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BioWare Shares Information on Sonic RPG

Posted by Zonk on Tue Jul 17, 2007 03:44 PM
from the it's-the-crazy-future dept.
Role Playing (Games)
Once again, it's not a strange dream: BioWare is making a Sonic the Hedgehog RPG for the Nintendo DS. Since the announcement back in June there have been precious few details. Luckily, Wired's Game|Life had the chance to speak with BioWare's CEO Ray Muzyka and President Greg Zeschuk about more than just Mass Effect. They discuss the genesis of the game, the depth of the title's story, and a bit on what gameplay will be like: "Game|Life: BioWare's previous efforts have been for the PC and the Xbox (and now the 360 with Mass Effect). What is the appeal of designing for the DS? Ray Muzyka: The handheld group at BioWare is certainly very excited about the innovation that can take place on the DS platform. We're really innovating what a BioWare RPG is with this title - we're looking forward to offering new and unique ways to enjoy a fast-paced, story-driven experience with tons of exploration, customization and progression. We're very excited by the opportunity to use all the cool features on the DS, and to make BioWare's first handheld RPG, one with a lot of action too, since it's based in the Sonic universe!"
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[+] Bioware Making a Sonic RPG on the DS 49 comments
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BioWare Shares Information on Sonic RPG 49 Comments More /

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  • Um, sure. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Applekid (993327) on Tuesday July 17 2007, @03:59PM (#19892901)
    ...it's based in the Sonic universe!

    How interesting. To me, the fun and quality of Sonic games are inversely proportional to how many characters they've added to its universe. So, the "Sonic universe," by it's very existance, makes me sad for the franchise.

    Sonic didn't take on extra story baggage nearly as elegantly as, say, Zelda, Mario, or even Jak and Daxter. And it's not something to be proud of.

    I guess it was just begging for an RPG, then. But with BioWare behind it, hopefully this could have the same splash that Super Mario RPG did.
    • Definataly, just as the "pac-man" universe is meaningless to anyone older than 5 same as for sonic. Bad memories of pac-man cartoons still haunt me.
    • To me, the fun and quality of Sonic games are inversely proportional to how many characters they've added to its universe. So, the "Sonic universe," by it's very existance, makes me sad for the franchise.

      To me the fun and quality of Sonic games are properly proportional to how many 2d walls I get my blue spinning guy to smash through.
    • For me, my fun is inversely proportanal to the amount of dialog. Really, some diabolical laughter is all I can take anymore. Stop the 'tude. Really.

      And for heavens sakes, stop the interspecies pedophilia!
    • Mario RPG succeeded, in my opinion, because of its blatant disregard of the Mario universe. It introduced new characters, new plotlines, and new ideas. It took a memorable character and surrounded him with awesome. In this regard is why I think that the Paper Mario games can't stand quite as high as their predecessor (except maybe Super Paper Mario).

      Doing the same thing is the only way that a Sonic RPG can work. There are too many flat, retarded characters (Sonic included, really), little true plot (other t
      • You know, if you think about it, why has Mario not offended me, but just about all the Sonic games with stories and characters have? Is it that sonic takes itself more seriously, and mario tongue-in-cheek? Or is it as you suggested, one is playful and cute, the other full of prepubescent 'tude?
        • Mario's always been able to make fun of itself, and has always been confident in its own ability to be awesome - Mario never goes overboard to try to please. Sonic, on the other hand, has had, since Sonic Adventure, what I like to call "Bad Anime Syndrome".
        • I think the difference is that most Mario games realize that they're somewhat stupid. I just loved the Luigi side story in one of the Paper Mario games, where he starts out complaining that Mario always gets to rescue the princess, but later gets his own princess to rescue, going through bizarro versions of Mario's adventures, crossing paths with him from time to time, and even writing books about his experiences, which you can find as items and read. Mario games realize that they're not serious.

          It also mea
      • Mario RPG was also able to very easily disregard the prior games in the franchise, because it was produced entirely by an outside developer (Square).

        Personally, it's easily one of my favorite games of all time. It doesn't even pretend to take itself seriously, and has an entertaining plotline that sort of reminds me of a Pixar movie in its universal appeal.

        It also managed to somehow appeal to both hardcore RPG players and "newbs". I long for more straightforward RPGs like Mario RPG, and the early Final F
      • ...but they should keep Vanilla.
        And Eric Clapton.

        Together. I'm writing a xover fanfic.
      • A lot of the Paper Mario ideas are very much out there, too... It doesn't respect the Mario gospel too much.
    • Yeah KOTOR only had an average critic score of ~9.3 It is a terrible game. I hardly even enjoyed the 3 times I played through it... I swear.
    • I can agree that Bioware isn't what it used to be. Too big, and I don't have much faith in them though they do turn out some nice products on occasion, just not super innovative. (I gawked at the "what a bioware rpg is" comment, they take themselves too seriously there).
      Regardless, I am a developer working on the Unreal 3 Engine. This is the best licensable engine in the industry right now, period. There is no limit to the quality you can push through it aside from the hardware you're on and the talent
    • Evidently im just a Bioware fanboy, they have made some games I didnt care for but I liked Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, KOTOR and even Jade Empire. They seemed pretty consistent to me, no they usually are not necessarily innovative technology wise but they make a tight game with decent depth, storyline and replay value, which I will take over innovative and boring any day.

  • That was informationless (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 17 2007, @04:14PM (#19893085)
    According to the article, BioWare is going to be creating a Sonic RPG.

