Sonic Chronicles



Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (2008) is a RPG Spin-Off from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, developed by none other than BioWare. Unlike many other spin-off titles in the Sonic (which typically receive mixed to negative responses), Chronicles was greeted with very positive reviews.

A year or so after Eggman's latest defeat, the doctor is still missing in action, and is presumed dead. The peace doesn't last very long, though, as Sonic receives a call from Tails explaining that Knuckles has been kidnapped by a mysterious new group named the Marauders, who have also stolen all the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic then teams up with Tails, Amy, and Rouge in order to rescue Knuckles.

A sequel was announced, but nothing's been seen of it yet.

Tropes featured in the game:
"Eggman: Inter-dimensional travel isn't like dusting crops, boy!"
 * Action Commands - During special skills, and non-damage dealing ones fail completely if you miss even one; see Useless Useful Spell, below.
 * Animated Actors - The credits are delivered by having Sonic, Tails and Omega Break The Fourth Wall to discuss the developers.
 * Arson, Murder, and Admiration - After working together with Eggman, Tails seems to think of him less as an enemy and more as a fellow scientist, often commenting things like "Wow, I bet Eggman would love to see this!". If you call him out on it, he'll stop.
 * A Taste of Power - Sort of.
 * Badass in Distress - The game's plot kicks off by having Knuckles kidnapped by the Marauders after they overwhelm him and Tails in a fight. By the time the heroes track him down, he's already managed to break free.
 * But Thou Must! - Averted. If you bring Cheese to Cream and she asks to join you, while if you say no she does ask multiple times, she does eventually give up.
 * Chekhov's Boomerang - Emerl was picked up from Sonic Battle, dusted off, and woven into the Nocturnus' history.
 * Canon Discontinuity - Word of God states that this game is not canon in any way.
 * Canon Immigrant - The Swatbots from the SatAM cartoon.
 * According to Word of God, the entire game was a Canon Immigrant, specifically of Knuckles' Archie Comics miniseries, hence all of the uncanny parallels between Shade, Imperatore Ix, and the Nocturnus to the comics' Julie-Su, Fintevus, and the Dark Legion.
 * Can't Catch Up - Averted by giving earned experience points to everyone, whether they're in your party, back at the safehouse, and even the characters that haven't met you yet.
 * Can't Drop the Hero
 * Colony Drop - Once again, Angel Island ends up falling when the Master Emerald is stolen. Unfortunately, it crashed onto a city this time.
 * Continuity Nod - Several. The game is even helpful enough to provide you with a mini-encyclopedia on the previous Sonic games in one of the menus so you can get caught up on any of the relevant Backstory that you might not have played before or had forgotten about.
 * Well, most of it, anyway. Amy having a tarot-themed POW move is not explained, and she'd last been seen dabbling in tarot some 15 years prior to this game's release.
 * Continuity Porn - The game makes a huge point to tie itself in with most of the games of the series.
 * Continuity Snarl - ...But falls flat because it gets a lot of details wrong.
 * Media Research Failure: The codex claims that Sonic teamed up with Shadow to stop Eggman in Sonic Adventure 2. There's no grain of truth in this claim whatsoever.
 * Darker and Edgier
 * Deadpan Snarker - Rouge
 * You can also have Sonic dabble in this, if you keep picking the "snarky" dialogue options. Not nearly as deadpan as Rouge, though.
 * Dialogue Tree - As Tails explains it, you usually can choose between getting through the conversation as fast as possible, being nice, being neutral, and being snarky and rude.
 * The Dragon(s) - Scylla and Charyb.
 * Duel Boss -
 * Also, General Raxos.
 * The Empire - Ix certainly runs the Twilight Cage like one. His title is "Imperator" for crying out loud.
 * Expy - Shade is pretty clearly an expy of Julie-Su, and the Nocturnus are expies of the Dark Legion.
 * There's even an expied area with the Twilight Cage. Bioware admittedly just took Archie's echidna history and adapted it to the games.
 * Evil Albino - Imperator Ix
 * Evil Overlord - Imperator Ix
 * Evil Versus Evil- The backstory gives us
 * Fastball Special - Rather common in Sonic's special attacks.
 * Final Exam Boss - The last battle with Ix tests to see how good you are with the Action Commands. And the one right before it checks your skill at the fleeing/catch-the-fleeing-enemies minigame.
 * Five-Man Band:
 * The Hero - Sonic
 * The Lancer - Rouge, Knuckles, Shadow
 * The Big Guy - Big the Cat, Omega
 * The Smart Guy - Tails,
 * The Chick - Amy, Cream,
 * The Sixth Ranger -
 * Team Pet - Cheese
 * Fragile Speedster - Sonic, naturally. Also, Rouge.
 * Genre Savvy - Rouge, to an extent.
 * Glass Cannon -.
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom - Ix
 * Good Feels Good - Surprisingly,
 * He Knows About Timed Hits - Tails constantly reminding you to save your game. You can tell him to stop doing that, though.
 * Heel Face Turn -
 * Hive Mind - The Voxai.
 * Jack of All Stats: Amy.
 * Knight Templar: Though Shade believes she is doing good and merely helping her kind reach home, she is willing to follow through with Ix's rather brutal strategies of doing so without question. She does not flicker an eyelid at his squad invading innocent civilians or brutally ambushing Sonic and Knuckles
 * A Hannibal Lecture by Ix later in the game suggests him to be a Knight Templar himself, claiming he intends to make the world a better place
 * Near the end of the game, Knuckles confesses that he's worried Sonic might be this towards the Nocturnus Clan, leading Knuckles to give Ix a Last Second Chance before Sonic can get there.
 * Leaked Experience - Notable in that party members don't actually level up from it until you put them back in the party for the purpose of distributing extra stat and skill points.
 * Left Hanging - aside, what's the deal with the "Argus events" that sucked all the races into the Twilight Cage?
 * Lightning Bruiser - Shadow.
 * Lost Forever - Due to the multiple Points Of No Return, almost everything. Most notably, both Optional Party Members and a lot of rings.
 * Mass Teleportation - Any civilization that ended up in the Twilight Cage.
 * Mecha-Mooks -
 * Mighty Glacier - Omega and Knuckles.
 * Mythology Gag - Sort of. The game uses a lot of plot threads that Sega discarded or forgot about, especially from Sonic Battle. And then there's plenty of actual franchise references.
 * New Game+ - Characters join your party at the same level they were at the end of the game. You're given the freedom to reassign all of their points used to boost their special abilities (except Sonic, since he technically never joins the party), allowing you to play around with new strategies. For some odd reason, although Chao Eggs regenerate, allowing you to collect any rare ones that you may have missed last time, rings don't, which means you have to depend on selling items back to the shops in order to make any more money.
 * Noble Demon - Shade.
 * No Ending - Combined with Sequel Hook. The game ends with
 * Odd Friendship -
 * One-Hit-Point Wonder - Built on the "Shedinja" model..
 * Operation: Jealousy - Amy claims to have a new boyfriend named Dexter. He's never seen, and depending on dialogue choices, Sonic suspects she's making him up. If you're nice to Amy throughout the game, she eventually admits that she made him up.
 * Optional Party Member - Cream and Omega, both of which can be Lost Forever.
 * Point of No Return - Multiple. Whatever you do, make absolutely sure you follow 's advice and don't go into Metropolis unless you're sure you've got everything you need. Also, make sure to get everything in Metropolis before trying to recapture the Master Emerald. And after that, get everything in Metropolis Ground Zero before finishing the chapter, and then make sure you have everything from the Twilight Cage before starting chapter 10.
 * Precursors - Someone lived in the Twilight Cage before anyone else did, and Nestor calls them this.
 * Randomly Drops - Chao are obtained at random each time you get an egg. You could get all the best ones right off the bat or end up with crappy ones throughout the course of the game. Somewhat helped by the ability to trade chao with friends.
 * However, the randomness of the chao can be exploited by saving before checking the egg. Different chao are hatched every time you load the same save and check the egg.
 * Required Party Member - Often, especially when the team splits up.
 * Scylla and Charybdis - The names of two locations as well as two robot guardians.
 * Shout-Out - A few to the SatAM cartoon (Swatbots), and the resident Robotic Psychopath calls a character "meatbag..."
 * And speaking of Star Wars:
 * Scylla and Charybdis - The names of two locations as well as two robot guardians.
 * Shout-Out - A few to the SatAM cartoon (Swatbots), and the resident Robotic Psychopath calls a character "meatbag..."
 * And speaking of Star Wars:


