Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood Hands On

I was quite surprised when I came across Sonic Chronicles at the Games Convention Asia – either it hadn’t been announced as a title, or I had completely missed it. But there it was, sitting nonchalantly between a big bunch of other DS titles, shouting “play me!” in my direction.

For those not in the know, a brief run down: Sonic Chronicles is a Sonic the Hedgehog RPG. Sounds crap, right? Especially considering how the series has gone in the last decade. But before you write it off, know that it’s being made by Bioware, of Mass Effect and Baldur’s Gate fame. These guys know how to make a good RPG.

So before today, I was utterly confused about what to think of the game. But after giving it a whirl for a brief amount of time, I’m cautiously optimistic about it.

Two things immediately stuck out at me while I was playing. The first was the presentation – this is a sharp-looking and well polished DS game. The difference between this and, oh, Lunar Knights (which I had been playing on the plane) was striking – Bioware did a great job blending painted backdrops with 3D sprites. The production values are very high for the DS, and make this thing very easy on the eyes.

The second thing that struck me was how…non-annoying…the dialogue was. To really understand the magnitude of that statement, you need to be a Sonic fan who’s suffered through absolutely every poorly scripted and poorly acted “plot” of the last few games. Basically, ever since Sonic and his pals found voices, they’ve been abusing ear drums the world over. But the text found in Sonic Chronicles – from the little I saw – actually seemed to minimize the inherently annoying nature of characters like Tails and – I kid you not – even Amy.

The gameplay is pretty good, too. It’s not necessarily all that Sonic-y, but it’s good nonetheless. You run around using the stylus (ala Zelda DS), and tap on various things on the map. You can click on loop-de-loops to spin round them, and jump up onto platforms, and more.

This being an RPG, you’ll be partaking in turn-based battles. Here, enemies will approach you, and if you’re not quick, a battle will be initialized. It seems like a fairly standard setup, but it’s nice that they’re not random battles.

So all in all, I was impressed with what I saw – which, granted, wasn’t very much. Who knows whether the plot will actually remain bearable – let alone good – throughout, but if anyone can pull off such a stunt, it’s Bioware. I’ll be looking forward to giving this one more of a spin when it’s out.