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

[Remynaka]

I'm LATE to the frontiers party, just got it today. And I wasn't expecting.... what this is. I've never wanted to call a sonic game.. CUTE.. but.. it is. And youtube videos do this NO justice. PS5 version. I do see why some people- reviewers- have issues... but I think it's just because they didn't try to learn the game. The open world so far is huge, sonic maxed out in the options is INSANE, - I had to turn it down cause it's that much of a boost.-  My two only negs so far is cyber space... and oddly enough... SEGA.. let me remap the controls. 

   Having boost on R2 is freaking OFF. OTher than that so far I'm having a freaking blast. Sega actually won me over so far and I'm shocked. For point of ref... I haven't enjoyed Sonic since unleashed. 

[Spooky Mulder]

15 hours ago, Remynaka said:

I'm LATE to the frontiers party, just got it today. And I wasn't expecting.... what this is. I've never wanted to call a sonic game.. CUTE.. but.. it is. And youtube videos do this NO justice. PS5 version. I do see why some people- reviewers- have issues... but I think it's just because they didn't try to learn the game. The open world so far is huge, sonic maxed out in the options is INSANE, - I had to turn it down cause it's that much of a boost.-  My two only negs so far is cyber space... and oddly enough... SEGA.. let me remap the controls. 

   Having boost on R2 is freaking OFF. OTher than that so far I'm having a freaking blast. Sega actually won me over so far and I'm shocked. For point of ref... I haven't enjoyed Sonic since unleashed. 

Boost on R2 felt off at first but now it's second nature and I kind of think it works.  It frees up other buttons for more precise actions and i think that makes sense. 

[Legendary Emerald]

On 11/24/2022 at 4:10 AM, Austroid said:

VERY random but, anyone else just get really annoyed with that weird "HYAA" when you start rail-grinding? Its been around since Colors I believe; and I've never been sure if its supposed to actually be Sonic's voice, or just an odd sound effect. All the rails in the game made it stand out that much more to me. 

I have no clue what you are talking about. There’s a sort of “k’chuck” sound effect when you first land and latch onto a rail, and the “shaa” when you hit a booster while grinding, and that’s it. Sonic doesn’t even speak when he starts to boost in Frontiers, unlike some of the other games, so you couldn’t be hearing that.

[Duelistic Nature]

Ok. Alright. I said I'd do it so I'll have to back it up too.

Review time!

My expectations weren't all that high after Forces (that was an abysmally low bar to clear to be honest), but Frontiers when compared to the greats like Unleashed, SA1 & 2, and Colors is quite up there in my book.

MAJOR SPOILERS ahead for those who haven't completed the game yet! I'll try to make a spoiler-free TL;DR section for those short on time (or not in the mood to read me ramble and nerd out for a good bit), but for those willing to spend the time. It's going to be LONG because I feel like I got a lot to say about this, I suppose this is what people call Passion.

Spoiler free TL;DR

It took me a little under a good 30 hours on my first playthrough to 100% the game, achievements, stories, memory tokens, fishing rewards, fights, mini-puzzles, crushing the cyberspace stages, the whole thing. 

I really, REALLY enjoyed Frontiers!! It's probably the most chill and relaxed vibe a Sonic game has to date. Perfect for when you feel like you're on edge or stressed out, it's a calm vibe punctuated by bursts of action. My compliments to the developers for making the gameplay so immersive, from the sounds as you speed by at Mach speeds, the music on and off the island, the looks, and the controls.

The tone of the story is summarised with what Ian Flynn already mentioned in an interview; Melancholy. It's refreshing to see a story handled seriously compared to the last couple of games (Forces, Lost world, Colors) which despite the story setting a serious theme (war, alien abduction, land desolation) the characters joked and quipped their furry butts off. I also like what they did with the characters as this is probably the most in-character they've been. However, this feels, and I agree with @Kuzu, a bit like a tonal overcorrection.

Sonic, snarky, bit of an ego, somewhat impatient and reckless due to his live fast view on life, defiant in the face of adversity, loyal to the end, always trying to find the good in people, is behaving as Sonic should! No bad jokes, not tone-deaf about the situation or even behaving like an outright ass. This characterization is also very well done with the others. More on that in the spoiler section.

