Sonic Adventure 1 had many flaws, most of which you're probably aware if you've ever had interest in the Sonic franchise, but despite all of that, it stayed for the longest time my favorite 3D Sonic game for one main reason: the movement. Characters in SA1 were so fun to control and move around that I'd just wander for hours in the hub world or in the levels. Call it dumb nostalgia maybe, but when I played it again recently, it just felt right, and I'd keep wishing they would make a Sonic game that would be all about controlling a fast little guy in a huge world.
More than a decade after they introduced the boost formula, it seemed impossible for them to make a game that open. Sure, boost games felt great and were like a mix between platforming and a fast-racing game, which is rad af, but due to how quick the levels are traversed, they have to be short and there has to be padding in some shape or form in order for the games to have a decent beating time. So, beside the Lost World and Boom experiments, that's what they did until Forces and its catastrophic reception. While I think it was kinda overblown, perhaps it was necessary for pushing Sega to actually give enough development time to Sonic Team, and after 5 years of development they finally came up with Sonic Frontiers, the game I have long dreamed of.
The way Sonic Frontiers manages to have a boost-type gameplay without the usual shortcomings of the previous games is by incorporating the open-levelness of games like the recent Pokémon: Legends Arceus with your typical boost-games platforming sections. While traversing the huge areas the game has to offer, you will encounter a plethora of rails, boost pads, climbable walls, springs and other typical 3D Sonic elements, which will let you play for a short time what could be otherwise a short section of a typical boost-game level. While these aren't the most challenging things in the world, they still test your reaction-time by jumping over obstacles or homing attacking at the right time. This is the main gameplay element of the game as you will do it over and over again, making these areas feel like a never-ending boost-game level. Some will hate it I'm sure, but I personnally really enjoyed doing that throughout the game.
This is the core-component of this game, so as to not get repetitive, Sonic Frontiers also incorporate other gameplay elements.
The first one that comes to mind is the combat system, which when it got revealed completely baffled me but at the same time made so much sense. Attacks have extremely basic inputs and yet feel so satisfying to pull off, as you see the blue rat punching, shooting energy waves, stomping and parrying all sort of enemies. This, along with the bosses which I don't want to spoil but believe me are the raddest things the series has done in so forever, really makes Sonic a shonen protagonist which fucking rules and, like I wrote earlier, makes complete sense. The mini-bosses were fun too, as well as the enemies which relied on figuring out the winning skill against them.
The other main element the game has to diverge from the main gameplay loop are the Cyberspace levels. These felt like more open Forces levels, as unlike Generations levels, these feel very restrictive with tight lanes for Sonic to run, few (but still existing and sometime very cool looking) diverging paths, Sonic feeling more heavy when trying to turn (which isn't the case in the overworld so it's weird), and the lack of drifting and sliding which would make these levels and the ones in Forces feel more distinct. Nonetheless, I still had a blast going through them as for the first time, S-ranking levels is actually challening, and there is actual meaningful rewards for finishing levels with certain conditions met, which encourages replayability, or at least did for me. While it can be argued that the Cyberspace levels are more or less the same as the boost platforming sections in the overworld, seeing these incorporated within a level-layout, with differing textures and a godtier OST playing in the background made it different enough for me to distinguish them.
Despite how long I wanted a game like this and how much I actually like about Sonic Frontiers, its execution in some places is still left to be desired and just makes me wish the game was delayed, even if the 5 years gap between this and the last Sonic game is already unprecedented.
For one, while I had so much fun simply boosting around the map like it's nothing, whether I wanted to go somewhere or not, there was many instances where I would interact with a boosting pad by mistake and trap myself in a platforming challenge. This happened a lot and eventually got me really annoyed despite having fun just before running into that. When in a platforming challenge, the game sometime locks your camera and trying to flee if you don't want to do it can be really tedious, as the game REALLY wants you to go ride that rail for 8 seconds and pop a ballon at the end. This is especially hard to get out when the game becomes 2D and boy you can yell all you want at Sonic to go to the z-axis and that blue rodent won't care.
Another negative part of the game was how bland everything is. Yes, like I said earlier, running around and that was enough for me to have fun, but I wish the areas themself were more diverse and wouldn't stick to 1 extremely generic theme. Along with that, I also wished the platforming sections didn't use the exact same textures and models all throughout the game and varied depending on the areas. I don't even ask for them to be more naturally incorporated into the open levels, I just want for example the ones in the desert level to have a sand or stone texture, instead of the generic futuristic shit they got going on. Also why is there no good music in the overworld. I felt there was only one track per area and the only memorable one was the first one because it sounded like the BotW theme.
I feel this game has a lot of common with Pokémon: Legends Arceus: they're both open-level games which came out this year, at a time where their own series is considered at a low-point, and which heavily change their traditional series formula while incorporating its main elements. They also lack polish in many aspects, and they're both ugly too lmao but for different reasons.
Because of the monster-catching RPG nature of Pokémon, Legends Arceus felt more enjoyable as an open-level game than Sonic Frontiers. The latter, obviously more focused on action, can eventually get boring and stale. Though maybe all this development time would have gotten a better Sonic game if they focused on making a Sonic Generations with actual new levels, so a non-rushed Sonic Forces, this is still a breath of fresh air for the series.
