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

[Sega DogTagz]

Sega's quality control is all over the place. They'll be the first to tell you that the werehog focus tested well and at the same time will trot Classic Sonic out like he would be a welcome addition to Forces.

 

What feedback they take from anything is hit or miss.

 

The lack of a spindash pretty much signals that this won't be the physics playground that a lot of people are hoping for. That is not the biggest surprise in the world tho. Sonic Team is allergic to that for some reason

[FirePheonix]

I do hope that they atleast have put the spin dash in, it would be much more fun than to just boost in the world.

[phobs]

According to Playstation database, Sonic Frontiers is going to be released on November 15th, 2022. Although, it could be placeholder, it has likelihood of being legitimate date because

• November 15 is Tuesday and it common day of the week for game releases
• November 15 definitely fits into holiday season

[Razule]

2 hours ago, Wraith said:

He's talking about visuals when he says the world isn't Sonic enough. Wonder why they seemingly did nothing to address tbat complaint. 

Because that's the setting they intentionally chose.

7 hours ago, FirePheonix said:

Found another leak from november 2020 and it doesn't inspire confidence at all, no spindash only boost in the open-world, the world not being sonic-y(I wonder if they just meant how the world looks or maybe that it doesn't play like Sonic who knows)

Knew it. Open-world Sonic game and we can't get something as simple as rolling at will. But.. that hasn't been a part of 3D Sonic's moveset in 13 years (Lost World aside), so not surprising. 

[FirePheonix]

I am actually surpised at how many people have playtested this game LOL, maybe that in itself means that they want to get this right.

[CertifiedNobody]

If true, it does seem to contradict the tight controls that were implied by the collectables we saw. It's possible they got a lucky guess, but more likely, Sonic Team was seeing if people responded better to boost or no boost. Their record for listening to feedback is pretty spotty, but the numerous playtester leaks do make it seem like they actually care this time.

[Kazhnuz]

Mmh, it doesn't necessarily contradict the "tight control" that could (yeah I'll wait before sayign we have tight controls, as we have no proof of that xD) implied by those collectable. "Boost" being present doesn't mean that it'll be implemented exactly like in the boost games (or that we are supposed to use it where those collectable where seen), and possible "tight control" contradict the spindash being absent. They could even have a slower gameplay, and a boost to "go fast" (for instance some kind of "lost world"-y seperation of "being fast and being slow" where the boost replace the run button), or maybe even a boost that serve other purpose that those we know (avoiding attack like in the trailer, for instance).

Honestly even if this message could totally be a lucky guess (or just someone that have seen the previous leak and decided to roll with it instead of with more popular "leaks"), I don't see it really contradicting anything we see here, nor what have been told in other leaks.

( I'm not saying if all that is "good" or "bad" tho : I don't have strong opinion about it. I can understand why other people would prefer "physic playground", it's just that I don't have strong opinions about that particular matter. I just hope we won't have a control scheme as messy as Lost World's on the controller xD)

[CertifiedNobody]

14 minutes ago, Kazhnuz said:

Mmh, it doesn't necessarily contradict the "tight control" that could (yeah I'll wait before sayign we have tight controls, as we have no proof of that xD) implied by those collectable. "Boost" being present doesn't mean that it'll be implemented exactly like in the boost games (or that we are supposed to use it where those collectable where seen), and possible "tight control" contradict the spindash being absent. They could even have a slower gameplay, and a boost to "go fast" (for instance some kind of "lost world"-y seperation of "being fast and being slow" where the boost replace the run button), or maybe even a boost that serve other purpose that those we know (avoiding attack like in the trailer, for instance).

Honestly even if this message could totally be a lucky guess (or just someone that have seen the previous leak and decided to roll with it instead of with more popular "leaks"), I don't see it really contradicting anything we see here, nor what have been told in other leaks.

( I'm not saying if all that is "good" or "bad" tho : I don't have strong opinion about it. I can understand why other people would prefer "physic playground", it's just that I don't have strong opinions about that particular matter. I just hope we won't have a control scheme as messy as Lost World's on the controller xD)

It's possible that it's a different boost, but the boost doesn't work well with tight controls since they make Sonic hard to handle at high speeds. The boost does contradict the combat focus that the trailer and other leaks have mentioned, since any encounters can be instantly escaped and unless they go with a much weaker boost, Sonic will be able to instantly vaporize enemies.

I don't care about messing around with physics, but the only way I could see the boost not making the game shallow and too short is if it were a replacement for fast travel.

