Fun Fact: the Head of Sonic Team Takashi Izuka has fought SEGA to delay Sonic Frontiers to holiday 2022 as it was originally supposed to release at holiday 2021 to celebrate sonic 30th anniversary but he known that the game is not ready so I understand that thay didn't delay it again
When I'm talking about how I want SEGA to delay Sonic Frontiers, I'm specifically talking about SEGA. It's very clear that Sonic Team weren't allowed to finish the game because as developers, if they were able to, it'd be finished right now.
SEGA needs to stop rushing out mainline and remastered games just to meet an anniversary deadline. A practice that nearly killed the franchise back in 06. Just goes to show that they barely learned from then because 06 has wild potential to be great. Not sonic genesis though…I don’t know how you mess up a port of Sonic 1 but that’s beyond me.
@@Matthasnocuts True I no longer blame Sonic Team after learning more what goes on behind the scenes it's Sega's fault like why do they have an iconic mascot like Sonic if Sega won't show Sonic the love and respect he deserves.
12:00 They never said the chaos Emeralds originated strictly from the Gaia temples. Just that they were sort of like placeholders or locations to hide away the Emeralds.
I'm probably in the minority when it comes to how I feel about the after-credits scene. I fully admit that I'm an emotional baby who can barely handle sad endings because they make me feel sad and I already feel sad enough just being a Sonic fan as it is. But I don't think the emotional weight of Sage sacrificing herself as a payoff for her character arc is really undermined that much by her coming back. If anything it just seems like the right move for Eggman as a character because at his core he's a super genius with willpower and tenacity that can only be rivaled by Sonic's own, and the drive to bend reality itself to his whims, so to me it makes sense that he wouldn't be content wallowing or grieving but instead find a way to get back what's rightfully his. Hell, he already did the same thing reviving Metal back in Sonic 4. Eggman just loves his kids.
He’s like Bowser: a terrible ruler, a strangely terrific father. Also, the stinger doesn’t make it clear just HOW back she is: she could be back like nothing went wrong. Or maybe she was brought back from a previous state, being a computer program. Or perhaps something else. Even if it’s the first of these, the emotional weight is still there, because, unlike with sonic, we had NO evidence that they would be willing to step into the plot to save Sage. Sonic is essential to the franchise, Sage is not: they could kill her off for real, and that makes her survival _more_ poignant, not less It’s also easier to explain that Shadow’s survival
I always had a feeling Sonic Frontiers would be good. Even when people were saying the game looked bad a few months ago, I still had hope. Now that the game is out, it's great knowing that the game is good. The game has a lot of issues, and I wouldn't say it's "amazing," but there is still a lot to appreciate about Sonic Frontiers (Plus, it's a lot of fun to play).
If you’re referring to the model or the animations well I don’t see anything wrong with them. But I do hope they start minor fixes on the game throughout it’s time
@@ViltrumiteIsRite99 I was so happy they bothered to make a pinball game cause it fits sonic so well, that I was only getting tired of it right as it was ending
@@ViltrumiteIsRite99 I mean, I was just trying to get the highest possible multiplier rather than brute forcing my way through that mini game Definitely a very weak part of the game to be fair tho
@@myakudoyoru Increasing the multiplier is THE only way to get CLOSE to succeeding. It’s trial & error until you figure that out, OR your ball goes down the gutter. The worst part is that gutter balling is completely out of your control.
@@ViltrumiteIsRite99 You must be crap at pinball. Cause I can't like I have no idea what you're talking about. I got to the pin ball, played for like 5 mins and it was over. Simple as that. Lmfao
I like to think the ending where Eggman restores Sage happened after weeks or months of trial and error to bring his daughter being desperate. There is rarely an instance where Eggman does not monolog or hold a conversation while working on a computer. The fact that he does not say a thing conveys to me how important and complicated this is for him as well as how focus he is.
This Game feels like there's Finally a Understanding of the World and Characters of the Franchise and a Love and Passion to it as Well,Sega and Sonic Team Knows what to Do Going Forward and what the Franchise Truly Needs.
Biggest surprise of 2022 for me. Already beat the entire game twice, and I loved nearly all of my time with it. Yeah, there’s definitely some major issues with it, but never enough to bring the game down. Honestly, if they do end up going through with this formula in the future like they said, Sonic Frontiers 2 will end up being one of my most anticipated games ever!
And the fact they’re adding free dlc and most likely patch updates will only make this game better, i hope the new story does make updates to the base story, maybe to rhea island and supreme hopefully
There’s a lot Sonic Frontiers did to innovate and try something new. Sure, there are also things that are not so great about Frontiers. But this is just the beginning for what is to come. I have faith that Sonic Team will continue to improve the Open Zone formula, listen to feedback, and create even more memorable stories as the years go by.
This is another fan game made official but unlike Mania this one falls flat. What does it innovate on? What here have we not seen in any other Sonic the Hedgehog game? This is Sonic in Xenoblade Chronicles or Breath of the Wild or Roboblast 2 but worse, and Roboblast 2 is a friggin Doom 1 mod, for an almost 20 year old game FFS. And it's free and runs on anything that's not as old as Doom itself. And moddable itself. Edit. Sonic Frontiers is being made in Roboblast 2. Whoever Sega got to make Frontiers shit the bed hard. It's heavily based on multiple open world Sonic fan game concepts but Roboblast 2 is the only one with lasting replay value. I don't understand how "fans" can only dig so deep about a subject they supposedly are fans of. If you're invested in something fully enough to get the best experience possible, why settle for less?
I think they should do something similar to sonic adventure and Sonic unleashed by makin an open hub world in a city setting but have more to do in it like Frontiers but also add more actual levels and make them longer and be part of the Story
One thing very worth mentioning is that Sonic Team addressed the "autonomy" issue with boosting. From the inception of boosting, you just press a button and Sonic is virtually invincible, can kill all enemies without much issue, and runs through the stage at lightning-fast speed. In Sonic Frontiers, to boost, you have to press the movement stick + the boost button, otherwise the boost button will do nothing. Also, Sonic can no longer boost through enemies. This makes boosting require much more prudence when executing. Also, they shortened the temporary invincibility after you lose your rings. For example, in previous games, after you were hit by spikes, there was a good few seconds that sonic could still run on the spikes while being invincible. In Sonic Frontiers, after you get hit by spikes, you cannot continue running on the spikes because you will immediately get hit again. Things like these make the game satisfyingly harder in my opinion. They enrich the experience and kudos to Sonic Team for adding them in. Also, love the soundtrack! Probably the best in the series. P.S. Sometimes it is not so easy for a game to be delayed even if it is in its best interest. All projects have stipulated timelines and hard budgets. Sonic Team probably depleted all its budgets and couldn't delay it any longer even if they wanted to. In my opinion, Sonic Team made the best out of their situation and offered us what they could given the circumstances. Hats off to them for giving us Sonic Frontiers.
15:28 small correction. The purple moon is implied to actually be its true form and it appears in all difficulties, it’s just that the only way to properly fight it is in hard mode. 17:53 also the reason why The End blowing up isn’t a good thing is because it is still alive and is launching an attack, so what sage actually does is deal the killing blow. We can tell this because there is still a sliver of health on the health bar.
27:29 On the last island, there's a conversation Sonic has with Sage in an optional conversation, and it reveals that Sonic was able to escape cyberspace because of them being his memory.
the only thing that can top sonic frontiers is how much effort was put into this video. Good job Matt, this is probably the most in depth review on anything ive ever seen.
I never got the impression that the Chaos Emeralds were required to restore the world in Unleashed in the past. It just expedited the process since Dark Gaia was awakened early, and the temples were only truly necessary to restore the Emeralds' power. So I don't think that Frontiers retcons Unleashed.
It could also be that EVERY Planet in this series with complex life has a corresponding gem or set of gems, with Earth’s being the Master Emerald, and the Gaia cycle was intended to work alongside the M.E. originally.
And frontiers dont even explaine where the emeralds come from They came to earth with the ancients but not only was the master emerald always here but the emeralds are said many times that they appear where they are needed the most So they could just have appeared in the ancient homeworld due to the end coming while also being used in the gaia temples because they were needed there
i think the cyberspace being based on sonic’s memories came from not only reusing level assets, but also the entire scrapped amnesia plotline that would’ve better explained the cyber corruption and lost sonic voice lines found in the game files where sonic slowly loses his memory while restoring his friends. all in all the story we got feel like a watered down version of what they’d planned which is disappointing but i still enjoyed it
Unfortunately, the end boss was planned to be as epic if not even more epic than the previous titans, they even were going to use a different design, but they couldn't do it because due to time constraints
Sonic Frontiers is currently tied as my favorite Sonic game with Unleashed. It is a very flawed game, but something about it is really fun for me! The good moments clearly outweigh the bad, and I’m really excited for the future of Sonic!
Which Green Hill, chemical plant, Sky sanctuary being the only "Returning" stages is still a huge kick in the balls in this game for me still. The cyberspace could of definitely been a lot better than what it is right now. Especially for rewarding the player for getting S rank in every single cyberspace level (which I did and I was baffled that there was no secret or reward from it as opposed to older sonic games that did that)
13:50 I think what happened in this scene is that they are basically soaking all the corruption away from Sonic, as the corruption itself came from rescuing Sonic's friends. By reversing this process, it brings Sonic back to normal, but causes them to be trapped into the digital dimension again, only this time they can't interact with Sonic right now. That's why after Sonic defeats The End, all of his friends pop out of this dimensional portal, ending the corruption in the process.
Dude, your delivery is so natural and seamless that I genuinely didn’t know if these were scripted or not until you showed it onscreen. Either you’ve got a teleprompter for all the live shots or you committed all of that to memory and actually pulled it off like a pro. I’ve tried it myself and I can say it’s NOT easy. Very, very impressive 👍
the ending honestly excites me because I think there's a lot more to sage "returning". Eggman's hesitation to click the button, the fact sage would have seen this coming if it was so easy, implies to me something darker, that even if he has brought sage back, he's brought the end back with her. If they go that route there is a ton of amazing parallels with Gerald they can make with eggman looping his character around to SA2 perfectly and I think frontiers is setting up a major plot arc in these elements. I like the end boss fight but I do wish the prior boss had been more epic, I consider the end as a bonus because I don't think we're done with it, but Supreme being such a let down hurts that bonus. Also I think that symbol going forward represents the end, given it represented cyberspace that the end inhabited.
53:14 while yeah, the devs probably never finished that part of the island, that part of the island is one of my favorites in the game, because you can just run around, have fun and look at the beautiful world around you without having to look at some ugly rails everywhere. I wish there was a mode that could turn all the rails and other stuff off, so you could just run around and look at the view
Ian Flynn (the writer for the Sonic comics in Archie and IDW) was a big help in terms of charcter writing. Also, Frontiers does indeed mention the events of Unleashed, so it doesn't really retcon anything about the Chaos Emeralds, but it certainly adds more questions to it, especially the Master Emerald now.
Imagine how much better this could have been with the actual finishing of the polish. The final boss could have be truly impressive instead of just a bit of gaming nostalgia.
I want to say for the after credits ending, in defense of it. As you said, this game thematically follows up on Adventure 1 and 2. Which they did very well, and I agree with you. One of those thematic callbacks is the way that Sage scarifices herself in the final fight, similar to how Shadow sacrificed himself in the final fight in SA2. And we all thought Shadow was dead after that game. What did Sega do next? They brought him back in the very next game, and it turns out he DIDN'T die when he fell back to the planet. Why? Because at that time, and what still mostly applies after even to this day...after Sonic, Shadow is the most popular character in the Sonic cast. And I think the same logic can be applied to why Sage survived. Looking online, I think it is safe to say that Sage is a successfully popular new character that Sonic fans have embraced with open arms. And I believe Sega thought, instead of spending at least two games "explaining and undoing" Shadow's death and new place in the canon...they just put her recovery in the post credit scene so fans can be assured now, instead of waiting who knows how long until the next game to see if Sega would say she survived or not. And Eggman using his genius to recover Sage's data from Cyberspace...is honestly a more neat and explainable reason for how she survived than Shadow surviving falling from orbit (though now Sonic can too from Unleashed...so I suppose it is at this point equal relative explaination between the two...) Point being: Sega figured Sage would be popular, and learning from how they handled Shadow, figured it would be best she survived in the post credits, so it would be a nice after bonus for fans who liked her, without "fully ruining" her sacrifice.
