-game is mostly ugly, especially the first zone
-on foot controls seem better than ever
-combat is button mashing, with some interesting ideas that needed more fleshing out
-you can basically skip anything in the game by... Fishing enough (actually kinda sounds cool)
-two modes but the Speed/Fast mode is the obvious correct choice, but the speed comes at the cost of momentum where sonic stops on a dime if you let go of the stick
-boss fights are also button mashing but looks flashy atleast
-"a step in the right direction"
-"if you like 3D sonic games and collecting a lot of crap, it's the game for you."
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
My dude every Sonic game has had "bad combat" in that sense. You jump on or spin at enemies. Thats it. That doesn't have any bearing on a sonic game feeling good or tight to play.
The robots take enough hits that you can even think of combos, that's already more focus on combat that anything Sonic short of unleashed or (shudder) heroes. Its fair to bring up bad combat here if its taking more of your game time.
This game has a *lot* more activities than your average Sonic game, and its a much bigger game with longer clock hours for it. If some of that stuff is half-baked or garbage its more than fair to call it out, since this one doesn't just boil down to going fast.
Oh no doubt the game has some issues! This was all in response to both the idea that no reviews would give you the though that the gameplay could be considered tight and also very specifically the positivity of the IGN review somehow being a misreading... despite the reviewer referring to so much of their time as enjoyable.
Lots of different minigames and gameplay switch ups keeping things fresh, fun and interesting (obviously if you arent a minigame fan this is not a pro), traversal, platforming and general gameplay being very enjoyable, standard combat pretty meh(and they still had fun here despite it not being great just through virtue of fun action)but better in boss fights.
Shouldn't be too hard to see how that would be a positive look for plenty of folks.
I don't dispute any of that. Just that shallow combat isn't an issue in most Sonic games only because its over in a second or two. If you're even spending minutes on the stuff the quality or lack thereof really beings to matter and it can't be so easily dismissed.
I think the obvious inspiration for the game is Breath of the Wild, down to map design, UI (the Boost icon is the same little wheel as Stamina in BotW), the enemy design and "ancient tech" feel. It's a shame they didn't go with a more colorful, cel shaded look that makes BotW so charming to begin with. Copying better games can absolutely work in their favor if they copy the right parts.
+1
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Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
Oh hey, want infinite boost for a short while?
draw an infinity symbol with cyloop! Super handy.
Also I'm loving all the callbacks to previous games. They managed to drop a deep cut that was unfamiliar to me, and I feel pretty well versed in Sonic Lore. (It was the Babylonians reference. Turns out that's from the Riders games!)
Also I'm loving all the callbacks to previous games. They managed to drop a deep cut that was unfamiliar to me, and I feel pretty well versed in Sonic Lore. (It was the Babylonians reference. Turns out that's from the Riders games!)
Watched the Completionist who was less spoiler-averse than most and was surprised to find that the bulk of the plot is actually mired in old Sonic lore. Wish Sega had decided maybe that wasn't something they should be hiding.
+1
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
I don't dispute any of that. Just that shallow combat isn't an issue in most Sonic games only because its over in a second or two. If you're even spending minutes on the stuff the quality or lack thereof really beings to matter and it can't be so easily dismissed.
And I will not dispute that! It is likely a bigger issue than old games due to them putting more focus on it.
But its still not the primary focus so as long as you are cool with some whatever combat inbetween all the Sonic shit then its not the biggest deal. But if thats what you were really focused on then I can see how it would hurt.
I just look back to Sonic Adventure. That was a deeply beloved and extremely fun game. But it was also heavily flawed and id also say it was probably only 3/5 game but a very fun 3/5 game.
There's like 2 sides to the 3/5 coin in my eyes. Theres the 3/5 where everything works as intended, functions well across the board and has no big technical issues. This is the kind I'm probably not interested in. As that means its probably a fairly boring or not too interesting experience.
Then there's the 3/5 that has tech issues, some questionable design decisions, some things just not working quite right etc. This is the best kind. Because that means all the rest of the game is actually fun and interesting. And maybe they took a few swings that missed but I'd rather they try out some and interesting ideas than just be meh.
Sonic Adventure had the benefit of coming out when I was 10 and the novelty of 3D sonic was enough to carry the game, I'm sure kids these days will love modern 3D sonic over something like Adventure. But kids tend to be less critical of games and just enjoy them for what they are (usually because they aren't the ones buying them)
Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
Hmm, dunno how I feel about the third island. Keep getting locked into 2D segments against my will.
