New Characters, Story and DLC Revealed for Sonic Frontiers in 2023 Content Roadmap

I’m guessing Update 2 will be released on or around Sonic’s Birthday because of...the Sonic birthday update.

 

But I can’t believe it. Usually Sonic Team don’t do post-DLC except for Unleashed and Lost World. This is huge.

24 minutes ago, Wraith said:

The game needs control/physics refinements more than new content.

if we are getting new stuff I would have liked more stages or a new island more than anything else. 

I don't think that would be very enticing to place on a roadmap. 

Gonna make the cynical prediction that the other characters will only be playable in cyberspace. Unless the new content is set postgame or they rework the story around the end of Rhea (not likely), that's where they're stuck, and they can't really interact with the real world. They could make open areas set in cyberspace, but by limiting them to levels they wouldn't have to worry about combat or how their abilities could break open-world challenges; they could get away with just reskinning Sonic and maybe giving them a different move or two. And filling in the details of what they went through while they were trapped would be a sensible way of expanding the story, though what little we heard about it doesn't sound much like what Sonic's experiences.

14 minutes ago, KHCast said:

I’m pretty cynical regarding the whole roadmap thing, as it’s essentially promising content that hasn’t even been made yet, with no guarantee they’ll follow through. Anthem, Avengers, and a few other notable AAA games come to mind when I think of this stuff. So we’ll see if this roadmap actually plays out how Sega has laid out, or if it’ll be a giant waste of time outside maybe one or two things 

That's why there's no timeslot here obviously. 

So uh, not including modding, I think this might be the longest that a Sonic game has been supported.

7 minutes ago, Bobnik said:

Why are you comparing GaaS games that live or die on regular updates to a pretty much finished, content-complete (somewhat) single-player game?

And it's not like updates are really anything big outside of the third one if said roadmap is to go by.

Simply being cautiously curious. Some of the content sounds cool, but I’ll reserve any positive praise personally when the actual content is shown off. Sounds like some cool content there tho 

Just now, Zoomzeta said:

That's why there's no timeslot here obviously. 

It's looking we'll have to wait at least something around a year for it, which suggests it shouldn't be half-baked, hopefully.

Tails may get to fight, ya think?

This would be the first game that actually showcases Tails' combat ability, it might be believable too.

1 minute ago, Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon said:

So uh, not including modding, I think this might be the longest that a Sonic game has been supported.

Untrue. Sonic 1 was updated earlier this year.

18 minutes ago, GentlemanX said:

All three are free updates, not paid DLC.

Extra confirmation from the Sonic Twitter itself:

 

I'm expecting the new characters to be unlocked and freely used only after the additional story they're involved in is completed, which probably won't be after the game is already beaten. Fair trade, since too much of the design is inherently tied to Sonic's default control.

17 minutes ago, KHCast said:

I’m pretty cynical regarding the whole roadmap thing, as it’s essentially promising content that hasn’t even been made yet, with no guarantee they’ll follow through. Anthem, Avengers, and a few other notable AAA games come to mind when I think of this stuff. So we’ll see if this roadmap actually plays out how Sega has laid out, or if it’ll be a giant waste of time outside maybe one or two things 

But...

Anthem = Crap and forgettable. User base dropped massively. Also a GaaS. So you can’t compare this.

Avengers = Average at best (and they did some parts of the roadmap). User base also dropped massively. 

And games like Cyberpunk, while started in a broken mess fixed the problems and still followed through with the roadmap.

All free.

Edit: Ninja’d lol

Yeah yeah it was supposed to be in the base game but we are still getting it and for free. Even if they throw in limited area for the playable friends I swear I will not complain, I will be happy, it seems too good to be true to have them in the open zones with their own skill tree or extra moves, but they gotta give us something at least.

1 minute ago, Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon said:

It's looking we'll have to wait at least something around a year for it, which suggests it shouldn't be half-baked, hopefully.

At the very least, they're giving themselves wiggle room to release stuff when it is close to completion.

Personally, the fact the playable friends update is a year off has me at least decently optimistic they’ll be developed and unique in a way. If we compare it to the last case we something like this, it was Episode Shadow in Forces, and that was a quick fix DLC that was thrown out on release day and it was a heavily limited reskin of Sonic.

I don’t think it’s that hard to get a character reskin done, especially if it was hypothetically just for Cyberspace, so the fact it’s taking a year of post release development hopefully means it’s something more.

Holy Shit they actually did it.

One benefit of DLC is that it should help take pressure off devs working on the next main game, and give them more leeway. DLC doesn't often have the same constraints that working on the main game has.

Along with reports of them hiring more manpower as well, assuming they're sticking with the formula, this could also give them time to get any new personnel better affiliated with the system, so that the increase in manpower is effective.

16 minutes ago, Ming Ming Hatsune said:

But...

Anthem = Crap and forgettable. User base dropped massively. Also a GaaS. So you can’t compare this.

Avengers = Average at best (and they did some parts of the roadmap). User base also dropped massively. 

And games like Cyberpunk, while started in a broken mess fixed the problems and still followed through with the roadmap.

Edgerunners and synergy certainly helped.

56 minutes ago, Wraith said:

if we are getting new stuff I would have liked more stages or a new island more than anything else.

I can't help but wonder if we might be getting those too with the "new story".

My guess is that each character is a mini-story set on one of the islands, maybe with the objects rearranged (if this is why they were so object-heavy I swear to fucking god I almost forgive them). Again, the fall textures are RIGHT. THERE.

No clue what "new Kocos" is supposed to mean. Nor "Open Zone challenge" and how it's supposed to be separate from the other challenge modes.

Except...

3 minutes ago, Shaddy Zaphod said:

My guess is that each character is a mini-story set on one of the islands, maybe with the objects rearranged (if this is why they were so object-heavy I swear to fucking god I almost forgive them). Again, the fall textures are RIGHT. THERE.

No clue what "new Kocos" is supposed to mean. Nor "Open Zone challenge" and how it's supposed to be separate from the other challenge modes.

Except...

Well, I’d guess from the icon that Open Zone Challenge probably means it’s a time trial through the island or something. New Kocos is anyone’s guess, though.

I can't really help but feel both excited and cynical (no it's not because i was wrong). Considering how janky Frontiers seems to be as is, I can only pray that they're also going to fix that while adding this content, because otherwise.

Playable Tails!

 

Gonna propose the cynical theory the friends are playable in all-new stages rather than in existing stuff from the base game, cyberspace stages are designed for boost styled speedrunning, while the open zone is designed with Sonic's skilltree in mind. We are getting their own stuff in mini doses, I think it will be like the Sonic '06 amigo DLC. 

It would be easy to say they will be playable in cyberspace stages but I doubt it, it's gonna be a follow up story on Sage and the friends are (spoiler alert) free from cyberspace.