where colors that matched his bottled lol

you should know your videos are always my go to for when i eat. you just have the perfect vibe for it (high compliment) so you making one intended for lunch time viewing is awesome

Legitimately, this is something that I need to do at some point still, and I love that you have done it now.

I did this exact thing last year. I never 100% the game and saw the secret level so I decided to play through it again. After months of playing (largely due to the Chaos) I finally completed it! Felt like a major objective in my life was complete.

i love the longer video formats, they're perfect for when i want to eat a large meal and watch entertainment like medieval royalty

This is essentially an achievement guide now. Awesome video and great quality! Thank you!

it is I believe my 3rd day of watching this video since it came out and I just got to the part where Alpha talks about wanting this video to be a thing you passively watch over several days... mission accomplished, props man! I might not even finish it today tbh lol

I've attempted this when I was a kid (without any guides or googling) and oh man I got sooo mad. Mad props to you and even more props to your editor because DAMN that's a lot of footage to go through

beating cannons core without the air necklace is still my biggest feat to THIS DAY

26:25 the jiggle physics of rouge is wild