"Sonic Chronicles" trademarked by Sega

[Isuka]

I hope Game Arts implemented it in either Grandia Xtreme or Grandia III, because I can't believe such an obviously fitting idea could've not been used with such an amazing battle engine.

I could go and say that BioWare took this concept from the Sonic games since Adventure 2 (which itself, along with many other of its gameplay mechanics, seems to derive from NiGHTS and Burning Rangers), but they could also be taking it from Azel. Or whatever.
It's a neat thing, yes.

[P.P.A.]

I have Grandia 3; while there's not such a definite ranking system, it does have some bonus mechanics such as an Aerial Finish giving you more money after the battle as well as a higher chance for a rare item to appear, and if your party members don't get hurt at all in a fight, you'll get some special points recovered afterwards. But that's about it iirc.

Now about that article, artistic direction?! They can't be referring to the butt-ugly Sonic X copy art, can they? Or perhaps they played a secret, further in development version of the game with better looking character portraits. I hope so, at least.
E-123 Omega's inclusion is nice though. I didn't like him in Heroes or Shadow, but since Sonic 06 I do. His voice was awful, but he was fun to play whenever he could be played, and really looked and sounded (animation sounds, not he voice) like a robot. And story-wise he's even more awesome, with Rouge entrusting him with a Chaos Emerald and him guarding it a few hundred years to then give it Shadow in the future. Mindfuck.

[Locit]

I have Grandia 3; while there's not such a definite ranking system, it does have some bonus mechanics such as an Aerial Finish giving you more money after the battle as well as a higher chance for a rare item to appear, and if your party members don't get hurt at all in a fight, you'll get some special points recovered afterwards. But that's about it iirc.

I loved Grandia III's battle system. It's a shame the rest of the game is so unbelievably awful.

[FlashTHD]

Hmm. Well I have to say it's a lil' arbitrary for my tastes when you need a letter ranking judging your performance/advancement in RPG battles, but whatever.

[Locit]

Hmm. Well I have to say it's a lil' arbitrary for my tastes when you need a letter ranking judging your performance/advancement in RPG battles, but whatever.

That's not the point. The point is the better you do in battle, the better swag/exp you get. The letter grade/battle ranking is secondary.

And having a letter grade for how well you performed in battle seems anything but arbitrary. Did a good job? A! Squeaked by? D!

[Ngangbius]

Most of the Tales games worked the same way in regarding to battle performance, only instead of giving you some simple letter grade for a job well done, you receive grade points which are used to trade in for items, character enhancements, and/or game enhancements depending on the entry. The better your battle with the enemies(not taking any damage, defeating them in less the 10 sec., using mystic artes, etc.), the more grade you earn.

[Radrappy]

I can't get over how utterly terrible this game looks. The sonic X artwork is still there, the models look like junk, and even the "beautifully watercolored" layouts look a tad generic. And to top it all off, it even plays like crap according to a couple first hand accounts and is due out in a few months. Does anyone even have hope that it'll somehow be decent?

[Ngangbius]

Possibly not a lot of hope here.

[Frieza2000]

The art may be Sonic X stock, and the graphics may look like the inbred spawn of Sonic Rush and Sonic Shuffle, and the battles may end up being insipid button mashing or some unplayable mess, but it will be the best professional Sonic story ever written. And I can't think of an adequate analogy for how little that means, but it's still something to look forward to by whatever degree you care about the characters and continuity.

[M.C.Dillinger]

That trailer killed my hopes of the story being good as well.
The first sentence alone makes it sound generic "from the darkest reaches a mysterious force threatens a peaceful planet". This sounds like something the writing team from Sonic X would devise. a generic "movie Guy" narrator even says "save if the universe from the forces of darkness" only one of three things could've happened to cause us:

One) as mentioned before this series is cursed
two) for a third party to use the Sonic the Hedgehog brand bioware has to answer to Sega's is a ludicrous demands
three) the staff at bioware where are idiots

I'm assuming that explanations two or three, possibly both, are in effect.

[DackAttac]

One) as mentioned before this series is cursed
two) for a third party to use the Sonic the Hedgehog brand bioware has to answer to Sega's is a ludicrous demands
three) the staff at bioware where are idiots

I think it's two more than anything else. However, I think a bunch of clueless Sonic fans are going to base their judgement of Bioware on this title alone and choose #3, which I feel is unfair.

