The Sonic Frontiers *SPOILER* Thread (With Unmarked Spoilers)

People who hate this game will do everything in their power to discredit it and make it look bad. Ignore them.

 

From what I've seen of the leaks this appears to still be a bargain wait for me. I want to experience this better functioning Sonic but not enough to tolerate 5 meh islands and generations assets for $65.

 

And this happens with every single game release nowadays, it’s infuriating.
Developpers will overestimate their game’s completion time, because they need to account for the lowest common denominator and most gamers simply aren’t very good at games lol.

Like when it comes to advertising, why would you undershoot when you can overshoot?
We all know about it, but people still always act surprised and go up in arms when games release and they’re obviously not as long as the director announced in interviews. Every. Single. Time.

 

It got really obnoxious when the laker who broke the demo's timer got to the Giganto boss in 30 minutes--despite the fact that they clearly were not playing normally, people really wanted to believe it'd be a 2 hour game.

 

Speed runners will always make games last as short as possible that is the point. Honestly I expect this game will take me at least a bit, because I like to explore in open world games and do as much as possible so I won’t be rushing through this anytime soon.

EDIT: spoiler, it’s the rescue Knuckles cutscene

There’s more animated emoting in this cutscene than in all of Forces combined. Sonic’s smug ass smile when saving Knuckles? Perfection. Where’s this cocky bastard been since the ova? They finally emote with their brows and not just their eyelids, in Lost World and Forces only Eggman emoted with his brows, and that’s because he has no eyelids so they have to and sure enough Eggman is the only decently animated character in both games’ cutscenes.

 

Sorry but no. Fans did not wait 5 years for a game that can be fully completed in less than a day with reused assets and recycled level tropes.

"Oh so you want a 300 hour bloated Ubisoft fest?" Again with the extremism thinking that plagues this fanbase. No. I just want a game with a good amount of content to justify its price and dev time. Generations was somewhere around 10 hours to 100%, but the key difference is it was very replayable. Even Forces has higher replay value than here. An open world type experience like this seems to be a one-and-done thing. Except for the Cyberspace stuff, but the consensus there seems to be those levels are hot garbage so nobody wants to replay them anyway.

 

People who love this game will do everything in their power to credit it and make it look good. Ignore them.

See how easy it is to flip statements like this? Not trying to empower or discredit what you said, but you can see how flammable words like that can be right?

 

Wow. Reading the recent discussion has been very eye opening. There is very little appreciation for anything Sonic Team tries to do. Instead of taking in the combat and spectacle, or admiring the new locales presented; people are still doing the same old routine about minuscule things such as reused levels to further justify their intention of slandering a game they never planned to support in the first place.

Some of you need to get some perspective about Frontiers. It's a game structured in the same style as open world titles, so it needs as many resources as possible to be made, old and original. A game like Frontiers would be impossible to make without even an ounce of reused levels. Other open-world such as Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey, use old assets too, and nobody has ever complained about them for doing that. Why do you want Sonic Team to have no old resources to make the open world game you were demanding for so long? It is an asinine request for a videogame development perspective.

Sega and Sonic Team have shown the upmost confidence in this game, it is very important for them and the brand for this game to be a success. But it is increasingly clear that some people are more interested in seeing this game fail. It's frustrating to see people get very irritated because the game wasn't perfect and scream about it; not wanting to understand that if this disappoints, than we will never see another game like it again. Instead of breaking out the torches and pitchforks once again, how about just giving Sega and Sonic a chance, just for once. The next game just very well need that one chance to survive production.

 

No one who isn't already extremely invested in the game itself would beat a twelve-hour (at least) game in a day, let alone 100% it. This game has more than enough content to last the average players several days.

Open world games do not have much replay value, no. I love Breath of the Wild and even I don't feel strongly about replaying it. That is expected, and why Sonic Team emphasized the base length of the game. For many people, they want an open world game that would last them a while, even if they never touch it again.

And there is a lot of replay value in Frontiers in simply speedrunning and playing around with the game, which Frontiers definitely encourages with its non-linear design, like getting the minimum amount of keys, progressing without ever playing Cyber Space, or doing a level 1 run. Not to mention the control options that literally makes the game play differently, and, yes, use of momentum, tech, and exploits.

I find it weird to dismiss the replay value of Cyber Space because they're "hot garbage" (which isn't actually the consensus from what I've seen at all; it's definitely mixed) while saying "even Forces has more replay value." Forces has significantly less content and the replay value largely consists of "grind exceedingly high levels for a cosmetic." Getting Moon Rings and Number Rings in Sunset Heights isn't exactly an enticing offer.

You have different priorities for a Sonic game, which is fine, but this is a different Sonic game.

I waited five years for a good, lengthy Sonic game and I got one, Green Hill be damned. I will wait just as long for a better, just as lengthy, Sonic game! ...but I sure do hope it doesn't take five years, yeah.

