Sonic Frontiers Thread - PS4, PS5, Xbox, Switch, PC

Anyone remember that old iOS game Tiny Wings?

That's more or less how I though a open world Sonic could work. Very disappointed to not see heavy momentum based gameplay, that would be sooooo much fun in a big open world littered with hills. Gaining momentum down a slope then flying through the air, choosing your landing wisely so you can keep up the momentum on another Slope. Would be addicting. Slower walking movements and running would be similar to how they work now, so wouldn't be a big undertaking really.

A man can dream haha

 

Been a while since I chimed in.

The combat video and the IGN video did make me more optimistic about the game. Combat was less "amazing, and more" much better than the first one. It really makes me question what their priorities with the marketing of this game is because its rather sloppy.
IGN video is much appreciated because of the context and explanation around what's going on, especially given the format of the game. When BoTW was shown to us, we had a live demo with commentary with the playtesters explaining what the gameplay loop was and what kind of things you could and would be doing and that was key since the game was eschewing the OoT formula. Much in the same way, this scratched a similar itch. It really should have been how we were introduced to the game if you ask me.
I appreciate the "open-zone" explanation.
Good to hear the guy had good impressions from the gameplay loop. IGN has been a lot more fair with their handling of Sonic in recent years (I thought the Forces review was perfectly fair and highlights the issues with the games well), but its still kind of wild in retrospect

Hope tomorrow is just as positive.

Absolutely well said.
At its core, the issue is to much focus being put on individual mechanics instead of the overall design philosophy and intended gameplay experience created by those mechanics. We can argue which ones lead to a "better" interpretation or iteration of that gameplay experience along that design philosophy, but it is wrong to claim the design philosophy of the games were those specific interactions of the mechanics in a vacuum, because they weren't, nor is there even anything wrong with making a game around those mechanics instead of the philosophy just to test the waters and see the possibilities.
In general, a weakness the Sonic fanbase has is it is too married to overly specific ideas of what a Sonic game should be rather than intrigued at what it can be, and often it seems to come from this weird desire to create a sort of holy bible to save the series from itself. We all dip our toes into it to varying degrees and that's fine and natural, but I feel a lot of people let this get away from them in a way that makes it far to easy for them to lose perspective.

A personal pet peeve of mine is this idea that everything the devs did with the series when it went 3D was a sort of "forgetting what Sonic is about" or "having no choice t compensate for not making a 3D Sonic game "properly", as opposed to a series of conscious design decisions made for logical reasons whether we agree with those individual reasons or not. I consider myself of a bit of a design enthusiast (Read: geek who likes to analyze the heck out of things) so as someone who likes digging into and understanding the logic behind why the devs did a lot of what they did, it kind of grinds my gears to see a lot of what they do, whether one agrees or disagrees with it, blown off as just "laziness, ignorance or incompetence", especially when the basis for saying so is simply it not aligning with personal preconceptions.

Frontier's very premise for example is one I am pretty staunchly in disagreement with. I'm still not convinced Open World really works for Sonic. That said, it doesn't mean I'm not gonna meet the devs half way and see if they can prove me wrong, and independent of the premise I like that I'm seeing quite a number of people in similar boats.

 

Because Shadow cocking an automatic rifle like a shotgun again is the revival the franchise needs.

 

It is Sonic. Discourse gets heated if they so much as tease a new logo. Its what the discourse is about that will be interesting.

 

Today there's more news from Frontiers, right?
Any link to vids or so?

 

The video for the Sonic Team interview posted before has been made private now, so maybe they're saving it for tomorrow or something, meaning we could get a trailer for SGF tonight.

 

I was searching on YouTube for it around noon eastern but couldn't find their stream, I'm a bit confused right now. I must have misread the time or something. Then a Tails Tube suddenly dropped, so I wonder if IGN decided to hold off for a bit?

EDIT: Ah, so it's privated for now. Thanks Starduster

 

I think I've waited 20 years to actually hear SEGA say that themselves out of their own mouths, so I can fully accept it and move on from the Fandom. Somehow without actually even promising or attempting to do the momentum physics, they have flirted with our (classic fans like me) expectations that they would try that in 3D with their language in their marketing, saying so many times "we're taking sonic back to the basics", or "were going to focus on what made sonic good back in his heyday", or some variation of that since the series started to flounder in that early to mid 2000s period. What we needed this entire time was them to vocalize their understanding of what they meant.

