Outside of the witty dialogue, this game is a misfire in every respect. The graphics are hideous. The music hurts to listen to; it has no excuse to sound as bad as it does, especially since most music produced on a 16-bit home console is superior. The backgrounds are ugly and jar with the pixelated character models.
The story is glorified fan fiction, featuring a long lost echidna tribe as the villains. This could have been interesting, but it's handled with all the sophistication of a sixth-grade writer. The idea of Tails having become the temporary leader of the party in Sonic's two-year absence is only explored for two scenes or so. The subplot with Amy Rose and the mysterious 'Dexter' is so predictable and half-baked. The dialogue options given to Sonic only give one the illusion of choice, for no matter what you have him say, the story and character interactions never change. And don't get me started on the cliffhanger ending, which hints that the never-to-be-made sequel would have had a much more interesting plot than this tripe.
The game play is the worst of all. The characters miss their enemies seven out of ten times in battle. The special attacks (called POW moves) must be executed in an Elite Beat Agents style manner and if you make the least little mistake, they totally fail and you have wasted a turn. There are a limited amount of rings you can find on the over world; unlike other RPGs, you cannot earn currency in battle. This is a huge inconvenience and nearly breaks the game.
It's pathetic that a company as celebrated as Bioware thought this was an acceptable product. The Sonic universe can be a rich one and it could have made for a decent RPG at the least. But judging by the poor sales and low quality of this garbage, The Dark Brotherhood is likely all that will ever come of that idea.
The story is glorified fan fiction, featuring a long lost echidna tribe as the villains. This could have been interesting, but it's handled with all the sophistication of a sixth-grade writer. The idea of Tails having become the temporary leader of the party in Sonic's two-year absence is only explored for two scenes or so. The subplot with Amy Rose and the mysterious 'Dexter' is so predictable and half-baked. The dialogue options given to Sonic only give one the illusion of choice, for no matter what you have him say, the story and character interactions never change. And don't get me started on the cliffhanger ending, which hints that the never-to-be-made sequel would have had a much more interesting plot than this tripe.
The game play is the worst of all. The characters miss their enemies seven out of ten times in battle. The special attacks (called POW moves) must be executed in an Elite Beat Agents style manner and if you make the least little mistake, they totally fail and you have wasted a turn. There are a limited amount of rings you can find on the over world; unlike other RPGs, you cannot earn currency in battle. This is a huge inconvenience and nearly breaks the game.
It's pathetic that a company as celebrated as Bioware thought this was an acceptable product. The Sonic universe can be a rich one and it could have made for a decent RPG at the least. But judging by the poor sales and low quality of this garbage, The Dark Brotherhood is likely all that will ever come of that idea.
