Sonic Frontiers - Teaser Trailer

[Shaddy Zaphod]

I think this is still making a lot of assumptions about exactly what Sonic Team looks like right now. I think we heard the Valkyria Chronicles people got merged with them a while back, and there have allegedly been major restructurings since Forces. Not saying that guarantees the game will be good or anything, but I think it's possible this game will feel very different from what we've come to expect since Unleashed.

[azoo]

I have too many questions with what we were given..

What is the art direction for this game? Will everything be extremely samey in visuals, or will the map have different biomes and tropes throughout? Will the environments be imaginative and filled with crazy stuff like loops etc still, or will it be a standard open world map? 

What about the human girl ghost character, or whatever she is? Is it Lah, or some expy of her? Is it a return to Sonic having a human girl companion in the SatSR/BK anime style, or will she remain cartoony like the standard Sonic Unleashed and onward humans? And who are the “Rangers”? Are they the Wisps we see a glimpse of in the Rise of Wisps trailer, or are they new characters altogether? Are they a group Sonic joins? Are Tails, Knuckles, Amy etc involved with this? Is this even in a world Sonics been to before? Korok like rock creatures implies something possibly alien..

And does any of this have to do with Eggman? Is he even in this game? The boss mentioned seems to be completely unrelated to Sonic standard, and combat might imply non-robot enemies. Speaking of, what are we talking for combat? The return of homing attack shenanigans like in LW, or something like Boom was, or something new altogether? How the fuck does a skill tree work in Sonic? And what kinda gameplay style even is this? Do we boost? Do we spin? Do we both? Do we neither?

This is the most fascinating and baffling thing to happen to Sonic in a long time. I’m not complaining btw, I’m more than happy for a shakeup. But also holy shit, dude, who knows how long we’ll be in the dark on this. Could be for just a few weeks, could be til next March like it was with Forces.

There’s so much to wonder..

[VO.SUPER]

35 minutes ago, Milo said:

As someone who has over the years grown interest in a sandbox Sonic game and thought of ways it can work; the idea of Sonic Team making an open world Sonic game does mildly spark my interest. It's definitely more intriguing than them making another Boost game--less so because I dislike the Boost, moreso knowing it would likely be mismanaged even worse than it was in Forces. But I absolutely do not trust them to pull it off well, given their design philosophies; and the commentary about the combat and exploration is not even remotely surprising with that in mind.

Gonna take a few shots in advanced darkness here. But I really won't be surprised if the final product is Sonic Team desperately forcing their attitudes towards game design into a gameplay format where it neither meshes well to begin with, and they're inexperienced enough to somehow wield it to work; and the result is that it backfires spectacularly. And the verdict is along the lines of "y'know, this actually isn't a bad idea...but what were you guys thinking with the execution....?"

Depends what that attitude is. Is it the the the kind of attitude that pushed for a more experimental approach in Lost World, or the familiar from Forces?

Is it a coincidence that this game may have started development around the time Breath of the Wild released? Or maybe it was just conceived prior to Forces' full release as another stab at "experimentation, and not made out of criticism? Gotta admit that BoTW and Sonic do share some sort of makeup that I could see working out. BoTW was the first Zelda game to give you so much freedom of pure traversal in a playground, and the sheer number of movements you could take to get to any number of objectives is something that I think could translate well to Sonic.

It could be that the idea was inspired by Link's movement, and a want to make Sonic just feel fun to control and mess around with in an open space. Or maybe Sonic team just thought they needed a more open approach to make up for how many assets they waste on the gargantuan levels of prior Boost games, and an open environment better utilized them.

There is a lot to speculate here. Hell, we only compare this to BoTW because the leak does, but who knows what else would inspire this direction.

[Zoomzeta]

26 minutes ago, Milo said:

Okay...?

What kind of vague response even is this?

