We Saw The River Beating On The Riverbank For The Way That It Held Every Hard Riverbed It's Cold, It's

Goku will forever be my emotion support dad 🐉

This is huge! Really excited to see what they do with that new story campaign!

New updates for Sonic Frontiers for 2023 announced, teases new playable characters

In an unexpected update, the official Sonic the Hedgehog social media has confirmed that three major updates are on their way to Sonic Frontiers in 2023.

The one that grabbed fans' attention the most was the third update that teased the possibility of Tails, Knuckles and Amy being playable in a future update.

First Update:

Juke Box

Photo Mode

New Challenge Modes

Second Update:

Sonic's Birthday

Open Zone Challenges

New Koco

Third Update:

Playable characters

New Story campaign

The new updates will be provided for free to all Frontiers players.

Based on my silly headcanon that Goku is really good at styling hair

Saiyan Duality - A SSG and SS4 Comparison

I don’t think anyone would argue that one of the most recognizable aspects of the Dragon Ball franchise is the transformations the characters tend to undergo. From an old hermit bulking up to an absurd degree to the legendary Super Saiyan, the franchise has its fair share of power ups, but the users of many of these iconic forms usually fall under one category of people - the aforementioned Saiyans.

The Saiyans, across all forms of Dragon Ball media, have over a dozen different transformations, each one becoming more and more powerful than the last. From the simple Great Ape to the lengthily named Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Controlled Berserk (I wish I was making that up), the repertoire of Saiyan forms is immense, but I constantly see two of these forms being compared: Super Saiyan 4 and Super Saiyan God.

Both forms are very iconic, with Super Saiyan 4 being a GT trademark and Super Saiyan God being the first of many new transformations we see in Dragon Ball Super. I’ve seen a multitude of debates online trying to prove that one of these forms is better than the other, so I wanted to throw my hat into the ring and give my take: while I have a personal preference for God, both forms are absolutely incredible at what they attempt to portray in those who use the form, and I’m gonna go a little in depth as to why.

Starting the Super Saiyan 4 section with a little bit of background info, the older of the two forms made its debut in GT during the fight against Baby. To access the form, a Saiyan needs to both have a tail and already be able to transform into a Super Saiyan. They must transform into a Great Ape, turn Super Saiyan on top of that to become a Golden Great Ape, and then control that state to obtain Super Saiyan 4.

Super Saiyan 4 is remarkably different from the previous Super Saiyan forms, sporting no golden hair and instead keeping it back and having it grow far longer and having it cover the user’s shoulders, though it’s worth noting that Super Saiyan 3’s hairstyle is much longer. To make it more visually distinct, the user’s body is also covered in red fur save for parts of their chest, with their tail also turning red and gaining a red trim around their eyes. Curiously, Goku is also turned into an adult when he accesses this transformation, which is explained as a unique property of this form: any user of the transformation has their body reverted (or propelled into) its prime, meaning they will always appear as a young adult. Lastly, different users of SS4 have slightly different looking versions of the form. For instance, Goku’s version of the form has a shade of red fur that has a slight pink hue to it while Vegeta’s fur is crimson, and Goku has yellow eyes while Vegeta has blue eyes.

Now that the backstory and design of SS4 has been talked about, it’s time to talk a little bit about SSG. Super Saiyan God is a legend closely related to the legend of the Super Saiyan that Frieza feared. The legend involves the Saiyan Yamoshi and his five pure hearted allies battling against the evil hearted Saiyans. Yamoshi actually obtains Super Saiyan, but still loses the battle and his life, and now his spirit wanders through Universe 7 trying to find the Super Saiyan God.

There are only a couple ways for a Saiyan to obtain Super Saiyan God. The first method is a ritual, in which five other pure hearted Saiyans give their power to a sixth, transforming the sixth into the Super Saiyan God. As a side note, this ritual only works because of the wandering spirit of Yamoshi, making it a Universe 7 exclusive phenomenon. The other way for a Saiyan to obtain SSG is to train with god ki, which can typically only be done by training with someone who already possesses godly ki, such as Gods of Destruction.

Super Saiyan God, as a transformation, actually looks quite simple compared to other Super Saiyan forms. The user’s hair and eyes turn red, they become slimmer and even look a little younger, and their aura looks like fire. Super Saiyan God, similarly to SS4, also seems to give different users of the forms slightly different shades of red, though it’s not nearly as apparent as it is for SS4.

