How Sonic Frontiers Redefined the Franchise

there is no opening statement I could ever say that would truly put my feelings towards Sonic Frontiers into words there is so much to cover from the horrendous reveal subsequent reputational turnaround in overwhelmingly positive reception upon release I can't I just I can't believe it it's no secret that I've been in Avid Frontiers hater lover mixed feelings ER I've watched this game prove all of our doubts and fears fears that Sonic team was simply following trends that they couldn't hope to replicate then we started getting more trailers and sure cyberspace looked awful and trust me we will get to cyberspace but despite the open world looking relatively Barren it was consistently praised by convention attendees who played the game first hand and once we started to get a look at the Titans story and cutscene aspects we truly get the vibe of what the game was going for and I have to admit I was excited and so that leads us here what exactly spurred me into using the terms redefined and evolution when describing what this game did for the franchise well I'm glad you asked sure I may have used those words because I figured they were eye-catching and would hopefully Garner clicks but my use of them is nevertheless genuine and I want to talk about why talk about how the gameplay is at least for a first try a great adaptation of the Sonic series's formula into this brand new format talk about how the story and characters are just as we've always envisioned them rather than them being shallow surface level interpretations of games past and of course talk about the undeniable passion and say it with me now ambition that was poured into this love letter to the franchise welcome everyone my name is Nicholas but it's Nick for short and today I'm going to be talking about how Sonic Frontiers redefined the franchise your time and with all those pretenses out of the way let's talk about something I am so glad I'm happy to analyze again the story of a Sonic game the opening of Frontiers isn't something super out of the ordinary it's another case of Eggman being up to no good but the way in which it's visually presented adds so much more to it the first person view is a great choice to really put us into the world in the darker Sinister lighting does wonders for the atmosphere with a Sinister grin The Mad Doctor activates what looks to be a portal by uploading some kind of software and as things begin to go Haywire Eggman realizes that he's awoken the technological creatures of the area leading to Eggman getting pulled into the portal he had tampered with elsewhere we see Sonic Atop The Tornado a sight for sore eyes to be sure although we've seen it a lot over the years something about this portrayal just feels so right as the exposition is dumped we realize that Tails has tracked the chaos emeralds to their destination the Starfall islands and with all our necessary information out of the way we have our title drop simple clean confident Sonic Frontiers the piece doesn't last long however as the tornado was thrown out of the sky sucked into an interdimensional portal it's here where we're introduced to the concept of cyberspace a digitized memory for Sonic to run through but you wouldn't really know that unless you basically made the explanation up for yourself I know I'm jumping the gun here but I don't really care because there is no explanation for this happening like at all and I'm not referring to the lack of an explanation at the start of the story obviously it's meant to be a mystery for the player to solve later on but I am talking throughout the entire narrative cyberspace never and I mean never gets a clear explanation yes you can encounter some outside of the main story dialogue instances wherever it does mention kind of how cyberspace Works how Sonic is essentially running through memories but the fact that is so unimportant is not part of the main narrative cyberspace is just bad I know I'm getting way ahead of myself but it's just that bad to me but after escaping the digital Dimension Sonic wakes up and is greeted by a mysterious voice telling him what a feat it was to escape cyberspace and how he is the key it's obviously left cryptic to set up the mystery but what I really appreciated was Sonic's reaction of just moving on because he knows the drill by now and as we'll see throughout the course of the game this mature facet of his character is at long last drawn to the Forefront which is greatly appreciated as a longtime fan and it's here where the basic structure of the Story begins to take its shape having found Amy captured in a strange cage Sonic uses her character specific tokens to free her which now that I'm typing this out loud are these ever really explained why does Amy have specific tokens that free her from this cage the cage doesn't mean anything she's already trapped in cyberspace I understand the token's gameplay purpose but even a throwaway line explaining the story reason would have helped with the immersion it's not a big deal it's just something I quite honestly just realized while writing it out in the script but enough of being a Negative Nancy once Amy is rescued we see more of what the game really shines in and that's character writing Amy has quite the sense of initiative carried over from her IDW characterization which I've gone on record many times as my favorite incarnation of her character but that's all the setup now we reach a scene that really captivated me I still can't watch it without frothing at the mouth with hype the sudden appearance of the first Titan has to be one of my favorite cutscenes in the entire franchise and it finally gives me an opportunity to talk about something this Series has sorely lacked for decades great cinematography watching Sonic just narrowly dodged being squashed into giganto's weight was a fantastic way to establish a power Dynamic following this with a zoom out that highlights the scale of the Titan not just on its own merits but specifically in comparison to the Towering monuments of the landscape was such a fantastic idea some of these structures you need to dedicate an extended amount of time to climb which really sets the vision for how Grand the Titan really is the subsequent shots of watching giganto casually strive by the camera inching closer and closer to the ground before reaching Sonic who stands unwavering despite the Towering odds does wonders to bring us back to Earth while still giving Sonic an equal amount of screen space to the Titan using this dramatic angle to remind the players that they have a fighting chance it's honestly just something I never thought I'd get to talk about with Sonic I love film and to see actionable camera work incorporated into telling a Sonic story in the games is so refreshing here we have the proper introduction of sage and this has easily got to be one of the best villain reveals in the entire series she's got to be the best designed humanoid Sonic character other than Eggman but given her small stature how can you go about making her presence seem not only ominous but truly threatening easy with Stellar camera work upon your materialization next to the Beast her entire design is shown as she's meant to be making herself known as she begins to manipulate the Titan the camera cuts to a much closer point of view giving Sage a perspective induced size Advantage as the Titan quite literally bows to her further angles continue to give her substantial screen space to emphasize her power even going as far as to show Sonic literally beneath her feet then that Dana kicks in and we're off baby it's honestly just such a great segment that truly even after completing the game is a standout scene in my eyes and is one