Oh brilliant
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drunkenpandarenSlapping all the goblin hamIn the top laneRegistered Userregular
My review: Still no chao garden. 0/10
For real tho, I'm playing Sonic with 0 turning sensitivity and the boy still turns like a boat. Well more like a jet ski at 0. The default 50 felt like a yacht. Still not into how modern 3d Sonic games have him feeling like that on the ground. Makes me fail the tile puzzles far more than I should.
I'm a little annoyed that the DLC is a bit... weirdly implemented. I started playing, and didn't know DLC wasn't active, and now to use it, I have to start a new game (and I'm assuming erase the current one first)?
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
I'm a little annoyed that the DLC is a bit... weirdly implemented. I started playing, and didn't know DLC wasn't active, and now to use it, I have to start a new game (and I'm assuming erase the current one first)?
I knew that was going to screw people over. Absolutely insane.
I'm a little annoyed that the DLC is a bit... weirdly implemented. I started playing, and didn't know DLC wasn't active, and now to use it, I have to start a new game (and I'm assuming erase the current one first)?
If you go to Extras on the main menu you can select there and should work for existing saves. At least it works for the Soap shoes.
Nintendo Console Codes
Switch (JeffConser): SW-3353-5433-5137 Wii U: Skeldare - 3DS: 1848-1663-9345
PM Me if you add me!
I'm a little annoyed that the DLC is a bit... weirdly implemented. I started playing, and didn't know DLC wasn't active, and now to use it, I have to start a new game (and I'm assuming erase the current one first)?
If you go to Extras on the main menu you can select there and should work for existing saves. At least it works for the Soap shoes.
So, here's the weird thing...
There is no Extras on the main menu. At least, not normally.
Seems that, on Xbox at the very least, you have to go to the Manage Game & Add-Ons menu and enable each piece of DLC there. Then the Extras option appears on the main menu.
Also, in figuring this out, it turns out I might not have needed to erase my original save after all, since I hadn't exited the tutorial. I thought you couldn't have started the game at all yet.
The icing on top is that even with all of that done, you still don't get the art book/mini-soundtrack. You have to find that in the Xbox Store and download it separately.
Is this some sort of new Xbox thing, a SEGA thing, or a SEGA-on-Xbox thing?
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
Mmk. So. I got Frontiers, and the sound design is not jiving with me right away. This is subjective I’m sure, but the menu choice noise is just shrill enough that it makes me want to bring the sound-effect volume down a lot. Which impacts every other sound effect, like hitting enemies or getting rings. Also, the music filter applied when boosting doesn’t sound good to me, at least in the first level. It’s only a few things, but those being near constants, I hope it doesn’t hurt the game too much for me.
I went ahead and got it. I feel like I somehow underestimated the Breath of the Wild influence in that the traditional 3D Sonic stages are akin to the shrines in BotW (at least so far).
I keep messing around with the control sliders, but I'm not sure how big of an impact they actually have.
Sonic fans are weird in that, I don't think many of them are actually nostalgic for the classic games, a lot of the most diehard sonic fans are from the early 2000s when people went hard on making OCs. I think something about the character Shadow opened people up to making their own edgelord characters and those fans are more obsessed with the 3D games. In any case, I think Sega is probably pretty happy with how the game is doing critically and commercially, it just happened to come out a week before God Of War 2
This is all just my own personal speculation and I could be dead wrong
The new God of War legitimately has been difficult for me to play because it's just so unbearably sloggy with it's narrative scenes at least with Sonic Frontiers i am actually playing the game most of the time even if that time is spent running in circles trying to find which of the disjointed floating pile of springs and launch pads leads to the one collectible randomly floating on a platform
Getting some more story from the game, and one bit from the new villain annoyed me a tad, largely because it's a trope that bugs me in general.
(first island)
The part where the villain says "Stop this; you don't know what you're doing", and Sonic is all "OK, so what am I doing?", and she responds along the lines of "I'm not going to tell you. Also, I hate how you don't know anything"
I'm sure there's story reasons behind it, but it's something that bugs me in a lot of stories, lol.
Also, dang, that projectile attack is... really powerful.
