Sonic Frontiers Review – Kinda Funny Gamescast

I'd appreciate if Bless didn't interrupt everyone all the time on every show it's on. It's getting ridiculous

42:16 – I thought Blessing said "there is boss battle music where it's like 'let's f*ck'" – somebody add some Marvin Gaye tracks to Sonic Frontiers!

I don't think it's a good game but I have to say that I can't stop playing it. It is the weirdest experience I've had with a game.

Probably not going to play this unless it goes on sale, but I loved this review though!

as someone who loves Sonic the Hedgehog, i believe Sonic Team is Sonic's worst enemy. i respect that they try new things, but in recent decades they almost never give each new thing a second chance to be better when each first iteration isn't completely it. instead, they start over from scratch, and repeat the same mistakes. almost. every. time. i hope they give this another iteration to refine what they have and make it something special next time around, rather than scrap it and start over in a completely new direction for the umpteenth time.

"It took me 21 hours to beat but I would play for 20 more hours."

"Oh so are you going to 100% complete it?"

"No."

Lol hmm 🤔

Wow that final destination background 😍

Not sure if it’s just me but since y’all have moved into the new studio the audio mix has been really low. I have to turn my car stereo up to nearly max to hear it while I’m driving

New ad reads at the studio! I'm sure in time they'll use the main stage for some of the ad reads, would love to see what the could do with the video wall or video floor with them. Yes more production involved but also a way to attract new advertisers if they can it on a main stage rather than what has been 'webcam esque' reads.

It’s honestly think they should do a reimagined sonic adventure with this gameplay style

I personally disagree at 3:27 – 3:43 (TL;DR at the bottom)
I don't think we should limit how the stories in Sonic are handled solely because "it's Sonic".
Yes, Sonic is a talking blue anthropomorphic cartoon hedgehog fighting against his egg-shaped arch nemesis who kidnaps animal critters and stuffs them in robots to do his bidding, but that doesn't mean a high stakes, emotional, serious story can't be told. If we boiled down any franchise's concept to its lowest denominator, then it would sound just as rudimentary as Sonic's original concept. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are just giant reptiles who are ninjas who eat pizza and fight some guy named after a device that shreds paper. Batman is a grown man dressed up as a bat with his underwear on the outside and does battle with a clown. Ratchet and Clank is about a feline humanoid alien who is a mechanic teaming up with a robot to save and protect the universe from evil, and Star Wars, well, that's self-explanatory.

Sonic always had some form of story and high stakes as far back as Sonic 1, and as the series progressed, the emphasis of narrative grew even more. We got more lore and worldbuilding, more characters, and the stakes kept growing. I know some of these stories aren't winners, Sonic '06, Shadow '05, and Forces being prime examples of that, but when it works, I think it really works. The Adventure titles, the Storybook games, and Sonic Unleashed all resonated with hardcore fans and because of how genuine and earnest their storytelling was. Yeah, maybe they're not the peak of storytelling in games, but for a platformer, especially compared to others on the market, it made those games stand out. Those experiences have stuck with them for all these years to where, before Frontiers and Forces, people who wanting a more serious narrative where we can actually care about what's going on.
Here's a quote from Morio Kishimoto, the game's director about the story of Frontiers and why Sonic Team decided to use this approach from "How Sonic Frontiers is an Evolution of Modern 3D Sonic – IGN First".

"Level-based platformers are known to have a relatively simple stories and stylized environments. However, we felt that Sonic has the potential to differentiate itself from such tropes. That's why we went for a more serious story and photorealistic visuals."

TL;DR
I don't think we should limit Sonic's potential storytelling and worldbuilding because of concept alone.
Feel how you want obviously! I'm not saying we can't have more light-hearted stories, or they can't co-exist with more serious stories. I just wanted to share my perspective of the franchise and why this type of storytelling has resonated with not only me, but so many others. So many people on Twitter have expressed how happy they are with Frontiers' story, how well the characters are written, and how heartfelt it all is. For many, Sonic is more than just a colorful cartoon character.

Might get clowned for writing a literal essay, but I just thought I shared my two cents on this subject since I'm quite passionate about it. 😅

I know it's not Games Daily, but here's a "You're Wrong":

Tim at 48:33 is confused that Roger Craig Smith is still Sonic's VA and everyone says he's confusing the Sonic Prime casting with the game recasting. This is actually incorrect!

A while back, Roger Craig Smith announced he was no longer playing Sonic in future games, but after an outpour of support, SEGA reversed their decision and brought him back on, though he's putting on a slightly lower voice with a difference cadence in Frontiers, so I guess they were just looking for something new and eventually RCS proved he could do something new with it.

SEGA you did it again! On the real, the best Sonic games are fan made it seem

I don't think i have heard more negatives for a positive review. Have our standards in our gaming products gone down that much?