I’m just as shocked as anyone else that this game came out the way it did.

After almost five years of development and two years of reveals, rumors, leaks, discussions, and other things, the latest mainline title in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, Sonic Frontiers, released on November 8th of 2022. And wow, I have a lot of thoughts.

First, let’s get the negatives out of the way:
1. While I don’t see the pop-in in the environment as egregious as others have stated, this issue is distracting sometimes when running around fast and doing platforming. This mostly is an engine issue that will hopefully be fixed by the next game.
2. The cyberspace levels, if they do come back, need some revisions in terms of Sonic’s control and the constant theme repetition. The last island had probably the best set of cyberspace levels but Sonic control in cyberspace always felt very awkward to me, despite being better than past executions of it.
3. The game is rushed in many parts including the island theming in the last two islands, the plot point of Sonic becoming corrupt and then fine, the ending (especially the secret one), chaos island feeling underdeveloped and forcefully 2D, the final villain reveal, and some technical issues. This is more of a Sega problem, but I think Sonic Team should have been given more time to iron out some of these kinks despite the product still being really good in my opinion.
4. Combat is excellent but enemy difficulty should be increased and maybe add more abilities or upgrades to existing ones to add more to the system as is.
5. Sonic’s movement is excellent here but I think adding the spin dash to his movement and utilizing wall running more would be good for a sequel. Also fixing up the trick animations.

With all that said though, Sonic Frontiers honestly is the best 3D Sonic game since Adventure 2 in my eyes.

Sonic’s movement in his 3D outings have always been very hit or miss for me, especially during the boost era, but I really feel like Sonic Team has hit it out of the park here. Sonic feels great to move around here, bringing back what was great in the adventure games and making it modernized. Sonic not only moves fast (and you can upgrade this), but I feel like I have a strong sense of control with him even while fast. Of course there is the occasional jankiness, but honestly it never detracted too much from my experience and some of the best sonic games (i.e. the adventure games) have a level of jank that add a lot of charm or potential for speed running or pulling off tricks.

This same praise continues with the combat as Sonic is able to punch and kick and do all kinds of crazy moves and combos against foes on the islands. While the combat is no DMC or Bayonetta, the combat is very fun to pull off and flashy, despite the enemies being too easy to truly hit the full potential of it right now. I really want Sonic Team to keep working at this because this is honestly the best combat ever in a sonic game, which isn’t saying much given Unleashed and Heroes and other entries.

The story here is very strong too in more of a “serious” outing compared to recent entries that relied on a more Saturday morning cartoon pretense. I really enjoyed the characterization of everyone here and the level of mystery too on what the star fall islands are and who the ancient civilization was previously. This game additionally avoids many problems of 2000s era Sonic games that leaned in the serious direction but missed hard in terms of story cohesion or character progression (Heroes, Shadow, 06, etc). Of course the story isn’t perfect and has some flaws, but Sonic Frontiers’ story truly shined from start to finish. Also, the music fucks hard here too.

The open “zone” design here and collectibles are really well put together with the puzzles, cyberspace levels, exploration, and other components to the open world. While the puzzles were a bit easy, I feel like the difficulty of them were not a problem and kept the flow of the game going well similar to a Kirby and the forgotten land or Super Mario Odyssey or Bowser’s Fury (though a post game difficulty area or mode would be fun). Traveling the islands with sonic feel great and never grew dull for me as the areas were filled up with so much to do and see. And this game is genuinely beautiful to look, superseding even Unleashed in terms of graphics. While I do get the critiques of the islands feeling not very “Sonic-y”, Sonic Team did a pretty good job with incorporating some Sonic iconography in the areas and making structures and platforming compatible and fun with Sonic’s movement. And yes, even the incorporation of the rails on the island were a decent job, despite looking very off putting in early footage.

All this to say, Sonic Frontiers stands as my favorite modern Sonic game since the adventure games and is an incredible innovation to those duology of games akin to Odyssey towards super Mario 64. While general audiences might not take to all the quirks that are inherent to the game, I highly recommend Sonic fans check this out if you are still in the loop of the series or are trying to get back in. I’m truly very curious and in high hopes of Sonic Team’s next game to follow Frontiers given how much they’ve done right here with the circumstances surrounding its development. Hopefully Sega provides more development time and resources for the devs to fully address the issues in Frontiers to make another great entry. In the meantime for the next mainline game, I’d love to see a spin off or small game that uses the combat in Frontiers and builds it up akin to a DMC or Bayonetta type game. Maybe with Knuckles, Shadow or even Blaze or someone else as the main character of it.

8.5/10

It’s a substantive upgrade to the very flawed original in my eyes. Gameplay is much snappier and more fun with strafing in the game and lock on which sometimes worked and sometimes did not. The upgrade system with weapons and life also adds much more to the gameplay loop, and the weapons here are really cool, though combat encounters don’t really challenge me to change or experiment much with my loadout. Level design and aesthetics of the planets are also very samey thoughout, which got more and more stale as I progressed through the game. I feel that there should have been a lot less levels here to keep the pacing going and prevent any stinkers coming in to drag the game down.

