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

Yea, I'll definitely take a close approximation of Sonic gameplay than everyone just playing differently thank you very much.

 

Shadow had differences in Forces????

 

I figured that was just a characteristic of those specific enemies as a carry over from the Mach sections in Lost World, to be honest…

 

Sonic’s actually coded to do that too, if you hack him into Shadow’s levels

 

Haha, vindication! >:D

 

Shadow in Forces is functionally just a reskin of Sonic. Its mostly fine since that's generally how Shadow's played outside of a few instances.

That said, reskins aren't exactly a solution. They need some meaningful differences.

 

Now, I'm a big old shill for her given that she's my favourite character, but I reckon Blaze would work fairly well in 3D with her hover, given how it differs functionally to Knuckles' glide, with regards to not picking up speed nearly as much.

 

You said, as if to imply Big's fishing level was a bad idea.

 

I feel like Tails' flight was really overpowered in Adventure 1 but they kind of have made a version of him that works in 3D

The hover wisp from Colours is more or less exactly how I imagine Tails can work in 3D.

Honestly, if it's purely an optional thing, I will gladly accept a fishing mini-game in Frontiers lol

 

It's a Japanese open world game, I'd be more surprised if it DIDN'T have an unnecessary fishing mini game.

 

Re: an extended cast and how they'd play, when I played through Generations a couple months back and did the challenge missions where you could just instantly summon a helper like Tails or Amy to do a specific skill...it was like a light-bulb went off in my head.

In the 2D games they all play pretty similarly, like "Sonic but with extra bits". In Adventure and especially Adventure 2, they all felt different down to how they moved. I think the Generations method kind of wipes away the pretense of how the 2D games handle it and avoid the pitfalls of how the Adventure games and Sonic 06 handled it. Bring Amy with you and when you press a button she can use her hammer to croquet you across a gap, or across long distances. Bring Tails and you can fly a bit. Bring Knuckles and you'll be able to scale walls. Instead of trying to handle how the story/characters would work with multiple characters, plus also all the legwork involved in making fully-playable different characters, I think something like this would work better.

...though come to think of it, might invite comparisons with BotW if they actually implement it in an intuitive way* like the powers in that game


*(read: NOT with a bunch of stupid icons plastered on walls or on the ground to use them in specific spots)

 

I feel like Shadow and Blaze are the only characters you can conceivably build an alternative playstyle around since their abilities are already close approximations of Sonic's.

But man, it would feel really jarring not being able to fully play as Tails and Knuckles in a Sonic game.

 

Hey, an informed reply is a good reply. And that's an interesting take on that (yes, hilarious) line and the mouth it came out of. Still, I think both that particular line and the general situation are a weird fit. Knuckles has always been portrayed as something of a brawler, so him of all characters being shoved into the tactical command chair to remind Vector the Crocodile that war is bad instead of being out on the front lines felt like an odd choice. Forces in general could have made better use of Sonic's cast. (As well as, y'know... everything else.)

And speaking of Sonic's extended furry family and the more recent discussion thereof, yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing more of them become playable again so long as they're fun. If they can play similarly to a fun-to-control Sonic but with their own twist, that's great. If they diverge a bit more but are still enjoyable in their own right... that can still work, but it's very easy to fall into the trap of some gameplay styles feeling "in the way" of getting to play the others (see: SA2, Unleashed). SEGA's first priority should be figuring out a solid and sustainable model for 3D Sonic, though. And their second should be making more of that without screwing it up.

 

I mean, SRB2 itself is from the 90's so that sounds kinda weird.

 

TBF Forces had Knuckles complain at a point about how he'd rather be out in the battlefield than commanding from the base. Not that it explains why they cast him in that role in the first place

 

Listen, all we need to do is give some devs 24 years, and they'll have a mostly-finished build of the perfect Sonic game.

 

That ship's already sailed. Similarities in art direction aside, Breath of the Wild set a new standard, so just about any open world game made after it invites a comparison to it. Pokemon Legends Arceus, Elden Ring, etc. The original Sonic invited comparisons to Super Mario Bros., Shadow the Hedgehog invited comparisons to GTA and Jak II, etc. This is a trend-chasing IP.

While I think some mechanical variation would be ideal, I think reskins would be better than a complete and total absence. Tails was a reskin in his playable debut, after all, and while being able to actually use his flying ability in 3 was a welcome addition, it still remains nice having a Tails reskin in 2. Though, as has been said already, an open world game would be perfect for Tails and Knuckles; Breath of the Wild let you glide, climb, and gave you a radar, showing how ready-made for an open world environment Knuckles is!

 

Never saw the point of reskins TBH. If you're going to add alternate characters, make sure that they actually provide something other than an aesthetical change, otherwise what's the point? It's even worse when they're unlockables that require a lot of work like Metal Sonic in SADX or Luigi in Mario Galaxy.

At least Tails in Sonic 2 provided something new in the form of co-op. Outside of that, there wasn't much point in playing as him, unless you wanted a handicapped Sonic that couldn't go Super. Which is probably why Sonic Team didn't even bother implementing a character select screen. You had to go to options to change the character.