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

[A_W]

2 hours ago, Strickerx5 said:

They're not the most polished things out there (then again what in this game even is), and for some reason the first one is the worst of them all in that regard,

I find this to be a very interesting opinion, because I thought the opposite; the first one had the most polish, and they got worse from there.

Spoiler

Giganto's lack of gimmicks reduces the amount of jank you can run into, and he actually has multiple targetable points on his body, which Sonic will smoothly adjust his altitude for to be able to hit them.

Wyvern has various little issues from your rail shooter-like movement, like forcing the giant swing counterattack to be a 30fps cutscene with cuts to black between it and normal gameplay, and missiles sometimes appearing to move with your own position instead of keeping their position in world-space while you zoom past.

This missile thing comes back with a goddamn vengeance against Knight with the shield-surfing; the missiles don't even begin to pretend they move within the world instead of being stuck relative to you, so the second time you have to do this and have to face a ton of missiles, you just get stuck in pinball hell until they spawn in a way that lets you continue.

Supreme... I think I need to try to learn his fight more, because my problem with him is that I just don't really know what's happening in the fight, rather than polish per se. I try to counter his attacks, and instead I get blasted back in a cutscene.

27 minutes ago, JezMM said:

Anyway, I assume sequence-breaking the story objectives to reach blocked off areas early will just throw invisible walls at you (and you need to follow the path and do all the mandatory talky scenes to unlock certain emeralds anyway) but I'm still pretty excited to see what speedrunning this game will look like in the future, especially 100%ing it.

Spoiler

Actually, skips have already been found for Kronos and Ares; turns out that if you can trigger the boss encounter and climb to the purple emerald altar, you'll turn Super regardless of how many other emeralds you have.

Kronos does have invisible walls, but you can use a bug to just super-jump over them and get into the arena. Getting enough height needs perfect timing, though; I haven't been able to replicate this myself.

Ares doesn't have invisible walls around its arena, so there's a few ways of getting onto the canyon walls and then hopping down. Incidentally, this also means you can clear Ares with 0% of the map revealed. This guy climbs up the entrance of the tunnel you're intended to use, but I've done rail jumps and also just stomp jump + double jump + air boosts from platforms close enough to the canyon. What people don't seem to have figured out yet is how to actually make Wyvern circle around the arena so he'll come to you when you reach the top of the tower. It seems like at the very least, he has to be in the sky above the island, meaning you have to do the chase scene with him, but I and this guy also watched the mandatory conversation where Knuckles saves you from Sage, and even then, I also had to do a lot of bumming around inside the arena before it entered 'boss mode'.

I've learned to never say never, but I can't say I expect skips for the later islands, especially Chaos because of the need to do the stupid pinball minigame to uncover the arena; the clouds act like a bottomless pit otherwise.

[Johnster4]

 

I just got done playing Frontiers, and I'm going admit it was really good, I personally enjoyed what I played. I kept notes of what I have down and I am willing to share them:

Pros
I like the options of tuning Sonic’s controls, cannot wait to see the Sonic Community to argue over the optimal tuning
I like that the lightspeed dash is on L3 and the boot is L2
Music is once again an absolute banger in cyberspace the open world, and the Boss fights
Writing feel like a straight improvement noticeable when Sonic first interacts with Amy
The fishing mini game is neat
I like the Koco’s they were neat
I love traversing the open world
At first, I was sceptical of Roger’s voice but on the second island onward he’s pretty good

The Story was actually enjoyable with good writing, beinging Iann Flynn onboard was a good idea

Spoiler

I Final Boss beat me a few times, am I seeing this correctly lads, I'm being challenged in a modern Sonic Game, lets go lads.

Mixed

The Elder Koco’s take a long time to level up, they could have allowed us to level up stuff in matched if we had enough stuff, (please get the elder koco fixed mod on pc, this is a mandatory quality of life mod)
Cyberspace itself is alright, didn't hate them but didn't love them either, although save the best for the 4 acts

Cons

PC Port is sort of a mess with a lack of graphical options and a 60fps cap.
Main menu is slow to use with option taking 2-3 seconds to process
Combo feels too button mashy and basic
The pop-in is completely noticeable even on PC to the point where I can boost into a invisible tree or boulder

Overall I would five Sonic Frontiers a 7/10, This is the first W I will give to Morio Kishimoto

 

 

[Kuzu]

At last.....its over.....here it is. 

