Does Sonic Frontiers SUCK?! Well...
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 พ.ค. 2024
- Sonic Frontiers is finally here! It's been five years since the release of Sonic Forces, and after that game's lukewarm response and the following years of minimal activity from Sonic on the game side of things, fans finally have the next installment. One that many were very excited for prior to release. But, what do I think of Sonic Frontiers? Is this the return of good Sonic games, or does it suck!? Well, watch and find out!
*************
Twitter ▶️ / jsreviews2
Consider Supporting Me on Patreon:
/ jsreviews
Check out the merch store: crowdmade.com/collections/jsr...
*************
Chapters:
00:00 Five Years
04:46 The Bad
18:05 The Good
28:00 The End
*************
#sonicfrontiers #sonic #sonicthehedgehog - เกม
I think it’s clear than Sonic Team NEEDS to increase their man power on the next game. A game this ambitious needed tons of people to work on it and this game had 60 people on their development team, which makes it even a miracle that they got this to work
More doesn’t always equal better. Plenty of games today are made by hundreds and hundreds of people and that just makes them more soulless and corporate
Sega just needs better management in general when releasing Sonic games in a somewhat halfbaked manner since that doesn't qualify as being "High Quality". At this point Sega should make the franchise to sell to the public Domain manner to the fans. Some fans have demonstrated that sonic can run in a 3D plane if Sega and Sonic Team put more manpower and effort
@@rouge939 It takes manpower and time to polish big games. The point he made about how this game should just have more polish, more detailed animations, and there's no excuse for it to not be like Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart, when that was a game made by BOTH Insomniac teams as opposed to the understaffed Sonic Team.
This stuff doesn't just come from the ether.
@@rouge939 But certain games also have issues for being rushed and/or having very little manpower - they just need the balance right for the game at hand to meet expectations.
It needed more time it was rushed for the holidays. Everyone sits around complaining but they don't have to deal with what these people deal with on a development level. Sega could have pulled a Ninty and delayed until March of next year for extra time to bake it in the oven. 60 people on this massive game, on a deadline that's probably ridiculous to start with. They did as well as anyone could.
I disagree that the Eggman - Sage “Father and Daughter” aspect wasn’t hinted at. They mention it an insane amount throughout the campaign. So much so that I’m wondering if we are even watching the same cutscenes
exactly. even without seeing eggmans perspective through his memos, the cutscenes hint at it more than enough, with eggman going from treating Sage like just another creation, to admitting that orbot and cubot would be like her brothers when asked, to outright saying he's proud of her. You can see him slowly care for her more and more, and it's the same with sage becoming more emotional and open with him, going from protecting him because she 'lives to serve' to genuinely caring
Yeah, that thing kinda confuses me
Sage is super cliche and boring
@@monovailable yeah it gave eggman more of a personality
@@monovailable Well he also said he was proud of Gamma. I think he cares less for Sage than she cares for him at first, but is just impressed with her competence (for some reason, despite not being able to help him escape the entire game without suggesting an alliance with Sonic, which SHOULD make him dismiss her completely but that’s clearly not the direction they want the characters to go so… guess it doesn’t matter. lol) Admitting Orbot abs Cubot are like her brothers is more of him realizing a technicality but he also came off as if he thought it was weird to put it that way.
Eggman did seem to kinda care about her a bit by the end. And I think part of that is similar to how Sonic rubbed off on Sage. Through merely seeing their actions, they change. Sonic inspired admiration in Sage and Sage’s calm loyalty inspired a soft spot in him.
Something that will probably answer any questions of "How did this game end up like this?" Takashi Iizuka actually said in an interview that he was almost fired for begging SEGA for an extra year of development time for Frontiers.
Extra month? More like months needed
On the other hand - if you were a higher-up at Sega, you would be weirded out by that request as well. They got 4 years and still want even more? What kind of development hell is going on there? Especially after Forces that took 4 years and ended up... well... being Forces. It could be tempting to cut losses and release whatever just to get some money back.
Well.... apparently Sonic Team is just 60+ people so....
@@Gnidel No, that's stupid, look at TLOZ Tears of the Kingdom, the game was announced years ago, but it only got a release date a few months ago, and that release date is May next year, it got delayed over and over and that's because Nintendo don't want to release it if it's unfinished, SEGA should understand that as well.
@@Gnidel breath of the wild took 5 years, so yeah, frontiers probably needed a couple extra years, as the game is supposed to be 3-5 breath of the wild's
I do really appreciate your Sonic takes. People either blindly love or blindly hate on these games. You actually give a fair and balanced assessment, crediting the often dismissed elements (like story and characters) while criticizing the mistakes a lot of Sonic fans just blindly accept. Keep up the good work.
>Fair
LMAOOO
@@riqopowpow Sounds like you're butthurt that J didn't tell you what you wanted to hear
@@riqopowpow how was he not being fair
Sonic Frontiers is a great attempt at bringing sonic into an open world, but if they want to keep doing this, they’re going to have to change some stuff
Or they could remake Sonic adventure 1-Shadow. The ideas there are ripe for better realization!
@@erikbihari3625 The Shadow remake would need to majorly overhaul the game tho.
They need to not make it so big. It’s fun running around but when it won’t help you get to objectives and those objectives are halfway across the map? Yeah. Not as fun.
This gives me vibes of unleashed as it was a great base that was ripe for improvement.
@@HordikaNate3821Ok, and know it. Even an in universe explaination for the gunplay would be nice!
Your dialogue points is something I can’t stress enough. Don’t just have enough dialogue to progress the plot forward. I wanna be immersed in whatever world I’m playing. To do that you gotta make me believe there is more to the characters lives than just what we are playing. Sonic frontiers to me is top notch in that department. I believe they actually been on journeys and really be chilling.
Agreed. And seeing these characters have expressions and animation rather than just stand around… it already hits home
Definitely better in the cutscenes, although I do think that having the story events be "unlockables" that are represented by the character just standing around subtracts from what impact the cutscenes have in their own right. I wish that was handled a little more conventionally/gracefully, perhaps by giving the tokens some more direct use in restricting progression. I suppose it is a minor nitpick, though.
I think Jedi fallen order , any of the god of wars etc they really made me feel like there in the moment this however
Neo twewy be like:
Not to mention, they actively reference events in other games, something that few other games aside from generations and forces for obvious reasons do.
It’s funny how I had almost the opposite experience with sonic frontiers when it came to it’s core elements. I loved the first island, liked the second a lot but got lost a lot, grew to hate the third island because of the 2D problem you brought up, and loved the 5th island because it felt like the second half of the first island. Also really liked the story with a few caviats but that might be how I was able to consume it. I only used big to cheat my way through the story towards the end with the memory tokens.
Also I guess I got really lucky with the red rings in not-metal harbor
Yeah I got the last red ring quite easily in not-Metal Harbor. I just liked all the islands except the one reused for the towers and to see Sonic’s corruption reach its peak. And ironically I also used Big to cheese the last island, but only for upgrades.
I missed it but you can turn and go back up hill on the board
I think everyone can agree that Chaos Island just sucks ass. Rhea Island I also wished was just combined with Onrouous to be just one final massive island but its still enjoyable.
