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

[Enesephus]

5 minutes ago, CertifiedNobody said:

Pretty much all of those got Knuckles wrong and made him a side character.

I don't really see how whether he's written well or not is relevant. The point was just that when SEGA/Sonic Team/whoever want to include Sonic's wider cast at all, they usually go to Amy and Knuckles before anyone else, and the hope is that Frontiers isn't limited in that way. Having them be written well would be great, too. 

[Slashy]

The game does look interesting but none of the news has me overly hyped just a lot of fans happy that this game doesn't seem to be turning out to be the trash fires that Lost World and Forces were. I really need some gameplay because that landscape we saw just looks generic.

Kishimoto is directing and while Flynn is a step up from Pontaff I don't find him significantly better than most of what we got before Pontaff.  It doesn't help that the film sequel looks even better than what I expected and seems to be hitting on everything I wanted from Sonic.

I am not sure if I am jaded since I do see this as a step in the right direction, but not enough to redeem the gaming part of the franchise after constant failures since Generations.

 

[___]

Sonic's friends being captured in a virtual world and Sonic having to rescue them makes my Superman 64 joke from May seem oddly prescient. And it's almost certainly Sonic playable only. At least Classic and the Avatar aren't in evidence.

But as for gameplay, all we really know at this point is what was in the leak, and the small press blurbs we've gotten so far.

What I'm curious about is how much of the "Sonic level" stuff there is. What's the ratio of open-world to linear stage? Is the game mainly levels with the world as a hub, or is the game mainly the open world with the levels as a side thing, or is it somewhere in the middle?

[CertifiedNobody]

1 minute ago, Slashy said:

Kishimoto is directing and while Flynn is a step up from Pontaff I don't find him significantly better than most of what we got before Pontaff.  It doesn't help that the film sequel looks even better than what I expected and seems to be hitting on everything I wanted from Sonic.

Him being the writer is a sign that the english-speaking audiences are taking priority for the foreseeable future, and he'll actually be able to influence the status quo of the series for once.

[BubbleButt TV]

1 hour ago, Indigo Rush said:

to see them suddenly snap from just a rung above a 3-hour playable QTE to a full-stop open world experience (with the same old hats that brought us the aforementioned monotony) is a bit of a red flag for me. I'm not sure they can pull it off.

finding out that Morio Kishimoto is directing Frontiers was the biggest buzzkill ever for me

someone like Hiroshi Miyamoto or Yoshihisa Hashimoto would probably be able to pull off a game like this

Miyamoto already experimented with more open level design in Generations so it would have been nice to see his take on a fully "open-zone" Sonic.

1 hour ago, azoo said:

I feel like the best case scenario is that this is gonna play like PSO2: New Genesis with a Sonic skin and Forces smashed together. Fast paced, floaty combat combined with a Sonic that accelerates and decelerates at a really uneven pace (as expected after LW/Forces) and is unaffected by any change in terrain (as there is hardly any slopes). Maybe a boost will be there. Maybe.

In other words, I’m not particularly hopeful. Haha

I swear you could tell me this is a screenshot from PSO2 and I would believe you fully

and yeah I'm convinced we're getting boost gameplay again but on a larger scale

also I think the Sonic Forces model being re-used is just a placeholder. It's so stiff and lifeless I just can't imagine ever getting any good expression out of it. It never looked very good.

[CertifiedNobody]

2 minutes ago, Gloved Animal said:

Sonic's friends being captured in a virtual world and Sonic having to rescue them makes my Superman 64 joke from May seem oddly prescient. And it's almost certainly Sonic playable only. At least Classic and the Avatar aren't in evidence.

But as for gameplay, all we really know at this point is what was in the leak, and the small press blurbs we've gotten so far.

What I'm curious about is how much of the "Sonic level" stuff there is. What's the ratio of open-world to linear stage? Is the game mainly levels with the world as a hub, or is the game mainly the open world with the levels as a side thing, or is it somewhere in the middle?

Given the focus on the open world in the trailer, the cyber-special stages seem secondary.

How do the Dakiii leaks hold up against the trailer.

1 minute ago, BubbleButt TV said:

finding out that Morio Kishimoto is directing Frontiers was the biggest buzzkill ever for me

someone like Hiroshi Miyamoto or Yoshihisa Hashimoto would probably be able to pull off a game like this

Miyamoto already experimented with more open level design in Generations so it would have been nice to see his take on a fully "open-zone" Sonic.

I swear you could tell me this is a screenshot from PSO2 and I would believe you fully

and yeah I'm convinced we're getting boost gameplay again but on a larger scale

also I think the Sonic Forces model being re-used is just a placeholder. It's so stiff and lifeless I just can't imagine ever getting any good expression out of it. It never looked very good.

