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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
    There was a thread about this over on Chao Island
     
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  2. Sonic Warrior TJ

    Sonic Warrior TJ

    Time for a buzz, cuz Member
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    Nah, sulpher was right, I guess I didn't think of it as a cyber glitch effect, but that makes sense. As for the halo effect, I've noticed that in other games and figured it's some water shader quirk devs just have to deal with until technology improves.
     
  3. It’s occlusion artifacts due to the way screen-space reflections work, when a character blocks the reflective surface SSR can’t work resulting in halos, you’ll notice this in most games that use them but the fixed camera during fishing in this game makes them especially obvious.
     
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  4. Battons

    Battons

    Shining Force Fan Member
    Sonic has this weird ghostly outline around his model that's actually visible most of the time in game, its most easy to see it in Big's Fishing Adventure stages just because of how close up the camera is to Sonic and how close he is to a transparent effect. It actually kind of annoys and bothers me now that I've seen it.
    *edit I really should have kept reading the thread my bad.
     
  5. charcoal

    charcoal

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  6. Mr. Cornholio

    Mr. Cornholio

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    Just got the Switch version about two days ago and still working through the first island. My thoughts have been pretty positive! Some small hiccups and I am expecting my mood to sour a bit during this dreaded 'Island 3' based on all this hubbub about forced 2D sections, but the core concepts I'm so far liking. Kinda wanted to jolt down my thoughts on the experience as well. For context, I was one of many who weren't exactly too wowed with the initial IGN build reveal and kinda stuck my nose out of some of the newer footage showcased:

    • Most of the voice actor performances I've been enjoying a lot more than I thought I would. Roger's take on a deeper voiced Sonic actually works out pretty nicely for the script and it's interesting to see a slightly more stern Mike Pollock doing Eggman. I've seen some people criticizing Amy's performance, but I think she gets some decent emotion out of her lines over the concerns of the Koco she found.
    • The open world structure is surprisingly fun so far. While object placement feels very 'video game-y', it actually flows together pretty nicely and feels a lot nicer to actually interact with than what initial footage had led me to believe. The player has a decent amount of freedom in deciding how they want to tackle climbing high structures with multiple pathways or utilizing Sonic's physics. That one particular 'tower' structure near the Hermit Koco comes to mind, for instance. Having the map 'fill out' and having forms of fast travel as forms of rewards for doing these challenges are also nice. I saw a previous comparison to it feeling like Odyssey's Moon System, which I think is fair. To me, it feels like a bit of a mix between Odyssey's Moons and the 'Flag' fast travel system. I find it more rewarding to see the map be 'added onto' for my progress rather than most of Odyssey's Moons being grabbed not really changing the map (save for a couple).
    • Aesthetically, the game is really gorgeous and works nicely with the mystery theme they're going for. The new enemies don't quite feel 'Sonic-esque', yet manage to feel natural with the story setup they went for. They're all really fun visually too.
    • The Nintendo Switch version chugs a lot better than I expected and I actually consider it a perfectly acceptable experience. It maintains a pretty darn solid 30FPS with some minor 'chugs' when switching actions, but nothing that felt like it was actively harming any of my actions. The pop-in is a bit annoying, but nothing too bad. After seeing Violet and Scarlet's horrible crunch leading to poor performance, I feel pretty grateful playing this.
    • The combat is pretty simplistic, but surprisingly fun. There's just enough depth that I think it opens up for some interesting possibilities and combos that doesn't equate to 'homing attack spam' ala the early 2000 games. It also feels as if the combat encourages experimentation a little better than the Werehog since a single button won't cut it here. Some of it is also integrated pretty nicely into the smaller puzzles scattered around the island (mainly the Cycloop).

