"Sonic Chronicles" trademarked by Sega

[M.C.Dillinger]

This is the most boring and ineffective attempt at generating hype I've ever seen from a video game company.

[Rob-Bert]

Seems to me that Sega doesn't give two flying shits about how this game performs and would rather hype their own endeavors via their usual methods. Makes one wonder what the hell the point was of letting BioWare do this thing in the first place.

[RocketPunch]

I feel like that video was crafted for an audience of senior citizens who don't know what a video game is.

[Ngangbius]

Or maybe it's for those scant few children who were hidden in some remote cave the past 10-12 years and haven't climbed aboard the Pokemon train.

This is the most boring and ineffective attempt at generating hype I've ever seen from a video game company.

I don't know about that, it might be working for the Sonic DevianTartlets.

[Isuka]

Hey, generic RPG is generic. Big newz.
I wasn't really expecting a "fast-paced experience", but this is just sad.

[Ngangbius]

New direct feed screens from the Leipzig convention courtesy of TSS.

http://www.sonicstadium.org/media-n-stu ... #more-2132

The backgrounds really do look nice.

[Locit]

This is my favourite:

[DackAttac]

Bow chika chika bow wow.

[Dr. Watson]

I gotta be honest here and say that i dont get any negative vibes from this game at all! I dont think i have been this psyched over a new game since Metal gear Solid 4!

Everything about the gameplay looks just fine to me, and the thought of Sonic characters conversing in even moderatly well-written dialoge is a joy. Oh and i also LOVE how it seems that in this game they actually acknowledge the events in the Mega Drive (God damn you yankees for renaming everything after books in the bible, by the way) games as something that actually happened. I dont think any characters have made any direct references to the classic games since Sonic Adventure. Its sometimes almost hard for me to believe that the new games with their awfull stories about time traveling albinos and wutnut even takes place in the same universe as the one i used to visit as a child, the one in which a scientist used to turn pacific islanders into robots and then be thwarted by a rodent. So Sonic remenicing about his and the doctors battles at Green Hill Zone and even refering to them as “The good old days” is just heartwarming.

[Shadow Hog]

God damn you yankees for renaming everything after books in the bible, by the way

"Mega Drive" was copyrighted in the US when it was being brought over here, IIRC. So it's not like we did it just because we could, like with Sonic CD's soundtrack.

[P.P.A.]

This is my favourite:

omg its dexter xD

[Ngangbius]

Joking aside, I predict Dexter will be either:

a) Made up by Amy Rose in an attempt to make Sonic jealous

b) Is actually real, however he turns out to be one of the bad guys

That said, Bioware released a new video, this time it goes into more in-depth with the battle system.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdCDKdaxn2Y

[Isuka]

Dull. Though I like the idea of (what seems to be) an interactive escape sequence when you attempt to run away from the battle.

Also, the party looks like a bunch of potheads, watch 1:22.

[Ngangbius]

The battle system in regards to the POW moves sort of reminds me of a simplistic version of the Paper Mario battle system. It seems that this game is less interactive than the Mario RPGs judging the seemingly lack of timed hits for regular attacks.

[DackAttac]

The impression I got is you only need timed hits for attacks that do more than basic amount of damage, i.e., the ones worth doing.

[gr4yJ4Y]

That video brings up my confidence about this game a little more than it was prior to watching it. The battle animation actually looks pretty decent. ...That is until you see your party's faces, but they'll mostly be facing forward anyway. The team attack stuff and the running away sequence shows that they might have some original ideas that they still haven't shown yet. But the music makes me worry that Bioware is taking this too seriously.

[DackAttac]

True. Between the music and the "last half is seriously dark, you guys" press banter makes me think that BioWare is unaware of how ridiculous this series has gotten at its most self-important and are going to try to tread down that dark, dramatic alley again, unaware of how played out its opportunities are.

[Ngangbius]

Well, to alleviate both your and gr4j4y's fears, this game is rated E as opposed to E10.

...But then again so was Sonic Adventure 2. :|

Then yet again, the E10 rating didn't exist yet when SA2 and its port were released.

[DackAttac]

I'm not concerned with misused "damn"s and guns, I'm worried more about the environments and motifs being utterly charmless when dark. Interdimensional bullshit. Planetary distress for no reason other than to inject importance into the plot. This whole thing with Shade and the Zoah and what-have-you wouldn't seem so stupid to me if it didn't look an awful lot like Black Doom and the Black Arms.

[James McGeachie]

The game seriously still looks too slow. Not too slow in an "omg Sonic games need to be super fast" bullshit sort of way either, just in the way that everything looks clunky and slow to play, the experience doesn't seem remotely streamlined.

It's still insanity that someone really thought turn based battling was the way to go for a Sonic RPG. It could've easily been real time action, featuring optional character switching to take advantage of strengths and weaknesses.

[FlashTHD]

It's still insanity that someone really thought turn based battling was the way to go for a Sonic RPG. It could've easily been real time action, featuring optional character switching to take advantage of strengths and weaknesses.

face

palm

That didn't remind you of anything the moment you stopped typing it?

Turn based battles can be blazing fast. See Mario & Luigi 1. The producer for this (I think it was) even cited that series as an example of what they were aiming for in the first NP preview. And yes, looks like they failed that pretty badly in their point-and-click adventure game guest starring Sonic the Hedgehog and co.

[Ngangbius]

The battles in Dragon Quest IV looks more faster-paced(as well as much better looking) than this title.

[James McGeachie]

face

palm

That didn't remind you of anything the moment you stopped typing it?

Should it have? I can't think of anything.

Do you mean Sonic Battle or something? I've never played that so honestly I have no idea how it turned out.

Or are you making some weird comparison to Sonic Heroes, despite the fact we're talking about 2 completely different genres and styles of play?

[FlashTHD]

"Weird"?

It could've easily been real time action, featuring optional character switching to take advantage of strengths and weaknesses.

Pull out the optional part and you've got Sonic Heroes alright.

[Ngangbius]

Come to think of it, Sonic Heroes did seem like an attempt to turn Sonic into a shoddy Action RPG. It introduced multiple-hit regular baddies and it gave us that dreadful level up system.