I didn’t really know what to expect when firing up Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood for the first time. After playing the game, though, I think I have an idea of what Bioware’s pitch to Sega was in the initial meetings, “it’ll be exactly like Mario RPG only with Elite Beat Agent mechanics thrown in at odd intervals, and a story told through the rich canon of the Sonic universe.” That may sound like I’m not too into the game, but I am. It has flaws, but the basic description I listed above made a prett good game.
The game is a solid take on Sonic in an RPG forum, everything works and Bioware finds a place for all of Sonic’s odd lore. The main problems, polish and pace, aren’t enough to damage enjoyment of the entire experience.
My biggest complaint with the game is that it just feels and looks cheap. The game looks great while standing still. The backgrounds are crisp and the characters are distinctive for a DS game, but in motion everything falls apart. The characters do animate well, but you can’t appreciate it, because the screen shakes when trying to track a character that is in motion. The backgrounds that looked detailed standing still look like something out of a flash game in motion and it all becomes a murky, janky mess that isn’t pleasent to look at. You can work past this, but it does bring down the overall mood of the game.
Sonic is controlled in the same way as Link in Phantom Hourglass and this system works fine, but it is a little frustrating that you have to use the stylus. During battles when you just want to tap A and get through them quickly, you can’t, you have to click attack and then select the target. It isn’t a huge problem, but it is just a bit frustrating.
The biggest frustration beyond the cheapness is the pacing. The game throws you a bunch of fetch quests with little backstory or incentive. The quests aren’t hard, but they are just filler and rarely pay off anything more than health or powerups. During the fetch quests you’ll have to deal with on-map enemies that will attack you (or you them) and this will send you to the battle screen.
The battles are turn-based and basic. You have Attack, Defend, POW moves, Items, and Flee. These options are pretty much the same as other RPGs and identical to Mario RPG. The only mix up in all of these is the POW moves. Your POW moves are your magic, when you perform a POW move on-screen cues will pop up, that you’ll have to perform in order to get the maximum power and accuracy out of your attacks. These cues are the bits that resemble “Elite Beat Agents” you’ll have to tap on-screen buttons on rhythm, tap them so many times in a set number of seconds, or follow a button as it moves on screen. It is a fun, interactive way to keep the players involved in the battles. These on-screen cues only appear in the POW moves and when defending from enemies POW moves, it is the best part of the battle system, and I wish it would have been integrated in the normal attacks as well.
Finally, a lot of attacks “missed” which is a huge pet-peeve, it is really bad at the beginning of the game, but it does seem to calm down about halfway through.
Another thing that is identical to Mario RPG is the equipment and items. You can equip amulets, gloves, pants, etc. to increase your characters stats. You can also find and raise Chao that can provide special types of upgrades, these can be traded with friends. Again, it is still fun even if it is an obvious clone of Mario RPG.
It may sound like there is a lot wrong with this game, but honestly it rises above all these complaints to provie a good portable RPG that makes the best of a crusty old character that still has a lot of good will with a core group of gamers.
Bioware fans are going to be disappointed with the license and the Easterness of the design. Sonic fans, though, should be ecstatic for this game. The pacing does pick up a bit after a couple of hours and the battles are less repetitive then some RPGs and if you have good will towards any of these characters you are going to get sucked in. The story is nothing special, but it doesn’t get bogged down in seriousness, even if Sonic’s BADITUDE is on full display.
Sonic RPG is a lot of fun, it doesn’t take itself too seriously which is why it is so easy to forgive it for not being very original, and at this point in Sonic’s life I’d rather have a solid ripoff, then another mediocre (or worse) attempt to recapture old glories. As a portable RPG that is going to be played in short spurts it is a very good game, that may have a bright future in sequels yet to come. As for this time around though? It is a really good time.
Rating: 3 / 5
Underrated was the first thing that came to mind after playing this game. I was very worried when buying this game since many review sites were giving it a mediocre score, but I’ve discovered this is because the reviewers are comparing this game to Biowares top selling games such as Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect. They’re stating that the game has a basic story and the dialogue in the game is cheesy. It’s Sonic, you shouldn’t expect a deep story with lots logic, it’s supposed to be simple and fun. If you’ve played his early games some of the lines will make you laugh and smile, the game is simply fun and keeps the story fun but simple.