of the few times I don't think I'm reading too much into things whenever it comes to the Sonic games presentation all of the camera work and choreography seem genuinely purposeful and it was such a great way to introduce the first Titan frankly it is one of my favorite scenes in the entire game however Sonic is swiftly defeated and once that happens The Story begins to suffer from a problem I believe all of the franchise's best narrative struggle with that being despite having incredible moments in isolation the only uniting factor is a thematic one and not an actual plot line what I mean is by halfway through Kronos Island the story takes on a very basic structure Sonic saves his friend they talk about what a wacky scenario this all is help a Coco find peace which also gives them a glimpse into the past fulfill that friend's character Arc and it all caps off with a Titan boss fight although the formula does make sense especially from a gameplay perspective and doesn't not work I can't help but feel left wanting more but before talking about the few consistent plot elements I want to go over Amy Knuckles and Tails arcs and interactions with Sonic individually as I'm sure you've all guessed I adored them with Amy being relegated to the first island a lot of her optional dialogue is of the what's going on here variety but her main character Arc is helping out the first of many cocoa we see throughout our adventure this Coco is searching for their one true love and naturally Amy is incredibly sympathetic to its plight leading us to hunting down the Coco's missing partner but from the outset this may sound like it doesn't give the character much to do in actuality showing how compassionate Amy is was fantastic to see I love the fact that Amy has been integrated into the main cast upgrading the trio to a quadruple threat and this game is justifying it by giving Amy a specific perspective that she brings to the team that no one else has that perspective being her endless compassion and optimism I think this is best shown when Sonic gets fed up with helping the Coco his suggestion to let them wrap it up on their own shows his impatience and focus on the bigger picture which is honestly really in character I feel but Amy refutes the idea instantly coming to understand Sonic's reasoning but her unwavering need to help everyone shines through this really established her to me anyways as the heart of the group her love of the little things in life willing to literally stop and smell the roses was a great direction to steer her character into as it builds on pre-existing attributes of her personality and enhances them with a stronger Foundation this is the first of many things I saw that inspired the video's title the game in my opinion expertly redefined Amy's personality knuckles I feel was pretty ham-fistedly put into this story I was thinking about both his introduction and future scenes will discuss as they are great but the prologue animation being something you have to go out of your way to find makes his inclusion into the story feel incredibly anti-climactic speaking of that prologue though it was freaking sick dude more Angel Island exploration and lore and Xiao and uh it was just so much great setup it made me so interested in the origins of the Starfall Islands but alas here we are in the game and it's not ever really expanded upon all we ever find out is that Angel Island and the Starfall Islands have some connections due to these ancients but no matter where you look we never find out explicitly what the link is beyond some similarities which considering how much hype the game builds up with the mystery of the Ancients is incredibly underwhelming and immensely unsatisfying to me but we'll touch more on that later as for Knuckles character Arc I really enjoyed it watching him discover the similarities between these ruins and the ones on his home is really fascinating even if not dived into as much as I'd like what has to be his standout moment though is this final cut scene before facing the height it's really sad that this was the case but seeing Sonic cautiously approach a contemplative Knuckles shows more character depth and awareness than anything the franchise has seen in the last 10 years this was such a nice touch to open this cutscene with as knuckles begins to voice his feelings he talks about finally having something to directly relate to that being the cataclysm that wiped out the cocoa being similar to his ancestors is such a great way to naturally make Knuckles think about who he is bringing his loneliness to the Forefront was such a great move because it is a fundamental aspect of his character that contextualizes his standoff nature and of course Sonic's line reminding Knuckles that he may be the last Echidna but he's not alone felt like such a great payoff for the entire series thus far it really reminded me that these aren't just Sonic's friends nope there's so much more these characters Sonic Tails Knuckles and Amy more than any other characters in the series have such a great Bond and history these four especially given all they've gone through together are truly a family Plus without Knuckles says he's gonna try to get out and live a little more I think it'd be awesome to have him out treasure hunting and whatnot and of course seeing these two giving each other crap over and over obviously joking was so refreshing these two at this point are total Bros and I'd love to see the comedy between them both the spoken and physical kind with all their sass it was just an amazing viewing experience Tails was the one I was definitely most excited to see Bar None he has been so inconsistent in the mainline cannon that how can you even begin to address that Tales upon his rescue is so competent and logical in his assessments giving him such a mechanical thinking mind provides lots of opportunities to grow and mature emotionally without resetting him to zero in terms of previous development it's best seen when helping out the engineering Coco Tails thinks helping it is dishonest seeing as it's already dead but is swayed when Sonic points out the emotional reasoning behind why they should help but one of my favorite scenes with tails is one that somehow sparked a bit of controversy tail stalking to Sonic about his wildly inconsistent Behavior over the last decade of unjust incompetence and how he wants to grow and change I feel was a great Great Piece of meta riding keeping the reason for his inconsistencies in the realm of his youth I think isn't Justified necessarily but the fact it was addressed in any form earns my respect they could have easily just ignored everything but they chose to address it at all and that is something I very much appreciate as a fan without a doubt though the best scene with tales in my opinion is him confronting Sonic about leaving on his own it is by far better than any game before shows just how close these two are as brothers having Sonic directly addressed tales as little bro is so sweet entails talking about how he plans to grow into a more independent person really tugs with the heart strings when Sonic realizes his little buddies growing up and to really seal the deal on this cutscene having Sonic called Tails partner at the very end is just man that's some really good character riding there I almost shed a tear whenever I first saw it overall with the main characters I feel they got great poor trails that will undoubtedly result in some changes for them in the future but those changes seem natural and earned so I can't wait to see them Sonic as you've undoubtedly picked up on is finally back to his Peak characterization all I could think about was how much his writing reminded me of the cut scenes from Sonic and the