@@cloudshines812 While I know DLC is coming, but I wish Sonic's friends were actually playable in the main game, maybe then it would the fourth island be better and not have the cyber corruption scene come across like a poor man's Sonic's death from 06, only with less steps and alot less gameplay.
first two islands were a bang, third island was a lovable mess to me, fourth island was meh but the story in my first playthrough I wanted to know where the story was heading so it felt like a 6.9/10 to me, and the fifth was when I was already ready for the game to be done for
Also, I hard disagree with Sonic not being fun to control. He controlled so well, and I found it really fun to just run and bounce around in the open zone. Iizuka said they envision Frontiers to be the future of Sonic, so I hope they don’t stop.
I agree as well, he controlled like a dream to me and putting the terrain to use to do skips was amazing...also I'm not sure why he just cranked everything up on the controls and thought that would be okay initially???
@@mayoinokii Maybe that’s why he didn’t find Sonic fun to control? All I did was increase the speed to max. I left everything else alone.
@@bababobo5067 I personally just picked "high speed" option and it gave it perfect control for a Sonic Vet.
I think he is correct about the Cyberspace controls though.
It's really weird how the game itself controls perfectly (yes, I think that) while the Cyberspace stages are just terrible in that regard...
At least, most of them are.
Some of these stages (just a few) are actually somewhat good.
Also, it could be that I think the Cyberspace stages are bad because I'm a Sonic Veteran. It could control perfectly fine for a newcomer.
I adjusted the camera speed a little and let just made myself get used to the default controls. I found Sonic really smooth to control after a couple mintues of getting used to.
It's a misconception that Flyn 'Wrote the game', he wrote the dialog, the plot was decided already, and the dialog is being rewritten from what he wrote for the Japanese market. Just to say he can't be blamed for the plot, but I definitely think the dialog helped the very average story.
Not saying your wrong but how much was he involved in terms of dialogue? Like we’re the cutscenes and everything all determined and he just had to fill in the dialogue?
@@VincentEternal I suspect that is about the sum of it. The cutscenes are unfortunately all talking heads, (Except of course the flashbacks) so you can insert any dialog into those scenes and it has little effect on the overall plot. Which is exactly what Kishimoto indicated he will do in an interview. He stated a few times in interviews that Flyn is on board for dialog, not plot. And Flyn has confirmed that on his podcast.
We'll see for sure just how far Kishimoto's changes go once a full japanese playthrough with subs appears. It's been suggested that in the japanese, the character may have an 'amnesia' plot line with Sonic helping them remember who they are. If that's the case I'm very glad we didn't have to sit through it.
@@Ari-6 alright good to know.
@@VincentEternal If Sega's smart, They'll include Flyn from the ground up next time and do away with their old western writing team from colors to now. He has already been tapped to work on the next game, a 'Classic style modern Sonic' game. But with sega, it seems like they're more likely to go with who they're familiar and comfortable with. Probably because they've had so many headaches in the past.
@@Ari-6 hopefully he does come back on. Flynn is one of my favorite Sonic writers so I want to see him a completely original plot all on his own and he has a say in the cutscenes
For me personally, Sonic Frontiers feels a lot like Pokémon Legend Arceus. Both of them try something different from what the series was comfortable with before with results generally being positive but also showing how they can be improved
@@Laekith They're both fine but they get boring after a while, they're not the peak of each the series but they're also not the worst. They're both kind of mediocre and both games don't try hard enough.
@@piranhalettuce it's pretty obvious frontiers tried it's hardest to put sonic back on the map. So I wouldn't say it's "mediocre" or "didn't try hard enough".
They also have many visual problems. Arceus is worse visualy tho
Nah but I think Legends is far worse than Frontiers. Legends suffers from worse graphical issues (and there’s no way around it because its not Next Gen compatible), the open world environments are much worse for being reused and no landmarks, story presentation is horrible with characters just standing around and unskippable text boxes (even though the game HAS fully animated cutscenes) and the worst aspect being the TIRING and Repetitive farming to just advance to the next mandatory area in the game with nothing to spice the gameplay up.
I will only give Legends credit for having two things, including strong and agile styles for battles (adds a bit more thought to the dead and lackluster turn based combat) and seeing Pokemon actually interact in an open world.
But Legends ended up being rushed out the door beyond belief and charged for 60 dollars when Violet and Scarlet released the same year. At least Sonic Frontiers had longer development and small things can be improved upon for a better game… without rehauling the whole formula
@@bluekey1470 They can try as hard as they can all day. Doesn't change the fact that someone sees it as mediocre. And if they really were trying, then they would've fixed the pop-in issue before release.
In general, Frontiers definitely marked the end of the 'would-be' meta era. There are things that could definitely require tweaks, like Sonic's handling and the level design in both Cyberspace and Open Zone, as well as combat, but everything hit the mark for me despite the bad. An overall 6 to 7, enjoyable and certainly a game i would replay later.
I think it's a transitional game, like Unleashed, which had both Dark Era originality, ambition and dumb ideas and Meta Era with bafoon Eggman that gets ridiculed by his own robots, solo Sonic and basic story.
Cyberspace stages handle fin especially for speedruns
@@SAGEtheGOD01 you can feel how sonic's movement feels much sluggish, though one gets used to it eventually.
Its not a terrible game. I sure was quite disappointed with Cyberspace and I can at least give it a pass cause it is optional if you’d rather just run free in the open world or do the relaxing Big The Cat fishing in this game.
Combat I did enjoy and at least it works, but I certainly do admit that things like Parrying or certain moves were a little too broken and could’ve added more challenge/experimentation. I never felt tired or bored of it… but its the small things
Cyberspace can be slow, and you need to learn the ins and outs of Sonic's movement and omit certain moves in your movement. I say it's fun but definitely has some jank
I wish you would have mentioned both kinds of cutscenes and not just the one's with shoddy animation. There's the character interaction cutscenes (which do have stiff animation admittedly), but then there's the actual in-game cutscenes that are some of the best we've seen in years. For example; the cutscene where Sonic sees the Wyvern titan approaching menacingly, as he's getting ready to climb and and access the last chaos emerald on his back, or the opening scene where Sonic is fighting the robots? If you're going to mention the bad of various cutscenes, then why not mention the good also? Parts of this review feel kind of rushed.
Yeah, this review feels rushed out to make it in time, and don't even get me started on the comparisons he make (Miles Morales lol)
Yeah, it's a mixed review and TBH it hit a lotta points I had in my head, positive and negative. But I think the oddest angle is calling it a next gen title... despite the fact that it launched on the flipping switch, launched at a non-next gen price tag, and was interviewed to have been in development before the PS5 was even in the public conscious. Feels odd comparing it to Rift apart, you know?
I do think polishing the animations is the biggest thing that will push this series from "good" to "this can actually go toe to toe with Mario", and I know even the switch can put out better animations than what Frontiers did. but I also accept that this is still a late gen 8 game from a 3rd party dev launching on 6 platforms at once. You're never gonig to be BOTW or Ratchet and Clank polished that way, even if they tripled the manpower for Forces 2 and spent 6 years on it.
I very much look forward to what a truly next gen Sonic game is, but we probably still have to temper expectations unless we do another Sonic Unleashed PS2 vs PS3 kinda port. The Switch 2 will help a lotta things, but will probably still be a bottleneck that makes it fall short of said first party games.
I love J and all, but I feel he’ll do a massive re-review of this game when all the DLC comes out for Sonic Frontiers in 2023, much like how he re-reviewed the Sly trilogy and a couple others
those look shoddy too, just to a lesser extent
@@Sydney_Angelyt I found out that in the final DLC Hyper Sonic might appear.
