Sorry if this video is a little boring in terms of its visuals. This is my first video essay, and I focused a lot on the story and its meaningful aspects, usually sacrificing on the visuals a bit. Besides, in some of the voiceover sections, there really wasn't anything I could put on screen that would've fit the mood without just being a "distraction to keep peoples' attention." EDIT: Wow, you all did it. 10,000 views. To a channel like mine, 10,000 views is like 1,000,000 views. Thank you all so much for your support!
@@FishGoingInsane I agree, the graphics are so simple, with the black background and stuff, that the lack of things happening on screen doesn't really feel odd or, y'know, lacking I'd even say I find the timing for the flips really well done, since it never feels like it's moving too much, nor does it feel like it's moving every sentence like a robot or something, and nor does it feel like it's moving too little. It's pretty cleverly made and timed
That "Good-bye" option in the chao garden terminal fucked me up as a kid. Accidentally stumbled upon it and was already well-acquainted with the loss of a pet after our second cat had passed away, so reading the guilt-tripping message and the art accompanying it along with the music, genuinely broke me as a small 7 year old
I must be a twisted child, I used to abuse the chao as Shadow to make hero chao, and if they didn't become what I wanted, I would throw it into that machine.
My dad was an IT guy, so even as a kid I was aware of how easy it is to lose data. So, I drew my first two chao. Over 2 decades later and that very very very bad drawing of them is still hanging on my wall. Those two virtual pets got me through a crappy childhood, so I would be devastated if I didn't have that picture. I'm glad you were able to find your chao. It's strange how a bunch of 1's and 0's can end up carving a place in our hearts.
My favorite Chao was named Buddy. He was a dual-toned swim hero chao. He evolved twice, and I loved him a lot. I remember one day I heard an odd jingle and saw an odd white capsule. I was concerned about Buddy, because he was the only one missing. I ran out and back in, found Buddy and fed, pet, rocked - even let him swim. I remember I had a printed out Game FAQs page about chao. It told me that if the cocoon was pink, they would come back to life. Buddy crawled out of the water and the cocoon turned pink. I was so scared while I waited and waited. A spotted dual-toned egg was there. I rocked it open and there he was - still named but back to being a baby Chao. I didn't care, I loved the little guy.
Man... I had a Chao. Called him Champ. Threw his egg at the wall to hatch him, and he had an uncanny smile. I loved that little gremlin. When I learned about Chao deaths, I made damn sure I'd turn Champ into a Chaos Chao. I had a little journal where I wrote down all the animals and their locations. And spent hours raising him. He ended up a Neutral Chaos Chao. He dominated all the races and karate matches. He learned so much in Kindergarden... Then I lost my gamecube memory card. I searched everywhere, and I cried for so long. I think a bit of me died when I lost him. I miss ya little buddy... Rest in Chaos ;-;
The absolute pain in your voice at 20:33 made me cry. It really warms my heart that you loved your Chao as much as you do. I'm really happy that you managed to get the closure you deserved, and that Zack got the immortality he deserved too.
Melody was the name of my first Chao. I was maybe 8 when I lost him, and it was so soul crushing. I drew so many pictures of him in Chao Heaven to remember him.
RIP to my best chao, Lemon. She lives on in the chao race records. I was a child who didn’t know chao could die, I probably left the Wii on overnight by accident and let it age out
This video is extremely sweet. I love how much you care for something that most people would consider... fake? I guess? I get attached to my digital companions, too, but I don't have the dedication and care for most of them that you have towards Jack. I'm very glad you found him ♥️
Very sweet story! It's so nice that you have a permanent piece of Zack to remember him by. Years ago I had my own little chao OCs I drew and just a week or so ago I decided to recreate them on SA2B Steam version. They deserve to be remembered and brought to life! They are my babies after all. :3
Recreating them on steam is a brilliant idea. I actually did that with the GameCube chao you saw in this video. They were not from the original file, but I still wanted to save them as well (even if it took a lot of painstaking analysis to make sure I copied them perfectly with stats and level progress down to the right number)
I share a lot of experiences with your story, I was a little kid when I played Sonic Adventure 2 on my xbox 360, my very first chao was my absolutely favorite, his name was Sonic Jr and he was spiky with a greenish tone, he also had really good stats and won a lot of medals, the first time he evolved to a hero chao made me jump of joy, and by that point I was already sharing attention with other chaos I had as well, however I spent a LOT of time on the garden every time I opened the game, when the white cocoon appeared on Jr I was excited, I thought maybe he was getting a second evolution after all my hard work, but after he disappeared I was DEVASTATED, I didn't even knew chao could die, much less how to save them. After that I got scared of entering the garden again and don't remember interacting much after that, because Jr was the only chao I've ever seen die. Years later, my love for chao garden came back, I bought the game on steam and discovered the dedicated community, maybe now, being a better parent for all my chao, I could avenge Jr's death, rest in peace.
When I got a copy of Sonic Adventure 2 on Steam, the first thing I did was remake the first Chao I had as a kid. His name was Sprite. When I finally got him back to what I remembered he looked like, I burst into tears for a solid few minutes. From what I remember he was just a normal dark+swim turned dark+run chao with no legs and some details that are a little fuzzy by now. I remember calling him a green Shadow. It felt like reuniting with something from my past that meant so much to me. The disk broke when I moved out and I also lost the memory cartridge. So all hope of getting a picture of the OG was gone. I was so happy to find there is a whole community of people who love Chao as much as I do. I mean, I even jokingly called Sprite my 'son' at times because I love him so much. I followed guides to get him back to exactly what I remembered he looked like. Got some mods too so he can learn new things and be an even happier Chao. Thinking about it, I should check in on him again.. I suddenly miss him.
Wasn't it a Blastoise? I think I know the video you're on about. ... if it's not the same one then damn - two different corrupted Pokemon being recovered.
Thankful for having been that specific kind of weird kid who had a binder full of printed out gamefaqs information on chao so I knew to make sure they reincarnated. Still got my very first, and most beloved chao, Bluey. One day I'll get around to making him an immortal Chaos chao.
My dog passed away recently and my sister has completely erased my favourite picture of her, we still have thousands of others but still, it hurts to never be able to see that one again
@@MythicMelody124 yeah i saw the little character wiggle, like "knock that off!" Anyways, great video. So many of us have such fond memories of our Chao.