When putting the two forms next to each other, it can be hard to find similarities between them. Both feature some kind of red hair but outside of that, noticeable similarities are sparse, and I think that’s the point. Both forms have to portray entirely separate ideas: the wild nature of the Saiyans and the calmer demeanor of the Gods, and they portray these ideas incredibly well in my eyes. While I do have more of a preference for SSG like I said earlier, it’s not hard to see why so many fans of Dragon Ball are allured by the primal look of SS4.

Ultimately though, if you ask me, trying to compare the two to try and prove that one is objectively better is just a waste of time. It feels like God was designed to be the other side of the same coin as SS4, the heads to its tails. Both designs have their strengths and their weaknesses, so at the end of the day, whichever form is “superior” will always be up to viewer interpretation and nothing more.

Lately I've been trying to figure out how powerful all of the main current Z Warriors are compared to one another using feats and statements from the manga and it's proving to be an interesting question to figure out, expect a post on it relatively soon!

I played through Sonic Frontiers by the way, easily an 8 or 9/10, I think it's easily the best Sonic game that's been released in who knows how long, though it has its issues. Thinking of writing a full length review on it but we'll see.

Sonic Frontiers Review: Aptly Crossing a New Frontier.

Sonic Frontiers is the latest 3D platforming game to be released in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, following the releases of Sonic Forces, Sonic Colors Ultimate (SCU), and Sonic Origins, their previous three 3D platforming titles. Forces, SCU, and Origins’ releases were met with a lot of criticism due to not meeting the fanbase’s expectations for a variety of reasons, so in the days before Frontiers’ released, I was excited but chose to keep a healthy level of skepticism just in case the game wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Suffice to say, the hype for the game was extremely well earned, as I had an absolute blast playing through Frontiers. To help me get all my points across as to why I like this game so much, I’ll be dividing this review into two parts: the gameplay segment and the story segment. I’m doing this for two reasons: the first being that I believe both need to be talked about separately so I can really dive deep into what makes them so good, and the other is so that people who only want a gameplay review aren’t spoiled on some of the more major plot points of the game. With that being said, here are my thoughts on Sonic Frontiers!

Future Updates

As I was in the process of putting this review together, Sonic Team revealed that over the course of 2023, the game would be getting a series of 3 free updates, and the last of those updates would contain a story update involving more playable characters, showing pictures of Tails, Knuckles, and Amy. Obviously, this is massive and very exciting, but since it’s not out I can’t exactly factor any of what’s coming in updates into this review. Hopefully if I have the time and remember to do so, I’ll make an addendum to this review or separate posts going over each update. Anyways, NOW this review can start!

Gameplay

Sonic Frontiers sets out to tackle a new style of gameplay it calls Open Zone gameplay. Sonic Frontiers takes place on a series of islands, with each island being an open zone. As soon as you unlock the island, you’re able to go anywhere on the island right from the start, defeating minibosses and collecting Memory Tokens wherever you please, but more on that in a moment. The zones are fairly big in size, giving you plenty to explore at Sonic’s mach speeds and never really feeling cramped.

While exploring the islands, Sonic will be able to find rails, springs, and other such platforming obstacles that you’d find in your typical Sonic level. These will lead Sonic into short platforming segments, and by completing them he can earn Memory Tokens, which are essential to completing the game. Think of them as bite-sized levels. They’re typically pretty fun, though some of them lock you into playing in 2D, which kind of defeats the point of an open zone, but outside of that I enjoy these small chunks of platforming.

Memory Tokens are used not only to progress the story, but also to have smaller, more bite-sized interactions with other characters. Engaging with characters doesn’t take away any Memory Tokens from you, so if you have enough to initiate a conversation, go have a chat with them! However, every island has a different type of Memory Token, meaning that tokens you collect on the first island won’t help your progress on the second. Sometimes collecting the tokens felt like a pain, but I enjoyed the experience of exploring the islands regardless.

Scattered around the island are various puzzles that, as a reward, give you seeds. These seeds can be taken to an NPC to increase your attack or defense, depending on the type of seed you have. While I’m sure it isn’t necessary to raise your stats, I’d highly recommend doing so, as some enemies towards the end of the game are quite difficult.

The Cyloop is Sonic’s main new ability in this game and it’s used for puzzle solving and combat. The Cyloop is essential to solving many puzzles in the game, and using it on enemies can put Sonic in an advantageous position during combat. Simply drawing a circle will give you rings and drawing an infinity symbol will give you infinite boost in the open zones!

Exploration in this game is a breath of fresh air for the franchise, helping to break up the monotony of just playing level after level after level. I keep finding myself thinking of how cool previous games in the franchise, namely Forces, could have been if they had tried a similar Open Zone system. I hope the development team behind future Sonic games try and implement Open Zone gameplay into their future games, as I had a blast with it in Frontiers.

