Sonic Frontiers

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Sonic Frontiers
It's time to face your fear, 'cause when your time has come and gone, I'll be the one to carry on. And you can throw me to the wolves, 'cause I am undefeatable.
Protagonist(s): Sonic the Hedgehog
Genre(s): Platform
Action-adventure
Rating(s): E10+
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch
PlayStation 4
PlayStation 5
Windows
Xbox One
Xbox Series X/S
Release Date: November 8, 2022
Developer(s): Sonic Team
Publisher(s): Sega
Series: Sonic the Hedgehog
Predecessor: Sonic Forces (chronologically and canonically)
Successor: Sonic Superstars


Sonic Frontiers is a 2022 platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega. As Sonic, the player explores the Starfall Islands to collect the Chaos Emeralds, after Sonic and his friends are separated when falling through a wormhole. Frontiers integrates traditional Sonic the Hedgehog elements—such as platforming, rings, and grind rails—into the series' first open world. While exploring the open world, players can complete challenges, fight robotic enemies, and access "Cyber Space" levels inspired by previous Sonic games.

Following the release of Sonic Forces (2017), Sonic Team began exploring approaches for its next game. Takashi Iizuka, head of Sonic Team, wanted Frontiers to be a model for future titles, as Sonic Adventure had done in 1998. Sonic Team settled on an open-ended design, and focused on adapting Sonic's abilities to an open world. Frontiers was announced in December 2021.

Sonic Frontiers was released for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on November 8, 2022. It received mixed reviews from critics, with praise given to the visuals, story, and soundtrack, but criticism for some technical issues; the controls and combat divided critics. The game was received more favorably by fans of the series. It was a commercial success, selling 3.5 million copies by May 2023.

Why It's Undefeatable

  1. Amazing soundtrack featuring artists such as NateWantsToBattle, Kellin Quinn, and To Octavia.
  2. Tight and responsive controls.
  3. Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, and Amy have all been deflanderized or in the case of Knuckles, restored to their original personalities.
  4. A basic but good story about Sonic going to save his friends who were stuck in Cyber Space.
    • It features the history of an ancient alien civilization that lived on the game's setting, the Starfall Islands, Sonic trying to rescue his friends from their Cyber Space prison, Sage trying to fight against Sonic at first and then later work with him, and many more story features.
  5. There are several collectibles on the islands (except Rhea Island) such as:
    1. Memory Tokens (obtained in the open field or from certain signposts), used to unlock cutscenes where Sonic talks with either Amy, Knuckles, Tails, or Sage during the game's story.
    2. Portal Gears (obtained from defeating Guardians or from certain signposts), which are required to activate Portals which unlock Cyber Space levels for Sonic to blast through and obtain Vault Keys.
    3. Vault Keys, (obtained from Cyber Space missions or from certain signposts) used to unlock Chaos Emerald vaults.
  6. The Koco (who are later revealed to be the spirits of the Ancients) are really cute, cuddly, and friendly creatures, not unlike the Chao.
    • Some of the story missions on the first 3 islands (Kronos, Ares, and Chaos) also involve Sonic and his respective ally (Amy for Kronos Island, Knuckles for Ares Island, and Tails for Chaos Island) helping certain Koco fulfil their remaining and final purposes in their lives, all of which eventually lead to their spirits getting released into the sky (showing an 'infinity'-like symbol).
  7. The open-zone gameplay that successfully integrates traditional 2D and 3D Sonic elements into an open world, which is fun while also remaining fast-paced.
  8. The updates post-launch helped fix some minor issues with the game such as the (originally) lackluster ending replacing it with a boss rush before the true ending.
  9. Awesome graphics that are really detailed, colorful and stylish, for some people, it could look even better than Sonic Forces.
  10. The voice acting seems to be handed very professionally here this time around compared to previous Sonic games, especially Roger Craig Smith. It seems like he's giving Sonic this low toned adult like voice the hedgehog never had before in previous games and it's a good change of pace showing that the blue blur himself has matured since Sonic Lost World. Speaking of character development...
  11. Amy, Knuckles, and Tails all receive major proper character development during the course of the game. They all learn to be independent individuals, believe in themselves as their own heroes rather than Sonic, and go their own separate ways for a while.
    • Additionally, Dr. Eggman also has some proper development in this game. At first, he uses Sage and treats her as a normal AI, but later on he shows genuine care for her as if she's his own daughter.
  12. Big's fishing game is actually pretty fun in this game, since it can help the player progress through the game faster, in case they don't want to just grind their progress in the main islands themselves (especially Ouranos Island).
  13. The Titans are amazing and fun boss fights, not just because of their unsurprisingly colossal attacks, but also because you get to use Super Sonic in all of these particular boss fights.

