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

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

  1. Londinium

    Londinium

    People actually read these? Member
    Seems to me "Extreme mode" will feature the old Elder Koco upgrade system :ruby:
     
  2. Dark Sonic

    Dark Sonic

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    Got it so they meant Extremely Annoying mode :V
     
  3. kyasarintsu

    kyasarintsu

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    That's an accurate translation of those two items, yes.
     
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  4. Antheraea

    Antheraea

    Bug Hunter Member
    because when you come down to the wire, you prioritize things like "does the game actually function" and "can the game be beaten" over "let's make a UI for and bugfix our internal screenshot tool".

    The same is true for the koco upgrade menu. There was very likely a laundry list of things like "Sonic falls through the world at these coords on this island", "if you use [x] attack on [y] enemy it won't die", "killing giganto with a spin kick crashes the game" that they were (and were right to) focusing on.

    ^ this, and I'd add that chances are QA caught a shitload of things the average player wouldn't have thought of. The bigger the scope for a given project, the more bugs there will be, the larger the bug database. I don't even want to know what their jira looks like :oldbie:

    The whole kind of thing is kind of me raising my hand at the back of the room even though other posters have responded because I professionally do QA work, just not in games (I test web applications, and write programs to test said applications). And while my job isn't to fix bugs, only to find them and categorize them and let the devs know, you get a very strong idea about how the sausage is made. And in basically any programming-oriented discipline, the same pain points can and will come up, which results in similar things like "we have to get this other fix out because of this breaking change, sorry we can't focus on this comparatively smaller thing even if it's more noticeable" regardless if your end product is a video game or an online financial platform.

    Like, yeah, our Salesforce flow is a colossal pain in the ass and it is repetitive and takes a long time, but it was either this flow or we just don't have salesforce integration (and our clients have been begging us for salesforce integration and our marketing material has explicitly stated that we're implementing it, so, uh, tough shit). Our working koco upgrade system has an annoying menu, but it was either it working with a bad menu or, as another poster said, Sonic can fall through the floor or the elder just takes your collectables and nothing happens or the levels aren't incremented correctly or-- And that's the stuff directly related to the features in question, not even taking into account triaging resources for the entire project like in my example for the previous quote.

    All programming is tradeoffs like this, and triaging what we want to do, what we planned to do, and what we actually can do. Now they have more time/money to put in stuff that they probably at some point planned on doing so but couldn't.

    Oh and to add to the Nintendo examples, I recently watched a video of Kiwitalks interviewing one of the Metroid Prime devs, who mentioned a bug that I as a player personally came across, the "RRRRRRRR" of death, caused by an issue in the game's load system. Or we can talk about the numerous, numerous glitches and exploits 3D Zeldas have (and they all have them. even BOTW).

    And I mean, Bethesda games are legendary for being buggy (and they always have been buggy - daggerfall is older than I am and it has a hotfix patch for the save system).
     
  5. synchronizer

    synchronizer

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    They could’ve used something similar to the Sonic Unleashed end-of-level upgrade gauge UI to give you the ability to upgrade multiple stats at once.
     
  6. Laura

    Laura

    Brightened Eyes Member
    I think this is an important point which is rarely made about DLC.

    Most people don't even complete games never mind replay them. The figures of completion are around 15-20% depending upon the survey you read. So the figures for replaying a game could well be between 5-10% of people. What really drives people to replay games isn't often DLC and updates but that the base game is so strong they want to replay the game. Regardless of updates.

    Over the last few years, the only games I have replayed are Final Fantasy 7, 8, 9, Persona 4, 5. Those games haven't even been updated (I first played Golden and Royal). The reason I replayed them is because the base games are enjoyable enough to complete.

    I don't really think the quality of a DLC should be measured in how much it warrants replay. If someone plays a game for a few more hours after playing the DLC and enjoys the DLC on its own terms then I'd say the DLC has been successful.
     