Sonic fans are weird in that, I don't think many of them are actually nostalgic for the classic games, a lot of the most diehard sonic fans are from the early 2000s when people went hard on making OCs. I think something about the character Shadow opened people up to making their own edgelord characters and those fans are more obsessed with the 3D games. In any case, I think Sega is probably pretty happy with how the game is doing critically and commercially, it just happened to come out a week before God Of War 2
This is all just my own personal speculation and I could be dead wrong
I never made OCs and stuff, but basically, yeah, I'm not actually that into the very classic Sonics. Mostly they were, to kid me, distinctly less fun than the contemporary Mario games.
It wasn't until Adventure in the Dreamcast that I was kind of interested.
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
I was a big fan of the original Sonic games much more than Mario because a hedgehog is way cooler than a mustached dude.
And then also really loved adventure because that was at a point that any kind of decently done game like that felt so cool to explore(mega man legends anyone?)
And am in turn excited for this!
I think I just have a "liking things" problem. But I guess thats a pretty good problem to have because it really leads to having a whole lot of fun with a whole lot of games.
Frontiers just does not feel like a game that’s worth five years of waiting. I can’t get over the poor art direction or outright copy/pasting of assets and levels from older games. It’s wild that this is sega’s top franchise, the literal face of the company, and his games seem unable to rise to the AAA level if polish you’d expect.
On the plus side, it seems way more substantial and confident than Forces, which felt like it added Classic Sonic out of a lack of faith in the Boost formula. It at least presents a framework to build something onto, and hopefully a bit more focused on what it wants to do for gameplay than a sky full of grind rails and a bucket of threadbare nostalgia. Or we’ll just get something wildly different, because Sonic Team.
I loved making my own OC in Forces, and wish I could use him in more games -- Team Sonic Racing using the data would have been cool -- but knowing Sonic Team, I can imagine they were just as likely going to drop him after that game even if it succeeded.
...I mean, unless it was HUGELY successful, and could be tracked back to that. Maybe then they'd keep it.
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
The Sonic twitter account did another character takeover, and every voice actor from the previous games/series came back.
So no hard feelings over recasting everyone in Prime, I guess?
Hey silver lining is we know it wasn't a union related recasting thing then
Well, possibly union-related for Prime.
Switch: 3947-4890-9293
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Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
Beat Frontiers, that final boss was really surprisingly tough (on Hard mode)
thought it was a bit of a bummer that Sonic doesn't respond to it's shit talk at all: when it said "you have fought machines and gods, all were mighty, all were finite. I am infinite."
Seemed like a prime opportunity for a snarky "well, actually!" from Sonic.
Posts
I always like these reviews, usually the most no nonsense takes. Main take aways:
-game is mostly ugly, especially the first zone
-on foot controls seem better than ever
-combat is button mashing, with some interesting ideas that needed more fleshing out
-you can basically skip anything in the game by... Fishing enough (actually kinda sounds cool)
-two modes but the Speed/Fast mode is the obvious correct choice, but the speed comes at the cost of momentum where sonic stops on a dime if you let go of the stick
-boss fights are also button mashing but looks flashy atleast
-"a step in the right direction"
-"if you like 3D sonic games and collecting a lot of crap, it's the game for you."
Oh no doubt the game has some issues! This was all in response to both the idea that no reviews would give you the though that the gameplay could be considered tight and also very specifically the positivity of the IGN review somehow being a misreading... despite the reviewer referring to so much of their time as enjoyable.
Lots of different minigames and gameplay switch ups keeping things fresh, fun and interesting (obviously if you arent a minigame fan this is not a pro), traversal, platforming and general gameplay being very enjoyable, standard combat pretty meh(and they still had fun here despite it not being great just through virtue of fun action)but better in boss fights.
Shouldn't be too hard to see how that would be a positive look for plenty of folks.
Also I'm loving all the callbacks to previous games. They managed to drop a deep cut that was unfamiliar to me, and I feel pretty well versed in Sonic Lore. (It was the Babylonians reference. Turns out that's from the Riders games!)
Watched the Completionist who was less spoiler-averse than most and was surprised to find that the bulk of the plot is actually mired in old Sonic lore. Wish Sega had decided maybe that wasn't something they should be hiding.
And I will not dispute that! It is likely a bigger issue than old games due to them putting more focus on it.