With frontiers, I REALLY want them to continue this style. If they listen and improve the open world, physics, original themes or at least ones we haven't seen in years, the next game could be amazing. Running around the open world and fighting the titans as super sonic was the most fun I've had in a sonic game in YEARS. The music too? Aside from some cyberspace themes, there's not one track that I dislike. The story kept the characters consistent for once which I hope they take note of (Ian Flynn the goat). Overall, frontiers has jank, but the good aspects really outshined the bad to me, and that surprised me.
Sonic Frontiers is the new current era of Sonic for the next 10 years. This was officially stated by head of Sonic Team, Takashi Iizuka.
KNOW THAT WE WILL FIND A WAY
WE'LL DO WHATEVER IT MAY TAKE
@@pinktrutle1490 Then Sonic is in for another decade of mediocrity.
I agree except for the Physics part. The physics do need to be more real from a gameplay standpoint, but if they were, speedrunning the game would be so much easier; might as well make it harder to do so
@@terryderry2855 Nope, Morio Kishimoto just said in a latest tweet "I'm relieved that the release date has arrived and that it seems to have reached everyone safely. We are checking the opinions of the critics and everyone. As you pointed out, we still have a long way to go, and we take this seriously as a global playtest." They are gonna improve on it and they do care.
In terms of a 3D Sonic game I gotta say this is one of the best ones for me. I also appreciate how OP they make you feel playing as Super Sonic in this game. This is the most in depth we’ve ever gotten playing as Super Sonic and the combat did not disappoint. This game isn’t perfect but if they continue to make games like this they need to make some changes in the future.
Pretty much how I feel
This is basically a great foundation for the future as even in all its jank, its still a blast to play
Same
Frontiers 2 needs to happen and Sonic Team just needs to listen to negatives to make Frontiers 2 amazing
I do think, flaws and all, that this game is going to be an interesting case study when we get far away enough to have some proper reflection. I do think it sets a potent blueprint, and Sega has vocalized several times that they plan to use this model moving forward. For now, it’s far better then anything forces could offer so I shall make do.
But aren't they gonna do some patches to fix a couple of bugs and balancing issues?
Came from the future and I’m proud to announce that Sega will be adding FREE DLC to Sonic Frontiers throughout 2023 to keep the game fresh and alive such as a Photo mode, Island Rush mode, extra challenges and even a whole extra DLC side story with new playable characters
"I shall make do" what sonic fans have been saying for the last 20 years accepting trash like frontiers
@@FINSuojeluskunta I did not purchase forces due to the low quality and lack of content. I do however love sonic and want to see Sonic succeed. Frontiers aspired and reached a threshold that is worthy of praise, despite clear blemishes. Rotten attitudes like yours are the real dime a dozen, and I look forward to what comes next in this series. Adieu sir sourpuss.
27:10 Your comments about past references in this new game making it clear this is meant to be one story rather than one-offs is particularly interesting to me given that just maybe 2 days ago on Twitter the woman who runs Sonic's social media announced that they're looking to hire a Lore Master to work with some other people and bring the Sonic timeline together better instead of just being separate games. 😊
Personally, I really like the game's open worlds, enormous bosses, and story, as well as the little Egg Memos, but the gameplay and how some of it was implemented could really use some work.
I mean his turning is a major improvement in the open world
I think my only complaint with the bosses is that when you collect all the emeralds and go super to fight, they don't necessarily tell you how to achieve that victory. Still fun though once you figure it out.
@@tyrantravealpha i find figuring it out fun tbh
tbf, the only thing I'm not fond of were the pop in (which is honestly understandable for open world games and the astronomical speed you reach) and the contact being too easy, you don't get enough time to appreciate the combo animations and combo chains.
everything else I'm all onboard for, I hope Sega stick to the open world stuff.
Yeah, I loved Frontiers and I'm looking forward to how much they can add and improve for Frontiers 2
For me, this is a game that's greater than the sum of its parts and ASSUMING that Sonic Team learns the right lessons and sticks to developing this formula which sadly isn't a guarantee, the follow up to this has the potential to be one of the best Sonic games of all time. As is, it's a janky but fun time, especially when playing it alongside a group of friends who are also enjoying it. I had a blast. The exploration is fun and addicting, I understand why they are going for the term "open zone". I enjoyed the Starfall islands as a location though in the future, I hope they go for a more stylized art direction for future open zones (for both artistic and technical reasons).
The combat, while not great was fun enough moment to moment and a good chunk the minibosses are easily some of the more engaging encounters in the series. Spider, Tower, Ghost, and Fortress, and Master Ninja to name a few were super fun to fight. This was also the first time I actually enjoyed playing as Super Sonic since SA1 even if the 3rd Titan fight's ending QTE full on BROKE (I had to turn the game down to easy so the QTE didn't insta-kill me). The focus on character interactions in the story is what I have been waiting for sonic to return to for a while. Sage is easily the best new character added to the games since Blaze. I know that's a pretty low bar but the character was still fun to see.
Cyberspace while not great...CAN be something great. I think it works well as a change of pace and can be really fun to speedrun, in a way similar to Neon White and Super Monkey Ball. The things holding it back are the layout and theme reuse (only about a third of the stages have new layouts, most of which are on Island 5 but they are actually pretty good design wise) and of course the physics. I swear someone at Sonic Team has weird control preferences because they HAVE the solution for fixing the control problem staring at them given the control options in the open world and how quick modders have made better physics mods. I got used to the physics but...why are they like this? Still, I can't agree on J's point about these being the worst stages at all. I find that these are still a monumental step up from Forces for me since YOU ACTUALLY HAVE CONTROL MOST OF THE TIME AGAIN.
There's a ton of other issues with the game's design choices but overall, I'm happy with the game. Aside from the hope that Mania gave us 5 years ago that Sega foolishly never followed up on, this is the first time in over a decade that Sonic has felt like it's truly moving toward something great. It's only a first step but that's still a kind of a big deal all things considered.
Go play Freedom Planet 2 and Spark 3.
Oki
Cyberspace just need to be longer that's it really.
Well, Cyberspace needs a bit more tight control too. It's very slippery and uncontrollable, especially after you've experienced the Open Zone portion of the game
Also for leveling up Speed and Ring Capacity it’s very slow and tedious and you can only do one level at a time, what were they thinking with that? There needs to be an update to speed up that process.
@@brandonwilliams6119 mmmmhm 100% agreed. Weirdly bad UX there.
12:22
Quick tip: You can jump out of that and also have an extra air boost which allows for some fun traversal if you're near another platforming segment
I feel like years of bad games have left the sonic team with a lot more limited resources. Hopefully now that Frontiers has had positive reception, it allows it to have more time and manpower for the next game.
Until the next game become the next O6
It's like Mania and Forces didn't sell well. Oh wait...
*Eh?* You DO know that the 4kids era was the best era for 3D Sonic games, right? 06, Unleashed, Shadow, Adventure, the storybook games etc. The 2010's era was were the bad games really started to come through. Lost World, Forces, Mania did I need to go on? Frontiers is the best game the franchise has got since Generations and it's a shame people don't like it for weightless, dumb, ancient arguments that should had died years ago (like J's revew which gave it a fricking 5/10 which is unfair and complete and user bs as it deserved a 9/10 for bringing the 4kids era Sonic back)
@@blackrosegodessD4C06, Shadow are good? Mania is bad? What the fuck are you on about?
@@blackrosegodessD4Cmania sucks? Are you delusional
They did clarify that this formula was going to be the next 10 years of Sonic Games, so yes 9/10 chance we are getting another game like this, and while I enjoyed the game more than you did, I do hope we still do get improvements, because this game does set a good foundation, and I wanna see it carried through and polished to near perfection
When did they clarify? Genuine question btw. Is there a video or is it an article?
