After having waited; following the development of XSonic since the first release trailer, peeking to older teasers on the message boards, and playing him since release: I can confidently say that XSonic meets the hype bar he set and may even surpass it in a majority of ways. However there are just a few gripes I have with the mod still, even after the past 3 versions.
The first of which has been brought up a couple of times I've seen across some older versions, and that's the fact that Dark Emeralds don't save across sessions forcing you to re-earn them each time you launch the game. I really hope this is fixed in a future update; especially a server host it gets quite annoying so little as having XSonic as a part of the addons list due to all of the users joining being Dark Egg hungry only for their plans to be left scrambled when the server inevitably crashes due to XSonics memleak issue.
The second of which I have with XSonic in regular gameplay is that even with tutorials he comes with quite a few features that aren't outwardly explained to the player, like jump leniency (which is what the slight delay in jumping is for). If you run off of edges even when zip dashing, so long as you jump within the first handful of frames you'll be fine but there's nothing that outwardly SAYS so, leading to nobody understanding that the delay in jumps is meant to be a buffer that helps rather than a hinderance and a negative. (I also had to come to this conclusion myself as Golden Shine had to ask me why I was using Jump Leniency with XSonic, and not even I knew.)
The last one for me is moreso a personal gripe, but as I've grown to learn to use the Ring Burst more, I found that I actually dislike not having the old insta-turn you could do with just the mouse from 1.1b. It was a lot easier on my fingers
On top of this I have to leave a detailed review about the SST game mode as that's what I'm personally most passionate about.
Having been playing SST near religiously since XSonics drop, and even having my feedback listened to by Golden Shine when it came down to the auto movement system eating player inputs (shoutout Golden Shine you're great for fixing that) but there's still a few issues within the mode I can't help but look at and just sigh to.
One of which being the lambent interactions. Lambent interactions are still so Janky that in situations where I should win on top of my opponent (Such as Chaos Controlling an enemy's whiffed Lambent), they just end up clashing somehow.
This has never been an issue for me because I have a CPS (Clicks per second) of 12 or so, but I can see how it'd get easily frustrating for the opponent in that scenario.
Even with a CPS of 12 it won't save you from a lot of the frame drops the XSonics fights cause either. Even with so little as 2-4 players and having two battles going is enough to make things dip at times, and task manager doesn't show that the executable is putting any stress on my system so I can only really look towards XSonic and how the effects could be optimized. I only mention this because these have actually caused me to lose interactions I would have otherwise won a handful of times, and so I've tried everything. Video settings, open GL settings, lowering the aspect ratio, nothing. I really hope something concerning the frame drops during Super fights can be one.
Overall I really, REALLY enjoy XSonic as it's the singular addon that got me picking up SRB2 again after a little while of not playing waiting for it, but as for some of my more pressing issues like memory leaks still occurring, dark emeralds never saving, very minimal Super Sonic fights causing frame drops and lag for some; these all keep me from giving it a straight 5/5.
What helps me feel confident enough in giving it a 4/5 though is the fact that everything else about the mod is absolutely perfect. All minus the water physics, but everyone is divided about it and so I'm going to refrain from mentioning that further.
The Zip Dash does as its designed imploring you to learn how to control both the camera and your movement separately from one another pairing the BEST with Automatic in my experience. Being able to eliminate the time it takes to skid and line up another Zip Dash is huge, especially when it comes to speedrunning. Quick 90 degree turns or 180 course corrections are super fast to pull off on Automatic too and I can appreciate that. The Zip works amazingly both for casual users who prefer to take their time with their Zips and aim on Strafe or Manual while also being what is essentially a skill-ceiling determining tool if you're able to master it on Auto.
The Snap Dive is incredibly fun; there isn't a moment I don't find myself bouncing on a badnick from a high up place to get to somewhere vertically I need to go if I don't have the rings to burst up. Pairing it with the fact it can ride projectiles to a degree and even kick 90% of them back at opponents, it's INCREDIBLY versatile and has a skill ceiling of its own. (You can really utilize the way you bounce back after kicking off of badnicks/monitors if you practice enough.)
Wall Jumping is very rhythmic and pleasing to execute, but sometimes SRB2 walls have to wall and I've personally bonked on surfaces I should have ran up (yes, I'm taking into account there are just some surfaces that are non applicable) which has frustrated me, but very seldom and not enough to be an actual complaint. At least not past how nice it feels to use a succession of 3-4 wall jumps to speedrun a vertical section.
The inclusion of Power Rings is amazing and incentivized me to learn new routes in stages I always took the same ones in, and for that alone I adore these. What I don't enjoy about the power rings themselves is that for new players off a fresh XSonic download, when they read "infinite energy" they'll most likely want to use it immediately not realizing that it is indeed... NOT infinite. One could argue that's a part of the learning curve but I know that personally; I don't like being robbed of my power rings to stage hazards, and I wouldn't like being robbed of it by misleading text either.
I don't have much to say about the forms. They're something extra in normal gameplay that aren't necessary to make the mod the mod itself, but they add something incredible to an already immaculate package. I don't use them a lot myself outside of SST but what I have used of them they're fun.
Overall I adore XSonic and I'm genuinely going to change my review to 5 stars after a few more patches, as I imagine the issues I and a good few others are having I've gone through here (particularly the dark emeralds not saving and memleaks) will be fixed with time. This is an exceptional mod, well worth the wait and well deserving of the hype, but still a little undercooked in areas. Thank you Blue, Golden and everyone else that helped make this amazing mod!