    As for my negatives with the game so far:

    • The story is kinda...eh? It has a lot of interesting ideas, but some of the character interactions or the conclusions they made had me scratching my head. I dunno if I missed anything, but Sonic suddenly labelling the giants as 'Titans' and linking them to where Amy is trapped felt really out of nowhere. Similarly, I also climbed the tower and found Sage at the top and Sonic had no reaction to being in her presence, which is odd since a second ago she wasn't friendly towards Sonic and got a Titan to attack him. The characters themselves interact fine in the cutscenes, but certain things feel like they're suddenly 'dropped' on the player with little explanation. It's an issue that bugged me with Lost World's writing not really explaining what The Lost Hex or the Deadly Six were when one or two really small things of dialog would've gone a long way.
    • The Asura fights feel kinda clunky. It feels really easy to accidentally slip off while climbing the arms and have no idea what exactly went wrong.
    • The Cyberstages. Ouch. They're not awful bad or anything, but they definitely feel like a downgrade from the previous boost games in nearly every regard and almost feel like an obligation to 'fill out' the game, rather than something the team really wanted to do. Sonic's turning controls feel really 'off' compared to the open world gameplay and you kind of have to utilize the 'side-step' just to reliably pass the crate section in 1-1. I would say I understand the removal of the boost aura, since it's removal would make the player's 'side views' easier to see in the Open World...but the player gains an 'aura' in the Open World along with a better boost when they max out their rings. I'm not sure I understand the thought process behind this aura being exclusive there when it feels like the Cyberstages would've benefited from it? Without it, Sonic feels very 'weak' and not nearly as fun to play with when coming from previous boost titles. This also includes Forces. I believe the Boost also no longer works in these stages as a form of attacking, worsening this 'downgrade' feel. I do hear later down the line there are 'new' layouts that might account for these controls better, but even then I'm not too wowed. Sonic simply feels far too heavy and turns like a truck. They are 'bite-sized' enough that I found myself willing to clear them and go for all objectives, but I feel confident in saying they're my least favorite part of the game and that won't change later down the line.
    I'm definitely having fun with the Open World aspect of the game and am interested in trying out the Big fishing sections. Really curious how those will play out since those seem like a relaxing aspect that rewards you with story progression.
     
  7. VenomTH

    VenomTH

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  8. Beltway

    Beltway

    The most grateful Sonic fan of all time this week Member
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    Sega of Darkest Peru
    Artwork and looking for post-grad work...
    There's now over 100 reviews for Frontiers on Opencritic, and the PS4 version on Metacritic now has enough reviews to garner a metascore, so. Here's an early update.

    Opencritic - 72 "Fair", 104 reviews, 55% of critics recommend

    Metacritic:
    PS5 - 72 "Mixed and/or average", 82 reviews
    Switch - 71 "Mixed and/or average", 13 reviews
    Xbox Series X - 62 "Mixed and/or average", 11 reviews
    (Subtracting Sterling's review would put the metascore at 70)
    PC - 76 "Generally positive", 11 reviews
    PS4 - 81 "Generally positive", 4 reviews
    -
    Xbox One (No reviews)
     
  9. RikohZX

    RikohZX

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    Right after leaving the first Cyber Space level, the voice outlines that Sonic needs to destroy the Titans, and Amy being all virtual like Cyber Space was is a pretty easy association to make. He has about as much context as you, the player, does. The whole "Sage is also a side story NPC just waiting for you to have enough memory tokens to talk to her" stuff is a bit weird, though, but at least partly justified by Sonic trying to get a bead on her rather than taking her as directly a threat as he does Eggman.

    After all, she could've killed him while he was knocked out if you think about it.
     
  10. Snowbound

    Snowbound

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    It’s really awesome to see how fast the modding scene has taken off. Given that I wanna ask folks a question: are there any stages from past games you’re hankering to see ported or reimagined in Frontiers?