 

 

Preface

I have completed this game and it was…an experience. Was it a good or bad experience? I’ll let you decide that. I come out of this game with very mixed feelings and kind of unsure about the future of this series. Your enjoyment of Sonic Frontiers will come down entirely to your own personal preference and tolerance for certain design decisions. Me personally, its just a very mixed bag overall that I’m not really sure is the sum of its parts. I’ll just break this down bit by bit so I can express my feelings when playing this game and how I felt by the end. And yes, there will be spoilers.

Story

Figured I’d start with this since it’s the part most fans were concerned about. The plot ranges from merely serviceable to actually kind of good in some areas, and then just kind of peters out by the end sadly. Which I guess is the Ian Flynn standard. I’ll start by saying that nothing really happens for most of the game as its spent just talking to the cast and slowly finding out the mystery, but then when you get to Rhea, it just decides to dump the entire backstory through flashbacks which felt very weird and abrupt, especially since none of the characters seem to react to it at all. By the time of the final boss, they try to make it seem like some huge triumph and then the game just…ends. Didn’t get much catharsis from it. The plot has a lot of good ideas but doesn’t really execute them all that well. Normally I would just blow this off, but most of the marketing was centered on this huge mystery, but what we got doesn’t even feel anywhere near worth the buildup it got.

Some of this is definitely due to how the game is set up; like how Sonic only finds out about the Kocos true nature later on in an optional cutscene, despite that being something that the audience could probably figure out with the context. Or how the Kocos are seemingly related to Chaos, but nobody except Eggman reacts or comments on that (and only in optional content), and the story doesn’t go into their relationship at all.  Feels very disjointed. Its better than the last two games, but that’s really not saying much.

 

The real highlight here however, and the part the fandom will be talking about mostly, are the characters of course. I’ll start by saying that I do not care about fandom’s seething hatred for Ken Pontac or Warren Graff; they were two people hired to do a job and that’s what they did. Did I like their writing? At times and other times, it’s bad. But hey, the same thing applies to the games from 1998-2009; Sonic’s never had the best writing, even at it’s “best” and I’m not going to buy into the idea that those two just ruined everything.

This game marks the debut of Ian Flynn to the video games after getting his career started in the Comics back in 2006. I was already pretty familiar with his work long before now as I started reading the comics sometime in high school. Anyone who has read any of his comics should understand his style and I do feel it mostly made a smooth transition. I don’t know to what extent he was involved, so I’ll just focus on his dialogue as that’s the most obvious thing.

Right off the bat, I noticed Ian’s trademark wit for Sonic shine through; he’s not just snarky, but snarky in a more grounded way. Seriously, some of Sonic’s lines got an audible chuckle out of me like when he posits on game mechanics when Sage asks what his “end goal “was; that’s something Flynn has excelled at, meta humor that pokes fun at the logistics of the series. Ian also loves to highlight Sonic’s heroic qualities too, something some fans have felt has been lacking lately. I can understand that, Sonic really gets to show off his kind and understanding side here. Its difficult balancing act sometimes Sonic is either too snarky to the point of obnoxiousness or too heroic to the point of being boring.

Amy unfortunately, I felt got the shortened of the stick here sadly. She’s just really…boring here. Most of her scenes with Sonic are pretty generic and she at no point tries to make a pass at him, not even once. This has kind of been a recurrent thing where, due to the fan backlash, they’re trying to downplay Amy’s more over the top traits and make her more grounded, which I understand but I don’t agree with. They took away Amy’s core traits, but didn’t really replace them with anything. Sonic has a pretty defined dynamic with Knuckles, Tails, Eggman and even Sage but I could not tell you what Sonic & Amy are supposed to be if you went by this game. They’re friends and…well that’s it. So now she’s…about spreading love or something? I don’t know. Fortunately, things get better.

