Changes made to Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood.
The list below is not the only things we're changing; we might change other things too. We just want to have a timeline of things.
- Team Rose instead of Team Amy
- References to other sonic media
- Sonic X, where Eggman had to cook for Bokune.
- Sonic Lost World, where Sonic and Dr. Eggman had to work together
- Mr Tinker (IDW), where Eggman changed his ways
- Shadow The Hedgehog, where Central City was hit by the Eclipse Cannon
- Sonic Boom, Season 2 Episode 4 - SonAmy is obligatory in the genre?
- Sonic Generations, Tails not seeing Green Hill.
- Sonic Forces - Sonic gets kidnapped
- Sonic Adventure 2 - Shadow saved everyone from the FinalHazard, not Eggman
- World Collide/Unite (Archie) - Doctor Willy as a potential Doctor figure involved with Sonic.
- Fanbase - If SEGA can say stuff about actions having consequences, so can I.
- Make the game heavily based on Unleashed, with naming and ending flowing straight into Unleashed.
- Unleashed is the last game on the human world; Colors and Generations are independent and everything following takes place on Sonic's world.
For custom dialogue, we need to have the characters say things that would be in their language, and feel things as their most ideal portrayals in the Sonic series. Unfortunately, some protrayals are outright inaccurate to the way Sonic & co would act, so here are the characters with their ideal portrayals:
- Amy Rose: Forces is the event that really changes her to be a lot less attached to Sonic, but that character development never happened yet. Any portrayal after and including forces should not be used (as in, IDW too). Neither should it be on Boom, which is even more of the "mentor" personality. I'm unsure which media to use as a reference, because of the varingness. Post-Reboot Archie depicts her still having jealousy issues, but she had to make her own journey once she and Knuckles split up from the rest of the gang. Also, she has the mystic melodies, which I guess is another magical thing in addition to the tarrot cards, but she hasn't been depicted as magical in the games.
- Shadow the Hedgehog: There are two opposing extremes on how to characterize him. This game is the nicest extreme we see of Shadow, being much more attentative to Omega's care, but then we have the Edgy extreme shown in Sonic Boom onwards. I'd personally characterize him the same way he was characterized in the Archie comics, specifically in the Shadow Fall arc in Sonic Universe. This should be the same Shadow that went against the ARK's (aka his home) programming and brought it back to Orbit. This should also be the same Shadow that saved everyone from the Black Arms invasion.
- Dr. Eggman: The base game has him depicted with three main qualities:
- Reformed - Changed ways, to be on Sonic's team (up until the betrayal in the final moments)
- Kind - This is just an act, but we all know that he will turn. Still, he's giving his best impression of being different for team sonic. I think it may be for the best if we still let some of his old ego slip in. Throughout the game, I want him to be the Doctor Eggman that outsmarted Tails and kicked Sonic out of the ARK in SA2, and that would eventually mess with Starline in the IDW.
- Arrogant - This is traditional Eggman, always putting himself above everyone else. However, I think they go too overboard with the species difference. PLEASE STOP CALLING SONIC A FURRY
- Miles "Tails" Prower: I want no qualities of Forces or Lost World in our Tails depiction. How that depiction of Tails even came out to be is beyond me, especially after his growth in prior material. This should be the same Tails that saved Station Square in SA1 when Sonic wasn't there. The word choice should match the IDW dialogue, when he outsmarted the Zeti to steal their Chaos Emerald & the interactions with Zavok in the second-to-last issue in the invasion arc. IDW 50 has an amazing portrayal of Tails' inteligence, but the dialogue wouldn't work there, where Kit first appeared to be normal like tails and just thought that his understanding of the situation is broken.
- Sonic the Hedgehog: With all the different dialogue options, the player should be given a choice on how they want to interact with the others. However, I don't want Sonic to start sounding like Shakespear in every single line, and he should still carry some spirit even in his choices. My personal depiction of how he interacts with giving villains chances should match IDW issue 5, 6, 12, 19, 23, 25, 26, 31, 44 & 50. The way he should be portrayed overall should be like the quote in IDW issue 2. The best theme I'd give him is "Sonic Appears" from Sonic 06, and I want his statements to match the carefree nature portrayed there. The best Sonic & Tails relationship is shown in Sonic Mania Adventures Episode 2, IDW Issue 1 & IDW Issue 13.
- Big the Cat: This is not with him directly; I love how happy go-lucky he is. But I want others to be nicer to him; in general, people have a lot of respect for him, as shown in SA1 and IDW's 2020 annual. Even in the Post-Reboot archie, people were mildly frustrated but they never disrespected him. Only one that should show insignificance is Shadow, and even though I want to add one line directed at Big, he should never directly insult big.