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  7. Yeah, I don’t think this is the stuff that will draw people back in. The third update will likely accomplish that, but even then, only among the hardcore fans who only represent a fraction of the purchases.

    IMO the goal for this DLC, especially considering that it’s free, is to just keep the game in the news cycle and boost the image of the brand to drive more sales. Even if it doesn’t encourage people to replay or even go and beat the game (which is likely going to be the case with this first update), the coverage it receives and the perception that the game is being supported with additional content will help the brand (and Sega as a whole because long term support is a pillar of their new strategy) in gaining more sales in the future.

    I’m glad that they are pursuing this strategy as it shows Sega Sammy recognizes that actually investing in their products’ quality will improve their ROI, rather than minimizing costs. Even if it’s a cold, corporate reasoning for the decision, it complements what the consumers would like to see from developers.
     
  8. Vertette

    Vertette

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    To add on to this with my own experience, chances are likely the devs finished the photo mode quickly but had to wait until they had enough substantial content to justify a patch. From my experience Steam is the only platform that lets you patch whenever you want without any limitations. I wish more platforms allowed that but I understand why they usually don't.
     
  9. jubbalub

    jubbalub

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  10. Sneekie

    Sneekie

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    I'm Here
    Open Your Heart
    It Doesn't Matter
    Live & Learn
    Sonic Heroes
    Knight of the Wind
    Reach for the Stars (Remix)

    Palmtree Panic
    Stardust Speedway - US ver.
    Angel Island
    Mushroom Hill
    Sky Sanctuary
    Lava Reef Zone - Act 1
    Emerald Coast - Act1 & Act2
    Mystic Ruin
    Red Mountain
    City Escape
    Green Forest
    Seaside Hill
    Wave Ocean
    Kingdom Valley
    Dusty Desert
    Sand Oasis
    Windmill Isle - Day
    (Unleashed Day stage)
    (Unleashed Day stage)
    Arid Sands
    Deep Woods
    Asteroid Coaster (Remix)

    30 songs that I've noticed so far. The trailer has a collage of different scenes with different music on the jukebox, some I'm sure are not listed but Twitter's video quality is garbage, so I can only make out that there's more Daytime stage music.
     
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  11. Ura

    Ura

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    "Crimson Angel - Honey the Cat" on AO3 (on Hiatus)
    No Spinball Options Menu?
     
  12. The Joebro64

    The Joebro64

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    If it’s not there it’s an automatic 0/10 from me unfortunately.
     
  13. Chimpo

    Chimpo

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    We still have 2 more DLCs to go. There's still hope.
     
  14. Sneekie

    Sneekie

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    On a similar note, it'd be cool if they added more tracks with future updates.

    53 is already a perfectly good number, though.
     
  15. Oh wow, they included a Black Knight song that's not just Knight of the Wind?
     
  16. Sneekie

    Sneekie

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    I replayed some Cyber Space stages to get ready for the update.

    I'm completely surprised I never played 3-6. I know this because one, I didn't recognize its level design, and two, because I would definitely remember being annoyed playing it, lol.

    It's not a bad level by any means but it's definitely one that demands you Homing Dash right or risk dying.
     
  17. Update's live on Switch (probably other platforms too)
     
  18. Sonic Warrior TJ

    Sonic Warrior TJ

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    Can confirm it's out on PC and PlayStation, nothing yet on Xbox though.
     
  19. So I skim read the update prompts, but did I read correctly there's a reward for S ranking all of something? Like All of Boss Rush, or all of Cyber Space Challenge?

    It is neat however that you can't do the next island without getting an A rank on the prior one. At least it's not all given on a plate like time trial / arcade was. I think this way is a really definitive way of playing frontiers, shining a bit more of a light on the poorer parts (Cyberspace), sure, but it's promising nonetheless!
     
  20. :argh:

    Guess I’ll update the Switch copy now before bed then. Hopefully it’ll be live on Xbox when I wake up in the morning.

    How big is the update?