If Sega of Japan / Sonic Team was going to let western influences take over their stuff more, we would've seen more than just Tyson Hesse and Ian Flynn getting big working jobs with them. Mania and the movies have outshined the games hard this past long while, some will even debate that Sega of America has their head on straight with the property more than Sega of Japan. Even with all of that infamous controversy aside, however, Japan won't completely change Sonic to someone else's vision, they're too stubborn to do that and we know from personal experience. I for one welcome trying to add a little more of a general image to Sonic even if the universes and stuff are kept separate. Tangle and Whisper from IDW? Sure, let them exist in the main canon so long as you don't shove them in our faces. Movie elements? So long as Sonic isn't suddenly gaining his movie backstory, I'm fine with Longclaw or some elements coming in. But things are also too established in my perspective to want everything to merge together either, it would totally just lead to messy mandates and horrible decisions all around; we already had the whole Islanders and Mainlanders thing earlier this year that finally shot down the silent "two worlds" Sonic X rule, I'd rather not mix that up with more interdimensional screwery and retcons. It sucks to have to tread the line between optimist and realist, and between wanting new things and not wanting to abandon old things, for Sonic for all these years.
As decent as the films are, we are on SonicRetro… I don’t think it’s unusual for people here to be hesitant at games including elements from outside media. I’d wager a large amount, if not the majority, of people are here because of the original interpretation of the character presented by its creators. This may seem silly when talking about a new game with such a vastly different direction overall, but it still a step further away from what we want. The Sonic films are alright for what they are, but they are so far removed from my ideal representation of the character and his world. Incorporating elements from the films will come across as either a shallow cash grab or a deliberate dilution of the brand’s identity. I even avoided Sonic Colors Ultimate’s western physical edition specifically because of the baby Sonic on the box lol.
People here were fine with western influences on the games when it came to Sonic Mania. Back to the topic of Frontiers: 2D sections in the open zone. https://twitter.com/Memey_PW/status/1573143889791303681 Ruined forever. Cancelled my pre-order. Gonna go back to playing modded ShTH.
Honestly, I don't mind them copying the movie cutscene as long as the boost stays like this blue aura and they never incorporate that corny electricity thing they do in the movies. The blue wind / cyber aura aesthetic they have going in the cutscenes and attack animations looks great, imo it feels refreshing while also staying consistent with the franchise's history. Also iirc didn't Kishimoto/Iizuka say in an interview that they are only taking some inspiration from the movies? I remember them saying they weren't going to reboot the lore or anything crazy, they just threw in a few references to please the crowd. Not against that personally... again, as long as the universes are separate and Sonic doesn't become an electrically-charged alien with human parents, that's fine by me. All we've got so far is a short cutscene, a few attack animations, and presumably some cosmetics that take cues from the first movie, so I wouldn't be too worried about the movies consuming the games.
Here's a big ol' thread about details about combat: https://twitter.com/Memey_PW/status/1573575128511913985 You have different finishers of the basic combo depending on where you tilt the stick. Hold to Parry. Parry fills up the Phantom Rush gauge, does not work on projectiles. Phantom Rush is basically a Devil Trigger, increases your attack speed and has a unique finisher. Combo meter lasts for a while. Stomping does more damage when followed up with a Homing Attack, really good option. Cyloop becomes stronger the more you loop it. Pretty much anything can be canceled into another combat option. Enemies stomp attacks kills Sonic instantly. You can tech Sonic's hurt animation with a dodge. Slide and Drop Dash are attacks, not particularly useful. The Jump Stomp move is an attack, not very useful. Freeing Amy gives you a Perfect Dodge counter attack. How much damage you takes seems random. Multiple types of enemies can appear in an encounter. Banger will always chase you until you kill it. Bubbles' bubbles will regenerate if you do not Cyloop it during its shock attack. Basically, the combat has a lot of depth and with more enemy types and higher difficulty, it will be great.
Really glad for all these public demo video recordings, if we had to go off of just the officially revealed Sega stuff I'd probably skip this game or wait to borrow it from someone else like I did Forces. It seems very much like a game made to bring in casuals that liked the movies and something appealing to the hardcore fans of the sixth gen Sonic games (in a way that seems much more genuine than anything in Forces), neither of which I'm really interested in seeing from a Sonic game. But then all the Gamescon/TGS/EGX footage is making the game look like it'll be very fun to move around in the open zone, and while I'm still burned on the cyberspace levels reusing old games' level layouts and bringing back Green Hill and Chemical Plant again, at least they look really fun to play. I just hope there's a way to make Sonic faster in the cyberspace levels, he seems painfully slow. That said the combat doesn't interest me at all and I'll likely try to skip enemy encounters as much as possible. I don't think its bad or anything but it seems like it'll just become mindless button mashing after a while.
He has so much personality in this game compared to Forces... I love him so much, this game's animations are great.
Seriously that scene had more care put into it than all of forces combined. That game must have really put a fire under their ass huh? They really seem to be trying now
That looks like a pretty neat fight. Requires you to take a risk by jumping on its trail at the right time, takes you across a large portion of the open world, combines reaction time in the quickstepping section and combat later on.
The problem of course being that the damn thing is going to likely be mandatory to do the grinding necessary to level the character up enough to get the full skill sets.
Man, why can't they just this much charm and personality in all of their games? If getting stuff like this means not getting a game every few years, I'll take it.
https://twitter.com/sega_official/status/1573522658246815744?s=21 Frontiers is confirmed to be using the hedgehog engine; this was assumed but I figured I’d post this
With the engine still being the same as Forces, I can't help but wonder how modding is gonna go for this game.
I've said this way back in the thread, but I think level mods will be huge for this game. A very expansive moveset with what seems to be the best handling on Sonic in a long time, if not ever. I imagine we'll get ports of boost game stuff first, but I really look forward to seeing fully custom levels making the most of Sonic's moveset.
