[jackaroo]

http://www.bioware.com/bioware_info/press_releases/2007_06_21_Sonic_DS/

Sonic is heading to DS in RPG form. Not to be released till 2008 and no title yet but its being made by Bioware who have created many top RPG's. Overall this could be quite interesting if done right.

Rolkaddendum:

The world has gone MAD. For those who don't know, to put into context what this really means, here's some other stuff Bioware's made: Baldur's Gate. Knights of the Old Republic. Neverwinter Nights. Generally Awesome at Life.

If we're lucky, this'll be the best Sonic game in years and Bioware will somehow convert a speedy miscolored rodent into a compelling RPG experience. (Hey, it worked for Star Wars...) If we're not, SEGA'll cheese it up with a cringeworthy storyline and push Bioware to finish it in 6 months and then only 10-yr-olds and obsessive Sonic fans will slog through it. Who can tell!?

edit: Also it's worth noting that, being from Canada, the kind of RPGs that Bioware makes have historically not been of the Japanese pick-an-option-from-a-menu variety; they're Western actiony and Dungeons and Dragons fare.

[Combo]

O: An RPG sonic game!

Hmmm I wonder how the game is goin to be played like?

[eggFL]

Wow, I never played a Bioware game, but man, a Sonic game done in that style? What a freakin stupid idea. But I look forward to seeing what the storyline and environments will be like in a game done by such a company.

[jackaroo]

lol may be stupid idea but Bioware have made some pretty cool RPG's. Plus a couple of there games have had game of the year and RPG of the year. Just gotta hope they do this right.

[magnum12]

The closest thing I can think of as to what the game will look like (in terms of battle system) is something like Jade Empire or Mass Effect. Those games are very fast paced with a system that's more like an action RPG than a KOTOR style turn based one. It's a weird coincidence, but I remember talking about how a good Sonic RPG would be like, and now we have an RPG in the works from the western equivilant to Square Enix. BTW, Mario & Sonic WILL be a good game. Just look at who's producing it. We all know his exceedingly high quality standards now don't we?
-Edit: I predict that there will probably be 6-9 characters in the party (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, Rouge, Omega, and maybe Silver and Blaze). It seems that the team behind this game are big Sonic fans themselves, so they know what they're doing.

[douglas]

Holy hell.  The idea of a Sonic RPG may be lol, but by God if Bioware are given free reign over this it could be one of the greatest Sonic games EVER.  I mean, Bioware games make up 3 of my Top Ten Games Ever, including my joint favourite (Baldur's Gate 2, tied with Half-Life 2 and Sonic 2 - yeah I like my 2 games, stfu).

This is freaking awesome.  Wow.  NEED DS.  NEED BADLY.

Also magnum - Bioware kick Square Enix all kinds of ways, I mean srsly.  And Mario & Sonic will be a poor game because it's a tie-in, and tie-ins = lose.

[JBertolli]

This may be good, and I liked Baulder's Gate so we'll  have to see how this goes. Will it be more like pokemon (take turns attacking) or like Baulder's Gate?

[Bilan]

If this winds up anything like Xbox Baldurs Gate 2 (Fuck you Joshu) it will be epic.

[magnum12]

This brings up the interesting question of how much control Bioware has over the game's production. It probably won't happen but the idea of Bioware determing the voice acting of the game is certainly a good one since the voice acting in their games is usually excellent.

[Rolken]

Whoops, someone pointed out that the guy who started the topic was actually caught doctoring evidence. I malformed the last ban and it didn't take effect. Mistake remedied, carry on.

[Auriman1]

*tries to build Sonic RPG in mind*...does not compute

Sounds interesting, though.  I wonder how it'll turn out.

[eggFL]

*tries to build Sonic RPG in mind*...does not compute

I think it will be really cheesy unless there are weapons. Lots of them.

It has to have at least some equivalent to weapons (power-up cards?) but even then Sonic will have to be really well animated and the combat has to be really... innovative because repetitious hack-and-slash with Sonic's face on it, that's just, I don't see it.

[magnum12]

I'm sure there will be weapons. The hard part is weapons that will actually be appropiate for the cast. This should be no problem for Shadow, Amy, Knuckles, Omega, Espio (if he's in the party), or to a lesser extent Blaze (see Espio). Sonic on the other hand is a problem. The only weapon I can see him using are unarmed attacks upgraded by getting new shoes. Let's just hope that there are no more additional characters (with exception to NPCs who are a one time thing).

[Magnezone]

Sonic and friends have so many natural attacks that they don't need weapons. :[

And what's with everyone thinking that there's going to be a party of characters? This is not Tales of Final Mario RPG Quest XXVII: Return of the Dark Knight.

Granted, it is true I know nothing about the game as well as everyone else, but considering that this is a western-style RPG developer, and also having played many of these games myself as well and knowing how they differ from the traditional Japanese RPG's, a party of characters running around completely focused on the traditional "main quest" seems unlikely. I know western RPG's to be much more open-ended than that.

