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Sonic Chronicles, your opinion.


Kiljoy

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Charaterization was good at some points but others not really. Story, I disliked it. I don't think Sonic fits the genre of a full RPG either

Edited by redmenace
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While the gameplay was questionable, the plot was very well written, and it's a first attempt at a sonic rpg. So overall I wouldn't weigh on it until a sequel is made.

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I was in a Gamestop today, and saw a kid pick up Sonic Chronicles. "OOH, SONIC!" But then he put it down after looking at the back. "It doesn't look so good." I laughed a bit. I don't think a lot of kids drool over RPGs.

But anyways, what I think about the game. Very nice story and writing, which is Bioware's strongest suit. I would definitely recommend it to any Sonic fan that likes plot, especially those familiar with Archie or the cartoons as their primary Sonic medium. As an RPG, it was unique but average. If it weren't for the stylus features, I don't know if the gameplay would've kept my attention. If Square-Enix's rehashed franchises teach us anything, an RPG that lacks in style should really make up for it in volume, and Chronicles wasn't very long at all, even with sidequests accounted for. As much as I love this game for the story and for just being a Sonic RPG, the quality was surprisingly low, and anyone who's played it knows what I'm talking about. The comic panel styled cutscenes looked like an amateur Flash animation, especially compared to the vivid colorful art we saw during the game's development. And the music was flat and unmemorable. Lots of complaints here because I felt it could've been much better, but it's been a modest success as far as I can tell. It was also Bioware's first handheld title, right?

I'm getting a friend this game because he said he wants to check it out, and I owe him stuff. He's a lapsed Sonic fan, and used be real into the comics, so I hope he enjoys it. I'll send him my viral Chao, because I don't think those things have spread much at all.

By the way, can't wait until we have to call this game "Dark Brotherhood", cause that's what it'll be when the sequel gets announced.

Edited by Badnikz
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It was a good start to Sonic's RPG career, but really not good enough.

Graphics were alright, but really, polygonal 3D models should never touch hand drawn overhead maps. Ever. Sound was just plain awful, although I did like some of the Sega sound effects used for characters like Shadow.

Character design, outside of the Sonic characters themselves were hideous. I know a lot of people are fans of the cartoony humans in unleashed, but come on, this looks like a news paper comic strip art style. Not in the least bit appealing.

Things would have been better, had the series been on a console, and taken a more light hearted and actiony style. I feel like a heel for saying this, but just rip off Mario's gameplay and storytelling, and make it into Paper Sonic ( not literally of course )

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Eh...

I may grab it again and finish it. I suppose I'm one of the few people that found the story and characterization pretty bad. The overall presentation of the game didn't help either. ^^;

I would still like them to try (and succeed at) another Sonic RPG though.

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(Thanks Flyboy Fox, this topic slipped my eyes).

Today, I saw 2 glitches in the game. The first one was in the Kron Colony. I delivered the shipment and just before the door, there was a Nocturne. He was bad enough to walk up all the way to the puzzle and maybe out of the whole map. Tried out several times, only worked once. The second was after getting the 7th Chaos Emerald and walking out from the room where the water switch was, I couldn't move. They stayed here and talked about the stuff, they supposed to be in the front of Ix's door. So I simply saved some time with this glitch. I still love this game, but it's a shame I can't get Stugs.

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In the parts where he wasn't so crude, I thought Sonic was characterized relatively well. Always confident, always ready, and a natural leader... even when the others don't want him to be. He showed concern and compassion for his friends (wanting to talk to Tails for a bit once they meet up again, comforting Knuckles later on in the game after they discover what's going on, etc). I personally overlooked the 'mean' comments because they were entirely OPTIONAL. If there was a Sonic Chronicles 2, they could never go back and reference anything mean Sonic said in Chronicles 1, because there'd be no way to make it OFFICIAL since the players had the choice.

Having said that, I suppose they could have given Sonic more suitable options for the players to choose from. Sonic would never be that mean, even if he had been gone for a while. Not unless it was joking, like, "I don't wanna make her feel better. ...You know I'm just teasin', Amy." But there was no indication of teasing there.

The only thing that seems undeniably out of character that ISN'T optional is his shock and dismay that Eggman is still alive. (Or is that optional, as well?) Sonic likes adventure, and I can't imagine he'd want Eggman dead. I can imagine he would kill Eggman for good if it were really absolutely necessary, but if not, I think he prefers having the doctor alive so he doesn't get too bored.

I must also say that I loved Tails's role in this game. It was so refreshing to see him as a main character again, and a leader at that! This is not out of character at all, because even though he used to be more of a follower, we've seen him develop throughout the games to get to the point he's at now. Not to mention - and Tails even said this - he continued to grow up while Sonic was gone. I loved his kind attitude towards everybody (Eggman included). This fits him incredibly well, as I see him as somebody willing to make friends with anybody who wants to be his friend. Also, this: "Ooh ha ha, Sonic." After Sonic asks him what his favorite color is in Green Hill. That made my day when I first saw that.

