EDIT: everyone else became cpus and i won so maybe the game is good

Writing this like 80% (20+ hours) through a game cause theres like a 70% chance we don't finish it. This game is awesome but is an insane example of how luck and edge cases in video games can ruin an experience.
In an hour long game of monopoly or mario party if you get extremely unlucky you are unhappy for a bit then it's whatever. In a 20+ hour RPG version of fortune street if you get unlucky the entire game you're just wasting time. Our game was an extreme edge case. Just for a few examples, Darkling had occured 7 times in the game and 3 of those times had acclumated more than 100 points. One of our teammates was a spellsword (33% chance to reflect field magic) and was squalled 14 times at a minimum of 53% each time, 10 times he dodged, 3 times he reflected, one time it hit. One of us was fighting a lich as 10 levels overleveled, went last 6 times in a row and was instantly killed by banish. Things like these are funny in one instance but just kept happening.
This is what CAN happen if your game is as luck based as dokapon. Most people will have a generally normal and balanced experience, but on that edge case where 2 people are constantly getting screwed over, one is getting screwed over a decent bit, and one is literally untouchable, nobody is having fun unless you can just laugh it off and play starfy on your other monitor.
Alongside these issues literally the only way to come back from last and stay ahead in this game is to kick other people when they are down. If you have strategy against darkling you can just hide and take the towns when its over. Field magic can completely shut down one person forever if they have a chance to come back. We joke about how doing this shit is cringe but the only way the game is playable for any of us is to screw the other people over, which is not fun when it adds up over twenty hours.
I was loving this game and genuinely if it was like 30% less luck based it might be perfect. But as it stands it's just opened my eyes a bit to why games are phasing out luck more and more

My review got deleted probably because i was too aggro lol sorry about that.

Anyways this update is what I've wanted from Sonic and it's probably my favorite 3d experience since SA2, definitely my favorite past heroes. To all the people complaining about difficulty I genuinely implore you to explore the difficulty options.
In my last post someone commented about the easy difficulty not dealing with people's issues, which is just wrong. Unless I am mistaken people have issues with
-The towers (springs, balloons, pads and more are added in easier modes)
-The trials (damage and health are affected by difficulty so they will be objectively easier)
-The Elder Coco Trial (In easy and normal the window for perfect parry is much much bigger, alongside damage and health changes. If you still have trouble the stomp in this game is op as shit so abuse that)
-The final boss (again the parry window is changed drastically alongside the normal difficulty changes)

With these in mind I loved my time on hard mode, aside from changing it for the elder coco and final boss challenges because frankly I am not good enough to do the hard mode perfect parry. The towers were fun challenges and made me actually struggle like I haven't done since 100%ing SA2. A game having challenge on the hardmode difficulty is not an issue, and you don't see people complaining in games like Celeste which add an insane challenge for more story content, especially considering the fact that there are actually difficulty options in this game.

It isn't all great with this DLC however. The frontiers issues I had before still apply mostly, with the addition of the spin dash being a massive saving grace. My favorite parts of the base game were the cyberspace levels and these ones fucking killed it so so so happy to have these. My biggest issue is probably the new characters. They feel sort of shallow and in some cases (knuckles) way worse to play than previous versions. Frankly you are going to play as sonic most of this DLC, so I was able to just look past them and see it as fun bonus content (which it is) hopeful that this is setting a good baseline they can work off of in the next game.

Genuinely fantastic.

GOD DAMN THE FINAL DUNGEON IS ASS!!! Maybe this is a rare opinion but this is for sure worse than the first game. While the two feel like one big game, there is so little talking in this game, simply going from dungeon to dungeon, killing things until you reach the end. The vibe it gives me story wise is like a post game DLC of another game, where you understand all the mechanics and world so it speeds up telling you them. Except we don't know this world. We explore such a little space with so few explainations for the world besides "sun bad" and I really wish there was more with that.

The gameplay is great, but the mantra system is annoying as all hell, if the mantras were free and all party members got exp inherently I would be fine, but I just get stuck with 3 main party members since I don't have the resources to be buying each and every mantra. Alongside that, the final dungeon is like straight up bad. Painful slog and multiple grinds because my characters are just not equipped to deal with these bosses they constantly throw at me.

I really really wish I liked this game more and it is still good, great even, but in the first game I felt like I was one of the embryon, struggling just to survive and make it out, and in this game I felt like I walked down a corridor for 30 hours so I could figure out how the story of these characters I love ended. Don't even get me started on how they treat the characters dear god

This game is a wonderful end, and I can only hope as time goes on the themes will resonate with me more as I forget the parts I didn't like. Frankly, my biggest issues with this game are the way sidequests work which I can't even hold against since they are fully optional, and the fact that the story was paced a bit strangely. The game likes to show massive cutscenes with large events and explanations, but I would much rather those be cut a little short and inter spliced with gameplay, rather than filling the gameplay in between with what feels like filler. Other than that, fantastic! This game may go to a 9 once more time passes and it resonates with me longer.