This game feels more like the original Sonic games, what I mean by that is some of the choices you have to with Sonics dialogue is more rude rather than directly helpful, you run around towns and forests gathering rings, if you run into a badnick you enter combat. Rings are your currency and you spend them RPG style on items and equipment. The visuals are very nice (especially the backgrounds) and the gameplay is simple and fun and might need some getting used to since some moves require you to follow moves on the touch screen. My only problem with the game are some of the sounds are illfitting such as when someone gets KO’d and one or two of the songs. (I havent beaten the game yet)
Honestly the only game you could compare this to is Super Mario RPG, not any of biowares other titles because simply they made the game to be like Sonics world, not it’s a good RPG for Sonic and it’s looking to be a game that could have a sequel. If you like Sonic and you like RPG’s it’s worth getting. The review sites aren’t being fair in their comparisons of this to Biowares other titles when Sonic is different in every regard, while Sonic isn’t the best RPG, it’s far from bad, it’s a lot of fun and isn’t worth passing up.
Rating: 4 / 5
After playing through the game twice, I believe I now have a say on how good Sonic Chronicles is. Does BioWare make Sonic’s leap into the RPG smoothly, or does he fall into a continual rocky slope of past mediocrity from six years running?
Story: 9/10
The structure of the story is simple, and feels a lot like Sonic X at times. However, it’s not so simple that it’s boring. Intertwined within the story fabric is humor and good characters that actually aren’t mundane at all. I was definitely reminded strongly of the episodic sagas of Sonic X, and it felt like I was playing a game for Sonic X (minus Chris of course, thank you God.) If you don’t want to see the story, you can easily skip by touching the screen repeatedly. You also have the choice to choose what Sonic can say to other characters. You can be kind, always ready to help, or snarky, where Sonic always wise-cracks about something. Despite the variation here, the story is locked on one course, so anyone you make mad won’t stay mad at you for long. No worries on losing party members that way.
Gameplay: 7/10
As expected, Sonic Chronicles plays like any RPG. You explore an overworld, fight bad guys, do mini-quests and find or buy/sell items and equipment. Enemies walk visibly on the overworld, so you can run around them if you want, but in some environments, this is almost impossible on narrow paths. The combat is turn-based and easy enough to use. Using POW moves can sometimes be a hassle for to successfully use them, you have to touch prompt circles in the right way, and some POW moves flat out fail if you miss just one. The reward for a successful POW move usually is worth it, however. Mini-quests are simple and not hard to figure out. Decent rewards are received upon completion, and are usually helpful items plus XP. The XP amount tends to me meager however. Leveling-up is a simple prospect, but tends to be nothing but a drudge as it takes forever early on. Early on, battles usually only give like 10 XP each fight, while only fights that continue the plot of the story actually give you more, but even then, it’s in mediocre amounts. It’s only much later in the game when you reach XPs in the 1000 range, and there one can level up quickly. Every character in the story levels up at the same pace as everyone else, but not at equal amounts (for instance, Sonic can have 500 HP at Level 22, but Cream may only have 350 HP at level 22). Bosses can be challenging enough, but things like recovering HP points in multiple ways and having regular hits that can outshine the bosses’ POW moves can cause much frustration in the long run.
Presentation: 7/10
The game definitely caters to the easy-going RPGer and the Sonic fan. RPGs tend to be slow, and Sonic is known for speed. Answering this contradiction, BioWare added classic Sonic staples into the game, like springs, booster pads and the trademark loops. Plus, zones from classic Sonic games make a return, like Green Hill Zone (Sonic 1), Metropolis (Sonic 2), Mystic Ruins (Sonic Adventure) and Angel Island (Sonic 3 and Knuckles). New zones are featured as well, like Blue Ridge Zone and the Twilight Dimension. Chao play a crucial role in the gameplay, as equipping each character with one will directly effect the game, depending on the chao itself. Effects include but are not limited to elemental attacks or defense, altering POW attacks and finding more items after combats. Some problems are prevalent in the game’s presentation which keep it from becoming a great one. One problem is that it tends to be too short for the experienced RPG gamer, who likely is used to the 40-hour stories displayed in Final Fantasy and other RPGs. Sonic Chronicles will probably give 10 hours at most for the experienced RPGer, while rookies to the series might take a little more then 20. Add a somewhat faulty POW combat system and enemy strategy that causes much frustration, and it can sometimes be a headache.
