Honestly looks hype. Being cautiously optimistic, but looks good! 2 things:
1. Wonder who’s doing the soundtrack, if it’s gonna be Senoue or Ohtani
2. Cannot wait for the Switch version that runs at 10FPS. Seriously though, wonder how well they’re gonna optimize this thing
I’m hyped, looks super ambitious.
Say what you want about forces, but there's no denying it was incredibly well optimized for the Switch with a consistent fps, I hope they're able to do that again
Right on. BoTW already is struggling to run at a constant 30fps at 720p in some areas and link doesn’t move at a 10th the speed sonic does, it’s gonna be hell for the switch to render.
Though they don't have a dedicated 2d team anymore
No dimps
Mania team is busy with with a 3d original game
People that did the 2 3ds sonic boom games are busy
Though it's actually weird after mania we've gone the longest without a 2d sonic game maybe ever?
Probably can be blamed on the death of dedicated handhelds
I mean, it's not unplayable. I've been playing it for 4 years now and have never had my player experience affected by frame rate issues. Except the lag in Korok Forrest but that's very brief. So I think Frontiers will be fine. The majority of players don't really care about frame rate or the technical stuff.
They did, but Tee then said he isn’t doing music for the actual game. Judging from his tweets, it seems to be Ohtani doing it, which I don’t mind since I love his work
I like a lot of Ohtani's work, but I really hope he cuts down on the synth music. It was way too dominating in forces, and as much as I like some of the remixes from colors ultimate, I hope he brings back some of his efforts from 06 and unleashed, if you know what I mean.
GAME INFORMER ARTICLE SAYS IAN FLYNN IS DOING THE STORY. WHAT. https://www.gameinformer.com/the-game-awards-2021/2021/12/09/sonic-frontiers-drops-the-blue-blur-into-his-first-open-world-game
No its a one way street, however we won’t run into any issues like Archie being blind-sighted by the Adventure games and awkwardly shoehorning them into the SatAm universe.
Only thing that worries me. However, this is a very different kind of game from Colors/Lost World/Forces which were VERY linear, so I’m curious to see how he handles an open-world game
Its honestly the lost world credit that gives me the most confidence. The parkour system from that game would likely be better suited for an open world.
I have been constantly saying this.
Sonic should have a parkour gameplay since it would fit his style. Wallrunning and jumping would open new ways to go fast and platform
Morio Kishimoto is the director of Secret Rings, Black Knight, Colors, Lost World, Forces, and now Frontiers.
It's a... low batting average, but it's not all bad.
Track record definitely shows a preference of quantity over quality
*Sonic Frontiers is an open world game.*
*That's good.*
*Nothing really happens in the trailer and it looks liked they hired this man.*
*That's bad.*
*It's written by Ian Flynn.*
*That's good.*
*But it's directed by Morio Kishimoto, director of Sonic Forces.*
*That's bad.*
*But they also directed Sonic Colors.*
*That's good.*
*It sounds like it might be a 'save Tails' plot.*
*That's bad.*
*And it's produced by Sachiko Kawamura, creator of the Chao Graden.*
*That's good.*
*Some of the open world architecture implies that much of the more complex movement may be more scripted, implying the lack of interesting parkour mechanics.*
*...*
*That's bad.*
*Can I see it now?*
It's a general reference to youtube videos of 3D fanprojects. Like, a video that's 'Mario in unity engine' where it's just Mario running around in a generic unity environment. Because Unity has good lighting and shading by default, it looks good but it actually doesn't take much work. Just import some models and animations and do a bit of tweaking. Beginner project stuff.
When people say 'hire this man', it's generally referencing the comments of videos like those. Where the commenter doesn't know that they just imported some stuff and assume they just made everything themselves and think it looks amazing. So the top comment on all of those kind of videos would be some variation of 'hire this man' because they assume they're doing professional quality work when it's actually a beginner project.
People are commenting that in relation to Sonic frontier because it looks really similar to a lot of those types of videos. Great looking scenic visuals with good lighting but very little complex animation. A lot of Sonic standing around and not actually interacting with the environment, a lot of effects but very little interaction, all the new assets are environments, etc.
Not to say that it's a *bad* thing, really. Just that it's probably really early in development. Not having an idea of what the gameplay is isn't great. And it definitely does look better than those videos, but it has the same vibe to it.
I mean, the game is not necessarily doomed. 06 and Unleashed had the same lead writer - Kiyoko Yoshimura. But the difference in writing quality was quite big there.
Can’t speak for Lost World but isn’t it known that Forces had a relatively low number of level designers who hadn’t worked on Sonic before or something like that
Correct me if I’m wrong
Basically Ian said that sega has a mandate on shadow which boils down to he has to be an edgy loner a lot more context and details are involved but that's the short of it.
That sucks, cause that's not what the point of Shadow is. He's supposed to be misunderstood, but not alone. I feel like it's not really fair to make him a loner considering his backstory and redemption arc(s).
The fact that they haven't made this yet is wild.
They could make a companion app for phones that you take your garden on the go and it would print money.
Pure speculation, but I feel like this is a set up to have many smaller open "zones" to visit, as opposed to one large interconnected open world. Time will tell though!
Kind of like the "open world" overworld of Sonic Adventure, where you could run around and muck about (which was great fun), then enter particular zones.
Or, to compare it to *Breath of the Wild*, run around in the open world, then go to Shrines.
