Muito brabo.
Sonic Frontiers is, in fact, a game that exists.
Looking at all the hype this game was getting, I was reminded of the fact that, at one point in my life (at the ripe age of about 10/11/12 or so) I was in fact a Sonic junkie (in fact, I was in a bit of a chinnibiyou phase between Mario and Sonic, and then Xenoblade 1 happened to rip me away from that and leave me with indifference with both household series). And all things considered, I was expecting this game to make me feel like a kid again... only for it to fall short of that in ways that I don't... entirely think was its fault? But still left me with this abstract indifference regardless.
Let's start with the main thing that bugs me about this game - the exceedingly crude optimisation, and that shitty camera. Or rather, let's get some pre-amble out of the way as context for why those are (otherwise self-explanatory) problems. The massive hub worlds that comprise the islands of Cyber Space are... okay, overall, even if massive, MMORPG-esque areas like this are a bit tonally dissonant for a Sonic game. There's a bit of an interactive oxymoron in that Sonic (despite being a lot slower than he should be for his disposition) doesn't actually feel slow at all, it's just that the islands feel that big, and with the hodgepodge nature of the islands giving you plenty to find as far as collectables and other miniature platforming challenges (a few I accidentally cleared backwards lmao, thanks for giving us opinions, at least?), you're rarely unclear on where you need to go (even if this is the 2nd 3-star game made by either SEGA or ATLUS that feels like you're 'bumblefucking about' for a while (see my SMT IV review for more on that)).
So how do you wreck that immersion? A camera that either locks itself arbitrarily or will not stop spazzing the fuck out like the daughter of a mid-50s Karen who works at the local asylum for the epileptic, has no depth perception at times, making certain platforming challenges an utter chore, and on top of that, those same platforming challenges (most notably some of the tower climbing missions to get the Chaos Emeralds in alt story) have certain gimmicks that I swear hand to a cross only work whenever it feels like it.
There was one notable moment when fighting the 'Ghost' miniboss in DLC story (one that I didn't know was optional, but I'm going to say it anyway) where you have to jump on a lot of boxes (culminating in same over an insta-death pit) where, to accommodate for you and the boss, the game pulls the camera WAY back, and there's sod all you can do to fix it. To whichever of the devs on the desks of Nippon thought this was a good idea: you will now watch Leon Massey's "how high is this jump?" Video for the BASICS on this kind of camera design, and you will study that shit in your sleep until you're on the ground weeping for your crimes. I mean hey! The Japanese suicide rate is only a few million high! What difference is 300 of you in an office cubicle going to make?!
LowTierGod-esque salt and incitement disguised as humour aside, I guess we should move on to the story and characters, and to continue with the 'I wish this made me feel like a kid again' train of thought, the story of this game is... not something I have many thoughts on. I get this being as a result of being out of the loop for a good 10 years or so on Sonic stories, and me having not played either of the Adventure GCN games as of yet (of which I'm guessing that the Ancient's chaos species are supposed to be a nod to), but I went in expecting a neat, self-contained story as is to be expected with these games, and came out with... not a lot. The second that the Ancients tried being dramatic with their YTP forward-reversed 'state of the art sentence mixer' speech patterns, I had kinda checked out of the story. Which is a damn shame, because Roger Craig Smith is directed well as Sonic as far as the 'grittier tones' are concerned (there are even interviews he did joking about how taken aback he was about the changes in said direction), Mike Pollock is frankly hilarious as ever as Eggman, while his relationship with Sage gives him some more sombre tones that have no right working as well as they do, of which... speaking of Sage, Ryan Bartley did a great job bringing Sage's development to the fore (if you recall my opinion on Alex from Strange Journey Redux - the whole 'not that dynamic but at least compelling' thing applies equally here), and everyone else is about what I remember from when I last played Generations back in... I dunno, late 2013, early 2014 or so? I think the only time I didn't gel with a delivery was Cindy Robinson as Amy, and even that was more of a directional issue I'd allocate specifically to the DLC and not many places else off the top of my head.
Music's neat. I think we've all heard I'm Here (Remix), Find Your Flame and Break Through It All to know why this OST has been the subject of many Metal Gear Rising-esque memes in the past 18 months since it's release. And the game doesn't look bad, but I would note the extremely choppy draw distance (which I know seems rich coming from a Pokemon fan, and I'm not endorsing it there either), which I think brings us to... the Alt story [DUM DUM DUUUUUUUUM].
