Sonic Frontiers (PS5)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Frontiers.

Following the divisive Sonic Forces (Forces) in 2017, Sonic Team started exploring options for advancing the design space for 3D Sonic games, as producer Takashi Iizuka felt that they had reached the limits of the design philosophy established by Sonic Adventure (SA1). Director Morio Kishimoto felt inspired to go in an open-world direction, allowing players a greater sense of freedom than the previous linear style would allow. As development on Sonic Frontiers (Frontiers) progressed, the team also brought on writer Ian Flynn due to his work on the IDW Sonic the Hedgehog comics in an effort to bring out the emotional aspect of the story while downplaying the humor that had driven some prior games. Although the game would miss its intended 30th Anniversary launch, it would still receive an announcement in 2021, followed by a release in 2022, with mixed reception from critics but more enthusiastic response from fans.

While we did get this game shortly after it first came out on 11/8/2022, the existence of an update roadmap led to some waiting before actually playing it. Since Sega had already scheduled the final update for 9/28/2023, we considered that the “Play Date” (“the day you can actually bask in the glory of a working game”, per Mega64) and felt more confident once that day had finally come and gone. After playing through SA1 and Sonic Adventure 2 (SA2), Frontiers felt like a natural next step and while we enjoyed our time with it and appreciated how it advanced the Sonic design space, it still holds itself back from achieving its full potential.

It's almost like they're telling you when it will be fun.

On the abandoned Starfall Islands, Doctor Eggman uploads an artificial intelligence named Sage into a portal in the hopes of stealing the secrets of the Ancients, but triggers the island’s defenses. Sage ceases hijacking the portal and initiates a protection protocol that drags Eggman into Cyber Space. Soon after, Sonic, Tails and Amy approach the island to investigate the Chaos Emeralds, which were drawn there, but their plane is sucked into a wormhole to Cyber Space. Sonic makes it to the islands in the real world, but his friends aren’t as lucky. To save them, he follows the direction of a disembodied voice that tasks him with finding the emeralds and destroying the island’s Titans to remove the boundary between the real and digital worlds.

For his first foray into writing a Sonic game, as opposed to just the Archie and IDW comics, Ian Flynn did a pretty decent job. If nothing else, Frontiers represents a dramatic improvement over Forces, with a better-written story (even if some of the finer details like interactions with cyber space got a little fuzzy to me) and a unique wrinkle with the introduction of Sage. She has a strong character arc where she gains a sense of humanity and tries working toward a mutual solution without giving up her loyalty to Eggman. The conclusion of her arc, and the credits song that followed, also felt emotional, although the scene that follows gives the story in the base game a rather abrupt stopping point. Outside of Sage’s arc, Frontiers also seemed to fulfill a similar role to Devil May Cry 5 in terms of making sense of the series’ timeline, down to addressing inconsistencies like Tails acting out of character during Forces. While I haven’t played every Sonic game as of this review, I appreciated the effort and it gave me confidence in Ian Flynn’s involvement going forward, as he cares deeply about Sonic continuity.

Sage has a great character arc.

That said, however, I still had some notes. While the Koco were an interesting species native to the Starfall Islands, especially once we learn their connection with the Ancients, I wasn’t sure about how their storyline implied an extraterrestrial origin for the seven Chaos Emeralds, which opens up a lot of questions that a follow-up game can hopefully iron out. Tails returning to his pre-Forces characterization was a good move, although as a consequence, his arc here feels like a retread of SA1. Amy, on the other hand, has clearly matured since SA2, though at this point she feels like a completely different character (for better or worse) due to a more serious personality that makes her love for Sonic just about nonexistent. I’ll admit that it felt jarring for me coming right off of SA2, as I anticipated an acknowledgement that never came (if it did, I might have missed it among the different subplots). Additionally, although I liked the writing in Frontiers overall, I’m not sure if it will reach the same iconic status as SA2 (despite the numerous plot holes in that game), though I suppose only time will tell.

