IGN Full Sonic Frontiers 7 Minute Gameplay Video

[AuroraRedwinters]

Count me in the "so far I'm disappointed by what I see" camp.

I was open and curious to see what Sega Team might do with an open world/zone concept with Sonic, but if this is what to expect (based on the footage), ST needs to go back to the drawing board for another 5 years. It looks rather bland, uninspiring, and more closely resembles a fan game than an AAA-esque game. Sonic just looks out of place here in soooooo many ways. 

But I am still going to hold out hope that this might be decent.

 

[Shiny Gems]

I am still excited for this game, but remember when Sega said they were aiming for high review scores with this game?

...I think they should tone that down with what reception they are getting with the released footage of gameplay.

[Red Hot Jack]

52 minutes ago, Spooky Mulder said:

If they're gonna rip off BOTW, maybe they'll rip off Mario Odyssey too and we'll get Green Hill Zone as a post game island.

How about Angel Island as one of the open zones? It was suggested to me on discord.

Anyway, it looks fine but as you guys said, not really impressive, it's above ST standards but we really should not settle for that. Not that I am expecting a masterpiece...

[GX -The Spindash-]

On 6/1/2022 at 8:39 PM, James said:

Who chose this footage? Like a major element of your game is the combat, and you don't show it. A major element of your game are these unleashed-esque cyberspace levels, and you don't show it. A major element of your game is the minimalist story with a focus on the new female character, and you don't show it. Of course people are saying it looks like a tech demo, all you did was traverse the environment. I hope Sonic gets more movement abilities and they just dont want to spoil us on late game, but this was poor footage choice.

So what I’m hearing is that it’s a Sonic game reveal.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Well, it competent. Looks like it’ll at least be decent on release from that impression.

Tho I’m pretty shocked like others that some parts looked obviously automated. Not very “open world” if you have to do that.

However this game comes out in the end, I expect it to serve as a test bed for future entries and ideas. They’ve got a massive hub world—finally—after all these years. Although I’m not so sure about the puzzle I saw.

Also, to parrot others, that world is empty as fuck. Makes it look more like an obvious tech demo…and that is bringing back memories of 06 when they did something like this.

Looking forward to trying it out, but I see this more as a sign of things to come than anything groundbreaking for Sonic as a franchise.

Also, with Sonic climbing they have no excuse not to do characters like Knuckles or Rouge at this point, outside of narrative reasons.

[Sega DogTagz]

Egh.... this is.... somehow not what I expected to see.

Full honesty, I knew that going into a new gameplay philosophy would bring its own new share of succsesses and challenges, but I never imagined that the game, at first blush no less, would appear to fall prey to the exact same pitfalls that the linear games in the series have been fighting for years.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Morio Kishimoto does not trust the player to do anything of substance within the 3D plane. We saw it in Colors. We saw it in Forces and now we are seeing it again in Frontiers. Any time the player is asked to make a platforming challenge at speed, the game bends over backwards to rip control away from the player. We saw it in the boss footage from the 30 second teaser. Fight the boss? Sure go for it, but the second the game requires you to run up its arm, it litters the beast with boost rings, making it impossible to fail or miss. When Sonic is traversing the towers of moving across the ruins in the field. the dark purple runways function the same way each of the roads in Forces did, snapping you to the middle via auto correct, and essentially driving your character for you while you hold forward to move fast and look cool. Platforming challenge? The game blows its budget on rails to get you in the perfect position. If not that, then there is a row of speed boosters ready and waiting to turn tight corners for you. Or a bumper to launch you along a path....

Ugh. Its the same frustrating form over function that we have been grappling with every time this dude gets to lead a Sonic game. Its one thing to use rails, springs and boosters as transition breaks, but in each of these cases they are placed in a way to take the challenge out of the game. Unless the player is running through a field devoid of objectives, the game essentially leans in on its fail-safes to a fault. I can understand making it accessible to younger kids, but the difficulty level is rock bottom here. You don't have to do much of anything in any area of consequence.

 

but... that's only half the problem.