I would like to think eggman scramble to receive her data from the remains of the explosion and because of that he could only recover her but the real question is was in space or earth and was Sage the only survivor
Fun fact about Chaos Island: It actually IS possible to 100% the island and *then* get the Emeralds. You know those flying enemy bird things? You parry the laser and then parry the bird and jump on its hook to swing on top of it. You can ride the bird to the small island without needing to activate the death egg robot.
Finished the game with out mods. And I went back and installed the cyberspace and open world momentum mods. It really does change the whole game for me. It makes cyberspace actually fun more me.
I gave up on momentum, too many people fight us on it and it stresses me out. I chalk it to they hate fun and suck at games and I will continue to love Sonic and enjoy his games with or without momentum. But if we do get momentum gameplay again I will cry of happiness
Sonic can still be fun without momentum. Obviously if Sega and Sonic Team took advantage of it, the game would be amazing, but depending on how the game works around without it, it can still work.
I actually liked the Ikaruga fight at the end. It's kind of par for the course for Sonic's final bosses to be cool in concept but have gameplay which doesn't really reflect what the rest of the game had been like up until that point. Don't get me wrong, it is still a shame because the Titan fights were such a remedy for everything Super Sonic fights in the past got wrong, but at the same time it's a pretty worthy challenge compared to those fights which were really meant to make Sonic feel "undefeatable". And at least the hacking mini-games beforehand get you accustomed to the controls before throwing you into the fray.
It’s also not THAT different in basic structure to the Sonic and Knuckles or Sonic Advance 1-3 Supersonic fights. It’s not the same, and it’s still a bit of a bummer since we know they can pull off fancier, but it’s not an utterly alien gameplay feel to sonic
I belive the fact that the cyberspace stages is based on Sonic's memories makes sense and suit the whole concept of Cyberspace, since the anciens created it to save thier history, memories and wills. In other words, the game made it clear that the memories of those who are using Cyberspace affect it. Or maybe that's just me😛
I actually like Rhea Island after completing it. It's very relaxing compared to the rest of the Islands and also refreshing to not seeing any bounce pads or grind rails everywhere. Just taking in the environment and atmosphere. Having to run around in the island freely without much in the way (aside from stupid pop-in) feels so good even if there's nothing much to do in the island after beating it.
Not sure if somebody already said this but apparently in the Japanese localization of the game, Tails mentions that they can drive back Sonic's corruption since them being in cyberspace made them immune to it or something like that
Y'know... there's a lot of people saying that it retcons sonic unleashed But it doesn't? Yes, Chip said that the battle of light and dark has happened since forever, but he NEVER said that the emeralds had always been involved.
51:30 speed highway intensifies rhea island is also an actual copy of kronos island, im not sure how different the two of them really are, but it was definitely a strange decision what they did with it all around. it could have easily been a complete island, with the towers instead of chaos emeralds
For a sequel, make Ian Flynn writer over the whole script, a singular open world. Oceans to run on, beaches to explore, cities to escape from, etc. And get rid of the boost and stick to a modern adventure style of momentum.
@@noone-mo6gy Ian knows less considering the amount of false information he spews which he makes fans think is "continuity correction". Sonic is finished at this point and Sega should find a new development team.
@@bakedbeans5494 no if you're asking me, Sonic Team should find a new company to work for, it is clear that Sega JP doesn't give a shit about this franchise, rushing their devs and screwing over independent companies if they can get turn an easy profit, why do you think we don't see games like Burning Rangers, Jet Set Radio, or NiGHTS anymore? It's because they don't make as much as Sonic does.
@@noone-mo6gy Those franchises are irrelevant to the iconic hedgehog named Sonic. Sonic Team are still tied to Sega so you're basically asking everyone to lose their jobs. A better development team won't allow their team mates to blatantly lie to their fans and have more than 60 members. At this rate, Platinum Games should be incharge but I don't trust them with improving the lore.
Wut Sonic team needs is MANPOWER. We have a team of 60(almost mostly newby sonic) devs workin on a AAA GAME while also havin to release the game on almost EVERY DEVICE under the sun(OG Xbone/PS4-Series X/PS5, THE SWITCH, & PC), While doin wut Sonic Team does best doin somethin completely diff that No ones done before(atleast not quite like them). It's hard to compare to somethin like GoW: Ragnarok which has the EXACT opposite situation i.e. HAS EVERYTHIN goin for it. But while not exactly even a 9 for me I love this game & the overall direction of the franchise & if they take the bulk of the criticisms (they prob will) & SEGA HIRES MORE they'll do Amazin next time(I alr believe they did great despite it bein ROUGH imo). I have a few issues wit the story like wit wut they do wit Tails feels like an overcorrection for the past decade & that part in particular feels like Ian Flynn bein like "HEY LOOK AT ME I'M FIXIN IT THAT'S COOL RIGHT?" Completely forgettin Tails HAS been on his own before like say UNLEASHED. Tails was done "well" for the most part I feel but it wasn't so much execution or intentions but direction that bothers me. Puttin so much attention to the "inconsistency" doesn't help & only tends to backtrack his character to Adv 1 days which now that I think bout it might be the point for everyone to some degree. A spiritual reset that only regards the 2010's beyond the offhand reference cus that's wut ppl didn't like. U can def tell Ian Flynn is tryin little by little is tryin to insert HIS SONIC into the writin & even shows this wit the random refences to boom/idw stuff that wasn't a thing before like tangle/sticks. He's luckily bein held back by the overall plot by SEGA he still has to work under but who knows how long that'll last. Sometimes the writin feels like the WRITERS talkin to u DIRECTLY instead of lettin it jus play out in the story naturally. I'd have jus done Sonic lookin behind tails in slight amazement before smirkin at how focused tails is at the task. The references R great & I LOVE the continuity but that suffers a similar issue to a less egregious degree like when they haphazardly mentioned Dark Gaia jus cus they couldn't find a better way to integrate it. It jus feels so tongue in cheek like "don't wanna piss off unleashed fans"(I'm Unleashed fans & I'm pissed now so good job). Also Sages' relationship wit Eggman while endearin comes off a little cheep & is also HELLA inconsistent wit the egghead for the past 30+yrs(I like Sage though). Knuckles was good don't get me wrong but he's def the more openly introverted type than Sonic is so him outright sayin he envies Sonic feels slightly out of character & I don't think it would be that hard to "fix" this, jus change/add a few parts while keepin the same overall conversation. Amy feels like her Boom self to an extent which makes sense but I think that's fine since Boom Amy is my fav ver(actually was wut got me to like/understand main Amy after hatin her for yrs lol)but I will miss her more loud hyperactive self in the older 3D games(such character progression on my part lol). Initially I was worried for the story CUS It was Ian Flynn, I got a love hate relationship wit his writin in IDW after bingin the past 50 odd issues. He created & I kid u not THE ABSOLUTE WORST "SONIC" I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE! I CAN'T EVEN SAY IT'S ACTUALLY SONIC JUS SOME OBOMINATION THAT WEARS HIS SKIN THERE TO FRAME HIMSELF AS SUCH! But aside from mostly that in particular I can't deny he & his team know the characters really well for the most part. He's a really "good" writer but not the best "Sonic" writer imo. I'll say that while NOT "perfect" Frontiers Sonic is technically much better than before(even though I don't hate meta era Sonic lol(aside from Lost world). He feels like a nice in-between of OG/Meta era Sonic which is nice (Meta era Sonic has never outright gone against anythin that makes sonic, sonic & surprisingly keep a lot intact in the most subtle of ways despite the writers mostly never bein that familiar wit the games till maybe forces). This game from gameplay to story is the most ambitious since 06 & the third most ambitious of ALL the games under Adventure 1/06 & Imo it succeeds at it overall & I'm excited for the next thing to come but all this has made me come to a realization... Western writers shouldn't touch sonic games no matter how well they know the universe/characters or how "good" of a writer they R. I think it'd be best to jus leave it to Japanese writers mainly CUS of the way they write (that in particular is somethin hard to explain even if u're a weeb like me lol). They seemed to have a "finesse" to writin Sonic not jus in games but any media by them & always keep consistent to a surprisin degree(there felt like unspoken nuance to it). Western writers can't do it the same cus their priorities R diff. Sonic from the beginnin has always had trouble from the first game wit translatin himself over & funnily enough it wasn't till 06 where that was finally bein fixed for the main games but that only lasted till 2010 where SEGA tried addressin ppl's "issues" wit 2000's Sonic stuff & we're only jus fixin it now after a decade cus they were too afraid. & by usin Ian Flynn for writin it shows they still somewhat R. I jus hope the award they'll get for this doesn't get taken too far like wit Lost-World/Forces but the difference is the issues now will be so subtle unlike before even Sonic fans won't see an issue overall. I really liked the more questions than answers approach lore stuff with the Emeralds. I don't EVER want a true answer on wut they R or where they come from beyond the vaguest possibilities. From wut I can tell the ancients didn't CREATE them they jus used them before anyone we've known up to this point(which kinda leaves the Gaia temples up in the air but whateves ig). & EVEN THEN the M.E. IS STILL a HUGE MYSTERY cus IT WAS ON EARTH 1ST! I was initially VERY worried but save for wut may come in the future I LOVED THIS APPROACH SO MUCH! I liked CS at the end despite agreein it's the worst part. The reused level design wit these controls is so unique in a fun way despite the awkwardness. That Should prob control either more like pure boost(say colors) or the open zone(FUCK THE DRIFT STAGE THO). No more SS/CP(I've given up on GH lol). While the 2D stages were the worst part of CS(I have NO issue wit 2D in modern Sonic AT ALL) for me I really liked it in Chaos Island(really adds to the Chaos lol) tho I admit it can be a bit much sometimes & ur not always afforded an easy exit when u enter accidentally. Chaos also prob should've had a diff sign to indicate if there was a collectable or a traversal object(i.e. springs etc.) to cyloop on the ground. I liked Unleashed combat more(despite not bein the best at DMC/GoW kind've games) but Frontiers has a mostly simpler "Sonic'y" approach that'll prob work for more ppl especially cus it's more directly integrated without havin to "completely change character/playstyle"(tho the parry is a bit too easy to use especially on hard where at least there they def could've tightened the window a bit). I think the last 2 "Islands" should've stayed as 1 but SEGA prob really wanted that "5 Island" headline as a strong markettin ploy. I also really liked the Final Final boss bein a Toho bullet-hell Ikaruga kinda thing(felt like somethin outta Nier). Though I did get the feelin playin it there was somethin missin(like there was supposed to be 1 extra faze that would truly cap it off that was left out purposefully). I think boost in Open Zone is nice but could do more, 1. Make the "super boost" mode after Ring collectin allow u to walk on water, 2. Let that same boost damage enemies a little(like a combo starter). It's def weird that that the boost won't jus go without needin the stick & I'm not the biggest fan. More carry over from jumps like other boost games would help immensely(It's a little too hard to make simple jumps over small gaps). Arcade mode could def use additions in the form of Boss Rush, the pinball minigame, & toho space shootin. GIVE ME PROPER DRIFT FOR CS AT LEAST! Sry for the essay but I needed to air my grievances/worries before I switch gears &... CONTINUE TO PRAISE THE FUCK OUTTA THIS GAME CUS SONIC IS TRULY BACK BABY WOOOOOOO (I got more to say in a reply below)
I wanna talk bout the Jp script for a moment I LOVE THIS SCRIPT WAY MORE THAN WUT FLYNN COOKED UP The dialogue can be hella stilted, awkward, & unfittin at times(no shortage in-part cus the cutscenes were made purely for the eng script & nothin else). Despite that while there R a few moments I think flow better in eng, most of the Changes Jp makes have a MUCH better flow in the story for me(I actually didn't laugh at the Sage cryin scene wit the song/flashbacks from 5-20 mins ago for once lol. Since the context is diff it's less jarrin) Amy, Tails, & Eggman R the MAIN highlights for me. Amy is more consistent wit her character & WAY less vague bout the love shit she was spoutin & the change her journey wit her Koco brings great buildup to it. Eggman is WAY more subtle AND MORE BUILT UP towards his newfound care for Sage which is SO MUCH more consistent wit this 30+ yr character who's never cared for anyone but himself & his pride in his extraordinary creations(the final scene where eggman reaches out for Sage before pullin back & clenchin his fist hits WAY harder). I HATED THE BIG TAILS CUTSCENE that deals wit his character near the end. Havin his character become "inconsistent" is retarded. The changes aren't even huge on a surface level but usin the Koco to help show Tails has his own way of doin things that work for him same as Sonic is WAY better. The eng script was an overcorrection that hurt his character more than it helped imo. Even the way Sage is has a lot of cool changes from her bein more direct bout murderin sonic(lol(& more calculative soundin most of the game overall) to the way She describes him throughout the journey bout how he won't stop runnin even if it kills him cus that's the only way to make sure he doesn't die which to me holds more weight than "Farewell Hero"(they even made the "Goals" reference scene better by addin in the animal capsules lol... SPEAKIN OF). THE WAY REFERENCES R HANDLED IS WAY BETTER cus instead of jus haphazardly tossin any callback in at places it's unnecessary(fortunes, DARK GAIA, STICKS) they're only brought to bring context, info, & elaboration on current events yet R still plentiful to a bearable/highly appreciable degree. The Scene where Amy, Tails & K(heh) save sonic from the cyber-corruption is explained WAY BETTER & thus doesn't come off as a pure "Friendship" cliché (It still is but u get me) & the cheesy music DIDN'T help the eng script imo. Knucks is the weirdest for me but overall I'd say they're bout equal in things I liked/disliked(his was the only 1 in Eng I had little to no issue wit minus this ONE bit of dialogue but I love the very diff direction Jp takes it too). The Jp script was able to make Flynns Script "SO MUCH BETTER" & keep MOST of it intact while not steppin all over his toes & I didn't think it would be possible without a massive do-over yet THIS WORKS SO WELLL(again minus the stuff I mentioned at the beginnin)!
