Kotaku
Sega had an early—and we want to stress that "early"—version of Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood playable at last week's Nintendo Media Summit. The Sonic role-playing game from BioWare applies the developer's well polished formula—branching plotline and dialogue trees, epic story, deep turn-based battle engine—to the Sonic the Hedgehog universe. It's very charming; charming enough to make one think "Oh yeah, Sonic was charming at one point." The brief glimpses of witty banter and cute character designs are a welcome change in the face of 3D Sonic platforming.
Yes, the game was still in its infancy, but we got a decent glimpse at the gameplay mechanics that should make Sonic Chronicles another BioWare hit.
The game is almost entirely stylus controlled, with Sonic (or whomever you're playing) following touchscreen taps and drags. Context sensitive pop-up actions will appear at certain points, letting the player enter doors, sprint through corkscrews or cross gaps. Some are character or ability specific, requiring the use of a flying Rouge the Bat, for example.
In battle, fights with angry woodsy creatures will require a knowledge of turn-based RPG tactics. Your quartet of fighters will load out with a series of special attacks that depends on who is in your current party. Tag-team moves may require both Sonic and Amy, with some special attacks that can only be done via threesome.
Those special attacks are executed with a rhythmic Ouendan-style series of touchscreen presses, an addition that brings a bit of welcome action to an otherwise passive Sonic game.
There's no lack of options for stats obsessive RPG gamers, with a skill leveling system and a Chao breeding mechanic that will let players tailor how Knuckles or Tails evolve. Expect Sonic Chronicles to feature an impressive depth in line with the BioWare pedigree.
It's hard to pass any sort of judgment on a game so incomplete, but the few minutes of Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood we played certainly held our interest in playing a more plodding, calculating Sonic the Hedgehog game. Put it on your 2009 wishlist.
Comments
2009? I was under the impression it was due out in the autumn. Regardless, I'll wait as long as necessary.
I always thought the checkerboard pattern ground was a very Sonic theme that seems to have disappeared. Why are they trying so hard (at least in Sonic for 360 and Sonic Unleashed) to create these very photo-realistic landscapes for Sonic to run around in, when Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 had such lush environments?
Sonic seems to be coming back with a vengeance.
This game looks good so far..can't imagine Bioware screwing this up no matter how shitty Sonic's friends are.
Looks pretty cool. I hope it holds up.
We need a good Sonic game.
Little disappointed at turn-based, but what ever.
This sounds like a nice mix between Mario RPG and Chrono Trigger. I loved being able to combine abilities in Chrono Trigger to make really devastating attacks.
It's looking good so far.
How often do sonic games make me go "Man, THIS might be the first 3D sonic game to not suck! :D" before I actually play it?
Far too often.
Amy has a boyfriend now? Sonic must be relieved :P
I'm looking forward to this -- I'm cool with cute RPGs. Angsty-teen RPGs are starting to get to me.
Ooh, threesomes in a Sonic game.
Wasn't Amy in Sonic CD? Didn't she get stolen by Metal Sonic and you have to rescue her or something? I know there was a chick hedgehog, but I'm not sure if it was Amy or not.
i salute Bioware for making a (probably) good game of that franchise
No doubt there are special attacks that can only be done via threesome. There's a reason his friends are the shitty kind.
uh..
Actually, I'm feeling faint glimmers of hope.
Wait... did you say chao breeding? or just a mechanic similar to that that would apply to tails/knuckles.
'Cause I want me some Chao action. Chao racing via nintendo wifi please.
Sonic as a slow strategy game?? I didn't know the Sonic Universe was that deep.
I always liked Knuckles more than Sonic : ( Of course, I think I was about 10 the last time I played a Sonic game...but no more! Way to suck me back in, BioWare.
2009? Come on, it's a handheld game!
/doesn't know the usual time it takes to develop a well made hand held game by a company known for making good games
/reliazes that the last "/" was really long
ironic that it takes the game to be something totally different to not suck harder than a dyson anymore
I can honestly say I am interested in a sonic game for the first time since the Dreamcast launched. Holy crap.
I look forward to this pensively...I have no doubt that bioware can make a fully fleshed out turn based adventure rpg out of my childhood hero (floundering though he may be), but Im worried that somehow, someway, a SEGA rep will burst into their programming cubicles screaming,
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO your doing it wrong! Shadow doesnt have enough guns! There arent 1200 new characters being introduced! WHERE ARE THE FISHING STAGES?!"
,and then bioware just turns its back...shrugs its shoulders, ponders why SEGA thinks they cant save a franchise after they already did twice with KOTOR, and just backs off.
Do want. Can't really go wrong with BioWare and RPGs. Maybe it's just me, but I like it when long standing characters are used in genres other than their usual ones. I also call BS on Amy getting over Sonic and getting a boyfriend.You can't mess up her over decade long crush on Sonic damnit!
I just don't understand why the Sonic franchise continues to be relevant. I mean, they keep banging out Sonic games so it must be, right? Are people buying these games? The one on 360 and PS3 looked like an absolute abomination and is he really even that appealing of a character anymore?
Sorry, I've been thinking all of this for a long time and just decided that I needed to let it out.
Threesome, eh? Oh, the furries will loooove this one.
Sonic X : Command Mission
m i rite?
Im really excited about this game. I havent baught a DS game in forever, so I hope to pic this one up.
but why does everyone think Sonic has such "shitty" friends?? I must of missed that game where they pissed everyone off.
is Cheese in this game? shes SO cute!
My friend Gaspur is a designer on this! Gooo Gaspur!
http://kotaku.com/photogallery/sonicrpgnms/1001166023 WTF is this screenshot? Did anyone posting about how this looks good even look at the pictures?
