SONIC FRONTIERS Story Trailer

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

1 minute ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Trailer was fine. Game looks fine. 

Not terribly much else to say. I'm anticipating a good time at least. 

Pretty much the same case for me. Definite props to how the story's shaping up to be.

Despite the more serious tone, even when he's silent,  Sonic's a smart aleck, like when he metaphorically gave Sage the finger when he slammed that door button.

[StaticMania]

The Desert is mixed in with Canyons...

How amazing.

[Sega DogTagz]

We have seen what have appeared to be a large handful of biome's that make up the first island. Forest, fields, riverbeds, canyons and a bit of industrial ruins complex.

I imagine it'll be more of the same on the other islands too. We got a good look at a wasteland desert, but its not farfetched to imagine some more canyon heavy, ruin filled, oasis dotted stretches of land in there too.

The topography is the least of my worries. Especially with the potential for the most impressive/fun biome's still on the table.

 

Bring on the cam footage of the cyberspace levels. That's gonna be our meat and potatoes from now till launch.

[Soniman]

Also big two thumbs down for that 2D section in the green hill zone, they tried fooling us for a second but ultimately that terrified Sonic Team who simply REFUSE to leave their comfort zone still stands strong, big props for sticking a big ol block there just like old times 

[azoo]

They should really consider removing the motion blur. The game would still look really uninteresting and derivative, but at least it wouldn't be hideous.

[McGroose]

2 minutes ago, azoo said:

They should really consider removing the motion blur. The game would still look really uninteresting and derivative, but at least it wouldn't be hideous.

fr the least they could do is make it optional in the graphical settings or something.

One of the most annoying things about boost gameplay in general has always been how the boost causes so much motion blur and muffles the audio. 

Plus this is hardly the most impressive looking game in the world. I will admit I do like the visual flare in the Cyber space levels, especially what they did with Sky Sanctuary, but what I'm seeing from the main islands isn't exactly gorgeous. 

[Gabz Girl]

Please be good please be good please be good..! 

This trailer did make the game look a bit better than previous terrible gameplay impressions but I’m still not sure. The story might end up being the only good thing about this, I’m very intrigued about the world and what Sage’s deal is. Still SMFH at Green Hill and Sky Sanctuary! Also visually not great, not terrible. Sonic’s design looks so dated now. Could at least give him some nice spine textures like movie!Sonic. 

Also, $60 for this?? Haha, I think I’ll be waiting for the impressions/reviews before buying this thanks. Since Frontiers will be playable at Gamescom this week, I’m really curious to see impressions. 

[D.H]

Honestly, I loved that trailer. The game looks gorgeous visually, RCS' voice acting was on point with the Amy line, Sage as a villain interests me & even the gameplay looks like it'll be a fun time if nothing else.

I think what really does it for me when it comes to Frontiers is that it feels like they're emphasizing spectacle & scope, which is something I haven't seen a Sonic game do in years. I doubt it'll be perfect, or the most technically sound game of the year, but I do feel like they're setting this game up to be a memorable adventure in the same vain of Unleashed & SA2. And it's been SO LONG since we had a Sonic game that tried such a thing, that Frontiers has me excited in spite of any potential flaws.

[The Deleter]

Here's a trailer in a cleaner resolution, but it still looks relatively blurry/muddy visually whenever gameplay pops up

Thinking back to the comments about the demo performance from SGF mentioning weird resolution scaling and motion blur, starting to worry this is just a limitation of the game itself at this point

[FirePheonix]

Idk I rather liked this trailer, the cyberspace levels look fun maybe not quite Gens quality but still, and I love the look of the Desert Island, you can see multiple biomes in it like a tropical biome and more red sandy desert.

The new enemies look interesting and I LOVE the new move where Sonic spins so quickly around the enemy, hands down my favorite combat move so far.

And the story from little we've seen seems it will be more serious which is nice.

Music is always great in Sonic so yeah.

And animations have improved for sure

Basically this game looks like a fun time for me I will have a lot of fun with it.

Of course I will wait for the gamescom impressions, but I am feeling really good about this, I do think this game will have a mixed reception but that's Sonic for ya at this point.

[dudebro1993]

Looks interesting I have to say, too bad Sonic's friends will be useless like in Forces. 