As partial as i am to the classic era, I never really asked for Mania. I wanted a proper sequel to Sonic Adventure with much more focus on translating the momentum gameplay; I always felt SA2 and the games that came after diverged a bit too hard and started the trend of the corridor style, with much less focus on mastering the momentum and more on the spectacle. Which were without doubt always a part of sonic, but not played up as quite as much as the later games.

Over the years many of us slowly realized that what they think made sonic great, is not what we think. They don't consider the nuanced classic gameplay to be fundamental to the experience. Even Takashi iizuka himself (who I do respect) worked on Sonic 3 but in his entire tenure has shown repeatedly that he really isn't a part of that old guard that understood those games. The only developer I have seen that I know for sure "gets it" is Christian Whitehead, but he's just an associate of SEGA, not in any capacity to explore that direction afaik.

It's been a frustrating 20 years since sonic adventure because it feels like they kept us on a string this entire time, hoping not to lose that portion of the fanbase. That is a fair mentality to have, I expect that to some degree. Any company that has a longstanding relationship with a huge sector of fans is going to try to keep them no matter what. BUT....usually companies try to keep fans by occasionally giving them what they want, if not a fulll scale project, theyll create a spinoff series which addresses those needs, its standard procedure. SEGA has answered by giving us Mania (which was great) and now origins, as ways to acknowledge us. But they have also shown us without actually telling us, that in their view, that classic momentum, or fluid gameplay style is just an interpretation, and most importantly, something in the past. Like the land before time, its what the old guard did way back then and has no connection to what sonic is now. By using classic sonics design and essentialy stapling that type of gameplay to it, and in 2d pixelated style, that is the "box" they have created for that concept. It can't be anything more than that, and those kind of ideas, they toss aside for their own reasons.

To a degree, I feel bit played because they've kept flashing classic sonic products (to this very day) to us, milking that history and nostalgia over and over. Really, all I've wanted is that one game that establishes that kind of gameplay potential for sonic and shows how fun it can be, even if its a smaller scale project. I just wanted to see it one time, ive obssesed over it so long.
I knew with the boost games it couldn't happen and they were fun entries so I bided my time. This open world experience was what I was waiting for because it'd be the literal perfect opportunity to explore that type of playground gameplay, very Tony Hawk esque. And now I see and can accept, that if they're not doing it now, it will never happen. They don't have to say it anymore, there cannot exist a better chance to show off something like that and they passed on it.


Once again, Frontiers actually looks like an interesting game. I'm not against it, fans should look forward to it. But now knowing without a doubt I will never get what I truly have waited such a long time for, I will (finally!) move on. I've flirted with moving on since forces, didn't buy that game, and just needed to see this. I'm glad it happened.


If I ever see a group of fans or indie developers push towards realizing that idea I may support it in the future. But I think my time as a diehard has come to an end.

Edit: some may have wondered why I would wait this long. I played those games literal thousands of times. Even with the other video game series I have loved over the years, none impacted me even close to the amount that Sonic 1, 2, 3 and Knuckles did, especially Sonic 3k. My dream since 95' was to see the advancement of that style in 3D, something like the Sonic CD opening in a videogame. But alas, it will remain a dream. Lol I sound dramatic, im making myself laugh, but just gotta do this to conclude.

 

What time was the IGN interview supposed to air? Maybe there's a possibility it's going to air live at SGF, and the YouTube video was supposed to just be posted afterward. A lot of interviews and trailers get their own video as soon as they go live, so perhaps that was the plan but someone just accidentally listed it as a premiere.

 

17:00 BST

 

I don't think anyone has posted this yet (please shout at me if I'm wrong). The Sonic Official stream is starting in 30 minutes:



That chat after SGF is going to be... fun.

[Edit] woah it somehow embedded it, I dunno how I managed that, I just fixed the formatting to make my post less ugly.

 

Is SGF still live? Was Frontiers shown off?

 

It perhaps should be noted that the Xbox & Bethesda Showcase is "part" of Summer Games Fest, so it could turn up on Sunday. No promises.

 

I seriously don't know what the fuck is going on anymore.

 

I don't think SEGA can be blamed for this one tbh, Keighley gonna Keighley. He seems like a personable dude who's really passionate about what he does and video games in general but my god if I don't feel like I've been burned by his misleading statements and behaviour.

EDIT: Katie just said there'll be no Sonic at SGF.

 

"There will not be any new Sonic content at Summer Game Fest this week." — Katie, on the live stream.

 

Oh cool so wtf was that guy leading us on for?