After Convergence, I was kind of expecting Knuckles to play a bigger role given the whole connection between the Ancients and Echidna civilization and sadly, I did not get that. Knuckles just…well exists here. But that’s nothing new as that character has been in limbo for years, and that is addressed at the very least. Character-wise however, Knuckles is perfect. His back and forth with Sonic had me grinning, because it’s felt like forever since those two have had any real dialogue. They actually feel like friends who enjoy giving each other shit, it’s great. And they had a genuine heart-to-heart near the end too. And the game actually managed to salvage his role in Forces by making him an acting commander of a group of Koco; was never fond of that decision but I’m glad Ian managed to make it work for this game. He says he’s going to leave his island for a bit to see the world, something Ian has said was a direction he wanted the character to go in for a while so we’ll see where that goes or if its just lip service. I’m not sure how you can follow that up without that taking place off-screen if he isn’t playable, but it’s nice nonetheless.

Tails is far more tolerable here than he’s been in previous games. The game highlights his insecurities while paying note to his strengths. A bit too much technobabble for my tastes, but when he starts revealing to Sonic about how frustrated he is with his stagnation as a character, I felt it. A nice way to acknowledging how suffocating the status quo of this series can be for certain characters who can’t breakout. It doesn’t exactly justify how inconsistent his character has been, but I appreciate the attempt at least. Time will tell if he actually can break away from Sonic for a bit; sidekicks usually never stray too far from their charges sadly and I highly doubt Sega are going to bench one of their most iconic characters.

It's really unfortunate that Eggman doesn’t get much to do here; he spends essentially the entire game trapped in Cyberspace and only interacts with Sage. Even when he gets out, his only action is to give Sonic the last Chaos Emerald and its up him and Sage to stop The End. That said, he probably is the most fleshed out character in the game by virtue of said interactions with Sage, which is impressive really. I’m not too sure how I feel about his characterization here; on one hand, he feels more human here with his megalomaniac tendencies toned down severely and implying that he’s just a lonely man at the end of the day who wants to be loved. On the other hand, this is the same man who has caused countless apocalypses (including the one in this game) because of his own selfishness and negligence and I’m not sure if this game makes up for that. And he has only like one or two scenes with Sonic, which is just criminal.

And finally, Sage, the focal character of the game making her grand debut. I’ll just say from the jump, her entire character arc ripped is straight from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Her voice actors being Rei from both Japan and English don’t even try to hide that fact.  With Eggman essentially serving as Gendo Ikari. For those not in the know, Rei’s arc is about her learning emotions while wanting the approval of her creator and father figure and putting her faith in the protagonist. Eva is way more of a psychological series than Sonic though, so Sage is the kid-friendly version. Sage herself is fine, and she’s probably the best fucking character introduced since Colors, because she’s actually a character.  Every new character we’ve had since then have just been paper-thin and only serve their video game purposes of being bosses or exposition and nothing more. Sage’s arc is pretty bog standard, but it’s still an arc. Kind of wish there was a bit more friction between her and Eggman though if they really wanted to sell that parent-child dynamic; even when I went out of my way to interact with her through the game, it felt very understated and when hey play sad montage over earlier scenes with her and Eggman, it can fall flat if you don’t buy it. And her sacrifice is so abrupt and leaves no impact; Sonic doesn’t even acknowledge it, which is dumb after their interactions through the game and then Eggman just brings her back anyway. I don’t ever want to see people cry about Shadow again after this because you can say what you want about him being brought back, but he only came back through fan demand and they tried to do something with his revival. Sage dies and is revived in the span of 10 minutes. That said, it’ll be interesting to see what they do with her going forward; is she going to be a reluctant enemy to Sonic and Co? Essentially Eggman’s Bowser Jr? The possibilities are endless.

Overall, the characterizations are on point; my biggest complaint is that with the exception of Eggman and Sage, nobody really feels like they’ve progressed. Everyone was just kind of put back to where they were back in the Adventure days which is fine and probably what everyone wanted, but I wanted a sense of progression, not a reiteration of what we knew. Oh yea, I didn’t mention Sonic’s corruption arc huh? Yea that shit sucked, it didn’t even matter in the end and its resolved in a single scene. Whack. I’m not even going to talk about The End, they’re barely a character and gave me one of the worst final bosses I’ve ever had to play.

