by Ravi Sinha
Sonic the Hedgehog was always touted by Sega fans as Mario’s one true competitor, before Sega discontinued hardware manufacture and brought the famed blue furball to all major consoles.
Nonetheless, leaving his recent bungling 3D forays aside, it was always a given that Sonic could match up on the action/platform level and past iterations of the franchise were universally lauded. However, when you talk about off-shoots, even the most devoted Sonic fan would play deaf. Mario continuously tasted both critical and commercial success in different genres, as is the case with Mario Kart and Mario Tennis, and Blazing Blue just couldn’t match up (seriously, who puts Quick Time Events in a racing game a la Sonic Riders?).
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood for the Nintendo DS has been under excruciating observation since its announcement. Sega couldn’t possibly mess this game up, as Dungeons and Dragons (Baldur’s Gate), action (Knights of the Old Republic) and online (Neverwinter Nights) RPG master Bioware handled development. Yet, the nagging question remained: Could a Sonic role-player be any good? Could it really be fun? Could it really be, despite the obvious lack of speed, Sonic?
Rest assured Sonic fans (those that are left). All Nintendo DS owners and role-playing fans should listen up. Sonic Chronicles not only has that old-school Sonic ambiance of ring collecting, rocking tunes and cartoon coolness but delivers a varied and strategic RPG experience comparable to the platform’s greats.
Sonic and company is having another one of those days: Chaos Emeralds stolen, Eggman on yet another new Egg-Carrier (E-Bay needed to clear their stock), and the cavalcade of talking critters arriving to stop yet another of his nefarious plots for world domination. Suddenly, a mysterious fleet of ships shows up and attacks the Egg-Carrier, supposedly annihilating Eggman and separating Sonic from his friends. As he finds himself in the Green Hill zone, Sonic re-establishes radio contact with Tails the two-tailed fox and Amy Rose, his bipolar fan-girl. After hilariously referencing the “good old days” in the zone, the trio set out to search for the missing Knuckles the Echidna, the Chaos Emeralds and the truth about the mysterious new invaders dubbed “The Marauders”.
Unlike previous Sonic games, the story is told using fittingly comedic lines that either lampoon the situation at hand and the usual “Who do you think I am?” Sonic attitude towards any overwhelming odds. Bioware smartly defines and develops each of the characters; yes, quite a few of them are stereotypes (Rouge the Bat’s full-blooded lips, revealing attire and flirtatious ways; Knuckles fist pounding, toughness and single-minded devotion to guardianship; Amy’s constant mood changes and oscillating devotion to Sonic; Sonic’s evil twin, Shadow, could have a Static-X album dedicated to him).
But at least no one here is trying to fake drama for the sake of making the situation direr than it looks. Sonic doesn’t mull over the situation — choosing to be slightly amused that victories are taking an extra ten to twenty seconds more. Slight side-plots like Sonic’s disappearance before the events, the true identity of the Marauders and how it affects those involved, and more are at best diversions. They expand the character’s interactions without abruptly taking the gamer off-course as for the main plot concerned. Each character’s personality and development never once touch out of pre-established norms, be it the developer’s or the fans. There’s no time-travel, no alternate universes, no human princess love interests, no mythical world conquering beasts that have an appetite for chaos emeralds, and most importantly, no motorcycles to pilot or Glocks or swords. This is an adventure, not some B-movie regurgitation with blatant inanities and dialogue (there are NO “Sonic Heroes”).
The first quibble you may have will no doubt be the world navigation. On the area maps, you move Sonic by pointing the stylus in a specific direction and either tapping on it or pressing L or R when the action icon appears. Those would be for jumping and going through loops, and as you gain more characters in your party, you can alternate between them at different points to fly, scale a wall, smash boxes, pass through otherwise dangerous paths, teleport and more.
Some characters, once they level up, will be able to perform multiple over-world actions, and even share different actions with others depending on which stats you upgrade more (for example, increase Amy’s attack and she’ll be smashing boxes better than Knuckles; upgrade her speed and she can dash through loops and pipes like Sonic), though pre-set stat points will need to be considered for overall party development. Which character is best suited for which task is more discernible thanks to the Class System: Speedsters like Sonic get multiple turns, Heavys like Big are slow yet strong, Supports like Crea, are in charge of healing and stat altering and Shifters, like Amy, are a mix of all the above.
Navigating the world map using the stylus never becomes an issue since movement is smooth and the response is spot-on. There are no collision detection errors or small hazards to get caught on (just watch out for enemies). If you notice, the Start menu has been allocated to an icon on the lower left-hand corner. While skilled stylus users shouldn’t have a problem accidentally activating the button during movement, it’s still a liability that came up a few times in my play time, albeit only a slightly annoying one.