But its still not the primary focus so as long as you are cool with some whatever combat inbetween all the Sonic shit then its not the biggest deal. But if thats what you were really focused on then I can see how it would hurt.
I just look back to Sonic Adventure. That was a deeply beloved and extremely fun game. But it was also heavily flawed and id also say it was probably only 3/5 game but a very fun 3/5 game.
There's like 2 sides to the 3/5 coin in my eyes. Theres the 3/5 where everything works as intended, functions well across the board and has no big technical issues. This is the kind I'm probably not interested in. As that means its probably a fairly boring or not too interesting experience.
Then there's the 3/5 that has tech issues, some questionable design decisions, some things just not working quite right etc. This is the best kind. Because that means all the rest of the game is actually fun and interesting. And maybe they took a few swings that missed but I'd rather they try out some and interesting ideas than just be meh.
Completionist's look at it seems positive, but critical.
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
For real tho, I'm playing Sonic with 0 turning sensitivity and the boy still turns like a boat. Well more like a jet ski at 0. The default 50 felt like a yacht. Still not into how modern 3d Sonic games have him feeling like that on the ground. Makes me fail the tile puzzles far more than I should.
Steam: pandas_gota_gun
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
I knew that was going to screw people over. Absolutely insane.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
If you go to Extras on the main menu you can select there and should work for existing saves. At least it works for the Soap shoes.
Switch (JeffConser): SW-3353-5433-5137 Wii U: Skeldare - 3DS: 1848-1663-9345
PM Me if you add me!
So, here's the weird thing...
There is no Extras on the main menu. At least, not normally.
Seems that, on Xbox at the very least, you have to go to the Manage Game & Add-Ons menu and enable each piece of DLC there. Then the Extras option appears on the main menu.
Also, in figuring this out, it turns out I might not have needed to erase my original save after all, since I hadn't exited the tutorial. I thought you couldn't have started the game at all yet.
The icing on top is that even with all of that done, you still don't get the art book/mini-soundtrack. You have to find that in the Xbox Store and download it separately.
Is this some sort of new Xbox thing, a SEGA thing, or a SEGA-on-Xbox thing?
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
I keep messing around with the control sliders, but I'm not sure how big of an impact they actually have.
Yep!
Good sign if you want the game... probably a bad sign for how its selling.
Edit: apparently the game is setting concurrent player records for the franchise on Steam at least, doubling Mania's launch.
Like, Mania was the most anticipated and loved Sonic game in ages (pun intended) at the time.
This is all just my own personal speculation and I could be dead wrong
(first island)
I'm sure there's story reasons behind it, but it's something that bugs me in a lot of stories, lol.
Also, dang, that projectile attack is... really powerful.
Maybe? I mean, I think they have to set that sort of thing up well ahead of time.
I remember when Sonic Unleashed came out, I got it right around launch for pretty cheap, too.
At any rate, no sales in Canada like that at either place, so at least I don't feel like a Grade-A sucker.
Incidentally, my wife and I took it for a Sonic Spin on Saturday night, if anyone is interested:
I'm enjoying it. Feels like a combination of Sonic speed and action with a more chill vibe.
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
I never made OCs and stuff, but basically, yeah, I'm not actually that into the very classic Sonics. Mostly they were, to kid me, distinctly less fun than the contemporary Mario games.
It wasn't until Adventure in the Dreamcast that I was kind of interested.
And then also really loved adventure because that was at a point that any kind of decently done game like that felt so cool to explore(mega man legends anyone?)
And am in turn excited for this!
I think I just have a "liking things" problem. But I guess thats a pretty good problem to have because it really leads to having a whole lot of fun with a whole lot of games.
On the plus side, it seems way more substantial and confident than Forces, which felt like it added Classic Sonic out of a lack of faith in the Boost formula. It at least presents a framework to build something onto, and hopefully a bit more focused on what it wants to do for gameplay than a sky full of grind rails and a bucket of threadbare nostalgia. Or we’ll just get something wildly different, because Sonic Team.
...I mean, unless it was HUGELY successful, and could be tracked back to that. Maybe then they'd keep it.
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
So no hard feelings over recasting everyone in Prime, I guess?
Hey silver lining is we know it wasn't a union related recasting thing then
Well, possibly union-related for Prime.
Seemed like a prime opportunity for a snarky "well, actually!" from Sonic.