Since the conversation has turned to perception... do you guys want to start making predictions on what the final Metacritic score will be for Sonic Frontiers? The line is at 73. I'm personally optimistic so I'm taking the over at 75, just shy of becoming the highest rated 3D Sonic game. What do you all think?
If you think Frontiers is going to be the highest rated 3D Sonic, a 73 is underballing it hard--even Colors Ultimate on PS4 is higher than that, just one point away from being green. EDIT: Even if 73 is just the bare minimum, I would be shocked if this game doesn't go green. The highest rated 3D Sonic game is Generations, at 77. There are many factors that will help Frontiers achieve a decent score, even if it doesn't pull off its ambition at all. And I think it will, and it might be the first 3D Sonic since the original release of Adventure 2 to break 80. It'll be a game with a lot of 8s and more 9s than 7s (though it will definitely get 7s).
Ah yeah, I saw that on Twitter haha. I guess the loophole in this is that he's using the cyloop on seeds to make them bloom.
I can't overstate how freaking bonkers this is, while I was at EGX I heard of someone who had played the demo into the double digits (I imagine they had a four day pass), so they must've really optimised the opening tutorial. Sonic fans are a different breed and speedruns of this game could be wild. I will say though the Sonic talking to Sage cutscene is pretty jarring given how fantastic all the other cutscenes we've seen are. I guess this is less of an "event" cutscene and more like a conversation you can replay for whatever reason in the sense of talking to an NPC. I think it could've been presented better in that regard by not bothering with the camera angles and having it just play out like it would in BotW or Fire Emblem Three Houses, but I digress. Ultimately, it's one naff cutscene out of the several we've seen so far, I'm not worried about the cutscenes suddenly dropping off in quality after the first Titan or anything.
Not particularly surprising that most of the actual game conversations will probably be idly standing by as the camera flips between two characters chatting. Most open world games do it because they can't curate every other scene for the amount of content they try to shove in there. Expect major cutscenes of note to be progression-related rather than along every step of the way.
The Open Zone reminds me of that one level in Shamar in Unleashed: —or even some of the hub worlds. I felt those were a great part of the game, actually. It’s too bad the islands are generic naturalistic environments instead of just… original levels… or multiple of those different locales on the same island. I’d like that kind of Sonic World Adventure 2-esque thing. I expect some Frontiers mods might try that.
I'm 90% sure that's what inspired Sonic Team to make Frontiers. In fact, Lost World probably has more to do with Frontiers than we think. I actually played that level more than most levels in Lost World lmao
I mean, the Lost World wall running is here, albeit probably a bit refocused rather than as the Parkour system we knew. This game is basically trying to merge Lost World and Forces together on a larger scale.
It's not in-your-face obvious but I genuinely think Frontiers is the follow up to Lost World I've been wanting for all these years. When talking about a potentiel sequel to Lost World back when it was still new, a lot of people wanted it to get rid of the uninspired mario-like aesthetics, as well as ditching the tubular level design to develop more open levels complimenting Sonic's moveset...and lo and behold, they did exactly that and then some I think since it's been close to a decade we all kinda forgot about this "Lost World Sequel" idea, me included. But yeah the wall running is a dead givaway Sonic Team hasn't forgotten about it, and I for one am pretty happy about it :p
Originally I would have figured 70's as well, but given how positive everyone has been about the game, and how well it potentially looks. It could break into 80 at least. But you can never really predict how Sonic games will do in this area. The standards for Sonic games are all over the fucking place. I'm gonna assume the goodwill from the movies will boost its favorability.
I reckon it can hit 80 on its own merits. While it certainly has some cracks, movement is fun, the story is probably going to be a slam dunk and I think the game will have the depth and breadth of content (heck, we’re still learning about new stuff like those missions) to sustain its predicted runtime. I don’t think it’ll be as refined and eloquent as something like Breath of the Wild but my personal view on Frontiers at this moment is that it’s going to be a solid game in its own right, even divorced from comparison to the series’ history of hits and misses.
70-85. This game looks good at this point, and while I doubt we’ll get any 9s, this game is most likely gonna be a 7/10 at the very worst from what we’ve seen, at least in my opinion. The open zone looks solid and reviewers love open world games, so I doubt it’ll get anything under 70. But what I do know for sure is that if the game is bad, reviewers will be talking about how “Sonic had a rough transition to 3D” along with an obligatory 06 mention. If the game is good, reviews will talk about “How it really makes you feel like Sonic” and something about “the exaggerated swagger of a teenage hedgehog”
