This review contains spoilers
Sonic Frontiers is a game I went in with very little optimism. I was starting to see the positives in the game close to release day and I still think the game is rather fun at points, but it doesn't hit the mark in the ways I would have wanted and felt rather disjointed.
This game establishes a new "open-zone" formula which essentially acts as large hub worlds to explore. It's an interesting concept on paper, but to me personally, I don't find much reason to go back and replay the game after my initial playthrough because of the way the formula is structured. The ways platforming challenges function or puzzles are designed come off as either too simplistic and repetitive or entirely too restrictive. Often the camera and perspective of certain parts of these worlds will lock and it comes off feeling janky and doesn't reward the player to try and use the controls in fun or interesting ways. I would often find myself getting lost and trying to do old platforming sections not knowing which ones I had already completed. The only real guide is the map and story missions while you just had to go looking around for missions to complete to fill out the map. The cyberspace stages have some interesting designs at points, but the overall theming and design is mostly ripped from older games and in some situations, the design is not correctly modified to suit the new controls so running into corners is a common thing.
The controls in the open zone are pretty fantastic overall. For the first time ever in a boost game, Sonic can actually move 360 degrees in larger spaces with feels extremely freeing especially after Forces which are comprised mostly of empty hallways with lines of enemies. Just moving around in this game feels like a lot of fun. Despite this, there are quite a few moments where the movement can feel a bit jank where Sonic will bounce off corners randomly into tricks or run up walls and steep inclines with no real feeling of momentum. The cyberspace controls while in some cases feeling fine just comes off as buggy and poorly thrown together. Sonic has moves like the slide and drop dash in these stages but they never get used even in the reused stages the moves like the slide would be used in. The 2D levels are especially janky with Sonic rolling into loops and dropping all speed halfway through or even when rolling down the hill there will be a complete halt in speed. It doesn't feel great, especially in contrast to how tight the controls of the open-zone portion of the game are.
The combat is fun for a while but I often found myself easily clearing enemies when reaching a certain point early in the game. The moves oftentimes feel too basic and stringing moves together can often be too simplistic. Fighting the unique mini bosses of each island was mostly the highlight and was a very rewarding way to progress and get portal gears. It's better than previous games like Sonic Heroes where the combat boils down to each character having 1 specific special move or attribute, but with a game nearly 3 times longer in playtime it does start to get monotonous.
The music and boss fights in this game might just be some of the best this franchise has to offer. The techno DNB Cyberspace music is extremely exhilarating and catchy and the heavy metal vocal tracks of the boss fights pump you up and perfectly fit the visuals and set pieces. I did find myself enjoying some of the open-zone music, but personally, it's not really my cup of tea and really didn't fit with the high action and speedy nature of the game.
SPOILERS!:
The story is a huge step up from the previous entries in the franchise, but a lot of the plot points and details of the story oftentimes felt confusing. We learn about an ancient civilization of water aliens similar to Chaos, but they rarely get mentioned in the story and only make brief appearances in small cutscenes or in a big exposition dump on the fourth island. You do get cutscenes and dialogue you can hear that is scattered around the islands, but it feels way too hidden and tucked away. And when the story of the ancients is brought up in the main story of the game it oftentimes feels too vague and rushed and more so playing second fiddle to SAGE and Sonic's antics. The main antagonist of the game is barely developed and is only really placed into the story as this evil big bad boss with no personality or backstory to make it interesting. Aside from the shaky story, the writing is pretty solid overall. I like the character interactions and it feels like a Sonic game from the 2000s like Black Knight or Unleashed where dialogue was often times taken somewhat seriously, but also still kept lighthearted and fun. The only minor gripe I have with the writing is it can feel like it's trying to clean up the messes of previous games and not really dedicating itself to its own. Sonic and friends will always reference past games and places that can come off as very foreign to newcomers such as solidifying comic book characters into the canon which no one else aside from die-hards and comic book readers will really understand and mentioning locations from past games that not many people aside from fans will recognize.
Overall Sonic Frontiers is an interesting demonstration of a possible entry into the franchise. It has lots of fun moments, but most of those moments are often contrasted with confusing design choices and make the player feel more like a test subject than giving us a fully fleshed-out idea with a clear direction. It tries to appeal to everyone, but oftentimes can leave me feeling left out with parts of the game and falls flat in that regard. The future for the franchise is bright because if this formula can be streamlined in the next entry I think it could be something very special.
