I've replayed this game too many times, with practically every playthrough I've done never been recorded until a couple months ago. I can't even tell you what the playthrough total is, because I simply just play, but it’s close to 20 or more. Megaman X4, a game I originally thought was good and nothing else, now an absolute gem of borderline perfection in my eyes.
Dramatic opener aside, I love this game obviously lol. It's one of the hardest games to write about for me, because it's a game I don't even know how to explain my affinity for. I wanted to make some huge emotional review about why this is amazing and changed my life alongside some quote in reference to the game. That's what I did for Final Fantasy VII after all, my favorite game of all time. But nah, instead I'm just gonna shill the hell out of this game to you readers.
X4 is one of the most well paced platformers out there with enemy and level design made for dashing through at blistering speed. Many of your opponents you can kill rather quickly with good precision or just jump over entirely to keep up a consistent momentum. I don’t speedrun games, but for this one I borderline do. These level layouts I’ve seen tens of times I find new ways to traverse even quicker, and there’s an immense satisfaction of doing so. You’d think after playing it so much I’d get burnt out, but I really don't. None of these levels are bad.
Of course, if you pick Zero, there’s a whole other strategy to this game. Your offense is much greater and quicker, but much riskier and you have weaker defense to compensate. Zero also has to deal with one of the trickier bosses in the game, that being Iris. I find his campaign to be a much more rewarding experience than X because of the increased difficulty, and he’s my preference when it comes to replays. X is still very fun, of course, but his gameplay pace isn’t as fast as Zero.
The production values for this title seem to be pretty high. The anime FMVs and gameplay environments, sprites etc. are loaded with detail. I’m a sucker for 90’s anime aesthetic and the FMVs here deliver, grain and desaturation intact, amazing. The environments are all colorful and vibrant. While I did like the SNES sprites, the hardware shift gave X4 a overhaul to X and Zero’s sprite sets, which in my opinion was for the better. The proportions are a bit weirder, sure, but that’s what I admire honestly. There’s the maverick intro screens with these gradients at the top and bottom, which look kind of dated but it’s all good. Overall this game just seeps with elements of 90’s aesthetic in many areas, and looks great even to this day.
I’m gonna be real with you, I don’t care about the story in Megaman games outside of Zero, Legends, and the RPGs. Love the characters, but I do not take these plots seriously. X4 has a hilariously stupid and convoluted plot which is funny but I find discussion of it rather grating, as I’m more focused on the having fun part. If you like plot discussion, I respect your opinion, but I’m not covering it here. Sorry.
That being said, X4 has a different atmosphere than the earlier games. I think the music is a major contributor here, it’s not as rock focused as X1-X3. In fact, it doesn’t really have any rock inspired music, aside from a handful of tracks. The CD quality audio soundtrack puts more of an emphasis on synthesizers and electronic instrumentation. It feels more like the music is going for an emotional angle, which is interesting. I don’t know if I’d say it’s my favorite Megaman soundtrack, but it’s definitely up there.
If you haven’t played this game already, you owe it to yourself to at least once. Megaman X4 is an entertaining, accessible platformer that has stayed relevant even 25 years later. It’s stayed in my head for over two years, and I don’t plan on letting it go out anytime ever. I’ve had countless experiences discussing my passion for this game with friends and other fans online, and it fills me with joy every time. If you, the reader, ever get to playing it, I hope your experience was even as good as mine.
NOTE: pls change the box art back to the japanese cover it looks way better bruh

I think it's disappointing how Sonic was one of the pioneers of marrying story and gameplay in platformers only for its most recent entry to be one where the two couldn't be more separate. Sonic's always been kind of arcade-y but Frontiers takes it to another level.
Why is the story here locked off behind an arbitrary collectible? Why won't Amy talk to me unless I have 50 hearts I found inside some boxes and busted robots? The cutscenes here just do not take place in the same world as the gameplay.

Levels are accessed through random portals that lead to literally different worlds with no attempt at connecting anything together. Gone are the days of a Sonic game feeling like you're going on one cohesive adventure through a well-defined locale like Angel Island in Sonic 3.

It's a shame because Forces actually made great strides in making sure every level had a justification to exist within the world and the story, and even made sure that they all ended in ways that could lead into the following cutscene, a far cry from the usual goal rings the series employs when it runs out of ground for Sonic to run on.

It's like, alright beyond that, but it didn't exactly blow my mind like it seems to have done for so many other people.

