• Hey everyone, staff have documented a list of banned content and subject matter that we feel are not consistent with site values, and don't make sense to host discussion of on Famiboards. This list (and the relevant reasoning per item) is viewable here.

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

I’ve been addicted to shiny hunting and haven’t touched this since Pokemon came out

tonight is the night, back into speed mode I go
 
First impressions: it’s okay. There are moments where it’s a ton of fun and there are moments where it’s infuriating. The combat is just plain dull (especially compared to Ragnarok which I just finished, lol). Running around the island is generally fun, but so far I don’t like doing the puzzles to unlock the map. My least favorite part of Generations is still my least favorite part here - 2D levels. They look bad, feel bad, and aren’t fun. And like I said, Sonic sounds weird. In a bad way.

But still, I can tell there’s potential here. I only played for a couple hours tonight. I’m eager to play more!
 
Red Monster said:
First impressions: it’s okay. There are moments where it’s a ton of fun and there are moments where it’s infuriating. The combat is just plain dull (especially compared to Ragnarok which I just finished, lol). Running around the island is generally fun, but so far I don’t like doing the puzzles to unlock the map. My least favorite part of Generations is still my least favorite part here - 2D levels. They look bad, feel bad, and aren’t fun. And like I said, Sonic sounds weird. In a bad way.

But still, I can tell there’s potential here. I only played for a couple hours tonight. I’m eager to play more!
Click to expand...
Yeah it’s very much a YMMV type of game

I have a weird tendency towards mindless combat in games as gaming junk food (hello Hyrule warriors) and a strong nostalgia / underdog mentality for sonic personally lol
 
Red Monster said:
First impressions: it’s okay. There are moments where it’s a ton of fun and there are moments where it’s infuriating. The combat is just plain dull (especially compared to Ragnarok which I just finished, lol). Running around the island is generally fun, but so far I don’t like doing the puzzles to unlock the map. My least favorite part of Generations is still my least favorite part here - 2D levels. They look bad, feel bad, and aren’t fun. And like I said, Sonic sounds weird. In a bad way.

But still, I can tell there’s potential here. I only played for a couple hours tonight. I’m eager to play more!
Click to expand...

It has potential, but only for the next game. Frontiers stays very samey throughout the whole experience.
 
0
I do like how the main gameplay loop feels kinda like Tony Hawk. Seeing something way up high and having to find a way up there, grinding and jumping through hoops and whatever to get there.
 
Returned to this game a bit yesterday and today on Island 3. Playing it next to Pokemon makes it feel like a damned miracle to run on Switch, but I know that’s not a fair comparison lmao.

My impression of the 2D sections in the over world continues to be strong too! It too could use some iteration and be used more sparingly, but there are some moments where it really sets up cool viewpoints and vistas over the world that feel as engaging as a well designed 2.5D backdrop. Really cool way to use the space in a different way.
 
0
Red Monster said:
I do like how the main gameplay loop feels kinda like Tony Hawk. Seeing something way up high and having to find a way up there, grinding and jumping through hoops and whatever to get there.
Click to expand...
For sure, it’s good fun. Though after a good number of hours in the game it becomes pretty apparent that the system lacks the depth of that system, or at least the level design lacks the depth to challenge the player with it. As a seasoned sonic fan who was pretty comfortable with the controls from the get go, nothing in the overworlds has been particularly challenging and is a bit too on rails. Tony Hawk inspired performance systems would go a long way!
 
0
I am not sure how to feel about this game.

It's not bad like 06 or great like Generations. I don't know that Sonic needed the BotW treatment in any way. But this sure is interesting.

I am only an hour in, but huh. Huh.
 
0
Alright, I think I have a better sense of how I feel.

This is a fascinating game and I hope SEGA does this for the next game with tweaks and gameplay updates.

The pluses so far:

  • Really great freedom of movement; lots of different things you can do to get around just in your own moveset. I'm impressed at how fun they've made it to move Sonic around in space.
  • It does understand fairly well the see there -> go there impulse, and it's pretty good at spreading out visual cues that lead you around the open world or make you think, Hey, I'm going to try and get there. It's satisfying when you are able to get there, too.
  • The cyber zones are pretty good. Not anything as good as in Generations yet, but pretty good. I also very much like the multiple missions in each zone. It's very easy to do multiple runs and to try and perfect your S-Rank time approach or whatever, but you can also just poke around for red star rings. There's a nice balance there between exploration and platforming/keeping up max speed (though I hope as I progress through the game, there is more pathing through these levels and more reason to explore for the red star rings like in the best of the Generations levels)
  • The '90s dance music-inspired parts of the soundtrack rule so, so much.

