Sonic Frontiers (Zero Punctuation)

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This week on Zero Punctuation, Yahtzee reviews Sonic Frontiers.
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[@theescapist]

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[@twosnakse]

@@ichijofestival2576 I watched it bro, you’re all clear

[@TealEyedDragoon]

Hey man. We both know you love Sonic. This game is new and likely will see updates to the gameplay. That being said, you had a poor experience because you are poor at fast games, at least in my opinion. Yahtzee might as well have said he was bad at the whole game considering he obviously didn't Parry attacks like you're supposed to when fighting the Titans or any enemy who takes a swing at you. One question I have to ask is how did the camera, situated directly at the thing you need to fight in a 3rd or 4th person view, affect you so much you're unable to use your 360 degree block, thumbstick to move out of the way or use one of the many moves that give you invincibility? This entire review feels like it was scripted out of spite not valid criticism.

[@hellacoorinna9995]

Tell me more about seagulls and reacting poorly...

[@cian2168]

@@TealEyedDragoon dork

[@firefoxriouyh6541]

The sonic fanbase is a lost cause. You tried. You tried, Yahtzee. Especially with tone video recently. I surprised you didn't mention yet about Sonic Prime on Netflix.

[@DanGamingFan2846]

Aside from Colors, this might be the kindest he's been to a Sonic game.

[@kclink1579]

And colours is bad.

[@KirbyBandicoot]

@@kclink1579 me when I'm wrong

[@blackchibisan8116]

Okay…. So he liked it? Or is this “a 4 from Yahtzee is a 7 from most other people” moment?

[@MafiaAzuI]

Mania

[@madengineerkyouma]

@@kclink1579 Correction, Colors Ultimate is bad, Colors is ok.

[@mg7979]

That waffle-faced boss monstrosity thing is legit terrifying. I half expected an emotionally scarred teenager to be ordered to pilot it.

[@tonycampbell1424]

GET IN THE WAFFLE IRON, SHINJI!

[@KoolKyurem25]

@@tonycampbell1424 SHINJ! CRANK THAT UNDEFEATABLE

[@wesleythomas7125]

If you don't, Rei has to...

[@kikkukun]

I went and googled it, it is actually the spitting image of the third angel

[@tomsmurf4225]

People on Twitter have actually drawn a lot of parallels between NGE and this game, apparently a lit of the enemies in the game look like angels

[@Choosdai]

His jokes about Tails having a second butthole to go with his second tail make me terrified to think how he'd depict a nine-tailed fox.

[@madeliner1682]

would that be nine buttholes, or perhaps one mega butthole with nine times the capacity?

[@kempolar9768]

@@ussliberty109 Its wild that there is any context in the world where that line actually makes sense and sound normal.

[@pengwinsRus]

The second butthole line sailed right over my head and then hit me like a bag of bricks about a minute later

[@Mattheq]

Like a furry pepperpot

[@EvilSnowVO]

You know one of those playdoh spaghetti makers...?

[@GoetiaTV]

I love the use of real animals for the characters. Makes me laugh every time.

[@thegardenofeatin5965]

Except Charmy the Bee.

[@DanGamingFan2846]

@@thegardenofeatin5965 because Charmy isn't real. Charmy can't hurt you.

[@niki75]

I absolutely lost it at Big the Cat

[@Tulf42]

I miss the Sonic characters in the Zero Punctuation art style, like in the reviews for Unleashed, Generations and BOOM.

[@orangeslash1667]

@@DanGamingFan2846 Sega doesn't use Charmy anymore, so he used a Charmy picture incase people forgot about him. Not Big the Cat, everyone knows him because he's a meme. Probably because the idea of Duke Nukem's voice actor impersonating Barney the Dinosaur is baffling.

[@BuddySweyzer]

2022: The year Yahtzee was nicer to a Sonic game than a Monkey Island game

[@TobyTopF]

That's when you know what's really hit the fan after 2 years

[@JohnnyFromVirginia]

Yes!!!! What world are we living in!?!?? 😅

[@matiktherapper7094]

Truly strange times

[@reddy64]

@@matiktherapper7094 im actually quite glad.

[@oshkeet]

Probably more to do with where the bar is. He has higher expectations with MI than Sonic's admittedly predictable holding pattern.

[@KaiserHitoshi]

The first boss's slap attack is very simple to parry, though I can understand the idea of Sonic parrying anything being foreign at this point in the franchise's life.

[@tobiasgold2]

So true! curiosity is what lead me to figuring it out during the fight. I was all... This is annoying can I parry this? 😲 I can!!!.. lol that's how that went 😂

[@Kujaguy]

I mean, they never stop telling you about the parry feature on every single loading screen. Even when losing to the first boss, the game tells you exactly what to do on the loading screen...parry

[@natwon633]

Yes, and to be fair I understand that a game journalist wouldn't know how to press the shoulder buttons of a controller

[@ProfessorHeavy1]

The camera issue regarding the follow up is something everyone runs into, and that is very much an issue outside of parrying. It takes a long time to turn towards the boss, and during this time, another attack comes out right away to knock you back. Fortunately this is mostly just in the first boss.

[@KaiserHitoshi]

@@ProfessorHeavy1 Really? I don't think I even had to move the camera for that fight. I can only assume it's because I parried him anyway and didn't have to worry about getting swatted?

[@jacksonwilliams5399]

I think it’s funny as shit that Big’s fishing minigame let’s you skip content. Big the cat has always been a character of boldness, the kinda boldness that forces you to play an entire fishing campaign to get to the final boss or making him a power character. The kind of boldness that gets a fan developer to make an open world, breath of the wild type fishing game where the game only ends when you catch froggy.

[@MegaZeta]

and Dreamcast had a dedicated fishing controller, but you couldn’t use it for the mandatory fishing in its first Sonic game, which is the sole reason Dreamcast failed

[@jmurray1110]

Honestly I really like bigs sections it’s really relaxing but always completed every haul after I beat the boss and was completing the map just because it’s a nice charge of pace Honestly they were more fun than the classic sonic levels to me

[@xcellentcreations3312]

This is perhaps the nicest yatzhee has been to a sonic game... Man the blue blur truly is "undefeatable"!

[@lightningshox]

To think the game was faced with criticism and was still able to "Break through it all" truly says a lot about it

[@venci16]

i was surprised too

[@atre5763]

No he isn’t

[@Freelancer837]

Such a shame it's for a game that is this bad. But hey, on brand for Zero Punctuation to have bad takes

[@chillhour6155]

@@lightningshox nope, critic's simply gave up, Sonic wins

[@alexroy5854]

Idk if this was intentional but Charmy saying "Let's burn things" is hilarious because in the Archie Comics he's introduced as a survivor of Eggman literally burning his forest down and his family all dieing

[@heardofrvb]

I thought it's a reference to The Simpsons where Ralph has a leprechaun friend that tells him to burn things.

