Game Discussion: Sonic Battle

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Game Discussion: Sonic Battle

Post by Ivogoji »

Official topic for my favorite handheld Sonic title.

Sonic Battle is a pretty significant departure from the series norm, being a 2D fighting game that focuses on unlocking and customizing skills for Emerl, a combat robot that imitates the cast's techniques. With seven character specific storylines and dozens of skill cards to unlock Sonic Battle is a very engaging spin on the fighting game concept, only the second such entry in the franchise since Sonic the Fighters.

Unlike the arcade game however Sonic Battle is very narrative driven, as each playable character (except Chaos and Gamma) has their own story that chronicles their interactions with Emerl. Seeing Emerl's development throughout the game and his bonding with the various Sonic Heroes is touching, which makes Battle's ending all that more heart wrenching.

Sonic Battle is very different kind of Sonic game, but in my opinion it's one of the best in the series. I'd love to see it get a real sequel. Emerl is an extremely memorable character and it would be very cool if he were brought back (in a bigger way than Sonic Advance 3 I mean).
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Re: Game Discussion: Sonic Battle

Post by Rajikaru »

I definitely feel that the game deserves a sequel.

There are a lot of Sonic spin-off games that deserve sequels in my opinion, for breadth of playable roster alone (imagine a good Sonic Shuffle with the newer characters thrown in), but Sonic Battle especially.

There's something about Sonic Battle that makes it a hidden gem. It's barely known about, and is way overshadowed by the Sonic Advance trilogy (and with good reason, those games were the bomb), but it was super fun and creative when I played it on an emulator. It had an enjoyable and replayable fighting game engine, the story was interesting and well done in terms of progressing - building up this super cool fighting robot with all your favorite moves, then having to fight him when he get super overpowered? Nice. My only complaint is that, from what I played anyways, the Emerl you build up in story mode can't be played in Vs, and instead you get the faux-Sonic weak Emerl you start with. I also really liked the Rock-Paper-Scissors super system and the variety in characters.
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Re: Game Discussion: Sonic Battle

Post by Jeffery Mewtamer »

Sonic Battle was the game that proved to me that Sonic games could have stories that are both complex and well written. It's also the one game that I think made the retcon of Shadow's death worthwhile from a narrative standpoint. Hell, it's arguably the one game that actually makes proper narrative use of the entire SegaSonic cast(or at least, the post-Adventure cast).

Gameplay wise, it stands out as being one of the few Sonic games with both a large playable cast and avoiding clone syndrome. I also applaud it for being fairly accessible without being a Smash clone, something that's fairly rare among fighting games.

If I have any complaints about the game, it's that Eggman isn't playable, the Deathegg Arena is only used for the story's climax, and the difficulty of obtaining Color cards(The Ultimate Techniques being hard to obtain makes sense, but unlocking full color customization for Emerl is a bit ridiculous).

A sequel would be great. A main game with Battle's quality and richness of story and playable cast(along with a lack of game breaking glitches and decent level design) would be phenomenal.
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Re: Game Discussion: Sonic Battle

Post by Ivogoji »

^On the subject of obtaining skill cards- I think the color cards were made so rare so as to encourage players to trade cards between cartridges. Making the regular fighting skills too hard to unlock would frustrate gameplay more than losing the purely cosmetic cards, but to make trading worthwhile at all would require making at least some cards super rare.
Jeffery Mewtamer wrote:Hell, it's arguably the one game that actually makes proper narrative use of the entire SegaSonic cast(or at least, the post-Adventure cast).
Sonic Chronicles, Battle's spiritual successor, features the whole Sonic cast and essentially the same degree of storytelling. The only major difference being Cream's role is smaller and strictly optional.

Chronicles being made at all suggests to me it's not out of the question that we could get a bona fide sequel to Sonic Battle. Though I'd be satisfied with a main series Sonic games that uses Battle's character roster.

After Sonic Adventure 3, a Sonic Battle follow up is my biggest dream game. I doubt there's much interest for it though.
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Re: Game Discussion: Sonic Battle

Post by Jeffery Mewtamer »

I totally forgot Battle had a trade mechanic, probably due to lacking anyone to trade with and it not being emphasized nearly as much as trading in Pokemon is.

