GTKatz

I can't help but want to like this game. Note I said "want to like", but the truth is, this game really was a mixed bag for me. To keep it simple, I'll list the pros and cons that I believe hold the game back. Pros - Story and script. Whether canon or not, I don't care, but the story does have interesting moments and follows through with its narrative pretty fairly. Mind you, the premise is a bit hackneyed, but this is Sonic, tropes in the franchise have been to death, often by the desire of fans, so no big deal. - Art Style. At first, I wasn't too keen on the art style Sonic Chronicles had, but as I played, and eventually got into the later game acts, the design choices began to make more aesthetic sense to me. The character designs and backdrops were nicely rendered, and meshed well with the cartoony feel the game was going for. - Conversational Freedom. The fact that you could make Sonic reply to people's statements in either a passive, aggressive, sarcastic, or crass manner made me smile. And with BioWare aware of this trend in RPGs, I was glad it was implemented as it adds to the story, not to mention the interaction between the characters. - Characters. This includes enemies and NPCs. I enjoyed the fact there were a multitude of people to talk to, including other Sonic characters, such as GUN Commander and Vector. Cons - Sprite Textures. OMG were these things ugly. I mean, it'd be one thing to have used the models from Sonic R, which were simple polygons and well done for the hardware, or even to go full-on 2D sprites. First off, the models had this annoying charcoal grey outline that was, I guess, to look like a hard inked line seen in 2D artwork. Not to mention, the models were clunky and jarring. Simpler models or even 2D sprites would have sufficed. - Music. Central City theme and the battle music. Central City's theme, a detuned, broken down remix of Diamond Dust Zone for 3D Blast, was terrible in the sense it wasn't calming, it wasn't very town sounding, and seemed to be more fitting for an abandoned amusement park. The battle themes leave something to be desired, as much of them start to sound more and more similar as time goes on. Though the sound is very electronic and gritty, it almost feels as if there's no structure, no beat to get pumped for a fight. Now, not to try and compare it to Final Fantasy, but I will, which had the same intro for the first six games, all varied their own battle themes in some way or another so that they could be easily discernible from one another. It's not that I don't like that kind of music, as it seemed to have worked in the Adventure series, but it just doesn't feel right in the setting. Now in the chase scenes, it seemed more appropriate, but not in the battles, where so many are used to a driving bass riff to start off. - Platforming and QTEs. I'm sorry, but having to stop, tap the icon, and then perform the action just to reach a platform is ridiculous to me. But this wasn't just a flaw with Sonic Chronicles, many RPGs on the DS suffered this dilemma of relying on the touch screen for motion and platforming. Now if it were implemented well, then yeah, maybe, but no. It's jarring, it's ugly, and it just kills any pace any level of player has. Also, on a similar note, the quick-time events for battle, a nice idea, trying hard to utilize the concept Mario RPG started in 1995, but just falls short into aiding in delivering a enjoyable playing experience. How come? Because the actions become too complicated too quickly, and the fact it requires the utmost precision to perform, on a system damned for its imprecision. One pixel off, or two frames late, too bad, the action has failed. And thankfully, QTEs were only special attacks and chase scenes, because though I'd have liked to see Normal Attacks utilize QTEs for damage boosts, the way they were implemented here in Chronicles makes me glad they weren't. - Experience curve. Experience curve so sharp, even Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance is like, "Ouch." Instead of steadily diminishing with each level gained or just an increase in required EXP, what happens? After a level or two, an enemy that dropped 100 XP will then drop only 10 XP after the next level up. Understandably, there is a limited amount of levels to aspire to, but that doesn't mean there should be a sheer cliff or roller coaster ride with XP. Not to mention, most of the time you actually have to grind for a long while to just to increase a level, like an hour at some points. - Status Allocation. Not as loathed as some of the other cons, but still a negative feature overall, mostly just because it's poorly utilized. Even though the points are defined as to what they improve, the flexibility to improve a character in a general direction and terms are not accurate as to what they actually are. Your attack, defense, and special are improved automatically, and what you improve is your accuracy, evasion, and luck. RPGs are should be flexible. Period.