Defeated Qualities

  1. The game has draw distance issues where objects in the background will pop-in as you approach them
  2. The infamous Pinball minigame.
  3. Nostalgia Pandering: The Cyber Space levels are all based off of classic Sonic stages such as Green Hill, Chemical Plant, and Sky Sanctuary. This is partially excused by the plot explaining how Sonic has a link with Cyber Space and so Cyber Space itself is modified to look like locations from his memories.
  4. Padding: The game has repetitive side missions where you have to collect Memory Tokens to talk to a specific character (although this can be cheated by using the cyloop.)
  5. As amazing that this game is, it can also be very repetitive due to 4 of the 5 of the Starfall Islands repeating the process of collecting all of the Chaos Emeralds by chatting with Sonic's friends, unlocking Chaos Emerald vaults, and destroying the respective Titan in a Super Sonic fight.
  6. A few of the story missions, especially the ones where you align the light poles, drain the water, and complete the Pinball game are really confusing, annoying, and/or very difficult to understand and complete.
  7. During the game, Sonic gets gradually cyber corrupted as he defeats Titans, restraining his movement more and more. This is an interesting idea and doesn't affect gameplay, but what ruins it is the fact that when he gets completely corrupted, he is quickly brought back by having Tails, Knuckles and Amy being absorbed into him, completely nullifying any sense of danger or threat that the cyber corruption had.
  8. There are many problems with "The End", the main antagonist of this game:
    1. Starting off, they are pretty much a major rip-off to GLaDOS from the Portal franchise, due to their similar manipulation and murder goals.
    2. The twist where they are revealed to be the malevolent entity that destroyed the Ancients' home planet and killed them is way too obvious within several hints that the game gives you. One of Sage's lines of dialogue in the Chaos Island also talk about this fact as well.
    3. They have so few lines of dialogue in the game that they are rather forgettable, and they barely do anything in the game's story.
    4. There is very little known about this character. We don't get to know its motive, how it was created, or even its real name.
    5. The final battle (at least in the base game before The Final Horizon Update), against this entity also has its own issues:
      1. For some reason, they are only fought on hard difficulty, this means that people who only play on either of the other difficulties won't get to try the final battle or listen to "The End"'s dialogue.
      2. Its design is disappointing, bland, and basic. It is basically an enormous demon planetoid, as shown in the climax.
      3. The boss itself is basically just a more difficult shooter level where you use black (red in this boss fight) and white bullets to take down the enemy, which is a little anticlimactic.
      4. The dialogue is a little hard to hear, and it isn't subtitled for some reason. This is a shame because its dialogue is rather decent and sometimes threatening to the player.
  9. A few of the Cyber Space levels are a little infamous for a certain gimmick/requirement.
    • 2 examples of this are Cyber Space 1-2's difficult 55 second time goal, and Cyber Space 3-5's useless skate sliding boost gimmick (it is easier to complete the level without using it at all).
  10. Upgrading Sonic's ring counter and speed used to take forever, since these 2 upgrades go one-by-one. This could takes up to 30 minutes to finish overall, without breaks in between. Thankfully, one of the updates fixed this.
  11. Although the third update is an improvement, the Final Horizon Update can be pretty tough and have some difficulty spikes.
    • Overpowered mini bosses.
    • Extremely difficult cyberspace stages.
    • Inconsistently difficult platforming. (Especially when climbing the Trial Towers. Only on Hard or Extreme Difficulty.)
    • Very difficult trials for the towers. (Especially the second trial.)

Reception

According to the review aggregate website Metacritic, the PlayStation 4 version and Windows version of Sonic Frontiers received "generally favorable reviews", while other console versions received "mixed or average reviews". [1]