 

This game doesn't even seem to want to build off of what makes it special. We see a puzzle early on where Sonic uses the SpinCycle to extinguish flames. That's cool. Utilize the new mechanic for puzzles. That makes sense. Thats fun. Thats immersive. Then in the same breath, we see Sonic walk up to a statue, push a button, and watch as a relic rotate into proper formation. What? Why? How does that make sense? Why not use the same SpinCycle trick to make it rotate? Why not create a tornado around it using your speed, or strike an outstretched piece with a homing attack or ANYTHING that would either keep Sonic moving or make use of one of his abilities.  Mario walks up and presses buttons. This is Sonic, lets do things a different way!

 

Then there is the light path puzzle. A time-tested trope for sure, and not offensive in if itself, but here is Sonic again walking to its completion. This is not what anyone came here to see, and 1000% not something that should have appeared in a first look. I mean, there are so many ways this could have been fixed. Make it a bit larger and you could do the same puzzle at speed. Maybe add a time limit for an additional sense of panic. Better yet, use the same puzzle, and add Sonic's contrail and have it linger Tron style. Functionally the exact same puzzle, but it utilizes one of Sonic's abilities in a way that can be leveraged for additional difficulty the next time you come across this puzzle type.

 

But nope. We get bottom rung creativity, with puzzles that other games can and have used before. We get homing attack chains and rails that play themselves. We get boosters and springs in every inch of the terrain and another example of Sonic Team simply choosing to not let players have any real control while platforming in 3D. It may as well be on rails.

 

*sigh* not what I wanted to type today.

 

Those cyberspace levels have some serious heavy lifting to do, but there is no reason to expect them to adhere to a different philosophy. If the open world hold your hand at every corner, I can't bear to imagine the Sonic 4 levels of 6x Boostpads in a row we are going to have to endure in the action stages. Generations and Unleashed had well received boost levels. I don't understand the insistence of dumbing down 3D gameplay to the lowest denominator. 

[Quicksilver]

frontiers looks to be...interesting. the world seems empty, with not a lot to do. im not even sure what the objective is for this game. it looks to be at lot slower then a standard boost game, which is fine. this clearly haves a lot of potential, i just wanna see more to see if im fully sold

[Enesephus]

Well, that was... certainly gameplay. I appreciate them giving us so much at a time to get a feel for this game, and the fact that we've got more coming on Friday as well as throughout the rest of the month. Not to mention we're apparently going to be getting hands-on impressions and developer interviews? All this gives off the impression of confidence in this game from SEGA, though based on what we saw today I cannot imagine where that might be coming from because, yeah, this looks rather rough. 

I didn't hate what we saw, but parts of it definitely looked bad, and there wasn't really anything in it to get excited about. It looks exactly like the leakers described their playtest experiences being like as far back as two years ago, and though obviously we haven't seen everything, I cannot see where they might have addressed any of their feedback from back then.

My biggest issues with the gameplay, besides it looking rather aimless here (which, this video was explicitly focused on movement and exploration, so whatever, I'm sure there'll be another one later going over the gameplay loop and objectives), were the speed factor and ridiculous levels of automation. I was really hoping that this would be the game where they finally leave the excessive use of springs and boost pads in the past and allow the player to actually have some control and agency, but not only are they very much present and accounted for, but now we also have grind rails out the ass to make sure the player is always funneled along a set path even in this big, open environment.

They literally just took the exact same level design philosophy they've been going with and applied it to an open world setting, and I can only assume it's to mask the fact that they still haven't figured out how to make Sonic feel particularly good to control in a 3D space. It looks better than Forces in that regard, I'll give it that, at least you can make Sonic go in a tight circle at low speed, but I don't think we ever saw Sonic make any turns at "high" speed, they always made sure there was a grind rail to help you with that, so we can only assume the movement overall is still rather stiff. Forget Adventure control or whatever, was it really so hard just to give Sonic the ability to drift again? Sure, maybe he can in the final game, but I think in 6-7 minutes they could have shown him drifting if he has the ability so I'm just assuming that's not in here.

Also, as I alluded to a minute ago, Sonic looks really slow in this game, so chalk that one up as another parallel between this game and Sonic '06/Rise of Lyric. HIs default top speed looks really low, to the point the person playing felt the need to keep boosting (which seems to function like it did in UnWiished, being in short bursts rather than continuous) because there're no momentum physics of any kind. So much for "high-velocity open zone freedom."