 

It’s simply impossible to please everyone and it’s ok to admit something isn’t what your looking for. From what I’ve seen there are plenty of flaws and from what I’ve heard the story does let me down at a couple points. This is exactly what I’ve wanted sonic team to try though and while it could use a bit stronger of an overall vision I think this is a good step at returning modern sonic to his former glory of the adventure days. Sonics identity as as a series is that it never stagnates, good or bad, so I’m sure one day they’ll make a game that speaks to you.

 

I think 3D Sonic games have to make significant compromises, because their levels have to be so much bigger than other games, because Sonic is so fast. That's the explicit reason why the 3D games leaned further on "Sonic's shitty friends", it was an excuse to reuse levels with often slower gameplay styles (note how Sonic 06, recently praised for its ambition, only actually has 9 "zones"). That's why I was skeptical of Frontiers, even if I appreciated Sega trying something new. You're taking two resource intensive concepts and smashing them together. Frontiers already got a delay, so its not like it was some rushed affair.

This isn't to say you must like the game or whatever, I'm just putting things in perspective. But I think Sonic just inherent problems in 3D and its all a matter of which compromises you can accept.

 

Less problems, more difficulties. Difficulties that require a good enough budget and a steadier time table to completely overcome. Difficulties that Frontiers made me think that Sonic Team can in fact overcome if they had that budget and time table and if Sega wasn't breathing down their necks for that immediate profit.

I can't say the game was rushed but many of its issues are to me indicative of a small team that wanted to do a lot with relatively little--which pans out with the developer statements.

 

Are we just too invested in this series to fully appreciate the games?

As much as I am hyped for the game (the OST alone is worth it IMO), things like 4 cyberspace environments, the 2 final islands being retreads aesthetically, the janky fucking rail exit animation (which I will complain about until I die), and relatively short length to 100% are honestly bringing me down a bit. It’s like Sonic Team is a restaurant that can’t help sprinkling a little shit on whatever they serve.

I hope these concerns don’t impact the overall experience too much and I don’t think they will, but I can’t help but wonder why we can’t get a game without compromises. Are hardcore fans of other series this anal about new releases? I know people don’t like reused assets in BotW shrines or weapon durability, but I’m not familiar enough with Zelda fans to know whether a subset of them were as put off by that as some of us are with certain aspects of Frontiers.

 

There is a bar set by Unleashed, Colors and Gens in terms of varied environments and level designs that this game doesn't meet.

Alot of effort was put into the movement and combat, but other areas fell behind. Ever since Lost World, it's been very lacking in level tropes. There is 7 level tropes in the game, including cyberspace. Forces also had 7, Lost World is simlar...

 

When you want to see flaws in a game that you acknowledge probably won't negatively impact your game too bad as the developer intentionally shitting in your meal, you're probably too invested, yes.

Why do Sonic games have compromises? Because Sonic games are hard to make. Well, games in general are hard, but Sonic has, as stated before, a lot of difficulties / problems inherent to it.

The ones that are good are not immune to this. There are various factors of why Unleashed has more original levels and polish than Frontiers and none of them include Sonic Team suddenly deciding that they actually hate their audience.

This isn't unique to Sonic at least! Ask some Zelda fans and you'd think that BOTW was a sin that graced the franchise and proof that Nintendo sacrificed everything that made Zelda unique.

The environments are varied. Not plentiful but varied. The level designs are literally from Unleashed and Generations in many respects. I can't argue they feel exactly the same, but that's due to aesthetics and difference in control than level design.

Unleashed had only eight level themes, by the way. Aptos, Spagonia, Mazuri, Empire City, Holoska, Shahar, Adabat, Eggmanland. Hardly a significant number. Spagonia snd Empire City are also both cities. And I'd say only Apotos is a wholly new theme.

Frontiers' problem is more that the themes are similar (two grass themes) and previously used.

My biggest disappointment is that if you're going to take from old assets, you could take from a lot of old assets. So just four is really disappointing. I wonder what made them make that decision.

 

Nobody here has done this. Everyone has been critical of the game while acknowledging its positives.

I am literally doing this right now as I am playing the game.

Pointing out when people are spreading misinformation with the clear intent to make the game look bad is a Sonic standard and should be called out.

 

A next-gen Frontiers-like game without the limitations of the PS4, Xbox One, and Switch seems promising, although then we'd then have to live with the limitations of the next-gen Switch which might be comparable to the base PS4 or PS4 Pro. As far as open-world goes, I'd just like a bustling map with tons of fun activities and energetic music.

 

I haven't visit this thread for a bit lol what the fuck has happened

Gonna dip out again for release, looks fun. Not ground-breaking but fun. I'll pick it up.

My main interest is all the weird architecture and messing about with that. Couldn't care less about the combat. Looks boring.

 

Map layout spoilers

Spoiler

Islands 1 and 5 (forgot the names) have the exact same layout. The blocked off section in Island 1 is visited in Island 5 and vice versa. Here are the maps for comparisons sake. 1 and 5 respectively.

 

Spoiler

Disappointing that they're not wholly original assets or worlds but reusing your own assets in the same game is significantly less egregious than reusing older assets.