Sonic Chronicles, your opinion.

[Kiljoy]

This is not about your opinion on things like audio quality, I just want to know about what you think of the story and writing. In my opinion it's one of the best written Sonic games I've played. I know people argue that it's not "in character" But whether or not it is I think they were very well done, what about you?

[Dr. Mechano]

I simultaneously love and hate this game's plot.

Eggman was playable, and did get a lot of well-written, witty lines. His conquest of Earth wasn't too shabby either.

I feel a lot of the characters were written out of character though.

- Sonic and friends attacking Eggman preemptively, with the apparent intent to kill. Seriously, what the hell was that?

- Furthering this, Sonic and friends expressing what amounted to "Boy, I sure hope Eggman died back then! It'd sure suck if he was still alive." ...Again, these are the "heroes." In other games, they're all about stopping the plan without hurting the man, so this felt incredibly off-putting to see them behave so vengefully.

- Eggman comments that he never thought he'd be teaming up with Sonic, as if the game forgot about all their past truces.

I feel like Bioware tried to shamelessly incorporate personality traits from SatAM/Archie, at least as far as the heroes are concerned- The hatred, as opposed to mutual respect, for example. Though Eggman still seemed to mostly be in character- He seemed to genuinely enjoy the heroes' company, and simply didn't understand their anger at his past actions. To quote him, "Sonic, it's adorable how much you hate me." Ha ha, it's almost like Eggman knew the characters weren't being themselves.

I dunno. These things really bugged me, even if I did enjoy many aspects of the game.

Edited April 29, 2009 by El Gran Gordo

[Blazey Firekitty]

It was kind of a mixed bag. The characters who weren't the "Big Five"(Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Eggman) either came across as stereotypical and one-dimensional(Shadow, Omega, Rouge, Shade to a lesser extent as she basically came across to me as Blaze without the things that gave Blaze depth beyond "stoic warrior") or were just kind of...there.(Cream and Big, though I thought they were charming for what they were.)

I liked Knuckles new sense of independence. He showed he can care about someone, while at the same time disagreeing with their destructive actions. However, he seemed a bit too cold and distant.

Sonic , Tails and Amy were a bit better, and I really liked how Tails had an enthusiatic leadership role, how Amy's feelings were treated with subtlty, and how sometimes amid the usual jokes and snarkyness, Sonic would say something warm and tender. Still...I kind of felt like something had been lost, like characters no longer had a certain zeal and verility that they once had in the Sonic Team and Dimps storylines.

Eggman...was close to being perfect. Very ruthless and competent, yet showing signs of a childish, naive side, and signs of potential that he might one day be friends with Sonic and/or Tails.

So...yeah, that's all I've got for now.XD

[Dr. Mechano]

Eggman...was close to being perfect. Very ruthless and competent, yet showing signs of a childish, naive side, and signs of potential that he might one day be friends with Sonic and/or Tails.

I enjoyed this too, especially his little friendship with Tails. "Nerd bonding", indeed.

...I guess I just have to ignore Tails's (and the other heroes) "I sure hope Eggman isn't alive!" sentiments from earlier in the game to get a better appreciation for this friendship.

As for his naive, childish side- Yes, they nailed that. I like how Eggman doesn't really understand what heroism means, yet he tries to actually prod the heroes for what their motives are. I love how he basically assumes heroics are "just an excuse to run around and jump on things", thinking that it- like his villainy- is for fun, a "game" of sorts.

Edited April 29, 2009 by El Gran Gordo

[Blazey Firekitty]

I enjoyed this too, especially his little friendship with Tails. "Nerd bonding", indeed.

...I guess I just have to ignore Tails's (and the other heroes) "I sure hope Eggman isn't alive!" sentiments from earlier in the game to get a better appreciation for this friendship.

I just kind of try to think about that character development. Tails being deathly terrified of the man at first, but gradually finding things to share with him, in both the pratical and emotional sense.

Though...I'll admit, the characters wishing Eggman dead felt very strange. Wouldn't have been out of place in SatAM, but felt awkward here...even though there were SWAT Bots.;;

Edited April 29, 2009 by BlazeySammy

[Flyboy Fox]

I loved this game. The characterisation was gorgeous, and it was wonderful how the dialogue simultaneously showed how the characters had grown, developed and changed over the couple years that had passed, but also remained true to their personalities.

Sonic and Tails had some great moments. Tails showed a bit of a sarcastic almost snarky attitude with Sonic, especially regarding how long Sonic had been away without contact and how things had moved on since then, and him speaking to Sonic that way was a real indication that he'd stepped out of Sonic's shadow and was far more confident in himself than previously. Of course, he's never been afraid to tell Sonic to shape up, but in this instance he actually kinda had a bit of attitude about it too. And of course, leading a team. That was awesome. I loved how big Tails' role was in this game.