 

Gameplay

Here’s the real meat and potatoes. I’ll start off by saying that I did have fun playing the game, even when I was getting burnt out by the end. The game is MOSTLY consistent with itself from start to finish; Run, beat mini-bosses, get Portal Keys, Unlock Cyberspace, get Keys, get Chaos Emeralds, kill Titan. They do throw the occasional mini-game at you, because it’s a Sonic game, they have to force us to do something else at some point. But they’re pretty simple and easy. I guess I’ll divide this up between the Open-World and Cyberspace.

 

Open-World.

I’ll start by saying that Sonic controls…ok? It also depends on which mode you choose and what you set your controls to, but I’m going to assume most people played “High-Speed Mode” on default. Sonic feels very stiff to move around, which I suppose is the culmination of that direction since Colors, his movement has felt more and more restrictive. On one hand, its platforming way easier as Sonic stops when I need him too. On the other hand, Sonic does not follow the laws of physics very well. It has the Sonic 4 “stick to walls” problem as Sonic can just go over and stand on uneven surfaces and it looks and feels very unnatural. Jump kills all of your momentum, if you’re going at top speed. So, if you accidently launched yourself while boosting off a cliff, you better pray you didn’t go too far to make it back. And its so weird, there IS momentum in the game…but only selectively. Rolling downhill carries momentum, but not running. Bouncing from a high spot doesn’t carry that inertia either. Its so jarring.

The design for the Open worlds themselves is good, but I really wish it integrated the level design more into the environment itself. Everything just feels so disjointed, the open world stuff is pretty standard, but the stuff that actually resembles a Sonic game is just awkwardly plastered in there. Can’t tell you how many times I accidently ran into a speed booster and got flung into a platforming sequence. And this a much bigger problem on Chaos Island and the abundance of 2D and all of Sonic’s control issues become way more apparent.

That being said, the act of running itself feels good, and despite how big the world is, it never feels too large since Sonic is just that fucking fast. Makes fast travel almost redundant. Combat is fine too, a little too much cutscene attacks for my liking, but it does make enemy encounter engaging. Particularly the Bosses, the expanded move-set allows for the best boss battles in the series bar none. Them shits are fucking hype. The mini-boss are all unique encounters in their own way and figuring out their weaknesses is fun. The Titans are a bit more clunky, but those are pure style over substance and sometimes, that’s ok. It also helps those Sonic controls exactly the same like he usually does as Super Sonic. It’s not most engaging combat and yes, its wholly inferior to other action games, but I at least appreciate attempts to make enemy encounters a bit more engaging.  

 

Cyberspace

Oh boy…ok, I’ll just get this off my chest; these are some of the worst Sonic controls ever. I have no idea why they decided to use a control scheme that clearly was not meant for these types of levels. Physics are all out of whack here; remember when I said the Drop Dash had momentum? No here, in 2D it only problems you a few feet before coming to a dead stop, effectively rendering it useless as a speedrun tool. The bad controls really stick out because the levels are ripped straight from older games where the controls were actually designed for them.

That being said, I liked time attacking them I got over the jankiness of it all and finding ways to just bypass the level design feels good. Particularly using the Homing Attack Boost cancel to just fling you forward. And the idea of getting rewarded more for beating a certain time limit and completing certain objectives is a great idea for replay value. There’s an actual incentive to do good in these stages and Sonic games need to embrace that more….with controls that don’t suck and levels that are actually original.

 

Sound

I was really skeptical here after Forces and that Ohtani would be going for a more atmospheric sound, but it actually works. Was shocked by how much I loved the OST. Not even just the big vocal tracks, but even stuff like the Guardian themes are bops. The Spider-One is my favorite. Certain mini-games sound a little too upbeat for this game’s tone though

Voice acting is…well its hit or miss, but I do feel when its good, its good. Roger’s deep voice felt jarring at first, but I got over it pretty fast as his delivery is still good. And hey, he gets to actually emote for once after almost a decade of jokes. Everyone else also sounds weirdly solemn and deep here…its kind of eeeh. It works Mike, but not so much Cindy and Colleen. And man, when Dave B Mitchell tries to sound serious, it just doesn’t work. He sounds fine when he’s just…talking normally.  Sage is good, but English definitely has trouble capturing the whole Emotionless Girl angle, but that’s not new.