The gameplay feels incredibly responsive in the Open Zone (islands), you FEEL like you're Sonic. Crossing from one point of the Zone to another as the views zip by, able to make sharp turns, launch off at insane speeds from a standstill, all the things you feel Sonic should be able to do... and he does.
Unfortunately, the cyberspace stages were the polar opposite of this, feeling stiff and hard to control, but being very easy to beat almost as if to compensate for the lack of control. People following information preceding the game's launch already knew Cyberspace was going to be the stinker of the game and I agree that it is the game's weak point. Luckily it isn't taking up the majority of the game and the sections are mercifully short despite being important for the story progression loop.

Combat is fun, button mashy yes, if you want it that way, very Dragon ball esque (which was the inspiration for Sonic), and most of it is optional!
There's enough depth in the system for you to play around with. In 30 hours I didn't use every combo available to me because, the few I used were good enough (I did buy all of them though), but that means you can switch up the moves whenever you feel like it. It's not as simple as homing attack everything to death, but also not mind-blowingly complex like a Devil May Cry game.

Sonic Frontiers broadens the lore, takes a new (or older more liked) approach to storytelling, creates a fun, immersive and innovative hub area experience in the Open Zone mechanic, while providing snippets of more classic Sonic gameplay elements in the cyberspace stages.

My overall verdict for this game is a solid 7.5/10. Definitely recommended to play!

 

Alright, SPOILERS AHEAD for those who haven't completed the game!

Spoiler

the TL;DR was long, but here I want to pick apart 5 categories of the game, with subdivisions, and give my in-depth opinion on them.

In the following order Presentation, Story, Characterization, Gameplay, Music

Presentation

Starting out by judging the cover of the proverbial book.

The Look is a pleasant mix of the digital with, ancient ruins, lush forests, seas of green, arid wastelands, and life-blasted landscapes. The environments tell their own story and it lands really well with the fidelity on display. The digital cyberesque look contrasts beautifully with the more organic environments but blends well at the same time through the usage of the ruins. Even if you'd cut out the story explanation for the island you can piece together what the island was used for most of the time. It's a GREAT example of letting the environment accentuate the story.

• Kronos and Ouranos islands look lush with green fields, flowers, and forests, most likely suited for agriculture (as Amy pointed out). The Kronos ruins look like granaries, farmhouses, and towers that could function as solar collectors, and Ouranos island's ruins feel more ornamental befitting a more settlement-like look.
• Ares Island is an arid desert mixed with rocky canyons with a few oases providing the only real place where vegetation gets to grow. More chunky buildings, long-range weapon platforms, and a harsh climate which is a militarised feel. Perhaps a military training ground?
• Chaos Island is a desolate place with volcanic activity, barely any life, and the sky is thick and foggy. Tails points out this was a staging ground, a line of defense against "The End" where the ruins give me a lot more of a hangar feel, large open box-like structures with a lot of internal space. Where you could tell this place got hit harshly, being scoured clean of life

This will also probably be the nicest thing I have to say about the Cyberspace stages. They look nice, actively computer glitched with even the edges of the screen betraying this is a form of a holographic presentation. It really sells the feel and looks like you're in a digital realm instead of using a form of classic "1's and 0's matrix look" like floating code. I did read in a Tweet or a post that someone named cyberspace to be more like an art setpiece showcase and yeah... it does feel like that when looking closely at what is actively used for the stage and what is backdrop.

Performance

I always held Unleashed in high regard for its fidelity on the PS and Xbox consoles, although it chugged and groaned trying to keep a 30fps. With Sonic Forces, we actually managed to get a high fidelity and a stable framerate (as far as I experienced on PC) giving a smooth visual experience. It's good to see this trend being continued with Frontiers with the only noticeable dips on my end being during boss fights, most notably the Wyvern boss fight. There was just soo much stuff on the screen happening at the same time, my GPU probably had to work overtime.

The pop-in issue people have I can understand as there are plenty of them and sometimes they happen incredibly late. So late in fact that they sometimes actively interfere with trying to find the start of a parkour section because a platform or asset hasn't loaded in... or you're a SMIDGE too far away for it to start loading.
On the other hand, it helps from cluttering the screen with rails and platforms EVERYWHERE ruining the vistas of the islands. You win some you lose some, in my experience, this was a non-issue but many people had issues with it so I figured I'd mention something about it.

It didn't break my immersion, it didn't stop me from enjoying the game.

The Story

The cover of the book is nice, but is there any substantial story within?

• Short answer Yes, but the pacing?
  This historical adventure hits all the good questions where? what? why? who? in regards to the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic's own well-being, his friends' well-being (on multiple levels, getting to that in characterization), the Ancients, the Titans, and the Koco.
  
