Poor old Modern Sonic can never catch a break. The mysterious Sonic Frontiers got revealed just last week. The world saw the first gameplay footage, then combat footage. Each video was hosted on IGN for some reason. Was it because of that 'Sonic was never good' meme? I don't get it. Why didn't the Sonic The Hedgehog Youtube or Twitch channel premiere the footage?
Thankfully, I wasn't the only one who was confused by the ordeal. My reaction to this game at first was cautious, then cautiously optimistic, then back to cautious again. In the first video, we saw about 7 minutes of really awkward gameplay footage. Most of the time, Sonic was either running or walking slowly. Solving puzzles and using an electricity type structure. Things started giving me Sonic Boom Rise Of Lyric vibes pretty quickly.
I thought the gameplay itself looked ok, nothing 'bad' or 'awful' but I do share similar concerns about fans worries of the automated parts. The open area does look very bland compared to past titles, but maybe this will improve later on in the game? I mean, at one point we saw a deserted open area with nothing in the gameplay trailer, and then in the combat trailer we started seeing more enemies pop up and giant Xenoblade Chronicles esque robots walking around. Maybe during the game you unlock more things and get the active parts of the world back?
My biggest problem with each bits of footage was that there was nobody talking over the top of it explaining what was going on. It was just awkward silence for 7 minutes. The combat footage shares the same run time, although the second video gained a slightly better reception than the first.
The footage has not impressed everybody, however. This was expected. I mean come on, it's a Sonic game. I think if the launch of this gameplay was handled much better, people would not be so angry or confused. Fans are now shouting from the rooftops begging Sega to delay the game, People think the game looks clunky and awful. But there is one problem, that a lot of people seem to be forgetting;
Nobody has actually played this yet.
At first looks can be very decieving and I think a lot of people who are yelling at Sega to delay the game are only out there just to get attention. I believe the outcry about the game is fair in a way, but I don't think a delay would help or improve much. Sega have already been working on this game for a long time, but I have seen some issues in the gameplay footage shown off that did concern me. Mostly, the background objects in the sky and distance for example, kept on popping out and appearing from various places and looked very unpolished. Could Sega have been sharing the gameplay from the Nintendo Switch version?
I really don't know what to make of Sonic Frontiers. Nobody has explained this game properly yet to convince anyone to buy it and I think that's a massive fault on Sega's side. They have been so private about this game and they got into this mess themselves I think.
I think Frontiers is trying to be too much of a game it's not supposed to be. It's trying too hard to be a clone of Breath of the Wild. The layouts look similar. The combat looks similar. The temples look similar. Even the piano music is similar. But Sonic games aren't really meant to be calm and relaxing. They're meant to be high octane fast, exciting and fun. The piano music feels so out of place for a Sonic game. I really hope that this is just placeholder music, as it's already been in the same video twce, but I could be wrong.
Maybe a delay of the game could help? But I feel it's unnecessary now to ask for one. Nobody has played the game, or a demo yet so all we're judging our opinions on at the moment is a few videos. I think a lot of the websites and Youtube channels yelling at Sega to delay the game are just only doing that for their own personal gain and attention. But, if the game is coming out in November 2022 and these problems aren't fixed yet then we have cause for concern. Sega seem to be treating the game the same way as Forces, and only having limited time left upon release.
At least we'll still have Sonic Origins to keep us entertained, if Sega do end up delaying Frontiers once again. What do you think of the whole Frontiers situation? Let us know down in the comments!
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