Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (Sonic's first RPG)

[Timmieboy]

First of all, here's the cover of the latest Nintendo Power with awesome artwork for this game:

First anounced in June 2007, Bioware is making a Sonic RPG called: Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood.
First of all, don't go OMG, THIS GAME IS GONNA SUCK BECAUS IT'S SONIC. Not all Sonic games after Sonic Adventure 2 are bad, also, this game is being made by Bioware, which has NEVER made a bad game.
Here's a bunch of info from NeoGAF:

- Sonic is the Cover Story for this issue of NP. Cover art's nice.

- In game graphics have a watercolor look to them. Everything is hand-drawn.

- 4 party members at a time, 11 total choices, only 7 are known: Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Rouge, Shadow, and Big the Cat.

- The party has the ability to split off in to teams at certain parts

- Rings are the game's currency

- Controls are done with the stylus, Phantom Hourglass style.

- No random battles; enemies are seen on the field, Chrono Trigger style.

- Battles are turn based, Final Fantasy style. Select the moves for your entire party and th[en watch them play out.

- They want the battles to remain as face-paced as possible.

- Special Attacks are executed by doing Elite Beat Agents style screen tapping.

- There are special attacks where two or more characters team up (like Chrono Trigger)

- Instead of MP, you have "Fatigue Points"

- When you level up, you can distribute stat points as you see fit.

- You purchase special attacks and can upgrade them over time.

- "Full Animated Cutscenes" promised

- Remixed classic music

- Side Quests promised

- "Simple Dialog Trees" also planned

- Each area is split in to two acts; first act is in the normal world, second act is in a "dark world" of sorts.

- Plot: Two years since Eggman's last defeat, Sonic is on vacation. Tails notifies Sonic that Knuckles has been kidnapped by a group of marauders and that six of the seven Chaos Emeralds are missing. Eggman's not responsible for any of this, but Bioware wants to make him a credible villain again none the less. They hint at a "twist" regarding Sonic and Eggman that goes all the way back to the early games (perhaps it explains their rivalry? I hope not).

Here are screenshorts/more artwork:

Here's more, but in links becaus i can't post more images in this post:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/Sef.../sonicscan5.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/Sef.../sonicscan6.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/Sef.../sonicscan7.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/Sef.../sonicscan8.jpg

And here's even more info from NeoGAF:

they say there are people who won't be happy that this isn't going to provide the absolute fastest Sonic experience, as it's an RPG. But they say there are other Sonic games that do that, and their interest here is to still incorporate speed wherever it makes sense; they say it's really a combination of both BioWare and Sonic and they want to please fans of both.
they joked that they're looking to raise Big's IQ a few points
unlike most 2D RPGs, which use tile-based patterns for the environments, Sonic Chronicles' backgrounds are drawn entirely by hand. They did this because they wanted to try to bring back the series' "classic style."
shoes will be a big part of Sonic's equipment that you purchase via rings at shops. Examples given are shoes that increase his speed, or give him fire attacks.
the reason they have battle actions happen after you select actions for all party members is to give the battles a greater sense of speed as everything plays out. some characters will be able to perform multiple actions in a round, leading to "impressively frenetic battle sequences."
again, the idea with the battles is, you have strategic thinking by turn-based input, but it will be "presented very quickly." "You see Sonic moving the way he should be moving."
the reason they added real time active elements to the turn-based system is to keep the player engaged. They stated that Final Fantasy, even with its "speculator animations," disengages the play because there's no interaction.
as you improve your characters, you get new field map abilities as well as battle moves. This will allow you to access new areas on the maps. It will encourage you not just to stick to your favorite characters; each one has unique abilities to offer.
they don't just want to use preexisting Sonic story stuff. They want to leave the BioWare mark by creating new characters, new locations. But it will feel like it builds on the franchise rather than is tacked on.
Muzyka has a Genesis signed by Yuji Naka.
the project got started because Muzyka and Zeschuk knew Sega of America president Simon Jeffery from when he was at LucasArts and they were doing KotOR.
"most of the high-quality handheld stuff is coming out of Japan. There isn't a lot of North American AAA handheld development going on." They viewed this as an opportunity for them.
they think the DS is naturally attuned towards RPGs more. The two screens can show RPG stats that's appropriate for the genre. They say building on the DS is like when they were building on the PC years ago because you have a small, tight-knit team where each person is a key contributor.
they say they really want to make something that stays true to Sonic, but still surprises and surpasses fan expectations because it's something new and different.




The director is Mark Darrah. Prior credits are:
Baldur's Gate (lead AI programming, additional programming team)
Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast (lead programming)
Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (lead programmer, Infinity Engine programming team)
Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal (lead programmer)
Neverwinter Nights (programmer)
Neverwinter Nights Gold (programmer)
Jade Empire (lead programmer)
Mass Effect (special thanks)

Lead artist is Joel MacMillan. Prior credits are:
Jade Empire (cutscene art/animation team)
Mass Effect (cinematics animator team)
Jade Empire Special Edition (cutscene art/animation team)

The lead game designer is new to BioWare. His names is Miles O'Brien Prower Holmes; looks like he used to work at DICE, and his prior credits are:
Dracula's Secret (artist)
Shrek for Xbox (tester)
Jump Start: Dino Adventure (lead artist)
Diva Starz (lead artist)
Full Auto 2 (designer)

If you'll say this game will suck becaus it's Sonic, then you didn't read anything i just posted.

 

[Stinkoman 20X6]

This game will suck becaus it's Sonic.

jk :yahoo:

That looks like an interesting game. Finally, Sonic gets an RPG.