- Johnson: Our side character in Blue Ridge Zone needs to have his entire plot point rewritten. "Did Johnson forget to turn off the breakers again" implying this happened before. How the hell is he still on the team? How in the world is he only getting a "talking too"? Why is being late the only thing he would be fired for? Why would you not bribe your boss for being fired for being late but you would for being fired for destroying literally everything?
- Omega: "Meetbags"? Omega would never say such a thing in a non-BioWare developed game. I blame BioWare because of the time constraints they dealt with when they were aquired by EA, and they had to match a character from a different game they were working on. It happened to be Star Wars, which...one simple analysis would show the entire differences between those two characters. This needs a desperate rewrite.
- Knuckles: I think this character was handled great, actually; his stubbornness shows through and through, and out of everyone in the game, he gets the most progression. Of course, there are a few dumb lines here, but they're always in character.
- Cream: So, the real canon areas Cream was involved were Advanced 2, Battle, Advanced 3, Rush, Archie & IDW. I never payed too much attention to Cream in Chronicles so I don't know what could be different, but it seems Archie and IDW has everyone portraying her bravery the same, and she only stepped out of the shell in IDW (when her mom was turned into a Zombot). She did stuff in Sonic X Season 2, but I feel the battle-adaptation matched pre-reboot, aka she was the discoverer of an innocent thing who then turned out to try and take over everything. I cannot remember Season 3 too well, but I might just look at a script. Anywho, due to all these individual circumstances, I'm unsure which depiction of Cream I like, solely because it's the same problem with Amy.
Obviously we will replace the instrumentations where we can for the other songs not listed here, but I think these ones need new arrangements altogether.
- Central City (Diamond Dust Zone from Sonic 3D Blast)
- As a place which holds Tails' workshop & GUN command-sites, this is in for quite a wreck. Although the events in Shadow the Hedghehog did not canonically occur, I want to alude to it in the audio by remixing the stage theme from ShadowTH using instrumentation from Sand Ruins (Sonic Riders).
- Tails' Workshop
- Since Eggman had some involvement in destorying the area, I think it'd be nice to have a remix of Tails' Laboratory from Sonic Battle combined with Chemical Plant.
- Metropolis Ground Zero (Tidal Tempest Past from Sonic CD)
- With Angel Island fallen and there being a concept of a launch in this area, I think it would be nice to have a more industrial remix of Launch Base Zone (Prototype). I think it should be suttle, though, so maybe we could use a different theme for the main part.
- Chapter 6 - Indoors
- Right after we enter the portal, Eggman is shown to be plotting something. At this point, we (the viewers) already saw through the act through the dialogue and the general outcome of the typical "I've turned good" act, but I'd rather it be expressed through song instead. The script edits will fix up the "obvious-ness" on its end, but for the song, we could change the overall structure to be a remix of Launch Base Zone and subtly hide the eggman theme used in Sonic Unleashed.
- Nocturne (Big Arms from Sonic 3)
- There is no corrolation between these two themes other than they're at the end of their respective game. Honestly, I would do a reference to Tikal's theme, considering the fact that while she and Ix are both Echidna's from an ancient time, they're complete opposites. Just show how corrupted Ix is through Tikal.
Here are the songs I think that although there's another arrangement more suited for them, it would be fine if the arrangement remained the same (provided instruments got touched up on):
- Angel Island Zone (Collision Chaos, Bad Future [JP] - Sonic CD)
- Green Hill Zone
- Currently, Sonic Chronicles uses its own composition. It fits enough for a "Tutorial" type level, but I think a Tutorial level in a Sonic game should be considered an easy stroll rather than what he have presently. Why not have it be a remix of Green Hill Zone in the style of the Past Tracks from Sonic CD?
Here are some songs I think are perfect for the context they're in, but just need an instrumentation overhaul:
- Mystic Ruins Zone (Final Fight from Sonic 3D Blast)
- This is the area where you first see Shadow & where you have gas that our main characters cannot go through. I think the mysteriousness of the level is what makes it perfect to keep, provided its instruments get rearranged
Editing any .axi file/cutscene is impossible
Editing chapter title cards and in-dialogue portraits for every character is key, to move away from the Sonic X art style and into the Pre-Reboot archie coloring. This will get updated when we figure things out.
- Sonic X
- Make balances to gameplay (buff/nerf characters as needed)