Sonic Frontiers - Review Roundup.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

1 minute ago, Jake_LeOFFICIAL said:

People and companies like Digital Trends are the reason why we have games like Sonic Colors where the story and writing was dumbed down hard. Terrible.

I mean, I will always love Colors, and I still do like the writing for that game specifically; it was kind of the break we needed at the time.

But, they overdid it afterwards, which is where I draw the line.

[VO.SUPER]

My first review this morning was Arlo's, and what was one of the first things he says? "Feels like a tech demo." Basically what I've been echoing for a while.

But yeah, reviews are about where I expected. Some even nicer than I thought they would be. And the general vibes I get is that they are all hopeful that this leads to better things, which is I think a good sign.

Still sucks that we waited 5 years for a proof of concept. Gotta wait several more for that refinement.

[Jango]

Seems like critics liked mostly the stuff fans have been raging about: the cyberspace levels and 2D lol

[Sonicka]

It's a slight shame that the DT review score brings the overall MC aggregate down somewhat (not that this really matters in the grander scheme of things).

But even that particular review is at odd's with itself in some of its justifications. So whilst I want to believe that this fella just didn't have a good time with the game, it does feel (dare I say) "agenda'd" to some extent. Heck, one of the headlines states that Sonic Frontiers is "the worst game of 2022" ...an attention grabbing line at its finest right there haha. 

[DaBigJ]

1 minute ago, Jango said:

Seems like critics liked mostly the stuff fans have been raging about: the cyberspace levels and 2D lol

Just shows the disconnect, haha. I'm amazed they haven't seem to gotten tired of Green Hill yet

[Kuzu]

37 minutes ago, Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon said:

 

That doesn't make it right.

I didn't day it did. It is what it is, but its time to get over it.

28 minutes ago, ZinogreVolt said:

I'm cool with if they don't, but I wish they'd do more in breaking down the Whys for the ways in which the stories don't resonate with them (like what Arlo did, as mentioned). No story in Sonic is flawless, but the Digital Trends review felt like it was criticizing the story simply for trying to be something at all, rather than criticizing it for its own merits and flaws.

You're not gonna breakdown something you have no interest in.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

1 minute ago, Kuzu said:

43 minutes ago, Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon said:

That doesn't make it right.

I didn't day it did. It is what it is, but its time to get over it.

I mean, the fact that we're already seeing some review sites not stoop to that with this game shows that it doesn't have to be that way, and we do have to settle for that.

So, I will continue to expect better execution from critics. 

[Shaddy Zaphod]

"Time to get over it" bro it's been like an hour

[Kuzu]

1 minute ago, Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon said:

I mean, the fact that we're already seeing some review sites not stoop to that with this game shows that it doesn't have to be that way, and we do have to settle for that.

So, I will continue to expect better execution from critics. 

My guy, I like fighting game stories and people shit on those all of the time.

You don't have to care what these people say to enjoy these stories is what I'm saying.

[VO.SUPER]

The closest thing we have to a story breakdown is Gamexplain.

Spoiler

Very earnest. You can tell he's doing his best to like the overall product, even if he is pissed at it by the end. Once again, hopeful about the future, disappointed about the current product.

 

[Kuzu]

1 minute ago, Shaddy Zaphod said:

"Time to get over it" bro it's been like an hour

I'm talking about critics shitting on stories.

[light-gaia]

3 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

You're not gonna breakdown something you have no interest in.

You should if you are paid to review games. It's called professionalism. In my job, I don't do only what I'm interested in, in my job. Imagine if I don't deliver my tasks properly and tell my boss that's because I'm nor interested in them. It would probably get fired

[Kuzu]

Just now, light-gaia said:

You should if you are paid to review games. It's called professionalism. In my job, I don't do only what I'm interested in, in my job. Imagine if I don't deliver my tasks properly and tell my boss that's because I'm nor interested in them. It would probably get fired

Their jobs are to review video games, not do story breakdown.

They reviewed the game. They did their job.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

4 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

My guy, I like fighting game stories and people shit on those all of the time.

You don't have to care what these people say to enjoy these stories is what I'm saying.

Trust me. I usually don't care what critics say. I love Lone Ranger 2013 after all.

Doesn't mean we can't expect critics to do better though.

[Jay_Senju]

That Gamexplain review was actually not bad I agreed with some of the stuff he was saying.

[VO.SUPER]

6 minutes ago, Jay_Senju said:

That Gamexplain review was actually not bad I agreed with some of the stuff he was saying.

I think he comes very earnest, which I like. He's negative but yeah, this isn't a game where the good absolutely outshines the meh to make up for nitpicking details. When the good isn't so absolutely amazing, little things will just build up to frustrations.

At least he treats the story with more dignity than Digital Trends.

[Ratcicle King]

18 minutes ago, Jake_LeOFFICIAL said:

Just shows the disconnect, haha. I'm amazed they haven't seem to gotten tired of Green Hill yet

Most people don't consume Sonic in a daily/yearly basis, so they probably don't even know what a ''green hill zone'' is and just think that's just the average sonic aesthetic

[DaBigJ]

Not sure if anyone posted this yet but

A shame he didn't like it. To be honest I kinda expected that he would

[light-gaia]

12 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

Their jobs are to review video games, not do story breakdown.

They reviewed the game. They did their job.

Story is a part of the game. Just like soundtrack and graphics. So, they need to analyze these elements, too

[VO.SUPER]

5 minutes ago, Jake_LeOFFICIAL said:

Not sure if anyone posted this yet but

A shame he didn't like it. To be honest I kinda expected that he would

It was linked earlier with their twitter thread. Also sees promise in the game.

[Zoomzeta]

29 minutes ago, VO.SUPER said:

My first review this morning was Arlo's, and what was one of the first things he says? "Feels like a tech demo." Basically what I've been echoing for a while.

But yeah, reviews are about where I expected. Some even nicer than I thought they would be. And the general vibes I get is that they are all hopeful that this leads to better things, which is I think a good sign.

Still sucks that we waited 5 years for a proof of concept. Gotta wait several more for that refinement.

It was always going to be a proof of concept by default of the game incorporating open world elements into a Sonic title. 

[Nintendoga]

If the story is a main focus of the game like TLOU2 then yeah I'd agree that reviewers would need to analyze it and discuss how they felt about it.  But for Sonic it seems more supplementary to the overall game and isn't going to really overall impact whether they liked it or not.

[VO.SUPER]

Just now, Zoomzeta said:

It was always going to be a proof of concept by default of the game incorporating open world elements into a Sonic title. 

Link Between Worlds was a proof of concept of open world Zelda yet it still managed to inspire pure positivity. And I'm not making the comparison to rag on Sonic, but demoing new ideas can be better than this.

[light-gaia]

I think the story wasn't as great as it could be because of presentation. The fact that most cutscenes are just the characters standing still and talking, and it only had exposition on the 3rd island. I don't understand why they didn't put any CGI cutscenes, even thought they put some scenes in the game.

It feels like the people who wrote and directed the story were the same as games like Lost World, but with Ian Flynn writing the dialogue. It's like Sonic Lost World, but with decent dialogue, basically...

[Zoomzeta]

1 minute ago, VO.SUPER said:

Link Between Worlds was a proof of concept of open world Zelda yet it still managed to inspire pure positivity. And I'm not making the comparison to rag on Sonic, but demoing new ideas can be better than this.

All I'm saying is that you're not always getting it right the first time.