@@Ccalamari it was an article I think in May or June, they talked with Takashi Izuka about it
@@zackblade3856 that’s exciting, now I’m gonna find it lol thanks!
Well... that guarantees a Forces Tier game in the future.
@@LasagaMan how?
Think about it this way, J. You spent this time on TH-cam defending games that were flawed but ambitious to people who didn’t always appreciate them at first. Now we have a new Sonic game that’s also flawed but ambitious and everyone is praising it despite the problems. People aren’t treating Sonic as a punching bag anymore. People like you made folks go back and revaluate games from the 2000s. Frontiers is that. It’s flawed but ambitious. Everyone wants Sega to expand on this and flesh it out more. Be happy people like you helped change people’s perception of Sonic.
Fr i see bunch of ppl give this game a 7 like ign and gameinformer tbh i give a 10/10 i like the open world sure its flawed like some of the cyberspace levels feels slow but then there is the speedrun strats u can pull off then there is the combat which i like idc if folks come at me for saying any of this its my opinion and I'm sick of folks complaining about it i grew up on rush and i loved that game it was my first sonic game so whoever see's this fucking cry and cope
@@SentinalRaider You say that as if 7 is a bad score. I think that's a pretty commendable score, the game looks very fun but jt has its jank. Doesnt make it any less ambitious of a formula
My biggest praise will be what this game did with Eggman.
Before this, we've seen eggman become a sorta saturday cartoon villain. Obviously jokes around, hates the hero, loses, comes back, and has the "Oh I'm so evil I dont care about my allies" cliche.
Meanwhile in this, first off, I love how they did his relationship with sonic. He hates the guy, but he doesn't deny his respect for him as well. Similar to Sonic Booms version from the TV show.
Another thing I love is his relationship with Sage, we actually see him bond with his creation and unlike with Cubot and some of his other creations, he doesn't treat her like some object that can be replaced.
Hell by the end of the game, Eggman has grown attached to her and is even upset when she dies. I even love that little line at the post credit scene that he says "That's my girl."
I really liked the game, but I agree with a lot of the points made in this video.
I just hope they don't ditch this formula, because if improved upon, we could have another truly special 3D Sonic game.
Thanks for the honest review. I personally loved the game but all your critiques are issues I have with the game too (although they bothered me a lot less which is why I enjoyed the game more).
The game is enjoyable, it may have some issues but it's nothing too big that it hurts the overall experience
I'm glad things are getting better for Sonic
Well said. That's exactly how I feel. I don't disagree with any of the points that J made here, but I still loved the overall experience and would recommend for others to play - although I do believe Sonic fans will vary more enjoyment out of this title.
Honestly the first boss is SO HYPE
The wyvern is my favorite
@@williamwhite1036 same
@@williamwhite1036 giganto is my favorite so far because of the music lmao
Wyvern is sick too how he just swings him around lolol
You need better standards
My biggest hope is Sonic Team keeps what worked in Frontiers and improves upon it. Maybe bring it to a much more colorful world WITHOUT USING GREEN HILL, CHEMICAL PLANT, AND SKY SANCTUARY.
I think Sega deliberately nixed the parry closer to release. There were challenge markers that required you to reflect the bullets with parry, and with notedly different speed. The biggest question became "why would they make a challenge out of something that was automatically guaranteed?", and the only logical answer is because some higher ups wanted it automated.
Yeah I was flabbergasted when I saw a reviewer point out that you just have to be holding the bumpers to automatically parry and Sonic can do that midair indefinitely, effectively levitating
Someone added slope momentum, and removed the air speed cap when jumping within 2 days of the game launching.
How in the fuck can Sonic Team spend "5" years working on a game, and someone adds what everyone wanted within a day?
Sonic team not trying to be outdone by fans challenge
ikr, it's not hard at all to do anymore.
It's crazy how average random Joe's does something correctly than Sega does
@@BBWahoo That plus fanboys keep buying the games while pretending slope physics are "not needed"...so, yeah, Sonic doesn't need slope physics, but Spark the Electric Jester 2 just got a price drop on steam :>
Clearly they didn't feel the need to add it. Weather or not this is a good idea is up for debate but to act like they didn't add it out of pure incompetance is kinda doomer lol
What foundation?
They pretend Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 never happened. It's an insult.
Some Cyber Space stages actually had really good level design, there was original level design in the final island and I'm surprised no one points it out
The design for some of them felt like Unleashed DLC levels, especially a later Green Hill Sunset stage on the final island
Maybe, but the physics are still awful which ruins it.
@@HOTD108_ they aren't optimal and definitely take some getting used to, but I wouldn't exactly call the physics "awful" or say they "ruin every Cyberspace stage." Tbh that's kind of a skill issue.
yeah the final island has some great levels, although he did skip them in this review
@@damienthonk1506nah the physics are bad, even for a sonic veteran like me who is very good at sonic games and has no trouble playing secret rings like a master on the first go.
the physics are just stiff and slow in general.
"I felt like I was playing a real game" congrats Sonic Team, you did it
one of my complaints is that platforming stuff feels more like a sandbox with randomly and awkwardly placed platforms rails and jump pads. i wish it was integrated into the environment and made some sense for them being where they were.
In some places, most commonly on the first island, there were some more integrated elements. I imagine it's one of the corners they chose to cut, which is better than, say,, the core gameplay.
I will at least say: when you do go through those scattered pieces, they tend to chain to either each other or one of the other overworld elements to achieve a sort of constant flow of content. So, mechanically, that's pretty sound, if not aesthetically.
But it's fun
exactly it feels like a roblox game where they just placed random stuff everywhere
This is the first time they've done this, cut them some slack.
@@artistanthony1007 we will not be cutting them some slack. sega is known for rushing their games out the door, and not properly thinking their concepts through, which is why we got shit like lost world which barely utilizes its MAIN GIMMICK.
"first time" is not an excuse for a big company like sega, they arent indie game devs or roblox devs, they are a massive franchise thats selling a game for 60$.
stop bootlicking them, you guys are the reason sega feels comfortable rushing out incomplete proof of concept games like lost world, 06, forces, and frontiers.
also the OG commenter is not even asking for much, hes literally asking for the platforms to be more blended in with the landscape, which past sonic games had barely any issues doing.
I absolutely adore this game and I am loving the direction the series is heading.
Although I will miss seeing Tails and Knuckles as much.
I hope we get some spin off games from this split
There's three dlc this game will have
the third one will have playable characters (knuckles, tails and amy)
oh and all of them are free
What Sonic Team needs is to be given actually feasible dev times. Project Lead almost got fired for having the audacity to ask for *1 extra month*
source?
@@skibot9974 They can’t because comments with non TH-cam links automatically get taken down and it’s too hard to find now.
I think the story really could've benefited from having all the busywork you do to fill out the maps and whatnot be used to learn more about the ancients instead of just being a bunch of minigames that don't connect to anything. I think it's a decent first attempt with some genuine high points but the compromises are extremely transparent and overall I was kind of just left wanting more.
It’s a proof of concept game, like Lost World. They both do similar things and never really go deeper into their own mechanics.
I feel like Forces accomplished more than SF.
And the ambitious aspect of Sonic only works when you have a larger team and a visionary director, like Hashimoto in Sonic Unleashed or even the director of Sonic Generations.