The minuses so far:

  • Too much dead space in the open world. Kind of the BotW problem, but BotW had cool stuff like monsters that you could hunt for medals sprinkled liberally throughout to make up for it. Frontiers desperately needs something that functions like that.
  • Jumping and hitting your jump feels gross. It's just not there yet and never has been in fully-3D Sonic games. If you play a 2D Sonic, everything is so precise. They still haven't found a way to do that for 3D.
  • Combat is pretty dull. I think the contrast between your general movement options and what you have available to you/what you ever need to actually use for combat, even on hard, is really starl.
  • The music in the open world is boring.
  • Actually everything about the open world is boring so far. The next one of these needs to have the classic Sonic look. Checkerboard grasslands with palm trees, bright cities at night with colorful moving platforms, a random outdoor casino, etc.
 
Okay so I can't remember the last time I gave a crap about the story in a Sonic game (actually I can, it was the Dreamcast era), but Frontiers has absolutely hooked me. I did not expect this to be the story of how the Chaos Emeralds came to the planet, and a near origin story for Chaos itself.

They absolutely made the right choice bringing Flynn in to write this. This is the sort of shoot-for-the-moon lore the Sonic comics were always known for and I am so in love.
 
0
well hell

I was wondering why that was such a blah final boss. I didn't get the "true" ending.

I have to replay the end section in hard mode. 😩

Edit:
holy fuck the true final boss is a bullet hell sequence

...rad.

Edit edit:
wait... that was the same ending? With the same post-credits sequence that played after the normal ending. I know I did it right because I didn't fight the true final boss on the first go-around so...

Okay I looked it up and the special post-credits scene with Eggman that played after my normal run, is apparently ONLY supposed to play after a hard mode ending with the true boss. I got it after my normal finish.

lol wtf 🤣
 
Last edited:
So I have a bit of a criticism, and some questions. Though I guess the criticism comes from the fact that these questions even exist. 😅

From the get-go, they were messing with my head showing off the ancients being part of Chaos' race. Then they showed that they were from another planet, and that the Chaos Emeralds originated on their planet. So neither Chaos nor the emeralds are of Sonic's world. That's a neat new tidbit. And I was getting more and more excited the further the backstory went.

Buuuut it kinda pulled a Xenoblade 3 for me at the end, where a lot of the promises it seemed to be making with the lore were kinda brushed aside in favor of ending on an emotional, character-focused note. I figured they'd go all the way up to showing who Chaos was in their society, and the way in which he became bound to the Master Emerald. No such luck. They just said that a few survivors of the ancients race took the Emeralds and left to another place. Presumably Angel Island, but like.. that seemed like a flop of a way to finish that thread.

But the big question was: they showed that their ships ended up being pulled to Sonic's planet because of the attraction of the Master Emerald, even showed it laying in a field, so it was definitely the Master Emerald. But.. if the Chaos Emeralds are from another world, where is the Master Emerald from and why was it there? Are there multiple sets of Emeralds around the galaxy and the Ancients only had ahold of one? If so, did they still actually originate on the Ancients' planet or were they put there by the same entity that put the Master Emerald on Sonic's planet?

I guess I'll be keeping a close eye out for that story DLC later in the year. 👀
 
0
I turned the difficulty to easy. Not because the game is hard but because the enemies are way too spongy and I don’t have time for that nonsense. They’re still spongy on easy!
 
Anyone else feel like the game is slightly less ugly on Switvch after the recent patch? Am I the only one playing on Switch?
 
0
Red Monster said:
I turned the difficulty to easy. Not because the game is hard but because the enemies are way too spongy and I don’t have time for that nonsense. They’re still spongy on easy!
Click to expand...
Have you been giving seeds to the hermit to up your attack power? I was also feeling the enemies were too spongy until I did that. Took me till partway through the second island. 😅

It's just not built into my head to have to "upgrade" Sonic in a damn Sonic game. 😅
 
chocolate_supra said:
Have you been giving seeds to the hermit to up your attack power? I was also feeling the enemies were too spongy until I did that. Took me till partway through the second island. 😅

It's just not built into my head to have to "upgrade" Sonic in a damn Sonic game. 😅
Click to expand...
I’m not very far into the game at all. The one time I found the hermit I think I chose to upgrade speed.
 
