Chronic the Hedgehog
Apr. 29th, 2009 11:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davidnI have to extend my thanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
quadralien for letting me borrow this and save myself the indignity of buying a Sonic game at the age of 24, because I'd heard that the curiously-titled Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood broke the traditions of recent entries to the series (i.e. it wasn't terrible) and wanted to see for myself. Developed rather unexpectedly by the makers of Baldur's Gate, it breaks the genre of the series by turning it into an actionish RPG, following Mr. The Hedgehog and the rest of the Super Furry Animals as they save the world from an exponentially expanding mythos once again.
Most of the game is played via a top-down perspective with the character following the movement of the stylus, with the freedom to wander around collecting rings (the game's currency) and finding eggs to raise little monstrosities called Chao (which thankfully you don't have to pay much attention to, except wait for them to hatch and assign them to characters if you like the abilities that they cause). On top of that, you have to gather different abilities by levelling up to interact with certain parts of the environment that require things like speed, flight or old-fashioned hitting with a big mallet to get past. The view isn't perfect - sometimes the 3D character overlaps parts of the 2D drawn backgrounds that they shouldn't, completely throwing off the illusion of perspective - but you get used to it after a while.
The storyline is advanced through a set of missions - some of which are essential and some of which aren't - that are recorded on the journal page and reward you with extra experience when done. I really want to say that this finding and clearing mission layout is rather like Tombi, just because I loved that and there's never been anything else quite like it since. Most of these are given to you by different characters standing uselessly around the environment - conversation is handled by giving you multiple choices of answer, and faithful to the whole "RP" part of the RPG name, I've naturally been attempting to be a complete tosser to as many people as possible, but each conversation ends with the same result nonetheless. (I'm also very concerned about Big the Cat's mental state in this game, which seems to be worryingly close to Arnold Rimmer in 'Quarantine', going around talking to frogs that he knows by names like Mister Billywick.)
The fights are basically enormous quicktime events, each special ability requiring you to complete an Elite Beat Agents set of tapping or sliding inputs for it to be successful (or to dodge it if it's used on you). It's not spectacularly easy, going for the tactic of making enemies progressively more annoying as well as boosting their statistics (when you have a group of four that can revive themselves unless you get them all down to zero at the same time it's particularly excruciating sometimes), but the way that it's up to you to defend yourself against the more deadly attacks means that it's simultaneously more attention-grabbing and easier than relying on pure statistics... unless you're totally terrible at them. I've died once by being pecked to death by a giant bird, but I think that I just attempted that fight earlier than I was supposed to - in other cases the bosses are surprisingly easy, such as when their black and red emo cousin turned up and my band of adventurers hilariously defeated him in one turn by using one action that sent them all bouncing off him together in a sort of giant piley-on.
Simultaneously the best and most awkward part of playing the game - and this is no fault of its own - is that ever since accidentally discovering this unholy amalgam I am now unable to mentally voice them as anything other than the cast of The Young Ones. Indeed, Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall would seem bizarrely appropriate - just put them in it, that's where the series has been going wrong all this time.
quadralien for letting me borrow this and save myself the indignity of buying a Sonic game at the age of 24, because I'd heard that the curiously-titled Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood broke the traditions of recent entries to the series (i.e. it wasn't terrible) and wanted to see for myself. Developed rather unexpectedly by the makers of Baldur's Gate, it breaks the genre of the series by turning it into an actionish RPG, following Mr. The Hedgehog and the rest of the Super Furry Animals as they save the world from an exponentially expanding mythos once again.Most of the game is played via a top-down perspective with the character following the movement of the stylus, with the freedom to wander around collecting rings (the game's currency) and finding eggs to raise little monstrosities called Chao (which thankfully you don't have to pay much attention to, except wait for them to hatch and assign them to characters if you like the abilities that they cause). On top of that, you have to gather different abilities by levelling up to interact with certain parts of the environment that require things like speed, flight or old-fashioned hitting with a big mallet to get past. The view isn't perfect - sometimes the 3D character overlaps parts of the 2D drawn backgrounds that they shouldn't, completely throwing off the illusion of perspective - but you get used to it after a while.
The storyline is advanced through a set of missions - some of which are essential and some of which aren't - that are recorded on the journal page and reward you with extra experience when done. I really want to say that this finding and clearing mission layout is rather like Tombi, just because I loved that and there's never been anything else quite like it since. Most of these are given to you by different characters standing uselessly around the environment - conversation is handled by giving you multiple choices of answer, and faithful to the whole "RP" part of the RPG name, I've naturally been attempting to be a complete tosser to as many people as possible, but each conversation ends with the same result nonetheless. (I'm also very concerned about Big the Cat's mental state in this game, which seems to be worryingly close to Arnold Rimmer in 'Quarantine', going around talking to frogs that he knows by names like Mister Billywick.)
The fights are basically enormous quicktime events, each special ability requiring you to complete an Elite Beat Agents set of tapping or sliding inputs for it to be successful (or to dodge it if it's used on you). It's not spectacularly easy, going for the tactic of making enemies progressively more annoying as well as boosting their statistics (when you have a group of four that can revive themselves unless you get them all down to zero at the same time it's particularly excruciating sometimes), but the way that it's up to you to defend yourself against the more deadly attacks means that it's simultaneously more attention-grabbing and easier than relying on pure statistics... unless you're totally terrible at them. I've died once by being pecked to death by a giant bird, but I think that I just attempted that fight earlier than I was supposed to - in other cases the bosses are surprisingly easy, such as when their black and red emo cousin turned up and my band of adventurers hilariously defeated him in one turn by using one action that sent them all bouncing off him together in a sort of giant piley-on.
Simultaneously the best and most awkward part of playing the game - and this is no fault of its own - is that ever since accidentally discovering this unholy amalgam I am now unable to mentally voice them as anything other than the cast of The Young Ones. Indeed, Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall would seem bizarrely appropriate - just put them in it, that's where the series has been going wrong all this time.
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-29 07:47 pm (UTC)I really did enjoy the multiple conversation paths aspect to it, though; that brought a lot of actual character back into the characters, which is something that seems to have been sorely absent from the series recently. It's good to know someone's looking out for the quality levels in the franchise, even if that someone isn't Sega, I guess.
D.F.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-29 08:23 pm (UTC)I found that even the movement took a bit of getting used to, with the ability icons sometimes not showing unless you ran yourself up against exactly the right spot. But I imagine that most of the ease of the game, then, directly relies on how good you are at those stylus sequences, because I have enough difficulty with the enemies halfway through the game even while being able to negate most of their special attacks. (Therefore putting the focus back on the player's abilities and away from stats and making it not an RPG at all, really...)
I would say overall that it's not something absolutely spectacular (but then it's not exactly aimed at my age group, although it's certainly several steps up from Club Penguin which came free with the DS) - but it's still something to do on the train.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-30 07:03 am (UTC)