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The Sonic Chronicles "Mystery 5"


Badnik Mechanic

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Sonic Chronicles isn't very good. Please don't derail the topic with that, we all know it.

 

Anyway...

 

I think T-Bird brought this up a long time ago, but it was pre-crash so the topic is long gone along with the scans of the guide that showed them.

 

As anyone who has played the game knows, there are 40 chao in total that you can collect, most of these typically end up being useless when your stats get to a certain level...

 

However there are in fact 45 chao and some of these do actually have some useful effects. According to the Prima stratergy guide, 4 of the chao were to be 'given' away at special events and launch party's. The idea was that people could trade them with friends and eventually they'd become viral.

 

There is some evidence to suggest that only 3 of the 5 ever went through Q/A due to errors with the text and poor grammar in one of the descriptions. So it's likely that 2 were cancelled during the development process.

 

However, with the launch/event ideas... There were two problems....

 

1: You can't trade Chao by Wi-Fi (At least I don't think it can). Only local trades, so outside of friend circles the trading stops... and don't get me started on how it would stop when it comes to spreading outside one country to another. (This might be wrong, but I seem to recall people back in 2008 constantly saying that there were problems/impossible to trade with friends unless they were doing it locally.

 

2: EA happened. As Chronicles was being made, EA bought Bioware, whilst Chronicles got finished, there was only one launch event in New York all other events were cancelled (EA didn't want rival companies work being promoted)

 

As a result, only 1 launch event happened and it was limited to New York (the nintendo store), if you came with your copy of the game, you could get one of the chaos added to your game. However how many got this is unknown and it certainly didn't spread out in America let alone world wide.

 

Through save file tinkering the chao can be access and they all work fine. However there is a problem with the description text, it's too long and the game can't display it all... Retro has info on them all...

 

Baki

TDBBaki.png

 

Farfinkle

TDBFarfinkle.png

 

Fimbley

TDBFimbley.png

 

Pookie

TDBPooki.png

 

Stugs

TDBStugs.png

 

Now when the game was released in Japan, 4 of the 5 could be accessed via the use of cheat codes.

 

eventchao.jpg

These codes do not work on any western version of the game.

 

But to date there has been no way other than save manipulation to get all 5 of the chao without some tinkering.

 

If you want the save file, this is where you need to go. As to if this will delete your current save totally or how you actually get this on your DS cart... I have no bloody clue.

 

Come September, it'll be 5 years since Chronicles came out. Despite what you may think of the game, there is content here which has never been released, but it's there in the game and was likely to be released worlwide at some point.

 

It's likely that it'll never be released for the following reasons.

 

1: EA now owns Bioware... *insert several reasons as to why this is an obvious major problem/ownership*

 

2: The game is nearly 5 years old.

 

3: The content itself has problems, the descriptions of the chao don't display correctly. This would need to be fixed before it could ever be released, even in a free capacity. It would never be allowed out otherwise.

 

4: You can't buy the game new anymore. Theres no financial reason to do this.

 

There is.... one hope for it to be released officially... but it's still amazingly unlikely. At events like Summer of Sonic or Sonic Boom, it would be a prime opportunity for this to happen. But the main problems preventing this would be EA and the Q/A issues.

 

Personally, I'd like to see these released or some way just so I can get them, I doubt I'd even really play them, call it a collectomaniac thing or a completionist request. But I'd just love to have a copy of the game that has them in an official capacity.

 

How about you lot, anyone still want these after so many years?

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I never knew about this. While they kind of look cool, I already have some chao that are way too overpowered in their own mind. Eh, I guess it would be cool to have a full collection.

 

Action Replay exists on the DS. I wonder if it would work?

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Does Chronicles have multiple save files? I can't remember, but if it has multiple save files you can avoid losing your current save, and if you want to upload the save file to the DS I believe you need Action Replay.

 

Anyway, truth is I just now heard of these Chao. They look rather... Lazy.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Chao? I had no idea these existed. As simple as the design is, they look kind of cool.

Edited by Pawn
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I knew about these because the official guides that were on the High Street at the time of release talked about them and their effects.

 

So it definitely seems that they were anticipating more success than they saw with it, anyway.

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Mighty Morphing Chao Rangers!

 

It's a shame this didn't come out and it's also a shame that the story is likely never going to be finished...

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You are correct about the chao only being transmissable in person, DS (or broadcaster) to DS, which was stupid even when the game came out.  As an inherent collector, I'd still love to get the lot, just to have them all, but I've never encountered anyone in person who had the game, let alone the secret chao.  I've not seen the pictures of the 'Viral Chao' before (that's their official type, per the guide), but Baki and Farfinkle are supposed to grant extra damage as well as the Parry and Status effects and Pookie shares your damage with the other party members.  The 'viral' is presumably because (at least for the store release) you received 99 of them, so if there had been sufficient penetrance (or online trading!) each person who acquired one could have spread the chao to almost a hundred others. 

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I remember seeing those Chao mentioned in the Prima guide. They look cute, simple recoloured ninja Chao but cute nonetheless. I don't think they will ever see the light of the day, just because of the aforementioned EA stuff. That's why I don't think we'll get any more Sonic Chronicles games either. But characters like Shade, are they owned by Bioware/EA now, or SEGA?

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I attended the Sonic Chronicles event at Nintendo World. The part about bringing outside copies to the event to get the Chao download wouldn't make any sense as the event sold copies of the game 2-3 days before it was officially released.

 

I got two copies of the game with the exclusive Chao "Tuggs", and I forget what its actual attributes were since playing the game over essentially left you with super stats for all the characters in your party. I always did wonder what the other Chao events would have been. But I doubt we'll ever know that now that EA's effectively sinked the prospect of a sequel for this game.

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The bringing your own copies part was because the download wasn't intended to be limited to the event proper (or at least it wasn't described that way); it was announced more like the Pokemon releases where you went in anywhere during a month or however long and could pick up the chao any time during that span.  It may very well have run differently in real life.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm playing Sonic Chronicles again after 3 years. I can't believe it's been that long. I'm really enjoying it, but reading about all the missed potential this game had concerning the Chao makes me sad.

 

Just like another poster mentioned, I've never been able to upgrade my Chao; any chao actually. I've never met anyone else who had a copy of the game.

 

I have the Prima guide too, but now, reading more about these mysterious 5, these super chao, that I'll never get to play with, along with the fact that I'll probably never be able to play with the upgraded chao makes me quite sad. So much potential lost.

 

It's akin to sonic 06 for me. I like playing Sonic 06, but are so many ways the game could have been better, just like Chronicles.

 

The facts that we'll never see Shade again or see the story finished does not help things either. :/

 

P.S. Anyone here have a copy of the game and live in Dekalb, Il in the U.S.? Probably not, but if you do, let me know. I'd like to upgrade my chao once, just for the sake of doing so.

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So the game didn't just have a sequel hook that was never acted on, but also had features that were never fully utilised.

 

I hate how real-world financing always interferes with creative works. :( Sounds like the Chao thing actually had quite some potential in building a closer community, all of us getting together to trade and talk and stuff. But then it all went downhill. As often happens.

 

Really reminds me I should try to get it sometime. If it's so panned as I've heard shouldn't be too hard to find a cheap used copy.

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