Despite some drawbacks and some broken mechanics, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is definitely one of the finer Sonic titles to bear the hedgehog’s name. The franchise seems to always be slugging through poor or mediocre titles on the mainstream systems, but Sonic has found a foothold in both the DS and the RPG genre. With an ending that suggests more to the story, we can hope that BioWare plans to continue the new story of Sonic Chronicles. Welcome Sonic to the world of role-playing.
I was super excited to get this game in the mail, however after playing it for about an hour I was worried that I wouldn’t like it. The game style is very different, even for an rpg, and I couldn’t make out much of a story. For the gameplay, it took me a while to get used to POW moves, and how to use defense to regenerate POW points. In most other RPGs, I’ve never used the defense option, but in this game it’s actually extremely useful. Graphics aren’t bad. Many people complain about the sound effects, but I actually like them, they give the game an old-school feeling, and the BOING, though a strange choice for a KO, is amusing to me. After a few hours of playing, getting into the story, and getting used to the controls, it has become very addicting! The story has a slow start, but don’t let that stop you because it gets better and better. If you are a Knuckles fan, like myself, you will be especially surprised. I do hope that they are working on a sequel!
Rating: 5 / 5
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood was a game much anticipated by the fanbase, seeing how it was developed by a studio known for its expertise in developing RPGs on PCs. Well, the game is out in North America as of yesterday, so how is it?
To start on a positive note, the writing is pretty good. The writing in Sonic games tends to range from average to abysmal, so a decently written one which actually imbues the characters with personalities instead of making them out to be caricatures is a refreshing change. Much like just about every other Bioware game ever made, the game features branching dialogue trees, as well as an option to make Sonic say something snarky or dickish, which often has hilarious results.
As for the rest of the game…well, it feels rather uneven.
The music and sound production, for one, is absolutely atrocious. The music mostly consists of bad remixes of excellent tracks from other Sonic games, mostly butchered by awful arrangements and terrible samples. I normally leave my DS speakers turned down since I have other stuff playing in the background, but this is the first DS game I’ve ever played where I turned down the sound because I couldn’t stand listening to it. There were rumours that Richard Jacques, the composer on games like Sonic R and the Saturn version of Sonic 3D Blast, was working on the game’s soundtrack, but I find that incredibly hard to believe given the state of the product I played.
The actual game mechanics are better, but still rather flawed. The maps are all hand-drawn 2D, upon which your 3D cel-shaded characters are free to run around, controlled by the stylus. You can switch to any of the characters in your party at any time by tapping their icon, although Sonic remains your `point’ character for conversations and the like. You can explore the environments to find side quests, most of which are fairly uninvolved and straightforward. In addition, access to certain parts of each area is restricted depending on who you have in your party. For instance, if you don’t have Knuckles with you, you can’t climb certain walls to reach high areas, and if you don’t have Tails, you can’t fly from one high point to another. The way in which this is done, however, feels rather forced – the game explicitly tells you which character you need to use at a particular location with a handy icon, ruining the sense of exploration and discovery you might have otherwise felt.
In terms of battle mechanics, the game feels like a throwback to Sega JRPGs of old, particularly the Phantasy Star series, with some elements taken from other JRPGs like Final Fantasy. Each of your characters falls into one of three archetypes, Power, Support and Shifter. They also have some stats, and it’s fairly ambiguous as to what each stat affects – the game does not explain this to you. In any case, there’s an `Auto-Level’ option much like in Mass Effect that can take care of this for you if you feel so inclined.
The main source of differentiation in the characters is the abilities they bring to the table. These fill the same role as special abilities in other games like Chrono Trigger, in that they have special properties, such as being associated with a particular element, or inflicting a status effect. The latter in particular is crucial to doing well in the game, since status effects can be stacked (even the same ones!).