Hearing about the original save file getting corrupted is painfully familiar.. It really sucks to lose one chao through death or not having enough space and sharing the file with multiple people in the family, but even worse when out of nowhere a large portion of your chao are taken away with no warning through a corrupted memory card. This happened to me too and had 6 chaos chao of mine on it as well.. Was very depressing to lose all those little guys especially after putting so much effort into making them immortal. Thankfully I still have my first chao I got attached to and recreated him on my Steam file to never lose him through a corrupted memory card like the others.
holy shit i wasn't expecting this video to be as profound as it ended up being 😭i'm glad you found that picture, man. and now even more people get to honor and remember Zack for the amazing chao he was
Oh! those are 3.5 inch HDDs, a sata to usb adapter won't give them enough power to work correctly, it's designed for 2.5 inch HDDs, SSDs, and disc drives, more common in laptops and game consoles, there's a good chance those old drives still work :3
@@OkGamez313 Well I'm not sure the empty molex port matters in this case. While I'm not 100% sure, I would assume the molex port is there as an either or solution not a both solution. I'd actually go as far as to advise not using the molex port when using a sata to usb adapter as it could cause damage if not done correctly.
I barely know what a chao is and have minimal experience with sonic but this video was probably exactly what I needed to see when I saw it. Thanks for making it and I’m glad in the end you found some peace with it.
What a lovely video! I'm sure Zack is happy knowing you never forgot him and you have a photo of him hanging over you so you can look up anytime from your computer.
I LOVE this game. I love it's story, I love it's adventures, i love it's music, AND I LOVE THE COOL LITTLE SECRET BLOOD CAVE IN THE DEVIL CHAO GARDEN. Me and my dad always used to duke it out on the dreamcast for who can make the coolest chao, and right until the TV broke and we couldn't play it anymore this game and it's sequel DEVOURED all of our time. It's so satisfying to see this series relived in this video, and the main focus being on the chaos makes it more enjoyable!
Congrats on finding your chaos last moment i hope you keep it forever in your memories it would hurt me if one of my little chaos in my gardens died but thanks for the tip on how to recover them from dying
ive never had this chao garden but ive had a fanmade version for PC, non of them died but sadly the computer got corrupted and everything was lost……it de-installed everything except for the default stuff, all i remember was naming my favourite chao sonic because of my love for the franchise
I've never had this experience with my chao and I'm lucky enough to have all my chao from my GameCube still be alive but as someone who is what you would call a sonic autist and has a very normal emotional attachment to this series this video is really beautiful. The chao garden itself is such a bizarre idea to put in a game like sonic. And the way it operates it feels like an entirely different game that just came with your copy of sa2. Yes in the grand scheme of things these creatures are just code but it doesn't nullify the impact they have on us as humans. Something I also wanna bring up is the fact that there is a way, it's very complicated but still, to bring your GameCube chao to the PC release of the game. I had thought about doing this tons of times as it would make taking care of my chao much easier but the thing is I can't bring myself to do it. It's not a clean transfer as the chao will still exist on your save card meaning that you are essentially just cloning a chao. And I can never bring myself to do this because I don't wanna abandon my chao for some copy that in all likeliness will be fucked up because I have horrible luck with those things.
@@screamingahhh2808 I love the option that you can copy your chao to the PC game. In fact, that's what I did with the GameCube Chao you saw in this video. The Chao that were part of that "2nd GameCube garden" are now on my steam version of SA2 ^^
yes. the very thing that gets people interested in virtual pets and monster tamer games is definitely the emotional connection to these silly virtual lifeforms. i definitely wish the chao gardens were a stand alone game.
My little brother didn't take good care of his chao and it permadied. that messed him up pretty bad. He kept reloading the save file and trying to keep the Chao from dying. He said the sad eyes the Chao had when he went into his cocoon still haunts him to this day. R.I.P. Joe.
This reminds me of the time I had a sonic chao and it was on the brink of death but I used your technique to hurt the chao before it died and I managed to pick it up and let it a ton and it reincarnated as a forgotten chao that was just sitting in the chao garden of my ps3
This was thoroughly enjoyable and so damn good. I hope all the chaos on my old memory card are doing well, probably happy that I'm not making them race over and over.
I never really cared for this part of the game but the way you told the story genuinely made me tear up one of the best videos I ever saw on the platform
I didn't know these things ethier when I was a kid,youtube didn't exist at this time for me and all the info on chao back then was pretty scarce,I learned all this stuff as an adult like a few years ago when I started playing sonic adventure 2 battle again
Digital or not... we invest effort and affection into them. That makes them some kind of 'real', at least to me. Don't blame yourself for the mistakes made as a child. You didn't know and it's clear that you DO love Zach. Why else would you spend so long and invest so much emotional energy into seeking that last image? Unfortunately by the time it came out for me, I was old enough to not invest too much time into my Chao. I don't remember any of them well enough. I had heard a rumour they could die and that was enough for me to not spend too much time with them, to not let them die and forever be preserved in my memory card... forever playing in the Gardens living for eternity. I still have that card. It still works. I don't want to touch it in case I lose them. I might not remember them too well, but I care enough to let them stay as they are.
I got really into sonic recently and o really want the adventure games so thank you for casually mentioning that there on steem now I can start my very own Chou garden and love them with this level of passion
Soon as you opened up the Amazon page with the saga adapter I figured you’d grab the wrong one. 3.5 inch drives need external power for one of those adapters to work, so you’ll need a separate adapter or a docking station. It’s likely you can find an adapter with an external power cable included that’s in a similar form factor as the one you did buy, as that’s what I did when I had a similar situation with hard drives from my old computers. It’s always a good idea to research before you buy something to be absolutely sure you’re getting the right thing!
Yep, a lot of people in the comments also told me this, so do not worry, I bought another one that should account for these drives, and I'll be looking through them when it arrives :)
I thought of myself as a good caretaker of my chao. As a kid, I didn’t realize they could die until it was too late. I remember he used to have a box on his head, but I can’t remember his name or his color. Green, I think? It’s something that sticks with you, he was my pride and joy. It might just be data but it’s memories that are special to you. That matters for something.
