[TAS] Sonic Adventure 2 'Hero Story A-Ranks' in 23:25 IGT

IGT: 23:25.75 -- 4:51.23 faster than the 180 Emblems World Record.
RTA: 36:40.38 -- ~0:58 faster than the 180 Emblems WR.
Recorded on Dolphin 4.0-4222 Lua Build. 16756 rerecords total.

This is not very optimal. A good, optimal TAS would be under 23 minutes. This run is optimized for 180 Emblems speedruns. This is part of the 180 Emblems LOTAD I am making.

Looking at it, you can see how I haven't done much at all. I only did a few levels before I started working on this monstrously big project. I am very inexperienced with TASing in this game. You can see improvements as the TAS goes on, but I am still very much a novice at TASing this game. Because of this, this TAS will not meet all expectations. I do some TAS Bouncing, for example, but I don't do it all that much. I limit myself in the areas where I TAS bounce.

As time progresses and I get more comfortable with TAS bouncing, you will also see me do it more and more. Next up is Dark Story, so I will not be touching the Bounce Bracelet whatsoever in the next few months until we finally reach Last Story. I will have to start from the beginning again when I reach Sonic's section for Cannon's Core, but I will get better!

Links:

00:00 City Escape M1
02:16 F-6t Big Foot
03:00 Wild Canyon M1
03:44 Dr. Eggman
04:18 Prison Lane M1
06:21 Metal Harbor M1
08:24 Shadow
09:14 Green Forest M1
11:34 Pumpkin Hills M1
12:39 Mission Street M1
15:22 Aquatic Mine M1
16:17 Route 101 M1
19:14 Hidden Base M1
21:38 Pyramid Cave M1
23:29 Chao World
23:47 Death Chamber M1
24:40 King Boom Boo
25:42 Egg Golem (Hero)
26:18 Eternal Engine M1
29:35 Meteor Herd M1
30:47 Rouge
31:31 Crazy Gadget M1
33:41 Dr. Eggman 2
34:19 Final Rush M1
36:34 Shadow 2
37:11 Credits

[Pixiuchu]

Regarding Knuckles: I know where all the pieces are before the level even starts because I use save states to manipulate RNG and to scout out the level, and *then* I play the level. I must have at least a hundred comments about just Knuckles.
Also please don't skip Eternal Engine, it's my favourite Tails stage and that is literally the only EE Skipless TAS that exists <3
I don't know when I'll be back to TASing. I'm busy with Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, since I love that game more than SA2B.

Edit 12: "This video has gotten 600, 078 views since it was published" sick, ngl

Edit 10: ok to be honest I got distracted with other stuff (namely Mario & Luigi: Dream Team ROM hacking), sorry no Prison Lane this month :(


Edit 8: 400, 000 views is a lot of views... it's actually at 420, 050 right now lol and also thanks again also I am skipping edit number 7 muahahaha I'll be continuing the TAS don't worry, you can find updates on PixiuTAS' channel
Edit 6: 200, 000 views is a lot of views... achieved the same day I became an aunt. Wonder if it means anything.... also, thank you all!
Edit 5: 100, 000 views is a lot of views.
EDIT 3: Thank you for 10k views btw!! I find it so cool to see the number at 10k views so thank you you're all awesome :) I'm working on City Escape still! And it will be at least 7 seconds faster than the City Escape in this run, it's beautiful :)

EDIT: New TAS process has officially begun and after only 25 seconds I'm already 0.80 seconds faster! :D

Original comment:
I would like to post an update on the 180 Emblems TAS (as of October 23rd 2021). I haven't been working on the TAS for a while mostly because of a lack of time and motivation. Soon I would have an actual schedule so I can plan when I can TAS in the schedule. I will probably restart the TAS from scratch using a save file to get the Tails chao (It saves around 9 minutes, so... Useful to me!), and I aim to redo Hero Story by the end of next February. I should have every single story done by the end of 2022, assuming I can start TASing next November.

Do realize that this project is a seriously big project, even when you don't optimize everything (And if you do optimize everything, expect to finish the run in 20 years!). I only started making this project because of a philosophy I have: if you want to see something but it doesn't exist, do it yourself. That's exactly why I started this TAS. And I still want to see it, and everytime I think about the TAS I do get a tiny bit of motivation. I will probably finish it one day. Just gotta be patient I guess.

I will release an update of the TAS once I reach Green Forest or something. I will make Green Forest the benchmark simply because if I post an update at City Escape, I may still decide to go back to this TAS you can see in this video and give up the updated TAS in favor of efficiency, but if I make it at Green Forest I'll be pretty confident I can finish the entire TAS' Hero Story.

Anyway, that's all from me. In case you haven't seen them yet, here are some of the levels from after this point:

[PolarManne]

1:17
Music: "Trust me and we will escape from the city"
Sonic: **escapes from the city**

[RSeph]

Knuckles: "This is gonna be tougher than I thought"

Also Knuckles: *finds every piece in 14 seconds

[Eight-Bytes]

7:32 - "Missile launch in 15 se- FIRE!"

[gittonsxv]

Sonic running up the tree in green forest was so in character for sonic, thats amazing.

[timothykammerer]

9:07 Shadow: "hmm, I'm the coolest!"
Sonic: "Aight, I'm gonna dip, let me know when you die."
*falls into water*
Shadow: "Darn, not bad for an imposter."
*Sonic gasps for air and swims back to the platform, coughing up water, walks towards Shadow*
Sonic: "Do you know who I am?"

[SaurusTheKing]

Mad respect for how tight these A-rank scores are. Even though it's a TAS, it takes some serious planning on these stages to get an A-rank so closely

[GTSRyan]

33:13 "Well done Sonic, but you'll never leave this room alive!"
Well he wasn't wrong...

[MatrixEvolution]

36:46 "before this is over, I'll show you the true power of CHA-- 😵"

[jolak]

35:20
Omachao: "Try grinding up the steep incline, it's fun!"
Sonic: *Sure*

[theseculargamer]

My personal favorite is 35:17.
Omachao: Try grinding up this steep incline. It's fun!
*Proceeds to aggressively run up the incline of the nearby building instead.*

[DarkFrozenDepths]

I never get tired of Shadow's face at 9:37

That's the same kind of "oh s**t!" face someone would make if they accidently had something "questionable" on bluetooth or a loud speaker

[WCfanatic]

I love how Sonic has the actual Dev-endowed programming to move faster than even his own game can handle

Gotta go fast, man

[Regent]

36:50, Shadow: "I'll show you the true power of..." *ding-ding-ding!*

[gabethompson]

Final Rush was insane. Awesome job on these dude

[Ordnance_T]

This TAS guy is pretty good in any video game

[JontyLevine]

As someone who is used to seeing runners breeze through the mech stages with E ranks, it was kinda cathartic to watch Tails picking up all those Perfect 2000s in a run, epsecially Eternal Engine.

Also, scoring two extra hits on Egg Golem instead of the traditional dive into the sand was exceptionally cool.

[Leandera]

21:16
Tails: "I did it!"
ok.

[blackball]

Ok I think it's safe to say that Sonic speedrunners are the most hardcore speedrunners in the world. None of the things they do should be possible. It's awesome to watch though.

[harryc]

1:38
"Sir, we have suspect in sight. Engaging persuit."

1:39
"Uh, we just lost visual contact."