Details of BioWare DS RPG Sonic Chronicles surface

Remember that shocking announcement of BioWare and Sega about developing a Sonic RPG on the Nintendo DS? As disarming it may be, it’s no joke when the two industry giants said they’ll put the blue hedgehog in an RPG. Nintendo Power has a feature on what Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood will be like, and you’ll find details at the full article.

BioWare picking up Sega‘s mascot to make an RPG out of the blue hedgehog is something that threw fans in fits due to excitement, but many are still doubtful. Like it or not, details on the Sonic RPG have surfaced – it’s titled Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, and it seems we’ll finally be getting BioWare-calibre quality on the Nintendo DS.

One poster over at the NeoGAF forums managed to grab a copy of the latest Nintendo Power issue, and posted a scan along with a summary of the magazine’s 7-page feature. Similar to BioWare’s previous RPGs, Sonic Chronicles is said to offer a total of 11 playable characters while players can bring up to four in the party. The hero Sonic will ally with Shadow, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Rouge, Big the Cat, and more.

Sonic Chronicles is going to be fully controlled by the Stylus, and special effects will supposedly be in Elite Beat Agents fashion. Sonic and his buddies can dish out team attacks to take down enemies that appear on the field. Of course, it’s no Sonic game without the rings he collects, so the rings will be The Dark Brotherhood‘s currency.

According to the NeoGAF post, Sonic Chronicles as it appeared on Nintendo Power is fully hand-drawn with a touch of watercolor. Combat is planned to be turn-based, but the devs are all for making it fast paced. After seeing what Square Enix did with Final Fantasy XII, we’re also excited about the part that says the game will have fully animated cutscenes.

Dialogue trees that BioWare has employed in almost every game it developed are going to be around, but simplified this time. Fortunately, devs will be squeezing in side quests and pepper the adventure with other nifty gameplay elements such as the ability to purchase special attacks and switch party members at certain points.

BioWare at the helm of a Sonic game’s story could sound intimidating for fans of the hedgehog, yet Sonic Chronicles doesn’t sound as dark as one would expect. A couple of years after Sonic defeated Eggman, Tails got kidnapped and the Chaos Emeralds are missing yet again. The marauders are the perpetrators, and Eggman could very well be an ally.

Other interesting quirks were packed in Nintendo Power’s issue, such as Fatigue Points replacing Magic Points and classic tunes returning as remixes. Sonic’s adventure will span two acts, the first one being set in locations we’ve seen before. The latter half is expected to be in a darker world.

While you rejoice over the fact that there probably won’t be surf music, our eyes are peeled for any development, so watch this space for updates!