Shorts Knuckles Investigates a Precursor Civilization in Sonic Frontiers Prologue: Divergence

[Shiny Gems]

After much anticipation, today marks the release of Sonic Frontiers Prologue: Divergence, a Knuckles-focused animated short announced during the most recent Sonic Central presentation.

The short focuses on Knuckles in an introspective moment as he contemplates his own isolation. With surprising directness, the story ties itself to the events of Sonic Adventure, as well as the precursor civilizations that exist on the fringes of Sonic lore. For Sonic continuity buffs, the short certainly suggest that the tendrils of the Starfall Islands have a very wide, very old reach.

As with Sonic Frontiers proper, the short was written by Ian Flynn with consulting from Evan Stanley, with the animation itself handled once again by Tyson Hesse and Powerhouse Animation Studio. Dave Mitchell returns as Knuckles, though with significantly more nuanced dialog than in his prior performance in Team Sonic Racing. And to round out the veritable who's who of official Sonic projects, Tee Lopes composed the short's original music.

Divergence gives a much heartier taste of Sonic Frontiers' story than Prologue: Convergence and plays into the tone that Frontiers on the whole has established. This isn't pure goofball Knucklehead, but the short strikes a balance of not being overly serious either. It builds itself upon the existing Sonic world, both classic and modern, while seeding Frontiers' own mysteries.

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[VO.SUPER]

Knuckles' actor is growing on me. I think maybe he could extend his range a bit and I'd be happy with him.

But it was great just seeing Knuckles kicking ass. And that final rock was just an amazing gag.

[Soniman]

Knuckles has not looked that cool in the games since, shit I can’t even remember but he was so good here, 2022 seems to be doing out red boy good here.

Also had NO idea the Echidna/Angel Island lore connected with what’s going on in Frontiers I find it really interesting and gets me more intrigued by the story. Makes sense that something as timeless as the Master Emerald would go farther back than even Echidna civilization.

Music was good, art was good, animation was lovely, nothing really complain about here, pretty much served it’s purpose perfectly as a lead in to Frontiers

[Shiny Gems]

Say, did anyone see the second Chao Knuckles was helping? It looked kinda like NiGHTS.

that video was very interesting, by the way.

[StaticMania]

It's nice to see Chao animated that aren't just the regular baby ones.

[VO.SUPER]

7 minutes ago, Soniman said:

Knuckles has not looked that cool in the games since, shit I can’t even remember but he was so good here, 2022 seems to be doing out red boy good here.

Also had NO idea the Echidna/Angel Island lore connected with what’s going on in Frontiers I find it really it really interesting and gets me more intrigued by the story. Makes sense that something as timeless as the Master Emerald would go farther back than even Echidna civilization.

Music was good, art was good, animation was lovely, nothing really complain about here, pretty much served it’s purpose perfectly as a lead in to Frontiers

It's cool that it was specifically connected to Sky Sanctuary. That area was always just a bit random for something the Echidnas made. At least random in the sense it was never addressed how they made it or if they did.

[Kuzu]

I actually do wonder if this game will directly into lore surrounding the Emeralds now or is just flavor text.

I wasn't feeling Knuckles' voice at first, but it got better as it went on. Honestly Knuckles sounds better when he isn't trying to act tough.

[Soniman]

5 minutes ago, VO.SUPER said:

It's cool that it was specifically connected to Sky Sanctuary. That area was always just a bit random for something the Echidnas made. At least random in the sense it was never addressed how they made it or if they did.

I’m mad because it also kinda gives narrative justification for all the floating platforms in the game as well 

[ES-32]

I loved it, it's seriously great seeing Knuckles actually being a stoic badass again after so many years of being a dumb meathead and of course seeing Angel Island, Tikal  again was great

Knuckles' new VA sounds way better here then in TSR, he was given better voice direction this time around 

This short honestly made me more excited to play the game next week

[TheOcelot]

Enjoyed it. His voice sounds pretty good and nice to see Knux kicking some robot-ass. I like that he helped the chao. Makes me wish Knuckles was playable in Frontiers.

Interesting that Angel Island is connected to Frontiers.

[VO.SUPER]

1 minute ago, Soniman said:

I’m mad because it also kinda gives narrative justification for all the floating platforms in the game as well 

But at least Sky Sanctuary bounces up and down slightly.

[Diogenes]

As a standalone thing it's pretty good, nicely animated and fun to watch and all that. More dour than I want out of Sonic content but, sure, fine, as a one-off.

But, man, I really don't trust them at all to be doing "lore". Even in better times I don't think I'd need an origin story for the emeralds or whatever. Hopefully going over the ancient echidna stuff was just catching people up on Knuckles' deal and that this isn't going to turn into echidnas being the center of the universe at least.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

1 minute ago, Diogenes said:

But, man, I really don't trust them at all to be doing "lore". Even in better times I don't think I'd need an origin story for the emeralds or whatever. Hopefully going over the ancient echidna stuff was just catching people up on Knuckles' deal and that this isn't going to turn into echidnas being the center of the universe at least.