  I loved the show don't tell approach to the first 3 islands, you're dropped in on the island with a voice telling you simple directions without any context.. the context you need to find out on your own. This gives ample room for some very engaging dialogue between Sonic and Sage or his buddies. Although a lot of it feels stilted between story bits and internal struggles of the side cast.
  
  The "sidequests" (they really aren't because they hold 2 chaos emeralds which are MANDATORY) with the Koco giving most context on what happened on the island or what the Koco. The boss fights short flashes of an Ancient in distress foreshadowing the ultimate villain of the story.
• the 4th island, Rhea island... and I'm sorry... this is my first major criticism... it's a GIANT EXPOSITION DUMP. This is where the story gets a sudden shift like it was written in 2 parts and the second part feels rushed with island 4 (Ouranos) being sort of a mad dash to wrap up parts of the story because we got 1 island before the resolution and there's tons of exposition to go through.
  
  Count along with me the things that need to be resolved by the end of island 4.
  - Sonic's cyberspace corruption
  - Sage's resolve to either side with Sonic or against him for the sake of her 'father' dr. Eggman.
  - Who created the titans?
  - Why are the titans 'evil'?
  - also... how did Eggman get out of cyberspace? The goal for Sonic was to collect memory tokens of his friends to stabilize them so that when he finally busted the last Titan he might be able to restore them. I guess taking on enough cyber energy on the Rhea towers is what finally brought them back, but what about dr. Eggman? Did Sage wander about collecting memory tokens for Eggman and somehow there was some cyber energy blocking Eggman from coming out that went away when Sonic absorbed the last tower's energy?
  - Who is this big bad Sage keeps mentioning will be "the end" of us all.
   
• And then we get to Island 5 and my nitpicks continue,
  The memory tokens are to collect for Sage so they can talk a bit more about their shakey alliance and the function of the cyberspace portals and why things worked the way they did... but why the memory tokens? What do they stabilize, sage's condition? She's in the same boat as Sonic was, being semi-corrupted by Cyberspace. Also, why are they the same hearts used on Amy's island? Would have made more sense if they were Eggman tokens in my opinion.. a simple art swap and done.
  
  There is no foreshadowing of the final titan after 1 or 2 emeralds, just suddenly the boss being there the moment you got the last chaos emerald which is actually handed to you by Eggman (suppose him saying Sonic needs help because he's too slow was all bluster, quite in character since he came up with just 1 emerald compared to the 6 you already gathered up). 
   
• Then we get to the elephant in the room. "The End". A being apparently so incredibly powerful to wipe out the Ancients without much effort, requiring it to be contained/ chained instead of destroyed. A being that's saying it's the all-consuming void even though the entire story never really hinted at this being's origin. It's a case of introducing a big bad enemy without any enemy development and it falls flat because there's no real build-up aside from it apparently kicking the ancient's ass, but not explaining why it was after them in the first place. Was it a grudge? is it its nature?
  So far one clear example where this DID work was in Metalgear rising Revengence. The absolute mastermind is introduced in the last chapter and just steals the show with charisma and a hefty amount of amusing exposition, Senator Armstrong. The End here... doesn't achieve that.

A pleasant ride for the first 3/5th of the game... and the last 2/5ths felt rushed.

 

The cyberspace cages
I realized something about the cages after listening through the voice lines again. The cages are a reflection of the character's regrets and fears. Amy has very few regrets except feeling hollow, perhaps a bit unfulfilled desire to share her love with someone... or perhaps the fear of not having said love shared back.
Knuckles regret is being lonely, that he's the last Echidna, and worries he'll forever be alone also being the sole guardian of the Master Emerald and having to do that till the end of his days... alone.
Tails is a more relatable problem as his regret is having to rely on others so much, that he can't do anything alone. The Cybercage amplified this with an image of him berating him for being a block chained to Sonic's leg and always following him around.

Characterization

We get to the positive bits again! Because the characterization is amazing!

I believe it was Ian Flynn's job to help write the dialogue for the characters and those reading the comics are seeing easy parallels here, especially pertaining to Amy and Sonic.

• Sonic's back baby! All the traits we like and love Sonic for are here on full display. And Roger Craig Smith blows it out of the park on this one, There's weight to his words. A far cry from "no copyright law in the universe can stop me". Instead, I really liked the line delivery when Sonic converses with Sage after she sicked Giganto on him. "Ah... yo, don't you think that Titan was kiiiiinda overkill?"
  
