Sonic Frontiers 2 Years Later: A Spark That Won't Go Out
- jamescozzie1
- Nov 13, 2024
- 25 min read
Updated: Apr 10
It’s fair to say that we are eating pretty well as Sonic fans right now. With the new release of Sonic x Shadow Generations amassing positive reviews, becoming the first 3D Sonic game since the Sonic Adventure games to score an 80+ on Metacritic, and the upcoming Sonic Movie 3 waiting to unleash onto our cinema screens in December, not to mention the prequel animation, Shadow Dark Beginnings, or the new mobile game, Sonic Rumble, sometimes its hard to keep up with how much content we are receiving nowadays. So, it’s crazy to think that not even 5 years ago we only had mere crumbs content-wise. It’s only because of the Sonic Movies and the popularity sprung forth afterwards, that Sonic Team and SEGA have used it as a springboard to create more new projects for all the new fans to sink their teeth into. One of these new games was the latest instalment in the 3D Sonic franchise, Sonic Frontiers, and the 8th of November was the 2nd anniversary of the release. This essay will go into the game and everything surrounding it, its impact on me and others and what the future holds because of this game.
But let’s go back, to 2017 more specifically. Ironically, the 7th of November was the 7th anniversary of Sonic Forces, the latest game before Frontiers. The game is notoriously bland, mundane and lacking ambition. The levels are a shadow of what came before in the boost line of games from Unleashed or Generations, the story falls flat and the game is boring and not fun to play with. It felt like an insult to say this game was made by the same developers as Sonic Colours and Generations when Forces missed the mark by some distance, more distance than Sonic goes through in one Forces level. The next few years were torture for Sonic fans, as we awaited news on the next Sonic game with bated breath. We had multiple leaks and rumours, some suggesting the game was going to be another boost game, others saying it would lean more into an Adventure style game, and some even saying it would be an entirely new style of Sonic game. Nothing was concrete enough, however, and we had to wait till May 2021 for our first official confirmation of the next Sonic game.
COVID was finally ending, and things were looking up for the world. Which is ironically around the time Sonic Team started pulling their finger out and showing us what they have been cooking up for the past 4 years. It was May 27th 2021 and we laid our eyes on this:
That 30 seconds was enough to last 6 months of speculation. No sooner than 2 hours after the live stream ended, the game was found out as “Sonic Rangers”, as per a code hidden within the video’s data. People were quick to point out leaks on 4chan earlier in the year from playtesters talking about this same ‘Sonic Rangers’. These play-testers described a Sonic game that was an open-world experience, akin to Zelda: Breath of the Wild, with a large island full of platforming and challenges, and a massive Shadow of the Colossus monster that you have to defeat. Fans were quick to point out their scepticism as most playtesters weren’t too optimistic with their experience, and an overall concern for how a Sonic game would work in an open-spaced environment amidst the oversaturation of most games nowadays taking the open world route, trying to follow in Breath of the Wild’s footsteps.
All these fears would be exemplified in December of that year when the Game Awards revealed the second trailer for our new game, now titled Sonic Frontiers, which showcased a massive sprawling landscape and finished with a teaser of something massive Sonic must overcome. With a holiday release date planned for the next year, fans were disappointed more wasn’t shown. We never saw Sonic interact with the environment, aside from one still shot that confirmed some of the fans’ biggest fear, that is the model was reused from Sonic Forces, fit with the shorter quills, bigger body and lighter skin tone. This debate still rages on to this day, and for the life of me, I can’t quite see the point (literally). That’s Sonic fans for you though.
