Lol yeah after sleeping on it, I realize I was being unreasonably hostile in my assessment last night. Probably cause my upstairs neighbor wouldn’t stop dropping shit on my ceiling, but that’s no excuse. Colors is fine, but I still don’t think it’s anything remarkable gameplay-wise. I really believe Frontiers will end up being looked at more fondly in the future, especially if the next few titles actually build and iterate on this formula. It has a real shot as being seen as the precursor to a series of really solid Sonic games.
I’ll say that at least Colors has original level locations and art assets. Today, that is sadly a missing feature.
Gameplay wise I'd put Colors and Frontiers on roughly the same level. No that is not an indictment of the latter because I liked Colors well enough. But I do feel its pretty indicative of where the general quality of Sonic games have been for the last decade. Literally, the best things I've heard about Frontiers is that "its a foundation for the future" as opposed to the game just being good on its own merits. I dunno. There are so many more games I've played and enjoyed more than Frontiers, including other Sonic games that I struggle to understand why I should be praising Frontiers like its some huge accomplishment for Sonic Team. It took half a decade to make a game that's mostly just alright, but let's pat them on the back I guess? Games like Colors and Frontiers are not bad games and they have their appeal to the casual crowd (and the hard-core crowd who are obsessed with the lore, characters, and references) but there's nothing about them that really appeals to me personally as a Sonic fan. Gameplay is too simple and uninteresting and the stories are mostly just passable. Before anyone gets annoyed, I feel this way about the earlier 3D games too so don't think this is some stupid ass generational shit. But those games at least had the excuse of being early, experimental 3D titles in a time when 3D was relatively new. That no longer applies in 2022, but we're still getting similar levels of quality as back then and I'm just like "they haven't learned anything in 20 years huh". One day I'm gonna get the 3D Sonic equivalent to Devil May Cry 5. One day...
Well, I'm quite late to the party, but I finally got my copy from the library and started playing. Got about three hours in before I decided to stop. My initial thoughts (haven't read every single post in this thread so I apologize if these are repeats): - Graphics aren't the greatest but this is on the Switch, so I guess that's to be expected. I couldn't help but chuckle when I broke a metal box and it just... popped out of existence. Like no proper animation for it breaking at all; it's just like POOF gone. I also had a very noticeable frame rate drop happen at least once. - The music is AMAZING. The gentleness of the overworld music and the high-energy beats of the cyber space levels just compliments each other so well. - Jumping feels weird. Like Sonic is stuck in molasses or something. - Light Dash also seems to just not work half the time. Why couldn't they have made it where you activated it by pressing a button? - The amount of stuff you can collect feels a bit overwhelming at first, but it does feel rewarding when you get said stuff. A lot of the fun I've had in this is just from running around the overworld and taking all the different paths to find things. - Not big on the idea that you have to essentially S rank the levels to get all the keys. Apparently you don't NEED to get every single key to beat the game, though, so that's a relief. - Having to use grind rails to travel back to older parts of the island is kind of annoying, especially since these rails don't appear on the map. You have to go back and forth between the map and the main game to see if you're going in the right direction to make sure you get on the right rail. Perhaps as I play more I will be able to recall the map and locations better. - Roger Craig Smith's Sonic voice feels odd in this. Sometimes he sounds too deep for the character, and other times his performance feels lackluster. - Tried to fight the Squid twice but failed. Will try again once I'm more rested. Overall, I'm actually liking this so far, despite its flaws. It's not OMG AMAZING but it's better than I thought it would be. Curious as to how the rest of it will play out.
I really liked Roger Craig Smith’s voice in this. Sonic sounds more mature. You don’t need to use rails to travel around. I usually just run/boost. Once you level up a bit he’s definitely fast enough but he’s decent to start with. Jumping only feels like molasses in 2D stages to me. There’s almost no forward momentum. It wants you to use boost. I guess it’s the same in 3D stages but they feel much better to me. I agree the Lights Speed Dash is awkward. I always feel like I’m gonna miss it by accidentally moving out of direction since it’s done with the analog stick. The squid is annoying at first but you don’t have to defeat it. Some of the enemies are just too annoying. Ghost, Caterpillar, Strider imo.