Iirc, I lost my chao garden to memory card corruption at least twice back in the day. The second time occurred when the memory card itself split in half. (It was 3rd party, so perhaps it was shoddily built.) Everything else was erased too, both times. I also once lost a SADX chao garden to save corruption. My first chao in SA2 was named Angel, I believe. The second, following that initial corruption, was Edge. That first corruption probably occurred around 19 years ago, so my memory is hazy. This is in the days before digital photography was omnipresent, so I doubt any photos exist, unfortunately.
I began playing in the chao garden at 6 years old, and I didn't really know what I was doing at first. I had watched my cousin play and wanted my own chao! Which is why I got the game so young. I loved my chao but of course little me wasn't very adept at the game yet. My favorite chao, Ditto (technically Dino but my little slightly dyslexic self thought it said "Ditto" and I like that it was a Pokemon), passed away at my grandmother's house. I broke down sobbing and my grandma had to comfort me. My cousins were concerned that I was so upset over a game. I will never forget you, Ditto!
As if right now I have 3 Chao. I only know that one of their names are Zippy, and they are my neutral run-run Chao/ sonic Chao (look it up if your curious). The other 2 are an "experimental" Chao/ the way I know what animals raise what stats, and a Chao I have dedicated to being evil. I am still working on the "last" story route and will continue to get the rest of the trophies (because I play on a PS3), and this has encouraged me to take good care of them.
As long as no official source actually uses the term "die", i will continue to belive they teleport somwere else, where? A Parallel universe, the future, the past, to be a toad in mario, to be a waddle dee in kirby, or something else entirely.
For me I like to think they also go to the unknown forest (how cool would it be if in a future game they introduce A "Chao Forest" area in a future game)
My brother lost his chao to a glitch he didn't force, his Chaos chao, his original chao he had for over 4 years at that point, climbed up the wall behind the hero fountain, my brother watched curiously as it climbed up some before promptly phasing and falling through the barrier out of bounds, he could hear the noise of a chao swimming even though there was no chao in the water. Instead of exiting the garden and reentering, he on instinct paused and exited to the stage selection screen thinking the chao would just respawn elsewhere in the garden. But that didn't happen, the chao was no where. I brought my memory card and we started up the transfer menu and the chao wasn't located in any garden on his memory card anymore.
I feel the pain.. I remember a death of one of my Chaos. But, I sadly don't recall their name. I didn't know what to do, but watch em die. This was back in 2007ish. The first two Chao I (still) have weren't any of em. But, this made me sad! The death of a Chao, hearing the music when they die.. its so awful. RIP Zack.
I remember abusing a few chao just to see how far we could take it. I even tested it while playing as Sonic and Shadow to see the Light and Dark abuse. Luckily I never took that morbid curiosity into real life.
i may never of had a childhood on playing Sonic Adv 2, i never knew this, and it ACTUALLY broke my heart and listening to the 'goodbye chao' song, it actually made me shed some tears, i wish i played Sonic Adv 2, took care of my lil chao, and loved it with ALL my heart 😢
my favorite chao, that I am working on in my Gamecube version, is named Flamy. He was created in my brain back when I learned of chao back in middle school, around 06-07 time. I created him and while I forgot about him, I had a badly edited photo on Deviantart. I recently remembered him due to playing SA2 on steam and during a discord chat with friends, he's now remembered fondly on discord, and I want to raise him to a chaos chao on the gamecube. It's just...been slow going as I am working so often or doing stuff online, but one day, i'll have him be himself.
Fun fact: you can move chao between chao garden data if you have 2 or more memory cards. I do and its like a cryo chamber for slot B. Also all my chao i personally gotten immortal after getting some really cool color combos.
YAP SESSION TIME !!! I remember in 2017 I didn’t have a way of playing SA2B so I instead played Sonic World v5 or something. Had a Chao named Sonic Jr and another named Eggman Jr. I would treat the Sonic Jr as nicely as possible but would beat the shit out of Eggman Jr for no reason 😭 poor lil dude didn’t deserve that.. Anyways - one day of Spring Break, 7 yr old me hopped onto the Chao World, messed around a little, doing weird ass things and trying to glitch out the game. And just as my mom told me to come out for a computer break Sonic Jr died. I was sobbing the whole time and my mom really just thought I was that upset over not playing video games but I told my dad about it.
second yap- I have a Chao in my PC SA2B save called Chaosky and one day he mysteriously disappeared. Not knowing what had happened, I lost my shit and was a mess. I unplugged a USB so hard the little connector things got stuck in the slot. I thought he had died for MONTHS. Then on a random ass weekend I play through and unlock the Dark Garden and the little shit was in there the WHOLE TIME. He’s a hero Chao too how tf did he even get there ?????
17:33 Tbh your hard drives were probably fine. Those adapters are notorious for not having enough current to boot a hdd drive on. Hdd drives need additional electricity to power up, that's why external hdd drives have a plug in their cases. Sdd drives don't need that. If you had bought an external hdd casing, which usually comes with a plug for power supply, you'd most likely be able to boot up those drives. I hope this comment reaches you before you throw your drives away.
My first experience with death in a game was monster hunter as a very young kid and I was TRAUMATIZED lmao. Couldn’t play for months. Was a suezo I named 1i
My first Chao Cheese, he came from Sonic Advance, I figured out how to use the link cable to get him to my SA2B garden and SADX. I watched him grow, become master of all races and karate. I took him everywhere I could with me when I could transferring him back and forth from Sonic Advance to the console games. However, after many many years of having him, and he was best chao... My data became corrupted. I stood there, heartbroken staring at the screen when it hit me. It was literally like losing a pet, just like you've said. Completely Gutted. I always tried to make him again but, to no avail, none of the others were Cheese in the slightest. I'm 32 now. He would have been 23 this year. I'm kinda teared up thinking about it now. Man this was heartbreaking brother. :c
Also, not too long after watching this. I did some researching of my own. Turns out all Tiny chaos garden chaos start off with 200+ luck and intelligence. Which is most likely why I could never replicate Cheese. All those years playing mad scientist lol.
I lost all my chao on the dreamcast version of SA2. I went into the chao garden, and one of the Chao was majorly glitched, and had grown to be massive, filling the map. If the glitched chao was loaded onto the screen, the game would lock up and crash. Ended up giving up on the chao area, because the rest of the game was fine.