Now, you may recall my earlier salty comments about the 'Ghost platforming' incident earlier in this review, and while that is only one instance of my ire towards this mode, it is one microcosm of my issues with this free 'DLC'. If you're wondering what the big discrepancy between my 3-star rating of the main game and 1.5 star rating of the Final Horizon update is supposed to be, now you know (and that latter rating pertains ONLY to the story in question, and not the full update in the context of those who had played this game for a long time, of which I was not around for).
I'll say this now - I am in the process of brainstorming a Substack article in which I talk about bosses antithetical to game design and the... ahem 'accusation' that I somehow hate difficulty in games like this (Ft. Mem Aleph, Disciple Lorithia and Kevin Winnicott (I know you Enelcordians are hiding in the bushes, you can come out now...)), and at that point you're probably thinking 'oh boy, he's going to dunk on the remixed End fight, isn't he?' To which I say... yes and no.
Sure, Supreme + The End is piss annoying in Final Horizons if you go in blind (to say nothing of the low-to-the-ground FOV making parrying an abject headache because some pile of Asian cartilage thought it'd be a good idea to keep the camera deep in the bushes like a paparazzi hooked to the ass of a drag queen), but I think the more pressing issue is that you get the power to 'perfect parry' from the Trial before the fight... a boss rush of the other three titans not built with this power in mind, only for the Grand Master running the test to lock your stats to minimum, give you only 400 rings to ration across 3 fights unless you drop the difficulty to easy (in which you get 600, and get whatever attack stat you had going in), and basically say 'lmao, have fun suffering' with a PP window that only works if it's feeling especially generous that day (even with audio cues taken into account, it just did NOT want to respond sometimes) - ALL for a power that is only relevant for... 3/4s of a phase in what I can only describe as a 2.5-phase fight. And that's not even taking into account the fact that there are instances (this happens in main game, but especially in DLC) where you just end up clipping inside the Titan bosses and either hitting nothing, or the bosses just... do nothing, for long, protracted amounts of time.
One of the last things I'll mention here is that the the upgrade system, while at least functional, and allowing you to practice ability inputs as and when, varies in viability between using Unibeams to basically melt health bars once you figure out a specific input (and even THAT is particularly finicky sometimes), and the one or two powers that are never used (if using Cyloop to farm EXP wasn't a thing, the fact that quick Cyloop is a mandate for the Final DLC Boss would have probably made me quit).
Speaking of optimisation stuff for the player, I noticed that Koco drops on the final island are quite common, and while that's great... I feel too strongly that this only compensates the player for a final leg that feels like padding, even if the alternate playstyles with Tails/Amy and the like are appreciated, you get the sense quite early that they're only a temporary thing, so there isn't as much investing in them as there should be. You might notice that, from what I've put so far, the 1.5 star rating for Final Horizons might seem unwarranted, but as has been established, it's where the camera problems and other general issues became somehow even more pronounced, and made me go from 'OK, that's kinda annoying' to 'yeah no, this is bullshit'.
This might actually be my longest review yet next to... maybe my DDS2 and SJR reviews? (If not longer?) - so I'll wrap it up there.
Looking at all the hype this game was getting, I was reminded of the fact that, at one point in my life (at the ripe age of about 10/11/12 or so) I was in fact a Sonic junkie (in fact, I was in a bit of a chinnibiyou phase between Mario and Sonic, and then Xenoblade 1 happened to rip me away from that and leave me with indifference with both household series). And all things considered, I was expecting this game to make me feel like a kid again... only for it to fall short of that in ways that I don't... entirely think was its fault? But still left me with this abstract indifference regardless.
Let's start with the main thing that bugs me about this game - the exceedingly crude optimisation, and that shitty camera. Or rather, let's get some pre-amble out of the way as context for why those are (otherwise self-explanatory) problems. The massive hub worlds that comprise the islands of Cyber Space are... okay, overall, even if massive, MMORPG-esque areas like this are a bit tonally dissonant for a Sonic game. There's a bit of an interactive oxymoron in that Sonic (despite being a lot slower than he should be for his disposition) doesn't actually feel slow at all, it's just that the islands feel that big, and with the hodgepodge nature of the islands giving you plenty to find as far as collectables and other miniature platforming challenges (a few I accidentally cleared backwards lmao, thanks for giving us opinions, at least?), you're rarely unclear on where you need to go (even if this is the 2nd 3-star game made by either SEGA or ATLUS that feels like you're 'bumblefucking about' for a while (see my SMT IV review for more on that)).
So how do you wreck that immersion? A camera that either locks itself arbitrarily or will not stop spazzing the fuck out like the daughter of a mid-50s Karen who works at the local asylum for the epileptic, has no depth perception at times, making certain platforming challenges an utter chore, and on top of that, those same platforming challenges (most notably some of the tower climbing missions to get the Chaos Emeralds in alt story) have certain gimmicks that I swear hand to a cross only work whenever it feels like it.