Then came June 2022, and finally we were about to see what Sonic Frontiers was all about. SEGA had teamed up with IGN to let the video game outlier showcase their game in what they called an ‘IGN First’. The 1st of June 2022 has got to go down as one of the most disappointing days to be a Sonic fan ever, the gameplay was revealed to a collective groan from the community, as 4 years of waiting came to an end to see something straight out of tech demo. The video showed Sonic exploring the first island of the game, soon to be called Kronos Island. He was climbing towers, completing puzzles but ultimately, just running around the world. The consensus was that whilst it looked fun, it didn’t look like there was anything to do, and a lot of things looked unfinished or not polished. The day after, we were given a showcase dedicated to the combat of the game, and this was met with an even groan-er reception. Combat has never been a strong suit in Sonic games, you can thank Sonic Unleashed and the Werehog for that, but this was Sonic’s first experience (aside from Sonic the Fighters), at hand-to-hand combat that wasn’t just spin dashes or homing attacks. These animations looked even more unpolished, scaring more fans that maybe this was going to be not the game they were hoping for. The Sonic Central the week after didn’t do much to change public discourse, but the game was available to play on the show floor at that year’s Summer Games Fest. There, guests were able to play through a good portion of the game, although no footage was able to be recorded. Players commented that the game was fun and that the IGN gameplay was very different to the game they played. IGN had commented that the gameplay they were given was from an early build of the game, which gave fans hope that things might be looking brighter. Then came the Nintendo Direct: Partner Showcase in late June 2022, and this was ironically the best we’ve seen the game so far. Despite showcasing a graphically low-scale version as it was running on the Switch, the game looked hyped. We saw our first taste of cyberspace too, the typical 2d and 3d boost levels we’ve come to know in the game’s past, and a cutscene was teased too.
After this, something started to click for Sonic Frontiers. Gamescom showed arguably the best trailer yet, with more footage coming from the show floor this time from people who genuinely enjoyed their time with it. Previews were coming out and despite a few problems, were overwhelmingly positive for a game that looked dead in the dumps just a few months prior. Tokyo Game Show was the place where they revealed Super Sonic was making a return and for the first time in Sonic history would be used for something other than the final boss. We had that amazing Knuckles prologue called “Divergence”, that debuted a week before release that set ourselves up nicely, and a few days prior, reviews started to treacle in and the majority of them were positive. A lot praised Frontier’s new ideas, the controls and exploration, as well as the graphics and overall quality, whilst a few criticised all these points and saw it as a step backwards. I guess the only thing we could do was see the game for ourselves.
I remember my experience with Sonic Frontiers very well. It was a busy period of the year for me, with exams and assignments due so I was only able to play for up to an hour a night. Sonic Frontiers is by far the longest Sonic game to finish and probably to complete too. The amount of content is impressive considering Forces Prior took about 3 hours to go through. I remember I was going through one island a week, so it wasn’t really until around Christmas time that I beat the game for good. Twitter and social media as a whole were terrible to go through during these times, with spoilers galore from people who had finished the game mere days or hours after release, I’m surprised my experience wasn’t tainted by any of these people. My experience was overall positive, and I can say I still enjoy Sonic Frontiers to this day. The way I’ve always described the game to my friends is “The best 7/10 game I’ve ever played”. It is way too flawed to be anything higher, and the problems I have with the game are some big problems that I’d usually take higher issue with, but I can’t help but love the game as a result.
I think the main reason I love the game the way I do is because it has heart and ambition. This feels like the most ambitious game in the series since Sonic 06, and unlike Sonic 06, this game is finished for the most part. Some of my favourite games aren’t just incredible for their gameplay, story, mechanics or music, but I can tell when developers poor their heart and soul to create the best piece of media possible. Games like Super Mario Galaxy, Smash Ultimate, and Zelda Breath of the Wild, all showcase the heart and ambition that makes them the masterpieces they are. Even take smaller games like Celeste or Hades and you can see how much detail is packed into these small Indie games that adds to their experiences too. I will happily take a flawed game with a lot of heart rather than a great game with no ambition. It’s where I fall with games like Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. That game is nothing short of a masterpiece, but I feel like they only made it because of the success of the Switch and in particular BOTW that they deemed a follow-up necessary. I had a lot of fun playing TOTK, but it didn’t capture the magic of BOTW and I felt a bit let down. Sonic Frontiers on the other hand doesn’t know what it wants to do all the time but is giving it its all to put on a show despite its limitations.
Frontiers itself is a good game. I’d say one of my favourite things about the game is the exploration and control of Sonic. This is easily the best Sonic has ever controlled in a 3D space and exploring these vast, sprawling islands is a joy with Sonic’s new moves in tow. Just the feeling of Sonic tricking off ramps, grinding on rails across islands and using the landscape to his advantage is serotonin I didn’t realise I needed. Gone are the linear paths of past boost games, here Sonic has as much freedom as a bird in the wind to go wherever he wants. The combat is also quite fun too. Sonic has a skill tree in this game that allows him to unlock new moves with the necessary skill points. The enemies are quite varied in ways to attack and pulling off a cool combo is very satisfying, despite how clunky it feels at first. The graphics too are great as a whole, the game ran smoothly at 60fps on my PC and it was overall nice to look at.
