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StarTopic Sonic Frontiers |ST| Open Zone of the Enders [Final Horizon DLC out now! Includes new story and new playable characters]

totofogo said:
Just got a copy for my brother lol

Waiting for a PC sale for myself still tho, not gonna bite for 30fps on Series S (and need it to be digital)
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I thought Series S was 60fps? Just XBone is 30.


...okay shit, I just googled. They said it would be 60fps, but then it wasn't. So then they shared a setting to change to fix it, and changing it doesn't fix it.

Jesus.

I don't wanna hear any more crap about the Switch, if even the damn Series S can't play Frontiers at its fullest. 😅

also this solidifies my decision to wait for a used Series X if I ever do upgrade by Xbox side of things
 
chocolate_supra said:
I thought Series S was 60fps? Just XBone is 30.


...okay shit, I just googled. They said it would be 60fps, but then it wasn't. So then they shared a setting to change to fix it, and changing it doesn't fix it.

Jesus.

I don't wanna hear any more crap about the Switch, if even the damn Series S can't play Frontiers at its fullest. 😅

also this solidifies my decision to wait for a used Series X if I ever do upgrade by Xbox side of things
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To be fair, it's the developers fault here not the Series S. It should be able to handle 60fps easily lol. I (would) expect a patch (if I had expectations).
 
totofogo said:
To be fair, it's the developers fault here not the Series S. It should be able to handle 60fps easily lol. I (would) expect a patch (if I had expectations).
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Yeah I agree, but I realize I wasn't super clear about it. I had a whole rant about that but I backspaced it, didn't want to blast too hard. 😅

What I meant was I don't like people ripping Switch for being underpowered when this game's performance on Series S (and PS4 for that matter) is an example of how very often the problems are dev choices and optimisation, not hardware.

What I keep being reminded of is Rime, which came to Switch with such bad framedrops that people used it as a example for why "Switch can't handle third party games," when it turned out they didn't really even optimize it for Switch, and one of the weird decisions they made was that it loaded the entire game world into RAM instead of just the visible area you were in. It made the game run like absolute garbage, but it wasn't the Switch's fault, that was a developer choice.


*takes a breath*
Sorry, yeah. 😅
 
So true to my word, I got Sonic Frontiers on my PS5. And over the past two days I spent five hours clearing out the first island. My first impressions are that, while I have qualms, this is the first 3D Sonic I've been captivated by in over a decade.

The open zone set up gave me that "just one more" feeling a game like Mario Odyssey did. Beat up some robots to get stat points. Oh, there's a spring, let's get a memory token in a platforming section. Now I'm flung over here, I could go to that rail or I could get that big mini boss for a gear. That kinda thing kept me playing for a four hour session last night.

It's not perfect. I think the mini platforming challenges in the open zone could have been less automated and more naturally incorporated into the environment. I wish jumping didn't lose momentum from boosting and I wish the air boost was better. The Cyber Space levels are pretty weak, from their worse controls to many levels being lifted directly from other games. But so far, it's better than the sum of its parts. Not a perfect gem, but a game I've enjoyed enough to have already put more time into it than either Lost World or Forces.
 
VolcanicDynamo said:
So true to my word, I got Sonic Frontiers on my PS5. And over the past two days I spent five hours clearing out the first island. My first impressions are that, while I have qualms, this is the first 3D Sonic I've been captivated by in over a decade.

The open zone set up gave me that "just one more" feeling a game like Mario Odyssey did. Beat up some robots to get stat points. Oh, there's a spring, let's get a memory token in a platforming section. Now I'm flung over here, I could go to that rail or I could get that big mini boss for a gear. That kinda thing kept me playing for a four hour session last night.

It's not perfect. I think the mini platforming challenges in the open zone could have been less automated and more naturally incorporated into the environment. I wish jumping didn't lose momentum from boosting and I wish the air boost was better. The Cyber Space levels are pretty weak, from their worse controls to many levels being lifted directly from other games. But so far, it's better than the sum of its parts. Not a perfect gem, but a game I've enjoyed enough to have already put more time into it than either Lost World or Forces.
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Glad you picked it up and thanks for the impressions! I’ll have more to say when I’m off mobile and back at my keyboard during the week haha
 
Things I don't like:
  • having the homing attack stop my momentum dead in its tracks
  • homing attack is only available if a homable thing is nearby, as opposed to it always being available as a launch-forward move like in Adventure and the others

Things I do like:
  • having Rei Ayanami taunting me the whole time
  • the jingle when you catch a fish is the same as the caught-fish song from Adventure for chrissakes holy shit
 
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WAIT WHAT IN THE HIGH HOLY FUCK

WHY DO THE ANCIENT BODIES THAT THE KOCOS WERE PILOTING(?) LOOK JUST LIKE GODDAMN CHAOS 0??????

