I'm sad he didnt enjoy frontiers Not because he doesn't share my opinion of the game But because the man went through 13 sonic games in 7 days only to be rewarded with disappointment.
@@theminecraft2516 the forces problem it's playing itself. It have playing illusion. It's fake. I even not talking about plot. The Frontiers made only for fans. Yes for other nonsonicfans this game will seem boring with old graphic and somewhere bugged.
As a complete experience, I probably give it a high B or low A. The overworld tracks aren't bad by any means but I just wasn't feeling the vibe gameplay-wise, same with the combat music. Cyberspace, titans and final boss go crazy, so they're carrying most of the rating.
While I really really liked this game I can see why you didn't. To me, I never felt hamstrung or forced, I felt like I was playing in one big Sonic level with tons of paths. Exploring wasn't a focus for me, but mastering the island's layout was. The combat was simple but I strung together cool combos with timing and finesse, even if it wasn't needed. The story and its characters felt natural to me, and the callbacks felt as though they rewarded me for staying with this franchise by finally treating all of the games as if they're part of the same universe for once. So with all of those feelings it makes me sad that a game I really like landed with a thud for you. I respect your opinions so I get where you're coming from. For me this isn't just a "promising first step", because the idea of playing something that could one day be good holds no appeal, but rather just a game that held my interest and attention till the end. Hopefully there comes a day where everyone who plays a Sonic game feels this way instead of just half of the players.
I ended up trying the demo but when the first turn in green hill came round i realised that sonic turned for himself, felt weird to say the least. -first time playing a sonic game idk if it's normal-
why would you need to care about the island's layout? you spend remarkably little time on the ground, just using rails to basically fast-travel from one set piece to the next. there's not much to figure out
12:15 Correction, it isn't a 2nd version of the first island, it is the same first island, and 4th island, they share a map and you can out of bounds and go explore the other 2 islands without any objects loaded in. Honestly they could have done themselves a favour and make it clearly the same island that you just return to and a barrier drops or something, such as after shutting down the towers on the "Rhea" or NW of same island.
I don't know, i really didn't ever have a problem with the story when it came to the characters that mattered. it was really fun to see the characters interact in a way they normally don't. It was the koco stuff that did not really hit.
OK, but what the characters actually end up DOING is just a bunch of overdramatized fluff, fanservice and "Yo, look, guys, we know we took Tails off the rails!". Then PUT HIM BACK ON NOW instead of MAKING US AGE ANOTHER FIVE YEARS first.
the atmosphere being bleak and everyone seeming sad kinda fits what's happening imo and Flynn isn't foreign to sumber tones with Sonic characters(IDW metal virus arc) + even if it's tone down Sonic still shows confidence and smile to every situation
@@grantchampaign Now, Sega just sucks. Sega wanted this came to come out in 2021. Sonic team had a rough development with this game. First basically making Forces 2, deciding to scrap this idea, remake everything else, and call Ian, they wanted more time to make the new, they only got 1 year instead of 2 as they wanted.
@@grantchampaign you mean IDW? I don't really get what you criticizing? My point is that bleak tones aren't foreign to Sonic in general and that it can work/ it has worked in the past
@@grantchampaign ehh, they are middle of the pack between the big japanese developers. They were definiteely lacking in the 2010's, but them showing the ability to actually delay a game, listen to fan feedback over design, and actually utilize their extremely talented fandom for real games in the past 4 years show they are slowly coming around. Capcom and Bamco does it better, but they are still way ahead of Square, Koei Tecmo, and especially Nintendo and Konami in that regard.
@@kitarmix8129 I mean I never said it was a bad game, if you want my honest opinion I absolutely loved every minute of it, but the open world felt more like an experiment than anything made in confidence which I believe is exactly what it was, but it paid off because besides Chaos Island each of the open zones were an absolute treat for my adhd brain and I had a blast playing them
@@rosemarytulip355 I agree, and I doubt Sonic team wanted to release a proof of concept for 60 dollars but we all know Sega is no better than Nintendo when it comes to these things
They should've utilized the climbable mountain mechanic more. Lots of the pathways led to nowhere not even collectibles. Especially disappointing on the one on the 4th island that spanned across an entire side of the mountain over a bottomless pit and literally just ending at the edge of the map and pushes you off. Like no way was that the way it was intended to end
My favourite areas in the game were those where you could climb with no restrictions. That huge cave formation in island 5 and the basalt columns in island 3 come to mind, they're just so fun to wall run on. Really wish this mechanic gets expanded on in the next game
Honestly I think a year later and a completed update cycle, I really think Sonic Frontiers for its flaws, authentically remedies the storytelling and characterization of the franchise and brings it back to an Adventure style world. He has his attitude again but also is way more serious again and subdued the ridiculous jokes and puns. While acknowledging his history with these characters. And Eggman and his relationship with Sage was also very endearing. I get it's flaws. I really do. But I think this is what Sonic has been in the past in a more successful manner. I do agree that corporations do not deserve our leeway, but I think a step in the right direction is more impactful than you're giving credit to. That said I did think the same exact way when the game dropped. I think we are so ready when a sonic game drops to just bash and shit on it that we can't genuinely appreciate what's actually successful in a modern 3D Sonic game
Yeah I think this is a solid game. The story went back to the adventure formula and it actually meant something. The bosses are as fun as they were during the good old days of Sonic. The only gripe is that the gameplay got repetitive by the third world, but even then I still think this was a step in the right direction. Sonic Frontiers is a GOOD Sonic game that clearly took the criticism and made something good out of it. Sonic Frontiers was a passion project, and I don’t agree with Yakko’s opinion on it. But I’ll respect his opinion.
17:29 Man, I'd take everything Ian Flynn says with a grain of salt. He's been blaming shit on mandates since the dawn of his career, to shift any criticism he gets onto Sega. Apparently one at one point Sega had to make an public statement saying that they do not have hard rules for their IPs when third parties are handling them. They're are more like suggestions. Look, I'm not denying there were any mandates for Frontiers, but I wouldn't take anything Ian says as gospel. Besides, if Ian had is way with Frontiers' story, I'm sure it'd be a lot more darker than it was.
At 16:13, that minigame is not referencing Nier Automata, but yes Ikaruga. The reason for this, is because of the Light/Dark shot mechanic (or polarity mechanic) which is the main attraction of Ikaruga. Worth checking out, as it is an extremely hard shoot em up!
It clearly looks like the hacking minigame from Nier Automate (and it literally also is a hacking minigame in Frontiers) just with the main mechanic from Ikaruga.
@@python_l5367 I am literally baffled as to why those games were copied in Sonic Frontiers besides Ikaruga being a notable Dreamcast and GameCube cult classic. Is it so you can play as Tails, Knuckles and Amy as the update roadmap (oh, joy) suggests without actually playing LIKE them? That'd be a CLASSIC Sega move.
I actually have to say I've had a great time with this game. Probably top three Sonic game for me. I love the open zones and little paths that reward with memories, and it was always fun to run around but stop to do them. It's like "curated speed," it's fast and feels fun to play as it bounces you around a ton.
@@السراقالمجهول i actually love how sonic controls in this game. as soon as i let loose of the stick he is instantly stopping? He is not sliding over the ground anymore wheen i try to stop??
@@callmesnowboo So you actually HATE momentum. You're supposed to PUSH THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION TO BRAKE in those older games. How is that not intuitive? Or are you just lazy or afraid of slipping some other direction? Like, EXPERIMENT IN SAFE SPACES for once. THAT'S WHAT THEY'RE FOR.
The height of my disappointment was when Sonic got corrupted, the way Tails talked made me think I was going to play as the other characters, but then they started holding hands around Sonic and undid everything we just did to get them out. edit: OMG I can't believe they did a 180 and with the recent announcement. I'm eager for the update.
yeah that was disappointing, the way you were looking so tired and beat up prior to that made me expect the cyber corruption was actually going to lead to something interesting. Some new gameplay mode or boss, just anything special or novel. Instead they did absolutely nothing with it? Makes it seem like they were planning something but had to cut it for lack of time.
Sorry for comparing ahead of time. Spear me if you must. I don't play games like Sonic for a hard challenge. I have other games for that. It's like how I don't need Pokémon to be tough either. The difference is that Sonic Frontiers actually works. It's got enough style and substance for me to want to buy it soon, and most of my friends who got it have good stuff to say about it. As long as it's engaging enough, I can see myself pouring a lot of time into this, and unlike a certain OTHER game, it has all the basics from a AAA dev team!... I'm sorry. Gen 9 just gets me viscerally upset.
I actually really enjoyed Frontiers. I am one of the people who liked Cyberspace levels. I like the level design and hopefully we get more original zones. The Titan boss fights are the best part in my opinion. I'm looking forward to what Sonic Team are going to make in the future.
@@tehCostHD they’re basically glorified cutscenes and have very little strategy or challenge to them, which I 100% can appreciate. For example, I really like the shark mini boss which is also basically a glorified cutscene. But I would prefer the bosses at the end of each island to be more challenging. But I also can acknowledge it could be my fault, for example I could make it more challenging for myself by going in with less rings, so I might come to appreciate them more whenever I replay the game
Thank you for that ending bit Yakko. It was fittingly somber, yet cautiously optimistic, and really sold the point in a way that words can't, well as your closing was written.
"The End" didn't start talking to you at the very end. This disembodied voice was heard as the first thing when Sonic woke up on the Island. And it kept directing him to destroy the Titans, and the Towers. In fact, Sonic was tricked into saving his friends by doing actions that released it from it's prison. That was the whole point that he realized only in the end. And then he said that even knowing that, he'd still do it. Just pointing out The End was in the story earlier. But I would like it better if it had a different form than a Moon. And if we could actually see it in the flashbacks. Sega's insistence on "creating mystery" by hiding appearance of antagonists is stupid. The Deadly Six were first shown as silhouettes, despite they were plastered all over the marketing material. And their physical reveal meant nothing. Infinite's face without the mask was completely hidden in Forces, despite he turned out to be a completely new character who we couldn't have known. And then in the prequel comic, he reveals his face and it's of course no big deal. And here in Frontiers, we are presented an ominous invisible enemy that can shoot lasers from space... and then it's a Moon. Ok... but I doubt that showing how this enemy looks beforehand would change anything. It's still new enemy we never saw before. How would seeing it few hours earlier take away anything from the mystery? I guess that they didn't show it earlier because if we thought the Moon being the big bad guy was stupid the entire game, we would then assume it's gonna get subverted in the end. And when it would not, then it would feel much worse. Now the disappointment was unexpected, and so it didn't last that long.
Not that this changes much, but I'm pretty sure some of the promo art for Frontiers featured two moons in the background, with The End being one of them. Pretty sneaky, I liked that.
Fecto Elfilis from Kirby and the Forgotten Land would have been better suited for this game, fits the art direction better than the moon behind the slaughter (fnaf joke, everything purple can be equated to the purple guy aka the man behind the slaughter) I can't believe that a Kirby boss would be more at home in a Sonic game, and it's a boss that somewhat is similar to the final boss in Sonic 06 with it being two parts fused (Mephiles and Iblis forming Solaris for Sonic 06 and Fecto Forgo and Elfilin forming Fecto Elfilis for Kirby and the Forgotten Land) and now I can't stop thinking about how a Kirby game took inspiration from the buggiest Sonic game.
Yeah honestly don’t know why they have a boss like that with no supporting suspense or support for it. Like the moon gradually providing supportive buffs to enemies or always being a constant in the game, either by showing up frequently or always being a bold set piece.
@@shannonhill3356 they had a large enough dev team, bigger than sonic unleashed. They also had enough time to develop the game since their last project. How was it possibly rushed? Regardless of rushed development, decisions made throughout the first levels are not a part of rushed development but simply errors of design or developmental choices. Inconsistencies with world development, gameplay of the initial cyber worlds, and inconsistency with assets that include rails and platforming (Working as pop ups, seemingly elevated in the air without reason nor supported/ bonded by the environment itself) are all part of the reason why this game has so many glaring issues. But again, it all depends on the individual, to me it’s these points that break the game but there will always be people that support it regardless of the issues presented. We can all agree that this is at least better than forces
The most common opinion of this game I heard is "This feels like a tech demo made in Unity with Sonic plopped into it" Sonic has a very interesting world design, they could've made a 3D stilized world :c Oh you know where they do it? IN ROBLOX, THERE'S A ROBLOX SONIC GAME THAT DOES THAT CORRECTLY :|
I assume you're talking about speed Sim, and yeah, that experience's world feels more unique than frontiers. And that's because Speed Sim embraces the sonics levels are designed, instead to the awful to look at "floating everything" in frontiers. It's like how you don't question the architecture choices in Mario Odyssey because the rest of the series is like that, too.
Solar Ash is a game that I just fell in love with. The movement, art, and character design were all brilliant. It just speaks to heart machine's pure skill and talent they have behind them. I hope that someday Sega is able to make a Sonic game flow as well as Solar Ash.
Solar ash was such an unbelievable experience and just a wonderful game in general, if anyone happens to read this i 100% recommend it. I do not know what the other commenter is saying because its not in fact a roguelike at all
Man, I finally played Hyper Light Drifter over the summer and had a lot of fun with it despite not really liking a lot of 2D Zelda-likes. Guess I gotta get to Solar Ash now, too.
@@milapiepers502 wait, is not? Last time I checked I was told it was a rogue-like, wtf. Good thing because I have way too many rogue likes in my library.