Before I get into the gameplay, I’d like to acknowledge that although I have played a number of 3D Sonic games (not always to completion), SA1 and SA2 are my frame of reference for this review due to the proximity of playtime.

Players familiar with the format established by SA1 will find an easier transition into Frontiers, as it takes the core concept of that game and evolves it to the point that it feels like the closest equivalent of a third Adventure installment. The free roam Adventure Fields of old are now sprawling Open Zones represented not by multiple hubs, but multiple islands. Although Action Stages are still a part of the format in Frontiers, they are now Cyber Space Stages that emulate stages from past games.

Since the shift to an Open Zone format draws inspiration from open world games, thought without the same freedom that label would imply, Sonic has more actions available, with an updated controller layout to match and having the islands built around creating a satisfying freedom of movement. For example, the Light Dash no longer requires an upgrade to use and just requires clicking L3, plus it works on more than just Rings (more on that later). A brand-new ability, the Cyloop, gives him another offensive option and lets him unearth more Rings and, occasionally, other collectables, as well as activate certain structures. Plus, there are more parkour elements, like running along certain walls and even the return of the horizontal bar from SA2. Although grind rails aren’t balance-based like in SA2, momentum does play a part in certain interactions. As an added bonus, when certain enemies show up, the game lets you review some appropriate moves in case you need a refresher.

Sonic doesn’t just have new moves, however, as he can now upgrade four stats: Power, Defense, Speed and Ring Capacity. Power and Defense are increased by collecting Red Seeds of Power and Blue Seeds of Defense and bringing them to a Hermit Koco while collecting lost Koco and bringing them to an Elder Koco will increase his Speed and/or Ring Capacity (player’s choice). If Sonic reaches his ring capacity (shown in the upper left), he’ll start behaving as though he had a level 99 Speed stat (the maximum level for each stat) until he loses even a single ring. If you feel that Sonic isn’t running or grinding fast enough, he also has access to a Boost Gauge than can temporarily increase his speed (Tip: Sonic can temporarily gain infinite Boost by running in an infinity sign with the Cyloop).

Some of Sonic’s abilities and even combo attacks, however, are locked behind a Skill Tree with nodes that he can unlock with Skill Points, which he earns once he collects enough Skill Pieces from defeating enemies or finding them throughout the world. Going through the effort feels worth it, however, as there’s a sense of growing stronger as the game progresses without making the player grind for Skill Points (playing normally will earn you most if not all of the Skill Points needed for every ability). One notable ability is Auto Combo, which makes chaining flashy combat moves together much easier (the player can toggle which moves are automatically triggered). Although there is a parry system, it’s extremely forgiving, for better or worse.

An early example of the skill tree.

Like many modern open world titles, however, the player can’t see the full map right away and must unlock it. There’s an incentive to doing so, however, as having Sonic solve the island’s mysteries (read: completing certain puzzles and challenges) will also spawn Ancient Rails that connect nearby locations, making traversal much easier than running around everywhere, especially in the early and mid-game. Revealing the entire map will also unlock Fast Travel.

Grasping the formula changes doesn’t take much effort and, once you do, you’ll just as quickly grasp the core gameplay loop:

• Defeat the island’s Guardians to obtain Portal Gears.
• Activate Portals with Portal Gears to unlock Cyber Space Stages. These Stages are based on those found in other Sonic titles and are either 2D or 3D.
• Complete missions within each Stage to obtain Vault Keys. Completing all four missions will grant an additional three Vault Keys.
• Use Vault Keys to unlock and obtain Chaos Emeralds.
• Take on each island’s Titan once you’re in possession of all seven Chaos Emeralds.