In addition, you can pair each character with a Chao of your choice. The Chao function much in the same way that Espers do in Final Fantasy VI – they bestow some special property on the character that they wouldn’t have otherwise. The effects range from fairly simple things like endowing the paired character with a particular element in his/her attacks to more useful effects like regenerating HP or PP between rounds. I haven’t played long enough to make sure, but it also looks like the effects of a paired Chao get more powerful the longer it’s paired.
So we have the makings of a fairly decent, if unoriginal combat system. However, Bioware managed to muck this up by tossing (of all things) quick timer events into the fray. When you decide to use your special moves, you need to input a series of Ouendan-style beats and sliders. If you mess up, your special move fails and you just wasted your PP. Presumably the game keeps some internal statistics that determine your attacks’ effectiveness – why does it need to present you with this pointless reflex test? It makes sense in a game like Ouendan precisely BECAUSE the game is Ouendan – the beats are set to music, which aids you in mastering the timing for tapping the beats. In Sonic Chronicles, there is no such aid, and the sequences end up feeling tacked on as a result.
The most annoying part is that the DS, being what it is, often isn’t able to keep up with the action on screen, and as a result the dropped framerate affects the speed at which these sequences are shown to you, messing up any sense of timing you might have gotten through muscle memory and turning what should be a fairly straightforward part of the battle system into pointless tedium. On top of this, you need to go through the same process to block enemy special moves, and it’s subject to the same problems.
And don’t get me started on the ridiculous minigame you need to play in order to escape from battle (or if your opponents decide to escape from battle).
I’m still trying to figure out where I stand on this game. The few things Bioware got wrong are almost enough to push me over the edge, but I’ll put forth a hesitant recommendation to at least those Sonic fans who have been waiting forever for a game that isn’t terrible. This game is better than most other recent Sonic efforts, but I’d strongly recommend preparing for some frustrating battles…and turning the sound off.
Rating: 3 / 5
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I didn’t really know what to expect when firing up Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood for the first time. After playing the game, though, I think I have an idea of what Bioware’s pitch to Sega was in the initial meetings, “it’ll be exactly like Mario RPG only with Elite Beat Agent mechanics thrown in at odd intervals, and a story told through the rich canon of the Sonic universe.” That may sound like I’m not too into the game, but I am. It has flaws, but the basic description I listed above made a prett good game.
The game is a solid take on Sonic in an RPG forum, everything works and Bioware finds a place for all of Sonic’s odd lore. The main problems, polish and pace, aren’t enough to damage enjoyment of the entire experience.
My biggest complaint with the game is that it just feels and looks cheap. The game looks great while standing still. The backgrounds are crisp and the characters are distinctive for a DS game, but in motion everything falls apart. The characters do animate well, but you can’t appreciate it, because the screen shakes when trying to track a character that is in motion. The backgrounds that looked detailed standing still look like something out of a flash game in motion and it all becomes a murky, janky mess that isn’t pleasent to look at. You can work past this, but it does bring down the overall mood of the game.
Sonic is controlled in the same way as Link in Phantom Hourglass and this system works fine, but it is a little frustrating that you have to use the stylus. During battles when you just want to tap A and get through them quickly, you can’t, you have to click attack and then select the target. It isn’t a huge problem, but it is just a bit frustrating.
The biggest frustration beyond the cheapness is the pacing. The game throws you a bunch of fetch quests with little backstory or incentive. The quests aren’t hard, but they are just filler and rarely pay off anything more than health or powerups. During the fetch quests you’ll have to deal with on-map enemies that will attack you (or you them) and this will send you to the battle screen.
The battles are turn-based and basic. You have Attack, Defend, POW moves, Items, and Flee. These options are pretty much the same as other RPGs and identical to Mario RPG. The only mix up in all of these is the POW moves. Your POW moves are your magic, when you perform a POW move on-screen cues will pop up, that you’ll have to perform in order to get the maximum power and accuracy out of your attacks. These cues are the bits that resemble “Elite Beat Agents” you’ll have to tap on-screen buttons on rhythm, tap them so many times in a set number of seconds, or follow a button as it moves on screen. It is a fun, interactive way to keep the players involved in the battles. These on-screen cues only appear in the POW moves and when defending from enemies POW moves, it is the best part of the battle system, and I wish it would have been integrated in the normal attacks as well.
