Love it or hate it,Sonic Frontiershas established a new direction for theSonic series— open worlds that incentivize continual progression with speed upgrades, balanced by individual levels that allow the type of linear platforming characteristic of most Sonic games. Oh, andmuchbetter writing, to the point where the game has all but managed to redeem the beloved trio of Tails, Amy, and Knuckles.
Even Sonic is in peak form here, moving away from hischeesy one-liners(why are there so many?!) that have plagued the vast majority of his voice-acted appearances. We have Ian Flynn, head writer for Sonic Frontiers, to thank for this, as his experience with writing the official Sonic comics for over a decade has honed his senses for what makes these little animals so colorful and compelling.
So how did things go wrong with Sage, Dr. Eggman’s latest creation and newest redeemable antagonist, in Sonic Frontiers?
Sage is the latest addition to the massive cast of Sonic characters, and she’s had one of the most lackluster introductions. For some reason, despite being an advanced A.I. whose competence rivals that of Dr. Eggman himself, she is mostly relegated to popping up to threaten Sonic. All of her real agency occurs offscreen or during brief interactions with Dr. Eggman, so despite her performing impressive feats of deduction, exploration, and manipulation of reality, we never get a firsthand feel for how tough she is and if Sonic should take her seriously.
In terms of screen time in Frontiers, she’s second place only to Sonic himself. In fact, it’s precisely that she’s given ample opportunities to shine, yet never gets her feet off the ground, that makes her disappointing compared to other characters who have embodied the role of antagonist-turned-ally. Shadow, Silver, Blaze, E-102 Gamma, you-name-it — all those characters got significantly more mileage out of their tenure as antagonists. Unlike Sage, they were placed on equal footing with Sonic and were given the same amount of agency as Sonic to experience their character arcs. This is where Sage falls short.
The game itself is aware of this, too. Sage shows up so often, only to deliver cryptic warnings, that Sonic eventually begins dismissing her or starts wisecracking whenever she shows up. And sure, perhaps Sonic Team wanted to have more of a child-versus-older-person dynamic going on, where the older person is constantly irritated by the younger — but even then, most of their interactions are so brief that such a relationship is hard to substantiate.
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The best example of a new rival being thrown into the Sonic fold is Shadow The Hedgehog in Sonic Adventure 2. From Sonic’s perspective, Shadow only shows up with either cryptic messages or the intent to fight. However, we also get Shadow’s perspective, and get to help him achieve his goals, which were influenced by both a twisted desire for revenge, and a genuine curiosity to understand why he’s alive. Sonic Team made great strides with Silver and Blaze likewise, two characters that had great reasons for going against Sonic, and gave us abundant opportunities to (literally) be in their shoes.
As is, Sage’s approach would have worked better if she was more menacing or mysterious, like how Sonic Adventure had Chaos only ever show up to be foreboding or for battle. Unlike Chaos though, Sage is articulate, and her origins are revealed quite plainly as being one of Dr. Eggman’s creations. We also quickly learn about her goals and what they mean to her. Giving us players some time in her shoes would have helped her feel more serious as a new character, rather than a floating warning sign that continually harasses Sonic.
Sage is far from the worst Sonic character to date, nor is she the worst antagonist (those two titles belong to Chris from Sonic X and the Deadly Six from Sonic Lost World, respectively), but the level of spotlight she received in Sonic Frontiers invariably invites comparisons to other, considerably more fleshed out antagonists, who she just doesn’t stack up favorably against.