You may be thinking of Hyper light drifter, which also isn't a roguelike but I kinda feel like it was lumped in with them for some reason? Completely unrelated to the topic but I dislike the name roguelike for these games as its basically just “arcade-like” instead of resembling Rogue or other traditional roguelikes
@@BlueKanary nah, I did play HLD and know it is not a rouge like, I was talking about Solar Ash which for some reason someone told me is a rogue like, thing I didn't like to know at all.
that outro was so well done, very cinematic! i could just feel how he put his hope and passion away into the closet while thinking back to all the good times he had with it. kinda gave me disney/pixar-esque vibes
The game kinda have that, everytime u get a emerald the music theme of the islands Change, so inch island have 7 versions of their themes, the bosses also have that but is more noticeable in the Super Sonic battles
Did you and the 15 people who voted for your comment even play the first level of this game??? It does have adaptive music... When Sonic speeds up so does the music
I disagree with your statement about the sliders. Sonic 3D got always criticize for its controls and finally having the ability to tweak your movement I find resolved the issue for a lot of folks
Isn't the point that it shouldn't be up to the player to get Sonic to feel right? Sure you can customize it to how you like it, but that's because they couldn't figure it out themselves. You shouldn't have to tweak the game values to get it to feel right. If many other studios can get their movement to feel good within their own games, then so should Sonic Team. It's just a band aid solution to a larger problem for Sonic games.
@@kiramaticc but sonic has been proven multiple times to be different from other games: one thing is having a common middle of the road speed like in the other platformers and then give some sort of power up or upgrade to make the movement feel faster compare to tge average speed; sonic on the other hand is always fast and have some sort rhytim to it, and what can feel easy to manage to some, its not the same for others. Its the reason why they gave a run button in Lost World, its because they got so many complaints about the movement. Besides, to have tge sliders to work, they need the base movement to also work, xnd frontiers controls very good to most people. The sliders help in case someone wants to tweak some of the movement or make it more comfortable, its not a sign of not trusting the controls
@Peringo Yeah I feel like a lot of people don't understand how even the simplest decisions can affect the design of a game as a whole. Letting the player tweak Sonic's movement may sound good on paper, but overall is very restrictive in terms of the entire game's scope. If Sonic Team decides to bring this idea forward into future Sonic games, that means they have to design around the fact that players can have different movement values. This will most likely lead to more simpler levels and challenges designed around movement because it's essentially impossible to design anything remotely complex for hundreds of different configurations for Sonic's movement, which effectively limits the potential of the game as a whole.
@@lupinthenerd439 True he has, but remember that it's devs's job to make your character move nice and to make sure the controls and movement is so smooth, Sonic is no exception to this.
@@lupinthenerd439 I said this in a reply to another comment, but you have to think about the design aspect of the game. If you let players have the ability to tweak Sonic's movement, Sonic Team will inevitably have to design around this constraint. You will most likely end up with simpler levels because it's impossible to design around hundreds of configurations for Sonic's movement. You could say that they could have a challenge to where the player has to tweak Sonic's movement to pass a certain level or challenge, but then at that point you might as well just have preset values to begin with. I don't think it's a good thing in the long run to let players edit the movement values as I believe you'd end up with a worse game.
Wait till he gets to the Pokemon scarlet review.. For real, why does every critique essay about this game sound so contradictory, like because blue hedgehog is not even an argument.
POV: The entire comment section disagrees (respectfully) I personally really enjoyed the game most of my core issues are tiny flaws that together make the game worse but the overall experience was fun for me. For a 60 person team, 18 of them being animators, on a open world game I’d say that this was a pretty admirable effort. It’s clear that around Chaos Island they were running out of time as the first 2 Islands were pretty cool. They probably could have just kept the last 2 islands as part of Kronos instead of splitting them, that way they could get away with less challenges but more spread out as well as a pallet swap. There’s even evidence that THE END was supposed to be a far grander boss fight than it was. Some improvements I’d say I want to see in the next game: More emphasis on momentum, in the games code it’s actually already in the game to some degree all you have to do is the equivalent of changing a 0 to a 1. I think the boost can stay but as a reward you get for Max Rings like how the power boost is now. Make the plot not mystery based, I like what frontiers did although I feel as if the first open world title shouldn’t have been melancholic, it should’ve been upbeat and lively. The world feels a bit dead in Frontiers because well… that’s the point BUT that doesn’t mean it’s a good thing as there’s a lack of real infrastructure and NPCs because they all kinda died along with their civilization. The next game should take a mix of the real world aesthetic and fuse it with the creativity of Sonic Heroes levels for a perfect mix that would keep things interesting as well as let the environments have signature elements such as loops and corkscrews to work with the refined momentum. Cut cyberspace, it’s a cool concept to keep the boost as a special stage only thing but unless the design and control is greatly made more fun, I don’t want it, even it it would only be 7 of them Refine the combat and make it flow more with Sonic’s signature style, the super moves are cool but it breaks the pace in how you traverse the world as well as at times it can be a bit clunky. As well as make the parry timed. Let Ian Flynn be the main writer of the story, the character dialogue he did was pretty great to me(even if it was filled with references) I wanna see what he can do with the full plot of a game like how he has in the comics If those are implemented the next could easily be top 2 3D Sonic games. Most of these changes either require a medium level rework, cutting and more focusing the content, or straight up starting fresh for the story which had to be done anyways. I have my gripes with the game but what Frontiers does well it does REALLY well. The potential is there. They just need the time and guidance to make it happen. I like the game, I do, but it can EASILY have a much better sequel especially since they are actively listening to feedback. So while I disagree with the video on some points I think others are valid even if they didn’t effect me the same way. Now is the time to be critical of not only the bad but the good as well
I appreciate your perspective and I think that SEGA needs this criticism in order to make better future games. I do think that you were too hard on the story. I actually felt something from this game, and I was genuinely engaged. I do think the writing kinda carried, but thank god we have a capable writer again. I think the callbacks were necessary for us to actually have some sort of continuation in the series for the next game. Ian Flynn was basically doing his best to fix up the terribly presented stories of the past decade, and he succeeded imo. I do think that the story around the endgame fell apart, but it picked itself up right in the final scenes to be excited for the future
@@Neoniq41 I mean yeah I hope they get it right the next game. As long as they have enough budget and time then we could get a Sonic game that's more than good.
Your smile at the end while looking at that Sonic hoodie actually stole me a tear, I kinda felt the same as you especially after finishing the game... You can see Iizuka and his team somehow actually tried to move things forward this time, the whole "One Way Dream" ending song openly being a message from them tells it alone, it's in the end a somewhat cool tech demo that might lead to something really good in the coming years, yet it sadly feels and clearly is an half-baked one, too much hit and miss on too many fronts, and I'm saying this considering the fact that I actually managed to appreciate the game as a whole even with all the problems it has, playing it I've been able to mentally go back when I was a little 6 y.o. girl playing Sonic Heroes for the first time, or when I was 11, playing the Megadrive classics and the Adventure games. I can only rise my hopes up and pray SEGA that our beloved blue blur can finally, completely escape this dumpster he's been thrown in almost 12 years ago with his next game...
What I meant to say is that, as janky and unfinished it turned out to be, you can definitely see this game has heart, that they managed to make, putting aside its countless slips and falls, feel Sonic like Sonic again after all this time. On a side note, still talking about how much the game can be utter crap sometimes now, I don't know if you knew, but that final boss fight (a really lackluster one at that) with THE END is... exclusive... to hard mode... Yes, if you play the game at normal difficulty you'll get SUPREME (the t-shirt branding) as a final boss (the whole Super Sonic space purple Moon destroying thing plays out AS A CUTSCENE), and with it being literally the worst of all the four titans... WELL... well uhh....
Awesome video. I really like what Frontiers is doing, but I think the game could use some some serious improvements if the dev team wants their newest game to be amazing. I will say this, for all the issues this game has, this game feels like a very good foundation for a future Sonic game that could improve on it and be a much better experience. And I really like your perspective on the game even if we have some different views on it.
I think the main problem with the game is the physics..not all the time in the first 2 islands the physics are good but in the third island..aka the one tails was in it..the physics are kinda inconsistent I mean not all the time but sometimes it is about inconsistent like when you are running on a ground you somehow send you off flying and ofc..the pop-in issues other than that I really liked everything else about this game..I had fun time with this game over although I had some frustrating over solving the puzzles and some skill issue I had which is normal
I think the bulk of the issues really do just come down to needing more structure in some places and more freedom in others. Frontiers makes a lot of progress, but it's all just thrown into the pot and needs time now to really get cooking. More structured and real areas over these big empty fields while maintaining the control they've started to give and easing up on the rails is the balance they have to strike. And the story could use more shakeups and dynamics through not always just being two characters talking. Have them do stuff and really get some dynamic craziness in there. In other words, use Frontiers as a base and make Sonic Adventure 3. Give them all the time and resources they need to expand where this story let off with everyone going off and doing their own thing in new places.
Make the rails, like cyber-esque, or made out of the world around them. Hell Sonic Adventure 2 the game that introduced rails, did that, and we had like interstate highways with loopyloops in them for some reason, but they stayed in the visual theme of the enviroment even if they are absolutely absurdist acts of civil engineering. Random ass loopyloops is just part of the sonic universe, we can accept that, as long as it looks like it's part of the temple or landscape or whatever. These things can work mostly as is, just gotta season them a little and add some flavour.
While I think there's criticisms to be had about a story that isn't easily accessible for new players, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing for it to be one where hardcore fans are the only ones to get the most out of it due to references/call backs. As a hardcore Sonic fan who has been with this franchise since the early 2000s and have experienced majority of Sonic's adventures right down to the most obscure stuff, it felt great to see these characters bring up past adventures. It felt GREAT to see the lore actually freaking acknowledged after so long of being ignored. When was the last time Knuckles brought up the Echidna race and his internal feelings on why he guards the Master Emerald in a 3D Sonic game? Oh... Sonic Adventure... back in 1998. I never felt that it was too much since the characters always tried to reference back to specific moments that made sense to reference such as SA1 Tikal flashbacks and the memories Knuckles had while imprisoned in Frontiers, or Sage bringing up Neo Metal as a reason for Sonic and Eggman to work together now. But anyways, I'm not expecting the constant references to be the norm moving forward in games, though, I could be wrong seeing how SEGA has created a team dedicated to Sonic lore internally. If we get more lore acknowledgment and stuff similar to the Ancients that expands the story of Sonic more, than I'm all for it.
@@j19aiden91 unfortunate, i even tolerated them reusing it in forces because they changed some of the aesthetics and it had even the TINIEST smidgen of plot relevance, but there's no excuse for frontiers doing it imo
i understand all these critiques even if i disagree, but i think context is extremely important here. factual criticism is important, but the fact sonic team is severely understaffed and below budget to make good games from sega NEEDS to be mentioned. i don't want to dismiss just talking about raw problems with the game, but this fundamental problem i feel is being ignored too much and more people with influence need to start pointing fingers at sega themselves for giving sonic team the most basic of ingredients so this literally the best they can do.
I’ve been dodging this video for nearly a year, because I loved Frontiers. And now, I’m finding myself agreeing with everything you’ve said. I just… I like this game. It’s just okay, and I’m content with that. Maybe it’s just that I was going in with low expectations and was surprised that I had fun with it, but in spite of all its problems, I like it. And all of your points are valid reasoning for being disappointed! What the hell, I’m a Sonic fan, I’m supposed to be a dick! Great video.
Very glad to see someone make the comparison between this and Solar Ash. I initially assumed we were going to be getting something like Solar Ash's bosses, only bigger and better and more Sonic-like, but that really wasn't what wound up happening here. If anything, it just makes me appreciate Solar Ash more, and makes me want to go back and replay it again.
@@EdgardR. Yes. A lot of criticism might come from the fact that it was created by the studio that made Hyper Light Drifter, and Solar Ash is nothing like their previous game. If you like Sonic games and you go in without the expectation that this is the next Hyper Light Drifter, you'll probably like Solar Ash.
@@parchmentengineer8169 complaining that solar ash is nothing like hyper light drifter is like complaining to capcom why resident evil and megaman are different.
Kinda wish Sonic's movement felt more like the game Spark The Electric Jester. Specifically the 3rd one. That game is like almost everything I would want from a Sonic game.
Sonic frontiers honest review from a true Sonic fan: Story: 8/10 Gameplay: 7/10 Music: 10/10 (and don’t debate me on this 💀) Character choice and design: 6/10 Location and sites: 6.5-7/10 Overall game: 7.5-8/10
One thing I like about sonic Frontiers is how it presented the name "Open Zone" for level design that resembles Banjo-Kazooie's type of level design, previously I used to refer to it as "Recontextual Level Design" but Open Zone fits better.
Just checked the video that gave me the name "Recontextual Level Design" and was for a different type of levels lol, but now instead of recontextual I will call it "Flipping The Castle" as done in Castlevania SOTN.
I don't know, i think it's really just a open world game. "open zone" feels like another term for marketing, i mean xenoblade chronicles 3 has a similar structure to its open world in that it is just divided in huge maps and i don't see anyone saying it is anything but a open world game.
@@brotbrotsen1100 Sonic boost games are fun to play on the PC, but when I have a good controller I miss the momentum of the 2d Sonic games and Sonic Adventure.
@@brotbrotsen1100 It's definitely a marketing thing. It seems to be working on the assumption that there is no middle ground between linear and open world games which was never the case.
I actually enjoyed Frontiers, the gameplay is fun, a mix of 2d platformer and 3d 'open world', the soundtrack is amazing, the graphics are not THAT bad and overall pretty solid game i liked it.
That's the worst part, Sonic Frontiers just sort of...happened. Regular gamers have already forgotten about it. Not to mention, it comes out after Sonic Forces, Sonic Generations, and Sonic Colors. AKA, the game that went to space, the game that went through time, and the game that did a world War. This game felt like a small sidestory, and after the end of the game, it felt like you could ignore this story entirely.