@@xhwh1138Other than finally making the hedgehog engine run better what exactly did sonic team accomplish with sonic forces
@@xhwh1138 see thats the problem. its a proof of concept game. you should be releasing fully finished games, not clearly unfinished ones just to test concepts (aka the combat and open world)
This is like a finale to your series of reviews. It feels like it was all leading up to this. to a good game release
"good" by Sonic standards
@@_CNT_ nah, it's a good game in general.
@@_CNT_ it's a good game for the most part..
Just misses a few beats
@@justsome500yearoldwithsmug2
So it's good
@@pedropedro1 cope?
For me i really love this game. Its just great to see sonic return and the music in this game is amazing of course. Id rate it 7-8
@NES i meant like a fresh new storyline for him
“They build up this arc with Eggman and Sage having a father and daughter relationship but to know that you have to listen to the egg memo” that’s just incorrect and you know it man
Something about Frontiers just does it for me. Don't know if the spectacle blinds me, or if I knew what it was going in, but just running through the island just makes me happy.
That ending really did suck though.
As a 31 yo, every time you talk about how long ago YOUR gaming experiences took place, I die inside a little
I don’t get why they used the Unleashed design for the cgi cutscenes but then decided to just reuse the Lostworld model. Games like Unleashed, Generations, and Colors were smart enough to use the same design as the CGI cutscenes so it wouldn’t feel jarring
i think they should just make completely new model designs for all characters in the next game they've been using the same ones since unleashed and they were only done well in that game it's becoming so tiring
This might sound sad, but seeing Sonic, and Knuckles have a interesting relationship in a mainline Sonic game for the first time in so long was worth the 60 dollars alone.
Also I dont really get the complaint about the controls. Its easily the best Sonic has controlled since Unleashed, at least to me.
Ummm, you rate unleashed over generations?
@@megyskermike Im not the biggest fan of generations. 😅
@@megyskermike The reason why Unleashed controls are better than Generation, is because they never play for it self, in other therm, you do more other movement than just Boosting foward, and the level design for Generations is way too easy, i think i never got a Game over in a Modern Stage. A game is never fun when it too easy.
Well, having a 3d sonic game that the fanbase didn't absolutely hated, is already a huge win for me
I personally like fronteirs a lot. In fact I haven't enjoyed a sonic game this much in *generations*
i think the forces had something to do with it
It’s been generations sense I’ve heard this pun. Specifically 2017.
@@pixel6894 2017 is a lost world now
Yep Sonic and all the other heroes are back with their power fully unleashed.
Same
Still can't believe some people actually thought (and maybe still think) this game would be GOTY worthy in any way, what a damn joke. I *might* get this game on the cheap in a year or so but this doesn't look like a worthwhile $60 experience at all.
Now concerning any future games; sonic team does *not* have a track record that's worth giving any benefit of the doubt to. I mean making a game that's better than one of the worst games of 2017 (name me a worse $40 game released that year) just isn't going to impress anyone that doesn't have ocean floor level standards.
I mean those are opinions, but yes this game is definitely not GOTY material.
I too will wait for a sale, because I don't think Sega and Sonic team deserve that much trust.
I love Sonic but it’s hard to say I’m a Sonic fan. I love the aesthetic and the Adventure era but it’s hard to feel excited about anything after they dropped continuity. What I’ve realized over the years is that I love the characters in Sonic, the games being any good is mostly just a bonus. Everything post ‘06 seemed desperate to ignore the larger Sonic cast outside of cameos.
Not including Sonic Boom
I'm a music fan, and the cyberspace ost is already becoming some of the best sonic music I've ever heard.
Ian Flynn single handedly just completely revitalized Sonic, and Co. The gameplay was a bit wonky, but the story was so charming, and the characters so likable, that I didn't mind. I think Sonic Frontiers could be the Sword/Shield for Sonic games; a stepping stone into something much greater.
Imagine what wonders Ian could do for Shadow.
@@Laekith Sonic sounds pretty good. Amy and Tails sounded a bit off. But sonic just. My God he really reminded me of his Sonic Unleashed self. And even Amy had some good moments defending Sonic when Sage called him a destroyer of that world. It felt genuine not from a fan girl. Like she was insulted her friend was being slandered lol
@@Laekith This is why you switch to the Japanese audio track lol.
@@Laekith I'm assuming that the English script is closer to it's Japanese counterpart then Forces.
@@Laekith I liked it. After so long of Sonic being an absolute DICK hearing him care about his friends, seeing his sacrifice moment, god that scene of him just STRUGGLING to move even.....I don't care if the voices are a bit janky. I literally DO NOT care. It's just good to have Sonic BACK.
"You're free to go your own way. You just....grew up on me a little faster than I expected." No I didnt cry at that.
Not at all
@@Laekith The Japanese version really isn't any better, it might actually be worse if these testaments are to be believed.
it's actually been said that Sega wasn't able to translate Ian's writing very well into Japanese. Making it all come off as very flat.
Honestly, I really enjoyed Frontiers, I enjoyed the CyberSpace levels to an extend but overall, I just wish it had another year in the oven to finalize the 4th and 5th Island as well as polish.
Outside the reused grassy environment, i found the last island to be the best of the bunch. It's the largest by far and has a lot to do in it. Just mho tho. The 4th island was kinda pointless even if i did like the platforming to get to the top
Also I don't hate ALL the cyberspace stages. I openly dread the 2D stages because sonic ACTUALLY controls like he's swimming in mud, but the 3D stages seemed fine to me. And stage 1-2, the one you referenced, I had a blast with it. It has a very challenging S rank timer and I had a lot of fun going for it.
I’d like to see another review after the updates cus they address some of the issues he brings up
was looking for this comment
I didn’t even know this comment existed
In my opinion, Sega has truly been such a disservice to Sonic Team because theres only, what, 60 people on that team making this big game. On top of that, I heard Izuka demanded from Sega to give them more time on this game. Putting this into perspective with also all of thr concept art for frontiers that we know exists, it shows Sonic Team had an even BIGGER idea than we actually got. And this is where I say shame on Sega, because Sonic is their mascot, yet they treat the team that handles this mascot with the bare minimum. Ofc Frontiers is not safe from criticism, I have my own, but I understand why this is the way it is
Which is probably why people say Sonic Team should go to other companies like Nintendo, they'd at least get a good budget
Well, seeing as you've been through the entire franchise leading up to this. I've been waiting to hear your thoughts.
Kind of sad you didn't like Frontiers as much as most others seem to, including myself. (Got it solidly at a 7-8/10 personally.)
But I can definitely see where you come from, and the places this game needs polish are definitely pretty obvious.
I'm just really happy Sonic Team seems to be making a step in the right direction for once. Hopefully they keep it up and improve in all the weak spots.
Glad to hear an honest take from you though. A lot of people are too afraid of the fandom jumping them to truly speak their mind on anything these days.
Sidenote: I will literally cry if we get the next game announced and Flynn isn't writing it. His characterization of Team Sonic, Amy, and Eggman were all absolutely incredible.
"Most others"... I beg to differ. The game is still getting VERY mixed reviews on outlets such as review sites and TH-cam. I'm honestly surprised people like it on my end because I sure as hell think it's a bad "game" with some other elements that are interesting but no where near what it could have been. Kinda feels half-assed but not in a Forces kind of way. Sega can try and hide the low key negative reception but it's there. I've heard positive and negatives and from what I read it's about 50/50 for both sides.
