Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood review (DS)

Bioware has a history that many developers would be proud to have. Due to this history and unnerving ability to produce excellent RPGs, when a Sonic RPG was announced, it wasn’t met with the nonchalant groan that you might normally expect it to receive. Had this been developed by Sega or any of the other teams that have been involved in any of the more recent Sonic games, I doubt anybody would have expected much. But the name Bioware added credence and reassurance that actually this might not suck after all.

Having such a great history is a bit of a double-edged sword though. Sometimes it can lead to people expecting too much. There appear to have been many expecting a storyline to rival Mass Effect’s and locales and strategic turn-based combat as interesting as Knights of the Old Republic. At the end of the day, the subject material here is Sonic. Quite how people imagined the storyline to be anything more than acceptable is still beyond me. There’s also the target demographic to consider; would it have been in Bioware’s best interest to develop a complex RPG that would alienate the majority of Sonic’s current and long-term fans?

Sonic Chronicles is undeniably one of the simplest RPGs I’ve ever played. From the twee, almost cringeworthy story (which admittedly does get a little better towards the end, but I would like to emphasise the word ‘little’ there), to the fact that I died twice throughout the whole game, and then only because I was trying (and succeeded) to complete the game without using any health items, Sonic Chronicles is not for the Final Fantasy Tactics crowd.

Not your typical Bioware game

Sonic Chronicles mission structure is fairly linear. There are a few side-quests to complete, but these never develop into anything more than basic fetch-quests that feel more of a burden than a joy to complete. Whereas I’m the type of player that will normally try to complete every side-quest on offer, I found myself often overlooking Sonic’s as I find very little satisfaction in purchasing a newspaper for someone to read or locating a lost person who only ended up being a screen away from the person looking for them. Sonic Chronicles’ locations don’t exactly lend themselves well to additional quests, they’re barely big enough to contain enough content to drive the main storyline, but they could still have been a little more imaginative.

A typical zone will be no more than five or six screens wide and the same again for the height. Latter zones do get a little bigger, but there’s nothing rivalling the vast multi-routed levels of Sonic’s yesteryear, nor are they anywhere near as interesting. Different routes are opened up depending on the team of four you have selected at the time, but invariably the extra route only leads to a few rings (the games currency) or a Chao. Chaos are little creatures that give your individual team members extra abilities when equipped. Ranging from increased attack/defence statistic rises, to status effects, the Chaos are very similar to rare items found in other RPGs.

Not so special moves

While the levels look really rather lovely indeed, navigating them can be a bit of a chore. It is often hard to tell what’s in the foreground and what’s in the background, due to the odd perspective, and there are occasions where vast distances can be flown across yet small distances that can’t be, resulting in confusion and frustration in equal measures. Inevitably the reward at the end (usually a Chao who’s ability you already have in your collection, or a few rings) just isn’t worth the reward. On occasions though you will need to find a certain route to progress the storyline, and it’s at times like these that the level structure will frustrate. There was one particularly nasty point towards the middle of the game that had me stumped for nearly an hour, not knowing where I needed to go in order to get to a certain objective due to the confusing level design and inconsistent use of abilities.

Combat is an area that initially fares much better. Playing out like a hybrid of Final Fantasy and Elite Beat Agents, it promises to evolve into something a little more than most handheld RPGs. Unfortunately it doesn’t and towards the end actually becomes a bit of a chore. Special moves are both activated and defended by using the stylus and tapping circles in time whilst making motions on the screen. While arguably it adds a little interactivity, it also makes the game unbelievably easy. Defending against the special abilities was so phenomenally easy that only one in ten connected. The only time you’ll ever be in any trouble of dying is when the enemies use their basic attacks. Not that you should ever be in danger of dying at all, once you’ve got your healer Cream’s speed up to a decent level.

RPG-lite on a DS-lite

So far so very negative, it has to be said. But despite lacking in challenge, the uninspiring story, the repetition and that there are aspects of the game that aren’t as well developed as they could be, I really enjoyed playing Sonic Chronicles. There’s something undeniably fun about it. It’s not the best RPG available and it’s probably best to try and ignore the fact that it is an RPG, considering that it’s unlikely to appeal to RPG fans and won’t put those off that don’t usually enjoy them. What it is is a simple game that concentrates on gameplay and ensuring the player has an enjoyable time. It even manages to do a few things really well along the way, such as being able to save the game anywhere you choose and, more importantly, giving the cast real character and managing to inject a little humour into the proceedings as well.

It’s also an excellent introduction to the RPG genre for Sonic fans or those that usually find them too overwhelming and don’t want to spend hours levelling up their characters. There’s a good 16+ hours of game here as well and while I wouldn’t necessarily suggest anybody other than the most ardent Sonic fan rushes out and purchases it, I would heartily recommend it as soon as it reaches a price south of £20. That’s as long as you’re not after a typical Bioware RPG.