Throughout this process, Sonic must also collect Memory Tokens to free his friends and advance the game’s story through cutscenes and minigames. From my experience, it’s possible to trigger multiple cutscenes at once, though I didn’t know if it was because I had enough Memory Tokens at the time or that was an intended sequence. You can also obtain certain items like Portal Gears and Vault Keys in other ways, like the Cyloop, though the outlined gameplay loop specifies the intended methods.

One other collectable that can aid in the process of completing each island is the Purple Coins that allow access to hidden Purple Portals. You can find Purple Coins hidden throughout the environment, though a faster method is waiting for a Starfall. These occur every few in-game nights and will resurrect enemies and items within the Open Zone, as well as spawn fallen star pieces (you can’t miss them), which will trigger a slot machine that rewards Purple Coins depending on the result. Once you find a Purple Portal (there’s at least one on each island), you’ll come across a fishing minigame hosted by none other than Big the Cat. Where SA1’s fishing minigame could infuriate players who didn’t read the instructions, the Frontiers version is more intuitive: Aim with the left stick and cast the line with X, pull the line back by pressing X when the float sinks and then press X whenever a white circle would overlap with a red circle. Each attempt costs eight Purple Coins (even if you fail) and each catch is worth a different amount of Treasure Tokens, including non-fish objects; unlike SA1, although you can see fish locations, you have no way of knowing what you’ll catch until you finish the minigame. If you have no Purple Coins, you can also play the alternative (free) BBQ Spit minigame, where you press X at the right time and receive Treasure Tokens depending on the doneness of the meat. Once you have Treasure Tokens, or Gold Cards obtained from Treasure Boxes, you can spend them on useful items like Seeds and Koco, though certain items will register as Sold Out once you’ve maxed out a related stat. If you’re not interested in grinding items this way, however, I would still recommend going through this minigame for the twenty-four Egg Memos, which are exclusive to this minigame and fill in some additional lore.

 

Once you’ve done everything you want or can with an island, you can challenge its Titan, initiating a boss fight with impressive scale in the vein of Shadow of the Colossus. At the beginning, Sonic must scale the Titan until he reaches the top of its head, where he can obtain the seventh Chaos Emerald and transform into Super Sonic, which starts the combat portion. As in other Super Sonic fights, his ring count will slowly drain throughout, so it’s best if the player starts with a maxed-out ring count while they have the opportunity. Each fight employs a unique strategy or gimmick that tests the player’s skill up to that point and taking out something so large can feel like an accomplishment.

As these fights went on, however, the novelty wore off not just because they followed a pattern, but due to the emphasis on cinematic presentation, complete with mandatory QTEs. If you will, the philosophy of these fights eventually felt like “What if every boss was Perfect Chaos or Finalhazard?” I’m not saying this is a bad approach, as it doesn’t remove the satisfaction of winning, but the only variety at that point is the differing attack patterns of each Titan. I also found the third Titan, Knight, reminiscent of the fight against Metal Gear EXCELSUS from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, complete with using its own sword against itself.

Possible movie reference?

Outside of the Titans, I did notice a few other blemishes that a sequel or follow-up game could hopefully iron out. Compared with some other games in the series, particularly SA1 and SA2, the physics felt rather floaty. While this doesn’t do much harm at first, it can make precision platforming more difficult than necessary, especially during the Cyber Space Stages, or make him more vulnerable at certain times. Speaking of the Cyber Space Stages, although they do introduce some gameplay variety, their implementation almost feels like an afterthought compared with the Open Zones, like they’re just there because longtime players expect them. The floaty physics also contribute to making the pinball minigame less of a fun nod to Sonic Spinball and more of a janky mess with terrible hit detection and an absurd score requirement. It does make itself easier if you fail enough times without quitting, but by the end I still thought the optional pinball game in SA1 felt more satisfying (though one table had the opposite problem where losing felt a little too difficult).