Black Knight and it makes me so unbelievably happy to say that the best moment for Sonic in the game though is easily when taking down the towers there is one essential element that I believe is undeniably true whenever we're talking about riding for Sonic the Hedgehog and that is his actions speak louder than his words and although I do love his aerobic speeches somehow he always knows just the right thing to say because of his simplistic life philosophy I do think that it can result in sometimes he gets a little wordy and personally I think that a lot of his longer speeches can be boiled down to and simplified into a nod of acknowledgment it always just packs more of a punch whenever I think about it that way and where I think this undoubtedly Reigns true is when the towers worsen the corruption he has he can barely move much less run Sage appears and asks how he's still even going his response being a perfect silence he doesn't respond to her he just raises his head and keeps pressing onwards with that Classic Sonic smirk on his face seeing Sonic finally back was so therapeutic I was genuinely blown away by my personal take being that this is by far the best Sonic has ever been characterized Mr Flynn if you so happen to see this thank you so much for bringing my favorite character in all of fiction back on top seeing this means the world to me Sage however I feel is a massive disappointment now I know that is a massive change of pace from constant praise to Serious critique but let me explain myself despite being a fantastic addition to the main series cast conceptually I feel that what could have been a genuinely great Arc was bogged down by poor pacing Sage is the only consistent piece of plot other than Sonic and I really liked what they were going for seeing Sonic through this whole Adventure helping the Coco and interacting with his friends slowly causing her to defy her programming and long for a family that is a great Arc but an execution it Reigns Hollow we find out one of these sparse Eggman centered cutscenes that Sage is an AI built by Eggman which is helping him Escape cyberspace which he was captured in in the beginning of the game but Eggman only ever treats her with respect and not so much a fatherly admiration despite my Pollock's attempts to add something a bit extra with his vocal delivery which is amazing as always there was never a familiar Bond on display yes the voice memos add a lot to the story but whenever serious development like calling Sage's daughter is borderline side content that's a real problem in my eyes and this unfortunately leads to the game's ending feeling rather shallow not to mention three-fourths of her dialogue is the vague leave now or you will Doom us all nonsense by Island 2 we're given the necessary context as to why she won't tell Sonic the truth it's because Eggman told her not to and she also kept him alive to watch because she was fascinated by the emotions on display but I believe that she should have made way less appearances because that way you would emphasize each time that she does show emotion it would have made her cut scenes of emotional struggle and development stand out a lot more also I feel like this has to be a direct response from the egg at fan art from Mania I believe that's what her name was but I think that that would be such a cool reason for sage to exist now is because us fans thought that that would be a cool idea regardless it really grounds Eggman emotionally which is something I never thought I wanted but here I am loving the idea of him taking on a fatherly role to Sage it honestly feels like a natural evolution of his Dynamic with metal Sonic as he's a proud pops of that robot Eggman in general though I didn't love he had his moments to be sure his writing is a serious step up over anything we've had in the last decade but that's such a low bar it doesn't really count what put me off with the character was I don't like how respectful he is towards the heroes in cut scenes and Eggman logs I found that he has so much good to say about the heroes and it feels a little out of character to me I don't always need him saying I hate that Hedgehog and I do appreciate a little bit of respect thrown in but there was way too much for me me personally I do prefer his loud boasting nature and need more villainy to balance out all this kindness if they stick with a more humanized interpretation of the doctor just to clarify I'm not against what they're doing with Eggman as far as character goes but I am going to need to see more of this version of the doctor because there was not a lot of screen time for him in this game but on the topic of a more humanized nature we actually got an ounce of Eggman backstory him talking about Maria was so out of left field like him talking about the black arms the Babylonians was awesome enough but for Eggman to actively reflect on not knowing Maria feeling an ounce of resentment towards all the attention she got that he didn't I thought was so incredible generally I prefer the characters backstories in the series to be kept vague because I don't really think that they add much but little things like this are great because it actually informs his current feelings when he's questioning if Maria and Sage were anything alike plus it also adds some insight that maybe all of that resentment turned Eggman into the evil Tyrant we know today I really like whenever these little droplets of lore actually inform how the characters act now I don't really need a lot more of this but little tiny things like this I do seriously appreciate but now we come to the ending or should I say lack thereof after learning the secrets of the Ancients by bringing down these towers all that hype all of that build up all of my anticipation was rewarded with a set of generic aliens running away from a threat more bland than infinite as for the final boss being revealed as the voice guiding Sonic along his journey it didn't really have much impact as the voice in Sonic barely had any interactions to make this twist matter nor does it feel clever because in the same scene as this reveal we find out that Sage never told Eggman that this massive world ending creature was stuck in cyberspace why I mean knowing Eggman and his past exploits couldn't he have wanted to potentially harness the power of this creature or if it was truly so dangerous why didn't she tell Eggman to protect him well there is no reason why it just doesn't make sense why she wouldn't let him know such crucial information as for the other lore drops the Ancients building these massive mechs to fight off this super threat was really cool but they're placed within the lore bringing the emeralds to Earth are all just cool ideas that ultimately didn't add much to anything I feel sure we technically know more but this knowledge doesn't really add anything to the overall Canon I should stress that I really do enjoy all the continuity welding found within this game since it's very rare that we get something like that but I think it could have been so much more in here's why if anything it spawned more questions like why was the Master Emerald on Earth doesn't this affect unleashed's story what even is chaos of course the story does imply that the Ancients moved to Angel Island but if that means the Ancients somehow became Chow then that's just dumb in my opinion it's a needless retcon that doesn't enhance what the Chao are or add new depths to chaos existing if anything it kind of diminishes what the Ancients are by making them literal babies in the future but that's just a fan Theory because of chaos being a mutated chow and his clear design link to the Ancients so I understand the basis of the theory but I just don't like the conclusion