One big talking point about this game was the story, and more specifically, the voice direction and the writing. The past decade of Sonic games was very light-hearted, Saturday morning cartoon-esque, even despite Sonic Forces presenting a darker story at first, however, Frontiers promised to be more sombre and mysterious in tone. This, paired with Ian Flynn at the helm of the writing team for the first time on a game, made for a story that was a lot more serious than normal. The voice direction was also changed, getting the characters to sound more adult-like, to add to this serious tone presented. Roger Craig Smith, the voice actor for Sonic, talks about the directional change and the challenge presented to him in a panel a few months after the game had come out here:
Sonic sounding a lot more mature was an interesting choice. It does work with the serious nature of the game and I enjoyed Roger’s performance, but I think the whole thing was a little too much and should be toned down for the next game. We went from too cartoony to too serious and it’s a little jarring going from Lost World, especially to Frontiers. Some of the cutscenes in this game are quality though. One of my favourites is when Sonic is asked what is his end goal, to which he replies:
Oh yeah, Sage. Sage is one of the strongest parts of the game. For being an AI-developed robot from Eggman, there is a lot to like about this new girl. She goes through a whole personality arc going from an AI robot that is programmed to stop Sonic, to liking and admiring Sonic to the point she asks her father (Eggman) to team up with him to save the world. Her relationship with Dr Eggman makes the 300 IQ genius feel more human, having someone he truly cares for instead of using as a weapon against Sonic. There are some brilliant scenes of him and Sage interacting in Cyberspace, with the two of them bonding and you can see Eggman starting to warm up to her and think of her as more than just another one of his henchmen. This becomes evident when at the end of the base game, he looks upset to let Sage go up to space to help Sonic defeat the end, and then the proceeding ending shows him in distress as Sage sacrifices herself to destroy the end. Eggman truly lost, in the original ending of Frontiers, and it is great to see him become more emotional whilst still being serious. The new ending has Sage and Eggman together at the end of the game, with Eggman praising how well she did during the final battle, and that they can go home together. It will be interesting to see the dynamic of these two in future instalments, as you’d imagine that Sage will be there so long as Eggman is, and Eggman is in all Sonic games. Sage is easily the best character they have created since Silver the Hedgehog and will probably be a part of the main cast sooner down the line.
Speaking of the main cast, I did enjoy the characters and how they were portrayed across this adventure. Instead of cluttering all of Sonic’s friends into one adventure like Forces tried to do, Sonic Team focused on the core characters of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy Rose (technically Big too but it's confirmed he’s part of Sonic’s imagination). All 4 of these characters have changed to adhere to the more serious tone, as we’ve mentioned with Sonic, but it works for the atmosphere Frontiers presented. Amy is the first character you will encounter on Kronos Island, and overall she has matured enough to no longer be obsessed with Sonic, and instead use that love and spread it across the world to make it a better place, which sounds cliché but is a direction I like. She still has that extravagant personality that is sometimes over the top, like how distraught she was over the death of the Koco (that were already dead), but she has calmed down in this game considerably from games past.
Knuckles in Sonic Frontiers is my favourite iteration of the character (aside from Movies) since the Adventure days. Starting with the prologue, his performance is incredible. He is not only a threat again, but his history is finally being respected and utilized, even for a brief time. Divergence was the first time since Sonic Rivals we saw Angel Island and the Master Emerald, and Knuckles’ role as the protector and guardian of the Master Emerald too. It means a lot to people that lore is being respected and utilized in stories, instead of just ignoring it each game it seemed. That is all thanks to the help of the new lore team and the writers for the game, specifically Ian Flynn, who has been the lead writer for the IDW comic book series, being tasked to write the story for Frontiers.
