This review contains spoilers for the base game of SONIC FRONTIERS.
Sonic Frontiers was a pleasant surprise. In the world where SEGA seems to constantly struggle with what it wants to do with the spiky blue hedgehog, Sonic Frontiers felt like a genuine step forward to evolve the characters and gameplay to another level. The game was not perfect, but it genuinely left me excited about what SEGA has in store for the characters next. At the time, I thought “next” meant another game, but to my surprise, it meant a full DLC installment that expands upon the finale and gives us more to chew on.
In the original story of Sonic Frontiers, Sonic is on a quest to save his friends who are caught between dimensions. To do that, he must acquire the Chaos emeralds on multiple islands, beat gigantic bosses known as Titans, and work with Dr. Eggman to destroy a malicious force looking to escape its imprisonment. This DLC chapter takes place on the final island and acts as more of a retcon/rewrite of the game’s original ending. Much of this centers around arguably one of the more underutilized story beats of the primary campaign, Sonic’s cyber corruption.
In the base game, every time Sonic would rescue one of his friends, he would absorb a type of energy that would get him closer and closer to dying. At the very end, death nearly happens, except his friends come in at the end to do…something that alleviates the corruption so that Sonic can complete the final level of the game. This DLC instead asks, “Okay, but what if we got everybody involved in the final level of the game?” I don’t just mean narratively but in a full-on playable fashion. The opening hours of this DLC have Sonic taking a backseat to deal with the corruption while Amy, Tails, and Knuckles go around and explore the final island in search of the Chaos Emeralds themselves with their own unique move sets.
When I heard that this would be a main selling point of “The Final Horizon,” I was genuinely excited because it has been a long time since we controlled any of these characters in a three-dimensional space. Giving Amy, Tails, and Knuckles each their unique moves in a large open world to explore with various obstacle courses and collectibles was a fantastic idea. The entire island is revamped with new platforming challenges and obstacle courses to accommodate everyone’s new move sets. It’s a bit limiting because some obstacles are specifically made for certain characters (they are even color-coordinated to make it clear to the player what character you should be bringing to each area). Still, you can tell that much thought went into making sure each character felt distinctly unique based on past gameplay outings and character personality.
Amy is the more vertical platformer of the group, with incredibly high jumps and glides. Considering the character’s love for fortune-telling from the original series, they have a tarot card theme. Knuckles can climb specific surfaces and glide long distances while using his immense strength to destroy terrain, all feats associated with him since his first appearance in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Then there’s Tails, whose platforming focuses on flight, following air paths to reach further distances. Some challenges appear ripped straight out of the Sonic Adventure franchise, and playing in this open world made me wonder if this is what a Sonic Adventure game in modern-day would look like. The very idea and love poured into all of this was enough to make my nostalgic heart flutter, and if you’re a longtime Sonic fan, there’s a lot to feel validated about here.
However, intentions and execution are two different things. While I love everything I see on paper, it’s less than desirable in practice. Granted, I didn’t play as each character nearly as long as I played as Sonic in the primary campaign. But even without that immediate comparison, I don’t think these three control nearly as well as they should. Utilizing all these new moves while controlling the camera simultaneously can be a nightmare that makes all of these airborne abilities feel way too complicated. I lost count of how many times I overshot a platform or missed a specific area entirely due to how floaty everybody felt. None of this is helped by context-sensitive actions like the homing attack, which every character can access. It doesn’t feel nearly as responsive as when you play as Sonic. Sometimes, there is this weird delay after pressing the button, while other times, it just doesn’t respond. For a high-speed platformer where you are constantly over bottomless pits or in high altitude, do-or-die situations, there isn’t room for the slightest mistake. It gets frustrating far more often than it feels rewarding. Also, remember that the game still has some optimization issues, as I mentioned in my primary game review, like troubling amounts of pop-in and wonky collision detection.
