New Screens from Bioware's Sonic RPG

Over at RPGamer:

New screens, no new details for Bioware's Sonic Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood

Here we see the combat system in action:


I am definitely looking forward to see what they can do with this!

Double meh!


Art direction\style looks nice, but definitely not for me. Too cutesy.

That's…. disgusting.

Methinks those are old screens

New interview, though

Looks very nice.

You're coming in fairly late to the party, but I can give you a brief overview of the game, if you're on the fence.

The goal of the game was to be "my first RPG", a kid-friendly game that still had level ups, equipment, squad choices, and different strategies for different monsters. The dialog system is like, say, BG2, but was deliberately written for a younger audience (which means, yes, it sounds less mature), and at least when I played it, you didn't have much in the way of roleplaying choices. You could be snarky or nice, but you were pretty much there to do quests.

Exploration was stylus-based and NOT arcade-y. You never have to platform. If there's a gap Sonic can leap over, you click on the Leap icon, and he does it. If he doesn't have the required Leap level, you need a different player, or you have to level up and get to that rank, so some areas are locked off. Part of your party choice is getting a wide range of movement that works for the level you're in, so that you've got a Roll-Leap-er, a Flyer, a Smash-through-Crates-er, and so forth.

Combat feels like a line-up style JRPG -- you pick your team's actions for that turn, and then the turn fires off, with you and the enemy going in sequence. Your standard attacks are fairly intuitive. You've also got consumables for healing and power ups and status removal, again, much like every other game out there. Special moves (that use something like mana) require you to complete an Elite Beat Agents-style "touch the stylus to the right area at the right time" game. Failure makes the move less effective, or sometimes makes it fail entirely.

I didn't have much Sonic experience growing up, so I can't tell you whether the story is a great addition to the canon or not. I thought it was a nice story, kid-friendly and straightforward. It isn't going to cause any great messageboard debates, but again, the target market was kids and older gamers who were fans of Sonic, so as someone who is over 30 and not a fan of Sonic, I'm not really one to judge.

Hope this helps. Regardless of whether you end up getting the game, thanks for looking!

I also did a review in the previous 'The Whole Game In My Hand' as the feature.

Personally I like it … but my 11 year old … he LOVES it and still plays.