[@RacingSnails64]

Hate spawns hate...bullies were bullied... The cycle of revenge continues...

[@oliverraven]

Considering Yahtzee will have grown up with the infinitely funnier UK Sonic the Comic, I'd say it was almost certainly unintentional.

[@soneca_br]

Then he gets brain damage

[@PaleCentaur]

It's a trauma response.

[@oogaboogabe3464]

I feel like frontiers is a good step in the right direction. Hopefully they keep walking straight and don't fly off the stage because the pushed the stick too hard

[@tylerfindlay3774]

They did say that Frontiers was going to be the foundation for the next Generation of Sonic games.

[@anaveragegamer359]

Sure but im not paying 60$ for it

[@DanGamingFan2846]

Very well said.

[@ehhorve857]

@@tylerfindlay3774 you cant trust that sentence. those guys say a lot of things that dont come true. off the top of my head, sonic heroes waz supposed to be a return to the genesis games programming. it- it's not. it's clearly not.

[@TabbuEme]

I feel like Sonic team releases one above average or good game just to make people go "SONIC IS GOOD AGAIN" so they could proceed to make 4 shit titles in a row.

[@SUPERSAIYANLUNATIC]

I feel like Sonic's tone is the sweet spot for 10-13 year olds. Just dark enough to feel grown up while still being cartoony enough to play with a younger sibling or convince their mum they're still innocent while modern pornography makes them wonder if they would.

[@saturnexplorers]

You're probably right. I think that's a big part why people loved the Adventure games back in the day and then hated them when they became young adults.

[@nonamepasserbya6658]

Honestly why not, Sonic doesn't have to be an unfeeling snark machine 24/7. Despite Unleashed and 06 reception gameplay wise, their shift in tone for a more serious story works. After all, cartoon doesn't have to mean it's nothing but Kidz Bop

[@mattevans4377]

On God, edgy teenagers is the last demographic you want to appeal to. Well, that and teenage girls (remember Twilight?).

[@dc_dachi]

@@mattevans4377 Lol, why? I feel like early teen’s media is shunned by adults for no good reason. We like to call things bad because it’s silly, it’s edgy, and kind of cringe, but that’s the point and I think it’s important to have games tailored to kids that are looking for that experience. Early teenage years are when you can get away with exploring unabashedly cheesy, earnest, edgy media, and I think it’s a niche that’s kind of dissolved from the video game market outside of indie games. Sonic used to fill that role before Colors, and trying to recapture that lost market would be an interesting approach.

[@evorm7329]

@@mattevans4377 I understand that that time in your life may feel cringe to you but it is still a sizable market to appeal to.

[@pokemonmanic3595]

I’m really happy to see Yahtzee keeping up his years long vendetta against Charmy the Bee 😂

[@gulorful8488]

I guess Yahtzee didn't update the review so FYI: You CAN parry the bosses and get more rings before the fight to make it last longer.

[@VideoGuy232]

You shouldn’t be forced to grind up after a boss death, it ruins the flow in a platformer/action adventure game

[@ALloydRH]

@@VideoGuy232 Then just reload a save. The titans are piss easy spectacle fights anyway, I never died to one even when I was doing a challenge run at lvl 1 attack power.

[@ketrub]

@@VideoGuy232 you don't have to grind game lets you spawn rings instantly

[@adelebarahma9953]

@@VideoGuy232 ey bud there's a thing called a "cyloop" and if you do it on the ground it lets you spawn as many rings as you like!!!!! Pretty cool right???!??!!?!?? Almost as if sonic team actually thought that the player has more than half a brain cell to accomplish such an easy task!!!!

[@MegaZeta]

You can also not play Sonic games until it’s your job to play them, and then play them halfheartedly, which is the path of less shame than the alternative

[@jordanj809]

Every time Yahtzee plays a Sonic game and rants about how his distain for Sonic’s friends, he always singles out Charmy lol

[@sunlitsonata6853]

He must’ve had a terrible experience with Team Chaotix in Sonic Heroes

[@Scroteydada]

He brings him up more than Sonic Team at this point

[@madengineerkyouma]

To be fair, Charmy is the worst character. Everyone else, even Big, has some good moments.

[@frostryu]

@@madengineerkyouma I'ld say that only int he games, if you didn't play knuckles Chaotix. I personally find him more stainable in the comics.

[@starkiller1289]

@@madengineerkyouma Quite frankly I couldn't stand Big mostly because of his dumb bumbling voice. When I was watching a friend stream and mentioned Big was in the game as they were going to fish with him I stuck around to see how he'd sound and it was tolerable.

[@jakass]

That magnet demonstration analogy is one of the best I've heard in a long time 3:45

[@thequietdreamer2186]

At least we still have memories of that hilarious Sonic Boom animated series… may it never be taken from us.

[@flaco3462]

that show sucked

[@bugjams]

@@flaco3462 L opinion

[@Freelancer837]

Yup. Gotta love how with Sonic, EVERYTHING can be really great and entertaining... except the video games...

[@Code7Unltd]

@@Freelancer837 While with a certain red plumber, everything's awful *except* the videogames.

[@Freelancer837]

@@Code7Unltd Mario ain't got shit else but the games anymore to be bad though nowadays (we'll have to see about this new movie)

[@RTigerK]

Did Yahtzee not realize you can parry the boss’s attacks? Because that completely solves the “boss keeps knocking you away” problem as soon as you figure it out

[@sarahjamesinasarah6423]

….ohhhh. I just got done with the first boss let me try that again..

[@TheUnluckyEverydude]

A lot of the negative reviews are from folks who didn't know there was a "fix my problem with this part" button. I mean, it's odd that Sonic has so many of those, but it's funny that reviewers never find them.

[@jollygreenbird6354]

Came to make this exact comment. His biggest gripe with the combat was due to not realizing he could parry lol

[@meapickle]

Yes he did. In the post zp stream. A LOT of people where saying that and he told them he parried all the time while fighting bosses...still hated the bosses

[@DanGamingFan2846]

@@TheUnluckyEverydude Yeah, it's almost like most game reviewers are actually bad at games. Or at the very least, never heard of walkthroughs.

[@clinteldorado]

I absolutely love how the default images for Sonic characters are always just palette-swapped versions of the real animals. Except Charmy Bee, who doesn’t deserve the effort.

[@FishBola1991]

“A mixed bag” is basically a 10/10 for sonic fans given every other 3D sonic game.

