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Exclusive: Bioware - Sonic Chronicles interview

Posted by Graham. Filed under G, Interviews, News, Nintendo DS, Sonic. Tagged with Bioware, Sonic Chronicles.

Last Friday (08/08/2008), we were invited to a Sonic Chronicles presentation by Bioware’s Lead Designer, Miles Holmes.  We were given the time to interview Miles, (see above video), and were also given a demonstration of the game.

With a DS hooked up to a large screen, Miles played through a small segment, early in the game, and explained what was happening and explained Bioware’s reasons behind certain things in the game.

Unfortunately we were not allowed to video the presentation, so you will just have to make do with my notes.  Check after the break to read some of the things mentioned by Miles during his presentation.

The game he showed us was (apparently) 100% complete, which is good because the game is due out at the end of September (so, I’m glad they have finished it!).

A lot of what we were shown was from near the start of the game, which I have already described in detail to many of you with my hands-on impressions.  So I shall try to described a few things Miles pointed out, or that I might have missed the first time around.

Fans of Sonic Adventure might remember that when you loaded up a save file, which was half way through the story of one of the characters, they had a small recap to explain what had been going on.  Which helped remind players of what needs to be done. 

Well Bioware has used a similar idea.  When players load their file they are greeted by an extract of a journal, describing key events in the story so far and reminding players of what needs to be done next.

Miles explained that when many gamers play on handhelds they might play for a few hours at a time, but then stop and not go back to the game for a while (I know I do that a lot).  Or they might only play in small chunks, on the train or bus.  In the case of an RPG, players might need reminding of what’s going on, especially if they haven’t played in a long time - so that’s why they added the journal.

One thing taken from other Bioware titles is the idea of a ‘stronghold’ - like in Mass Effect or KOTOR you had your ship to go back to.  In Sonic Chronicles you have Tails’ Workshop, where you can change your party, heal and sort yourselves out, without fear of attack.

Each character has different on map abilities (the exploration segments), which helps pays homage to how the characters move from the platforming titles, but with a completely different play style.

One thing I mentioned in my hands-on was how players are required to performing a series of moves with the stylus, when using a ‘power move’ in battle.  This might involve tapping circles on the screen or dragging the stylus. 

Miles explained that Bioware did not want players to just sit and watch the fighting, which tends to happen in other turn-based RPGs (like Final Fantasy or Skies of Arcadia), but wanted to get them more involved and keep them on edge.  In turn, players can use a similar method to counter any enemy power moves.

By using certain characters together in the party, they will build up a (sort of) relationship, and will help each other during battle.  Miles explained that there were many layers to the combat, and there would be many advantages to using different characters together, and finding out which characters work well together.

Miles also explained how the characters will have different uses, much like standard RPGs, you have some characters who are well suited to fighting, while others are more like support characters.  An example he gave was how Tails never dealt much damage to enemies, but he had several abilities which would help his party in combat.  He showed how Tails could ‘scan’ enemies, which would weaken their defences - letting the rest of the party deal more damage.

Also like a lot of RPGs, the combat is ‘element’ based.  For example, if players used a wind-based attack on a flying enemy, they will cause more damage than when using the same power on a grounded foe.

After fighting, players are graded on how well they did.  Miles explained that this allowed for some more replay-ability in battle.  If players do poorly, they can try and do better next time they fight the same enemies.

For fans of KOTOR, Bioware has included a similar power upgrading system to Sonic Chronicles.  In KOTOR players had a long list of all the abilities, and players could either choose to learn a new ability or upgrade a power they already know.  This is the same process in Sonic Chronicles.

Players can choose what powers they want to upgrade when they level up, manually.  Miles explained that this will allow freedom for players to build their party to their playing style, rather than be forced to use characters that only have set powers they learn.

One last thing that Miles spoke about was the Chaos.  As I mentioned in my hands-on impressions, the Chao eggs are found all over the maps, which players pick up.  After a while the eggs hatch, and then players can visit the Chao Garden and ‘equip’ a Chao to a character - the Chao’s lend their powers to the character they are equipped to.

Apparently the Chao’s which hatch from the eggs are completely random.  And even if a player finds and collects all the eggs in the game, there is no guarantee that they will collect the full set.

The good news is that players can trade their Chao eggs online or using the wireless (local) DS connection.  This might annoy some people, but it does add some variety to the game, and also gives gamers a chance to socialise with other Sonic Chronicles’ players.

[Update:]But collecting the whole set without trading is possible, just takes longer than if you trade.  Also, your Chao set remains intact once you beat the game, and you can continue to add to it on subsequent playthroughs.

Hopefully that has shed some more light on what happens in Sonic Chronicles and will perhaps tempt some more of you to buy it, when it is released next month.

Having played about an hours worth of the game, I can say that I am pretty excited for it - more so than I am for Sonic Unleashed.  Even though it’s not a platform game, it does seem that Bioware has made a decent Sonic game.  I’d certainly like to see it become as successful as Mario & Sonic :o)

Lastly, I hope you enjoyed the interview, and many thanks to everyone who submitted questions.