However I will say this, I hope Sega learns from their obvious attempt at trying to incorporate other media into their franchise and just be brave enough to try something new again. Maybe a new engine, or maybe a director.. Somethings gotta give. I see their trying and they put in a valiant effort but they've GOT to really feel the next one.
@@DraztikMeasurez but the majority of reviews are still positive and even more positive from a fan perspective according to the metacritic user score and steam reviews.
@@DraztikMeasurez I mean, yeah the critical scores are more mixed, but they're still positive. Hell, looking at Meta Critic, it's actually scoring better on user reviews than the new God of War (90 to 83 at the time of writing). Not to say that you're wrong for not liking it, but it really does seem like most other people are leaning towards the positive end.
@@DraztikMeasurez I don't think it's that deep...pretty sure Sega isn't hiding anything? If you feel they are...it's probably just because the majority like the game...? No need for conspiracies.
That aside, we definitely seen different experiences. While there are some negative receptions, (I) mostly have seen positives from critics, Sonic fans, and even non Sonic fans. (By that I mean people who pulled out from the series). Most TH-camrs I watched who fit into either category also seem to have a positive views on the game. The game definitely has issues that desperately needs to be improved on. But I think you maaaay have taken it a bit far. The reception is nowhere NEAR 50/50. At the very least not yet, maybe it'll change within time. But thus far the game has a overwhelming majority of positives experiences.
@@DraztikMeasurez I don't think its as deep as Sega/Sonic Team hiding something. The game has flaws, and definitely isn't a perfect ten. Hell I'd say the user reviews are overhyping Frontiers a bit.
But a good majority seem to be enjoying the game, and even more critical folks like Splash Dash have problems, but don't deeply dislike it.
They've spoken generally, more positive than negative. The largest negative take I've seen was Jebtube, and what I gathered is mostly just that he did not like the fandom simping for the Sonic brand and dogpiling anyone who disagreed.
If you have substantial examples of highly mixed reviews from notable figures or something, I'd like to hear about them.
I know that personally, mods and code fixes definitely made it more enjoyable. However, it should not be up to the consumers to perfect a product, but to the creators themselves. Definitely plenty of good foundations to build off of, but yes, plenty more that needs more work, time, money, and creative direction.
This review was a much needed breath of fresh air for me. Your positions on the game run more or less parallel to mine but before this video, I hadn't seen my opinions represented in the discourse about the game at ALL. Reviews were either overwhelmingly positive and treated what I thought were major issues as minor hiccups or nitpicks, or treated it like it was decent but could just use some fine tuning. Any negative reviews about the game failed to mention the things that I thought really worked - Ian Flynn's writing, the Super Sonic bosses, the overall tone of the game etc. While I don't think I'd call this a good game, like you I had a lot of fun with it and I think it's REALLY important to lay out exactly what did and didn't work about this game so that Sonic Team knows what to keep and what to throw out. I don't want them to think they can get away with another game that controls this poorly or feels this shoddy / unpolished, but I don't want them to throw away the whole foundation like they normally do. This could turn into a really, really good game if they stick with it and fix what's there, so while I'm happy to see Sonic represented in a positive light in the collective consciousness for the first time in a while, I really hope Sonic Team is able to identify the things they need to improve to truly knock it out of the park with the next game.
Great video.
Daddy😩
@@NotMattMurdock he finally came back from the store getting milk after all these years
@@tdenzel101 it's a dream come true😭
@@NotMattMurdock lmfao
You say that like this review isn't colored by his preferences and opinions aswell. I'd argue it's already a really good game, and I enjoy its design and Sonic's control, but I guess we need to act like game design is set in stone or something because someone didn't paticularly like something, or got the bad feels from one section. It's strange. Not saying games can't be badly designed, but there's room for variation, and there's no right opinion. I like hearing what people think but I hate when it's like 'Oh Sonic Teams GOTTA listen to this guy he knows everything' it's really cringey.
So, Unleashed remains as the True King. :^)
Upgrading Speed and Ring counter is a miserable experience, not to mention the wack animation, after he does his “feel the power” animation or whatever he switches to his Unleashed idle pose, then immediately snaps to his Forces one, it’s incredibly jank, not to mention the side mouth snapping to the other side of his mouth instantly when the camera is in Sonic’s face and looking left and right
His mouth has done that in every mainline game since Sonic Unleashed.
@@paulbell3682 it’s more jank in an open world environment because of how noticeable it is when turning the camera
That’s what making already stop playing this game is the upgrading crap…the music in the game so far (still in the beginning is eh…not my favorite) I hate the cyberspace levels with a huge passion cuz of how slow sonic is in the beginning. Forces has better music for damn sure. The writing and sonic voice is so much better in frontiers and I’m tired of sonic joking so much in forces lol. Will I try to play the game again and finish it? I will try lol.
This is all just my opinion ;-;
@@infinitoknight6577 you should beat it, upgrades aren’t needed in any sense, just annoying
@@callmezeldaonemoartime agreed
Thank god someone finally talked about the shitty controls and lack of boost in cyber space levels. I'm enjoying the game but how the hell did these levels fall so flat.
God damn, you and I had almost the exact same experience with frontiers. Being sick of the railroading level design, the one spammy move, enjoying the game more by the second island and so on.
Overall, I enjoyed frontiers and I sincerely hope Sonic Team get more time to polish the next game.
By next month, I feel people will have a less positive out look on this game.
They already are now, looking at the user scores. They already dropping.
@@marcusmayo it had a 9,of course that was unsustainable
@@KnucklesWTD Try telling to other fans, they thought it was gonna stay at that level.
i actually really really enjoyed sonic frontiers. I was able to avoid all spoilers and gameplay videos, so I was completely fresh. It did feel a bit like breath of the wild but I liked that game a lot and even more so I really like sonic. It felt super refreshing to gather all the rings and fling myself around the map, glitching off of random stubs and then tricking for years. I very much agree with you said about the momentum. If there was a system that actually built and kept the momentum when you jumped it would be so amazing. But all issues and little things included I had a blast playing it, bigs fishing with that lo fi chill music was so relaxing, and then I thought the storyline was amazing. Honestly felt like I was playing through a movie or series or something. You make really good points, but just as a game to have fun and enjoy, even with the price tag, it was a breath of fresh air for me personally. -also I did play on pc so I didn't experience anyone bugs or anything, I did however not have that final boss fight with the 2d rocket slider, not that I really enjoyed those levels, but still I didn't know that was the ending until this video. It just skipped to the final end scene. Anywaysss.... I liked it a lot.
How does Sonic Unleashed, a game released almost 14 years ago, have better animation than this next gen game?
No idea, it makes you wonder where their priorities is when they're making these games.
@@mechajay3358 i believe unleashed was supposed to be the last mainline game so they had the budget with that game
Why do people associated the passage of time like it means anything? All being "next gen" means is that they can make things bigger... And that's about it. Even then, it usually takes a ton of extra work (hence this Sonic games having far and away the longest dev cycle we've ever seen for the series).
Unleashed has better animations because they had more time to work on them (helps that there were very few dedicated animations in gameplay). In Frontiers, they had less time to work on them (because they had to spend all that time making everything else "bigger"). That's all it is.
@@Kisaru1000 Because the passage of time DOES mean something. foundations aren't built for no reason. you're meant to expand and improve upon them. if they nailed character animation a decade ago, then there's no excuse to stagnate this hard. EVERY other company gets critique for that. and no, im not talking about CG. in-game animations.