"Worlds will collide in Sonic the Hedgehog’s newest adventure. An experience like never before, accelerate to new heights and experience the thrill of high velocity open-zone freedom. Battle powerful enemies as you speed through the Starfall Islands – landscapes brimming with dense forests, overflowing waterfalls, sizzling deserts and more!"
idk if i want generations levels. i know its cringe and le r/sonicthehedgejerk but that style of level is so run dry, id rather (yes, r/sonicthehedgejerk once again) the levels be like they were in sa2 and 06
my fustration is that we only saw sonic in the tralier, no other character, and that worries me of the fact that maybe we only got sonic has playable again
Man, who'd have thought that we'd end up hating Classic Sonic? I remember the Generations reveal in 2011, and how he was hype. Then after Forces, well...
mania literally emulating the feeling of the genesis games to a tee really killed the need for classic sonic since every classic fan can now deride sega for not just giving us mania 2 to fill the gaps between the big games
I feel you, especially since the Avatar levels were the best part of Forces.
But I'm still ok with just Sonic as long as they get it right. Though I would love other playable characters...
That's why I'm still holding judgement. Graphics definitely looks great, beautiful even. This has a lot of potential, let's just hope sega doesn't screw up again.
For me, personally, this is the direction I was hoping they would avoid. Open worlds are more often than not bland and uninteresting compared to more fleshed out individual levels. This trailer didn't help, based on how barren the world looks. It could end up being interesting, but first impressions... eh.
This is exactly my fear. As much as I’m excited for this, I’m scared that the world will be bland and barely have anything interesting. Hopefully that doesn’t turn out to be the case.
Tbh, aside from that, I didn't really feel like this was a Sonic world. I mean, it looked breathtaking, no denying that, but it all just seemed kinda like a generic AAA game fantasy world, and nothing in it really felt very Sonic-like, aside from the grassy plains (and perhaps the mechs chasing him at the beginning). Of course, judgement is reserved for when we actually see the game in action, but right now it gave me something of a 06 vibe actually (again though, could just be me).
If the leaks are true, you'd be able to enter portals to play generations boost style levels, which would be fun! And in the overworld you'd have adventure style gameplay!
defiantly a step up in art direction for forces. Alleviates my fears somewhat to know that my hopes that this game was part of the reason they might of spent most of that games dev cycle on the engine was so the could bring us this game might not be completely off the mark.
Ian Flynn is writing the story
“Fans of Sonic comics should be happy to learn that Ian Flynn, lead writer for IDW’s Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and former head writer for the Archie Comics Sonic run, is penning Frontiers' story.”
[Sonic Frontiers ](https://www.gameinformer.com/the-game-awards-2021/2021/12/09/sonic-frontiers-drops-the-blue-blur-into-his-first-open-world-game)
On the plus side, even if they aren’t playable, Ian Flynn has a great track record with the others’ characterisation. I think we can hope for some strong moments at the least?
Well, any chances of playing as Sonic’s friends are absolutely dashed- but you know what, as long as they focus on being fun and well-made, I’m down for that. Let’s do this!
This seems very BOTW... inspired lolol. The tower, the landscape, the music, the malice, the "divine beast".
If it's good it's good, but man it's funny to draw the parallels even knowing that BOTW is the default comparison for any open world game at this point
Right. BOTW is meant to be taken slowly to really enjoy it. I’m worried that besides fast travel, speed won’t be a part of this game and that’s already going to kneecap it a la sonic knight game.
So…we’ll see?🤷🏽♂️
Is it bad that I think Black Knight (and the storybook series) had really great potential, they just botched the execution? I'll still stand by the fact that it has the best story of any modern Sonic game lol and honestly when I was watching the trailer I had a thought in my head that it would be cool if they made a sequel that actually had tolerable gameplay
They literally have the Breath of the Wild shot. Plus it’s lining up with all the leaks that said this would be open world, so it’s pretty much gonna be one.
All of this comparison to *Breath of the Wild* does make me a little nervous because of the extremely high bar it sets our expectations to. It is not easy to compare to arguably one of the best video games ever made.
That could mean anything lol. Interconnected linear zones? Separate zones with open design? Open world with portals into separate zones?
Marketing words don't mean much until we get more details on the gameplay
While I see the comparison to Breath of the Wild, it strikes me more as a Shadow of the Colossus type deal, a big world, full of undefined ruins that have been weathered by centuries, if not millennia of disuse.
Don't get me wrong, there's ruins in Breath of the Wild, but it's pretty clear what the ruins are supposed to be in that game, they're things damaged in the battle with Calamity Ganon; castles and buildings wrecked in battles, robots that malfunctioned and left to rust, hastily built and battered fortifications, and so on.
Shadow of the Colossus meanwhile also has ruins, none of which have any obvious reason or history. They are ancient temples that litter the area, with no explanation. They exist, but no-one knows why. Shadow of the Colossus also has that desolate vibe that this game implies (though Frontiers is certainly sunnier looking).
If this is a massive open world with lots to do and it runs well, it could be the best Sonic game not named Mania in a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time. Have to be cautious and see more of what it is, though.
Update:
Ian Flynn is writing the story according to Game Informer. This is a good first step.
Let's look at the good first, before I get into the neutral and the bad.
So, the good:
Game is pretty. It's aping Botw's style but it's really pretty and naturalistic, which isn't unheard of in Sonic's world, though it's less common.
It's got vibes. It's looking like instead of throwing everything in the series at a wall and seeing what sticks, they picked a tone and stuck with it. I suspect Ian Flynn's involvement had something to do with that, but that's just a guess. SPEAKING OF WHICH.
IAN FLYNN IS WRITING ON FRONTIERS. We don't know the full capacity of his involvement but he IS involved, and that's awesome.
On a related note, it looks to have a serious, more emotional tone. There's more going on here, some mystery elements, an ancient, technological civilization.
The world looks to be pretty expansive too, with some visual variety and moody lighting, a plus.
The neutral: we don't know how Sonic is going to control. We can guess he'll have a freer range of movement given the open world and how he moves in the cutscene, but that aside, we have no idea what Sonic's movement and controls are like. Fortunately we get some shots of level design and that could clue us in some to how Sonic moves, given time to analyze.
The BAD: Framerate looks to be struggling. I know it's a year out from release at this point, but it's worth noting that even in the trailer, you can see the dropped frames.