There’s a very short sequence in the endgame of Sonic Generations that takes place right before the final boss. You platform across a series of clocks that start to move as the chaos emeralds are placed in each one. It’s not anywhere close as bombastic or detailed as any of the levels in the game, but this sequence was something that always stood out to eight year old me. The weary and rustic look of each of the clocks, the different ways the platforms turn around, the backing noise that’s usually shortened versions of music from the stages being replaced by the sound of ticking clocks. The ambience of the scene mesmerized me in a way that I hadn’t been before. It’s a small instance that’s likely to be forgotten by most players, but I feel that it changed the way I viewed this vast white void to some degree. As I went about completing each of the missions, I noticed the ways that certain aspects of the stage exteriors that had been consumed by stark emptiness had become more lively with each success I have with progression. Seeing these locations come to life outside of when I’m blazing past them. Once all the missions were complete, exploring the hub world and seeing color brought to every corner of it was a subtle but strangely beautiful experience. I feel that this experience was a sort of catalyst for my love of environments in games, what made me want to explore and see what makes these various virtual worlds tick. And to think that this passion came from an empty white void. I suppose it does speak to how you can find your passion for things in the most unlikely places.

If I'm gonna hear someone say one more time that it's just "more of the same" I'm gonna detonate myself and everyone in a 5km radius. I fucking despise this very new trend of calling sequels that don't look massively different "the same". GoW already had an enormous amount of innovation with 2018, it doesn't need more for a while. Also GoW 2 and any OG GoW game to follow, excluding 3, play nearly identically to 1 but nobody bats an eye, it's only bad apparently when new games do it



Anyways, gonna link the full review here(if I ever make one) after I play the game for a while:https://www.backloggd.com/u/Shrouls/review/618952/

I-I. I cant believe it? After around 11 years, Sonic Team finally made not just a good game, but a great game? Seems a little hard to believe, but it's true!

Going into this game, I was expecting to play a generic, boring open world game with little to no platforming and challenge. But I'm happy to report, this was wrong. Exploring the open zone was a blast. Each collectible felt fun to collect, and you can collect a lot if you're fast enough. You can sequence break platforming challenges, use rails or ramps to travel far distances. Some of the most fun traversal I've had in a while, I didn't use fast travel ONCE over my two playthroughs. Sonic controls like a dream, the second best he's ever controlled maybe (Adventure 1 is still the goat)

Collecting stuff was so fun, I collected every single memory token, which would sound like it would get old, but it didnt? It was just such a fun time. The open zone is genuinely fun, unbelievable.

However, I have a laundry list of issues with this game. First off, it can feel jank at times, it's hard to explain, but sometimes it just feels a bit too buggy in general. Cyberspace is a joke, Sonic feels like the worst he's ever controlled in Cyberspace. It's close to unplayable without a mod for me. Combat while fun is very vanilla, and doesn't have a lot of stakes or challenge, which is why I prefer Unleashed or even Black Knight combat. Boss fights while amazing on the first playthrough are way too easy, they can be killed in under 2 minutes at level 1. And can feel too much like I'm watching a cutscene. And the final boss... it's literally a JPEG, what a dissapointment.

Going into this game. I was expecting a great story, but I think I set my expectations too high. I mean... it's fine? Compared to the meta era, it's amazing. But most of the story just felt like characters were standing around talking. Nothing crazy happens in the story compared to something like Sonic Adventure 2 or Black Knight where there are a lot of events. The lore is cool in this game, and the characterisation is pretty good (if not a little vanilla). So the story was good, but nothing more. A bit disappointing, but I'm happy we are out of the meta era.

A big issue people have with this game is how budget it can feel. You can tell they put their all into it this time, but with only 60 people making this, they clearly had to cut corners. Especially with Cyberspace and the last 2 islands. But despite the budget issues, it's not a huge deal for me.

Music wise this game is a masterpiece, expected from a Sonic game. However Cyberspace music sounded like it was from Geometry Dash or something, I miss the music variety, like in Unleashed, Secret Rings or 06.

Now reading this, it sounds like I'm more negative than positive. But I must reemphasise. Exploring the open zone was so fun, some of the most fun I've had in years... This is probably my favorite collectathon type game. So it nailed the most important aspect. The fact is... I can sense the heart, and soul of this game. After around 13 years of soulless and unambitious, safe games, they took a huge gamble this time. And for me, I can appreciate that over a safe, boring, soulless game.

The next game could genuinely be a top 5 Sonic game if they had more budget and manpower. Most of the issues stem from that. The fact that 60 people were able to make a game like this, is mega impressive. Well done Sonic Team, and go fuck yourself Sega for treating this I.P like dirt lmao!

Sonic Frontiers from the offset had me interested in how an open world sonic game would function but after beating it, it is more synonymous to Bowser's Fury than an open world game

but anyways onto talk about my thoughts on the game in a mostly spoiler free form



-Sonics ground control may be my favorite in the franchise in the Open Zone specifically. Turning has never been sharper and adjusting the controls to your liking is something more platformers need to do. Next game maybe don’t make him stick to the ground as much. The air control is something that i want improved in future entries as making midair corrections is tougher than it should be. SA1's jump would make sense in this type of game. The double jump is pretty worthless to me as the air boost gives you a bit of height, much more distance if that’s what you want and it’s much easier to control imo.