Except for story event fights, you’ll know about all battles before-hand since all enemies appear on screen. As you enter a battle, you select different commands for your characters’ turns over several rounds, until the enemy is either defeated or begins to flee. In this case, you’ll engage in a side-scrolling mini-game on rails where you must jump over obstacles, catch up with your foes and resume the fight. Attacks can either be normal or POW attacks that consume PP (POW Points) and require you to tap an icon repeatedly, hit a button in rhythm or move the stylus along an assigned path, Elite Beat Agents.
Once you learn the commands and movements, performing these moves becomes a piece of cake, though they never get as complex as something Agents would put your through. However, it is to be noted that avoiding attacks and support moves also require timed button presses, and one mistake can involve a failed healing spell or a brutal beating. This means you may want to practice your Revive at least once in a small skirmish and not as a last resort when an army of enemies is waiting and you’re surrounded by the fallen.
A lot of the combat seems to be inspired by Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga for the PS2. If you simply attack or defend, the round will be consumed with that single action. However, you can select items, launch a POW attack, then use a regular attack one turn if you have the turns. Simply defending is not a bad idea though; PP can be regenerated this way, and later battles really become a case of deciding to either hold back and save enough PP for a powerful strike at the risk of dodging enemy attack or attacking your opponents over a series of turns. The sequence of turns is clearly indicated on the top screen (which also displays the world map during exploration) according to the speed of your characters.
It’s a shame that enemy turns aren’t specified, as this could potentially reveal your need to upgrade your agility without having to take several punches/blades/lasers/explosives to the face first. Specific enemies are weak to different elements which can be equipped through small creatures called Chao, who also increase attack, defense, HP, PP and more. You can only equip one per character but the balance evens out when specific categories of enemies weak to specific elements form the majority of each area (like the Mystic Ruins where insects weak to Electricity and Fire are prevalent).
Finally, you can execute several team POW attacks as up to four characters can literally combine into a massive typhoon of mass hurt. If you lose a battle, you can either reload your game or restart the battle by paying some rings. Though the idea of a Ring God in the Sonic universe who offers life in return for meandering around worlds for circle-shaped gold is a bit far-fetched, at least you can fully heal your party and reassign equipment and stats before beginning the fight anew with more caution than before.
Rings form the currency of Chronicles. It should be mentioned that the overall currency is limited to the number of rings you can collect (yes, the money in this game is limited that way) but most items are either found lying around or from enemies, and you can sell these to get more currency for use. If you don’t like collecting, beat up enemies and steal their warez — the game also never gets so difficult that you’ll have to rely on a better piece of equipment. You can’t max out your stats with new tech but the main point is, you don’t have to.
Sonic Chronicles alternates between an isometric overhead perspective and a 3D full-out fighting scene with camera panning for its exploration and battle modes respectively. The graphics are colourful, though the non-combat zones seem pretty barren with little citizens on the streets. Each world has side-quests that are the normal fetch-quest variety while others have you beating up bad guys or solving a particular puzzle and they’re worth it since they give you a hefty amount of XP, no matter how trivial the task, from what you’d normally get just running around and fighting. Some side quests also grant you new characters and some of them are worthy additions to the line-up while still representing interesting personalities (I swear E-123 was inspired by HK-47 of Knights of the Old Republic).
A lot of the quests are not mandatory to the story but really help add to the story, assisted by perhaps the most interesting feature of Chronicles: The dialogue choice system. Sure, it’s essentially a low budget version of the one from Mass Effect but it’s great for approaching situations in different ways, whether it’s to free that confused Swat-bot from servitude for his master or remind him of his programming and kill him.
The production values are low when compared to something like The World Ends With You or even Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. The music, even the awesome battle themes, sounds pretty tiny and sound effects are weirdly played out, especially when a character screams in pain when getting hurt. The music for the different levels offers nothing incredibly memorable and sounds like it was composed on a synthesizer by one person but it’s nothing you can’t get used to, ignore or come to hate. The overall package offers a lot of meat though, and presents an interesting narrative with multiple twists.
Sonic Chronicles, for better more than worse, is probably the first really good title to come from the Sega stables in a while. It couldn’t have found a more likely home than the Nintendo DS, though the mind boggles at the idea of a big-budget Sonic RPG for a next-gen console. Sure you may have to chalk that up to after a PS3 Final Fantasy VII releases or Hell freezes over (whichever comes first) but if the vision behind an awesome hand-held adventure were given free reign, who knows. It may not win the award for best RPG of 2008 but it’s still a worthy nominee and competitor for a genre so far dominated by Square-Enix. It is Sonic and yet, it’s not Sega’s Sonic. Who knew that could be a good thing?
Rating: 8.5/10
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