[@igunn8632]

I mean a dead dog would be better then most sonic games

[@kdsm6424]

where the hell were you when sonic lost worlds, boom, and forces happened, and now colors

[@FishBola1991]

@@kdsm6424 Colors was good, fair enough, but Boom and Forces were buggy as hell, and Lost Worlds had a really garbage camera and wonky as fuck controls. I’m saying the AVERAGE 3D Sonic game is trash.

[@Kris-wo4pj]

@@kdsm6424 they're good sonic games but good sonic games are like a 3 in fan reviews and a 5 in reviewers score.

[@DanGamingFan2846]

For a review from Yahtzee, "Mixed Bag" is pretty high praise.

[@xBluegamerx]

As a Sonic fan, Sonic team fucking up in the right direction is all i could have hoped for!

[@justinitforthemen5412]

Now this is a zero punctuation.

[@AutoReroll]

Now this is a comment

[@SnuSnuDungeon]

@@AutoReroll no this is Patrick

[@halo129830]

He got mellow once he had his girl

[@Kris-wo4pj]

@@halo129830 nah he was still pissy it's when he got a kid that he's relaxed more.

[@Dragonceratops]

nowthisisazeropunctuation

[@blur7491]

man actually went through the entire game without parrying the titans 💀

[@Noname-gm5om]

No his dumbass quit at the first titan he even says so

[@SomeBlokeOrWhatever]

Tfw you can't figure out the base game mechanics and blame the game for it 💀💀💀

[@tyrannicpuppy]

@@SomeBlokeOrWhatever If base game mechanics are so poorly explained that you can complete the game without them, that's definitely a problem with the game.

[@mendosstuff6400]

@@tyrannicpuppy the game explains that you can parry attacks💀

[@daniel13789]

@@tyrannicpuppy They explain it in the beginning though during one of the first few encounters. The player is entirely at fault if they want to completely ignore the mechanic presented to them.

[@DoncoEntAgain]

I'm glad Yahtzee brought back the classic line "Charmy the Fucking Bee."

[@tonycampbell1424]

Incredible throwback to "my main man Jeffrey the seagull" from the Driver: San Francisco review. Holy shit, Yahtzee. To borrow a line from Limit Breakers, "D E E P E S T L O R E."

[@MrSamulai]

There are some odd continuities within ZP. Like the viewer breaking into his house and Yahtzee's desire to have intercourse with a dolphin.

[@hackcubit9663]

But that seagull's name was Dave. Which I guess means that Yahtzee knows several upstanding members of the gull community.

[@DanGamingFan2846]

Now if only he'd bring back Uncle Tusky.

[@tonycampbell1424]

@@hackcubit9663 Got me. Dave the seagull. Right you are. Damn.

[@Nijht]

Personally I'm waiting for the return of Florence the Fully-Upgraded Sniper Rifle.

[@SACKERYS18]

The bit about the magnet in the nail factory is my favorite bit of writing I have heard in a long time.

[@yeswho646]

That Kissinger line was golden

[@beesree39]

the whole "haha you're a hedgehog don't be serious XP" is a shit argument I'm sorry but this is tiring it isn't bad to have this tone

[@AarturoSc]

Talked like a real butthurt baby.

[@concordiaharmony2302]

So a note about the super sonic bosses: Your able to stop them from knocking you away with the parry mechanic, meaning that you yourself actively control the flow of the fight based on your ability to read their animations to know how to react. As for the 100 rings thing I really don't know how your doing that part since the game reloads you to your state before you turn Super at all, meaning it gives you a chance to recollect rings to build them back up and you start back with however many you had going in.

[@MegaZeta]

I am begging people to understand that the only non-shameful way to play Sonic games is half-heartedly, as a necessary part of your job

[@concordiaharmony2302]

@@MegaZeta I don't follow what you mean

[@TheJadeFist]

Tone can vary from entry to entry, that's perfectly fine. We don't need or want Sonic to be the mickey mouse club just because cartoon "animal". From the beginning Sonic has always had an element of over the top bombast, it took him till his second game before he's riding rockets into space, going super saiyan and fighting death machines. I for one appreciated the absolute Shonen-esque feel the boss fights gave us, just throwing the skyscrapper sized boss into a mountain, and all that fun stuff. I just wish the bosses were significantly harder, and more of them.

[@Keurgui1]

I mean kingdom hearts is a final fantasy Disney crossover fanfic and it takes itself p serious. Even Kirby had pretty high stakes What do you know, you can establish a tone for anything as long as it’s still somewhat self aware and focused

[@TheJadeFist]

@@Keurgui1 And Kingdom Hearts takes these "kid cartoon characters" and just rolls with the melodrama and fantasy, and is generally quite popular and liked. One of these years maybe I'll get around to playing through them. I've only ever played the first one, partially, but I enjoyed what little I played.

[@Uniscorn123]

Am I the only one who is mildly impressed that Yahtzee played all the way up to the Pinball segment? 🤔

[@MrSamulai]

He does finish the games he reviews, as long as it's feasible within a standard workweek.

[@regalvas]

@@MrSamulai Or doesn't give him enough BS to write the hate infuse review right then and there.

[@Kris-wo4pj]

@@regalvas biggest sin of a video game is being bland. If ya can praise or hate it then what's the point of a review. And honestly I think yahtzee is right with that philosophy.

[@regalvas]

@@Kris-wo4pj I prefer a basically ok game to an absolute miserable experience since I don't get payed to talk about them

[@vazazell5967]

@@MrSamulai if he did finish the games he wouldn't have praised elden ring

[@AristeneSilvaPrincipal]

"Why a hedgehog tho?" Because they didn't like Oshima's idea of using a rabbit.

[@dpg154]

Yahtzee's analogies are a thing of beauty 🤣

[@patricknice8652]

In which yahtzee doesn't know the parry button exists

[@aidangordon2713]

To be fair... neither did I for a good quarter of the game, and I'm sure I wasn't alone. So it's less "GIT GUD YAHTZ" and more "DESIGN GUD SANIC TAEM," lmao.

[@FnSpiralMedia]

@@aidangordon2713 I appreciate this rebuttal so much. Knowing the parry button exists might make a boss fight easier, but won't fix the design flaws inherent to the fight...or fix the tone...or any other grievance yahtzee brings up. (Side note is it grievence or grievance? 🤔)

[@MelodicQuest]

The two types of Sonic plot: "The world's in danger but we can stop it because we have friendship!" "The world is in danger, people are gonna die, we're all angsty, and at least one character needs to sacrifice their life."

[@philatio1744]

never even noticed this, lol.

