As of 5 minutes ago, I've ragequit a game of Sonic Frontiers after 2 hours of playtime due to the difficulty of a boss. To be fair, it's been a while since I've played a Sonic game, and as far as I can tell the options they give you to adjust the speed are actually incredibly accessible.

Anyway, with that somewhat loaded first paragraph aside, I want to talk about how I actually feel about this game. My save file is currently sitting at 1:53:19, and my opinions are.. optimistic but mixed.

To start, I'm playing the game on Switch, so I was expecting quite a few frame drops along the way, and they did NOT hesitate to show themselves once the first area of the game loaded in. However, the game actually smoothed out quite nicely over my play session, to a point where the frame drops themselves were pretty unnoticable.

The story hasn't really done a lot thus far (I've only beaten 2 of the Cyber Space stages, the rest has just been exploring) but I'm optimistic considering it's written by Ian Flynn, who plays a heavy hand in the comics (which I love). Characters seem pretty true to form, just a bit less exaggerated considering the tone of the game. Roger Craig Smith's new Sonic voice caught me off guard at first, but I found it a lot more pleasant in the long run.

The combat was kind of a turn-off initially, but I quickly grew to love it. Not to mention the skill trees and extra combo moves you can do, it feels SUPER gratifying and fun in the end. The enemy mechanics can be a bit annoying, but you eventually figure out what they all do and can deal with them pretty easily.

The enviroment of this game is also super nice. It does feel a bit empty sometimes (definitely not as hand-crafted as BOTW feels) but there's always something fun to do and messing around with Sonic's movement in new areas is always enjoyable.

Now onto the negative. I don't really have a lot to say besides what I've already mentioned above, but I will say that the controls are definitely a bit slippery here and there. It feels like when I fall off an edge that there's no possible way to salvage my progress without dying or restarting from the bottom. (Think BOTW's climbing mechanic) Boss mechanics also tend to be a bit tedious (In particular "SQUID", who is the cause of the aforementioned ragequit)

The Cyber Space stages are the biggest negative so far for sure. They all feel incredibly short and clunky, like the freedom I had in the Open Zone just becomes super formulaic and slippery. I've only done a couple as of the time of this writing, so maybe I'll warm up to it.

All-in-all, Sonic Frontiers is a lot of fun so far. I haven't even accomplished much of the story yet, but the game has remained thoroughly engaging during my entire 2 hour playtime. Learning new mechanics and leveling Sonic up feels properly rewarding and all the characters are well written and true to form.

So far, Sonic Frontiers is a solid 7/10! It's definitely possible to go higher, and maybe I'll release a more in depth review once I've actually beaten the game. Thank you for reading :)

TLDR: The game is fun with some small issues, 7/10.