The whole Sonic/Amy thing was handled really well too. There was no question as to whether Sonic considered Amy a friend and valuable team member, but it was up to the player to determine as to whether that's as deep as it went. You could be a jerk to her, or flirt with her, or take the middle ground and be nice to her but back off before getting too personal.

I thought Eggman and Tails teaming up was interesting, too. Tails showed a side that was more forgiving and less cynical than Sonic when it came to making that decision, and the two almost seemed to bond over their mutual tech-smarts.

The Marauders were pretty cool. I found Shade to be somewhat uninspired and generic, but the whole echidna backstory was very interesting. I've always wanted Knuckles to meet some other echidnas (who aren't dead) and find out more about his tribe and the remaining tribes.

The battling system was fun. Getting the hang of certain moves was very rewarding. It was a little too easy though - I never had any trouble with the bosses, and the final boss was so ludicrously easy it was rather anti-climatic. The only battles that took any length of time were the ones with regenerative foes, and even they were pretty easy to defeat quickly once you worked out how to bring them all down to the same level at the right time.

It was cool to see Eggman turn on them all at the end and assert himself once more as the villain, thus leaving the game on a cliffhanger for the next installment.

Over all, I liked it very much. I'm an Archie fan, so I have to confess that I probably liked this more than those who prefer the previous games or don't care for Archie. So I do have a bias. But I enjoyed this game a lot.

If they tweaked the difficulty of the battles (bosses in particular) and the puzzles for the next installment, I'd be happy. And Shade could have done with being less of a fan-character. But, minor complaints really. For a completely different genre of Sonic game, it was remarkably good.

[Diogenes]

What I saw of the story was...alright. Their interpretation of the characters definitely isn't my favorite, but it's the first time in a long while that the characters actually seemed to talk to each other, instead of everything being about the story. Though, Unleashed managed to bring that into the main games, and I like the characters better there, so.

Beyond that, it's not so great. The story itself is kind of fanfic-ish and in the second half of the game seems to revolve around all these weird alien races rather than anything actually "Sonicy" (though I quit after the Kron planet so I dunno for sure how that all goes).

[Blazey Firekitty]

Sonic and Tails had some great moments. Tails showed a bit of a sarcastic almost snarky attitude with Sonic, especially regarding how long Sonic had been away without contact and how things had moved on since then, and him speaking to Sonic that way was a real indication that he'd stepped out of Sonic's shadow and was far more confident in himself than previously. Of course, he's never been afraid to tell Sonic to shape up, but in this instance he actually kinda had a bit of attitude about it too. And of course, leading a team. That was awesome. I loved how big Tails' role was in this game.

The whole Sonic/Amy thing was handled really well too. There was no question as to whether Sonic considered Amy a friend and valuable team member, but it was up to the player to determine as to whether that's as deep as it went. You could be a jerk to her, or flirt with her, or take the middle ground and be nice to her but back off before getting too personal.

I thought Eggman and Tails teaming up was interesting, too. Tails showed a side that was more forgiving and less cynical than Sonic when it came to making that decision, and the two almost seemed to bond over their mutual tech-smarts.

I'm glad we can agree on these specific points.

[Phos]

I played it in an emulator for a while, but not being able to re size the screen killed it for me. Plus, I was planning on buying it if I got a DS, but I ended up not getting one. Also, I couldn't figure out where to go after I met Rouge.

Probably my favorite thing about this game is Sonic's regular attack animation. It was also hilarious how you could get Rouge to flirt with Amy.

I read a lot of complains about this game's battle system, particularly how rarely regular attacks hit... Did they not realize that ATK also determines accuracy? I personally don't know what to make of the battle system. When I first heard about this game, I was expecting something along the lines Jade Empire, but then it was just a JRPG. On one hand, putting Sonic into that kind of set up might allow for some cool strategies and stuff, that's also part of what screwed up Heroes. Perhaps if you were to give the characters a larger environment to move around in a Jade Empire/Heroes hybrid system would work.

[Vertekins]

The characterization was vastly excellent. However, there was something I didn't entirely like about how Sonic was characterized.

Don't get me wrong, I understand how Sonic can be snarky sometimes because practically every single manual or official game character outline loves to drive across Sonic's short tempered side (As uncommonly seen as it is) but Chronicles' Sonic seemed too mean. Though certain dialogue choices I mean. Come to think of it, he can be an ass through 'positive' dialogue choices too. The ones that stuck out to me as being especially jerkass were;

"But I don't wanna cheer her (Amy) up!" - Green Hill zone.

"STOP going on about Eggman like that Tails!" - During an optional Voxai mission Sonic absolutely flips when Tails mentions how much he'd love to show Eggman a piece of Nocturnus technology designed to upset Voxai citizen's connection to the Overmind.

