That's awesome! I've been wanting to get physical Sonic OST releases for a while now but I don't actually have a CD or record player so I'd be left with an unusuable piece of memorabilia, aha. Still, I would absolutely love to have something like this. Maybe I'll start looking into record player prices... (Also I like how you displayed your Sonic plush along with a copy of the game next to the OST. That's a cute touch.)
Thanks, they're worth getting even if you don't own a LP player, I still have one but I'll be honest with you. I barley use it. My fav DATA LP is Revenge Of Shinobi (also my fav Mega Drive game, I missed out on the Panzer one
Don't think this has been mentioned here yet https://twitter.com/moq_46/status/1619170736387817472?s=46&t=wh5PbxQ0Hl1_e3ghTRb_UQ damn what the heck are they cooking oh yeah and here's Kishimoto saying he isn't really bothered that much by all the questions, he knows he can't always please everyone which is totally fair https://twitter.com/moq_46/status/1619172867878580226?s=46&t=wh5PbxQ0Hl1_e3ghTRb_UQ
Kishi has had a bigger redemption arc than the game itself IMO. Even though I liked the gameplay of Colors and even Lost World, I always saw him as representative of 2010s Sonic which never completely gelled with me. But after seeing him pull a pretty good game out of the hat and how chill/open he's been regarding feedback, I am pretty optimistic for the future. For all of Frontiers' issues, I can't help but love running and jumping around and even fighting enemies.
Some recent translated Kishi remarks from twitter in one post/image https://twitter.com/saac_news/status/1619288684813258757?s=46&t=1FqGbZrfin0dqSxHjEwMXA
What redemption arc? Man's been directing mediocre Sonic games for close two decades, and his latest effort spent five years in the oven to come out a 7/10 at best. Frontiers has its good points, but has many more negatives. And the final product certainly doesn't reflect its protracted development cycle of supposed experimention and lessons learned. In too many ways, Frontiers is way too similar to what came before. If Frontiers could get it so wrong over the five years it took to make, why should I think that anything has changed in the couple of months since it was released?
He made a decent game *and* is very receptive to feedback. That's what I'm more focused on. It's very obvious that Sonic Team wants to make something good. And they CAN! They clearly have the ability to, judging by Frontiers' general reception. We'll have to wait and see if they take the right lessons from this game, but I'm comfortable in being optimistic. I wouldn't exactly call it a "redemption arc", but it's definitely the start of something.
It's the start of a lot of words, and I've heard many from Sonic Team over the years. I appreciate his sentiments towards fan opinions and constructive criticism, but I'm not letting it influence my opinion towards any future Sonic Team Sonic games, just gonna let them speak for themselves when they come out.
I do like Frontiers a lot but I do have a couple complaints myself. Although, I admit I haven't beaten it yet and these complaints may be resolved well within the game anyway. I can't say. But first things first, I sometimes don't feel the game is open enough. At least as far as I've gotten within the game, if you go over the side of an island and fall a long distance into water, you lose a life. Why can't that be explored, too? So, Sonic can't go into the water off the islands and explore beneath that and you have to work your way back onto the island via secret tunnels or something? Why can't that be a thing? So, water = instant death?? I don't remember that being a thing in the Mega Drive games. Also, are there no completely hidden breakable walls in the big rock formations found throughout the islands? I've been jumping and spinning all over those slippery grey rocks on the first island or so and nothing secret yet. So, just veritable bottomless pits and impenetrable borders to gameplay? This has gotten a little frustrating for me. Admittedly I haven't beaten the game yet. I can barely afford to spend an hour or so with the game per week (I work too much!). Maybe later in the game all of that opens up and there are lots of secret underground passageways and deep underwater sections. I'm not as familiar with 3D Sonic so maybe that's par for the course.
Kishimoto's output has been mediocre since he started directing the games and Frontiers is the closest he's gotten to actually making a good game and even that still misses the mark in a lot of areas. And that's with half a decade of development. Yet despite that, the fanbase are 100% willing to support him and treat him like he accomplished some herculean task with releasing Frontiers in a MOSTLY finished state (yet somehow still feels unfinished) simply because he started speaking on Twitter about things. I don't really have anything else to add, if Kishimoto is your guy then power to you. I guess getting mediocre-average products is just the norm for Sonic now.