Trivia

  • Sonic Frontiers is the first game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series to be localized in Brazilian Portuguese, though this is in subtitles only.
  • In the teaser trailer, there is metadata referencing files used in production of the video, including multiple mentions of "Sonic Rangers," suggesting this was the working title or a code name for the game.
    • The same name was also mentioned in a press release by Sega, although they later claimed that it was due to the press release being an older version.
    • Morio Kishimoto would later confirm that the name was a development code name for Sonic Frontiers, which was created prior to him taking over as the game's director, leading to a major shift in the intended content of the game. As such, the title "Sonic Rangers" was changed, due to it not relating to the intended direction for the game.
  • The song used in the Launch Trailer and in the Live Action TV Spot is "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen, making this the second time this song is used in a Sonic media. The first time using the song was in the Sonic the Hedgehog film by Paramount Pictures.
    • However, the Launch Trailer was taken down from the official Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube channel, along with many other major companies' channels promoting the game, a year later, suggesting that the song was only licensed for one year. Only a few videos of the Launch Trailer are still around online.
  • The Xbox version of the announcement trailer contains subtitles that attribute the then-unknown voice to "Amy," referring to Amy Rose, who is revealed to be the voice from the trailer in the final game. However, later in "This Week on Xbox" it is called "Ghostly Voice." Shortly after the trailer, Sonic's Japanese voice actor, Jun-ichi Kanemaru, confirmed on Twitter that the mysterious voice belonged to Amy before quickly deleting the tweet. It was further revealed that the voice was, indeed, that of Amy Rose.
  • The Japanese slogan for this game is "If you don't keep running, you will not reach the 'thought'."(走り続けなければ、その“想い”には辿り着けない。)
  • Sonic Frontiers is the first mainline Sonic game since Sonic Lost World to not share identical box art between the Eastern and Western releases of the game.
  • Sonic Frontiers is the second game to have its script be localized from English into Japanese, the first being Sonic Lost World.
  • Both Sticks the Badger and Tangle the Lemur are referenced in-game, making this their first mentions of their modern counterparts in the mainline games. However, Sticks goes unmentioned in the Japanese version.
  • The events of the game may influence the events of the IDW Sonic the Hedgehog series. According to Ian Flynn and Evan Stanley, Sonic Frontiers "will inform future events" [in the comics], but that these effects will not show up immediately. However, as of November 2022, there are no plans by the IDW writers to directly adapt the game or do a follow-up story.
  • Despite being advertised as such, Sonic Frontiers is not the first game to delve into the Chaos Emeralds' origins, as Sonic Rush already delved into how the Chaos Emeralds are tied to the state of the universe.
  • According to a Famitsu interview with Morio Kishimoto, the story of Sonic Frontiers is intended to be a Reiwa era Seinen, as opposed to a Heisei era Shonen action in similar vein to Dragon Ball Z and One Piece.
  • According to director Morio Kishimoto, the plot of Sonic Frontiers (specifically the final battle against The End) is inspired by the Japanese folktale "Rabbit in the Moon".
  • Sonic Frontiers is the fifth 3D mainline Sonic game to utilize the Boost formula, following Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors, Sonic Generations, and Sonic Forces.
  • Sonic Frontiers is the first 3D mainline Sonic game since Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) to feature Tails, Knuckles and Amy as fully playable characters.
    • As such, aside from Shadow, they are the first characters besides Sonic to utilize the boost mechanic in gameplay.
  • Sonic Frontiers is the eighth Sonic game where Sonic teams up with Dr. Eggman to defeat the bigger threats, the others are Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, Sonic Advance 3, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, and Sonic Lost World.
    • Chronologically, this is the sixth time they team up since the events of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) were erased from the timeline and Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is non-canon.
  • Sonic Frontiers is the second mainline Sonic game since Sonic Heroes in which Eggman is not directly fought by the player.
  • Sonic Frontiers is the first game since Sonic Adventure 2 to feature the Cyclone in a playable status.
  • The game has two separate endings depending on the difficulty selected.
    • In Easy or Normal difficulty, the player fights Supreme and then defeats The End with some quick time events.
      • In Hard or Extreme difficulty, Supreme is still fought. However, this time the player fights The End in a similar manner to the shoot 'em up levels played earlier in the game. After depleting The End's health bar, the quick time events remain the same.
  • The theme song heard during the credits additionally changes between endings. If the game is beaten on Easy or Normal difficulty, the theme played is "Vandalize" by One Ok Rock. If the game is beaten on Hard or Extreme difficulty, the theme played is "One Way Dream" by Nathan Sharp.
  • Sonic Frontiers marks the longest hiatus gap in the mainline Sonic series between it and its predecessor's release date (being exactly five years and one day).
  • Sonic Frontiers is in second place for the game with the most original lyrical arrangements in the franchise, with a total of 16. The game with the most original lyrical arrangements belongs to Sonic Adventure 2, with a total of 18. The addition of Update 3, however, puts it in first place, with an additional five songs that bring the total to 21.
  • During version 1.4.0, the game would no longer run on PCs with IGPUs, but this was corrected with version 1.4.1.

Videos

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References

  1. ↑ https://www.metacritic.com/game/sonic-frontiers/

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