Sonic Frontiers coming to PS4, PS5, Xbox, Switch, PC (Holiday 2022, from Sonic Team)

I agree mostly, but the biggest problem is that Knuckles hasn't been relevant in ages. His appearances haven't amounted to much, so suddenly shifting him to such a major role would feel jarring. This is the type of thing you need to build up to and sadly, Knuckles lacks that.

The fact of the matter is that Sega have downplayed and neglected these characters so much, there's no real set up for them to return.

If the old characters are going to return to prominence, the series is going to need to start reestablishing them

 

Knuckles was a major character in sonic movie 2 and most of my friends who don't even care about sonic know knuckles' name now.
I think it's safe to say that knuckles is reestablished enough after a multimillion dollar movie with him in the spotlight.

 

Def agree. This wasn’t the case going into Sonic Forces but it is for future games.

 

This is a double-edged sword because anyone who picks up some Sonic games after seeing the movie is going to be absolutely confused as to why Knux is basically non-existent in any mainline game past 06 besides "oh he's here too I guess" inclusions.

 

That's why _oliver is saying that Knuckles can/should be a focus in the next game.

Even without the movies, there wouldn't need to be any slow build up. They can just make a game where Knuckles is one of the main characters and important to the story.

 

I have to wonder if they're gonna do that with Shadow.

The third movie and next game should be coming out around the same time like this time.

I doubt Knuckles will have a major role in Frontiers but the next game focusing on Sonic, Shadow and Knuckles has potential

 

Takashi Iizuka - “Finally, as the second half of the year nears, I think we will be able to deliver the news on the release of Sonic Frontiers, a completely new action game produced by Sonic Team. It has evolved from a linear style to a new open world style. The team put a lot of effort into challenging new areas, so please look forward to it.”
Source: https://tailschannel.com/sonic-the-...-origins-showcased-on-south-korean-broadcast/

The “Open Zone” wording is finally dropped with a public acknowledgement of a “new Open World style”. It doesn’t mean that the game is fully open world but it’s still interesting

 

I don't think there's much to read into there. Probably just Iizuka forgetting to push the marketing term, which was only ever that to begin with.

 

I think you’re probably right. That said we can not be certain that the “open zone” description is just a marketing term. Maybe the game isn’t fully open world like breath of the wild but has large “zones” to explore like Mario Odyssey. Maybe this is just semantics; and I know for a fact that the quote is just a breadcrumb of info... but I suspect we’ll only be getting crumbs until Summer Games Fest so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to share em

 

The open zone description is just a neat sonic pun. I don't think it really signifies anything, and as Starduster said, Iizuka just forgot to use the term.

 

It could be the terminology used in-game. Like, Sonic Adventure didn't have "hub worlds" and "levels", it had "Adventure Fields" and "Action Stages".

 

Right. Open zone probably just refers to how levels/worlds are zones in Sonic. We are likely looking at a game where transitioning between areas is seamless.

 

Well, at least this is more confirmation that we're going to get some news before the end of June. Still praying for something at Summer Games Fest.

 

Well, the game is set on the Starfall Islands, so I'm still expecting Sonic to have to fly the Tornado or teleport from one island to the other. That's where the seams will probably be.

 

I hope we see Sonic piloting the Tornado. It's supposed to be his plane but we rarely see him pilot the damn thing lol

 

Honestly I think officially it’s been forgotten that Sonic owns the plane, and it’s basically become Tails’.

 

Tails has the Tornado II.

 

But casually, it seems like the plane, regardless of model, is his thing. He looks after them, he flies them, he tinkers with them, he’s the only one seen flying them in the main campaigns. The planes are basically his, it just has Sonic on it.

 

I was imagining him running across the water (either as a loading screen or a minigame), but I guess the game will have to come up with a reason for you to not immediately run to the next island. Maybe there'll be some underwater bridges you have to raise first.
Or maybe you knock one of those giant guys in the water and use them as a bridge.

 

It's essentially like the partner who has worn their partner's hoodie so much, that everyone has forgotten who it belonged to originally