[phobs]

As someone who is interested in both the God of War and Sonic, I can tell you with 100% confidence that at launch my $60 will be going to Ragnarok and not Frontiers. The God of War, that was released in 2018, absolutely blew me away and even in 2022, its graphics look absolutely phenomenal and my joy playing this game can't be described with any possible words. Objectively, when I look at Frontiers, it simply doesn't feel like AAA $60 game for me. I had high hopes and expectations for Frontiers because of the movies' success and I simply expected significant improvement in 5 years. Reused assets, empty environment, physics, weird choices in aesthetics don't spark interest in me at all. Some of my favorite indies, for which I paid maximum $20, look more interesting than Frontiers. The only interesting thing about Frontiers for me is plot, but I will be able to watch streams/let's plays of Frontiers for story without paying out of my pocket.

I was hoping that new trailer would fill me with enthusiasm and make me consider paying for the game at launch. However, other games that I enjoy set extremely high expectations for me, which I highly doubt that Frontiers will be able to meet. I am not going to buy game at the launch, I think I will wait a bit to see the reception and perhaps, wait until sale.

If you are genuinely excited for Frontiers, then I am happy for you! I've seen so much positive buzz after Frontiers' trailer and I'm really excited that people are interested in the game. But I don't think this game will be for me, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong

[Wraith]

Didn't actually post my thoughts.

I've talked about the art design already and the new area doesn't change that opinion. I didn't care for the concept art either but the atmosphere was a lot stronger there than here with the game's subpar lighting and animations added to it. Most sonic stages have strong iconography to call their own all over the place but these zones are dead set on being non-descriptive biomes with identical looking tech strewn across it. The most interesting looking parts are stripped wholesale from other games and even then they're ruined with this game's half-baked 'next gen' lighting. A lot of people are comparing the game to other japanese open world titles but I think that's selling those titles short. Sonic Team is definitely trying for Zelda and Nier, but they've landed so far off the mark here. The one time a Sonic game needs strong art design to come together, the art team has nothing to say.

The level design is just the same barreling forward as usual. I'm counting the days where I see something from this game that's NOT just holding forward or getting strung along by springs, boosters and rails. There really isn't anything I can say that I didn't say about Forces, honestly. I need footage of a full cyberspace level or two to prove me wrong here. I would genuinely love to be wrong about this.

I've decided to give Sonic Team the benefit of the doubt on the controls this time, because people who are usually struggling with the way Sonic games control are saying this one is fine,  but damn does every movement and combat option look jerky and unsatisfying aside from that wall jump we saw in the commercial yesterday.

The most interesting thing going on here game design wise is the enemy design. The enemy with the big tracking pillars that make it harder for Sonic to just draw a circle around him is something I'd hope there's more of. That new combat move that looks like another cutscene attack has me kind of wincing though. Every complaint I made about the Sonic's combat still applies. Sonic's moveset seems to mostly be homing attacks with extra steps and it's going to be up to the enemy design to make up the difference. I can't even remember the last time Sonic Team designed an enemy though so I'm just keeping my expectations low here.

Oh yeah this was a story trailer but we didn't learn anything much new. I guess Sonic taking the situation seriously and keeping his eyes on the prize is a nice change of pace but I hope he's not afraid to talk his shit to Sage. The cutscenes actually seem to have some direction this time which is nice. Roger also sounds less like he's straining himself which gives me a little bit of hope for the voice direction.

 

[Shaddy Zaphod]

I have to wonder why they even bothered with this trailer, honestly. We got to see, what, one environment we weren't aware of yet? And the CG is nice...but all it does is confirm shit about the story we already knew. The game looks fine, but it already looked fine and this does nothing to make it look better than "fine".

I guess I'm glad the digital deluxe bullshit is more negligible here, even if it's twice as costly as it was in Origins. I mean, what, this is essentially just giving you experience points and more "memory cores", so those are both either story or completion items, right? You pay to play slightly less of the game? I guess the extra gloves and shoes confirm cosmetics are a part of the game, which makes sense as an unlockable (one I will be happy to see mods mess with), but nothing too essential to the game.

Oh, and I guess they're using time of day lighting to differentiate between cyberspace levels sharing the same environment aesthetic, which was something I thought would've been an obvious move, but I was worried they weren't gonna do it.

So...I guess this left me with the world's most mildly-positive impression? I dunno, guys, they really don't seem to like trying to make their own product look exciting. This was what we were building up to? A bunch of shit we already knew?

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Eh, trailer wasn’t bad. Given the mystery angle and everyone’s muted responses, it seems like Sega’s actually avoiding hype for this.

Core i7 tho? Like, why that high as a minimum. (Me with Core i5: )

[ZinogreVolt]

One very easy to miss detail that I absolutely adore near the start of the trailer:

Sonic is smiling at the Koco after he rescues it, I love how they kept the way he tries to cheer up distressed folks he meets.