I get the feeling SEGA don't ever want to go down that route again after Penders pissed in the pot on that one.

[StaticMania]

1 minute ago, Soniman said:

I’m mad because it also kinda gives narrative justification for all the floating platforms in the game as well 

There's not really any floating land masses though...just thin platforms and rails.

Though, to be honest, I did forget Sky Sanctuary existed for a moment when they showed the floating ruins.

[Kuzu]

8 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

As a standalone thing it's pretty good, nicely animated and fun to watch and all that. More dour than I want out of Sonic content but, sure, fine, as a one-off.

But, man, I really don't trust them at all to be doing "lore". Even in better times I don't think I'd need an origin story for the emeralds or whatever. Hopefully going over the ancient echidna stuff was just catching people up on Knuckles' deal and that this isn't going to turn into echidnas being the center of the universe at least.

I get the impression whoever made the Emeralds and altar predates the Echidnas. Knuckles even said the ruins he found are older than the sanctuary.

[Kuzu]

Japanese version for you weaboos out there.

 

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

As a NiGHTS fan, this was a nice bone to be thrown while waiting for that new game.

[Rini]

the animation was soooo pretty!

dave b mitchell sounds pretty good overall, more room to grow but I believe in 'im.

[Razule]

That was pretty cool. Really sounds like they Ancients have something to do with the origin of the Chaos Emeralds. Surprised SEGA's willing to do that after all this time.

[Diogenes]

23 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

I get the impression whoever made the Emeralds and altar predates the Echidnas. Knuckles even said the ruins he found are older than the sanctuary.

Well that's the hope, I guess. That the cyberspace gate is just part of some even-more-ancient ruins that got swept up with Angel Island by chance. Though I can't say that's very narratively satisfying.

At least I can take some comfort in Hyper Sonic being far less likely now, since it's just Knuckles being transported by accident, and not cyberspace villains showing up to steal the Master Emerald.

[Shiny Gems]

4 minutes ago, Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon said:

As a NiGHTS fan, this was a nice bone to be thrown while waiting for that new game.

Yeah, I noticed and mentioned the NiGHTS thing earlier here.

[Sega DogTagz]

That felt like a showcase for playable Knuckles. Why they gotta tease us like that lol. 

Almost as bad as them dangling all those chao right outside of arms length. They are just enjoying our collective suffering at this point. 

 

Gotta love the product. It's just nice seeing Knux being help up with some respect and dignity. He deserves it. I hope they include it as an unlockable in the game proper. 

 

[ZinogreVolt]

I'm glad that the wait was actually worth it, production-wise its easily the nicest tie-in animation to date. Knuckles' characterization here was also great.

Flynn mentioned on a Bumblekast last year that he knows who made the Emeralds, but can't share the details. Between Knuckles asking who even made the emeralds and all of Angel Island's ruins, Starfall's apparent connection to Angel Island, and the prominence of the emeralds in the story; maybe we'll know too.

[Nuggets]

been 20 years and they’re finally doing my boy justice again you love to see it 

not to overhype Ian/Tyson, but whenever they feel like getting into their bags they always give us some top tier shit man. Knuckles hasn’t been paid that much respect as a character, been that solidly written, or that fun to watch in a major capacity on screen since like SA2 at this point and visually it was an absolute treat to watch him smash up some enemies and be competent for once. I’m probably just lore-starved at this point (the last time Angel Island and the ME were even mentioned in a relevant context in the series was what? 20 years ago? lmao) but just seeing Tikal and Pachamac again felt great. I also thought it was wild seeing Sky Sanctuary in context with the island for once - i’ve always been logistically confused about where exactly it is when compared to the times we’ve seen the island in Adventure and other media, but seeing how they showcased it here matches the design philosophy of Frontiers in the funniest way

I initially dismissed speculation when the third island’s name dropped that this game would be about the origins of the Chaos Emeralds as just that, but a whole ass cyberspace portal on Angel Island leads a lot more credence to that theory. idk if that’s what we’re getting in Frontiers or if we need that necessarily, but Ian is pretty much the only writer for this franchise that I can imagine that would be able to even tackle it in a decent way. I was excited for the story before just because it was the first time in years someone who cares and actually gets these characters was at the helm again, but this made me feel like we’re in safe hands. It just feels good to see this lore get acknowledgment again, to see Knuckles embody the best of his character and history in some of the best 2D animation (hell, it might be THE best) we’ve gotten from this series. Unlike the comic this actually has me more excited for the story than I was before. it feels like they really gave a shit with this. 

i can’t lie i’m hyped asf man the marketing machine did it’s damn job lmfao

 

[Cayenne]

-Animated by the same studio behind Sonic Origins cutscenes' and Castlevania

-Lore

-Knuckles being badass once again

This was simply beautiful. This is the kind of stuff that makes me proud of being a Sonic fan and I really hope that Sega keeps this serious, but balanced direction for future games.