Couldn’t this be taken to apply about them as well? Let’s look at the full quote which comes from before they were even officially unveiled this part of the game I believe. It sounds like there is a focus on a Ubisoft-esque consistent stream of content above anything else which feeds into what we’ve seen of cyberspace so far and would explain all the level design reuse as the goal is to have as much content as possible. Hopefully we get a better look at that one 3D city level soon as it does seem to be more open and original compared to anything we’ve seen so far.
The fact that this game is the first Sonic game to receive the TGS Futures Award means it caught the eye of the Japanese industry and their media which never really happened since the 90s, yes Sonic was never popular back in the 90s in Japan but trust me SoJ did try hard with Manga and merchandising even then. Again, unlike us in the West, Sonic perception with gamers in Japan is seen as a 90s thing more than anything so for the Japanese media to give props to a new Sonic game is huge, H U G E. Also there were huge lines of people trying to play Sonic Frontiers for both all the consoles available to try the game out and they were people who could not play the game. Also Masahiro Sakurai who was curious about the game tweeted that he will most definetely buy the game on launch due to how impressed he was with the game. Sakurai not only is he the creator of Kirby and Smash Bros. but he is also a huge gamer and gaming historian and is not everyday for him to be impressed. Basically what I want to say with all of that is that the game, regardless of what some Sonic fans might feel at the moment seems to be a quality game that might be the first Sonic game many have played in decades. My personal opinion is still to be cautiously optimistic for sure cause we all been burned before but maybe this time it wont be that way and we will get the Open Sonic Game many of us have wished for in years.
The quote LITERALLY says that they're talking exclusively about the Open Zone, and the article is also exclusively about the Open Zone. You're reading too deep into this, plus it'd just be bizarre if the action stages didn't have a consistent increase in difficulty per island like every Sonic game ever. Even BOTW has a difficulty curve-adjacent system, with the shrines that are tougher to find being also harder in terms of difficulty, while the ones that are easier to find are easier in terms of difficulty. We have no reason to doubt that Frontiers will have something similar to that, especially considering the game is separated into multiple open zones that you'll unlock in a linear order. It makes perfect sense for the Cyber Space stages to get harder and harder with each island. Plus, circulating back to what I said at the start, if they were also trying to say that about the Cyber Space stages, then they'd have said it was for the whole game instead of just specifying the Open Zone.
REALLY? cyperspace stuff is the least they have focused in marketing if anything, it was the last thing they revealed in that first marketing month, it have the least amount of actual clear coverage out of anything. we actually relied on fans/players playing public demos to get most info about them in the first place -that's why we got a lot of off-screen footage of them- ,not to mention the reveal that they are actually optional, and you can progress through the game without plating most of them, cause it turned out you can collect keys in the open world too through various activities That's just the nature of the beast that is the open world games, don't know what more you expect? the open world also have enemies to fight, mini-bosses, giant bosses, collectibles, and you realize that most other open world game out there, even the really regarded stuff like Elden Ring, don't have way more than that
Oh right. You caught me off guard with this so I said more than I should have in response. For the game to be getting several awards, mostly positive reception from people who have played the demo at events, and from the press that played it, then obviously the reused level designs and assets don't matter as much as you are saying because it's clearly not ruining anyone's fun time with the game at any of the several events that the game has gotten 90% positive reception at. Reality is literally contradicting everything you said.
Well that's a strange distinction. The Series X is only marginally more powerful than the PS5 hardware-wise. I wonder why this is the case.
No official word on framerate for the XB version. It has 4K and 60fps, but we don't know if it does things things simultaneously.
At risk of going off-topic, it feels like there's been an industry-wide shift from "here's something similar to the past that's labeled something distinct" to "here's just straight up this old thing again". Fire Emblem's newest game brings back a bunch of older characters and Pokemon has put more focus on revitalizing older mons than it used to. This could just be Sonic following the lead of other Japanese franchises, but I'm open to correction on this. And it doesn't help there's strong practical reasons to do this. Making levels for 3D Sonic takes a lot of resources because they need to be so big, hence Sonic Team finding ways of stretching out the levels and getting the most out of them. With the older 3D games, it was making you replay the same levels with different, often slower characters in order to get the most mileage out of the levels. That's not really an option anymore, you can't make someone like Knuckles work well with boost so I guess recycling from older games was the next best thing. Anyhow, I do think Frontiers looks better than the initial trailers. I still think the art direction is pretty bland but the gameplay is looking rather decent, and the OST is pretty good. I'll probably check it out.
are the fish in sonic's world sentient on the same level as the other animals or are they stupid like real world fish?
https://twitter.com/Sonic_Frontier/status/1572208488587182089?s=20&t=M-sZ8k48eh56fhHe1LZ2lg Looks like Sonic is trailing... Pokemon?!