[@ianposh4852]

What’s that, a callback to Jeff the Seagull from almost a goddamned decade ago? Bravo

[@nicklager1666]

What's that skippy? Sonic Team has released a new Sonic Game so Yahtzee can have a game to shred to pieces. What good news.

[@tonycampbell1424]

What's that, Skippy? Timmy has fallen down the well? What good news.

[@SnuSnuDungeon]

Poor Skippy he just wants out of the basement and probably to have his arms and legs back as well

[@SarcasticWanderer]

I always find the whole "you're a funny animal with shoes, stop being edgy and dark" attitude about Sonic funny. With that logic, Batman should've stayed his goofy self because he's just a man in bat pajamas fucking around on rooftops. But he didn't and he's one of the badass superheroes out there with badass movies and video games. The same argument can go for TMNT in certain medias. I don't care if it's a story about Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny in the Vietnam war, if it's a good story, it's a good story.

[@fightingmedialounge519]

Eh, can't really argue that for batman or tmnt since they started out with a serious tone in the comics.

[@axelprino]

The one criticism I don't get is the complaints about the tone, the Series had that vibe of the story taking place in the ruins of an old civilization from the very start (Marble and Labyrinth from Sonic 1), is just that sometimes it gets relegated to the background.

[@petergriscom3431]

Part of the problem is that Sega of America never translated all of the original plot, either out of laziness or lack of cooperation from Sega of Japan, so everyone just sees the colorful levels and the cartoon tie-ins when they think of classic Sonic. It's not ideal that they had lore in the manual booklets, but it would've helped more than calling Amy "Princess Sally".

[@sharrpshooter1]

The main problem is that sonic at the end of the day IS a kids character, the plot isnt suppose to be serious because thats not who he is or what he ever does. It would be like if the creators of SpongeBob made a spin off in the style of breaking bad, it just doesnt make sense tone wise

[@petergriscom3431]

@@sharrpshooter1 I think they've struck a good balance in tone from time to time. Adventure 1&2, Sonic Rush 1&2, and the Storybook games made it work the best, where there's a good balance of humor and seriousness. Personally, I enjoy Sonic writing when it's like a well-rounded shounen. In short, it works best when the serious part is slowly built up, and the humor is subtle, less in-your-face in both instances. I'd go more in-depth, but KZbin comments are a poor place for it.

[@ZigealFaust]

Yeah its like he forgot how dark SA2 was.

[@sorio99]

@@sharrpshooter1Sure, but you could say the same for a shouty Internet critic who swears more than he breathes, whose main audience is teenagers and man children wanting to piss on their least favorite games, trying to be taken seriously as a reviewer. That’s not gonna stop either of them from trying, is it? And in my view, they’re both succeeding about as well, for whatever that’s worth. But enough about James Rolfe.

[@shadowofdimentio4618]

Honestly I'll take this tone any day. Sonic is still goofy but only when he has the chance, characters act like they would in this situation and have unique interactions that aren't jokes every 5 seconds and Sonic comes off incredibly likeable when you realize he doesn't know what the right thing to do is and is acting out of what he thinks is best. This means he makes leaps of faith that make him actually sad without him being this invincible hero. The tone isn't perfect but I'll take it any day over anything in the last 12 years. It's not colours' comedic abyss of substance or Forces/Shadow's edgy gruel fest. But yeah the mini stages are some of the worst stages I've seen in a long time. The stage designs being green hill or Angel island clash with the more down to earth tone and the actual levels are really bad since Sonic was design for the open world and not linear stages. Oh and also whoever thought putting 2d in open world is a dumbass who doesn't seem to understand that limiting the player's mobility in a 3-dimensional space can be very frustrating. First boss was cool tho.

[@Deadflower20xx]

This. I really don't get whenever the average Sonic critic says "OMG YOURE AN ANIMAL WITH SHOES STOP TRYING TO HAVE A STORY!!" meanwhile Studio Ghibli movies with anthropomorphic animals are some of the most beloved movies of all time that can also make you cry. On top of many other books and movies and games. I don't get why "wow the hedgehog has shoes" is where some people draw the line at fantasy and suspending their disbelief. Maybe some people just have really horrible imaginations and can't take any narrative seriously unless it's gritty grey-and-brown photographic realism.

[@bugjams]

It's just confusing when the main characters are little happy hedgehog creatures with single eyes that somehow have 2 pupils. I mean this is the same hedgehog that went off non-stop about chili dogs and "being totally cool, yo!" back in the 90's. I guess it's something _unique..._ The clash of adult themes with kiddy-like character design certainly might explain why sonic fans tend to be greasy 30-year olds with uncomfortable hyper-fixations. But surely one can understand that to people who "don't get it," it just looks totally baffling and ridiculous.

[@Deadflower20xx]

@@bugjams The darker tone has always kind of existed. I mean, one of the prime goals of Sonic was to create a franchise that appealed to older kids who were tired of how childish Mario became. In his first cartoons and comics they took place is dysopian futures where Robotnik/Eggman dominated the world as a dictator and turned everything from sentient beings to plants into robots. The happy lush areas of Sonic are always contrasted by the evil contraptions of over-industrialization. Even as early as Sonic CD (his canonically second adventure) we get glimpses at this dark future where the music has distorted voices of children in the background. I feel like people maybe just characterize Sonic by his first few levels, or by the meme culture surrounding him, rather than what the franchise has actually all been about. I think there's a place for something that looks childish but uses that to contrast it with some darker weirder elements. We see similar stuff done in Earthbound and Pokemon and it seems to be a lot more warmly received when those games attempt something "serious".

[@Freelancer837]

Serious tone for Sonic has shown multiple times it can and does work. That being said, this tone in Frontiers is just the seriousness that a 3 year old would imagine. Gotta love when a character at the end of the game fuckin dies and sacrifices themselves, then Sonic and friends are cheering and celebrating their victory.

[@christophergarcia9022]

@@Deadflower20xx i think it's because studio Ghibli has a consistent art direction that makes the characters not look out of place in the setting, which in turn make the tone mesh well. Sonic on the other hand? The more serious games usually have very realistic settings and levels, then game-like levels, the gameplay elements look cartoonish (e.g. egg robots, boxes, springs) but they are on top of a gritty real setting and it's just weird. Not deciding a proper style or art direction makes it hard to work together and even clash. Ghibli though? Everything is stylized in a way that is cartoonish but designs feel grounded enough that things don't feel out of place, and the more fantastic elements don't feel like they are supposed to be in a different movie. It's like Sonic wants to be both at the same time, but hurts itself since the art direction isn't working well enough to bring both aspects together, and so when they try to be serious you can't help but think you are looking at a silly hedgehog talking. The current sonic comics make a good job of making everything cartoonish but still having emotional moments that hit when needed, because the style is consistent and nothing looks out of place.