I have a chao named dragon he’s a sapphire chao that originated from a sapphire egg that i bought on sonic advance so that was 7,000 rings. This chao has been with me for 20+ years I’m 32 and he still lives even after all the corrupted memory cards and having to be formatted. He was always in sonic advance or sonic advance 2 when the memory card was corrupted so he avoided the wipes. I currently have him on sonic advance 2 so i can boost his stats without aging
Yes. I had a old dog named "Wolf Wolf" he died in lava. Lava that i spawned to destory my house. I killed him. I killed him just cuz i was too lazy to just mine it. I still miss him.
Poignant 🥲 I remember when I lost one of my first chao when I was a kid. I have a hard time remembering their name…Chasm, maybe? I really thought they were going to reincarnate in the pink cocoon, so I was so confused when I saw the grey cocoon. I’m not exactly so sure what happened to cause them to not reincarnate. I thought I had treated them well. Had Chasm gotten sick? I don’t know. The Sonic 3 movie renewed my interest in Sonic Adventure 2 and the chao garden. I make an extra effort now to make sure my new chao are happy ❤
I had a chao his name was echo. I treated her the best until one day I entered the garden and a strange cocoon formed and when it disappeared echo was gone I cried for days RIP echo
Oof, thinking about chao deaths makes me think of a chao I lost years ago... not to death, though. No, my memory card corrupted and before I could even seriously look into if it was possible to save any of the data on it (which I think is possible, albeit perhaps far too difficult for my child self to have accomplished), my sister unknowingly reformatted it. Broke my heart. By all rights, Cutter (because I was a little kid when I named him and I legit tried to name him 'Cuter', thinking him the cuter of the two chao to come with the first garden, only to misspell it) wasn't even all that good of a chao. IIRC, stamina was the highest stat, and that was only in the 20s, but I was never good at the main game of SA2 (outside of City Escape lol) and I barely knew what I was doing in general, so actually upping stats was difficult for me. Even so, I loved the little guy. Still wish I could get him back. He was my legit pride and joy.
I know this is off-topic but in the XBOX 360 version of Sonic Adventure whenever one of my chao dissappear from my garden it just goes to another garden so I retrieve it from there
A perfect bitterseeet video to watch on new year's eve. Great video and I DID cry😭 Zack is a legend🫡 Just recently got SA2 for the first time, and as If I wasn't alreadu worried for my babies - now I will try my best to back them up somewhere to look back in the future :)
I had a Chao that I lost named Edge Jr. I played sonic a lot with my brother so we where all haha the edge master with shadow. Yet also in our head Canon for the game shadow loves Chao and treated this one as his son. But then I lost him because of corruption involving the tiny Chao garden. It was really sad given the lore. I still have my sonic adventure 2 data. I remember entering him into a bunch of races. If I still have race data for him I wonder how much of his data would be still there as it shows a little render of the Chao in the high score of the race page
Also some advice make BACK UPS of SA2 and the chao garden on your computer. If for whatever reason u uninstall sonic adventure 2 it doesn’t backup to the cloud so it would permanently delete the save data and chao garden data.
My first video watched on UA-cam for 2025! Happy new year🎉🎉🎉 Edit: just finished watching the video... great way to start the new year. This video also made me realize that I don't have a chao that I'm attached to and that makes me sad, the only chao I do have are mainly just Recreations of the Sonic characters, sonic, shadow, even a crappy Knuckles Recreation with an eggshell for the spines. I've never actually made a Chao of my own that wasn't just a recreation... I think I need to boot up SA2.
One time. I was fucking dumb enough to send my favorite chao. "Champ". To the forest. I restarted my save file.... And he was there. I wouldve cried if he actually was gone 😢 reminds me of my pet moused. I named him jessie because i was an mcsm fan back in those days.
Sorry if this video is a little boring in terms of its visuals. This is my first video essay, and I focused a lot on the story and its meaningful aspects, usually sacrificing on the visuals a bit. Besides, in some of the voiceover sections, there really wasn't anything I could put on screen that would've fit the mood without just being a "distraction to keep peoples' attention."
EDIT: Wow, you all did it. 10,000 views. To a channel like mine, 10,000 views is like 1,000,000 views. Thank you all so much for your support!
As much as I like videos with random visuals on screen, I think the pfp flipping is a good way to keep people engaged, at least, it worked with me :)
I'd say the story makes up for the visuals
edit: keep up the work you deserve the views and likes
@@FishGoingInsane I agree, the graphics are so simple, with the black background and stuff, that the lack of things happening on screen doesn't really feel odd or, y'know, lacking
I'd even say I find the timing for the flips really well done, since it never feels like it's moving too much, nor does it feel like it's moving every sentence like a robot or something, and nor does it feel like it's moving too little. It's pretty cleverly made and timed
try the full size drives in your pc sata. the usb adapter only works on lower power laptop drives
I'm sorry bro😥😞
Press F, for respect
In Memory of:
Spike and Zack
😭😭😭😭😭 Now i feel sad!
That "Good-bye" option in the chao garden terminal fucked me up as a kid. Accidentally stumbled upon it and was already well-acquainted with the loss of a pet after our second cat had passed away, so reading the guilt-tripping message and the art accompanying it along with the music, genuinely broke me as a small 7 year old
Same here oh my god
@SaviorOfEdge hey you're the guy who found the lost sins of a divine mother songs
I'm sorry for your cat. They must have been a little fuzzy angel 💛
Same bro I was much younger tho but why the f did they add it
I must be a twisted child, I used to abuse the chao as Shadow to make hero chao, and if they didn't become what I wanted, I would throw it into that machine.
My dad was an IT guy, so even as a kid I was aware of how easy it is to lose data. So, I drew my first two chao. Over 2 decades later and that very very very bad drawing of them is still hanging on my wall. Those two virtual pets got me through a crappy childhood, so I would be devastated if I didn't have that picture.
I'm glad you were able to find your chao. It's strange how a bunch of 1's and 0's can end up carving a place in our hearts.
My favorite Chao was named Buddy. He was a dual-toned swim hero chao. He evolved twice, and I loved him a lot. I remember one day I heard an odd jingle and saw an odd white capsule. I was concerned about Buddy, because he was the only one missing. I ran out and back in, found Buddy and fed, pet, rocked - even let him swim. I remember I had a printed out Game FAQs page about chao. It told me that if the cocoon was pink, they would come back to life. Buddy crawled out of the water and the cocoon turned pink. I was so scared while I waited and waited.