Overall, Ian did a stellar job with the task he was given. Sonic Team gave him the core concept of Frontiers, and he was asked to create a story and dialogue to match, of which he did a great deal right. As mentioned, he has made Knuckles a respectable adversary to Sonic again, Amy is less emotional but still a very good representation, and Tails…well Tails is difficult to explain. If one character has had it worse in the past 15 or so years of Sonic, it has to be Tails. From being Sonic’s reliable sidekick, who overcame his challenges and was able to save Station Square from Eggman to being too frightened over the presence of Chaos 0 in Sonic Forces, the 2010s weren’t kind for our favourite two-tailed fox. Tails was one character Ian Flynn wanted to get right, and he has shown through Sonic IDW that he can make Tails more badass and formidable with Sonic too, but with Frontiers he wanted something different for Tails. In Frontiers, Tails has a sort of identity crisis, questioning if he is good enough to be Sonic’s sidekick, questioning his wrongdoings in the past, like how scared he got when Infinite attacked, instead of being strong and fighting like he knows he can. This isn’t helped by being trapped in Cyberspace and having other versions of Tails telling him he’s not good enough. To me, it doesn’t excuse how poor he has been in the past 10 years, but it is great that Sonic Team want to right these wrongs and turn a clean page with Tails.
Another thing to note is how Sonic barely changes through the course of this game. His personality in this game is back to being his best. He maybe isn’t as quirky and mischievous as he has been in games like Sonic Adventure 2, he reminds me a lot of Sonic Unleashed Sonic. He fits with the seriousness of the game but also is still himself. A bundle of energy that enjoys everything he does. A big part of this game is Sonic saving his friends, and his resilience to do anything to save them makes him the lovable hero he is. However, trying to save his friends in turn destroys and corrupts him with this cyber-energy, that eventually takes over him. Beforehand, one of the game’s best cutscenes that showcase Sonic’s personality takes place:
This cutscene just exemplifies how cool this character is. He knows what he’s doing is hurting him, but he won’t give up until he has to, because he needs to use this energy to save his friends. Even with how much pain he is in, he still smiles and looks ahead, letting nothing stop him. I go more into this in my essay about Sonic as a character, but I am so happy with how he is represented in Frontiers, and I hope this direction for the character continues, maybe with a bit more sass and cheek that we love him for in the future.
The game has 5 islands we can explore, platform and fight enemies in. 5 sounds a lot, and whilst it is, 3 of them very much overlap and make for 3 unique islands. Kronos is the first island we are brought on, and it is a great introduction to the world of Frontiers. There is good enemy variety, platforming challenges, and lots of room to explore for goodies and character interactions. It is a bit basic looking, with not much environmental variety, and it is a little small compared to other islands, and that is because half of it was used for Rhea Island (Island 4), to extend the game. Ares Island is next, and this is by far the best island in the game. There is so much to do, the atmosphere is great and the challenges are a lot more engaging. It is a blast to traverse, apart from a few narrow instances, but I loved how open and broad it was overall. The same can’t be said about Chaos Island, unfortunately. It’s such a shame, because in concept this should be my favourite island, but is let down by the abundance of 2D sections, and don’t get me started on that Pinball minigame at the end. Rhea Island is the second half of Kronos and is just a platforming challenge where 6 towers appear and you have to climb up them. It’s such a shame that there was no point exploring the island as there is nothing to do except the towers. Ouranos is the final island and is way too similar to Kronos to be unique, which leaves the end of the game feeling slightly rushed. There is a steady difficulty increase from island to island which is good, with enemies that were present on Kronos being given buffed and upgraded versions on Ouranos, and with levelling Sonic’s character up it led to an enjoyable difficulty increase.
Each island is home to 7 cyberspace portals (Ouranos has 9 for some reason), which allows Sonic to access his traditional boost levels. Honestly…I don’t know what happened here but it’s clear not a lot of thought or effort was put into this part of the game. Most levels are reused from 3D games prior, like Sonic Unleashed, Adventure 2 and especially Generations, and with the same 4 environments of Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Sky Sanctuary and a City, it made for the least enjoyable part of the game. It doesn’t help that Sonic controls a lot worse in these levels than in the open-zone areas, his boost feels super slow, and ironically can’t kill enemies when you boost into them, unlike games prior. There are 30 levels in total and only about 5 are worth playing again. That includes 1-2, which is notorious for its extraordinarily hard S-rank time. Most S ranks in cyberspace are very easy to obtain, unlike past games the ranking is only defined by what time you finish the level. However, 1-2 is easily the hardest to obtain an S rank, which makes the level more fun to do so. But when you look at how you go fast in the level, it goes against everything Sonic is for. Taking the lower path, avoiding dash panels, avoiding enemies, it's very strange and I am so glad Sonic Team have learnt their lesson with Shadow Generations on how to create great 3D as well as 2D stages and we can only hope that translates into the next mainline entry.