*looks at the biggest sales for a Sonic game in a DECADE* - I wouldn't call it "happened". This is a strong running start for a new type of Sonic games. Yes game itself is not a MASTAHPIECE but a solid foundation to build upon. And thanks to awesome sales - SegaSammy finally starts throwing funds at Sonic Team.
Debatable. The story links it up to Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 making it that much more important. The game is ambitious and not to mention the first time a Sonic comic writer penned the story for a game.
colors was a 2D with trash story, "went to space" is simply nothing, generations was just sonic going to places with no context, frontiers explained where did the chaos emeralds come from and eggman had a daughter, thats already enough to put it above "went to space" beyond, it is the biggest sale for a sonic game in a decade, thats not "happened"
"Ah yes, we could entirely ignore the plot of a fricking purple moon that's about to destroy the entire earth all because Eggman couldn't resist tapping into ancient technology that was sealing said entity, which is a kind of a running gag that has been happening ever since SONIC ADVENTURE." Yeah, I agree with you bro. Sonic Frontiers just sort of happened, just like Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, etc. Literally any Sonic games after Sonic 3 & Knuckles just exists without any sort of explaination WHY IT HAPPENED.
i know many would disagree w this review considering how they feel abt the game itself, but it should be reiterated that one of the main criticisms is that the game is still fundamentally flawed; it's a fantastic sonic game but it is not a fantastic game per say. praising the game for being a step in the right direction is fine but a step in the right direction does that mean that fans should be satisfied w the overall quality of the game. it's fine to enjoy the game like i did, but sega still needs to step up their game.
Also, all the praise is at best a backhanded compliment. We are basically thanking Sonic Team for coming to their senses and correctly dismissing Forces at best, 12 years of games on average, and 24-27 years worth of games at worst. Frontiers is not a jewel - its the mineral that deserved to be underground and never admired before it becomes a jewel at best.
I have a feeling this game is gonna have the sonic unleased treatment in that people will hate it at first then after some years go by it will become liked by the majority.
Honestly, I doubt Frontiers will be given a lenient treatment. Like Origami King, it actually comes close to a good game under its franchise while still maintaining many of the bad elements of everything else, and might even just by a coat of paint splashed over a turd. The fact that it comes close means that Frontiers will be the most contentious game in perpetuity until people become tired of Sonic.
@@iantaakalla8180 you know what? I don't care if I'm gonna get hate,I don't care if it's not like the 1st 3 games,Origami King was a blast and I wish more people appreciated it Yes,even the old ones are good,yes,Sticker Star was a travesty,but the last 2 ones have a certain charm I really like about them Not perfect by any means,but I'll say they are a sort of "guilty pleasure" for me,and if I'm being completely honest I... surprisingly have more unpopular opinions when it comes to Mario than Sonic
This reminds me a lot of the sonic adventure era. There were the people who called them the best in the series and others who said it's where sonic started going downhill. Opinions are very mixed.
Then you obviously have never played them in the first place. And no, at release they were universally praised. Frontiers is just a confused overcorrection. Wasting time with tedious chores or mediocre Boost to win stages is not exactly an improvement.
@@yrooxrksvi7142 well I have played the adventure games. When they came out it was rather acclaimed, but now I see more mixed opinions. On the topic of frontiers though, idk. I think it has a functional core gameplay loop. It just needs more solid and consistent physics for some. And while you could consider the challenges "chores" you don't have to do them which doesn't excuse them, but at least puts them out of the way so they're never really overbearing or feel like an imposition.
I personally was hooked on the game when it first came out I believe the music was fitting having a natural orchestral genre to represent the ancients and their old but extremely advanced technologies and sonic discovering it all and I really enjoy how the characters interact with one another and how they aren't making bad jokes and people like knuckles have their main roles back and they are there own characters like when Amy actually argues with sonic and questions his decisions at one point
I have enjoyed playing Frontiers so far. It’s not an amazing game by any means and there’s a lot of problems, especially with the art style, level design, and storytelling. I think that in general, however, it’s a lot of fun to blast around a big open zone at high speeds. I just kinda wish there was some more color to it all.
Most Sonic games are 7/10 or 8/10's, people like these games so much because it's Sonic, and that isn't always a bad thing, Sonic carries charisma wherever he goes to, the franchise gameplays both 2D and 3D were totally different than most things that came before, you can put Sonic in Assassin's Creed and it still would have the chance to be considered good
@@Colecionador7162 Some of them are, sure, but I honestly think Frontiers is more like 5 or 6. I don't feel like it's a good game on really any level, and basically every issue mentioned in this video was felt deeply when "playing." Because it didn't feel like I was actually "playing" the game half the time, as the game plays itself. Why even go "open zone" when you're clearly not given the tools to explore or play it in any way other than one specific, heavily linear route?
While I promptly disagree with your sentiment I basically expected it when you dismissed the Boost formula in general. You don't like Modern Boost gameplay and even though I think Frontiers is an amazing step in the right direction for Sonic I understand this game is definitely not something you'd like. Just me watching your videos in general just clued me in so it makes 100% sense. Respect your opinion, but yeah 100% disagree as a fan who has played every game under the sun.
I believe the wording you are looking for is that you like how expensive the game feels . A fantastic looking game with no gameplay is like a car with no engine . As much as i hoped that sega would nail this game and make us a game we would be proud of as a community it appears i was too ambitious.
@@TheFallen092 "Expensive" Isn't a word I think anyone would use to describe Sonic Frontiers ha. there is always the one who projects their own opinions onto others lol.
Pokemon is similar to the Sonic franchise, both highly respected and beloved franches that sell really well that are completely neglected and exploited by their respective publishers that just cobble together these games on a shoestring budget to make maximum profiit. We need to stop buying these games and review bomb them instead of just accepting these sloppy ass games
@@danculbert6349 frontiers is being review bombed, it's just being bombed with positive reviews. Sonic and Pokemon will never be good and their own fanbases are the reason
@@melissamaga hoping the game doesnt have bugs isnt impossibly high expectations. why are sonic and pokemon fans just fine with mediocre or okay games?
@@Princeomishore that was definitely not his only expectation? besides im not okay with it at all, but to compare it to the last pokemon games is way too much
@@melissamaga Yeah the new pokemon game has some good ideas but is held back by inexcusible technical problems. Meanwhile the new Sonic game is held back by really poor design ideas AND inexcusable technical problems! Definitely an unfair comparison to pokemon
Sonic Frontiers feels like you are a game tester running through a world of nothing but earth to check if the scenery looks nice and then the next thing you know you just discovered someone’s first G-mod creation on the steam workshop or you found your old copy of Shadow of the Colossus and decided to play that instead
Oh yeah, while other people praised Tails in Frontiers, I hated that they made his past horrible behavior canon. Flynn thinks he's helping, but he's really breaking Tails. He even had Tails say: "That only means I am inconsistent!" Inconsistent? What's next, will Tails start complaining that he's badly written? Well, why not...
I don’t think Tails will be like that, but if Tails does not show significant growth in character come the next few games then I will consider this wasted. And since this is a Sonic game when they are trying, they will dismiss Tails’ character here.
I mean, in a game that is determined to continue the games having a canon again, having Tails address his problems instead of erasing them from canon is in my opinion way more respectable. Sort of like a "confront your issues instead of running away from them" thing.
@@yutuberocks22 yeah, but that needs to be done more subtly. Tails should have said something like being unsure or not himself lately or something like that. Not the characters spouting list of random references of their past actions without any context. They don't even talk about chronology or reasons behind why it happens. And Tails literally says he's inconsistent. What kind of dialog is that? It's completely 4th wall breaking.
@@iantaakalla8180 the problem is that it's so far only happening in dialog, but it's completely divorced from the actual plot of Frontiers. The plot of Frontiers is that Tails is in a ghost form for the entirety of the story, so he can't do anything... And so they have to talk about other stuff to pass the time. And they decide to talk about the past games where things not relevant to this story happened, and decide that Tails should repeat his character arc of Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, because apparently the later games soft rebooted it. So all this dialog does is to create the promise that Tails will no longer be helpless cheerleader in the next Sonic game, and they even outright state that he's gonna go on his solo Adventure. But again, it's all just dialog irrelevant to the events of Frontiers, no actions. And funnily enough, at the end Tails tells Sonic: "I want you to see the hero I have become!" As if the promised solo adventure already happened when we were not looking. So yeah, for the next game, they have to deliver on the promise of solo Tails Adventure. If not, this whole shtick was just an empty talk.
@@yutuberocks22It would've been much better for SEGA to decanonise the Meta Era, make a full public apology for hiring Pontac and Graff and then permanently blacklish those incompetent, stupid idiots from working on the Sonic franchise.
I love sonic frontiers. Call it what you want, but I loved every 20 hours I spent trying to beat the game. And the soundtracks, I could listen to “I’m Here” for HOURS on end. But yes, while the parry kind of sucked, I loved the perfect parry they added in the new story update. (I also thought the Super Sonic V2 was sick as heck) and this may sound cheesy, but I kind of felt bad for eggman at the end, it showed that maybe Eggman wasn’t fully a bad guy, and he cared for Sage. Great game, I still play it all the time
Idk man, this game has some really great bones. Here’s to hoping sonic team sees this as a solid win like so many of us and use this title as foundation for future entries in the series. I think I’ll look back on this game very fondly for its ingenuity of the sonic franchise. ❤
by good bosses you mean half of them you have to deal with some dumbass gimmick until you can actually hit the boss (which isn't hard its just boring) and barely utilizes the full potential of the combat system since most of them can just be beat by mashing buttons (hell you don't even need to parry most of the time)
@@rushisbased4581 hey man let that man have his opinion not everybody is as ungreatful as yall motherfuckers negative about everything yall have to much in this day and age you might be wishes you enjoyed more things several years from now its fine if you dont like the game but I have seen to many of your types already let him feel how he feel about the game if you dont like it just deal with it not to mention this game comes after a game as bad as forces its a step in a better direction
I think the weird disconnect between the way Sonic looks and the way the environment both looks and sounds kind of fits with how Sonic is an outsider on these islands. This is Sonic in a world not his own, and the crazy rock kicking in during these boss fights where the environment tries is kick out the outsider is Sonic metaphorically pushing back against the environment that's trying to kick him out. Even with the themes of Cyberspace leaking into the real world, it explains why the weirdly out of place rails and other obstacles keep popping up only after Sonic interacts with the cyberspace since it seems to pull from his memories. Idk if any of these supposed thematic choices are intentional but that's the way I look at it anyway. I enjoyed this game probably more than I should have being realistic, but the inner sonic fan in me was just glad to have a new game he could have fun playing since he hadn't gotten one since 2013
I don't mind the past references that much, but that's mostly because the way it is used, while frequent, is much better than the failed execution done in Sonic Forces, and I understand why it can be somewhat annoying. Really, it'll depend on if they keep relying on this technique in future Sonic games.
Tbh bro I think there was way too many references. Think about it: was mentioning sticks, tangle, deadly six, zavok, omega, and dark gaia really neccesary?
The biggest joke is the demo version of this game. The first thing the game says to me is that I have only 15 minutes to play and immediately starts a cutscene...
My primary disagreement is on the /vibe/ of the narrative. There is absolutely nothing wrong with "colorful animals" being written with emotional range and more melancholy stories. It's really fucking cool actually and it's nothing new in media; especially not for Sonic. The story is actually what got me extremely excited while playing the game... uuuuntil it fumbled the bag in a way that felt like they did not have nearly enough time to execute. That leads me to my other "disagreement" (really I just want to add some precision). I don't think the design of the game indicates that the core of this game was a lost cause regardless of development time (depending on what you meant by that anwyay). The rushed/disconnected execution of story elements over time, the high amount of asset reuse, the dependence of those assets to create the platforming challenges in the overworlds, etc. etc; they all scream, "we don't have a lot of time and we need to put this together with the assets with have." Now, if you're looking at the fact that the gameplay loop was build with these restrictions in mind as the core of the game was compromised, that technically makes sense, but: 1) not necessarily to the degree of the game being doomed to be completely lackluster within those restrictions 2) that's missing the lead that it was probably designed that way because they started out with the viscous deadline. Negotiating just 1 more year for polish isn't enough time to completely restructure aspects of the game planned under constraints. Now I also don't have the information to say that is for sure THE reason it turned out like this, obviously. Just that it can very well be a prominent factor in the soup of development troubles for the game. And I do in fact think it's a mix of things. Some attempts to get creative with limited tools and time. Some having to work with absurd demands and direction. I mean I just learned from you that Sega just handed Flynn a bunch of fucking pieces to try his best to connect which... really explains a LOT of my vibe of the story. I'm going to be thinking about that for a while. Generally though I agree with the meat of the review. The game was majorly disappointing for me, especially with the story. On one had, I am at least pleased and hopeful about the general shift in direction. On the other, I even humor being optimistic until we get some kind of confirmation that Sega's management is going to stop being terrible with crunch deadlines and meddling decisions /at the start/ and throughout a new game's development. When the devs get better working conditions and artistic control we'll get a truly great Sonic game.
I completely disagree with you about the options to adjust how Sonic controls. More options to me is always a good thing, and I wish Games like Spider-Man PS4 had similar options. Adjusting the game to your own personal taste is a win for everyone involved, the bigger issue would be if it didn't feel good no matter what you chose to do.
So now the issue is merely “you have to switch controls to get Sonic to move nicely at all”. That’s not much of an improvement especially when “moving nicely” is still horrible at best, even if wonderfully cinematic.
@@iantaakalla8180 But that will be an opinion that varies per person, so more options = more people happy. If it always feels bad, that's just pure bad design.
eh my problem with more options is that the level design may not be built for all options. take a look at secret rings for example, every single level is NOT built for sonics speed being any higher than the lowest speed upgrade same for frontiers i kinda just fall off or cant react in specific circumstances because i put everything on max, luckily the game has failsafes to save you incase you fall, but still.