There was one notable moment when fighting the 'Ghost' miniboss in DLC story (one that I didn't know was optional, but I'm going to say it anyway) where you have to jump on a lot of boxes (culminating in same over an insta-death pit) where, to accommodate for you and the boss, the game pulls the camera WAY back, and there's sod all you can do to fix it. To whichever of the devs on the desks of Nippon thought this was a good idea: you will now watch Leon Massey's "how high is this jump?" Video for the BASICS on this kind of camera design, and you will study that shit in your sleep until you're on the ground weeping for your crimes. I mean hey! The Japanese suicide rate is only a few million high! What difference is 300 of you in an office cubicle going to make?!
LowTierGod-esque salt and incitement disguised as humour aside, I guess we should move on to the story and characters, and to continue with the 'I wish this made me feel like a kid again' train of thought, the story of this game is... not something I have many thoughts on. I get this being as a result of being out of the loop for a good 10 years or so on Sonic stories, and me having not played either of the Adventure GCN games as of yet (of which I'm guessing that the Ancient's chaos species are supposed to be a nod to), but I went in expecting a neat, self-contained story as is to be expected with these games, and came out with... not a lot. The second that the Ancients tried being dramatic with their YTP forward-reversed 'state of the art sentence mixer' speech patterns, I had kinda checked out of the story. Which is a damn shame, because Roger Craig Smith is directed well as Sonic as far as the 'grittier tones' are concerned (there are even interviews he did joking about how taken aback he was about the changes in said direction), Mike Pollock is frankly hilarious as ever as Eggman, while his relationship with Sage gives him some more sombre tones that have no right working as well as they do, of which... speaking of Sage, Ryan Bartley did a great job bringing Sage's development to the fore (if you recall my opinion on Alex from Strange Journey Redux - the whole 'not that dynamic but at least compelling' thing applies equally here), and everyone else is about what I remember from when I last played Generations back in... I dunno, late 2013, early 2014 or so? I think the only time I didn't gel with a delivery was Cindy Robinson as Amy, and even that was more of a directional issue I'd allocate specifically to the DLC and not many places else off the top of my head.
Music's neat. I think we've all heard I'm Here (Remix), Find Your Flame and Break Through It All to know why this OST has been the subject of many Metal Gear Rising-esque memes in the past 18 months since it's release. And the game doesn't look bad, but I would note the extremely choppy draw distance (which I know seems rich coming from a Pokemon fan, and I'm not endorsing it there either), which I think brings us to... the Alt story [DUM DUM DUUUUUUUUM].
Now, you may recall my earlier salty comments about the 'Ghost platforming' incident earlier in this review, and while that is only one instance of my ire towards this mode, it is one microcosm of my issues with this free 'DLC'. If you're wondering what the big discrepancy between my 3-star rating of the main game and 1.5 star rating of the Final Horizon update is supposed to be, now you know (and that latter rating pertains ONLY to the story in question, and not the full update in the context of those who had played this game for a long time, of which I was not around for).
I'll say this now - I am in the process of brainstorming a Substack article in which I talk about bosses antithetical to game design and the... ahem 'accusation' that I somehow hate difficulty in games like this (Ft. Mem Aleph, Disciple Lorithia and Kevin Winnicott (I know you Enelcordians are hiding in the bushes, you can come out now...)), and at that point you're probably thinking 'oh boy, he's going to dunk on the remixed End fight, isn't he?' To which I say... yes and no.
Sure, Supreme + The End is piss annoying in Final Horizons if you go in blind (to say nothing of the low-to-the-ground FOV making parrying an abject headache because some pile of Asian cartilage thought it'd be a good idea to keep the camera deep in the bushes like a paparazzi hooked to the ass of a drag queen), but I think the more pressing issue is that you get the power to 'perfect parry' from the Trial before the fight... a boss rush of the other three titans not built with this power in mind, only for the Grand Master running the test to lock your stats to minimum, give you only 400 rings to ration across 3 fights unless you drop the difficulty to easy (in which you get 600, and get whatever attack stat you had going in), and basically say 'lmao, have fun suffering' with a PP window that only works if it's feeling especially generous that day (even with audio cues taken into account, it just did NOT want to respond sometimes) - ALL for a power that is only relevant for... 3/4s of a phase in what I can only describe as a 2.5-phase fight. And that's not even taking into account the fact that there are instances (this happens in main game, but especially in DLC) where you just end up clipping inside the Titan bosses and either hitting nothing, or the bosses just... do nothing, for long, protracted amounts of time.