being drawn for these reasons that I've listed out while talking about chaos though he has literally no personality in adventure 1 and knowing he's related to the Ancients doesn't mean anything in fact the story free of Sonic Adventure 1 remains entirely unchanged in a post Sonic Frontiers era because as far as we can tell chaos the Chao no new Concepts introduced in Frontiers actually changes how we look at past stories quite literally all this knowledge does is give us some admittedly appreciated answers but given the undercooked narrative as a whole I feel the Ancients weren't important enough within this very game to make me care about them and thus I don't care about their effect on the series as a whole most surprisingly for me was that the mysterious symbol that we've seen all throughout the game's trailers and on several occasions during the game was never truly explained granted it's not difficult to piece together what the symbol does mean and the fact that it's never explicitly explained is not my problem my problem is that it felt like such a great natural way to see what the culture of these aliens were but we never get anything like that so many aspects of the game feel like they were so explicitly purposefully established to give us a glimpse into the culture of the Ancients but were forgotten as quickly as they were established if you think that I and many other players who have had these exact same issues cannot read between the lines I assure you we can I understand purposeful vagueness and leaving things up to interpretation are effective methods of Storytelling there's a lot of good examples in this very game in fact especially through environmental details but other than maybe the symbol that didn't feel at all like the intent overall the story felt very undercooked and introduced so many great ideas but never did anything more with it I personally would have much rather preferred an entirely original alien species and the whole point of the game was seeing their long lasting impact on the Sonic world that we've never noticed before but I digress back on the main story as far as Sonic and Eggman teaming up I actually really do enjoy how that was handled I thought it was super fun to see and I've seen a lot of complaints about how Sonic's friends saving him from cyberspace makes no sense and well they're right but I don't know I've suspended my disbelief so much for way less this doesn't bother me too much but here we go the final Titan has been released the final boss the monster we only saw all glimpses of in flashbacks the ultimate threat bigger than anything Sonic has ever faced before and it's nothing sure the last boss fights easy but who cares if the story carries the slack right well I was being very literal when I said nothing Supreme has no character at all and the quote-unquote secret final boss is a random space shooter against the moon why this hasn't gotten more Flack in my opinion is just insane I've seen this series go through hell and back for way less than this I'm sorry but Ian Flynn somehow managed to make a villain less relevant consequential and somehow less interesting than infinite as the game went on I'm gonna be honest I thought infinite was gonna show back up whenever the moon started saying how powerful it was how it was truly infinite I was seriously expecting infinite to just come out of nowhere and the only reason I thought that outlandish scenario was even plausible was because the end was so aggressively nothing and to cap it all I meant to be invested when Sage sacrifices herself to destroy the end and save Sonic look maybe being a fan of this series so long has just made me incredibly cynical maybe I've just lost emotional investment but seeing as how the IDW Comics have gotten serious emotional reactions from me I just think that this Arc was not strong enough to make me cry and this isn't me trying to act all tough and you know shame people who did cry if you genuinely thought that this Arc was great emotional impactful all the power to you it's just a matter of disagreeing on the effectiveness of the story but honestly if Sage had conquered the most truly diabolical villain in the series I think that that would have given her decision so much more weight and impact but as it stands it felt like her sacrifice was for nothing more than shock value not for a second it I believe that she was truly gone especially wasted on a villain so aggressively Bland the finale of Sonic Frontier story is so nothing my jaw genuinely dropped when I beat the game and not because I was stunned by how much I enjoyed it but wondering where the rest of it was don't get me wrong the game felt complete the game felt purposeful but at the tail end of everything it just felt like they wanted one more Island one more unique circumstance to really put sonic through hell but unfortunately maybe due to time or just a lack of creativity they couldn't quite piece together what they wanted to do and so it really feels like the game would have been more satisfying if it ended after the third island because whenever you have a finale that is so Bland having to go through what is essentially a recreation of the first island before it it just makes everything all the more unsatisfying to me however even with all of my criticism all of my just being a Negative Nancy as I tend to do these days I love the final cut scenes of Sonic Frontiers having everyone reunited free from cyberspace and ready to take charge of their lives on new adventures solo Adventures which is just so intriguing Eggman morning sage and then to no one's surprise recovering her files was such a heartwarming thing to see even if I didn't love the arc I'm happy that Eggman gets an emotional win for once it's such a new cool way to look at his character but what I really felt from this final cut scene aside from shock that Styx is now Mainline series Canon was just such a sense of Pride one thing that I will always give to even the worst of Sonic games is that they were proud to be a Sonic game and for the first time in over a decade I just felt the Developers giving us a wink you know they saw all us fans and said we're back and we're here to stay and we're proud of it it really did make me appreciate all the great parts of frontiers all the more I for sure had my fair share of issues and I do believe that a lot of this game really could have used just a few more months of fine-tuning in terms of its story but for what we did get I really do love it the character interactions from all the main series cast was truly something magical to see again in my opinion it's the best they've ever been characterized in the series period And even for the aspects that I didn't think were executed greatly I think that they established such an amazing Foundation that we could really see take charge in a sequel and although it's not an excuse the fact that we likely have an epilogue for the game coming in future DLC really makes me feel like they can turn that finale around give the entire story a much more satisfying conclusion in that way upon future playthroughs you'll have a much more complete narrative experience I think that Frontiers has a lot in common with my feelings towards 06 in a way a lot of it from a narrative design perspective just fails and it relies on its characters to carry that story but the characters are so strong even the new ones have such a great foundation and despite all my criticisms I'd say that this is genuinely one of the better stories in the franchise if only for its characters what can I say whenever I talk about a Sonic story on this channel I think it's only fair to really dig into its plot see if it works on a narrative design level but even if it doesn't