Sonic Frontiers - A fun but frustrating experience

sportskeeda.com:

Sonic Frontiers is finally here, and it’s certainly a fascinating experience. It’s a blend of several experiences of the blue hedgehog, and features one of the greatest narratives in the entire franchise. I’ve never been so emotionally invested in a Sonic storyline before. At least, not since perhaps the 90s cartoons.

However, I can’t say it’s all been a bed of roses for Sonic Frontiers. While I enjoy the combat, the world is frankly breathtaking, and the story is wonderful, it’s being held back by its own hubris. It’s pretty clear to me that it was inspired by huge, open-world games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but it learned little from them.

The world being empty at least makes sense when you’ve experienced more of the narrative, but that doesn’t change how empty and lifeless Sonic Frontiers can be.

For mysterious reasons, Sonic and his friends are on the Starfall Islands, and even the early dialog was very interesting. Amy Rose, normally cheerful, sounded quite dour, while everyone felt very serious. It was a more serious tone than I was used to for the Sonic franchise, and I really appreciated that change of pace.

There are so many familiar faces here, and their interactions with Sonic are among the best parts of this entire game. Without spoiling the story, it’s a pretty somber but memorable tale. Sonic Frontiers has a brief but solid tutorial, and it teaches you pretty much everything you need to know about the gameplay loop.

Sonic is in a vast, open world, where you can freely explore the Starfall Islands. However, to get the needed Chaos Emeralds, you’ll have to put in some work. Some are rewards from story progress, while others require you to unlock Vaults.

The first step is to defeat the