We can be optimistic given the game’s positive response at TGS, which has translated into some incredible pre-order numbers, but keep something in mind… a game can be fun for the first 30 mins but drag later into the campaign. I’m not trying to discount the game’s positive reception, in fact after seeing TGS footage I’m more excited now then ever. It’s just that I’m seeing talk of how the general public is responding to specific aspects of the game and I think it’s premature. Yes, MOST of the folks at TGS had no issue with the cyberspace levels. However there have been criticisms of the level reuse from gamers outside of the sonic community. What remains to be seen is how ALL of the general public, as not everyone is able to go to TGS, responds to ALL of the cyberspace levels when Frontiers releases. TLDR the game is getting a very positive response from people who played it. that doesn’t mean that people are wrong to have concerns over the game nor does it mean that these concerns are only being felt by Sonic fans. Using TGS attendees as proof that only Sonic fans take issue with the cyberspace levels is incredibly flawed as some TGS attendees have stated on twitter that they disliked the cyberspace levels
IGN, Game Informer, and a select few people have played the game for an hour to four hours, and they relay the same praise and positivity about the game. That, and people enjoying the game based on the most basic level (i.e., the demo only shows you the barest minimum of what the game is), indicates that the foundation of the game is pretty solid. The game could definitely plateau or fail to keep up, but it can hardly get worse than the tutorial area and Cyber Space levels like 1-1 and 1-2. What I hear and see of the game later--however scant--seems that the game does actually move up instead of sideways, which is incredibly promising.
Man, I’m just getting real freaking antsy to just play the damn thing. Whether it’s great, it sucks, it’s meh, etc., I just want to play and see for myself. The 30fps on PS4 is a bit of a let down to me but I’m not too surprised. This is probably going to be the impetus for me to upgrade. Not sure whether to go with the Xbox for its availability plus Sonic Unleashed FPS boost (and the plethora of BC games I’m dying to play again - Orta and GunValkyrie, I’m looking at you), or the PS5 since I actually give a shit about collecting PS games and will need to get the game on that eventually too lol. In the meantime, I think we do need some more trailers. The open zone footage we’ve gotten is pretty much the same thing over and over, and I agree a bit with people’s assessments that it looks empty and repetitive. If the whole game is running from one puzzle to another, the quality of them really needs to be stepped up from what we’ve seen. I also would like some official cyberspace footage with new stages and snippets from the OST. I’m not the biggest fan of boost but the levels are undeniably fun to blast through when you’re playing them over and over for challenges. The daytime hot dog missions were actually pretty fun to me in Unleashed so that type of gameplay won’t bother me if the designs are interesting.
PS4 was going to be my fallback in case getting it on PC has some stability issues. I was able to run forces fine and my build has largely kept up with modern triple A gaming but its starting to show its age (built in 2016, havent upgraded it/had any need to)> I dont like playing sonic games in 30fps where possible, but if it puts my pc through the ringer I will probably pick up ps5 for it if thats cheaper than just upgrading my pc in the short term
I'm not fond of the short levels and asset-reuse in the Cyber Space areas but I'm not too concerned. I know this is terribly off-topic but it got me thinking how Adventure 2 seems to have substantially less asset-reuse within the game than other 3D titles (namely, Adventure, Heroes, '06, and spin-offs). Some assets are shared between stages (City Escape/Mission Street/Radical Highway, Green Forest/White Jungle, Pumpkin Hill/Wild Canyon, etc.) but the stages have many other completely different elements otherwise. I wonder what stopped Sonic Team from using this formula in subsequent titles.
I was going to leave it be because I found your initial post hard to read and don't have the time to untangle it. You also conflate recycling assets in the same game (BoTW) with recycling assets from several different games over many years (Sonic, Kirby). But since you've quoted me twice I'll have to respond. Lol. You can still like a game despite it reusing assets from different games. Mania is a perfect example. I love that game but I don't like the fact it reuses level art and design. I'd prefer it if the game was original. Still a good game. Frontiers could be the same. I don't like the look of Frontiers because it looks like a below average open world action game. I'm currently playing Nier Replicant. Frontiers doesn't look on par with that game frankly. The fact it reuses assets is low down the list for me in terms of its problems. I don't like it though. I'm aware that many people who have played the game enjoyed it. I don't really understand why to be honest, since it just looks pretty bad to me. But I'm willing to suspend judgement until I've played it. I may actually buy this one. I skipped on Boom and Forces. So consider that a win for Frontiers. I know people are very excited for Frontiers. Good for you honestly. I'm happy for you. I just don't think it looks very good. I think the combat looks below average and that the level design looks pretty bad. I don't really like the enemy design either. Again, I'm playing Nier Replicant, which I think is a good and not great game (so far) and it's far superior to anything I've seen from Frontiers. Two different games, but Nier Replicant is similarly an action open world game with an emphasis on combat. So while I understand it's frustrating for you that I complain about it, sorry, it's just what I think. I try to stop myself from posting about how I can't understand why anyone likes it. I ask you do the same for me and understand why I don't like it.
Nier Replicant is kind of the exact thing I'm afraid of when the devs mention the supposed "20 hour campaign". Just running back and forth doing all the shit you already did again. Loved the visuals, music, writing and general gameplay loop, but that structure makes me never want to do a full playthrough again. At least in Shadow the hedgehog I could choose what order I do the miserable busywork in.
It's definitely not as good as Automata in my opinion, largely for the reason you are saying! I'm only 9 hours in so still have a lot to experience. But yeah, that side of it isn't great and I hope it doesn't feature in Frontiers.
