Really fun overall!
The daytime segments were definitely the highlight, while the night sections were a little iffy. However, I didn’t dislike the werehog segments as much as other people seemed to.
The story was surprisingly alright, and the OST banged. Endless Possibilities is so fucking cheesy but I love it dearly.

I wanna put chip in a blender just to see what would happen

There are scrimblos in this one

This was just a fun experience all around. The visuals were fantastic, the wisp abilities were fun to toy with, and the OST was incredible.
The story was the only thing I couldn’t really care about.
Regardless, it was still incredibly charming!

Hideki Naganuma worked on the OST for this and damn it shows. The soundtrack for this game absolutely bangs.

All the levels in here feel well designed and fun for the most part, though after a certain point they do start to feel a little samey. It also suffers from trying to make the player move at super high speeds whilst filling a level with instant death pits.

Blaze was a cool new addition though she’s neat

Miles better than the first game.
Everything about this game was just a such a blast. The level design was greatly improved, the addition of tails was fun, and as always the OST was fantastic. The special stages in this here were also pretty neat, if challenging at times.
This game also introduced the spin dash and Super Sonic which have become such integral parts of Sonic since.

Casino Night Zone I love you

Death Egg where did you put my rings

Absolute favorite Sonic game.
It’s so hard for me to really find any flaws or things I dislike about this game. Every zone felt creative and fun, the addition of Kunckles and the Hyper Emeralds were great, and as is customary the soundtrack was impeccable. There were so many zones that just left a huge impact on me. From Carnival Night Zone to Flying Battery Zone to Ice Cap Zone or Lava Reef Zone or Hidden Palace Zone or Sky Sanctuary Zone or the newer Death Egg Zone. Doomsday Zone???? Dude???? That is the most incredible shit to experience as a child. Even after you’ve grown it still hits all the same.
This game also has my favorite sprite work of the classic games. Seeing the Giant/Greater Eggman Robo for the first time as a kid genuinely scared me.
This game also manages to pull of its narrative pretty well. Obviously there’s no dialogue, but what you see through set pieces and wordless cutscenes is more than enough.
Everything about this game just feels surprisingly fleshed out.


it’s not hydro city

It’s hard to talk about any aspect of this game without spoiling anything, but christ this game is pretty good.
However, it does suffer from having an immense cast. So many characters just didn’t feel like they had super satisfactory arcs, or arcs that mattered to the overarching narrative. The playable cast probably would’ve benefited from being half the size it ended up being.
Right after I completed this game I can confidently say I loved it. Though I was also riding off of the high of the ending. Actually playing through the game felt like an incredibly slow burn. The gameplay segments didn’t really do much for me either, they just felt fine.
That being said, this game still does a lot right. The visuals and OST are great, and while slow, the narrative was still interesting. There was clearly a ton of time and effort put into the intricacies of this story. It tries to balance so many plot lines at once, and ends up leading them to an overall satisfactory conclusion.
Overall pretty great! But definitely could’ve cut down on a bit.

*At the time of me writing this I have stopped playing at the section of the game that bridges between ARR and Heavensward.

This was my first MMO and damn it was a blast. Playing through ARR alongside a few friends was honestly so more fun than I was expecting. Most of us started at more or less the same time, so we’d occasionally blast through a few dungeons together as we unlocked them.
Though the story was just kinda alright (I’ve heard it gets exponentially better later on) I was still relatively engaged. It was more fun to just see how we would all react to events as they unfolded together.
The culmination of it all was when we took on the final few Main Scenario Quests together. Completing those over the course of a few hours was just insane.
Sadly, since then everyone desynced. Some people took a break, or went on to Heavansward, or even went on all the way to Endwalker. We’ve still done a few raids together and even had a wedding held since, but everything else was done separately. I won’t really ever be able to recreate this experience, but if the game really does get better later on as people say, then I might return to this at some point. I might even try convincing some others to play from the start to join in.
The gameplay was fun, the soundtrack was great, and a lot of the characters were surprisingly fun to learn about.

Excited to get to Heavensward later on and see what else this game has to offer!

dragoons rise up