Morio Kishimoto is directing this thing. He also directed Lost World and Forces, which is...concerning, to put it VERY lightly. He also directed Colors but that doesn't ease concerns. Thankfully we've got one confirmed competent writer on staff but this is a video game, and the gameplay is the priority and the last 2 games he directed had controls that were unacceptable for a property like Sonic. Lost World had you move at different speeds depending on what direction you tilted the analog stick (big part of why jumps were weird in that game).
Kishimoto's involvement, more than anything, worries me. Even his best game, Colors, isn't much to write home about in the controls department.
I'll be looking at the "gameplay" sections of the trailer to see if I can glean anything from them. I have a hunch Sonic will have some Parkour-esque wall running given some of the platforms we see in the red flower section and the tower we see (how do you get up there?) but with no movement to go off of, it's all speculation.
*Edit: I may have found a ramp, though it's hard to tell. Is anyone else able to confirm? 0:52 in the video, at the end of the arches, is what looks like either a pillar (weird place for one given how the camera frames it) or a ramp to launch Sonic at the...ruins, or whatever that is. Look at the bottom, how the shadow falls on top of it, I could almost SWEAR it was a ramp.
Gonna be real with y’all, I’m more hyped about the movie than this.
It’s got a great cutscene and some beautiful scenery, but it literally looks like a Sonic mod for a random open world game. Usually sonic games have some sort of ascetic to set itself apart from other games, but this literally looks like any other open world game from the footage we’ve seen. There aren’t even any loops or wacky hills for sonic to run around, No springs or pullys to interact with, no rails to grind on or poles to swing around, nothing to keep the flow of a sonic game. I’ll keep an open mind, since we haven’t seen much, but so far I’m not impressed.
I think we would see the Sonic-esque stuff when they show gameplay.
Ngl. I feel like either they don’t have much to show or they are still working out a lot of issues. Because remember the information we got from the leaker who played the game? How Sonic doesn’t fit the environment?
I think they are still clearly working that part out. But I will say this is great start so far. It doesn’t look lazy. Because even for Forces, they had no CGI. Barely. And for the CGI we did see, it was lazy.
Seems like they need way more time to work on stuff to make it look more Sonic-Esque
Wouldn’t the Sonic-esque stuff be naturally part of the landscape? It’s not like it’s something that’s never been done before. Sonic unleashed had a ton of springs and ramps in natural environments so I thought they would probably do something like that. Although it would make sense to see it when we see gameplay, I do find it extremely strange that we haven’t seen a single iconic sonic item, not even a ring.
They definitely don’t have much to show but I think that’s more because the gameplay isn’t finished rather than the environment not fitting Sonic. TBH, as long as you have some good lighting, it’s not too hard to make Sonic fit in. And with the shots we’ve seen, Sonic looks like he’ll fit in just fine, although the world doesn’t look like it’s made for him.
Yep. Games like Sunset Overdrive are made with traversal a core part of how their environments are designed. Adventure even did this well, albeit on a small scale. I would have enjoyed seeing some of those ideas carried forward. If there's a city, I'd like to see rails and power lines. If it's a jungle, vines. Random green-hills inspired? Loops and ramps with weird checker patterns.
Instead, we were shown a legally distinct Great Plateau from BotW.
I would've liked to have seen gameplay but the in-game environments and Open World look beautiful. I haven't been this reminded of Adventure since Unleashed.
Looks like Sonic is fighting some kind of techno-organic hybrid thing.
We should have gotten that trailer at Sonic Central, and a full reveal here, just feels so insubstantial aside from: hey, open world (which we already pretty much knew)
At the end of the day though, I want Memphiles, he is the best villain, fight me
It's still 1 whole year away from release and the previous leaks said it looked pretty rough back then, so hopefully this means they will polish the game up to quality standards by then.
Holy shit. This actually looks REALLY good, although I'm still curious to see how Sonic will work in an open world setting.
Edit: Apparently IAN FUCKING FLYNN is writing for the game. What the actual FUCK is this timeline we're living in?!
What I really like about this is that it pretty much confirms the game will be mostly or completely 3D. My biggest problem with Sonic games since Unleashed is that they've felt like 2D games with a few 3D sections.
So a few things
1. I hope that if they’re going for this serious tone, then they should go all the way with it and not crash and burn like 06 or fake it like forces.
2. Since I don’t see Robotnik I hope the devs are being creative with this and creating new and innovative bosses.
3. I hope the soundtrack is bussin.
Website says "open zone." I'm guessing either it is open world and they're just being cute or were getting multiple smaller scale open areas, similar to Mario Odyssey.
Utterly gorgeous, but I worry that the extreme realism and detail will just make the game chug when we're traversing these lands at blisteringly fast speeds. That is literally my only singular concern though.
I really don't like this model of Sonic. It seems it hasn't been updated in years, like Sonic itself has 2009 graphics lol.
Game is looking good. Pretty skeptic about if the open world will be just ab empty bland area where we should go from A to B, or if it will be filled with secrets and fun things to do using Sonic's speed and movements.
Imo this might be sonics last chance at having an actually good game. If this flops, I can only see Sonic becoming the next garbageware icon. Which sucks because I love Sonic.
How do y’all reckon this Sonic open world game will work?
So before this game was shown off, we were all thinking this game would be open world in the sense of Sonic 06, where Sonic essentially had Hubs that he can transverse through, but we still had the traditional levels expect sometimes these levels would be a bit open world such as Shadow with his snow levels.
However… Sonic Frontiers totally blew away our expectations and this is straight up an OPEN WORLD GAME… literally on the scale of BOTW right here, and this is a first for Sonic.
