"Sonic Chronicles" trademarked by Sega

[cjmcray]

Wow. Makes me want to buy a DS if it wasnt a freaking turn-based game.

The graphics are quite incredible though. I think this will be the first Sonic game in a long time to get some good reviews, since Bioware is involved.

Veering slightly off-topic: I know you guys think im gullible for believing Kuta's email about the Sonic movie to be real, but for some reason, after seeing these screenshots and hearing a summary of the story, I have this crazy idea that perhaps this game will be an adaptation of the upcoming Sonic film. It looks epic enough to be a movie. The storyline and worlds anyway.

[FlashTHD]

Now that does look a fair bit better. The worlds being hand-drawn and not sprited in looks suspect to me though; hope there aren't too many invisible barriers blocking off your way (like the side of that waterfall).

[Esrever]

Few things ever look good when you blow them up past their native resolution, but 3D DS graphics in particular are very unforgiving because they're quite tiny to start with. And unlike the 2D backgrounds, they're not antialiased, so when you blow them up on top of a piece of 2D art they wind up looking all pixely and awful by comparison.



That smaller on the right is about the same size as the DS screen -- or at least, it is on my monitor at the resolution I'm running. And when the picks are shrunk to that size, I don't think the 2D/3D contrast is very jarring at all.

As for the backgrounds/environments, they DO look very pretty, although not very 'Sonic-y'. Then again, when was the last time a Sonic game DID look 'Sonic-y'? 1994? They seem to be carving out their own style here, but at least it's a nice looking one. (And one that is much more unique and ambitious than most 3rd party DS title!) The Sonic X character art definitely looks out of place though... hopefully it's just a placeholder for new character art done in the new art style, like the NP cover.

CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM

[RocketPunch]

I think SA looks pretty Sonic-y in retrospect, particularly in Eggman's stages (Sky Deck, Final Egg). They weren't as surreal as the classic zones, but I kind of think of them as being Sonic-y 2.0 or something.

Looking at the art, it's as if the developers don't really care that it's not very Sonic-y. It's like they're having fun with what they're doing and have chosen this art style and genre as if to say "We're making a good Sonic game, and this is just how we're gonna do it, so fuck off." For once it looks like a post-SA2 Sonic game isn't trying to pander to some fad or break into some new market, and that's definitely something to appreciate.

[DackAttac]

For once it looks like a post-SA2 Sonic game isn't trying to pander to some fad or break into some new market, and that's definitely something to appreciate.

It's still kind of an RPG.

[RocketPunch]

Yeah, forgot about that. I guess I meant style-wise. We're not getting Shadow-gone-San Andreas or what looks like a wretched bastardization of Final Fantasy, is what I'm saying. Or worst of all, more of that "back-to-basics" garbage.

[Ngangbius]

I'm getting Magical Starsign vibes from some of the field screenshots. I guess to some that's not really a compliment, but...

Also, the battle shots looks reminicient of your average Camalot-designed RPG. It's not really what I'm expecting. I really wish that Bioware was inspired by Grandia for their turn-based battles in this game.

Overall, this game looks bizarre.

[big_smile]

Ooops! The Newsboard threads usually end up being too long to browse, so for 2008, I was planning on splinting new threads into separate topics. Doing so would keep the Newsboard more accessible, organized and up-to-date. However, either due to the bugs in phpBB or my own stupidity (probably the latter), my first attempt at applying the new system with this thread hasn't worked the way I hoped.

I did try to put the thread back it the way it was, but I think I only made things worse.

I'll lock this thread. Continue your comments in the one that is in the Newsboard section.

Sorry for an inconvenience or confusion.