In an interview, Iizuka said part of the reason they picked Ian so he could make the game feel like it’s connected to the rest of Sonic’s world. After playing (most of) the game, while I fell the same way about many of the references, I think I understand what Iizuka meant. I’m leaning towards the number of past game references probably being requested by Sega rather than snuck in by Ian. And if his writing experience was like Pontac & Graff’s, he would have had a limited amount of time for each cutscene’s dialogue. Taking those things into account, I think he succeeded for the most part. Outside of the more egregious references, the dialogue generally reads more naturally than in past games and while the voice direction took some getting used to it sounds more like actual conversations rather than previous games’ more cartoony delivery.
@Laura I don’t really agree with your assessment of the dialogue to be honest. I went through most of the cutscenes on Kronos Island (I personally feel that Amy’s writing is the weakest due to the lack of a compelling direction for her character at this time) and I certainly don’t feel like the dialogue is without character. Sure, there are some more expository cutscenes, and conversations that are more focused on Sonic asking about Amy’s experience as a cyber ghost, but I felt like pretty much everything the two said to each other was entirely in character (even if some of the line reads landed weird). The vast majority of the time, Sonic’s contributions to conversations are centred around Amy’s wellbeing, while Amy’s has an undercurrent of her compassion towards the Koco. Each of them has consistent priorities which are signposted and developed throughout the cutscenes and that comes to a head naturally when it briefly causes friction between them. Sonic is getting annoyed because he feels like helping every last Koco is keeping him from rescuing his friends, which is his main objective, while Amy is upset by the idea that Sonic’s willing to turn away someone in need, which doubles as both a good way of showing that her feelings for him aren’t blind (since this is her calling into question his betrayal of a principle that she likely loves him for in the first place) while also demonstrating the extent to which she places the welfare of the Koco above her own. Granted, the scene isn’t perfect and I feel like this tension should’ve been lingered on a bit longer rather with more of a back and forth rather than it being immediately resolved with Sonic’s very next response, but that’s not an issue with characterisation. I think loading up the dialogue with stuff like in jokes would, ironically, make the relationships between characters harder to digest for most people. This game has brought in a lot of casuals and Sonic is a franchise that is primarily target towards children in the first place and, while that in no way is an excuse for poor quality in any aspect of a given piece of media, I think there’s rightfully a focus on keeping things accessible. Granted, the references to past events hurt that a bit, but in that regard it’s a sacrifice made in service of making the game feel connected to the Sonic chronology and doesn’t really detract from the core of the conversations. To take Tails as an example, he references Infinite and such, which long time fans will understand pick up on, but he also more overtly spells out the crux of his conflict for those who are less invested: he feels like a burden due to his inconsistency. I must stress, I don’t think the writing’s perfect. I’ve already said that and in particular in response to yourself on at least one occasion. I just don’t feel personally that the character writing itself is lacking.
The shot reverse shot cutscenes somehow manage to look worse than the previous games, the slow mostly static camera movements paired with rigid character animations and overly animated mouths give this off putting Clutch Cargo effect at times.
I absolutely fucking loved that. I was taken aback with Sonic actually being impatient about it, which was replaced with "yeah, Sonic's right, why are we doing this?". He usually goes with whatever the writers want him to, so having that moment of him being a person was nice. Spoiler And it becomes 100% more understandable if you do the side story bit with Sage on Ares Island where he outright asks if their lives are in danger, and visibly relaxes when Sage, in a rare break from telling him to fuck off, says that they aren't, they're fine. Makes me feel less guilty for leaving Tails in his cage forever while I clear as much of Chaos Island as I can
Every time a character makes a reference, it seemed like a placeholder for either deeper or better dialogue. Come to think about it, Frontiers has a lot of stuff that seem like placeholders... But I don't really mind, because the game is fun. And when it isn't, I have the soundtrack. A love triangle of sorts.
I'm on Team Laura on this one. The game's dialogue STINKS. A handful of good moments don't make up for the overall mundane experience. I can't speak for the English VA work but the Spanish dub hasn't taken any major liberties from the English script.
I thought the dialogue was fine. It's generally pretty saccharine and sincere. Everyone says what they're thinking and feeling all the time with little individual voices, dialect, no need read even a little bit into what characters say etc...but that's how Sonic has always been, even in the pontaff era. . It's made easy to understand because it's a game for kids. Not my cup of tea but I don't expect it to change. The plot is what I have a bigger issue with, but I suspect most of the issues come from the last third of the game not existing.
