Sonic Frontiers is not a perfect game, not at all, it has many issues, some very important ones.
Cyberspace levels are atrocious, the story in the 3rd act felt a little bit rushed, the final boss was a letdown etc, but for every one thing this game does wrong, it does 3 in a fantastic way. The story was really intriguing and the dialogue is the best in any Sonic game (it´s that good) the characters act present go throguh little arcs that are super charming, the bond they have with Sonic is really cute to see. Ian Flynn is a MUST for future Sonic games, finally we see these characters being relevant to the story and not just there for exposition. And Sage OMG I LOVED HER, she´s adorable, her love for Eggman and her desire to be a family are heart warming, and to see Eggman care about her and calling her her daughter really touched my heart. THESE ARE ACTUAL CHARACTERS WITH REAL EMOTIONS AND GOALS, something we haven´t seen in Sonic for a very long time.
Not only is the story great, but the gameplay is fun too! Sonic´s gameplay is the best we´ve had in recent years, i haven´t had this much fun controlling Sonic since Sonic Adventure 1, Sonic feels free and like he´s flowing with the world, it´s very fun to just run around the open world, doing tricks, jumping, drop dashing and boosting.
The combat is phenomenal, nothing groundbreaking, but for this game it works wonders, very cool to look at and doesnt feel as button mashy as some thought.
The music is great, the bosses are fun and the Titans designs are so cool, they look like monsters and demons, and that´s what makes them awesome.
All in all, Sonic Frontiers is far from a perfect game, but it´s the best Sonic game we´ve had in over a decade, and it is definitely my favorite Sonic game of all time.
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*RE-REVIEW (2023)*
Sonic Frontiers is still not a perfect game, but luckily, i´ve come around most of its flaws.
Cyberspace is kinda fun now, i absolutely LOVE how they potrayed Sonic in the game, and the story is simply amazing, filled with nice character moments, a great dialogue and characterisations that feel like these are actual people and not just one note characters.
The story is the best part of the game, hands down, and this is the best script in any Sonic game, thanks in great part to Ian Flynn, which, again, is a MUST for future Sonic games.
However, the most improved aspect of the game, HAS to be the gameplay.
Oh my god, the gameplay.
I feel like Sonic Team has finally reached peak Sonic playthrough, everything feels so right.
The only changes they made were adding momentum to jumps and adding the spindash, but these are two game changers.
I find myself just running around the open zones with no clear goal, just to explore and have fun, which is all i wanted going into the game.
The ONLY thing i would add, is momentum when running, other than that, this is the best Sonic i´ve ever controlled.
Now, onto update 3
Jesus, this was great and well worth the wait.
The story was amazing, the final boss was fixed and we got a much better conclusion that doesn´t feel nearly as rushed as the previous one.
The characters are still great, and their playthroughs are too, i wouldn´t change much honestly.
Except this, Knuckles glide is very flawed.
I don´t mind the starting animation when gliding, but please don´t make him turn so slowly, it´s very annoying.
Something i felt was missing from the update however were 2 things.
One, giving us the choice of playing as the normal characters (without cyber-corruption)
And two, being able to play as them in the other islands.
It doesn´t really matter that the islands weren´t made with them in mind or that they don´t have anything to do in them, it´s still fun to just move around with them, and it would have been a no-brainer.
Another complain i have with the update is the lack of animations.
In the base game, the animations were fine, but in the optional dialgoue it sucked!!
They barely move, and sometimes their mouths don´t move at all! Which is something that sadly was carried over to the update (SIDE NOT: There was a weird bug where in some scenes the dialogue was missing entirely ¡¡pls fix this!!)
Last complain is the difficulty of certain challenges.
The titan fighst are not that hard, but when you add perfect parry to the mix, they become impossible!! I had to turn the difficutly down to easy, something i never did in the base game.
Also, cyberspace levels don´t have checkpoints, which is stupid.
On a similar note, cyberspace levels in update 3 are cool, experimental bonuses, however i don´t really care as i beat the entire thing withou needing to access them until i already defeated the final boss.
So, now that Sonic Frontiers is complete, what is the conclusion?
This is not only my favorite Sonic game, but my favorite game period.
Its story is great, the gameplay is amazing and very catchy.
The dialogue is perfect, voice acting was great, the characters feel like they are themselves agai, and the music was really really good.
If this is the direction Sonic Team will head on from now on, im all for it.
Kishimoto-San and his team made an amazing game.
Props to them and everyone in Sonic Team