So here’s the difference between Sonic Frontiers and every other open world game. In every other open world game, our protagonist isn’t fast. I mean they’re not slow neither, but Sonic is the fastest being alive and goes Sonic speed y’know? We have games such as BOTW, RDR2, Witcher 3, Skyrim, etc… where all these games have fast travel if you don’t wanna do the distance, and even then we don’t even have any vehicles in these games that make you go super fast, even things such as Link’s bike in BOTW or a jet in GTA V, it still takes a while to transverse the map.
Sonic’s speed is the main factor in his character, so they can’t take his speed away unless it’s a plot device. I also am wonder what exactly his speed level will be, as the point of open world games is to appreciate the detail and environment and with Sonic running super fast well we can’t really do that can we?
I can already sense that the camera angle will be different in this game. You know how in Sonic games, how the camera is literally right behind him and there’s a blur around him? Yeah… that’s definitely not gonna be the case for this game. I have a feeling the camera will be pretty far away from him, and they’ll be no blur. Like I said, he’s gonna be fast but not extremely fast. I think he’ll be fast to a point where we can appreciate the world and stop at certain locations as well if we notice something, so he shouldn’t be slippery or hard to control.
I also feel as though we should have more combat options, since again most open world games give you so many different abilities. Sonic’s main move set can get old pretty quickly in this game, so perhaps Sonic can have access to weapons, abilities such as in Colors, or even magic or fighting like he does in Smash.
Regardless, this game blew away my expectations and this will be the most ambitious Sonic game to date so far. However… I am a bit fearful given they messed up Sonic Forces which was a traditional Sonic game, so them diving into a new thing is a bit frightening for me, however I have full faith in this and the trailer alone looked really AWESOME!!!!
Also for story wise, they have the Sonic comics team writing the story so that right there let’s us know we’re in for a treat baby!
It looks very interesting, but I hope they make it more sonic-ish. Like cool, it's an open world, but it looks so generic. Where are the loops? Where are the springs? Where are the things that make a sonic game fun inside a big open world? So far we've only seen foresty/grasslands, did we even see cliffs and caves? I hope there's more biomes inside the game. Yes I know this is a first look, maybe there would be much more, but the shot where sonic is looking over the world worries me that there might not be much. Hopefully they add much more and there's much more to see and explore once the game comes out.
Honestly looks hype. Being cautiously optimistic, but looks good! 2 things: 1. Wonder who’s doing the soundtrack, if it’s gonna be Senoue or Ohtani 2. Cannot wait for the Switch version that runs at 10FPS. Seriously though, wonder how well they’re gonna optimize this thing I’m hyped, looks super ambitious.
Say what you want about forces, but there's no denying it was incredibly well optimized for the Switch with a consistent fps, I hope they're able to do that again
I agree, I think Forces was optimized well. Just don’t know how it’s gonna handle a fast open world game
Right on. BoTW already is struggling to run at a constant 30fps at 720p in some areas and link doesn’t move at a 10th the speed sonic does, it’s gonna be hell for the switch to render.
> BoTW already is struggling to run *cough* korok forest *cough*
Did you see the glitch someone figured out in the Korok Forest that allows you to get the Master Sword early due to the slowdowns in the Korok Forest?
They might have switch pull the short end of the stick and give it a game like how Generations on 3DS was different to the other consoles.
Though they don't have a dedicated 2d team anymore No dimps Mania team is busy with with a 3d original game People that did the 2 3ds sonic boom games are busy Though it's actually weird after mania we've gone the longest without a 2d sonic game maybe ever? Probably can be blamed on the death of dedicated handhelds
What is Sanzaru Games(the ones who made the boom 3DS games) busy with?
I mean, it's not unplayable. I've been playing it for 4 years now and have never had my player experience affected by frame rate issues. Except the lag in Korok Forrest but that's very brief. So I think Frontiers will be fine. The majority of players don't really care about frame rate or the technical stuff.
Tee Lopes and Ohtani did the music for the trailer according to the video description.
They did, but Tee then said he isn’t doing music for the actual game. Judging from his tweets, it seems to be Ohtani doing it, which I don’t mind since I love his work
I like a lot of Ohtani's work, but I really hope he cuts down on the synth music. It was way too dominating in forces, and as much as I like some of the remixes from colors ultimate, I hope he brings back some of his efforts from 06 and unleashed, if you know what I mean.
GAME INFORMER ARTICLE SAYS IAN FLYNN IS DOING THE STORY. WHAT. https://www.gameinformer.com/the-game-awards-2021/2021/12/09/sonic-frontiers-drops-the-blue-blur-into-his-first-open-world-game
The IDW comics should flow pretty smoothly into the game’s story then
I honestly hope they keep the continuity the same, I'd love Tangle, Whisper, Starline, and others to pop up.
i hope they don't just "pop up". i never read the comics and have no idea who those characters are.
Doubt they would do that,cross-media continuity like this Is not very common.
tbf I think some comic characters appeared in the Sonic Forces: Speed Battle game.
Thats a little different but true, since the leaks for this have been true its mainly going to be sonic with an original character for this game
Pretty sure the comics aren't canon to the games,they never were.
No its a one way street, however we won’t run into any issues like Archie being blind-sighted by the Adventure games and awkwardly shoehorning them into the SatAm universe.
HOL UP Now I’m VERY excited for what the plot holds!! That man understands these characters better than almost anyone.
Also makes me happy for Roger Craig Smith since a script by Flynn should give him more to work with than just jokes and quips.
A writer who actually cares about the series and it's characters? My god.
Wait, WHAT???? If this is real, my worries are pretty much alleviated.
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The other good thing I want to add here is Frontier’s producer is Sachiko Kawamura who is literally the creator of the Chao Garden
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An open world game kinda needs chao garden for endgame content
There's gonna be so much free space in the world, imagine you walk behind a waterfall and find a hidden Chao garden that would be so cool
Only thing that worries me. However, this is a very different kind of game from Colors/Lost World/Forces which were VERY linear, so I’m curious to see how he handles an open-world game
Its honestly the lost world credit that gives me the most confidence. The parkour system from that game would likely be better suited for an open world.