Think I finally settled on where Frontiers sits for me in the series. Here's the "nice" version. And here's the true version. Spoiler
I’m on the final island and might as well post my thoughts now that I’ve played most of the game. First island was great, felt really polished (to me) and gave a strong first impression. If I were to rate the game on the first island alone it would be 10/10 (serious). Second island was great as well. Only complaint was that the tall cliffs made it harder to navigate to certain areas. Third island was where things kinda fell apart. Wayyyy too many forced 2D sections, the layout was inconvenient to navigate, and the environment just wasn’t as graphically pleasing as the other two islands. Thoughts on fourth island: Spoiler Massive disappointment. Wish they had done a proper island; they can still give us the six towers but at least space them out with other stuff like the other islands. With the size of the Sonic cast there’s no shortage of characters they could’ve used to be the “mascot” of this island; they could’ve had Cream or Shadow for instance. Final island looks okay so far. As for the voices/dialogue, I’m playing in Japanese so can’t really comment in regards to how the English dialogue is (though I’ve seen clips on YouTube, seems improved from past games). Junichi Kanemaru as Sonic sounds a bit more scruffy than he did in SA1 and SA2 (the only other two Sonic games I’ve played in Japanese) but that’s to be expected because he’s been doing it for almost 25 years now. The story‘s “seriousness” (it’s not that serious) is a midpoint between Forces and Adventure which is fine. Not sure what people mean when they say this is “too serious” since this is lighter than SA1. I’m liking the lore behind the islands and the Chaos Emeralds (that’s all I can say without spoiling anything). Also I don’t mind all the past references; it seems like with TailsTube debunking “two worlds” and Frontiers’ past game references they’re trying to clean up the canon and make it clear that it’s always been the same continuity despite the massive tonal shifts in the past. I’m not worried about future games being this heavy on references now that the canon’s all cleaned up and clarified. Overall the game feels incomplete, but it’s not a Sonic 06 scenario because the parts that are complete are quite fun, and it’s not a buggy mess. This game’s saving grace is the first two islands, as well as having some of the most epic boss fights in the entire series (in my opinion).
No I cannot agree on the voice acting part. For the first time since he was casted as the character, I really love Roger as Sonic in this game
Only on the second island but generally SA1/2 felt a lot more easygoing to me. Which is not to say that Frontiers is some kind of grim story, but all the character encounters on the overworld haven't felt very fun to me. I should be excited to encounter Knuckles
I’m on the final island right now, about 20 hours in, and haven’t got to the final boss yet. I’ve been playing on hard mode with a couple minor tweak mods (physics mod, elder koko speed up, darker blue Sonic, Soap shoes on Super), and I must say I love this game. Love it. It’s not perfect but I have been having a great time with it, this kind of why I’m taking my time. I really hope they use this game as a base for the next few Sonic games, although it’d be nice if the islands felt a bit more “Sonic-y” and the challenges felt more organic to the environment. Here’s how I break things down: - Open Zone Although the environments are a bit on the “Sega hire this man” side, they reminded me a lot of SA1 (funny how Sonic kinda implies this with Knuckles and his Mystic Ruins/Angel Island ruins comparison). Now tbf, half this game I played with a physics mod and it’s not to say I thought this game felt bad, just that it was a couple minor tweaks away from being almost perfect and that’s what said mod did. I LOVE how Sonic controls in this, and this mod gives the drop dash roll more potency so I can roll around like an idiot and never have to slide. Finally, my dream come true. The combat is also really fun and the enemies haven’t been complete pushovers. A little on the basic side but for Sonic I think it’s just about right, plus it has just the right amount of spectacle and flash, this is how I’ve always imagined Sonic fighting based off like comics and my imagination. The mini bosses were actually pretty fun too, it’s nice seeing Sonic bosses doing more again than just chase and lazer dodging and homing attacking things. Playing these zones felt like playing the Sonic CD intro. Plus the designs of the mini platforming segments I thought got rather clever, and sequence breaking seems not only allowed but encouraged. Would have liked a little more theme variation though. Like Rhea couldn’t be fall based even or snowing? Idk. And while there’s some jank, idk it’s fun jank? Just kinda love it it’s all weird but I feel like it works so well, I’m impressed they managed to be this creative. The puzzles are alright too, even if some of them are stupidly simplistic. - Cyberspace This is mainly why I downloaded the physics mod. It felt just a smidge to slow and the jumps just didn’t go far enough and the rolling didn’t work. This mod fixes most of that… but introduces other issues