if the characters emotions overall Vibes for lack of a better word are there I always manage to find something to enjoy and in terms of the entire storyline of Sonic Frontiers I loved the story of this game not for its plot or its narrative but because of the character because of the emotions because of the themes on display I thought it soared despite all my criticisms looking back I really did enjoy experiencing its story and now I think it's about time that we talk about one of the biggest shakeups the series has ever taken the gameplay Sonic at last controls like he should again but then the parameters of just being controllable because make no mistake this is me praising the bare minimum he can turn it as a great range of motion that isn't too precise or sensitive and has a great standard traversal speed I say standard because there are a multitude of Sliders to adjust aspects of Sonic's controls but I left all mine at default and had a great time Sonic is just the right speed that his default running feels so right and cinematic to me to put it some way I feel so in control and love taking my surroundings at an upbeat pace and on top of that you can still boost the Boost speed especially when doubled by a Max ring count lets me speed across the island at Mach 2 blasting around the terrain just feels so therapeutic as a player I feel like I have the full extent of Sonic's movement capability at my disposal truly running fast was the best part of the game and the speed at which you can cross terrain is just filled with the exaggerated Swagger of a blue Hedgehog the Boost itself I'm incredibly grateful was Nerf because I've sit for years the Boost formula wouldn't work in an open world especially not how it was in previous titles but personally the fact that the Boost got weakened to such an extent to me validates what I've always claimed if the Boost can't even be a true boost then just make the game momentum based having the landscape designed around running up and down Hills rolling for top speed and spin dash jumping your way to Victory is just so much more skill based and naturally becomes more rewarding for it and speaking of jumping it really sucks that jumping hardly carries your momentum it really makes you feel the restrictiveness of Airborne traversal the air Boost from forces actually would have been a great inclusion to see here because the air boost that we got Cuts your momentum from slow to nothing I do enjoy the trick system and concept as well as since it's basically right out of the fan game Sonic GT but it's more often than not activated by weird Collision detection the jankiness of how at times it looks like Sonic is under 10 times normal gravity can really take away from the athleticism of the gameplay and although travel is still fun and the game is designed around these issues making the borderline non-issues I do think that these are Telltale examples of Kinks to be ironed out I think that the heaviness of Sonic that I just mentioned is most obvious in cyberspace these levels suck the control was clearly not designed for traditional boost ages especially whenever you consider that they've been outright stolen the only times I ever found cyberspace remotely fun was the adventure levels because they feel more attuned to the traditional platforming this Sonic was built for I don't care to give these levels the time of day they suck and are an active blemish on an otherwise immensely enjoyable experience on the combat side the homing attack in a tax system overall started off really solid the first mini boss though was what really got my attention when it came to proving the combat was something to be enjoyed I was taking damage I know crazy right but in a Sonic game actively being challenged and punished for my mistakes again thank you goodness gracious me it's been so long but the balancing was a little skewed because good Lord I got nervous real fast after seeing just how much of the skill tree I unlocked on the first upgrade I opened that menu expecting to you know unlock one or two upgrades but I was just breezing through it I got through half the tree in no time on the first island but luckily it's not that easy to unlock the tree in one go obviously some of the higher skill ones require a lot of skill points platforming also really took me by surprise by just how intense it was in the open world it required a lot more split-seconds decisions than normal where do you have to use the air boost a lot more than I anticipated even simple challenges were like I said just using an air boost or a double jump in the right time to get across the Gap really showed me that this game was asking more of me than what Sonic games typically do that said things never really get any deeper than this in my opinion the further you do progress the more cracks begin to show a lot of Sonic's late game moves require you to press the bumper or trigger buttons to activate them which can lead you to accidentally dodging boosting or using a move on accident I noticed this most in the tower climbing section where I accidentally used a super move on an enemy when all I wanted to do was boost closer for a more certain homing attack range granted that doesn't happen very often but it is so annoying whenever you want to do a move but the game doesn't register the fact that you pressed in a digital button after the bumper or Trigger or on the opposite Spectrum you press the bumper or trigger but you pressed a different button very quickly after trying to use a different move and then all of a sudden you're boosting somewhere random sure I eventually got used to it and perfected my timing but I just feel like it's one of those systems where it's not complicated enough for you to need to get used to it and could have honestly been simplified I think pressing Two Face buttons at once like other combat heavy titles would have been a better more responsive compromise for example instead of pressing the bumper and then the a button how about instead you press the A and x button at the same time that way in a worst case scenario the worst you have to deal with is an extra punch being thrown or an extra jump which isn't very detrimental and given the fact that there aren't too many moves in this game I feel like memorizing those button combinations would not be too intrusive and it would be just as good as for Sonic's moves themselves they were varied and stylish and always fun to unlock however the recovery ability where you are given the chance to press a after taking damage to retaliate I found rarely appeared outside of boss fights and given how busted the Parry system is I believe it was a waste of a move slot and oh yes whenever I say that the Parry system is busted that is 100 a critique having the Parry system not work off tying but only holding down the left and right bumper negated all skill it made sitting and waiting to be hit a very viable strategy as the retaliation move you get by pressing X and why is so much damage I'm sure like the majority of other players did I also played on hard mode and I feel like all of us can agree that there was really no challenge at any point in the game whatsoever of course the new non-combat exclusive ability Sonic has is the silu the ability was an incredibly fun one as it opened up so many possibilities of combat strategy and puzzle interactions granted none of those elements are particularly taxing on the mind as combat stretch is mainly just making a circle and puzzles are again really just making a circle but nevertheless I found the side Loop is a more than welcome addition to Sonic's moveset as you've undoubtedly noticed I've prefaced a lot of my statements regarding the combat and puzzle facets of gameplay with clarifying