  Not once did I actually feel like Sonic delivered a really bad line. He sounds concerned, fearless, and tenacious despite sage constantly telling him whatever he does is hopeless, sounds like he's having fun at times just toying with the others, knuckles in particular, with snarky quips here and there, not afraid to say what's on his mind.
  
  Sonic also protects his friends from too much concern about his own well-being, but cracks show when meeting Knuckles, but soldiers on. Really starting to fall apart when meeting with Tails and still he tries to stand tall in face of his lil' brother.
  
  It's great to see the hero once again live up to what he once was.
   
• Amy
  I've always remembered Amy as a sonic fangirl from back in the day, however, this game sets Amy apart as a character who's comfortable in her own shoes, but still has a soft spot for hopeless or tragic romance. For example when Sage jabs at Amy's view on the subject of love actually becomes a bit rilled up. Cindy Robinson delivers lines portraiting Amy as grounded, confident, and not easily shaken in regards to her own circumstance, the only real glaring slip-up line delivery is with the 'circle of friendship' solution scene to Sonic's cyberspace corruption.
  
  Amy easily fills the moral compass role of the group, whereas Sonic is a bit too trusting in the good in people, Knuckles easily comes to blows and Tails is a bit too insecure to be certain of how to interact with strangers, Amy sounds and feels like being a better judge of character.
   
• Knuckles
  Ah, what a fun duo Sonic and Knuckles make in this game, It's back-and-forth jabs between them. Knuckles calls out Sonic for doing a lazy job rescuing him and after explaining his capture Sonic retorts with "never a dull moment with you". Or at the oasis where Knuckles openly calls Sonic out for being useless underwater. Or Knuckles calls Sonic too trusting after Sage attacks Sonic, but refuses to fight Sage because Sonic has a hunch, followed by Sonic saying Knuckles to trust him with a casual shrug earning a disgruntled grunt from Knuckles.
  
  They just love butting heads together, stare-offs, boasts, and jabs at each other's pride, there are so many fun bits between them. Frenemies? rivals? it's good fun.
  
  Knuckles is always about jumping into action first and foremost and when he can't he feels powerless and almost despairs (the attack on the Koco bunker) scared he'll lose even more than he already lost. Intelligent about militarised stuff (given his Echidna roots) and ancient architecture, but when push comes to shove he thinks with his fists. "I punched it and it didn't buckle, meaning it's stronger than anything of this world." Yup... I'd punch it first too.
  
  Even openly admires Sonic's carefree, go-wherever lifestyle and says he might take a crack at it when this is all over.
   
• Tails Well... time to be critical again... it's bittersweet for me. First off, it took me a cool minute to realize it was Colleen O'Shaughnessy voicing Tails in the very first inning after the two Sonic Movies she voiced in. Comes to shows how natural of a fit she is at Tails. She's doing a stellar job here, even better now compared to the very insecure Tails we've got in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie where the pitch is a smidge too high at times. Here it's dead on! Colleen, I envy you!
  
  I love seeing Tails talk and act like the intelligent wonderboy he is. Using speech that's sometimes going over someone's head even if done on purpose to distract Sonic from his pain by confusing him and then explaining plainly that Tails is fine, Sonic is not, and Tails being worried.
  
  And then we get to the issue any Tails fan wanted to be addressed for the LONGEST TIME and it's put so eloquently by himself (Sonic Team). "Whenever there's a crisis I'm either running away or standing on the sidelines. You're always rescuing me while all I do is follow you around." When shown examples where he did act the part of the hero he retorts with: "Then I'm wildly inconsistent!"
  
  THANK YOU FOR FINALLY ACKNOWLEDGING THE PROBLEM! And I'm sorry but I'm reading this like Tails is being a "Sonic Team writer self-insert" here...  but after Forces, simply acknowledging the problem and saying sorry doesn't quite cut it for me yet. Them writing Tails finally gaining the clarity to go at it on his own for a while sounds promising, but please, please, please, please don't fuck it up, make true to your promise and DO IT!
   
• Sage
  A fascinating character with a bit of a cliche story arch for A.I., voiced by Ryan Bartley who delivers well on the clipped speech we think A.I. tends to give. Impersonal A.I. follows her directive to protect her creator and comes into contact with a potential threat that seems to defy calculations. Stand-offish attitude towards emotional bonding and reasoning, the longer she observes the protagonists converse with one another the more and more personable she becomes. Where even by the end she hopes Eggman doesn't feel sad she sacrificed herself to stop "The End".
  