Something Shadow Generations doesn’t have however is Super Sonic (or Super Shadow in that case). At the end of each island and after collecting 6 chaos emeralds, Sonic will encounter the boss of the island, collect the 7th emerald usually from the head of the Titan, turn Super Sonic and fight using the new moves he has picked up on his adventure. These are the highlights of the game for sure, becoming the biggest spectacle shows we’ve seen maybe in Sonic history. Seeing Super Sonic kick ass to these massive weapons of destruction has never been more satisfying, and better yet is how good Super Sonic controls. Unlike past games, Super Sonic uses Sonic’s base move-set to attack and deal damage, instead of having an entirely new move-set that is usually quite clunky. Better yet, we get to turn Super 4 times in the playthrough and destroy 4 Titans as well as the End. The fights can be a tad finicky and unpolished, but they more than makeup for it in spectacle, and nothing makes it more badass than the music that accompanies these boss battles.
I wanted to wait and talk about the music because, for me, this is on par with Sonic Unleashed and Sonic 06 for the best soundtrack in Sonic history. The soundtrack is incredibly diverse in genres, from rock and heavy metal to EDM, to lofi, it has everything. The movement music for each island is something I wish more games were utilized. As you progress through each island, the motif of the music starts getting louder, with more instruments, and melodies, to the point it feels more alive, as you discover more about the island itself. Take Chaos Island as a perfect example. The difference between the 1st movement and the 7th movement is night and day, with the 7th movement being one of the best pieces in the entire game.
Chaos Island (1st mvt.):
Chaos Island (7th mvt.)
The music in cyberspace is EDM mania. A lot of songs take inspiration from Sonic Forces, but the intensity has been amplified tenfold. Some tracks are incredible, whilst others feel like you’re in a terrible nightclub at 2 am. Overall, cyberspace tracks are fun to listen to at the time, but not many have made it onto my playlist. A hidden gem of a track is the Fishing minigame music. As well as the 7 cyberspace portals per map, there is also a portal that takes you to a fishing minigame with Big the Cat, where you can fish for extra tokens, upgrades and even Eggman memos, where you can hear Eggman’s thoughts out loud basically. The music is very chill, and it is great to listen to when studying. Tracks that aren’t great to study with our the tracks accompanying the Titan battles.
I can’t express how much Undefeatable has done to the Sonic community in the past 2 years. As cool and raw as the Titan boss battles are, they would be nothing without the music. I don’t know what Ohtani and his band were cooking when making this, but they cooked hard. Sonic vocal songs are always a standout and are some of my favourite songs of all time. Iconic names like Live and Learn, His World, Endless Possibilities, and Escape from the City, just to name a few, are synonymous with video game music in general and they set apart Sonic from other games like his. When we heard the main theme of Sonic Frontiers, titled “I’m Here”, back in September 2022, two months before release, everyone was excited about the vocal songs in this game. Most Sonic games give us at least 2, a main theme, and a final boss or credits theme. So if we were getting that, we were going to be happy, but Ohtani-san and the sound team blew us out of the water with not 2, or 3, or 4, or 5, but in total, including DLC, we got NINE (9) vocal tracks. That also includes the theme by Japanese pop group One OK Rock, titled “Vandalise”, which would be one of the credit songs. None of them, however, are as formidable and iconic as how Undefeatable was when we heard it for the first time.
Instead of Crush 40 or Cash Cash, or anyone else SEGA has teamed up with in the past to make Sonic music, Sleeping with Sirens lead vocalist, Kellin Quinn was chosen for the role of lead vocalist for most of the new vocal tracks. Sleeping with Sirens is an American rock band that has been going on for around 15 years now, and they specialise in rock and heavy hardcore music. This is not usually the sort of music Sonic is known for, rock yes, but heavy metal not so much. It didn’t matter, however, because the songs Kellin sang for Sonic Frontiers were some of the best in the series. I will go in-depth as to the magic of each of Undefeatable, Break Through It All and Find Your Flame, but they all are magical songs and fit perfectly for the climax of the boss fight. Kellin’s vocal range is astonishing, especially considering he’s been doing this for nearly 20 years, and people are right to praise him and welcome him into the Sonic community with open arms. To hear these songs live as well during the Sonic Symphony was a genuine dream come true too.