Finally, a lot of attacks “missed” which is a huge pet-peeve, it is really bad at the beginning of the game, but it does seem to calm down about halfway through.
Another thing that is identical to Mario RPG is the equipment and items. You can equip amulets, gloves, pants, etc. to increase your characters stats. You can also find and raise Chao that can provide special types of upgrades, these can be traded with friends. Again, it is still fun even if it is an obvious clone of Mario RPG.
It may sound like there is a lot wrong with this game, but honestly it rises above all these complaints to provie a good portable RPG that makes the best of a crusty old character that still has a lot of good will with a core group of gamers.
Bioware fans are going to be disappointed with the license and the Easterness of the design. Sonic fans, though, should be ecstatic for this game. The pacing does pick up a bit after a couple of hours and the battles are less repetitive then some RPGs and if you have good will towards any of these characters you are going to get sucked in. The story is nothing special, but it doesn’t get bogged down in seriousness, even if Sonic’s BADITUDE is on full display.
Sonic RPG is a lot of fun, it doesn’t take itself too seriously which is why it is so easy to forgive it for not being very original, and at this point in Sonic’s life I’d rather have a solid ripoff, then another mediocre (or worse) attempt to recapture old glories. As a portable RPG that is going to be played in short spurts it is a very good game, that may have a bright future in sequels yet to come. As for this time around though? It is a really good time.
Rating: 3 / 5
Underrated was the first thing that came to mind after playing this game. I was very worried when buying this game since many review sites were giving it a mediocre score, but I’ve discovered this is because the reviewers are comparing this game to Biowares top selling games such as Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect. They’re stating that the game has a basic story and the dialogue in the game is cheesy. It’s Sonic, you shouldn’t expect a deep story with lots logic, it’s supposed to be simple and fun. If you’ve played his early games some of the lines will make you laugh and smile, the game is simply fun and keeps the story fun but simple.
This game feels more like the original Sonic games, what I mean by that is some of the choices you have to with Sonics dialogue is more rude rather than directly helpful, you run around towns and forests gathering rings, if you run into a badnick you enter combat. Rings are your currency and you spend them RPG style on items and equipment. The visuals are very nice (especially the backgrounds) and the gameplay is simple and fun and might need some getting used to since some moves require you to follow moves on the touch screen. My only problem with the game are some of the sounds are illfitting such as when someone gets KO’d and one or two of the songs. (I havent beaten the game yet)
Honestly the only game you could compare this to is Super Mario RPG, not any of biowares other titles because simply they made the game to be like Sonics world, not it’s a good RPG for Sonic and it’s looking to be a game that could have a sequel. If you like Sonic and you like RPG’s it’s worth getting. The review sites aren’t being fair in their comparisons of this to Biowares other titles when Sonic is different in every regard, while Sonic isn’t the best RPG, it’s far from bad, it’s a lot of fun and isn’t worth passing up.
Rating: 4 / 5
After playing through the game twice, I believe I now have a say on how good Sonic Chronicles is. Does BioWare make Sonic’s leap into the RPG smoothly, or does he fall into a continual rocky slope of past mediocrity from six years running?
Story: 9/10
The structure of the story is simple, and feels a lot like Sonic X at times. However, it’s not so simple that it’s boring. Intertwined within the story fabric is humor and good characters that actually aren’t mundane at all. I was definitely reminded strongly of the episodic sagas of Sonic X, and it felt like I was playing a game for Sonic X (minus Chris of course, thank you God.) If you don’t want to see the story, you can easily skip by touching the screen repeatedly. You also have the choice to choose what Sonic can say to other characters. You can be kind, always ready to help, or snarky, where Sonic always wise-cracks about something. Despite the variation here, the story is locked on one course, so anyone you make mad won’t stay mad at you for long. No worries on losing party members that way.
