The Sonic Frontiers *SPOILER* Thread (With Unmarked Spoilers)

idont give a Freak about this video game or playing it or whether its good or bad

but earlier i saw a clip of sonic walking thru a loop like in sonic 4 and 06 and i think its kind of funny. Honestly i think its not that big of a deal even in those games but it is kind of silly and funny.

thats all. ill give the game this: i like that theyre trying something new even if it """""isnt sonic""""". hehehe

 

Maybe you shouldn't link a review from a guy who would say something like this

 

EDIT: I'll just cut it down to this gif.

WELL ANYWAY

Critic reviews really will be interesting, because I do wonder how people will critique the game in a more critical fashion.

I mean, even the most glowing and positive impressions and user reviews I've seen are not afraid to mention the flaws (me included). Will reviewers care that the assets and level design of Cyber Space are taken from other games? Will they dock points for Rhea and Ouranos?

Judging by Sonic Colors Ultimate, I actually doubt many will encounter enough bugs and jank to strike on that front. The current-gen versions of that game were not very buggy and the game reviewed almost as well as the original Colors.

SomeOrdinaryGames put out his own review, and it's pretty much in line with most impressions and reviews: Frontiers is a good but flawed game. Also another person who was really skeptical of the initial reveal.

 

His personal grievances with Kishimoto are not my problem and they shouldn't be yours either.

I saw an opinion about the game and posted it, nothing more.

 

Finished the game last night on Switch, I was very negative about this game when it was first teased back in May 2021, and everything that has been shown since didn't fill me with confidence. I can safely say that the game has a lot of issues, but it is fun and certainly better than Lost World and Forces.

The cyber stages' issues have been talked about a lot, there are like 29 or 30 of them and I don't like how they reuse themes and level design, but after getting used to the controls, they are fun to play and speedrun, but I can't fully give the game credit for that as it did copy paste level design. The few original 3D cyber stages are actually not bad, an improvement over Forces but certainly not on the same level as Unleashed or Generations still. Jumping into Arcade mode to replay some of the stages is the most fun I've had with boost stages in a long time; there are some cool skips you can do when you combine the double jump, stomp jump, and air boost.

As for the islands, a lot of people excused the theme and level design reuse in the cyber stages cause we're getting 5 whole new islands with unique themes! ...But we didn't, it's just 3 themes, and one of the islands is really short. What happened here? Regardless, Sonic controls well and the combat is good enough. I'm not a fan of how they slapped a bunch of rails, boosters, dash rings, rainbow rings, pulleys, etc. all over the island instead of properly designing the world to accommodate Sonic's movement. Chaos Island is easily the worst island, it has too many 2D sections that lock you and it's unclear how to move to the other smaller islands to get the Choas Emeralds.

Bosses had great music and they...functioned, I guess? Most of the time I had no idea if I was doing the right thing, I refuse to believe that the third titan was play tested. The fourth titan is somehow the easiest, I don't understand why. And apparently, you needed to be in hard mode for the second phase of the final boss and...I have no words for the actual boss really.

Also, I'm sure this might be a controversial take, but I think Frontiers is the most unpolished mainline 3D Sonic game since Sonic 06, after 5 years in development it still somehow feels like it needed another year. A lot of things feel janky, some scripted sections straight up don't work, I've seen better animations in low-budget JRPGs, and the asset reuse all lead me to believe that this game was rushed.

The story is okay, nothing especially bad about it like the previous few Sonic games, but I wish Ian Flynn would start relying less on references to previous games during character interactions. The lore stuff will be controversial but I am okay with it, I just wish there was more to the story.

Overall this game is okay, I think it gets a 6/10 from me. I will do another playthrough for the PC version, and maybe with patches and such, it could go up to a 7/10.

 

The Islands with the Emeralds have platforming or minigame challenges to reach said Islands. It took me a hot minute to find a way to them but you dont need to use Eagles which in fact didnt know you could use em for transportation.

