i went in to mega man legends 2 cautiously optimistic. legends didnt play very well, but its charming characters, innovative art style, and intriguing worldbuilding and story elevated it into being something memorable
and for the most part, and despite largely feeling like an expansion of the first game, legends 2 manages to keep whats great about legends 1 and actually made the game fun to play. dualanalog goes a long way in a third person shooter like this. it controls better, the levels have some variety to them, youre not stuck on just one island anymore, instead going to various points across the world on this globe-trotting journey in the search for the mother lode, the very thing the first game was building up... and then it ends. im sure you all know how. but its a very abrupt cliffhanger. it makes me realize that its a problem both legends games have. they spend each game building up to this big thing, with all these dangling threads, teasing us, and then ending the game before we get any conclusion. it makes the experiences feel less fulfilling as i dont feel like im getting a full package, even though neither game is very short.
there are also some rather glaring flaws in the game. no matter how high your attack is, you rarely seem to do much damage (i used speedup a LOT in this game), you earn a ton of zenny but eventually the prices in the game begin to skyrocket to ludicrous amounts that you'll need to grind a rare bird in order to make any money late-game, which leads into the next problem, weapon upgrades cost an insane amount and its impossible to know which weapons you should stick with because some of them suck and if you upgraded them thinking that they could be good when improved, like say, the machine gun, well you're shit outta luck because you just wasted all your money on that. oh you got the energy sword from either getting 100 questions right in a row, or by forking over an insane amount of zenny? well using it launches you into the enemy youre trying to attack, damaging you before him somehow and if you wanna upgrade its range, you cant begin to comprehend how much thats gonna cost. doesnt help that some special weapons are the only reliable way to damage bosses, so if you chose one thats not great, then youre in for a slog of a fight. the balancing of money and damage in this game needs a serious overhaul. also you can spend money upgrading a weapons "special" but you have no indication on just what the hell that even means. and if you die in a dungeon its game over and back to the menu, which i find is a bit unreasonable even for the era, especially given how much progress you could lose, and how annoying the dungeons can be to navigate, and how bad some bosses can be.

i wish legends 3 happened, i truly do. but if legends were to ever come back, these games should probably get remakes first, because a collection wont really fix the problems rooted in these games.

genuinely when youre sneaking around levels, stealing loot, going full ghost so guards dont even suspect you, using your wits to determine where you need to go and what the best way to get there would be, this game is masterful, a triumph for stealth games of the era. there are things about the stealth that could be improved, but as is, the stealth is great.
but then half the game just decides it wants levels to be in some crappy mazes with zombies and shit making you run in circles trying to find some bullshit and it just ruins the experience. there are points where i thought about just quitting the game entirely.
i pray thief 2 and 3 dont have any of the zombie caverns this game had

playtronic clenching their fists, crying "N-NOOO YOURE NOT ALLOWED TO LEAVE A GAME THATS BEING LOST 9-0 WITH 2 MINUTES LEFT!!!! YOURE SUPPOSED TO WAIT FOR THE LAST GUY ON YOUR TEAM THATS THROWING THE GAME BY PUSHING THE BALL INTO HIS OWN GOAL TO AGREE TO A FORFEIT!!!!!!!!! YOURE BANNED FOR LEAVING!!!!"

like damn sorry for not wanting to get raped in casual play and wanting to get into a match against people my skill level instead of wasting my time in a hopeless fight sorry


but fr tho if i worked on this game i would genuinely be ashamed

Super Sonic's Story:
its pretty much just the ending to the game with one boss fight lol
but the boss fight is good in the first half, if a bit easy. theres an undeniable hype to seeing sonic transform into super sonic and speed across the water to hit a water monsters brain while crush 40 plays
and then the second phase ruins it by removing crush 40 and spamming you with lasers, making the fight go from easy to... not hard, but really annoying. then thats it, alls well that ends well (aside from the millions dead from chaos's rampage)


Final Thoughts:
sonic adventure is imo still a pretty great game, just with a lot of baggage. the camera may not be great, the chao garden may be better in 2, half the characters might not be good, but sonic, tails and gamma really do make the game something great. sure big hurts the game quite a bit, sure knuckles is mid, sure amy is... nothing, and sure the game is jank. the bosses for the most part kinda suck... but what's good in this game truly does make up for it. i'd say this game is greater than the sum of its parts, and-besides big- this game aged extremely well. i wish we could get another sonic game like this, not necessarily a remake (though this game would benefit from it if they keep sonics physics and do a total rework of big) but i just wish we could get something new that understands what made this game so special, what made it work so well and realize its true potential. there arent enough sonic games out there that just let you play as other characters with their own unique playstyle and objectives
but it is what it is.