their lack of depth this was entirely purposeful and I feel one of the biggest contributors to that is the poor button mapping combined with a refusal to get rid of old moves obviously you can go and change the buttons for yourself but several of Sonic's moves such as the flying kick sphere attack all could be used as I said before as combo buttons of X plus a and Y plus b and with this one simple change you can increase the ferocity of enemy attacks and the variation they have because now the player has both Dodge buttons always open and ready for use that means that you no longer need them for combat meaning that you can make Sonic's Parry move timing base instead of just holding both buttons down and waiting I think that overall with just simple changes like that to really free up Sonic's movement I think could really do some great things to make the combat for the next game even greater and really engaging and satisfying overall I think the foundation set here in terms of combat puzzle solving is a really good start but I feel like it has so many little faults that hold it back and truly believe that if the dev team takes a serious look at what they made they could create Bar None the best gameplay loot the Sonic Series has ever seen in 3D and I mean that wholeheartedly before talking about the open zones though I have to mention both the mini bosses and Titan encounters many bosses were a great way to earn portal keys they all follow a general principle of taking one specific aspect of Sonic's moveset and centering an entire fight around it although it can lead to subsequent rematches being a little stale I do think that generally speaking it's an incredibly effective strategy of creating mini bosses the standouts I feel were easily Sumo shark in the squid fights for the spectacle and engaging gameplay they all lasted just the right amount of time before I got tired of them now the Titans I think most Sonic boss fights suck they're too gimmicky and I just don't really have a great time but these have set a new bar so high every other attempt at a Sonic boss fight crumbles in comparison the mini game preludes were always a joy to experience and the fight themselves really put your combat moves to the test I personally didn't realize the Perry wasn't timing based until the third island so that definitely made my life harder but even so getting to use all of my newly acquired base Sonic moves in his super state was always so rewarding and awesome to see not to mention how great the quick side Loop was at destabilizing the boss and delivering some juicy retribution afterwards and although I don't normally do this I'm just gonna get my ranking for funsies the final boss Supreme really sucked I made things way more complex than they were whenever I first fought the boss and the second I realized that it completely fell apart and third we have wyvern who despite probably having the best spectacle was pretty simple once you figured it out giganto easily takes the second place spot it provided such a great early Game Challenge and has one of the best designs out of all of the Titans and one of my personal favorite aspects was just how much Evangelion design DNA giganto had in its blood from its overall combination of mechanical and monstrosity in those awesome Shin Godzilla lasers coming out of his back my blood started pumping whenever the fight kicked into high gear and I'm sure to no one's surprise the night fight is by Leafs in bounds the best fight in the game but the great balance of Base game combat combined with specific gimmicks the fight was a rewarding Blast from start to finish and don't you worry I'll talk about those legendary vocal tracks in just a moment no matter how fun a characteristic control the world you place them in can make or break the experience and well these sure are three and a half Islands honestly Kronos Island I still think is really solid lots of wall running around tons of fun things to climb and explore and my personal favorite aspect being the borderline non-existent amount of 2D heck there might not be any 2D anywhere in Kronos Island and that is so refreshing plus given the smaller nature of the Island's scope the Poppin wasn't such a big deal despite it being inherently jar Aries had to be a highlight for me with its massive and layered structure it made getting around feel rewarding there were a lot of fun and much more engaging platforming challenges and although I'm not a massive fan of the desert aesthetic even now I think that it's kind of bland whenever I go back to it it didn't get old as fast as I thought it would unfortunately there's no way I can sugarcoat this the environmental design falls off and hard one of the most Vivid notes I remember writing was only a few minutes after I got to chaos Island I wrote down there is already way too much 2D on this last Island which says two very important things that the first two islands really were what I was looking for in a brand new Sonic game something that finally felt like a 3D action platformer be that as it may considering how often challenges end or begin with launching you into some random Direction far from where you started locking you into place for upwards to 5 Seconds completely taking away control from the player is extremely annoying but chaos island has so many sections it isn't just annoying for traversal purposes but actively reminded me several times of the game's shortcomings all of these platforming challenges are not in the slightest integrated into the island structure and architecture rather it's quite literally just as we all feared from the beginning just a bunch of floating platforms and grind rails which personally look horrendous to me but given the context in the game I don't really mind the idea I absolutely think it's reaching to say that the futuristic style and random popping in the game is an aesthetic Choice it's definitely a limitation of some kind I'm not exactly sure what to blame but it's definitely not supposed to be there and that's what destroyed the Illusion for me the lack of striking art Direction the islands look generic as can be but I've always enjoyed the realistic approach to Sonic's world so that didn't bug me what did was how every single rail platform spring dash pad launch ramp and any other design obstacle share the exact same design not a single one of those objects has specific textures particle effects or even different colors that help them blend in with their Island's environment it's just one of those little design things that I think could have seriously elevated the entire game's art Direction but to see how it is now it's just lazy this is more of a nitpick but the ruins always look unanimous across all Islands which I understand but considering how they're supposed to be weathered I think having different conditions for their weathering based on their environment would have been a really nice little touch as stated a moment ago I didn't realize these things at first because of how much fun I was having and I'll say now that despite its clearly rushed nature and questionable production values I think the fun factor for this title is what saved it for me but chaos island is so clearly slapped together at the last second that it pulls all the games very real very valid flaws front and center on full display but that was only the first and two important things my notes pointed out the second being how horribly the game was paced in my opinion as I said in the story section things can get monotonous very quickly because this game is a very functional but never changing formula and the same can be said for the gameplay the first three islands were really fun despite their flaws and add a natural sense of progression