Did people just collectively forget about Sonic Colors? That game was received incredibly well and people still like it. It has an 8.5 on IGN for christ's sake. And no, he's not "speaking on Twitter about things", and that's not the only reason people want to see him succeed. He is actively revealing secrets about the game and its development process, answering questions, acknowledging the game's faults, and hinting toward future plans. That shows a lot of confidence, which honestly he probably deserves after this game's reception. The fanbase is willing to support Kishimoto and Sonic Team because they are *actively showing promise* after releasing a generally well-received game with a strong foundation. The last time a mainline 3D Sonic game was received well by the general public was probably Sonic Generations, and that was a decade ago. People want Sonic Team to keep the momentum.
"Blah blah, I hate Frontiers." I'm surprised you've made it this long in life without realising others can hold different opinions. Clearly, I am quite happy with how Frontiers turned out despite its flaws. And looking at what he's said regarding the game, he clearly recognises that these flaws exist which is a pretty marked improvement over the, "Yeah, quality hasn't been great with Sonic - we'll do better!" shtick that we've seen for 15+ years. Even the best boost games haven't felt as fun to play for me as Frontiers. The feeling of freedom while moving around in the open zone is a much closer approximation of the classic Sonic gameplay than anything we've gotten from Sega IMO. You can agree or disagree, but if you think your opinion is the only valid one, maybe just post your thoughts in a journal rather than a forum.
I had no idea the Homing Dash was left in intentionally, that's honestly pretty awesome. Makes sense honestly considering how receptive some of the level design is to being skipped over. You aren't even locked into loops in this game like would be expected, you can just jump through them for a timesave. It's refreshing since, as far back as SA1, scripted sequences were unskippable for the most part. Not the case here, the game lets you carve your own path. To be fair, water is just a way of contextualizing bottomless pits in 3D games of all kinds, not just Sonic Frontiers. The Mega Drive games did the exact same thing, you jump somewhere hoping for a secret and get met with an instant death. I do see where you're coming from though, I didn't think about it before but it honestly would be awesome to have some sort of water exploration. Definitely a missed opportunity, you can't even run on the water in Frontiers which is laaame... I just think it's cool that he's been so clearly receptive to fan feedback, it's usually something you only see from indie developers. Plus I liked Frontiers so he gets a thumbs up from me either way
Colours was never particularly good. It got lauded out of the gate and overrated for being the first 3D Sonic game that wasn't either awful or bogged down by a genre-shifting gimmick nobody asked for (or both). It's metascore on Wii sits at an unimpressive 78, and it's lower still for the Ultimate versions. Colours is the height of Kishimoto's Sonic career, and it now sits around the early to mid-point in terms of chronology; the storybooks came before, Lost World and everything else came after. He didn't direct Unleashed or Generations. Colours isn't a universally loved or loathed game. At the end of the day, it's entirely subjective how your feel about it. But I think that when you look at the average review scores and hear fans regularly saying things day aren't just gushing praise, it's pretty telling that the game isn't what it was once cracked up to be. Frontiers feels like a repeat of Colours in so many ways. Over-praise from people who genuinely like it, a stark tonal and writing change from preceding games, gameplay that's not nearly as engaging or varied as it should be and strong commercial performance. I'm fully expecting dialogue around the game to be a lot more tepid in 5 years time. The game is still liked, but there's a lot more nuance surrounding it now. You'll see a lot more criticism for it that you used to (and criticism isn't the same thing as hate). Oh do me a favour. Man, I like Frontiers. It's an alright game that does some things I'd wanted Sonic to do for a very long time. Isn't everything we're saying opinions? You say one thing, I say another. Please don't muddy the conversation with unproductive accusations and insults. And still I ask you, what "redemption arc" has Kishimoto had? We've never seen him or anyone else at Sonic Team have such an open dialogue with the fanbase before. But what does that count for? SEGA have constantly talked about doing better, and they've constantly come up short. The flaws in Frontiers (and Forces and Lost World and every other 3D Sonic game released in the last twenty years) are deep-set issues that go into game design competency. It's not a case of listening to the fans and getting their feedback on the flaws. Many of the flaws shouldn't exist in the first place and are the direct result of bad design and lack of strong direction. Kishimoto hasn't had any kind of redemption as a game developer and director. All he's done is engage with fans in social media in a pretty decent way. And that's cool and all, but there's a wealth of evidence that suggests to me that he's not actually very good as a Sonic game director. That sentiment goes out towards Sonic Team as a group, not just him. The same studio, usually under the same director, keep putting out sub-par games, or games that just scrape a par if they're lucky.