Red Monster said:
I’m not very far into the game at all. The one time I found the hermit I think I chose to upgrade speed.
Click to expand...
Oh that's the elder. The elder upgrades your speed and rings when you find Kocos. The hermit is taller and upgrades attack and defense with the red and green seeds.
 
0
This game is fascinating. If it had some polish, it'd be a GotY contender for me. It's trying to do some very ambitious things here that I very much appreciate.

A couple more notes:

  • The floating platform is one of the best visual markers you can have in this type of game. It's an instant "I want to go there" trigger more than any environmental feature could be for me, maybe other than beautiful trees. Give me a beautiful tree that stands out from all the other trees, and I'll beeline for it, as is apparent from my playing BotW and Ghost of Tsushima.
  • The setpiece with the first boss sentry encounter is excellent.
  • This game is janky as hell. Oh man, it's so janky. The Asuras are really fun to fight except that I've clipped through them, boosted into outer space running up one of their arms, etc. What a mess. Is it the engine? Is Sonic Team in desperate need of people who know how to make stuff feel smooth within the engine? I don't know, but it's like some delightful sequence that takes me up to an out-of-the-way platform or an enjoyable enemy fight is interspersed with a jank-fest of a sprint for an S-Rank time or clipping through something that I shouldn't be clipping through.
  • This certainly gets the title of strangest game to exist from me for this year. I think I'd sneak it into the bottom half of my top ten right now; it does too much that's good not to put it there.

I can't believe that I lived to see a worthwhile 3D Sonic game (Unleashed was most fun in the rail-based sections and the Werehog 3D stuff was bad IMO, and I don't believe in Adventure or Heroes or 3D Blast, for that matter).

chocolate_supra said:
It's just not built into my head to have to "upgrade" Sonic in a damn Sonic game. 😅
Click to expand...
That is one of the neatest parts of Sonic Generations! Having different abilities to purchase and being able to access different loadouts for Sonic was a nice element to the gameplay. I was thrilled to see them bring back gameplay upgrades in this game.
 
So it's been days since I finished this game and I'm still reeling from the fact that the final boss was a legit bullet hell sequence. Like I should feel let down but it's such an old-school Sega thing to do that I actually love it.
 
Man, do I enjoy fishing in this game.

These are some nicely-modeled fish, too.

This game absolutely gets a place on my GotY list. It's too fun not to land on it somewhere.
 
Frontiers' Director responded to the TGA Players Voice placement:



Machine translation:
We made it into the top 5 of TGA Players' Voice! This is all thanks to your support! The third generation is off to a good start. I'm happy! I am sure that this result will be a big driving force for the next work. We promise you an experience of greater excitement and surprise. Finally, I would like to thank all the staff involved in this project.
Click to expand...

The "third generation" he's referencing is surely what he or Iizuka (I forgot which) were referring to months ago where if Frontiers does well they'd consider it the start of a third era of Sonic, after "classic" and "modern," and would move ahead with open-zone being the new main formula.

So I guess we can get ready for Sonic Frontiers 2 in a few years. 🤘
 
chocolate_supra said:
The "third generation" he's referencing is surely what he or Iizuka (I forgot which) were referring to months ago where if Frontiers does well they'd consider it the start of a third era of Sonic, after "classic" and "modern," and would move ahead with open-zone being the new main formula.

So I guess we can get ready for Sonic Frontiers 2 in a few years. 🤘
Click to expand...

Best hope it doesn't go like the modern formula, where they accidentally make either 1 or 2 actual good games pretty close to each other (depending on how you feel about either of colours and generations) and then spend the next decade falling over themselves because it really was accidental and nobody is sure what exactly to reproduce.


...though, thinking about, that's not so different to how the classic games went too. Uh, good luck sonic fans, with the new third branch, I suppose
 
Linkstrikesback said:
Best hope it doesn't go like the modern formula, where they accidentally make either 1 or 2 actual good games pretty close to each other (depending on how you feel about either of colours and generations) and then spend the next decade falling over themselves because it really was accidental and nobody is sure what exactly to reproduce.