of aesthetic leading me to believe that the game would be wrapping up pretty soon by the end of chaos Island especially after that god-awful pinball minigame took the wind out of my sails I I actually enjoyed most of these mini games with their cute challenges and funky tune but the pinball one was such a drag but after defeating the final Titan all of a sudden I'm reminded there's not one but two more Islands sure we need a final boss so maybe one more but two during my first playthrough my initial thoughts were alright let's give this fourth island a shot I'm still having a great time playing the game despite me seeing more of its cracks so I'm excited to see what this next Island holds then I found it's just a story segment nothing else it honestly seems a little dishonest to sell this game with the idea that there's five Islands but who knows maybe the last one will blow me away it did not the last island auronos island is just the other half of Kronos because they split it apart I assumed to give the game one last section even ignoring the sense of padding you get just by seeing the repeated visuals you also collect more emeralds on your own because of the lack of mini games meaning you spend longer doing the same thing over and over than in any other Island another repetitious element is that Sage's memory tokens they're just aim is again in design and collecting them feels so few and far between not a single one of these shortcomings felt purposeful weather for thematic or difficulty balance intense rather because the dev team lacked time or ideas and I feel it's more likely it was a time thing being honest I ended up doing the fishing minigame to farm for the last of Sage's tokens because I had grown so bored by this end game as an aside yes the fishing game is a fun and great way to earn some extra tokens and the voice memos regardless of how I feel about those memos being side content this game in both story and gameplay started off so strong peaked around the halfway mark and never really recovered for me everything felt blown out and undercooked despite my gripes and Chaos Island I still have fun whenever I play in that location because it feels like there is a great amount of things to do I always feel like there's something to find around the corner with these last two islands I mean sure the fourth I do find really fun and engaging as a platforming section but other than that there's nothing to do and this fifth island has everything so spaced out that it genuinely feels like I'm constantly searching begging for something fun to pop up but it takes so long that it just makes me bored not to mention how the pop-up makes this even more egregious because even if I am looking way into the distance nothing will have spawned in there so I have to keep running around hoping that I'm gonna run into something that triggers a pop-in not to say there weren't elements to enjoying the end game story and gameplay it still has that fun factor with a few really cool pieces of terrain enemies to fight and things to see but overall it just doesn't compare to how the game starts there's no sugar coating this though I've said it once and I'll say it again cyberspace was bad in both story and gameplay Sonic's controls were clearly not created with these stages in mind and while completely playable it really emphasizes the sluggishness of the Boost now and how poorly Sonic Handles in these tight corridors I don't mind the fact that special levels are created to be more or less special stages in fact I applaud it it's a great idea it just feels very Half Baked while on the topic of progression though I'd like to reiterate that using the gears to unlock the cyberspace levels and then those cyberspace levels rewarding you with keys which finally unlock the chaos in revolts was a great method of progression seeing this gameplay Loop refined with better special stages would become a welcome aspect of future open Zone titles but with all the main elements of this package out of the way how does it communicate these aspects it's one of the most defining elements of any Sonic game so let's check out Sonic Frontiers presentation the voice acting is some of the best in the series as far as I'm concerned with the vocal direction that treats these characters as more mature experienced sure they have that adventurous thrill in them but they always cut the crap and get down to business whenever things get serious overall I gotta say I'm really a fan of the more quote unquote adult vocal direction as after all these years I've used Sonic as more of a really experienced adventurous 18 year old heck I've always kind of had Canon Tails being a pre-teen by now I definitely don't think that they're aging up should be like serious and really change their fundamental aspects of their character but I'm always open to seeing different interpretations of these characters as long as the core values remain the same I don't think it's much of a secret to admit that my favorite interpretations of these characters is more often than not found in o6 Black Knight or the current IDW run and I feel like this really shows why that's the case these performances is how I've always internally heard these characters voices and I really hope that this sticks around that said I do think Roger needs to lighten up just a bit I understand his voice fits the somber tone but I think if he's gonna stick around we need a happier Middle Ground between this and his performance and Frontiers for him to truly perfect his Sonic voice another little thing is how the voice Direction I thought could prove a little inconsistent sometimes characters would be using the wrong tone for certain lines and that could be a little distracting depending on the scene the writing is praised previously is great throughout in terms of character interaction and to see that it's best to just go watch the cutscenes themselves but the humor was surprisingly good as well I Gotta Give the what is your goal joke props because it is the first time I've ever audibly laughed while playing a Sonic game cutscenes I thought were surprisingly well animated overall I just felt like the choreography was so much more interesting everything felt much more lively and filled with personality this time around easily a step up from any game we've had before before we completely leave the topic of Animation I will say that the trick animations look way too stiff in dialogue exchanges being so stilted is fine I guess but I would appreciate more effort needless to say the music was fantastic throughout although I can't remember too much of the soundtrack off the top of my head listening to the OST in the background to show me this has got to be one of my top five Sonic osts the background music has to have some of the best choices in terms of instruments and composition the Sonic Series has ever seen Bar None unfortunately the forces style EDM music I'm not a massive fan of however that cannot be said for the vocal tracks because every last one of them I've had on Loop since release the Titan fights are amazing and the ending songs are so emotional I could cry to them out of context any time any day and of course I can't forget the main theme I'm here which is honestly kind of weak for me or at least it used to be it was pretty outshine by basically every song in the game at first but the more I listen to it the more I can't stop loving it and it's swiftly becoming one of my favorite if not my favorite song in the entire game even after all these months since release I haven't gotten sick of these Tunes genuinely some of the best the series has ever offered in terms of vocal compositions and I suppose that's as good a Segway as any to talk about my final thoughts