I mostly mean it personally, but as a game director: I didn't like Colours and Lost World's direction despite finding some enjoyment in the gameplay. Colours felt like a regression from Unleashed in gameplay and I dropped it after maybe 3 zones until finally playing through it 3 years ago. Lost World was fun but forgettable and was just too far removed from Sonic in its presentation. Forces was flat-out mediocre and uninspired in all aspects. All of Kishi's games have bored me in some way until now. Frontiers is something I felt genuinely excited whilst playing and I did not expect that judging by his past work. I ultimately still think he's a pretty sloppy director and doesn't put the same polish into his games that Nishiyama did with Unleashed or Hiroshi Miyamoto did with Generations, but I appreciate his work here. My main point, as I stated in the initial post, is that I saw Kishimoto as the 2010s Sonic personified and dreaded the fact he was directing Frontiers. Now that the game is out, I have a bit more faith in what he can do. It definitely grew on me. I was beyond psyched leading up to its release but ended up dropping it after a few days. Then I played it a few years ago so I could see what I missed. I didn't like the filler stages and I didn't really like the wisps, but thankfully I forced myself to 100% it. It was that process of collecting the red rings and exploring the levels that really opened my eyes to how well the game was designed. I'd still keep it below Gens and Unleashed in terms of pure boost gameplay, but I think it's probably the tightest 3D Sonic package ever.
I really have no interest in going in circles about what Sonic games are or aren't good. I can only talk about how I feel about them and I don't feel Kishimoto deserves even half of the praise he is getting just because he is doing the bare minimum in an industry that is constantly pushing forward. Like I said, if y'all wanna kiss the ground he walks on, be my guest, but I'm not obligated to do that as I have never been particularly impressed by his work and I'm not going to just start praising him just because his games aren't complete trash. There are things I like about Kishimoto's games, but that is not the same as them actually being of high quality. I liked Sonic Colors, but it doesn't even crack my top five Sonic games, and probably barely the top 10. And that by itself wouldn't be that bad as its not like I expect every game in the series to be a 10/10. But when was the last time Sonic truly had a game that was actually, 100%, good with no caveats about it? Every time there is a moderately decent Sonic game, I have to hear about "well at least its not as bad as [insert other mediocre game here]" as if that invalidates any of its flaws or somehow makes it a great game. I'm just tired of being told "just wait and see" when I've been waiting and seeing for literally more time than I've been alive. So no, I am not going to just start putting in faith in a man who has been putting out mostly average content because of a slight improvement in quality. So until either a new director with an actual creative passion comes on, I'm content just not buying Sonic games for a while. I already kind of regret buying Frontiers at full price.
Colors is a good game. It's not very deep and it's not designed to be deep. Kishomoto is very open about wanting to design Sonic games which are very easy to play and require very little thought. When he designs games in this way I think he is largely successful, even if it's not a direction I think is very fulfilling for Sonic as an identity. Up to personal opinion whether a simple spectacle driven game can be good, but I think so. I think Kishomoto is actually at his worst when he makes games with depth and complexity. Lost World is confused and I think he's just clearly out of his depth with Frontiers when it is compared to any other 3D AAA Open World game. The best part about Frontiers is the simple Cyberspace level design. So I think Kishomoto's apparent desire to take feedback on board and aim for a deeper gameplay experience is actually very worrying for the franchise going forwards. I think the series would be in a much better state under this current Sonic Team if they leaned into their strengths. Simple level design and spectacle driven, but with fun and innovative ideas on that concept. I think Sonic Team are just incapable of designing a deeper gameplay experience and SEGA would require an entirely new team to take a different approach.
This feels like a trick question because you could name literally any video game ever made and find a caveat about it, and nitpick it to infinity. Regardless, I'm gonna fall for the trick question anyway and go ahead and say that the last Sonic game that was truly good was Frontiers. Smh it's been 3 whole months since the last good 3D Sonic game, the series really has gone down the drain