Hello, Sonic Mania's achievements with improving the things that were already there in 1,2,CD,3K?? does that game not exist as proof of that..
you say they had more time to work on Unleashed its animation. source? You do know that the Hegdehog Engine which Unleashed used was not only developed, but used for the game right. 06 and Unleashed are 2 years apart so I'm not sure how you came to the conslusion that it had more time in the oven compared to Frontiers, 5 years later after Forces, with an engine that had been built years before Frontiers came out... how do you explain that gap?
this next gen stuff really did Frontiers well on some aspects. it generally looks really nice, graphical fedality is amazing. effects look fantastic, models look more polished than Unleashed, and way sharper. it looks great. but that's about it. you say "it means they can make things bigger", but what does that mean when the scope is so small?? production value used to be better. why do you excuse that?
@@ilay_ux I can't tell if you understood what I said or not?
For one... Well, it sucks, and I'm not defending them, but 3D Sonic games have almost never built on past foundation. They usually start things from scratch, *maybe* carry over some stuff, but they'll eventually drop it and start from scratch again. Again, absolutely not defending it, but it's worth keeping in mind.
Also, are you talking about the in-game animation for Unleashed, or the cinematics? Because while I still agree the latter was likely better, it's worth mentioning how there were *less* animations in Unleashed than Frontiers, and thus they had "more time" to work on them individually (because there's less overall). If you're talking about the cinematics, well... That's irrelevant? Stuff like the opening everyone loves isn't actually made by Sonic Team. It was outsourced to Blurr Studio.
And it's worth mentioning that working to bring out the most of HD hardware *always* makes things more difficult. It's why game development in general is much longer now than it used to be back in the day (and it's honestly insane that Sonic Team still tried to get it's usual output for a while there). Likewise, making big dumb open world is literally some of the most intensive stuff you can do in game development. It's why most open world-esque games usually have to sacrifice *something* for the sake of it. Since it's always compared to, Breath of the Wild is probably the most noteworthy. It had to sacrifice so much, make the mechanics more simple, have very few new items, have extremely dumbed down dungeons, have very little enemy variety, have basically no structure; all things that previous Zelda's did better, but BOTW had to sacrfice... For the sake of the big HD open world.
The entire reason Sonic Frontiers had a longer development cycle than any other Sonic game is because of the open world stuff. And likewise, any of the more deficient points are also no doubt because time couldn't be put into those areas *as* much, because everything was put into the HD open world.
The fact is this, corporations are not your friends.
I haven't played but boy am I happy to see constructive videos like these
If Frontiers gets a follow up, they better ditch the Boost style gameplay that's really holding this thing back.
If they created spectacle trough the world design and Sonic's moveset itself, they wouldn't have to rely on these stupid Rude GOlberg machine chain reaction boost area's for spectacle.
And if since Sonic Unleashed Sonic Team STILL hasn't solved it's shortcomings, heck, even made them WORSE since, clearly their heart isn't in it, and most definitly their brains aren't.
Kinda sad, for all their big talk that this new game would be as different from the previous 3d Sonic games as Sonic Adventure was from the Classics, it's obvious this game is still an awkward extention build on top of Sonic Forces. If you want to be bold and daring with a new direction, then start from scratch. You had the time for it.
Has no one realized that if you draw a figure 8 you get unlimited boost?
For how long
@@JustinQuinn623 for at least a few minutes, then you can just draw another figure 8 to keep it going
11:56 i never thought about that. And now I can stop thinking how that broken mechanic of forces would have been so great here
The open zones look so.... Generic.... Bland
There’s 2 words that describe the majority of modern sonic. Missed potential. Frontiers was solid but even here there was quite a bit of missed potential (mainly with cyberspace)
I'm glad you pointed out the animation thing considering this game is full price. There is no excuse for them steeping this low, even Sonic uncurling or curling into a ball looks jarring to me.. 2 frames of animation from him uncurling from ball to regular running is just gross.
He curls into a ball!? Sorry i had no idea lol.
@@Infinityflow0 Drop Dash
@@BoomSonicSuper ohh thanks for that. Honestly i probably used it once and didn't care for it. I just boost every where.
I think what Frontiers did so well with the dialogue was making every past game’s story feel significant. Before this, games would just start and have Sonic do another adventure with no connection to previous ones and I had no reason to care cause of that. It’s like the Scooby Doo effect of every episode being a new self contained mystery with the same flat characters.
But Frontiers bringing up past events, showing character struggles related to that, or making comparisons to those events with current ones cause of course they would do that…it makes me feel rewarded for even sticking with the series, feeling like my own care for these games had worth. Even the callbacks to Forces didn’t feel me with disdain.
I may not have a hugely amazing view of this game, though I do think the general gameplay was fun. At least enough to not tire me out on it.
Hello J did you hear Kevin Conroy died today. The iconic voice of Batman. Sad day indeed.😭😰😲😩😢👀
There's just some things in the game that feel like relics from a different stage of development/too timecrunched to fully flesh out. Places I thought it was very noticeable include the parry. I thought it was broken at first because it didn't seem to work when I timed the button press with the enemy attack, but then I realized it was BROKEN because you just had to hold down the button and suddenly you were essentially invincible.
It just seemed natural from every other game with parries that you actually need to time it, and the Sonic Frontiers devs must have thought that too at one point, because a couple of the map challenges involved parrying 3 slow projectiles. This is obviously braindead easy as you just hold the input, but later versions of the challenge had you parry only 1 projectile, but it was faster. Regardless, it's just as easy (technically EASIER) as the early versions. I feel that's a dead giveaway that they wanted to make the parry more skill based, but either didn't have time to fully implement it, or there was miscommunication between developers of different aspects of the game.
I think that could also explain the difference between how difficult it is to S-Rank 1-2 compared to later levels. Maybe 1-2 was developed earlier on when they didn't have as clear an idea of how difficult they wanted S-Ranks to be. This is more speculative than the parry theory, but the difference between barely inching through S-Rank with optimal gameplay on the second level of the game versus beating S-Ranks with 30 seconds to spare in the final levels is too suspicious.
TL;DR: Like most modern Sonic games, it needed a little more time to cook in SEGAs oven.
I think 1-2 had overtuned S rank because they didn't want the player to have that many vault keys after tutorial. 1-1 had overtuned ring requirement instead of time (it might be impossible to get all red rings, enough normal rings and S rank in one run without magnet dashing). If you finish all missions in 1-1 and 1-2, you need to find only one more Cyberspace level after tutorial.
as always , good review , and it's always a delight to hear your thoughts on any sonic game
i also hope you watched "The Fall of Sonic Team: Sega's Collapse, Crunch, and Chaos in the Early 2000s" video , this was the one that made me appreciate how much time sonic team took to make this game the good game it is , although that therz is also on other video that in my openion could shed the light on why sonic frontiers has game design elements that makes it different than other sonic games like : "The Growing Pains of the Early 2000s (PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube) | GEEK CRITIQUE"
i hope you watch those videos
This feels weird, I wanted frontiers to be good, the Breath of the Wild or DMC5 of the series, and it's just sad that it ended up being so average, in any other series that wouldn't be too much of a problem, but Sonic desperately needed something more, it's just sad at this moment. Great video though, I'm looking forward to your next projects.
Exactly man
🤓
One thing I didnt hear you talk about was the voice acting. Everyone barring a few characters sounded pitched down and Sonic sounds like he was smoking newports.
They were trying to go for a moral mature feel but yeah lmao
16:29
Are we just gonna ignore how smooth this transition is?