There’s also a whole lot more to do here with minigames and side content, but they feel very rough and not executed well such as the space ship missions and hover bikes contests and their terrible controls. The change ups do add intrigue to the overall gameplay experience but nevertheless they really detracted for me.

Electrolyzer puzzles similarly I’m not a fan of with the emphasis on reaction time rather than a decent level of puzzle solving with the last game’s trespasser puzzles. The arena was such a fun time though! It exemplifies GC at its best for me personally. The game really needed more combat encounters like this and a LOT less pedestrian platforming challenges.

The story here is…fine, very predictable. I might not be the target audience for the games, but I just find the characterization, comedy, and story overall to just be alright but never amounting to much. The whole “villain is actually not a bad guy thing and the good guy is actually bad” thing is here, and it exists. The story started out a bit ambitious but it never really took off into anything substantial. Ratchet and clank themselves don’t really have much interesting interactions compared to the last game, besides the part where Clank is captured for like one minute of the storyline.

I will say, it is interesting playing though these games with the hindsight of Insomniac being crunched to hell and back while making these games in the 6th and 7th generation. The cracks definitely show a lot despite this game being a step above the original. GC is an enjoyable time but some elements really drag it down for me to fully love or like, though the central gameplay loop here is excellent! Overall, it’s decent lol

The combat is surprisingly tame for a platinum game once it actually opens all the way up. I did enjoy getting to play around with the different legions, but something was just missing from the combat that never really clicked with me. Still, it was alright, though the influence it’s had on Bayo 3 does make me side eye the game more and more each passing day.

Everything else about the game including side missions, platforming, puzzles, story, characters and everything feels so plastic. The story itself felt a little too cliche as it progressed and the completely abrupt ending was definitely a choice that left me in laughter. Don’t really see myself going back to it since I did most of the side content while playing the main game, and they were very forgettable. Fine little experiment at the end of the day, definitely can see it being a cult classic stuck on the switch in the later future.

Oh god the platforming. I’d seriously like to be a fly on the wall for when many developers in the early to late aughts were designing these janky platforming challenges and sequences in their heavily combat-focused video games.

The game works fine with with its combat and story, and the cinematics shook me for a 2005 era ps2 game, but everything else here is real rough and boring after a long while.

Side note, but I can definitely see why Sonic Team was so influenced by this game and the second to create their own spin on it with Sonic Unleashed. The werehog combat is almost as good as the 2005 original here but really not by much or as fun.

Is it controversial to say this is the worst game of the year for me? Maybe not worst, but at the very least the most disappointing game of the year.

Bizarrely enough, my feelings towards the gameplay itself really took a turn. While it's still fun to combo and rip and tear through baddies, the Demon Masquerade system radically changes the combat from the other two games to an extent that the overall combat becomes real watered down and easy to wash enemies as long as you pay attention to enemy attacks when they actually attack you. Everything is big here, both levels overall and the enemies too, which makes trying to play as Bayonetta herself without using a demon a real chore. The demons aren't bad to use and some are enjoyable, but much of the complexity and charm to the combat in the previous games are lost for just more spectacle here. Doesn't help with the new skill tree system here with multiple new weapons available replacing the option to buy moves from Rodin and not having to buy them every single time with each new weapon. The diversity of the weapons available unfortunately doesn't amount to much difference in their toolkits at a real deep level. Also, the less I talk about Viola, the better because her combat is awful and underdeveloped compared to Bayo's, it reeks of leftovers from 2B's combat in Automata but even worse. Maybe Bayo 4 will make her toolkit actually interesting!

Speaking of, the story just got worse running through a second course of it. The multiverse concept was doomed from the start and becomes real redundant after the second or third time through. Significant plot events fly out of nowhere with as much of an explanation as a shrug. The vibes of the returning characters are off completely in an otherwise real "serious" story that falters hard in the execution and is desperately missing the campiness that is core and beneficial to the stories despite how messy they all are. The ending itself goes on for way too long on whether Bayo and the other characters can finally kill boring, yassified Jeff Bezos. It then concludes with very concerning plot decisions that honestly turn me off for the next entry of the series unless P* changes course drastically and that's if the studio even exists to release to hypothetical fourth entry of Bayonetta. At least Bayo 1 and 2 exist as a cool duology I guess?

Now this is what I'm talking about.

GOW1 was some decent fun and engaging with its combat and story, it left much to be desired with its execution of platforming and puzzles. God of War II not only builds on the foundation that the first uniquely had, but fundamentally improves on every single aspect of the original I had a hard time dealing with.

Plotwise, it takes place many years after GOW1 with Kratos as the God of War, and we continue on his journey of revenge against the gods, especially against Zeus who betrays him in fear of Kratos killing him. The story here was pretty good and it's crazy how much worldbuilding was done here in this entry. The development of various legends like the Sisters of Fate and the Titans and appearances of other Greek icons like Prometheus, Icarus, Jason, Perseus and others. These storylines really added a lot to the game and levels we explore all the way towards the end.