I guess the kind of response you get from someone that's kind of tired of trying to make sense of whatever decisions go into these games by SEGA and Sonic Team (Which I come to accept as a revolving door of talent that bleeds talent out as fast as it gains at this point).

[CertifiedNobody]

4 hours ago, Chili Dawg said:

I'm fucking here for this. I know the guy said it was bad, but I'm still here for it.

For the first time in a good while, I can say I am intrigued by Sonic.

He was only playing early demos of it, and since then they've had/have plenty of time to fix the bigger issues. 

[Razule]

8 minutes ago, CertifiedNobody said:

He was only playing early demos of it, and since then they've had/have plenty of time to fix the bigger issues. 

And they'll have had even more time when it releases in a year. It must have been extremely early.

[charmsb]

Open world Sonic is very intriguing. I'd wish for it to be momentum based, as I really think thats the only logical step for open world Sonic, but I'm probably thinking too optimistically. Still excited to see how everything handles. Of course that doesn't mean I'm not expecting something bad or mediocre at this point.

I'm an optimist, but I'm also a realist.

[CertifiedNobody]

If you look at Zippo's blog posts, a lot of it does match up with what we heard about Sonic Rangers

 

-It is NOT a boost game. SEGA has realized that they've done all they can with that formula, so this is allegedly a return to more of an Adventure/traditional platformer, which is seen as having much more long term potential.

Boost is relegated to a special stage.

-Full 3D, no hybrid nonsense here. 

Not much to say here, of course 2D doesn't work with open world games.

-Features return of the spin dash in 3D and character upgrades.

Character upgrades sound like the skill tree.

-There are more playable characters than just Sonic, but I wasn't given specifics as to who those were. Tails/Knuckles/Shadow all seem like valid possibilities.

Possibly omitted due to simply being an early demo.

It'll be the first game conceptualized by the "Sonic Pillar" in the US. 

The game definitely feels different from everything that's come before.

-SEGA CS2 R&D has had a number of new hires, post Forces, so a number of the devs involved are brand new to the series. "Sonic Team" is literally nothing more than just a brand name now. No idea if it'll be in the marketing or not.

Again, not much to say.

-The game will be cross-gen, should be on every console under the sun, and a Holiday 2021 release is still on track, last I heard. However, given the very obvious circumstances going on around the world, there is still a chance it may slip into 2022. They're willing to give this game all the time it needs.

PS4/5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Yeah it's obvious they'd release it on the most recent consoles, but it being on the Xbox One and PS4 weren't certain.

-This game is a NOT a tie-in to the movies at all. Paramount is doing their own thing with Sonic. 

Well... It isn't.

 

Sure, you can say some of this is lucky guessing, but when Zippo's already gotten the collection + Sonic 3&K remastered right, I don't think it's fair to dismiss everything he's saying. I guess we'll just have to wait for E3 and later announcements to see if he really was wrong about the 2D boost game.

[Multikaris]

3 hours ago, CrystalMaelStorm said:

I made some joke lyrics for a them of Sonic Rangers. Here they are if you don't mind.

  Reveal hidden contents

They got a power and a speed that you've never seen before
They've got the ability to run fas to even up the score
No one can ever stop them now
Speed and power's on their side-e-yide-e-yide-e-yide-e-ide!

Go go Sonic Rangers!
Go go Sonic Rangers!
Go go Sonic Rangers!
Mighty Super Sonic Rangers!

They know they must act quickly to save the world with speed
They know to use as much power and speed they need
No one can ever stop them now
Speed and power's on their side-e-yide-e-yide-e-yide-e-ide!

Go go Sonic Rangers!
Go go Sonic Rangers!
Go go Sonic Rangers!
Mighty Super Sonic Rangers!

What do you all think? I bet you know what this is based on, right?

Anyway, speaking of the theme song, I wonder what it will be? Will it be even done by Crush 40 or some other band?

We might just get an orchestral theme like Lost World and ROL. The best would be to have an orchestral theme for the game, but Sonic himself having a lyrical theme; like Unleashed. Though having both be lyrical themes (Adventure 1-Heroes) could be neat too. 
 

