Sonic Frontiers

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Sonic Frontiers
File:SonicFrontiersCoverArt.jpg
Key artwork
Developer(s)Sonic Team
Publisher(s)Sega
Director(s)Morio Kishimoto
Producer(s)
Writer(s)Ian Flynn
Composer(s)
SeriesSonic the Hedgehog
Platform(s)
ReleaseNovember 8, 2022
Genre(s)Platform, action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Sonic Frontiers[a] is an upcoming platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega. As Sonic the Hedgehog, the player explores the mysterious Starfall Islands to collect the Chaos Emeralds after Sonic and his friends are separated when falling through a wormhole. Frontiers integrates platforming and traditional Sonic elements—such as rings and grind rails—into the series' first open world, where the player solves puzzles to collect items and fights robot enemies.

Development began after the release of Sonic Forces (2017). Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka wanted Frontiers to set a new template for Sonic games to follow, similar to Sonic Adventure (1998). Sonic Team settled on an open-ended design and focused on adapting Sonic's abilities to an open world. Frontiers is scheduled for release on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on November 8, 2022.

Gameplay

File:Sonic Frontiers gameplay screenshot.png
Sonic engages in combat with robots in the open world.

Sonic Frontiers is a 3D platformer and action-adventure game.[1][2] The player, as Sonic, explores the Starfall Islands, which comprise various biomes including flowery fields, forests, ancient ruins, and deserts.[1][3] The story begins when Sonic, Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, and Amy Rose are sucked through wormholes and Sonic is lost on a mysterious island, separated from Tails, Amy, and Knuckles. An artificial intelligence guides the player as they seek to collect the Chaos Emeralds[4] and find Sonic's friends.[5]

Sonic retains his abilities from previous Sonic the Hedgehog games: he runs at high speeds, collects rings, grinds on rails,[6][7] and homes in on enemies to attack.[4] The player can double jump, sidestep using their gamepad's shoulder buttons, drop dash, and boost with the right trigger if they have enough energy.[5] New abilities include combat attacks, running alongside walls, and using the Cyloop to create a circle of light around objects and interact with them.[4][8] The Cyloop can perform different tasks by drawing certain shapes, for example, drawing an infinity symbol will allow Sonic to boost indefinitely for a short time. Sonic also has the ability to boost much faster upon collecting 400 rings, gaining a blue aura reminiscent of his counterpart from the Sonic the Hedgehog film series. The player can customize the controls and adjust Sonic's speed, turning, acceleration, and resistance, and can upgrade Sonic's speed, attacks, defense, and ring capacity as they progress.[5]

The Starfall Islands act as the series' first open world,[3] which writers compared to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017).[b] The open world retains traditional Sonic elements, such as springs, boost pads, and grind rails.[13][14] The player explores the islands as they scale towers in platforming challenges to reveal parts of the map,[5][13] and solve puzzles, including orienting statues and speedrunning, to collect items.[4][15] Collectibles include Kocos, which upgrade Sonic's moveset, and Memory Tokens, which are used to rescue Sonic's friends.[5] The main quest takes 20–30 hours to finish, while finding all collectibles takes as much as 60 hours.[16]

The player battles robots throughout the islands, led by mysterious new character Sage;[17] Sonic can dodge and parry attacks and use the Cyloop to make enemies easier to strike. Defeating enemies grants the player experience points that allow them to purchase additional abilities. Alongside regular, small enemies, the player battles large bosses that they must scale to attack. Bosses provide the player with pieces of a portal that, when assembled, allow them to enter "Cyber Space"—short, linear levels similar to those from previous Sonic games.[18] The linear levels, which shift between third-person and side-scrolling perspectives,[19] contain multiple goals, including time attack and collecting red rings, and reward players with a key required to collect a Chaos Emerald.[4] Some feature unique challenges, such as a fishing minigame hosted by Big the Cat.[20] Collecting all the Chaos Emeralds allows the player to transform into Super Sonic, who is required to defeat certain bosses.[21]

Development

Conception

Following the release of Sonic Forces (2017), Sonic Team began exploring approaches for its next Sonic the Hedgehog game. In addition to celebrating the series' upcoming 30th anniversary, Sonic Team also sought to define what a modern Sonic game should be and solidify the series' direction for the next decade.[22][23] Forces received criticism for its short length and level design, so its director, Morio Kishimoto, concluded that Sonic Team's method of designing levels that originated in Sonic Unleashed (2008) would no longer satisfy fans.[20] Sonic Team ultimately determined that the series' traditional linear design contained "little room for evolution"[23] and felt it could not progress in this direction.[24] In particular, Sonic Team head and Sonic series producer Takashi Iizuka felt 3D Sonic games were not giving players enough freedom and constrained them to linear paths.[25]