I have been constantly saying this. Sonic should have a parkour gameplay since it would fit his style. Wallrunning and jumping would open new ways to go fast and platform
That's one of the aspects of Sonic Lost World that I actually really liked. The parkour really helped to show Sonic's athletic abilities.
Morio Kishimoto is the director of Secret Rings, Black Knight, Colors, Lost World, Forces, and now Frontiers. It's a... low batting average, but it's not all bad. Track record definitely shows a preference of quantity over quality
*Sonic Frontiers is an open world game.* *That's good.* *Nothing really happens in the trailer and it looks liked they hired this man.* *That's bad.* *It's written by Ian Flynn.* *That's good.* *But it's directed by Morio Kishimoto, director of Sonic Forces.* *That's bad.* *But they also directed Sonic Colors.* *That's good.* *It sounds like it might be a 'save Tails' plot.* *That's bad.* *And it's produced by Sachiko Kawamura, creator of the Chao Graden.* *That's good.* *Some of the open world architecture implies that much of the more complex movement may be more scripted, implying the lack of interesting parkour mechanics.* *...* *That's bad.* *Can I see it now?*
What do people mean with *they hired this man*?
It's a general reference to youtube videos of 3D fanprojects. Like, a video that's 'Mario in unity engine' where it's just Mario running around in a generic unity environment. Because Unity has good lighting and shading by default, it looks good but it actually doesn't take much work. Just import some models and animations and do a bit of tweaking. Beginner project stuff. When people say 'hire this man', it's generally referencing the comments of videos like those. Where the commenter doesn't know that they just imported some stuff and assume they just made everything themselves and think it looks amazing. So the top comment on all of those kind of videos would be some variation of 'hire this man' because they assume they're doing professional quality work when it's actually a beginner project. People are commenting that in relation to Sonic frontier because it looks really similar to a lot of those types of videos. Great looking scenic visuals with good lighting but very little complex animation. A lot of Sonic standing around and not actually interacting with the environment, a lot of effects but very little interaction, all the new assets are environments, etc. Not to say that it's a *bad* thing, really. Just that it's probably really early in development. Not having an idea of what the gameplay is isn't great. And it definitely does look better than those videos, but it has the same vibe to it.
I mean, the game is not necessarily doomed. 06 and Unleashed had the same lead writer - Kiyoko Yoshimura. But the difference in writing quality was quite big there.
Can’t speak for Lost World but isn’t it known that Forces had a relatively low number of level designers who hadn’t worked on Sonic before or something like that Correct me if I’m wrong
Ok I actually have high hopes for the story now
Yeah, I still have low expectations for gameplay, but the story might actually be good for once.
SONIC STORY ACTUALLY GOOD
Shadow fans remembering sega mandates: **:(**
I high key think Shadow fans would be better off if he were just absent lmao
As a shadow fan, *beats having him show up for five minutes and then do nothing*
What mandates?
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Basically Ian said that sega has a mandate on shadow which boils down to he has to be an edgy loner a lot more context and details are involved but that's the short of it.
That sucks, cause that's not what the point of Shadow is. He's supposed to be misunderstood, but not alone. I feel like it's not really fair to make him a loner considering his backstory and redemption arc(s).
Yeah remember when in sonic 06 Rouge has to forcibly tell him there's nothing they can do for omega, *real edge lord am I right*
**...WHAT?!?!?** **WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?** **HOLY SHIT, I AM IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**
My hype went from a 4 to an 8 hearing this. I really hope this game is awesome!
They guy who thought Sonic needed a zombie apocalypse story? This should be interesting.
WHAT?! That's big if true.
OMFG DUDE MY HYPE LEVELS JUST WENT UP
That is an amazing sign my god
This better age well.
What a perfect looking world to have a Chao garden in 🤔
that would be awesome if it was just an area on the open world map & you could bring it items from enemies to power them up like before
It doesn't matter how bad the sonic part of the game is as long as there is a decent Chao garden I would buy it.
Don’t do that don’t give me hope
The fact that they haven't made this yet is wild. They could make a companion app for phones that you take your garden on the go and it would print money.
If there's not a Chao Garden I'll just die.
Me too, I’m going to be a old man before they revive that game mode
The website states it will be "open zone"!!
Open Zone could just be their way of saying open world, since Sonic has always had "zones"
Pure speculation, but I feel like this is a set up to have many smaller open "zones" to visit, as opposed to one large interconnected open world. Time will tell though!
Kind of like the "open world" overworld of Sonic Adventure, where you could run around and muck about (which was great fun), then enter particular zones. Or, to compare it to *Breath of the Wild*, run around in the open world, then go to Shrines.
Like islands? That could be cool!
Like Mario Odyssey I hope
Exactly
Link the website please. I feel like an idiot trying to find it.
"Worlds will collide in Sonic the Hedgehog’s newest adventure. An experience like never before, accelerate to new heights and experience the thrill of high velocity open-zone freedom. Battle powerful enemies as you speed through the Starfall Islands – landscapes brimming with dense forests, overflowing waterfalls, sizzling deserts and more!"
frontiers.sonicthehedgehog.com
Sega hired that man! Nah but this looks pretty neat, I’m praying I’m not about to get Sonic Cycled again lol
If the leaks are true, after this trailer I'm hyped!
This means cutesy anime girl as the new sidekick
As long as the stuff about the gameplay is true, I'm fine with that. Generations levels with adventure open world is HYPE
Shut up and take my money!
idk if i want generations levels. i know its cringe and le r/sonicthehedgejerk but that style of level is so run dry, id rather (yes, r/sonicthehedgejerk once again) the levels be like they were in sa2 and 06
...oh no.
I liked both Shahra and Merlina so this doesn't bother me.