so I have to ignore a few issues I run into (this is back to open zone but said mod breaks the Squid chase segment on Chaos Island). Overall I think they’re fun, even if the zones are recreated. Again though, could have used at least one more theme (SA2 is so heavily referenced, why not the ARK based off Generations and Forces assets?). The SA2 stages are especially fun to see recreated, and I like how they went with the “good” 3D games for their level designs. But I wonder, they went out of their way to recreate the SA2 stages, they couldn’t make a 2D stage based off the classics? Or SA1? Windy Valley Act 3 could’ve potentially worked. - Story Maybe Flynn isn’t perfect but this is probably my favorite 3D Sonic story ever. Can’t ever beat the simplistic perfection of S3K but I actually liked the references here. I liked Sage as a character, the deeper voices grew on me, perhaps things like Tails’ redevelopment were a tad “fanboy/girl modern dream plot points” but damn if it’s not about time seeing him not be a whiny ass. And I liked the universe fold in. Super Knuckles is again canon, Eggman was jealous of Maria as a kid, Sonic 3 was just a past event. The core story is rather interesting too. Looking forward to seeing how it ends. I also like how all the characters were portrayed. Sonic was determined and overall positive without being his overly optimistic/flawless self from the Dreamcast era, Tails acknowledged he’s “wildly inconsistent” and wants to grow, Amy isn’t just a Sonic fan girl, and Knuckles isn’t an idiot. Good stuff - Music Holy. Shit. SO GOOD. 11/10. Chaos island has been on loop for at least 2 hours. Rhea island is a perfect tension building mood. All the music hits the mood perfectly and cyberspace is just some quality edm. Just fantastic - Super Sonic fights/music I saw a comment on YouTube that basically said “whoever decided to make the final boss happen 4 times was a genius” and I agree. Wow, even if they’re a bit janky, 3D Sonic hasn’t put a smile on my face like this since I was a child. The Knight fight with that absolutely ridiculous sword finale. Just amazing and fun. These fights have more personality in them than Sonic has had in the past 20 years combined. - Graphics Overall fine but fucking hell the pop in is just bad, worst part of the game for me, but at least if that’s the worst thing I experienced than it wasn’t all bad. Animations were inconsistent, some cutscenes looked great, others had SA1 lip sync issues. But when this game wants to look pretty it looks really pretty. I also like the enemy designs. Like a hybrid of Dark Gaia minions and robots, it works. - Other thoughts The various mini games were cute, although 5 million points is a tall order for pinball even with the multiplier red rings (good thing that music was a jam). The little shump sections were funny, never expected something that looks like Nier Automata hacking in a Sonic game. Fishing with Big is cute, I like the Egg logs and the various references you catch (and it’s nice seeing Big again) - Conclusion This game might as well have been made based off the thoughts of a focus group consisting entirely of clones of myself. This is the 3D Sonic I’ve wanted, and Sonic Team had some clever solutions to what I thought would be issues translating Sonic to an open world that made this actually fun as opposed to those endless tech demos people have made of Sonic running around an open yet empty Green Hill. It’s not perfect but I can tell passion went into this game, it wasn’t just by the numbers Sonic like Forces was. They tried something new, took a gamble, took their time, and in the end I think it paid off, and I really hope to see this game serve as a base for future titles because I haven’t had this much fun since Generations and I was in college when that game came out. 8.5/10 for me. There’s some jank that needs to be ironed out, could’ve used a bit more thematic variety, and ffs the pop in what is that? But as far as 3D Sonic titles are concerned, this is it and I think ties with Generations as my favorite 3D Sonic. I haven’t felt this excited for the franchise’s future since Unleashed.
This one: https://gamebanana.com/mods/411223 Oh and speaking of Sega hiring this man, here’s Brawl Sonic in Frontiers: https://gamebanana.com/mods/411978 this game got more mods in a week than Colors Ultimate did all year lol EDIT: lol someone addresses the ridiculous pinball score: https://gamebanana.com/mods/412302
Guys. How dope would it be if CyberConnect2 helped out on a Frontiers sequel and we got even *more* hype boss fights? It feels almost immoral to think about, like it'd be so good that I'd need to speak with my vicar and beg for forgiveness after.
Funnily enough, I pretty much thought the exact same thing yesterday. I can already picture the QTEs with all the SFX chaos going on, and it'll be glorious. Btw, I beat Kronos Island yesterday, and regarding the story: Spoiler Anyone, please tell me I'm not the only one who didn't realize that those Chaos-looking mofos were actually the Ancient's manifested souls, and that Amy and Sonic were briefly shown a memory of the past ala Sonic Adventure rather than just... things suddenly happening, before looking it up online. Or maybe they do explain it later on and I'm just an impatient little fucker