And about that hologram girl, it’s also possible that due to the movie, she ends up looking semi-realistic like Elise, making her seem more otherworldly.

[Milo]

1 minute ago, Zoomzeta said:

I guess the kind of response you get from someone that's kind of tired of trying to make sense of whatever decisions go into these games by SEGA and Sonic Team (Which I come to accept as a revolving door of talent that bleeds talent out as fast as it gains at this point).

Then why not just admit that in the first place? A reply that states "I don't care either way" and nothing else towards my thoughts on the topic doesn't tell me anything.

23 minutes ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

Depends what that attitude is. Is it the the the kind of attitude that pushed for a more experimental approach in Lost World, or the familiar from Forces?

Is it a coincidence that this game may have started development around the time Breath of the Wild released? Or maybe it was just conceived prior to Forces' full release as another stab at "experimentation, and not made out of criticism? Gotta admit that BoTW and Sonic do share some sort of makeup that I could see working out. BoTW was the first Zelda game to give you so much freedom of pure traversal in a playground, and the sheer number of movements you could take to get to any number of objectives is something that I think could translate well to Sonic.

It could be that the idea was inspired by Link's movement, and a want to make Sonic just feel fun to control and mess around with in an open space. Or maybe Sonic team just thought they needed a more open approach to make up for how many assets they waste on the gargantuan levels of prior Boost games, and an open environment better utilized them.

There is a lot to speculate here. Hell, we only compare this to BoTW because the leak does, but who knows what else would inspire this direction.

When I talk about ST's attitudes towards game design, I'm speaking less in regards to the broader goals their development teams set out to achieve with each individual title. and more to do with specific design choices that they use across all of their games. (Even if said design quirks don't exactly fit with the desired game direction.)

Something like Lost World where that was supposed to be more slower-paced and more offbeat with its ideas, still had typical choices like having tons of speed boosters and springs in each level to keep shuffling the player through the levels quickly. It even doubled-down on these elements in new ways, whatnot with the giant floating springs that took the player from one stage segment to another, and autorunning planetoid segments.

I'm of the notion that a open-world Sonic game by Sonic Team would be similarly compromised for the sake of ST keeping those elements in, even if it would be counterintuitive towards what they actually intended for the game to be.

[Wraith]

Some speculation based on the trailer+leak. 

-The focal point of this game thematically seems to be contrasting the natural forests and ruins of this world with some sort of technology. We'll call that an affectionate send up to Breath of the Wild, but you could also read it as a return to the core themes of the series ala Colors if you define that stuff broadly enough. 

- the subtitles in a Sonic game usially refer to it's narrative instead of it's mechanics. The 'rangers' are probably a completely new set of characters, and unlike the last couple of games they don't sound like obstacles or functions. If the ghost girl the leaks keep referring to is a "ranger" it might be taking more from BOTW than I thought at first. 

- I don't think the gameplay will be anything to write home about since the boost features in the trailer instead of rolling, but I do wonder how they managed to make drawing lines as Sonic easy in that format. They had to have at least slowed him down, but how do they keep it from being a mess, visually?An overhead camera like in the trailer, maybe? 

- How, exactly, do they expect to release a fast paced open world game on the switch? BOTW struggles whenever Link moves above a certain speed, and Nintendo made the damn thing. Are we finally getting an overall slower game by sheer necessity?

[StaticMania]

2 minutes ago, Wraith said:

BOTW struggles whenever Link moves above a certain speed,

What?

That's never been an issue...are you referring to glitch?

[azoo]

If it means anything, I imagine Sonic moving as fast as or a little bit faster than the horse or bike should be fine, no? That’d be slower than boost gameplay, but more than enough otherwise.

[Marcello]

This could definitely end up bad, but it is kinda exciting to see Sonic Team being ambitious again and making something big. After Forces, I expected the franchise to stay low budget and unambitious, but here we are.