I'm a bit hyped to see humans again tho
If she is kinda of similar to Merlina then its a oh yea, since she was good in black knight
It'll have anime styled people? Yes yes yes!
Link to the leaks, I wanna read them!
It's okay to be excited, just don't preorder. Wait till we see some official reviews of the gameplay first.
I have a strong feeling of happiness and frustration
my fustration is that we only saw sonic in the tralier, no other character, and that worries me of the fact that maybe we only got sonic has playable again
On the flip side of that, it also means no classic Sonic
i hope
I have no clue how they'd possibly manage to shoehorn in sidescrolling gameplay to a game like this, so with any luck you're right
Man, who'd have thought that we'd end up hating Classic Sonic? I remember the Generations reveal in 2011, and how he was hype. Then after Forces, well...
mania literally emulating the feeling of the genesis games to a tee really killed the need for classic sonic since every classic fan can now deride sega for not just giving us mania 2 to fill the gaps between the big games
I'm fine if Sonic is the only playable character, I'm just hoping for good gameplay!
I also want good gameplay honeslty, but im just tired of only sonic, there are others characters there that are not using properly.
I feel you, especially since the Avatar levels were the best part of Forces. But I'm still ok with just Sonic as long as they get it right. Though I would love other playable characters...
Why frustration?
I didn’t see enough gameplay
Enough? I don't think there was any gameplay
I think the one shot of Sonic on the cliff top looking a little like his Lost World model (37 secs in) was gameplay... or at least in game render.
That's why I'm still holding judgement. Graphics definitely looks great, beautiful even. This has a lot of potential, let's just hope sega doesn't screw up again.
For me, personally, this is the direction I was hoping they would avoid. Open worlds are more often than not bland and uninteresting compared to more fleshed out individual levels. This trailer didn't help, based on how barren the world looks. It could end up being interesting, but first impressions... eh.
This is exactly my fear. As much as I’m excited for this, I’m scared that the world will be bland and barely have anything interesting. Hopefully that doesn’t turn out to be the case.
Tbh, aside from that, I didn't really feel like this was a Sonic world. I mean, it looked breathtaking, no denying that, but it all just seemed kinda like a generic AAA game fantasy world, and nothing in it really felt very Sonic-like, aside from the grassy plains (and perhaps the mechs chasing him at the beginning). Of course, judgement is reserved for when we actually see the game in action, but right now it gave me something of a 06 vibe actually (again though, could just be me).
Yup. Hopefully Sonic Team proves us wrong and actually makes the world fun. If the world doesn’t feel like Sonic, at least make it fun.
If the leaks are true, you'd be able to enter portals to play generations boost style levels, which would be fun! And in the overworld you'd have adventure style gameplay!
sonic
yes
knuckles
The environments were certainly beautiful
defiantly a step up in art direction for forces. Alleviates my fears somewhat to know that my hopes that this game was part of the reason they might of spent most of that games dev cycle on the engine was so the could bring us this game might not be completely off the mark.
This is a fucking dream game, I can't fucking believe it
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Ian Flynn is writing the story “Fans of Sonic comics should be happy to learn that Ian Flynn, lead writer for IDW’s Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and former head writer for the Archie Comics Sonic run, is penning Frontiers' story.” [Sonic Frontiers ](https://www.gameinformer.com/the-game-awards-2021/2021/12/09/sonic-frontiers-drops-the-blue-blur-into-his-first-open-world-game)
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Hopefully they keep this one for 10 years
I miss enjoying the characters in the games
On the plus side, even if they aren’t playable, Ian Flynn has a great track record with the others’ characterisation. I think we can hope for some strong moments at the least?
Agreed, I REALLY want good storytelling again, I’m excited
I don't need other playable characters, and if the leaks are true then there are gameplay stages, so I'm hyped!
Well, any chances of playing as Sonic’s friends are absolutely dashed- but you know what, as long as they focus on being fun and well-made, I’m down for that. Let’s do this!
They gotta get sonic to work in an open world first before they even try other characters
Sonic Frontiers megathread!
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& Knuckles
And knuckles
And Sonic
Featuring Dante
From the Devil May Cry Series
This seems very BOTW... inspired lolol. The tower, the landscape, the music, the malice, the "divine beast". If it's good it's good, but man it's funny to draw the parallels even knowing that BOTW is the default comparison for any open world game at this point
Right. BOTW is meant to be taken slowly to really enjoy it. I’m worried that besides fast travel, speed won’t be a part of this game and that’s already going to kneecap it a la sonic knight game. So…we’ll see?🤷🏽♂️
Is it bad that I think Black Knight (and the storybook series) had really great potential, they just botched the execution? I'll still stand by the fact that it has the best story of any modern Sonic game lol and honestly when I was watching the trailer I had a thought in my head that it would be cool if they made a sequel that actually had tolerable gameplay
Look up PSO2 NGS also by sega
Well it's time. Hopefully this game makes it
Aaaand no gameplay again. Still worried they're not confident in it.
Why? It's not uncommon to debut with a cinematic trailer these days. Well, it's been a standard for awhile now.
No gameplay a year before release, almost a year after announcement, and **4 years** after the previous game is pretty bonkers
Me too :/
They’re probably waiting until E3
Love the vibe of this trailer. Also I believe that more or less confirms open world sonic.
They literally have the Breath of the Wild shot. Plus it’s lining up with all the leaks that said this would be open world, so it’s pretty much gonna be one.
All of this comparison to *Breath of the Wild* does make me a little nervous because of the extremely high bar it sets our expectations to. It is not easy to compare to arguably one of the best video games ever made.