Yall I am not exaggerating there are tears in my eyes from the fuckin shock

What in the hell are they doing with the story in this game???? Is there gonna be actual lore????
 
chocolate_supra said:
WAIT WHAT IN THE HIGH HOLY FUCK

WHY DO THE ANCIENT BODIES THAT THE KOCOS WERE PILOTING(?) LOOK JUST LIKE GODDAMN CHAOS 0??????

Yall I am not exaggerating there are tears in my eyes from the fuckin shock

What in the hell are they doing with the story in this game???? Is there gonna be actual lore????
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Just wait until you read Egg Memo 11. 😉
 
Frontiers is teaching me something about my relationship with Sonic games.

Even in the boost games that I enjoy there was always a bit of stress for me. Like yeah, the spectacle was neat but there were always stumbling parts or ramps to miss or something, and sometimes dying would set you waaaay far back, so progress was rough. It made each level several minutes of solid tension, more like I was on a roller coaster than controlling a game. Especially the tropical jungle level of Unleashed, it's absolutely gorgeous and probably my favorite in the game aesthetically, but it was rough to get through because of how long it was and how few checkpoints there were. I game-overed so many times on it. And with those speed stages being the main content of the games (excluding the Werehog stages in Unleashed), there was no relief. I wanted the games to be longer in terms of content but the levels themselves were already so long that they'd stress me out at the pace they played at. Sorta like this paragraph.

But then Frontiers was like "here, have the speed stages but in manageable bite-sized chunks," and... it clicks? I'm really enjoying them this way! They aren't beating me up, aren't overstaying their welcome, and there's so much else to do that I'm not feeling starved for content. Plus it makes replaying them for better times or to hunt for red rings much more fun, since it's not a wholeass level you gotta replay if I miss one damn ring.

It feels more like, in terms of pacing anyway, a Genesis Sonic. Which sounds nuts, I know, but seriously. Like there are some parts where you slow down and platform, and then get back into the fast stuff, and the game is built to where if you wanna look around and explore other paths it's comfy to do so! Boost games have multiple paths sure, but they're built with this "push forward super fast" concept so stopping and looking around or backtracking is really counter-intuitive. In a Genesis Sonic if I missed something I can stop and run back and look for it. If something looked weird as I was running past I can stop and go back and see if it's a branching path. In boost games if I miss something it's gone, it's fuckin back there," and I feel I gotta push ahead and finish and then replay the level to see if I can find it again and hopefully not blow past it this time. By giving you an open world and breaking the fast parts into easily-replayable chunks, I feel like Frontiers is the first 3D Sonic to give that OG Sonic sense of both speed *and explorability.

Almost like Sonic Adventure did. 👀

This game is really good. This is a good 3D Sonic game, my god.
 
chocolate_supra said:
Frontiers is teaching me something about my relationship with Sonic games.

Even in the boost games that I enjoy there was always a bit of stress for me. Like yeah, the spectacle was neat but there were always stumbling parts or ramps to miss or something, and sometimes dying would set you waaaay far back, so progress was rough. It made each level several minutes of solid tension, more like I was on a roller coaster than controlling a game. Especially the tropical jungle level of Unleashed, it's absolutely gorgeous and probably my favorite in the game aesthetically, but it was rough to get through because of how long it was and how few checkpoints there were. I game-overed so many times on it. And with those speed stages being the main content of the games (excluding the Werehog stages in Unleashed), there was no relief. I wanted the games to be longer in terms of content but the levels themselves were already so long that they'd stress me out at the pace they played at. Sorta like this paragraph.

But then Frontiers was like "here, have the speed stages but in manageable bite-sized chunks," and... it clicks? I'm really enjoying them this way! They aren't beating me up, aren't overstaying their welcome, and there's so much else to do that I'm not feeling starved for content. Plus it makes replaying them for better times or to hunt for red rings much more fun, since it's not a wholeass level you gotta replay if I miss one damn ring.