Also, never played Chronicles, though I wish I had.
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Re: Game Discussion: Sonic Battle

Post by Rajikaru »

I'm honestly surprised Sonic Battle hasn't even gotten a remake or anything. Possibly the only feature that isn't really fleshed out is the multiplayer, since it requires two GBAs. Imagine a Sonic Battle 2, or even a rerelease of Sonic Battle 1, on the DS or 3DS with online functionality, it'd be pretty god damn awesome.
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Re: Game Discussion: Sonic Battle

Post by Goat »

Sonic Battle holds a very special place in me that can't possibly be put into any words except these
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Re: Game Discussion: Sonic Battle

Post by Ivogoji »

Things I'd want to see in Sonic Battle 2:

Emerl/G-mel returning, or at least being replicated with a similar fully customizable character (the replacement that would make the most sense is Metal Sonic).

Customization options for regular Sonic characters. Useful for multiplayer, so even if two opponents are using the same character they don't necessarily have the same moves. For example, Sonic could have one air action that imitates the Jump Dash, another that imitates the Insta-Shield, and another that works like the Bounce ability, using which ever skill is equipped for that action.

Character specific upgrades that act like armor and influence stats or grant certain bonuses.

Keep the "One Hit Knock Out Gauge", but instead of having it activate when using the R-button move/heavy attack, have it allow the character use a special move in the standard attack's place. Have the auto-block feature that negates R/heavy strikes work the same as before.

Expand the roster to include Metal Sonic, Big, Omega, Vector, Espio, Charmy, fully payable Dr. Eggman, Tikal, Blaze, Silver, and maybe some additional characters like Shade, Marine, or a cameo-ing NiGHTS (I feel that a modern, competitive fighting game should have 20 fighters minimum).

More complex stages that feature things like hazards players can exploit or where certain events will happen depending on what the characters are doing. Sonic Battle's stages were essentially for flavor; there were no particular features to differentiate them except how the platforms were arranged.

Some additional gameplay modes, including settings where you can fight custom versions of Emerl, one on one or against hordes or in survival runs of increasing difficulty.
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Re: Game Discussion: Sonic Battle

Post by mintdrop »

man, i love sonic battle. i think the story is a nice balance between serious and lighthearted and i like watching the characters interact with each other. the battle system was pretty unique, too; i loved the gameplay. the graphics are certainly very good for a gameboy as well and i thought the environments were lovely. (some unique in-stage hazards/quirks would've been nice to separate out the stages a bit from each other, though)

the only things i don't like are the soundfont (the music is nice, but the guitars irk me), and the cpu can get a lil dumb. for example; beating player vs cpu rouge - player always wins because rouge just floats in the air all of the time. but player rouge vs cpu? the cpu doesn't know how to attack you so it just. keeps jumping. and you can just slowly kill them by kicking in the air.

regardless, this game was fun. i liked making emerl have cream's jump and amy's double jump so that i could go super high in the air.
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Re: Game Discussion: Sonic Battle

Post by Ivogoji »

Sonic Battle is one of my favorite games to replay just for watching the story again and again. The dialogue here is a gold mine.
Sonic: Y, Yo Amy!
Emerl: Mom! Good to see you!
Amy: Oh, wow! It seems that our baby has learned quite a few more words! So, how you doing Emerl, my dear?
Emerl: Well, you know, I'm chilling, sweetheart
Amy: Hay!
*Punches Sonic*
Sonic:Ouch!
Amy: Sonic! Did you teach him to talk like that, Sonic?
Sonic: "Emerl, my dear?" Why are you talking like that, Amy?
Amy: Do you have a problem with that?
Sonic: Ah, no... Not really... Heh. (Hey, Emerl, watch out for this girl!)
Emerl: Mom...
Amy: What is it darling?
Emerl: Your punch got no juice, fool! You couldn't even kill a fly with that!
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Re: Game Discussion: Sonic Battle

Post by Jeffery Mewtamer »

^And now, I'm wishing Sonic Battle had fully-voiced dialogue. I can't remember, was Battle before or After the 4Kids cast took over voicework for the games?