As for the game it self I played it on the Switch version on Ryujinx and while the crashes where annoying as heck and the frame drops brutal during Wyvern it was a pretty fun game and will play it again on PC when it comes out. I might save Hard Mode for the PC cause I dont think the frame drops would help with the Final Boss.

Overall my experience besides emulation issues have been positive. Best 3D Sonic Game since Generations. I give it a solid 8/10. Will see if the PC version would bump it to a 9/10. From the videos I seen of the people playing it on PS5 at 4k 60fps the frame bump will help a ton.

 

I saw vids of the final battle and story finale...
That true final boss... Seems like a totally different game xD
And freaking hard! Gotta be good at the game to beat that...

 

This game is probably a 7/10 from what I've played but honestly that's all I wanted. This game is a good foundation for a sequel or trilogy of games that refine on this gameplay loop and make the levels more "Sonic-y" and entertaining. I want loop de loops in the open zone next time!

I'm still excited to play the rest tonight when the PS5 version unlocks.

Right now Sonic Team is like the kid in school who usually gets D's and F's and he's finally gotten a C for once. Yeah a C isn't perfect but it shows they're trying and it's the first step to an eventual A.

 

Anyone else getting Colors flashbacks...? :P

 

That's usually the exact comparison I make but I wanted to try it in a way that doesn't call out a specific game.

 

The problem is that I've exhausted every challenge I currently have on the visible map except two, and one of them is on the Red Emerald's island itself (which according to the game would reveal where the Yellow Emerald is but I've already got that one) with the one I si have access to U can't comprehend what to do. It's one of those energy ball puzzles except I don't know how to get the ball in the two upper rings.

 

Here are my final predictions for tonight:
- Navigating the open zone will be fun
- The graphics/animations could have been better
- The sense of isolation will be a bit of an overkill
- I won't become a fan of the Kocos
- I will enjoy the story beats, but would have wanted even more cinematic moments
- I won't be able to download the mini soundtrack to my smartphone (which will suck)
- The length of the game will be a bit of a disappointment
- "Great sandbox game with some wonky physics at times."
- I would have preferred "real" levels, rather than Cyberspace
- Combat will be fun, but Sonic letting his fists do the talking will not be for me
- Game will be a 7/10 or an 8/10 depending on the bullshit in it

 

SEGA made a very interesting official art.

https://twitter.com/sonic_hedgehog/status/1589663974911791104

 

I've played a good chunk of the second island now and I definitely think it's better than the first one. My issues with the reliance on grind rails, springs, etc. still stand. It would've been cool to have like... I don't know, mine carts or something in the desert.

Also, I am completely baffled by the decision to make cyber space control differently than the overworld. It is particularly egregious in the levels ripped from Sonic Adventure 2 where I literally can't turn Sonic around without running off a cliff.

 

I think Ares Island may be my favorite island of the game.

 

I literally did every single puzzle on Chaos Island that I could (that are visible to me) and I can't get to the Red Emerald. There is no path to it. I don't understand.

The two I can't get to are on the Red Emerald island itself and another past a raised bridge which has an invisible wall right in front of the lowered part thus leading to death with a Fortress enemy flying near it.

I legit have NO. FUCKING. CLUE. what to do here.

 

I haven't finished Chaos Island myself, but is it located in the sky?

 

Nan, the Gray Emeralds are the ones in the sky. The Red one is on an island in between the Yellow and Blue Emeralds but no rails have opened up over it.

 

Edit: I regret saying this.

 

I'm having the MOST FRUSTRATING experience with the Squid boss fight. I've been launched off the path twice when homing attacking it to start the attack phase, but at least when I fall off, the boss music keeps playing and I can enter and exit the training screen to respawn the squid at the beginning with damage (not sure if that's intentional - it probably isn't).

Then this happened and it actually kicked me out of the boss for good, so now I have to find it again (Sonic jumping up is an automated sequence, btw):
https://twitter.com/PlaceandH/status/1590086879613190145