 

Presentation

Oooh man. You know, I will respect them for their ambitions here, but ooof this game be struggling with its graphics. Clipping, pop-in, and all sorts of shit in the Cyberspace levels. I actually got softlocked when I died in one of the Koco mini-games and had to quickly reload before it autosaved. This game is rough. And it makes me kind of annoyed how this game struggles with things that other companies have been able to do so easily. I get that this was a 60-man development game, but come on. You mean to tell me an iconic flagship franchise from the 90’s can’t have a proper budget? What is this, Pokemon.

And if you don’t have a current gen console or a decent PC, you don’t get the option of 60FPS, and this game looks way worse when its not at a stable framerate. And even then, cutscenes are still rendered in 30FPS which makes it look jarring whenever you’re in a cutscene and shift to gameplay. When other current franchises can perform much better, there’s really no excuse here.

Aesthetically, I really wish this game didn’t look so generic; they look fine, but the biomes are so indistinct as Sonic locales. If nobody told you, you would never think this was a Sonic game to begin with.

 

 

Conclusion

Its hard to put my thoughts on this game into words; I don’t want to call it trash because I do feel like it has some merit and I did enjoy it at some points. But I can’t really call it good either because it just has too many problems, most of which have been constants in the series for years now. I’m frustrated than anything because I gave them the benefit of the doubt and I don’t entirely feel like I got my money’s worth, even if I don’t regret the purchase. The Final Boss being entirely different genre altogether and being extremely difficult on top of it just took me out.

 

While I won’t say this game is bad, it doesn’t exactly make me enthused to play the next game; usually I get a sense of accomplishment or fulfillment when I finish a game, but when I finished Frontiers, I felt like I just finished a chore. It doesn’t help that all of the problems I listed above gradually get worse as the game goes on.

The community is just going crazy about this game at the moment, so I’m not going to rain on people’s parade. But I strongly feel like this game is going to age poorly in a few months-years when the hype dies down and more of its problems become more apparent. I didn’t hate Frontiers, but it wouldn’t be my first recommendation for somebody to get into the series.

 

 

 

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

10 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

The Spider-One is my favorite.

That wouldn't happen to be Knight you're referring to, perhaps? Love that one too.

[Kuzu]

2 minutes ago, Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon said:

That wouldn't happen to be Knight you're referring to, perhaps? Love that one too.

No, its the red mini boss. 

[StaticMania]

33 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

So now she’s…about spreading love or something?

I imagine if Amy got any sort of focus after SA1, this would've been the direction her character took a long time ago.

I think the scene where she gets mad at Sonic for seemingly deciding to not help a "couple" that was separated is pretty in-line with the type of character she's supposed to be.

Just...general positivity, but ya know, pretty passionate.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

8 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

No, its the red mini boss. 

Oh, you were referring to a mini-boss. When you mentioned bosses/guardians, my mind defaulted to the most spider-like looming of the main bosses.

22 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

Oh boy…ok, I’ll just get this off my chest; these are some of the worst Sonic controls ever. I have no idea why they decided to use a control scheme that clearly was not meant for these types of levels.

Given that they're the equivalent to special stages, I'm convinced that Sonic Team are under some stupid mandate for said stages to have some dumb gimmick or something wonky about that.

It's uncanny how much it's happened.

[AuroraRedwinters]

Gameplay-related question and sorry if this has been asked already - but can you pick up groups of Koco? I can pick up single ones no problem. But when they show up in groups, I can't pick them up. I try running towards them and it does nothing. I go too far away and they disappear. 

Playing on PS5 if that makes any difference. 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

1 minute ago, AuroraRedwinters said:

Gameplay-related question and sorry if this has been asked already - but can you pick up groups of Koco? I can pick up single ones no problem. But when they show up in groups, I can't pick them up. I try running towards them and it does nothing. I go too far away and they disappear. 

Playing on PS5 if that makes any difference. 

Groups don't show up - the group that shows up when Sonic idles is the ones he's already collected.

[AuroraRedwinters]

1 minute ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Groups don't show up - the group that shows up when Sonic idles is the ones he's already collected.

