- Original Platform: DS
- Original release: 6th August 2008
- Available to buy: No
A turn based RPG, which is a kind of game that I don’t really like. I’ve attempted a couple, but Sonic Chronicles is the only one I’ve actually completed. As far as the combat is concerned, I found it a bit more engaging due to the POW attacks, as you have to play a sort of rhythm game for full damage (and do the same to protect yourself when the enemy does one), but as I don’t really know the ins and outs of the genre, I can’t comment on the quality of it.
One thing that Sonic Chronicles does pretty well is story, it has an engaging mystery of what this mysterious group is up to, and when you enter a portal you meet some interesting entities. It feels a bit like Doctor Who in a way, as Sonic can negotiate with the people of these various worlds as they’re not the mindless brutes as they originally seem to be. The new characters introduced are rather interesting, and I would like to see some of them return. The biggest flaw with the story is that it does end with a cliffhanger ending (the main plot is, thankfully, tied up), and a sequel was never made, presumably because the developer – BioWare – became part of EA.
I also really enjoyed the dialogue. Like a lot of BioWare games, you can make dialogue choices. This doesn’t have any impact on the overall story, although if you are nice to Amy, it can lead to an additional conversation where you can set up a potential future romance between her and Sonic. The conversation options allow you to ask some questions, or if you really want to, you can just make Sonic rude and obnoxious with some funny dialogue choices.
Getting around the world I found to be a bit annoying. To access different areas, you need to have certain movement abilities in your party, so sometimes you’ll need a specific character with you, or you’ll encounter some chao eggs or rings you can’t access until you return at a later point (but not too late, there are multiple points of the game that lock you out of previous areas). To trigger this ability, you just tap an icon on the screen. I have particular trouble in the Metropolis area as I didn’t notice I could jump down a platform and searched for ages to try and find the route to get to where I was needed.
I did enjoy Sonic Chronicles overall, due to the charming writing, although some aspects were a let down (the music is just…there, and is the most forgettable music in a Sonic game), the only thing I really disliked was that it was a turn based RPG.
Where to get
- ROM Status: Available
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Everyone hates Sonic Chronicles and here I am thinking it wasn’t THAT bad. Sure, its not a classic by any means, the music is terrible and I forgot a lot about it over time but I had relatively few issues with the actual game itself and found the story rather interesting. The final boss was a bit of a letdown though.
Many, many reasons why I despise this game. I went over them in my Throwback Thursday article, but the short version is:
– The “Attack” and “Defense” stat actually denote Accuracy and Evasion. Not only is this grossly misleading, it also means Attack is completely useless because it only affects the standard attack, which is absolutely rubbish and should never be used. If you put the bonus points into attack, you’ve just wasted a precious level up.
– Because the standard attack is pointless, you rely on Power Moves the entire game. Which makes it a real pain that no character will ever get more then 20 PP in this game. Even in the last dungeon, you’ll burn through your entire reserves in one fight. This forces you to waste turns defending or waste all your items.
– Currency is severely limited. They’re finite in the overworld and you get none from winning fights. Which means you have to sell all the crap you no doubt need to keep your PP up.
– Lots of RPG’s have 1 or 2 party members that aren’t very good. Sonic Chronicles has 8 out of 11 of its characters be rubbish. The 3 who are of any use include 1 who buggers off halfway through the game and 2 optional characters who are permanently missable.
– The above point wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the sections that force you to split everyone up into 2 teams. This includes the final dungeon. The team that can’t have Cream is going to have a really miserable time!
– If your level is too high, the experience points you get from fights gets drastically reduced. I hate it when RPG’s do this.
– The depth of the overworld is non-existent, which makes some areas unnecessarily difficult to navigate.
– The soundtrack is utterly woeful, which is absolutely blasphemous in a Sonic game.