I’ve played about 2 hours of the game so far, here are my quick impressions: The preorder/digital deluxe bonuses completely trivialise the progression on the first island and it really stinks. After finishing the tutorial, I had enough memory tokens to talk to Amy countless times, which is what progresses the main quest. By the time I reached the second island, I’d only mapped out a third of the first and felt like I had barely done anything, so I’ll be turning off those bonuses next time I start a fresh file. + - The first Titan fight was disappointing. Unlike the regular combat encounters, it’s all style and no substance. It feels like the optimal play is just to mash the basic attack button and it’s not engaging at all. There’s also some aggregating jank when Sonic gets hit, flying away to the background. The game turns to face Sonic, so odds are good you’ll just get hit again on your way back to the Titan. The cutscenes frustrate me because they’re very well executed in cinematography and choreography, but they’re compressed to shit. Also, I’m not a fan of the voice direction with Sonic and Amy, though maybe this is because I had the previous voice direction in my head as these characters for the past 12 years. In general, some of the line reads in the cutscenes are stilted in a way I thought this series had moved past, but at least the writing is on point. These characters actually feel like deep personalities rather than tropes. There’s real friction between them that occurs as a result of their priorities rather than plot contrivance and that’s so great to see. Cyberspace stages feel super slow to me. Not really sure why this is, perhaps it’s just my laptop struggling to keep up. The ranks are actually challenging at least so that’s nice, haven’t even gotten an A rank yet, let alone an S. So yeah this are the things that stick out to me so far. I realise it’s mostly negative but I’ve done nothing but gush over this game throughout its prerelease, and that gushing still holds true! Just seeing some irksome wrinkles now I’m able to play the game at my leisure (though I admit I’m probably affected by laptop not quite being able to provide optimal performance, even with the extra RAM stick I got last month. I think @foXcollr was on the money with regards to this being a GPU heavy game). EDIT: What
Great trailer, never thought I'd see Sonic and Queen mashed up again in an official capacity after the first movie.
First island completed. I mean...i liked the game so far, it has some jank, but movement feels really good, loved the sense of freedom, Squid boss in particular is brilliant, being the kind of spectacle that ALSO give you a tour through the island So, while it's not without flaws, i liked the game and enjoyed it but then i fought the first titan boss at the end of kronos island and HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT THIS MADE ME POP OFF SO HARD i legit didn't expect to see something like that in a sonic game, the execution was bonkers and insane ,and the MUSIC also loved how it + - incorporated the game mechanics but powered up , that what super sonic fights in the past should have been like , i managed to actually + - complete a Cyloop and lift up the titan in the air and deals a lot of damage, that was sick this made me legit love the game. it's 10/10 GOTY best game ever etc. don't care if the rest of the game is trash at this point, this fight alone redeemed the game to me.
The only Cyber Space stage that's challenging to get an S rank on for me was 1-2, and maybe a couple of others. The rest are quite trivial to S rank if you've played boost Sonic before.
+ - it's tricky, i did it the first time i fought with him, died, then wasn't able to concentrate on doing it right again cause i was concerned with rings running out and trying different things - i am playing on hard FYI- , but yeah it's doable, the game Tips warn you that you can't do Quick Cyloop on him however, that he will fling you if you tried it -but i don't even know how to do them yet, maybe it's an unlock- also when the titan throw you and the camera focus on Sonic's face, you can immediately see the....Line? the white line that warn you of incoming attacks and prepare you to do the parry, doing it and pressing Triangle plus Circle deals a tons of damage
Might as well echo the sentiments of others: having a blast, can't wait to see how Sonic Team improve on it for the future (that seemingly sisyphean task)
Worth mentioning that on Steam, Frontiers did better than Mania at launch, in terms of concurrent players, and they still growing right now, not to mentions it's on top Sellers on Steam Game is doing good
It's worth noting that this game is JANK. It has technical issues, pop-in, some weird collision problems. The game may lack polish, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't having a ton of fun anyway. I think people's enjoyment of this game all depends on if they're willing to look past the sizable number of technical issues. For some people, these issues can ruin the whole experience. But if you're able to look past them, it's a good time.
it is worth mentioning that Mania had a two-week delayed PC release because of Sega implementing Denuvo last minute. I didn't even buy it on the platform until years later, but bought it on Switch day one.
I was not expecting to hear a Queen song in a Sonic game trailer. But you know what? It fits with the mood how fans are right now!
If you parry before touching the ground after a hit, you will not take damage. I just noticed on the little electric balloon poppy enemy. Weird.
Wow, first they got Natewantstobattle, then they got Kellin Quinn, and now Freddie Mercury?? SEGA is nuts. /s Also yeah you can cyloop the Titan, you can also use all your other abilities so mashing attack definitely is not optimal. It did get a little stale for me, but it didn't really last long enough to be an issue and I was too distracted by the music and visuals to care. Have to agree with what @Starduster said about the DLC treasure box, it really felt wrong just suddenly having enough tokens to free Amy. I honestly think when I get home from work (and voting - don't forget to vote!!! this is 100% apolitical I just don't want people to forget) I'm gonna do Kronos from the beginning without the treasure box before tackling the rest of the game. Or idk... maybe not? What level are people on when they get to Ares? I'm like 15-20 in attack and defense so idk if I'm still overpowered, maybe it'll be fine if I just skip upgrading for a while. The real cheesy part was unleashing 3 billion memory tokens on Amy's crimson prison. I was confused at first why every single objective was "talk to Amy", then I realized I had the treasure box active so I skipped a good chunk of the progression... still took about 4 hours though.
Sounds like a Sonic game released past-1998 alright; its kind of broken, but it's very fun in its brokeness.
The simple act of moving around in this game feels good. I feel like I'm back in SA1 with trying to determine the right angles to super-boost off and reach places I shouldn't. I know we all wish Sonic had his pinball physics, but I could play a dozen Sonic games whose controls felt this right.
I farmed the fuck out of my speed with big's fishing (got it from 1 to 20 in one go ) and both my attack and defence were more or less at 30. Even playing on hard mode it's a very easy game, but that's perfectly fine to me. Sonic games were always power fantasies-especially the boost entries, so mercilessly destroying the enemies at high speed feels like a natural evolution if anything. Our boy got strong over the years :p
You know what? I picked this game up on the eShop this morning. I'll probably play it tonight after work. I haven't played a new game in a while and I'll appreciate the change of pace.
IT'S HAPPENING PEOPLE Can't wait to play with the Soap shoes Sonic Adventure 2 shoes, a totally distinct pair of shoes in no way associated with any pre-existing brand