Honestly, this game is reminding me a lot of Rise of Lyric, from the more realistic aesthetic to the more open gameplay (though of course this is much more open) to the emphasis on combat to the rather slow movement and high automation during speedier sections. They even have the same baby-tier puzzles, right down to lifting the tile puzzle straight from Rise of Lyric (I remember hoping the puzzles in that game would get more challenging and interesting over time, but we all know how that turned out). Not to mention a general lack of polish in the visuals. Yeah, this game has better graphics by a very wide margin, but the animations are quite a bit worse and the amount of pop-in at close range is just ridiculous. This does not look like a game that's ready to launch this year.

Honestly, I'm just tired. I'll still stick around to see more of the combat, and the gameplay loop, and the cyberspace levels, and the Super Sonic boss fights, and the story by Ian Flynn. I don't know how much any of those things can redeem this, but maybe when they all come together we'll end up with a game that's decent. Not good, but decent, as in mediocre, but the upper end of mediocre that's kind of enjoyable, you know? Like, a 6/10. It's just sad that that's the best we can expect from Sonic at this point. I've long dreamed of a Sonic game that would really shake up the formula and make Sonic fans and not-yet-fans of all stripes come together and say, "yes, this game looks fucking awesome and I can't wait to play it," a feeling I've experienced many times in the last several years with so many other games that would go on to be some of my very favorites of all time, but a feeling Sonic Team just cannot seem to tap into, no matter how hard they may be trying. 

[TSS Classic Comment Bot]

Posted By: daimando

Honestly, after Sonic Froniter, I’d like to see Sonic in a different gaming spin-off. Examples include

A Metroidvania(Focused on Amy Rose)
A Musou game similar to Hyrule Warriors(Along with other Warriors games)
A LEGO video game(After LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, I welcome new era LEGO Games, and the entire Sonic Legacy would be perfect)

[Wraith]

I'll...try to start with the stuff I liked.

+ I actually respect them for revealing extended gameplay without bullshots. It takes some courage to do that when when just lying is easy.
+ Seeing Sonic react to things like streams of water warms my heart, even if it's in minor ways like slowing down. The games have been missing interactions like that for the longest.
+ Little touches like the wind blowing in Sonic's ears once he's high up enough are nice.
+ I could see the floor square puzzle getting some good traction if paired with enemies and obstacles.
+ Pleasantly surprised with the lower base speed. Been wanting that change for a minute.
+ I don't like the boost being in still but killing it's ability to wipe enemies is a good change.
+It's nice to have a 'high fi' Sonic game again post Unleashed. I'm not the biggest fan of the visuals overall but it's obvious a lot of work went into the lighting and textures. The amount of detail is nice too. This Sonic game doesn't give off that 'cheap' feeling Lost World and forces did.

As for the problems, I'll start with the biggest one: Most of the interaction seems to come from objects like springs, dash pads, rails and new stuff like the tower walls you can climb/run up. IE: Objects that can be easily anywhere on the map. The sinking feeling in my gut is that the types of content and puzzles we see here are what populate the map in every region. Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Elden Ring both struggle with not having enough of a variety activities to do considering their size and those games are great. What chance does this team have? 

And this is just sidestepping the fact that rail grinding, homing attack chains and dashpad abuse just aren't interesting gameplay and never have been. I was hoping there would be more fundamental changes to how Sonic moves and interacts with things, and there have been a few, but it seems like more of the same for the most part which feels like a missed opportunity. Like, why is the quickstep even in this game? Even if you just didn't feel like coding new shit the drift would have been a better choice.

The new puzzles are....a thing. I like the panel one for taking advantage of Sonic's movement but it's nothing we haven't seen before. Sonic just straight stopping to plainly interact with the statue in the other one kind of had me raise an eyebrow. We'll ignore how easy it is for now since this is just early game and just say it doesn't seem fun. Who comes to Sonic for this type of thing.

Most of the scenery you just see beyond that is set dressing. Even the water fall turned out to be scenery for another spring chain. The steeper hills aren't even enough to impede Sonic's movement. That'd be an easy way to reward players to be more thoughtful about traversal early on, but I guess it's my fault for expecting that they'd try to make their game fun.