An Open-World with typical Sonic things like loops and Möbius strips could look so cool. I'm kinda excited just thinking about it. Or just exploring ancient (echidna) ruins, finding something like the Perfect Chaos mural. Or using Tails and Knuckles to explore areas Sonic can't reach.

I'll probably end up regretting this excitement, but I haven't felt like this about a Sonic game since seeing Unleashed for the first time.

[CertifiedNobody]

Just now, Marcello said:

This could definitely end up bad, but it is kinda exciting to see Sonic Team being ambitious again and making something big. After Forces, I expected the franchise to stay low budget and unambitious, but here we are.

An Open-World with typical Sonic things like loops and Möbius strips could look so cool. I'm kinda excited just thinking about it. Or just exploring ancient (echidna) ruins, finding something like the Perfect Chaos mural. Or using Tails and Knuckles to explore areas Sonic can't reach.

I'll probably end up regretting this excitement, but I haven't felt like this about a Soic game since seeing Unleashed for the first time.

I'd imagine that all of the time they have before the eventual release will allow them to take into consideration the feedback they got from the testers and improve all the worst issues. At the very least, this seems like it actually has a budget behind it, and I'm guessing we can thank the movie for that.

[Zoomzeta]

36 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

What?

That's never been an issue...are you referring to glitch?

I have never any complaints of that nature before either. Does he mean that the game is just not capable of keeping up with Link's speed or movement at a certain velocity or..?

[VO.SUPER]

The only time I've had exceptional performance issues in BoTW was in the Lost Woods, but that's just because of all the foliage I imagine. The vehicles move fine. Hell, I've seen speedrunners propel themselves at ridiculous speeds just fine.

[StaticMania]

9 minutes ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

Hell, I've seen speedrunners propel themselves at ridiculous speeds just fine.

The lag of loading certain distances from traveling too fast is a thing...

Though they probably didn't go that far..

[charmsb]

1 hour ago, CertifiedNobody said:

 

Sure, you can say some of this is lucky guessing, but when Zippo's already gotten the collection + Sonic 3&K remastered right, I don't think it's fair to dismiss everything he's saying. I guess we'll just have to wait for E3 and later announcements to see if he really was wrong about the 2D boost game.

Gosh, I'm gonna be honest, heavily tired of people propping up Zippo. Sure it barely lines up. But obviously he could have been way more spot on. Collections were bound to happen. S3K got widescreen, wouldn't really call that a remaster. Remember all the stuff he said that was absolutely untrue? He has no credibility.

[Red Hot Jack]

4 hours ago, azoo said:

I have too many questions with what we were given..

What is the art direction for this game? Will everything be extremely samey in visuals, or will the map have different biomes and tropes throughout? Will the environments be imaginative and filled with crazy stuff like loops etc still, or will it be a standard open world map? 

What about the human girl ghost character, or whatever she is? Is it Lah, or some expy of her? Is it a return to Sonic having a human girl companion in the SatSR/BK anime style, or will she remain cartoony like the standard Sonic Unleashed and onward humans? And who are the “Rangers”? Are they the Wisps we see a glimpse of in the Rise of Wisps trailer, or are they new characters altogether? Are they a group Sonic joins? Are Tails, Knuckles, Amy etc involved with this? Is this even in a world Sonics been to before? Korok like rock creatures implies something possibly alien..

And does any of this have to do with Eggman? Is he even in this game? The boss mentioned seems to be completely unrelated to Sonic standard, and combat might imply non-robot enemies. Speaking of, what are we talking for combat? The return of homing attack shenanigans like in LW, or something like Boom was, or something new altogether? How the fuck does a skill tree work in Sonic? And what kinda gameplay style even is this? Do we boost? Do we spin? Do we both? Do we neither?