4:18 You put it succinctly. Its very frustrating when you're trying to go one way only for the game to say "nope! Back the way you came!" Or worse, "and now you're trapped in 2D. Have fun!" With you bringing up about the parry system, Black Knight's parry system took alot more skill. Parry too early against the likes of Arthur or the Dark Queen and you are getting messed up! I never understood why Cyberspace isn't new and original stages instead of copy, pasted levels from the old games. Because if its supposed to be made up of the history of the former inhabitants of the island, why are we going through Sonic's history again? For the third time now. If his friends were playable - which they should have been from the start! - they could help Sonic uncover the mysteries of the island through Cyberspace. Plus if his friends were playable, it might have had the cyber corruption scene make more of an impact, instead of it being more like a poor man's re-run of Sonic's death in 06. Only with less steps, and even less gameplay. It honestly felt like something out of the Meta Era, given how little consequence there was to it, what rather than Sonic's friends looking for the Chaos Emeralds - something that had been done in all the previous islands - they instead join hands and use the POWER OF FRIENDSHIP. I thought Frontiers was supposed to take us past crap like this, or thats what the hype said. Also I completely agree about the Titan boss fights, while they display the spectacle and strength of Super Sonic well, the actual gameplay of it, not so much. Giganto: given that my normal attacks were barely doing anything, use parry - which is WAY too easy to do, especially when compared to the Dark Queen fight from Black Knight which took actual timing to do rather than hold the button for as long as it takes - and then let the game play itself through the QTE prompt to serious damage. Rinse and repeat. (Also it doesn't make you feel powerful if when you can't do damage yourself when playing, with normal attacks, and the only way to harm it is let the game play itself through QTEs. It's like Bayonetta 3, being forced into using the demonic summons to fight for you, given how little damage Bayonetta does now, rather than fighting enemies yourself. Especially when they throw up the shields Bayonetta can't break through herself.) All other Titans, get in their face and hold down L2 and let the Sonic Boom move melt their health bar - like I'm playing Devil May Cry 2 while using the guns - and use the super easy parry when appropriate and then let the game play itself when the QTE prompt appears. Rinse and repeat. Boring. All flash and very little substance. While it does allow the other characters to have their self respect - what with not making Tails into a coward, or Knuckles an idiot - it feels like the bare minimum, but given the past decade, is the bare minimum really enough? And while it is better than Forces, considering how low the bar was, is that really much of an achievement really? It was a good effort, but it still could have been a lot better.
I don’t know why everyone says this, but I never felt trapped in 2D. I could also easily exit when I wanted to. Maybe that’s a skill issue. Also, the boss fights were awesome, I don’t care what y’all mg fans say
@@thefastcommenter7774 no skill issues here dude, just bad game design, because the forced 2D sections make no sense. Especially with some of them you can double back to make the camera go back to 3D which makes you wonder, why are they even here? And it becomes especially annoying when there's Big coins just to your right but you can't get them right now, because you're stuck in this 2D section, meaning have to go all way through the it till you get out. I thought the whole point of the Open Zone was the freedom to go anywhere, not be locked into 2D, because you just so happen to take a wrong turn, which seems the very antithesis of this.
@@DemonDethchase Yeah, but I never actually felt trapped in 2D. I could also exit in like 2 seconds if I wanted to. If you couldn't, that's a skill issue bro
I think it's a good game, though it's pretty clear that this is moreso a test for a future 3D open area sonic game. though my main issue is mostly just... the movement. moving sonic doesn't feel right
Yeah idk why they nerfed his gameplay..and made him slower in this game like you have to boost to go fast but then again that wasn't really a problem it still has that fast paced gameplay but the fact they nerfed his speed gameplay in frontiers was Abit disappointing
Sonic frontiers was a mess to me. For a big botw fan seeing an open world game for sonic seemed cool, except the world looks lifeless unlike botw, the controlls were pretty good and the story is ok but the game doesn’t even tell you what to do, while it sort of does it doesn’t even give you any help to find anything, it gets pretty boring and repetitive so yeah
I’m not going to pretend I’m a game developer, or that I know the secret to restore the Sonic franchise. But I do feel the main compelling element to a Sonic game should be, shocker, how he moves throughout the world. I play Spider-Man PS4 just to swing around New York. That’s it. That web-slinging is fun as hell and everything else is gravy. And that’s what Sonic should be, a game where the main enjoyment is simply running through the world. An open-world concept _can_ be great, but stuffing it with all these gimmicks and platforms is soooo clunky. I’m not going to praise Frontiers just because it isn’t atrocious. The fact the bar is so low is beyond depressing. But we’re used to that by now. We’ll just make memes, jam to our favourite soundtracks, and wait for the next game.
I was not expecting this game to be one of the most divided upon Sonic fans, like legit you seem to ethier find this game fun but flawed or find really dissatisfied I think we can at least agree on one thing tho and that's Sonic Team need more money and man power
That is around the size of the team that made Scarlet and Violet. If Sonic games and Pokémon games have taught us something, it is the size of the initial team required to make a polished game by 2022 standards.
@@iantaakalla8180 isn't game freak a way bigger team? Still give some credit to Sonic team that frontiers alot less buggy then scarlet from what I've heard
I can’t thank you enough for this video, I feel so much better knowing that I’m not alone in how I feel about this absolute DISAPPOINTMENT this game was, I’ve been feeling depressed for months ever since I pre ordered it in October 2022 and played it on it’s release day due to the fact that I was so hyped for it and thought it would give me the joy I’ve been wanting from Sonic for years now but instead I literally cried because of how bad it was, I agree with about 98% of your points and am so glad I watched this.
Also, did you find the reference to the lyrics of “Rocky Raccoon” by The Beatles in Solar Ash? Our minds are still blown about what a deep cut that was.
@@rickyrackey7930 The final boss felt like sega didn’t have enough time to fully finish the final boss, and the secret final boss felt like they had absolutely no time to make a actual boss fight out of it so they put a mini game. Not saying the whole game was bad, I actually enjoyed the game unlike the guy In the video, but that final boss was underwhelming compared to the first 3 fights.
Considering sonic team have been doing boost formula games for over a decade I feel like they may not be used to letting sonic be free, which is why there are so many restrictive areas that would work better in a more on rails experience.
Cyberspace is the most undercooked part. Most of Sonic's movement has been nerfed and outright removed. The fact you can only drift in a single level is pretty telling. (Not even going to discuss how bad that drift actually was). The boost lost it's invincibility, which means you can't throttle your way into enemies but slowly homing attack into them. Which also loses your forward momentum. I was going to whine about how bad the combat system is too. But all I really have to say is... That parry system is horrendous.
@@KnucklesWTD You quite literally still boost through all the level. It's just been nerfed to make sonic slower and control worse. So yeah, I'm pretty upset. 🤷🏾♂️
@@AizakkuAnalysis the level design is actually way more open than generations. Generations played itself basically mostly. I don’t think you played all the cyberspace levels or mastered the mechanics. Perfect example is the drift level you’re complaining about. that is not supposed to play like unleashed drifting, that dash panel puts you in a specific state automatically on purpose. It’s more like a Mario party mini game.
@@KnucklesWTD So now your excuse is the drift level is supposed to play like absolute shit, and if I don't believe you then, " I must've not played & mastered all the cyberspace levels" Spare me. 💀
@@AizakkuAnalysis like I said,you think it plays bad because you didn’t bother to learn how to play it. Have you actually played it more than once? And also you said the combat is bad, which again 90% of the people saying that just mashed squared the whole game and never bothered to learn or experiment with the tools you are given.
I'm sad he didnt enjoy frontiers
Not because he doesn't share my opinion of the game
But because the man went through 13 sonic games in 7 days only to be rewarded with disappointment.
Well then that's on him. Majority rules and the metacritic reviews don't lie. This guy just hates everything.
@@Valstrax420 A majority of his videos are positive. What're you talking about?
But theirs a DLC roadmap
@@Valstrax420 fucking fanboy
@@spaceace9103 Exactly!^^
Tbh, if I had to suffer thro ALL 3d Sonic games in a week....
A Sonic game would have to straight up cook my dinner to impress me.
LOL 🤣
SegaSonic Popcorn Shop?
@@MIMI88571
Hey, so I did the thing you said and all I ended up with is a Burnt House, all I wanted was some Crispy KFC Chicken. 😢
Lmao you are capping hard if not any Sonic game didn't straight up cooked your dinner
It is playable so that is already a win for Sonic fans
you're real for this one eduardo
@@yakkocmn he so is real for that one
Despite Forces being playable and yet despised? Your logic doesn’t make sense
@@theminecraft2516 Forces was playable? Come on that game played itself 90% of the time, despite it working well it was literally NOT playable
@@theminecraft2516 the forces problem it's playing itself. It have playing illusion. It's fake. I even not talking about plot. The Frontiers made only for fans. Yes for other nonsonicfans this game will seem boring with old graphic and somewhere bugged.
yakko lore is getting intense, we've gone from "behold! childlike wonder!" to "i can no longer put my faith into the video game industry"
He'll come back to that when an original, not Green Hill using, 2D or 3D Sonic game approaches.
@@metalsonic3044 so basically never?
@@kneesurgeryenthusiast6915 listen i am an sa3 believer ,and there is nothing you could do to stop me.
@@metalsonic3044 well, your loss.
@@metalsonic3044superstars amirite
Now, the most important question: Where does the soundtrack rank on your tier list?
As a complete experience, I probably give it a high B or low A. The overworld tracks aren't bad by any means but I just wasn't feeling the vibe gameplay-wise, same with the combat music. Cyberspace, titans and final boss go crazy, so they're carrying most of the rating.
Understandable but the find your flame is too good
First Place: Undefeatable
Second Place: Break Through it All
Third Place: Find Your Flame
Forth Place: I'm Here
Fifth Place: Dear Father
Huh that’s lies find your flame first undefeatable second and what do you mean for the last song
K
I actually like when Yakko makes comparisons, because it's likely to be a better game I've never heard of and can now try out.
yesss I'd never heard of Solar Ash before this, now it's goin on my wishlist for sure
I've had Solar Ash on my radar for a while but now I know I'll definitely want to check it out
I knew about Solar Ash but I’d never seen gameplay before, and holy hell that looks fluid and beautiful and I want this game now. Thanks yakko.
I'm waiting for a switch release since forever.
@@meethepie YES play it, i have screaming this game since this was announce
While I really really liked this game I can see why you didn't. To me, I never felt hamstrung or forced, I felt like I was playing in one big Sonic level with tons of paths. Exploring wasn't a focus for me, but mastering the island's layout was. The combat was simple but I strung together cool combos with timing and finesse, even if it wasn't needed. The story and its characters felt natural to me, and the callbacks felt as though they rewarded me for staying with this franchise by finally treating all of the games as if they're part of the same universe for once.
So with all of those feelings it makes me sad that a game I really like landed with a thud for you. I respect your opinions so I get where you're coming from. For me this isn't just a "promising first step", because the idea of playing something that could one day be good holds no appeal, but rather just a game that held my interest and attention till the end. Hopefully there comes a day where everyone who plays a Sonic game feels this way instead of just half of the players.
This is how I feel about it too, I’ve played better games, but I’ve played many, many worse
I ended up trying the demo but when the first turn in green hill came round i realised that sonic turned for himself, felt weird to say the least. -first time playing a sonic game idk if it's normal-
why would you need to care about the island's layout? you spend remarkably little time on the ground, just using rails to basically fast-travel from one set piece to the next. there's not much to figure out
@@frozenfeet4534 because it feels so good to be able to get across the whole island off memory
I like you, you are perfect. So much respect to you
"being a sonic fan is getting fed dog food for a decade and then getting a piece of burnt toast as a treat" brutal but so true 😆
*i feel that*
I feel like this is also true for Pokemon fans to a lesser extent.
I was just watching that moment when i was reading this
But I like burnt toast :(
@@fluttzkrieg4392 no pokemon fans are eating everday pasta, sometimes its diffrent kind of pasta but its still pasta with no flavour or sauce
12:15 Correction, it isn't a 2nd version of the first island, it is the same first island, and 4th island, they share a map and you can out of bounds and go explore the other 2 islands without any objects loaded in.
Honestly they could have done themselves a favour and make it clearly the same island that you just return to and a barrier drops or something, such as after shutting down the towers on the "Rhea" or NW of same island.
Which explains why, because I 100% completed the first island, Rhea Island was also 100% completed. That makes more sense.
@@glitchtemporary2893 No, that's just because Rhea has no puzzles.
Goofy ahh sonic team.
I don't know, i really didn't ever have a problem with the story when it came to the characters that mattered. it was really fun to see the characters interact in a way they normally don't. It was the koco stuff that did not really hit.
OK, but what the characters actually end up DOING is just a bunch of overdramatized fluff, fanservice and "Yo, look, guys, we know we took Tails off the rails!". Then PUT HIM BACK ON NOW instead of MAKING US AGE ANOTHER FIVE YEARS first.
@@CarbonRollerCaco i don't think there were overdramatized stuff
@@kitarmix8129 super sonic momento
But that's the thing...they don't interact. They just...talk and exist as holograms.
@@lProN00bl they interact, having a character development, you just can't acept the new melancholic tone
the atmosphere being bleak and everyone seeming sad kinda fits what's happening imo and Flynn isn't foreign to sumber tones with Sonic characters(IDW metal virus arc)
+ even if it's tone down Sonic still shows confidence and smile to every situation
@@grantchampaign Now, Sega just sucks.
Sega wanted this came to come out in 2021.
Sonic team had a rough development with this game.
First basically making Forces 2, deciding to scrap this idea, remake everything else, and call Ian, they wanted more time to make the new, they only got 1 year instead of 2 as they wanted.