Speaking of the environment..it looks nice in terms of fidelity but there's no sense of style to it. Not just 'for a Sonic game' but like, at all.  The Colors are dull and the blown out lighting is making it worse. Everything is blending together in a series where everything on screen used to pop. This is probably the thing I can see them having the easiest time fixing before launch though.

I'll give them a pass on the technical stuff since maybe it's not done, but Sonic's animations should not look as bad as they do, this far a long. When I saw him first throw that punch I winced. They seriously couldn't think of a better way for him to attack enemies? Nothing to do with his big ol feet? If he has to throw punches, they need to exaggerate the animation or the motion so we can really feel that shit.

You see the way his whole body leans into that punch? The exaggerated limbs that convey both the power and the hitbox it's supposed to have? The visual effects that add emphasis to the entire move?


His motions in general are stiff and unappealing. They have been for a while, but having so many ~acrobatic~ techniques in this game is really putting this in the spotlight. Those tricks and the "ombat in the last trailer looked genuinely terrible as far as Sonic's animations are concerned.

These choices don't just affect the aesthetic too. Animations are a good part of what makes an action game feel good so if that part isn't together you gotta fight uphill to make up the difference. First impressions are important, and if Sonic's attacks look like shit it'll go a long way toward them feeling like shit for most people in the long run.


I'm also hoping that the soundtrack picks up later on because the decision to go with generic piano accompaniment for Sonic is just confusing to me. Even the more somber stages have some energy to them because moving around as him is inherently joyful and high energy. I guess if there's a theme for combat we'll hear it tomorrow. I hope it's interesting and not a riff on BOTW's combat theme but since they stole the piano motif wholesale my hopes are low.

All these disparate elements are combining to make a game that looks boring and sounds boring. Boring to the point of being miserable. I don't think it's going to flop personally but this is probably the least I've been hooked by a Sonic game reveal and looking at the comments I'm not alone on that feeling.  I hope I'm wrong and the new combat adds some much needed spice.

[GX -The Spindash-]

On 6/2/2022 at 2:33 AM, daimando said:

Honestly, after Sonic Froniter, I’d like to see Sonic in a different gaming spin-off. Examples include

A Metroidvania(Focused on Amy Rose)
A Musou game similar to Hyrule Warriors(Along with other Warriors games)
A LEGO video game(After LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, I welcome new era LEGO Games, and the entire Sonic Legacy would be perfect)

Two quick things:
1. Warner no longer has the LEGO license. Skywalker Saga was the last TT LEGO game unless business agreements change.
2. I would love the hell out of a Sonic Musou. It would be the most beautifully dumb project and I support this idea wholeheartedly.

[TSS Classic Comment Bot]

Posted By: NewSoupVi

On 6/1/2022 at 6:16 PM, Shem said:

I'm liking some of what I see, but there is an extremely worrying amount of jank in this preview. The first jump doesn't even work without some glitchiness. Here's hoping it gets some major polish.

If you notice, the music has actually been added on in post.

I'm sure that song will still be in the game in this area, but there could be more to it. Usually, these open world games make use of some form of dynamic music, or seemless transitions to other tracks... Well, but maybe I'm expecting too much of a Sonic game, haha.

[Zaysho]

I wasn't sure what to make of this. I think it looks interesting enough, but it's a pretty rough showcase that drags on too long and doesn't really make the world itself look engaging. I legitimately laughed when I saw Sonic climbing the tower with his hands briefly because I did only really think of BotW (had the thought that spindash would've been a good speed booster for that sort of thing). I grant this was more of a showcase of movement which seemed fine for the most part but it looks off here and there. Main thing that sticks out is that it's like a weird mash-up of boost and Lost World, so it feels less like a new step forward or evolution but taking what sorta worked before and plopping it into an open setting. It doesn't really give me a good sense of how Sonic is supposed to feel. In general you don't get a good sense of what's going on or what the setting is meant to be (could have been alleviated with some story tidbits).

I don't think I'd really mind just zipping around but it's dependent on how much more compelling it gets. I think about the time I spent playing Pokémon Legends Arceus a couple months ago and how much fun I had. It's a very repetitive game, has its share of tedium, the areas at time can feel too generic for Pokémon, but the core loop and ride options and general challenges somehow hooked me in for hours at a time and so far that's the only thing that's not yet shown here.

