Before saying anything I wanna bring something up. A friend recommended that I install a cheat to use the spin dash at the start. While I did use it, I tried to restrict my usage of it and to put it lightly this game would be a 1 or 0/10 without it.

(Dropped on the third island) Good god, I genuinely don’t know what to think of this franchise anymore with this and Superstars. I came into this game super wanting to love it I really did and I can see some elements of why people like it but good fucking god this is one of the most dull experiences I’ve had with a game. To be fair, I do wanna talk about two things I enjoyed with the game. The story from what I experienced was really good. I think I still prefer the Adventure games, Unleashed etc, but a huge step up after Lost World and Forces. I love the writing a lot and how much the characters are fleshed out considering that they were flanderized in the previous games and Sage was a great addition to the cast. The music is also the strongest it's ever been. Same thing as before, it's a great step up from previous games. The only tracks that I thought were kinda weak are the overworld themes but they weren’t bad. With my positives out of the way this game is basically the equivalent of somebody's first attempt at an open area game. Terrible doesn’t even begin to describe the level design. All of the open terrain is just randomly placed everywhere throughout the map with no thought or reason. 6 rails in the air, speed boosters randomly placed that lead to nothing, it's just a huge mess. None of the terrain has any thought put into it or takes advantage of Sonic abilities. Speaking of Sonic himself, good god did they sure learn from Forces. Yes I’m aware that you’re able to change the controls and how the game feels but it doesn’t even begin to fix how Sonic controls. He just feels stiff and awkward to control and is just not fun to play around with in the hub world itself. His movement overall is pathetic and if it weren’t for Heroes, this would be the worst controls I’ve gotten to experience in a game like this. The structure of this game is just plain awful. It is just so repetitive and nothing is done to ever spice it up. Once you’ve cleared the first island you already know how the rest of the game is going to be. The puzzles are just a complete joke. They are either super easy and/or monotonous. Similar to what I was saying about the structure, after the first island you’ve basically seen all of the puzzles so if you didn’t enjoy them the first time sure hope you’ll enjoy it again for the rest of the game. The cyberspace levels, good god if I wanted to play the previous games again I would just open them up. It is incredible that the team thought that it was a fun idea for the player to just play through rehashed levels from previous games with the already terrible control and feel. I understand that some people get a kick out of these levels for the speedrunning aspect, but for me if I wanted to do that I WOULD JUST PLAY THE ORIGINAL GAMES. Good fucking god the combat. I understand it’s for kids and it’s supposed to be simple and easy to pick up but at that point just throw it out entirely. I thought the combat sections in 06 went on for way too long but who knew I had it good. Sonic’s moveset is just incredibly dull and you either mash the attack button, cyloop or end up just spamming a projectile if you really can’t be bothered. None of the regular enemies encourage any sort of unique playstyle and are just boring. The mini boss enemies are somehow even worse. Not only are they uninteresting in design but THEY TAKE FOR FUCKING EVER. I DON’T EVER WANT TO FIGHT ANY OF THESE BECAUSE IT IS JUST SO BORING TO SIT THROUGH. YOU WAIT GOD KNOWS HOW LONG BEFORE THEY CAN FINALLY LET YOU ATTACK. None of these enemies are even challenging, they just take forever. I really REALLY wanted the bosses to be the highlight of the game and to be fair the first boss is. It really is exhilarating to play and somewhat tries to make the best use of such a garbage combat system. While the first boss is fantastic good fucking god I don’t ever want to replay the second one. Again it is not challenging at all, it just takes forever because they force you to do a running section that takes way too long and completely kills any enjoyment I had leading up to it. The actual boss itself is just a mess and is more annoying than anything. I don’t know what to say anymore. This game has just been incredibly disappointing and just takes everything that made a game like Breath of the Wild incredible, and just ruins every aspect of it.

Look, the moment-to-moment experience of playing Sonic Frontiers is pretty fucked. You'll be fighting a camera which is designed to inconvenience you and swing around wildly at all times, you'll get locked onto mini obstacle courses when they pop in a meter ahead of you and not being able to return back to moving about the open world until you hop through a bunch of boost rings that shoot you in the opposite direction you want to move, and you'll deal with ever-changing controls as the camera state and context collaborate to make sure whatever you intended to do becomes something else. It's a mess that is pretty much impossible for me to look past.

But I can't really bring myself to dislike it. Despite the fact that it's barely functional and any emotional moment has to be surrounded by smirks and 5 of the weakest quips you've ever heard lest it come off as too sincere, the glitchy somber Digimon-movie aesthetic, tons of Cute Little Guys all over the place, and next-level tunes (outside of the boss fights...) make for something I ultimately still enjoyed a reasonable amount and don't regret giving my time. Frontiers is bold and deeply weird, and I'm always down for that.