Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood review video (DS)
Sonic and his friends have banded together with leading RPG developer BioWare (Mass Effect, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic) to create a stylish blend of strategy and speed for Sonic’s first RPG, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood or as we like to call it Super Sonic RPG.
Exclusively for the Nintendo DS, Sonic Chronicles mixes a rich story in a 20+ hour quest, hand-painted visuals, fast-paced team combat, and wireless collectible trading into a uniquely compelling adventure. Players will customize their party and characters, choosing from Sonic, Tails, Amy Rose, Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge, and more, and prepare to defeat a menacing new enemy. Rhythmically tapping and dragging with the stylus in Sonic-style battles, players can level up and use Rings to buy new special attacks as they progress through 20 different and beautifully hand-drawn areas including new and classic Sonic locales. With an engaging storyline, lightning fast attacks, high production values, and impeccable visuals, Sonic Chronicles allows gamers to experience Sonic in a whole new way.
Can the Sonic franchise make a splash in the world of portable RPGs? Find out in this Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood video review.
Sonic Chronicles features include:
* Lightning-fast Combo Moves: It wouldn’t be a Sonic game without speed, so with combo moves and precisely-timed cursor control, the gameplay 4-character team gameplay is accelerated. And unique character Combo moves bring exciting variety and strategy to battles
* New Party System Gameplay: Sonic Chronicles introduces the party system for diverse team tactics using each of the 11 playable character’s unique and customizable skills and powers
* Over 20 Areas to Explore: Players will venture to new and classic Sonic environments while solving puzzles and dodging obstacles. Just as in combat, some challenges will require teamwork to solve
* Online Trading and Collecting: Collect several types of artificial Chao lifeforms, each with varying power-ups and abilities that help in combat and elsewhere. Players can exchange their Chao with friends via local wireless play
* Epic Storyline Unfolds over Two Acts: Sonic and friends must use teamwork and strategy to uncover and defeat the mysterious menace that is destroying their world. Along with a storyline filled with twists and turns, new characters add to the excitement
* New “Story So Far” Feature: Players get a quick recap when they return to play to remind them of where they left off in the story
To quote the IGN video review: “Sonic Chronicles isn’t a bad game overall, but it does suffer from a list of things that keep it from being a title we can recommend to just anyone. The character balancing is strong, the game is simply beautiful, and there’s more effort put into the front end and general flow of the game than most DS titles out there. On the gameplay front though, players will need to suffer through tedious point-to-point fetch quests with very little story to push the experience, and a battle system that gets too repetitive far too fast. Random balance issues make the fights a bit awkward, while the framerate and “camera follow” issues mix with some odd collision in the overworld and broken flow that requires you to talk to NPC’s to solve a puzzle that’s sitting right in front of the team. The dialogue doesn’t push the story at all, and it just takes too long for the story to get moving, having you repeat areas long after they wear out their welcome, and do fetch quest after fetch quest just to lengthen the experience. There’s fun to be had, and the game does pick up after the first few hours, but we’d be surprised to see many DS gamers get behind Dark Brotherhood while there are so many superior role-playing games on the platform. There’s a good design in here somewhere; it’s just lost in the shuffle of it all.”
Presentation — 7.0
Graphics — 8.5
Sound — 6.0
Gameplay — 6.0
Lasting Appeal — 6.0
Overall — 6.5