"Good one Rouge!" - Condoning Rouge's put-down's of Amy in Central City.

"Some guardian you turned out to be!" - To Knuckles in Mystic Ruins. Even Amy tells Sonic to lay off. As much a Sonic adorer that I am, I confess myself weirdly satisfied when the others took Sonic down a peg or two during that scene. He totally deserved it, it's a repercussion for his 'selfishness' in having left for so long and then coming back and acting as though his loss wasn't felt keenly and that he was still the alpha male in terms of coordinating how the team goes about things.

Sonic to me also seemed a tad too touchy around Eggman via certain dialogue choices. Whilst it is very interesting and it kinda feels appropriate that Sonic would be scathing and snidey around his archenemy, it just felt a bit overdone. I dunno, I just like Sonic when he's making witty and snidey comments as if toying, not being outright hostile and mean like that. I liked Sonic when he had a playful snarkiness like he did with Caliburn, not an outright jerkish attitude like Fleetway Sonic.

Shadow also felt much too obsessive about finding Omega. I know that Omega is definately amongst Shadow's closest friends/allies but it seemed quite obsessive and to me, the way he went about it feels like it contradicts Shadow's codex entry of Shadow treating anything in his way as an obstacle to dodge rather than an actual threat to destroy. Such as when he can engage Sonic in a fight not once, but potentially twice. Can probably understand why he'd want to inflict some pain on Marauders though.

[Blazey Firekitty]

While the "I don't want to cheer her up!" line sounded particularly mean, I did like the reaction of Tails and Amy to it. They don't get angry at him...they actually seem to suspect something is very wrong with him, and appear to be very worried about him. Seemed fitting, as I think of Tails and Amy being Sonic's closest friends in the game-verse.

[Flyboy Fox]

Sonic's been gone for a while. Things have changed. Sonic's probably changed... less carefree than before and more cynical. He kinda felt like the odd one out... returning to a team that no longer needed his leadership the way it used to. I saw his uncharacteristic snarkiness as an attempt to regain his prior role as the jester/leader, but it kinda fell flat because it only works when you're close with someone... and he'd been gone for too long to make those comments without coming over badly.

[Blazey Firekitty]

Sonic's been gone for a while. Things have changed. Sonic's probably changed... less carefree than before and more cynical. He kinda felt like the odd one out... returning to a team that no longer needed his leadership the way it used to. I saw his uncharacteristic snarkiness as an attempt to regain his prior role as the jester/leader, but it kinda fell flat because it only works when you're close with someone... and he'd been gone for too long to make those comments without coming over badly.

That actually makes a lot of sense.

I'd like to think, despite Rouge's role apparently being a one-dimensional joke machine for most of the game, that her line "Absence makes the heart grow stronger, doesn't it?" was a sincere attempt to comfort Tails after he admitted to Sonic that the long absence had changed things so much.

[SuperStingray]

I'm a bit mixed on the characterization in this game. I'm not counting Sonic since you can mostly control what he says, but I think the great characters were Tails, Amy, Eggman, Shadow and especially Omega. I loved how Tails began to like Eggman and idolize him even against Sonic's will. Amy had more of that independent attitude that was lost after SA2 but she still was able to keep her affinity for Sonic. And Eggman was jolly and cunning once again. I don't really know what the series can do with Shadow at this point, but I think BioWare did the best thing: nothing. He's a side character and his more aggressive attitude this time seems very funny the way Sonic nonchalantly ignores it. And Omega was really brilliant. He wasn't automated like in 06, but rather he actually had some comic gold in his lines. STUPID MEATBAGS.

Now for the bad ones, Big, Cream and Shade. While I normally dislike Big, I hated him in this game. Whereas in Sonic Adventure and Heroes he actually was trying to help his friends, he was just tagging along in this game for no reason and spewing out stupid lines. Cream had no contribution or development whatsoever. And Shade was just essentially a Blaze clone.

The rest I'm torn on. Knuckles, while I'm glad he had something to do with Angel Island again, all of a sudden he knows about his background and history, completely subverting his character as a loner with little knowledge of his origins and Rouge, though not a prominent character, was enjoyable at best.

For the game itself, it wasn't a BAD game, but it was a huge disappointment. I know this was made by BioWare's new handheld team and it was more or less an experimental game, but don't tell us it was created by the guys who made Mass Effect if it wasn't. And I'd expect something much longer, intuitive and more challenging from an RPG. Seriously, this was just too damn short and easy.

[Crystal Kingfisher]

Meh, I didn't like the game that much. I was expecting it to be awesome, but once I played it, I didn't like it. My favorite DS RPG will always be Lunar Knights. I wish more people would play it.

[Roo]

The story's pretty good, and the script is by far the best I've ever seen.

I think my only problem with the game is that there should've been more things to do after you finish the game. It gets annoying how you can only keep replaying the game the same basic way over and over and over.