I don't know, the landscape doesn't seem designed around the boost...

[Slashy]

1 minute ago, CertifiedNobody said:

Him being the writer is a sign that the english-speaking audiences are taking priority for the foreseeable future, and he'll actually be able to influence the status quo of the series for once.

I am not sure how much I love that. I never clicked with the status quo of stuff like Archie and SATAM and I find IDW at its best when it isn't trying to take the concepts from Forces and do them better.

[Kazhnuz]

Personally, I'm not bothered by thing being "not Sonic enough". For me, Sonic have been in a big variety of environnement, so they don't makes me personally fell weirder than an Adventure game after the genesis one, or Unleashed after the Adventures, etc. ( And I like the "technology+ancient ruin" mixt, so it's something that is appealing to me, especially the geometric part of the ruin that are kinda interesting to make the old civilisation a bit more "abstract" ).

About the gameplay... Welp we don't know anything, and I think it'll certainly won't be "physic-based" or anything (and it'll be certainly a bit "repetitive), as the initial leak have been quite on point. For the moment, I'm neutral tho, as we have litterally no info, so I'll wait to see if that "different thing" is something that please me or not xD (some of the issue might or might not be a deal breaker, so IDK). About Kishimoto being the director... Welp, let's hope he is better at openworld than at linear games xD

I'm really happy for Flynn working on the game (especially as honestly with a better occidental writing, a lot of the "boost era" story would please me more, and I think he might avoid some of the contradictions), and the concept sounds kinda interesting to me, so I'll cautiously wait more info, but at least I'm a bit more interested at that moment than for Forces or other past games : what is presented here please me more rub me more with that sense of "adventures" (roll credits) I want to get from the series.

( Now of course, i can totally understand why it wouldn't please other people. It's mostly that this game hit more the kind of genre and style that I love, so stuff that annoy other people will please me a bit more. Looks like that if it's decent enough, we're going to a new division in the fanbase XD )

[Slashy]

Despite what I said the plot is the most creative I have seen since probably Unleashed.

[BubbleButt TV]

8 minutes ago, CertifiedNobody said:

How do the Dakiii leaks hold up against the trailer.

Already disproven because he said that Sonic's in-game model looked similar to Unleashed/Generations with the longer quills and very expressive idle animation, but in the trailer it's literally just the Forces model re-used lol

[___]

The mere existence of having boost stages mixed in with the open world stuff tells me that there won't be any boosting in the open world itself. 

I think the open world will be at BotW's pace. I'm picturing the gameplay flow to be: Jog to a virtual world portal, speed through the level in it, jog to the next portal, speed though another level, stop in place and fight a boss, jog to another portal, etc.

[KoDaiko]

25 minutes ago, Slashy said:

Kishimoto is directing and while Flynn is a step up from Pontaff I don't find him significantly better than most of what we got before Pontaff.  It doesn't help that the film sequel looks even better than what I expected and seems to be hitting on everything I wanted from Sonic.

17 minutes ago, Slashy said:

I am not sure how much I love that. I never clicked with the status quo of stuff like Archie and SATAM and I find IDW at its best when it isn't trying to take the concepts from Forces and do them better.

Tbh while I think having fresh input from a long time Sonic writer would be good (idk how western/english matters or not?), I agree that Ian's involvement does seem to be overhyped a bit. Maybe because I don't see Archie/IDW stuff as brilliant as most fans say.

I mean there were many praises for the writer of the Sonic Channel stories with comments of "he need to write for the games!", only to turn out he did work on some of the games, iirc?

[Kuzu]

36 minutes ago, CertifiedNobody said:

 

Sega's leaning into DLC more with Episode Shadow, Mighty And Ray in Mania Plus, and the Movie Sonic customization options in Colors Ultimate. So in what way does it "never happen"? They've been open about how much the movie has impacted the franchise and how they want to get more movie fans interested in the games. That combined with the unprecedented amount of hype for Tails and especially Knuckles in Sonic 2 make me certain the Sega will want to capitalize on it in some form.

Call me cynical, but I've done this song and dance dude lol. There's always some hope that they're going to add other characters and it generally never happens lol. The examples you posted have very special circumstances that don't guarantee anything.

If I'm wrong, I'm wrong but I ain't got not no reason to think otherwise right now.

 

If you want to put your faith in Sega, be my guest but I've been burned too many times by this company to care at this point.

[BubbleButt TV]

man I'm already at this point where I don't know what to think of this game until we see more

I want to see Sonic in motion moving through the open world. I want to see how he moves, what abilities he has and if there is any sense of momentum whatsoever

it's going to be a very long wait. SEGA are the masters of feeding you crumbs and leaving you hungry for more.

