don't click here

Sonic Frontiers Thread - PS4, PS5, Xbox, Switch, PC

Discussion in 'General Sonic Discussion' started by MykonosFan, May 27, 2021.

  1. Shaddy the guy

    Shaddy the guy

    Professional Internet asshole Member
    2,086
    1,127
    93
    OR
    I know that within the context of the game itself there's no separation, I just don't know if that's the lore/story conclusion. The map data is a tell, but I don't know how late in development these decisions were made, and given the state of Rhea, I wouldn't be entirely surprised if it legitimately just was too much extra time to pull the chunk off that went to making sure the game wasn't a broken pile of shit on release instead.
     
  2. VenomTH

    VenomTH

    Member
    126
    36
    28
    It's one of the things that pains me the most about the franchise lately. I don't understand how Sonic Team made excellent walking, running, and jumping animation cycles for the Sonic Adventure games two decades ago and then resigned to using the "runner with arms stretched out" animation for the past 15 years. It makes the entire central mechanic of platforming games (running) feel weightless and shallow.
     
  3. Flare

    Flare

    Member
    886
    152
    43
    I do agree, they aren't as fun as the original and in fact where I could I passed up playing them unless I REALLY needed to for the game to progress. BUT I did have fun trying to guess the layout... but that wasn't the intention of the game design, just the only thing that got me through it.

    The cyber stages feel at times unplayable, there is part of forementioned Sky Rail where grinding down, just shoots me off the stage. So many moments where you can see issues that they just avoided fixing.

    Something about the game engine always feels off, like you don't feel as free as you could be with it. You know in Super Mario Sunshine, how you run to one side then quickly run back and jump and back flip... it makes some sense that because you are running back on yourself and keeping some speed that you could make that move... it feels like Sonic should be able to do that. Instead if they did want you to backflip, it would be a 'press Y in air'.
     
  4. Chimpo

    Chimpo

    Why is Tekken 6 afraid of Tekken 7? Member
    8,611
    1,467
    93
    Los Angeles, 2029
    Aiming for Genbu!
    At first I was on team "Fuck Chaos Island"
    But now I'm on team "Love Chaos Island"
    I spent the entirety of collecting every medal on there in the most unattended way possible. I was able to get on some of the forced 2D sections to still retain 3D mode and camera.
    This game is accidentally sick.
     
    • Agree Agree x 2
    • Like Like x 1
    • List
  5. Shaddy the guy

    Shaddy the guy

    Professional Internet asshole Member
    2,086
    1,127
    93
    OR
    I dunno, I think if they wanted to they could force the game to lock you to a 2D plane if you even so much as touched part of one of the sections. Instead it's almost always really easy to break out of, and finding creative ways around doing them quickly was not so obscure that it couldn't be an intended part of the fun, even if they didn't intend for 2D to feel sluggish to play in this game.
     
  6. Sneekie

    Sneekie

    Sneasy Member
    782
    695
    93
    The game has a lot of freedom based precisely in that while Sonic Team definitely has an "intended way" of doing things, most of the time, you don't have to abide by it.

    Even the Cyber Space levels have that sense of freedom, albeit very limited, and one nice thing about its "random geometry in a void" aesthetic is that there are few invisible walls, and doing speedrun tricks that would be actual glitches in games like Adventure are legitimately strategies in this game.
     
  7. Ch1pper

    Ch1pper

    Fighting the Battle of Who Could Care Less Member
    839
    102
    43
    Life.
    So because all the actions on the map screen are in the lower right corner, I never thought to look over at the lower left corner... where it says you can press Triangle/Y/X to switch between islands.
    I'm on the third island and I just discovered this. :flunked:
     
    • Informative Informative x 1
    • List
  8. BadBehavior

    BadBehavior

    Member
    321
    83
    28
    I think I started gelling with the more later cyberstages that have original designs. Something about them just clicked in a way that just ctrl-c ctrl-v'ing boost sonic into Adventure levels didn't.

    The 2d of Chaos Island is weird cos most of the mini bits of jungle gym (to use Skill Up's phrase) you platform on are functionally identical than if they were in 3D. Imagine just a straight line of metal floor towards a boost pad + boost pad, all that's different is the perspective change.

    On an unrelated note, I just realized this is the first 3d sonic game since the Adventure 1 to have sections where Sonic goes underwater in 3D. And just like that game, it only amounts to a few shallow pools you can escape easily (except for the big hole under the pyramid on island 2. Which I fell into and didn't know how to get out of.)
     
  9. Blue Blood

    Blue Blood

    Member
    5,887
    815
    93
    Water is a completely underused feature in this game. It's even been removed from the Chemical Plant stages ripped from Generations. The most significant underwater sections in the open zone are on Rhea Island, so basically you're never going to actually see them. And I use the term "significant" very loosely cause despite its depth and breadth, its still shallow enough for Sonic to jump out of. There's still some water you can technically drown in on Ouranos too, and possibly in Areas and Chaos too. Either way, going you're more likely to never even see oxygen once during a playthrough. The game doesn't even play the drowning jingle (ripped from Colours) in bodies of water, and instead only plays it when you've been consumed by the red fluid-sac enemies that you encounter late in the game.

    I've been yearning to see what a 3D Sonic game would do with water as a mechanic and ruins as a motif for a very, very long time. Frontiers barely delivers on either front as far as gameplay is concerned. Very disappointing, tbh.
     