A spotted dual-toned egg was there. I rocked it open and there he was - still named but back to being a baby Chao. I didn't care, I loved the little guy.
YOU SAVED YOUR CHAO! THATS ACTUALLY AMAZING
Man... I had a Chao. Called him Champ. Threw his egg at the wall to hatch him, and he had an uncanny smile. I loved that little gremlin. When I learned about Chao deaths, I made damn sure I'd turn Champ into a Chaos Chao. I had a little journal where I wrote down all the animals and their locations. And spent hours raising him.
He ended up a Neutral Chaos Chao. He dominated all the races and karate matches. He learned so much in Kindergarden...
Then I lost my gamecube memory card. I searched everywhere, and I cried for so long.
I think a bit of me died when I lost him.
I miss ya little buddy... Rest in Chaos ;-;
The absolute pain in your voice at 20:33 made me cry. It really warms my heart that you loved your Chao as much as you do.
I'm really happy that you managed to get the closure you deserved, and that Zack got the immortality he deserved too.
Melody was the name of my first Chao. I was maybe 8 when I lost him, and it was so soul crushing. I drew so many pictures of him in Chao Heaven to remember him.
RIP to my best chao, Lemon. She lives on in the chao race records. I was a child who didn’t know chao could die, I probably left the Wii on overnight by accident and let it age out
This video is extremely sweet. I love how much you care for something that most people would consider... fake? I guess? I get attached to my digital companions, too, but I don't have the dedication and care for most of them that you have towards Jack. I'm very glad you found him ♥️
Very sweet story! It's so nice that you have a permanent piece of Zack to remember him by. Years ago I had my own little chao OCs I drew and just a week or so ago I decided to recreate them on SA2B Steam version. They deserve to be remembered and brought to life! They are my babies after all. :3
Recreating them on steam is a brilliant idea. I actually did that with the GameCube chao you saw in this video. They were not from the original file, but I still wanted to save them as well (even if it took a lot of painstaking analysis to make sure I copied them perfectly with stats and level progress down to the right number)
I share a lot of experiences with your story, I was a little kid when I played Sonic Adventure 2 on my xbox 360, my very first chao was my absolutely favorite, his name was Sonic Jr and he was spiky with a greenish tone, he also had really good stats and won a lot of medals, the first time he evolved to a hero chao made me jump of joy, and by that point I was already sharing attention with other chaos I had as well, however I spent a LOT of time on the garden every time I opened the game, when the white cocoon appeared on Jr I was excited, I thought maybe he was getting a second evolution after all my hard work, but after he disappeared I was DEVASTATED, I didn't even knew chao could die, much less how to save them. After that I got scared of entering the garden again and don't remember interacting much after that, because Jr was the only chao I've ever seen die. Years later, my love for chao garden came back, I bought the game on steam and discovered the dedicated community, maybe now, being a better parent for all my chao, I could avenge Jr's death, rest in peace.
When I got a copy of Sonic Adventure 2 on Steam, the first thing I did was remake the first Chao I had as a kid. His name was Sprite. When I finally got him back to what I remembered he looked like, I burst into tears for a solid few minutes. From what I remember he was just a normal dark+swim turned dark+run chao with no legs and some details that are a little fuzzy by now. I remember calling him a green Shadow. It felt like reuniting with something from my past that meant so much to me. The disk broke when I moved out and I also lost the memory cartridge. So all hope of getting a picture of the OG was gone. I was so happy to find there is a whole community of people who love Chao as much as I do. I mean, I even jokingly called Sprite my 'son' at times because I love him so much. I followed guides to get him back to exactly what I remembered he looked like. Got some mods too so he can learn new things and be an even happier Chao. Thinking about it, I should check in on him again.. I suddenly miss him.
awesome video! this reminds me of the video where a few guys tried to get back a corrupted venusaur from an old pokemon game!
wasnt it a corrupted blastoise or are we thinking of different videos?
Wasn't it a Blastoise? I think I know the video you're on about.
... if it's not the same one then damn - two different corrupted Pokemon being recovered.
Thankful for having been that specific kind of weird kid who had a binder full of printed out gamefaqs information on chao so I knew to make sure they reincarnated. Still got my very first, and most beloved chao, Bluey. One day I'll get around to making him an immortal Chaos chao.
My dog passed away recently and my sister has completely erased my favourite picture of her, we still have thousands of others but still, it hurts to never be able to see that one again
Why did she erase it?
@ because she didn’t care about it
Thats just.. fucked up...
Sonic checking his watch impatiently as his chao dies, is just savage 4:02
Haha, I was like "Sonic goddamnit this is supposed to be an emotional reenactment!" xD
@@MythicMelody124 yeah i saw the little character wiggle, like "knock that off!"
Anyways, great video. So many of us have such fond memories of our Chao.
Sonic the savage *sonic 1 beat stage theme
Stop it this is making me cry a bit 31:19
R.I.P Zack The Chao, you will be never forgotten! O7
I once reset 2 days worth of progress because a Chao died. Didn't save a damn thing just shut down the gamecube and went back to the last save
Either way, you saved a Chao! Good job! 👍
the tech illiteracy is strong in this one lol, but great video.
@@DucklingNM Lol, yeah all of my computer knowledge is in the more programming/virtual side.
Hearing about the original save file getting corrupted is painfully familiar.. It really sucks to lose one chao through death or not having enough space and sharing the file with multiple people in the family, but even worse when out of nowhere a large portion of your chao are taken away with no warning through a corrupted memory card. This happened to me too and had 6 chaos chao of mine on it as well.. Was very depressing to lose all those little guys especially after putting so much effort into making them immortal. Thankfully I still have my first chao I got attached to and recreated him on my Steam file to never lose him through a corrupted memory card like the others.
holy shit i wasn't expecting this video to be as profound as it ended up being 😭i'm glad you found that picture, man. and now even more people get to honor and remember Zack for the amazing chao he was
Oh! those are 3.5 inch HDDs, a sata to usb adapter won't give them enough power to work correctly, it's designed for 2.5 inch HDDs, SSDs, and disc drives, more common in laptops and game consoles, there's a good chance those old drives still work :3
Ooooh, thanks! I'll look into that :)
@@MythicMelody124 I think a HDD docking station would be a better idea to use for HDD then a "x" to usb cable you used
Was gonna mention this too. Any sata to usb that has a wall adapter for additional power should be fine.