Cyberspace having three pallettes sucks a lot. We could've had more looks like Rainy Rooftop, Fallen Kingdom Valley, Star Light Zone. But they need another chance on Cyberspace. They need to make things a whole bunch better.
It definitely would've been interesting if Sonics friends gathered the Emeralds to bring back Sonic and even unlock a new form combined with the corruption
I absolutely love this game and I still do to this day. It's not my favorite Sonic game of all time, but it is my favorite 3d Sonic game. However if there's one thing I wasn't sure about (which there are a few), it's Eggman's portrayal in the story. Yes, he feels more human and less of a joke, especially in his father-like relationship with Sage, but when Sage suggests that he team up with Sonic in order to succeed and to keep Eggman safe, Eggman is so reluctant and negligent in doing so. This felt weird to me considering the fact that Eggman has collaborated with Sonic multiple times in past games, even in moments with stakes as high as in Frontiers. Idk it just felt weird to me.
Sega’s biggest problem is the fans. The same people saying it’s been 5 years that’s too long for a new 3D Sonic are saying they needed to push the game another year or two.
I know the automated sections weren't that interesting but I just loved watching Sonic zip and zoom across the world,grind on rails and jump on balloons and do cool flips ^_^ It was really satisfying for me hehe.
I gotta disagree with you on bringing sage back. Especially younger fans or anyone who appreciates eggman and sages relationship the most would get the warm and fuzzies from this. I for one am happy they reunited. However I agree it is problematic on what can they do no next especially with Eggman and maybe Sonic. Personally having her alive at the end makes her marketable so though bringing her back in dlc would make her sacrifice more impactful it would tie their hands a little bit as not spoil anyone on such a thing. I think the choice works on both giving Eggman growth for a next story and there is certainly more she would know that could be in used in dlc story if they are going the sequel route.
I personally give it a 9.5/10. I really don’t have much bad to say about it aside from the pop in. The open zone is fun to just roam around in, the combat is excellent, the titan fights are a rush, the story is great, and my favorite part believe it or not is the Cyberspace. At first it was my least favorite part, but honestly the movement tech in Frontiers is amazing that allows you to pull off badass runs. Plus the level design in them is really good. I haven’t had this much fun in boost style games since Unleashed and Generations. If they fix the pop in and release the new playable characters then I would give it a 10/10 and it would be my #1 sonic game. As of now I have it at #3. 1. Unleashed: 10/10 (Werehog is based af) 2. Adventure 2: 10/10 3. Frontiers: 9.5/10 4. Adventure: 9.5/10 5. Generations: 9/10 Mania would also be a good contender for the top 5 I just had Generations edge it out.
I must be in the minority, as I loved the Ikaruga-like boss fight. The music made me feel like I was going to cry, and controlling Supreme, I felt like I was one of the Ancients avenging the destruction of their homeworld.
YES SIR I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS. WOOOOOO i have beaten the game twice so far but i will beat it again also matt can i just tell you. I BOUGHT SONIC UNLEASHED FOR PS3 AND I LOVED IT thanks for saying its the best sonic game lol cuz i would have never bought it ( cuz of the werehog BUT I LOVED THE WERHOG but eggmanland made me prettt mad
Frontiers is the Unleashed to Forces' '06 (If that makes sense), meaning the next games in the franchise are looking up to be good, if we think of it that way.
What’s really cool I noticed from playing the game is that they’ve really captured the feeling of freedom and feelings of loneliness and how sonic interacts with his friends on a much more emotional and understanding level then in past sonic titles which is awsome and the fact that sega were going for a good story rather than just the graphics
Momentum is a *MUST* for the game. However, the parts where Sonic gets sent onto high-up platforms into the various spring and rail areas, him not having momentum was good as it felt like several times I would slip off.
it's true, some of the reduced momentum helps with tight platforming. For that reason this feels like the most precise 3d Sonic to me. Although, you still have access to momentum with rail jumping, dashing off certain objects, and the magnet dash
Sonic Frontiers doesnt retcon Unleashed by the way Its been direct in Unleashed that the Chaos Emerald never had anything to do with the Gaia Fights, and the Fight between them had allways been a thing since Creation Even Ian Flynn indirectly answered this question in his last Q&A that Ancients are infact responsible for boosting Light Gaia Strength, and the Chaos Emerald itself are never Stationary
@@noone-mo6gy The rails are looking broken right about now. And of course I'm not allowed to criticise Ian Flynn because it means that I like the Meta era along with me never beinh satisfied. The amount of meatriding is insane.
@@bakedbeans5494 bro I never said it was a bad thing to hate The Meta Era, what are you on about? I'm only asking because it seems like you blindly hate him for no reason.
For Cyberspace, I'm not going to defend the reused themes because it frustrates me too, but it's tied more closely to the story than you gave it credit. The whole idea of Cyberspace is that it stores the memories and the feelings of the Ancients and is essentially a record of their history, so Sonic entering it has the same thing happen to him. The reason he is able to escape from Cyberspace is because he is the one that experienced these memories before What I would have MUCH preferred is if we got to play through locales from the Ancients home planet with crazy out of this world visuals instead of Sonic's. Just scrap the idea of Sonic escaping because he's done it before entirely and have some cool visuals As for the level design, I'm honestly ok with it for this one game assuming they don't do it again. It almost feels like a case study of good level design by Sonic Team (which is sorely needed judging by Forces). The 10 or so unique stages in the game are really fun in my opinion, so hopefully that's a sign of things to come and they learnt a thing or two from the design philosophies of the old games. Hopefully they tweak the boost controls in the next game too and we might have a gem on our hands
27:46 cyber space taking sonic's memories is because that is what cyber space is, it isn't a place it's more of a dimension that can fold into anything depending on who uses it. The ancients used cyber space as a way to revisit their old memories. If you ask me though, I think they should have picked out levels like speed highway or unleashed levels. Way better choices and I wouldn't have minded those at all.
Loved your points about momentum and how it would improve the formula, still baffles me how people think physics aren’t important when rolling up into a ball is literally the entire reason Sonic is a hedgehog
Something I wanna point out about Rhea island is that it's not even a new island, it's just Kronos island stripped down to the bare minimum, put the maps side by side and you'll see it immediately, I realized this when I noticed the little tutorial island in the distance from the first tower, aswell as the spider web platform with the structure floating above it, and then later on when I got to the tower that's placed in the middle of the arena you fought Giganto in But that's all I wanted to say XD Overall, in general I love this game to bits, but I definitely won't deny the flaws with it
Matt the significance for the reused levels in cyberspace is because it says that sonic escaped cyberspace because the level design it tied to his memories so he's able to muscle memory his way out or something on that note
Wow Matt everything you said about the game is valid. Actually on second thought most of the stuff you said about the game requiring polish is straight facts and for me what I personally was scared of with the game would have to be the lack of moment in speed in the game.But after observing the new boost feature my hope was suddenly increased as this new boost system actually works really well for the game.For me personally I just really hate the fact that SEGA keeps reusing level aesthetics from previous Sonic Games and keeping Sonic's character design stagnant like bruh this is just sonic forces Sonic again in a different game because if SEGA was planning on using the character module they could of at least taken one from either Amazing games like Unleashed or Generations.Since Sonic looks the coolest with those designs,but anyway that's all I have to say and also I do agree with you about what you said about Sonic having the voice of a teenager but the maturity of an adult,Craig really knows how to embody Sonic the Hedgehog. Anyways Peace
28:01 meh... the only thing I can think of is, I remember The End saying that by Sonic 1st entering Cyberspace, it was able to analyze Sonic's mind and see his stubbornness and will to never give up. It then decides because of this, that Sonic is the key to escaping its prison. And one of the side stories with Sage mentions Cyberspace built its terrain based on environments Sonic has been to before, which is why Sonic was able to escape in the 1st place. He already knew where to go. So in that sense it DOES tie to the plot. But it's so minor, that I feel like they could've made it original levels and still achieve the same thing. But it's clear that this was due to a budget issue
As far as the Cyber Levels go, I 100% agree that they could've gone with more original aesthetics. Hell, imagine if the Cyber Level aesthetic was influenced by the island you were on; maybe even the level designs themselves could've also been tied to the islands, and that would have been insanely cool. That said, I can't lie, there WAS a part of me that saw the old levels in the Cyber Levels and went "Oh, that's so cool!" I may or may not have lost my shit when I saw I was on Metal Harbor. But my biggest thing here is this: I see this game as a transitional game. It's the start of something new for Sonic, and I think there was a lot they had to cover and do to set up that something new. In that regard, I kind of don't mind them getting some of these things out of the way now, if that makes any sense? I'm not saying they didn't try with this game (because holy fuck you can tell they put a lotta heart into this game), but maybe they're setting up new foundation that they can improve on with this next game. Kinda like the rough draft of a story, y'know? Gotta make something, see what works and what doesn't, and improve on it. I ultimately had fun with this game and loved it, and I want to believe that Sonic Team will see our feedback and use it to make the next game utterly insane. (All while hoping SEGA gives them the proper time/budget to do so.) And lastly: "So if you give them a map of tasks to complete, and players can complete them really fast...well, you just created a killer formula for a video game." I was 1000000% ready for you to say "...well, you just created a killer formula for people with ADHD." LOL (AND THEN LITERALLY SECONDS LATER, YOU BRING ADD UP. What a legend.)
The fact that Sonic Frontiers has more bad aspects than good aspects in every reviewer or fan's eyes really speaks about how Sonic has fallen from grace. Still, people seem to enjoy the game, like I did. This makes me confused. At the same time that this is a great first step, it feels like the first step had been taken long ago, so in a lot of aspects, this seems like an inferior version of Sonic Unleashed, Adventure and even a little bit of Lost World, yet it's so damn fun. We're so close to greatness, we were always so close to greatness, yet every time, something holds us back...Damn it, Sonic. When will it ever get better?
How did they know they could do it by all holding hands around Sonic? A question in return: when has the power of friendship NOT worked in a Sonic game?
I agree on Rodger change in voice I love that its Sonic in Rodgers Steve Rodgers Captain America voice but its still in the range of Sonic. And given the last crazy event was Sonic in war it makes sense in a funny way.
