I’ve beaten the first two areas of Sonic Frontiers and I have some fairly spoiler free thoughts.
1. The voice direction caught me off guard and took a bit to get used to but I really like it. It’s good to hear that Roger can hit a more serious tone after what Colors/Lost World/ Forces had.
2. The controls feel a little hit or miss. I have a lot of fun zooming around the wide open playgrounds of the Starfall Islands. But the aerial handling feels weird especially when the air boost can’t be held and is just a short burst but it does give some height making it more like a triple jump. Jumps and springs also feel like they cut momentum by a lot. it makes playing the cyber space levels feel a little awkward and certain S ranks tricky to get
3. The level design of the cyber space levels feels really good. They’re fairly short but in the same way Neon White levels are. It feels designed around quick bursts of speed running platforming but the real kicker is that it feels very much like SA2 design with more exploration and less hallways which feels fun to navigate and less “boost to win” The problem with that is that the only collectibles are Red Rings and even those tend to be on the main path. The reward for taking the slower more exploration paths ends up just being some rings and not as satisfying as say the powerups/Chao items/shields in the Adventure titles. There are plenty of different collectibles and currencies in the overworld portions I feel like they would have been fine throwing some into the levels (especially since they’re easily grindable elsewhere already).
4. The writing and lore I dont want get too in depth with to be spoiler free and since I’m only a bit into the game, but I’m really interested in the world they’re building here. They find interesting ways to tie in bits of lore from the other games without it feeling too forced. There’s a lot of optional dialogue that really adds to the experience and I think is worth seeking out.
While not a perfect game by any standard I’ve been having a lot of fun with the game both in terms of gameplay and writing which is a balance I feel Sonic hasn’t done well in a good while. I’ll probably do another one of these once it’s done spoilers and all but I just had a lot of thoughts to get out and wanted those who are avoiding spoilers to still get an idea of what to expect.
Babysitting preschool age kids rn and I find it really funny how they sometimes get hooked on completely random phrases like this 4 year old keeps adding “LUCKY FOR YOU,” to the start of Any sentence. “lucky for you, I already drank my milk.”. Are you threatening me?
I saw twitter screenshot of someone saying “We need to start sexualizing autism.” and they got ratiod so hard. That post would go so hard on Tumblr because this is the autism sex website. Oh you’re autistic? *bounces on your meat like a springboard*
Barack Obama kicking back, crackin’ a beer, opening his laptop, and Googling “Sonic/Shadow 100k slowburn coffeeshop AU” without using incognito for the first time in 8 years
I hate this post because 100k slow burn sonadow fanfiction doesn’t even exist
just in case anyone missed this in the news or maybe not in the loop, Disney is currently refusing to meet with or acknowledge the newly formed animation production workers union that just voted to join IASTE and become an official part of TAG, the animators and animation artists guild
production workers across all studios are currently voting to be recognized for their hard work and invaluable skill at keeping these productions running, but studios are refusing to meet with them to let them negotiate deals or even exist
as someone who works in animation as a designer i know i wouldn’t be able to do my job at all without any of my production workers. they are the incredibly hard working people who oversee pretty much everything in animation. they make sure everything is running on time, that schedules are being followed, they have to know pretty much every single word of the scripts and beats from the storyboards to make sure nothing is missed, and most importantly, they make sure artists are being taken care of and not overworked. they really are the unsung heroes of the animation world
production workers are also by far the most exploited workers in animation currently. they make about a fraction of what artists make for just as much work put in, and currently have no agreement for health coverage or other benefits that artists protected by the union are guaranteed
BUT! there is some good news. right now there’s a petition on IATSE’s website that has over 80,000 signatures currently addressed to disney leadership to do the right thing and meet with this new union and recognized their vote to form. it still needs roughly 21,000 signatures and only takes a minute to sign! anyone with a zip or postal code can sign, meaning both US and Canadian residents can sign and help this union get the deal it deserves!!