Iizuka felt the series needed to take an innovative direction that would inform future games, similar to how Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) and Sonic Adventure (1998) set templates used by later games.[26][27] The idea to make an open-world Sonic game came from Kishimoto, who had enjoyed watching the evolution of the platform genre's world map concept since it was popularized by Super Mario Bros. 3 in 1988. Some Sonic games, such as Sonic Adventure, featured world maps, but Kishimoto felt his idea evolved the concept by combining it with the gameplay.[20][28] He thought it would allow for more freedom and diverse gameplay.[29][28]

Kishimoto returned to direct Frontiers,[12] while Sonic Unleashed (2008), Generations (2011), and Forces art director Sachiko Kawamura produced it.[2][7] Frontiers' development has lasted five years, much longer than previous Sonic games' development cycles. Iizuka attributed the length in part to Frontiers not building on previous Sonic gameplay. Determining the direction required trial-and-error refinement, and the development restarted from scratch at one point.[27] Sonic Team began regularly holding external playtesting during Frontiers' development.[30] The COVID-19 pandemic began halfway during production, necessitating Sonic Team to shift to remote work for the first time in its history. Iizuka noted that this made it difficult for individual developers to "get a sense of the big picture", but the benefit of digital communication "accelerated" other aspects of the development.[24]

Design

The designers focused on transitioning Sonic's speed and abilities to an open-world design while remaining true to previous games,[7] and opted for a mysterious tone to reflect Sonic exploring an unfamiliar landscape.[4][23] Iizuka felt Sonic's essence as a 3D action game separated Frontiers from adventure and role-playing games such as The Legend of Zelda series.[23] As such, he declined to call it an open-world game, preferring the term "open zone".[4] Sonic Team applied lessons learned from developing Sonic Adventure's hub worlds when designing Frontiers[23] and repeatedly tested how fast Sonic could race through the open world to determine how large it needed to be.[29] Iizuka said the largest challenge was ensuring that fast-paced exploration would be fun.[20] Sonic Team sought to address criticism that previous Sonic games were too short,[20] and chose not to raise the difficulty level as the game progresses since the open world would provide plenty of content.[28]

Sonic Team decided to prioritize combat to a greater extent,[31] but despite the shift to open-world design, Sonic Team determined that Frontiers did not feel like a Sonic game without platforming elements. This presented the challenge of balancing platforming with exploration; Sonic Team's solution was to have the world open up as a reward for completing challenges.[27] The developers wanted to ensure that players could choose between combat and platforming and would not be forced to fight enemies, so they included various methods to collect items outside platforming and combat, such as puzzles.[29] The 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog feature film influenced the development; Kishimoto requested that Sonic Team incorporate Easter eggs referencing it and based the combat on the film's depiction of Sonic.[31] With the Cyber Space levels, Kishimoto wanted Sonic to "once again... stand amongst the other 'stage-clear' action games" that he enjoyed, like the Sega Genesis-era Sonic games and the Super Mario, Donkey Kong, and Kirby series.[20]

Writing

Ian Flynn, who wrote Sonic the Hedgehog comics published by Archie Comics and IDW Publishing and episodes of the Sonic Boom TV series, wrote the script.[2][1] Iizuka decided to ask Flynn to write Frontiers after reading his work on the IDW comics. He felt Flynn understood the Sonic cast and would bring "a great improvement to the characters' emotions and dialogue."[25] Iizuka noted that the story differs from previous Sonic games in that it is less humorous and does not make the player's goal obvious, instead challenging them to figure out how to solve the problems themselves.[23][29]

Unlike prior Sonic media he had written, for which Flynn pitched stories himself, Sega dictated Frontiers's premise and which characters Flynn was allowed to use. Nonetheless, Flynn considered it "a dream come true" to write a major Sonic game,[32] and he still got to present ideas for using more characters in the story to Sonic Team. Kishimoto said this created a "cooperative back and forth" between Sonic Team and Flynn concerning which characters would appear.[33] Given the nonlinear approach, Flynn found pacing the story was "the biggest question" and "had to be massaged and revised as the game's structure took shape."[32] Kishimoto did the Japanese localization himself using Flynn's script as a base, making changes to suit the Japanese market.[33]

