This was my second time playing through Sonic Frontiers, this time diving into it on Steam Deck a year after my original play through over on Nintendo Switch. My thoughts on the game have definitely grown more critical since then, although the game now being finished with its bonus content has no real effect on that negativity.
Overall, Sonic Frontiers is a good, solid adventure with that grew to be tiring by the end. The game's emphasis on quantity of collectibles over the quality of them is most definitely the source of the games lethargic finish, something the final update couldn't even fix. If played over time, it probably won't feel so draining after the third island, but the game is overall filled with superfluous tasks that don't really require any skill. Grabbing the collectibles is all way to overly automated, and the traditional Sonic levels in game are bite-sized and unimpressive. The game feels like a slapped together tech demo that has gotten by because of polish, and the fun that comes with piloting Sonic around a fully explorable 3D environment.
The story is an improvement from what the series has provided as of late, as is the general gameplay. While I just ranted on about the pointlessness of the game's main collectible hunts, I do find that everything else that surrounds said hunts to be fun. The boss fights an exploration of this open world is incredibly well done, and if it were structured with less filler then it would've been a much better experience. The best way to fix this, in my opinion, would be to shrink the amount of collectibles needed to progress and then remove said collectibles from the over world map. The game takes so much inspiration from Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey, and critically misunderstands what made exploration in those games fun versus what makes it such a slog in this.
The music, art direction, and aesthetic hit oh so very hard. Sonic Frontiers is a good step towards making 3D Sonic good again, but it is one that needs to be studied and changed, as opposed to replicated.
Overall, Sonic Frontiers is a good, solid adventure with that grew to be tiring by the end. The game's emphasis on quantity of collectibles over the quality of them is most definitely the source of the games lethargic finish, something the final update couldn't even fix. If played over time, it probably won't feel so draining after the third island, but the game is overall filled with superfluous tasks that don't really require any skill. Grabbing the collectibles is all way to overly automated, and the traditional Sonic levels in game are bite-sized and unimpressive. The game feels like a slapped together tech demo that has gotten by because of polish, and the fun that comes with piloting Sonic around a fully explorable 3D environment.
The story is an improvement from what the series has provided as of late, as is the general gameplay. While I just ranted on about the pointlessness of the game's main collectible hunts, I do find that everything else that surrounds said hunts to be fun. The boss fights an exploration of this open world is incredibly well done, and if it were structured with less filler then it would've been a much better experience. The best way to fix this, in my opinion, would be to shrink the amount of collectibles needed to progress and then remove said collectibles from the over world map. The game takes so much inspiration from Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey, and critically misunderstands what made exploration in those games fun versus what makes it such a slog in this.
The music, art direction, and aesthetic hit oh so very hard. Sonic Frontiers is a good step towards making 3D Sonic good again, but it is one that needs to be studied and changed, as opposed to replicated.