A quite delightful strategy RPG offering some of the best gameplay in the post-Awakening portion of the series. The emblem ring system let me feel like I could tinker away at my units to satisfaction, and almost all of the maps are very interesting to play. Hell, I’m into the character designs!

Unfortunately, this is sandbagged with some of the worst cutscenes I’ve seen in a video game. The body animations (such as the very theatrical hands-on-hips pose every female character does) feel out of sync with the English dialogue, and the love of constant camera movement for every cut highlights that every background is a static image. It’s ugly, and it caused me to put the game down at least twice, for months. This is a shame, because not only is the game really fun, some of the later story sequences kinda hit me in a way I didn’t expect.

Also, a lot of the characters are unmemorable, but Alfred, Lapis, and Rosado are personal faves.

I only got, according to my PS5, about 46% through the second island, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt. However, I feel like this game is about 46% of its way to being finished, so I think I’m being fair enough.

I think the game looks nice and the performance mode on PS5 seems to noticeably stay at a high frame rate. However, the game feels like Sonic Team just threw objects and Sonic stuff on a basic island template, and these obstacles will only pop in once you’re really close. They also stuck enemies in the world requiring hard counter moves to defeat that you need to grind to unlock, and then used a physics system that causes Sonic to stop dead in his tracks. The only boss fight I played was from the last train out of jank city, in which Super Sonic had a race to mash the square button 2,000 times before the boss could stall him.

Also, for what it’s worth, I felt slightly nauseous whenever I finished a session, but I’m not sure if the game caused it or if it was psychosomatic from me playing something like this.

In all honesty, this game is a 4 star title, because some of the level design, especially near the end, skews too closely to some arcadey BS and the game often punishes you for going too fast. Additionally, any game that sticks spikes at the bottom of an inescapable pit you’ll likely hit after grabbing the invincibility power-up cannot be perfect.

However, this was not only the first video game I saw in my life, it’s probably the game I’ve played the most in terms of playing it all the way through. I’ve played this game to completion while very drunk. I’ve played this game while very stoned - less successfully. It’s not the best action game on the Genesis, and the sequel is a significant improvement, but I cannot deny the genuine love I have for this game. The music, the graphics, Sonic’s jump, everything about this game is just correct.