...though, thinking about, that's not so different to how the classic games went too. Uh, good luck sonic fans, with the new third branch, I suppose
Click to expand...
Sonic Team tends to watch fan criticism a bit, and since there are already modders posting videos of them fixing the lack of momentum and people talking about how weird the jumping feels (which itself is partially due to bad momentum physics), I wouldn't be surprised if this next game is actually an improvement. Like they have the base down, now what they need for the next one is to refine it and design more islands (or who knows, one really damn big one).

I could see it being like the Genesis series where by comparison Sonic 1 almost seems like just a proof of concept for what 2 and 3 would be. But I do agree with your hope that they don't spend the next few games fumbling like they did with the boost games.
 
chocolate_supra said:
Sonic Team tends to watch fan criticism a bit, and since there are already modders posting videos of them fixing the lack of momentum and people talking about how weird the jumping feels (which itself is partially due to bad momentum physics), I wouldn't be surprised if this next game is actually an improvement. Like they have the base down, now what they need for the next one is to refine it and design more islands (or who knows, one really damn big one).

I could see it being like the Genesis series where by comparison Sonic 1 almost seems like just a proof of concept for what 2 and 3 would be. But I do agree with your hope that they don't spend the next few games fumbling like they did with the boost games.
Click to expand...

Probably, yeah. You'll get one or two games that improve on the shaky but clearly well intentioned starting point (1->2, 3&I or Unleashed -> Generations and colours), it's seeing if they can keep things on track after that which will be... Interesting?
 
Linkstrikesback said:
Probably, yeah. You'll get one or two games that improve on the shaky but clearly well intentioned starting point (1->2, 3&I or Unleashed -> Generations and colours), it's seeing if they can keep things on track after that which will be... Interesting?
Click to expand...
Yeah, especially since the gameplay progression here is tied pretty heavily to the story, with Chaos Emerald retrieval being the point of exploration and then the boss battles with Super Sonic. And it works, I think! Which is a big thing to say coming from an old-schooler who initially thought Super Sonic should be an endgame treat. But as far as "keeping on track," I'd worry if in order to keep this specific gameplay loop the same they'd have to come up with yet another story that requires Sonic to hunt, gather, and lose the Emeralds over and over, which could get odd considering what they always represented in the series.

I dunno, maybe they could still have some pretty spectacular boss fights without the bosses being massive and Sonic being airborne, maybe back to more Eggman contraptions, and they wouldn't be beholden to the Emerald element. I just hope Flynn is brought back for the story again, that was the biggest surprise for me. And I still wanna know why the Chaos Emeralds were on another planet while the Master Emerald was on Sonic's.
 
0
Those boss fights are one of the worst parts of the game, IMO. Tedium defined. Just up your ring capacity as far as you can and chisel down a very long life bar for ten minutes.

Even using special moves, it's a dullfest to me.

The Titan fights sure look great, though.
 
0
Not to keep whipping a dead horse BUT



Two things: one, this is the way I wanted Sonic to control in this game. This is what I was dreaming of for years when I wanted an "open-world Sonic Adventure 3." Two, the quotes at the beginning showing that there's a subset of Sonic fans who are not only against what I hoped for but are beginning to mock those of use asking for it, is a little weird. 😅 Especially after watching how good the game looks to me with it.
 
What a game. It's got so many flaws, but it legitimately is one of the best open-world games for traversal. I think only Marvel's Spider-Man is in that elite tier with it. By the time you get to the third island, there are so many ways that you can chain rails, bumpers, etc. to cut across the map quickly that movement is a joy.

I think the portals ended up being a met negative because it's far more fun simply to move around the open world to find things. Getting dumped into a Generations-style Green Hill segment feels restrictive after you've spent twenty minutes launching Sonic all over the place with freedom.

As for concepts what Frontiers borrows from other games, I love that it uses the Souls idea of letting you open shortcuts once you've braved the challenge of getting to the switch. It works really well with the platforming challenges in the open world.

I don't love that it borrows that blood moon garbage from BotW. No amount of slot machine turns can change that.

Even with its jank and its flaws, this game is easily top five for me this year and maybe is top three. Maybe it's top two once I finish this final boss. If you had told me to start the year that I would prefer this to Forbidden West or Sparks of Hope, I would have mocked you mercilessly. Go figure.
 
I changed my mind. The lo-fi hip-hop beats in Big's fishing areas are the best part of this game's soundtrack. The dance stuff is good, the hard rock stuff does zero for me, but the lo-fi hip-hop is exquisite.
 
