Is that what that means? It sounds to me like a lot of that stuff could have been pre-production, so the game may not have had any specific director before that.
Pretty much puts the final nail in the coffin for the hope that this game had a full 5 year development cycle, huh?
That depends if you count preproduction which this Tweet seems to be talking about. I would argue it should count considering how important it is to plan a big budget video game in this day and age.
I wonder what the original concept for the game was, before Kishimoto stepped in as director and decided on the open zone concept. Going by previous interviews, it seems Kishimoto's vision was pretty unanimously accepted (too lazy to dig up a quote right now lol), so maybe it was just kinda bad. Either way, I doubt this initial 'Rangers' phase lasted very long. It's likely no development was done at all beyond the planning and concept art stage, and if there was, it couldn't have been more substantial than a small prototype.
Makes me think that the pink hair woman who looked like a researcher or explorer is from that version of the game. But really there's no telling how differently the game changed and (even if they originally scrapped it) I doubt that anything more about that version will be brought up, in case it turns into another game... or the updates.
Wouldn't have been surprised if it was even more of an RPG concept early on in Rangers than the lite-leveling skill and points system the final version became.
Oh yeah that character that appeared randomly in a concept art I say we should just ask Kishimoto directly about that on twitter, he may know something and he is very responsive
I doubt she has anything to do with a scrapped Frontiers story. She was revealed in the Tails Tube videos, long after they would've rerouted development. Could be wrong, though!
13:16 Back in February Ian Flynn said that he couldn't talk about the mystery woman: "that means something unrevealed, something still pending".
You and me both know that this was nothing mere but a marketing ploy because +10 mysteriousness. Her "reveal" definitely raised some questions.
And Sonic's first movie design was a ploy to stir up attention! They were always going to change it, see?
hmmmmm.... i will just say it's a kind of a new release for Unleashed with some new content and NPC at least that what i like to see, but 99.9% unlikely
It could have been Frontiers, but the fact that it wasn't means it almost certainly isn't a game thing. She's probably related to the comics somehow.
She could be part of the Sonic Frontiers DLC. That’s upcoming material, and Ian wouldn’t be allowed to comment on any aspect of the DLC that hasn’t been revealed yet.
I doubt it. Remember, the DLC wasn't even confirmed to be happening until Frontiers was proven successful, and the content contained therein has already been subject to change. Would be a weird move to tease a tiny part of a DLC months before the game itself is out, especially when it's up in the air whether the thing you're teasing will actually exist.
I'd wager they had enough of a guess before launch based on their data whether the DLC was going to happen or not, as keeping employees in limbo waiting on something like that doesn't do anyone any good. Also it's not that weird for DLC teases before the main game even comes out (usually this is just done by selling people a season pass before they have any idea what they're actually getting). Doesn't mean mystery character is going to be in the Frontiers DLC, but I don't think it's that farfetched a notion.
According to this, admittedly very dubious wiki source, (https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Sonic) the last (non-spinoff, non-mobile) Sonic game to sell this many copies was Generations back in 2011. Additionally, Sonic Stadium has pointed out that Sonic Frontiers is probably one of the fastest selling Sonic games (https://www.sonicstadium.org/2022/1...-fastest-selling-sonic-games-of-all-time/amp/) As a fan I’ve had a lot of issues with Sonic over the last few years… but if you take the long view and solely look at the Sonic franchise’s commercial performance… things have been slowly getting better since 2017: Mania, the movies, frontiers. I hope this sustained success results in Sega finally giving Sonic games the resources and development time they deserve… ahh hell that ain’t happening. Welp it’s nice to daydream