It's one video of a month-long cover story, so I'm not gonna get too hung up on it. I'm curious to see how it all ties together and see proper gameplay (the combat teaser also got my attention but it wasn't much of a taste), and I'm still interested in what Ian's writing, but it kind of just "is." Not enough for me to feel down about but I can't disagree with the "tech demo" comments or people's collective confusion. Seems like it would benefit more from actual livestreaming of proper gameplay and/or commentary to better showcase how it all goes together. Just gonna maintain my curiosity.

[Red Hot Jack]

Have more interaction with the environment would be super. I agree that most of it comes from the usual elements, even though, you know, I've been pushing that this game still needs classic Sonic elements to not feel completely different.

Although those rails really are everywhere just to make gameplay automatically faster, without momentum. And they REALLY look weird in the sky lol

Not gonna comment on rolling, it's not a Modern Sonic move, I wasn't expecting it anyway.

About combat, this might be very unpopular but I liked the way Lost World handled it, it was the best approach: you can homing attack, kick enemies, bounce on them, spin dash, there was variety in the attacks and the enemies themselves but it wasn't really "combat heavy" just really with variety, I liked that, it was simple and cool. The "super homing attack" was bullshit though.

[iDEATH]

I just can't get over that first ubisoft tower they show off. There's no player input whatsoever, once you've found the first bit of wall to run up, you've made it to the top as the rest is just boost pads and rails, there's no chance to fail, no alternatives, basically no player input. 

 

It looks similar to the one in the curscene so hopefully it's literally the first tower you encounter but it doesn't give a great impression. 

Actually, all the random platforms and rails they show are the same, once you've found the first spring or booster you've completed the puzzle. The level of automation has long been a problem in sonic games but seeing it in an open world context is somehow even worse. 

 

Gotta say, in general I'm not digging the vibe do far. The cartoony look of Sonic in this realistic barren environment with random bridges and rails just dumped wherever just looks like one of those asset flip steam games to me

[Salamander]

With the disclaimer in place that I'm very much more a fan of the classic and 2D sides of the franchise than 3D... this honestly looked pretty appalling?

I mean, one thing that hasn't changed is that the basic design ethos of this open world has not changed since day one, and it is almost laughably generic.  There is no sense of style, not even a vibrant use of colour, nothing to make it stand out from any other game of this type that's released in the past five years or so; take Sonic himself out of all the early footage, and you really would never know it's a Sonic game.  It doesn't even do anything to differentiate itself as its own thing, let alone a Sonic setting; you could plop any old character and gameplay into it.

But then we get to the first actual gameplay footage, and it turns out that that's exactly the problem: The world was not made for the gameplay.  I can only assume that they threw together this big grassy plain as a generic backdrop for Sonic's adventure without the slightest thought as to what kind of physics or interactions or narrative would take place there, because the actual gameplay is wholly separate and has had to be haphazardly glued on top of it.  Springs and dashpads directing you where to go instead of giving you a choice, and, worst of all, the endless clutter of rails littered on the ground and in the air, sprawling structures hovering unaided in the open sky without the slightest attempt to integrate them into the environment.  Apparently the look Sonic Team was going for is "half the level geometry didn't load in".

So we have three different elements to this world: Island, Sonic, and gimmicks.  And no attempt has been made to have them cohere with one another, either visually or mechanically.  This is Frontiers doing open-world the way Lost World did parkour: So badly that it might just kill off the concept.

At this point the only saving grace for visual and mechanical coherence is the rumoured cyberspace Generations-style levels, linear and curated.  It's both possible and reasonable to think that those might have more Sonicky (or at least exciting!) visuals, and design tailored to environment.  But given the design philosophy applied to the game so far, it's hard not to fear the worst.

[TSS Classic Comment Bot]

Posted By: Island Name

There’s something really amusing of seeing lots of random ass grind rails and platforms floating far above half-empty open-world island.

[TSS Classic Comment Bot]

Posted By: A L

On 6/1/2022 at 5:57 PM, Greatsong1 said:

This looks good and all but while I get that Sega and ST wants to show off the “openess” of the open-world here right now, tbh this is one of the issues I have with most open-worlds in general, near emptiness of “life” besides the player character.