[Kazhnuz]

TBH I still don't believe we'll get another character (and not for a question of being burned or not) : the game doesn't seems to be done with multiple characters in mind. So I don't think they'll be there (and honestly, I don't mind too much, for me it's just a game design choice that have to be done according to what the project wants to do. I know that they're important from some fan, tho, just that it doesn't bother me personally too much if they're there or not.).

[CertifiedNobody]

8 minutes ago, KoDaiko said:

Tbh while I think having fresh input from a long time Sonic writer would be good (idk how western/english matters or not?), I agree that Ian's involvement does seem to be overhyped a bit. Maybe because I don't see Archie/IDW stuff as brilliant as most fans say.

I mean there were many praises for the writer of the Sonic Channel stories with comments of "he need to write for the games!", only to turn out he did work on some of the games, iirc?

English speakers being priority does matter since it shows that they're focused on Sonic's biggest demographic and we won't have any awful localization like Forces got.

I love Ian's work personally. He loves to add in references to the franchise's history and understands each character's personality pretty well. He can make a story dark without it being edgy and humorless, and his more lighthearted stories are leagues better than Pontaff's comedy.

[Diogenes]

9 minutes ago, Gloved Animal said:

The mere existence of having boost stages mixed in with the open world stuff tells me that there won't be any boosting in the open world itself.

I don't think that's a well-supported assumption. I'm sure you wouldn't assume that, because the cyberspace stages will presumably have more focused platforming, that there will be no jumping in the overworld.

[CertifiedNobody]

2 minutes ago, Kazhnuz said:

TBH I still don't believe we'll get another character (and not for a question of being burned or not) : the game doesn't seems to be done with multiple characters in mind. So I don't think they'll be there (and honestly, I don't mind too much, for me it's just a game design choice that have to be done according to what the project wants to do. I know that they're important from some fan).

I don't know, the mountains seem perfectly suited for Tails' flight ad Knuckles' climbing...

[Slashy]

1 minute ago, CertifiedNobody said:

English speakers being priority does matter since it shows that they're focused on Sonic's biggest demographic and we won't have any awful localization like Forces got.

I love Ian's work personally. He loves to add in references to the franchise's history and understands each character's personality pretty well. He can make a story dark without it being edgy and humorless, and his more lighthearted stories are leagues beyond of Pontaff's comedy.

The Metal Virus arc was pretty draining because it was overly dark and mostly humorless. It relied a lot on making us watch the horror of seeing characters we love get turned over and over again and I don't know what else was supposed to be the hook of that story besides that.

[Kazhnuz]

There are one place in the "environnemental video" where there seems to be ramp to launch up, without a really something to take speed via momentum, so I wouldn't be surprised if we have boost in the overworld too.

[NoKaine]

6 minutes ago, Slashy said:

The Metal Virus arc was pretty draining because it was overly dark and mostly humorless. It relied a lot on making us watch the horror of seeing characters we love get turned over and over again and I don't know what else was supposed to be the hook of that story besides that.

It was draining because it was pretty long, but it wasn't overly dark. 

What other hook is there supposed to be? It's a Sonic the Hedgehog zombie story, the point is to see your favorite characters in dire situations. You don't and probably won't see a story like that again.

[___]

12 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

I don't think that's a well-supported assumption. I'm sure you wouldn't assume that, because the cyberspace stages will presumably have more focused platforming, that there will be no jumping in the overworld.

That's not an equivalent argument. Of course both parts of the game will have platforming and jumping. Boosting is a more complex mechanic. The game has to be custom tailored around it. I don't see the point of having stages dedicated to it if it was in the open world and working well.

[BubbleButt TV]

We're never getting a 3D Sonic with spindashing and rolling physics ever again are we

[NoKaine]

10 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

I don't think that's a well-supported assumption. I'm sure you wouldn't assume that, because the cyberspace stages will presumably have more focused platforming, that there will be no jumping in the overworld.

I think when people say "it won't be boosting" they don't mean "there is literally no mechanic for going faster" but "the gameplay and controls will not be the same as the boost games." 

Mario Odyssey has dedicated 2D Mario sections but no similar mechanic in the main overworlds. That is what the boost gameplay will be like.

[Wraith]

27 minutes ago, Gloved Animal said:

The mere existence of having boost stages mixed in with the open world stuff tells me that there won't be any boosting in the open world itself. 

I think the open world will be at BotW's pace. I'm picturing the gameplay flow to be: Jog to a virtual world portal, speed through the level in it, jog to the next portal, speed though another level, stop in place and fight a boss, jog to another portal, etc.

The opposite is probably true. Sonic uses the boost in both trailers and they seem to take place out in the field. 

Sonic will probably control similarly in both sections for ease of use.