I wish Sega would let fans make a 3D Sonic game. I have next to no expectations for Sonic Frontiers (is that what it's called?).

Like, open world Sonic? You can't even get 3D linear Sonic games right, let alone an open world 3D Sonic game!

I like Sonic Colors and I've heard good things about Sonic Generations.

The last positively received 3D Sonic game coming out over a decade ago isn't a great sign however.

Also the Sonic Adventure games may be janky as hell but they're still a blast to play and I will die on that hill if I have to.

Sonic Adventure 1 was originally supposed to be more of an open world RPG type game, so was Sonic 06, open world Sonic is something Sonic Team has been wanting to do for a long time but never ended up fully realizing for whatever reason. It's also something the fanbase has wanted to see for a long time and there are some interesting proof of concept fan games out there.

I don't know what to expect from Sonic Frontiers because they've revealed so little so far, I really want it to be good though.

Ah Sonic 03. My one remaining relic of goodwill towards JonTron.

I think you mean Sonic 06

Honestly I hated Sonic Colors. It wasn't really a 3D Sonic - mostly 2D. And it wasn't a good 2D Sonic either. Too much blocky gimmicky platforming, not enough speed and momentum. The wisps kinda sucked too.

The last great 3D Sonic game was Sonic Unleashed (360/PS3). The werehog levels weren't that bad and the speed sections both played and looked amazing. The world itself, the hubs, the music - it was all absolutely beautiful. It's perhaps my favorite 3D Sonic game in fact.

That's my brain's take on things. My heart's take on things is that Sonic Adventure 2 will always be the best one.

Honestly, I'm tired of the open world gimmick. It's really unnecessary. Breath of the Wild was wildly overrated. Gimme the old 3D zeldas over that any day. The world was massively empty, the breaking weapons sucked, the story was nearly non-existent, and it didn't have any proper dungeons. Those shrines were a poor replacement for the unforgettable dark puzzle-filled grottos you'd explore in the old Zelda games. Oh yeah, the bosses in BOTW sucked too. Just not the Zelda game for me. I'm tired of pretending that just because Nintendo tried something for the first time (an open world game), we all have to lie to ourselves and pretend that they've created this incredible and unprecedented game brimming with innovation. BOTW aint it.

If Sonic Frontiers is an incredible game though, I'd be happily surprised. I just don't see how you fit the formula of getting from point A to point B as fast as possible in the package of an open world game. I'd love to be proven wrong. Maybe the joy of Sonic isn't getting from point A to point B, but the badniks you destroy along the way...

Or maybe people just like a game you don't.

Maybe.

None of those complaints you make about BOTW are new, they are all fairly common and frankly I don't think any of them are a big deal, except for the world being empty which isn't true at all, a bit repetitive in places sure, I do wish the game had more enemy variety, but every area is full of something, enemies to fight, animals to hunt, food to forage, ore to mine, secrets to find whether it be hidden treasure chests, koroks or shrines, there's always something to do no matter where you are.

The breakable weapons system serves it's purpose in encouraging experimentation, do the weapons break a little too easy? I guess, being able to upgrade or craft weapons is something I hope you can do in the sequel but as it stands finding good weapons isn't hard at all if you know where to look.

As for the dungeons, I personally think the divine beasts are really cool, just the fact that they're these giant terrifying robot monstrosites you can see way in the distance long before you get to actually go inside them, the dungeons themselves are fine they're just really, really short which is disappointing. The shrines on the other hand are awesome little bit size dungeons and the puzzles are really satisfying to solve even if many of them have more than one way to solve them, only thing I don't like is the overuse of combat shrines they definitely feel like filler to me.

The story isn't non-existent, the game simply isn't restricted by it, I think it's told in a novel and interesting way because most of it happened in the past and it's up to you to piece together what happened, it's a neat approach and a clever way to avoid forcing cutscenes on the player. You learn more about the world and it's history just from interacting with it and the characters anyway, I don't like it when games dump a lot of exposition on me to create worldbuilding, it's one of the common tropes of JRPGs that really tests my patience.

BOTW is honestly my favorite 3D Zelda so far and I say that as someone who has a lot of nostalgia for Ocarina and Wind Waker, the strict linearity of previous Zeldas was one of the major drawbacks for me, because if I got stuck in a dungeon like say THE WATER TEMPLE then that was it the game comes to a screeching halt and I get frustrated and eventually stop playing it.

That's the great thing about making Zelda open world, if you get stumped somewhere, anywhere, just move onto something else and then get back to it once your skills have improved, failing one challenge doesn't brickwall the entire rest of the game, that has always been my biggest pet peeve of the series, at least the 3D games where the dungeons give me a much harder time, I find them to be much more difficult and frustrating than the dungeons in 2D Zelda because of the extra dimensions and camera and all that. Dungeons just work better in 2D Zelda IMO.

So yes if you can't tell already I really love BOTW, I wasn't convinced to like it by the masses or the gaming press or whatever, I don't read game reviews.

Well I'm genuinely glad you enjoy it! I'm in the minority of people who weren't enamored with it, but I'm hoping they fix or improve on some of my gripes in BOTW2. I'd definitely like more enemy variety and at least some true blue old school dungeons.

Did I mention the music? I wasn't a fan of that either, at least in the overworld. It's nice and relaxing - but it's perhaps almost too ambient. Makes me sleepy. Then again, if they had a driving, swirling number on repeat like Ocarina of Time, I'd probably have hated that more (would become way too repetitive with the amount of time you spend in the overworld).

My best memory with Zelda is probably fully completing Majora's Mask while I was doped up on oxycodone after a wisdom tooth surgery. Great times! I was playing the Manic Street Preachers Lifeblood album on repeat at the time, and the whole thing was just a vibe.

What are you playing on these days other than a Switch, boobs?

You got a PS4 or PS5?