Music

Series composer Tomoya Ohtani worked almost solely on the soundtrack.[34][35] In accordance with the tone, the Frontiers soundtrack is less upbeat and is "focused more on helping to create a mysterious feeling surrounding the islands."[23] The main theme, "I'm Here", was composed by Ohtani with vocals and lyrics by Merry Kirk-Holmes of the Australian metal band To Octavia.[36] Japanese rock band One Ok Rock wrote and performed the ending theme "Vandalize", which also appears on their tenth studio album Luxury Disease.[37] The soundtrack album, officially named Stillness and Motion, will feature 150 tracks, spanning 6 hours and 37 minutes, making it the longest soundtrack in the series.[38]

Release

Sega planned to release Sonic Frontiers in 2021 to coincide with the franchise's 30th anniversary, but delayed it for 1 year for quality control.[30] It went gold on October 22, 2022, and is scheduled for release on November 8, 2022,[39] for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.[40][2]

Sonic Frontiers will be sold in physical and digital versions, both offering in-game items as pre-order bonuses, as well as a Digital Deluxe edition which includes additional items and a mini digital soundtrack.[41] In Japan, the game will feature various DLC items in collaboration with Hololive Production-affiliated VTuber Inugami Korone, offered by pre-ordering the game at different stores. These include DLC that replaces the ring sound effects with Korone's voice, gives Sonic Korone's shoes and gloves, and replaces the game's Koco characters with "Koronesukis".[41] Signing up for the official newsletter before January 31st, 2023 will give players a free DLC code to unlock Sonic's Soap shoes from Sonic Adventure 2 for the Dreamcast.[42] A free DLC pack set for release on November 14 will give Sonic additional cosmetics themed after Capcom's Monster Hunter series from 2004.[43]

Marketing

Sega unveiled a teaser trailer, featuring Sonic running through a forest, at the end of a 30th anniversary livestream on May 27, 2021.[44] The title was not announced, but the trailer's metadata and a Sega press release were discovered to have titled the game Sonic Rangers.[40][45] Iizuka later said that he felt the game was teased prematurely, but believed it was necessary given that it was the 30th anniversary and Sonic Team had not announced a game since Forces' release.[46] Sega trademarked the name Sonic Frontiers in November 2021 and announced it the following month at The Game Awards 2021.[26][2] Sega collaborated with the video game news website IGN to promote Frontiers throughout June 2022.[47] A trailer was featured during the opening night of Gamescom on August 23, 2022.[39] The game's backstory detailing how Sonic and his friends first came to the Islands was elaborated on via pre-release promotional media under the name Sonic Frontiers Prologue.[48][49] These included an eight-page comic, Sonic Frontiers Prologue: Convergence, released in October 2022;[50] and an accompanying animated short, Sonic Frontiers Prologue: Divergence, released on November 1.[51]

Reception

Nintendo Life characterized early Frontiers gameplay footage as divisive.[52] Kotaku felt the game looked fine but derivative and bland, lacking the series' unique identity,[15] and Polygon and Nintendo Life found the open world desolate.[8][53] Some Sonic fans demanded the game be delayed, and the hashtag #DelaySonicFrontiers briefly trended on Twitter.[54] Iizuka said that Sonic Team expected early reactions to be polarized, as he felt the early footage was simple and thus would not give fans a good idea of what to expect.[27][24]

IGN, after playing an early build for four hours, was left with positive impressions: while opining that certain elements, such as boss fights and bugs, required additional work, it wrote the series' gameplay translated well to open-world design and felt distinct from other open-world games.[4] TheGamer favorably compared Frontiers to Pokémon Legends: Arceus (2022), feeling that "both games are first attempts to reimagine a stagnating series in a modern way, and while there's some questionable design decisions and plenty of frustrations to be found, they're both a huge step in the right direction."[5]

Reviewing a preview demo, the Fanbyte journalist Imran Khan wrote that Sonic Team had failed to reinvent the Sonic series by "fundamentally thinking and rethinking everything about it", as Nintendo did with Breath of the Wild. Instead, Sonic Frontiers "feels like a Frankensteinian reassembly of things the developers believe work well individually".[55]

Notes

  1. ^ Japanese: ソニックフロンティア, Hepburn: Sonikku Furontia
  2. ^ Attributed to multiple references:[9][10][11][12]