That dang last tower on Rhea island was so annoying to climb because I kept either overshooting my boosts or not activating them at the perfect frame😭😭😭 literally took me like 25 mins
As for momentum, obviously this doesnt mean its not sega's fault but I found using the momentum mod added even more replayability than if it was implemented to the base game, since sega didnt account for momentum, it lets you do some cool skips that you know sega didnt account for, and obviously because of this there are some cool skips you can do that would normally be patched up by sega
29:42 I got this game like 2 weeks ago and omg I thought I was going insane. I was like "Dude, I'm doing so well in the overworld. Why am I suddenly eating dirt here??" Since the latest 3D Sonic game I've ever played was SA2B and this is my very first step into a modern Sonic game, I was 400% ready to just write off this issue with cyberspace as a me problem lol.
honestly I couldn't have agreed with you more on the momentum take, not even taking to consideration level design geometry that would benefit momentum, but just the ease of movement that it would apply to a game like sonic frontiers, if you've played the momentum mod for sonic frontiers it is a game changer, nonetheless great video
i actully have an idea on what the end is. based off of the color choices, the random glitching when an enemy explodes, how it can nock the chaos emeralds out of sonic, and how powerfull it states it is. that makes me think, what other thing in the sonic universe could do something like that and have the same history as that? the only thing that seems similer to this is...the phantom ruby. think about it; it has glitching effects that surround it when ever a boss gets destroyed like the phantom copies do, it has almost the same color pallet, they were the only things to truly nock the chaos emeralds out of sonic besides knuckles, there incredibly powerful, and its even sum what referenced multiple times in the game aka the ikaruga areas. the 1st referance is the thing you gots to destroy. notes how in the middle is pink and around it is a red and black vortex with red lines going twords the pink thing in the middle. kinda like what happened after the chaos emeralds were knocked out of sonic and summoned a portal. this is important because this whole game is about the chaos emeralds lore and that moment is a very significant part in there story espeshaly how the same thing happens in the game when super sonic gets hit and loses the emeralds. the 2nd reference isn't a clear one but its sort of related. the final boss said by quote that it was infinite. obviously it means that it has infinite power and cant be beaten. but what if it can be interpreted in another way like referencing infinite. if this was a 1 time thing then it could just be a quiescence but it also gets reference by tails when he remembers about what happened in sonic forces, and in this moment he brings up infinite. the only true charecter we know that relates with the phantom ruby the most. based on this evidence, its not far off. but there are things that seems like abit of a stretch, but personaly i think it fits pritty damn well
28:18 "if you need another year of development, take another year of development." Sega wanted the game to come out in 2021 and Sonic Team pushed for a 2022 release date. I highly doubt sega would have let them have another year of development
This is an excellent review with very fair analysis. You echoed a lot of my thoughts. You nailed the quill on the hedgehog when you mentioned how addictive the game is when you’re running around completing a bunch of tasks in a short period of time. It was hard for me to put the game down because of how much there was to do with virtually no waiting around. I am very optimistic about the future games if they are following this style. Frontiers is an awesome foundation.
Idk, the idea of Sage being restored by Eggman at the end doesn't bother me at all. Actually, I like it that way for multiple reasons. If it was Sage's development alone, I would agree that her revival would feel cheap and overall ruins her emotive sacrifice. But I would argue that her development is heavily tied with Eggman's own development in this game. Both learn to view their relationship more than creator-creation and more like father-daughter. So while Sage's closure as a character comes from the fact that she has to let go of being with her father to save him from being destroyed alongside the world and his other creations, Eggman's closure in this game is that he, as any father would if given the possibility, tries everything in his power to find a way to restore her in some shape or form. Which he ultimately does, and is imo a perfect conclusion of how he started the game wanting the access to the Ancients' tech to take over the world (again) but ends the game with using that power to restore his daughter accessing to the Cyberspace' memory database. On that note, her return feels perfectly organic imo since the nature of her creation was heavily tied to the Ancients' tech and how they store their memories, dreams and ambitions in Cyberspace for their legacy to never be erased. Her even taking a physical form is the result of Ancient tech merging with Eggman tech. So it makes sense that her link to Cyberspace would've made some sort of backup to her being in the extensive memory bank that is that world, which would require Eggman to try everything to get that backup. Plus, for me it kinda makes it like this recovered Sage isn't 100% the same as the one that gave her life. It may be the same data, but would you really call it the same? It's like restoring Gamma. The specs and everything could be the same, but would he really be the same Gamma even if he somehow got the memories of the Gamma that went on a quest of ending the E-100 series and then sacrificing himself? At least her survival leaves some interesting questions to be resolved in the next game. How much of the original Sage is the one at the post-credit scene? Plus her survival gives her existance relevancy in the overall narrative of the next game: despite the references, I think that what Sonic was in desperate need was the introduction of another element to the franchise that was meant to have a lasting effect on future installments. In this case: the introduction of a new character that would become a recurring member of the cast, with their presence being both a change in dynamic to the classic formula and also a constant reminder of events that happened in a game like Frontiers. We may never see the Starfall Islands again (or in the near future), but the development of the characters and especially Sage's presence would feel like those events did happen, even if the islands themselves aren't mentioned again. Finally, I think that waiting to revive her for the next game would've been EXACTLY like they did with Shadow, which has yet to return in a decent way in any modern media, making many in the community wonder if it was even good for Shadow to even be revived for Heroes. We all know Shadow was revived for being popular and not because of actual plot reasons; and whatever his influence may have been in the games moving forward has all been forgotten to time and by SEGA who insist in him being portrayed as a pre-development Vegeta. At least with Frontiers there aren't economic intentions outside of the game that change the plot moving forward for the sake of better sales or popularity: SEGA always intended Sage to make it out of Frontiers alive, and I can at least respect them for being completely open about it, instead of with Shadow (who I really like) who was brought back even against SA2's writer Shiro Maekawa's wishes. Ultimately this is all my opinion tho so even with all this text, I can see why some people were disappointed that Sage's death wasn't permanent and I also think that there are things to be improved in the closure of the story overall. Great video as always and hopefully the next game may bring us an even better product so we Sonic fans continue to eat not only good, but great.
If Sega gave Sonic Team more time to make Cyberspace more functional from a technical point of view then Cyberspace would of been loved for what it could of been more than for what it was
delaying sonic games isnt the issue now, since this game was already delayed for a whole year, yet the game still has so many issues. the REAL issue now is budget. if they can increase the budget for a sonic game (60 people on a modern triple a game is insane) then a sonic game would be considered good to more casuals. just saying
@Scoursha Man, this is sarcasm if I ever seen it (if you ARE being sarcastic). Taking away Amy's obsessive personality made her character better. Heck, she's more mature now.
Amy is feminine version of "Sonic is not perfect, but..." character traits, and chases on Sonic because SONIC chases his dreams even if the world goes against him. At least try.
@@sboinkthelegday3892 "Amy is feminine version of "Sonic is not perfect, but..." character traits, and chases on Sonic because SONIC chases his dreams even if the world goes against him." --- Amy isn't that misunderstood as a character. she's just like women IRL. if you chase women or show interest, they avoid you, ignore you & treat you badly. if you chase your dreams & money, women chase you. because they want your money & resources. just like how Amy chases Sonic because he's on his purpose & not chasing her. like the famous Nas quote: "You lose money chasing women, never lose women chasing money." or like 50 Cent said: "don't chase women, chase the bag."
I'm on chaos island wish me luck but because this is a comment and not a video ill keep my thoughts short. This game reminds me ALOT of the first dragonball xenoverse game that being alot of great ideas terrible executions in sum places. But that game got a sequel and it is one of the most pkayed dragonball games because it took everything it did wrong with xenoverse 1 and fixed them AND THEN added 100 more stuff. Sonic frontiers is a good game better than when xenoverse 1 first came out imo however! It needs that little touch of polish and added gameplay to bring the full realization of the frontiers formula to life. I think everyone wants to see this game get a sequel including me So if they ever come out with one I'll be hyped and ready to dive into sega's second try with this gameplay style and story because hoo boy! I love the gameplay i love the story SA2 imo is the best but this game is definitely up there next to SA1 and unleashed.
After playing the game I think concept of the end is pretty cool and interesting. The way the dialogue is of them talking they are end all be all. Sonic Ann assume that it wasn’t their true form but could be an aspect of another entity.
My main problem with frontiers is that it has an AMAZING gameplay idea of the open world but its OBSESSED with being more than that and the things it tries are really bad, I really dont like the boost levels or the 2D sections, I think they should have completely cut out the 2D and make 3D stages that fit with open zone control. And dont even get me started on the ABUNDANCE of 2D sections in world 3
Cyberspaces were a last minute addition at playtesters' request since the open zone needed a sidepiece to break up the pace. The game definitely needed more time so they could develop something more fleshed out for Cyberspace. Here's hoping SEGA really gives them more resources because short but challenging Sonic stages have so much replayability value. And please, no more Green Hill.
That was a very good analysis. Not gonna lie, I agree with damn near everything you said, except for the super boost. I, for one, love it🤷🏿♂️. Also, for all the hate that Unleashed is getting, it's my favorite Sonic game of them all. So to see other people putting some SPECK on its name, is always welcomed👍🏿
I liked doing the little challenges to get the memory tokens, but only when the game said I needed more. For some reason, I only enjoyed those activities when I knew how many tokens I needed to find. I'll have to agree with you --- Sonic Team should make the platforming a bit more challenging going forward.
Honestly. I watched another review lately about this game... well I have to say that was the most honest and fair review I've ever seen and I think it brought up points that didn't really come to attention in this review. Also negatives.
Fun Fact: the Head of Sonic Team Takashi Izuka has fought SEGA to delay Sonic Frontiers to holiday 2022 as it was originally supposed to release at holiday 2021 to celebrate sonic 30th anniversary but he known that the game is not ready so I understand that thay didn't delay it again
When I'm talking about how I want SEGA to delay Sonic Frontiers, I'm specifically talking about SEGA. It's very clear that Sonic Team weren't allowed to finish the game because as developers, if they were able to, it'd be finished right now.
So glad they learned from 06, and pushed it back a year. Imagined if they did the same 16 years ago..
@@ViltrumiteIsRite99 06 would probably be Frontiers before Frontiers if that happened. And that is 100% not a bad thing
SEGA needs to stop rushing out mainline and remastered games just to meet an anniversary deadline. A practice that nearly killed the franchise back in 06. Just goes to show that they barely learned from then because 06 has wild potential to be great. Not sonic genesis though…I don’t know how you mess up a port of Sonic 1 but that’s beyond me.
@@Matthasnocuts True I no longer blame Sonic Team after learning more what goes on behind the scenes it's Sega's fault like why do they have an iconic mascot like Sonic if Sega won't show Sonic the love and respect he deserves.
12:00 They never said the chaos Emeralds originated strictly from the Gaia temples. Just that they were sort of like placeholders or locations to hide away the Emeralds.
Exactly. They were never from the Gaia Temples. Just a place to store them
Then why can the temples restore the Emerald's energy?
@@gunman8452 The temples could be made with the same technology as the Ancient's tech.
@@sonicmanic2556 that could be a really good plot point
@@sonicmanic2556 That does make some sense.
I'm probably in the minority when it comes to how I feel about the after-credits scene. I fully admit that I'm an emotional baby who can barely handle sad endings because they make me feel sad and I already feel sad enough just being a Sonic fan as it is. But I don't think the emotional weight of Sage sacrificing herself as a payoff for her character arc is really undermined that much by her coming back. If anything it just seems like the right move for Eggman as a character because at his core he's a super genius with willpower and tenacity that can only be rivaled by Sonic's own, and the drive to bend reality itself to his whims, so to me it makes sense that he wouldn't be content wallowing or grieving but instead find a way to get back what's rightfully his. Hell, he already did the same thing reviving Metal back in Sonic 4. Eggman just loves his kids.
I completely agree
He’s like Bowser: a terrible ruler, a strangely terrific father.
