Megathread Sonic Frontiers (2022) | MT | General Discussion (DO NOT discuss leaks here please)

[Sega DogTagz]

Atlus runs the side of the house in charge of Persona. Sega has taken a hands-off approach to dang near everything they have done because their business model has proven itself to be exceedingly efficient - even before persona 5 blew the doors off the world.

 

When Sega brought Atlus around 2013, they almost immediately stated a desire to change their business model of other branches to resemble what Atlus was doing.

 

Yakuza on the other hand re-uses so many assets that it makes Sonic look fresh out the box. So they save quite a bit of dev time on every game.

[Scar]

On 2/16/2023 at 11:42 PM, Sega DogTagz said:

It'd be nice to get a game that can finally knock off Unleashed in the looks department.

Bigger budget is step 1 towards that.

Its amazing that a 15 year old Sonic game is still the best looking game in the franchise.

[Kazhnuz]

Frontiers also had long development cycles : just with a huge part of it was dedicated to trial and error to handling its gameplay and making it work. Even with "more time", a company like SEGA can't give unlimited amount of time (and I think too that Frontiers took more time that a Yakuza, for instance), because well, quite litterally here time is money. Just a month of dev cost a lot, and you have at one moment reassure the investissor by showing them that the things that is costing millions since several years is making money (which is why a lot of games are unfinished at launch and get updates and stuff).

Now, i'm not sure if bigger budget will give us that much polishing, because they might up the feature set before changing the priorities of their devs. Them having the base covered by Frontiers might help tho, if they build with iterative games from Frontiers base (which will free a lot of the budget to be put on other place). And TBH, in the tech (not even only in videogame, it's true with software dev and industrial dev too), budgets tends to forget at least a part of the "woops we didn't see those bugs coming" devtime.

But Frontiers might give them more room to negociate delaying a game, as it'll give more confidence to higher-up in Sonic Team games while showing that there were room from improvement (and some that a delay would have helped with).

[ZinogreVolt]

 

Kishimoto was apparently completely unaware about the shift in budget till the public found out.

 

[DaBigJ]

How the fuck-

Why the fuck-

What the actual-

!???

[Sonicka]

To be honest it's not that surprising - why would the developers be a part of these meetings and/or be aware of any specifics until it's actually an official thing?

These processes aren't ever that straightforward either, and this whole "announcement" about a bigger budget is simply to impress the investors at the Q&A. It's likely an overgeneralisation anyway which is why 1) He found out the same time as the public, and 2) This could go towards any Sonic Team project in the future. 

To the everyman (or us) that reads these things, of course we'd just equate it as "Sonic Frontiers 2 to get bigger budget" - but that's not what was said, like at all whatsoever, which is why Kishimoto has replied to be as ambiguous about the fact. Bigger funds could go towards a sequel, a new game, a mobile title - or as stated - greater research for development. 

[DaBigJ]

Huh?

[SticksSuperFan14]

1 hour ago, DaBigJ said:

Huh?

Pretty sure it's just Frontiers goodies, Evan Stanley got a similar box recently too.

[DaBigJ]

So I think we're getting Sonic news VERY soon.

Because the Steam Database for both Sonic Origins and Sonic Frontiers had gotten updates today, I think it's fair to assume we're gonna get a Sonic Central soon.

[Shiny Gems]

On 3/2/2023 at 4:28 PM, DaBigJ said:

So I think we're getting Sonic news VERY soon.

Because the Steam Database for both Sonic Origins and Sonic Frontiers had gotten updates today, I think it's fair to assume we're gonna get a Sonic Central soon.

What else makes you think that? Also, maybe next week? What is with the tweet you posted?

[ZinogreVolt]

 

Sonic Frontiers won "best action adventure game" from a vote by Famitsu readers. Judging by developer comments and Kishimoto himself, it's the first time Sonic has won such an award domestically.

 

[Sonicka]

Don’t know if this is yet reported but it looks like the emails are now going out. 

Officially it’s 23rd of March for the 1st update! 

[Zadent]

6 hours ago, Sonicka said:

Don’t know if this is yet reported but it looks like the emails are now going out. 

Officially it’s 23rd of March for the 1st update! 