I liked how Bioware took Knuckles seriously instead of making him class clown. And - gasp - he still gives a care about the Emeralds! Haven't seen THAT in a while. He's distant, doesn't rely on others, yet he does care. I've never liked Knuckles better. His attitude when he put Sonic in his place sat well with me; liked that part a lot.

I liked the Sonamy side-plot, but at the same time, I could've done with out it. I'm not a huge fan of Sonic being with anybody, so I would've liked it better if it wasn't so blatantly suggested. It would've made more sense for Amy to like him 'like that' and Sonic to just see her as a close friend. Again, though, that was optional - so I just picked the options I liked. Can't complain too much, there.

The characterization, overall, was pretty good; it was just some of the OPTIONS that bugged me. The 'I don't want to make her feel better,' in my opinion, shouldn't have even been an option. *shrugs* No major bones to pick aside from that, and the story was great.

It was also hilarious how you could get Rouge to flirt with Amy.

You could? I don't remember that happening. When do you get the opportunity?

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.

Another line I don't recall. Is there a certain way you have to do things to get her to say that?

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You could? I don't remember that happening. When do you get the opportunity?

In battle. I might be getting it backwards, but one of them has a blow kiss ability or something. It strengthens the person you use it on, even if they're the same gender.

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I really really liked this game. I wasn't expecting it to be as good as it was but I hardly have any complaints outside of difficulty and the audio. The game was too easy and the audio was just plain bad. Everything else was solid and enjoyable though.

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The story itself is kind of fanfic-ish...

How so, exactly? I liked it...

Sonic Chronicles was a great game in my opinion - I was just disappointed about how while it was development, there was all this talk about it being a deeper, darker game, and the final product wasn't really so. It just didn't seem as "epic" as I was anticipating.

Aside from that, though, I liked it. Not my favorite Sonic game ever, but still really fun to play.

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How so, exactly? I liked it...
Well, all the characters and settings feel "off"...it's obvious it's a different set of guys writing it than usual, and I don't think they know as much about the series as they claim to, either. There's the attempt to "fix" the whole echidna thing, which I think is a pretty common hook for fanfiction, plus the second half of the game throws the Sonic characters into an entirely new world (or worlds) populated mostly by characters and species that they made up that aren't anything like standard Sonic stuff. Plus there's how it was hyped up as some epic storytelling that'd fix all the series' (story) flaws and ended up being kind of lame and didn't really accomplish much.
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Overall, i thought the story was thin, but the characterization and character interaction was great.

Some specific pros:

That Sonic actually showed some of that "tude" Sega always claims he has.

That it seemed like the good guys battle with Eggman wasn't all "fun and games" to them, but something distressful that they after all this time finally wanted to put an end to.

That Knuckles was treated as a serious character and wasn't in any way a comic relief. The Knuckles we saw in Chronicles was the classic Knuckles from before Shadow showed up and largely stole Knuckles personality and role in the series.

That is actually showed some character flaws in Sonic, namely his apparent lack of understanding that being someones friend means more than occasionally going out on adventures with them. It always seemed to me that, despite being a good hearted guy, Sonic just doesnt care that much for the company of others unless he has a specific reason to be around them, and i think this game pretty much confirmed that notion. I also liked how Sonic honestly didnt seem to understand why his old friends were disapointed with him for leaving them. That showed a kind of social immaturity that i found very interesting.

That the characters at least MENTIONED the fact that Eggman turns animals in to robots. In most other newer Sonic games, they just tend to completely ignore that fact.

That the game overall showed an awareness of the Sonic franchise as a whole. Many other long-running franchises have little so called "mythology gags" incorporated in newer installments, that is, references to previous incarnations of the franchise. The Sonic series has almost totally lacked these kind of references, but Chronicles had quite a few. From the top of my head, these included the Swatbots, the mention of chili dogs, the Mega Drive console and Mega Drive-era Sonic games items found in Metropolis, and the plant in Tails lab that looked a lot like the plant that sprung from Cosmos seed in Sonic X. Oh and the idea of technocratic echidnas MUST have come from Archie.

Edited by batson
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That Knuckles was treated as a serious character and wasn't in any way a comic relief. The Knuckles we saw in Chronicles was the classic Knuckles from before Shadow showed up and largely stole Knuckles personality and role in the series.
Knuckles, the serious character. The guy who got knocked off the scaffolding when the Death Egg launched. The guy who put up an utterly pathetic fight in HPZ. The guy who got zapped hard enough to put him out of the fight because he didn't have the sense to let go. The guy who got tricked into siding with the man whose face is on the "legendary dragon egg" said to bring misfortune to the island.
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Well, all the characters and settings feel "off"...it's obvious it's a different set of guys writing it than usual, and I don't think they know as much about the series as they claim to, either. There's the attempt to "fix" the whole echidna thing, which I think is a pretty common hook for fanfiction, plus the second half of the game throws the Sonic characters into an entirely new world (or worlds) populated mostly by characters and species that they made up that aren't anything like standard Sonic stuff. Plus there's how it was hyped up as some epic storytelling that'd fix all the series' (story) flaws and ended up being kind of lame and didn't really accomplish much.