One of the last things I'll mention here is that the the upgrade system, while at least functional, and allowing you to practice ability inputs as and when, varies in viability between using Unibeams to basically melt health bars once you figure out a specific input (and even THAT is particularly finicky sometimes), and the one or two powers that are never used (if using Cyloop to farm EXP wasn't a thing, the fact that quick Cyloop is a mandate for the Final DLC Boss would have probably made me quit).
Speaking of optimisation stuff for the player, I noticed that Koco drops on the final island are quite common, and while that's great... I feel too strongly that this only compensates the player for a final leg that feels like padding, even if the alternate playstyles with Tails/Amy and the like are appreciated, you get the sense quite early that they're only a temporary thing, so there isn't as much investing in them as there should be. You might notice that, from what I've put so far, the 1.5 star rating for Final Horizons might seem unwarranted, but as has been established, it's where the camera problems and other general issues became somehow even more pronounced, and made me go from 'OK, that's kinda annoying' to 'yeah no, this is bullshit'.
This might actually be my longest review yet next to... maybe my DDS2 and SJR reviews? (If not longer?) - so I'll wrap it up there.
it doesn't have the best gameplay but sonic is so fucking COOL in this game so it makes up for it
nowhere near perfect but its still the best sonic thing to release in years
great story, decent gameplay, amazing ost and overall just a rlly fun game
i love it so much
great story, decent gameplay, amazing ost and overall just a rlly fun game
i love it so much
Story makes no sense, gameplay is meh, map feels empty
But i'd say it's still fun. Can be modded a bit too fix the gameplay issues too.
But i'd say it's still fun. Can be modded a bit too fix the gameplay issues too.
Slam dunk
- Big world, has a lot to do in and yet somehow still feels empty.
- The levels themselves are actually quite enjoyable to go through even though they are far spaced out.
- The OST can be hit and miss but its high points makes its low points not annoying.
- The levels themselves are actually quite enjoyable to go through even though they are far spaced out.
- The OST can be hit and miss but its high points makes its low points not annoying.
Sonic Frontiers is a return to form in many ways. The overworld is a super in-depth sandbox that only really gets utilized to its fullest after getting the DLC spindash. The story is referential in the best way possible, and it has me confident Ian Flynn knows how to handle the fucked up melting pot of ideas this series is now. I just wish the game included more unique cyperspace levels as thats where all the best music and level design is, even if a lot is taken from prior games.
A bit of a mixed bag for me. Taking Sonic to an open-world format makes sense, but a lot of the tasks you're asked to do started to feel samey before long. Everything feels pretty nice control-wise, but the gameplay itself got a little stale the longer it went. Probably got halfway before I had my fill. It’s a decent game overall though; I probably just prefer linear Sonic. Shoutouts to the soundtrack by the way ---- some songs go way harder than most Sonic OSTs to date & really nail it.
Sonic fans will eat up anything mediocre and will praise it as being the best in the series. This is far from a perfect game.
Sonic Frontiers is a weird one. The open-zone areas are huge and give Sonic a ton of room to run, which is awesome! But the boost formula feels weird here, and a lot of the platforming challenges are more frustrating than fun. The story gets surprisingly dark for a Sonic game, which is cool, but sometimes it's just too much talking. Still, if you've always wished for a more expansive Sonic experience, it's got that...just in a kinda unpolished package.
Y con esto, doy concluida mi maratón jugando los juegos principales de Sonic en 3D sin "spin-offs" o juegos extra, y que puedo decir, definitivamente fue un viaje lleno de altibajos muy marcados, pero me es casi imposible decir que a pesar de eso no lo disfruté, y sinceramente, Sonic Frontiers se consagra como uno de mis juegos favoritos del erizo no solo en 3D, sino posiblemente de toda la saga, sin ser obviamente una obra maestra y teniendo sus errores bien marcados, pero vamos por partes.
Sonic Frontiers nos coloca en una nueva aventura del erizo en donde esta vez nos vemos tragador por un agujero de gusano (más o menos) en donde nos vamos a otro mundo, si me llego a equivocar en algún punto de la historia no es mi culpa, muchas veces intenta profundizar de mas en cosas que no es necesario, además no quiero centrarme en este punto porque siento que más allá de la historia en si, el juego brilla por los temas que toca y la ambientación en si, a su vez de inspiraciones extremadamente marcadas que tiene, tanto como a Nier Automata, como a Evangelion (Así es amigos, esto es un juego de Sonic), y sinceramente, doy gracias que tome como base esto y trate de expandir otras cosas, es aquí donde puedo decir que eggman se convierte en uno de mis personajes favoritos de la historia por como lo presentan y la expansión de personaje que se le da aquí.