    Here are my top 3 (in no particular order):

    1. Windmill Isle Wii (I feel like Frontiers and Unwiished have similar boost mechanics so it’d be cool to see the level ported. If new gimmicks can ever be added I’d also love to see the windmills become something sonic can interact with. Maybe they spin him around then launch him or something)
    2. Beta Windy Valley (I would love a sprawling adventure stage to explore with Sonic’s open zone physics)
    3. Hill Top Zone (Someone has already made a skin that makes the GHZ cyberspace stages look like Hill Top Zone but it would be cool if Sonic GT’s Hill Top was made an open zone with fire assets being brought in from Chaos Island. You could also incorporate some sections from Speed Simulator’s Hill Top. There could be new cyberspace levels based off the the Hill Top races in speed simulator and a 2D stage with Hill Top’s Sonic 2 layout)
     
  11. Dark Sonic

    Dark Sonic

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    I’d love to see for once modders start at the final levels and move backwards, I’m pretty sick of Emerald Coast, Seaside Hill, Windy Valley, Unleashed Wii Windmill isle Act 1, and Wave Ocean, they get ported to every new Sonic game and before we get later better levels interest fizzles out.
     
  12. Snowbound

    Snowbound

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    Are there any particular late-game stages that you think would work well as a Frontiers mod?
     
  13. Dark Sonic

    Dark Sonic

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    Given this game already reusing SA2 levels, maybe Final Chase or Final Rush, I could see Final Egg from SA1 being fun, Eggmanland from Unleashed if they made like an open zone Eggmanland because combat, same with Heroes stages (Hang Castle could be fun)

    Plus ironically Frontiers already takes care of many of the 1st levels. GHZ Act 1 and 2 Generations are covered, Windmill Isle Act 1 and 2, SA2 city escape. They got ya beat to your own game modders :eng99:

    Actually… Werehog stages could be fun if ported to the open zone
     
  14. Heran Bago

    Heran Bago

    Ah! It's Puyo battle then. Tech Member
    Wow what a good video game Frontiers turned out to be.
     
  15. Jason

    Jason

    *Results not lab tested. Member
    I enjoyed it enough to beat it again right after my first completion. There is a diamond in the rough here that needs a good polishing.

    A rebalance removing the Cyberspace levels, having Guardians drop Vault Keys instead of Portal Gears would be a dramatic improvement right there. Also reducing the Memory Token requirements for story progression, while removing them altogether for the side content would stop me from just cylooping the ground for literal hours. Hopefully that's a mod that can be done. Surprised there isn't a mod topic for Frontiers yet.
     
  16. Dark Sonic

    Dark Sonic

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    I’d start one but I’m not a hacker idk how to do anything besides gawk at how cool some of them are.
     
  17. Linkabel

    Linkabel

    Member
    I feel getting enough vault keys is easy enough by just playing the Cyberspace levels.

    Saying that, I do think there should have been portal guardians and key guardians. Maybe other extra challenges could've net you keys too.

    I disagree about the reducing the Memory Token requirements though. Not only is there a lot throughout the map, but each island has several blue signposts that net you a lot of tokens when you cyloop them, plus the fishing game also gives you a chance to get enough.

    Because of that I feel like you might've as well just ask for a "story" mode that doesn't require them or a mod that does the same.
     
  18. Blue Blood

    Blue Blood

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    It doesn't matter how easy it is to get keys from Cyberspace, because if I was bored of boost gameplay in Generations when it was actually decent, then I certainly don't want to play any more boost gameplay that's are even worse than Forces.
     
  19. Linkabel

    Linkabel

    Member
    I know, that's why I said the game should give you more options. Saying that, there are other ways in getting them.

    Defeating enemy mobs fast usually makes them drop keys, they're buried (might've been luck but I usually found a lot by temples/big ruins and vaults), blue signposts also net you keys, and you can buy them from Big.

    Like they said in interviews, you don't have to enter the Cyberspace stages if you don't want to.

    But if you saw my post a few pages back a big flaw of the game is that they said they wanted to give the player freedom, but they made the game longer and tedious if you don't play the way Sonic Team intended it to be played.
     
  20. Beamer the Meep

    Beamer the Meep

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    Well, there seem to be some people breaking that mold. Someone's working on importing Dusty Desert from 06 into Frontiers:


    Personally, I'd love to see a mod that restores the aesthetics of the original stages the cyberspace stages are based on.