Ah, OK, that makes sense. Was driving me nuts - thank you!

[JezMM]

The exception to the above is the ones that pop out of the pods that Sonic can kick open. I mean, I assume freeing them "collects" them, but you can't actually pick them up and they just hang around until you leave the area.

[DaN]

So… is the Monster Hunter DLC coming today?

[Detective Kaito]

Does anyone happen to know the size of the development team for Frontiers? I heard it was about 60 people but I can't confirm.

[StellarBlur]

36 minutes ago, Detective Kaito said:

Does anyone happen to know the size of the development team for Frontiers? I heard it was about 60 people but I can't confirm.

Iizuka has said 60 ppl several times. Otherwise, we can check the credits to confirm.

[Soniman]

Beat it a couple of days ago and wanted to sit on it for a bit before giving my thoughts because they’re a bit complicated.

Cutting to the chase immediately, I like the game, it’s a above average experience and the best time I’ve had with Sonic since Generations, in terms of ranking? Probably in the middle, at least above 06/Shadow and SLW/Forces but boy do I have a lot to say here to explain why.

Like most people I was pretty burnt out after Forces, a game I personally despise and is my least favorite mainline Sonic game, basically representing every wrong thing this series could be in one game. I won’t drag out the preamble but basically combine that with Frontiers’ own spotty reveal and news rollout I went into this very cool headed, and no point did I really “get hype” I was basically sitting back and waiting for the dust to settle when reviews hit, and when said reviews were slightly above average (a miracle for a modern sonic game) I finally jumped in a bit more optimistic

Since the game starts with Cyberspace I guess I’ll talk about that first, man, they’re bad. Like I thought Sonic inn Forces controlled like ass and I can’t believe they actually made it worse, how do they keep making it worse? I know Kishimoto didn’t work on Unleashed or Generations but is he just unable to use those controls or physics? What is going on here? It’s frankly unacceptable to have them be like this. Sonic controls like melting shit on a frying pan, if you do anything other than run forward he will careen off to the side and to his death, just the simple act of turning in mid air is basically suicide, did no one at Sonic Team really thought this felt bad? The sad part is that when I trying to optimize a good run for an S rank I had a modicum of fun doing so, but when it feels like you’re constantly fighting against the stiff sluggish controls it sucks. Not even gonna get into the asset re-use it’s just embarrassing at this point and we’ve talked to death about how sick we all are of GHZ, Chemical Plant, etc. so yeah overall this is the weakest part of the game to me 

On the flip side I actually quite enjoyed the open zone stuff, which is god because it’s the main hook of the game. No joke Sonic has never controlled this well before imo, he feels relatively precise and responsive while retaining his speed, and it feels good. It’s not perfect, he will instantly stop on a dime the moment you lets go of the control stick and just in general there’s a lack of the “M” word in how he moves through the world alongside some general jank like him being magnetized to the floor and rails sending you flying backwards, so there’s definitely room for improvement but I see great potential here if iorned out. But in general I find the gameplay loop pretty satisfying, personally I never got particularly bored just running around, interacting with the floating obstacle courses and fighting enemies, I kinda wish things were more cohesive because the exploring/platforming/combat all very segregated from each other and don’t intermix on any significant level, if you’re doing one you’re not doing the other basically, but individually I find them out enjoy enough to play. 
 

Well most of them, I think the first, second and fifth islands are pretty well designed and utilize the open zone idea the best, the fourth island is a nice one and done platforming challenge that actually does get kinda tricky and utilize the boost Sonic level design themes in a clever way. But the third island just reeks, whoever thought a open ended exploration area should have a bunch of 2D exclusive challenges that you have no choice but to be funneled into needs to be fired, it runs counterintuitive to the entire concept of the game and just more proof that the 2D in modern sonic games needs to fucking go, Sonic controls instantly worse in them also, he feels heavy and stiff just like Forces, it sucks.
 