Yeah I was thinking that. I could see the empty molex port
@@OkGamez313 Well I'm not sure the empty molex port matters in this case. While I'm not 100% sure, I would assume the molex port is there as an either or solution not a both solution. I'd actually go as far as to advise not using the molex port when using a sata to usb adapter as it could cause damage if not done correctly.
I barely know what a chao is and have minimal experience with sonic but this video was probably exactly what I needed to see when I saw it. Thanks for making it and I’m glad in the end you found some peace with it.
I love that bit in sa2 where you go to the good bye bit and the music is so happy and jumpy and then you click the goodbye and everything goes gloomy
What a lovely video! I'm sure Zack is happy knowing you never forgot him and you have a photo of him hanging over you so you can look up anytime from your computer.
I LOVE this game. I love it's story, I love it's adventures, i love it's music, AND I LOVE THE COOL LITTLE SECRET BLOOD CAVE IN THE DEVIL CHAO GARDEN. Me and my dad always used to duke it out on the dreamcast for who can make the coolest chao, and right until the TV broke and we couldn't play it anymore this game and it's sequel DEVOURED all of our time. It's so satisfying to see this series relived in this video, and the main focus being on the chaos makes it more enjoyable!
Congrats on finding your chaos last moment i hope you keep it forever in your memories it would hurt me if one of my little chaos in my gardens died but thanks for the tip on how to recover them from dying
Happy to hear that little guy got some proper closure.
Damn this is a well made video I wonder how many subs the creator has- OH MY GOODNESS!!!
ive never had this chao garden but ive had a fanmade version for PC, non of them died but sadly the computer got corrupted and everything was lost……it de-installed everything except for the default stuff, all i remember was naming my favourite chao sonic because of my love for the franchise
I've never had this experience with my chao and I'm lucky enough to have all my chao from my GameCube still be alive but as someone who is what you would call a sonic autist and has a very normal emotional attachment to this series this video is really beautiful.
The chao garden itself is such a bizarre idea to put in a game like sonic. And the way it operates it feels like an entirely different game that just came with your copy of sa2. Yes in the grand scheme of things these creatures are just code but it doesn't nullify the impact they have on us as humans.
Something I also wanna bring up is the fact that there is a way, it's very complicated but still, to bring your GameCube chao to the PC release of the game. I had thought about doing this tons of times as it would make taking care of my chao much easier but the thing is I can't bring myself to do it. It's not a clean transfer as the chao will still exist on your save card meaning that you are essentially just cloning a chao. And I can never bring myself to do this because I don't wanna abandon my chao for some copy that in all likeliness will be fucked up because I have horrible luck with those things.
@@screamingahhh2808 I love the option that you can copy your chao to the PC game. In fact, that's what I did with the GameCube Chao you saw in this video. The Chao that were part of that "2nd GameCube garden" are now on my steam version of SA2 ^^
@MysticMelody124 yeah like if my setup was different I'd def do that too but the Wii I use to play GameCube games is very much still in my reach
Thanks the algorithm for recommending me this video. Now I'm crying over a Chao
yes. the very thing that gets people interested in virtual pets and monster tamer games is definitely the emotional connection to these silly virtual lifeforms.
i definitely wish the chao gardens were a stand alone game.
My little brother didn't take good care of his chao and it permadied. that messed him up pretty bad. He kept reloading the save file and trying to keep the Chao from dying. He said the sad eyes the Chao had when he went into his cocoon still haunts him to this day. R.I.P. Joe.
I like your little guy, I love his multicolored hair.
This reminds me of the time I had a sonic chao and it was on the brink of death but I used your technique to hurt the chao before it died and I managed to pick it up and let it a ton and it reincarnated as a forgotten chao that was just sitting in the chao garden of my ps3
This was thoroughly enjoyable and so damn good. I hope all the chaos on my old memory card are doing well, probably happy that I'm not making them race over and over.
They prob chillin while sonic sits still doing nuttin
I never really cared for this part of the game but the way you told the story genuinely made me tear up one of the best videos I ever saw on the platform
I didn't know these things ethier when I was a kid,youtube didn't exist at this time for me and all the info on chao back then was pretty scarce,I learned all this stuff as an adult like a few years ago when I started playing sonic adventure 2 battle again
Digital or not... we invest effort and affection into them. That makes them some kind of 'real', at least to me.
Don't blame yourself for the mistakes made as a child. You didn't know and it's clear that you DO love Zach. Why else would you spend so long and invest so much emotional energy into seeking that last image?
Unfortunately by the time it came out for me, I was old enough to not invest too much time into my Chao. I don't remember any of them well enough. I had heard a rumour they could die and that was enough for me to not spend too much time with them, to not let them die and forever be preserved in my memory card... forever playing in the Gardens living for eternity.
I still have that card. It still works. I don't want to touch it in case I lose them. I might not remember them too well, but I care enough to let them stay as they are.
I got really into sonic recently and o really want the adventure games so thank you for casually mentioning that there on steem now I can start my very own Chou garden and love them with this level of passion
Soon as you opened up the Amazon page with the saga adapter I figured you’d grab the wrong one. 3.5 inch drives need external power for one of those adapters to work, so you’ll need a separate adapter or a docking station. It’s likely you can find an adapter with an external power cable included that’s in a similar form factor as the one you did buy, as that’s what I did when I had a similar situation with hard drives from my old computers. It’s always a good idea to research before you buy something to be absolutely sure you’re getting the right thing!
Yep, a lot of people in the comments also told me this, so do not worry, I bought another one that should account for these drives, and I'll be looking through them when it arrives :)
Fire video bruh, what an emotional ride 🔥💖🔥
I thought of myself as a good caretaker of my chao. As a kid, I didn’t realize they could die until it was too late. I remember he used to have a box on his head, but I can’t remember his name or his color. Green, I think? It’s something that sticks with you, he was my pride and joy.
It might just be data but it’s memories that are special to you. That matters for something.
This video genuinely made me tear up
Bittersweet, methinks. Welcome back, Zack. Memorialized after 14 years.
i still Remember the Tiny Chao Gardens in the Advanced Games, i heard they were compatible with the Gamecube version of Sonic Adventure 1 and 2
@_Hero_Link_ They are. Sadly I never used them but I heard they were really fun to use.