Of all the islands, Chaos Island felt a bit long thanks to its unique and very large layout with an increased amount of needless backtracking. It doesn’t help that this island features even more forced sidescrolling sections if you step into the right areas. Even if I unlocked Fast Travel, I’m not sure how well that would have helped. I only unlocked it once, on Ouranos Island, and found myself disappointed by its limitations. You must not only unlock the entire map, but then you have to scroll to the Fast Travel option in the map (as opposed to adding that as an option to designated locations) and even then, you can only travel to Portal locations, which can still place you far away from your intended location. I think placing the Portals more strategically might have helped alleviate this, at least based on my experience with more open world games.

I’ll also mention that the final boss fight against The End felt somewhat anticlimactic in the base game. Yes, it’s cinematic and helps conclude Sage’s character arc, but the fact that it’s just a string of QTEs rather than a proper fight made the ending feel too abrupt, which also affected the emotion behind the final string of cutscenes.

I'm not kidding about the QTEs.

Despite the issues I had with the gameplay, I can’t deny that Frontiers looks amazing. It’s perhaps the best-looking game in the series in terms of realistic visuals, though the cartoony character designs can clash (for better or worse). The UI, while “generic” compared with other games, does look very clean and clearly communicates everything to the player. The lost Koco can easily blend into the environment, though the optional Birthday outfit does actually help with locating them (I’d advise against turning on the Birthday UI, however, as it’s rather intrusive). The only real issues I had that actually affected my experience were that the map screen didn’t have a Legend, not even one that you can toggle, and the very noticeable draw distance, in which entire structures can suddenly spawn into existence. Although I got through the game just fine regardless, it’s rather immersion-breaking and I don’t know how much the development of a less powerful Switch SKU affected that.

It gets worse in The Final Horizon.

On the upside, I found the voice acting pretty good and the default music fairly decent for the intended atmosphere, including initial boss themes that sound like composer Tomoya Ohtani attempting a similar atmosphere to Kow Otani’s score for Shadow of the Colossus in terms of capturing a sense of scale and awe (a score I love so much that I own the physical CD). When the vocal tracks kick in for the Titan fights, however, they go hard thanks to guitarist MEG, a collaborator with Babymetal, and vocalist Kellin Quinn from Sleeping with Sirens, with “Undefeatable” in particular providing some staying power. In that sense, the vocal tracks, which also include “Break Through It All” and “Find Your Flame”, serve a similar purpose to the vocal tracks from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (a game whose soundtrack I also own the physical CD for) and I’m here for it if a follow-up game does the same thing. In the Open Zones, you can also find additional music tracks that you can swap to at any time, including iconic songs like “Escape from the City” from SA2.

Outside of the main game, however, the player has a few options for some replay value through additional gameplay modes unlocked after beating the game once. At a glance:

• Arcade Mode: Allows free play of any of the game’s 30 Cyber Space Stages. 
• New Game+: Replay the game but with Sonic’s current stats.
• Cyber Space Challenge: A Time Attack mode where you play through all of an Island’s Cyber Space Stages in a row. Get a good enough time and you’ll unlock the next Island’s Stages. During a run, you’ll also see time splits representing your Total time and Stage time and get a reprieve between Stages.
• Battle Rush: A Timed Battle mode where you’ll fight a succession of Phases consisting of regular enemies, Guardians and a Titan, with Sonic’s stats based on a chosen Save. Time and Rings carry between each Phase. Get a good enough score and you’ll unlock the next set of Phases. You do not get a reprieve between Phases, but you can pause at any time.

On 9/28/2023, Frontiers received its final update, called The Final Horizon. By going through an in-game ring-shaped Portal on Ouranos Island, players can access its contents, which the game labels as Another Story, following the trend established with SA1 where there’s a “Last Story” that provides the game’s true ending.

This update offers an alternative ending scenario to the base game, in which Tails, Amy and Knuckles help out Sonic with finding the Chaos Emeralds on Ouranos Island so that he can take out The End. This culminates in a variation of the fight against Supreme with more intervention from both The End and Sonic’s friends, as well as a happier ending.

