Sonic in a RPG! Yeah I didn't think it would work either.
The story to this game is highly forgettable it turns out some guy called Emperor Ix has decided to destroy or enslave (I'm honestly not certain) the world and it's up to Sonic and Co. to save the day. Unfortunately the story doesn't keep you hooked and you'll find yourself reaching for that skip button quite a lot. This been a Bioware game it has the Multi-Choice answer scheme and as far as I can tell it doesn't matter what you choose as it makes no difference to the outcome and although it is fun been constantly sarcastic to everyone no one ever makes a big deal about it, in fact they laugh it off and smile at you almost like they have really low self-esteem or something. This been a Sonic game though it has the crux of all the others ones and that is the side characters. Now I am fine with Sonic, Tails and Knuckles there cool, Robotnik and Omega are alright as well but the rest of them can go die for all I would care, I mean who honestly likes Rouge the Bat and if you do you are officially an idiot and probably a disappointment to your parents.
Ok on to the Gameplay and it isn't that bad it's your standard RPG formula run around environment, pick up needed object and bring it back. There are side-quests to do if you want but there just more of the same and gets boring fast. There are Chao's and rings to collect if you want but getting everything doesn't do anything and is pretty much pointless ( the Chao's though do have a feature where you can attach them to your character and they will give you special abilities but only a few of them have any use). The battle system itself is turn-based and the only bit of real interest about it is the POW move system where you can activate special moves by tapping and sliding your stylus in time with the circles, and speaking as someone who has 17 S-Ranks on Hard Rock on EBA it is incredibly easy to do. The enemies also have POW moves but they can be blocked in the same screen tapping way and so it gets to the point where you want the enemies to do a POW move as they are easy to block and do no damage then. The main problem with the battle system is the Flee move when you can escape from battle but it does it so you have to jump over boxes as you run by tapping the character to do so but tapping the characters is awkward and you will need a perfectly calibrated screen for it to work well.
The Graphics to this game are quite nice, the backgrounds are very detailed and the cities are well designed with many secret passages for those who like to explore but when you get to the battle screen the backgrounds are horrible and you wonder why Bioware couldn't have made them to the same standard as the rest of the game. The music though will be great to some and be incredibly annoying to others and there certainly isn't any classic Sonic tunes that you'll want to listen to again and I found myself playing with the sound off.
This game is too easy and it doesn't actually take you that long to complete it I would say most people will complete it within 15-20 hours which isn't great for an RPG but not terrible for a handheld console I guess. The thing is though the boss battles are far to easy and if you have levelled up your character enough you will never be faced with too many problems, especially when you consider that you practically fall over health and PP restorers so there is never really any problems.
There is a Wi-Fi mode where you can trade the Chao's you have collected but I don't see why anybody would want to do that I mean there are only 47 of them and I managed to find 41 of them without even trying so I can hardly recommend this. There is no Multi-Player mode which is a shame because a Co-Op mode could have worked but this will hopefully be considered for the next game.
Maybe the biggest thing going against Sonic Chronicles is that there are so many RPG's on the Nintendo DS and quite frankly most of them are better for example Final Fantasy 3 + 4 (if you like that sort of thing) and The World Ends With You (which is the best on the console).
So did Sonic Chronicles make me fall in love with the RPG genre? The answer to that is a resounding No but there is scope for a really good game in here and with a sequel already confirmed it just needs a bit of refining which Bioware is more than capable of. This has to be a game for die hard Sonic fans and RPG fanatics only and you might be wise waiting for the sequel instead.
Pros
+ Nice Graphics with detailed backgrounds
+ The Battle system isn't terrible.
Cons
- Story is Boring and very forgettable
- Battle system isn't that great either
- Too easy and short
- Not as good as TWEWY
Overall
6.5