Whilst Kellin provides the vocals for the first 3 bosses, the final boss is, not a vocal theme, and isn’t even a Sonic boss fight. After the final titan “Supreme” is defeated, Sonic, with the help of Sage who inhabits the spirit of Supreme, travel up to space to confront The End. The End is a massive purple moon that in all honesty, is a subpar final boss. Not only because you play a game of Toho to defeat it, but also because it is quite a forgettable character if you can even call it a character. The whole game, a voice is commanding Sonic to destroy the Titans to save his friends, which also happens to be the end. Sonic by keeping his friends in turn releases the entity and so they have to stop it. It's a mediocre ending to what is a credible game outright, with such high highs it is disappointing to end on a low note.
What is the best Titan song in Sonic Frontiers?
Undefeatable
Break Through It All
Find Your Flame
I'm Here/I'm Here (Revisited)
Good thing there’s DLC right? Not even a month after the game was released, SEGA released a roadmap detailing 3 portions of free DLC content that they planned on releasing later down the road. Everyone turned their attention to the final piece of DLC, which included a new story as well as new playable characters, but we’ll get to that in a moment. The first batch of DLC was released in March 2023 and included a Photo Mode, a Jukebox a Boss Rush and Cyberspace Challenges. Honestly, only the Jukebox was interesting to me as it finally gave us something to explore on Rhea Island, collecting music tokens that can be used in the in-game Jukebox to listen to a variety of songs from the game’s past. Update 2 was released to coincide with Sonic’s birthday, which gave the blue blur and his friends new outfits, as well as the islands’ a fresh coat of birthday paint. New overworld challenges were added in the form of the “Action Chain Challenge”, which ironically has some of the best music in the game. Upon completing all of these challenges, we were given the Spin Dash as a reward. This is the first time in a boost game the spin dash was used, and as broken as it is to use, it isn’t half fun. Finally, the 3rd and final update gave us 3 new playable characters in the form of Amy, Knuckles and Tails, that were available within the new story that aimed to change the ending of the main game, which was most people’s complaints with the base game.
The Final Horizon update is easily the best and worst part of the updates. This is the first time since Sonic 06 we can play a character that isn’t Sonic, or someone like Sonic. It is a joy to play as these characters again, and they all play very distinctly to one another which is great. But it is clear to see the corners that were cut to get this out, a lack of polish and some confusing decisions made the experience less smooth than I would have liked. A disappointing part of the DLC is that Ouranos is the same, just more platforms are added for challenges, and with the hideous pop-in already present, makes some parts incredibly stupid to look at. Flying over the whole island in Tail’s OP Cyclone from Adventure 2 is equally cool as it is hilariously bad. The main campaign has Amy, Tails and Knuckles taking on various challenges to gather the Chaos Emeralds, whilst Sonic has to take on incredibly difficult tower challenges that surpass the base game’s difficulty by some margin. The four towers Sonic has to climb are substantially more intense than the ones present on Rhea Island, with numerous tight spaces and multiple enemies trying to stop your progress, and if you fall, you go back. These were quite contentious around the release as m any fans were upset at how difficult it was. To me, it was alright and I enjoyed the challenge, the base game was way too easy and for people to complain about a bit of challenge shows how hand-holding games are nowadays, especially Sonic games. People can just go back to Sonic Forces if they want an easy game to play. However, regardless of how people found the towers, it wouldn’t compare to the final challenge that awaited the players.
After clearing the final tower, to fully power Sonic up through the cyber corruption, the player must overcome Master Koco’s trial. This consists of facing all 3 Titans on Level 1 with 400 rings for all 3. This was hell on release. I spent hours upon hours trying to beat the trial to no avail. Streamers were spending even longer and failing. It was way too difficult, because of the Wyvern boss fight. One important thing to mention is that the trial only allows you to perfect parry, which only allows you 3 frames a second to parry correctly, and the only way to attack Wyvern is once it's been parried. The problem is that you have to perfect parry twice in a matter of seconds, and then 3 times in the second phase. After over 5 hours of trying, I was finally able to complete the challenge and advance to the final battle.
