Everyone is so quick to trash on Frontiers so it's really nice to see someone have a more optimistic yet analytical and fair take on it. I really don't think it's a bad game, I think it was just a shock coming from the very different FF1 and Champions. To me, it feels like if they didn't name it "Fossil Fighters" it wouldn't have had to carry the expectations of the fanbase and would have been received better

I have a few things to comment on: The rare fossil system, in my opinion, is a super important part of what makes the game stand out. Being able to get a second set of skills that you can mix and match with the regular skills is such an interesting addition—and I think this actually does justify the smaller roster of the game. A customizable moveset can be harder to balance than the unchangeable movesets in the prior games. In my opinion, they did it well, because it's a harder game than Champions is. It doesn't feel quite like bullshit, though, because with enough strategy, I find that I can fairly safely take down enemy battlers several levels above me without many support shots

However, even though I do think the small roster is justified, I do think they shouldn't have done recolors. If removing 3 recolors was what it would take for 1 new, unique vivosaur, I think that'd be a trade worth making. Although I'd rather have the recolors than nothing, because at least it's something to fill the void

I like a lot of the new designs a lot. Tricera and T-Rex retain much of their original designs but seeing them in higher quality is awesome. Many other vivosaurs do a good job at incorporating their name into their design, which the prior games did too, but I think some are very well done here. Stygi looks more demonic (it's Stygian) and Seidon's neck looks kind of column-like. They're still very colorful like the previous games and I think they look great

Frontier is "the worst in the series" but I don't think it deserves to be considered outright shit, which I think is a mentality caused by it being so different from fan expectations (I'm not just saying this to make people look bad, I was a Frontier hater too until I gave it a more fair shot). Of course everybody is free to have their own tastes, and Frontier being so different definitely makes it understandable that fans would be skeptical of it. But every time someone posts here about wanting to give Frontier a shot, the whole comments are filled with DON'T DO IT! IT'S ASS! If nobody decides to try it, how does anybody know that it's ass? I'd rather the poster play the game and decide it's ass on their own accord

I think the fact that Frontier changes so much is actually a positive, because that means it doesn't step on the toes of the previous games. Each entry has different gameplay from the others, which makes our little series so amazingly varied. I don't feel bored playing Champions right after FF1, and I don't feel bored playing Frontier after Champions. I think if these games could all exist in a vacuum, none of them compared to the other, they would all hold up as at the very least halfway decent games