I’m nearly done with the first island now. The game makes a hell of a first impression, because after the first few hours I’m having a freaking blast. I heard the game bogs down around the third island, so I guess I’ll wait and see. But so far, I am very impressed.

MeatheadSamus said:
Is this Switch??
Click to expand...
PS5
 
MeatheadSamus said:
Ok you almost broke my brain thinking that was Switch. Was about to run out and buy it if it ran that amazingly.
Click to expand...
Yeah lol, sorry about that!

IIRC, Frontiers is 60fps on PS5 and Series X, and 30fps on Switch, Series S, PS4, and Xbox One.

Here’s the DF review for reference

 
0
I'm very slowly working through this game...third boss is trash. Like actually bad fight, and that song is the worst I've heard in this game so far. I like the other boss themes, but this ones rough.
 
Red Monster said:
I’m nearly done with the first island now. The game makes a hell of a first impression, because after the first few hours I’m having a freaking blast. I heard the game bogs down around the third island, so I guess I’ll wait and see. But so far, I am very impressed.


PS5
Click to expand...
The third map is good, but the second map is the best.

It's a 35-ish hour game if you try to plat it, so I don't think it quite overstays it's welcome. One thing it does is vary it's overworld puzzles enough to stay interesting (though I wish the puzzles had more challenge to them).
 
ProteusRidley said:
I'm very slowly working through this game...third boss is trash. Like actually bad fight, and that song is the worst I've heard in this game so far. I like the other boss themes, but this ones rough.
Click to expand...
You talking about Knight? That was easily my least favorite boss in the game, and my least favorite boss arena as well. The first two arenas give you a much larger sense of scale which makes the flying a lot more exciting (especially Wyvern, my god) and then for this one they just sorta cram you in a hole and say "okay now fight."

I sadly think the bosses kinda peak early (until you get to the "hidden" final boss)
 
ProteusRidley said:
I'm very slowly working through this game...third boss is trash. Like actually bad fight, and that song is the worst I've heard in this game so far. I like the other boss themes, but this ones rough.
Click to expand...
Felt this way about the second one, made me end up dropping the game. I was shocked to see people calling the bosses a highlight
 
DistractedByPixels said:
The third map is good, but the second map is the best.

It's a 35-ish hour game if you try to plat it, so I don't think it quite overstays it's welcome. One thing it does is vary it's overworld puzzles enough to stay interesting (though I wish the puzzles had more challenge to them).
Click to expand...
Idk I think the curve for my enjoyment of Frontiers has been first island it doesn't click with me, second island I start to get it and I'm on the third island and getting fatigued by the gameplay loop now
 
frog said:
Idk I think the curve for my enjoyment of Frontiers has been first island it doesn't click with me, second island I start to get it and I'm on the third island and getting fatigued by the gameplay loop now
Click to expand...
This is sort of where I was by the fifth island, but there was enough overworld stuff I liked that I enjoyed myself all the way through.

I was done with the portal gameplay by about the end of island two, though.
 
0
So I’m fighting the first Titan and this kinda sucks. The music is god tier and I get the epic vibe they’re going for, but Sonic does an absolutely pathetic amount of damage and there’s no where near enough time. And so I lose, try again, and now I start with only one hundred rings instead of four hundred?! And there’s no way to reload a save in a fight?? This blows.
 
Red Monster said:
So I’m fighting the first Titan and this kinda sucks. The music is god tier and I get the epic vibe they’re going for, but Sonic does an absolutely pathetic amount of damage and there’s no where near enough time. And so I lose, try again, and now I start with only one hundred rings instead of four hundred?! And there’s no way to reload a save in a fight?? This blows.
Click to expand...
Do Cyloops to get your rings up before you chase the Titan.

The bosses are poorly balanced. The first one is a damage sponge and the third one goes down in two seconds. That's without trying to beef up at all.
 
DistractedByPixels said:
Do Cyloops to get your rings up before you chase the Titan.

The bosses are poorly balanced. The first one is a damage sponge and the third one goes down in two seconds. That's without trying to beef up at all.
Click to expand...
Yep I just remembered the cyloop ring cheese. And also the “hold L2 to do infinite kicks” cheese.

The combat in this game is by far the worst part.
 
0
You must log in or register to reply here.


Back
Top Bottom