[@kamiwriterleonardo6345]

Sounds like he didn't learn how to parry. Which is astonishing considering it's the easiest parry mechanic of all videogames that have a parry mechanic.

[@TARINunit9]

Sonic Frontiers is an _almost_ great game. For everything it gets right there's a little niggle that bugs me, and for every lovely majestic island world that I can zip around exploring and having fun there's a godawful Cyberspace 2-2 stinking up the room

[@teenageapple3788]

Skip as much of the enemies you can by air boosting, especially the first turn before the first set if grind rails

[@skrillathrilla52]

dafuq is a niggle

[@TARINunit9]

@@skrillathrilla52 According to the dictionary, a "slight but persistent annoyance"

[@TARINunit9]

@@teenageapple3788 You have the wrong level in mind, Cyberspace 2-2 doesn't have any grind rails

[@teenageapple3788]

@@TARINunit9 Ohhhhhhh I read 1-2, sorry

[@TheMrPasquale]

I need a follow up review where Yahtzee remembers to parry during the Titan fights…

[@Floraclaw]

Also able to max rings by doing loop de loops for about 2 minutes. The reset is not hard if he messed up.

[@ATomatoIsAFruit]

His post-ZP stream has him state that he did know to parry the attacks. It doesn't change their poor design choices or implementation.

[@dojelnotmyrealname4018]

"User error is just a euphemism for design failure"

[@jonathangoodwin5609]

@ATomatoIsAFruit him knowing that he can parry doesn't change that it is entirely his fault for choosing not to. If anything, that makes him look even dumber for knowing how to deal with it, choosing not to, and then blaming the game for his own bullshit.

[@dojelnotmyrealname4018]

@@Floraclaw You realise that is 2 minutes longer than it should be, right?

[@SpazmasterX]

The biggest problem with the first giant, as Yahtzee mentions, is the dogshit camera. The second biggest is the fact that the devs expected you to parry his attacks but you spend so much time looking for the telegraph you understand why Bell invented the telephone.

[@Jackattack359]

What does that last point have to do with anything?

[@kdsm6424]

there's a spidey sense for sonic now and the parry is the most overpowered thing in the game you only need to hold the parry buttons and it'll automatically parry anything lol it's more of an automatic deflect/witch time if anything

[@fissionphoenix4995]

@@Jackattack359 I believe they're trying to make a joke they think Yahtz might but missed their mark.

[@Jackattack359]

@@fissionphoenix4995 ha ha….not funny

[@OsnosisBones]

@@kdsm6424 I feel like there being no timing system to the parry causes a whole slew of problems in of themselves though honestly, from a gameplay standpoint. It's not exactly fun or difficult to just hold a block button whenever to get a free hit in any time an enemy tries to hit you.

[@ivanwilliams7413]

Nearly spit out my drink at "WE WILL ALL BE CLEANSED."

[@Gregatron27]

All I want from this review are the words "Charmy the fucking Bee" to be uttered EDIT: not disappointed

[@DTFauxClassic]

To be fair with the tonal dissonance, Sonic is no stranger to melancholy and melodrama (parts of the Adventure games and especially the comics), but the gaming side of the franchise has been so bogged down with memes, meta humor, and public ridicule over the last decade+ that it can definitely feel like whiplash that the series finally tries to take itself a bit more seriously. Among fans, it seems like the shift back to a level of sincerity and endearment is appreciated, if not well overdue. And more importantly, compared to '06 and Forces, this one actually sticks the landing on that front. EDIT - I can't believe I forgot to mention that Sonic Team literally brought over the lead writer of the Archie and IDW Sonic comics to help with Frontiers' story, which very much explains the game's tone.

[@fightingmedialounge519]

Don't really think that's his issue since yathzee has played more serious sonic games in the past.

[@DTFauxClassic]

​@@fightingmedialounge519 Having watched his Extra Punctuation, it seems his core argument is consistently "It's weird that this cartoon blue mouse tries to have a serious story." The rebuttals to him isn't so much that his view is invalid (in the same video, he does say everyone's mileage will vary with suspension of disbelief). Just that there's a lot of us who can understand the tonal dissonance while simultaneously being here for it.

[@fightingmedialounge519]

@@DTFauxClassic never said that was the rebuttal. Just that his issue with sonic taking itself has always been there ever since he started covering the series.

[@spongebobfan78]

Ngl, I feel like, in terms of story, it feels like the Sonic series is in a lose-lose situation with the critics. It gets ridiculed for being silly if they embraced its silliness because of cartoon animals and stuff, but if they try to add some depth, emotion and seriousness, it gets mocked for trying to add those in a series full of cartoon animals and stuff.

[@zjzr08]

The funny thing is at least with Sonic he's kinda the same within the story as that snarky joy...the others are more grounded but I don't think they were too serious.

[@cian2168]

nobody has ever minded silly sonic stuff except sonic fans

[@zjzr08]

@@cian2168 Even Sonic Boom and maybe Lost World's story?

[@cian2168]

@@zjzr08 sonic boom was bad for many reasons beyond the story which was also very bad

[@flaco3462]

Oh thats just yahtzee being his usual self, he never gets Sonic being serioud because all he sees is the cartoon animal

[@Bakamoichigei]

Man, I always enjoy Yahtzee's humor, but this review is even more full of solid gold than usual. Some of those analogies are just exquisite! 😂

[@theheroneededwillette6964]

I think you didn’t realize you could use the parry move as super sonic.

[@krisisgod666]

@TheEscapist Tip: hold shoulder buttons to parry. Makes bosses possible to beat even WITH 100 rings.

[@davidallen4388]

He knew about the mechanic, talked about it during his play stream.

[@venci16]

@@davidallen4388 kind of a weird note then,when the only time the boss would knock you when you parry was the supreme boss fight aaaand that isn't the first one aaaaaand i do have to blame the damn targeting(LET ME JUST RANDOMLY HIT THE HEAD) OOOH BOOOY HE SHOT HIS LOAD AT YOU :/ and then i found out the boss is a weakling cause you can just combo lock him from shooying you and can kill him in 5 seconds

[@TheCourier0613]

@@davidallen4388 and still made it a point of 'criticism' in this video......kinda seems like hes just hating

[@Dark_Tale]

Wait, did he go into the first boss and not realize you can spam parry? Makes it insanely easy. Also you can infinitely run around in circles to get rings using that cool ability he mentioned earlier that also will send some enemies in the air, between each boss attempt. Probably a good thing he never reached boss 2 or he would have lost his mind not realizing you can parry back the rockets being thrown at you.