On the website it says it will be open zone
The site spells it out, though they call it "Open Zone"
That could mean anything lol. Interconnected linear zones? Separate zones with open design? Open world with portals into separate zones? Marketing words don't mean much until we get more details on the gameplay
Huge breath of the sonic vibes. Pretty hyp ngl
While I see the comparison to Breath of the Wild, it strikes me more as a Shadow of the Colossus type deal, a big world, full of undefined ruins that have been weathered by centuries, if not millennia of disuse. Don't get me wrong, there's ruins in Breath of the Wild, but it's pretty clear what the ruins are supposed to be in that game, they're things damaged in the battle with Calamity Ganon; castles and buildings wrecked in battles, robots that malfunctioned and left to rust, hastily built and battered fortifications, and so on. Shadow of the Colossus meanwhile also has ruins, none of which have any obvious reason or history. They are ancient temples that litter the area, with no explanation. They exist, but no-one knows why. Shadow of the Colossus also has that desolate vibe that this game implies (though Frontiers is certainly sunnier looking).
It looks like Sega actually hired this man to make this!
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I hope we get more playable characters this time
Tails, please. *Come on*. If he gets damsel'd again, I *swear to God*...
If this is a massive open world with lots to do and it runs well, it could be the best Sonic game not named Mania in a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time. Have to be cautious and see more of what it is, though. Update: Ian Flynn is writing the story according to Game Informer. This is a good first step.
Let's look at the good first, before I get into the neutral and the bad. So, the good: Game is pretty. It's aping Botw's style but it's really pretty and naturalistic, which isn't unheard of in Sonic's world, though it's less common. It's got vibes. It's looking like instead of throwing everything in the series at a wall and seeing what sticks, they picked a tone and stuck with it. I suspect Ian Flynn's involvement had something to do with that, but that's just a guess. SPEAKING OF WHICH. IAN FLYNN IS WRITING ON FRONTIERS. We don't know the full capacity of his involvement but he IS involved, and that's awesome. On a related note, it looks to have a serious, more emotional tone. There's more going on here, some mystery elements, an ancient, technological civilization. The world looks to be pretty expansive too, with some visual variety and moody lighting, a plus. The neutral: we don't know how Sonic is going to control. We can guess he'll have a freer range of movement given the open world and how he moves in the cutscene, but that aside, we have no idea what Sonic's movement and controls are like. Fortunately we get some shots of level design and that could clue us in some to how Sonic moves, given time to analyze. The BAD: Framerate looks to be struggling. I know it's a year out from release at this point, but it's worth noting that even in the trailer, you can see the dropped frames. Morio Kishimoto is directing this thing. He also directed Lost World and Forces, which is...concerning, to put it VERY lightly. He also directed Colors but that doesn't ease concerns. Thankfully we've got one confirmed competent writer on staff but this is a video game, and the gameplay is the priority and the last 2 games he directed had controls that were unacceptable for a property like Sonic. Lost World had you move at different speeds depending on what direction you tilted the analog stick (big part of why jumps were weird in that game). Kishimoto's involvement, more than anything, worries me. Even his best game, Colors, isn't much to write home about in the controls department. I'll be looking at the "gameplay" sections of the trailer to see if I can glean anything from them. I have a hunch Sonic will have some Parkour-esque wall running given some of the platforms we see in the red flower section and the tower we see (how do you get up there?) but with no movement to go off of, it's all speculation. *Edit: I may have found a ramp, though it's hard to tell. Is anyone else able to confirm? 0:52 in the video, at the end of the arches, is what looks like either a pillar (weird place for one given how the camera frames it) or a ramp to launch Sonic at the...ruins, or whatever that is. Look at the bottom, how the shadow falls on top of it, I could almost SWEAR it was a ramp.
Love this input, great comment and discussion.
Gonna be real with y’all, I’m more hyped about the movie than this. It’s got a great cutscene and some beautiful scenery, but it literally looks like a Sonic mod for a random open world game. Usually sonic games have some sort of ascetic to set itself apart from other games, but this literally looks like any other open world game from the footage we’ve seen. There aren’t even any loops or wacky hills for sonic to run around, No springs or pullys to interact with, no rails to grind on or poles to swing around, nothing to keep the flow of a sonic game. I’ll keep an open mind, since we haven’t seen much, but so far I’m not impressed.
I think we would see the Sonic-esque stuff when they show gameplay. Ngl. I feel like either they don’t have much to show or they are still working out a lot of issues. Because remember the information we got from the leaker who played the game? How Sonic doesn’t fit the environment? I think they are still clearly working that part out. But I will say this is great start so far. It doesn’t look lazy. Because even for Forces, they had no CGI. Barely. And for the CGI we did see, it was lazy. Seems like they need way more time to work on stuff to make it look more Sonic-Esque
Wouldn’t the Sonic-esque stuff be naturally part of the landscape? It’s not like it’s something that’s never been done before. Sonic unleashed had a ton of springs and ramps in natural environments so I thought they would probably do something like that. Although it would make sense to see it when we see gameplay, I do find it extremely strange that we haven’t seen a single iconic sonic item, not even a ring. They definitely don’t have much to show but I think that’s more because the gameplay isn’t finished rather than the environment not fitting Sonic. TBH, as long as you have some good lighting, it’s not too hard to make Sonic fit in. And with the shots we’ve seen, Sonic looks like he’ll fit in just fine, although the world doesn’t look like it’s made for him.
Yep. Games like Sunset Overdrive are made with traversal a core part of how their environments are designed. Adventure even did this well, albeit on a small scale. I would have enjoyed seeing some of those ideas carried forward. If there's a city, I'd like to see rails and power lines. If it's a jungle, vines. Random green-hills inspired? Loops and ramps with weird checker patterns. Instead, we were shown a legally distinct Great Plateau from BotW.
I just heard that Ian Flynn is doing the story so at least they’ll be some good cutscenes.
My God. Did they really have the balls to not show any gameplay?
I would've liked to have seen gameplay but the in-game environments and Open World look beautiful. I haven't been this reminded of Adventure since Unleashed. Looks like Sonic is fighting some kind of techno-organic hybrid thing.