The platform is only half of that difficulty spike. The other half is with the combat despite knowing the developers’ aims. Similar to the base game, Amy, Tails, and Knuckles all have a dedicated skill tree where they can unlock various moves after acquiring skill points. Acquiring skill points isn’t that difficult, especially when there are dedicated stations that give you skill points after you find them. The problem is that all of these characters start at a significantly lower level at this point in the story than Sonic, so you have to grind a little bit with each character to acquire moves similar to him, some of which you need to explore specific areas of the island. Plus, the island is still swarming with enemies. A few new enemies are far more aggressive than anything from the original game. Throw in the sometimes unresponsive controls, and things were made needlessly difficult.
It got to a certain point where I avoided combat altogether because there wasn’t a point to it. You could finish this DLC by just running to the destinations marked on your map, with minimal exploring. This is a shame because I wanted to fully engage in the brand-new content with this new trio. I wanted to unlock more charming and nostalgic moves, but while the reward was enticing, the journey was not. I can only imagine how happy I would be in a future game that brought back all these skill sets with more fine-tuned controls and physics.
Thankfully, we’re not just unlocking moves but revealing a new conclusion to this game’s story. I don’t know if “The Final Horizon” was made as a direct response to players’ opinions of Sonic Frontiers’ original ending. I quite liked the ending from a narrative perspective and how bittersweet it was. However, this one takes things several levels further by involving everybody in the final confrontation. The inclusion of Amy, Tails, and Knuckles doesn’t just feel like a gimmick; it feels like a natural evolution of the game’s themes of growing up, confronting your personal struggles, and moving on to a place where maybe there’s a life for all of these characters outside of Sonic. Everyone has a part to play now in the final battle, which isn’t just a random space shooter anymore and is an exciting Sonic boss fight complete with a new Sonic transformation. Unfortunately, the trailers spoiled that transformation, which isn’t that different from his original super form.
The relationship between Sage and Dr. Eggman is expanded upon, making them feel much more like a father/daughter pair to the point where I genuinely wonder if they will bring these characters back as bad guys in future games. Sonic Frontiers felt like a jumping-off point to new frontiers for the characters, and this ending handles that theme much better. Not only do we get more lore into the previous inhabitants of these islands and what led them to fall to ruin, but that history contrasts perfectly with our main cast actively trying to give back to Sonic in a similar way to what he has given to them. A lot of this is impactful, thanks to the voice acting. These are some of the most nuanced performances these characters have ever given in video games. There are points in the story where Amy, Tails, and Knuckles start to experience precisely what Sonic had been going through throughout this entire game to save them, and not only does it make them appreciate him more, but it inspires them to push past it and be there for him. A massive shout-out to Cindy Robinson, who I didn’t think gave that strong of a vocal performance in the base game, but here, she knocks it out of the park during the more emotionally heavy scenes.
And then there’s the music. My God, there is the music. This has to be one of my favorite Sonic soundtracks of all time. The majority of it is heard in the base game, but some additional tracks here, like new character themes, help embody these characters with various orchestral and rock styles. Some of it is atmospheric and somber, while others are energetic, so I want to get up and do some running myself. My favorite track is probably Knuckle’s theme because that bass line has wormed its way into my brain.
Sonic is still Sonic. He plays like the original game (wacky physics and all), and his overall demeanor hasn’t changed either. You can argue he goes through a lot more physically in this DLC, dealing with the corruption and new power-up form. Roger Craig Smith portrays that frustration well with the character’s usual brand of charismatic cockiness. But if you’re going into “The Final Horizon” expecting anything monumentally different from Sonic himself, then you might be a little disappointed. This ending is for everybody else to realize that they are going to be OK going on their journeys without Sonic in the future and Sonic, the lovable scamp that he is, sees them off with a smile and can’t wait to see when they return.
That’s the best way to describe “The Final Horizon.” It’s a better capstone to the end of an overall solid game. This DLC suffers similar issues to those I pointed out in the original game, particularly regarding the controls and ambitions not matching the overall presentation. However, there’s so much heart here that many of these shortcomings can be forgiven. That mileage will vary depending on what the Sonic Team and SEGA do next. Is this all just a one-off, or is this DLC a sign of commitment to a bolder and stronger direction for the character? Only time will tell, but if you liked what you saw with Sonic Frontiers, then look at this DLC because, like Sonic, it excites me to see what things will look like when these characters return.
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