Recent reviews by Hoppou, With Tophat

From this and the Super Hero Pack alone as well as shallot I will not be buying the second season pass if they make one. While the additional characters are nice this was not at all what I was hoping the DLC's for this game were gonna be.

Eh. Hopefully the Daima packs do better.

Pretty good. Feels like BT3 and Raging Blast 2 had a baby. I have all the unlocks in this game but they won't give me the last achievement nor have they answered me about it on the forums. Until this is fixed im gonna leave it with a no. Did I get my moneys worth? No but I had fun so I am willing to cut the loss. At just shy of 60 hours I wish that I had gotten the standard edition but at least I now own the dlcs (Hopefully there won't be a second season pass. Please god)

Like the games that came before it this game isn't for everyone. Its for the people who remember picking their favorite character and trying to overcome their older brother who picked the most overpowered character. Only to win once and feel like a champion. Overcoming odds and feeling good doing it. This style of gaming wasn't meant for online without talking to your opponent it was supposed brotherly trash talk and likely this is what will kill the online which is fine. The only change that needs to happen is an hour ban if you leave a match outside of that keep it wonderfully awful.

Overall I am concerned for two things 1. I want a missing character pack that readds the Budakai series characters that were left out (Movie SSJ Bardock, , Hatchiyack, Tarble, SSj3 Vegeta and Broly from RB) etc etc. Anyone whos missing in one big pack. As for the DLCs I am waiting to see if they are gonna be big character packs or scummy little packs. With how much has been found in the games files I trust they are gonna do the DLC well but they have left me wanting in the past.

2. I want more game modes. I know BT3 isn't for 2v2s or even 3v3s thats more the bread and butter of Xenoverse and unlocked Arena Fighting but you cant tell me that having some up to six player or something tag team mode wouldn't be cool.


(15/12/24 The achievement unlocked. I posted the initial review a week after the game came out.

Despite the mixed reception Dawntrail actually surpassed my expectations. Spoilers are inside this and as such read at your own risk but I will do my best to black out spaces.

Starting off Dawntrail Follows two Epics in which the story of FFXIV was concluded after years of waiting. To summarize here how I feel about the previous DLCs. A Realm Reborn is where I started playing the game and despite its rocky footing it was something special if a little fetch quest heavy. Heavensward (My Personal Least Favorite) laid foundation for what the game could be but had to ride the ♥♥♥♥ of the promise to see Ishgard from 1.0. As such it falls short and feels a little out of place but makes up for it in its patches. Stormblood while not received well pulled to story back to focus with the Garlean Empires influence on a global scale and introduced some of the best fights into the game. The Critically acclaimed Shadowbringers and its patches are a masterwork of writing and its bosses are great but differ from Stormblood with more cutscenes within the fights which I personally dislike. Active Time Maneuvers however help to break this jarring change. Endwalker opens strong by pulling almost all threads from previous DLCs and the base game into one narrative. Unfortunately Endwalker falls short with its villain as they feel rushed in like they ran out of ideas. Not to say I don't like it I do its just down with Heavensward for me as I feel it needed more time to be written better.

With my personal views on previous DLCs out of the way so you might better understand where I am coming from I think that Dawntrail is the perfect new beginning. The story while simple is perfectly polished and ties itself neatly together. Wuk Lamat seems to be a little hated among the fanbase but I think this is due to the "I get sick on vehicles" bit that they just repeat for the first half. The joke was not funny at first and was not funny when they last did it. That being said taking a side role for half the DLC as the Warrior of Light is refreshing if not a strange choice. That being said I think this makes Endwalkers Lackluster ending better.

From this point forward there will be spoilers as I go in depth.

Dawntrail opens after the patches of Endwalker where we traveled to the 13th to help Zero and deal with Golbez. Wuk Lamat whom I will be referring to as Lamaty'i from this point forward seeks our aid in an upcoming tournament to decide her peoples ruler. One of four contestants she has traveled the ocean to seek foreign aid at the behest of a friend. We arrive in Tural and are introduced quickly to its Ruler. A good man who seeks to uphold peace he knows his time is coming and seeks to prove who should rule the throne. A game of trails ensues where we learn of the culture of Tural and its many peoples. The wars it has gone through and how it has impacted the lives of the contestants. As the contestants learn of their people they grow in a way that befits rulers excluding one. The true son of the king bent on bringing war sticks true to his path.

Through many tests Wuk Lamat and eventually her adopted brother learn to work together and he drops out of the race to help her to win. The head strong rival a non heir to the throne even concedes that Wuk Lamat is best fit. Suprise suprise with the help of Azem she wins and is crowned the Vow of Resolve and chooses her adopted brother to be the Vow of Reason to rule alongside her. The true son to the king bitter by his defeat steals the key to the prize of the contest and enters before we can. A portal to what was likely the twelth gives way to an advanced civilization which eats aether to sustain itself after its calamity. Becoming its king the true son attacks Tural and starts the war he wanted in the first place.