Island 4 and 5, from what data miners have said, are actually labeled as Island 1, meaning the chaos Island was originally meant to be the final Island. Island 1,4,&5 were all either one big island originally or just a crop, copy, paste job.
*Also Drop Dash was better in Lost World than in here. Something else to note is that in Cyberspace, is that the drop dash is more powerful than the boost itself.
Cyberspace's boost is so incredibly inconsistent. Sometimes it feels like it barely does anything (especially in 2D) and other times it feels okay. I genuinely think that each level has a different top speed when boosting.
I think the Drop-Dash being faster than the boost is actually a good thing. Boosting is used for maintaining speed once you're already moving, and the Drop-Dash is used for starting off.
I just wish that there was a regular Spin-Dash - just a way to initiate a Drop-Dash without having to jump three times. And I also wish you could boost to get out of the rolling state.
I did not know this game reused maps. That's very disappointing. I usually think developers would enjoy making maps for sonic games. I guess something went wrong along the way and they either needed to save time or money. Either way I won't be playing this game.
Facts
I admire the humility in your review. You're not sugarcoating it, just to say what the viewers might want to hear.
I have seen so many overly positive reviews of this game, I felt like something was suspiciously ignored.
Most people just say that it's "really good" without giving context.
No people enjoy it and also see issues it's just you being a negative kid
@@lazyvoid7107 They sure don't talk about the issues. That's how Sonic Team has been selling every single game so far, no matter how bad. Living in a bubble is nice, but only for the one in it.
I like to weight my choices by looking at the pros *and* cons.
@@CaptainFalcon333 don't talk to this guy. He's going around in reply sections trying to silence criticism against the game
Finally someone agrees with me that this game isn’t all the great.
Shit was terrible
I'm gonna say it, Open World Sonic is a brilliant idea.
ZONE
Yes yes it is
I’m not much of a “The year is [insert year here]. This game should be like/look like this”.
I more concentrate on whether I’m having fun with what I’m playing or not. Not if some other game did something better. It’s why I can still play old games for the first time and still have fun with them, not say something like “It was good/looks good for the time).
Frontiers has been really fun for me in all aspects honestly. My favorite thing is probably the combat. I have no idea why people find the need to compare it’s combat with DMC or some other strictly action game. I love the combat because it doesn’t slow the game down and I still feel just as fast as I usually do. It also feels pretty fluid to me. When I press buttons, things happen without delay. I also think this is the best Sonic has controlled in any 3D Sonic game since the Adventure games. I wasn’t sure during my first 5 hours, but now, I think I can confidently say that I like Frontiers more than Generations, which I already was a big fan of. I just hope Sega doesn’t throw out this formula in favor of going back to the ol’ boost gameplay. If they stick with it, I can totally see my future favorite game on the horizon. Luckily, even outside the fandom, the general sentiment seems to be the Frontiers is, at the very least, an enjoyable time. I hope Sega sees that.
The Super Sonic boses were flashy, but way too simplistic for my tastes.
You can also do a figure 8 on the ground with a Loop to give yourself infinite boost for awhile. Combine that with max ring speed and you can make some insane speed and distance pretty fast.
The gameplay was janky af for me especially in cyberspace and the quality of the islands definitely tanked once I got to chaos island but the boss battles were definitely the best in the sonic franchise (minus supreme and the end) and the combat was fun. I just hate how everyone is saying “this is a new base for the future of sonic games” like we didn’t just wait 5 years for this game and will probably have to wait 5+ more years for the next one.
I hate the fact there’s so much you need to do between bosses. It’s a good story but spending so long grinding keys and such to play? Yeah, not as fun. Bosses were great.
What system did you play on
Sonic fans have to wait 5 years for a new game
Zelda fans: rookie
True
@@noahbusch7542 Its not so much farming for keys as killing enemies for gears is so satisfying and epic… and Cyberspace… despite being short levels… are a nice change of pace and gameplay
I honestly don't see how people are giving it a 9 or 8. I actually agree with the 7 it currently has.
El juego es un 8. Darle palos de mas es injusto.
Sonic attacks seem like they're inspired by the movie sonic. I hope they expand on that and make knuckles or tails playable again in the future.
Sonic Team has flat-out said the movie inspired the game's combat, so that's fairly confirmed.
Definitely a step in the right direction. The dialogue alone bumped it above forces for me
Iizuka mentioned that only 60 people worked on this game, which does explain some it's technical problems
On top of that it would of came out last year had Iizuka not convinced sega to delay it
While I do respect your opinion. I actually believe that this was the game that needed to be made to bring back sonic to the main stream and I love it for that, it's story, the references to other media in the series, the game play, characterization, bosses, and the music.
Didn’t they do that with the movies?
@@thatitalianlameguy2235 thats sadly true
After my first playthrough, I notice things brought up (from your vid, Johnny vs., and others) that I didnt even do:
1. I played on Normal so didn’t even know that the shooter boss was the True Final when on Hard Mode
2. did not know when you draw an infinity symbol using Cyloop, you get a temporary infinite boost meter
3. certain dialogue about characters that Sonic mentions when stopping at certain places.
Also with DLC incoming, perhaps barren spaces on the islands (ex Island 4) will have more things to encounter?
Anyways, great review as always , J. While not perfect, this game evolved the Sonic formula in so many ways that Im looking forward to a polished sequel down the line.
I wonder if you'll talk about the timeline/s in one of your next three videos.
I look forward to you next three videos, and your future videos in general.
I like Sonic frontiers. It is a good game, I played half of it and I honestly think that it's a good game I like the combat and the sense of speed I also like the voice acting because Sonic is actually taking things seriously.
Really glad you gave your honest thoughts on Sonic Frontiers. Despite me really enjoying this Sonic game because I haven't enjoyed a 3D Sonic game since Generations. You were overall fair with the game and I agree the game is pretty janky but I can see improvement for this formula keep up the great content and I'm looking forward to more stuff you have.
how the hell did you comment 11h ago?
how you typed this 11hrs ago💀
bro can see the future💀💀
@@whoisyousos Patreon I’m pretty sure
@@theminecraft2516 I see you in every video
i definitely agree with you on the parts about the final islands and the final boss but its funny that you decided to start skipping the cyberspace levels right before they started making actually really good and originally designed levels
I keep feeling like the only guy that got worried about what i saw when it was revealed, thought it didnt look like sonic and the open world segments didnt look right, and now that it's released, my fears are 100% on point and I just dont want this.
why is it so hard to make a sonic game? he's the simplest character in the world
Nintendo had this down pat with mario years ago. Both gameplaywise and aesthetically. Where sonic can't seem to nail down either. They were close between unleashed and generations, but now once again seem to not know what they are doing the moment they decided to drop the boost gameplay for something different.
So it feels weird seeing the game get overall decent praise and reviews and reception. I cant help but think, "have these people played a sonic game before?"
So its refreshing seeing a more in line review with that sentiment
literally 31 years later from, from failure to failure. i still can't believe sonic has not died yet
To everyone tired of hearing about momentum: Too bad. If a Metal Gear game didn't have stealth, it would be fair to complain about it. Just like momentum in Sonic, it's the entire premise and appeal of the gameplay from the very first game. If you take it out, you no longer have a Metal Gear game. You just have some other game wearing Metal Gear's face.
It's cool that the islands feel lonely and isolated, but Breath of the Wild and every BotW-like open world game from the past five to six years already did that. It's not the vibe I'm looking for in a Sonic game.
To be fair, something intentionally alien can work well, melancholy especially.
game's still mid as fuck tho, yeah.