“Chao, Chao!” Is only one of the few cute noises.. wait- DIE? THAT MEANS I WILL DI- *spontaneously combusts*
I hate chao deaths.
Iirc, I lost my chao garden to memory card corruption at least twice back in the day. The second time occurred when the memory card itself split in half. (It was 3rd party, so perhaps it was shoddily built.) Everything else was erased too, both times. I also once lost a SADX chao garden to save corruption. My first chao in SA2 was named Angel, I believe. The second, following that initial corruption, was Edge. That first corruption probably occurred around 19 years ago, so my memory is hazy. This is in the days before digital photography was omnipresent, so I doubt any photos exist, unfortunately.
I began playing in the chao garden at 6 years old, and I didn't really know what I was doing at first. I had watched my cousin play and wanted my own chao! Which is why I got the game so young. I loved my chao but of course little me wasn't very adept at the game yet. My favorite chao, Ditto (technically Dino but my little slightly dyslexic self thought it said "Ditto" and I like that it was a Pokemon), passed away at my grandmother's house. I broke down sobbing and my grandma had to comfort me. My cousins were concerned that I was so upset over a game. I will never forget you, Ditto!
As if right now I have 3 Chao. I only know that one of their names are Zippy, and they are my neutral run-run Chao/ sonic Chao (look it up if your curious). The other 2 are an "experimental" Chao/ the way I know what animals raise what stats, and a Chao I have dedicated to being evil. I am still working on the "last" story route and will continue to get the rest of the trophies (because I play on a PS3), and this has encouraged me to take good care of them.
As long as no official source actually uses the term "die", i will continue to belive they teleport somwere else, where? A Parallel universe, the future, the past, to be a toad in mario, to be a waddle dee in kirby, or something else entirely.
For me I like to think they also go to the unknown forest (how cool would it be if in a future game they introduce A "Chao Forest" area in a future game)
This video is a masterpiece
My brother lost his chao to a glitch he didn't force, his Chaos chao, his original chao he had for over 4 years at that point, climbed up the wall behind the hero fountain, my brother watched curiously as it climbed up some before promptly phasing and falling through the barrier out of bounds, he could hear the noise of a chao swimming even though there was no chao in the water. Instead of exiting the garden and reentering, he on instinct paused and exited to the stage selection screen thinking the chao would just respawn elsewhere in the garden. But that didn't happen, the chao was no where. I brought my memory card and we started up the transfer menu and the chao wasn't located in any garden on his memory card anymore.
The absolute whiplash i got from hearing oneshot music in the background was crazy
I feel the pain.. I remember a death of one of my Chaos. But, I sadly don't recall their name. I didn't know what to do, but watch em die. This was back in 2007ish. The first two Chao I (still) have weren't any of em. But, this made me sad! The death of a Chao, hearing the music when they die.. its so awful. RIP Zack.
I remember abusing a few chao just to see how far we could take it. I even tested it while playing as Sonic and Shadow to see the Light and Dark abuse. Luckily I never took that morbid curiosity into real life.
i may never of had a childhood on playing Sonic Adv 2, i never knew this, and it ACTUALLY broke my heart and listening to the 'goodbye chao' song, it actually made me shed some tears, i wish i played Sonic Adv 2, took care of my lil chao, and loved it with ALL my heart 😢
I will try to find my chaos now
Me when my chao dies:
No it can't be.. NO NOOOO!!
i had no idea the chao garden existed until now
my favorite chao, that I am working on in my Gamecube version, is named Flamy. He was created in my brain back when I learned of chao back in middle school, around 06-07 time. I created him and while I forgot about him, I had a badly edited photo on Deviantart. I recently remembered him due to playing SA2 on steam and during a discord chat with friends, he's now remembered fondly on discord, and I want to raise him to a chaos chao on the gamecube. It's just...been slow going as I am working so often or doing stuff online, but one day, i'll have him be himself.
Who up playing with they chao
I'm never gonna forget I cried when I lost my Chao years ago man...
that hurt me alot.
Fun fact: you can move chao between chao garden data if you have 2 or more memory cards. I do and its like a cryo chamber for slot B. Also all my chao i personally gotten immortal after getting some really cool color combos.
YAP SESSION TIME !!! I remember in 2017 I didn’t have a way of playing SA2B so I instead played Sonic World v5 or something.
Had a Chao named Sonic Jr and another named Eggman Jr. I would treat the Sonic Jr as nicely as possible but would beat the shit out of Eggman Jr for no reason 😭 poor lil dude didn’t deserve that..
Anyways - one day of Spring Break, 7 yr old me hopped onto the Chao World, messed around a little, doing weird ass things and trying to glitch out the game. And just as my mom told me to come out for a computer break Sonic Jr died. I was sobbing the whole time and my mom really just thought I was that upset over not playing video games but I told my dad about it.
second yap- I have a Chao in my PC SA2B save called Chaosky and one day he mysteriously disappeared. Not knowing what had happened, I lost my shit and was a mess. I unplugged a USB so hard the little connector things got stuck in the slot. I thought he had died for MONTHS. Then on a random ass weekend I play through and unlock the Dark Garden and the little shit was in there the WHOLE TIME. He’s a hero Chao too how tf did he even get there ?????
Underrated youtuber
17:33 Tbh your hard drives were probably fine. Those adapters are notorious for not having enough current to boot a hdd drive on. Hdd drives need additional electricity to power up, that's why external hdd drives have a plug in their cases. Sdd drives don't need that. If you had bought an external hdd casing, which usually comes with a plug for power supply, you'd most likely be able to boot up those drives. I hope this comment reaches you before you throw your drives away.
My first experience with death in a game was monster hunter as a very young kid and I was TRAUMATIZED lmao. Couldn’t play for months. Was a suezo I named 1i
The 2nd coming of the Chao, Les go. :3
My first Chao Cheese, he came from Sonic Advance, I figured out how to use the link cable to get him to my SA2B garden and SADX. I watched him grow, become master of all races and karate. I took him everywhere I could with me when I could transferring him back and forth from Sonic Advance to the console games. However, after many many years of having him, and he was best chao... My data became corrupted. I stood there, heartbroken staring at the screen when it hit me. It was literally like losing a pet, just like you've said. Completely Gutted. I always tried to make him again but, to no avail, none of the others were Cheese in the slightest. I'm 32 now. He would have been 23 this year. I'm kinda teared up thinking about it now. Man this was heartbreaking brother. :c
Also, not too long after watching this. I did some researching of my own. Turns out all Tiny chaos garden chaos start off with 200+ luck and intelligence. Which is most likely why I could never replicate Cheese. All those years playing mad scientist lol.