IDW sonic 's metal virus arc is 🗑
@@grantchampaign you mean IDW?
I don't really get what you criticizing?
My point is that bleak tones aren't foreign to Sonic in general and that it can work/ it has worked in the past
They have Free Updates for frontiers now.
@@grantchampaign ehh, they are middle of the pack between the big japanese developers. They were definiteely lacking in the 2010's, but them showing the ability to actually delay a game, listen to fan feedback over design, and actually utilize their extremely talented fandom for real games in the past 4 years show they are slowly coming around.
Capcom and Bamco does it better, but they are still way ahead of Square, Koei Tecmo, and especially Nintendo and Konami in that regard.
Frontiers felt like a proof of concept, and I think that is exactly what it is
Frontiers felt like a good game, and the critics say that
@@kitarmix8129 I mean I never said it was a bad game, if you want my honest opinion I absolutely loved every minute of it, but the open world felt more like an experiment than anything made in confidence which I believe is exactly what it was, but it paid off because besides Chaos Island each of the open zones were an absolute treat for my adhd brain and I had a blast playing them
@@LuciaLaVA no need to respond to that guy, he’s been fighting a one man war in the comments. A mega fan who thinks Sonic shits gold.
Yeh but a proof of concept should NEVER be $60
@@rosemarytulip355 I agree, and I doubt Sonic team wanted to release a proof of concept for 60 dollars but we all know Sega is no better than Nintendo when it comes to these things
They should've utilized the climbable mountain mechanic more. Lots of the pathways led to nowhere not even collectibles. Especially disappointing on the one on the 4th island that spanned across an entire side of the mountain over a bottomless pit and literally just ending at the edge of the map and pushes you off. Like no way was that the way it was intended to end
My favourite areas in the game were those where you could climb with no restrictions. That huge cave formation in island 5 and the basalt columns in island 3 come to mind, they're just so fun to wall run on. Really wish this mechanic gets expanded on in the next game
Honestly I think a year later and a completed update cycle, I really think Sonic Frontiers for its flaws, authentically remedies the storytelling and characterization of the franchise and brings it back to an Adventure style world. He has his attitude again but also is way more serious again and subdued the ridiculous jokes and puns. While acknowledging his history with these characters. And Eggman and his relationship with Sage was also very endearing. I get it's flaws. I really do. But I think this is what Sonic has been in the past in a more successful manner. I do agree that corporations do not deserve our leeway, but I think a step in the right direction is more impactful than you're giving credit to. That said I did think the same exact way when the game dropped. I think we are so ready when a sonic game drops to just bash and shit on it that we can't genuinely appreciate what's actually successful in a modern 3D Sonic game
Yeah I think this is a solid game. The story went back to the adventure formula and it actually meant something. The bosses are as fun as they were during the good old days of Sonic. The only gripe is that the gameplay got repetitive by the third world, but even then I still think this was a step in the right direction. Sonic Frontiers is a GOOD Sonic game that clearly took the criticism and made something good out of it. Sonic Frontiers was a passion project, and I don’t agree with Yakko’s opinion on it. But I’ll respect his opinion.
17:29 Man, I'd take everything Ian Flynn says with a grain of salt. He's been blaming shit on mandates since the dawn of his career, to shift any criticism he gets onto Sega. Apparently one at one point Sega had to make an public statement saying that they do not have hard rules for their IPs when third parties are handling them. They're are more like suggestions. Look, I'm not denying there were any mandates for Frontiers, but I wouldn't take anything Ian says as gospel. Besides, if Ian had is way with Frontiers' story, I'm sure it'd be a lot more darker than it was.
Finally! Someone else who agrees with my take.
I know I'm late but I really don't like the way Ian Flynn writing
At 16:13, that minigame is not referencing Nier Automata, but yes Ikaruga. The reason for this, is because of the Light/Dark shot mechanic (or polarity mechanic) which is the main attraction of Ikaruga. Worth checking out, as it is an extremely hard shoot em up!
that awkward moment yakko already knew about ikaruga (I watched the vid)
the redemption arc is real
It clearly looks like the hacking minigame from Nier Automate (and it literally also is a hacking minigame in Frontiers) just with the main mechanic from Ikaruga.
@@python_l5367 I am literally baffled as to why those games were copied in Sonic Frontiers besides Ikaruga being a notable Dreamcast and GameCube cult classic. Is it so you can play as Tails, Knuckles and Amy as the update roadmap (oh, joy) suggests without actually playing LIKE them? That'd be a CLASSIC Sega move.
I respect your opinion, I personally think it’s the best sonic game to come out since Generations
Which I think speaks more about the franchise that both this and the video are correct.
I don't believe it means you think it actually is a good game.
Exactly right??
I actually agree but frankly, kinda speaks volumes of the quality of Sonic games lol.
It is the best game since generations but that is a very low bar to clear
I actually have to say I've had a great time with this game. Probably top three Sonic game for me. I love the open zones and little paths that reward with memories, and it was always fun to run around but stop to do them. It's like "curated speed," it's fast and feels fun to play as it bounces you around a ton.
That’s my thoughts as well. It was super fun, but just not enough to be the best of the best.
of course you like it cause its copied from good games lol
jokes aside, i hated those levels cause sonic controls and handles so badly
@@السراقالمجهول i actually love how sonic controls in this game. as soon as i let loose of the stick he is instantly stopping? He is not sliding over the ground anymore wheen i try to stop??
@@callmesnowboo So you actually HATE momentum. You're supposed to PUSH THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION TO BRAKE in those older games. How is that not intuitive? Or are you just lazy or afraid of slipping some other direction? Like, EXPERIMENT IN SAFE SPACES for once. THAT'S WHAT THEY'RE FOR.
Sonic isn't supposed to be that much about stop-and-go, though.
I have no idea why I enjoy your Sonic videos an uncanny amount, but they're all very well made
The height of my disappointment was when Sonic got corrupted, the way Tails talked made me think I was going to play as the other characters, but then they started holding hands around Sonic and undid everything we just did to get them out.
edit: OMG I can't believe they did a 180 and with the recent announcement. I'm eager for the update.
I mean, the developers did say only Sonic was playable in multiple interviews
I didn't know that because I avoided all spoilers.
yeah that was disappointing, the way you were looking so tired and beat up prior to that made me expect the cyber corruption was actually going to lead to something interesting. Some new gameplay mode or boss, just anything special or novel. Instead they did absolutely nothing with it? Makes it seem like they were planning something but had to cut it for lack of time.
Sounds about right. I don't think Sega would let other characters have their fun.
In the same dire situation in Black Knight you got to play as the other characters in Last Story tradition so that could have been nice.
Sorry for comparing ahead of time. Spear me if you must. I don't play games like Sonic for a hard challenge. I have other games for that. It's like how I don't need Pokémon to be tough either. The difference is that Sonic Frontiers actually works. It's got enough style and substance for me to want to buy it soon, and most of my friends who got it have good stuff to say about it. As long as it's engaging enough, I can see myself pouring a lot of time into this, and unlike a certain OTHER game, it has all the basics from a AAA dev team!... I'm sorry. Gen 9 just gets me viscerally upset.
I actually really enjoyed Frontiers. I am one of the people who liked Cyberspace levels. I like the level design and hopefully we get more original zones. The Titan boss fights are the best part in my opinion.
I'm looking forward to what Sonic Team are going to make in the future.
Me too, they should keep this formula going forward.
Jiggling car keys in front of you might be fun to you too.
I liked cyberspace a lot, but I didn't really like the titans
@@christiangraulau8107 didn’t like the titans? Wtf is wrong with you. That shit is the hypeest boss fight maybe ever
@@tehCostHD they’re basically glorified cutscenes and have very little strategy or challenge to them, which I 100% can appreciate. For example, I really like the shark mini boss which is also basically a glorified cutscene. But I would prefer the bosses at the end of each island to be more challenging. But I also can acknowledge it could be my fault, for example I could make it more challenging for myself by going in with less rings, so I might come to appreciate them more whenever I replay the game
Thank you for that ending bit Yakko. It was fittingly somber, yet cautiously optimistic, and really sold the point in a way that words can't, well as your closing was written.
"The End" didn't start talking to you at the very end. This disembodied voice was heard as the first thing when Sonic woke up on the Island. And it kept directing him to destroy the Titans, and the Towers. In fact, Sonic was tricked into saving his friends by doing actions that released it from it's prison. That was the whole point that he realized only in the end. And then he said that even knowing that, he'd still do it.
Just pointing out The End was in the story earlier.
But I would like it better if it had a different form than a Moon. And if we could actually see it in the flashbacks. Sega's insistence on "creating mystery" by hiding appearance of antagonists is stupid. The Deadly Six were first shown as silhouettes, despite they were plastered all over the marketing material. And their physical reveal meant nothing. Infinite's face without the mask was completely hidden in Forces, despite he turned out to be a completely new character who we couldn't have known. And then in the prequel comic, he reveals his face and it's of course no big deal. And here in Frontiers, we are presented an ominous invisible enemy that can shoot lasers from space... and then it's a Moon. Ok... but I doubt that showing how this enemy looks beforehand would change anything. It's still new enemy we never saw before. How would seeing it few hours earlier take away anything from the mystery?
I guess that they didn't show it earlier because if we thought the Moon being the big bad guy was stupid the entire game, we would then assume it's gonna get subverted in the end. And when it would not, then it would feel much worse. Now the disappointment was unexpected, and so it didn't last that long.
Not that this changes much, but I'm pretty sure some of the promo art for Frontiers featured two moons in the background, with The End being one of them. Pretty sneaky, I liked that.
Fecto Elfilis from Kirby and the Forgotten Land would have been better suited for this game, fits the art direction better than the moon behind the slaughter (fnaf joke, everything purple can be equated to the purple guy aka the man behind the slaughter) I can't believe that a Kirby boss would be more at home in a Sonic game, and it's a boss that somewhat is similar to the final boss in Sonic 06 with it being two parts fused (Mephiles and Iblis forming Solaris for Sonic 06 and Fecto Forgo and Elfilin forming Fecto Elfilis for Kirby and the Forgotten Land) and now I can't stop thinking about how a Kirby game took inspiration from the buggiest Sonic game.
Yeah honestly don’t know why they have a boss like that with no supporting suspense or support for it. Like the moon gradually providing supportive buffs to enemies or always being a constant in the game, either by showing up frequently or always being a bold set piece.
@@reddemon6668…because it was rushed.
@@shannonhill3356 they had a large enough dev team, bigger than sonic unleashed. They also had enough time to develop the game since their last project. How was it possibly rushed?
Regardless of rushed development, decisions made throughout the first levels are not a part of rushed development but simply errors of design or developmental choices. Inconsistencies with world development, gameplay of the initial cyber worlds, and inconsistency with assets that include rails and platforming (Working as pop ups, seemingly elevated in the air without reason nor supported/ bonded by the environment itself) are all part of the reason why this game has so many glaring issues. But again, it all depends on the individual, to me it’s these points that break the game but there will always be people that support it regardless of the issues presented. We can all agree that this is at least better than forces
The most common opinion of this game I heard is "This feels like a tech demo made in Unity with Sonic plopped into it"
Sonic has a very interesting world design, they could've made a 3D stilized world :c
Oh you know where they do it? IN ROBLOX, THERE'S A ROBLOX SONIC GAME THAT DOES THAT CORRECTLY :|
I assume you're talking about speed Sim, and yeah, that experience's world feels more unique than frontiers. And that's because Speed Sim embraces the sonics levels are designed, instead to the awful to look at "floating everything" in frontiers. It's like how you don't question the architecture choices in Mario Odyssey because the rest of the series is like that, too.
Solar Ash is a game that I just fell in love with. The movement, art, and character design were all brilliant. It just speaks to heart machine's pure skill and talent they have behind them. I hope that someday Sega is able to make a Sonic game flow as well as Solar Ash.
Solar ash was such an unbelievable experience and just a wonderful game in general, if anyone happens to read this i 100% recommend it. I do not know what the other commenter is saying because its not in fact a roguelike at all
Man, I finally played Hyper Light Drifter over the summer and had a lot of fun with it despite not really liking a lot of 2D Zelda-likes.
Guess I gotta get to Solar Ash now, too.
@@milapiepers502 wait, is not? Last time I checked I was told it was a rogue-like, wtf.
Good thing because I have way too many rogue likes in my library.
You may be thinking of Hyper light drifter, which also isn't a roguelike but I kinda feel like it was lumped in with them for some reason?
Completely unrelated to the topic but I dislike the name roguelike for these games as its basically just “arcade-like” instead of resembling Rogue or other traditional roguelikes
@@BlueKanary nah, I did play HLD and know it is not a rouge like, I was talking about Solar Ash which for some reason someone told me is a rogue like, thing I didn't like to know at all.
that outro was so well done, very cinematic! i could just feel how he put his hope and passion away into the closet while thinking back to all the good times he had with it. kinda gave me disney/pixar-esque vibes
I feel this game should have adaptive music that changes based on speed and also better speed mechanics that involve building and retainging momentum
The game kinda have that, everytime u get a emerald the music theme of the islands Change, so inch island have 7 versions of their themes, the bosses also have that but is more noticeable in the Super Sonic battles
Did you and the 15 people who voted for your comment even play the first level of this game??? It does have adaptive music... When Sonic speeds up so does the music
Wasn't very noticeable then
@@DefinitelyNotYourDad no it did not, and I have 100%ed the game
@@acesamm That doesn’t prove anything. Anyone can search gameplay and check themselves.
As a Brazilian, I've been seeing many a Sonic being launched through the sky and landing near my home.
It's very unsettling.