It feels more like, in terms of pacing anyway, a Genesis Sonic. Which sounds nuts, I know, but seriously. Like there are some parts where you slow down and platform, and then get back into the fast stuff, and the game is built to where if you wanna look around and explore other paths it's comfy to do so! Boost games have multiple paths sure, but they're built with this "push forward super fast" concept so stopping and looking around or backtracking is really counter-intuitive. In a Genesis Sonic if I missed something I can stop and run back and look for it. If something looked weird as I was running past I can stop and go back and see if it's a branching path. In boost games if I miss something it's gone, it's fuckin back there," and I feel I gotta push ahead and finish and then replay the level to see if I can find it again and hopefully not blow past it this time. By giving you an open world and breaking the fast parts into easily-replayable chunks, I feel like Frontiers is the first 3D Sonic to give that OG Sonic sense of both speed *and explorability.

Almost like Sonic Adventure did. 👀

This game is really good. This is a good 3D Sonic game, my god.
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I actually want to approach this point from a divergent perspective, because I have similar thoughts but from a separate source.

Starting with Sonic Adventure 2, the ranking system has been an integral part of the franchise. Do better in stages, get yourself an A Rank or an S Rank. And I think it accomplishes what it sets out to do - makes the replay value of the Genesis games, the idea of "play better to do better", into a concrete mechanic. There is value to this system. But at the same time, the ranking system changes the design of the game. Now levels push you forward over letting you explore. You need to perform well. Do the tricks. Get the combos. Keep your rings. Maintain your speed. A perfect run can be exhilarating, but it can add in a lot of stress to playing a level. This especially comes into play with the levels of some of the Boost games, a play style that already has its own tension through requiring super quick reaction times even when not being perfect.

In the Open Zone, you don't have that kind of stress. You use speed to get around, then you do these bite sized challenges to get collectibles. You're not ranked, you can take as much or as little time as you need. You just play. And that's much closer to the pre-SA2 games than the rest.

That's not to say that ranking vs no ranking makes the game good or not. Sonic Lost World doesn't rank you outside of time trials and that didn't make me enjoy the game, meanwhile I still think the Cyber Space levels are the weakest aspect of Frontiers due to the worse controls than the open zone. But it's definitely a different, more relaxed flavor of Sonic.
 
VolcanicDynamo said:
I actually want to approach this point from a divergent perspective, because I have similar thoughts but from a separate source.

Starting with Sonic Adventure 2, the ranking system has been an integral part of the franchise. Do better in stages, get yourself an A Rank or an S Rank. And I think it accomplishes what it sets out to do - makes the replay value of the Genesis games, the idea of "play better to do better", into a concrete mechanic. There is value to this system. But at the same time, the ranking system changes the design of the game. Now levels push you forward over letting you explore. You need to perform well. Do the tricks. Get the combos. Keep your rings. Maintain your speed. A perfect run can be exhilarating, but it can add in a lot of stress to playing a level. This especially comes into play with the levels of some of the Boost games, a play style that already has its own tension through requiring super quick reaction times even when not being perfect.

In the Open Zone, you don't have that kind of stress. You use speed to get around, then you do these bite sized challenges to get collectibles. You're not ranked, you can take as much or as little time as you need. You just play. And that's much closer to the pre-SA2 games than the rest.

That's not to say that ranking vs no ranking makes the game good or not. Sonic Lost World doesn't rank you outside of time trials and that didn't make me enjoy the game, meanwhile I still think the Cyber Space levels are the weakest aspect of Frontiers due to the worse controls than the open zone. But it's definitely a different, more relaxed flavor of Sonic.
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And from my angle on the rankings, I'm actually enjoying going after S Ranks in Frontiers just because the levels are bite-sized and I can memorize them easier. I've never cared about the ranking system but I'm actually digging into it here (except for 1-2, jesus 😅)
 
chocolate_supra said:
And from my angle on the rankings, I'm actually enjoying going after S Ranks in Frontiers just because the levels are bite-sized and I can memorize them easier. I've never cared about the ranking system but I'm actually digging into it here (except for 1-2, jesus 😅)
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Amusingly, I think I found 1-6 (Generations Green Hill Act 1) harder to S-Rank than the infamous 1-2. I think with 1-2, the trick is to avoid the upper section at the start initially and only go onto it in the second half to avoid jumping cutting your speed. 1-6 just felt awkward. Sure, don't need to worry about the off turning in 2D, but it's just sluggish enough to feel off and it messed with me so much.
 
Jahranimo said:
Well, that would depend on what song you talking about.

