Sonic Frontiers Leaks & Spoilers Thread - PLEASE READ OP

[Cosmos Rogue]

46 minutes ago, Badnik Mechanic said:

An old friend makes their triumphant return!

It's just like the saying: "if you're going to do something, do it right".

[Gabz Girl]

Just looked back a few pages and noticed that even the last two open world stages have reused designs from the first map? 

What the hell have they been doing for FIVE YEARS? Insomniac Games can churn out games every few years and make them look visually stunning and new (Miles Morales is basically Spider-Man DLC, but it still looks and feels great). And here it takes Sonic Team five years to make a game full of reused assets and repetitive open world/level designs?? 

I gotta admit my expectations are wayyy lower now.

[Willsy]

I think the game will review fine with critics. If a shoddy product like Colours Ultimate, or the fleeting consideration that was TSR, can stay in the 70s on Metacritic then something like Frontiers which does seem to have a solid foundation probably will as well. The heavy (and lets be real, egregious) reuse of assets and lack of variety in aesthetics, as well as some rough spots in the formula, will likely be what holds it back.

What I don't get is why Sega felt they had to say there were five islands. They could have said "three massive islands but also you'll visit a couple of other places", and that would have been much better if Kronos, Ares and Chaos really are as substantial as people have let on. Same goes for the game length, the 30 hour metric always had me quite concerned so hearing it's 20 hours at most is a bit of a relief, but why didn't they just say that? Especially when longer doesn't always mean better.

Anyway I probably shouldn't skulk around in this thread for a few days, as I would still like to go into the game fairly fresh. Just wanted to know about later islands and game length, and yeah the former situation is a shame. 

[Cosmos Rogue]

16 minutes ago, Willsy said:

What I don't get is why Sega felt they had to say there were five islands. They could have said "three massive islands but also you'll visit a couple of other places", and that would have been much better if Kronos, Ares and Chaos really are as substantial as people have let on. Same goes for the game length, the 30 hour metric always had me quite concerned so hearing it's 20 hours at most is a bit of a relief, but why didn't they just say that? Especially when longer doesn't always mean better.

Most people aren't going to find out that the game only really has three (four?) distinct islands until they buy the game, and from an advertising perspective "explore five massive islands" sounds better on the back of the box than "explore three massive islands", or "explore three massive islands, then explore the first island twice more" would.

I've expected Frontiers to get 6s or 7s, maybe a few 8s, from the critics for a while now, but if the repetition of content is as bad as it seems to be, that seems like the sort of thing that could sour their previously positive impressions of the game.

[Jango]

1 hour ago, Gabz Girl said:

Just looked back a few pages and noticed that even the last two open world stages have reused designs from the first map? 

What the hell have they been doing for FIVE YEARS? Insomniac Games can churn out games every few years and make them look visually stunning and new (Miles Morales is basically Spider-Man DLC, but it still looks and feels great). And here it takes Sonic Team five years to make a game full of reused assets and repetitive open world/level designs?? 

I gotta admit my expectations are wayyy lower now.

Insomniac Games from early 2000's put out better games than current Sonic Team, tbh. The difference is that most studios evolve and grow, while ST seems to shrink and regress imo. I was going to give this game a chance, but I ended up digging the spoilers and oof. Bullet dodged. Games aren't cheap. I put my money where I see there's something of value and I don't see much value in Frontiers, sadly. The story is cool, but I can watch it on YT, everything else regarding presentation and gameplay feels bland, if not unfinished.

Guess it's another 5 years.

[VO.SUPER]

3 hours ago, Willsy said:

What I don't get is why Sega felt they had to say there were five islands. They could have said "three massive islands but also you'll visit a couple of other places", and that would have been much better if Kronos, Ares and Chaos really are as substantial as people have let on. Same goes for the game length, the 30 hour metric always had me quite concerned so hearing it's 20 hours at most is a bit of a relief, but why didn't they just say that? Especially when longer doesn't always mean better.

Anyway I probably shouldn't skulk around in this thread for a few days, as I would still like to go into the game fairly fresh. Just wanted to know about later islands and game length, and yeah the former situation is a shame. 

Someone in marketing felt that admitting the truth would cost more sales than the hurt feelings would. But you'd think with how much on thin ice the series is in, that obfuscating the facts would just lead to more trouble than its worth.

They didn't even have to outright lie they could have just said, "3 HUGE islands" or something like that and then let people argue about the specifics of what constitutes big or not.

The specifics aren't that important, but the nasty surprise of the reused layouts vs what we were led to believe is ultimately more damning than just admitting outright.

Take cyberspace. Cyberspace was revealed early, and SEGA didn't try to hide that it was all reusing layouts. (I mean, after a while) And some fans were able to come to terms with that after a while. Imagine the nasty surprise had we learned what Cyberspace was RIGHT now.

It still isn't a great look, but hey ripping the bandage off early allows for acceptance to set in. Subterfuge is just gonna make things worse.

[Waveshocker Sigma]

Well, I fought the final boss. I think?

