Summary
With how long Sega has been part of the gaming industry, it’s understandable that there will be plenty of ups and downs in the company’s history. Just asSega has canceled one of its biggest projects, there are other stories to be told regarding its most well-known development studio, Sonic Team. From rumors and reports that Sega typically runs Sonic Team through deadlines rather than quality checks, the latest 3DSonic the HedgehoggameSonic Frontiersalmost serves as evidence as to how well the studio can perform when given enough time to work on a title.
Within seven months ofSonic Frontiers' launch, it has broken a long-held sales record tobecome the best-selling 3DSonicgame. When this news first broke through a press conference, the evidence shown seemed to state that the sales increase may have been partially due toFrontiers' free content updates, which had begun back in March 2023. However, the last of the free DLC packs forFrontiersadded a brand-new story mode that game with a difficulty spike, andSonic Superstarsincluded an additional mode that did the game, making fans compare the games toDark Souls.
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Why Sonic Superstars and Sonic Frontiers Are Being Compared to Dark Souls
It may be surprising to see an all-ages franchise likeSonicbe compared to the well-known hardened experience that isDark Souls, but the reason comes down to something very simple.Sonic FrontiersandSonic Superstarsboth introduce painfully hard boss challengesthat have made a vast number of players angry and rage-quit, especially since the challenges are not optional for those who want to see everything the games have to offer. These challenges,Frontiers' Master King Koco and both final bosses ofSonic Superstars, flip normalSonicbosses on their heads.
Usually, the battles fought in manySonicgamestypically see the boss vulnerable in one specific area, and it’s up to the player to figure out the right moment to attack it and deal damage. The skill with these fights typically comes down to fans being able to take advantage of these bosses' invincibility frames and attack them more than once, beating the boss fights as fast as possible. This design works for a series all about going fast, but out of nowhere, the latest twoSonicgames have completely flipped the script and made bosses about pattern memorization and patience.
Being punished in a boss fight for not understanding its attacks and its openings is definitely something more akin to a FromSoftware game than aSonic the Hedgehoggame, but that’s entirely what the new boss fights in Frontiers and Superstars boil down to. The Master King Koco trial demands understanding ofSonic Frontiers' titan bosses down to their parry windows to finish the fights in the roughly 6-minute time limit, andSonic Superstars' second final boss throws rings out the window mechanically to force fans to be patient and learn the boss' mechanics in order to win.
This has notably left fans rather split, as these battles are both very hard in their own right, but do reward those willing to understand what the challenge asks of them. Both groups of fans have likened the current situation to “theSonicversion ofDark Souls” due to either not desiring aSonicgame of such high difficulty, or because they enjoy having to think and figure out the tricks to the boss fights in question.
Why this sudden shift in boss design is dividing fans likely stems from how the change was made with no proper warning. It’s especially jarring in the case ofSonic Frontierswhere DLC challenges add a timed parry requirement, which many players dislike as due to the fact thatSonic Frontiers' parry wasn’t meant to be timed, the timing windows are entirely different with every single attack. However, Sonic Superstars shows what these fights could be, as the boss battles found there were designed to be challenging from the beginning.Superstars' fights have been regarded to be harder thanFrontiers' Koco trial, but they’re also genuine riddles forSonic the Hedgehogfans to solve to win from start to finish just asDark Souls' own bosses are.
Sonic Superstars
WHERE TO PLAY
Adventure through the mystical Northstar Islands in this all-new take on classic 2D Sonic high-speed action platforming. Play as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy and harness all-new Emerald powers to move and attack in dynamic new ways. Navigate gorgeous, never-before-seen environments solo or with up to 3 other players and stop Dr. Eggman, Fang, and a mysterious new adversary from converting the islands’ giant animals into Badniks before it’s too late!