This is the most fascinating and baffling thing to happen to Sonic in a long time. I’m not complaining btw, I’m more than happy for a shakeup. But also holy shit, dude, who knows how long we’ll be in the dark on this. Could be for just a few weeks, could be til next March like it was with Forces.

There’s so much to wonder..

About graphics... considering the CGI in the trailer, and the apparent ambitiousness of the project, I'm gonna assume (?) the art style will be more realistic and detailed, maybe?

Yeah, we know literally nothing if not for the leaks.

Although there is no reason to assume the other Sonic characters, including Eggman, or other Sonic elements will not be involved, open world or not it's still a Sonic game. Why wouldn't those things be present?

The boost: I assume, again, that it's present, both for the teaser and what's been leaked.

[Enesephus]

Kay, honestly, even before the (supposed) leak I was intrigued by this game. Not hyped, not without any gameplay, but definitely intrigued. For sure, it doesn't really show anything, but between the more realistic and detailed style they seem to be going for and the mysterious, almost mystical vibe going on in this teaser, it definitely seems like a departure from the style and tone of the recent Sonic games, boost title or otherwise, and a refreshing one I'd say, provided this is a remotely accurate representation of the actual game, vague as this teaser is.

All that said, this Sonic Rangers leak is definitely much more interesting to talk about. I don't really want to trust it, but it does seem to be credible (hell of a lot more than You-Know-Who, anyway), and if SEGA really is taking a crack at an open-world, or at least sandbox-style, Sonic game, well, honestly few things could please me more. I love the idea of Sonic Team finally mustering up some ambition (and hopefully passion) for this series again, and I've been thinking lately that a more open Sonic game could be just what the series needs. 

They'd have to nail the controls and physics of course, for this to be truly great, but since this is Sonic Team I'll cut them some slack and say they should at least get in the ball park (ditching the boost, at least in its current form, would be a good first step). In terms of design, I picture an ideal open world Sonic game as being one with basically the same kind of design as in Sonic 3, very dense and vertical, just spread out in all directions in a huge, fully 3D environment.

I don't expect Sonic Team to pull that off, but the important thing is that there are at least lots of slopes and things to bounce off of and swing from, some rail grinding, some parkour, basically something like Sunset Overdrive, but faster and with loop-de-loops and other Sonic elements, a design conducive to smooth, flowing gameplay where just the act of moving from point A to point B is fun to do all on its own, something I find to be lacking in most open world games. Certainly, if the world is just flat and empty, then Sonic Team will have failed out of the gate.

Either way, I'd rather Sonic Team succeed or fail with this next game by taking some damn risks, because I'm tired of them playing it safe.

[StaticMania]

Realism isn't ambitious anymore...

Stylized...something different would be nice.

[Sonikko]

Yeah if there's anything I'm happy about is that at least they're trying.

My biggest complain with the entirety of the 2010s was that it all felt safe, samey, and a rehash of what worked that one time in 2010.

Even if this game fails, which I hope it doesn't cause I really want a good 3D Sonic at least once every two decades, it won't be as offensive as Forces in my eyes. 

Everything remains to be seen but I'm intrigued by the leak, hope the emphasis is on the fun stuff (movement, physics and similar) and not beat em up combat or static puzzles which idk how would be even integrated in a Sonic game. Physics based puzzles tho I can see working.

[Cosmos Rogue]

I wonder if this is how Sonic Team is responding to the success of Mania. The layered, multi route level design and physics based platforming of the classics should translate well to an open world environment IMO.

I'm not ready to be excited for this game, not until the game is actually out most likely, but I am definitely intrigued if Sonic 2022 is an open world game.

[KHCast]

6 hours ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

Hell, we only compare this to BoTW because the leak does, but who knows what else would inspire this direction.

I’m hopeful this also takes inspiration from Mario Odyssey being totally honest. That game mastered in my eyes 3D exploration and platforming; and even took a bit of inspiration from Sonic with thatroll function that even had physics and shit attached to it. There’s a LOT of great things to take notes from regarding that game alone