When Sonic Frontiers was first revealed, I was extremely doubtful. After being so excited for both Boom and Forces before, and being so disappointed after playing them, there was just something in me that couldn't be excited for any new Sonic games. I didn't want to take any chances, and I didn't want to come out of it just as terribly as I did the two previously mentioned.
As time goes on, more is revealed. A big, open world Sonic game, the story is written by the comic writers! But I still can't convince myself. As long as I keep my expectations as low as possible, whatever happens will happen. The game releases, and people love it! Clearly it's not perfect, but it's a shocking amount of praise for a modern Sonic game. This is about when I decided, fuck it, maybe they're right.
It took me a few months, and they were pretty painstaking months, trying my absolutely hardest to stay unspoiled, even going as far as not listening to any of the music (outside of Vandalize, that one was good), and god damn! They were right!

I thoroughly enjoyed almost all of Frontiers. I had some problems, the general consensus seems to be that the game sorta falls off after the first island, which I guess is right to an extent. I liked exploring Kronos, but the layouts of the next 2 islands were pretty irritating to navigate, falling into chasms in Ares Island made it pretty difficult to find out where I was supposed to be going and how. Chaos Island is filled to the brim with boost pads and springs that force you into boring and limiting 2D sections, which is quite possibly the last thing I'm looking for in such an open world. They sucked to come across so many times, but I didn't let it dampen my experience too much.
The Cyber Space levels provide fun challenges and make for some really cool speedruns once you learn more of the games tricks and mechanics, but of course, it's a bit of a problem once you realize every single one of them is just a new variant on one of four themes, Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Sky Sanctuary, and street. I'm not really sure what the street is meant to be referencing, but at least those levels were pretty fun.
The bosses are all fun accompanied with the kick-ass music that they're given, pretty easy but I guess it's the spectacle of them that I enjoyed the most. The End not so much, though. Not only is the "true" final boss locked behind hard mode, not something I've ever really been a fan of, but once you do get there, it's nothing but a tedious bullet hell, same as some of the minigames used earlier to unlock certain parts of the map. Lackluster for a series that, if anything, usually does pretty damn good final bosses.

For every pro Frontiers has, there's a con that follows shortly after. Might sound weird for a 9/10 review, but I think most of what I love about this game is that I actually enjoyed it. I went into it with little expectations, I was ready to be disappointed to hell and back again, and I'm already not the biggest fan of open world games in general. But I loved Sonic Frontiers, and damn near everything it offered. Sonic is a series that I've been a fan of nearly my whole life at this point, which is why I view his lowest points so harshly. When he does good, I get to feel like a kid again. There's something so comforting to me about playing one of his games and actually having fun, which should be a given, but with how inconsistent the series can be, it makes those high points all the more worth it.

I fucking love Sonic the Hedgehog, and I love being a Sonic fan.

After a whole decade of midiocre disasters we finally got a pretty decent Sonic game, it's good to explore, despite the button mashing the combat can be very fun, the music is phenomenal like always, but this isn't a perfect game, it's awfuly easy, cyberspace physics are actually a thing, specially in 2D levels, and the third island is a pain
But at least we got a good writting that doesn't have forced drama, Sonic sounds more mature in this game, and also for the first time Amy isn't acting like a maniac sonic fan, i give it a 8.0/10

This game is secretly surrealist. There's just shit floating all over with no reason for it to exist and you just zoom through it all, endlessly collecting little trinkets. The world is endless metal spaghetti and I'm just a blue 'hog, eatin it all up.

It's pretty fun even if it's a nightmare dreamed up by an industry desperately trying to copy Breath of the Wild. I especially like the levels outside the open world, they are genuinely just good sonic.

Why the fuck did Eggman make his AI take the form of a little girl? I will probably never know because this didn't keep my attention long enough for me to finish it.

Basically the love child of Breath of the Wild and Shadow of the Colossus but without everything that made those games memorable and innovative. It’s clearly inspired by some brilliant games, but ironically the result feels lukewarm and like it lacks it’s own identity.