As Azem we push to the front lines to assist and learn of its many people as is our duty as a member of the convocation. Choosing to stop the war and eventually save the source we take down the leaders of this civilization before they can do the same to us dooming them to their original fate in order to save our realm.

As far as the story goes I like it alot. It shows us what our role in Ascian society would have been and gives more insight into what issues they caused. If I had to guess what will occur next I would say one of two things is possible. We are either going to go and check out the landing place of the dragons Meracydia and learn what is left to learn on our realm or we are going to head to the 4th, 8th, 9th or 11th shard like we did with the 1st. It is our job to see everything and understand as many cultures as possible.

If I had to give Dawntrail an overall theme it would be the Acceptance of Loss and Moving Forward.

Next I would like to go over gameplay changes. While I am not well versed in all classes or content I will give my best based on how I usually play.

Before this DLC I mained the following Classes.

Tank: Paladin, Warrior
Dps: Samurai, Dancer, Summoner
Healer: Sage (Don't play it much though)

After this DLC this has changed to this.
Tank: Warrior
DPS: Samurai, Pictomancer
Healer: None

Before beating this DLC I got 7 Classes to level 100 easily. Leveling up did not take long outside of the first day when I picked up Pictomancer.

The New Classes Pictomancer and Viper are welcome additions however of the two Pictomancer stands out. When it was not Green Mage I was a little disappointed and from trailers I thought I would hate it but it is some of the most fun I have had with damage comparable to Blackmage in Stormblood. Viper on the other hand feels lack luster which is a shame as I have been waiting for another Sword DPS for a long time. There is nothing wrong with it but there is not anything right about it either. Its okay. At the time of writing this though I am only Level 96 with it so if they suddenly get better in 4 levels I might change my opinion.

Dungeons ♥♥♥♥♥♥ this DLC. All of the dungeons are good including the post game content ones with one of the post game ones being my favorite in the whole game.

Trials are hard as ♥♥♥♥. Something that changed this dlc in comparison to the last few is the speed of combat in instances. Dungeons now have bosses that hit hard and quick giving you little reaction time. Zeromus was fast before but all things in this DLC outclass his speed with some fights even feeling like Savage content. With this change though they introduced a warning system to alert you the first time something is about to happen. You are also punished harder for ignoring mechanics by any means including through Rez and knock back resistances.

Role Quests which is a mechanic I hated when introduced but grew to like by the end of Shadowbringers are ruined by this DLC as they take the piss out of them for a joke storyline. Think Hildabrand level of stupid ♥♥♥♥ but tie it to finishing the dlc instead of being side content you can choose to skip.

Dawntrail is a solid 9 for sure.

Good game have lots of hours and am close to having all the achievements. My advice is just don't look at the end game chat and leave. Additionally recent changes mean that bans are more applicable to people specifically being ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Got clickers and tbaggers? give em a report on your way out. We can save the community by being nice and ignoring the people.

They fixed an issue with killer adepts that needs to also happen with survivor ones too. The bots range from being gods to being dog water its a mixed batch. The main issue right now apart from the rampant toxicity from the non fogwhisperer TTV's is the random game disconnects. Not the people trying to leave that just happens and is a separate issue but the game will just lock up sometimes and ban you from playing again for 5 minutes once a play session. This has being happening sense the last anniversary and is doing more harm than good. As the necessary match disconnect timer is punishing people who didn't DC as the server shut down mid match.

Also increase the disconnect penalty from 5 to 10 for people who have DC'd in the last 48 hours from the disconnect button. I can pity you if you were sent to garden of joy but I still stand by this.

One of the most unique games I played in the BR genre. A shame that it is being Shutdown soon, hopefully I can get the last achievement before it is gone.

The short answer: This game is good, not without its faults but definitely a step in the right direction from Sega.

The longer answer: Sonic Frontiers is refreshing after what we have had for the past couple years, I was surprised to hear that it was being received well so I got it and enjoyed the 18 hours I spent with it. I am not traditionally a Sonic fan. I grew up with Adventure 2 and go back to that every couple years. I also go back to Adventure 1 from time to time and now I am half tempted to add this game to the list. The story while simple is well written and it was nice to see characters mention things that happened in the adventure series, Heroes and other games that I dabbled in. My only warning is the final boss fight is not as good as the rest but that is mostly just due to how I like my boss fights. I have heard a few things here and there about the game looking like "Sonic Breath of the Wild" and stuff like that but it has its own personality once you start playing. If anything it takes alot of it feels more like Mario Odyssey but even then only kinda.

For those that have played the others my personal opinion of this in the placement of the good 3D Sonics is as follows.

Adventure 2
Adventure
Frontiers
Generations