El tema jugable me sorprendió ya que siempre se vendió este juego como un mundo abierto (al menos por trailers o el boca a boca de la gente), y finalmente no fue así, si bien tiene elementos tomados de este genero como el mapa del mundo con marcas de todo tipo y cosas por hacer, finalmente me recuerda un poco más a lo que plantea xenoblade, escenarios enormes con mucho contenido por hacer, en sí no hay atalayas, y se siente muy bien el como están construidos los mapas, en ningún momento se hace pesado ya que estamos usando a Sonic, viaje rápido no eché en falta porque nuestro personaje corre rápido y los mapas están hechos para sentir progresión y no tener que hacer casi nunca backtracking, las mecánicas funcionan espectacular, no tuve problema con ninguna más allá de poder correr a velocidades enfermas cuando tienes el máximo de anillos, siento que el juego si bien tiene su historia y progresión a seguir, hasta cierto punto te suelta en los mapas y te dice "juega", y ese sentimiento es espectacular. La radio es uno de los mejores agregados ya que al estar jugando y recorriendo mapas grandes siempre es bueno tener una playlist y el juego te la da, las canciones son coleccionables repartidos por el mapa, pero se me hizo muy satisfactorio encontrarlas e ir cambiando de música mientras estaba jugando. Creo que el punto negativo que si encuentro de este es el hecho de que el juego tiene niveles típicos de Sonic en donde entrar y te dan llaves para progresar en la historia, pero estos sobran completamente, te hacen jugar green hill zone como 20 veces, los niveles duran menos de un minuto, se sientes puestos porque sí y sin ningún tipo de sentido, y los jefes si que es cierto que en escancia pasan a ser unos machaca botones sin mucho que pensar, pero ya vamos a llegar ahí.
Gráficamente el juego es hermoso, lo jugué en playstation 5 y sinceramente le encuentro muy pocas pegas, los escenarios tienen muy buenas texturas, siempre anduvo bien de fps, está todo muy bien detallado, si que es cierto que muchas veces el pop in de algunas cosas está raro, ya que hay veces que tienes que llegar a lugares elevados y no sabes como se llega a menos que te acerques y veas que la plataforma que tenias que usar no la veías por estar muy lejos. Los diseños de los enemigos pese a ser simples, cumplen bastante bien y son espectaculares, los encontré muy llamativos y no desentonan tanto con lo que debería ser un Sonic ya que son robots al fin y al cabo.
Ahora creo que voy a tocar el punto más importante para mi que es la música, si bien es cierto hay muchos temazos para los minijefes repartidos por el mapa o incluso el de las islas en sí, todos sabemos que el juego brilla por el ost de los jefes, y aqui quiero dar una pequeña historia. Hace mucho tiempo un pequeño Fanno estaba pasando por su adolescencia y pasó por "LA FASE" en donde se vestía de negro (aún lo hace) tenía el típico corte emo y escuchaba música de ese estilo de la época, y entre esas está la que nos ocupa hoy que es Sleeping with Sirens, y en serio, luego de muchos años, escuchar a Kellin Quinn que fue uno de los cantantes que más escuché en la época cantar canciones para Sonic es increíble, cada uno de los temas de jefes son demasiado buenos, y acompañan muy bien, me da igual que los jefes sean machacar botones, toda la epicidad que le dan con lo que son los visuales, Super Sonic haciendo técnicas muy vistosas y casi que vacilando a los robots gigantes con esa música de fondo (que aparte va cambiando dependiendo de la fase y el final de cada boss), estos momentos son donde el juego llega al peak más alto de toda la historia, hay hasta una puta referencia a Final Fantasy Sonic X (No es coincidencia, yo se que es una referencia directa y nadie me hará cambiar de idea).
