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At the heart of Sonic Frontiers is a tale of camaraderie and fellowship, between friends and enemies alike, that may well be the key to saving the world.
Convergence prologue
- Sonic asks Amy join him and Tails to follow Eggman into a mysterious new island. It's a nice little gesture, given that he's usually seen with just Tails joining him on his grand adventures.
- After having to deal with Orbot and Cubot's incompetence yet again, Dr. Eggman laments, "I take the time to program life-like personalities into some minions, and all it does is frustrate me. Once-- just once!-- I'd like one of my creations to fill me with pride instead of regret!" Given how Sage ultimately turned out, he definitely got his wish in the end.
Divergence prologue
- Knuckles comforts a crying Chao after smashing a rock that they wanted something underneath, showing that the brawler has a soft spot for the Chao that live with him. For extra heartwarming points, it's a NiGHTS Chao. It's like a subtle way of showing that SEGA still cares about NiGHTS, even though they haven't gotten any new games in a long time.
- Tikal and Chaos appear in a small cameo at the beginning, as a ball of light and ripples in a pond respectively, confirming that they're still around in some way.
Base game
- Throughout the game's story, the pervading and most impactful theme is that of love, in all shapes and forms. Specifically, including Sonic's general love for the people close to him, Sonic and Amy's love for the world, the love between friends Sonic and Knuckles share, the familial love Sonic and Tails share as surrogate siblings, the developing love between Sage and Eggman as a bond of father and daughter, many relationships and bonds demonstrated between the Ancients/Koco, and so on. What makes it particularly powerful here is how unafraid the story is to touch upon how these bonds may be stressed by separation, strife, grief, despair and loss, and still manage to prevail in the end over impossible odds.
- During Sonic's adventures on Ares Island, Sage grows increasingly frustrated with his continued involvement on the Starfall Islands and refusal to leave despite her efforts at deterrence, as his actions will unleash THE END which will result in the death of all, including Eggman, whom she loves as a father. This leads to a furious breakdown where she deigns to out and out kill him on the spot, but Knuckles—who despite being stuck as a Cyber Space projection can still interact with her as a digital construct and her energy attacks—swoops in to protect Sonic, and after deflecting her blast, looks absolutely LIVID and about to give her the beating of a lifetime.
- This gets taken right back by Sonic afterwards, who stops Knuckles from going on the attack, as he recognizes Sage is lashing out because there's something or someone she wants to protect, and insists on trying to talk it out with her. This seems to strike a chord with her, as Sage drops hostilities from this point onwards and begins trying to learn more about Sonic.
- Taking from the above, Sonic shows his merciful side of matters to mysterious foes and entities once more with Sage; when she appears and threatens him early on, he's definitely annoyed, and it isn't helped by her using GIGANTO to nearly kill him outright. But as the story progresses, he clearly realizes she could be doing more to try to stop him instead of just throwing the Titans around loosely. Where everyone else was paranoid, fearful or spiteful towards Sage, even Eggman at first disregarding her until he came around, Sonic was already trying to chat passively, befriend her and otherwise. It shows that for all of his lack of respect for his foes, he doesn't totally disregard or hate them unless they give him every reason to, and Sage's warnings to simply leave the island told him everything he needed to know about a well-intended person.
- Throughout Sonic's time spent with Tails, it becomes increasingly obvious that something is bothering the young fox, but he pushes it aside for the sake of completing the mission. Eventually, he voices his growing concerns, and straight-up asks Sonic if he's a burden to him, lamenting that he's either always running and hiding, watching from the sidelines or having to be rescued by Sonic. At first, Sonic responds with some light-hearted sarcasm, but he quickly drops it once it becomes clear that Tails is being completely serious. He's then very quick to remind Tails of all of his strengths and feats, including stopping Eggman from destroying Station Square, breaking him out of prison, and saving him from the Deadly Six's trap. Then, when that's not quite enough to reassure him, Sonic simply responds that it's okay to need help now and then, and how it's a part of growing up. This is when he finally gets through to Tails and cheers him up. Later on, Tails informs Sonic that, once their current ordeal is over, he plans to strike out on his own for while so that he can grow as a person and learn to be less dependent on Sonic. Though saddened at the thought of him being gone, Sonic, despite his hesitation, fully supports this decision. Overall, the entire sequence serves as a beautiful way of showing how strong their bond is; despite not being related by blood, the two clearly view each other as brothers.
- When Sonic gets corrupted by the Cyber Energy, his friends are all incredibly distraught and worried for his state. They then huddle around him, hand in hand, to try and dissipate the corruption.Tails: Sonic, I want you to see the hero I become!
Amy: (tearfully) Sonic... you still have love to share with this world, too!
Knuckles: Sonic... we're even after this! Ha!- And when Sonic is cured, he thanks his friends and vows not to let them down.
- The entire relationship between Eggman and Sage. Sage is an AI created by Robotnik to assist him in investigating the islands. However, he considers her his daughter and is really good to her. He praises her skills (especially when she exceeds her programming to save Eggman), shows notable restraint whenever he's frustrated (for example, he doesn't insult her for suggesting to ally with Sonic), tries to satisfy her curiosities (such as answering if Orbot and Cubot would be considered Sage's brothers), places immense trust in her, genuinely mourns her when she sacrifices herself to save the world and brings her back in the post-credits scene.Sage: Father...?
Eggman: That's my girl.- The love is mutual, too. Sage even asks Sonic to "look after Father" as she performs her Heroic Sacrifice.