Combat I was pretty wary about but it turned out pretty alright, I enjoyed most of the enemy encounters and since none of them fell into the death trap many prior combat oriented Sonic games had of being forced to fight to progress through the level it’s pretty painless all things considered. The mini boss encounters I thought used the movests in decently clever ways and we’re varied enough but there are some duds like the circle grinding enemy and the difficulty judging which hazards are on which rail (no joke it took me over 10 minutes to beat one, never again) or the shark enemy taking to long to become vulnerable but overall I liked them, best combat system and utilization in a Sonic game, but like most things definitely needs refining.

The boss fights though? Those were absolutely a delight, just that raw “oh wow this is so COOL” feeling I had that I forgot I could feel with these games made it worth it, they’re not the most mechanically complex boss fights ever but it at least an extension on the combat just ramped up as Super Sonic, for the most part they’re fun and thrilling encounters set to the most kickass music this series has given us….sigh now if only that final boss kept that momentum.

Spoiler

Seriously? Unrelated bullet hell fighting a giant purple rrock was so fucking lame thematically I can’t even fathom that whole scenario not being hastily made in a month because they suddenly realized there was no final boss. Extremely unrewarding and a complete wet fart of a big reveal

 

Asthetically this is potentially one of my least favorite games, it’s not horrendous looking or anything but I just find the islands uninspired and the cyberspace levels are just Gens leftovers, other than the Ancient’s technology stuff there really isn’t anything this game has that sticks out for me, I know it was probably easier to make more basic looking areas instead of more colorful detailed sonic locales but man I just miss when the series used to blow me away asthetically, the Boost trilogy really knocked that out of the park and all we’ve had since was Mario clones, Jak and Daxter clones, Gens asset flips and Unreal maps, this series needs a SERIOUS art design overhaul.

Musically it’s solid, the vocal themes are all great, the cyberspace themes are catchy with some really good beats, and the open zone music fits the islands very well though I probably won’t listen to it outside of that. It’s a good B tier soundtrack but doesn’t touch the faves like Unleashed, SA1 and Colors

As for the story/characters, they’re definitely flawed and still has some pressing issues issues but this was by FAR the most interested I’ve been in a Sonic story since the dark ages. Characters feel more like themselves than they’ve been in ages, Sonic feels more down to earth and emotionally resonate, like he still has his cockiness and laid back can-do attitude but with a layer of maturity that feels right at home for the character, his excursions with Tails and Knuckles show their dynamics very well with the later two characters feeling so refreshing and well done, Amy is the only one who comes up short in my opinion as she isn’t given much to work with, not actively awful or anything just a little bland. I think the self actualization theme is a good way to basically “reset” the characters from their meta era selves and building a new spring board for their growth, I look forward to seeing how that’s delivered, Ian has more than earned my trust. Sage was also a welcome new addition, her character arc isn’t complex or anything, you’ve seen it before with AI characters but it’s charming enough and I think crafting a new dynamic for Eggman to work with is a fresh angle to take after years of being stuck with the comedy bots to bounce off of. Speaking of the Egg Memos are just brilliant, they’re charming little passages that help fill the void by Eggman’s reduced presence in the game. Him reminiscing on Maria, all the theroies and his relationship with Sage were so good. You can tell Ian had fun with that one.

The actual story though is just fine, I actually love all the lore additions and expanding the history of Sonic’s Universe, but the actual story being told I think needed a rewrite or two, to many details are left vague or unclear and as I said the final boss was a colossal dissapointment but it at least held my attention and gives me something to discuss and think about which is something I can’t give a single meta era story. The presentation of the cutscenes still need work, while they’re definitely better than what we’ve had there are still one to many “stand still and talk” scenes that are just really dull, I’m waiting for the day we get that Crash 4 level charm but we’re still not there yet.

In general you can just tell they were running out of time the further into the game you get which for a 5 year wait is pretty unbelievable, the games just has a distinct lack of polish because Sega refuse to just let the devs finish their games, I honestly cannot believe they thought that pop in was okay, I’d feel embarrassed having that on display completely unfixed for all to see. Like isnt the Hedgehog engine specifically built to prevent this kinda thing from happening? It’s totally unacceptable to have a big budget game look like this.