References

  1. ^ a b c Stewart, Marcus (December 9, 2021). "Sonic Frontiers Drops The Blue Blur Into His First Open World Game". Game Informer. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e Diaz, Ana (December 9, 2021). "Sonic Frontiers sends the hedgehog on a new 3D adventure". Polygon. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
  3. ^ a b Fahey, Mike (December 9, 2021). "Sega Reveals Sonic Frontiers, The First Open-World Sonic Game". Kotaku. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Saltzman, Mitchell (June 7, 2022). "Sonic Frontiers: The First Hands-On Preview". IGN. Retrieved June 7, 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Switzer, Eric (June 13, 2022). "Sonic Frontiers Preview: Folks, Our Blue Boy Is Back". TheGamer. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
  6. ^ Wales, Matt (May 31, 2022). "Sonic Frontiers gets first gameplay teaser trailer". Eurogamer. Retrieved May 31, 2022.
  7. ^ a b c West, Josh (January 27, 2022). "With Sonic Frontiers, Sega is "focused on bringing Sonic to the next level"". GamesRadar+. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
  8. ^ a b Diaz, Ana (June 1, 2022). "Sonic Frontiers gameplay shows a strangely empty open world". Polygon. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  9. ^ Gartenberg, Chaim (December 9, 2021). "Sonic Frontiers teases an 'open-zone' redemption for the franchise's 3D legacy". The Verge. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
  10. ^ Maher, Cian (December 9, 2021). "Sonic Frontiers looks like Sonic meets Breath of the Wild". USA Today. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
  11. ^ Epps, DeAngelo (December 9, 2021). "Sonic Frontiers is basically Breath of the Wild with hedgehogs". Digital Trends. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
  12. ^ a b Watts, Steve (December 9, 2021). "Sonic Frontiers Is An Open-World Game Coming In 2022, First Screenshot Has BOTW Vibes". GameSpot. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
  13. ^ a b LeBlanc, Wesley (June 1, 2022). "You Can Watch 7 Minutes Of Sonic Frontiers Open-World Gameplay Right Now". Game Informer. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  14. ^ Wales, Matt (June 1, 2022). "Here's seven more minutes of Sonic Frontiers' open-world gameplay". Eurogamer. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  15. ^ a b Walker, Ian (June 1, 2022). "Sonic Frontiers Looks Like A Bland Unreal Engine Tech Demo". Kotaku. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  16. ^ Doolan, Liam (June 15, 2022). "Sonic Frontiers Will Take About 20 - 30 Hours To Complete". Nintendo Life. Retrieved June 17, 2022.
  17. ^ Tailby, Stephen (May 31, 2022). "Sonic Frontiers Gameplay Teaser Released Ahead of IGN First Coverage". Push Square. Retrieved May 31, 2022.
  18. ^ Stewart, Marcus (June 28, 2022). "Sonic Frontiers' Cyber Space Dimension Features Traditional Platforming Stages". Game Informer. Retrieved June 28, 2022.
  19. ^ Rougeau, Mike (June 28, 2022). "Sega's open-world Sonic Frontiers has traditional Sonic levels, too". Polygon. Retrieved June 29, 2022.
  20. ^ a b c d e f Shea, Brian (July 11, 2022). "How Sonic Frontiers' Open Zone And Cyber Space Evolve The Franchise". Game Informer. Retrieved July 11, 2022.
  21. ^ Reynolds, Ollie (September 18, 2022). "Super Sonic Will Apparently Be Mandatory For Some Bosses In Sonic Frontiers". Nintendo Life. Retrieved September 22, 2022.
  22. ^ Shea, Brian (June 13, 2021). "Sonic Team Head Talks Sonic Origins, Next Mainline Game, And 30th Anniversary". Game Informer. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
  23. ^ a b c d e f g Saltzman, Michael (June 10, 2022). "How Sonic Frontiers Came to Be an 'Open-Zone' Game - IGN First". IGN. Retrieved June 10, 2022.
  24. ^ a b c Totilo, Stephen (June 15, 2022). "New Sonic the Hedgehog game has had a rough debut". Axios. Retrieved June 15, 2022.
  25. ^ a b Shea, Brian (July 20, 2022). "Sonic Frontiers Cover Story - Brave New World". Game Informer. Retrieved July 20, 2022.
  26. ^ a b Ivan, Tom (November 8, 2021). "Sega's 'Sonic Frontiers' trademark seemingly corroborates open-world claims". Video Games Chronicle. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
