Sonic Chronicles Secrets

[NeKit]

Like Sonic Team usually does, BioWare has left some unused stuff in game, which is pretty interesting, especially plans for intro-movie. Here is all text of the game (exported strings.tlk), sorted by string's id.

It's translation of findinds in hope that there is someone who is interested in Chronicles here. Also thanks to RedTF for the article about it.

Planned variant of intro movie

There is description of the first video for developers, and it's very different from final. Mentions of Nocturnus, maybe, later turned into the quote of Gerald Robotnik about the Fourth Great Civilization.

[Open on a black screen. Fade in the following caption.]

CAPTION: "Suddenly, at the height of their arrogance, the Nocturnus Clan mysteriously vanished."

CAPTION: "The dark sky opened and swallowed them whole. Gone were their cities, their people, their entire existence."

[Fade the captions out.]

[Fade in to a very wide shot of the countryside near Metropolis, at nighttime, looking somewhat peaceful--the calm before the storm. We slowly pan right, in a long enough pan to show a caption.]

CAPTION: Some time ago....

[Keep panning as the caption fades. A second or two later, a fighter jet flies in front of the camera, holding long enough and close enough to show the letters "GUN" on its hull.]

[The plane then turns and swoops off. When the place flies away, we reveal a flaming Egg Carrier in the distance over the city. GUN airships and fighters are pelting the carrier with gunfire.]

CAPTION: Metropolis, headquarters of the evil Eggman

[Cut to inside the carrier. A big battle is going on between Eggman and Sonic-and-friends. Eggman has more or less lost already, but he won't go down without a fight.]

[As each character speaks, show a caption that tells us that character's name.]

- This is it, Eggman! Give up!

- Ha ha ha ha ha! You may have damaged my new Egg Carrier, Sonic, but you'll never defeat me!

- We'll see about that! Tails! How's it coming?

- Almost there, Sonic!

- We have to hold him off! Tails needs more time!

- We can do it!

- Then let's go!

[Fighting ensues! If possible, show each character doing a signature move.]

- Ha ha ha! Even together you can't beat me! This is my hour of victory!

- Not after we bring this Egg Carrier down!

- Tails! Now!

- Right!

[Cut to outside the carrier. Explosions rock the big ship, and the ship begins to sink toward Metropolis. Cut back inside the carrier, to Eggman.]

- What?! No!

[Explosions cover the screen. Back outside, explosions cover the ship as it falls. The GUN ships and fighters begin to leave the scene.]

[back to Eggman.]

- Curse you, Sonic! You haven't won yet!!

[Just then, a huge block of metal falls, cutting Sonic off from Eggman and apparently killing Eggman. Cut to a wide shot of the team.]

- We have to get out of here!

- What about Eggman?

- There's no time! Let's go!

[The team runs for safety, starting with Amy, then Knuckles. Tails lingers for a split second, then runs, and Sonic stands alone watching the direction Eggman went. Then he turns and dashes away at high speed.]

[The ship falls into Metropolis and explodes. When the ship hits the city, smaller explosions begin to spread through the city.]

[At the last minute, our heroes escape, thanks to Tails' Tornado. Fade out.]

[Fade in on the team in Tails' Workshop.]

- We did it!

- You defeated Eggman, Sonic! There's no way he could escape that!

- Yay!

[Knuckles gives a stoic and silent nod to Sonic.]

[sonic smiles and nods back, arms crossed, but he says nothing.]

[Fade out. Fade in on a rain forest-looking area.]

CAPTION: Present day, the other side of the world.

[sonic is running at high speeds through some green, peaceful area. His wrist communicator beeps.]

- Tails calling Sonic! Come in, Sonic!

[sonic abruptly stops running, and we go into interactive dialogue.]

Spoiler Alert!

In strings.tlk dublicates of phrases, which is used before credits while Sonic is speaking with Tails, were found, with most of words replaced by "SPOILER". Possibly they are remains of prototype version given to magazines or something like it. For example:

At the hands of SPOILER, no less! I can't believe SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER!

At the hands of Eggman, no less! I can't believe he'd turn on us like that!

I didn't SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER. It looked as if SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER!

I didn't recognize the world when we got back. It looked as if we'd been gone for years!

My biggest concern is how SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER. We weren't SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER!

My biggest concern is how he could have built up such an army so quickly. We weren't gone very long!

I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of things... if we manage to survive that SPOILER!

I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of things... if we manage to survive that crash!

Mistakes in the Codex

In the Codex Amy entry is mentioned about her team in Sonic Heroes, but is called Team Amy, while it was Team Rose in the original game.

She teams up with her friend Big the Cat and her best friend, Cream the Rabbit, to form Team Amy.

In the Shadow Codex entry it's said that he united with Sonic to defeat Eggman (mention of Sonic Adventure 2 events), but they united to defeat the Prototype of Ultimate Life Form or Biolizard.

