Sonic Chronicles (InstanceTopic, 17)
From Compile Worlds
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is the one and only official Sonic RPG in the entire Sonic series. It was made by BioWare, famous for games such as Mass Effect, so you know it will be good! ...Except it wasn't. With rudimentary gameplay, inconsistent artwork, and many other faults, the game is just okay at best, and was severely overhyped. Consequently, the Japanese didn't like it that much and had to wait two years to even get it. Needless to say, Chao has been day dreaming of doing Sonic RPG the right way ever since.
Playable characters
There are three classes of characters in Sonic Chronicles, Power, Support, and Shifter. Power characters do exactly what they say; they hit things hard. Supports also do exactly what it says on the tin. Shifter is a character that focuses in neither attribute, and can be used for either. Each character also has an overworld ability, though not all of them are unique. Despite this attempt at balance, most of the characters are compltely worthless, with the others being completely broken.
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- The blue 'tude with a dude is back as a Power type character. One of the only useful party members in the game.
- Miles "Tails" Prower
- Sonic's best friend plays a Support character and is incredibly weak. Only ever useful when paired with Dr. Eggman.
- Knuckles the Echidna
- The red echidna who doesn't chuckles like Sonic does. He's a Power type character that sees more use in the late game.
- Amy Rose
- Sonic's self-proclaimed girlfriend and a Shifter character. Useful early on, but she becomes completely useless later.
- Cream the Rabbit
- The pacifist, pure-hearted rabbit appears to be the most broken Support character in the entire game! Just don't forget she's optional...
- Big the Cat
- For some reason, they made Big a Support character, thus making him totally worthless despite hyping his appearance in the game. Thanks, BioWare.
- Shadow the Hedgehog
- The ultimate lifeform and a decent Power character. He sees good use, but is a liability plot-wise, only being around to complain.
- Rouge the Bat
- Sassmaster extraordinaire, but she has no room to talk as a worthless Shifter character. Like Amy, she only serves her purpose well in the beginning.
- Dr. Eggman
- The mad doctor joins as a temporary Shifter character, and is completely broken as the system dictates! He has a one KO that works on bosses for Pete's sake!
- e-123 Omega
- Eggman's last e-series robot, and the epitome of the Power character. Like Cream, such brokenness is only optional, but it's practically mandated by the late game.
- Shade the Echidna
IT'S JULIE-SUA girl echidna who is the most broken Power character, what with her god damn life absorbing attacks and co-op moves with Knuckles.
Plot
Sonic is relaxing in Green Hill Zone when Tails tells him that Knuckles got kidnapped a mysterious gang of Marauders and that Amy should go with him to see him in Central City. Reluctant to the obvious author-forced shipping, Sonic only agrees because there's an eminent sense of danger looming about. After reaching the City Tails and Rouge escort them to the GUN headquaters, where the GUN commander (who is suddenly a nice guy now) and Vector the Crocodile inform Sonic about the "Dark Brotherhood", the mysterious new enemy Sonic is up against. They determine that their base is in the Mystic Ruins and give chase, picking up Big to use his blubber as a meat shield along the way. They find the base abandoned and Knuckles is set free, only to find that Angel Island has mysteriously vanished in the move to Keiji's VPS. They immediately assume this is Eggman's doing and forget about the real villains. Eggman however, reveals that the precious Angel Island was stolen by the Brotherhood and is headed towards Metropolis, which was formerly Eggman's Base. He joins them to escort them to Metropolis, but not before being beat up and stalled by Shadow's angsting in Blue Ridge Zone.
When they try to enter the good doctor's city, however, they are stopped by Shade, a Marauder who reveals herself to be Julie-Su a girl Echidna, much to Knuckles' horror.
With Knuckles distracted by his desires and shock, Shade blocks off Metropolis, forcing Eggman to sneak them in by a hidden tram system. After leading a raid on Metropolis and constructing a "non-leathal weapon" to send the Brotherhood to whence they came, Sonic and friends confront the leader of the Brotherhood, Imperator Ix, an evil technophile Echidna hellbent on taking over the universe. Shade, not recognizing this was Ix's goal, tries to defect, but it is too late, as Ix slaps her away to force some more shipping pandering with Knuckles and makes off with the Master Emerald. Shade soon reveals that they are Nocturnus Clan Echidnas, who were banished to the Twilight Cage by the power of the psychotic god Argus, and that they have to chase Ix back to the cage to stop them. Eggman teleports them to the cage, staying behind to conquer the world in Sonic's absence.
Meanwhile, Sonic and gang bounce around the Twilight Cage, turning several other bickering alien allies of the Nocturnus against them so that they can enter their base and confront Ix. In yet another Archie-style plot twist, the Nocturnus are revealed to be the creators of the gizoids, and have two of them, Scylla and Cherub, attack them. However, Sonic smashes them to pieces. Knuckles meanwhile takes off with Shade to confront Ix personally, where he reveals that he was trying to out do Pachamac, the leader of Knuckles and Tikal's tribe, by taking over the world with their advanced technology in ancient times. Sonic catches up, forcing Ix to use the Master Emerald to become super, and Sonic to use the Chaos Emeralds to do the same (how convenient). After the most anti-climatic finale ever, Ix runs away as the Nocturnus base collapses and Sonic and friends warp back. They find that they've been in the Cage for so long that Eggman was able to take over the world. Sonic and Tails read off the credits as a joke, ending the game. Yes, it ends on a cliffhanger.
And we'll never know what happens next because BioWare was cocky enough to assume that SEGA'd contract them for a sequel despite being bought out by EA midway through development. Oops!
