Current Events > I'm honestly shocked that the Sonic Frontiers reception has been so positive

(+) Yeah! (+)

Which is really heartening, frankly. Because with the way this game's publicity was handled, the Sonic Team newbies who headed Forces being in charge for Frontiers and the BotW-like focus of this game, it really could have gone either way.

I'm critical of Sonic to an extent. Recently made a post about how the Adventure games are dated and Heroes to Secret Rings was a stumbling point for the franchise, though I really like Sonic as a franchise. Even if I don't like some of the games, I can easily point to either the story, the cutscenes or the music as a highlight worth focusing on - I didn't even mind Sonic and the Black Knight as an offhand distraction, back when I had a Wii.

But even when I'm critical of the games, there's always that through-line of liking the cast, the music, the visuals - more or less everything that isn't how the game plays. This is a franchise that's like crack for the right kind of person. I don't know what it is, I just like it y'know. It was a formulative franchise for me.

I really didn't know what to think of Frontiers, and the minimal marketing was a massive red flag.

The Switch listing had like one still of the game and a hyped up game description. Barely any coverage came out until like a month before the game came out. This was preceded by the Sonic Origins collection, where Sega fucked the devs of Sonic Mania around and meddled with the project in a way that made it worse. Sega isn't in a healthy place right now, and the lead-up to Frontiers was starting to look shadier and weirder than I would have liked. It could have been a Doom 2016, or it could have been an Alien: Colonial Marines. You don't know until the game comes out when you have radio silence on the progress of the game.

The next thing that concerned me was the BotW inspiration. Specifically, wondering how the fuck Sonic was going to tackle that sort of look, that style of presentation and gameplay.

Because I really like Breath of the Wild, I'll get up on my high horse and call that game a masterpiece of open-world gaming. I didn't know what to expect from Pokemon Legends Arceus until I played it, and it's mostly like BotW in presentation and not so much in gameplay - but even then, it's a third-person action RPG. The Sonic connection was a bit more disconnected.

Breath of the Wild has been seeing more criticism from the most cynical users of GameFAQs and beyond year after year, and every game that looks even remotely reminiscent of Breath of the Wild faces some chuddish backlash - down to the first trailer of the BotW sequel, almost certainly released at an alpha state of development, getting shouted down for "recycling assets" and "not changing enough". Pokemon Legends got written off immediately as a BotW clone by some. So for one of the most contentious video game franchises on the market to follow a similar trend, that was gonna garner all sorts of attention.

And what stands out about this decision is that Sonic is almost defined by his linearity. Okay, you have alternate level paths that are skill-gated, but the point of Sonic is to move forward. Backtracking isn't impossible or wholly discouraged, but it's not really the focus. You're getting from point A to point B, with the occasional distraction like the Chao Garden or Unleashed's Sun and Moon Medals.

This franchise, at least to this point, hasn't been particularly conducive to this type of gameplay experience. There have been free-roam hubworlds for years, but they just sort of... exist as their own sort of "vertical slice" away from the main Sonic levels. They're mostly puzzle-solving sections or opportunities to expand on character development.

So the next concern was, how the hell is the core Sonic experience meant to work in the style of an open-world action RPG?

And to add onto all this - the newest iteration of Sonic Team, including level designers and directors of Sonic Forces, made this game. The Sonic defence force seems to have come around on Forces, and that's their prerogative, but criticisms of the level design, the messy story and the non-committal tone have been around since launch. It didn't inspire confidence.

How in the flying fuck it all managed to come together, I'll never fucking know. I don't know who the producers had to blow or whose soul got sacrificed to Satan or whatever, but the game is getting some pretty great scores, and I honestly think I'll be picking up a copy on Switch this Christmas.

And again, as a critical Sonic fan who enjoys the basic aesthetic and vibe of Sonic while being hard on the games for their spotty quality at times - I really am stoked that with the handful of quirks and hitches that are being reported, this has been one of the most well-received mainline Sonic games in some time. I'm really looking forward to seeing if Sonic Team expand on the game with DLC or manage to help smoothen the experience further with some QoL patches.

I don't think ehhhhhhh is considered positive

Irony posted...

I don't think ehhhhhhh is considered positive

For Sonic?

Irony posted...

I don't think ehhhhhhh is considered positive

Its certainly an improvement over perpetually burning dumpster fire.

buddhamonster posted...

Its certainly an improvement over perpetually burning dumpster fire.

It's definitely not an improvement over 4 and Mania

9.0 user score on meta for what thats worth.

Irony posted...

I don't think ehhhhhhh is considered positive

It is for elementary schooler's music concerts, Michael Bay movies, or Sonic