Five Things That Future Sonic Games Can Improve On From Sonic Frontiers

Sonic Frontiers has been out for a month now. It looks as though everyone that had any interest in the game whatsoever has played it by now. While the reviews from critics were certainly quite mixed, the fan response, if the game being voted into the finalists for Players’ Voice at The Game Awards show is any indication, has been much more favorable. If you read my review, you know that I enjoyed the game a lot but it felt too uneven and repetitive for me to consider it a truly great Sonic experience.

However, there is a promising foundation that has been set by the game in spite of its imperfections. The way Sonic controls, the overall gameplay formula, and the ideas around the open zones and cyber space levels themselves are assets that can work wonders for future titles.

If recent quotes by Sonic Team is true, this looks to be the kind of core gameplay we should except with future Sonic games going forward. While I know Sonic Team is not done with Frontiers quite yet considering the recent announcement of upcoming DLC for next year, there are some areas from the game that I feel can either be improved or expanded upon to make future Sonic installments even better. Perhaps they already have these sort of things in mind but I feel these are worth bringing up anyway.

Here are five elements of Sonic Frontiers that future Sonic games can learn from!

1.) Explore Sonic’s Own World

This is an element that most Sonic games haven’t explored much of outside of the comics and cartoons but I believe future Sonic games should put more emphasis on exploring Sonic’s own home world. Whether that is Mobius or just making up a wholly original world, I would like to know more of where Sonic lives and where exactly he and his friends come from.

If I had any complaints about the open worlds in Frontiers itself, it’s that they felt more like they belonged in a Zelda game rather than a Sonic one. It took quite a while for me to get used to the fact that Sonic is now apart of these strange, hidden worlds despite looking more comfortable in one of Link’s adventures rather than Sonic’s. That problem can be fixed next time around if you chose to create more open zones surrounding Sonic’s own world instead of him visting yet another new one.

Don’t have us go back to Earth with humans or wait for Tears of the Kingdom to come out to take inspiration from that, let us explore Sonic’s actual home where he can have his own epic, crazy adventure at. Heck, I might even tolerate seeing Green Hill for the millionth time if the open zone itself is still fun to explore at. Stop taking aesthetics and designs from Zelda and start taking them from yourselves! Let us see where Sonic and company actual came from!

2.) Original Cyber Space Levels

From a story point itself, it’s understandable why Frontiers had level designs and zones reused from prior Sonic games. The idea of cyber space itself is that it’s this strange isolated place that is stuck inside of Sonic’ head and is suppose to remind him of his past adventures. It worked from a storytelling perspective as it helped with the development of the characters themselves. Their overall arcs was about them reminiscences how far they’ve come as characters and how they look to move past that in the future. If that is the case, then I sure hope Sonic Team takes their word for it and bothers to make actual original cyber spaces/boost-centric levels.

It’s been quite underwhelming how Sonic Team has been unable to come up with original boost levels of their own that play as well as Generations for the past decade. Next time around, they have their chance to redeem themselves in that regard. Come up with different levels, designs, and zones next time around. Provide a fresh and new experience with these kinds of levels like you were able to do with the open zones the first time around. I’m fairly certain it won’t kill any Sonic fan if they didn’t have to play through Chemical Plant zone yet again.

When it comes to the story for the next one, perhaps have that be reminiscence of Sonic’s unknown future instead of his well-known past. It would make for a great contrast with Frontiers and make it a thematically worthy follow up as it could be about Sonic and his friends looking towards a future that they hope it’s bright but might have plenty of rough spots along the way.

Have the cyber space levels be about those rough spots. Have it be places that Sonic is unfamiliar it and ones that look like will be quite a handful for even the speedy blue blur to overcome. Having a past zone in or two won’t kill you but make the majority of the cyber spaces next time out the kind of levels we have never experienced in a Sonic game before. The kind of levels that would make sense for both a story perspective AND a gameplay perspective!

3.) More Playable Characters

Granted, this does seem to be a feature that the upcoming DLC for next year will include. Perhaps this is something that Sonic Team has in mind for future games but even so, the next point is worth noting. Future Sonic games should have Sonic Team coming out of their closet and just make Sonic’s friends playable again.

There have been numerous reasons as to why Sonic Team has strictly made Sonic the only main playable character in recent main title games, most notably reason in that critics has some sort of unknown grudge against Sonic’s “annoying” friends. However, I do think the main unspoken reason for that is that there have been times in 3D Sonic games where playing as Sonic’s friends was an absolute chore. No one wants to play as Big the Cat to just fish or Knuckles and Rouge to just go treasure hunting. They want the characters to play similarly to Sonic with levels design similarly to Sonic with their own gimmick to it that help enhance the experience rather than take away from it. That’s something that the 2D Sonic games such as 2, 3 & Knuckles, Advance, and Rush did incredibly well and there should be no reason for future 3D games to not do the same thing.