Gameplay wise, it resembles much of the original while adding in more sub weapons and magic. The Barbarian Hammer got much playtime for me as it becomes incredibly powerful and versatile to one shot many common enemies and even two or three shot some others that sometimes give me trouble. The blades as usual are great and the spells were decent this time around, with the Atlas Quake getting a lot of use in the final fight against Zeus. Kratos also has the ability to grapple things, control and stop time with an Amulet, and can briefly glide with wings, which all added more dimensions and intrigue to the puzzles and general level design of the worlds we explore.

While there were a few moments of frustration with the game, I really enjoyed my time with God of War II. It's an excellent ass action game and my favorite game in the series as of right now. Hate that it's stuck on the ps2 and ps3 (and also to the highest tier of PS Plus as a streaming only option), I'd be down with a re-release or new collection for modern consoles.

What a weird game Yakuza 3 is.

At first I did not plan to play this entry and the rest of the Kiryu saga since I was slightly underwhelmed by Kiwami 1 and especially 2, coming off the near perfection of a ride that Yakuza 0 was. The fanbase is also real vocal about this game not being good, so I was a bit cautious going into this old entry that only got a remaster rather than the Kiwami treatment of 1 and 2.

The story here, while miles ahead of 2 and slightly less trope-y than 1's efforts for me, is really good but very underdeveloped in some parts. Honestly, the Okinawa sections were the highlight for me the entire story, only dragging a bit when trying to leave Okinawa the first time. The setting was so chill and a nice change of pace from the always busy and dingy streets of Kamurocho, and I'm definitely gonna get more out of it in premium adventure. I know people have gripes with the kids and Okinawa taking away from the usual, balls-to-the-wall, yakuza story, but I love dad simulator and chapter 11 made me cry! The energy here is definitely more lowkey compared to the others and I respect what the devs were going for with it, even if the results are real convoluted in the end.

The combat is....not great. I've seen the memes of enemies always blocking in this game, and they were real true for sure! The first half is brutal without having a lot of Kiryu's combat unlocked and it gets better once you get there, but man it sucked. To cap it off, enemies just straight up run at you randomly and you can't run from them either. It's not the absolute worse as I had some fun later in the game, but I was going through the motions in most enemy encounters despite the upgrades.

Also in this game are chase and pseudo stealth sequences in the main and some side stories. I didn't encounter much of the latter, but the former has a few spread throughout the main story. The execution isn't bad but feels way too loose and strangely hard at some points. I feel like the NPCs were just tripled whenever I did them and you cannot upgrade your run meter until almost near the last third of the game, where only one sequence is left and it's not meant to be won. Definitely almost ten years too early since the judgment series nailed these mechanics later on.

The villains here are pretty weak, except for Mine. Kanda and Hamazaki, despite his role in the next game, were a real drag as they didn't really amount to much in the game. Mine has some shine in the last half, but his motivations were messy to say the least. Wish we got more of him. The CIA is real random too, but I enjoyed Richardson at the end. He really was coked up on Metal Gear Solid vibes and added more absurdity to the last chapter. I also loved Rikiya and liked Mikio and Nakahara as additions to the cast, besides just having the kids who I also liked.

As for the side stories, they were pretty enjoyable and some very satisfying. A few did get repetitive with the same premise of Kiryu getting tricked by someone and then fighting them to get money back. Regardless, there were a cool set of side stories in the game, even the weird couple one.

Back to what I said at the beginning, Yakuza 3 is just a very weird game to me. It kept me in way more than Kiwami 2 and didn't get too ridiculous as Kiwami 1, and when this game hit me in the emotions, it hit hard. The core of a Yakuza game is still here despite the change of pace, but the game is brought down hard by its gameplay and a few undercooked plot decisions and directions. Definitely not as bad as many people say it is, it's a good time.

Edit: In thinking back on this entry after playing through the rest of the Kiryu saga and....not having that great of a time, I think this and his section in 5 might be where I find Kiryu to be his most interesting. Idk, the ruminations on brotherhood, masculinity, trust and relationships, and other relevant topics just hit hard here and in 5 for Kiryu. Makes me want a Kiwami 3 even more to fully flesh out this game because damn the rushed production undercuts so much of the good shit here.

Played the two hour demo for this since I’ve been craving more SMT content and had some decent fun despite the budgeted nature of this game. Music kinda slaps at least and the characters were cool. Baffling that Atlus is still selling this for full AAA price and being disappointed it’s not selling well. I’d probably pick it up if it was $30 and the overpriced premium edition wasn’t the only thing on sale for 50 bucks right now.

Also Atlus, I just want to play more of your SMT games on switch or PlayStation that aren’t nocturne or V. Open up that extensive back catalogue you clowns.