[Shadow Hog]

Except we have pretty much every other game they've ever made to shove right back at them, so.

[Ngangbius]

Well, the folks who are developing this game are Bioware's handheld division, which in a major Western company could probably mean intern training to work at Bioware proper. The only Western companies I know of that are treating handheld as seriously as the Japanese are smaller ones such as 5th Cell and Wayforward. Most of the others usually treat them as a place for dumb-downed ports or shovelware. It would be nice to be proven wrong with this title.

The art may be Sonic X stock, and the graphics may look like the inbred spawn of Sonic Rush and Sonic Shuffle, and the battles may end up being insipid button mashing or some unplayable mess, but it will be the best professional Sonic story ever written. And I can't think of an adequate analogy for how little that means, but it's still something to look forward to by whatever degree you care about the characters and continuity.

Considering the franchise, do you have any idea how depressing that sound

[One Classy Bloke]

I'm unconvinced that Bioware is making a decent game here. Then again, I'm convinced that Bioware have never made a decent game anyway.

I could just be bitter about Neverwinter Nights being such a shit fest.

[Dasher]

I really had hope for this game, lets wait and see what happens :/

[DackAttac]

Any hope I had for this game wasn't so much hope for a great RPG but hope that a great Sonic game developed by someone else would show significant positive critical and financial feedback to the point where Sega would see the benefit to outsourcing Sonic to a high caliber developer. Especially since it appeared Bioware was aware how to make the tie from Rouge, Shadow (and apparently—ugh—Omega) to the silver-tongued wit Sega always hinted at with Sonic's punky wiseass image. I mean, isn't a Sonic game with really good dialogue something we've yet to see?

[Segaholic2]

Why do we need to see a Sonic game with really good dialog? Right now I'd settle for a new Sonic game with just really good gameplay.

[DackAttac]

Oh, you crazy dreamer, you.

[Oompa Star]

Why do we need to see a Sonic game with really good dialog? Right now I'd settle for a new Sonic game with just really good gameplay.

I whole-heartily agree with this statement. Seriously, Sonic has been talking way more than several other platforming characters and he got along just fine being a mute in his Genesis days. And before anyone mentions hardware limitations, just remember Altered Beast and Space Harrier.

[Rob-Bert]

I'd take regular boxes of text over voice acting on any day of the week

[Ngangbius]

So, Sega's Sonic Chronicles mini-site has opened up:

http://www.sega.com/sonicchronicles/us/

You can control Sonic using the mouse presumably similar to the stylus controls to the upcoming game, walk up and talk to Sonic's friends to get a glimpse of the game and collect all of the rings for more goodies.

[Radrappy]

Yeah I was looking around the site yesterday. It was all pretty cool looking until I got to the characters page and was greeted with the shitty character artwork. To make matters worse, click on Shade to catch a glimpse of what can be nothing else than an in game cutscene. And my god. It. Is. Fucking ugly.

They can make beautiful concept art, and mostly beautiful scenery(kind of uninspired), but can only manage to trace Sonic X artwork and put nasty black outlines on them for character portraits? It doesn't make sense.

[Dasher]

It looks like a fancy fan game :/

[Shadow Hog]

At least the rather minimalist remix of the Saturn version of Panic Puppet Zone on that second screen was somewhat encouraging.

[DackAttac]

To make matters worse, click on Shade to catch a glimpse of what can be nothing else than an in game cutscene. And my god. It. Is. Fucking ugly.

I couldn't get anything but regular gameplay. There's a rotation of videos in there; I couldn't be bothered to sit through them all.

Right now I'm kind of concerned about how the gameplay itself is going to work out, because trying to maneuver Sonic around all those little pegs in the second screen was infuriating in a system where you don't charter a path, Sonic just runs towards wherever your stylus is touching. Say to bring him to the right, around a peg, at full speed, you'd have to bring the stylus down 45º, then up 45º, which are both in locations irrelevant to Sonic's path. And then when I get to a cliff I want him to jump up I have to click that little icon. I'm already halfway across the screen 'cause I'm goin' fast, motherfucker, isn't that what you've been yapping on about for the last eight months? There's no fluidity at all, so forgive me if I don't see it fit to yet complain that it doesn't look pretty enough.

Of course, this is just the Flash version to illustrate how it works. But then again, isn't the point to kind of draw some kind of judgment from that?