Also, the stinger doesn’t make it clear just HOW back she is: she could be back like nothing went wrong. Or maybe she was brought back from a previous state, being a computer program. Or perhaps something else. Even if it’s the first of these, the emotional weight is still there, because, unlike with sonic, we had NO evidence that they would be willing to step into the plot to save Sage. Sonic is essential to the franchise, Sage is not: they could kill her off for real, and that makes her survival _more_ poignant, not less
It’s also easier to explain that Shadow’s survival
I always had a feeling Sonic Frontiers would be good. Even when people were saying the game looked bad a few months ago, I still had hope. Now that the game is out, it's great knowing that the game is good. The game has a lot of issues, and I wouldn't say it's "amazing," but there is still a lot to appreciate about Sonic Frontiers (Plus, it's a lot of fun to play).
If you’re referring to the model or the animations well I don’t see anything wrong with them. But I do hope they start minor fixes on the game throughout it’s time
Nevermind, starting to see the issues. Still good tho
@Volt_711 nice 🗿👍
I can't believe it's been an entire month since this game came out. What a wild month it's turned out as, I'm loving every second of this game!
Including the pinball??? 🤨
@@ViltrumiteIsRite99 I was so happy they bothered to make a pinball game cause it fits sonic so well, that I was only getting tired of it right as it was ending
@@ViltrumiteIsRite99 I mean, I was just trying to get the highest possible multiplier rather than brute forcing my way through that mini game
Definitely a very weak part of the game to be fair tho
@@myakudoyoru Increasing the multiplier is THE only way to get CLOSE to succeeding. It’s trial & error until you figure that out, OR your ball goes down the gutter. The worst part is that gutter balling is completely out of your control.
@@ViltrumiteIsRite99 You must be crap at pinball. Cause I can't like I have no idea what you're talking about. I got to the pin ball, played for like 5 mins and it was over. Simple as that. Lmfao
I like to think the ending where Eggman restores Sage happened after weeks or months of trial and error to bring his daughter being desperate. There is rarely an instance where Eggman does not monolog or hold a conversation while working on a computer. The fact that he does not say a thing conveys to me how important and complicated this is for him as well as how focus he is.
This Game feels like there's Finally a Understanding of the World and Characters of the Franchise and a Love and Passion to it as Well,Sega and Sonic Team Knows what to Do Going Forward and what the Franchise Truly Needs.
Biggest surprise of 2022 for me. Already beat the entire game twice, and I loved nearly all of my time with it. Yeah, there’s definitely some major issues with it, but never enough to bring the game down. Honestly, if they do end up going through with this formula in the future like they said, Sonic Frontiers 2 will end up being one of my most anticipated games ever!
And the fact they’re adding free dlc and most likely patch updates will only make this game better, i hope the new story does make updates to the base story, maybe to rhea island and supreme hopefully
@@jayceallen6530 And, what do you think of the DLC? :)
@@proob9853 underwhelming
There’s a lot Sonic Frontiers did to innovate and try something new. Sure, there are also things that are not so great about Frontiers. But this is just the beginning for what is to come. I have faith that Sonic Team will continue to improve the Open Zone formula, listen to feedback, and create even more memorable stories as the years go by.
Besides the pop in, I really don’t see anything “not so great”. I genuinely think sonic team knocked it out of the park.
This is another fan game made official but unlike Mania this one falls flat. What does it innovate on? What here have we not seen in any other Sonic the Hedgehog game? This is Sonic in Xenoblade Chronicles or Breath of the Wild or Roboblast 2 but worse, and Roboblast 2 is a friggin Doom 1 mod, for an almost 20 year old game FFS. And it's free and runs on anything that's not as old as Doom itself. And moddable itself.
Edit. Sonic Frontiers is being made in Roboblast 2. Whoever Sega got to make Frontiers shit the bed hard. It's heavily based on multiple open world Sonic fan game concepts but Roboblast 2 is the only one with lasting replay value. I don't understand how "fans" can only dig so deep about a subject they supposedly are fans of. If you're invested in something fully enough to get the best experience possible, why settle for less?
All that just to say you didn't fw the game lol
@@Skellotronix
Absolute garbage take
I think they should do something similar to sonic adventure and Sonic unleashed by makin an open hub world in a city setting but have more to do in it like Frontiers but also add more actual levels and make them longer and be part of the Story
One thing very worth mentioning is that Sonic Team addressed the "autonomy" issue with boosting. From the inception of boosting, you just press a button and Sonic is virtually invincible, can kill all enemies without much issue, and runs through the stage at lightning-fast speed.
In Sonic Frontiers, to boost, you have to press the movement stick + the boost button, otherwise the boost button will do nothing. Also, Sonic can no longer boost through enemies. This makes boosting require much more prudence when executing.
Also, they shortened the temporary invincibility after you lose your rings. For example, in previous games, after you were hit by spikes, there was a good few seconds that sonic could still run on the spikes while being invincible. In Sonic Frontiers, after you get hit by spikes, you cannot continue running on the spikes because you will immediately get hit again.
Things like these make the game satisfyingly harder in my opinion. They enrich the experience and kudos to Sonic Team for adding them in. Also, love the soundtrack! Probably the best in the series.
P.S. Sometimes it is not so easy for a game to be delayed even if it is in its best interest. All projects have stipulated timelines and hard budgets. Sonic Team probably depleted all its budgets and couldn't delay it any longer even if they wanted to. In my opinion, Sonic Team made the best out of their situation and offered us what they could given the circumstances. Hats off to them for giving us Sonic Frontiers.
15:28 small correction. The purple moon is implied to actually be its true form and it appears in all difficulties, it’s just that the only way to properly fight it is in hard mode. 17:53 also the reason why The End blowing up isn’t a good thing is because it is still alive and is launching an attack, so what sage actually does is deal the killing blow. We can tell this because there is still a sliver of health on the health bar.
27:29 On the last island, there's a conversation Sonic has with Sage in an optional conversation, and it reveals that Sonic was able to escape cyberspace because of them being his memory.
the only thing that can top sonic frontiers is how much effort was put into this video. Good job Matt, this is probably the most in depth review on anything ive ever seen.
I really appreciate it! Thank you for watching!
I never got the impression that the Chaos Emeralds were required to restore the world in Unleashed in the past. It just expedited the process since Dark Gaia was awakened early, and the temples were only truly necessary to restore the Emeralds' power. So I don't think that Frontiers retcons Unleashed.
The Gaia Temples were a failsafe.
Yeah the temples were just to restore the Chaos Emeralds power
Nothing about the origins of the Emeralds were in Unleashed. Also the Ancients came to the planet before there was any kind of sentient life.
It could also be that EVERY Planet in this series with complex life has a corresponding gem or set of gems, with Earth’s being the Master Emerald, and the Gaia cycle was intended to work alongside the M.E. originally.
And frontiers dont even explaine where the emeralds come from
They came to earth with the ancients but not only was the master emerald always here but the emeralds are said many times that they appear where they are needed the most
So they could just have appeared in the ancient homeworld due to the end coming while also being used in the gaia temples because they were needed there
i think the cyberspace being based on sonic’s memories came from not only reusing level assets, but also the entire scrapped amnesia plotline that would’ve better explained the cyber corruption and lost sonic voice lines found in the game files where sonic slowly loses his memory while restoring his friends.
all in all the story we got feel like a watered down version of what they’d planned which is disappointing but i still enjoyed it
Unfortunately, the end boss was planned to be as epic if not even more epic than the previous titans, they even were going to use a different design, but they couldn't do it because due to time constraints
Sonic Frontiers is currently tied as my favorite Sonic game with Unleashed. It is a very flawed game, but something about it is really fun for me! The good moments clearly outweigh the bad, and I’m really excited for the future of Sonic!
Also, to be fair, The End said that it saw Sonic’s memories through Cyberspace, which is something.
Which Green Hill, chemical plant, Sky sanctuary being the only "Returning" stages is still a huge kick in the balls in this game for me still. The cyberspace could of definitely been a lot better than what it is right now. Especially for rewarding the player for getting S rank in every single cyberspace level (which I did and I was baffled that there was no secret or reward from it as opposed to older sonic games that did that)
13:50 I think what happened in this scene is that they are basically soaking all the corruption away from Sonic, as the corruption itself came from rescuing Sonic's friends. By reversing this process, it brings Sonic back to normal, but causes them to be trapped into the digital dimension again, only this time they can't interact with Sonic right now. That's why after Sonic defeats The End, all of his friends pop out of this dimensional portal, ending the corruption in the process.
Dude, your delivery is so natural and seamless that I genuinely didn’t know if these were scripted or not until you showed it onscreen. Either you’ve got a teleprompter for all the live shots or you committed all of that to memory and actually pulled it off like a pro. I’ve tried it myself and I can say it’s NOT easy. Very, very impressive 👍
the ending honestly excites me because I think there's a lot more to sage "returning".
Eggman's hesitation to click the button, the fact sage would have seen this coming if it was so easy, implies to me something darker, that even if he has brought sage back, he's brought the end back with her.
If they go that route there is a ton of amazing parallels with Gerald they can make with eggman looping his character around to SA2 perfectly and I think frontiers is setting up a major plot arc in these elements.
I like the end boss fight but I do wish the prior boss had been more epic, I consider the end as a bonus because I don't think we're done with it, but Supreme being such a let down hurts that bonus.
Also I think that symbol going forward represents the end, given it represented cyberspace that the end inhabited.
that's a cool theory and could potentially be really interesting for future storylines
It could also be a case of her having been “reloaded from an old save”, missing a lot of her earlier character development
What i liked the most was the story, It builds up from the plot of the old ones, like Rider series, Adventure and the classic's
Nope.
@@bakedbeans5494 do you have any proof ?
@@jeanevil2235 Sonic Riders isn't canon and Sonic Adventure 3 doesn't exist.
@@bakedbeans5494 okay, did you hear the egg memos ? (Sonic Adventure 3 is 2006 or Sonic Unleashed / Sonic World ADVENTURE)
@@jeanevil2235 I heard the Egg Memos and Ian Flynn messes up yet again.
53:14 while yeah, the devs probably never finished that part of the island, that part of the island is one of my favorites in the game, because you can just run around, have fun and look at the beautiful world around you without having to look at some ugly rails everywhere. I wish there was a mode that could turn all the rails and other stuff off, so you could just run around and look at the view
Ian Flynn (the writer for the Sonic comics in Archie and IDW) was a big help in terms of charcter writing. Also, Frontiers does indeed mention the events of Unleashed, so it doesn't really retcon anything about the Chaos Emeralds, but it certainly adds more questions to it, especially the Master Emerald now.
Imagine how much better this could have been with the actual finishing of the polish. The final boss could have be truly impressive instead of just a bit of gaming nostalgia.
I want to say for the after credits ending, in defense of it.
As you said, this game thematically follows up on Adventure 1 and 2. Which they did very well, and I agree with you. One of those thematic callbacks is the way that Sage scarifices herself in the final fight, similar to how Shadow sacrificed himself in the final fight in SA2. And we all thought Shadow was dead after that game. What did Sega do next? They brought him back in the very next game, and it turns out he DIDN'T die when he fell back to the planet. Why? Because at that time, and what still mostly applies after even to this day...after Sonic, Shadow is the most popular character in the Sonic cast.
And I think the same logic can be applied to why Sage survived. Looking online, I think it is safe to say that Sage is a successfully popular new character that Sonic fans have embraced with open arms. And I believe Sega thought, instead of spending at least two games "explaining and undoing" Shadow's death and new place in the canon...they just put her recovery in the post credit scene so fans can be assured now, instead of waiting who knows how long until the next game to see if Sega would say she survived or not. And Eggman using his genius to recover Sage's data from Cyberspace...is honestly a more neat and explainable reason for how she survived than Shadow surviving falling from orbit (though now Sonic can too from Unleashed...so I suppose it is at this point equal relative explaination between the two...)
Point being: Sega figured Sage would be popular, and learning from how they handled Shadow, figured it would be best she survived in the post credits, so it would be a nice after bonus for fans who liked her, without "fully ruining" her sacrifice.
I would like to think eggman scramble to receive her data from the remains of the explosion and because of that he could only recover her but the real question is was in space or earth and was Sage the only survivor
this sonic game got great story and its fun to play love how you can even use mods with it and some of the themes are hits.