En conclusión he de decir que a pesar de todo, está maratón me hizo aprender de como fue evolucionando una saga, todos los problemas que esta a presentado a lo largo de los años, sus problemas de identidad, ideas extrañas y otras bastante buenas, pero que terminaban ejecutándose mal, varios momentos pensé en tirar la toalla porque en serio habían juegos malos, pero creo que nunca bajar los brazos es una enseñanza que me llevo de esto, porque nunca sabemos que vendrá después, puedo decir que me convertí en un fan de Sonic, esperaré sus siguientes juegos, y espero que hayan aprendido con este juego todo lo bueno que se puede hacer con el personaje, y todo lo malo que se puede ir puliendo y arreglando, finalmente, voy a hacer trampa con el tema de la canción favorita porque lo amerita (muy difícil elegir solo una), así que subanle el volumen, sigan sus sueños y nunca se rindan, porque como dice el primer tema de los jefes, "Puedes tirarme a los lobos, PORQUE SOY INVENCIBLE"
Canciones Favoritas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_FRDqHT5y0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL0Z9UvDW3c
Sonic Frontiers nos coloca en una nueva aventura del erizo en donde esta vez nos vemos tragador por un agujero de gusano (más o menos) en donde nos vamos a otro mundo, si me llego a equivocar en algún punto de la historia no es mi culpa, muchas veces intenta profundizar de mas en cosas que no es necesario, además no quiero centrarme en este punto porque siento que más allá de la historia en si, el juego brilla por los temas que toca y la ambientación en si, a su vez de inspiraciones extremadamente marcadas que tiene, tanto como a Nier Automata, como a Evangelion (Así es amigos, esto es un juego de Sonic), y sinceramente, doy gracias que tome como base esto y trate de expandir otras cosas, es aquí donde puedo decir que eggman se convierte en uno de mis personajes favoritos de la historia por como lo presentan y la expansión de personaje que se le da aquí.
El tema jugable me sorprendió ya que siempre se vendió este juego como un mundo abierto (al menos por trailers o el boca a boca de la gente), y finalmente no fue así, si bien tiene elementos tomados de este genero como el mapa del mundo con marcas de todo tipo y cosas por hacer, finalmente me recuerda un poco más a lo que plantea xenoblade, escenarios enormes con mucho contenido por hacer, en sí no hay atalayas, y se siente muy bien el como están construidos los mapas, en ningún momento se hace pesado ya que estamos usando a Sonic, viaje rápido no eché en falta porque nuestro personaje corre rápido y los mapas están hechos para sentir progresión y no tener que hacer casi nunca backtracking, las mecánicas funcionan espectacular, no tuve problema con ninguna más allá de poder correr a velocidades enfermas cuando tienes el máximo de anillos, siento que el juego si bien tiene su historia y progresión a seguir, hasta cierto punto te suelta en los mapas y te dice "juega", y ese sentimiento es espectacular. La radio es uno de los mejores agregados ya que al estar jugando y recorriendo mapas grandes siempre es bueno tener una playlist y el juego te la da, las canciones son coleccionables repartidos por el mapa, pero se me hizo muy satisfactorio encontrarlas e ir cambiando de música mientras estaba jugando. Creo que el punto negativo que si encuentro de este es el hecho de que el juego tiene niveles típicos de Sonic en donde entrar y te dan llaves para progresar en la historia, pero estos sobran completamente, te hacen jugar green hill zone como 20 veces, los niveles duran menos de un minuto, se sientes puestos porque sí y sin ningún tipo de sentido, y los jefes si que es cierto que en escancia pasan a ser unos machaca botones sin mucho que pensar, pero ya vamos a llegar ahí.
Gráficamente el juego es hermoso, lo jugué en playstation 5 y sinceramente le encuentro muy pocas pegas, los escenarios tienen muy buenas texturas, siempre anduvo bien de fps, está todo muy bien detallado, si que es cierto que muchas veces el pop in de algunas cosas está raro, ya que hay veces que tienes que llegar a lugares elevados y no sabes como se llega a menos que te acerques y veas que la plataforma que tenias que usar no la veías por estar muy lejos. Los diseños de los enemigos pese a ser simples, cumplen bastante bien y son espectaculares, los encontré muy llamativos y no desentonan tanto con lo que debería ser un Sonic ya que son robots al fin y al cabo.
Ahora creo que voy a tocar el punto más importante para mi que es la música, si bien es cierto hay muchos temazos para los minijefes repartidos por el mapa o incluso el de las islas en sí, todos sabemos que el juego brilla por el ost de los jefes, y aqui quiero dar una pequeña historia. Hace mucho tiempo un pequeño Fanno estaba pasando por su adolescencia y pasó por "LA FASE" en donde se vestía de negro (aún lo hace) tenía el típico corte emo y escuchaba música de ese estilo de la época, y entre esas está la que nos ocupa hoy que es Sleeping with Sirens, y en serio, luego de muchos años, escuchar a Kellin Quinn que fue uno de los cantantes que más escuché en la época cantar canciones para Sonic es increíble, cada uno de los temas de jefes son demasiado buenos, y acompañan muy bien, me da igual que los jefes sean machacar botones, toda la epicidad que le dan con lo que son los visuales, Super Sonic haciendo técnicas muy vistosas y casi que vacilando a los robots gigantes con esa música de fondo (que aparte va cambiando dependiendo de la fase y el final de cada boss), estos momentos son donde el juego llega al peak más alto de toda la historia, hay hasta una puta referencia a Final Fantasy Sonic X (No es coincidencia, yo se que es una referencia directa y nadie me hará cambiar de idea).
