This article contains spoilers for Sonic Frontiers.Sonic Frontiers is being praised by many fans for featuring the series' most in-depth story in years. It sees a lot of the cast go through character development, tempting the status quo of established Sonic lore. While the story mostly deals with Sonic and his friends, Dr. Eggman gets a considerable amount of time to shine. The villain has his own part to play, and it's partially related the newest addition to the Sonic cast: Sage.
Sage is an AI that Eggman built who has grown to have free will. Over the course of Sonic Frontiers, Sage and Dr. Eggman get to know each other and form a bond. This bond ends up being accepted by both as a father and daughter relationship. That might fly under the radar if players haven't taken the time to find everything they need, but all the pieces are there.
Sonic Frontiers: Sage's Origin
Sage, before the events of Frontiers, was a simple AI that Eggman created to hack into the Ancients' tech so that he could harness it all for himself. Once her code reached Cyber Space, she was affected by its power and discovered the sealed-away evil that lurked inside. Her code rapidly changed, and with the understanding of the coming danger, she purposefully trapped Eggman in Cyber Space to protect him. Protecting Eggman is her priority, and as he demands for Sage to find a way out, she constantly tells him there's no way to remove him "safely."
Due to her integration into Cyber Space, she was given sentience, and was able to take on the appearance of a human girl. With her new-found free will, Sage seems to find comfort in the fact that she's one of Dr. Eggman's creations, with the base protective functions manifesting as viewing the antagonist like family. However, Dr. Eggman talks to her like he would any of his other lackeys for a majority of the game, which leaves Sage to feel like she's alone. This leads her to cry when she sees Sonic and Tails' brotherly relationship.
Dr. Eggman's Egg Memos and Thoughts on Sage
However, to quote Eggman himself from Sonic Lost World, he's a "complicated guy." While he orders Sage around, he's also recording audio logs of his time in Cyber Space, and these "Egg Memos" reveal there's more going on. They quickly take a turn from being about the situation Eggman finds himself in to being all about how helpful Sage is. Once Eggman catches himself calling Sage "she," only to correct himself that she's just "a program," his attachment is very clear.
The Egg Memos were lost in Cyber Space, and players can get their hands on them by fishing with Big the Cat. They play a big role in understanding what's happening between Eggman and Sage, but due to the fact that they're optional, some cutscenes still hint at what's going on. When Sage protects Eggman from some digitized versions of G.U.N militia, he says that he's proud of her, which signifies just how much their bond has changed.
It's unclear if Eggman and Sage actually had a conversation about the fact that they saw each other as family, but Eggman calls her his daughter as he watches her fly into battle. Despite not knowing how her creator felt about it, she refers to him as her father in the scenes he does not appear.
Regardless, the true ending for Sonic Frontiers is evidence that these two will most certainly treat each other as family if Sage returns. Hopefully she will, as thanks to her sympathetic storyline about wanting to take care of and protect her father, she's won over the hearts of many fans. Not having Sage return after players worked hard to unlock the true ending would definitely upset people who adored her development with Dr. Eggman.
Sonic Frontiers is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