 * One of the sidequests in Chapter Three has you retrieve a man's prized stapler. The stapler in question is bright red.
 * The whole concept of a still-living echidna race, exiled to the Twilight Cage, sounds like what the Archie Comics did with their echidna race first.
 * One of Sonic's POW moves is called "Blue Bomber".
 * Snake Talk - The N'rrgal Colony.
 * Space Pirate - In a sidequest, with Talk Like a Pirate epically mocked by Rouge.
 * "Aye. A speech impediment it be."
 * Spoony Bard - While Rouge is certainly one of the most entertaining characters, she's not very good aside from her very valuable steal ability and the team moves.
 * If you get the secret characters, Tails and Knuckles turn into these.
 * Squishy Wizard - Tails and Cream, to an extent.
 * Stone Wall - Big.
 * There Is Another -
 * Timmy in a Well - Parodied in a side quest. Timothy technically is in a well, but is a grown man and doesn't need saving; maintaining the well is his job.
 * Took a Level in Jerkass - Sonic. Especially when the more snarky dialogue choices are taken.
 * Two Lines, No Waiting - Done twice, in Chapters in 5 and 10.
 * Useless Useful Spell - Several special skills are completely useless if you don't input every single action command perfectly. If you didn't, congratulations, you just lost a turn and a bunch of PP.
 * There is a Chao that will automatically grant you perfect results... too bad it takes a while to get.
 * Verbal Tic - Like Yoda, the Kron speak.
 * Villain Ball -
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist - Shade knows what she does under Ix is wrong, but views it as necessary to escape the Cage.
 * What Could Have Been - This game is almost an Unfinished Beta - the one we have now is a very stripped down version of what was originally planned. Hackers have discovered that the opening cutscene was to be A LOT longer and have an actual battle. The music would probably be actually good instead of strangely retro soundly. But no! All of this is likely the result of Bioware being bought by Electronic Arts roughly a year before the game released, and Bioware completed enough of the game to fulfill their contract to Sega so that they could concentrate on Dragon Age Origins.
 * Year Outside, Hour Inside - The Twilight Cage.