  27. ^ a b c d Robinson, Martin (June 13, 2022). "Sonic Team had to scrap its first pass at Sonic Frontiers". Eurogamer. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
  28. ^ a b c Krabbe, Esra (June 15, 2022). "Sega Explains What Sonic Frontiers' 'Open Zone' Structure Actually Means". IGN. Retrieved June 15, 2022.
  29. ^ a b c d Ramée, Jordan; Klein, David; Morris, Chris (June 13, 2022). "How Sonic Frontiers Brings Sonic Into An Open World - Developer Interview I Summer Game Fest 2022". GameSpot. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
  30. ^ a b Doolan, Liam (January 1, 2022). "Sonic Frontiers Was Originally Planned For A 2021 Release, But Sega Wanted To "Brush Up The Quality"". Nintendo Life. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  31. ^ a b Krabbe, Esra (June 14, 2022). "Sonic Frontiers' Combat Was Inspired By the Sonic Movie". IGN. Retrieved June 14, 2022.
  32. ^ a b Saltzman, Mitchell (June 22, 2022). "Sonic Frontiers Writer Talks Open-Zone Story, Dr. Eggman, and More – IGN First". IGN. Retrieved June 22, 2022.
  33. ^ a b Shea, Brian. "What Players Should Expect From Sonic Frontiers' Story". Game Informer. Retrieved 2022-07-17.
  34. ^ Boxer, Steve (December 29, 2021). "Looking back on 30 years of 'Sonic The Hedgehog' with composer Jun Senoue". NME. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
  35. ^ Greif, Zachary (Jan 1, 2022). "Fan Favorite Sonic Composer Jun Senoue Working on Sonic Frontiers". Game Rant. Retrieved August 31, 2022.
  36. ^ Greif, Zachary (Sep 8, 2022). "Sonic Frontiers Shares Main Vocal Theme Preview". Game Rant. Retrieved September 8, 2022.
  37. ^ Romano, Sal (September 6, 2022). "Sonic Frontiers ending theme song announced – 'Vandalize' by ONE OK ROCK". Gematsu. Retrieved September 6, 2022.
  38. ^ "Stillness and Motion". Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  39. ^ a b Parrish, Ash (August 23, 2022). "Sonic Frontiers arrives November 8th". The Verge. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
  40. ^ a b Capel, Chris (May 27, 2021). "New Sonic game may be called Sonic Rangers, press release accidentally reveals". Game Revolution. Retrieved May 28, 2021.
  41. ^ a b "Japanese Sonic Frontiers players receive special V-Tuber DLC costumes". Eurogamer.net. 25 August 2022.
  42. ^ Brian (2022-10-04). "Sonic Frontiers fans have a chance to obtain Soap Shoes from Sonic Adventure 2". Nintendo Everything. Retrieved 2022-10-04.
  43. ^ "Sonic Frontiers X Monster Hunter Free DLC Lets Sonic Cook Meat While Wearing Rathalos Armor".
  44. ^ Wales, Matt (May 27, 2021). "Sega confirms Sonic Colors Ultimate plus a retro Sonic compilation for next year". Eurogamer. Retrieved May 28, 2021.
  45. ^ Skrebels, Joe (May 28, 2021). "The New Sonic Game May Be Called Sonic Rangers". IGN. Retrieved June 6, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  46. ^ Doolan, Liam (July 22, 2021). "Takashi Iizuka Admits The Sonic 2022 Reveal Was Probably A Bit Too Early". Nintendo Life. Retrieved December 10, 2021.
  47. ^ Hagues, Alana (June 7, 2022). "The First Hands-On With Sonic Frontiers Has Dropped". Nintendo Life. Retrieved June 8, 2022.
  48. ^ Skrebels, Joe (June 7, 2022). "Sonic Frontiers Is Getting an Animated Special Ahead of Release". IGN. Retrieved June 7, 2022.
  49. ^ Shea, Brian (August 23, 2022). "Sonic Frontiers Release Date Set For November". Game Informer. Retrieved August 23, 2022.
  50. ^ https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/10/sonic-frontiers-prologue-comic-part-two-is-now-live
  51. ^ https://www.gematsu.com/2022/11/sonic-frontiers-prologue-divergence-animated-short
  52. ^ Hagues, Alana (June 3, 2022). "New Sonic Frontiers Gameplay Lets The Blue Blur Show Off His Combat Skills". Nintendo Life. Retrieved June 3, 2022.
  53. ^ Reynolds, Ollie (June 1, 2022). "Sonic Frontiers Gameplay Showcases A Pretty, But Sparse Open World". Nintendo Life. Retrieved June 3, 2022.
  54. ^ Robinson, Andy (June 4, 2022). "Fans call on Sega to delay Sonic Frontiers following gameplay reveal". Video Games Chronicle. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
  55. ^ Khan, Imran (2022-06-13). "I Don't Really Understand What Sonic Frontiers Wants to Be". Fanbyte. Retrieved 2022-08-26.

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