[eggFL]

I think I'm getting better at visualizing this game, but still, I meant that Sonic himself should have a weapon.

Think Sonic Labyrinth but instead of shoes, it's a sword or something. That would be really clever.

Otherwise, it would have to be spectacular, well-animated break dancing sweep kick combos, perhaps combined with some sort of homing attack in which you use the stylus to target enemies.

Now that I mention it, I'd be just a little disappointed if they don't do something like that last part. Well not really.

Sonic and friends have so many natural attacks that they don't need weapons. :[

I was thinking that hand-to-hand fighters in RPG's are and always were cheesy. Well it depends but I don't see Sonic standing in place next to an enemy and staying in place while pounding away at it with punches and kicks.

Although maybe he could. I dunno.

[Magnezone]

I agree, I don't think Sonic would be one for staying in one place during a fight. Take any traditional Sonic game and you'll find him dodging whatever Eggman throws at him, whether it be ball 'n chain, buzz bombers, or just anything for that matter, and proving that all he needs to fight with are the quills on the back of his head. And maybe 7 Chaos Emeralds occasionally.

[douglas]

Sonic and friends have so many natural attacks that they don't need weapons. :[

And what's with everyone thinking that there's going to be a party of characters? This is not Tales of Final Mario RPG Quest XXVII: Return of the Dark Knight.

Granted, it is true I know nothing about the game as well as everyone else, but considering that this is a western-style RPG developer, and also having played many of these games myself as well and knowing how they differ from the traditional Japanese RPG's, a party of characters running around completely focused on the traditional "main quest" seems unlikely. I know western RPG's to be much more open-ended than that.

Skylights: you're thinking of western ARPGs (A for Action) like Oblivion which focus on hack-n-slash and open-endedness.  Bioware have always made CRPGs (C for Character) with parties and a heavy bias towards plot and character development.  This is why we're thinking there'll be a party.

[Magnezone]

>_>.

[Key313 (Sonic Dude)]

I never would have thought of an RPG of Sonic. Can't wait.

[CosmicFalcon]

I think the idea of defining upgrades by equipment would be a big pitfall for a Sonic RPG. Sonic's attire consists entirely of GLOVES and SHOES. So uh, no armour, no helmets, no shields, no SWORD for pete's sake. It's a Sonic RPG, not Generic Knight Adventure V-2.

egg you keep talking about how it should avoid typical cheesy RPG stuff by not having unarmed fighters... but like... The main hero weilding a sword? Way to side step every RPG cliche.

Upgrades, if not handled solely by stat increases and bonuses, which is what Bioware might be liable to do I think?, should be kept the way they are in the games generally. Like, equipping the Ancient Light allows Sonic to use the Light Speed Attack or whatever. That brings to mind FF9's system of learning skills, if skills are learnable by items...

Unarmed fighting + RPG + primarily using legs (c'mon, Knux would be the puncher, obviously :P) brings Regal from Tales of Symphonia to mind. His story is that he had to kill his lover (I think?) because she had become an Exsphere monster, and as some self punishment he shackled his wrists so he could do no more harm to others with his hands. Therefore, he fights exclusively with kicking. And he is by no means a cheesy character in his moves. Some of his tech skill combos look more interesting than the sword-fighters' do in that game.

That's not to say that upgrades CAN'T be weapons. Shadow could have guns, I guess. Omega would have gun add-ons. Tails will probably have gadgets.

Seeing as it's not gonna be pick-from-a-menu gameplay... I envisage it being "hack and slash", and I use the term loosely. It'd be more... "jump and bounce" I guess. Random encounters really wouldn't work, so I envisage single-character roleplay in an open game field which enemies and other NPCs appear. i.e. like Morrowind kinda thing. Can't say I've played a Bioware RPG myself.

If random encounters were to feature, I certainly hope there is no turnbased crap. I already mentioned a Tales game, and I think a Sonic battle system would work well in that style... the reason I didn't envisage that at first is because random encounters would suck.

Conclusion: I don't have a fuddy duddy of a clue what this game will be like. BUT I SURE CONJECTURED IT. HARD.

[Crowbar]

What the fuck. This is like the biggest fucking curveball EVER.

I always imagined, in my little fantasy world, a Sonic RPG being more in the JRPG style. This is partly due to the fact that I just don't play WRPGs, but it's also because WRPGs, from what little I know of them, seem to be more about naming, creating, and building a character of your own in an open-ended world (if this is a misconception please correct me), rather than taking a largely predefined character (or characters) on their largely set path through a story (as in JRPGs).

However, given that even I know BioWare are good, I have no fear that we'll end up with a world populated by standard recolour-type Sonic fancharacters. As with everybody else, I have no fucking clue what it's going to be like, but here's hoping it has the kind of strong plot, characterisation, dialogue, and (god for-fucking-bid) voice acting that Sonic's been crying for for years.

