first half/second third is peak metroid honestly, the formula of the 2d metroid games put into a 3d environment is something that seems like an inevitability honestly. it works so well and the exploration is so fun and rewarding. except when it gets to that last third. the blatant fetch quest that is prevalent near the end of the game and is mandatory to even get to the final boss is really not my cup of tea, and speaking of the bosses, spoilers!!!!

the 'metroid prime' boss and enemies/fights similar to it are hogwash im sorry. i hate the idea of having to panic kill enemies while youre trying to find the boss by switching your lenses and flicking your camera around like a madman. and dying at the second phase of the fight sends you right back to the beginning of the final area which was not fun i will say! after beating the boss i didnt feel accomplished, just thankful it was over.

lastly, one more negative, the backtracking is absolutely a slog and brings the game down a couple of points in my opinion. since the game is in 3d now, you have many more traversal options and ways to layout rooms, but these new 3d rooms combined with said backtracking makes it a nightmare sometimes to go through. having enemies respawn every 2 rooms does not help as well, definitely makes running around trying to find everything a hell of a time and not a good one.

though ive ragged on the game a fair bit, i still love this game to death, it's not perfect by any means, but god the metroid formula of exploring and finding new shit to open more of the map is a tried and true formula that just works. hopefully prime 2 gets the same treatment as this remaster.

(by the way this was a review on the game itself not the remasters enhancements because this is my first time playing prime! thanks yall! <3)

was really surprised by this game. it has its cliches and it’s tropes, as well as a first act that drags on a little too long, but even then it shows charm and expands on the world of digimon (which personally I have never delved too far into) and I loved pretty much every second of it. there were also some weird plot holes and pacing issues which bugged me when I finished, but I only got 1 out of 5 endings and plan to finish them all, so here’s hoping it saves itself there.

on the other side of the game that’s NOT the visual novel part, aka the SRPG sections, it’s very lackluster in my opinion! it suffers from being an extremely boring and simple SRPG but with digimon! it has its difficulty spikes too which I wasn’t a fan of seeing as how I was already doing some light grinding on the side and only played on normal difficulty. but it’s honestly easy to just set that part aside, turn the difficulty onto very easy, start auto battle, then watch as those mons get slaughtered by the dozen.

i completely forgot to mention as well how dark this game gets which is something I did not expect going in, I knew that it was,
A) a visual novel
B) a SRPG
and
C) digimon related
so being a couple hours in and then seeing
SPOILERS!
a bitch straight up just die after running into an illusion of his dead mom after being sent into mass hysteria is insane. but god I loved the darker take on the monster collecting genre.

overall, you’re gonna be playing digimon survive for the story if you’re playing it, and if that’s what you’re after, I highly recommend!!! but if you’re just looking for a solid SRPG, look somewhere else man im sorry.

i really liked this game!!!! during the first 2 islands i saw a lot of potential for this formula and i still wanna see more of sonic in open areas because it lends very well to his moveset and everything!!! but starting from island 3 onward, it really starts to go downhill i feel like; the forced 2d perspective on a lot of the obstacles felt unnecessary and the island also just felt a little... boring? and having island 4 just be a story island was genuinely disappointing. and the pinball mini game can eat my dick.

my thoughts are the same with a lot of the cyberspace levels which i thought would be my favorite part of the game! but a lot of them just didnt feel great to control nor go through. im spewing off a lot of complaints but my positives are very positive, such as the movement system and the way sonic feels, because god its so refreshing and fun to run around and jump through these fun little obstacle courses while trying to process half the stuff that you just zoomed past. it feels like a new formula that works!! and i really want sega to look at the criticisms this game has gotten and improve on them in a second entry.

the super sonic fights are also another shining positive that i absolutely loved to bits; granted it was mostly because of the music and visuals but ill let that slide for now. having a head banger play while youre mashing away at your buttons seeing sonic destroy the fuck outta some big ass robot made me a little giddy because i was so into it im not gonna lie.

overall, sonic frontiers is an extremely 7/10 game in the best way possible. it has it's fair share of flaws and frustrating moments, but if you enjoy the main gameplay loop of collecting items and exploring while going fast, you're set for a good time

live a live was extremely enjoyable when i was going through the 7 chapters that are on display. the distant future chapter and the near future were by far my favorites! but when it got to the secret 8th chapter, aka the middle ages, that's when my enjoyment started to fluctuate and my frustration waned. random encounters are perfectly fine in some cases! but the way live a live implements them and the amount of backtracking it expects you to do makes it extremely menial. the ending didnt shock me much or stand out to me seeing as how i did not have the patience to get the true ending unfortunately. still enjoyed my experience, but its a shame it faltered in the end (for me personally). still recommend!