Sonic Adventure 2 is a perfect example of a game I wish I could enjoy more. Is it a bad game? No, and I can admit that I was a little harsh on it the last time I tried to replay it. I can see why people love it so much, hell, I even agree with some of their points; Adventure 2 does have one of my favorite stories in the Sonic series, so many cutscenes are perfectly memorable with so many lines that are hard to forget once you hear them. The music, as always, is fantastic, each character's theme works wonders (though Knuckles had a bit of a downgrade) for the cutscenes mentioned previously. so wonderful that they end up completely drowning out the actual dialogue half the time.
Despite all that, I just... can't get into it as much as I'd like? Especially with how much I love Adventure 1, it feels weird not being able to feel that same love and appreciation for this one. I think the easiest way I can go over it all is by detailing my thoughts on each play style, which will absolutely include comparisons to the first game, so sorry.

Speed Stages --- Sonic & Shadow

This is probably where I feel the most divisive with the levels. Sometimes, they work pretty well, allowing for fast movement as well as a nice selection of tricks and opportunities for high scores. Other times, you'll be in the middle of a damn puzzle with stages like Crazy Gadget, or the hellscape of leaps of faith in Final Rush/Final Chase. No matter the level, though, one thing stays consistent. The physics are... not what they were in Adventure 1. The hedgehogs feel so much clunkier for some reason, almost floaty. It makes platforming way more dangerous than it should ever be. Don't try to course correct, either, because God forbid you rely on the homing attack to hit what you're actually aiming for.

Mechs --- Tails & Eggman

Take that clunky movement, make it worse. It's not impossible to enjoy these stages, I'll admit that going brain off in certain segments and just watching the bullets fly as big number in the corner goes up certainly hit a spot every once in a while, but actually playing the stages and maneuvering around them was a nightmare. There is almost no speed to be built up ever, and if there ever is, it will be immediately discarded as soon as you turn the slightest of corners. It's too choppy to have any fun for more than like, 10 seconds, made worse by the fact that each of these stages are usually about 6 minutes at least. Have fun with those beep and explosion sound effects.

Treasure Hunting --- Knuckles & Rouge

This is the one that confuses me the most. Loading into each hunt places three objects around the stage, and each reset moves them to a different spot. To make up for how much more expansive these treasure troves are, you are given... very vague hints on their location through floating TVs. Hints that only apply to the next item in line... and the radar will only go off for that specific item.
Why is this a thing? This wasn't a thing in the first Adventure, with that, you could search for the emeralds in any order you'd like, and they'd allow you hints from the radar no matter the order. So why couldn't they do that here? It's not like they only spawn in one at a time, they're all there from the start. It really only serves to make the hunts last longer, which, again, is not ideal with how big they all are. Especially later on, with Meteor Herd/Mad Space jesus fuck i could not begin to go off on mad space with this review. It is a straight downgrade from something that had zero problems to begin with, a downgrade that had no reason to even be made. I do not understand these two...

Last Story

Filler section of the review, it's a single stage that's like 9 minutes long and then 2 bosses that are fine enough. Thankfully, they were nice enough to not go so hard on the worse aspects of each character for their final level. I could not imagine the Knuckles segment without the air necklace though.

I don't hate Sonic Adventure 2! I don't! I thought I did, but this replay had me feeling just a little less cynical, I guess. The story is fantastic, the soundtrack is too, Chao Garden is fun, but god if this game is anything, it's disappointing. A good, disappointing game. A good game that I wish was better.

but damn i love sonic the hedgehog.