[Kazhnuz]

"Tight controles make Sonic hard to handle at high speeds" part of the reason why I think there is a big chance they either use the boost or some similar mechanics : it's an "easy" way to solve that question, as the boost or similar kind of gameplay mechanics give you a reason to use a different control scheme. Basically, even in the boost game, when you boost, Sonic doesn't control exactly than when you're not boosting. Not just because the boost add motion to the physical object, but also because turning works a bit differently.

So basically, boost or similar mechanics (like the "dash mode" described in that old BlazeHedgehog video, which would be my favourite solution to solve the issue) basically make you able to have a "two mode" Sonic control, which make it an easy solution to the issue you describe (not necesserally a "good"/"bad" solution imo, just an easy one).

 

Now I'm not saying that boost will appear. Just that as it's a common mechanics since the last few games, that we have one possible leak that describe it, that we have some kind of boost-like action shown in the trailer AND that it's an easy solution to a problem that they might have to solve... Welp I don't really see what we are seeing in the trailer indicating that this particular move would be absent. But it's still only one of the possibilities that there is in what this game will be.

The only issue I really see is that a boost-game boost mechanics would insta-kill ennemies, which make me thinks that there are big chance that it's not 100% common boost (that it would make escape easier doesn't seems me really make boost less plausible, especially when we're in an IP where the character move fast) if we have a boost mechanic.

 

[Razule]

Maybe you can boost to get from place to place, but can't use it during enemy encounters.

[Sega DogTagz]

5 hours ago, FirePheonix said:

 maybe that in itself means that they want to get this right.

An open world game does have an exponentially heavier work-load from a quality control standpoint. It would stand to reason that even from an early dev build, they would need to put in more work than usual in terms of playtesting.

[CertifiedNobody]

 

I guess this counts as news?

Probably just a rumor but maybe there's something to discuss.

[FirePheonix]

 

 

So about the rumour, it sounds actually really promising, this describes the world as more sonic-y in terms of loops and stuff, and the fact that we could have a chao garden alone makes me excited.

The cyberspace stuff also makes sense, but this more than likely is just a leak that iis using the old ones to sound legitimate.

[Razule]

The glimpses we've seen of the open-zone are the exact opposite of "exaggerated Sonic terrain".

Fake leaks usually try to sound believable by using the little official information we already have, so, bold move. And the Chao Garden stuff? Nah, this is fake.

[Wraith]

As a general rule I think you guys should hold off on posting leaks that's just stuff we already know with something the fandom wants like Chao gardens or "SA2 Sonic" slipped in

[Kazhnuz]

Yeah, looks like way more bait than leak for me. For the moment the only "exagerated terrain" we have seen are the giant mushroom plateforms at one point, so for the moment that rumor is false to me.

( Not to mention that GamerGuyd isn't IMO the most trust-worthy source )

[Zaysho]

The things we know, or can reasonably guess, about Frontiers are almost completely by accident because of things like Sega inadvertently confirming some 4chan rumors had to have some truth to them because they namedropped "Rangers" in early press materials and a focus group survey getting corroborated with a trademark registration for "Frontiers" a couple weeks before TGA.

None of the stuff floating around should be taken as anything more than rumors or assumptions. The Chao Garden thing is not only huge fandom wish fulfillment, it's being mentioned because Sachiko Kawamura, the primary creator of Chao and a regular Sonic Team art director, is a producer on the game. Mentions about the tone of the writing are pretty much inferred from Ian Flynn, who writes action-focused Sonic stories with a fair bit of levity, writing the story in some capacity (which we don't even know if it's strictly localization or more).

It's fine to discuss rumors and all, but they shouldn't be seen as news regardless of what outlet or YouTuber is reporting on them.

[SonicBlastAwesome]

I think Amy could be a important character as maybe as second playable character as she will help Sonic to finding his memory in Starfall Islands.

[CertifiedNobody]

2 hours ago, SonicBlastAwesome said:

I think Amy could be a important character as maybe as second playable character as she will help Sonic to finding his memory in Starfall Islands.

I don't think Amy will be that important for the game. I've already said that Sega will probably give Tails and Knuckles priority because of the movie, but even if they aren't going to try and tie it into the movie like they did for Colors Ultimate, Amy is the least likely choice for a playable character.

The trailer made it seem like the memory loss plot may have been dropped, since Sonic seems completely the same in personality, with no issue controlling his powers. If so, it's likely Sonic Team came up with it and Ian dropped it when he started writing the game.

[phobs]

11 hours ago, CertifiedNobody said:

 

I guess this counts as news?

Probably just a rumor but maybe there's something to discuss.