Here’s the full website. Some nice little QoLs too: https://sonicthehedgehog.com/the-sights-sounds-and-speed-update-available-march-22/

- The Power Boost animation can be toggled in the Options menu.
- The Starfall Slot Machine can be toggled in the Options menu.
- Cyber Space levels can be restarted mid-level.
- **When upgrading Sonic, multiple Koco can now be exchanged at once with the Elder and Hermit Koco.**

 

[LegoFedora]

38 minutes ago, Zadent said:

- **When upgrading Sonic, multiple Koco can now be exchanged at once with the Elder and Hermit Koco.**

There is a god

Sure would've been nice to have this before I spent half a hour talking to him to get to level 99, but better late than never I suppose.

[Shiny Gems]

Take a look a this, everyone.

[The Deleter]

Am I missing something? I thought we had confirmation that it went over 3 million some time ago?

If anything I expected a new milestone to be announced after 3 months had passed

[Shiny Gems]

12 minutes ago, The Deleter said:

Am I missing something? I thought we had confirmation that it went over 3 million some time ago?

If anything I expected a new milestone to be announced after 3 months had passed

Well, I might have been hasty on my part for making that post, so I take responsibility for that. Still I think the one who made that initial tweet I posted might have missed the mark. I personally forgot it was done already for some reason, so I called for the deletion of the news article DreadKnux posted after that topic I made in the Sonic news section.

Here is something better now.

 

[The Deleter]

7 minutes ago, ShinyGems said:

Well, I might have been hasty on my part for making that post, so I take responsibility for that. Still I think the one who made that initial tweet I posted might have missed the mark. I personally forgot it was done already for some reason, so I called for the deletion of the news article DreadKnux posted after that topic I made in the Sonic news section.

Here is something better now.

They didn't miss the mark per se, since it's still the company officially stating that it sold 3 million, not just the director on social media. It's just not particularly new news I guess

[Shiny Gems]

1 minute ago, The Deleter said:

They didn't miss the mark per se, since it's still the company officially stating that it sold 3 million, not just the director on social media. It's just not particularly new news I guess

That is basically what I was trying to say, that it wasn't new news. I did not consider the part about the director saying it and the company saying it parts, though.

[Dreadknux]

Just jumping in here to say there is a new Megathread specifically for the Sights, Sounds and Speed DLC pack, please use that topic to discuss that DLC as well as take part in some fun Achievements challenges!

 

[ZinogreVolt]

"Also, among the opinions we received here, we made the decision to postpone the implementation in the first round and take time to adjust carefully. Please rest assured that it is in production for the second edition. After listening to everyone's stories, I realized that this game can be made more interesting without waiting for the next game."

It seems that adjustments to the main gameplay based on fan feedback will be coming in the second major title update. 

[Sonicka]

2 hours ago, ZinogreVolt said:

"Also, among the opinions we received here, we made the decision to postpone the implementation in the first round and take time to adjust carefully. Please rest assured that it is in production for the second edition. After listening to everyone's stories, I realized that this game can be made more interesting without waiting for the next game."

It seems that adjustments to the main gameplay based on fan feedback will be coming in the second major title update. 

I actually wouldn’t have expected this at all in this game - but the fact that they are going for it to push the bar out within the scope of these updates is a nice extra. So fill your boots Sonic Team.

As I see it, the other adverse effect is that this game is in the hands of 3+ million players, so the more optional / experimental adjustments you mess around now can better reinforce feedback and the model of play in the eventual sequel.

Obviously this idea contributes to the controversy of it being “global player testing” …but honesty when the game is good anyway and they want to refine and improve then it doesn’t really matter IMO. if they are sticking to this type of gameplay for another round then doing this makes logical sense to me. 

[Cruzer-De-Prix]

Story was a bit of a drag very disappointing  

[ZinogreVolt]

Potential spoilers for Sonic Frontiers' future updates found in the game's code:

Spoiler

Hard evidence found to suggest that the Spin Dash will be implemented in future updates. An additional revving animation for the move was also added in update 1.20.

 

 

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

34 minutes ago, ZinogreVolt said:

Potential spoilers for Sonic Frontiers' future updates found in the game's code:

  Reveal hidden contents

Hard evidence found to suggest that the Spin Dash will be implemented in future updates. An additional revving animation for the move was also added in update 1.20.

Making one heck of a versatile Sonic if that's true.

Probably the most versatile moveset he's had since Lost World.