Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood

Шаблон:Translateit Шаблон:Bob Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (Known in Japan as ソニッククロニクル闇次元からの侵略者, lit. Sonic Chronicles: Invaders from the Dark Dimension) is an RPG developed by famed Canadian RPG developer BioWare (Baldur's Gate; Neverwinter Nights) for the Nintendo DS. It was released in September 2008 in North America and Europe, with a later Japanese release in August 2009.

Story

The story of Sonic Chronicles is split into two acts, which are further divided into several chapters. The first takes place in Sonic's world, with the team attempting to unravel the situation they are in, whilst also stopping the Master Emerald from being taken. The second act sees Sonic and the team travelling to another dimension, called the Twilight Cage, in order to stop a new threat to their own world.

Sonic Chronicles opens by detailing Eggman's defeat, and presumed death, some time ago after the destruction of the Egg Carrier at the hands of Sonic and friends. In the present, Sonic is on vacation when he receives a call from Tails, stating that Knuckles has been kidnapped by a group called the Marauders, who have stolen the Chaos Emeralds. Travelling with Amy Rose to meet Tails, they are escorted by Rouge the Bat to meet the G.U.N. Commander, who informs them that they have been watching the Marauders for some time, and know where to search. Having no luck, they eventually locate the Marauders' base in the Mystic Ruins, and with the help of Big the Cat, they find Knuckles, who is found escaping from some robots; leaving the base, they find Angel Island has gone. Devices found in their initial search help them locate Eggman, who claims to be a reformed character, revealing that he survived the crash of the Egg Carrier by anticipating his own defeat and making a robot that would rescue him. He informs the team that Angel Island is being pulled to Metropolis, the location of the Marauders' main base.

With Metropolis as their next destination, they meet Shadow and join up in order to find E-123 Omega, but are attacked by Shade and her Marauders. She reveals herself to be an Echidna of the Nocturnus Tribe, leaving Knuckles, supposedly the last of the Echidnas, shocked. After her defeat, the team head to Angel Island to get the Master Emerald before the Marauders, but are shot down; they confront the Nocturnus leader, the Grand Imperator Ix, who reveals his plot to take over the dimension. Shade is shocked, having believed that Ix merely wanted to bring her clan back to Earth, as they had been sealed in an alternate dimension called the Twilight Cage. Tails and Eggman arrive with a non-lethal weapon, using it to transport several of the Nocturnus back to the Twilight Cage, but Ix escapes and steals the Master Emerald. This causes Angel Island to fall from the sky, and Knuckles saves Shade as the island crashes into Metropolis.

Tails and Eggman build a vehicle, dubbed the Cyclone, that will transport them to the other dimension, but Eggman claims he must remain to ensure their safe return; as they leave, he reveals that he has a more sinister plan in mind for them. Once in the Twilight Cage, the team encounter the rock-like Kron Colony, who assist them on their journey by providing them with a Chaos Emerald. Next, they meet the N'rrgal Colony, who will give the team their Chaos Emerald if they take a weapon from their enemies, the Zoah. Having gained the Zoah's weapon by defeating their leader in combat, the team discover it is another Chaos Emerald — the two races realise they have been duped by Ix, who gave them the Emeralds to keep each other in check. Two further Emeralds are found in the Voxai Colonies, inhabited by a telepathic race who have been controlled by a group of three Voxai known as the Overmind, whose dominating telepathic power stemmed from the use of Chaos Emeralds. The team defeat them, and the new leader gives them the two Emeralds that had been given to them by Ix.

With the remaining two Emeralds on Nocturne, the team gathers the leaders of all encountered colonies and carries out a plan to invade the Nocturnus home world. The Voxai find weaknesses in the force field around the planet, the N'rrgal suck energy from it, and the Zoah launch a missile created by the Kron that can penetrate it. Splitting into two teams, they defeat two Gizoids who each use a Chaos Emerald to wield the elements of fire and water, and also lower the force field surrounding Nocturne in order to allow the invading forces from the other Twilight Cage races to attack. Both Knuckles' and Sonic's team then fight Ix, and are victorious; Ix then uses the Master Emerald to achieve a Super Transformation, but Sonic uses the Chaos Emeralds to become Super Sonic, and defeats him. As Nocturne begins to fall, and is nearly destroyed, the team escapes to the Cyclone and heads back to Earth. Once back in Metropolis, they find Eggman waiting for them with a rebuilt Metropolis, and the team take the Cyclone to confront the new Eggman Empire. The game ends at this cliffhanger moment.

Playable Characters

All playable characters are put in classes that determine their unique abilities. These classes are Power (ex: Sonic), Shifter (ex: Tails), and Support (ex: Amy).