  10. kyasarintsu

    kyasarintsu

    Member
    371
    143
    43
    Really not a fan of the way this game constantly references other games. It's almost like they're setting up a Family Guy cutaway, namedropping a place, event, and character so specifically and randomly when it's so vaguely related to the situation at hand. Feels like cheap fanservice more than world building. I lost it when Knuckles brought up that one event and that one image appeared on-screen.
     
    • Like Like x 1
    • Agree Agree x 1
    • List
  11. xbloodywhalex

    xbloodywhalex

    team dark enthusaist Member
    60
    39
    18
    antarctica
    re-reading one piece, probably
    I don't disagree - I think a lot of them are incredibly heavy-handed and largely entirely unnecessary, but at the same time I kind of found it as them trying to course-correct and tell the fans "hey yeah that stuff is still canon and we're going to acknowledge it instead of burying it forever because it doesn't fit the current theme anymore". Of course that doesn't really excuse how... forced the majority of it is, but I don't mind it too much given the context (it should be noted, though, that if they tried this in the next game it'd get really tiring really fast).
     
  12. Blue Blood

    Blue Blood

    Member
    5,887
    815
    93
    The first few times it happened, I was happy. But it was very quickly run into the ground. Too many references for absolutely no reason. They felt very forced. I mentally made the same Family Guy comparison on my playthrough of Chaos Island.

    I appreciate the continuity nods. I like knowing that the past events are definitely canon. But I wonder if some of the dialogue in Frontiers is actually alienating to new players. There's was a real effort to get a wide range of references, rather than focus on the ones that are actually relevant to Frontiers. Did Tails need to mention + - Dark Gaia   that one time? There was no reason for him to do that. It didn't make sense. People who aren't familiar with those older games, like the 10 year olds who only became Sonic fans a couple of years ago when the first movie came out, are going to be left totally confused. A better example of a reference done right was when Sonic mentioned + - how Tails saved Station Square from Eggman's missile   . And nobody in the entire game says anything about + - Chaos and the Ancients looking alike   , apart from that one, optional Egg Memo. That was actually plot relevant and it went nowhere.

    So yeah, mixed feelings about the references. And regardless, they need to be toned down considerably next time.
     
    Last edited: Nov 15, 2022
  13. Kyro

    Kyro

    Member
    251
    132
    43
    Also, side note, the Monster Hunter DLC collab is out.

    Its cute

    Not much else to say about it. The cooking is just an alternative way to get tokens for Big so it doesnt really add anything if youve already beaten the game.
     
  14. Starduster

    Starduster

    Can bench press at least two Sonic the Hedgehogs Member
    1,985
    1,203
    93
    Britain
    Fighting my procrastination addiction
    Regarding references, this is something I forgot to mention this in my write up, but I do think some are fairly gratuitous. I do feel part of it is course correction, but this is also Ian Flynn’s first time as a script writer for a Sonic game. It could also be his last. We have no idea what the future holds. I think he wanted to seize the opportunity and flex all his lore knowledge for fan service, and I can’t blame him because for all any of us know, he may not get the chance again. That said, hopefully he does continue to write the games for the foreseeable future and hopefully the references are done with more restraint. Plenty of them work, but unfortunately some just seem gratuitous.
     
  15. Chimpo

    Chimpo

    Why is Tekken 6 afraid of Tekken 7? Member
    8,611
    1,467
    93
    Los Angeles, 2029
    Aiming for Genbu!
    Another win for the Spanish dub. They cut all of that crap out.
     
  16. They kept Pontac and Graff for a decade and their writing was even worse. Flynn will be kept on for at least a few more games unless he moves on to something else.
     
  17. Laura

    Laura

    Brightened Eyes Member
    I think the problem with the references is part of a larger problem I have with Ian Flynn's writing in this game. The characters just talk at each other. It's a common error in poor writing and plagued the series until Pontac and Graff improved the writing. The only time I'd say the characters ever really talk to each other most convincingly like people is in the Boom cartoon.

    A lot of the time when characters refer back to events they do it in a way where they are talking at each other or thinking out loud. Tails mentions Dark Gaia. No response from Sonic. Tails referencing Dark Gaia would have been good if it was framed in a way that he was scared by the new foe and was saying it was even more powerful than the most powerful foe they faced previously. Then Sonic could have responded to Tails, reassured him, perhaps also have been intimidated. But often the reference lines are said with no emotions, spoken as thoughts out loud, and characters don't really react to it. Sometimes they are literally just Sonic thinking random thoughts!

    The reason why Sonic reminding Tails of his successes works is because they are actually speaking to each other as people. Tails is upset that he's a burden and Sonic tries to cheer him up. The scene has emotional resonance.

    I think even the dumb references in character interactions could have worked. People often have injokes. But injokes are funny because of how people use them in their interpersonal relationships. Again, characters largely just speak at each other in Frontiers. And largely they speak at each other things which have no value. When Knuckles talks about his past and references he's the last of his tribe it works because Sonic shows sensitivity to Knuckles' solititude. Eventually they make fun of each other as a way for Sonic to cheer Knuckles up. Speaking to each other like people.
     
  18. I feel like that's as much of a problem with the game's presentation as it is with the writing itself.
     
  19. Laura

    Laura

    Brightened Eyes Member
    The game's presentation is bad and the voice acting is generally atrocious. But I think most people are on agreement on that point!
     
  20. Londinium

    Londinium

    People actually read these? Member
    I dunno, I kind of liked it when Tails mentioned Dark Gaia