  I guess they really were scared to pull a Shadow the Hedgehog from SA2 here because in the ending scene they had to edit in a scene where Eggman manages to bring Sage back.

 

• Dr. Eggman
  The good Doctor takes a more backstage stance in this story as he's really more a victim of circumstance rather than an instigator (although he did stir up the hornets' nest) and getting trapped into Cyberspace because Sage calculated that would be the safest option to protect the Doctor. Still, Mike Pollock delivers, albeit more muted, lines showing how insightful the Eggman can be about his surroundings and situation. Always having that keen edge to his voice to find out the potential of everything. Even closely observing Sonic's super transformation before the battle with the last titan.

Gameplay

Now we're getting to the meat n' potatoes of the game. How's it play? Got 3 categories I want to talk about.

Open zone

• Parkour
  Plenty of praise has been given about how the open zone controls, even at high speeds you just feel like you're in control of your every move that isn't 2D. The movement system is even robust enough to seamlessly chain wall runs, double jumps, slides, air dashes and drop dashes together to pull off some pretty amazing flow in movement. Even gaining enough dash speed to sometimes YEET yourself into the air to get up to higher places is a totally valid option. There's some odd stickiness to sonic's movement on slopes where on some he'll slide and on others he'll simply stand, but I suppose this is to streamline your running flow when running by.
  
  But then what about 2D? well... here even the open zone suffers, and in particular, the 3rd island suffers. Every single parkour section on Chaos island is a 2D parkour section, so much so that I think it suffers from 2D-itis, a rare and contagious condition that causes the level designer to only think in 2 planes of dimension. Has the potential symptom to make you walk like an Egyptian.
  2D sections feel slow and clunky, they lock you into only forwards and backward motion, and take away all your camera control. And every dash pad on the 3rd island locks you into one. So much so that halfway through you're actively AVOIDING dash pads to not suddenly get stuck for a couple of hundred meters running off in the wrong direction because you can't break out of the 2D part.
   
• Puzzles
  They're small, easily solved puzzles with not much brain tease to get map progression. Maybe they could have made these a bit more difficult, but overall they were done really quickly and engage you just enough to not be a total snore-fest.
   
• Combat
  I'm impressed by the combat system in this game, it's a bit button mashy if you want to play it that way since you can get away by mashing the attack button on pretty much everything, but you'll be severely undercutting your damage potential early on. Being able to chain attacks mid-combo like a Sonic boom, into Sonic Slash to build Phantom rush then go into a spin slash topped off by a stomp or Tornado kick just feels amazing to style on enemies. It's not as mind-blowingly complex as Devil May Cry, but way more engaging than simply homing attacking something to death. This is definitely something I can enjoy seeing more of further on in the franchise.

• Boss fights
  Fighting colossal enemies in a Sonic game? as Super Sonic? Yes, please!
  Although... after 4 Super Sonic fights I got a bit fatigued by seeing Super Sonic maybe? it just didn't feel too special after a while... It changes gears by mixing up the fights in the way they're done.
  Giganto fought straight hedgehogo a titano which was the most fun, but the challenge was rather mediocre because Giganto didn't fight back all that much.
  Wyvern is played more like a Quicktime event with health gated QTE portions which gave me the most problems because there was eventually so much stuff flying at me that I needed to parry which made the fight incredibly hard to read. I don't mind taking a hit, but a cheapshot, because it's unclear what is headed straight for me, ain't cool to me, thankfully you don't take damage as Super Sonic.
  Knight is against more of a traditional fight besides playing a quick tennis match with the blade to knock it into Knight. After that it's straight fighting again.
  Supreme... tries to be like Giganto, but was way harder to read due to parrying his melee strike had me getting knocked back by a double laser blast. Like I was being punished for hitting the parry. It still was brutally easy even on Hard because I was maxed out on all my stats and max Rings.
  The end, yeah this one fell flat, it was ok as a boss, but didn't leave any impact. Pretty forgetful boss in a couple of years' time. Turning my boss fight into an over-glorified Space invader + Bullet hell simulator backed up with a lazy QTE finish doesn't do it justice, but like I said... I was perhaps a little burnt out on seeing Super Sonic that it lacked impact.

Upgrade system

• Elder Koco
  By far my biggest gripe for it being incredibly slow to upgrade. Gather koco's to increase speed/ ring count is fine and all, but you literally have to upgrade both speed and rings point-for-point for 15 seconds per cycle. By the last island, I needed to increase my ring count level from 0 to 99 and it took me sooooooooo long to get it done. You don't even really need the ring count upgrade really even in the Super Sonic fights. The speed is nice to have to get from A to B.
   
