Sonic Frontiers Update 1 - Coming March 22nd (US) / 23rd (UK)

[Sonicka]

If you signed up for notifications from the website then check your inbox - it looks like SEGA are finally sending the email notifications out.

Depending on your location, The first free DLC wave is officially coming March 22nd  at 17:00 (US Pacific) / March 23rd at 00:00 (UK) for the sights, sounds and speed update! 
 

Edited March 20 by Sonicka
Updated date/times of region release

[FReaK]

I also just got an email from sega with that announcement.

Still, there are no exact details for now, even if you click the "learn more" link in there.

[Sonicka]

Yeah, The link in the email simply takes you to the website I believe.

Possible these went out prematurely, or maybe they’ll update the news section of the site later on with details.

[ShinyGems]

Nice.

Do you all think we’ll get a trailer soon for this?

[DaBigJ]

Between that and this, they're absolutely cooking something up

[Bobnik]

Destructoid apparently has some more details on what the update entails. Photo mode is, uh, photo mode, not much else said there

Jukebox mode is actually 53 songs from the previous games, but you only get 13 at the start. You'll have to look for the other 40 in the islands. Actually pretty cool that there's a reason to play the game just a little bit more to collect the tracks.

Challenge modes are as follows:
- The Cyber Space Challenge makes you go through multiple cyberspace levels back-to-back in a time trial. Expected, meh, whatever
- Battle Rush seems to be a "beat enemies on time" kind of challenge, with Guardians and Titans.

It also has 2 screenshots that I assume showcase Battle Rush by, uhhh, having a timer at the top.

[Indigo Rush]

Seems pretty by-the-numbers, at least it's free. It's not always easy to tell if content like this is added post-launch due to time constraints or as a calculated means to extend player engagement over time. Either way, the Cyber Space Challenge and Battle Rush modes are enough to get me to put the cartridge back in my Switch.

[mayday2592]

So I'm guessing if all things go to plan, we can expect the DLC to drop in three month increments. Especially seeing as the next one is theme around Sonic's Anniversary.

[Dreadknux]

13 minutes ago, Bobnik said:

Destructoid apparently has some more details on what the update entails. Photo mode is, uh, photo mode, not much else said there

That news article also says the DLC will drop on March 22nd, which is a day before the newsletter states. Weird.

[PickleBrows]

A post-game collection quest for music, cutscenes, artwork etc to give us further reasons to explore the islands was something I wished for after launch so it's really cool to see them actually doing that with the jukebox update. By all means stick them all on that 4th island and make use of all that space.

I was hoping the Cyberspace challenges would've given us new, more difficult S-rank challenges akin to 1-2 but this is nifty enough. I hope there's something to indicate when you achieve a new Best Time. As far as I can see Frontiers currently doesn't tell you if you beat your previous best so you need to have made a note beforehand to keep track.

[Jango]

If I can play the music while playing instead of just listening to it in a gallery of sorts, we're good. What I'm Made Of while fighting Giganto sounds very cool.

Also, wonder what QoL improvements have been made.

[ZinogreVolt]

Seems pretty standard, but the Cyber Space challenges are about what I'd wanted from Update 1 anyway. Hopefully there's some under the hood changes on the technical side for this one too.

[Sega DogTagz]

 

43 minutes ago, PickleBrows said:

 As far as I can see Frontiers currently doesn't tell you if you beat your previous best so you need to have made a note beforehand to keep track.

 

I want to say that it would give you some sort of indication of a personal best on the results screen, but maybe I'm mis-remembering things.

 

 

Anyway, lets hope the S Rank requirements are a bit more well balanced with the marathon stages. You can comfy cruise your way through a lot of the cyberspace levels and clear S rank times with 20 seconds to spare. Kinda makes the challenge less special if I can burn rubber through 5 levels and finish more than a min ahead of the required pace.