-The Open Zone itself is 90% of what you’ll be doing so how is it? I have my issues with it but overall, it’s a fantastic playground as I expected before the game’s release. Seeing platforming elements strewn about in the sky may be off-putting but I never minded it as other open world games just have nothing to do in them like Elden Ring and BOTW. Having these little platforming challenges to do in any order you want along with maybe an occasional combat encounter leads to the player really crafting their own Frontier and I loved my time in the Open Zones. I got into that flow state the best Sonic levels put you in so many times it needs to be played in order to understand fully. I always had a smile on my face going through them. If I had to pick a favorite one it would probably be Ares in terms of the platforming and level layout and Chaos in regards to miniboss enjoyment. Favorite to least favorite would probably be Ares>Ouranos>Kronos>>>Chaos. Fishing portals can also be found and they’re oddly relaxing?????????? Listening to lo-fi beats while hanging out with big wasn’t something I thought I would want in a sonic game but here we are. The things sonic catches are hilarious most of the time since they either cover up most of his body or are entire alligators. The poses he does are also SOUL incarnate he’s such a happy boy while fishing.

-The OST overall is much better than forces and lost world’s soundtracks. Most of it is atmospheric tracks but those are still memorable to me. Especially kronos’ theme when it gets to the 4th movement. Cyberspace tracks are mostly just ok to me and nothing more. In terms of vocal themes this game has so many of my favorites. Vandalize and I’m here made it into some of my favorite vocals before the game was out and the Major Boss themes are legendary. Overall the OST isn’t my favorite in the franchise. But, the highs will forever be remembered.

-Combat gets a bad rap in sonic games. Heroes and Unleashed are some of my favorite entries in the series and they along with frontiers make it an important aspect of the game. Frontiers combat at first is simple but once you get access to more moves in the skill tree it gets more enjoyable. Sonics precise control along with the various skills leads to fast, flashy, and devastating combos that are a treat to see. Opening an enemy up with the Cyloop to build up the combo meter in order to get phantom rush while dodging every hit thrown your way will always put a smile on my face. This is probably my favorite combat in the franchise in comparison to heroes and unleashed. Unleashed you could argue has more depth with the various combos the Werehog has but combining the combat with the boost formula to form 1 unified playstyle is probably why I prefer frontiers combat but my mind may change. Heroes combat is more of a Rock-Paper-Scissors type of deal and knowing what teammate to use in the right scenarios and finding new ways to clear out a horde of enemies leads to most of the fun for me personally, so we’ll see how I feel about the combat between all 3 games in a few months.

-The miniboss variety is something I was surprised by even in the prerelease phase of the game. There’s so much variety with grind around the strider to make all the rails light up before you can damage it or the tank where you must time your homing attack so you don’t ram into the burners. One of the standout ones for me was Spider as you cyloop their legs you think you just go in to attack but NO he launches you into the fucking sky and you have to skydive down and avoid spikes, lasers, and go through hoops it’s so cooooooooooooooooooool. One of the best tracks plays while you skydive too I was blown away when I heard it for the first time. A thing to note is that I find the enemies and boss hp to be a bit too small when you upgrade your strength a lot so that is one problem I have with the combat and enemy encounters. Another one is that you usually only fight the mini bosses alone instead of mixing up with regular enemies to spice repeat encounters up. More regular enemy types would also be nice as well.

-I will not comment on the major bosses as every human being DESERVES to know as little as possible regarding them and it isn’t an exaggeration. Play the game and experience them.

-Same with the story I don’t want to talk about it too much, but it is a welcome improvement from anything we’ve seen in the past decade of sonic games, and I was fortunate enough to go into it without being spoiled at all.

-Cyberspace never really sounded THAT impressive to me. I’m glad I don’t care about them as much as literally everyone else during the prerelease cuz I can’t imagine being that miserable and hung up over such a small inconsequential part of a game. Basically, most of the stages use chunks of level layouts from sonic unleashed, generations, and adventure 2 and uses one of the 4 level themes available. Most people make a big stink about cyberspace and my counter argument is this. You can beat all the levels in cyberspace in 50 minutes and my 100% run of the game took me 23 hours approximately. That means cyberspace took up a whopping 3.62% of my time with the game so I can’t exactly say that they're this crippling weakness of the game that deserves a giant rant dedicated to it alone without sounding like a toddler. That percentage can go even lower by the way if you fish with big so teehee. Overall, I hate cyberspace discussion more than cyberspace.

-Overall, this game is in my Top 5 sonic games. I think the best experience is going for the platinum trophy and I’m glad I did it for my first playthrough as in terms of the Overall experience Unleashed was the only game that surpasses it. The top 5 is Unleased, Heroes, Frontiers, Advance 3, and Generations. The main thing holding frontiers back is that the replayability isn’t as strong as the average level to level sonic game. Replaying levels for the top rank in Unleashed and Heroes is what ultimately got my hour counts in those games so high and how I prefer game length to be handled.

Sonic team and Sega dared to ask the question of “what if Breath of the Wild was better” and came up with this as the answer. I think they succeeded.




(Half star off for the kind of shitty finale, other half star because of the lowkey lack of polish in some aspects)