"...they decided to split the stage into 3-5 smaller acts, either due to memory issues or to make sure the night stages didn't drag on for too long." Well. They solved the memory problem.
There's some voice clips that go unused too (mostly Chip, obviously), but they don't seem to lead anything interesting as they're mainly all used. Only ones that peaked my curiosity were these filenames for it: V_118 and mainly the Werehog's clips. Werehog has only more rank quotes and even boss quotes (from the HD version) that go unused. As for V_118, it explains Chip about Sonic running across water where the player can sink if they slow down. Tried this out myself and both of them remain false. Maybe this is a good video idea you can do? These have been documented on the Sonic Wiki/Fandom Beta Elements and wanted to share something interesting.
I do remember seeing the list of unused voice lines on the wiki, never really read into them too much before but it's interesting to see what there is.
Part of me would be interested to see a mod that combines them into full length stages (similar to the mod for Sonic Colors), but in the end I'm kinda glad they split these levels up. I already felt that the Werehog sections were very long in this version (the day to night stage ratio is quite lopsided in the night stages' favor in this version of the game). Making us play through all the Werehog stages in one go would have made this issue even worse.
oh god. I saw Eggmanland's map and little me sobbed, despite enjoying the stage. Don't even get me started on the potential it could have had two daytime acts...
Rooftop Run Act 3 is questionable to me. In Act 2, Sonic ends at a gate around a bunch of buildings. But in Act 3, he's all of a sudden in high up area where the player can see many roofs of Spagonia. I wonder if there was supposed to be something that connects to this? The only possible proof I can find is for Chip's voice files (V_101)? If not, it could either be a double tower with a fountain or it was possibly meant for Act 3 since Chip says that the player has to continue forward by climbing a tower, which may indicate the Clock Tower. As you said, and is the same here, this is all speculation. So this one here remains a true mystery.
Rooftop runs ground level has never been consistent :P Earlier in act 2 there is that curved section that is above ground level on one side anyway. Act 3 does start lower to the ground befire you climb up a long pole, possible there was simply another one before it or a ledge/spinning things.
Is there any chance that some of the maps are flipped around? Ex: cool edge act 1 ends in a cave, but what if it was originally meant to start there and the start point was the end point?
I really wonder what happened to the Mizuri and Empire City stages. Were they cut from the start? Or at some point in development they had to give up at porting those two places from the hd version to the wii for some reason? Is there any evidence or explanation for any of it?
Doesn't seem to be anything, the Mazuri boss just uses Apotoses boss Slot "015", and its gaia gate uses Eggmanland's gaia gate slot "176", and there's no missing number that could've belonged to empire city. Though there is one thing to note, the gaia gate for Mazuri has its own coloured ledges and poles, but they're different colours from the HD version.
i have to imagine things where cut up because of that pesky PS2, since that version is allready so hevily downgraded in almost every way from things like the charcter modles to the resolution, ETC. it may have just made things easer to develop if they downgraded the main version TBH
The game would probably end up having to do something like Half-Life 2, or for a more relevant comparison, Sonic 06, where loading screens would take place in the middle of the stage, in between where the acts end now.
While I don’t really believe that these acts were ever just one stage, due to the hardware limitations you stated at the beginning, which had to have been known since the beginning of development. Otherwise we would’ve had a LOT more cut content or more obvious or sloppily split stages. But I do think that these were simply made to create a sense of continuity and progression. Especially in Eggmanland.
I don't think that is the case, bud. Handling maps of this size (which isn't very big to begin with) is very possible for the Wii and even for weaker hardware like the Gamecube or PS2. On the other hand, the leftovers from stage to stage are really notorious to put them there just to give a sense of progression. It is more than clear that these are split stages. On the subject of more cut content, there is a lot more, especially in the day stages
I actually tried this out yesterday. You can bypass the the locked camera by leaving the stage at a different place, but you'd unfortunately have to hug around to find that spot. No camera rotation though. Interestingly, doing this in act three of Adabat let me see that the torch lights from Act 2 are still active. Additionally, at some point I managed to trigger sounds of waves.
Yeah the moon jump cheat I used is very slow and tends to stop working if I double jump, which makes it very annoying to fly around. There is another code that I didn't try, should've given that a try. It seems the night camera stays at a consistent height at many parts of the night stage, and of course will not pass through solid collision. Interesting to see what else is left over from act splits.
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!