[CosmicFalcon]

However, given that even I know BioWare are good, I have no fear that we'll end up with a world populated by standard recolour-type Sonic fancharacters.

On this note, I am so glad that there's no Sonic MMO on the cards.

*shuddercringe*

[eggFL]

I thought WRPG's were more about hack-and-slash romps in real-time instead of turn based gameplay, as well as good skill/growth systems, killing lots of enemies and opening lots of treasure boxes.

That was before I played Oblivion.

I still need to play more WRPG's. I always wanted to, on the other hand, Oblivion is the only one on Xbox 360 right now and I haven't been that eager to rent Xbox1 games even though I have rented a couple.

Conclusion: I don't have a fuddy duddy of a clue what this game will be like. BUT I SURE CONJECTURED IT. HARD.

WORD

Well anyway, I've now begun to imagine top-down isometric view mechanical dungeons/factories with "hack-and-slash" gameplay against hordes of robots that crash around when defeated with lots of explosions and collisions, in which Sonic combines standing and pounding with attacking-while-moving attacks and stylus homing attack specials that refill very often.

So I guess that'll do for me until we see something about this game.

[magnum12]

I was thinking that hand-to-hand fighters in RPG's are and always were cheesy. Well it depends but I don't see Sonic standing in place next to an enemy and staying in place while pounding away at it with punches and kicks.

Although maybe he could. I dunno.

-You need to see characters like Regal (mentioned by CF already) or Adell in action. The unarmed attacks they pull off are pretty cool to watch (even though Adell's moves are somewhat similar to stuff Rock Howard does). You can bet that Sonic's attacks will be pretty flashy in themselves. I'm going to be bold and predict that Bioware will take a page out of Disgaea's book when it comes to Sonic's fighting style. His damage formula will probably involve both his strength and his agility stats. Fist weapons in Disgaea use the ((atk+speed)/2) formula. douglas will understand what I'm talking about if anyone has questions.
-I still go by my prediction that the battle system will resemble Jade Empire or Mass Effect. http://media.xbox.ign.com/media/574/574497/vids_1.html

[CosmicFalcon]

POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR TOS? ;)


This is a really good example of Regal's fighting on YouTube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=N8vA66jNzjI

The battle is a pretty tough optional boss which MUST be fought with a single character, after having fought a string of other single-character battles.

This - http://youtube.com/watch?v=sP8Qjq1U6-I - doesn't display the fluidity and such as well, but is a pretty impressive Regal-only battle against the toughest enemy in the game, an optional boss named Abyssion.


END SPOILERAGE

I think the Tales battle system would work well with Sonic characters because it can be very fast paced, attacks hitting/missing aren't based on random chance (you actively evade and block attacks, people were saying how Sonic would be dodging all over the place), and yet the player still has a large amount of control even with a party of mostly computer "controlled" allies. ToS's system in particular has been compared to SSB series fights.

But like I said before, Sonic + random encounters = nothx. :(

[douglas]

POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR TOS? ;)


This is a really good example of Regal's fighting on YouTube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=N8vA66jNzjI

The battle is a pretty tough optional boss which MUST be fought with a single character, after having fought a string of other single-character battles.

This - http://youtube.com/watch?v=sP8Qjq1U6-I - doesn't display the fluidity and such as well, but is a pretty impressive Regal-only battle against the toughest enemy in the game, an optional boss named Abyssion.


END SPOILERAGE

I think the Tales battle system would work well with Sonic characters because it can be very fast paced, attacks hitting/missing aren't based on random chance (you actively evade and block attacks, people were saying how Sonic would be dodging all over the place), and yet the player still has a large amount of control even with a party of mostly computer "controlled" allies. ToS's system in particular has been compared to SSB series fights.

But like I said before, Sonic + random encounters = nothx. :(

Random encounters are extremely unlikely.  Bioware games tend to have real-time in-the-main-game type combat; the only thing close to a "random encounter" in a Bioware game I can think of is in Baldur's Gate 2 where you occasionally get interrupted travelling from one place to another, but that's nearly always to advance a plot point, and it's always non-random.

Of course, I say all this on the assumption that it'll be like other Bioware games and that Sega hasn't just given them a spec to mindlessly produce, but I think it's a good assumption given Bioware's prestige and previous history - why would they want to be part of a project like that, and moreover if everything was micromanaged by Sega why not just get a smaller, cheaper developer to put it together (ala Traveller's Tales when Sonic 3D Blast was created)?

With any luck Sega won't have any input on the plot or dialogue either, and we might just get a well written Sonic game for once.

[P.P.A.]

[Combo]

lol looks like one of those sprite games

Awww why doese Tails have to be dead?

[Groudon]

Because not many people like Tails?

[Rick_242]

Because Tails is a gay faggot.