Sonic Frontiers

[MindFreak]

Combat trailer released:

 

[S.C.G]

Sonic Frontiers Combat Overview Trailer

Now up on the main page.

Overview and trailer.

[S.C.G]

Sonic Frontiers Shares New Cyber Space DJ Mix Music Track

Now up on the main page.

Overview and video which contains a mix of the music you can expect to hear in the Cyber Space areas, within the game.

[Ike]

OK, this is good.

 

And if the Chao Garden is back, then it’s an instant buy for me.

[MindFreak]

 

 

[Ike]

The street date has been broken somewhere, so be wary of spoilers.

[S.C.G]

Sonic Frontiers Showdown Trailer

Now up on the main page.

Overview and trailer.

- - - - -

Is anyone considering buying this on Tuesday?

I'm considering it. I did look into the options, Xbox One or PS4 would probably provide a smoother gameplay experience, but it would be a great game to have on the Switch.

The PC version probably isn't an option, because of Denuvo implementation, which apparently makes games perform poorly, and taxes the hardware unecessarilly, which is a shame because my PC could actually run it easily, as it only requires Ryzen 5 and 8GB of RAM.

Ah well, not too long until the review embargo lifts.

 

[MindFreak]

I will probably get it for review purposes but I'm going to rush it a bit to finish the review before Pokémon hits so I suspect that I'll have to return to it once I'm done with Pokémon. 

But I do have some expectations, I find it really great that they have expanded the combat in this game. Sonic combat was always rather dull but it has always had greater potential. I do expect the world to be rather empty, though. 

[Ashley]

Just watched a video discussing the change of perception in this game, with those IGN videos being the main turning point (towards the negative). Do we know if those were made by IGN or just given to them? Looking back they were weird. 

[Cube]

5 hours ago, Ashley said:

Just watched a video discussing the change of perception in this game, with those IGN videos being the main turning point (towards the negative). Do we know if those were made by IGN or just given to them? Looking back they were weird. 

Supposedly sent to them form Sega, although I wonder if Sega expected IGN to do a bit more voiceover to explain stuff instead of just uploading them as is.

[Aperson]

Wouldn't be a new Sonic game release without someone finding some glitch or something that doesn't seem quite right and then calling the whole game bad because of it... 

 

[Hero-of-Time]

On 05/11/2022 at 10:53 PM, S.C.G said:

Is anyone considering buying this on Tuesday?

I'll be picking it up at some point but I doubt it will be on release. Sonic games tend to drop in price pretty quickly. 

I'm very interested to see how the game is received. Looking at some of the posts on Era from people who already have the game and I can see reviewers not really getting to grips with a lot of the mechanics and just ploughing through the story to get the review out.

Looking at this video, the game looks insanely fluid and I imagine a lot of the techs shown here will be needed for higher end play in order to get the better rankings.

 

[MindFreak]

That video looks really promising. Hopefully the game is deep enough to be fun for quite some time, but I do wonder how long the game is.

[Glen-i]

Credit where credit is due, it looks like the most engaging open world I've ever seen. Mainly because of the speed at which you travel.

Granted, most engaging doesn't say much when the standard for everything else (Except Octopath Traveler) is "mind numbingly boring". But hey, good for you, Sonic!

[MindFreak]

Reviews are in!

Quote

IGN – 7 / 10
GameSpot – 7 / 10
Game Informer – 7.75 / 10
GamesBeat – 4 / 5
GamesRadar – 2 / 5
Easy Allies – 7 / 10
Metro – 8 / 10
GameXplain – “Mixed”
Gamereactor – 7 / 10

Very much as I expected. But definitely quite decent. It's not necessarily reviewed on Switch, though, so those scores could be different (or less I would expect given the technical limitations). The downsides seem to be camera and technical stuff.

[Aneres11]

I will be picking it up on release as per every Sonic game ever. 

I have enjoyed all of them apart from Colours which weirdly, is the one everyone loves and the one I think is sh*te. 

I think the open world sections look terrible, but the 'levels' look more traditional. 

Be interesting to see how it plays. 

[WackerJr]

I was a little worried by the lack of Switch reviews, but they’ve started coming through it seems, which is reassuring.  I’ve just watched the GameXplain gameplay comparison and yes the PS5 version certainly looks much better, but the Switch version still looks perfectly playable and it doesn’t appear as though the gameplay is altered.

[Aneres11]

Picked this up on PS5 last night and have sunk some time into it since. 

I love it. 

But I love every Sonic game, so take what I say with a pinch of salt. 😋. I'm not blinkered, though. I know when a game is bad but this game is just... Experimental. There appears to be a hell of a lot going on to begin with, but as you get to grips with the game, the actual key tasks are fairly straight forward. 

You are thrust into a new world and the map is blank. As you do things within the world, tasks like hit switches in order or destroy a group of bots, the map fills out and new tasks appear for you to navigate to. 

Each world has the 7 Chaos Emeralds and you need to collect them to assist you with that world's boss. 

In addition, each world contains a 'trapped' beloved Sonic hero who you have to help by collecting their specific memory tokens dotted around the world. 

There are huge, like HUGE, mini bosses within the world's which you can battle, and beating them gives you an item you often need to activate a shrine which will allow you to then play a sonic 'level'. These are a mix of 2d or 3d levels and they're much closer to what we've seen from Sonic games before this one. 

All in all, the variety is jam packed and some stuff works, and some stuff is a frustrating mess. But I haven't been able to stop playing it. Sonic doesn't control well, at all. I think this is the worst he's 'felt' in a main game in years. It's particularly evident in the 2d levels. The lack of travel when moving left or right after being thrown into the air via a spring is horrible. It feels like he's moving through tar. 

