User:TheJoebro64/drafts/Chronic

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (ソニッククロニクル 闇次元からの侵略者) is a 2008 role-playing video game (RPG) developed by BioWare for the Nintendo DS. It is the first RPG in Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog franchise and BioWare's debut game for a handheld console. The story, split into two acts, initially focuses on the kidnapping of Knuckles the Echidna and the disappearance of the Chaos Emeralds, before moving on to follow the Sonic cast's attempts to prevent an extradimensional tribe from invading their world.

Gameplay
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is a role-playing video game (RPG) played using the Nintendo DS system's touchscreen. The game features traditional RPG gameplay, split between exploration and combat. In exploration areas, the player character is controlled using the DS stylus

Plot
After the destruction of Eggman's airship at the hands of Sonic and his friends, Eggman is presumed dead. Sonic, on vacation, learns from Tails that Knuckles has been kidnapped by the Marauders, a group that has stolen the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic goes with Amy to meet Tails. They are escorted by Rouge to meet the G.U.N. Commander, who informs them that G.U.N. has been watching the Marauders for some time, and knows where to search. The group locates the Marauders' base and, with the help of Big, they find Knuckles escaping from robots; leaving the base, they discover Angel Island is gone. Devices found in their search help them locate a surviving Eggman, who claims to be have reformed. Eggman informs the team that Angel Island has been pulled to Metropolis, the location of the Marauders' main base.

With Metropolis as their next destination, the group meets Shadow and he joins them to find E-123 Omega, but they are attacked by Shade and the Marauders. Shade reveals she is an echidna of the Nocturnus tribe, leaving Knuckles, supposedly the last echidna, shocked. After her defeat, the group heads to Angel Island to get the Master Emerald before the Marauders, but are shot down; they confront the Nocturnus leader, Ix, who reveals he plans to take over Sonic's dimension. Shade is shocked, having believed that Ix merely wanted to bring her clan back to Earth, as they had been sealed in the Twilight Cage. Tails and Eggman arrive with a non-lethal weapon, using it transport several of the Nocturnus back to the Twilight Cage, but Ix escapes and steals the Master Emerald. Angel Island falls from the sky, and Knuckles saves Shade as the island crashes into Metropolis.

Tails and Eggman build a vehicle, the Cyclone, that transports the group to the Twilight Cage; Eggman remains to ensure their safe return. The group encounters the rock-like Kron Colony, which assists them by providing a Chaos Emerald. Next, they meet the N'rrgal Colony, which promises a Chaos Emerald if they take a weapon from their enemy, the Zoah. The group gains the Zoah's weapon by defeating their leader in combat, but discovers it is another Chaos Emerald; the two races were deceived 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 that has been controlled by a group of three Voxai, the Overmind, whose dominating telepathic power stemmed from the use of Chaos Emeralds. The team defeats them, and the new leader gives them the Emeralds.

With the remaining two Emeralds on Nocturne, the group gathers the leaders of all the colonies to carry out a plan to invade the Nocturnus home world. The Voxai find weaknesses in the force field around the planet. The Zoah flies a spaceship created by the Kron towards the shield and launches a missile that deploys a small group of N'rrgal to eat a hole in it. The group defeats two Gizoids using a Chaos Emerald to wield the elements of fire and water, and lowers the force field to allow the other Twilight Cage races to attack. The group then fights and defeats Ix, but Ix uses the Master Emerald to transform into his super form. However, Sonic uses the Chaos Emeralds to become Super Sonic, and kills Ix. As Nocturne begins to fall, the group escapes to the Cyclone. They return to their dimension, only to discover that several years have passed and Eggman stayed behind so he could take over the world. The game ends on a cliffhanger, as the group prepares to confront Eggman.

Development

 * http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_Chronicles:_The_Dark_Brotherhood/Magazine_articles
 * BioWare announced in September 2006 that it was working on an untitled game for the DS. Fans speculated that it could be a new installment in one of the studio's existing franchises, such as Jade Empire and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. As such, it came as quite a surprise when the game was revealed to be a Sonic RPG.
 * In terms of transitioning the speedy gameplay of Sonic to the slower-paced RPG genre, designer Miles Holmes said that BioWare's main focus was to build another compelling RPG, but still "incorporate [Sonic] trademark elements of speed wherever they make sense." BioWare still wanted to retain this even in the slower-paced environment.
 * Unlike most 2D RPGs, which feature tile-based maps, the environments in Sonic Chronicles are hand-drawn, something that took considerable effort. Lead artist Joel MacMillan said this was done to revive the classic Sonic art style.
 * The team incorporated the traditional Sonic game mechanic of collecting rings in Sonic Chronicles as a form of currency to retain traditional RPG shops.
 * https://www.ign.com/articles/2008/02/15/sonic-chronicles-the-dark-brotherhood-interview
 * https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/110056/QA_BioWares_Sonic_Chronicles_Is_Scrumming_It_On_DS.php
 * https://web.archive.org/web/20080817180225/http://www.seganerds.com/2008/08/11/exclusive-bioware-sonic-chronicles-interview/
 * https://web.archive.org/web/20090629021745/http://palgn.com.au/nintendo-ds/12392/sonic-chronicles-the-dark-brotherhood-interview/
 * https://uk.ign.com/videos/2008/09/18/sonic-chronicles-ds-developer-diary-2-creating-the-game?objectid=856273
 * https://web.archive.org/web/20080917123913/http://www.gamezone.com/news/09_05_08_05_54PM.htm
 * https://www.ign.com/articles/2007/06/21/bioware-creating-sonic-rpg-for-ds

Legacy

 * Ken Penders lawsuit: ,
 * https://www.gamezone.de/Sonic-Chronicles-Die-dunkle-Bruderschaft-Spiel-33823/News/Sonic-Chronicles-2-Kommt-eine-Fortsetzung-947544/
 * Sources calling the game "weird": ,
 * https://www.gamesradar.com/best-bioware-games/
 * Sequel:, ,