Megathread Sonic Frontiers (2022) | MT | General Discussion (DO NOT discuss leaks here please)

[NoKaine]

3 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

Well, that freedom literally just means you can stop whenever you want.

Which is less negative.

You probably can't just skip to the final boss though, so...

Frontiers' freedom is less "you can end the game whenever you want", and more "if you want to try to do a different part of the game, or if you have a part of the gameplay you care about more, your progression will not be halted."

Though I'm absolutely sure that Sonic Team has something in mind for those who want to speedrun the game and get to the final boss. 

[StaticMania]

A different part of the game better be equivalent to the Cyberspace levels...

It's the only part of the game so far that won't be "busywork"...

[NoKaine]

Just now, StaticMania said:

A different part of the game better be equivalent to the Cyberspace levels...

It's the only part of the game so far that won't be "busywork"...

Trying to pin down what the "real meat" of the game is instead of accepting them all as part of the entire experience is more trouble than it's worth. None of it is busywork. All of it is Frontiers.

The most positive previews specifically praise the fact that the whole gameplay loop makes each of those parts more enjoyable than in isolation. I remember one YouTuber who said that while he didn't enjoy the open world and thought it was aimless, he did love the cyberspace levels, and the idea of a gameplay loop that involves exploring and growing in the open world to get to those levels inherently made the game more interesting to him.

[StaticMania]

Just now, NoKaine said:

All of it is Frontiers.

All of it is video games...

[NoKaine]

1 minute ago, StaticMania said:

All of it is video games...

Yes, but this video game in particular is the sum of those specific parts lol.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

I don't really see why this is a big deal. So you don't have to play the cyber levels...and? You don't have to do every act in Unleashed, or all the missions in Generations, or Game Land in Colors. But those are more of the core gameplay the game is providing, the only difference is we're implying that you don't have to play any of them now, and...I dunno, I kind of doubt that. The tolls for Chaos emeralds are probably likely to increase throughout the game, and the game will encourage you to choose one avenue over another as each system for getting them becomes more difficult. Who cares? If they made every stage of S3K optional, you'd play them all anyway, and just never replay Sandopolis.

[StaticMania]

13 minutes ago, Shaddy Zaphod said:

...and only replay Sandopolis.

 

[ComeAsYouAre]

2 hours ago, StaticMania said:

Well, that freedom literally just means you can stop whenever you want.

Which is less negative.

You probably can't just skip to the final boss though, so...

That's a good thing. 

 

Calamity Ganon ended up being way too easy due to the fact that they designed him in a way that you could defeat him early on. This was always a huge criticism of BOTW that has become more vocal as the years go on 

[StaticMania]

Outside of increasing his health, he was never not gonna work that way...

It's a choice.

[StellarBlur]

1 hour ago, StaticMania said:

1 hour ago, Shaddy Zaphod said:

...and only replay Sandopolis.

The correct take.

Btw, you'll likely have to do some cyberspace levels. But perhaps, you can get away with doing 4 cyberspace levels and doing all the challenges in them while fishing for a bit to get other Vault Keys and have enough to progress. Or perhaps you'd rather do 7 cyberspace levels and do 2 challenges in them. That's the kind of freedom we're looking at. I'm sure there'll be a minimum of cyberspace levels you'll have to do though.

[Ratcicle King]

3 hours ago, Shaddy Zaphod said:

I don't really see why this is a big deal. 

It's not, hence why I called it a nitpick before it became the main topic of discussion.

[Hidden04]

New Article from Gameinformer about the Skill Tree https://www.gameinformer.com/2022/07/15/what-you-can-unlock-in-sonic-frontiers-skill-tree

Edited July 15, 2022 by Hidden04

[Diogenes]

8 minutes ago, Hidden04 said:

New Article from Gameinformer about the Skill Tree https://www.gameinformer.com/2022/07/15/what-you-can-unlock-in-sonic-frontiers-skill-tree

Quote

Starting out with Sonic at full power would make the combat simple and repetitive

So when you have unlocked everything, the combat is simple and repetitive? Hmmmmm...

Also not too promising that we seem to have already seen most of what's on the skill tree. Maybe more stuff opens up when you reach later islands or something, but if not, combat is really not going to evolve past what we've already seen.

[Cosmos Rogue]

18 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

So when you have unlocked everything, the combat is simple and repetitive? Hmmmmm...

This exact thought crossed my mind when I read that line. Maybe it's just an unartistic way of saying that part of the fun will be getting to unlock new abilities and always having new moves to try out, but given Sonic Team's history with combat systems it's hard to extend the benefit of the doubt here.

[Kuzu]

>One of the movies is a Homing Shot.

