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

Discussion in 'General Sonic Discussion' started by MykonosFan, May 27, 2021.

  1. RikohZX

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    The more I think about it and the timing, the more I realize this game may be less Breath of the Wild and more straight up Sonic's Odyssey. Stages you collect stuff in to get objectives to fight a big boss at the end, with sub-stages for more direct gameplay challenges? And Sonic Forces released a month after Odyssey, when we've seen Sega and Sonic Team be directly inspired by Nintendo and Mario for Lost World before. I wouldn't be surprised if they're trying to capture what made that game tick rather than just go full scale open world game design.
     
  2. Starduster

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    Yeah, although Unleashed and Colours are somewhat more contested due to their specific level design tenets, I think those two games and Generations prove that good Sonic games do still happen (I know one can easily argue that the Werehog stops Unleashed from being a good overall package, but for the sake of simplicity I’m talking about the core daytime gameplay). Further to this, we know this game has been in development for a while and I doubt they’d spend another four years making a new engine after using HE2 precisely once. Add in to that the rehiring of old talent and the potential of Izuka reevaluating older Sonic games to consider the direction of the series, and I think this game has a lot of factors in its favour right now.

    I completely understand not being sold on this right away, I’m not, especially with how we’ve seen next to nothing, really. At the same time, I don’t think outright pessimism and declarations that the game will likely be bad are fair either. There’s so much unknown going into this project and I’m excited as to what it could mean for the series going forwards.
     
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  3. MBeca

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    One thing I've seen nobody mention is that... SEGA isn't acknowledging the game's existence outside of Sonic Central...? The teaser hasn't been uploaded to the YT channel (unlike every other teaser), neither the SEGA nor Sonic social media has posted something like "Sonic coming in 2022!" and the Japanese twitter account has reported every announcement excluding that one. They've released the teaser to press sites, but that's it. Maybe they're gonna show an extended teaser soon?
     
    Last edited: May 30, 2021
  4. foXcollr

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    Again, despite Forces recycling / building upon a lot of code and assets from Generations, Aerosol is right in saying that we really don't know who is working on this, seeing as those weren't exactly the same "team".

    "The team that brought you Sonic Generations and Sonic Forces" doesn't mean too much when when both of those games were directed and designed by completely different groups of people within the same "team". It seems Sonic Team likes to do a lot of restructuring and moving people around to different roles, and it's not clear who will be directing this game.

    I'd go as far to say that when the press release says "the team that brought you xyz", it actually just means Sonic Team is developing it, and has absolutely 0 to do with who is actually assigned to the task.

    All we can really guess is that Iizuka is yet again in the Producer role, as can be expected.
     
  5. Blue Blood

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    IGN streamed Sonic Central live and uploaded all of the footage the moment the trailer presentation was over, including preview for the Colours animation. It's likely that IGN have got an exclusivity deal on the news for a short while. They've worked with IGN to do the same before. I think it's a bit strange that little has been posted on the socials though. Not sure if that's happened before.
     
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  6. Mana

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    Do you have any key names of anyone who's been rehired?
     
  7. Well i only know Roger who returned out of nowhere to keep voicing sonic.
     
  8. Snub-n0zeMunkey

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    Well, I dunno if this means much to anyone but IGN's upload of the trailer recently passed 1 million+ views
     
    Last edited: May 30, 2021
  9. Starduster

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    Hiroshi Nishiyama was a field art director for both Sonic Adventures and Sonic Heroes and rejoined SEGA in 2019, even getting a segment on one of the *American* Sonic livestreams.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s one of the key influences in the seemingly more realistic environments that look to be appearing in this game.
     
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  10. That gives me hope, at least in the aesthetics of the game.
     
  11. Shaddy the guy

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    I mean, maybe, but Heroes and Adventure look pretty drastically different. Hope it's more like Heroes, in either case.
     
  12. Mana

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    Heroes looks very saturated and just ugly IMO. I think a more detailed version of the Adventure 1 look would be perfect.


    Very cool and I wouldn't be surprised either.
     
