I didn't realize it because they got the Netflix dub voice actress for Evangelion (which I find to be baffling because SEGA staff has their ears close enough to the internet to know the Netflix dub is wildly unpopular) but they actually managed to get the voice for Rei Ayanami for the voice of SAGE in both the English and Japanese dubs. Really cool!
It kinda sucks, to be honest. Not only do the references to other sides of the canon get removed, but the translation sounds shoddy, perhaps another victim of the rushed development? Also, RE: Sonic as "babby entertainment", I think it's worth acknowledging that the series does have a young target demographic, but the idea that those demographics innately fade with time is flawed, it mostly just depends on whether the series stays consistently good in other factors. When I was in high school, other Elder Gen Z kids were certainly "edgy" by that point, but plenty of them still loved Spongebob and Harry Potter and Star Wars. And in my experience, Gen Z born even just past around 2001 or so haven't really hit this point as hard, despite being young adults at this point. The portion of those that isn't whining about the "meta era" tends to have, I think, the healthiest relationship with the series of anyone I've known. In any case, if Sonic is aiming for an all-ages audience rather than just kids, all it needs to be is good.
Kishimoto said he re-wrote the script to be more inviting to new Japanese players, so that's probably why the references got exorcized. The poorer translation might be a result of the above as well as trying to capture the nuances of English into Japanese. Though if it's the Japanese language (i.e. grammar, word choice) itself that's the problem, it could be because of rushing, yeah.
Those are some impressive sales for Sonic in Japan, the highest since the Adventure games 20+ years ago. Hopefully this means that Sega of Japan will allocate more resources to Sonic Team and the franchise in general.
I can only hope that Frontiers will be a stepping stone to bigger and better things for the game series
Both Oddysey and Frontiers are typical Collectahons/3D Platformers, only that Frontiers is more spacious IMO. If anything the biggest differentiator between Oddysey and Frontiers is the focus on combat in the latter.
They don't play alike at ALL. Mario Odyssey is about getting purple moons. It's about exploring an open sandbox LEVEL and getting all the collectables. Sonic Frontiers is about exploring the CONNECTED open world, gaining gears to go into portals (which are like shrines from BOTW), upgrading your abilities to make foes more manageable and unlocking the map and the mysteries of the islands. Are you being serious right now or are you purposely being dense? Because until you I've NEVER heard anyone say these two games play alike AT ALL.
I just watched the Digital Foundry video and John Linneman did say that it's more like Oddysey, so that's one person who also thinks that way. BTW Oddysey also has some linear levels that you get transported to.
I'm not saying for certain it was, but didn't Sonic Team say they spend a while working on a concept only to start again. I didn't need to take 9 hours to finish the 1st map, I enjoyed opening it up so much, my play time was over 9 hours and I really enjoyed my time in the map. I know there are issues and the game is far from perfect, but I'm enjoying my time in the game and its shortcoming don't really spoil what is otherwise a fantastic game and a wonderful world to explore 'For me' Its a lot like AC: Unity in that in feels unfinished and there are issues everywhere when you look for them, but the fun of exploring the world more than makes up for it. If that makes any sense
I mean...sure? That's fine I guess, but it's not really the point. Whether you think the game is great or terrible, Rhea island still has huge amounts of empty terrain. Rhea and Ouranos are still previously-unused chunks of Kronos with little aesthetic distinction. The End is still a bullet hell shooter that was definitely a development compromise. The game still only has four cyberspace environments, and the bulk of the platforming is still done on the same repeated platforms across the entire game. These issues totally could be solved by having more staff designing more environments and programming more bosses, and there is not a guarantee that more time alone would do the same, depending on how much it took before.
How many more stepping stones are there going to be? Waiting for a Sonic Team to get their shit together really is like being led down the garden path. I quite enjoyed my first playthrough of Frontiers. There's a fair bit to enjoy about the game. But there's just so much that I don't enjoy, and so many all-too-familiar problems. It stings with Frontiers especially because it was supposed to be different and better. I can only hope for better in the future, because I sure as hell can't expect them games to be better when my expectations have been lowered considerably by Frontiers. I thought that maybe Sonic Team would finally strike something special this time. More fool me.