@linkura: Yes, and they look rather good, even the whole "Amy suddenly getting a boyfriend other than Sonic so hey, maybe she won't be UTTERLY DEFINED by her crush on Sonic anymore" thing. What's your point?
@KingKevin:
Heres the lowdown, sonic's shitty freinds include, but are not limited to:
1. Everyone introduced during/after Sonic Adventure.
2. Minus the possibility of E-102 considering hes really just a redesign of the Egg bots in Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles.
Keep in mind you may feel free to disregard that list and go ahead thinking that Cheese is "so cute!" when in all reality that makes you the kind of person that wont allow us to go back to good sonic games.
I am surprised by the amount of positive responses to this story... I believe the last time they released screenshots everyone could only rant and rave about how much they thought it would suck. I wonder what changed?
Ooh... It's looking good so far, if this takes off well they should branch it out into consoles...
@linkura: Maybe they're talking about gameplay or something? It's on a portable system so it doesn't HAVE to look absolutely mind blowing. At this point, most of our expectations for Sonic games are so low that NOT TOTAL BALL SUCKING is like a victory.
In other news, please don't have the usual shitty music. This kind of setting feels so off for a Sonic game just because it's never been done before. It just makes me feel weird, but change is probably the best thing that can happen for Sonic right now. He was always so linear before...
Oh yeah, go Knuckles. He needs his own game without the shitty friends...
Everyone seems to be quick to stomp on SEGA for the creation of Sonic's "lame" newer characters. Say what you will, but I think Big the Cat is a visually compelling character. For me, he's just cool to look at. His gameplay segments might've been the weakest in Sonic Adventure, but I wouldn't call him a lame character necessarily. In the right hands, he could be cool.
"Chao breeding mechanic that will let players tailor how Knuckles or Tails evolve"
wat?
@Krytha: I'm talking about the terrible dialogue, not the graphics.
"Tag-team moves may require both Sonic and Amy, with some special attacks that can only be done via threesome."
oh ho, let the fan fiction cometh.
It's like Chrono Trigger battle mechanics + Mass Effect dialog trees + shitty Sonic Characters = I can't even begin to fathom. Fuck it. It's Bioware. I'll buy it.
Sonic def needs more breaks from SEGA's current developers.
The title is absolutely awful.
Still find it hard to wrap my head around the turn based idea, but if they can bring such good stories in as Sonic the Comic I will love it.
Also Chaotix!
@willy626:
good sonic games!? but i love sonic 1-3 and knuckes!!!
a few bad character designs dont ruin a game, a bad game ruins a game. Sonic Heroes may suck, but the characters arent that bad.
@armchairnixon: wishes he had Xbox Live...: yeah it was amy, she just had a different hairstyle and dress.
@linkura: Well, you could've been more clear on that I suppose. Sonic has always had terrible dialogue? Anyone who goes around saying "Sonic's the name, speed's my game" is not likely to be brilliantly eloquent.
@Surfninja: Big the Cat is visually compelling? Were you also a fan of Rufus? All kidding aside, I do think they need to cut down on the number of extraneous pals Sonic has accumulated over the year, with additions to the collection for reasons like "I found out there's a kind of mammal we didn't have in the game before" and each possessing the same depth of personality as a bowl of soggy cornflakes. I mean, sure, they aren't ALL bad, but I think more time needs to be spent developing older characters instead of adding "cool" new characters. I know Big the Cat isn't particularly new either, but even Sonic's personal stories aren't well documented or explored which is one of the reasons why I think Sonic has continued to fail in making new games - i.e. his character is just a blue thing that goes fast - and then where do you go from there?
Sorry if I rambled and made no sense. My gripe is that Sonic CAN accurately and totally be summed up in "Sonics the name - speed yadda yadda" and I think that is hugely problematic in terms of development, and if your main protagonist isn't well developed, why are we adding more characters that have as little or less depth?
Is 2009 an estimate, or did they actually say that at the event? That would be disappointing.
@Derigor: From what I read in a different preview, apparently you can 'equip' Chaos to various characters like accessories. Breeding them determines what stats they boost and all that. It didn't say anything about racing them, but who knows.
@Krytha: To be fair, almost any game with resolution meant for the DS screen blown up to computer resolution looks like crap. I'm sure that it looks much better when running on the DS itself.
also, big the cat......why wont you die?!
A Sonic RPG with Mario RPG-esque battle mechanics, not made by Sonic Team but by BioWare, on the DS. I still keep expecting somebody to tell me that this is a protracted April Fools joke.
I am very much looking forward to this game.
so is sonic cool now?
he's had such a bad rap for some time now, and i personally liked most of his games.
Alas, it will be undermined by the fact that all of them (even sonic) are fundamentally unlikable characters.
At least mario keeps his mouth shut most of the time, I'd hate to have to endure whatever idiotic piss he has to spit.
@KingKevin:
Shadow the hedgehog begs to differ. A game, one singularity, based entirely on a secondary character. And y'know what? it sucked. big time.
Dont get me wrong, when I first played Sonic Adventure 2 I was extremely happy with his character. And I still feel that in context he wasnt that bad of a character IN THAT GAME. So when he died in the end I was happy.
But lets get one thing straight. Sonic is about Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Dr. Robotnik. And just so its not a complete sausage fest, Amy, but only in her pre-sonic adventure character, a one-dimensional love interest.
Its not even that the character designs are really that BAD, I mean, they arent that great, but there are worse. More importantly there implementation as gimmicky furry bait are just so blatant it makes those of us old enough to have enjoyed the series from its insurgence want to throw up.
Just in our mouths, then swallow it back down so as not to make a scene.