Unpolished, clearly unfinished (again), uninteresting story, and the open world element feels incredibly lacking. Definitely a step in the right direction for Sonic, but overall I still found myself really bored and pretty much just wishing I was playing the games it so badly wanted to be. I literally forgot about it at some point and didn’t pick it up for 5 months until I forced myself to finish it. The Boss Battles were hype though and I loved them to an unhealthy degree. It’s a shame they make up less than 15% of the game.

Probably the most half-and half game I’ve ever played

the gameplay was fun during the first two hours but the loop of having to collect emblems to progress the story became a total chore- fishing with Big for an hour or two became way more enjoyable than running around the map. I beat the game but I didn’t get the “true” ending. I can see myself playing enough to go back and get it, but not right now.

The cutscenes were mostly stiff and awkward but had a few cute moments. I played the game after the first free update released- the one that added a music player, I think the game would’ve been unbearable if I had to listen to the default music the whole time.

The best parts of the game were easily the combat and the bosses. A good way to describe it is simple but fun. All of the enemies have their own unique way that you have to fight them, once you figure that out beating em is no problem, but still satisfying. And then the bosses ramp that feeling up to ten. Once I figured out what I was doing, going super sonic and whaling on giant robos was easy, but godDAMN was it a good spectacle. Before I played frontiers, I’ve heard other people praise the music nonstop and yeah, they were right, those tracks go crazy, and make the boss battles feel even more amazing.

All in all, the game has a lot of flaws, but it’s pretty fun despite that. I still think sonic fans deserve better, but this game definitely has its moments.

A milestone for the franchise, probably. I know that for some the experience can be tiring, and the game sometimes comes close to stepping into "overstay it's welcome" territory. But my experience was incredible and consistent even on the most boring islands. Exploring in this game is fun, in any scenario.

Not to mention the rest: discovering the story little by little is great, even more so because the story is good, and everyone's characterization is also great. The soundtrack is extremely varied, and virtually every song matches the game. And they are amazing.
And the titans? These bosses are probably the most hardcore and badass moments the franchise ever had, mini-bosses also included. Perfection.

Personally, I was extremely happy with the result, it's clear that it was a game made with passion by Sonic Team, and the result is 100% visible in the final product.

Sonic Frontiers is so so close to being good and has the potential to be great.

So many elements just work. The anime tone makes Sonic and his friends feel grounded despite the absurd events. The soundtrack is full of great ambient music that provide just the right vibes for exploring the world. The boss fights are metal as fuck (not enough of these btw). And the structured levels throughout the game are fun classic Sonic stages.

The open world, where most of the player's time is spent, is just such an absolute mishmash of concepts. It feels unfinished. There's nothing really of value to do and figuring out how to get somewhere (especially on the map full of islands) can be a huge pain. The rail sections in the world often force sonic in a 2D plane, meaning that the moment you start a rail section, you're forced to see it through fully until the end in order to return to 3D plane exploration...Even if you realize mid-rail that you're going the wrong way.

In order to reveal sections of the map, Sonic Frontiers has a ton of "challenge" levels throughout as well. These are the meat of the content in the open world. And they're basically all braindead puzzles. I get that Sonic is for children but a lot of these felt borderline insulting. "draw 3 circles" type shit. The combat is also really simplistic and never felt great because mashing buttons usually led to a win.

I think the overall structure of Sonic Frontiers can work well. Sonic Team just need to fill it with more compelling things to do.

obtained the platinum trophy

finally a change of direction for the series, we go back to the more serious and edgy storytelling of the 2000s games (personally i enjoy this a lot).

the game has good ideas, especially the boss fights with the titans are great. but you can tell some other things like the open zone exploration, the cyberspace levels, and the combat feel underbaked, but this is a good start.

this is actually the first sonic game in a good while that doesnt make me want to go cry alone in the shower