Gameplay: 7/10
As expected, Sonic Chronicles plays like any RPG. You explore an overworld, fight bad guys, do mini-quests and find or buy/sell items and equipment. Enemies walk visibly on the overworld, so you can run around them if you want, but in some environments, this is almost impossible on narrow paths. The combat is turn-based and easy enough to use. Using POW moves can sometimes be a hassle for to successfully use them, you have to touch prompt circles in the right way, and some POW moves flat out fail if you miss just one. The reward for a successful POW move usually is worth it, however. Mini-quests are simple and not hard to figure out. Decent rewards are received upon completion, and are usually helpful items plus XP. The XP amount tends to me meager however. Leveling-up is a simple prospect, but tends to be nothing but a drudge as it takes forever early on. Early on, battles usually only give like 10 XP each fight, while only fights that continue the plot of the story actually give you more, but even then, it’s in mediocre amounts. It’s only much later in the game when you reach XPs in the 1000 range, and there one can level up quickly. Every character in the story levels up at the same pace as everyone else, but not at equal amounts (for instance, Sonic can have 500 HP at Level 22, but Cream may only have 350 HP at level 22). Bosses can be challenging enough, but things like recovering HP points in multiple ways and having regular hits that can outshine the bosses’ POW moves can cause much frustration in the long run.
Presentation: 7/10
The game definitely caters to the easy-going RPGer and the Sonic fan. RPGs tend to be slow, and Sonic is known for speed. Answering this contradiction, BioWare added classic Sonic staples into the game, like springs, booster pads and the trademark loops. Plus, zones from classic Sonic games make a return, like Green Hill Zone (Sonic 1), Metropolis (Sonic 2), Mystic Ruins (Sonic Adventure) and Angel Island (Sonic 3 and Knuckles). New zones are featured as well, like Blue Ridge Zone and the Twilight Dimension. Chao play a crucial role in the gameplay, as equipping each character with one will directly effect the game, depending on the chao itself. Effects include but are not limited to elemental attacks or defense, altering POW attacks and finding more items after combats. Some problems are prevalent in the game’s presentation which keep it from becoming a great one. One problem is that it tends to be too short for the experienced RPG gamer, who likely is used to the 40-hour stories displayed in Final Fantasy and other RPGs. Sonic Chronicles will probably give 10 hours at most for the experienced RPGer, while rookies to the series might take a little more then 20. Add a somewhat faulty POW combat system and enemy strategy that causes much frustration, and it can sometimes be a headache.
Despite some drawbacks and some broken mechanics, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is definitely one of the finer Sonic titles to bear the hedgehog’s name. The franchise seems to always be slugging through poor or mediocre titles on the mainstream systems, but Sonic has found a foothold in both the DS and the RPG genre. With an ending that suggests more to the story, we can hope that BioWare plans to continue the new story of Sonic Chronicles. Welcome Sonic to the world of role-playing.
8/10
Rating: 4 / 5
I was super excited to get this game in the mail, however after playing it for about an hour I was worried that I wouldn’t like it. The game style is very different, even for an rpg, and I couldn’t make out much of a story. For the gameplay, it took me a while to get used to POW moves, and how to use defense to regenerate POW points. In most other RPGs, I’ve never used the defense option, but in this game it’s actually extremely useful. Graphics aren’t bad. Many people complain about the sound effects, but I actually like them, they give the game an old-school feeling, and the BOING, though a strange choice for a KO, is amusing to me. After a few hours of playing, getting into the story, and getting used to the controls, it has become very addicting! The story has a slow start, but don’t let that stop you because it gets better and better. If you are a Knuckles fan, like myself, you will be especially surprised. I do hope that they are working on a sequel!
Rating: 5 / 5
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood was a game much anticipated by the fanbase, seeing how it was developed by a studio known for its expertise in developing RPGs on PCs. Well, the game is out in North America as of yesterday, so how is it?
To start on a positive note, the writing is pretty good. The writing in Sonic games tends to range from average to abysmal, so a decently written one which actually imbues the characters with personalities instead of making them out to be caricatures is a refreshing change. Much like just about every other Bioware game ever made, the game features branching dialogue trees, as well as an option to make Sonic say something snarky or dickish, which often has hilarious results.