[@frogmoss10]

Complaining about stuff like this is pointless, because it's not possible to tell if this really was Yahtzee's fault, or the game didn't make this known. Or the game tried to let him know, but there had been so many tutorial pop-ups beforehand that it was as the boy cried wolf. Having not played the game myself, I can't say either way is true, but don't present the argument that Yahtzee's just a bad reviewer. It sounds like he had worse trouble with the camera than the boss, anyways. Also, he commented on the third island's pinball table, so...

[@Noname-gm5om]

@@frogmoss10 no it’s completely his fault there are even puzzles that help train you to parry and the tutorial lets it be known clearly but not too much since you can control tutorial settings in the menu. It’s genuinely this guys fault anybody who discovered the party button and used their brain a little found the fight fun this idiot literally just said his entire fight consisted of getting slapped and then he quit he’s just bad and couldn’t play the game right. I 100% the game and with certainty can say he’s just ewbarissignly bad.

[@frogmoss10]

@@Noname-gm5om He literally did NOT quit the fight. He had also complained in the video about the pinball minigame at the end of the third island. His main complaint was the camera issues, anyways. In addition, "control tutorial messages in the settings?" Well, then, how would he have known of that? Also how did you mangle "embarrassingly" so horribly?

[@Noname-gm5om]

@@frogmoss10 does it fucking matter attacking my grammar doesn’t mean his review isn’t shit most of the shit he said could be explained. People shit on the game all the time just to shit on sonic.

[@therealblackcerberus2371]

He also mentioned that if you die as Super Sonic, you only respawn with 100 rings, so this means he died to a boss, too. Meaning, by default, he would have been chucked into a tutorial while it loaded in an attempt to get him to brush up on whatever mechanic he neglected to use that would have saved him. He didn't have to quit or switch anything for this to happen; he just wasn't paying attention. He's human like the rest of us.

[@Gravitysonic0]

That Charmy line made me remeber the old sprite fan animations i used to watch as a kid. The bee was a pyromaniac addicted to WD-40 for some reason

[@SonicPAJ]

Sounds like you are trying to fit Sonic in one particular tone when Sonic is all about being free of being stuck in one thing.

[@EGV88]

Okay, I guess next game should be in a Silent Hill environment, lol.

[@gregorymasters5805]

Gosh he didn’t know he could parry that Boss. That fight is a cakewalk once you realise that.

[@dojelnotmyrealname4018]

The problem is it's still piss-easy jf you don't. It just takes 40 times as long. The boss doesn't take enough rings from you to actually threaten you. Also, parrying is antithetical to Sonic's design. And it doesn't belong in a David vs Goliath fight, Super Sonic or no.

[@gregorymasters5805]

@@dojelnotmyrealname4018 When i saw that boss i imagined a shadow of collosus type battle where u slowly find the boss’s weakness. Did not expect it to be a glorified punching bag with QTEs in between.

[@spark9189]

it should be noted for the tone thing that sonic fans have wanted a game with this tone again since colors

[@meapickle]

But also sonic fans are a bunch of weirdos who many still unironically defend sonic 06. So I'm not sure if they're the best reference for what could actually work

[@zjzr08]

@@meapickle Do they, I haven't seen Sonic 06 apologists, as much as say Sword & Shield apologists were in Pokemon, even Sonic based content creators are very open criticizing 06.

[@zjzr08]

Like I get that there seems to be that weird expectation that "cartoony" characters can't have serious tones but I do think this was a much needed reprieve after the exaggeration of some characters as of recent time.

[@olivia7782]

@@zjzr08 yeah honestly the trying-way-too-hard-to-be-funny """ironic""" tone of Sonic writing since Colors (even though I liked Colors) has been severely grating over time. Part of the charm of many Sonic games, even when you don't get invested in the story, is that they earnestly go for these big dramatic often ridiculous plots while also being cartoon animals. They were overdue for some sincerity.

[@olivia7782]

@@meapickle I didn't think I'd be going to bat for the Sonic fandom in a comments section but I have seen none of them defend 06 basically ever. They hate it intensely.

[@angeldeb82]

LOLed at the "Charmy the Fucking Bee" quip. Also LOLed at the credits in which the imp shoots Tails and uses his body as a trophy while eating the ice cream cone! :D

[@RedFoxSquirrel]

Looked like the imp noticed that the helicopter tails were still going and turned the deceased fox into a standup fan to keep cool while eating that ice cream cone.

[@manelmiquelino5653]

I do find it hilarious that the 2 things he complains the most about, the serious tone and the Titan Fights, are the things most Sonic fans love about the game. Myself included.

[@SonicSwift99]

Goddamn casuals I tell ya

[@Jackson-pn4pn]

Sonic fans trying not to like something that resembles a massive pile of dogshit (impossible)

[@SonicSwift99]

@@Jackson-pn4pn Skill issue

[@Kujaguy]

@@Jackson-pn4pn skill issue

[@VideoGuy232]

Lol, he had plenty more negative to say. You Sonic stans aren’t known for your attention spans though. He thought the world layout was ugly and nonsensical (it is), the forced mini games and gameplay shifts were jarring, and the skill tree was pointless. On top of all that the tone was a strange choice, the boss time restrictions were more frustrating than fun and the camera was dodgy. But that’s okay, you hear what you want to hear lmao

[@SullySideUp]

Fwiw, those attacks where the titans send you flying away, you're meant to block them

[@goateeguy11221122]

For some people, naming an animal means it's their pet now. For Yahtzee, naming the seagull is a means to gloat about its likely demise with more enthusiasm.

[@thomasgiles2876]

Every screenshot of Sonic Frontiers made me think they modded Sonic into Halo Infinite.

[@LooterPenguin]

This is the game that's currently number 1 as the Player's Choice awards for the Game Awards. Ahead of games like Elden Ring, God of War Ragnarök, A Plague Tale Requiem. Hell even Stray. Simply incredible...

[@endlessmisery15]

Never underestimate the rabid, vaguely-good-title-starved, quivering mass that is the Sonic fandom.

[@RSeph]

@@endlessmisery15 "BREAKING NEWS: Sonic fans vote for a game they like"

[@endlessmisery15]

@@RSeph Sure, that's fine. But can honestly say Sonic Frontiers is even close to GoW:R or ER? In any conceivable metric? Either way, doesn't really matter. TGA are completely meaningless anyway.

