Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood

Sep 30, 2008

Is there anything BioWare can't do? The Edmonton-based developer burst onto the RPG scene with the classic Baldur's Gate, which kicked off a long and fruitful relationship between the company and Dungeons & Dragons fans. After further cutting its teeth on the Neverwinter Nights series, the company took on another beloved franchise with the critically acclaimed and commercially successful Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Since the company seemed to have the skills to take existing properties and somehow make them even better, it wasn't surprising to hear that it was taking on its most ambitious (and, perhaps, oddest) project yet: an RPG set in the Sonic the Hedgehog universe. While BioWare's definitely succeeded in making a game that caters to the hedgehog's hardcore fans, a number of issues keep Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood from achieving greatness.

The game kicks off with a lengthy tutorial set in Green Hill Zone, where Sonic must meet up with old friends Amy and Tails to track down the missing Knuckles, who disappeared while looking for the Chaos Emeralds. From there you'll make your way through a number of different environments while slowly (the story alone will take you over 15 hours to complete) unraveling the mystery of the titular brotherhood. While the game starts out slowly and features some pedestrian writing early on, it actually improves dramatically around the six-hour mark, when some of Sonic's nemeses do something unexpected. A lot of dialogue is also pretty solid, and there will likely be some moments when you'll laugh out loud.

Like many RPGs, Sonic Chronicles features equal parts exploration and combat, both of which are solid but not spectacular. You'll use the stylus to move around the environments, which are lush and impressively rendered, with the DS's top screen acting as an overhead map. Since each character possesses a particular skill (Sonic can run fast, Amy can smash crates, Knuckles can climb, etc.), there will be areas that you can't access if you don't have the right character in your party. While some of the exploration is fun, there are some missions that force your party to traipse all over previously explored areas in search of mission-specific objects. These fetch quests can get very annoying, especially when you've already spent hours in a particular area. There's a lot of backtracking in Sonic Chronicles, so it almost pays not to explore an area until you're forced to.

As a turn-based RPG, the game doesn't break much new ground, featuring much of the same gameplay mechanics we've been seeing for years. Like many games before it, if you bump into an on-screen enemy you'll enter battle against them (although you'll occasionally need to chase them down in a simple side-scrolling mini-game first). Every so often, you'll be able to instantly launch an attack by ambushing them, but there really doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to when it happens. Once you're facing down your foes, you can choose actions for each member of your party before combat starts, including attacking, using items, or fleeing the scene. It's pretty standard stuff, with one exception: the POW moves.

Okay, so many RPGs have super attacks that can only be used every so often, but how many of them use the DS's touchscreen? You'll have a variety of special attacks for each character, with new and upgraded attacks available every time they level up. After selecting a POW attack, you'll need to successfully complete a mini-game to ensure that it hits. This is all well and good until you realize that the patterns are the same each time, making it much easier than it should be. Some of them work even when you miss a few taps or swipes of the stylus, so there's a good chance that you'll come to rely on those even more. In a nice touch, your enemies can also pull off these special attacks, so you'll need to successfully complete a mini-game if you want to dodge them.

As noted above, the combat in Sonic Chronicles isn't groundbreaking; it's also not particularly challenging. There's really very little reason to switch things up, and you'll likely find yourself just hitting attack repeatedly if you don't have enough POW points saved up (or likewise, defending to build them back up). After a while you'll probably find yourself dodging enemies whenever possible while backtracking, as fighting the same flying robots 30 some-odd times in the span of a few hours is a drag.

Given that this is a role-playing game, there are plenty of customization options, although one could probably do without them and still get through the game in one piece. In addition to the loot that you'll find and equip to give you stat boosts, you'll also be able to find and hatch Chao eggs. Once they're available you can bond them to the characters in your party, giving them special attributes like invulnerability to elemental attacks, increased luck, or the ability to ambush foes more often. Our biggest issue with the RPG elements is the fact that none of the dialogue really matters in the grand scheme of things, which is a shame since BioWare has always been great at making your choices matter.

Although it's got some definite issues, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is still an entertaining RPG that feels like a step in the right direction for BioWare's future on Nintendo's handheld. Hardcore Sonic fans will definitely want to check this one out, as it offers a strong storyline and entertaining writing that's on par with the best fan fiction. We look forward to seeing which iconic franchise BioWare tackles next. Us? We have our fingers crossed for a Kid Niki action-RPG.