Lmao, this tweet is literally satire. gamerguyd7ace is literally known for making stuff up for views and bluntly lying to his audience. You all should have seen how much he was milking that SonicRose 4chan rumor long time ago.

Pay 0 attention to this moron lol

[Roger_van_der_weide]

Hmm, so how much chance you folk think there's going to be a city area in this game?
Both aesthetically and functionally?
Having a Yakuza/ GTA style city with a lot of side activities (I bet a ton of people would love to see Sonic singing Karaoke with his friends) would be awesome.  A chao garden could make sense if they incorporate it with the main gameplay.
Imagine training Chao, and then taking them along on the trip and they, depending on their stats, can give Sonic extra health/ abilities, etcetera. That'd be neat.


But Sonic games haven't had side acitivites since, what, Sonic Unleashed? And even then, it was just a lame airplane minigame.
So I ain't very hopeful for any kind of fun central story/ side activity filled center location...


Man, i don't know, I'm just trying to keep myself hopeful. All the signs so far seem to point to an extremely dull Shadow of the Colossus style experience where it's just Sonic in a giant open area with nothing to do in it, no cool stunts with physics, no story driven missions.
Just run around this empty plane, looking for the next boss fight, then move across the empty space toward the next boss fight until you got all chaos emeralds and finish the game. With at most the occasional Paywall blocking your progress until you collect 500 orbs or some collectable mcguffin to reach the next boss by doing mundane tasks to milk the overworld for a dozen extra hours of filler gameplay.

I really, really, REALLY hope there's some cool things to do in this game, but with what the Leaks said about the game (Granted, that was from an early skeleton beta version of the game) to how similar this game looks like Breath of the Wild/ shadow of the colossus that kept their gameplay style extremely sober themselves, to the trackrecord of recent Sonic games being the utter, utter, UTTER bare minimum Sonic Team can bother to put together to call it a game, and I'm feeling rather hopeless that this game's going to be much more then a bunch of puzzles and bossfights in an empty boring to traverse wasteland.



Word on the street is that there will be 4 "zones" in this game huh?
I'm betting "Grass with rocks", "Sand with rocks', "Snow with rocks" and "Lava with rocks' for the holy "most basic and easy to make type of envirements" quartet of level themes. If a miracle happens and we get a city themed world, I bet it's a Crisis city esque ruined city, so Sonic Team doesn't have to worry about programming traffic, NPC's or make the architectual structures logical.

[CertifiedNobody]

2 minutes ago, Roger_van_der_weide said:

Hmm, so how much chance you folk think there's going to be a city area in this game?
Both aesthetically and functionally?
Having a Yakuza/ GTA style city with a lot of side activities (I bet a ton of people would love to see Sonic singing Karaoke with his friends) would be awesome.  A chao garden could make sense if they incorporate it with the main gameplay.
Imagine training Chao, and then taking them along on the trip and they, depending on their stats, can give Sonic extra health/ abilities, etcetera. That'd be neat.


But Sonic games haven't had side acitivites since, what, Sonic Unleashed? And even then, it was just a lame airplane minigame.
So I ain't very hopeful for any kind of fun central story/ side activity filled center location...


Man, i don't know, I'm just trying to keep myself hopeful. All the signs so far seem to point to an extremely dull Shadow of the Colossus style experience where it's just Sonic in a giant open area with nothing to do in it, no cool stunts with physics, no story driven missions.
Just run around this empty plane, looking for the next boss fight, then move across the empty space toward the next boss fight until you got all chaos emeralds and finish the game. With at most the occasional Paywall blocking your progress until you collect 500 orbs or some collectable mcguffin to reach the next boss by doing mundane tasks to milk the overworld for a dozen extra hours of filler gameplay.

I really, really, REALLY hope there's some cool things to do in this game, but with what the Leaks said about the game (Granted, that was from an early skeleton beta version of the game) to how similar this game looks like Breath of the Wild/ shadow of the colossus that kept their gameplay style extremely sober themselves, to the trackrecord of recent Sonic games being the utter, utter, UTTER bare minimum Sonic Team can bother to put together to call it a game, and I'm feeling rather hopeless that this game's going to be much more then a bunch of puzzles and bossfights in an empty boring to traverse wasteland.



Word on the street is that there will be 4 "zones" in this game huh?
I'm betting "Grass with rocks", "Sand with rocks', "Snow with rocks" and "Lava with rocks' for the holy "most basic and easy to make type of envirements" quartet of level themes. If a miracle happens and we get a city themed world, I bet it's a Crisis city esque ruined city, so Sonic Team doesn't have to worry about programming traffic, NPC's or make the architectual structures logical.