[@CEOMisterJohnSaxon]

@@endlessmisery15 Elden Ring and God of War bore me, personally. Sonic Frontiers, on the other hand, has been an exhilarating gaming experience, and is keeping me engaged at least until the end of 2023. There is nothing wrong with preferring those other games, though.

[@minkstar9021]

@@CEOMisterJohnSaxon *Google translate* You have no taste

[@Sydney_Angelyt]

the tone is how it's been in the 3D games before the 2010s

[@montywh]

that thing with Giganto is so true. only when i reloaded, i saw 0 rings, and didn't know about how many they'd start me with. i just did that cycloop crap to build up at least 200 before trying the fight again

[@DerivitivFilms]

more positive than normal I guess? regardless I REALLY enjoyed Sonic Frontiers tone and gameplay. Best sonic game in decades. Enjoyed all 30 hours I had in it.

[@lnsflare1]

FWIW, Sonic has been doing serious stories, sometimes really well, in various media almost since Day 1.

[@CitizenLenny]

Pingas

[@LoliconSamalik]

@@CitizenLenny that was day 2

[@hanniballahr94]

Critics I follow have been so polarized on this game. Haven't seen folks this split since Death Stranding.

[@josephn1000]

4:01 Omg I had a Sonic version of one of these toys as a kid and absolutely loved. Memories!!! 😄

[@Zylo82]

At the end of the day for a Sonic game..... The Sound Track is absolutely amazing. Most metal core Sonic has ever been. Unbreakable my fav.

[@VITIN1201]

I didn’t think it was possible, to die to Giganto Dude this games for kids Parry can be held down there’s literally zero required

[@Another_youtube_animator]

Ikr he must be trash asf 😭 no wonder he doesn’t like it. Hates difficulty but shits on the game when it’s too easy…💀

[@MightyManotaur22]

The game just feels like a proof of concept. Like if they themed the areas of the world and then fit the platforming sections into those themes, it would feel so much more cohesive. I'm not sure that would make it a "good" game, but at least it would feel more like a completed game.

[@ctpp64]

eh it's already good as is, i guess more environmental cohesion could help tho

[@tyrannicpuppy]

Loving the seagull analogies.

[@justinrodriguez5957]

Yahtzee sounds like a very frustrated parent when it comes to Sonic. XD

[@ALloydRH]

Honestly with how low Forces set the bar, a game that isn't a 2-hour borefest with terrible comedic writing is a breath of fresh air. Sonic's friends actually feel like characters instead of the cheerleaders they've been for the last 10 years (and based on the recent update from the Sonic twitter, we might actually get to play as them for once), the more sincere tone is actually something fans have been asking to return to for years, and the gameplay for all it's flaws does provide a decent foundation for a sequel to improve upon. I seen a few people say stuff like "Sonic fans will accept anything these days!" which isn't exactly fair, a lot of people who like the game and have made videos about it share a lot of Yahtzee's criticisms (the part about the pinball minigame is not an exaggeration). It all depends on whether you see the glass half full, or half empty, and considering Sonic fans have been dying of thirst for awhile, it isn't hard to see why we like it.

[@thedead073]

Damn, the parry mechanic is just brutal huh?

[@LoliconSamalik]

All you have to do is just hold the parry buttons and do nothing.

[@fictionfan0]

@@LoliconSamalik Except repress the buttons again because a successful parry will bring Sonic out of the parry state. Just FYI.

[@Dan-zc3ou]

I was expecting This, Sooo much.

[@RadaRadda]

I'm very torn on this opinion of the Giganto Fight. On one hand, the game makes it SUPER clear when attacks that can be parry'd are being telegraphed (ESPECIALLY for bosses) and anyone that fails the fight may not have a strong grasp on the basics of Frontiers' combat mechanics, regardless of the depth/lack thereof. Best to fight more enemies in the open zone to fully understand the combat timing. However, this is the first time the combat mechanics have been this intricate (unleashed, not withstanding) so the idea of pulling off certain moves might be a bit of a legitimately foreign concept to those that boil Sonic's previous gameplay styles down to "Homing Attack Chain > Sporadic Boosting > Ring Collection OCD > Trivial Serotonin". TL;DR: "...Sounds like a skill issue, chief. Don't worry tho, a lot of players are still learning..."

[@themadoneplays7842]

You know, when he mentions Sonic has no business in a more gloomy setting, I guess he's never saw sonic SatAM.

[@thelastwindwaker7948]

He’s from the UK so his version of Sonic CD didn’t have the boss theme of pure nightmare fuel.

[@Kisai_Yuki]

He could just watch Sonic Prime, which has about the same tone as SatAM.

[@Pineappolis]

I've genuinely been wondering for years if we got SatAM in the UK given I would have been right in the target demographic when it was being made yet I'd somehow never even heard the absurdly glorious theme song until a few years ago. I've assumed up to now that it just wasn't on terrestrial TV given my family didn't get satellite (and cable wasn't a thing round my way) until _much_ later but it's possible we didn't get it at all.

[@aidangordon2713]

@@Kisai_Yuki ...does he want to, though? Tone issues aside, it's not even done yet and Prime Sonic is even dumber than usual.

[@Pineappolis]

Having watched a decent bit more of SatAM since I last commented, I don't really think the fact that it's so damn good is really a rebuttal of Yahtzee's point. The world is mostly dark (though, critically, the home base isn't) and a lot of dark stuff happens in it, for sure, but it does that Avatar thing where it still manages to have a breezy and optimistic minute-to-minute tone regardless, and the juxtaposition of those two things actually makes the optimism part shine all the brighter. And that's _staggeringly_ difficult to do well. Differences in medium might actually make it damn near impossible in a video game that's not a dense RPG given the amount of and nuances in characterisation required to pull it off.

[@WilliamAndrews0]

That sounded like an incredibly positive review for a Sonic 3D game coming from yahtzee. It's "sometimes" fun? holy shit, that's more than most can say.

[@havenoshame]

Buzz buzz

[@kappadarwin9476]

At this point any compliment is good for a Sonic game. Sonic team was like Plankton. "I didn't expect to get this far" So now Sonic Team will actually devote more resources to the series which is a good thing.

[@funtechu]

4:42 Tell me you forgot to parry without telling me you forgot to parry.

[@Caztan201]

Subtitles are back ! Thanks a lot !!

[@OneStopBopShop]

Kept getting kicked away by the bosses?? Someone forgot that they have a counter.

[@meapickle]

Reading these comments again is the most equally hilarious and infuriating thing ever. So many fans latched on to the parry thing (which he did actually use a lot) as the sole reason to undermine and disregard everything in the review It's really fascinating just how insecure fans can be about liking something

[@battman505]

i mean most people like sonic for the more serios tone, its how he was first shown in the west of sonic satam. sonic cd had the whole future getting ruined if sonic wasnt there to save the day. bit reductionist to say it should have a baby tier plot like colours because theyre animals.