There is one more ability that Sonic has to use to help him explore, and that’s the Dropdash. I think it’s really cool that it’s in this game, even though I don't think it contributes a ton as I rarely found myself using it. The one oddity about it though is how it handles speed: the Dropdash uses momentum similar to how the classic games do, as in when you go down a slope, you gain speed, and when you go up a slope, you lose speed. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a complaint! It’s fun to roll down various hills to see how much speed can be built up. But if they’ve implemented that kind of design for the Dropdash, why can’t the whole game play this way? Why limit it to exclusively the Dropdash? I know that this is definitely more of a nitpick but as soon as I noticed it, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Shifting focus more on combat now, inhabiting the islands are many strange looking robots for Sonic to take on with his myriad of new combat abilities, and by defeating them he can earn skill points to unlock more abilities. The only ability essential to beating the game is the Cyloop, but the others can help speed up combat in very flashy manners so long as you know how to combo them together properly.

The combos in this game are incredibly stylish and perfectly fitting of the blue blur, it’s always a blast to experiment with linking different skills together against different enemies. You can tell that the developers really put a lot of thought into making these skills and their effort certainly were not in vain.

One skill you don’t need any skill points to unlock is the ability to Parry. Parrying lets you deflect any enemies attack right back at them and counter with a flurry of your own. While having the ability is nice, it has a very noticeable flaw: you can hold your parry for as long as you want. In my opinion, this does ultimately take away from the combat as it means that as long as you hold your parry, you’re not in any real danger. Holding it in midair also causes Sonic to awkwardly float which, while funny, definitely looks just a little strange.

While exploring the islands you’ll encounter named opponents that serve as minibosses, one such example being found in the gif above, named Ninja. Being minibosses, they’re naturally tougher than the generic enemies Sonic will run across in the open zones, but defeating them is essential, as they drop Portal Gears. The bosses come in many different shapes and sizes and will attack Sonic in many different ways, so you should be ready for anything. These can range anywhere from incredibly fun to just a slog to fight (looking at you, Tank).

Overall, the combat in this game is incredibly flashy and fun, and I hope we see more combat like this in the future. There are a few key areas where it can be improved, such as the aforementioned issues with the parry and some of the less enjoyable minibosses, but ultimately it’s a very well done system that I hope makes a return in future games.

Oh yeah Big’s fishing is also fun and the theme that plays is an absolute vibe, easily the most important part of the game.

Story

Alright, story time. If you don’t want to get spoiled about the story, now’s the time to leave. The story of Sonic Frontiers is 100% best experienced blind and I don’t want to ruin it for anyone. I’ll also be omitting gifs from this section as well.

So I’m just gonna pad this out a little bit in case someone scrolls a little too far on accident.

Ok, still here? Cool, I’ll just dive right in then.

The story of Sonic Frontiers is, without question, the best story we’ve gotten since SA2 or Unleashed. The characters are written absolutely incredibly in a setting filled with unique mystery that culminates into some of the biggest lore developments the series has ever gotten. I genuinely believe that this is the best that these characters have ever been depicted, and the addition of Sage to the cast of characters is one of the biggest Ws the franchise could have possibly gotten.

The dynamic between Sage and Eggman is one of the best parts of the story by far and it really spices up Eggman’s characters, something that he’s been needing for a long, long time. You can really feel the connection the two of them have together, from the way Eggman talks about her in his memos to his scenes at the end of the game. Watching Eggman look up at the falling stars, hoping to see his AI, his daughter, return to the planet and watching him realize that she’s not coming back almost made me  genuinely cry. Then watching him work to restore her in the final scene after the credits and seemingly succeeding was such a good moment for the doctor. I hope Sage comes back for future games, it’d be such a shame if she didn’t.

The Ancients not only being from space, but bringing the Chaos Emeralds with them from their homeworld and being the ancestors of Chaos is an interesting development to the lore, and I’m excited to see if they go anywhere else with it. The Ancients being related to Chaos was pretty obvious by just looking at their appearance, but them bringing the emeralds from outer space was a development I definitely was not expecting. They’re still a very mysterious civilization that we may never learn more about, but what we do know about them is absolutely fascinating. They did so well with integrating the Ancients into Sonic’s World.