Sonic the Hedgehog (Power)
Miles "Tails" Prower (Shifter)
Knuckles the Echidna (Power)
Amy Rose (Support)
Rouge the Bat (Shifter)
Shadow the Hedgehog (Power)
Big the Cat (Support)
E-123 Omega (Power) - Optional character (not necessary to complete the game)
Dr. Eggman (Shifter)
Shade (Power)
Cream the Rabbit (Support) - Optional character (not necessary to complete the game)

The player can have up to four characters in a party at one time, with Sonic as a mandatory protaganist. Characters can use their various Movement Abilities to access certain areas of terrain which are otherwise impassable; for example, only Big, with his "Invulnerable III" attribute, can push through the bioelectric fields of the N'rrgal Colony.

See Sonic Chronicles POW Moves for details on the character's combat attacks.

Gameplay

As with many RPGs, two main types of gameplay will appear: exploration, and combat. During Exploration the character is directed by using the stylus while obstacles are cleared by pressing an action button. The combat scenes also be controlled with the stylus. By rhythmically tapping the stylus special attacks can be performed at the cost of POW points. Certain special attacks require certain characters to be in the party as they participate in it. After a winning victory currency, experience points, and possibly items are left behind.

Characters will also be able to collect and equip Chao, each with their own ability, to enhance a team member's status. These Chao will be collectable and can be stored in the Chao Garden, and using the Wi-Fi link, players will be able to swap the Chao they have collected.

Chapters

01: Hostile Reception
02: The Search For Knuckles
03: Egghunt
04: A Wolf In The Shadows
05: Battle For Angel Island
06: Black Hole Sun
07: Quest For The Chaos Emeralds
08: Sector Scylla
09: Sector Charybdis
10: Citadel Showdown

Trivia

This is the first Sonic game since Sonic Adventure, where Robotnik actually referred to himself as "Doctor Robotnik".
Sonic Heroes is alluded to as several teams from it are present (except for Team Chaotix although Vector the Crocodile is mentioned, and makes a brief appearance).
Team Rose is mistakenly called "Team Amy" in the game.
Cutscenes do not feature extensive voice recording, basically only character grunts were used in the game.
Swatbots from SatAM are present, and Metropolis bears greater resemblence to its Fleetway portrayal than it does to the Metropolis Zone factory-city of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-bit).

Manuals

Production Credits

BioWare - Programming

Lead Programmer: Brook Bakay
Programming: Dan Hein, Dan Fessenden, Zousar Shaker, Chris Michael Smith, Mark Brockington, Andrew Gardner
Tools: Andy Desplenter and Scott Meadows
Additional Tools: Neil Flynn and Rejean Poirier

BioWare - Production

President: Dr. Greg Zeschuk
CEO: Dr. Ray Muzyka
Core Design:Mark Darrah, Dan Tudge, Brook Bakay, Joel MacMillan, Miles Holmes
Project Director: Mark Darrah
Associate Producer: Dorian Kieken
Assistant Producer: Steve Lam

BioWare - Quality Assurance

Lead QA: Mitchell Fujino
QA: Arone Le Bray, John Epler, Michael Liaw

BioWare - Art

Lead Artist: Joel MacMillan
Concept/Levels: Joy Ang, Nick Thornburrow, Brian Sum
3D: Dustin Nelson, Francis Lacuna
Technical Artist: Elliot Christian
Animation: Nick DiLiberto, Arneil Marquez
GUI: Nelson Housden

BioWare - Design

Lead Designer: Miles Holmes
Tech Design: Graham Scott, Jonathan Epp, Jonathan Ferland
Additional Design: Raylene Deck, Cookie Everman
Writing: Jay Turner
Thanks: Keith Warner, Karin Weekes, Corey Gaspur

BioWare - Audio

Audio: Steve Sim
Additional Music: Richard Jacques

BioWare - Localization/External

Localization Producer: Jenny McKearney
Tools: Chris Christou, Chris Mihalick
External Producer: John Campbell

BioWare - Special Thanks

Handheld Group Founder: Dan Tudge
Special Thanks: Scott Horner, Edi Osghian, Mike Laidlaw, Richard Boylan, Karin Weekes, Chris Hale, Vance Dylan, Jeremie Voillot, Marwan Audeh