En conclusión he de decir que a pesar de todo, está maratón me hizo aprender de como fue evolucionando una saga, todos los problemas que esta a presentado a lo largo de los años, sus problemas de identidad, ideas extrañas y otras bastante buenas, pero que terminaban ejecutándose mal, varios momentos pensé en tirar la toalla porque en serio habían juegos malos, pero creo que nunca bajar los brazos es una enseñanza que me llevo de esto, porque nunca sabemos que vendrá después, puedo decir que me convertí en un fan de Sonic, esperaré sus siguientes juegos, y espero que hayan aprendido con este juego todo lo bueno que se puede hacer con el personaje, y todo lo malo que se puede ir puliendo y arreglando, finalmente, voy a hacer trampa con el tema de la canción favorita porque lo amerita (muy difícil elegir solo una), así que subanle el volumen, sigan sus sueños y nunca se rindan, porque como dice el primer tema de los jefes, "Puedes tirarme a los lobos, PORQUE SOY INVENCIBLE"
Canciones Favoritas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_FRDqHT5y0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL0Z9UvDW3c
I only got, according to my PS5, about 46% through the second island, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt. However, I feel like this game is about 46% of its way to being finished, so I think I’m being fair enough.
I think the game looks nice and the performance mode on PS5 seems to noticeably stay at a high frame rate. However, the game feels like Sonic Team just threw objects and Sonic stuff on a basic island template, and these obstacles will only pop in once you’re really close. They also stuck enemies in the world requiring hard counter moves to defeat that you need to grind to unlock, and then used a physics system that causes Sonic to stop dead in his tracks. The only boss fight I played was from the last train out of jank city, in which Super Sonic had a race to mash the square button 2,000 times before the boss could stall him.
Also, for what it’s worth, I felt slightly nauseous whenever I finished a session, but I’m not sure if the game caused it or if it was psychosomatic from me playing something like this.
I think the game looks nice and the performance mode on PS5 seems to noticeably stay at a high frame rate. However, the game feels like Sonic Team just threw objects and Sonic stuff on a basic island template, and these obstacles will only pop in once you’re really close. They also stuck enemies in the world requiring hard counter moves to defeat that you need to grind to unlock, and then used a physics system that causes Sonic to stop dead in his tracks. The only boss fight I played was from the last train out of jank city, in which Super Sonic had a race to mash the square button 2,000 times before the boss could stall him.
Also, for what it’s worth, I felt slightly nauseous whenever I finished a session, but I’m not sure if the game caused it or if it was psychosomatic from me playing something like this.
Ouvrez les frontières ! Les migrants regardez mon trou !
It has a lot of flaws but it's literally fun: the videogame
((Reviewed back in 2022))
After playing through this game, I have to say, this is the best Sonic game in my opinion. I love the story of this game. It's very amazing. The characters were written very well. It was very nice. Sage is an amazing villain. I love the father daughter relationship between her and Eggman. Voice acting felt like one of the best in a Sonic game. Gameplay is really amazing. Love going through the islands and fighting enemies. Combat is amazing and really defines Sonic. You can have amazing combos. Minigames were very fun. Bosses.... oh my god were they amazing. they felt like they were final bosses but they weren't. Super Sonic is utilized very well. The soundtrack is just god tier.
Now for the cons....
The biggest one. The final boss. I did enjoy the minigame that was like Galacta. But it shouldn't be used as a way to have a final boss. The game did feel janky which I will admit. The cyberspace sections need to be designed better, because they aren't designed that good. The pop ins need to be fixed though, but it isn't that major. Also I wished the fourth island would be bigger.
Other wise, this is an amazing game for Sonic fans and even people who aren't fans of Sonic.
After playing through this game, I have to say, this is the best Sonic game in my opinion. I love the story of this game. It's very amazing. The characters were written very well. It was very nice. Sage is an amazing villain. I love the father daughter relationship between her and Eggman. Voice acting felt like one of the best in a Sonic game. Gameplay is really amazing. Love going through the islands and fighting enemies. Combat is amazing and really defines Sonic. You can have amazing combos. Minigames were very fun. Bosses.... oh my god were they amazing. they felt like they were final bosses but they weren't. Super Sonic is utilized very well. The soundtrack is just god tier.
Now for the cons....
