If there's one thing I appreciate is critics, because that's what help you improve levels, so thanks, Kyasarin. But nonetheless, you were pretty harsh.
Someone's creation is always great to his eyes, and that's a bit true: I think my Frog Forest looks neat, but of course I admit there are flaws, but you may have exagerated.
Tails' flight is needed. Sonic Heroes is about teamwork, and every one does their part. Maybe Tails is a bit overused, and that can be fixed in the future.
And also, one of the top rules of Sonic games is the flow. If I had more places where Tails couldn't pass, and the player needed to change leader constantly, you'd be upset yet still, so it's damned if you do, damned if you don't.
I said it before and I say it again: Sonic Heroe's Frog Forest is way more bland. I may sound like a jerk for keep insisting and thinking that I'm the man, and I have complex levels, but if there's one thing I cannot deny is that my Frog Forest is more complex than Sonic Heroes. Other than that, I had to keep Sonic Heroes' style of platforms on death-pits and had it complex. It's not an easy job. If I didn't keep the single platform style, it wouldn't be based on Sonic Heroes at all. And if I only had single platforms, it would be very dull. I think what I did is good. But yet, it could be better.
The ending is a bit pathetic, I admit it. As for the random hill details, what do you mean cluttered? I had no problem navigating trough the levels, and even if I'm the creator and know it from front to back, I hardly went against a wall.
I chose a pretty bad level, I admit. Frog Forest is very poor in textures, and this is the best I could do. And also, let's stop and think about the level. Frog Forest. Sonic Heroes' Frog Forest had 5% trees. That's stupid. I made a change to that, and I admit I'm not sure if it went well.
Now, I'm starting to get pissed. I keep saying that Knuckles will be changed in the future. He won't climb. I'm going to add this to the 1st post. Also, add some suggestions on how to make it a bit harder please. I'm a bit stuck here...
Dude, what else could I do to simulate the flower? I dare you to find something better than a Zoom Tube. In the future we could program a different linedef type that simulates it better, but as for now, nothing would work better than a Zoom Tube.
I had to have a fight, because Sonic Heroes' had a lot of them, so it isn't my fault. And I wanted to add Jetty-Syn Gunners and Bombers, I really did, but there's a problem with adding them. The TLE - No More Enemies (Once) checks for enemies inside a sector, and while Crawlas can't leave that sector, Jetty-Syns can. And once the Jetty-Syn is off, it counts as dead. So there's little I can do. I also kept the Egg Knights because they will have 2 HP points (or more) in future versions of SRB2. I mean, that's what everyone wants, so I guess so.
There can't be rain clouds in SRB2. There are rain drops though. If you can't see them, that may be because of the precipitation drawing speed: not my problem. And even in Sonic Heroes the rain was a bit weird. The freeze is an issue I'm still trying to resolve. The rain needs to preload, and I'm having trouble with that. Also, what more realism could I add to the platforms' rise?
The chatting was a big part of Sonic Heroes. Ok, not big, but quite present. And if you compare Frog Forest V1 with V2, you'll see that there's less useless speech, and more useful speech, specially in the hint orbs. It seems unrealistic? I'm sorry, but WTF? Even though one of Sonic Heroes' aspects is the text, it isn't very important, and neither is it in SRB2Heroes. Adding voices: no freking way. Seriously. This is a mod, not a game. Possibly, in the future, there'll be an option to disable the speech, but I can't figure out why would one do that. It's just speech, and it doesn't look bad. Also, waste of time? You can do anything while they're talking.
The bonuses couldn't be in much better locations, really. IF I improve the level's complexity, this could change, but in this version, those were the best locations really.
You're a bit right about the multiple paths tough. But it's still part of the inevitable linearity in Sonic Heroes. I really wanted to make the multiple paths better, but I can't.
Are you afraid of a gimmick? Geesh. It's just a small portion with 2D. Nothing "ugly". Come on. If you really don't like it, I suggest you retire from playing video games, because it's practically impossible to find a game/level without a gimmick. It's just a small harmless eye-candy. Don't exaggerate.
I'm not telling you to ignore. In fact, I recalled the bridge to indicate it's existence to people who find the 2D part hard.