 

This may be the closest to longer levels were going to get lol

[ZinogreVolt]

https://blog.playstation.com/2023/03/20/sonic-frontiers-update-brings-new-challenge-mode-photo-mode-and-jukebox-tracks-march-22/

Some more details:

- Songs can be changed at any time by holding right on the D-Pad, this can also be disabled in the Options menu

- There are 53 songs total, 13 of which are unlocked by default

- Confirmed songs so far:

"I'm Here", "Live & Learn", "Open Your Heart", "Reach for the Stars (Re-Colors)", "Kingdom Valley", "Red Mountain", "Mystic Ruin", "Sky Sanctuary", "It Doesn't Matter", "Angel Island", "Mushroom Hill", "Stardust Speedway (US Ver.)", "Palmtree Panic", "Emerald Coast - Act 1", "Seaside Hill", "Wave Ocean", "Deep Woods", "Emerald Coast - Act 2 (Remix)"

[Jango]

That's neato. I've seen some screenshots, is it just me, or Sonic's model looks better?

[Shaddy Zaphod]

QOL from the official Sonic site:

Not sure what "cyber space levels can be restarted mid-level" means, because I can already do that. But hey! The other 3 are great.

[ShinyGems]

With the update, it seems Playstation/Sony is promoting the game now, given these.

[ZinogreVolt]

30 minutes ago, Jango said:

That's neato. I've seen some screenshots, is it just me, or Sonic's model looks better?

It's always looked that good, but having a screenshot mode definitely makes his subtle features more pronounced.

[Sonicka]

That you can exchange multiple Koco’s with the elders is probably “the best” QOL update to come out of the patch 🤣

[TheOcelot]

19 minutes ago, Sonicka said:

That you can exchange multiple Koco’s with the elders is probably “the best” QOL update to come out of the patch 🤣

Yeah, good change. So much better than having to talk to the Koco 400 fucking times just to max-out everything, lol.

[Bobnik]

1 hour ago, Shaddy Zaphod said:

QOL from the official Sonic site:

Not sure what "cyber space levels can be restarted mid-level" means, because I can already do that. But hey! The other 3 are great.

Unless they literally forgot you can do that through the menu (which I doubt but naysayers would say "it's sonic team, they would forget about that" like they're idiots incapable of doing literally anything, so I have to mention that as a possibility) It's either restarting from a checkpoint, which, while worded weirdly, makes sense in case you missed a red ring on the way, or restarting without going into the menu, kinda like the Time Trials in Sonic Mania.

[Sega DogTagz]

Short of the ability to re-fight the titans, fixing the Elder Koco gaff was probably the single biggest thing the patch needed to accomplish.

[DaBigJ]

>The new DLC will also feature a Jukebox Mode, featuring 53 tracks packed with “your favorite Sonic songs”. The first 13 tracks will be available at launch, with the remaining 40 being unlocked as you gather “Sound Memories” that are scattered around Starfall Islands. We better have some Marble Zone beats going on here or there’s gonna be a sternly-worded letter heading Sega’s way.

>the remaining 40 being unlocked as you gather “Sound Memories” that are scattered around Starfall Islands.

MORE COLLECTING. PROBABLY COUNTS FOR 100% COMPLETION

[Shaddy Zaphod]

6 minutes ago, Bobnik said:

Unless they literally forgot you can do that through the menu (which I doubt but naysayers would say "it's sonic team, they would forget about that" like they're literally idiots incapable of doing anything, so I have to mention that as a possibility) It's either restarting from a checkpoint, which, while worded weirdly, makes sense in case you missed a red ring on the way, or restarting without going into the menu, kinda like the Time Trials in Sonic Mania.

I'd love if the timer automatically reset if you died without hitting a checkpoint. That would reduce the amount of times I bothered to reset at all by at least 60%.

 

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

9 minutes ago, DaBigJ said:

COLLECTING. PROBABLY COUNTS FOR 100% COMPLETION

Okay, tone down the drama routine. They're not going to retroactively take away 100% completion from players who don't have the songs.

It's essentially another thing to collect in the open-zone, which makes sense given how most players enjoyed the open-zobe gameplay.