    And, well, that's it. I think I got that much from the title.

    They're not ready to talk details. They're not ready to explain what the gameplay will be like. They're not ready to talk about what characters are going to be in it.

    All they really said is that it'll be an RPG, it'll be on the Nintendo DS, and it will take place in the Sonic universe.

    Good to know, I guess, but that's exactly what the first article said. This offers nothing new! Unless someone can point to something I missed.
  • ...as long as all the characters are made of Paper.

    What's that? They'll be 3D models in the Sonic Team "Universe" that sports about 3 billion more characters than common sense?

    Um, nevermind then.

  • Please let me play as Sonic! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Maul (83993) on Tuesday July 17 2007, @04:29PM (#19893335) Journal
    One of the reasons I enjoyed Sonic and the Secret Rings is because you
    PLAY
    AS
    SONIC
    the entire game.

    Limit the other characters to Tails, Knuckles, and MAYBE Amy Rose (being generous here) and leave the other characters out of the story.

    Please.

    If Shadow even so much as shows up....
  • Sonic's own platform games haven't been done right in years, what the hell is an RPG going to do? I don't care WHO'S making it, it's basically a Furry Fest as it is.

    • Re:Just what we needed... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Koiu Lpoi (632570) <koiulpoi@gma[ ]com ['il.' in gap]> on Tuesday July 17 2007, @04:53PM (#19893675)
      Have you played the Sonic Advance games, or their sequel on the DS, Sonic Rush? Or how about Sonic and the Secret Rings for the Wii? All of those are excellent games, and the first two (well, 5, because there's 4 sonic advance games) are in the same vein as the old sonic games.
      • Sonic Advance/Rush were good games; they were exceptions to the norm.

        As for Sonic and the Secret Rings, no, I haven't played it, don't have a Wii.
        • Allright, good. I agree with your original point, Sonic Team just CAN'T make a good 3-D game (well, secret rings was good, but it's not a platformer, it's something new entirely). And they can't write dialog. And their voice actors are all annoying. Really, when I complain about a camera angle being worse than Ninja Gaiden or Devil May Cry, there's a problem with your camera angles. And the clipping! They never got 3D clipping working quite right. Your characters feel boxy and jerky and you can get stuck
        • I think it was just the usually "OMG graphics" amazement back in the Megadrive era when fast scrolling was unheard of. The games make for nice speedruns but playing through them isn't all that great. That being said Sonic Rush was still fun and the amount of manually controlled time vs. just watching Sonic move through something akin to The Incredible Machine goes down as the game progresses (though Altitude Limit is an awful, AWFUL stage).
          • The interesting thing is that the first Sonic game wasn't a particularly fast game. There are parts of the game where you go fast, but for large parts, it plays similarly to early Mario games, with lots of enemies, and jumping from platform to platform. Later Sonic games started to emphasize "Fast!" more and more.
            • I tend to think of the fast parts as cutscenes. Sure, if you know the levels by heart you can hit jump at the right time to go on a secret path but most of the time you just sit and watch while Sonic moves through the fast part. However, cutscenes do impress people.
      • Sonic Rush is just Sonic 1 with less interesting levels. You hold down the direction button and occasionally fall off cliffs.

  • The Parasitic Genius of BioWare (Score:4, Insightful)

    by LKM (227954) on Tuesday July 17 2007, @04:51PM (#19893645) Homepage

    N'Gai Croal has an interesting take on why Bioware would develop something like this. [newsweek.com] Here's the gist of it:

    The answer, we believe, can be found in BioWare's past; specifically, the company's careful and considered evolution from being primarily a developer-for-hire to the creator of its own original IP, soaking up as much knowledge as it could along the way, then fold that knowledge into brand new concepts

    So we can probably not only look forward to an awesome Sonic RPG, but also to a second, yet unanounced DS RPG from Bioware. Makes a lot of sense to me.

  • Oh boy, the Genesis! Heh. That's funny. You see, because they linked it in to a Sega reference while still being grammatically correct! Boy oh boy, I'm still laughing from that one. Yeah. Not.
    • Normally I'd agree, but, to be fair...

      Last time an established maker of RPGs took a licensed character from another company's platforming franchise (that I can think of, at least) the world was blessed with Super Mario RPG. Which ruled.

      So I'm prepared to cut them some slack on the idea, since it's already been proven to me that platformers reimagined as RPGs don't HAVE to suck...
  • They discuss the genesis of the game,

    Very punny...
  • While Sega seems to have some insane fixation with introducing a new and soon-to-be-forgotten character in each Sonic game, no matter how close it is to the basic Sonic platforming game, they still seem to be lacking in the massive amount of characters that now make up RPGs, both playable and NPC. Perhaps it's fanboyish, but I've been a fan of Archie Comic's Sonic the Hedgehog [archiecomics.com], collecting them since I was 12 or so (about a decade now). In that time, Archie has branched out the Sonic universe immensely, givi
    • There has always been more potential for good story coming from the SatAM/Archie line, precisely because stories are what it was created for.

      It also depends on how much juvenileness BioWare is willing to give up. Sega has always tried to become more sophisticated without trying to grow up, and one only need look at the 3D games to see this. The other line has always had an adult feel to it. All it needs is some elimination of some extraneous deus ex machina.
  • "They discuss the genesis of the game..."

    pun-tastic!

  • They discuss the genesis of the game
    Genesis... get it?

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