Highlights

  • 2023 has been a great year for Sonic fans with free DLC, brand-new games, and more playable characters, making it a Sonic-packed year.
  • Sonic's friends have had their time to shine with characters like Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Rouge, Cream, and more being made playable.
  • Sage from Sonic Frontiers has become a fan-favorite character, while Ariem from Sonic Dream Team falls short in terms of development and lacks clear lore.

When it comes to announcements, 2023 has been a great year for Sonic fans. Sonic Frontiers had free DLC released throughout the year, and Sonic Superstars and Sonic Dream Team are two brand-new games for players to enjoy. Sonic Origins Plus and Sonic Prime also round up the Sonic offerings for the year, which certainly helps Sega's goal of making 2023 into another Sonic-packed year after what 2022 brought to the table. In particular, this year was especially kind to Sonic's friends, as more characters have been made playable in the last 12 months than there have been in years, breaking a long-standing trend.

Many of the blue blur's allies had their time to shine this year, from Tails, Knuckles, and Amy to even Rouge the Bat and Cream the Rabbit being made playable in Sonic Dream Team. Fang the Hunter, previously known as Nack the Weasel, also emerged from obscurity in Superstars. Apart from the already established cast, 2023 has also been great for the newer characters of the series as well, as Trip the Sungazer joined Sonic's line-up of friends in Sonic Superstars, and Ariem is a new addition seen in Sonic Dream Team as well. However, out of the two, Ariem truly falls flat compared to the latest fan-favorite character, Sage from Sonic Frontiers.

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Sonic Dream Team offers a tight, throwback-filled adventure for the blue hedgehog that should have something in it for everyone.

Comparing Sonic Frontiers' Sage to Sonic Dream Team's Ariem

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How Sage Was Perfectly Set Up to Be a Fan-Favorite Character

Sonic Frontiers is just as much Sage's story as it is Sonic's. Sage was once a simple AI program, but once she interfaced with the Ancients' Cyber Space technology, she took on a new form and had her abilities expanded exponentially to where she became capable of her own thoughts, feelings, and desires. With this newfound understanding, Sage uses her power over Cyber Space to protect Eggman from the oncoming threat of The End by trying to stop Sonic from unleashing it. Sage gains new perspectives through Sonic and her view of the overall situation gradually shifts, represented by her colors flickering between red and blue.

If Sonic Frontiers is a game about connections, then Sage represents that part of the story just as much as Sonic's bonds with Tails, Knuckles, and Amy do. She manages to allow Frontiers to pull back the curtain on Dr. Eggman's villainy and expose the more vulnerable sides to him in a way that doesn't take away from him being a viable threat and rival to Sonic's friends. Yet, she takes what Sonic teaches her to heart, and evolves over the course of the game to where fans felt hurt when she died, and relieved when the DLC's ending avoids her cruel fate.

What Sage Has That Ariem Lacks in Sonic Dream Team

Eggman's daughter stole fans' hearts through how she interacted and learned from the cast, earning her place among the characters with relative ease. As Ariem and Sage are both written by Ian Flynn to a degree, naturally, Ariem can interact and bond with the six playable characters of Sonic Dream Team just fine. However, where Sage's other aspects are rather developed, Ariem falls just short enough for her presence to feel a bit confusing. While her bond with Cream is cute to watch unfold, exactly who or what she is goes completely unexplained.

Ariem is said to be the guardian of the Reverie, a relic that's said to make the dreams of those who have a pure heart real. Yet, when Ariem speaks about herself and her past, she talks about her "creators," as if she's the Reverie itself when she never refers to it as part of her. Everything dealing with Ariem seems to come off as if it's held back by the time constraints of Sonic Dream Team itself, including the lore it adds to the Sonic franchise, even if it isn't much. Suffice to say, it's clear that while Ariem is a sweet new addition to the cast, she needed a bit more time before she could be as important as a character like Sage.