 

Oh no...

[Cosmos Rogue]

Quote

you can unlock several different skills, including Auto Combo, an ability where battle skills automatically activate during combos (if you unlock this one and don't like the autopilot nature, you can toggle it on and off in the options menu)

Wait, why is this an unlockable ability? This sounds like it would be a useful accessibility/difficulty option for some people, but only if it's available from the start of the game.

[The Deleter]

All of these upgrades sound like ass. "Not a core part of the game" wow amazing, so glad that so little focus is being put into this that you build progression of the game around unlocking this long list of... moves, not particularly special moves, but just moves. Bet the wild rush attack won't be actually useful contextually either, huh.

[StellarBlur]

36 minutes ago, The Deleter said:

All of these upgrades sound like ass. "Not a core part of the game" wow amazing, so glad that so little focus is being put into this that you build progression of the game around unlocking this long list of... moves, not particularly special moves, but just moves. Bet the wild rush attack won't be actually useful contextually either, huh.

Yeah what especially hits me is that they have a skill to automate the cyloop. Why in the world would I want that ? Combat will really have to stand on enemy variety and ways to approach them to be good.  With that said, this article doesn't mention the drop dash skill the IGN coverage guy mentioned he unlocked in the skill tree which means that this specific skill tree might just be tied to combat. 

[StaticMania]

31 minutes ago, StellarBlur said:

...they have a skill to automate the cyloop. Why in the world would I want that ?

What if some people suck at running in a circle?

[DaBigJ]

52 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

What if some people suck at running in a circle?

Are we really doing this

[StaticMania]

You need to be more specific...

[ZinogreVolt]

1 hour ago, StellarBlur said:

Yeah what especially hits me is that they have a skill to automate the cyloop. Why in the world would I want that ? Combat will really have to stand on enemy variety and ways to approach them to be good.  With that said, this article doesn't mention the drop dash skill the IGN coverage guy mentioned he unlocked in the skill tree which means that this specific skill tree might just be tied to combat. 

We've already seen the auto-cyloop and functionally it's different enough to warrant using over the regular cyloop in some scenarios and vice versa. Auto-cyloop looks as if it only locks onto one enemy, and doesn't break guard like regular cyloop does. It seems more like a standard launcher, while regular cyloop can do crowd control, breaks enemy guard, and dishes damage simultaneously. They are pretty different.

[DaBigJ]

5 hours ago, Diogenes said:

So when you have unlocked everything, the combat is simple and repetitive? Hmmmmm...

Are they sure it's just when you unlock everything? It already looks repetitive without everything unlocked.

[NoKaine]

17 hours ago, Diogenes said:

So when you have unlocked everything, the combat is simple and repetitive? Hmmmmm...

 

I know you're really eager to shit on the game, but you do not unironically think Takashi Iizuka meant to imply that the combat is inherently simple and repetitive, and not "if you started off as an overpowered god, the combat would be simple and repetitive." That is "reading 'Sonic Frontiers is taking a humanizing approach to Eggman' and concluding that he will somehow have a human redesign" levels of intentional misreading lmao. Be better, please.

Damn near every character action game, including big name games like Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, and Kingdom Hearts, adheres to that same mindset, unless you want to prove me wrong by naming a character action game that has literally every single ability, special move, and gameplay element unlocked at the start and still remains engaging.

Anyway...

14 hours ago, The Deleter said:

All of these upgrades sound like ass. "Not a core part of the game" wow amazing, so glad that so little focus is being put into this that you build progression of the game around unlocking this long list of... moves, not particularly special moves, but just moves. Bet the wild rush attack won't be actually useful contextually either, huh.

Each of those moves could easily have different values and reasons for using them. We already know the Auto-Cyloop (if it's that mini-tornado move) inherently works differently than the regular Cyloop, working like a standard launcher instead of a guard breaker. We have nothing but the description of these moves.

11 hours ago, Jake_LeOFFICIAL said:

Are they sure it's just when you unlock everything? It already looks repetitive without everything unlocked.

Yeah, fighting the NInja, fighting the... flower... enemy... and fighting the large bosses totally all look the same. Yup.

[Diogenes]

15 minutes ago, NoKaine said:

I know you're really eager to shit on the game, but you do not unironically think Takashi Iizuka meant to imply that the combat is inherently simple and repetitive, and not "if you started off as an overpowered god, the combat would be simple and repetitive."

I don't think it's what he meant to imply, but I think it's what he ended up saying. There are good reasons to pace out moves/abilities, but combat should be at its most engaging when you have all of your tools available. If it's not, you've fucked up. And I'm inclined to believe that's the case, as what we've seen seems to be about all there is to it, and it does not look good.