We probably won't see modern cities, but we might get an ancient city to explore.

[KingMario05]

1 hour ago, Roger_van_der_weide said:

Man, i don't know, I'm just trying to keep myself hopeful. All the signs so far seem to point to an extremely dull Shadow of the Colossus style experience where it's just Sonic in a giant open area with nothing to do in it, no cool stunts with physics, no story driven missions.
Just run around this empty plane, looking for the next boss fight, then move across the empty space toward the next boss fight until you got all chaos emeralds and finish the game. With at most the occasional Paywall blocking your progress until you collect 500 orbs or some collectable mcguffin to reach the next boss by doing mundane tasks to milk the overworld for a dozen extra hours of filler gameplay.

I really, really, REALLY hope there's some cool things to do in this game, but with what the Leaks said about the game (Granted, that was from an early skeleton beta version of the game) to how similar this game looks like Breath of the Wild/ shadow of the colossus that kept their gameplay style extremely sober themselves, to the trackrecord of recent Sonic games being the utter, utter, UTTER bare minimum Sonic Team can bother to put together to call it a game, and I'm feeling rather hopeless that this game's going to be much more then a bunch of puzzles and bossfights in an empty boring to traverse wasteland.

Hit the nail on the head, Roger. If nothing else, I hope we get a city area like Crisis just to have something - ANYTHING - that's fun to play. Because if I bounced right off of BOTW, I can't see myself sticking around for the same thing but with Sanic. (Certainly ain't eager to give them $60 for it, at least.)

Spoiler

Mind you, the conversation becomes different if Tails is playable... but he won't be. I'm sure of it. For his 30th birthday, we'll be lucky if we get another broken Tornado bit.

 

[Razule]

1 hour ago, Roger_van_der_weide said:

Hmm, so how much chance you folk think there's going to be a city area in this game?
Both aesthetically and functionally?
Having a Yakuza/ GTA style city with a lot of side activities (I bet a ton of people would love to see Sonic singing Karaoke with his friends) would be awesome.  A chao garden could make sense if they incorporate it with the main gameplay.
Imagine training Chao, and then taking them along on the trip and they, depending on their stats, can give Sonic extra health/ abilities, etcetera. That'd be neat.

For now, I'd say a big city area is looking like a definite "no", the Starfall Islands seem to be an isolated location that consists of mostly ruins. No credible leak (anything before the reveal) has mentioned anything about towns with NPCs, so probably not even that. 

We know Sonic won't be the only major character in the game now though, so maybe the other characters will give side missions as ghost guides..?

[Roger_van_der_weide]

Oh, I'm sure Amy will be talking Sonic trough the game.
Heard people speculate they're doing the Breath of the Wild thing where each of the 4 zones would have one of Sonic's friends to unlock as a new Wisp power. My guess would be that it's Tails-Knuckles-Amy and a freshly betrayed Eggman. Something tells me they want to stick close to the basics on this one.

So they'll do some talking and guiding, but probably not more then "The next boss fight is over there, go get him"
The occasional dry exposition about the long dead ancient civilization maybe.
But hardly anything super exciting. It's just isolated Sonic in the wilderness fighting random monsters.


So... chances on a fun city are small.
Altough they are talking a lot about an ancient civilization, so there might still be some kind of ghosttown of their destroyed society, or even the occasional settlement of last surviving ancients.
Having the occasional tiny RPG town is the best we can hope for then, huh? So pretty much like Zelda Breath of the wild. Eh...

So the fun of this game will depend entirely on if Sonic's actually fun to move this time.
Well, here's hoping. Would love to see the Parkours return with this one.
And it ain't just brainlessly boosting from point a to point b.



Heh, I've seen some people debate if any NPC's we'll come across will either be humans or anthro's.
If I had to guess, I'd bet Sonic Team will sidestep the whole issue and all people we see in the game are ghosts, orbs of energy like how Amy's represented in the teaser. I mean, with the whole ancient civilizaiton thing, all people we'd meet would either be dead for decades, or trapped in the same predicement as Amy is.
An entire village filled with Tikal esque soul balls. That'd be something.

Anthro's would look uncomfortably out of place in a realistic setting (I guess Sonic barely gets away with it)
Humans are probably still in time-out, unless the movie's popularity changed Sonic Teams mind.
But hey, balls of energy saves a lot of development time and cuts out any hard decision making.
Win win for everybody!
Well, except those who want an interesting game world.