All you have to do is copy what the 2D Sonic games did in have the characters themselves control the same as Sonic but have their own unique ability attached to it. Have Tails fly further than Sonic can, have Knuckles glider in the air further than Sonic can, have Amy fly herself into the air with her hammer further than Sonic can, and give every single one of them their own combat style that Sonic doesn’t have. Heck, even throw in characters such as Shadow, Silver, Rouge, and Blaze if you are able to find a story purpose for them. Regardless of which of Sonic’s friends return in future games, it’s time to give them some love. Just don’t make them an absolute slog to play through and I’m pretty sure it won’t negatively affect review scores.

4.) More Sage

I don’t think there was a more delightful surprise in Frontiers than the character of Sage herself. From her early presence and pre-release marketing, I was expecting her to be another generic, forgettable “who gives a s*it” villain that I could care less to ever see again. However, Sage was actually something more than that. Unlike recent baddies in the series such as Infinite and the Deadly Six, Sage is actually giving a compelling, emotional arc that I was shockingly invested in. She actually manages to be something a bit more than just a one-note antagonist but an actual character that learns to grow and inhabit the actions and feelings of living creatures. Her relationship with Eggman made for a rather bittersweet father and daughter relationship that gave the doctor himself a bit more dimension. It’s not the greatest character development in the world but Sage was giving more care and attention than she had any right to be.

Sage is the first new Sonic character since Blaze the Cat that I actually want to see return in the future. And if the overwhelming love and support that the voice actress for Sage, Ryan Bartley, has received from fans on Twitter since the game’s release is any indication, I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who feels that way.

It’s hard to get too deep into details about Sage without going into spoilers as that would give away the character’s fate by the end of the game. However, if one of the final scenes (which may or may not be post credit scenes) is anything to go by, this may not actually be the last we see of Sage. If that is the case, then there is plenty of room for the character to go.

Things such as a deeper dive into the origins of Eggman creating Sage, as that is mostly glossed over in Frontiers, to developing a relationship with her so-called brothers in Orbot and Cubot, and perhaps an even more threatening version of the character, one I imagine was more closer with Eggman’s original vision. It feels like we just scratch the surface with her that future games can explore.

I’m not always one to push for certain characters to come back when they normally should serve their purpose for one game but I believe Sage has the potential to be the most engaging antagonist the Sonic series has had since Shadow the Hedgehog. Hopefully, they won’t feel the need to bring in guns, aliens, and a whole lot of “damns” this time though.

5.) Cut Down On Grinding and Repetition

The last and arguably the most important lesson to learn from Sonic Frontiers, which is something that Sonic Team still has yet to figure out, is to STOP with the constant grinding and repetition of each game. There are many times with Sonic games that the main problem is with Sonic Team constantly getting in it’s own damn way and not knowing when to leave things well enough alone. This is particularly when they feel like their game isn’t long enough and feel the need to design different gameplay styles in a limited amount of time to give gamers more bank for their buck, which ends up just taking them out of the experience rather than adding to it.

In the case of Frontiers, a big issue was how much grinding you are forced to do in order to progress through the story. The grinding involved collecting hundreds to thousands of collectibles to give to characters before getting to the next part of the story. That made the whole experience of Frontiers feel completely exhausting. It may not be too bad once you know every single away to earn and find hearts but it’s still quite ridiculous.

The grinding in of itself makes less sense than prior Sonic games as Frontiers would already be long enough without most of it. A campaign that took 10 to 15 hours to complete and with an extra 5 to 10 hours to 100% the game along with upcoming free DLC would be more than enough to give players their full money’s worth. However, the grinding makes what should be a 10 to 15 hour adventure into a bloated 20+ hour one. As enjoyable as the story of the game was to follow, there’s no where near enough going on in it to last as long as it does.

You especially start to feel the repetitiveness once you realize the familiar pattern that each open zone goes through and you starting asking yourself questions like how Sonic keeps losing the same damn chaos emeralds over and over and over again?!

And don’t get me started on that effing pinball level that is the absolute BANE of my existence or the practically non-existent final boss!

That is what makes Sonic Team so frustrating! They always end up getting so close to making something special but end up so far by feeling the need to throw a bunch of other random gameplay styles in that they don’t need. That has to stop for the foreseeable future!

If you want to have players grind, have so to either level up your power ups and abilities or completing missions in the post-campaign, NOT to progress in the main campaign. There’s no need to introduce other gameplay styles out of no where to pad the game. There’s no need for a random pinball level just like there was no need for a random ball puzzle in 06 or being forced to play 10 different storylines to get the final one in Shadow.

Stop designing gameplay styles just for the sake of padding the game! Stop designing gameplay styles that don’t fit with the rest of the game! Stop designing gameplay styles you deep down don’t want to design but feel like you have to when you actually don’t! Just stick with the main core gameplay you established and then save the rest for the post-campaign! I promise you fans will be much more appreciative if you didn’t make them eat green vegetables in order to enjoy everything else.

Stop getting in your own way, Sonic Team! Stop trying to fix things that don’t need to be fix and breaking what was never broken before! You have a promising foundation ahead of you. Now make the most of it!