Fun fact about Chaos Island: It actually IS possible to 100% the island and *then* get the Emeralds.
You know those flying enemy bird things? You parry the laser and then parry the bird and jump on its hook to swing on top of it. You can ride the bird to the small island without needing to activate the death egg robot.
Great video! Love the format of it. This was well worth the wait 😄
Finished the game with out mods. And I went back and installed the cyberspace and open world momentum mods. It really does change the whole game for me. It makes cyberspace actually fun more me.
I gave up on momentum, too many people fight us on it and it stresses me out. I chalk it to they hate fun and suck at games and I will continue to love Sonic and enjoy his games with or without momentum. But if we do get momentum gameplay again I will cry of happiness
Sonic can still be fun without momentum. Obviously if Sega and Sonic Team took advantage of it, the game would be amazing, but depending on how the game works around without it, it can still work.
I actually liked the Ikaruga fight at the end. It's kind of par for the course for Sonic's final bosses to be cool in concept but have gameplay which doesn't really reflect what the rest of the game had been like up until that point. Don't get me wrong, it is still a shame because the Titan fights were such a remedy for everything Super Sonic fights in the past got wrong, but at the same time it's a pretty worthy challenge compared to those fights which were really meant to make Sonic feel "undefeatable". And at least the hacking mini-games beforehand get you accustomed to the controls before throwing you into the fray.
It’s also not THAT different in basic structure to the Sonic and Knuckles or Sonic Advance 1-3 Supersonic fights. It’s not the same, and it’s still a bit of a bummer since we know they can pull off fancier, but it’s not an utterly alien gameplay feel to sonic
your frustration at the final boss exemplifies my exact feelings 😅
I belive the fact that the cyberspace stages is based on Sonic's memories makes sense and suit the whole concept of Cyberspace, since the anciens created it to save thier history, memories and wills. In other words, the game made it clear that the memories of those who are using Cyberspace affect it. Or maybe that's just me😛
I actually like Rhea Island after completing it. It's very relaxing compared to the rest of the Islands and also refreshing to not seeing any bounce pads or grind rails everywhere. Just taking in the environment and atmosphere. Having to run around in the island freely without much in the way (aside from stupid pop-in) feels so good even if there's nothing much to do in the island after beating it.
Not sure if somebody already said this but apparently in the Japanese localization of the game, Tails mentions that they can drive back Sonic's corruption since them being in cyberspace made them immune to it or something like that
I already figured that even in the English dub lol. They basically merge themselves into Sonic and doing that removed the corruption.
Y'know... there's a lot of people saying that it retcons sonic unleashed
But it doesn't?
Yes, Chip said that the battle of light and dark has happened since forever, but he NEVER said that the emeralds had always been involved.
My headcanon is that the Gaia temples were made as a distant successor to the tech of the Ancients.
again, congrats on 30k!
good luck on reaching 100k (by the end of 2023 maybe?)
would be cool
Bro finally this review is out, always love to hear your opinion.
51:30 speed highway intensifies
rhea island is also an actual copy of kronos island, im not sure how different the two of them really are, but it was definitely a strange decision what they did with it all around. it could have easily been a complete island, with the towers instead of chaos emeralds
For a sequel, make Ian Flynn writer over the whole script, a singular open world. Oceans to run on, beaches to explore, cities to escape from, etc. And get rid of the boost and stick to a modern adventure style of momentum.
We don't need him.
@@bakedbeans5494 always anything that he should be the one directing Sega since they clearly don't know what they want to do with Sonic.
@@noone-mo6gy Ian knows less considering the amount of false information he spews which he makes fans think is "continuity correction". Sonic is finished at this point and Sega should find a new development team.
@@bakedbeans5494 no if you're asking me, Sonic Team should find a new company to work for, it is clear that Sega JP doesn't give a shit about this franchise, rushing their devs and screwing over independent companies if they can get turn an easy profit, why do you think we don't see games like Burning Rangers, Jet Set Radio, or NiGHTS anymore? It's because they don't make as much as Sonic does.
@@noone-mo6gy Those franchises are irrelevant to the iconic hedgehog named Sonic. Sonic Team are still tied to Sega so you're basically asking everyone to lose their jobs. A better development team won't allow their team mates to blatantly lie to their fans and have more than 60 members. At this rate, Platinum Games should be incharge but I don't trust them with improving the lore.
Wut Sonic team needs is MANPOWER. We have a team of 60(almost mostly newby sonic) devs workin on a AAA GAME while also havin to release the game on almost EVERY DEVICE under the sun(OG Xbone/PS4-Series X/PS5, THE SWITCH, & PC), While doin wut Sonic Team does best doin somethin completely diff that No ones done before(atleast not quite like them). It's hard to compare to somethin like GoW: Ragnarok which has the EXACT opposite situation i.e. HAS EVERYTHIN goin for it. But while not exactly even a 9 for me I love this game & the overall direction of the franchise & if they take the bulk of the criticisms (they prob will) & SEGA HIRES MORE they'll do Amazin next time(I alr believe they did great despite it bein ROUGH imo).
I have a few issues wit the story like wit wut they do wit Tails feels like an overcorrection for the past decade & that part in particular feels like Ian Flynn bein like "HEY LOOK AT ME I'M FIXIN IT THAT'S COOL RIGHT?" Completely forgettin Tails HAS been on his own before like say UNLEASHED. Tails was done "well" for the most part I feel but it wasn't so much execution or intentions but direction that bothers me. Puttin so much attention to the "inconsistency" doesn't help & only tends to backtrack his character to Adv 1 days which now that I think bout it might be the point for everyone to some degree. A spiritual reset that only regards the 2010's beyond the offhand reference cus that's wut ppl didn't like. U can def tell Ian Flynn is tryin little by little is tryin to insert HIS SONIC into the writin & even shows this wit the random refences to boom/idw stuff that wasn't a thing before like tangle/sticks. He's luckily bein held back by the overall plot by SEGA he still has to work under but who knows how long that'll last. Sometimes the writin feels like the WRITERS talkin to u DIRECTLY instead of lettin it jus play out in the story naturally. I'd have jus done Sonic lookin behind tails in slight amazement before smirkin at how focused tails is at the task. The references R great & I LOVE the continuity but that suffers a similar issue to a less egregious degree like when they haphazardly mentioned Dark Gaia jus cus they couldn't find a better way to integrate it. It jus feels so tongue in cheek like "don't wanna piss off unleashed fans"(I'm Unleashed fans & I'm pissed now so good job). Also Sages' relationship wit Eggman while endearin comes off a little cheep & is also HELLA inconsistent wit the egghead for the past 30+yrs(I like Sage though). Knuckles was good don't get me wrong but he's def the more openly introverted type than Sonic is so him outright sayin he envies Sonic feels slightly out of character & I don't think it would be that hard to "fix" this, jus change/add a few parts while keepin the same overall conversation. Amy feels like her Boom self to an extent which makes sense but I think that's fine since Boom Amy is my fav ver(actually was wut got me to like/understand main Amy after hatin her for yrs lol)but I will miss her more loud hyperactive self in the older 3D games(such character progression on my part lol). Initially I was worried for the story CUS It was Ian Flynn, I got a love hate relationship wit his writin in IDW after bingin the past 50 odd issues. He created & I kid u not THE ABSOLUTE WORST "SONIC" I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE! I CAN'T EVEN SAY IT'S ACTUALLY SONIC JUS SOME OBOMINATION THAT WEARS HIS SKIN THERE TO FRAME HIMSELF AS SUCH! But aside from mostly that in particular I can't deny he & his team know the characters really well for the most part. He's a really "good" writer but not the best "Sonic" writer imo. I'll say that while NOT "perfect" Frontiers Sonic is technically much better than before(even though I don't hate meta era Sonic lol(aside from Lost world). He feels like a nice in-between of OG/Meta era Sonic which is nice (Meta era Sonic has never outright gone against anythin that makes sonic, sonic & surprisingly keep a lot intact in the most subtle of ways despite the writers mostly never bein that familiar wit the games till maybe forces). This game from gameplay to story is the most ambitious since 06 & the third most ambitious of ALL the games under Adventure 1/06 & Imo it succeeds at it overall & I'm excited for the next thing to come but all this has made me come to a realization... Western writers shouldn't touch sonic games no matter how well they know the universe/characters or how "good" of a writer they R. I think it'd be best to jus leave it to Japanese writers mainly CUS of the way they write (that in particular is somethin hard to explain even if u're a weeb like me lol). They seemed to have a "finesse" to writin Sonic not jus in games but any media by them & always keep consistent to a surprisin degree(there felt like unspoken nuance to it). Western writers can't do it the same cus their priorities R diff. Sonic from the beginnin has always had trouble from the first game wit translatin himself over & funnily enough it wasn't till 06 where that was finally bein fixed for the main games but that only lasted till 2010 where SEGA tried addressin ppl's "issues" wit 2000's Sonic stuff & we're only jus fixin it now after a decade cus they were too afraid. & by usin Ian Flynn for writin it shows they still somewhat R. I jus hope the award they'll get for this doesn't get taken too far like wit Lost-World/Forces but the difference is the issues now will be so subtle unlike before even Sonic fans won't see an issue overall. I really liked the more questions than answers approach lore stuff with the Emeralds. I don't EVER want a true answer on wut they R or where they come from beyond the vaguest possibilities. From wut I can tell the ancients didn't CREATE them they jus used them before anyone we've known up to this point(which kinda leaves the Gaia temples up in the air but whateves ig). & EVEN THEN the M.E. IS STILL a HUGE MYSTERY cus IT WAS ON EARTH 1ST! I was initially VERY worried but save for wut may come in the future I LOVED THIS APPROACH SO MUCH!
I liked CS at the end despite agreein it's the worst part. The reused level design wit these controls is so unique in a fun way despite the awkwardness. That Should prob control either more like pure boost(say colors) or the open zone(FUCK THE DRIFT STAGE THO). No more SS/CP(I've given up on GH lol). While the 2D stages were the worst part of CS(I have NO issue wit 2D in modern Sonic AT ALL) for me I really liked it in Chaos Island(really adds to the Chaos lol) tho I admit it can be a bit much sometimes & ur not always afforded an easy exit when u enter accidentally. Chaos also prob should've had a diff sign to indicate if there was a collectable or a traversal object(i.e. springs etc.) to cyloop on the ground. I liked Unleashed combat more(despite not bein the best at DMC/GoW kind've games) but Frontiers has a mostly simpler "Sonic'y" approach that'll prob work for more ppl especially cus it's more directly integrated without havin to "completely change character/playstyle"(tho the parry is a bit too easy to use especially on hard where at least there they def could've tightened the window a bit). I think the last 2 "Islands" should've stayed as 1 but SEGA prob really wanted that "5 Island" headline as a strong markettin ploy. I also really liked the Final Final boss bein a Toho bullet-hell Ikaruga kinda thing(felt like somethin outta Nier). Though I did get the feelin playin it there was somethin missin(like there was supposed to be 1 extra faze that would truly cap it off that was left out purposefully). I think boost in Open Zone is nice but could do more, 1. Make the "super boost" mode after Ring collectin allow u to walk on water, 2. Let that same boost damage enemies a little(like a combo starter). It's def weird that that the boost won't jus go without needin the stick & I'm not the biggest fan. More carry over from jumps like other boost games would help immensely(It's a little too hard to make simple jumps over small gaps). Arcade
mode could def use additions in the form of Boss Rush, the pinball minigame, & toho space shootin. GIVE ME PROPER DRIFT FOR CS AT LEAST!
Sry for the essay but I needed to air my grievances/worries before I switch gears &... CONTINUE TO PRAISE THE FUCK OUTTA THIS GAME CUS SONIC IS TRULY BACK BABY WOOOOOOO
(I got more to say in a reply below)
I wanna talk bout the Jp script for a moment
I LOVE THIS SCRIPT WAY MORE THAN WUT FLYNN COOKED UP
The dialogue can be hella stilted, awkward, & unfittin at times(no shortage in-part cus the cutscenes were made purely for the eng script & nothin else). Despite that while there R a few moments I think flow better in eng, most of the Changes Jp makes have a MUCH better flow in the story for me(I actually didn't laugh at the Sage cryin scene wit the song/flashbacks from 5-20 mins ago for once lol. Since the context is diff it's less jarrin)
Amy, Tails, & Eggman R the MAIN highlights for me.