The final, final boss has got to be in my top 10 moments in Sonic history. All of the pain and anguish we experienced hours before went away as soon as we saw a new form unleashed onto our screens. The final horizon update was a means to create a new, different ending to the disappointment we experienced in the base game, and boy they delivered. Sonic channels all the energy he has acquired from passing the trials faced before him, to level up his Super Sonic form to something even more powerful. If you thought Super Sonic was raw, think again, because this form of Sonic can deflect major balls of energy with the swipe of the hand, unbelievable. The fight itself is a bit finicky and confusing if you don’t know what you’re doing, and of course, SEGA doesn’t tell you what you are supposed to do to win, but ignoring that, the scene and spectacle make it incredible to experience. Kellin Quinn was brought back to cover the main theme ‘I’m Here’, and of course he killed it. The climax of the fight sees Sonic sucker punching Supreme up into the End, for him to go into Supreme’s gun, now in control of Dr Eggman, and transfer the final bit of energy to transform into the form of Cyber Sonic. Cyber Sonic then gets shot into Supreme and the End, destroying them both in one go, whilst Kellin is killing it in the background. Words can’t describe how seeing this for the first time felt, but my goodness it is one of those moments that make you love video games as a medium.
And that is the best way I can describe Sonic Frontiers. It reminded me why I love this character and this series so much. I had the most enjoyable time playing this game, despite its flaws, I couldn’t help but have a smile on my face every time I played it. Well, maybe not the Master Koco trial, but aside from that, I loved my time playing Sonic Frontiers. It is admirable how this game came to be, it was Sonic Team stepping outside their comfort zone, trying something risky that could have easily not paid off. They had a lot to prove after the anticlimax that was Sonic Forces, and with the momentum building for the franchise as a result of the success of the movie, it was a wave they wanted to ride on not be swept under. They rode that wave a little bit with a little bit of wobble, but they took the landing. As of today, 2 years after its release, Sonic Frontiers is the best-selling 3D sonic game in history, surpassing the previous holder Sonic Heroes, with at least 3.5 million copies sold (May 2023). This has allowed the Sonic team to expand their budget, hire more staff and spend more on the development of future projects, and we can see that in Shadow Generations. The cutscenes in that game are stellar, a far cry from the stiff animations of some cutscenes from Frontiers. It is exciting to see these plans come to fruition at Sonic Team, and their listening to feedback makes me hopeful that the next Sonic game they create can be their best one yet.
I’d like to finish the same way Sonic Frontiers finishes as a game. The final credits sequence is paired with the final vocal song called “One Way Dream”, sung by Nathan Sharp (also known as NateWantsToBattle), and is the perfect way to cap off the game. For those unaware, One Way Dream was Sonic Team’s message to their fans, and the vocals symbolise this message in a very poignant way. It was a thank you message, but also a lesson in never giving up. I will go into detail another time about the song, but the lyrics “Dreams are big, eyes are wide”, and “Obstacles are no excuse, come with me there’s nothing to lose”, are optimistic about the future, and how dealing with setbacks make us stronger. “They said we’d break, they said we’d lose, but here we are, what else is new?”. Sonic Team respects and admires their fans for sticking with them through hardship, and One Way Dream is their thank you to us for believing in them, and what a gift it is. Easily one of the best songs in the series and is the best symbol of hope I could wish for. For some context, this game came out around the same time I started university. It was a difficult time for me, getting used to new surroundings, new people, new challenges, and new obstacles, and I was struggling to get to grips with my new life at first. Eventually, it got better and now I am on my way to graduating next summer, but Sonic Frontiers helped me escape from the difficulties of university life, to reconnect with someone who means a lot to me, who has also gone through the thick of it, but Sonic is the meaning of not giving up. We’ve seen this as early as the 90s, Sonic has been put in situations that looked like there was no coming back, but he has proved time and time again that with courage, heart, and believing in yourself, any adversary can be overcome. Thank you Sonic Team for always helping me get up, when sometimes I didn’t believe in myself, I knew Sonic would.
That is what Sonic and Sonic Frontiers in particular mean to me as not just a game, but a piece of media too. Life is about taking risks and doing things you would never dream about, but it is only through these risks that we learn more about ourselves and what we are capable of. Life is no fun if we don’t take these risks, to go on new adventures. The mentality to be able to do these feats is something we all must learn to face, to step out of that comfort zone is so difficult at first, but have a little faith, believe in yourself, and boost your spirit off the ground. Sonic Team, thank you for everything you have given to me, and what you have taught me, and I can’t wait for what you have lined up next.
Until the next frontier,
James.
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