Um Jammer Heather

oh my godddddd, as someone who just replayed colours ultimate with the Remixes That Shall Not Be Named, its so refreshing to hear a sonic ost actually take original songs in a new direction. this sounds fantastic, hype as hell.

i need the official versions. i need this CRISP

if you've just recently beaten sonic frontiers, go for gold. the main platforming is very hard but only the final trial is what i'd deem total bullshit. if the towers start giving you headaches, the difficulty selector actually makes a difference now so dont be afraid to bump it down a notch.

no need to 100% the islands. update 3 isn't long, it's just a brick wall that the base game doesn't exactly prepare you for lmao.

should also mention sorry, the difficulty does NOT affect the trials. you cant bypass those, they have to be done as-is. the only advice i can give for the final one is just, parryparryparryparryparryparryparryparryparryparry. it's not elegant but i went from 10 failed attempts to 5 and a success after doing it.

if you're really struggling and are on pc with hedgemod, i believe (though im not sure) you can use the infinite ring code to get it over with. dont quote me on that, it's early days.

i want... i want to update this... apparently the difficulty does affect the trials... i didnt know this, i put myself through hell for nothing... im quite broken right now...

its incredibly depressing seeing "skill issue" being the main talking point with frontiers update 3. there's a LOT to discuss, particularly with writing and character abilities, but its currently dominated by its difficulty. something i do enjoy seeing conversation on but it's stifled everything else.

ive actually grown to enjoy amy's moveset quite a bit. using tarot cards as a weapon definitely threw me off but it allows for some fun mobility. her platform challenges are my favourite by far, i LOVE the multi-homing attack. it's the lost world one but good!

tails is busted lmao. his entire thing is just, flying wherever the hell he wants. it's hilarious and breaks the island in half and i love just saying "fuck you" to platforming, but it's definitely a bit too much. he almost feels like a debug mode.

knuckles... idk im not gelling with him. his glide feels terrible to control, having this weird inertia for turning. it also has a strange pacebreaking animation to start it, which i have no idea why that exists. the wall-climbing is already less special since sonic can do it (faster even) but it comes with some unflattering camera issues. his controls invert at random and he falls off when clipping any intersecting wall. not great, needs tweaking.

the story isn't nearly as fleshed out as i'd hoped, though in fairness im a sonic fan who has sky-high dreams for everything. the constant friendly banter between characters could get eye-rolling but i did adore the individual confidence arcs. amy and tails especially get some surprisingly strong emotional moments, i can safely say that the Chapter Themes accurately portray what they're going through.

the final boss, in terms of presentation, FUCKING RULES. oh its all i could've wanted for a proper conclusion compared to the bizarre schmup stage from the base game. no spoilers of course but it definitely sticks the landing far better. unfortunately, the fight comes with some truly awkward bumps in progression that the titans and End didn't. you actually have to figure out an order of moves that the game doesn't hint at whatsoever. a damper to be sure.

honestly, my one major, critical problem with Final Horizon has nothing to do with difficulty (barring master trial good lord). i had a pretty decent time with the towers and island traversal. even the prior trials had some interesting ideas.

no. it's the update's structure. what the hell happened.

Final Horizon starts by dumping you on the island as amy. amy cannot do ANYTHING. no cyloop, no attacks, nothing. just a triple jump. the game also drops you in an area surrounded by dozens of different obstacles, enemies and map-points that she cannot do.

what's the solution? level her up via... experience vendor kocos. dotted around the map (and in a general straight line following the objective) are kocos which give 5 points each. in order to even cyloop, a fundamental mechanic of frontiers, you have to find these guys.

in a game praised for its open-zone exploration

do you see what i mean? instead of building on or refining one of the best elements of Frontiers, Final Horizon instead ditches it in favour of linearity. amy, tails and knuckles are borderline useless unless you follow the breadcrumb trail through this giant, interesting world to actually let them explore it. mind-bogging doesn't even begin to describe this, i dont know what on earth they were thinking. considering the cyloop (again, a necessary ability, sonic had it naturally for a reason) is only one point to unlock, i have to wonder if they knew this was an issue and only did this to pad out their skilltrees. it says alot that the update becomes far more enjoyable once you've passed this hurdle.

ive not seen a dlc completely misinterpret its game's own strengths like this before. i was so confused i even looked up commentary on social media. nope. that's the plan!

this also carries over into the trials. another mechanic of Frontiers was sonic's stats. it was a new, extrinsic reward for the series that allowed players to gradually get stronger in fighting, speed, ring capacity, all that jazz. i thought it was a neat inclusion, perhaps not as core to the game's design as other elements but still served as a extra bit of dopamine alongside the main experience.

the trials in Final Horizon removes them. all of them. you start at level 1. all those hours you spent slowly getting them up? gone. why? because the trials cannot figure out any other interesting way to challenge you outside of just, taking away your own abilities.

this is the kind of arbitrary self-limiting i would expect from personal challenge runs and nuzlocke, not the main game. it's uncreative, uninspired and once again, just tosses an idea Frontiers toyed with. what was the point then? why let me max out sonic only to have that ripped away? could it not be worked around? was it a mistake to begin with?

just, bizarre. that's my overall take on Final Horizon. it's a giant mess of ideas haphazardly thrown into an open world, with a baffling and contradictory method of trying to tie it all together. its as if Frontiers never happened and, in sonic team tradition, we're experimenting again, this time with far less cohesive success. this is what i was worried Frontiers was going to be.

at least its free. the boss was cool.