I lost all my chao on the dreamcast version of SA2. I went into the chao garden, and one of the Chao was majorly glitched, and had grown to be massive, filling the map. If the glitched chao was loaded onto the screen, the game would lock up and crash. Ended up giving up on the chao area, because the rest of the game was fine.
It’s ok bro atleast your chao is happy at chao heaven, possibly
I have a chao named dragon he’s a sapphire chao that originated from a sapphire egg that i bought on sonic advance so that was 7,000 rings. This chao has been with me for 20+ years I’m 32 and he still lives even after all the corrupted memory cards and having to be formatted. He was always in sonic advance or sonic advance 2 when the memory card was corrupted so he avoided the wipes. I currently have him on sonic advance 2 so i can boost his stats without aging
I feel similar around iron golems in Minecraft along with my pets in Minecraft.
Yes. I had a old dog named "Wolf Wolf" he died in lava. Lava that i spawned to destory my house. I killed him. I killed him just cuz i was too lazy to just mine it. I still miss him.
@illuminiteYT I'm so sorry to hear that. I wish things turned out differently for your dog.
@@puny2103 thanks man.
@illuminiteYT No need to thank me. I'm just doing the right thing
Poignant 🥲 I remember when I lost one of my first chao when I was a kid. I have a hard time remembering their name…Chasm, maybe? I really thought they were going to reincarnate in the pink cocoon, so I was so confused when I saw the grey cocoon. I’m not exactly so sure what happened to cause them to not reincarnate. I thought I had treated them well. Had Chasm gotten sick? I don’t know.
The Sonic 3 movie renewed my interest in Sonic Adventure 2 and the chao garden. I make an extra effort now to make sure my new chao are happy ❤
I had a chao his name was echo. I treated her the best until one day I entered the garden and a strange cocoon formed and when it disappeared echo was gone I cried for days
RIP echo
Oh god, that game introduced me to tragedy. Ajax!!!!!!!!
Oof, thinking about chao deaths makes me think of a chao I lost years ago... not to death, though. No, my memory card corrupted and before I could even seriously look into if it was possible to save any of the data on it (which I think is possible, albeit perhaps far too difficult for my child self to have accomplished), my sister unknowingly reformatted it. Broke my heart.
By all rights, Cutter (because I was a little kid when I named him and I legit tried to name him 'Cuter', thinking him the cuter of the two chao to come with the first garden, only to misspell it) wasn't even all that good of a chao. IIRC, stamina was the highest stat, and that was only in the 20s, but I was never good at the main game of SA2 (outside of City Escape lol) and I barely knew what I was doing in general, so actually upping stats was difficult for me. Even so, I loved the little guy. Still wish I could get him back. He was my legit pride and joy.
subscribbled, you seem fun
I know this is off-topic but in the XBOX 360 version of Sonic Adventure whenever one of my chao dissappear from my garden it just goes to another garden so I retrieve it from there
31:04 personally, I would commission a plushie, but, photos are great too
That was tragic.... also i also had a chao but i didn't save...
Why is it that the Chao with my name died? Is this a sign?
🥷🏾
beware, zac
@@zac9181 Naaaah, just a coincidence
I REMEMBER YOU FROM CHOA'S SERVER!!! I REMEMBER U TALKING ABOUT ZACK
As soon as I saw this thumbnail in my recommended I was like I REMEMBER THAT CHAO ITS ZACK ISNT IT
That's the sound for when a chao dies? I've always looked after mine so I wouldn't know (I would be crushed emotionally)
A perfect bitterseeet video to watch on new year's eve.
Great video and I DID cry😭 Zack is a legend🫡 Just recently got SA2 for the first time, and as If I wasn't alreadu worried for my babies - now I will try my best to back them up somewhere to look back in the future :)
i would not be putting those hard drives into regular plastic ziplock bags. the static could damage them
Noted. I don't have anti-static bags so Ill have to look for another solution that doesnt leave them out in the open to gather dust.
please be my therapist
You know, I originally wanted to be a psychiatrist, but then I switched to the academia route. But at least I'm still doing something in psychology :P
You should definitely get a plush made of him
Yea. Make an plush of zack and spike so his memory will spread to chao lovers.
4:03 ANYTHING BUT FUCKING CHAOS BRO NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭☹☹☹☹☹☹😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Btw this is my comment not a lie 😭
I had a Chao that I lost named Edge Jr. I played sonic a lot with my brother so we where all haha the edge master with shadow. Yet also in our head Canon for the game shadow loves Chao and treated this one as his son.
But then I lost him because of corruption involving the tiny Chao garden.
It was really sad given the lore.
I still have my sonic adventure 2 data. I remember entering him into a bunch of races. If I still have race data for him I wonder how much of his data would be still there as it shows a little render of the Chao in the high score of the race page
Also some advice make BACK UPS of SA2 and the chao garden on your computer. If for whatever reason u uninstall sonic adventure 2 it doesn’t backup to the cloud so it would permanently delete the save data and chao garden data.
@@kyurom That's exactly what I did with my new Chao as well as my GameCube Chao (I recreated them on another steam file) ^^
My first video watched on UA-cam for 2025! Happy new year🎉🎉🎉
Edit: just finished watching the video... great way to start the new year. This video also made me realize that I don't have a chao that I'm attached to and that makes me sad, the only chao I do have are mainly just Recreations of the Sonic characters, sonic, shadow, even a crappy Knuckles Recreation with an eggshell for the spines. I've never actually made a Chao of my own that wasn't just a recreation... I think I need to boot up SA2.
Before watching: Haha new Chao video :)
After watching: :(
If anyone acuses me of crying at this video: Yeah. And?
@13:10 oh my god that poor 3DS, what did you do to it??? 😭
12:53
One time. I was fucking dumb enough to send my favorite chao. "Champ". To the forest. I restarted my save file.... And he was there. I wouldve cried if he actually was gone 😢 reminds me of my pet moused. I named him jessie because i was an mcsm fan back in those days.
why the fuck am i crying :(
Rip zack