Spoiler

What the hell just happened? It's a good thing I'm still fairly decent at schmups because I was not ready for the final boss to be basically The Stone-Like from Ikaruga. The End took a couple of tries. Thing kicked by ass at the tail end up before the QTEs came in. Almost beat it without dying the second time, though. All the Super Sonic cinematic moments in this game were hype as hell, though. Sage was really adorable towards th end. Ended up liking her a lot. Guessing we'll be seeing her again. Cnsidering the post credits. Glad I bought those Egg Memos even when I didn't know what they were and got more insight on what he was doing and thinking about.

I can't believe how many callbacks and consolidation hints and confirms this game just casually gave. Even Amy name-dropping Sticks alongside Cream, confirming that Sticks is now is the main universe. I'm happy about that, but I can think of at least two people here who won't be and one person who will be estatic.

So I guess that's it for the main campaign and yet...I feel like I'm not done. Vandalize didn't play in the credits but ws listed there. I wonder what's up?

Gonna keep playing til I find out. Love this game. It's got some movement and collision kinks to work out, though. Especially in Cyberspace. But not enough to ruin my fun. Great game.

 

[VO.SUPER]

Just now, Waveshocker Sigma said:

Well, I fought the final boss. I think?

  Reveal hidden contents

What the hell just happened? It's a good thing I'm still fairly decent at schmups because I was not ready for the final boss to be basically The Stone-Like from Ikaruga. The End took a couple of tries. Thing kicked by ass at the tail end up before the QTEs came in. Almost beat it without dying the second time, though. All the Super Sonic cinematic moments in this game were hype as hell, though. Sage was really adorable towards th end. Ended up liking her a lot. Guessing we'll be seeing her again. Cnsidering the post credits. Glad I bought those Egg Memos even when I didn't know what they were and got more insight on what he was doing and thinking about.

I can't believe how many callbacks and consolidation hints and confirms this game just casually gave. Even Amy name-dropping Sticks alongside Cream, confirming that Sticks is now is the main universe. I'm happy about that, but I can think of at least two people here who won't be and one person who will be estatic.

So I guess that's it for the main campaign and yet...I feel like I'm not done. Vandalize didn't play in the credits but ws listed there. I wonder what's up?

Gonna keep playing til I find out. Love this game. It's got some movement and collision kinks to work out, though. Especially in Cyberspace. But not enough to ruin my fun. Great game.

Spoiler

Were you playing on Hard Mode? The final boss is just the QTEs if fought on anything but Hard mode.

 

[Waveshocker Sigma]

Just now, VO.SUPER said:

  Hide contents

Were you playing on Hard Mode? The final boss is just the QTEs if fought on anything but Hard mode.

Spoiler

I literally described the boss fight and compared it to something else similar, what do you think?

But yeah, played on Hard from start to finish, as obviously intended.

 

[Kuzu]

5 hours ago, Gabz Girl said:

Pre-ordered the game, and reading some of the opinions here from those who’ve played it it’s interesting to see the divide in opinions from Sonic fans and non-Sonic fans/casual gamers. Some enjoy it, some find it lacking. Once reviews come out next week I’m guessing it’ll be somewhere in the 70’s on MC.

So business as usual.

[light-gaia]

5 hours ago, Gabz Girl said:

Just looked back a few pages and noticed that even the last two open world stages have reused designs from the first map? 

What the hell have they been doing for FIVE YEARS? Insomniac Games can churn out games every few years and make them look visually stunning and new (Miles Morales is basically Spider-Man DLC, but it still looks and feels great). And here it takes Sonic Team five years to make a game full of reused assets and repetitive open world/level designs?? 

I gotta admit my expectations are wayyy lower now.

I don't think it's the developers' fault. Now I get why Takashi Iizuka said he only wants to develop Sonic Adventure 3 when he has enough resources.

It's clear that Sonic Frontiers was limited because of resources. Maybe the team wasn't big enough for a game with that scope. Specially considering they had to publish the game on multiple platforms.

It definetly hás a higher production value compared to Lost World and Forces. But it's sad to see that even though Sonic is the biggest Sega franchise and they are a rich Company, they are not willing to give Sonic triple A budget

 

[McGroose]

The last game to feel like it had this much efffort/passion put into it IMO was Sonic Unleashed, nearly a decade and a half ago. And yet, this game feels incomplete and tacky in so many ways compared to Unleashed. 

After seeing all of this, I'm definetely glad I spoiled the game, it's not worth 60 bucks. I can at least say it's worth more than a dollar, unlike most of what came out the past decade with some exceptions. I'm gonna wait until it's half price or until I can get it as a monthly PS Plus game. I can definetely see the game being worth $30. 

[DaBigJ]

49 minutes ago, McGroose said:

The last game to feel like it had this much efffort/passion put into it IMO was Sonic Unleashed, nearly a decade and a half ago. And yet, this game feels incomplete and tacky in so many ways compared to Unleashed. 

After seeing all of this, I'm definetely glad I spoiled the game, it's not worth 60 bucks. I can at least say it's worth more than a dollar, unlike most of what came out the past decade with some exceptions. I'm gonna wait until it's half price or until I can get it as a monthly PS Plus game. I can definetely see the game being worth $30. 

