izigame.me

As a long-time fan, Sonic Frontiers is the most fun I’ve had with a 3D Sonic game since Sonic Generations. This game does have issues, but as a whole, Sonic Frontiers is a really good time and moves the series a few steps in the right direction.
The story of Sonic Frontiers is a large improvement from the last few games. Throughout the last few games, the cast of Sonic the Hedgehog has felt butchered. Most characters were either made really dumb, annoying, or just plain pitiful. There were a lot of jokes and dialogue which rather than being funny, made my eyes roll or had me cringe. Sonic Frontiers corrects most of these issues and even improves the cast overall.
The story tackles elements like the origins of the Chaos Emeralds, Cyberspace, an Ancient Civilization, and brings in references and events from past games within character interactions. I appreciated the callbacks and felt like they added to the characters and the world of Sonic. The new antagonist Sage is also a fairly well-developed character throughout the story.
While I enjoyed Sonic Frontiers story overall, some cutscenes didn’t quite work for me. Also, some cutscenes are stiffly animated and I feel the ending could have been better as it just sort of fizzles out instead of being grand or epic. With that said, the story did keep me engaged throughout and has some exceptional character growth and even some good arcs. Props to the writers for making these characters have actual depth.
The gameplay in Sonic Frontiers is really fun. I believe Sonic hasn’t controlled this well since the Adventure series. I found the moment-to-moment gameplay exploring and platforming across the islands to be really enjoyable throughout the entire game. I enjoyed platforming around finding memory tokens, completing small puzzles, and doing mini-games. There are puzzle types that repeated a little too often and some are just okay, but I appreciated that most of them were quick and never felt like a chore.
As for the Cyberspace levels in Sonic Frontiers, I didn’t care for the stages initially. However, when I got used to them, I found them to be really fun, and some of the later ones I enjoyed a lot. I find Cyberspace levels are at their best when speedrunning them. Doing a homing attack and boosting immediately after to cancel it can send you flying. However, I wish were more than 4 themes in Cyberspace. Fishing with Big the Cat is simple, but fun type of simple.
The combat in Sonic Frontiers was decent. I did like the various moves you could unlock and it was satisfying chaining combos together. Parrying was a little too easy once I figured out how the mechanic worked. There was some good enemy variety with most being fine, but there are a few annoying ones. I found the mini-bosses and especially the Super Sonic Bosses to be very good. The Super Sonic Bosses are a highlight of the game in general. Unfortunately, the Final Boss was a disappointment to me. It didn’t ruin my experience, and it was definitely unique compared to all prior Final Bosses, but it could have been better.
For general issues with Sonic Frontiers: the pop-in is pretty bad, there is a bit of jank to the controls and bosses, and camera control is taken away a little too often. But despite all the problems I listed with gameplay and a lack of overall polish, Sonic Frontiers was just really fun while playing it and the good outweighs the bad much more often.
The music in Sonic Frontiers is AMAZING! This may be my favorite soundtrack in the series. I loved it all, from softer island music to the EDM Cyberspace songs to the head-banging Titan Boss vocal tracks. It was all done extremely well.
Graphically Sonic Frontiers is very good. Most of the environments are nice to look at and there are some beautiful sites, however, pop-in does detract from it. The Cyberspace levels also look good despite the theme re-usage.
To summarize the pros and cons:
Pros: story, characters, references, open zone platforming, movement controls, mini-games, cyberspace levels, combat moves, enemy variety, mini-bosses, Super Sonic bosses, fishing, the entire soundtrack, and visuals.
Cons: stiff cutscenes, camera issues, jank, visual pop-in, lack of level themes, and a disappointing Final Boss.
The final score I give Sonic Frontiers is an 8/10. I liked this game a lot. I hope Sonic Team sticks with this formula because they really have something here. Also, keep Ian Flynn on the writing team please, he did a great job with the characters. If this is able to be improved on we might just get the greatest Sonic game yet. The future looks bright and I look forward to what happens next… across these new frontiers.