I disagree with your statement about the sliders. Sonic 3D got always criticize for its controls and finally having the ability to tweak your movement I find resolved the issue for a lot of folks
Isn't the point that it shouldn't be up to the player to get Sonic to feel right? Sure you can customize it to how you like it, but that's because they couldn't figure it out themselves. You shouldn't have to tweak the game values to get it to feel right. If many other studios can get their movement to feel good within their own games, then so should Sonic Team. It's just a band aid solution to a larger problem for Sonic games.
@@kiramaticc but sonic has been proven multiple times to be different from other games: one thing is having a common middle of the road speed like in the other platformers and then give some sort of power up or upgrade to make the movement feel faster compare to tge average speed; sonic on the other hand is always fast and have some sort rhytim to it, and what can feel easy to manage to some, its not the same for others. Its the reason why they gave a run button in Lost World, its because they got so many complaints about the movement. Besides, to have tge sliders to work, they need the base movement to also work, xnd frontiers controls very good to most people. The sliders help in case someone wants to tweak some of the movement or make it more comfortable, its not a sign of not trusting the controls
@Peringo Yeah I feel like a lot of people don't understand how even the simplest decisions can affect the design of a game as a whole.
Letting the player tweak Sonic's movement may sound good on paper, but overall is very restrictive in terms of the entire game's scope. If Sonic Team decides to bring this idea forward into future Sonic games, that means they have to design around the fact that players can have different movement values. This will most likely lead to more simpler levels and challenges designed around movement because it's essentially impossible to design anything remotely complex for hundreds of different configurations for Sonic's movement, which effectively limits the potential of the game as a whole.
@@lupinthenerd439 True he has, but remember that it's devs's job to make your character move nice and to make sure the controls and movement is so smooth, Sonic is no exception to this.
@@lupinthenerd439 I said this in a reply to another comment, but you have to think about the design aspect of the game. If you let players have the ability to tweak Sonic's movement, Sonic Team will inevitably have to design around this constraint. You will most likely end up with simpler levels because it's impossible to design around hundreds of configurations for Sonic's movement.
You could say that they could have a challenge to where the player has to tweak Sonic's movement to pass a certain level or challenge, but then at that point you might as well just have preset values to begin with. I don't think it's a good thing in the long run to let players edit the movement values as I believe you'd end up with a worse game.
21:35 holy heck Yakko, I just adore the delivery of your comic relief mane. Gets me actually chucklin in every single of your videos
Wait till he gets to the Pokemon scarlet review..
For real, why does every critique essay about this game sound so contradictory, like because blue hedgehog is not even an argument.
POV: The entire comment section disagrees (respectfully)
I personally really enjoyed the game most of my core issues are tiny flaws that together make the game worse but the overall experience was fun for me. For a 60 person team, 18 of them being animators, on a open world game I’d say that this was a pretty admirable effort. It’s clear that around Chaos Island they were running out of time as the first 2 Islands were pretty cool. They probably could have just kept the last 2 islands as part of Kronos instead of splitting them, that way they could get away with less challenges but more spread out as well as a pallet swap. There’s even evidence that THE END was supposed to be a far grander boss fight than it was.
Some improvements I’d say I want to see in the next game:
More emphasis on momentum, in the games code it’s actually already in the game to some degree all you have to do is the equivalent of changing a 0 to a 1. I think the boost can stay but as a reward you get for Max Rings like how the power boost is now.
Make the plot not mystery based, I like what frontiers did although I feel as if the first open world title shouldn’t have been melancholic, it should’ve been upbeat and lively. The world feels a bit dead in Frontiers because well… that’s the point BUT that doesn’t mean it’s a good thing as there’s a lack of real infrastructure and NPCs because they all kinda died along with their civilization. The next game should take a mix of the real world aesthetic and fuse it with the creativity of Sonic Heroes levels for a perfect mix that would keep things interesting as well as let the environments have signature elements such as loops and corkscrews to work with the refined momentum.
Cut cyberspace, it’s a cool concept to keep the boost as a special stage only thing but unless the design and control is greatly made more fun, I don’t want it, even it it would only be 7 of them
Refine the combat and make it flow more with Sonic’s signature style, the super moves are cool but it breaks the pace in how you traverse the world as well as at times it can be a bit clunky. As well as make the parry timed.
Let Ian Flynn be the main writer of the story, the character dialogue he did was pretty great to me(even if it was filled with references) I wanna see what he can do with the full plot of a game like how he has in the comics
If those are implemented the next could easily be top 2 3D Sonic games. Most of these changes either require a medium level rework, cutting and more focusing the content, or straight up starting fresh for the story which had to be done anyways. I have my gripes with the game but what Frontiers does well it does REALLY well. The potential is there. They just need the time and guidance to make it happen. I like the game, I do, but it can EASILY have a much better sequel especially since they are actively listening to feedback. So while I disagree with the video on some points I think others are valid even if they didn’t effect me the same way. Now is the time to be critical of not only the bad but the good as well
I appreciate your perspective and I think that SEGA needs this criticism in order to make better future games. I do think that you were too hard on the story. I actually felt something from this game, and I was genuinely engaged. I do think the writing kinda carried, but thank god we have a capable writer again. I think the callbacks were necessary for us to actually have some sort of continuation in the series for the next game. Ian Flynn was basically doing his best to fix up the terribly presented stories of the past decade, and he succeeded imo. I do think that the story around the endgame fell apart, but it picked itself up right in the final scenes to be excited for the future
They are listening to the feedback
@@Thehunter905 Yeah and they'll totally learn all the right lessons THIS TIME around, right?
@@Neoniq41 I mean yeah I hope they get it right the next game. As long as they have enough budget and time then we could get a Sonic game that's more than good.
Your smile at the end while looking at that Sonic hoodie actually stole me a tear, I kinda felt the same as you especially after finishing the game... You can see Iizuka and his team somehow actually tried to move things forward this time, the whole "One Way Dream" ending song openly being a message from them tells it alone, it's in the end a somewhat cool tech demo that might lead to something really good in the coming years, yet it sadly feels and clearly is an half-baked one, too much hit and miss on too many fronts, and I'm saying this considering the fact that I actually managed to appreciate the game as a whole even with all the problems it has, playing it I've been able to mentally go back when I was a little 6 y.o. girl playing Sonic Heroes for the first time, or when I was 11, playing the Megadrive classics and the Adventure games.
I can only rise my hopes up and pray SEGA that our beloved blue blur can finally, completely escape this dumpster he's been thrown in almost 12 years ago with his next game...
What I meant to say is that, as janky and unfinished it turned out to be, you can definitely see this game has heart, that they managed to make, putting aside its countless slips and falls, feel Sonic like Sonic again after all this time.
On a side note, still talking about how much the game can be utter crap sometimes now, I don't know if you knew, but that final boss fight (a really lackluster one at that) with THE END is... exclusive... to hard mode... Yes, if you play the game at normal difficulty you'll get SUPREME (the t-shirt branding) as a final boss (the whole Super Sonic space purple Moon destroying thing plays out AS A CUTSCENE), and with it being literally the worst of all the four titans... WELL... well uhh....
a tech demo sold at 60 dollars, eh? so noble.
Awesome video. I really like what Frontiers is doing, but I think the game could use some some serious improvements if the dev team wants their newest game to be amazing. I will say this, for all the issues this game has, this game feels like a very good foundation for a future Sonic game that could improve on it and be a much better experience. And I really like your perspective on the game even if we have some different views on it.
I think the main problem with the game is the physics..not all the time in the first 2 islands the physics are good but in the third island..aka the one tails was in it..the physics are kinda inconsistent I mean not all the time but sometimes it is about inconsistent like when you are running on a ground you somehow send you off flying and ofc..the pop-in issues other than that I really liked everything else about this game..I had fun time with this game over although I had some frustrating over solving the puzzles and some skill issue I had which is normal
I think the bulk of the issues really do just come down to needing more structure in some places and more freedom in others. Frontiers makes a lot of progress, but it's all just thrown into the pot and needs time now to really get cooking. More structured and real areas over these big empty fields while maintaining the control they've started to give and easing up on the rails is the balance they have to strike. And the story could use more shakeups and dynamics through not always just being two characters talking. Have them do stuff and really get some dynamic craziness in there.
In other words, use Frontiers as a base and make Sonic Adventure 3. Give them all the time and resources they need to expand where this story let off with everyone going off and doing their own thing in new places.
Make the rails, like cyber-esque, or made out of the world around them. Hell Sonic Adventure 2 the game that introduced rails, did that, and we had like interstate highways with loopyloops in them for some reason, but they stayed in the visual theme of the enviroment even if they are absolutely absurdist acts of civil engineering. Random ass loopyloops is just part of the sonic universe, we can accept that, as long as it looks like it's part of the temple or landscape or whatever. These things can work mostly as is, just gotta season them a little and add some flavour.
@@TheJadeFist A good example is final rush, in final rush of SA2, the rails looked different to fit the environment
@@SeleDreams or City Escape, in which they were hand rails for the stairs. The two jungle levels they were vines.
While I think there's criticisms to be had about a story that isn't easily accessible for new players, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing for it to be one where hardcore fans are the only ones to get the most out of it due to references/call backs. As a hardcore Sonic fan who has been with this franchise since the early 2000s and have experienced majority of Sonic's adventures right down to the most obscure stuff, it felt great to see these characters bring up past adventures. It felt GREAT to see the lore actually freaking acknowledged after so long of being ignored. When was the last time Knuckles brought up the Echidna race and his internal feelings on why he guards the Master Emerald in a 3D Sonic game? Oh... Sonic Adventure... back in 1998.
I never felt that it was too much since the characters always tried to reference back to specific moments that made sense to reference such as SA1 Tikal flashbacks and the memories Knuckles had while imprisoned in Frontiers, or Sage bringing up Neo Metal as a reason for Sonic and Eggman to work together now.
But anyways, I'm not expecting the constant references to be the norm moving forward in games, though, I could be wrong seeing how SEGA has created a team dedicated to Sonic lore internally. If we get more lore acknowledgment and stuff similar to the Ancients that expands the story of Sonic more, than I'm all for it.
it just felt like it was disjointed as hell
The only references going forward will be Green Hill.
@@j19aiden91 RIP it's getting old thanks to frontiers using it a MILLION times
@@SoniaSpectrum and I'm certain it'll be back for tje next game
@@j19aiden91 unfortunate, i even tolerated them reusing it in forces because they changed some of the aesthetics and it had even the TINIEST smidgen of plot relevance, but there's no excuse for frontiers doing it imo
i understand all these critiques even if i disagree, but i think context is extremely important here. factual criticism is important, but the fact sonic team is severely understaffed and below budget to make good games from sega NEEDS to be mentioned. i don't want to dismiss just talking about raw problems with the game, but this fundamental problem i feel is being ignored too much and more people with influence need to start pointing fingers at sega themselves for giving sonic team the most basic of ingredients so this literally the best they can do.
I’ve been dodging this video for nearly a year, because I loved Frontiers.
And now, I’m finding myself agreeing with everything you’ve said.
I just… I like this game. It’s just okay, and I’m content with that. Maybe it’s just that I was going in with low expectations and was surprised that I had fun with it, but in spite of all its problems, I like it.
And all of your points are valid reasoning for being disappointed!
What the hell, I’m a Sonic fan, I’m supposed to be a dick!
Great video.
Very glad to see someone make the comparison between this and Solar Ash. I initially assumed we were going to be getting something like Solar Ash's bosses, only bigger and better and more Sonic-like, but that really wasn't what wound up happening here. If anything, it just makes me appreciate Solar Ash more, and makes me want to go back and replay it again.
Is Solar Ash really that good?
@@EdgardR. Yes. A lot of criticism might come from the fact that it was created by the studio that made Hyper Light Drifter, and Solar Ash is nothing like their previous game. If you like Sonic games and you go in without the expectation that this is the next Hyper Light Drifter, you'll probably like Solar Ash.
Solar Ash is one of my favorite games of the past few years, glad to see someone else shouting it out.
@@parchmentengineer8169 complaining that solar ash is nothing like hyper light drifter is like complaining to capcom why resident evil and megaman are different.
Super sonic bosses are pretty good tho
That intro with the mirror was very well done. Like a great gag but also just expertly shot and edited.
Kinda wish Sonic's movement felt more like the game Spark The Electric Jester. Specifically the 3rd one. That game is like almost everything I would want from a Sonic game.
more people need to play that game
Spark sucks
@@TheDaidai05 I've been meaning to play it
@@Therealones745 well you must be bad at it lol
@@Omen_SMK🤣
Generations + unleashed day levels+sonic colors levels = peak sonic gameplay
Sonic colors had good level themes but trash level design
Sonic frontiers honest review from a true Sonic fan:
Story: 8/10
Gameplay: 7/10
Music: 10/10 (and don’t debate me on this 💀)
Character choice and design: 6/10
Location and sites: 6.5-7/10
Overall game: 7.5-8/10
One thing I like about sonic Frontiers is how it presented the name "Open Zone" for level design that resembles Banjo-Kazooie's type of level design, previously I used to refer to it as "Recontextual Level Design" but Open Zone fits better.
Just checked the video that gave me the name "Recontextual Level Design" and was for a different type of levels lol, but now instead of recontextual I will call it "Flipping The Castle" as done in Castlevania SOTN.
I don't know, i think it's really just a open world game. "open zone" feels like another term for marketing, i mean xenoblade chronicles 3 has a similar structure to its open world in that it is just divided in huge maps and i don't see anyone saying it is anything but a open world game.
@@brotbrotsen1100 Sonic boost games are fun to play on the PC, but when I have a good controller I miss the momentum of the 2d Sonic games and Sonic Adventure.
@@brotbrotsen1100 Can't be true open world, the game literally gates your exploration behind progress.