Amy is more consistent wit her character & WAY less vague bout the love shit she was spoutin & the change her journey wit her Koco brings great buildup to it.
Eggman is WAY more subtle AND MORE BUILT UP towards his newfound care for Sage which is SO MUCH more consistent wit this 30+ yr character who's never cared for anyone but himself & his pride in his extraordinary creations(the final scene where eggman reaches out for Sage before pullin back & clenchin his fist hits WAY harder).
I HATED THE BIG TAILS CUTSCENE that deals wit his character near the end. Havin his character become "inconsistent" is retarded. The changes aren't even huge on a surface level but usin the Koco to help show Tails has his own way of doin things that work for him same as Sonic is WAY better. The eng script was an overcorrection that hurt his character more than it helped imo.
Even the way Sage is has a lot of cool changes from her bein more direct bout murderin sonic(lol(& more calculative soundin most of the game overall) to the way She describes him throughout the journey bout how he won't stop runnin even if it kills him cus that's the only way to make sure he doesn't die which to me holds more weight than "Farewell Hero"(they even made the "Goals" reference scene better by addin in the animal capsules lol... SPEAKIN OF).
THE WAY REFERENCES R HANDLED IS WAY BETTER cus instead of jus haphazardly tossin any callback in at places it's unnecessary(fortunes, DARK GAIA, STICKS) they're only brought to bring context, info, & elaboration on current events yet R still plentiful to a bearable/highly appreciable degree.
The Scene where Amy, Tails & K(heh) save sonic from the cyber-corruption is explained WAY BETTER & thus doesn't come off as a pure "Friendship" cliché (It still is but u get me) & the cheesy music DIDN'T help the eng script imo.
Knucks is the weirdest for me but overall I'd say they're bout equal in things I liked/disliked(his was the only 1 in Eng I had little to no issue wit minus this ONE bit of dialogue but I love the very diff direction Jp takes it too). The Jp script was able to make Flynns Script "SO MUCH BETTER" & keep MOST of it intact while not steppin all over his toes & I didn't think it would be possible without a massive do-over yet THIS WORKS SO WELLL(again minus the stuff I mentioned at the beginnin)!
Cyberspace having three pallettes sucks a lot. We could've had more looks like Rainy Rooftop, Fallen Kingdom Valley, Star Light Zone.
But they need another chance on Cyberspace. They need to make things a whole bunch better.
i can't believe that i just watched a 1 hour long vid without skip
that was wonderful
keep up the good vid friend
Receny bias.
It definitely would've been interesting if Sonics friends gathered the Emeralds to bring back Sonic and even unlock a new form combined with the corruption
This game is quite literally the epitome of “The video game ever”
Sonic Frontiers: _It sure is a video game_
3:20 HAHAHAH! THE STAKES IN SONIC FORCES ARE SO FUCKING HIGH, THEY MAKE ME WANNA MERGE WITHOUT LOOKING!
I absolutely love this game and I still do to this day. It's not my favorite Sonic game of all time, but it is my favorite 3d Sonic game. However if there's one thing I wasn't sure about (which there are a few), it's Eggman's portrayal in the story. Yes, he feels more human and less of a joke, especially in his father-like relationship with Sage, but when Sage suggests that he team up with Sonic in order to succeed and to keep Eggman safe, Eggman is so reluctant and negligent in doing so. This felt weird to me considering the fact that Eggman has collaborated with Sonic multiple times in past games, even in moments with stakes as high as in Frontiers. Idk it just felt weird to me.
Sega’s biggest problem is the fans. The same people saying it’s been 5 years that’s too long for a new 3D Sonic are saying they needed to push the game another year or two.
I know the automated sections weren't that interesting but I just loved watching Sonic zip and zoom across the world,grind on rails and jump on balloons and do cool flips ^_^
It was really satisfying for me hehe.
I gotta disagree with you on bringing sage back. Especially younger fans or anyone who appreciates eggman and sages relationship the most would get the warm and fuzzies from this. I for one am happy they reunited. However I agree it is problematic on what can they do no next especially with Eggman and maybe Sonic. Personally having her alive at the end makes her marketable so though bringing her back in dlc would make her sacrifice more impactful it would tie their hands a little bit as not spoil anyone on such a thing. I think the choice works on both giving Eggman growth for a next story and there is certainly more she would know that could be in used in dlc story if they are going the sequel route.
Also like
She’s code, she’s a program, why wouldn’t Eggman have a backup file
Enjoyed the format in this video - keep it up man
I personally give it a 9.5/10. I really don’t have much bad to say about it aside from the pop in. The open zone is fun to just roam around in, the combat is excellent, the titan fights are a rush, the story is great, and my favorite part believe it or not is the Cyberspace. At first it was my least favorite part, but honestly the movement tech in Frontiers is amazing that allows you to pull off badass runs. Plus the level design in them is really good. I haven’t had this much fun in boost style games since Unleashed and Generations. If they fix the pop in and release the new playable characters then I would give it a 10/10 and it would be my #1 sonic game. As of now I have it at #3.
1. Unleashed: 10/10 (Werehog is based af)
2. Adventure 2: 10/10
3. Frontiers: 9.5/10
4. Adventure: 9.5/10
5. Generations: 9/10
Mania would also be a good contender for the top 5 I just had Generations edge it out.
I must be in the minority, as I loved the Ikaruga-like boss fight. The music made me feel like I was going to cry, and controlling Supreme, I felt like I was one of the Ancients avenging the destruction of their homeworld.
I would have personally preferred a bit more, but yeah, it’s not as bad as people treat it as.
good thing final horizon solves the final boss problem and goes some way to explaining how the hand holding worked and what really happened there
YES SIR I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS. WOOOOOO i have beaten the game twice so far but i will beat it again also matt can i just tell you. I BOUGHT SONIC UNLEASHED FOR PS3 AND I LOVED IT thanks for saying its the best sonic game lol cuz i would have never bought it ( cuz of the werehog BUT I LOVED THE WERHOG but eggmanland made me prettt mad
I'm glad you loved both of these games!
@@Matthasnocuts pretty sure i can trust you on which game is the best for sonic lmao lol
Frontiers is the Unleashed to Forces' '06 (If that makes sense), meaning the next games in the franchise are looking up to be good, if we think of it that way.
What’s really cool I noticed from playing the game is that they’ve really captured the feeling of freedom and feelings of loneliness and how sonic interacts with his friends on a much more emotional and understanding level then in past sonic titles which is awsome and the fact that sega were going for a good story rather than just the graphics
Wow, this is a longer video than usual! No wonder it took a while
If you boost and make a figure of a shape on the ground in sonic frontiers, then you’ll actually get infinite boost
First video I’ve watched from you, really good stuff!
Welcome to the channel! Thanks for watching!
Momentum is a *MUST* for the game. However, the parts where Sonic gets sent onto high-up platforms into the various spring and rail areas, him not having momentum was good as it felt like several times I would slip off.
it's true, some of the reduced momentum helps with tight platforming. For that reason this feels like the most precise 3d Sonic to me. Although, you still have access to momentum with rail jumping, dashing off certain objects, and the magnet dash
"momentum based gameplay": *me deciding to spam spindash at every point i get to*
Sonic Frontiers doesnt retcon Unleashed by the way
Its been direct in Unleashed that the Chaos Emerald never had anything to do with the Gaia Fights, and the Fight between them had allways been a thing since Creation
Even Ian Flynn indirectly answered this question in his last Q&A that Ancients are infact responsible for boosting Light Gaia Strength, and the Chaos Emerald itself are never Stationary
Ian is wrong.
@@bakedbeans5494 bro why do you have such a big hate boner for Ian Flynn, the dude quite literally got the Sonic series back on rails.
@@noone-mo6gy The rails are looking broken right about now. And of course I'm not allowed to criticise Ian Flynn because it means that I like the Meta era along with me never beinh satisfied. The amount of meatriding is insane.
@@bakedbeans5494 bro I never said it was a bad thing to hate The Meta Era, what are you on about? I'm only asking because it seems like you blindly hate him for no reason.
The cyberspace explanation is for how Sonic can go in and out of cyberspace freely
Rodger is definitely the best sonic voice. I will say i was totally thrown off when i heard sonic hit puberty like a GUN truck
For Cyberspace, I'm not going to defend the reused themes because it frustrates me too, but it's tied more closely to the story than you gave it credit. The whole idea of Cyberspace is that it stores the memories and the feelings of the Ancients and is essentially a record of their history, so Sonic entering it has the same thing happen to him. The reason he is able to escape from Cyberspace is because he is the one that experienced these memories before
What I would have MUCH preferred is if we got to play through locales from the Ancients home planet with crazy out of this world visuals instead of Sonic's. Just scrap the idea of Sonic escaping because he's done it before entirely and have some cool visuals
As for the level design, I'm honestly ok with it for this one game assuming they don't do it again. It almost feels like a case study of good level design by Sonic Team (which is sorely needed judging by Forces). The 10 or so unique stages in the game are really fun in my opinion, so hopefully that's a sign of things to come and they learnt a thing or two from the design philosophies of the old games. Hopefully they tweak the boost controls in the next game too and we might have a gem on our hands
27:46
cyber space taking sonic's memories is because that is what cyber space is, it isn't a place it's more of a dimension that can fold into anything depending on who uses it. The ancients used cyber space as a way to revisit their old memories. If you ask me though, I think they should have picked out levels like speed highway or unleashed levels. Way better choices and I wouldn't have minded those at all.
every time they bring up a past game's story or events in a cutscene it reminds me of a family guy cutaway gag setup but without the cutaway gag
Loved your points about momentum and how it would improve the formula, still baffles me how people think physics aren’t important when rolling up into a ball is literally the entire reason Sonic is a hedgehog
Something I wanna point out about Rhea island is that it's not even a new island, it's just Kronos island stripped down to the bare minimum, put the maps side by side and you'll see it immediately, I realized this when I noticed the little tutorial island in the distance from the first tower, aswell as the spider web platform with the structure floating above it, and then later on when I got to the tower that's placed in the middle of the arena you fought Giganto in
But that's all I wanted to say XD Overall, in general I love this game to bits, but I definitely won't deny the flaws with it
Matt the significance for the reused levels in cyberspace is because it says that sonic escaped cyberspace because the level design it tied to his memories so he's able to muscle memory his way out or something on that note
Wow Matt everything you said about the game is valid. Actually on second thought most of the stuff you said about the game requiring polish is straight facts and for me what I personally was scared of with the game would have to be the lack of moment in speed in the game.But after observing the new boost feature my hope was suddenly increased as this new boost system actually works really well for the game.For me personally I just really hate the fact that SEGA keeps reusing level aesthetics from previous Sonic Games and keeping Sonic's character design stagnant like bruh this is just sonic forces Sonic again in a different game because if SEGA was planning on using the character module they could of at least taken one from either Amazing games like Unleashed or Generations.Since Sonic looks the coolest with those designs,but anyway that's all I have to say and also I do agree with you about what you said about Sonic having the voice of a teenager but the maturity of an adult,Craig really knows how to embody Sonic the Hedgehog.
Anyways Peace
28:01 meh... the only thing I can think of is, I remember The End saying that by Sonic 1st entering Cyberspace, it was able to analyze Sonic's mind and see his stubbornness and will to never give up. It then decides because of this, that Sonic is the key to escaping its prison. And one of the side stories with Sage mentions Cyberspace built its terrain based on environments Sonic has been to before, which is why Sonic was able to escape in the 1st place. He already knew where to go. So in that sense it DOES tie to the plot. But it's so minor, that I feel like they could've made it original levels and still achieve the same thing. But it's clear that this was due to a budget issue
As far as the Cyber Levels go, I 100% agree that they could've gone with more original aesthetics. Hell, imagine if the Cyber Level aesthetic was influenced by the island you were on; maybe even the level designs themselves could've also been tied to the islands, and that would have been insanely cool.
That said, I can't lie, there WAS a part of me that saw the old levels in the Cyber Levels and went "Oh, that's so cool!" I may or may not have lost my shit when I saw I was on Metal Harbor.