- Even being an advanced AI, it's not hard to look to Sage as an endearing child, who cares about her father's safety and well-being, tell him silly childish jokes, eagerly awaits having robot siblings (in Orbot and Cubot) when everything is complete, and pretty much shows animosity to Sonic to please said father.
- The Egg Memos also highlight another side of Eggman, both in regards to Sage and Sonic's group. His first contemplations of Sage being a sort of daughter for him are met with a harsh "It" Is Dehumanizing, but as you go through them he starts to become more receptive to the idea before practically basking in the thought that you don't need genetics to be family, and is boastfully So Proud of You. Meanwhile, while he disparages Sonic and makes fun of Knuckles, he privately admits embracing the Eggman title from the former, and then compliments Tails and Amy as being quite capable in their own right, just not all they could be due to being tethered to Sonic at the hip. And in the story proper, when push comes to shove by Sage's questioning, he even fully admits he hates yet respects Sonic.
- One Egg Memo in particular has Eggman address someone he hasn't given much thought to in years - his deceased cousin Maria, the White Sheep of the Robotnik family whose tragic death plunged his grandfather Gerald into madness and sealed his family's legacy as that of Mad Scientists from that point forward. Even though he never got the chance to meet her, he wonders what she was like and if Sage perhaps shares something in common with her. Even long after her passing and with only Shadow's word to go off of as to what she was like, it's clear that Eggman views Maria as highly as the rest of his family did, and if Sage's actions in the game are anything to go by, she's effectively another carrier of her will to bring hope to humanity.
- Eggman's line as Sage goes with Sonic to fight The End:
Eggman: Be careful, dear daughter. - The love is mutual, too. Sage even asks Sonic to "look after Father" as she performs her Heroic Sacrifice.
- After Sonic forms an alliance with Sage, previously being enemies throughout the first half of the game, Sonic's idle voice lines will occasionally comment on Sage. Some of these include the following:Sage, we've come a long way, haven't we?
Sage, you've grown up a lot during this.
Sage, your dad's a mess. But, you turned out all right. - In the ending, while it is sad that Tails, Amy, and Knuckles are going their separate ways from Sonic to self-discover and realize their potentials by themselves, at the end of the day four will always be friends and in fact Sonic is quite excited to see what his friends will be like when he see them again as different people out of his shadow.
Another Story
- At the start of the campaign, Sonic, while still appreciative that his friends sacrificed their regained physical forms and returned to Cyber Space for his sake, expresses his sadness that they had to do it, having fought so hard and sacrificed himself to free them in the first place. Eggman, as unmoved as he was towards Sonic's cyber corruption overtaking him and that corruption being undone, steps on these feelings by telling the hedgehog not to disgust him with any speeches about "the super power of teamwork". Hearing this insensitive remark, an infuriated Sonic visibly sneers at the Doctor and begins walking up to him with a purpose before Sage stops him, clearly about to tear into his long-time foe for his callousness and defend his friends' choice— verbally or otherwise. While brief, Sonic's reaction makes one thing clear: he won't let anyone dismiss the people he cares about and their bonds that way— especially not Eggman, and especially not after those bonds were further strengthened over the course of this turbulent adventure.
- It's revealed that Big the Cat randomly showing up in the Fishing Spots was actually a construct created from Sonic's memories. Sage thinks that he's a sign of danger until Sonic reaffirms he's quite friendly in real-life, which considering he's the only non-hostile Cyber construct who can treat Sonic to a calm game of fishing means that he sees Big as a good friend no matter the situation.
- Crossing over with Funny: since Cyberspace is shaped by the thoughts and memories of those interacting with it, it can be concluded that out of everywhere he’s been, everything he’s done and everyone he’s met, he either subconsciously or outright consciously feels that fishing with Big at random fishing holes is one of the safest, most relaxing circumstances he could possibly find himself in, if not THE safest and most relaxing.
- Throughout "The Final Horizon", Amy, Tails and Knuckles all begin suffering from cyber corruption due to THE END's influence. However, all three refuse to give into it, in spite of all the pain it's causing them. After all, Sonic didn't give up on helping them, so they won't give up on him. Doubles as Awesome.
- In the Final Horizon DLC's final battle, Amy, Tails and Knuckles get a big heartwarming moment when they reinforce Sage's Cyber Barrier against SUPREME/THE END's onslaught, saving her life when she was already resigned to die while protecting Eggman.
- Eggman's side of the ending scene in the Final Horizon update is even more heartwarming, considering Sage doesn't have to pull an Heroic Sacrifice this time around to stop THE END. This time, Eggman gets to show her how proud he is of her before they head back home. During this, Eggman gets to address Sage as "dear daughter", and Sage herself returns the favor, calling him "father".
- Prior to the update, Eggman only addressed Sage as his dear daughter after she headed out to stop THE END with Sonic. Now, he gets to call her this with her next to him, and she's truly touched to hear it.
- The Final Horizon's credits theme is sung from Sage's perspective to THE END's final boss theme in the regular game, now with lyrics about how she gets to go home with her family. If you listen closely, it's a vocalized remix of the original final boss theme when Sage sacrifices herself, which turns this song into a Triumphant Reprise where Everyone Lives.Now I'm not alone
A family of my own
I get to go home with you
Feelings deep inside
Come flowing from my eyes
I get to go home with you- Speaking of the credits, they finish off with this message from Sonic Team.
