during interviews a lot they said that they consider this the next step for the series like how sonic adventure was back then and i think that's actually insanely accurate
any fuckin notable issue i have with this game technically, control wise, structurally, etc is so incredibly mute when this is the closest i think a sonic game has ever gotten to fully realizing every idea it wanted to get across

in my eyes, by the end this game's themes in writing/gameplay/music/etc all revolve around showing the heart of sonic and this whole series and why it'll never really die no matter how badly the past can cause you problems
i dunno know if anything for sonic is more perfect than than the final boss telling at you through the entire fight that trying is worthless cuz so many before you have failed only for sonic to never even think twice on pushing ahead anyways

this series means so much to me, and i'm glad to see it back