Change Frontiers to Colors or Unleashed and you have how I felt when they came out. I'd already been burned by the series from Heroes into '06 so at the time I was able to just accept that the series was going in a direction that wasn't for me, but others were enjoying the games so I let them have their fun. Based on the media around Frontiers I have a feeling that that's the sentiment I'd have if I picked it up as well! it doesn't look bad, but nothing about it makes it look like a must-play. I'm willing to admit I'm wrong if I eventually pick it up and end up loving it, but nothing about the game looks like it would appeal to me much. That doesn't mean it's a bad game! It just means that it doesn't look like it would do anything for me.
Colors was never "universally loved". Neither by fans nor by critics. If anything, I find this current prevalent notion that everyone loved Colors back when it came out to be the revisionism. Let me quote myself:
Oh? I was under the impression you had to in order to get gears. Or at least, it's the most common way to get them. Though thinking about it more I do recall it appearing in the exchange menu in the fishing mini-game, and Googling reveals there are other ways too. I guess this game really is quite flexible with how one chooses to complete it. Fascinating...
Pro-tip: If you cycloop Asura's legs, you can get a gear from it, meaning if you clycoop both legs and defeat it you can get 3 gears from it
Not with that horrid water surface shader. I still can't believe how they managed to screw up so badly something that was figured out long time ago, including previous Sonic games. And it's not like a 5 minute section, it's something you're gonna stare at for at least several hours in your playthrough.
I fished a few times on the first island and never again. Did people really like the fishing? Hours? It plays fine but I preferred fighting enemies and going through Cyberspace. I always knew I could get stuff through fishing but I found it kinda pointless. I mean it’s not really fun.
Fishing is whatever. Its neither good or bad. It just exists. What's frustrating is that it doesn't really have to be this way. There could easily be a Sonic game that could be as close of an approximation of what people generally like. But it isn't. It used to frustrate me a bit more than it does now, but it what it is. I bought Frontiers to see if they could put their money where their mouth is and I left mostly feeling kind of lukewarm about it. But everyone was singing this game's praises as if it was some huge achievement from the developers, so *shrug*. Glad some people got what they wanted I guess.
Who the hell was fishing for "several hours"? I'm pretty takes less than one cumulative hour to 100% every fishing spot. I guess if you're using it to bypass other collectables, maybe? But honestly, I didn't have very many points where I even felt like doing that.
Whenever I found a fishing spot in an area I would fish just to see what silly things I could dig up. At the very end of the game I redeemed my tokens because I was kinda just sick of the game and wanted to end it quickly.
Same. And I've heard other people say this as well. Fishing in Frontiers is kinda of genius band-aid solution to that fact that many players find that the game overstays its welcome towards the end. After the nightmare that is Chaos Island and obviously padding of Rhea Island, I was pretty spent when I got to Ouranos Island. I didn't want to play anymore crap. The fishing minigame perfectly straddles the line between mindless minigame and fun bonus game with very generous payouts. It's not a great solution because it doesn't fix the low points of Frontiers. The game shouldn't put you in a situation where you just want to bypass the main gameplay loop involving island exploration, guardian fights and cyberspace. But it does at least offer a work around when the game is getting long in the tooth. It salvages things before they get too bad.
Whether a game overstays a player's welcome is highly subjective, of course. I find there is already a solution to such a problem, and that is beating the Cyber Space stages, which will get you up to four keys (when you only need around 20 to get all the emerald vaults open) by being halfway decent at Sonic, which is exactly how I progressed and beat the game, even up to Ouranos Island. I never even touched fishing, honestly. Just not interested in that compared to playing the rest of the game. I absolutely cannot imagine choosing to play fishing for 30 minutes for keys when you can find the Guardians (you should be more than leveled up and have most if not all the skills) to unlock the Cyber Space portals in the same amount of time. Even if you get the keys or gears through fishing, you still have to find the vaults and stuff, so, like, why not have fun with it? And ironically, Ouranos Island, despite it's reused assets, has some of the most fun world design, the best Guardians in the Caterpillar (an actual difficult boss!) and the Ghost (a really interesting concept), and the most original, well-designed, and unique Cyber Space stages. It also doesn't have the quest missions; it's all about opening the vaults. If I got to the point where I didn't want to play 99% of the game, I just... wouldn't play it.