The biggest one. The final boss. I did enjoy the minigame that was like Galacta. But it shouldn't be used as a way to have a final boss. The game did feel janky which I will admit. The cyberspace sections need to be designed better, because they aren't designed that good. The pop ins need to be fixed though, but it isn't that major. Also I wished the fourth island would be bigger.
Other wise, this is an amazing game for Sonic fans and even people who aren't fans of Sonic.
A return to form for 3D sonic, but still rough around the edges. I appreciate the jump into the open-world style, and it does work surprisingly well. The levels are well-designed (though most of them were designed a decade ago). They are small and short enough to make you want to replay them to get a better time, which is what a soni game really needs.
pretty fun
Definitely has some issues, but makes up for them with just how fucking fun it is.
At least Adventure 2 had some original ideas!
I enjoyed the game, in spite of its rough edges. The gameplay is not perfect but solid. The writing and acting are probably the best the series has ever had. Mods on the PC version bring the game up to a 4 for me.
This game when it was revealed and all the promotional material for it genuinely made me worried. But after playing it - yeah no its real fun. Unpolished, janky but fun. Once you unlock the spindash, you basically get the best version of Sonic they've ever made. Which is weird cuz they then released characters that all play like ASS.
Was also nice to see the story be more akin to the Adventure days where it's a good mix of light-hearted and serious tones. I never liked when the Sonic games go to either extremes.
Was also nice to see the story be more akin to the Adventure days where it's a good mix of light-hearted and serious tones. I never liked when the Sonic games go to either extremes.
Tanto grind meu deus, mas é estranhamente satisfatório de se jogar enquanto ouve um podcast ou uma playlist personalizada, talvez um álbum novo. Repetitivo e sem cérebro, mas com bons visuais, perfeito para macacos como eu que querem passar o tempo (procastinar).
Quite possibly the strangest, most experimental game I've ever played, Sonic Frontiers is for me the definitive example of a wholly unique platformer. Damn near everything in Frontiers is bodged together and noticeably flawed (at least everything that isn't utter rubbish), but the benefits of this wonderfully loose design are nigh-impossible to count.
Breaking this game over my knee is more pure joy than almost anything else in this franchise, and what genuinely does work helps all that partially-successful weirdness to amount to a great experience. I could (and would happily) point out countless glaring problems with this game, but when I actually sit down and play the damn thing I'm usually having a lovely time. Sonic Frontiers is about as far from as perfect as is generally possible, but it's a beautiful mess.
Breaking this game over my knee is more pure joy than almost anything else in this franchise, and what genuinely does work helps all that partially-successful weirdness to amount to a great experience. I could (and would happily) point out countless glaring problems with this game, but when I actually sit down and play the damn thing I'm usually having a lovely time. Sonic Frontiers is about as far from as perfect as is generally possible, but it's a beautiful mess.
this game is utter open world slop. its an open world chore game that makes my mind numb when i play it
Running around at the speed of...
Sonic Team cannot make a good game to save their lives
Decent game. It has some really nice highlights: most notably the experience of the open world. The last two islands especially are well designed and I think the game did a wonderful job of immersing you and making you feel like Sonic.
The game starts off quite slow, but I think it really becomes fun after the second island. Just running around the world was something I got a lot of enjoyment out of. The controls are nothing to write home about, but they were pretty solid in my experience.
My main criticism would probably be the story, which felt kind of like an afterthought when compared to the world design. Another thing I was getting quite bored of near the end of the game was the overall gameplay loop: get gears, then keys, then emeralds, fight boss, next island. I wasn't minding it at first but some parts (especially the cyberspace levels - mostly just copies of old levels with very few design elements) can get extremely repetitive and tedious.
Overall, I think the game has a solid foundation for a sequel, a game I think I'll give a shot. I recommend the game, but I would only buy it on sale if possible. I got my copy for $30 USD and I think my money was well spent.
The game starts off quite slow, but I think it really becomes fun after the second island. Just running around the world was something I got a lot of enjoyment out of. The controls are nothing to write home about, but they were pretty solid in my experience.
My main criticism would probably be the story, which felt kind of like an afterthought when compared to the world design. Another thing I was getting quite bored of near the end of the game was the overall gameplay loop: get gears, then keys, then emeralds, fight boss, next island. I wasn't minding it at first but some parts (especially the cyberspace levels - mostly just copies of old levels with very few design elements) can get extremely repetitive and tedious.
Overall, I think the game has a solid foundation for a sequel, a game I think I'll give a shot. I recommend the game, but I would only buy it on sale if possible. I got my copy for $30 USD and I think my money was well spent.
I am amazed. Sonic Team has once again outdone themselves and proven that they can lower the bar more than previously thought possible.