Sonic Frontiers is kind of a mess. There are some good ideas here, but they are unfortunately plagued by a myriad of design problems. Even when I thought something was working really well, I couldn’t help but notice all of the bad that came along with it.
First, the world. Visually speaking, the world feels barren and lifeless. Steel structures, floating rails, and a variety of other objects populate the landscape and create a sort of playground for Sonic to run, jump, and grind around in. Unfortunately, this same structure is used for every island in the game. It felt to me as though you are not so much exploring the world itself but an elaborate set of floating toys on top of the backdrop of an island. Very rarely is the environment itself used to proper effect in exploration.
The story progression is too formulaic. Collect Memory Tokens to activate cutscenes to proceed in the story, defeat Titan enemies for Gears to activate Portals, complete Portals for Vault Keys to unlock Chaos Emeralds... Rinse and repeat for each island. I would have loved for more dynamic story progression, but this is all we get. When I reached the third island and realized it was going to be the exact same thing as the first two, I had to take a break from the game. It simply felt like too much of a chore.
Memory Tokens are used to access cutscenes with the game’s cast of characters (mainly Sonic, Amy, Knuckles, Tails, Sage, Eggman). These cutscenes, almost without exception, consist of characters standing around and talking amongst themselves. That is to say, they are quite boring. More dynamic storytelling would have done wonders for this drab world.
I mentioned Portals and Vault Keys earlier. The Portals (unlocked with Gears) grant access to one of a total of 30 “Cyberspace” levels. These levels play more like a traditional Sonic experience in familiar locales such as Green Hill, Sky Sanctuary, and more. Compared to the main game, these zones are incredibly colourful and feel great to play. I had so much fun with these levels that after beating the main game, I went back and played through all of them a second time! My only complaint is that they practically give you Red Rings for free a lot of the time. (My understanding is that collecting all of the Red Rings in a stage should be somewhat of a challenge, with them hidden around the stage, but in Cyberspace levels they will often just put them directly in your path, removing any sense of achievement you would get for finding them.)
The unique enemy encounters and boss fights employ unique mechanics and were mostly fun, but this cannot be said for some enemy types, which at times felt like a chore to fight. To add to this, without even fully exploring each island, my character was fully upgraded (all abilities unlocked) before the game was even half over, effectively eliminating the need to participate in any combat for EXP, so I began to avoid it unless necessary.
The various “challenges/puzzles” hidden around the map are mostly a joke. I cannot stress how just how trivial most of these are. It really just felt like busywork and not comparable to any kind of puzzle you would find in, for example, a Zelda game.
One minigame that the developers had the audacity to make mandatory for main story progression is the Pinball game on Chaos Island. With limited continues, it tasks you at achieving a specific score (I believe 5 million points). Given that pinball is not exactly skill based and your ball can just so happen to bounce strangely and drop out of the playing field at random, endeavoring for this score can feel like an impossible trial at first. It took me multiple failed attempts and over 30 minutes just playing this minigame before I was lucky enough to get a high score multiplayer and move on.
The world of Sonic Frontiers feels fun to run around in for a time, but quickly overstays its welcome with a lack of variety and rinse and repeat progression. If there is one saving grace for this game then it is in the Cyberspace levels, but these are just one small part of a much larger game. I can tell that there is enough to collect and explore to add dozens of hours in playtime, but I could not feel any incentive or desire to go out and do so.
Sonic fans will probably enjoy this one either way, but otherwise I think your mileage may vary. There is a lot to collect (mostly busywork), but not a whole lot to see across the five islands, and while a solid foundation might be here, I couldn’t help but feel wanting for something more.
First, the world. Visually speaking, the world feels barren and lifeless. Steel structures, floating rails, and a variety of other objects populate the landscape and create a sort of playground for Sonic to run, jump, and grind around in. Unfortunately, this same structure is used for every island in the game. It felt to me as though you are not so much exploring the world itself but an elaborate set of floating toys on top of the backdrop of an island. Very rarely is the environment itself used to proper effect in exploration.
The story progression is too formulaic. Collect Memory Tokens to activate cutscenes to proceed in the story, defeat Titan enemies for Gears to activate Portals, complete Portals for Vault Keys to unlock Chaos Emeralds... Rinse and repeat for each island. I would have loved for more dynamic story progression, but this is all we get. When I reached the third island and realized it was going to be the exact same thing as the first two, I had to take a break from the game. It simply felt like too much of a chore.
Memory Tokens are used to access cutscenes with the game’s cast of characters (mainly Sonic, Amy, Knuckles, Tails, Sage, Eggman). These cutscenes, almost without exception, consist of characters standing around and talking amongst themselves. That is to say, they are quite boring. More dynamic storytelling would have done wonders for this drab world.
I mentioned Portals and Vault Keys earlier. The Portals (unlocked with Gears) grant access to one of a total of 30 “Cyberspace” levels. These levels play more like a traditional Sonic experience in familiar locales such as Green Hill, Sky Sanctuary, and more. Compared to the main game, these zones are incredibly colourful and feel great to play. I had so much fun with these levels that after beating the main game, I went back and played through all of them a second time! My only complaint is that they practically give you Red Rings for free a lot of the time. (My understanding is that collecting all of the Red Rings in a stage should be somewhat of a challenge, with them hidden around the stage, but in Cyberspace levels they will often just put them directly in your path, removing any sense of achievement you would get for finding them.)
The unique enemy encounters and boss fights employ unique mechanics and were mostly fun, but this cannot be said for some enemy types, which at times felt like a chore to fight. To add to this, without even fully exploring each island, my character was fully upgraded (all abilities unlocked) before the game was even half over, effectively eliminating the need to participate in any combat for EXP, so I began to avoid it unless necessary.
The various “challenges/puzzles” hidden around the map are mostly a joke. I cannot stress how just how trivial most of these are. It really just felt like busywork and not comparable to any kind of puzzle you would find in, for example, a Zelda game.
One minigame that the developers had the audacity to make mandatory for main story progression is the Pinball game on Chaos Island. With limited continues, it tasks you at achieving a specific score (I believe 5 million points). Given that pinball is not exactly skill based and your ball can just so happen to bounce strangely and drop out of the playing field at random, endeavoring for this score can feel like an impossible trial at first. It took me multiple failed attempts and over 30 minutes just playing this minigame before I was lucky enough to get a high score multiplayer and move on.
The world of Sonic Frontiers feels fun to run around in for a time, but quickly overstays its welcome with a lack of variety and rinse and repeat progression. If there is one saving grace for this game then it is in the Cyberspace levels, but these are just one small part of a much larger game. I can tell that there is enough to collect and explore to add dozens of hours in playtime, but I could not feel any incentive or desire to go out and do so.
Sonic fans will probably enjoy this one either way, but otherwise I think your mileage may vary. There is a lot to collect (mostly busywork), but not a whole lot to see across the five islands, and while a solid foundation might be here, I couldn’t help but feel wanting for something more.