Sonic Frontiers Sets a Helpful Precedent for Past Franchise Lore

gamerant.com:

Sonic Frontiers did a lot of good for the Sonic franchise. While not a perfect game by any means, it set up a solid base for moving forward after the franchise has been spinning its wheels for years. Sonic Frontiers incorporated some of the elements that made the Sonic Adventure titles memorable while also integrating the speed and scale of a modern Boost game. Because of this, it feels like the Sonic franchise has finally found its footing after stumbling between failures and successes with no clear direction.

Moving forward, the next major Sonic game will likely stick with Frontiers' open zone or open world gameplay. Even better, Sonic Frontiers itself is getting one year of support that will give it some extra polish, a few more features, and new playable characters coupled with a story expansion. Stepping away from the usual level-based 3D Sonic structure, at least for a little while, should allow Sonic to build up some good habits. This goes for both the mechanics and narrative, as Sonic Frontiers has also been lauded for both its excellent character writing and the lines it draws to old Sonic the Hedgehog lore.

Sonic Frontiers Has Changed Sonic Lore Forever

In essence, Sonic Frontiers has recontextualized the whole franchise. While there have always been elements of mysticism and space travel, Frontiers makes it clear that the Sonic universe is much larger and older than anyone previously knew. As it turns out, the Chaos Emeralds, their guardian Chaos itself, and the Chao are all remnants of the Ancient civilization that escaped to Sonic's planet after their own fell. What pursued them, self-identified as The End, is seemingly defeated at the end of Sonic Frontiers, but there's plenty of room for something that