@@brotbrotsen1100 It's definitely a marketing thing. It seems to be working on the assumption that there is no middle ground between linear and open world games which was never the case.
After seeing you beat ALL 13 sonic games, THIS was THE review I was waiting to see as my most interesting take. Im talking more so than Dunkey!
It’s not “sonic had a bad transition into 3D” it’s “sonic transitioned into bad 3D”
You know what this game's world design feels like? GTA V custom races. A beautiful world map with random geometry haphazardly strewn about.
I actually enjoyed Frontiers, the gameplay is fun, a mix of 2d platformer and 3d 'open world', the soundtrack is amazing, the graphics are not THAT bad and overall pretty solid game i liked it.
the sad part is the new pokemon scarlet and violet that just dropped makes this burnt toast seem like a cupcake.
That's the worst part, Sonic Frontiers just sort of...happened. Regular gamers have already forgotten about it. Not to mention, it comes out after Sonic Forces, Sonic Generations, and Sonic Colors.
AKA, the game that went to space, the game that went through time, and the game that did a world War.
This game felt like a small sidestory, and after the end of the game, it felt like you could ignore this story entirely.
*looks at the biggest sales for a Sonic game in a DECADE* - I wouldn't call it "happened". This is a strong running start for a new type of Sonic games. Yes game itself is not a MASTAHPIECE but a solid foundation to build upon. And thanks to awesome sales - SegaSammy finally starts throwing funds at Sonic Team.
Debatable. The story links it up to Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 making it that much more important. The game is ambitious and not to mention the first time a Sonic comic writer penned the story for a game.
colors was a 2D with trash story, "went to space" is simply nothing, generations was just sonic going to places with no context, frontiers explained where did the chaos emeralds come from and eggman had a daughter, thats already enough to put it above "went to space" beyond, it is the biggest sale for a sonic game in a decade, thats not "happened"
"Ah yes, we could entirely ignore the plot of a fricking purple moon that's about to destroy the entire earth all because Eggman couldn't resist tapping into ancient technology that was sealing said entity, which is a kind of a running gag that has been happening ever since SONIC ADVENTURE."
Yeah, I agree with you bro. Sonic Frontiers just sort of happened, just like Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, etc. Literally any Sonic games after Sonic 3 & Knuckles just exists without any sort of explaination WHY IT HAPPENED.
@Super Gamer 2000
Tell me,
What was the moral lesson of the game?
"then why call it a COMPASS??!!" That one hit home
i know many would disagree w this review considering how they feel abt the game itself, but it should be reiterated that one of the main criticisms is that the game is still fundamentally flawed; it's a fantastic sonic game but it is not a fantastic game per say. praising the game for being a step in the right direction is fine but a step in the right direction does that mean that fans should be satisfied w the overall quality of the game. it's fine to enjoy the game like i did, but sega still needs to step up their game.
Also, all the praise is at best a backhanded compliment. We are basically thanking Sonic Team for coming to their senses and correctly dismissing Forces at best, 12 years of games on average, and 24-27 years worth of games at worst. Frontiers is not a jewel - its the mineral that deserved to be underground and never admired before it becomes a jewel at best.
I have a feeling this game is gonna have the sonic unleased treatment in that people will hate it at first then after some years go by it will become liked by the majority.
If they can polish the game and for the love of god make an actual good final boss them this might be up there with sonic adventure 2
Nope.
Honestly, I doubt Frontiers will be given a lenient treatment. Like Origami King, it actually comes close to a good game under its franchise while still maintaining many of the bad elements of everything else, and might even just by a coat of paint splashed over a turd. The fact that it comes close means that Frontiers will be the most contentious game in perpetuity until people become tired of Sonic.
@@iantaakalla8180 you know what?
I don't care if I'm gonna get hate,I don't care if it's not like the 1st 3 games,Origami King was a blast and I wish more people appreciated it
Yes,even the old ones are good,yes,Sticker Star was a travesty,but the last 2 ones have a certain charm I really like about them
Not perfect by any means,but I'll say they are a sort of "guilty pleasure" for me,and if I'm being completely honest I... surprisingly have more unpopular opinions when it comes to Mario than Sonic
@@duckthemightyknight364 Sonic adventure 2 finale boss is not unique dumb head
This reminds me a lot of the sonic adventure era. There were the people who called them the best in the series and others who said it's where sonic started going downhill. Opinions are very mixed.
Then you obviously have never played them in the first place. And no, at release they were universally praised. Frontiers is just a confused overcorrection. Wasting time with tedious chores or mediocre Boost to win stages is not exactly an improvement.
@@yrooxrksvi7142 well I have played the adventure games. When they came out it was rather acclaimed, but now I see more mixed opinions. On the topic of frontiers though, idk. I think it has a functional core gameplay loop. It just needs more solid and consistent physics for some. And while you could consider the challenges "chores" you don't have to do them which doesn't excuse them, but at least puts them out of the way so they're never really overbearing or feel like an imposition.
I knew we were going to have a difference of opinions when you said that "the fourth island was a welcome to change of pace"
I'm gonna add one more comparison:
The End looks like they came out of The End of a Kirby game
I personally was hooked on the game when it first came out I believe the music was fitting having a natural orchestral genre to represent the ancients and their old but extremely advanced technologies and sonic discovering it all and I really enjoy how the characters interact with one another and how they aren't making bad jokes and people like knuckles have their main roles back and they are there own characters like when Amy actually argues with sonic and questions his decisions at one point
I have enjoyed playing Frontiers so far. It’s not an amazing game by any means and there’s a lot of problems, especially with the art style, level design, and storytelling. I think that in general, however, it’s a lot of fun to blast around a big open zone at high speeds. I just kinda wish there was some more color to it all.
As much as I enjoy the game and 100% twice. I think this is the most 7/10 game I’ve ever played
Most Sonic games are 7/10 or 8/10's, people like these games so much because it's Sonic, and that isn't always a bad thing, Sonic carries charisma wherever he goes to, the franchise gameplays both 2D and 3D were totally different than most things that came before, you can put Sonic in Assassin's Creed and it still would have the chance to be considered good
@@Colecionador7162 Some of them are, sure, but I honestly think Frontiers is more like 5 or 6. I don't feel like it's a good game on really any level, and basically every issue mentioned in this video was felt deeply when "playing."
Because it didn't feel like I was actually "playing" the game half the time, as the game plays itself. Why even go "open zone" when you're clearly not given the tools to explore or play it in any way other than one specific, heavily linear route?
@@corey2232bro what 😭
While I promptly disagree with your sentiment I basically expected it when you dismissed the Boost formula in general. You don't like Modern Boost gameplay and even though I think Frontiers is an amazing step in the right direction for Sonic I understand this game is definitely not something you'd like. Just me watching your videos in general just clued me in so it makes 100% sense. Respect your opinion, but yeah 100% disagree as a fan who has played every game under the sun.
To be honest, I don’t care what people have to say anymore, All I can say is that it’s a good game. That’s it, that’s just my opinion
I like it
21:44 Are you sure you're a Sonic fan?
Average sonic fan being insecure if others are sonic fans.
@@Earlybeggar sorry but yakko doesn't like 90% of the sonic games, he really doesn't seem like one
I actually really liked this game, way more than most of the 3D games
I believe the wording you are looking for is that you like how expensive the game feels . A fantastic looking game with no gameplay is like a car with no engine . As much as i hoped that sega would nail this game and make us a game we would be proud of as a community it appears i was too ambitious.
@@TheFallen092 maybe they just straight up like the game?
I like it too. Been having fun with it when I play it in the morning before work. It’s not the best sonic game but it’s fun.
@@TheFallen092 "Expensive" Isn't a word I think anyone would use to describe Sonic Frontiers ha. there is always the one who projects their own opinions onto others lol.
@@TheFallen092let people like things
Considering the state of Scarlet and Violet, that pokemon bit near the beginning is both hilarious and a bit foreboding in that context.
sigh. yup
Pokemon is similar to the Sonic franchise, both highly respected and beloved franches that sell really well that are completely neglected and exploited by their respective publishers that just cobble together these games on a shoestring budget to make maximum profiit. We need to stop buying these games and review bomb them instead of just accepting these sloppy ass games
@@danculbert6349 frontiers is being review bombed, it's just being bombed with positive reviews. Sonic and Pokemon will never be good and their own fanbases are the reason
@@danculbert6349 Unfortunately the fans have accepted mediocrity a long time ago.
Don't expect neither franchises to improve in quality.
And that’s why big titles are negative indicators of quality save, let’s say, Mario, Zelda, Kirby and maybe Pikmin
was it really that bad? I really love it so far.
@Mamzy I am playing it, finished the 5 islands and in the final stretch now I am assuming/
its really not that bad at all, its very fun actually, yakko just had impossibly high expectations
@@melissamaga hoping the game doesnt have bugs isnt impossibly high expectations. why are sonic and pokemon fans just fine with mediocre or okay games?
@@Princeomishore that was definitely not his only expectation? besides im not okay with it at all, but to compare it to the last pokemon games is way too much
@@melissamaga Yeah the new pokemon game has some good ideas but is held back by inexcusible technical problems. Meanwhile the new Sonic game is held back by really poor design ideas AND inexcusable technical problems! Definitely an unfair comparison to pokemon
Sonic Frontiers feels like you are a game tester running through a world of nothing but earth to check if the scenery looks nice and then the next thing you know you just discovered someone’s first G-mod creation on the steam workshop or you found your old copy of Shadow of the Colossus and decided to play that instead
Oh yeah, while other people praised Tails in Frontiers, I hated that they made his past horrible behavior canon. Flynn thinks he's helping, but he's really breaking Tails. He even had Tails say: "That only means I am inconsistent!" Inconsistent? What's next, will Tails start complaining that he's badly written? Well, why not...
I don’t think Tails will be like that, but if Tails does not show significant growth in character come the next few games then I will consider this wasted. And since this is a Sonic game when they are trying, they will dismiss Tails’ character here.
I mean, in a game that is determined to continue the games having a canon again, having Tails address his problems instead of erasing them from canon is in my opinion way more respectable. Sort of like a "confront your issues instead of running away from them" thing.
@@yutuberocks22 yeah, but that needs to be done more subtly. Tails should have said something like being unsure or not himself lately or something like that. Not the characters spouting list of random references of their past actions without any context. They don't even talk about chronology or reasons behind why it happens. And Tails literally says he's inconsistent. What kind of dialog is that? It's completely 4th wall breaking.
@@iantaakalla8180 the problem is that it's so far only happening in dialog, but it's completely divorced from the actual plot of Frontiers. The plot of Frontiers is that Tails is in a ghost form for the entirety of the story, so he can't do anything... And so they have to talk about other stuff to pass the time. And they decide to talk about the past games where things not relevant to this story happened, and decide that Tails should repeat his character arc of Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, because apparently the later games soft rebooted it.
So all this dialog does is to create the promise that Tails will no longer be helpless cheerleader in the next Sonic game, and they even outright state that he's gonna go on his solo Adventure. But again, it's all just dialog irrelevant to the events of Frontiers, no actions. And funnily enough, at the end Tails tells Sonic: "I want you to see the hero I have become!" As if the promised solo adventure already happened when we were not looking.
So yeah, for the next game, they have to deliver on the promise of solo Tails Adventure. If not, this whole shtick was just an empty talk.
@@yutuberocks22It would've been much better for SEGA to decanonise the Meta Era, make a full public apology for hiring Pontac and Graff and then permanently blacklish those incompetent, stupid idiots from working on the Sonic franchise.
"Sonic Boom was canon??!" was my legitimate reaction to that line, too.
It's not canon, Sticks was just "reincarnated" into the main universe.
The whole universe isnt canon, its just sticks being in the mainline canon now, thats not enough to call the whole other universe canon
As a person who has watched the Sonic Boom cartoon, I am OK with this. It generally had better writing than probably all of the games
@@RariettyC Not a fair comparison.
@@Cruddy129 No it's just a throw away reference.
This was a wonderful Review of Solar Ash, definitely need to get on that game. I loved Hyper Light Drifter
19:50 This entire segment has such massive "Hey Lois remember the time" energy and that being in a Sonic game is fucking bizarre.
Well, what can I say, another man's trash is another man's treasure-
How are people failing the rails? HOW!? Just flick the stick left or right, GOD DAMNIT!!!
Lol skill issue
The blast to the past you gave me with that Line Rider joke was uncalled for
I love sonic frontiers. Call it what you want, but I loved every 20 hours I spent trying to beat the game. And the soundtracks, I could listen to “I’m Here” for HOURS on end. But yes, while the parry kind of sucked, I loved the perfect parry they added in the new story update. (I also thought the Super Sonic V2 was sick as heck) and this may sound cheesy, but I kind of felt bad for eggman at the end, it showed that maybe Eggman wasn’t fully a bad guy, and he cared for Sage. Great game, I still play it all the time
Sorry man, can't dislike this one even if I tried. I LOVE it. I really don't know what you mean by "Sonic doesn't look like he fits in this world"
What do you mean? It's pretty obvious.
@@nerodoesart5886 I sure he understands where he’s coming from, he just doesn’t share that same sentiment.