This game establishes a new "open-zone" formula which essentially acts as large hub worlds to explore. It's an interesting concept on paper, but to me personally, I don't find much reason to go back and replay the game after my initial playthrough because of the way the formula is structured. The ways platforming challenges function or puzzles are designed come off as either too simplistic and repetitive or entirely too restrictive. Often the camera and perspective of certain parts of these worlds will lock and it comes off feeling janky and doesn't reward the player to try and use the controls in fun or interesting ways. I would often find myself getting lost and trying to do old platforming sections not knowing which ones I had already completed. The only real guide is the map and story missions while you just had to go looking around for missions to complete to fill out the map. The cyberspace stages have some interesting designs at points, but the overall theming and design is mostly ripped from older games and in some situations, the design is not correctly modified to suit the new controls so running into corners is a common thing.
The controls in the open zone are pretty fantastic overall. For the first time ever in a boost game, Sonic can actually move 360 degrees in larger spaces with feels extremely freeing especially after Forces which are comprised mostly of empty hallways with lines of enemies. Just moving around in this game feels like a lot of fun. Despite this, there are quite a few moments where the movement can feel a bit jank where Sonic will bounce off corners randomly into tricks or run up walls and steep inclines with no real feeling of momentum. The cyberspace controls while in some cases feeling fine just comes off as buggy and poorly thrown together. Sonic has moves like the slide and drop dash in these stages but they never get used even in the reused stages the moves like the slide would be used in. The 2D levels are especially janky with Sonic rolling into loops and dropping all speed halfway through or even when rolling down the hill there will be a complete halt in speed. It doesn't feel great, especially in contrast to how tight the controls of the open-zone portion of the game are.
The combat is fun for a while but I often found myself easily clearing enemies when reaching a certain point early in the game. The moves oftentimes feel too basic and stringing moves together can often be too simplistic. Fighting the unique mini bosses of each island was mostly the highlight and was a very rewarding way to progress and get portal gears. It's better than previous games like Sonic Heroes where the combat boils down to each character having 1 specific special move or attribute, but with a game nearly 3 times longer in playtime it does start to get monotonous.
The music and boss fights in this game might just be some of the best this franchise has to offer. The techno DNB Cyberspace music is extremely exhilarating and catchy and the heavy metal vocal tracks of the boss fights pump you up and perfectly fit the visuals and set pieces. I did find myself enjoying some of the open-zone music, but personally, it's not really my cup of tea and really didn't fit with the high action and speedy nature of the game.
SPOILERS!:
The story is a huge step up from the previous entries in the franchise, but a lot of the plot points and details of the story oftentimes felt confusing. We learn about an ancient civilization of water aliens similar to Chaos, but they rarely get mentioned in the story and only make brief appearances in small cutscenes or in a big exposition dump on the fourth island. You do get cutscenes and dialogue you can hear that is scattered around the islands, but it feels way too hidden and tucked away. And when the story of the ancients is brought up in the main story of the game it oftentimes feels too vague and rushed and more so playing second fiddle to SAGE and Sonic's antics. The main antagonist of the game is barely developed and is only really placed into the story as this evil big bad boss with no personality or backstory to make it interesting. Aside from the shaky story, the writing is pretty solid overall. I like the character interactions and it feels like a Sonic game from the 2000s like Black Knight or Unleashed where dialogue was often times taken somewhat seriously, but also still kept lighthearted and fun. The only minor gripe I have with the writing is it can feel like it's trying to clean up the messes of previous games and not really dedicating itself to its own. Sonic and friends will always reference past games and places that can come off as very foreign to newcomers such as solidifying comic book characters into the canon which no one else aside from die-hards and comic book readers will really understand and mentioning locations from past games that not many people aside from fans will recognize.
Overall Sonic Frontiers is an interesting demonstration of a possible entry into the franchise. It has lots of fun moments, but most of those moments are often contrasted with confusing design choices and make the player feel more like a test subject than giving us a fully fleshed-out idea with a clear direction. It tries to appeal to everyone, but oftentimes can leave me feeling left out with parts of the game and falls flat in that regard. The future for the franchise is bright because if this formula can be streamlined in the next entry I think it could be something very special.