You can level up Sonics speed, same with his defense and attack powers, but it's odd that he feels this slow. I definitely think that needs work. 

From previews, I didn't like the look of the open world style game play at all. But it's won me round. There's so much to do, and a lot to collect to progress the story, so it's good that they've filled the map with interesting and experimental game play elements to stop you being bored. 

Speaking of the story... It's a bit of a mess. It makes little sense (so far) but may become clear nearing the end.

Can't wait to spend more time into it. 

Edited November 13, 2022 by Aneres11

[Aneres11]

And that's the story wrapped. 

22 hours it says.

Not bad at all! Overall, I really enjoyed the game. 

My thoughts I initially posted didn't change too much as I progressed. It really is a mix of ideas thrown into one game and whilst some work nicely, others don't at all and it can cause frustrations whilst playing. 

The pop in issue which many have called the game out for is a fair criticism. It's not great. One thing I found even more annoying than that, though, was the fact that the games open world went from morning to night similar to BOTW. Whilst it works nicely in Zelda, in Frontiers it was an annoyance as when it was dark it was often difficult to actually see very much. I found the map much easier to explore in the day. Whilst some sections of the map couldn't be unlocked without an action happening specifically at night, it just felt like it was a bit tacked on. 

The bosses were as ever for a Sonic game - epic. Apart from the final boss, which was a little bit easy? I did level sonics attack and defense up massively before the boss (unintentionally) so perhaps that helped? But it just seemed like either I was overpowered (level 67 out of 99) or the boss was a bit weak. It was the easiest of the bunch put it that way. 

The story remained a mess throughout. I had no clue what was happening half of the time and I'm not particularly mad about that. I don't play these games for their enriched story, but it would have been nice to be able to follow along easier. 

The game definitely needs some QoL improvements. Whenever you activate a cyber space shrine (classic levels), there is a cut scene every time which shows sonic placing the cog into the shrine yada yada. It's skippable, in fairness, but you have to hold X down to do so. Its frustrating doing it all the time. This is the same whenever sonic finds a Chaos Emerald. Cut scene showing him unlocking the vault to retrieve it, followed by cut scene of him celebrating pocketing it. Unnecessary. 

On the actual stages, then. For the most part, good, although lacking variety massively. Just using the same 4 levels from Sonic history to base them on became a little tiring and these levels were really where the controls started to show themselves up. 

Collecting 5 red coins (or rings) in each level is par for the course with Sonic games now, and always something I've enjoyed. But aside from the odd few levels with multiple paths to take, there's no searching needed as they're often right in front of you. I feel this was a conscious effort from the developer as the times you need to go off the beaten track to get one you realise just how poorly sonics control is. Thankfully, no trophy or achievement attached to the red coins, so can always leave them but I always tried with each level as there's an in game reward for collecting them which does help you progress. 

Some elements they added in really do not make sense. There's a section late on where a door needs to be opened. How do you open it? Well, you have to play a pinball mini game and get a ridiculously high score in order to unlock the door of course. 

In another section you have to override a computer. You do that by playing a space shooter style mini game. Just zero sense. 

Theres things I haven't touched on, like Big and the fishing, but that kinda is what it is. Nothing exciting but often a welcome break from exploring. 

I'm off to mop up the rest of the trophies. 

Overall, I think this is a must play for anyone who has enjoyed a 3d sonic game. The open worlds work nicely as there's plenty of exploring to do and some nice platforming sections via springs, rails, loops, you name it. Sometimes, it is jarring when you are belting along at full speed and you hit a spring which throws you into a 2d section and then you have a completely different Sonic who moves like he's wearing iron boots, unless you boost and then he goes flying... You also can't get out of the 2d section until you go through it so if it's an area you've already done you'll often find yourself tutting and just trying to race through it to carry on as you were. 

When the game gets it right, it's fantastic. And shows there is hope yet for 3d sonic. But I've always known that. There's always been some good amongst some questionable gimmicks. But in this game, you will find yourself rolling your eyes and saying "what the fuck" a lot, or that might have just been me. :D. 

Either way, I recommend. 

 

 

 

[Hero-of-Time]

As expected, the game has dropped in price very quickly. Smyths are now selling all version for £29.99. Pretty tempted to pop out and pick it up at that price.

[Aneres11]

2 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

As expected, the game has dropped in price very quickly. Smyths are now selling all version for £29.99. Pretty tempted to pop out and pick it up at that price.

Definitely would at that price 👍🏻

[Ike]

Amazon has the PlayStation versions for £28 if you want to save a couple of more quid.

[Cube]

Started this over the weekend, finished the first island and onto the second. Loving it so far. The most surprising thing to me is just how well Sonic controls, and how easy it is to turn around and move in a small area. They're by far the best 3D Sonic controls. The open world is a lot of fun, with lots of stuff to find and neat little challenges, although some mini-games are a bit random. The bosses in the open world are great.

 

The zone levels are fine. There's a few different routes, but nothing too complicated. The biggest issue with them is just the visual theme of the level, some more variety would be very nice. I think even using the same theme as the island itself would be fine and more coherent. 

 

It does seem a bit like a mix of ideas, but it's an immense joy to play and I hope they refine it in the future and don't do Team Sonic's usual method of ditching something and trying something completely different. 

[Aneres11]

2 hours ago, Cube said:

 The most surprising thing to me is just how well Sonic controls, and how easy it is to turn around and move in a small area. They're by far the best 3D Sonic controls. 

 

. 

I think you've bought the wrong game. 

[Hero-of-Time]