Game Informer Interview with Ian Flynn on Writing for Sonic Frontiers

[Kuzu]

Interview with Ian Flynn on what to expect from the story.

[MGA_Gamer]

9 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

Interview with Ian Flynn on what to expect from the story.

So does this confirm that Big The Cat really is in the game?

[ZinogreVolt]

The Japanese script being built off of Flynn's writing rather than the other way around is pretty insane, Sonic Team must have a ton of faith in his work.

[Kuzu]

3 minutes ago, MGA_Gamer said:

So does this confirm that Big The Cat really is in the game?

Spoilers from the leak thread 

Spoiler

He was datamined. He seems to be running a shop.

 

[Cosmos Rogue]

Surprised, interested, and slightly worried that Flynn was able to convince Sonic Team to add more characters to the game. The biggest flaw Flynn has as a writer, at least in his stories that I've read, is just how much of Sonic's past adventures get referenced. Sometimes it feel like he approaches writing with a quota of tidbits that need to be dug back up.

That said, the story is the one thing we've seen or heard about Frontiers that genuinely intrigues me.

[Kuzu]

15 minutes ago, Cosmos Rogue said:

Surprised, interested, and slightly worried that Flynn was able to convince Sonic Team to add more characters to the game. The biggest flaw Flynn has as a writer, at least in his stories that I've read, is just how much of Sonic's past adventures get referenced. Sometimes it feel like he approaches writing with a quota of tidbits that need to be dug back up.

That said, the story is the one thing we've seen or heard about Frontiers that genuinely intrigues me.

The interview mentioned that there aren't gonna be a lot of characters this time around, so I'm expecting the usuals (Sonic, Tails, Eggman, Amy, Knuckles and maybe Shadow) and nobody else.

 

And I'm fine with it. After an entire decade of the series distancing itself from its past outside of gracious nods here and there, ita gonna be interesting to see a plot that feels like it builds on established details.

[MGA_Gamer]

8 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

The interview mentioned that there aren't gonna be a lot of characters this time around, so I'm expecting the usuals (Sonic, Tails, Eggman, Amy, Knuckles and maybe Shadow) and nobody else.

And I'm fine with it. After an entire decade of the series distancing itself from its past outside of gracious nods here and there, ita gonna be interesting to see a plot that feels like it builds on established details.

I just hope the story does my favourite two-tailed fox justice, and not just treat him poorly like in recent games (Looking at you, Forces!).

[ComeAsYouAre]

41 minutes ago, Cosmos Rogue said:

Surprised, interested, and slightly worried that Flynn was able to convince Sonic Team to add more characters to the game. The biggest flaw Flynn has as a writer, at least in his stories that I've read, is just how much of Sonic's past adventures get referenced. Sometimes it feel like he approaches writing with a quota of tidbits that need to be dug back up.

That said, the story is the one thing we've seen or heard about Frontiers that genuinely intrigues me.

While he can overdo it. It's better than the last 16 years where from 2006 onwards there feels zero connection between the games. Or said connection feels weird(classic sonic in Forces and Zavok in TSR) 

 

If Ian Becomes the main writer of the mainline games we may go back to the era of the games building up on each other 

[SonicWind]

God, getting Ian to write for Frontiers was perhaps one of the best choices Sonic Team could have made. I'm glad they've allowed him to weave in bits and pieces of past Sonic games for this.

I'm very interested in how this game's storyline unfolds.

[Dr. Mechano]

New interview is very interesting: https://www.gameinformer.com/2022/07/14/what-players-should-expect-from-sonic-frontiers-story

 

Especially this part:

 

I am here for nuanced, fleshed-out Eggman. Really excited to see what they do with him in the story.

[VO.SUPER]

Wow, so Ian is essentially having his script rewritten back in Japanese as the basis of the game. Granted, this isn't just a single person project as he says, but to still have so much influence over the final narrative. What an honor. 

[NoKaine]

Of all the good things in that interview, this is the most exciting to me:

 

 

Frontiers is not structured like a standard Sonic game, and Flynn hasn't written for a game in the first place, so his talents may be wasted if he's writing without knowledge of the context of the actual game.

Hearing that he not only has a significant influence over the story, but he's working back and forth with the developers to overcome the language barrier as well as make the game and the story work together, is more promising than just the idea that someone good is writing the story.

[Scar]

If Ian Flynn understands the characters that's good enough, because that is what will sell the narrative. You can have a dumb plot, but if the characters are on point it'll be just fine.

[Zaysho]

Since this is a discussion in itself, I took the liberty of splitting it to its own topic.

 

In any case, super interested in all Ian brought to the table, since I was expecting he was being stuck with localization only.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

This actually quells my past fears of Ian being put on a tight leash.

Hearing they being collaborative definitely puts a smile on my face. I can rest easy knowing the story will finally be something I can enjoy in a Sonic game.

Now the gameplay could certainly do better, but it’s a decent start compared to past titles.

[VO.SUPER]

It's definitely a less limiting role than I feared he would have. Yeah, it's not total control, but it's best as a collaborative project. And hopefully this means the story will be just a bit more woven into the gameplay. 

[Soniman]

Good news all around, the story/ characters are definitely the thing I’m the least worried about in this game 

[jungle_penguins]

Oh good, sounds like even more freedom compared to Lost World, with potentially bigger implications for the franchise going forward.

[PC the Hedgehog]

Here's hoping the fact that Iizuka and Morimoto think so highly of his work bodes well for future work...

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

It's interesting. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this might very well be the first time in a Sonic game that the western writers have had this much pull and say in the matter of said game's story. More often than not beforehand, the western writers were mainly translating and localizing stuff essentially.

If this truly is the first time, then hopefully the story is keen as a result, which could lead to future endeavors like this as well.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

It's not exactly clear what they did, but Pontac and Graff played some part in the actual plot of Lost World. Probably still not on this level, though.

[Zaysho]

If we go by this, it sounds like Pontac and Graff were asked to come up with the story. I assume it's a similar process that Ian outlines where Sega set the guidelines and basic gist (setting, characters), but they were probably not nearly as involved as Ian was with suggesting story direction, character usage, etc..

I'm kind of surprised how open they're being about the writing process, even down to how Kishimoto took Ian's script and localized it himself for the Japanese market and how they want to appeal over there with this game.

[GentlemanX]

Ugh, I just can't wait to dig into this game's story. I am a bit disappointed they keep emphasizing how small the roster of NPCs is, since given how large the scope of the game is supposed to be having more side characters to rescue and seemingly help restore memories for so they grow as characters a bit from the experience as side quests of sorts seems like the perfect opportunity to really better utilize the extended cast. But if the trade off is that the characters we are getting are being specifically tailored to enrich the game's story, I'll take it.

Ian teasing that we'll be surprised at some of the stuff the gets referenced is exciting. Wonder if he just means stuff like the Babylon Rogues or Gemerl that are Modern!Sonic content we haven't referenced in the games in forever, or if he was able to include small references to stuff like IDW or Classic characters (not likely, especially the Classic characters - but dream big right?).

[KingMario05]

10 hours ago, MGA_Gamer said:

I just hope the story does my favourite two-tailed fox justice, and not just treat him poorly like in recent games (Looking at you, Forces!).

Same here. If he ain't an unlockable PC (and he damn well should be), at LEAST let him be a badass again, Sega.

[Salamander]

I think a collaborative approach between writer and developer is the best one in video game writing, so whatever the ultimate quality of the game, this can only be a good thing.