Just giving some impressions so far! (Mini-impressions on Sonic Frontiers and God of War Ragnarok)

     Hey friends, so as I wrote last week, we had a couple really big releases to come out one day apart, Sonic Frontiers and God of War Ragnarok. I have been playing a ton of Ragnarok since the day that it came out (save for this past weekend when I went out of town), but I don't feel like I've played enough of the game to give it a full review yet, though I definitely plan on giving it the review treatment once I'm finished. Sonic Frontiers came in the mail from Gamefly over the weekend, so I've played much less of it than God of War, but it's enough to give very early impressions anyways. I thought it would be a good idea to bundle both of these together, and give just a light taste of these two very different experiences, and specifically to give my opinion as a fan of both series. Let's begin with the one that I know less about, Sonic Frontiers.

Onto the New Frontier!

    I have to be honest, I've only played a few hours of this game so far, but I love the feeling of it. I haven't gotten far enough into the story to really talk about that, though I will say that the tone of the game is really great so far. It's very mysterious and I can't wait to find out more about what is going on with the islands, the Koco, and Sonic's friends. The angle of ancient mystical robots is really interesting, as well as a threat that is so deadly that Sonic apparently needs to become Super Sonic even on the first island before being able to defeat the boss of that island. I love the concept of Super Sonic becoming so necessary, and actually being tied into the gameplay loop, especially after Super Sonic didn't even appear in Sonic Forces until they added him later as a DLC. The music so far is really interesting, I feel like it's a really bold choice to have Green Hill, Chemical Plant and Sky Sanctuary themed Cyberspace levels without having the original songs playing in the background, or even arrangements based on the themes from those original games. I've only been into a handful of cyberspace levels, one of which was almost entirely based on an extremely familiar stage, though it was themed differently in a weird way. It was still fun, just a strange choice I think. I like the control changes, even though they're kind of weird to get used to after so many years of having very similar controls. It's cool to have a homing attack mapped to the Square button instead of just double tapping the X button, like Sonic has done in the past. The skill tree so far doesn't feel all that different, as I constantly forget to use the combos that I unlock. I'm loving the feeling of exploration that the game has put such an emphasis on, and it makes total sense, given Sonic's speedy nature. I've beaten the first island now, and I have to say that I'm definitely interested to see how the rest of the game plays out! There's something very addicting about the gameplay loop, and I'm excited to play more!

Ragnarok is a Killer!

    I have spent way too much time playing this game already, not sure exactly how much longer I have to go in the main storyline, but I have loved so much of what this game has done. Strictly from a gameplay perspective, it really seems like Santa Monica Studios have upped their game pretty much across the board. The fights and traversal are much more vertical and snappy now with the addition of the Blades of Chaos acting as a grappling hook. Atreus has his own Experience points in this game, which adds a lot even just from the skill tree aspect. Honestly there are so many surprises and secrets even in the gameplay alone, I don't want to give too much away, but I will say that in God of War (2018), the Lake of Nine was fantastic to explore, so vast and hiding some pretty interesting secrets. In this game, there are areas like this in almost all of the realms that you visit, which is pretty incredible I think. I love the designs of the different realms, so it's great to have so many reasons to explore them again and again. From a narrative standpoint in this game, I'm completely blown away by some of the story beats this time around. Every single character from the first game that makes a return appearance has a deeper story significance this time around. We learn all kinds of character back stories that we hadn't even considered before, we meet new characters that could have potentially been discussed in the lore of the 2018 game, and then some characters are completely new. This is to say nothing of the core relationship between Kratos and Atreus, which was the real strong point of the first game in this rebirth of the franchise. Atreus is a teenager now, and with that comes a need to discover what his purpose is, as he doubts his father and comes up with so many different ways to prove himself. It's amazing how at times in this game, Kratos and Atreus seem to have flip flopped how they were in God of War (2018). Kratos has come a long way, and though I'm sure people will complain about Kratos acting completely differently from how he has before, I think it's a great testament to how much his son has changed him into a much kinder and more understanding person. Don't misunderstand, Kratos still gets in some incrediblly wild fights this time around, but he is also able to say what he feels better than he ever has before, which shows how the years have made him wiser, and how he has continued to live in a way that the late Faye would be proud of. This game holds the honor of just about making me cry twice in a way that I don't think any other game has. The tale of father and son presented here is so beautifully crafted that it's going to be hard for any other game in the PS5's life cycle to take away the crown of my personal favorite game here.

    I know that this is really different from my other posts, but I just wanted to say a little something about both of these games, because I'm really enjoying them so far, but I don't feel like I can really speak with authority until I've finished them. Thanks so much for reading this, friends. I hope you're interested in these games too, and though basically all of the attention here is going to Ragnarok, I hope you're looking forward to my review for both of these games, which will probably come sometime in the next month or so! I hope you all have a good week. Until next time, I'm Jonathan, your Self-Proclaimed impressions guy, and I'll talk to you again soon!