• Hermit Koco
  And this one is a lot better. You give both and all of your attack and defense fruits at once to the Koco and he upgrades you in one animation! Although getting a high-level attack and defense statistic completely breaks any and all challenges you could have on the map you didn't have to sit through half an hour upgrading level by level.

Cyberspace

And here we have the stinker of the bunch and its Forces done even WORSE. You feel incredibly slow even while dashing/ boosting, something Forces at least did better. They are mercifully short, yes, but some level designs are just made to waste your time because by the end of all the islands doing the last few Cyberspace stages (try saying that quickly 3 times in a row) you just want it to get it over with. On top of that the most difficult Cyberspace Stage was the 2nd or 3rd one in the Sky sanctuary stage where the time crunch was incredibly difficult, but after that doing the Red rings, ring count, speed and finish was piss easy on most of them.
They didn't challenge, felt slow and horrible to control, and had gimmicks that older games did WAY better (drifting in particular, god that stage was miserable). And we don't do it for nostalgia at all anymore...

Music

I'm a sucker for good music and the last 31 years of Sonic gaming have produced absolute treasures of music. However, if I'm honest while the music isn't bad, it has to compete with good dialogue, pretty good (for the first 3 islands) storytelling, good Open Zone controls, decent combat, and fun parkour... and given all those are good the music has a hard time hitting high scores. It's overall good.

In games like Forces, the gameplay is so laughably bland that the songs are a shining bright beacon in the stages or in Sonic Generations the music complements the stage incredibly well being in harmony so they stand out way more. Or in SA2 Live and Learn is incredibly bombastic and all out as a final climax song.

High notes for Frontiers are definitely the Open Zone songs, they're serene, calm relaxing, soothing, and even haunting by the 3rd island. They have enough variety in them that they are incredible songs to sit and relax to. I've talked with my friends about it and it feels like a calm autumn serene scene just sitting outside with a warm cup of chocolate milk as the wind gently blows across your face. It's cozy, calming, and beautiful.

Another high note is the Boss music, but this is more to the listeners' taste. I'm more of a fan of hard rock and metal (grew up with Crush40, Metallica, Linkin Park, and Guns 'n Roses), but these boss themes while getting my head bobbin to the beat aren't my favorites. What does make them stand out is the contrast to the serene songs the Open Zone otherwise has. It punctuates a cool fight. The alternate version of I'm here hits well though, but I still can't enjoy the last word pitch when the music suddenly cuts out and you only hear the singer sing "Horizons"... not a fan. Vandalize, which as I found out doesn't play on Hard difficulty, is much more up my alley.

The Cyberstage tunes are forgetful though, some are nice to listen to, but the effect of music is the more you listen to it the more it sticks in your head (that's why radio is so effective, constantly playing the mainstream songs, eventually you can dream the lyrics the moment the first note hits). However, because the Cyberstages are so easy to beat and not fun to repeat on play and are short you barely got any time to enjoy the songs or get used to them.. missed the opportunity

 

Whew... there... I've done it... took me a good 10 hours to write this all down and I still think I covered about 75% of everything. There's just so much to talk about, but this is as close to my most conclusive thoughts about Sonic Frontiers.

If you've made it through the ENTIRE spoiler section I thank you so much for reading through my ramblings. Feel free to call me out about things I've been too lenient on or too critical I'm curious to hear your thoughts.

 

[Zadent]

5 hours ago, Duelistic Nature said:

Supreme... tries to be like Giganto, but was way harder to read due to parrying his melee strike had me getting knocked back by a double laser blast.

Just a note On this one. the punishment on the parry threw me off as well, until I realized the goal was to destroy one of his laser drones to create a bigger opening and a proper parry moment. Being knocked back is punishing for essentially trying to treat him like Giganto.

[ZinogreVolt]

Playing the PC version now, after getting 100% on Switch. I can buy that this game may have used Switch as a base and then was up-ported from there, nothing about the visual make-up in this version is really all that different, save for the sand interaction and water physics. Still pretty decent looking, but nothing particularly nuanced tech-wise, besides the weirdly great-looking water lol.

[Austroid]

23 hours ago, Legendary Emerald said:

I have no clue what you are talking about. There’s a sort of “k’chuck” sound effect when you first land and latch onto a rail, and the “shaa” when you hit a booster while grinding, and that’s it. Sonic doesn’t even speak when he starts to boost in Frontiers, unlike some of the other games, so you couldn’t be hearing that.