Its a Sonic game with jank, with untapped potential, with a bevy of smaller issues that I could mention, but it doesn’t take away the fact I enjoyed me time with it, it reminded me that I do still like this series and want it to do well, I want them to at least give this gameplay style a second crack to see if it’s worth keeping around because Frontiers is a mostly fun time, even at its worst I wasn’t rage quitting or anything because just the act of moving around with Sonic in a open space felt fun and rewarding. I think that 72 score on MC is right on the money, hopefully Sonic Team take the criticisms to heart and deliver something truly special next time, because I’ll probably still be around to play it

[Whatever the WhoCares]

The pop-in is atrocious, even on PC. Honestly, if all the mods I’m hoping for, a draw distance fix would be my first priority. 

[Nintendoga]

Beat it last night. That was fun.

Didn't like it as much past the 3rd island. Started to drag on for me. Boss fights were a highlight and didn't expect the actual design of the world to be that enjoyable. Combat and Controls were a nice surprise too.

I'm not a big lore guy, but I can get why people would be upset with changes in the story. I really liked the cutscenes and wish the characters were more proactive in the story.

I'm interested in what comes next.

[Sonikko]

2nd 100% playthrough done, 45~ hours in, the game is great, I didn't think it would ever happen again, but yeah I love a Sonic game that came out after my teens

[ZinogreVolt]

 

The Monster Hunter collab is out now. I fooled around with the meat grilling minigame and it's basically the same as in its home game, except there are only three types of Steak you can make (Rare/Well Done/Burnt) like in the modern games, rather than four when using a certain BBQ Spit like in the older ones.

The version of "So Tasty" that plays and the accompanying voice clip is also from Monster Hunter Rise's base game. 

[Sonictrainer]

1 minute ago, ZinogreVolt said:

The Monster Hunter collab is out now. I fooled around with the meat grilling minigame and it's basically the same as in its home game, except there are only three types of Steak you can make (Rare/Well Done/Burnt) like in the modern games, rather than four when using a certain BBQ Spit like in the older ones.

The version of "So Tasty" that plays and the accompanying voice clip is also from Monster Hunter Rise's base game. 

How do you access it?

It doesn't appear in the Extras Menu

[ZinogreVolt]

Just now, Sonictrainer said:

How do you access it?

It doesn't appear in the Extras Menu

Go to a fishing pond and you can access it from there.

[Sonictrainer]

Just now, ZinogreVolt said:

Go to a fishing pond and you can access it from there.

Ok, I had to reset my PS4 first for the outfits to show up in the Extras Menu

[Sonicka]

I’ve been taking my time with this beauty, although I actually thought I would have finished by now

But hey; at 35 hours in, 3 pretty damn epic boss fights smashed (WOW!), an obtuse pinball table and the “lore dump island complete” and I’ve only just hit Ouroboros Island. I actually thought I was about to hit endgame, I didn’t realise this final island was another open zone (I just thought it was gunna be like “Island 4”).

Sooooo happy right now!

Presently I got way too many thoughts on the game to properly articulate… but this is possibly the most fun (and exhilarated) I’ve felt with a Sonic game in a long loooooong time (warts and all).

I just hope Sonic Team take the positives with the criticisms and focus hard on this Open Zone stuff for future entires.
 

 

 

 

[A_W]

Just found a pro strat. If you ever want an unreasonable number of purple coins:

1. Wait for a Starfall and collect a decent number of Star Bits star pieces. 30-40 is fine.
2. Find the Hermit or Elder Koco and talk to them.
3. Wait while the slot machine uses up all your stuff.

The time of day is frozen while you're talking, but the slot machine will keep working. If you spend even half the night collecting star pieces, the machine will never use everything before the night ends, but this lets you give it all the time it needs. If you're even a little lucky, you'll hit 999 coins well before you run out of pulls, but if not, you should have enough time to grab a few more and repeat the process before dawn.

When it comes to actually using them, please, for your own sake, fish on later islands if you have them unlocked. Later islands multiply both the cost of fishing and the fish token rewards, meaning much less time spent fishing, but 999 purple coins should be enough to hit 999 fish tokens a few times no matter where you fish. The highest multiplier is x8.

Edit: The multiplier also applies to the new BBQ minigame, even though playing it is free.

Edited November 15, 2022 by A_W
MonHun

[Johnny Boy]

Just finished this and I really think this is one of my favorite Sonic games now. Top 5 easily.