Takashi Iizuka Reveals Hopes of Using Sonic Frontiers Work Towards Future Sonic Adventure Sequel

[Sonictrainer]

More info from IGN on Sonic Frontiers

Quote

We talk with Sonic Team Creative Officer Takashi Iizuka to find out the origins of Sonic Frontiers' "Open Zone" design, the split between that design and the traditional linear 3D Sonic levels, and the lessons learned from Sonic Adventure that went into Sonic Frontiers. Find out all of this and more in this Iizuka-san interview for Sonic Frontiers.

 

[Zadent]

That is an interesting description. Curious what those Sonic Adventure lessons were.

And as I’ve been hoping for…actually talking with someone about the game! Looking forward to hearing this one.

[VO.SUPER]

In glad to get more context on the game. 

But I do hope this has more concrete info rather than a lot of marketing fluff. 

[Celestia]

Calling him a boss in any context just made me think of Iizuka as a boss battle in the game.

Like not a giant size version of him or whatever I mean he's just normal human sized and he and Sonic duke it out. He's like the hidden superboss or whatever so you have to 100% the game or really go out of your way to find him or something. Come on, try and tell me this isn't a good idea.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Only if they play that song from Metal Gear Rising.

[Zadent]

24 minutes ago, Celestia said:

Calling him a boss in any context just made me think of Iizuka as a boss battle in the game.

Like not a giant size version of him or whatever I mean he's just normal human sized and he and Sonic duke it out. He's like the hidden superboss or whatever so you have to 100% the game or really go out of your way to find him or something. Come on, try and tell me this isn't a good idea.

Like visiting GameFreak in Pokemon games and battling Masuda, one of the strongest characters in the game? I’d love to see that.

[Dr. Detective]

"Boss" is a striking way to put it. Literally, I imagined having a sit down interview with that weird giant alien looking motherfucker from the combat video.

IGN asks him why he's trying to kill Sonic and he responds with I̶̬̳͑ ̸̧̯̬̈̋h̵̙̘̕͠a̴̧̜͋͜͜ṫ̴̛̮e̸͂̒͘ͅ ̸̧̜̹͜͝t̷̺͙͠ḣ̴̦̪̂â̸̘̲͌͊̓t̷͖̽̎̍̂ ̵̥̺̌̃̊h̴̗̰̼̔̀̈́é̴̖̻̳̉͒d̴͖̠͑g̵̛̞̥̾è̷̹̜̝̥͘h̸̙͍͈̾̊͝ő̷̧͕̠̘g̵̦͊̅.̴̡̢̀

[Zaysho]

4 hours ago, Celestia said:

Calling him a boss in any context just made me think of Iizuka as a boss battle in the game.

Like not a giant size version of him or whatever I mean he's just normal human sized and he and Sonic duke it out. He's like the hidden superboss or whatever so you have to 100% the game or really go out of your way to find him or something. Come on, try and tell me this isn't a good idea.

It'll be like the Squall fight in Kingdom Hearts where it doesn't matter if Sora beats him, Sora still falls over in the cutscene.

[PC the Hedgehog]

Lessons learned from Sonic Adventure, eh? Okay, you've got my attention.

[DaBigJ]

Sonic Adventure released in 1998.

Sonic Frontiers...is 2022.

Am I the only one who finds it weird that they mentioned taking lessons from a 24(?) year old game or am I being a bit pessimistic?

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Yo the video says it’s private for me…is that normal?

4 minutes ago, Jake_LeOFFICIAL said:

Sonic Adventure released in 1998.

Sonic Frontiers...is 2022.

Am I the only one who finds it weird that they mentioned taking lessons from a 24(?) year old game or am I being a bit pessimistic?

What’s wrong with learning from the past?

[PC the Hedgehog]

13 minutes ago, Jake_LeOFFICIAL said:

Sonic Adventure released in 1998.

Sonic Frontiers...is 2022.

Am I the only one who finds it weird that they mentioned taking lessons from a 24(?) year old game or am I being a bit pessimistic?

Considering Sonic's 3D track record, Adventure is one of the better games to take lessons from.

[Razule]

I'd like them to take some lessons from the classic games, so sure, why not. I can't say I'm seeing what's new that they've learned so far, but he must mean something by that.

Maybe the adventure fields? Turning those into giant zones where you make progress instead of filler between traveling to one stage and the next?

[Shaddy Zaphod]

1 hour ago, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

Yo the video says it’s private for me…is that normal?

Nope, it wasn't like that before. I'm sure it'll come back by 9AM.