That "k'chunk" thing is what I mean. It's always sounded like a weird voice to me. Constantly hearing it in Frontiers only solidified that lol. 

[TheOcelot]

Patch notes:

Quote

Patch 1.10 (PS5/PS4, Xbox/Steam/Nintendo Switch) & Patch 1.11 (Nintendo Switch)

2022.11.28

Update Ver. 1.10 for Sonic Frontiers is now available.

Make sure to update your game for a smoother and more stable experience.

・Fixed two bugs in the PlayStation4® and PlayStation5® versions of the game.

・Fixed a bug where the boss would sometimes disappear when retrying the boss battle on Kronos Island.

・Fixed a bug where the large Challenge on Chaos Island would display as incomplete on the map even after completing it.

*Bugfixes for other platforms will be released soon.

*This patch will gradually be released in every region.

 

Updated on 11.29: Fixed three bugs in the Xbox Series X|S versions of the game.

・Fixed a bug where the boss would sometimes disappear when retrying the boss battle on Kronos Island.

・Fixed a bug where the large Challenge on Chaos Island would display as incomplete on the map even after completing it.

・Fixed a bug on the Xbox Series S that prevented players from being able to select "60fps mode".

After installing the update, players will be able to choose between "60fps mode" and "4K mode" by going through Options>Graphics>Graphics quality. If you have already played on an Xbox Series S, the game will automatically set to "60fps mode". Choose your preferred graphics settings in the "Graphics quality" menu.

*Bugfixes for other platforms will be released soon.

*This patch will gradually be released in every region

Glad they've fixed the Chaos Island bug where one of the main missions doesn't show as completed on the map even when you've completed that mission:

It now shows as completed:

[LegoFedora]

13 hours ago, ZinogreVolt said:

Playing the PC version now, after getting 100% on Switch. I can buy that this game may have used Switch as a base and then was up-ported from there, nothing about the visual make-up in this version is really all that different, save for the sand interaction and water physics. Still pretty decent looking, but nothing particularly nuanced tech-wise, besides the weirdly great-looking water lol.

How well does it run on PC? Does it stutter thanks to denuvo or is it implemented well enough where it isn't noticeable?

Really interested in the character mods releasing for it

[Sonikko]

6 minutes ago, LegoFedora said:

How well does it run on PC? Does it stutter thanks to denuvo or is it implemented well enough where it isn't noticeable?

Really interested in the character mods releasing for it

The pc version is fine, Denuvo is implemented well, I haven't had any issues whatsoever, even the framepacing is good for a change.

Only issue I have with it is that the graphic options are limited and it's missing key features like DLSS and the likes.
I have good specs tho, way above recommended, so there's that, idk how it may perform on a less powerful pc.

[ZinogreVolt]

Finished Giganto again and started up the second island. The number of potential interactions you can have with Giganto is kinda funny, I just learned you can completely skip the laser QTE if you just dodge it after it fires it.

12 minutes ago, LegoFedora said:

How well does it run on PC? Does it stutter thanks to denuvo or is it implemented well enough where it isn't noticeable?

Really interested in the character mods releasing for it

Locked 60FPS at 1080p with all graphics settings at High. I have a pretty beefy build so I'm possibly just brute-forcing my way through any lag that Denuvo may try to introduce.

[Duelistic Nature]

I had a similar experience except when it came to the Wyvern fight where there was a bit too much stuff on screen, but that probably only dipped sub-60fps. Never broke the 30fps barrier for choppiness. Probably my EVGA GTX 1070 ftw2 having a tough time. Everything capped out at max.

[Johnster4]

18 hours ago, ZinogreVolt said:

Playing the PC version now, after getting 100% on Switch. I can buy that this game may have used Switch as a base and then was up-ported from there, nothing about the visual make-up in this version is really all that different, save for the sand interaction and water physics. Still pretty decent looking, but nothing particularly nuanced tech-wise, besides the weirdly great-looking water lol.

The PC version should have been so much better with the fact that the game was capped at 60fps, in 2022 we still have developers capping frame rates of games, they were barley any settings at all and the pop-in is inexcusable on PC, we should have had options for increasing draw distance. Sonic Team and 3rd party games devs in some capacity should develop games for PC in mind rather than treat the platform as an afterthought.

[Shiny Gems]

Check this out, guys.

 

[Red Hot Jack]

They did it, or at least plan to, but it's so nice. Really looking forward to it.