[Donilicious]

I liked it. Haven't finished it yet though. (I'm slow w/ games and I don't really have time to sit and play it) But i'm like in the middle and the story is pretty interesting. I love how you can choose what Sonic says and stuff and i don't know I just like the story in whole. Definitely in my top 5 favorite Sonic games.

[Eileanach]

I don't know what it was about Sonic Chronicles. I just absolutely LOVED it. I enjoyed, very much so, being able to play with Eggman (LOL) and I thought they got his personality spot on. As some others have remarked the balance between sheer witty genius, the nerd bonding with Tails and his naive-ness were just too adorable!

The only thing I did have a slight problem with was the ease of the battles and also as Gordo says... Sonic and that WISHED Eggman is dead... how utterly morbid!

[Tombi]

I was one of the people who ran into the infamous story glitch that halts any progress after a certain point in the story you're supposed to find something, which was unusual because I'd heard it only affected those who downloaded the game and not actual retail copies. But this was somewhat near the end anyway so I got to see a fair bit, and I enjoyed what was there.

Considering RPG's pretty much live or die depending on their characters, it was a good thing that Bioware did such a good job on them. There were a few wobbly bits that have been mentioned already, but alltogether it was quite good, especially Big the Cat who had one of my favourite roles in recent memory - just doing absolutely nothing useful and being really blatant about it. In general it just seemed Bioware went with their own interpretation of the characters a lot of the time, but still kept it as close to the source material as possible so nothing came too out of left field.

I've been meaning to have another play through it eventually, maybe this time being a bit more careful about what I'm doing. But I still thought it was pretty good and the sucessful formula for a Sonic RPG was definitely in there, it's just a formula that needs a bit more perfecting now that they've made their first game.

Side note: Eggman's running and attacking animations were the best thing ever.

Edited April 29, 2009 by Tombi

[Gabz Girl]

The game was good, but I thought the story and script was very well done. LOVED Knuckles' personality in this game. <3 Ok so there were some strange OOC dialogue choices for Sonic, but I dun care. Atleast the other characters weren't too bad. Knuckles, Eggman and Omega had the best characterisation and personality. At some points I even felt sorry for the Doctor! Woah~ XO

- Sonic and friends attacking Eggman preemptively, with the apparent intent to kill. Seriously, what the hell was that?

- Furthering this, Sonic and friends expressing what amounted to "Boy, I sure hope Eggman died back then! It'd sure suck if he was still alive." ...Again, these are the "heroes." In other games, they're all about stopping the plan without hurting the man, so this felt incredibly off-putting to see them behave so vengefully.

- Eggman comments that he never thought he'd be teaming up with Sonic, as if the game forgot about all their past truces.

Well, maybe there were some certain events that happened before hand. They were so bad and oh so terrible that Sonic and co wanted to end Dr Eggman's life once and for all. O_o;

The rest I'm torn on. Knuckles, while I'm glad he had something to do with Angel Island again, all of a sudden he knows about his background and history, completely subverting his character as a loner with little knowledge of his origins...

Knuckles might've learned alot about his background and history during the time everyone had that vacation. After all, Knuckles WAS stuck on Angel Island for a long time. He might've discovered something there. He can read echidnean text you know.

Anyway, what's with all the Shade hate? She's a darling! T3T

[speedfreak]

It was okay, nothing special. A completely average (or even slightly below average IMO) RPG. The game had NO replay value at all either. No side quests worth doing, crap music, a very repetitive battle system, it was too short, and the missions were all to samey.

[Blazey Firekitty]

Anyway, what's with all the Shade hate? She's a darling! T3T

Heh.XD

Though I was indeed criticizing her, I do see a lot of potential in her. She's quite charasmatic, but feels like a very "young" character to me, so far. A little more development and she could be one of my favorites.

And hey, she's basically a Segaverse version of Julie-su from Archie, so that's kind of neat in itself.^^

[Gabz Girl]

Though I was indeed criticizing her, I do see a lot of potential in her. She's quite charasmatic, but feels like a very "young" character to me, so far. A little more development and she could be one of my favorites.

And hey, she's basically a Segaverse version of Julie-su from Archie, so that's kind of neat in itself.^^

Ohhh, I see. I will have to agree there, her character did need a little bit more development. Hopefully they will do this in the possible Sonic Chronicles sequel.

And yeah, she did remind me a little of Julie-Su too, even in looks. ^^; But then the Dark Brotherhood reminded me of the Dark Legion.

[SuperStingray]

I'll give Shade a chance since she's only been in one game, but I want to see more character than plot device in her next time.

[Blazey Firekitty]

But then the Dark Brotherhood reminded me of the Dark Legion.

I'll admit, I kept calling them "The Dark Legionhood" in my mind.XD