Bioware gives the franchise bright hope with a dark story.
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is Sonic’s first foray into the RPG genre, coming 17 years after his initial creation. I played an early alpha version of the software, and despite the early stage, the game is already gorgeous and appears on track to be a great game.
I played a section near the beginning of the game, which occurs while still in Sonic’s bright and colorful world, though I was told that the game becomes much darker later in the game. All of Sonic’s animal friends such as Tails, Amy, Big, Rogue, and Knuckles appear as playable characters with their own unique abilities.
Battles are rendered in 3D using a cel-shading style, featuring one of the smoothest and detailed rendering engines I’ve seen on the DS. The dynamic camera pans around the scene, and all battle commands are performed with the touch screen.
The battle system in Sonic Chronicles is similar to that of the Mario & Luigi games, including action-based team attacks. Attacks can include up to four characters. The attacks I saw were touch-screen-based and actually resembled gameplay found in Elite Beat Agents. For example, in one case, a circle closed in on a smaller circle, which had to be tapped when they matched size, and in another case, the stylus had to follow a circle moving along a dotted path. Defensive maneuvers were performed in the same fashion to guard against enemy special attacks. Instead of magic points, special attacks use up “fatigue points.” Characters each have their own special attacks, which make use of the character’s signature moves, such as Amy's hammer. The player can purchase stronger attacks, which requires more complex timing in battle.
One neat addition is the inclusion of a mini-game as part of the escaping battle mechanic. As players run from their opponents, obstacles appear that must be jumped over by tapping on the character so that players are not caught and thrown back into battle.
Sonic Chronicles includes all of the standard RPG elements, including item inventories and leveling up with experience. Appropriate for the Sonic series, one of the leveling abilities is speed. As speed increases, characters get an additional number of shots per turn. These shots can be assigned different attacks or take part in combo attacks. As the game progresses, enemies will also gain multiple shots per turn.
The overworld encompasses beautifully-drawn environments. A larger view of the current area is displayed on the top screen, while touch is used on the bottom screen to direct characters. When characters approach a context-sensitive area, an action circle appears near them, with a potential action shown. These may be clicked to perform the action, assuming that the current character can perform the action. For example, Knuckles can climb and Tails can fly, but that character must be leading the group for the action to be possible. A disabled button will appear otherwise, indicating that players may need to return to the area later with a different character. Enemies appear on screen—there are no random battles. Rings are found strewn around the landscape, and collection of them all will unlock something special, though exactly what hasn’t been finalized.
The Chao Garden, first introduced in Sonic Adventure, again makes its appearance. Chao eggs are found around the world and Chao hatched from these eggs will join the garden. Chao of different types can be equipped to boost status points and effects in battle. Each character can be accompanied by a single Chao, which also appears in battle along with the character. Chao can be traded over the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.
The game is set to feature plenty of cut-scenes and a lot of dialog. I experienced dialog with multiple branching paths depending on the player's response. In a few cases, dialog choice affects the direction of the entire game. Players can expect several interesting story developments, such as Amy’s surprising initial lack of interest in Sonic due to a new boyfriend named Dexter. Apparently, Dr. Eggman will also play a role, but not as the primary bad guy. Various side missions are also included. A basic one I saw involved chopping wood.
Sonic Chronicles appears to be in good hands at Bioware. The game is already one of the best looking on DS, and the gameplay feels solid and engaging while maintaining and expanding the experience of the Sonic universe. I look forward to playing the final version.
Sonic RPG
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