  13. Blue Blood

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    Possibly. But Sachiko Kawamura was the art director all the way from Unleashed to Lost World and Runners, plus she was the senior art director for Forces. I remember a director's blog or interview from Unleashed's development where she talked about her decision to use Disney style humans in that game, and she's also responsible for Sonic's persistent side-mouth design (which was only ever done well in Unleashed and then botched in a variety of ways in all subsequent games). So between Unleashed and Lost World, she was the art director on one of the series' most realistic and least realistic looking games. She's been working on Sonic games since SA1, contributing variously to the art and design aspects in all this time.

    The 'regular' art director on Forces was Yoshitaka Miura. He was previously a field artist for the Adventures, Heroes, Colours (lead field art in Colours even), character artist for Lost World (he may have designed the Zeti or the badniks? Not sure) and was also the art director for both SatSR and SatBK.

    Hiroshi Nishiyama was the lead field artist or field artist director for SA1, SA2, Heroes and Shadow, plus a supervisory role for Rivals 2 before he left SEGA. He came back in 2019 as part of the "Sonic Pillar" in America, and showed of a load of concept art from his SA2 days. I definitely love the art style of SA1, SA2 and Heroes, but it's not like there's one consistent art style between the three games. Each clearly has its own look and feel. Gonna guess he's working on this game as a field art director or general art director because... what the hell else would he have been doing at Sonic Team since 2019? EDIT: He's also credited for concept art in Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2, a mobile game that Atlus and SEGA released back in 2018. No idea when he actually re-joined SEGA officially, but he may have briefly worked on other projects before re-joining Sonic Team by April 2019 at the latest.

    Anyway I've said it a few times already and I'll say it again; I love that the art in the teaser trailer looks realistic and still rather bright. The ruins or stone textures used when the Sonic Team and "zap" logo show up look suitably detailed too. I'm expecting the game to look somewhat similar to the Adventures, Colours, Unleashed or Generations and that would be perfect in my eyes.

    Considering the range of titles with hugely varying art styles between them that Kawamura and Miura have worked on in high-ranking positions, I don't know how much any one artist might be influencing the art styles of specific games. Take Lost World for example; Kawamura took a very realistic or at least realistically detailed approach for her three prior directorial roles, but changed that completely when Lost World came around. It seems to me that Sonic Team or SEGA pitch different art styles each time they start to produce a new title, and they pick something that fits whatever sort of game they want.

    (Sources for everything are the Retro Wiki, obvs, and MobyGames)
     
    Last edited: May 30, 2021
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  14. And so the Sonic cycle starts again

    jk

    All I'm hoping for is a game based around some nice, fun rolling physics.

    But I'm doubtful as we have never gotten that in a 3D game before.
     
  15. Starduster

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    I don’t think the Sonic cycle has been true in years to be honest. I mean, look at all the miserable gits in this thread. :p

    I also doubt we’ll get rolling physics, but I don’t think we need to. Depending on how this spin cycle is implemented (assuming the leaks hold true), this game could present reinterpretation of the original philosophy of Sonic that’s equally valid to the use of the spin attack, just like Advance 2 did.
     
  16. Blue Blood

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    What I'd give for a game that lived up to the Sonic cycle right now :V
     
  17. Snub-n0zeMunkey

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    Well hey if they truly are taking inspiration from Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild I wouldn't rule it out completely :P
    Let's just hope they're taking inspiration from the right parts of these games
     
    Last edited: May 30, 2021
  18. Sonic's in an extremely unfortunate catch-22. If they didn't show this teaser, they would have never heard the end of it on social media sites and the Colors remaster and collections would have drawn more ire than anything.

    But because they showed very little, there wasn't much for anyone to get excited about, let alone to take the stench off the last stretch of mediocre games.


    Damned if ya do, damned if ya don't. Sonic's fanbase have such widely disparate expectations and wants, you're literally never going to satisfy everyone. There ALWAYS gonna be somebody who's upset no matter what.

    All we can do is just ride it out and see what happens in the end.
     
  19. Overlord

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    I doubt it very much.

    Likely it's not been put up because the trailer had basically nothing to it. The only information we know is what's been gleaned from metadata and leaks.
     
  20. Forte

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    I just hope, that the game has better level design / routes / whatever than Forces.

    I can't recall any other game with so boring levels. Even 06 had it better.

    I wonder if voice acting will get a new direction. I still don't like RCS, but if we are stuck with him for now, I hope that at least Sonic will get better lines than BaldyMcNoseHair, and the delivery would be a bit better.