Soon after Shadow teamed up with Sonic to defeat Eggman, he disappeared and was presumed dead.

Voxai somehow ended up at the Kron colony. Really, it's the only race in the game to have two colonies — Voxai Alpha and Voxai Beta.

The Voxai are a race of strange, psychic beings native to the Kron Colony.

Also it's written there that Ix rules the races of the Twilight Clan (should be Twilight Cage).

Arrogant and powerful on a possibly cosmic scale, Ix and the Nocturnus rule the races of the Twilight Clan through ruthlessness and cunning.

Blue Typhoon

Cyclone was called Blue Typhoon first, maybe as reference to the space ship of Tails in Sonic X. There is "Blue Typhoon Interior" in strings.tlk and file called "_typhoonnavigator.dlg" inside test.herf.

Hutterite Colony

It's mentioned in game's text about Hutterite Colony after others colonies of Twilight Cage (string 19136). Possibly, some fifth race was planned, but it also could be alternate name for Voxai Beta Colony (by the way, it's not mentioned there, but it's possible ID is skipped — there is no string 19135).

Tutorial Island

Tutorial Island and unknown character, just called the captain there, could appear in the game.

[CUTSCENE: A boat pulls up to shore on Tutorial Island. As it lands, a door opens, and Sonic and the captain walk out onto the island.]

- This is as far as I can take you, Sonic.

- Good luck!

[The captain goes back on the boat. The door closes, and the boat sails away.]

Movement abilities

You can find descriptions of Climb, Stealth and Teleport II and III in the game text. Descriptions of Climb II, Climb III, Stealth II and Stealth III are the same as Climb and Stealth, while Teleport levels have their own descriptions:

• Teleport - Teleport short distances.
  
• Teleport II - Teleport further.
  
• Teleport III - Teleport with maximum distances.
  

Selection between Sector Scylla and Sector Charybdis

Looks like some kind of nonlinearity was planned in Sonic Chronicles. In the end of Chapter 7 a player would have choosen where to go next from two sectors. One of mission descriptions shows it:

When the evil Lord Ix stole the Master Emerald from Angel Island, Sonic and his friends chased him into another dimension. After recovering Chaos Emeralds from the stone-like Kron and the psychic Voxai, the team was forced to scour the Twilight Cage for signs of the remaining four Emeralds. The team decided to travel to Sector Scylla, home to the warlike Zoah and the relentless N'rrgal, hoping to find more of the stolen Chaos Emeralds. With luck, they could track down the Emeralds without getting involved in the aliens' ongoing cold war.

Also images with different chapter numbers were left in the game:

Edited January 6, 2011 by NeKit

[Badnik Zero]

Mechano will like that unused intro, where the heroes show concern for the portly Doctor. HEY MECHANO!

[SchemingMinor]

So, ironically the unused intro portrays Sonic better than the one BioWare eventually went with. That always nagged me wondering how Sonic could be so out of character when it came to the supposed death of the portly scientist.

Strangely it reminds me of STH #200 where Sonic shows outright concern about "breaking" Robotnik.

Like Sonic Team usually does, BioWare has left some unused stuff in game, which is pretty interesting, especially plans for intro-movie. Here is all text of the game (exported strings.tlk), sorted by string's id.

That first link seems broken, please change it.

Edited January 6, 2011 by Kintobor

[NeKit]

So, ironically the unused intro portrays Sonic better than the one BioWare eventually went with. That always nagged me wondering how Sonic could be so out of character when it came to the supposed death of the portly scientist.

The final intro is the same, but really cut down, comparing to the description. The question is why they did it. In the final game nobody explains why Eggman was presumed dead or Sonic was out for some time, I first thought that there was no space left, but there about 10 MB in the final ROM.

That first link seems broken, please change it.

Sorry, fixed.

Edited January 6, 2011 by NeKit

[SchemingMinor]

The final intro is the same, but really cut down, comparing to the description. The question is why they did it. In the final game nobody explains why Eggman was presumed dead or Sonic was out for some time, I first thought that there was no space left, but there about 10 MB in the final ROM.

Sorry, fixed.

Thanks!

I found this bit of text that I don't recall seeing anywhere in the game based off of a Simpson's joke:

I bent my wookie.

I wonder who or what this relates to?

[LimeTH]

I found this bit of text that I don't recall seeing anywhere in the game based off of a Simpson's joke:

I bent my wookie.

I wonder who or what this relates to?

I'm guessing thats something they stuck in as a jokey dialouge test and never bothered to take it out.

[NeKit]

I'm guessing thats something they stuck in as a jokey dialouge test and never bothered to take it out.

[NeKit]

Excuse me for double-posting and bumping and old topic, but we have accidentaly found some new information. I tried to translate the article into English. It's even possible that the game originally took place in Sonic X universe on Sonic's planet without humans.