I feel like Ohtani took inspiration from many different styles for each song.
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I dunno, just seems like the vocals and type of synth in a lot of them remind me of, like, Sonic R. Somehow. 🤷‍♂️
 
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OMGGGGGG
KNUCKLES HAD A FLASHBACK TO LITERALLY SONIC 3
Looks like this game is dead-set on making me squee at a rate of once per evening. 😅
 
So are the S ranks really hard to get or am I just bad? Seem to struggle getting an S rank on all of them, kinda wish the requisite was just A rank. Will I be fine to beat the main story without focusing on getting any S ranks? I kinda wish the goal was to just beat the cyber stage, and not beat it and other challenges. Just make the level longer.
 
Okay so
the Wyvern battle might've been the coolest fucking thing I've ever seen in a Sonic game, holy shit

the sense of speed and scale while you're flying around the island with it, especially knowing how massive that island is since you've been running around it, it's just so good.

This seems to be following the Xenoblade 3 formula of "the spectacle and music of this boss fight would be a final boss in any other series entry" and bada ba ba ba I'm lovin it
 
Tamantayoshi said:
So are the S ranks really hard to get or am I just bad? Seem to struggle getting an S rank on all of them, kinda wish the requisite was just A rank.
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Some of them are and some aren't. I've gotten S rank on a few of them on my first run without even trying to, and there are others that beat me up over and over before I could even get close.
Tamantayoshi said:
Will I be fine to beat the main story without focusing on getting any S ranks? I kinda wish the goal was to just beat the cyber stage, and not beat it and other challenges. Just make the level longer.
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So far I haven't needed all the extra keys you get from 100%ing the goals in each level. I just finished the second island and I had dozens of extra keys left over, so don't worry about it hampering progression. Plus you can find a lot of keys from beating enemies, breaking boxes, cylooping glowing things on the ground, just messing around in the world gets you stuff for progression.
 
chocolate_supra said:
Okay so
the Wyvern battle might've been the coolest fucking thing I've ever seen in a Sonic game, holy shit

the sense of speed and scale while you're flying around the island with it, especially knowing how massive that island is since you've been running around it, it's just so good.

This seems to be following the Xenoblade 3 formula of "the spectacle and music of this boss fight would be a final boss in any other series entry" and bada ba ba ba I'm lovin it
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I've been very eager to see your thoughts on the game and I have to say, I'm not disappointed at all, haha.

(Seriously, I'm really glad you're enjoying it so far.)
 
So I haven't been recognizing the layouts of old zones in cyberspace like other people have, but I'm pretty damn sure I just played through Green Forest from SA2 😮
 
chocolate_supra said:
So I haven't been recognizing the layouts of old zones in cyberspace like other people have, but I'm pretty damn sure I just played through Green Forest from SA2 😮
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Honestly I think the Adventure level designs work the best in this game. There's one in particular that was really fun, but I can't remember when it was so I don't wanna spoil it for you.
 
Another one!! I just played through the end of Mazuri from Unleashed, the part where you're running in circles climbing the bigass tree!
 
The most fun part of the cyberspace guessing game are those Unleashed not-Act 1 levels.

One I was playing a couple of nights ago turned out to be Cool Edge Act 3 or Act 4, the three tiered straightaway one with Green Hill theme
 
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Even though I ended Frontiers with a bad impression, I'm curious to see the extra playable characters;

I hope they don't just play as reskins of Sonic, using Boost and Homing Attack :X
 
I really hope that New Challenge Modes includes a Titan Rush mode. I wanna fight those Titans again!
 
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Overall the DLC ideas are cool and are gonna make me return to the game even if I just got the platinum but, how is "New Koco" a feature? It’s just something you collect and they already have many styles.
Also I wonder what "Sonic’s Birthday" entails.
 
Jahranimo said:
Switch version would be the best selling so I get it from that perspective

but yeah sucks for the other console versions.
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Odd tho since it’s not like its a multiplayer game where that consistency matters

maybe they had limited QA resources and it was necessary lol
 
totofogo said:
Odd tho since it’s not like its a multiplayer game where that consistency matters

maybe they had limited QA resources and it was necessary lol
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I do think you're right that it's to do with their resources. Hope Sega gives them more for the next game, especially since we'll have the trio of PS5/Xbox Series/Switch 2 by that time.
 
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Hey whoa!
Chemical Plant!!
What the hell I'm nearly done with the third island, this is a weird spot to suddenly throw in a new cyberspace theme 😅
 
chocolate_supra said:
Hey whoa!
Chemical Plant!!
What the hell I'm nearly done with the third island, this is a weird spot to suddenly throw in a new cyberspace theme 😅
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...I'm pretty sure there was a Chemical Plant Cyber Space level on Kronos Island. In fact, it was even a recreation of Chemical Plant Act 2 from Generations.
 
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