The video we were all waiting but were not prepared for
Idk man, this game has some really great bones. Here’s to hoping sonic team sees this as a solid win like so many of us and use this title as foundation for future entries in the series. I think I’ll look back on this game very fondly for its ingenuity of the sonic franchise. ❤
How about ACTUAL GOOD USE of that ingenuity? You don't need a whole separate game for that.
by good bosses you mean half of them you have to deal with some dumbass gimmick until you can actually hit the boss (which isn't hard its just boring) and barely utilizes the full potential of the combat system since most of them can just be beat by mashing buttons (hell you don't even need to parry most of the time)
@@rushisbased4581 hey man let that man have his opinion not everybody is as ungreatful as yall motherfuckers negative about everything yall have to much in this day and age you might be wishes you enjoyed more things several years from now its fine if you dont like the game but I have seen to many of your types already let him feel how he feel about the game if you dont like it just deal with it not to mention this game comes after a game as bad as forces its a step in a better direction
I think the weird disconnect between the way Sonic looks and the way the environment both looks and sounds kind of fits with how Sonic is an outsider on these islands. This is Sonic in a world not his own, and the crazy rock kicking in during these boss fights where the environment tries is kick out the outsider is Sonic metaphorically pushing back against the environment that's trying to kick him out. Even with the themes of Cyberspace leaking into the real world, it explains why the weirdly out of place rails and other obstacles keep popping up only after Sonic interacts with the cyberspace since it seems to pull from his memories. Idk if any of these supposed thematic choices are intentional but that's the way I look at it anyway. I enjoyed this game probably more than I should have being realistic, but the inner sonic fan in me was just glad to have a new game he could have fun playing since he hadn't gotten one since 2013
I don't know man I finished it recently and I'm pretty sure it's my new favorite Sonic game. I loved everything about it.
Remember the time sonic vs mario was an honest debate
I don't mind the past references that much, but that's mostly because the way it is used, while frequent, is much better than the failed execution done in Sonic Forces, and I understand why it can be somewhat annoying. Really, it'll depend on if they keep relying on this technique in future Sonic games.
Tbh bro I think there was way too many references. Think about it: was mentioning sticks, tangle, deadly six, zavok, omega, and dark gaia really neccesary?
@@TheComemnterAnd whats wrong with that sonic generations did the same thing.
@@bedstevesuper1936 Generations didn't have 1000 references in the writing. The references were in the stages and bosses itself.
The biggest joke is the demo version of this game.
The first thing the game says to me is that I have only 15 minutes to play and immediately starts a cutscene...
My primary disagreement is on the /vibe/ of the narrative. There is absolutely nothing wrong with "colorful animals" being written with emotional range and more melancholy stories. It's really fucking cool actually and it's nothing new in media; especially not for Sonic. The story is actually what got me extremely excited while playing the game... uuuuntil it fumbled the bag in a way that felt like they did not have nearly enough time to execute.
That leads me to my other "disagreement" (really I just want to add some precision). I don't think the design of the game indicates that the core of this game was a lost cause regardless of development time (depending on what you meant by that anwyay). The rushed/disconnected execution of story elements over time, the high amount of asset reuse, the dependence of those assets to create the platforming challenges in the overworlds, etc. etc; they all scream, "we don't have a lot of time and we need to put this together with the assets with have."
Now, if you're looking at the fact that the gameplay loop was build with these restrictions in mind as the core of the game was compromised, that technically makes sense, but: 1) not necessarily to the degree of the game being doomed to be completely lackluster within those restrictions 2) that's missing the lead that it was probably designed that way because they started out with the viscous deadline. Negotiating just 1 more year for polish isn't enough time to completely restructure aspects of the game planned under constraints. Now I also don't have the information to say that is for sure THE reason it turned out like this, obviously. Just that it can very well be a prominent factor in the soup of development troubles for the game. And I do in fact think it's a mix of things. Some attempts to get creative with limited tools and time. Some having to work with absurd demands and direction. I mean I just learned from you that Sega just handed Flynn a bunch of fucking pieces to try his best to connect which... really explains a LOT of my vibe of the story. I'm going to be thinking about that for a while.
Generally though I agree with the meat of the review. The game was majorly disappointing for me, especially with the story. On one had, I am at least pleased and hopeful about the general shift in direction. On the other, I even humor being optimistic until we get some kind of confirmation that Sega's management is going to stop being terrible with crunch deadlines and meddling decisions /at the start/ and throughout a new game's development. When the devs get better working conditions and artistic control we'll get a truly great Sonic game.
I hope people get the one message in this video. . .
PLAY SOLAR ASH ITS BASICALLY A BETTER SONIC FRONTIERS
I completely disagree with you about the options to adjust how Sonic controls. More options to me is always a good thing, and I wish Games like Spider-Man PS4 had similar options. Adjusting the game to your own personal taste is a win for everyone involved, the bigger issue would be if it didn't feel good no matter what you chose to do.
So now the issue is merely “you have to switch controls to get Sonic to move nicely at all”. That’s not much of an improvement especially when “moving nicely” is still horrible at best, even if wonderfully cinematic.
@@iantaakalla8180 But that will be an opinion that varies per person, so more options = more people happy. If it always feels bad, that's just pure bad design.
eh my problem with more options is that the level design may not be built for all options.
take a look at secret rings for example, every single level is NOT built for sonics speed being any higher than the lowest speed upgrade
same for frontiers i kinda just fall off or cant react in specific circumstances because i put everything on max, luckily the game has failsafes to save you incase you fall, but still.
how the fuck am i supposed to decide as a player what i like within a reasonable amount of time when its 10 options per slider
4:18 You put it succinctly. Its very frustrating when you're trying to go one way only for the game to say "nope! Back the way you came!" Or worse, "and now you're trapped in 2D. Have fun!"
With you bringing up about the parry system, Black Knight's parry system took alot more skill. Parry too early against the likes of Arthur or the Dark Queen and you are getting messed up!
I never understood why Cyberspace isn't new and original stages instead of copy, pasted levels from the old games. Because if its supposed to be made up of the history of the former inhabitants of the island, why are we going through Sonic's history again? For the third time now. If his friends were playable - which they should have been from the start! - they could help Sonic uncover the mysteries of the island through Cyberspace.
Plus if his friends were playable, it might have had the cyber corruption scene make more of an impact, instead of it being more like a poor man's re-run of Sonic's death in 06. Only with less steps, and even less gameplay. It honestly felt like something out of the Meta Era, given how little consequence there was to it, what rather than Sonic's friends looking for the Chaos Emeralds - something that had been done in all the previous islands - they instead join hands and use the POWER OF FRIENDSHIP. I thought Frontiers was supposed to take us past crap like this, or thats what the hype said.
Also I completely agree about the Titan boss fights, while they display the spectacle and strength of Super Sonic well, the actual gameplay of it, not so much.
Giganto: given that my normal attacks were barely doing anything, use parry - which is WAY too easy to do, especially when compared to the Dark Queen fight from Black Knight which took actual timing to do rather than hold the button for as long as it takes - and then let the game play itself through the QTE prompt to serious damage. Rinse and repeat.
(Also it doesn't make you feel powerful if when you can't do damage yourself when playing, with normal attacks, and the only way to harm it is let the game play itself through QTEs. It's like Bayonetta 3, being forced into using the demonic summons to fight for you, given how little damage Bayonetta does now, rather than fighting enemies yourself. Especially when they throw up the shields Bayonetta can't break through herself.)
All other Titans, get in their face and hold down L2 and let the Sonic Boom move melt their health bar - like I'm playing Devil May Cry 2 while using the guns - and use the super easy parry when appropriate and then let the game play itself when the QTE prompt appears. Rinse and repeat.
Boring.
All flash and very little substance.
While it does allow the other characters to have their self respect - what with not making Tails into a coward, or Knuckles an idiot - it feels like the bare minimum, but given the past decade, is the bare minimum really enough? And while it is better than Forces, considering how low the bar was, is that really much of an achievement really? It was a good effort, but it still could have been a lot better.
I don’t know why everyone says this, but I never felt trapped in 2D. I could also easily exit when I wanted to. Maybe that’s a skill issue. Also, the boss fights were awesome, I don’t care what y’all mg fans say
@@thefastcommenter7774 no skill issues here dude, just bad game design, because the forced 2D sections make no sense. Especially with some of them you can double back to make the camera go back to 3D which makes you wonder, why are they even here? And it becomes especially annoying when there's Big coins just to your right but you can't get them right now, because you're stuck in this 2D section, meaning have to go all way through the it till you get out.
I thought the whole point of the Open Zone was the freedom to go anywhere, not be locked into 2D, because you just so happen to take a wrong turn, which seems the very antithesis of this.
@@DemonDethchase Yeah, but I never actually felt trapped in 2D. I could also exit in like 2 seconds if I wanted to. If you couldn't, that's a skill issue bro
I think it's a good game, though it's pretty clear that this is moreso a test for a future 3D open area sonic game. though my main issue is mostly just... the movement. moving sonic doesn't feel right
Yeah idk why they nerfed his gameplay..and made him slower in this game like you have to boost to go fast but then again that wasn't really a problem it still has that fast paced gameplay but the fact they nerfed his speed gameplay in frontiers was Abit disappointing
Sonic frontiers was a mess to me. For a big botw fan seeing an open world game for sonic seemed cool, except the world looks lifeless unlike botw, the controlls were pretty good and the story is ok but the game doesn’t even tell you what to do, while it sort of does it doesn’t even give you any help to find anything, it gets pretty boring and repetitive so yeah
I’m not going to pretend I’m a game developer, or that I know the secret to restore the Sonic franchise. But I do feel the main compelling element to a Sonic game should be, shocker, how he moves throughout the world. I play Spider-Man PS4 just to swing around New York. That’s it. That web-slinging is fun as hell and everything else is gravy. And that’s what Sonic should be, a game where the main enjoyment is simply running through the world. An open-world concept _can_ be great, but stuffing it with all these gimmicks and platforms is soooo clunky. I’m not going to praise Frontiers just because it isn’t atrocious. The fact the bar is so low is beyond depressing. But we’re used to that by now. We’ll just make memes, jam to our favourite soundtracks, and wait for the next game.
This bar is still underground; the bar is now just not shoved into the asthenosphere and is at least diggable by a shovel, but that’s it.
I was not expecting this game to be one of the most divided upon Sonic fans, like legit you seem to ethier find this game fun but flawed or find really dissatisfied
I think we can at least agree on one thing tho and that's Sonic Team need more money and man power
That is around the size of the team that made Scarlet and Violet.
If Sonic games and Pokémon games have taught us something, it is the size of the initial team required to make a polished game by 2022 standards.
@@iantaakalla8180 isn't game freak a way bigger team?
Still give some credit to Sonic team that frontiers alot less buggy then scarlet from what I've heard
I can’t thank you enough for this video, I feel so much better knowing that I’m not alone in how I feel about this absolute DISAPPOINTMENT this game was, I’ve been feeling depressed for months ever since I pre ordered it in October 2022 and played it on it’s release day due to the fact that I was so hyped for it and thought it would give me the joy I’ve been wanting from Sonic for years now but instead I literally cried because of how bad it was, I agree with about 98% of your points and am so glad I watched this.
sonic fans can never be satisfied, huh?
Tbh im a big sonic fan and this game is a blast, like I don't play it all day, and im not playing it to complete it, im just having fun
@@mykado8138 your opinion not mine, nothing wrong with you enjoying it, I just don’t like it that much
Definitely not a disappointment
@@jeffreyali1456 again, your opinion, and that’s ok, I just wanted to express mine seeing as I’m definitely in the minority with Sonic fans right now.
imagine looking at this game from the perspective of a regular person who never cared about Sonic in the first place. 4/10 seems generous tbh
What
what
Humbly request that you make a full video about Solar Ash, and give it an SEO-friendly title and thumbnail about it being “Sonic done right.”
Also, did you find the reference to the lyrics of “Rocky Raccoon” by The Beatles in Solar Ash? Our minds are still blown about what a deep cut that was.
Nailed my thoughts on the game. I still haven't gotten over the absolute disappointment that was the final boss, could only think "That was it?"
How IS THAT disappointing?!
@@rickyrackey7930 The final boss felt like sega didn’t have enough time to fully finish the final boss, and the secret final boss felt like they had absolutely no time to make a actual boss fight out of it so they put a mini game. Not saying the whole game was bad, I actually enjoyed the game unlike the guy In the video, but that final boss was underwhelming compared to the first 3 fights.
At least we are getting free dlc so that’s nice.
20:03 at least Sticks is.
So for me that makes the game a GOTY.
I just beat it today this morning. I think the end fight was too hard probably because of how huge the ramp in difficulty was. I still loved it.
My only complaint is the boss on the final island. They definitely rushed that. But i loved this game all around, just needs a QoL update
Considering sonic team have been doing boost formula games for over a decade I feel like they may not be used to letting sonic be free, which is why there are so many restrictive areas that would work better in a more on rails experience.
Cyberspace is the most undercooked part. Most of Sonic's movement has been nerfed and outright removed.
The fact you can only drift in a single level is pretty telling. (Not even going to discuss how bad that drift actually was).
The boost lost it's invincibility, which means you can't throttle your way into enemies but slowly homing attack into them. Which also loses your forward momentum.
I was going to whine about how bad the combat system is too. But all I really have to say is... That parry system is horrendous.
So you’re mad you have to actually play the game and not boost though everything like before.
@@KnucklesWTD You quite literally still boost through all the level. It's just been nerfed to make sonic slower and control worse.
So yeah, I'm pretty upset. 🤷🏾♂️
@@AizakkuAnalysis the level design is actually way more open than generations. Generations played itself basically mostly.
I don’t think you played all the cyberspace levels or mastered the mechanics.
Perfect example is the drift level you’re complaining about. that is not supposed to play like unleashed drifting, that dash panel puts you in a specific state automatically on purpose. It’s more like a Mario party mini game.
@@KnucklesWTD So now your excuse is the drift level is supposed to play like absolute shit, and if I don't believe you then, " I must've not played & mastered all the cyberspace levels"
Spare me. 💀
@@AizakkuAnalysis like I said,you think it plays bad because you didn’t bother to learn how to play it. Have you actually played it more than once?
And also you said the combat is bad, which again 90% of the people saying that just mashed squared the whole game and never bothered to learn or experiment with the tools you are given.