Also, am I the only one who thinks they should have used some other kind of music? Not saying the actual music here is bad, I like it but I would have prefered something that actually makes you feel like that this is a Sonic game.

Maybe that will be part of the plot. Sonic is sent to a post-apocalyptic world ala Kirby and the Forgotten Land where nature is reclaiming everything and everyone is dead. Perhaps the goal will be to figure what happened to the world’s people

[TSS Classic Comment Bot]

Posted By: AManFromDeclan

On 6/2/2022 at 3:39 AM, GX -The Spindash- said:

Two quick things:
1. Warner no longer has the LEGO license. Skywalker Saga was the last TT LEGO game unless business agreements change.
2. I would love the hell out of a Sonic Musou. It would be the most beautifully dumb project and I support this idea wholeheartedly.

1. Who even has the rights to LEGO (that can be negotiated with)? Because I want to play Sonic’s LEGO Dimensions campaign without buying the entire device needed to play the game and reach that point.
2. I in good faith cannot support “dumb” projects. I focus more on unironically thought-out passion projects.

[GX -The Spindash-]

On 6/2/2022 at 8:00 PM, AManFromDeclan said:

1. Who even has the rights to LEGO (that can be negotiated with)? Because I want to play Sonic’s LEGO Dimensions campaign without buying the entire device needed to play the game and reach that point.
2. I in good faith cannot support “dumb” projects. I focus more on unironically thought-out passion projects.

I might be mistaken, WB no longer has exclusivity on the brand. That said, fairly recently 2K is apparently publishing several LEGO sports games, including one from Sumo Digital.

Also, I can comfortably say, the Musou series has an incredible amount of thought-out passion for the most dumbass anime nonsense out there. They do good work.

[TSS Classic Comment Bot]

Posted By: Pandy

On 6/1/2022 at 8:39 PM, James said:

Who chose this footage? Like a major element of your game is the combat, and you don't show it. A major element of your game are these unleashed-esque cyberspace levels, and you don't show it. A major element of your game is the minimalist story with a focus on the new female character, and you don't show it. Of course people are saying it looks like a tech demo, all you did was traverse the environment. I hope Sonic gets more movement abilities and they just dont want to spoil us on late game, but this was poor footage choice.

IGN will be showing off Sonic Frontiers all month long. The gameplay here was specifically showing off the world, traversal, and some puzzles. On Friday we’re getting showcase of combat, and interviews have been confirmed to be coming soon. If you were to ask me I’d say a story/character trailer & a cyberspace gameplay will probably be around the end of June.

[ZERO_ninja]

I've got this really big disconnect with it that it took me a while to fully articulate. I do think it looks derivative to a fault, I do think it looks kinda rough in places (bad pop in despite not being that visually impressive, and that bird... yikes), I do think it looks a bit aimless, they're really failing to convince me right now there's much to actually do in this open space. I do think the world looks bland. Yet I don't think any of that is my main issue.

Took me a while to nail it down, but I think the real problem for me is it lacks the tone and energy I want from Sonic. I like that Sonic Team seem to consider Sonic kinda malleable to a lot of different takes, but one thing that was always a constant for me is that Sonic is about grand exciting adventure and there's always this sense of energy to the franchise.

I dig lonely and mysterious vibes in things, but I don't dig this in Sonic. Doesn't help that it just kinda looks unremarkable at that stuff. At least doesn't look like it'll be unpleasant to play, but I mean, I'd want it to actually be fun.

[TSS Classic Comment Bot]

Posted By: Megasis

I’m finding this gameplay very underwhelming. It doesn’t feel very Sonic-like at all, and the pacing seems really awkward. Sega is clearly trying to make “Breath of the Wild, but Sonic” here, but this gameplay video looks like the type of thing that I would expect to see from a 3D tech demo at Sage instead of a AAA Sonic game. If Sega wanted to do something open-world like this, they should have made a new IP or pitched it as a spinoff because right now I’m experiencing flashbacks of the same jarring “wait, this doesn’t feel like Sonic” feeling that I experienced when I watched the first Sonic ’06 demo footage.