As for the rest of the game…well, it feels rather uneven.
The music and sound production, for one, is absolutely atrocious. The music mostly consists of bad remixes of excellent tracks from other Sonic games, mostly butchered by awful arrangements and terrible samples. I normally leave my DS speakers turned down since I have other stuff playing in the background, but this is the first DS game I’ve ever played where I turned down the sound because I couldn’t stand listening to it. There were rumours that Richard Jacques, the composer on games like Sonic R and the Saturn version of Sonic 3D Blast, was working on the game’s soundtrack, but I find that incredibly hard to believe given the state of the product I played.
The actual game mechanics are better, but still rather flawed. The maps are all hand-drawn 2D, upon which your 3D cel-shaded characters are free to run around, controlled by the stylus. You can switch to any of the characters in your party at any time by tapping their icon, although Sonic remains your `point’ character for conversations and the like. You can explore the environments to find side quests, most of which are fairly uninvolved and straightforward. In addition, access to certain parts of each area is restricted depending on who you have in your party. For instance, if you don’t have Knuckles with you, you can’t climb certain walls to reach high areas, and if you don’t have Tails, you can’t fly from one high point to another. The way in which this is done, however, feels rather forced – the game explicitly tells you which character you need to use at a particular location with a handy icon, ruining the sense of exploration and discovery you might have otherwise felt.
In terms of battle mechanics, the game feels like a throwback to Sega JRPGs of old, particularly the Phantasy Star series, with some elements taken from other JRPGs like Final Fantasy. Each of your characters falls into one of three archetypes, Power, Support and Shifter. They also have some stats, and it’s fairly ambiguous as to what each stat affects – the game does not explain this to you. In any case, there’s an `Auto-Level’ option much like in Mass Effect that can take care of this for you if you feel so inclined.
The main source of differentiation in the characters is the abilities they bring to the table. These fill the same role as special abilities in other games like Chrono Trigger, in that they have special properties, such as being associated with a particular element, or inflicting a status effect. The latter in particular is crucial to doing well in the game, since status effects can be stacked (even the same ones!).
In addition, you can pair each character with a Chao of your choice. The Chao function much in the same way that Espers do in Final Fantasy VI – they bestow some special property on the character that they wouldn’t have otherwise. The effects range from fairly simple things like endowing the paired character with a particular element in his/her attacks to more useful effects like regenerating HP or PP between rounds. I haven’t played long enough to make sure, but it also looks like the effects of a paired Chao get more powerful the longer it’s paired.
So we have the makings of a fairly decent, if unoriginal combat system. However, Bioware managed to muck this up by tossing (of all things) quick timer events into the fray. When you decide to use your special moves, you need to input a series of Ouendan-style beats and sliders. If you mess up, your special move fails and you just wasted your PP. Presumably the game keeps some internal statistics that determine your attacks’ effectiveness – why does it need to present you with this pointless reflex test? It makes sense in a game like Ouendan precisely BECAUSE the game is Ouendan – the beats are set to music, which aids you in mastering the timing for tapping the beats. In Sonic Chronicles, there is no such aid, and the sequences end up feeling tacked on as a result.
The most annoying part is that the DS, being what it is, often isn’t able to keep up with the action on screen, and as a result the dropped framerate affects the speed at which these sequences are shown to you, messing up any sense of timing you might have gotten through muscle memory and turning what should be a fairly straightforward part of the battle system into pointless tedium. On top of this, you need to go through the same process to block enemy special moves, and it’s subject to the same problems.
And don’t get me started on the ridiculous minigame you need to play in order to escape from battle (or if your opponents decide to escape from battle).
I’m still trying to figure out where I stand on this game. The few things Bioware got wrong are almost enough to push me over the edge, but I’ll put forth a hesitant recommendation to at least those Sonic fans who have been waiting forever for a game that isn’t terrible. This game is better than most other recent Sonic efforts, but I’d strongly recommend preparing for some frustrating battles…and turning the sound off.
Rating: 3 / 5