I definitely understand the perspective of “how much more benefit of the doubt are we really going to give Sonic Team?”. This was supposed to be the panacea to the last 10 years of mediocrity, yet the game, for all of its earnest heart, falls into the same old traps and crumbles under the weight of its own ambition. Yet once again, there seem to be extenuating circumstances. Despite taking the core of the boost games, Frontiers is once again a paradigm shift, with all the logistical challenges that entails. Granted, I don’t think this excuses what we ended up with, but I do think better is possible and will come. If I couldn’t believe that, what’d be the point in sticking around with the series?
If you actually wouldn't give the benefit of the doubt to Sonic Team, I feel like you wouldn't have cared to played Frontiers, let alone happen to enjoy it. And it's far too late to go "it's too late for Sonic to get better," innit? Sonic has failed so many times, but he's still here. Other studios and IPs would die after one even just mediocre failure. The next game could fail, and the game after that would still have a non-insignificant number of people who think it'll be good... and there's a good chance that they may be right! I really don't see a reason to think that the follow-up would be a massive departure. It could fall into the same traps as Frontiers but Frontiers itself is a game that avoids more than its fair share of pitfalls. They want feedback and they will certainly get it, because I haven't seen a single person who thinks this game is good that didn't also offer critiques. Through this game itself, we can't even be sure if how a game looks in pre-release means anything when it actually releases. I haven't seen so many people turn around on a game that didn't actually fundamentally changed itself in development since DOOM (2016). We won't know the full results of this paradigm shift until the second the next game releases (or gets leaked onto the internet). But I see no reason to worry.
I actually think the game ran out of ideas on the third island. Only so many ways you can make automated boost pads springs and rails in different combinations. So they made it 2D on the third island. Lol. They aren't going to advance Sonics physics. So I think honestly unless they completely overhaul Sonics movement controls so it isn't completely reliant on automation then there is literally nothing left to do with Frontiers gameplay. So I absolutely do not want to see them expand upon Frontiers. Bar a complete redo of Sonics controls. At that point its basically a different game and concept anyway.
Who’s to say they won’t? They’re looking for feedback and I think the single most frequent critique of this game is that movement often feels stilted, with a poor sense of momentum.
waiting for someone on mobygames or sega retro to actually put into the credits of frontiers, but the game design section is interresting they have 4 level designers, 4 enemy designers (proving that combat was huge focus in development), 4 game designers tying it all together presumably. looking up all the names they are so far removed from the veterans of old, its morio kishimoto and jyunpei ootsu from the sonic and secret rings to colors lineage showing the ropes to newbies. and they are total newbies, lotsa staff that joined for the battle portions of sakura wars 2019, some puyo puyo and olympic games staff... huh i also do research for the yakuza team credits, and their roster and balance of veterans and newbies in all areas of programming, artists, designs, combat etc. is so stacked. it's nintendo like.
Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And I'm seeing a lot repeated history with Frontiers.
this isn't a response to you specifically, but it brought up a general response in my head in terms of tone, we've had stuff like this since SA1. unlike the more fantasy/sci-fi aspects of danger in later games, such as giant space lasers shaped like Eggman's face, aliens invading, a sun god, etc., SA1 did have peril that was grounded just enough in reality, particularly in the context of Japanese culture. Think of Eggman's missile for instance. But the big one is that Chaos wins and straight up destroys Station Square with a tsunami, which is a kind of peril so serious that Japanese media will outright remove stuff already made (a Pokemon season just straight up got an entire arc scrapped because it involved an earthquake, too close to a real one that happened) or delay it (FFXIV originally was going to have Leviathan appear in A Realm Reborn proper but was put off after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, as his signature move is literally Tidal Wave). For an American context, we pretty much only do that with mass shootings or terrorist attacks, never for natural disasters like tornadoes or hurricanes or wildfires, so imagine how dire that would seem to a Japanese audience by comparison. Sonic has had Dark Shit from the very beginning. (this isn't even going into how, growing up, I really did think the echidnas killed the Chao at the shrine - it was certainly framed with that kind of dark vibe)