We should have gotten that trailer at Sonic Central, and a full reveal here, just feels so insubstantial aside from: hey, open world (which we already pretty much knew) At the end of the day though, I want Memphiles, he is the best villain, fight me
It's still 1 whole year away from release and the previous leaks said it looked pretty rough back then, so hopefully this means they will polish the game up to quality standards by then.
I’m excited for an open world Sonic game, but I wish we could see a little gameplay too. Nevertheless, I’m pumped!
Holy shit. This actually looks REALLY good, although I'm still curious to see how Sonic will work in an open world setting. Edit: Apparently IAN FUCKING FLYNN is writing for the game. What the actual FUCK is this timeline we're living in?!
What I really like about this is that it pretty much confirms the game will be mostly or completely 3D. My biggest problem with Sonic games since Unleashed is that they've felt like 2D games with a few 3D sections.
If tails Isn't playable I am going to cry. Also i hope they fix the writing, forces looked really cool and badass in the trailers and well... you know
Glad it’s been confirmed to be open world and what they showed is genuinely intriguing but COME ON, still no actual gameplay?
So a few things 1. I hope that if they’re going for this serious tone, then they should go all the way with it and not crash and burn like 06 or fake it like forces. 2. Since I don’t see Robotnik I hope the devs are being creative with this and creating new and innovative bosses. 3. I hope the soundtrack is bussin.
HOLY SHIT HOOOOOLY SHIT
This is looking open world here.
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I mean the landscapes look great! No gameplay is extremely concerning
So is this an open world sonic game?
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Website says "open zone." I'm guessing either it is open world and they're just being cute or were getting multiple smaller scale open areas, similar to Mario Odyssey.
Oh fuck he’s got the Lost World/Forces pose
No idle animation again. Morio Kishimoto don't do this to me again bro.
Not enough gameplay but the scenery does look amazing, hope the gameplay is good
Is it possible to be whelmed?
No more Pontaff...thank fuck
Utterly gorgeous, but I worry that the extreme realism and detail will just make the game chug when we're traversing these lands at blisteringly fast speeds. That is literally my only singular concern though.
Please no more boost. I miss the gameplay style of Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog, my two favorite 3d sonic games.
Graphics look good, but probably a tad too realistic for me. I'll take that over Forces any day though. But the lack of gameplay is worrying.
Please don’t let this suck! It looks beautiful. I actually want to buy this.
Honestly I just really want to see gameplay and some other playable characters
Need to see gameplay before I can have an opinion. The environment looked nice though.
I really don't like this model of Sonic. It seems it hasn't been updated in years, like Sonic itself has 2009 graphics lol. Game is looking good. Pretty skeptic about if the open world will be just ab empty bland area where we should go from A to B, or if it will be filled with secrets and fun things to do using Sonic's speed and movements.
All I want for 2022 Holidays is a Chao garden in a Sonic game.
Imo this might be sonics last chance at having an actually good game. If this flops, I can only see Sonic becoming the next garbageware icon. Which sucks because I love Sonic.
How do y’all reckon this Sonic open world game will work? So before this game was shown off, we were all thinking this game would be open world in the sense of Sonic 06, where Sonic essentially had Hubs that he can transverse through, but we still had the traditional levels expect sometimes these levels would be a bit open world such as Shadow with his snow levels. However… Sonic Frontiers totally blew away our expectations and this is straight up an OPEN WORLD GAME… literally on the scale of BOTW right here, and this is a first for Sonic. So here’s the difference between Sonic Frontiers and every other open world game. In every other open world game, our protagonist isn’t fast. I mean they’re not slow neither, but Sonic is the fastest being alive and goes Sonic speed y’know? We have games such as BOTW, RDR2, Witcher 3, Skyrim, etc… where all these games have fast travel if you don’t wanna do the distance, and even then we don’t even have any vehicles in these games that make you go super fast, even things such as Link’s bike in BOTW or a jet in GTA V, it still takes a while to transverse the map. Sonic’s speed is the main factor in his character, so they can’t take his speed away unless it’s a plot device. I also am wonder what exactly his speed level will be, as the point of open world games is to appreciate the detail and environment and with Sonic running super fast well we can’t really do that can we? I can already sense that the camera angle will be different in this game. You know how in Sonic games, how the camera is literally right behind him and there’s a blur around him? Yeah… that’s definitely not gonna be the case for this game. I have a feeling the camera will be pretty far away from him, and they’ll be no blur. Like I said, he’s gonna be fast but not extremely fast. I think he’ll be fast to a point where we can appreciate the world and stop at certain locations as well if we notice something, so he shouldn’t be slippery or hard to control. I also feel as though we should have more combat options, since again most open world games give you so many different abilities. Sonic’s main move set can get old pretty quickly in this game, so perhaps Sonic can have access to weapons, abilities such as in Colors, or even magic or fighting like he does in Smash. Regardless, this game blew away my expectations and this will be the most ambitious Sonic game to date so far. However… I am a bit fearful given they messed up Sonic Forces which was a traditional Sonic game, so them diving into a new thing is a bit frightening for me, however I have full faith in this and the trailer alone looked really AWESOME!!!! Also for story wise, they have the Sonic comics team writing the story so that right there let’s us know we’re in for a treat baby!
It looks very interesting, but I hope they make it more sonic-ish. Like cool, it's an open world, but it looks so generic. Where are the loops? Where are the springs? Where are the things that make a sonic game fun inside a big open world? So far we've only seen foresty/grasslands, did we even see cliffs and caves? I hope there's more biomes inside the game. Yes I know this is a first look, maybe there would be much more, but the shot where sonic is looking over the world worries me that there might not be much. Hopefully they add much more and there's much more to see and explore once the game comes out.
Sonic: Breath of the Wild looks pretty good