Unfortunately, this is where the story admittedly falls apart a little bit. The End is interesting, to say the least. I don’t think it’s ever made clear whether it’s a god or a mortal, but what we do know is that it’s powerful enough to destroy the Ancients’ home. Then it follows them to Sonic’s World and forces them to trap it inside an entire digital dimension showing that despite how advanced their technology is, they couldn’t even kill it, which makes this thing feel menacing. So with the reveal of The End being the villain, I was really hoping that the boss battle would be the best we’ve ever gotten. It was… not that. The boss battle itself was unfortunately a let-down, which was a massive shame because Frontiers’ has absolutely incredible bosses at the end of each island. There’s a lot in game that points to The End being rushed, such as Sonic’s speech to the Ancients he gives just before the fight itself, and the instruction screen telling you to fight with the Titans, plural. It seems like they really wanted to do more with The End but for whatever reason couldn’t, which is a big shame. It’s definitely not enough to sour the whole story for me, just a bit of a let down.

Sonic Frontiers’ story heavily relies on the mystery of the Starfall Islands, and it uses said mysteries to craft an absolutely incredible story only held back by the gameplay of its final boss. This is the type of story I hope we get to see more of from Sonic games in the future.

Final Rating

If I had to rate the game on a scale of 1-10, I’d give it a very solid 7. The team behind the game’s development very clearly listened to what people wanted from the franchise and gave it to us, and while it’s not perfect by any means, it’s 100% a step in the right direction. If the development team behind Sonic Frontiers keeps giving us games of this quality, I'm sure that the future of the franchise is a very bright one.

hope everyone is having a merry Fern in Multiversus day

Terapagos' Hidden Power

Terapagos is the newest legendary Pokemon, introduced in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s Indigo Disk DLC, the second part of the Hidden Treasure of Area Zero. While the story of Scarlet and Violet isn’t over yet as we’re getting an epilogue in January, there’s a scene in the DLC that I absolutely have to talk about as the lore implications are nuts. Obviously there are gonna be spoilers for Indigo Disk, so if you haven’t played yet then you should probably click off this post now.

After capturing Terapagos in the Underdepths of Area Zero, you can gain access to a hidden interaction at Kitakami’s Crystal Pool, noteworthy for its… well, crystal formations of Terastal energy. Upon approaching the pool, Terapagos exits its Pokeball and calls forth a cloud of mist and, seemingly, Professor Sada/Turo before retreating back into its ball. This naturally prompts a discussion between the confused professor and the player, but it’s a brief discussion as after a few minutes the cloud of mist closes back in and takes the professor with it. While I won’t be going too in depth into the conversation with the professor, I will be going into how I think Terapagos is involved with it and revealing a potential hidden layer of mystery and intrigue to this new Pokemon.

Sada’s/Turo’s Arrival

So naturally, the arrival of Sada and Turo is what needs to be covered first as it’s what reveals new aspects of Terapagos to us. First, many would be led to assume that this is actually Professor Sada/Turo as this conversation takes place at the Crystal Pool, a location that’s said to allow people to speak to the dead. However, I believe this to be untrue. Early on in the conversation, Sada/Turo come to the conclusion that they must’ve been transported to the future by some unknown force.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ-SiGwyCKA)

This wouldn’t exactly make sense, though. After all, the implication about the Crystal Pool is that those you meet there are dead, so why would this be any different? Even the Milotic you battle with Carmine is coded to have the Tera Typing of Ghost to further allude to this fact. The time machine can’t be at fault either as AI Sada/Turo explicitly states that those who travel through time cannot return to the present, which we see Sada/Turo do. But what if what’s happening here isn’t time travel?

Milotic

As stated previously, the Milotic you battle with Carmine to obtain the Crystal Cluster needed to fix the Teal Mask is coded to have the Tera Type of Ghost. This isn’t a hugely known fact though, as it’s only really viewable if you look into the game’s code (or look at Bulbapedia like I did). Obviously since I’m bringing it up, I think it has some relevance here. I find it odd that despite giving this Milotic a Tera Type different from its original type, it never actually undergoes Terastalization. I mean, why not? Wouldn’t that get the idea of “meeting the dead” across a lot better? Not to mention, we’ve seen the ghost of a Pokemon before in the form of the Marowak from Pokemon Tower. Well…

I don’t think that Milotic is dead at all. In fact, I don’t think it was even alive before you first approached the Crystal Pool with Carmine. “This guy must be an idiot, what could he possibly be talking about?”. First, rude, my feelings :(. Second, I actually do have some evidence to back this claim up, and it all lies in…

The Scarlet/Violet Book

Trust me, I’m gonna tie this all together, just stick with me here. If you read the copy of the Scarlet/Violet book in the Academy, you’ll find a section titled “Monsters of Area Zero”. It’s the section of the book that goes over the first discovery of Great Tusk/Iron Treads, as shown in the photo provided below.

(Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonScarletViolet/comments/zi7ef7/mysteries_of_the_scarletviolet_book_unlocked/)

So why’s this important? It’s simple, really. Quoting Arven:

“Wait, hold on... Isn't my mom's/dad's time machine the whole reason the ancient/future Pokémon ended up here in the first place? This book is from way before she/he made the time machine, but it mentions ancient/future Pokémon. Isn't that kinda...weird?”

Why yes, Arven, it IS weird! This entry basically confirms that the time machine isn’t what’s creating the Paradox Pokemon. Something else within Area Zero is creating these Pokemon from the “past” or “future” based on which game you play. I think the same thing is happening at the Crystal Lake with Milotic and Sada/Turo. That wasn’t a Milotic, and that isn’t Sada/Turo, they’re recreations of a Milotic and the professor made with Terastal energy. And who molded these recreations?

Terapagos and the “Time Machine”

Time to tie this all together with a neat bow. Yeah, there’s obviously a reason that Terapagos’ presence is required for this interaction to happen. It made the Sada/Turo that the player interacts with at the Crystal Pool, just like how it made the Paradox Pokemon originating in Area Zero. Yeah, I’m going as far as to say it also created the Paradox Pokemon. The “time machine” was powered by Terastal energy, the same energy used to create the Milotic, the phantom professor, and presumably our Koraidon/Miraidon. The idea might strike some as odd, as if it’s not a time machine, when what is it?

While it’s hard to say what it is for certain, we can make some inferences on its true identity. Like I said, the whole machine is powered by Terastal energy, which I’m theorizing has the power to create entirely new organisms. The most difficult part to intuit is what it creates organisms from, but I think I have a pretty solid idea: imagination.  Think about the first Pokemon that was pulled through the machine. Koraidon or Miraidon, depending on the version of the game you’re playing. These Pokemon are meant to represent past and future versions of Cylizar, as stated by their dex entries:

Koraidon’s Violet Dex Entry: “This Pokémon resembles Cyclizar, but it is far burlier and more ferocious. Nothing is known about its ecology or other features.”Miraidon’s Scarlet Dex Entry: “Much remains unknown about this creature. It resembles Cyclizar, but it is far more ruthless and powerful.”

And what Pokemon was Heath, someone who you could say Sada/Turo idolized, prominently shown with in the Scarlet/Violet book, a volume which the professor admits is precious to them in their conversation with you at the Crystal Pool? Why, Cyclizar, of course!

(Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonScarletViolet/comments/zi7ef7/mysteries_of_the_scarletviolet_book_unlocked/)

I just can’t see this being a coincidence whatsoever, the choice to give Heath a Cyclizar while making both box legendaries past and future forms of it just feels so intentional. The Paradox Pokemon having been created during the original expedition makes sense as well. Before they had ever seen a Paradox Pokemon, they had been researching the regular Pokemon they were finding in Area Zero, and given that they were scientists it’s natural to assume they were most likely theory crafting what other kinds of Pokemon could live down there. It was only after a couple days of descending into Area Zero that the team encountered their first Paradox Pokemon. This could even explain why the Milotic at the Crystal Pool had a unique Ghost Tera Type; meeting the dead at the Crystal Pool is a common folktale in Kitakami, and the Crystal Pool is full of crystals of Terastal energy, just like Area Zero.

So, let’s wrap that neat little bow on all this. Terastal energy is clearly some form of creation energy, as it’s been shown to create not only the Paradox Pokemon, but also Milotic and even a duplicate professor. We’ve only ever seen this form of creation occur in two places: Area Zero and the Crystal Pool. Terapagos is stated to be the source of the Terastal phenomenon in it’s Scarlet Pokedex entry…: “Terapagos protects itself using its power to transform energy into hard crystals. This Pokémon is the source of the Terastal phenomenon.”

…and the interaction with the professor at the Crystal Pool does not happen without the player catching Terapagos. The “time machine” is really a machine that brings Pokemon from your imagination to life, and the Crystal Pool shows you terastal energy copies of those who have passed away rather than genuine ghosts. With all that in mind…

Terapagos’ Hidden Power

The true power of Terapagos, the Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, is the power of creation. Be it replications of deceased individuals and books they held dear, or entirely new Pokemon that have never existed before, Terapagos can pull ideas from the minds of individuals and, using Terastal energy, will them into reality.

Ok I know this account is themed around Dragon Ball but I have a lot of ideas for Pokemon posts lmao. I'll try and find a good balance between the two especially since the DBS manga will be making it's return soon.