on this game with me dealing with college personal obligations and such this video has taken a lot longer than I would have liked to come out I remember whenever the game first dropped I thought to myself I'm gonna have this out within the month no within the week but that was a bit overzealous of me I've recorded three chunks of this audio and segments the first back relatively whenever the game came out the second middle chunk a month or so ago and this last one right now but I do think in many ways this delay was honestly the best for the video I've had so much time to sit and really think about how I feel about this game to go back and just run around for fun replay the entire game re-experience the entire game see some of the incredible work modders have already gotten to less than half a year after its release and of course seeing what other people in the community have to say about this title and interacting with you all on Twitter and my other social media platforms I love Sonic Frontiers it's easily my favorite Sonic game and one of the main reasons for that is I feel like I'm really playing a Sonic game I mean for the first time since 06 heck the first time since sa2 I felt like I was truly in control of Sonic in a fun 3D platformer not a racing game not a gimmicky mess and not a spin-off just playing a fun 3D platformer starring Sonic the Hedgehog from what I can tell that's why a lot of others have fallen in love with the game just as I have but how sad is that how embarrassing that this multimedia Juggernaut is producing a game that does the bare minimum letting you play as a fun to control character how embarrassing that this multimedia Juggernaut clearly had bigger plans for its story but likely due to a rush production combined with the laughably small Dev team we have another undercooked Story how embarrassing that a multimedia Juggernaut is only now reaching the bare minimum requirements to create a great game and somehow fall far below the standards of a triple a title in this day and age with unpolished physics and visuals it's just plain embarrassing please understand that for the sake of presentation I am making this all sound insanely dramatic but I do think that I am making a real Point here I understand that Sega is largely to blame if not solely they aren't giving Sonic Team the Manpower it needs only having 60 developers is insane for a title of this scope and I am in shock and awe that the game came out this good but that's not an excuse it shouldn't be that way I'm tired of Sonic always having some kind of caveat where people say hopefully they can improve this next time in regards to the large problems of core mechanics but I wrote down those sentiments very shortly after the game came out and this is another reason I'm so glad this video took as long as it did to get released even though from the start since day one of this game's launch it feels more than ever Sonic Team really cares about Sonic again and given the amount of post-launch support and Community feedback they're taking into account Sega seems more than ever willing to pour money into this franchise things like a larger budget whenever it comes to Future Sonic Team related titles a larger staff to really give Sonic Team the Manpower it needs to make a grand game and especially the DLC announcement three waves of additional content with an entire epilogue of a story in more playable characters screams more than ever a strong and firm confidence in the Sonic the Hedgehog brand I know I can be very harsh on Sonic titles both in Story game play all of it really but I think I've made it very clear with my entire catalog of videos that it's all just because I care so much and for the first time in over a decade I no longer feel worried I no longer feel like my hopes could be misplaced I truly see the open Zone format being the perfect formula for the Sonic series future and I truly believe that Sonic Frontiers despite its flaws has brought Sonic back to his modern roots of ambitious confidence all while creating a sense of grander Adventures on the horizon I truly believe that Sonic Frontiers redefined and evolved the franchise [Music] hello everybody um it's me Nick for short and hi I know that this video took a ridiculously long time to come out I think it's been three maybe four months since my last video and I apologize for that frankly I knew that I wanted to at least do a Frontiers video I was very certain about that and I have entire other games played through recorded notes down I just need to write the scripts and do the recording and like my audio and editing but I knew that I definitely needed to get this one out I I cannot believe that even throughout my hiatuses people keep subscribing they keep commenting and I mean I always kind of did this just because I enjoyed it I just had a passion for it and I thought that it was just fun to analyze this series and its characters and with Frontiers I have so much to chew on now alongside the IDW stuff but I'm I'm so blessed and thank you so much for giving me this audience all of you even if it's just a few thousand of the seven at this point I think as long as I can keep one of you out there entertained with engaging content I know that I'm doing my job and thank you so much for watching these videos this is my bar none biggest project ever I think that my next project is probably gonna be just as big hopefully it takes a lot less time to come out but I hope that you guys will enjoy it it's not Sonic related I know that that's definitely what the algorithm and my audience expects of me which I understand I love talking about Sonic but at this point I kind of just want to talk about the IDW stuff and that definitely requires an editor because I'm not that good so hopefully the uh hopefully the ad Revenue will kick in and then I can hire more editors I have the entire middle virus script done I really want to make more of those but that's definitely gonna you know that's definitely gonna need an editor which uh that's not a that's not a beg for money in any sense of the word that's just a fact that I hope I can get pumped out to you guys soon enough normally I cut out all the rambling but I really did just want to say thank you thank all of you for just watching especially if you made it to the end of this Behemoth of a video I know I'm really late to the party but I think that I really had something to say and something to bring to the table so yeah um this has been it's Nick you know it's Nick for short um yeah if you enjoyed it please like And subscribe because I love entertaining you all I love the comments I love the support I know that I can be a Negative Nancy in a lot of my videos it's just part of my internet Persona at this point I don't I don't really mind it's out of a place of caring I think that I've made that pretty clear and I really hope that you come back to watch my content if you just want Sonic then I understand that I will do my absolute best to get the IDW stuff out as soon as I can because I have so much to catch up on and get through and if you are willing to just hear my thoughts on other stuff hey I am so excited for what's coming up for the channel sorry for all the rambling I just wanted to kind of show you all that I'm here for all of those who want to watch and thank you so much again even if it's just one person out there I'm gonna do my best to keep you entertained for as long as I can so thank you so much for watching and have a good rest of your day noon night whatever it is have a good one

Channel: It'sNickForShort

Views: 36,339

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Id: -k32PWwtg9s

Length: 54min 24sec (3264 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 21 2023