While this alternate scenario may not change your mind too much on the overall story, it is an improvement over the scenario from the base game. Players get more much-needed interactions between Tails, Amy and Knuckles, as well as some more depth to their character with what they’re willing to go through to help out Sonic. Sage and Eggman also get more characterization and depth here, which is always a good thing to see. Sonic and Eggman’s interactions also add some levity without overdoing it and the final cutscenes feel more earned.

Gameplay feels very similar to the base game, and uses the exact same map as Ouranos Island, but with some tweaks that offer an accelerated experience. For example, there are no Fishing Spots, but Starfalls are replaced with Starfall+, where Koco and Seeds are more plentiful and let the players increase a character’s stats in no time. There are also new Lookout Koco, which help unseal Trial Towers necessary for advancing the story. From my experience, I also couldn’t change any skins, meaning I couldn’t use the Birthday outfit on Koco.

Of course, the biggest draw for playing this content is that Tails, Amy and Knuckles are playable for the first time in years, adding some welcome variety to the gameplay and hopefully a sign of what may come going forward. Since this scenario recycles Ouranos Island, the game balances things out by color-coding the structures that each character can interact with and lets them earn Skill Points from color-coded Experience Koco. Finding them is worth the effort, as each character must unlock certain skills anew, including the Cyloop or even the ability to attack.

Some structures are color-coded.

As for how each individual character works, I didn’t have a strong opinion of most of their gameplay, except that I hope that a follow-up game can help controlling them feel tighter. Otherwise:

• Sonic’s stats and abilities are based on the Save data the player chooses before starting Another Story. He also gains the Spin Dash, a useful ability that makes traversing the island much easier.
• Amy can double jump, glide and attack with the aid of her Fortune Cards. She cannot Light Dash or Wall Run.
• Knuckles can double jump and his signature gliding works the way a veteran player would expect. Although he’s also known for his climbing ability, he can only climb up and run up particular walls.
• Tails can also double jump and his signature flight ability works the way a veteran player would expect, down to him getting tired if he goes for too long. Unlike the other characters, he throws wrenches as a ranged attack, which means he also can’t use a homing attack. The only issue I had was that his flying animation is a little long.

Although I found Another Story worth playing through, I didn’t find it enjoyable all the way through. For one thing, you still have to unlock the map all over again, which feels even more tedious not only with the addition of Map Koco, but the fact that all of the related challenges are far more difficult than the base game, even on Easy. Then again, the scenario in general felt more difficult, like Sega overcompensated for relative low difficulty of the original release. Since the returning character must unlock everything from scratch, getting them to a more playable state felt tedious thanks to the reduced options for earning Skill Points.

Unlock all of the abilities again!

The biggest issues, however, came from the late game. After completing the pathetically easy Trial Towers, you must also complete the Master King Koco Trial to unlock the final boss encounter. I didn’t like this one, however, as it requires going through all of the original three Titans (Giganto, Wyvern and Knight) in one go with the same ring count transferring between them and the inability to gain more rings. Even with Sonic’s ring capacity completely maxed out, I still lost the first one or two attempts through it, meaning I had to start all over from the Giganto fight. Once I knew that you could just chain Stomp attacks, the trial became much more of a breeze, but I didn’t like that you would need exploits to begin with. When I finally got to the final boss, an upgraded form of Supreme, I’ll admit that I had trouble advancing between phases, as the method for doing so at one point felt unclear (you have to just know to Cyloop it at a specific point). While I did beat in on a second attempt, I only did so with the aid of a guide. I didn’t want it to hold my hand all the way through, but even a subtle visual cue would have helped.

Although I wouldn’t dissuade anyone from playing Sonic Frontiers, I don’t think that it will hit the same iconic status as Sonic Adventure or Sonic Adventure 2, at least not right away or with its existing issues. I would still play a follow-up game, though I would hope that it learns from the issues this game went through in trying a much-needed formula change.