SEGA - America

CEO:Naoya Tsurumi
President & COO: Simon Jeffrey
Sonic Character Supervisor: Takashi Iizuka
Sonic Character Coordinator: Keith Palmer
Executive VP of Corporate Planning: Hitoshi Okuno
Vice-President of Sales: Sue Hughes-Taigen
Vice-President of Marketing: Sean Ratcliffe
Vice-President of Product Development: David Cobb
Development Operations Director: John Merlino
Senior Producer: Constantine Hantzopolous
Producer: Kirby Fong
Associate Producer: Ethan Einhorn
Director of Marketing: Don Mesa
Product Marketing Manager: Judy Gilbertson
Assistant Product Marketing Manager: Ken Balough
Director of Public Relations: Charles Scibetta
Public Relations Manager: Tali Fischer
Creative Services: Jen Groeling, Heather Lucchetti, Bridget Oates, Marco Garcia, Mary Disbrow
Web Producer: Marjorie Puruganan
Community Manager: Julian Mehlfeld
Flash Developer: Michael Dobbins
Web Developer: Jeremy Caine
QA Supervisors: Shawn Dobbins, Demetrius Griffin
Mastering Supervisor: Rhianna Kellom
Mastering Lab Technicians: Rey Buzon, Chris Rilles, Keith Aloro
Standards Supervisor: Stephen Akana
Standards Leads: Junior Sison, Christine Letheby
Standards Technicians: John Belcher, Lawrence Mann, Niroth Keo, Steven Cook, Anthony Williams
QA Lead Tester: Phil Musil
Assistant Lead Tester: Rishad Virgin
Testers: Aaron Keillor, Kelly Robertson, German Roverso, Jack Wagner, Jeff Hawkins, Tony Soto
Special Thanks: Who is Mr. Soup?, Nestor Protacio, Ms. Vuckovic, JC, BJ, PJ, Shawn Green, Brand Inman, Ken O., Luke Letizia

SEGA - Europe

CEO: Naoya Tsurumi
President/COO: Mike Hayes
Development Director: Gary Dunn
Director of European Marketing: Gary Knight Senior
Producer: Katrin Darolle
Assistant Producer: Alex Humphries
Head of External Development: Jim Woods
Publishing Manager: Nathalie Ransom
European PR: Lynn Daniel, Kerry Martyn, Wouter Van Vugt
Marketing Manager: David Corless
Brand Manager: Ben Chalmers-Stevens
Online Marketing Manager: Mike Evans
Creative Services: Alison Peat, Michelle Blake, Ed Bostock
Head of Operations: Mark Simmons
Purchasing Manager: Caroline Searle
Operations: Natalie Cooke
Legal Counsel: Nicky Boxall, Mark Bennett, Saad Choudri
Head of Development Services: Mark Le Breton
Localisation Manager: Marta Lois Gonzalez
Localisation Coordinator: Giuseppe Rizzo
Localisation Team: Antonella Marras, Antonio Catanese, Carole Kunzelmann, Brigitte Nadesan, Jean-Loup Lansac, Jesus Alvarez, Marco Borelli, Nicole Thomer, Daniela Kaynert, Jay Bannmuller, Sebastian Perez Salguero
Shift Managers: Stuart Arrowsmith Master
Technicians: John Hegarty, Jigar Patel, Roy Boateng
Senior Team Lead: Julie Metior
Team Lead: Natasha Sanders
Assistant Team Lead: Deanne Anderson
Testers: Ricky Lovage, Elweed Suliman, Andrew Coulson, Alexander Maw
Standards Coordinator: Mohammed Ajaib
Standards Technicians: Aaron Wright, Ross Caoli, Hiroki Saito
Language QA Coordinator: Jean Baptiste Bagot
Senior Language Team Lead: Stephan Wolschon
Assistant Language Team Lead: Goffredo Pagliei
Language Testers: Edoardo Levanti, Ludovic Garnier, Mario Horky, Rafael Bermudez

Other

QA (EA)

Senior QA Lead: Keith Vedol
QA Lead: Victor Romero
QA Test Team: Angelo Ayson, Shaun Kiggens, Leo Kuma, Nick Rocha

NITROGEN STUDIOS CANADA INC.

Unit Director/Storyboards: Greg Tiernan
Unit Producer/Project Manager: Nicole Stinn
Lead Animator/Storyboards: Mike Linton
Animator: Coin Giles, Jeff Bailey, Bryce Bezooyen, Darren Schmidtz
Compositor: Nadine Shinkaruk
"The Zoah" named by SEGA Nerds Ray Larabie at Typodemic

Official website

Sonic Chronicles website.

The Sonic Chronicles page on the Sega Europe and America websites features a minigame in which you control Sonic with the mouse, collecting rings in order to gain access to downloadable media. The game consists of two areas: Green Hill Zone and Voxai Colony Beta, which contain a total of 75 rings (some hidden behind scenery). Collecting a certain number of rings rewards you with two wallpapers, and a set of icons for collecting all the rings.