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

Even if the theme is just placeholder, I kinda hope Infinite does have some presence. For a while now I've been mildly obsessed with the idea of snapping Infinite's mask off, having it move around with shadowy tentacle shit and just be the evil incarnation of the Phantom Ruby. You know, like an actual Phantom.

Maybe I also just thought Phage was a cool villain and I wish she had more things to do before the Archie comics got cancelled, but still.

 

I haven't really been reading the IDW comics, do they ever say what actually happened to Infinite after he just straight up disappeared at the end of Forces?

 

Not only do they not reference him, they're straight up not allowed to. Hopefully that means there are yet more plans for him.

 

I do not want to see infinite at all unless he is specifically fighting shadow. Infinite is a nothing lame character vs everyone else. But with shadow they accidentally wondered onto a scourge situation where they very clearly wanted to created a flip on that archetype , but without all the redeeming qualities of that archtype. And essentially a shadow expy fighting shadow because he's can't understand why people like shadow is the most meta comic book stuff in the world, and it would literally redeem the last several years.

There is nothing you can do with infinite short of rebooting him that is as interesting as accidentally wondering onto edgelord superboy prime/Ultra man and the crime syndicate.

I hope they go with a new villain, I hope it works. We could use a good non eggman villian for once who ends up sticking around. But My stance on infinite is firm, he need to exists as a meta character. As you can tell by name and avatar, I'm really here for "not" versions of characters

 

That's a fair take, I just don't want there to be a moratorium on addressing him and expanding on him in the comics if SEGA themselves are never going to do anything else with him.

 

Infinite is one of the only characters in the entire series that I can't stand, and was a bad idea from the outset. He's so wrapped up in the conflated, contradictory plots of Forces and the Phantom Ruby that bringing him back in any capacity will be confusing. The game suggests that he was a creation of Eggman, the comic and Episode Shadow show us otherwise and he just... disappears after the final fight? What even happened? They could explain that, but I'd rather they just swept it under the rug. Forces makes it clear enough that Infinite is "gone" after the final fight. I'm really not interested in seeing them tie up that loose end, because the ride to get there was an uninteresting, boring waste of time already.

His entire arc was rather dreadful too. From the prequel comic, to Episode Shadow to the events of Forces proper, he was just so garbage. What's his beef with Sonic? Why did Eggman bother with Infinite instead of wielding the Ruby himself? He certainly didn't seem bothered about Infinite at all in Episode Shadow, despite taking a liking to him in the comic. Why did Infinite let the Avatar live in the city, and why did he just let Sonic live after their encounter at Mystic Jungle? That was such a boring, generic villain move. The series already had an "edgy" dark character in the form of Shadow, and Infinite just came across as SA2 Shadow with none of nuance or interesting qualities. I'm biased of course; I unabashedly loathe Forces and pretty much everything it did. Just let it die. The series can create another big bad if it needs one.

We know from the leaked Forces script that the plot of the game, and the roles of Infinite and the Phantom Ruby therein were twisted and contorted from their original vision. If the story left any proper loose ends then maybe I'd be more interested in the idea. But all the threads go off in different directions. Bleh. Let it die. They probably should have scrapped Infinite and the Phantom Ruby (/Valtron) for Forces and saved them for another game, rather than leave them so riddled with plot holes and contradictions. It definitely feels like they were grasping to keep the story they'd originally written after it got changed during development.

If Rangers is the big shift that it sounds like its going to be from the leaks, the last thing that it needs is to tie itself down to existing, messy plot threads. There's the potential to tell a brand new and interesting story to go along with the new gameplay style and setting. I can't think of a good reason to go back to a story that was already so messy to begin with. And a new story to go along with the new gameplay just makes sense, no? Fresh start and all that.

tldr; Infinite was a mistake. Forces was a mistake. Forget them and move on.

 

Infinite is a terrible character, but I can see those tiny pink cyber squares around Sonic in Rangers' trailer as being from the Phantom Ruby. And we will have a ghost girl, maybe she is a Phantom Girl?

 

Tikal two electric boogaloo

 

Infinite is a bad character, but I really like his design, especially with his mask off. I hope that we get a jackal character again that's better written.

 

Admittedly a part of me kind of hopes the Jackal Squad survived Shadow's attack and they either wanna avenge Infinite, continue to be mercenaries and go where the money is regardless of who, or both.

But I know that's very unlikely.

 

The Phantom Ruby effects and the pink squares in this game don't really look alike.

Images spoilered for size:

Spoiler

It's not even close. They're squares rather than cubes in Rangers and the colour is different; bright pink instead of a deep red. And things become even less similar when you stop ignoring the fact that the pink squares in Rangers are a part of the overall blue digital effect. The Phantom Ruby does make a digital/glitch effect on illusions, and even that is nothing like what we see in the teaser. Seeing everything side by side, it's pretty clear to me that the loose similarities are only coincidental. If the trailer had more context, I don't think the comparison would be being made at all.

 

My favorite character moment of Infinite was when he was deleted from the plot which was good foreshadowing for Eggman becoming mute during the final boss fight and vanishing afterwards.

 

Honestly? I'm cool if this game is just Sonic and Eggman. I like the extended cast and having playable Tails and Knuckles would be nice, but as long as the game is good I'm willing to sacrifice additional playable characters.

That being said, a costume system similar to Mario Odyssey's would be nice though.

 

The square effects reminded me more of the Laser Wisp than anything else, but I'd be very, very happy if there was simply no Wisp involvement whatsoever and it was just Sonic mastering some new power, or some other plot thing.

 

Oh god yeah it didn't even cross my mind that they could bring them back for the new game. No more wisps, for the love of god.

 

I mean they were relegated to the avatar in Forces (with the exception of Sonic using the white ones for boost, but that hardly counts imo) - I think SEGA is getting the message on that front, so I wouldn't be surprised if Wisps are a no-show here.

 

Agreed. Sonic Team can't even get Sonic's gameplay right anymore, so it's kinda hard to ask for more characters even if they're just reskins with their own abilities like the classic games.

 

I also hope they won't create new characters (that will be Sonic's Friends) if they can't even use the characters that already exist.

 

I don't think that the wisps in Forces are a hint that SEGA knows we don't want them. It's more like the opposite.