A press release came out recently and it detailed Frontiers' release window. Apparently this game was delayed an entire year for quality control purposes. https://www.segasammy.co.jp/english...ent/2022/managementmtg_main_qa_20211224_e.pdf "As for target number, because this is a completely new title for the first time in many years, and we are planning for a global multi-platform roll-out, we would like to go beyond the first year sales number of “SONIC FORCES”, which is the previous title. For lifetime sales, we look forward to further increase. We’d like for you to wait future announcement for the details, but this is the title with no compromise in terms of quality and that has taken on many new challenges. Originally it was planned to be released on this year, the 30th anniversary of Sonic, but we have postponed the release for a year in order to further brush up the quality. Not only for this title, but during the development phase, we have been steadily conducting analysis to improve the quality of the title before release, such as introducing game testing based on external evaluations, and I have a feeling that it will become a good game and have high expectations for it"
Was I the only one that found it bizarre that when an investor asked if the game was open world Sega skirted the question? The Frontiers website already says the game is “Open Zone”. As for the quality control comment... I 100% believe that they did more testing/analysis given the sheer # of accurate leaks of this game (that is unless they have all been from the same person). That said I would be shocked if the pandemic had no influence on the game’s delay. Is it possible the bulk of the game is done and they’re just making everything super polished? Yeah, it absolutely is... but I don’t wanna set myself up for disappointment
In normal circumstances, I really would not put merit into anything that a Corporation tells me about their game anymore. However: You can't lie to shareholders (without severe repercussions), so I hope to god this has -some- truth to it.
Breath of the Wild did pretty capably reinvent the wheel of open world games, so maybe Sonic Team has similar ambitions? That said, I think it’s more likely that the term comes from the fact that the game seemingly takes place across several islands, blurring the line between open world and sandbox. I reckon we may be looking at something similar to Bowser’s Fury in function, where there’s technically an open world, but segments of it become available to the player over the course of the game, as opposed to being able to go anywhere instantly upon booting into a new game.
Maybe there are Zones like on Angel Island? I don't really have problem with that, if the game loads different areas fast enough, or if You boost into some speed levels to reach it (think something along the lines of Rayman 3 skating stages). Zones are in Sonic DNA after all, I would gladly see them in this title.
I just hope we see gameplay soon and there's Sonic tropes like springs and loops. As much as I just want the game to be good I don't want it to feel like BOTW with a Sonic skin.
Japanese devs can be so funny like that. Like with Yu Suzuki coining Free Reactive Eyes Entertainment for Shenmue. I guess Frontiers could be Free Rodent Eyes Entertainment?
Jun Senoue had an interview with NME about the past thirty years of the Sonic franchise, and his personal history and contributions. Interview is worth a read on its own terms, but I'm posting it here because Senoue also confirms he is involved with the music for Frontiers. ----- If the marketing team wanted to be clever, they would throw us a curveball and make the boxart for Frontiers based off the EU version (right).
Good call, I second seeing Sonic standing on a precipice looking out into a distance. Also maybe some "floating head syndrome" in the form of Eggman and other story characters.
That's a curveball? That's how Sonic is on most covers, albeit in some sort of action pose -- looking at the viewer directly or just off camera with a smirk or a grin. Add supporting characters nearby as needed per game, a vague background with (often literal) surface-level connection to the game itself, and voila! Sonic cover!
That just makes me think of the GTA series' famous Broken Bridges, where yes there is a huge open world for you to play around in, but they only gradually allow you freely onto different islands (without repercussion) as you progress the story, mostly told in the form of the bridges being broken or under construction. It's a very RPG method of control over what the player does without necessarily preventing them from the experience.
I still think it's going to work somewhat like PSO2 New Genesis. With the recent update, there's a dialogue box asking if you want to move to another region and if you say yes, you automatically cross a bridge with player control taken away, presumably to load it in.
Excellent hearing they pre-emptively delayed this one for quality concerns. Here's hoping we finally have a good one on our hands. The last Sonic games to be delayed for a decent chunk of time were Boom: Fire and Ice and Mania, the former of which was a significant improvement over the 1st one (although still not perfect, but out of the 3 Boom games it was the best one) and the latter of course was Classic Sonic's 2nd coming.
It's honestly hard for me to really get excited by such a statement; contrary to popular belief, it's not like the last couple of Sonic games have been unpolished...except for Lost World. Just....horribly uninspired and bland as hell. So them talking about focusing on quality doesn't really mean that much to me more than what gameplay innovations are they going to be making. Like, is this is just going to be another Sonic Colors where the game just plays it safe as much as possible, while adding in bright Colors ala other Nintendo games. Except in this case, its aping Breath of the Wild. More than anything, I want this game to have its own identity and not just be another Open-world game that people will forget about as soon as BoTW2 comes out.
Japanese Sonic Twitter account got a brand new header: Sonic looking a little bit like Shadow here :o
It's nice to see that model in a more dynamic pose than usual. Speaking of the box art, I wouldn't mind seeing that on there.