Used to be a 3.5 but I ended up bumping this to 4 after the updates. I mean, Sonic Frontiers is definitely not a perfect game by any means, the story still kinda sucks even with the update's ending which is arguably worse than the original's, the art direction still feels like one of those "SEGA HIRE THIS MAN" Unreal Engine fan games where they just slap Sonic's character model on these realistic maps and the whole thing feels weird to look at.

However, I gotta say, this is probably one of my favorite open world games to come out in the last few years, simply because of how satisfying it is to control Sonic and make him run around, even if the maps themselves aren't particularly groundbreaking design-wise. I just love to run around those islands and go from one mini-challenge to the other as I gather stuff and unlock other areas of the map, there already were quite a handful of ways I could go from point A to point B in the game upon release, but after the updates tweaked the physics and added the Spin Dash as an unlockable, it allowed for even more creativity in how you navigate the map. I just wish the Spin Dash was unlockable earlier in the game, but I guess it would break it quite a bit if that was the case, but at least Final Horizon did put it to good use, I remember relying on it quite frequently to make my way through the new Ouranos island.

The way your character interacts with the environments is what will either make or break an open world game to me, which is why I also love Spider-Man 2 for PS2 despite that game being kinda repetitive with the city missions you need to do before you progress in the story. I never really cared all that much for the repetitiveness because swinging around New York as Spidey was more than enough to make up for it. Sonic Frontiers actually does suffer from a similar issue as in, the different islands could really benefit from more unique challenges to each of them based on their theming instead of the same ones repeated in all of them. Sure, there are maybe one or two that are unique to one island, but I wish that was the norm rather than the exception. As much as I enjoy running around and doing all this stuff with Sonic, there is a lot to improve in these maps and I hope Sonic Team learns the right lessons for once should the next 3D Sonic game have this open world format.

Speaking of things with room for improvement, the combat in Frontiers could also use some. It's flashy, fast-paced and feels like an extension of Sonic's moveset instead of turning this Sonic game into something else so it could have melee combat, but I feel it's a bit lacking in substance, some attacks feel a bit too similar and the skill tree is laughably small, to the point that I had all the skills unlocked when I wasn't even halfway through the game yet. Though, to be honest, this is probably the only time a Sonic game had melee combat and it didn't make me want to die, so even if it's still kinda shallow, I'd argue it's an improvement over previous attempts like Black Knight and the Walmart God of War stages of Unleashed. Also, the guardian fights have enough variety for me to give them a pass despite the combat itself not being the most in-depth thing in the world, the Super Sonic fights are also cool (aside from Supreme and that godawful The End fight in FInal Horizon), not particularly challenging but they definitely feel like a step up from the Super Sonic fights from previous games and the music that plays in them kicks ass.

Considering how my expectations for Sonic Frontiers were pretty much non-existent before release, it's kind of a pleasant surprise that this turned out to be one of my favorite 3D Sonic games behind Generations and Adventure 2. It's definitely flawed in a lot of ways, but I think it has a lot of heart and it manages to do enough right to compensate the not so great parts. I imagine not everyone will enjoy this game, which is definitely a first for Sonic, never happened before at all, but I did like it quite a bit, and as everyone knows, my opinion is the one that actually counts.

Fuck Final Horizon's last boss though, that shit sucked so much I had to mention how bad it was as second time.

Shockingly average once the initial "WOOOW LOOK AT THESE COOL VISUALS AND AESTHETICS!" factor goes off and the superficially satisfying combat starts to lose the appeal due to it hardly ever evolving past the most basic mechanics. Honestly? I don't see what makes Ghost of Tsushima all that different from the "Ubisoft open world" stuff everyone complains about. I'd argue it's actually worse in some areas, the stealth in particular is just atrocious, absolutely inexcusable for a AAA game released in 2024, even the first Assassin's Creed game did a better job 17 years ago.

On a side note, it's fucking hilarious how the story tells me about this disgraced samurai who needs to let go of his code of honor and essentially become a ninja if he wants to have any hope of fighting against the mighty Mongol Empire's invasion of Japan. However, 90% of the time it's not only faster, but also way more efficient to just charge in and kick everyone's asses instead of trying to do as the story says. Especially ironic considering a lot of people who were criticizing The Last of Us 2 for "ludonarrative dissonance" were praising the shit out of Ghost of Tsushima a couple of years ago.

Combat, scope and story modes are pretty good, though I genuinely think Matsunaga Hisahide is the worst thing to ever be added to this series' cast and Ii Naotora's characterization being this clumsy anime girl who keeps saying she's sorry all the time is such a waste considering she's one of the few female daimyo for that time. I also don't quite like the corridor-oriented map designs and how battles are no longer open-ended in the way they unfold, you either fulfill the missions and have the battle playing out exactly as the game wants, or you're gonna fail. I miss these being like in Samurai Warriors 1 and 2 when failing a mission for a battle can give me another mission to try to turn things around and have events occurring differently.