[Graystripe2000]

1 hour ago, The Deleter said:

Here's a trailer in a cleaner resolution, but it still looks relatively blurry/muddy visually whenever gameplay pops up

Never really saw any blurriness, save for one of the cyberspace stages. 

[Kuzu]

I'm not going to say I'm disappointed because I stand by what I said that I'm interested. That being said, the fact that there isn't really anything new  in this trailer that hasn't been shown means one of two things, good or bad depending on what that means in the final game. Ideally, this means they're keeping all of the interesting shit under wraps and want the players to discover it all for themselves when the game is out and spoiling everything would ruin that. Not gonna say this is the ideal solution as ya know, you could have used that stuff to make people excited to play the game but I understand leaving things to the imagination. 

The cynical thought however is, everything we've seen is it....there's nothing else to this game than what we've already seen; we run, smash enemies for cores, do Cyberspace, Beat a boss, lather rinse repeat. And if that's the case...I mean, its not bad...but it's not terribly exciting either. And that's kind of the biggest worry for this game, not that its going to be mediocre or bad...that it's just gonna be boring. So unremarkable that its not even worth thinking about. So....we'll see. I'm trying to give this game a chance guys. 

 

At the least the CG and voice acting might potentially be good, so here' hoping Flynn makes due on his promise for a more interesting narrative this time around. I think I can tolerate how boring the game could be if the story is good. 

[Sega DogTagz]

21 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

The cynical thought however is, everything we've seen is it....there's nothing else to this game than what we've already seen; we run, smash enemies for cores, do Cyberspace, Beat a boss, lather rinse repeat. And if that's the case...I mean, its not bad...but it's not terribly exciting either. And that's kind of the biggest worry for this game, not that its going to be mediocre or bad...that it's just gonna be boring. So unremarkable that its not even worth thinking about. So....we'll see. I'm trying to give this game a chance guys.

Unless your crossing your fingers and hoping they are hiding another playable character behind the curtain - I'm not sure what your expecting here.

I mean seriously

Quote

there's nothing else to this game than what we've already seen; we run, smash enemies for cores, do Cyberspace, Beat a boss, lather rinse repeat

You could almost word-for-word apply that to any Sonic main title game. That's what we want isn't it? We just want that content to be good. If it is, then nothing else really matters.

We've known the gameplay loop for some time now. Its just going to be a manner of is such a thing is any fun over the long haul. There are enough people who swear up and down that they love to explore in Sonic games... well, here you go.

This trailer did give us some positives towards that end - enemy variety seems to be keeping up. Different islands seem to be bringing in at least a handful of new faces, which is important for keeping the combat fresh.

 

 

[Kuzu]

6 minutes ago, Sega DogTagz said:

Unless your crossing your fingers and hoping they are hiding another playable character behind the curtain - I'm not sure what your expecting here.

I mean seriously

You could almost word-for-word apply that to any Sonic main title game. That's what we want isn't it? We just want that content to be good. If it is, then nothing else really matters.

We've known the gameplay loop for some time now. Its just going to be a manner of is such a thing is any fun over the long haul. There are enough people who swear up and down that they love to explore in Sonic games... well, here you go.

This trailer did give us some positives towards that end - enemy variety seems to be keeping up. Different islands seem to be bringing in at least a handful of new faces, which is important for keeping the combat fresh.

Yea, but they've been talking up this game as a huge paradigm shift for the entire franchise, only to we're just seeing more of the same so....yea lmao. 

[A super No.1 washedupgamer]

1 hour ago, ZinogreVolt said:

One very easy to miss detail that I absolutely adore near the start of the trailer:

Sonic is smiling at the Koco after he rescues it, I love how they kept the way he tries to cheer up distressed folks he meets.

That thing's probably traumatized from being picked up so fast so sonic has to calm him down.

[Razule]

 

28 minutes ago, Sega DogTagz said:

You could almost word-for-word apply that to any Sonic main title game. That's what we want isn't it? We just want that content to be good. If it is, then nothing else really matters.

If someone's not very satisifed with the gameplay direction at this point, then there's probably not much more to reveal that will change their mind. I've been feeling lukewarm about the game since June.. probably going to stay that way until the game is in my hands.

[The Deleter]

Apparently the Japanese trailer offered a look at the art book, and some concept art to go along with it:

Desert area looks a lot better in the art so far, but the depiction of what appears to be a cavernous area has me the most intrigued

[ZinogreVolt]

An interior area is cool, glad it's not taking Breath of the Wild's "open air" approach where 99% of the game was outdoors. Having caves and whatnot to traverse through should be neat, and they ought to offer more linear challenges too.

[Jango]

Everything looks 100% better in the concept art, especially the colors and atmosphere. It's less dull, for sure.