This was actually my main problem with the game's writing. It feels like one of those fanfics where someone tries to "fix" certain events in a canon universe(Knuckles' gullability and lack of backstory, Amy's unresolved romance with Sonic, Tails' independence, Eggman's competence, and so on and so forth...)...but then forgets to go anywhere with the new status quo.

I mean, looking back, I don't think the game's plot was as bad as I thought it was when I first finished the game. It's a bit hard to find sometimes, but there's some decent character development there, and sometimes even when there wasn't, I could at least see the building blocks for it.

It's mostly just that the game felt more event driven than character driven at times. The different alien races seemed epic at first...but after a while they just seemed to be there to provide more enemies for you to beat up, and to get Ix some more "evil villain" points. In the end, it felt like the plot mostly amounted to "Echidnas have appeared! Are you a bad enough dude to kick their collective ass?"

A sequel would likely fix all or most of my complaints, though.

Edit: In response to DC111's question...You have to get Sonic to criticize for getting captured, sometime soon after you rescue him. Knuckles will note that he wasn't the one who left everyone, and you will have the option of letting Sonic ask the team if they feel this way as well. Tails will note that Sonic has been gone a long while...and then Rouge will say her line.^_^

Edited by BlazeyBakeneko
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So, wait, Sonic just left all his friend for an unspecified-but-long length of time? Man, what the heck is with Bioware?

A while before this game came out, I had the thought that I wouldn't be surprised if this game was retconned to be set in the Sonic X verse or something like that, but now it's sounding almost like it's based of the comic/SatAM.

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So, wait, Sonic just left all his friend for an unspecified-but-long length of time? Man, what the heck is with Bioware?

Yeah, kinda annoyed me how that was never explained...

I suppose one possible explanation is that with Eggman gone, Sonic just wasn't sure what to do with his life anymore, since he'd been fighting the guy so long.

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It's not like Robotnik was attack every day or something. Even Sonic 2 -> Sonic 3 there's a month or so in between. It's not like Aliens (That's the second one) -> Alien 3, where the next one picks up quite literally where the last left off.

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It's not like Robotnik was attack every day or something. Even Sonic 2 -> Sonic 3 there's a month or so in between. It's not like Aliens (That's the second one) -> Alien 3, where the next one picks up quite literally where the last left off.

That seems to make sense. I'd imagine Robotnik himself would get pretty tired if the assaults were daily.^_^;;

Maybe Sonic just got really lost? :lol:

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Or maybe he just went off somewhere. It's not as if he's often seen hanging out with the other characters when the games start, right? Leaving for a while seems entirely in-character, and without Eggman's schemes to bring him back I can see how that could slip into a time long enough to bug the other characters.

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Or maybe he just went off somewhere. It's not as if he's often seen hanging out with the other characters when the games start, right? Leaving for a while seems entirely in-character, and without Eggman's schemes to bring him back I can see how that could slip into a time long enough to bug the other characters.

Yeah, come to think of it, Sonic being something of a loner isn't entirely unheard of.

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Sonic was basically on 'vacation' during Sonic Adventure, and he still managed to run into everyone.

As for Chronicles, it was short, there weren't all that many weapons / equipments to upgrade your characters with outside of leveling, the story was refreshing as Dr. Robotnik wasn't the main villain, but again, real short, the game play was pretty unique, I enjoyed it, you had to actually participate in battle, the music was awful (does anyone know what happened?) and the presentation was beautiful.

What surprises me is that there's no word about the sequel yet

3.5 / 5

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Well, I haven't played Sonic Chronicles yet, but from what I've read of the plot, the story seems out of character. I mean, unless I am missing something, I didn't really like how BioWare was trying to make Eggman more evil. I mean, I'm going to be mad if Eggy goes around killing and robotcizing (SP?) innocent civilians a la Archie and SatAM in Sonic Chronicles 2. Like I said, I haven't played the game yet, so there could be a few things about the plot, good or bad, that I could be missing.

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I mean, unless I am missing something, I didn't really like how BioWare was trying to make Eggman more evil. I mean, I'm going to be mad if Eggy goes around killing and robotcizing (SP?) innocent civilians a la Archie and SatAM in Sonic Chronicles 2.

"Snivley, my nephew who didn't exist until ten minutes ago! Bring me my coffee!"

"Yes Uncle Retcon...er, Robotnik."

:lol:

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^ so what you are essentially saying is Robotnik is so Godly he just speaks people into existence?! That is so supreme!

I think a good dose of Evil will do Robotnik some good. Maybe not all out as he does have space in his heart for love and caring (ew) but... a little evil spree of manic Eggpawns running around and blowing up stuff could never go wrong.

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"Snivley, my nephew who didn't exist until ten minutes ago! Bring me my coffee!"

"Yes Uncle Retcon...er, Robotnik."

:lol:

Lol, that would be something. XD

Naw, me wants to see the return of Ergo! He's just too cute. >w<

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