WILL Talks GAMES - Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood

SONIC CHRONICLES: THE DARK BROTHERHOOD

Yeah, this obscure game is what I'm talking about right now. It's bad enough that I can't even watch anything Sonic-related on Youtube anymore without having to read sissy fanboy comments about the series, but I even have to hear people bitch about how terrible this game was! Y'know what? I liked this game. It's challenging, got some nice visuals for what they had to work with, the music itself was low-quality, but catchy enough, and I must say that I was impressed with the writing. I can see why people don't think it's the next Tales of the Abyss or Final Fantasy, but it's not a bad game. I won't go into particulars or anything, but a review score from me would garner a solid 7/10. Not a masterpiece of a game, but  humble experience that will sorta trail ith you, causing you to remember it from time to time and remind yourself, "Oh yeah, that was a pretty cool game".



It should also go without saying that the people who call it shit are the RPG enthusiasts who are dim-witted enough to compare to The World Ends with You, when in essence, it came from Bioware, responsible for the Mass Effect series. If that doesn't instill some kind of optimism for a first impression, then I don't know what will. A few things about the game, though:

Earth Shaker, is that what it's called? I forget.Either way, this was one of
my favorite moves to use as Knuckles. It murdered EVERYTHING.

• This is a casual RPG; no need to restock the best items and check the shops between chapters, or grind levels; it' a story-based RPG, and therefore, the flow of the story lets the difficulty creep with it.

• Play the game in short spurts. The game is a sort of thing that's best-played in pocket doses. No, it's not bad, but it's a game that's nice to just play in small doses, to allow your imagination to fill in gaps and allow immersion to settle in.

• Be a fan of the franchise it's coming from. If you hate Sonic, then obviously, don't play this. Al of the main franchise characters are in the game, and if it's Sonic-like shticks you don't like, then you will NOT like this game.

Follow by these little bits of criteria, and you'll learn to respect the RPG; maybe it won't be a favorite or a breakthrough in your gaming tastes, but it'll be a nice project to focus on if you were stumped for games to play, and had a week to kill. It's a humble, simple RPG that would make a very nice rental! Then again, people like me felt the same about Deep Labyrinth...

Yeah, the game looks like a pixely mess, but it really IS a fun one to play around with!

Anyway, I decided to to do another run-through of the same since, upon researching a few optional scenes int he game, I decided to find some of these things. For one, I never knew Cream was an unlockable character in the game, and was optional to get. This means that I missed her by a complete accident! Apparently she's the "White Mage" of the game, providing less power and technical help than Amy and Tails respectively, but she's generally better for healing, buffs, and other things. 

Apparently I can unlock all these different scenes depending how much I kiss Amy's ass in conversation, and unlock more alternate scenes if I'm a dick to Shadow. I wanna see these tiny story arcs! Call it a sort of fanservice, if you will, to see these characters deepening their character depth by having exclusive scenes with one another, but meh, I've been a longtime fan of the series and all the characters; I grew up with them and feel like I really know them. Something like this, and me missing out on it, jsut makes me feel like I've ignored a best friend.

Selecting all the different reactions for Sonic
to have in conversation is a blast.
"Say Tails? Uhh...What's your favorite color?"

Anyway, as I mentioned before, I'm playing in tiny little sessions. Literally. I played 20 minutes of it just now, for starting. I've gotten to the town for the first time, and I saved there, meaning I'm about to have Rouge join my party, if I'm correct. She's not exactly the best fighter; her gimmick is stealing rings and items from enemies, so she's quite literally the Thief class of the game. She's not strong, not fast, and can't really take a hit, so she's next to useless. It IS funny to watch her and Sonic flirt it up from time and time: Amy never seems to like it that much. Sorry, but it's just so funny watching her get so mad!

I can't wait to get all the characters unlocked again! I remember loving using Sonic, Shade, Knuckles, and Omega together. They were just so awesome on the same team; they killed everything! I remember a funny time when I had to break my party into two teams, and not knowing I'd have to play on both sides, I put those four on one side, leaving Tails, Amy, Rouge, and Big on the other team. Man, that was really dumb of me to do. It certainly made that section of the game difficult...

Anyway, it's getting late, and I just wanted to share general thoughts and memories with you all. Lemme know what you think of the game in the comments below: remember, there's no such thing as a bad opinion! Whether you loved it or hated it, you'll have some sort of memory to go alongside the game, so let me in on what  it was! Also post below if there's a game on DS, Wii, Gamecube, etc, that I should play. I need games. :)

~WILL