Spoiler

Considering how there's allegedly no new post-game content to do after the final boss nor does there seem to be a 100% reward (though I could be wrong on both accounts, let me know if I am), I think $20 would fit more

 

[Sonicka]

 

I suppose considering we know it’s a least a longer/bigger game than Forces, this is what justifies the price point for Sonic Team rather than them releasing it on budget like they did previously.

They want to advertise that this is their showcase game, and a higher price point tells the market audience this. 

…Not that it makes any real difference to me personally this time around, I snagged Frontiers on pre-order at £40, which seems like a justified amount for this game TBH.

Ultimately, I’ll decide overall come delivery next week on it’s worth. But from the few things I’ve clicked on in this thread, I still don’t have any reason to temper my personal expectations. 

 

[Kuzu]

One thing about the plot that I feel like they missed out on; Amy at no point tries to tackle hug Sonic. A joke where she tries that but phases through him would have literally wrote itself. In general, I'm not really too fond of how they're trying to distance Amy away from her feelings and that's been happening since 2013 roughly. 

Granted, I haven't finished the story yet but their interactions on Kronos kind of lacked that energy imo.

[light-gaia]

I think the game is worth 60 dollars, It has enough content for a platformer. In my opinion. There are tones of diferente enemies, bosses, etc. And até least the there First Islands até great. I don't know about the last tão because I'm still in Chaos Island.

Cyberspace is bad, but it's so irrelevante. I problably spent less than 5% of my playtime in cyberspace so Far. There are some New level design and they are not Bad, but the problem is the aesthetics and the physicd

In my opinion,the problem is the way they market Ithis game. Making us belive se were getting more than we are actualky getting.

 

 

[Salamander]

7 hours ago, Gabz Girl said:

Just looked back a few pages and noticed that even the last two open world stages have reused designs from the first map? 

What the hell have they been doing for FIVE YEARS? Insomniac Games can churn out games every few years and make them look visually stunning and new (Miles Morales is basically Spider-Man DLC, but it still looks and feels great). And here it takes Sonic Team five years to make a game full of reused assets and repetitive open world/level designs?? 

I gotta admit my expectations are wayyy lower now.

I have to assume that it's another case like Forces, where they spent years basically just prototyping and then threw the final product together in relatively little time, only with even heavier reliance on asset reuse of one kind or another to disguise their lack of resources.  (Budget, staff, time?  To a certain extent all three are a function of one another.)

[The Deleter]

12 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

One thing about the plot that I feel like they missed out on; Amy at no point tries to tackle hug Sonic. A joke where she tries that but phases through him would have literally wrote itself. In general, I'm not really too fond of how they're trying to distance Amy away from her feelings and that's been happening since 2013 roughly. 

Granted, I haven't finished the story yet but their interactions on Kronos kind of lacked that energy imo.

*Kuzu will remember that*

 

Edit: I legitimately don't understand what they were thinking with this creative decision:

I get the "true ending" direction a lot of the earlier games take, but setting it up like this is basically ensuring that every player who chooses easy or normal will get an anticlimactic ending, with zero signposting that they should play Hard to get an actual satisfying ending. Surely it would have been better to just include the final phase for all difficulties to begin with?

[Dr. Mechano]

Didn't realize the post-credits scene was hard mode only too.

Not a fan of that decision, though I plan to play on hard mode myself.

[DaBigJ]

22 minutes ago, The Deleter said:

*Kuzu will remember that*

Edit: I legitimately don't understand what they were thinking with this creative decision:

I get the "true ending" direction a lot of the earlier games take, but setting it up like this is basically ensuring that every player who chooses easy or normal will get an anticlimactic ending, with zero signposting that they should play Hard to get an actual satisfying ending. Surely it would have been better to just include the final phase for all difficulties to begin with?

This is fucking ridiculous. Why are you even adding multiple difficulties if you're just gonna go "Fuck you play on hard mode" to get exactly one scene and boss?? 

[Kuzu]

...uh, that's true for a lot of games guys. Not just Sonic. 

[Sonicka]

Yup, and TBF you can just switch to Hard mode quite easily? So it isn’t really that big a deal. It would have been a worse decision had you needed to start from scratch and on a new save.

That being said - it’s still odd, and without letting the player know too? It would be like not advertising to the player that there is a Final Story (SA1/2/Heroes/Shadow/etc…). 

[StaticMania]

That's...not even remotely similar.

Outside of Shadow's un-intuitive requirement for it, the Final Story just unlocks by playing the game.

During the years those games came out, the only thing necessary to show in ads was gameplay.

[Sonicka]

27 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

That's...not even remotely similar.

Outside of Shadow's un-intuitive requirement for it, the Final Story just unlocks by playing the game.

During the years those games came out, the only thing necessary to show in ads was gameplay.

Yes, that’s exactly my point. I don’t think you quite read me properly

The other games require you play the game and then in game it “advertises” to the player that there is another story afterwards. In frontiers it doesn’t highlight this to you as it’s locked behind a difficulty setting instead. 

[ZinogreVolt]

Wait so Vandalize is effectively the BAD ending theme? That's kind of hilarious.