For that matter, what kind of voice do you imagine Emerl having? The Battle Arc of Sonic X was so short I don't think they had time to include any versions of Emerl except the mute blank slate and also mute berserk with power versions.

I imagine Emerl, for most of the game, having a voice that changes to match whoever taught him his current speech pattern and only gaining a voice of his own upon being fully powered up by the Chaos Emeralds. I also imagine his voice going from fairly organic to a robotic monotone when Eggman awakens the Gizoid code during the finale.
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Re: Game Discussion: Sonic Battle

Post by strawberry-boyfriend »

Battle had pretty original combat for an arena brawler. Not necessarily good but interesting and fairly unique. Of course the story isn't good but that's fine people who play sonic for anything but gameplay are doing it wrong. Battle had neat spritework though, neat isometric lite view.
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Re: Game Discussion: Sonic Battle

Post by Ivogoji »

strawberry-boyfriend wrote: the story isn't good
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Re: Game Discussion: Sonic Battle

Post by strawberry-boyfriend »

It's entertaining and it gives a fine context to the game but it's not Legend of Korra
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Re: Game Discussion: Sonic Battle

Post by Jeffery Mewtamer »

Sonic Battle's story might not be a literary masterpiece by any reasonable measure, but it's easily one of the best in the franchise.
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Re: Game Discussion: Sonic Battle

Post by ShadriaFan »

I really loved the story, but the gameplay on the other hand..
I didn't understand how to play and gave up after trying Knuckles about 10 times and failing everytime.

Kudos on them trying something new though? :herosurprise:
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Re: Game Discussion: Sonic Battle

Post by Triert »

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strawberry-boyfriend wrote:It's entertaining and it gives a fine context to the game but it's not Legend of Korra
You and I are enemies now, but arguing over how good Korra is can be take to the Animation General if anyone feels like it.

I replayed this game and got done with it, I still like it.

But I do have a lot of issues I didn't pick up on growing up, the battles get repetitive when you can come to expect that they'll be two parters. The luck based nature of getting skills works perfectly here since it is a handheld, but man was it awful.

Aside from that, the notion of slowly building Emerl, customizing damn near everything about him was such a wonderful feeling of customization. Getting the secret moves and ultimate attacks gets infuriating when it comes time for VR training.

Edit: Also, the Knuckles fight is an early game meat grinder if you dont practice with tails and sonic. I got lucky and managed to get tails healing ability, and wound up kiting him by getting his AI to try and glide to me but overshooting the glide each time it did, charged the ichikoro, and repeated.
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Re: Game Discussion: Sonic Battle

Post by chaoadventures »

Actually, I just started replaying this game yesterday, and just finished Tails' Story.

Knuckles was just as difficult as I remembered him (no idea how I beat him before), but I've kinda learned how to abuse both this game's AI and a little bit of other games at this point.

The only skills I had equipped were:

Walk Mode (☆)
300 IQ Attack (☆☆) (reminder this is actually his second attack)
Sonic Up Draft (☆☆☆) (which is a mandatory skill to gain)

...and everything else was default.

Basically, here's what I did:

I walked up to him and spammed Up Draft. To my knowledge, this Light Attacks in this game are actually not infinites, but the computer (especially the easiest one) just doesn't know how to react to them.
Another thing I noticed is that Emerl's Dash Attack probably is his fastest attack and also deals the most knockback.

I want to say this fight was really easy, but it still wasn't. What made it hard was Knuckles' very timely guards, that and I kept using default Heavy Attack by accident.

Every time Knuckles blocks, it gives him enough time to really do whatever he wants to you since none of your attacks (at least mine anyways) can deal enough block knockback or block stun to deal with it.
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Re: Game Discussion: Sonic Battle

Post by epcthunderfist987 »

Sonic battle is one of my favorite Sonic spin-offs. Customizing Emerl's moveset was something I spent a lot of time doing. I've beaten it and am still trying to get every move unlocked.

Also, I can't manage to get Tails Combo. I was able to get every other Combo EXCEPT TAILS. What is the actual code? OrtOl? 0rtOl? 0rt0l? Ort0l?
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