Was Sonic 06's story inspired by the Chrono series?

[Candescence]

A long time ago, I noticed that the Crisis City theme had more than a passing resemblence with the battle theme of Chrono Trigger. After some thinking, it hit me - Sonic 06 has blatant similarities with the Chrono Series (Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross), albeit done not nearly as well. I'm putting quite a bit of it in a spoiler, since not everyone has played the Chrono games (you should, Trigger is the best Square RPG evar).

The Plot synopsis

Sonic 06's plot seems more like Trigger than Cross. Boy meets girl, boy saves girl (except Sonic 06 has the girl constantly getting kidnapped and Trigger has Marle as an Action Girl, way better than Elise), the heroes learn of an event in the future involving a being that destroys the world when they end up in the future, and they try to stop it. After a series of events,

the hero dies, and is ressurected, and this is where is ends up being more like Chrono Cross - said destructive being fuses with another entity and tries to destroy all of time, but is beaten.

Characters

Sonic = Crono

No shit. They're the leading men of the story, and what's more,

they both die and are resurrected. Naturally, Crono gets the better death and resurrection scenes.

Elise = Marle

Saved by the hero... Except Marle goes on to become a playable character with a better personality, while Elise gets kidnapped a few more times.

Tails = Lucca?

They're both the resident tech geeks and close friends of the hero, but Tails doesn't do ANYTHING with his technical skill, period.

Shadow = Frog

Shadow goes after his own antagonist, much like Frog, who fights Magus. Except one is more likable. Guess who.

Omega = Robo

Well, they're both robots, I guess...? And the waiting for centuries thing, that too.

Silver = Serge/Magus

Poor, poor Silver, much like Serge, gets caught up in a Xanatos Gambit... Well, Serge had it worse, he got a Thirty Xanatos Pileup, but still. The Magus bit comes from Silver actively trying to prevent the awakening of Iblis, while Magus tries to destroy Lavos on his own.

Blaze = Schala

Oh, come on. Anyone confused by this should remember the utter mess that was Schala Lives. Granted, Blaze has it worse, and in a different manner. Everyone agrees she shouldn't have had that role in the story in the first place. Me? I just pretend nothing happened, therefore, everything's fine.

Iblis = Lavos

Anyone who asks why should be smacked in the face.

Mephiles = Queen Zeal

Ahem. Encouraging the apocalypse? No brainer here. On the other hand, his fusion with Iblis to become Solaris

is more like Schala merging with Lavos to become the Time Devourer.

Solaris =

The Time Devourer

Naturally, they both try to destroy all of time. Of course, in both instances, destroying them takes some unusual tactics... An entire Thirty Xanatos Pileup was staged to destroy the latter, for crying out loud! Amusingly enough, the Time Devourer is seemingly more intelligent than Solaris, as it SPEAKS. And it accuses the heroes of being hypocritical bastard sheep who killed the shepard when they had no right to do so!

Sure, there are characters who don't really fit in all this, such as Eggman (he just doesn't seem like Dalton or Ozzie), Knuckles, Amy and Rouge. But from what I can tell, Sonic 06 seems like a game inspired by Chrono Trigger/Cross, and then screwed everything up. I might have more on this if I bother to think about it any more.

[Diogenes]

Sounds like just a bunch of time travel cliches and generic character archetypes to me.

[Phos]

Chrono Trigger also did a much better job of taking into account the effects that their actions will cause. They also had a much better understanding of the concept in general. For example, Sonic says that they need to hurry up and travel back before Elise meets her fate. There are many more like this.

[123654]

Chrono Trigger also did a much better job of taking into account the effects that their actions will cause. They also had a much better understanding of the concept in general. For example, Sonic says that they need to hurry up and travel back before Elise meets her fate. There are many more like this.

Agreed. The writers of 2K6's story had no idea of the concept of time travel.

It does sound rather similar. I wouldn't put it beneath Sega to copy a story.

[SuperLink]

Please no. Chrono Trigger's story = awesome and well thought through (plus still has sequel potential)

Sonic 2006's story = crappy, full of holes and errors and completely never ever happened (unless it affected Blaze in a really big way)

[Candescence]

Please no. Chrono Trigger's story = awesome and well thought through (plus still has sequel potential)

Sonic 2006's story = crappy, full of holes and errors and completely never ever happened (unless it affected Blaze in a really big way)

I'm not saying the quality is comparable, I agree with you, I'm just saying that Sonic 06 seems to be inspired by the Chrono series... Except they took concepts from that series and screwed it to hell and back.

[SuperLink]

Well even Chrono was inspired by something. It's not like time based stories are really original. Some do it well and some do it badly.

[Candescence]

True, but some of the things in there such as Sonic and Crono and the resident apocalypse-causing monsters from the future seem more than a little coincidental...

[SuperLink]

Apocalypse monsters are a series staple for Sonic. Honestly, did you expect there to NOT be a monster behind everything? You're looking too much into this. Tons of games have time based plots, it's just coincidence.

I do however think that Gamma looks a lot like Robo, so maybe it's not coincidence afterall!

[Blacklightning]

Eh, this is no better than comparing Sonic to DBZ if you ask me. All the same, most of it's circumstantial and the only real similarities come from cliches common to popular media as a whole and not just one specific game. Hell, by that kind of logic you could just as easily say Sonic '06 is Back to the Future or just about any anime ever made.

Besides, we'd all much rather forget '06 entirely and move onto better things anyway. Let it go, Soma.

[Candescence]

Meh, it was a silly little thing that came into my head and I just couldn't resist putting it out on words.

[Lux Klonoa]

Eh, this is no better than comparing Sonic to DBZ if you ask me. All the same, most of it's circumstantial and the only real similarities come from cliches common to popular media as a whole and not just one specific game. Hell, by that kind of logic you could just as easily say Sonic '06 is Back to the Future or just about any anime ever made.

While it is true that nothing is original, and I've made a big rant on it myself on my DA journal, btw...sometimes you can't help but think that one franchise is deliberately getting ideas from another, especially when things are rather...TOO similar to each other. Uncanny, even...

Starting with the Super Sonic/Saiyan similarily, it's plain, clearly obvious that Sonic was, and still is, getting ideas from DBZ. Then it goes on and on from there, with similar character archetypes and whatnot, making me think the "getting ideas" thing....even though I clearly know that nothing is original.

It's the same thing with Klonoa, really...and because of the similarities to Sonic, I seriously can't help but think that Klonoa will eventually be getting a Super Sonic-like form. It's just unknown when.

Truth is, there'll always be people who'll think that something is inspired by/paying tribute to/ripping off another, even if the similarities weren't intentional or forseen by the respective creators.