[KHCast]

4 hours ago, Jake_LeOFFICIAL said:

Sonic Adventure released in 1998.

Sonic Frontiers...is 2022.

Am I the only one who finds it weird that they mentioned taking lessons from a 24(?) year old game or am I being a bit pessimistic?

I mean…botw took cues from the first Zelda game. So it’s not as if this concept is alien to devs 

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Whatever lesson it is, it's probably not going to be that they should design levels like the ones in the Adventure games, sadly (though this is the first Sonic in a while with a speed comparable to SA1).

Honestly, the cyber levels are the best excuse they could ask for to reuse assets from previous games. I would be happy with anything but just the same computer aesthetic for all 30 of them or whatever. Just tint the dirt from Green Hill blue, and boom, suddenly Hill Top is in the game. Put the buildings from Skyscraper Scamper and Modern Speed Highway in the background of a Jungle Joyride ripoff, and hey, HD emerald coast. Fuck it, color Forces Metropolis green and blue, add a couple light bridges, and suddenly it's Grand Metropolis. Let players get confused if Water Palace is Apotos again by reusing Apotos assets. Orange and purple chemical plant with black water? Uh, I think you mean Oil Ocean. Turn Cool Edge into Icecap by simply...oh, you're done already.

Just use whatever corner-cutting methods you need to make those levels substantive. Forces managed things like Network Terminal and Space Port looking significantly different despite both being Chemical Plant, Luminous Forest and Aqua Road being differentiated by the presence of bombers and the water slides, or Death Egg and Egg Gate feeling different through the use of the space skybox. And while you're free to criticize that Forces's use of classic stages, they generally feel less alike from each other than any act of Starlight Carnival or Planet Wisp did from another (mostly. some of them straight-up reuse terrain, which obviously is not what I'm highlighting here). Hell, Hedgehog Engine 2 is all about lighting stages really quickly right? Just set them at different times of day! Then you can use the same themes at least three times without it getting visually tiring.

[Cayenne]

 

7 hours ago, Jake_LeOFFICIAL said:

Sonic Adventure released in 1998.

Sonic Frontiers...is 2022.

Am I the only one who finds it weird that they mentioned taking lessons from a 24(?) year old game or am I being a bit pessimistic?

To this day, there's devs from all kinds of backgrounds who learn design lessons from old games. One of the most used examples of good level design is SMB's world 1-1, for example. If you read a book or watch a video about the subject (ex: Architectural Approach to Level Design), you will probably see a short or detailed explanation about it.

For many game companies and developers, It doesn't matter how old a game is. What actually matters is how it's structure can teach them how to build their own game and solve design issues.

[Shiny Gems]

Why is the video private as of now? Is something wrong? Maybe a delay?

[Hidden04]

Idk, maybe there is something in there that will be shown at SGF, so they will wait until SGF to show it.

[LegoFedora]

11 hours ago, PC the Hedgehog said:

Lessons learned from Sonic Adventure, eh? Okay, you've got my attention.

The video is private so I don't know if more was stated past this, but I do recall them mentioning something similar in frontiers interviews way back when we just had the teaser. I don't have much to say except, Sonic Team if you're going to use adventure as a scapegoat at least make it believeable.

You're really going to tell us you've learned your lesson from adventure 1 and 2, games which probably did the best at translating the classic formula to 3d? Yet now you decide to stick a character known for going fast into an open world and slowing him down to the extent lost world would blush? Really? Is this the hill you want to die on?

If you learned from adventure then why are you disregarding everything it spent 2 (or 3/4 if you consider heroes/shadow) trying to establish?

Maybe I'm being pessimistic but that one phrase is not easing any of my concerns for frontiers, if anything it's making them slightly worse.

[Diogenes]

The main lesson they learned from the Adventure games is that boost pads are cool and good.

[Razule]

Uhhh.. so nothing today?

[Shiny Gems]

2 minutes ago, Razule said:

Uhhh.. so nothing today?

That is what I am wondering. All except maybe later in the day, hopefully.

[DaBigJ]

12 hours ago, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

Yo the video says it’s private for me…is that normal?

What’s wrong with learning from the past?

Nothin', it's just kinda weird they chosen to mention Adventure specifically and not, I dunno, Forces or Lost World as a way to innovate gameplay, cuz those two have a similar Sonic gameplay style to Frontiers compared to Sonic Adventure.

Oh, and yeah, nothing today

 

[phobs]

IGN pushed the interview to tomorrow due to SGF