Whether they continue down the path of open-level boost games, go back to strict boost-games, or experiment with an even newer way of playing Sonic, I think the real lesson we learnt today was PLEASE SEGA LET THEM HAVE ENOUGH DEVELOPMENT TIME LIKE YOU JUST DID, LET THEM COOK.
More than a decade after they introduced the boost formula, it seemed impossible for them to make a game that open. Sure, boost games felt great and were like a mix between platforming and a fast-racing game, which is rad af, but due to how quick the levels are traversed, they have to be short and there has to be padding in some shape or form in order for the games to have a decent beating time. So, beside the Lost World and Boom experiments, that's what they did until Forces and its catastrophic reception. While I think it was kinda overblown, perhaps it was necessary for pushing Sega to actually give enough development time to Sonic Team, and after 5 years of development they finally came up with Sonic Frontiers, the game I have long dreamed of.
The way Sonic Frontiers manages to have a boost-type gameplay without the usual shortcomings of the previous games is by incorporating the open-levelness of games like the recent Pokémon: Legends Arceus with your typical boost-games platforming sections. While traversing the huge areas the game has to offer, you will encounter a plethora of rails, boost pads, climbable walls, springs and other typical 3D Sonic elements, which will let you play for a short time what could be otherwise a short section of a typical boost-game level. While these aren't the most challenging things in the world, they still test your reaction-time by jumping over obstacles or homing attacking at the right time. This is the main gameplay element of the game as you will do it over and over again, making these areas feel like a never-ending boost-game level. Some will hate it I'm sure, but I personnally really enjoyed doing that throughout the game.
This is the core-component of this game, so as to not get repetitive, Sonic Frontiers also incorporate other gameplay elements.
The first one that comes to mind is the combat system, which when it got revealed completely baffled me but at the same time made so much sense. Attacks have extremely basic inputs and yet feel so satisfying to pull off, as you see the blue rat punching, shooting energy waves, stomping and parrying all sort of enemies. This, along with the bosses which I don't want to spoil but believe me are the raddest things the series has done in so forever, really makes Sonic a shonen protagonist which fucking rules and, like I wrote earlier, makes complete sense. The mini-bosses were fun too, as well as the enemies which relied on figuring out the winning skill against them.
The other main element the game has to diverge from the main gameplay loop are the Cyberspace levels. These felt like more open Forces levels, as unlike Generations levels, these feel very restrictive with tight lanes for Sonic to run, few (but still existing and sometime very cool looking) diverging paths, Sonic feeling more heavy when trying to turn (which isn't the case in the overworld so it's weird), and the lack of drifting and sliding which would make these levels and the ones in Forces feel more distinct. Nonetheless, I still had a blast going through them as for the first time, S-ranking levels is actually challening, and there is actual meaningful rewards for finishing levels with certain conditions met, which encourages replayability, or at least did for me. While it can be argued that the Cyberspace levels are more or less the same as the boost platforming sections in the overworld, seeing these incorporated within a level-layout, with differing textures and a godtier OST playing in the background made it different enough for me to distinguish them.
Despite how long I wanted a game like this and how much I actually like about Sonic Frontiers, its execution in some places is still left to be desired and just makes me wish the game was delayed, even if the 5 years gap between this and the last Sonic game is already unprecedented.
For one, while I had so much fun simply boosting around the map like it's nothing, whether I wanted to go somewhere or not, there was many instances where I would interact with a boosting pad by mistake and trap myself in a platforming challenge. This happened a lot and eventually got me really annoyed despite having fun just before running into that. When in a platforming challenge, the game sometime locks your camera and trying to flee if you don't want to do it can be really tedious, as the game REALLY wants you to go ride that rail for 8 seconds and pop a ballon at the end. This is especially hard to get out when the game becomes 2D and boy you can yell all you want at Sonic to go to the z-axis and that blue rodent won't care.
Another negative part of the game was how bland everything is. Yes, like I said earlier, running around and that was enough for me to have fun, but I wish the areas themself were more diverse and wouldn't stick to 1 extremely generic theme. Along with that, I also wished the platforming sections didn't use the exact same textures and models all throughout the game and varied depending on the areas. I don't even ask for them to be more naturally incorporated into the open levels, I just want for example the ones in the desert level to have a sand or stone texture, instead of the generic futuristic shit they got going on. Also why is there no good music in the overworld. I felt there was only one track per area and the only memorable one was the first one because it sounded like the BotW theme.
I feel this game has a lot of common with Pokémon: Legends Arceus: they're both open-level games which came out this year, at a time where their own series is considered at a low-point, and which heavily change their traditional series formula while incorporating its main elements. They also lack polish in many aspects, and they're both ugly too lmao but for different reasons.
Because of the monster-catching RPG nature of Pokémon, Legends Arceus felt more enjoyable as an open-level game than Sonic Frontiers. The latter, obviously more focused on action, can eventually get boring and stale. Though maybe all this development time would have gotten a better Sonic game if they focused on making a Sonic Generations with actual new levels, so a non-rushed Sonic Forces, this is still a breath of fresh air for the series.
Whether they continue down the path of open-level boost games, go back to strict boost-games, or experiment with an even newer way of playing Sonic, I think the real lesson we learnt today was PLEASE SEGA LET THEM HAVE ENOUGH DEVELOPMENT TIME LIKE YOU JUST DID, LET THEM COOK.