Although seeing the final scene I figured there would be more story to be told. I just did NOT expect this much post launch content, this doesn't even include the DLC skin costumes.

[FunkDoc1112]

I really don't enjoy the Cyberspace Levels...half the time they just feel like "Stop the game from killing you!"

 

What would've been awesome was the linear levels being more like Sonic's levels in the Adventure games

[ZinogreVolt]

Nearing the end of my PC version playthrough.. Been keeping all my stats at Lv. 1 so I could get a greater challenge out of it... but it's still incredibly easy, lol. Still enjoying it a whole lot, but damn I hope we get a Super Hard Mode or something in the DLC.

[Spooky Mulder]

7 hours ago, ZinogreVolt said:

Nearing the end of my PC version playthrough.. Been keeping all my stats at Lv. 1 so I could get a greater challenge out of it... but it's still incredibly easy, lol. Still enjoying it a whole lot, but damn I hope we get a Super Hard Mode or something in the DLC.

Leveling up your speed would actually add to the challenge IMO. Might make dodging attacks a bit easier but everything else will require you to be quicker to match Sonic's speed. Leveling up speed is rewarding but it's also challenging.

[Blue Blood]

10 hours ago, Spooky Mulder said:

Leveling up your speed would actually add to the challenge IMO. Might make dodging attacks a bit easier but everything else will require you to be quicker to match Sonic's speed. Leveling up speed is rewarding but it's also challenging.

You can still reach top speed by just hitting the ring cap though. It's not very meaningful. 

The real challenge is staying awake whilst taking to Elder Koco almost 200 times to max out your ring and max speed. 

[JezMM]

On 11/29/2022 at 10:43 PM, Johnster4 said:

The PC version should have been so much better with the fact that the game was capped at 60fps, in 2022 we still have developers capping frame rates of games, they were barley any settings at all and the pop-in is inexcusable on PC, we should have had options for increasing draw distance. Sonic Team and 3rd party games devs in some capacity should develop games for PC in mind rather than treat the platform as an afterthought.

To be fair, they implemented full mouse and keyboard controls as the default scheme for this one and it works surprisingly well to boot.  It's too bad that there isn't really any way to implement the intuitive shoulder-button quick-stepping onto a single handed-controller coupled with a mouse, because it feels great using that to instantly swing the camera around and homing attack stuff where on a controller you're at the whims of standard camera rotation to nab an off-screen target.

All of this is to say I don't think they had the time to make the PC version the definitive experience it could have been, but I do think the team cared about making it as good as it could be while beholden to the console versions.

[Blue Blood]

2 hours ago, JezMM said:

To be fair, they implemented full mouse and keyboard controls as the default scheme for this one and it works surprisingly well to boot.  It's too bad that there isn't really any way to implement the intuitive shoulder-button quick-stepping onto a single handed-controller coupled with a mouse, because it feels great using that to instantly swing the camera around and homing attack stuff where on a controller you're at the whims of standard camera rotation to nab an off-screen target.

All of this is to say I don't think they had the time to make the PC version the definitive experience it could have been, but I do think the team cared about making it as good as it could be while beholden to the console versions.

I don't have it to check the credits myself, but who handled the PC version this time? SEGA Europe was in charge of those, with most of the work outsourced Generations and Lost World to company called Devil's Details (its a little implicated when you look into Devil's Details). Forces PC meanwhile was actually handled by Hardlight, SEGA's UK mobile company behind Dash. 

[Razule]

How many of Sonic's combat moves in Frontiers do you guys think are going to carry over to the next game? Since a lot of them seem to be tied to Cyberspace. I'm guessing not the energy projectile moves, or the spin-cycle.

[ZinogreVolt]

On 12/2/2022 at 7:50 PM, Blue Blood said:

You can still reach top speed by just hitting the ring cap though. It's not very meaningful. 

The real challenge is staying awake whilst taking to Elder Koco almost 200 times to max out your ring and max speed. 

After completing my Lv. 1 playthrough the other day,  I leveled up all of my stats to get the achievements for it and it legitimately takes half a fucking hour to go from Lv. 1 to Lv. 99.

[SonicFanForLife]

Make sure to vote for Sonic Frontiers to help it win the game awards! Genshin is closing in fast!

(https://thegameawards.com/brackets/players-voice)

[Raya]

1 hour ago, SonicFanForLife said:

Make sure to vote for Sonic Frontiers to help it win the game awards! Genshin is closing in fast!

(https://thegameawards.com/brackets/players-voice)

Lol, 3 hours ago Frontiers have, like, 55%.