[@meapickle]

@@battman505 i never said anything about the tone. Are u also latching onto something

[@thegamesninja3119]

I was to see the Croshaw Cricket Ball choking game. It is like the Untitled Goose Game but the idea is to get target enemies to swallow you and choke. It can also have a mix of Karamari and I am Bread in it.

[@xaliurairpower]

So far Frontiers is feeling 'okay' which is WELL above Sonic's batting average from the last couple decades. Between an Okay game and some Okay movies, this is as close to the Renaissanic as we're gonna get lol

[@alexroy5854]

Looks like Yahtzee forgot he could hold the parry button lol

[@SnuSnuDungeon]

Poor Jeffrey. He just wanted one chip Yahtzee

[@AesirSW]

You know it's funny, I thought the attacks were unavoidable at first too, then I realized I could hold the Parry button because for some reason you can just hold it with no consequence and suddenly every swing that first boss took at me led to me just punching it harder. I enjoyed the game but definitely recognize its mixed bag nature. Honestly the thing I used Big's Fishing for was the Memory tokens because fuck collecting all 255 per area to finish all the side stories. Also the worst part of the pinball minigame isn't even the pinball itself but the absolute fucking absurdity that is letting you make the multiplier get big enough that reaching the insane score amount is possible but also resetting said multiplier if you were to lose the ball at all with no gutter saves whatsoever.

[@andrewhall6479]

See, this is what I like about Zero Punctuation. I can disagree with about 81% of what's being said and they'll still make me laugh by saying it.

[@Ashnal]

Entertaining review as always Yahtz, but you ballaching about the boss fights is mostly just a skill issue. I think you forgot the parry move exists, because it allows you to block those attacks and strike back hard. Also if you restart the fight after a loss, you can just cyloop a bunch of times to get all your rings stocked up before transforming.

[@jacks.cosplay]

Mixed bag is most peoples consensus, it seems its one of those games you have to try for yourself sort of thing as everyone has divided recommendations on it

[@claybennett5875]

Been waiting for this since it came out!!!

[@HUNbullseye]

Welp, compared to Jim Stephanie Sterling's review Yahtzee is full of positivity...

[@scav3167]

Because Yahtzee is an actual critic and didnt just call the devs lazy fucks or some other insult instead of reviewing the game.

[@genyakozlov1316]

@@scav3167 Here's the thing, he isn't. He's mostly a comic and the point of his reviews is comedy, his Nier Gestalt review is unforgivable as a review for example, yet despite being mostly a comic he still makes better reviews on average than Stephanie or his fellow comedian Dunkey, both of whom constantly spew hypocritical garbage yet have large followings, and that's despite the fact Yahtzee started earlier than both and did not change his style or opinions, which says a lot about the current state of internet reviewers, not that most reviewers were ever good even before the internet.

[@zedc6072]

I know Sonic Team has a very spotty track record with their releases but I dont think theyre a genuinley incompitent game studio. Sonic Team gets like zero money or time to make any of their games and its usually why a lot of ideas come off as half baked or poorly implemented, msot of their games get like two years dev time tops bc SEGA is really, *REALLY* tight on deadlines. Theyve also screwed them over way too many times with it too (not letting 06 have any dev time so they can release it on the anniversary, halving said 06 team to make secret rings, that sort of thing) And I mean it when I say they have zero money. The open world is mostly Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis assets. Thats why all the cyberspace levels are all Green Hill, Sky Sanctuary and Speed Highway as well. This is probably one of the better sonic games in a very, VERY long time and I would like to see if they can manage to keep this spiny blue ball rolling.

[@Pineappolis]

This is another example (admittedly a less extreme one) of franchises that make me baffled as to _why_ they get a pittance of a budget compared to their contemporaries (this first coming to me as I watched Dragon Ball Super). These are iconic, globally-renowned franchises. As I say, I do kind of get it here: the Sonic franchise has been in a rough spot ever since Sega themselves were in an incredibly rough financial spot but, like, can you imagine how much a Kickstarter-backed Sonic game would rake in? Obviously, Sega can't do that but you'd think the obviousness of that idea could quite literally be taken to the bank to gain funding the more traditional way.

[@zigslotheon]

Ok no one probably knows what I am talking about least of all you Yahtzee but I am going to take you making Charmy say Let’s burn things to be a reference to all the old Sonic Shadow And Silver Shows on KZbin where the three live in a big house together and Charmy was without fail always portrayed as a house destroying pyromaniac, Vector could only say Find the Computer Room, and Espio was obsessed with Karma Chameleon.

[@scottcheg9]

Personally I wish the cyberspace levels had been longer sa2 long, also a bit of variation would have been nice we did the memory lane thing in generations, to me having cyberpace be set on the ancients home world would have been better, as it is cyberspace is just something you have to do to get the vault keys but imagine if there was a specific thing you had to do in each level and the ancient explains to you why you’re doing this and how to defeat the titan they once controled now cyberspace would be part of the story rather than just a plot device with levels tagged on.

[@Eyeball117]

4:54 Sounds like someone didn't learn to parry. *insert dark souls git gud joke here*

[@_sophies]

I had the same problem with the first boss - you just need to upgrade your attack + defense, which I hadn't done at all up until that point. It's nuts that a Sonic game has those stat upgrades at all (there's the dogshit!) but if you engage with it a bit the boss fight becomes a breeze. Future boss fights give you rings during the fight so they're just more forgiving

[@crapcase3985]

If you upgrade even semi-regularly, then every boss will be a breeze as long as you use special moves, the problem is that most people I've seen play don't upgrade, forget about special moves, forget about parrying and then blame the game

[@aquamarinerose5405]

Though as others said, Parrying is also an option.

[@TheJadeFist]

The bosses are piss easy, the time limit is never an issue. The only issue I had was with the 2nd Titan because it wasn't very obvious that I would be able to, or needed to parry the missiles at first, after dying I think the game gives you a tool tip about parrying.

[@crapcase3985]

I consider the wyvern boss fight to be the easiest in the game, you basically only need to use parry on the rockets and the attacks and there you go, free damage.

[@TheJadeFist]

@@crapcase3985 Ya, after you realize you CAN parry the missiles it's stupid easy, but it's not the most obvious thing.

[@connordarvall8482]

What I've learned from this review is that Sonic games benefit from having an optional section that involves hanging out with Big for a few minutes. Or any side character for that manner. In other words, anything more than just seeing some side characters show up for a cutscene and then disappear.