[Your Vest Friend]

Is there any code on the Viral Chao in there, by chance? I recall that BioWare were originally going to release five of them (indeed, they were all described in the official walkthrough with effects and everything), but only one ever saw the masses, and even then in a very limited release.

[Badnik Zero]

I have the one viral Chao. Only the JP version got to see all of them because they have Chao codes. Probably because they understood people were not going to events for these, so they just dumped them in the later JP version. The codes are on the Japanese website, but they don't work in our versions.

Edited October 20, 2011 by Dabnikz

[SchemingMinor]

Excuse me for double-posting and bumping and old topic, but we have accidentaly found some new information. I tried to translate the article into English. It's even possible that the game originally took place in Sonic X universe on Sonic's planet without humans.

Is that suppose to be a reference to a Yoshi egg?

Also those echidnas look downright cartoony and strange in comparison to Knuckles. I'm figuring the cigar-smoking one was probably nixed due to tobacco references.

[NeKit]

Is that suppose to be a reference to a Yoshi egg?

Also those echidnas look downright cartoony and strange in comparison to Knuckles. I'm figuring the cigar-smoking one was probably nixed due to tobacco references.

What do you mean? Sorry, I'm not familiar with Mario universe or where is it from?

There are also some character art in game that looks more closely to the style:

Edited October 20, 2011 by NeKit

[SchemingMinor]

What do you mean? Sorry, I'm not familiar with Mario universe or where is it from?

There are also some character art in game that looks more closely to the style:

Sonic Chronicles Chao Egg

Yoshi Egg.

Yoshi apparently has a monopoly on green polka-dotted white shelled eggs.

It wouldn't surprise me. People were reading into the sidequest with the Mario-esque man who gave you a leaf as a prize for returning his son in Station Square.

[Marcello]

Aw, man I love this guy:

[Your Vest Friend]

Kind of explains why the whole "Knuckles isn't the last Echidna" thing was downplayed in the final version; in the concepts, it looks like there were more Echidnas than just Knuckles, it's just that he'd never met the clan who nearly wiped out his own.

Still strange as hell.

[Autosaver]

This topic is old but I think it's worth a bump.

 

If I recall correctly, Sonic Chronicles actually had a legit soundtrack produced which sounded pretty good. Sometime in mid development, all this music was scrapped in favor of (bad) remixes of older Sonic music. I'm guessing SEGA saw the original music and told Bioware to change it? Seems odd to have them scrap it. I'm also guessing they're bad remixes because they had to rush the soundtrack before release.

 

One of the original soundtracks was uploaded onto Youtube. I remember listening to it but then it got taken down. Did anyone save the music or know where I could listen to it?

[Tornado]

I've actually heard two rumors about it. The first was that they had to pull the songs at the last minute because of copyright wrangling, and replaced everything with poorly optimized MIDI tunes pulled off the internet. I'm not sure I buy it because of the second part of that rumor, but since Sega has never seemed to learn their lesson about who owns the licences to the music they commission go to I guess it's plausible (also helped by all of the artwork obviously lifted from Sonic X that littered the game).

 

More recently, and more believably, I've read that when EA bought BioWare as Chronicles was nearing its release date, Sega was left holding the bag with a game that wasn't quite finished and was basically chopped all to shit compared to the absolutely glowing previews that it had gotten months earlier, all to get it close enough to done that BioWare's contract with Sega would be satisfied. This meant anything Jacques was putting together besides the intro was tossed because BioWare just didn't care, and some lazy MIDI recreations of older Sonic songs were thrown in to pad out the soundtrack.

 

 

 

 

 

Admittedly I don't know whether either of these are even remotely true.

[Disonoid 3000]

I thought the thing with the soundtrack was that they somehow lost/deleted the files or something and didn't have time to recreate them so they went with crummy remixes. I don't know where I read that specifically, though.

[Salamander]

More recently, and more believably, I've read that when EA bought BioWare as Chronicles was nearing its release date, Sega was left holding the bag with a game that wasn't quite finished and was basically chopped all to shit compared to the absolutely glowing previews that it had gotten months earlier, all to get it close enough to done that BioWare's contract with Sega would be satisfied. This meant anything Jacques was putting together besides the intro was tossed because BioWare just didn't care, and some lazy MIDI recreations of older Sonic songs were thrown in to pad out the soundtrack.

 

...SEGA really doesn't have the best luck with outsourcing, does it?

[Detective Shadzter]

Found an internal sales video for the game:

http://superbarn.com/#sonicchronicles

 

an internal sales video I did in two days on-site at sega in the marketing department conference room in san francisco on my laptop without a mouse... awesome...

there's more at Superbarn.com!

 

 

[Your Vest Friend]

"BioWare makes Sonic Boom!"

 

Please don't bring up nightmare scenarios, Gamespot. It's bad enough already.