But my biggest thing here is this: I see this game as a transitional game. It's the start of something new for Sonic, and I think there was a lot they had to cover and do to set up that something new. In that regard, I kind of don't mind them getting some of these things out of the way now, if that makes any sense? I'm not saying they didn't try with this game (because holy fuck you can tell they put a lotta heart into this game), but maybe they're setting up new foundation that they can improve on with this next game. Kinda like the rough draft of a story, y'know? Gotta make something, see what works and what doesn't, and improve on it. I ultimately had fun with this game and loved it, and I want to believe that Sonic Team will see our feedback and use it to make the next game utterly insane.
(All while hoping SEGA gives them the proper time/budget to do so.)
And lastly: "So if you give them a map of tasks to complete, and players can complete them really fast...well, you just created a killer formula for a video game." I was 1000000% ready for you to say "...well, you just created a killer formula for people with ADHD." LOL (AND THEN LITERALLY SECONDS LATER, YOU BRING ADD UP. What a legend.)
i liked tripping over things and going flying, i dont know what it is. It was just so cool, and it gave me time to do tricks and gain points.
Was waiting for this video. Nice
The fact that Sonic Frontiers has more bad aspects than good aspects in every reviewer or fan's eyes really speaks about how Sonic has fallen from grace. Still, people seem to enjoy the game, like I did. This makes me confused. At the same time that this is a great first step, it feels like the first step had been taken long ago, so in a lot of aspects, this seems like an inferior version of Sonic Unleashed, Adventure and even a little bit of Lost World, yet it's so damn fun. We're so close to greatness, we were always so close to greatness, yet every time, something holds us back...Damn it, Sonic. When will it ever get better?
How did they know they could do it by all holding hands around Sonic? A question in return: when has the power of friendship NOT worked in a Sonic game?
I agree on Rodger change in voice I love that its Sonic in Rodgers Steve Rodgers Captain America voice but its still in the range of Sonic. And given the last crazy event was Sonic in war it makes sense in a funny way.
That dang last tower on Rhea island was so annoying to climb because I kept either overshooting my boosts or not activating them at the perfect frame😭😭😭 literally took me like 25 mins
As for momentum, obviously this doesnt mean its not sega's fault but I found using the momentum mod added even more replayability than if it was implemented to the base game, since sega didnt account for momentum, it lets you do some cool skips that you know sega didnt account for, and obviously because of this there are some cool skips you can do that would normally be patched up by sega
29:42 I got this game like 2 weeks ago and omg I thought I was going insane. I was like "Dude, I'm doing so well in the overworld. Why am I suddenly eating dirt here??" Since the latest 3D Sonic game I've ever played was SA2B and this is my very first step into a modern Sonic game, I was 400% ready to just write off this issue with cyberspace as a me problem lol.
Can’t wait for the DLC next year!
honestly I couldn't have agreed with you more on the momentum take, not even taking to consideration level design geometry that would benefit momentum, but just the ease of movement that it would apply to a game like sonic frontiers, if you've played the momentum mod for sonic frontiers it is a game changer, nonetheless great video
i actully have an idea on what the end is. based off of the color choices, the random glitching when an enemy explodes, how it can nock the chaos emeralds out of sonic, and how powerfull it states it is. that makes me think, what other thing in the sonic universe could do something like that and have the same history as that? the only thing that seems similer to this is...the phantom ruby. think about it; it has glitching effects that surround it when ever a boss gets destroyed like the phantom copies do, it has almost the same color pallet, they were the only things to truly nock the chaos emeralds out of sonic besides knuckles, there incredibly powerful, and its even sum what referenced multiple times in the game aka the ikaruga areas. the 1st referance is the thing you gots to destroy. notes how in the middle is pink and around it is a red and black vortex with red lines going twords the pink thing in the middle. kinda like what happened after the chaos emeralds were knocked out of sonic and summoned a portal. this is important because this whole game is about the chaos emeralds lore and that moment is a very significant part in there story espeshaly how the same thing happens in the game when super sonic gets hit and loses the emeralds. the 2nd reference isn't a clear one but its sort of related. the final boss said by quote that it was infinite. obviously it means that it has infinite power and cant be beaten. but what if it can be interpreted in another way like referencing infinite. if this was a 1 time thing then it could just be a quiescence but it also gets reference by tails when he remembers about what happened in sonic forces, and in this moment he brings up infinite. the only true charecter we know that relates with the phantom ruby the most. based on this evidence, its not far off. but there are things that seems like abit of a stretch, but personaly i think it fits pritty damn well
28:18 "if you need another year of development, take another year of development." Sega wanted the game to come out in 2021 and Sonic Team pushed for a 2022 release date. I highly doubt sega would have let them have another year of development
I agree about Roger. He's not my favorite, but he's definitely underrated. I'd honestly take him over Jason any day.
This is an excellent review with very fair analysis. You echoed a lot of my thoughts. You nailed the quill on the hedgehog when you mentioned how addictive the game is when you’re running around completing a bunch of tasks in a short period of time. It was hard for me to put the game down because of how much there was to do with virtually no waiting around.
I am very optimistic about the future games if they are following this style. Frontiers is an awesome foundation.
Idk, the idea of Sage being restored by Eggman at the end doesn't bother me at all. Actually, I like it that way for multiple reasons.
If it was Sage's development alone, I would agree that her revival would feel cheap and overall ruins her emotive sacrifice. But I would argue that her development is heavily tied with Eggman's own development in this game. Both learn to view their relationship more than creator-creation and more like father-daughter. So while Sage's closure as a character comes from the fact that she has to let go of being with her father to save him from being destroyed alongside the world and his other creations, Eggman's closure in this game is that he, as any father would if given the possibility, tries everything in his power to find a way to restore her in some shape or form. Which he ultimately does, and is imo a perfect conclusion of how he started the game wanting the access to the Ancients' tech to take over the world (again) but ends the game with using that power to restore his daughter accessing to the Cyberspace' memory database.
On that note, her return feels perfectly organic imo since the nature of her creation was heavily tied to the Ancients' tech and how they store their memories, dreams and ambitions in Cyberspace for their legacy to never be erased. Her even taking a physical form is the result of Ancient tech merging with Eggman tech. So it makes sense that her link to Cyberspace would've made some sort of backup to her being in the extensive memory bank that is that world, which would require Eggman to try everything to get that backup. Plus, for me it kinda makes it like this recovered Sage isn't 100% the same as the one that gave her life. It may be the same data, but would you really call it the same? It's like restoring Gamma. The specs and everything could be the same, but would he really be the same Gamma even if he somehow got the memories of the Gamma that went on a quest of ending the E-100 series and then sacrificing himself? At least her survival leaves some interesting questions to be resolved in the next game. How much of the original Sage is the one at the post-credit scene? Plus her survival gives her existance relevancy in the overall narrative of the next game: despite the references, I think that what Sonic was in desperate need was the introduction of another element to the franchise that was meant to have a lasting effect on future installments. In this case: the introduction of a new character that would become a recurring member of the cast, with their presence being both a change in dynamic to the classic formula and also a constant reminder of events that happened in a game like Frontiers. We may never see the Starfall Islands again (or in the near future), but the development of the characters and especially Sage's presence would feel like those events did happen, even if the islands themselves aren't mentioned again.
Finally, I think that waiting to revive her for the next game would've been EXACTLY like they did with Shadow, which has yet to return in a decent way in any modern media, making many in the community wonder if it was even good for Shadow to even be revived for Heroes. We all know Shadow was revived for being popular and not because of actual plot reasons; and whatever his influence may have been in the games moving forward has all been forgotten to time and by SEGA who insist in him being portrayed as a pre-development Vegeta. At least with Frontiers there aren't economic intentions outside of the game that change the plot moving forward for the sake of better sales or popularity: SEGA always intended Sage to make it out of Frontiers alive, and I can at least respect them for being completely open about it, instead of with Shadow (who I really like) who was brought back even against SA2's writer Shiro Maekawa's wishes.
Ultimately this is all my opinion tho so even with all this text, I can see why some people were disappointed that Sage's death wasn't permanent and I also think that there are things to be improved in the closure of the story overall. Great video as always and hopefully the next game may bring us an even better product so we Sonic fans continue to eat not only good, but great.
Ii I remember it right Sage revival scene is also exclusive to Hard mode ending.
If Sega gave Sonic Team more time to make Cyberspace more functional from a technical point of view then Cyberspace would of been loved for what it could of been more than for what it was
delaying sonic games isnt the issue now, since this game was already delayed for a whole year, yet the game still has so many issues. the REAL issue now is budget. if they can increase the budget for a sonic game (60 people on a modern triple a game is insane) then a sonic game would be considered good to more casuals. just saying
Yeah! More Amy slander! Good to know that taking away character traits somehow equates to adding character
@Scoursha
Man, this is sarcasm if I ever seen it (if you ARE being sarcastic).
Taking away Amy's obsessive personality made her character better. Heck, she's more mature now.
@@DarkShadowX9 I guess this is just how it is. Amy has got to be the most misunderstood sonic character but whatever
@@Barmeecarba I don't see how she's misunderstood. Can you explain that?
Amy is feminine version of "Sonic is not perfect, but..." character traits, and chases on Sonic because SONIC chases his dreams even if the world goes against him.
At least try.
@@sboinkthelegday3892 "Amy is feminine version of "Sonic is not perfect, but..." character traits, and chases on Sonic because SONIC chases his dreams even if the world goes against him." --- Amy isn't that misunderstood as a character. she's just like women IRL. if you chase women or show interest, they avoid you, ignore you & treat you badly. if you chase your dreams & money, women chase you. because they want your money & resources. just like how Amy chases Sonic because he's on his purpose & not chasing her. like the famous Nas quote: "You lose money chasing women, never lose women chasing money." or like 50 Cent said: "don't chase women, chase the bag."
I'm on chaos island wish me luck but because this is a comment and not a video ill keep my thoughts short.
This game reminds me ALOT of the first dragonball xenoverse game that being alot of great ideas terrible executions in sum places. But that game got a sequel and it is one of the most pkayed dragonball games because it took everything it did wrong with xenoverse 1 and fixed them AND THEN added 100 more stuff.
Sonic frontiers is a good game better than when xenoverse 1 first came out imo however! It needs that little touch of polish and added gameplay to bring the full realization of the frontiers formula to life. I think everyone wants to see this game get a sequel including me
So if they ever come out with one I'll be hyped and ready to dive into sega's second try with this gameplay style and story because hoo boy! I love the gameplay i love the story SA2 imo is the best but this game is definitely up there next to SA1 and unleashed.
43:13 The Fixed The Problem in the 1st Update
After playing the game I think concept of the end is pretty cool and interesting. The way the dialogue is of them talking they are end all be all. Sonic Ann assume that it wasn’t their true form but could be an aspect of another entity.
My main problem with frontiers is that it has an AMAZING gameplay idea of the open world but its OBSESSED with being more than that and the things it tries are really bad, I really dont like the boost levels or the 2D sections, I think they should have completely cut out the 2D and make 3D stages that fit with open zone control. And dont even get me started on the ABUNDANCE of 2D sections in world 3
Cyberspaces were a last minute addition at playtesters' request since the open zone needed a sidepiece to break up the pace. The game definitely needed more time so they could develop something more fleshed out for Cyberspace. Here's hoping SEGA really gives them more resources because short but challenging Sonic stages have so much replayability value. And please, no more Green Hill.
That was a very good analysis. Not gonna lie, I agree with damn near everything you said, except for the super boost. I, for one, love it🤷🏿♂️. Also, for all the hate that Unleashed is getting, it's my favorite Sonic game of them all. So to see other people putting some SPECK on its name, is always welcomed👍🏿
I liked doing the little challenges to get the memory tokens, but only when the game said I needed more. For some reason, I only enjoyed those activities when I knew how many tokens I needed to find.
I'll have to agree with you --- Sonic Team should make the platforming a bit more challenging going forward.
Honestly. I watched another review lately about this game... well I have to say that was the most honest and fair review I've ever seen and I think it brought up points that didn't really come to attention in this review. Also negatives.