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

[Winston]

This was an excellent short, and my favorite out of the ones they’ve released which is saying something because I really enjoyed the ones for Mania. I really like getting a properly voice acted one too, and I’m glad to see Knuckles being brought into this was accidental and not tied to another stealing the Master Emerald plot or just the Master Emerald being ignored entirely.

I still miss Travis Willingham in the role, but the new guy has definitely improved from TSR which just goes to show the better voice direction we’re getting now. I’m looking forward to seeing how the plot turns out in Frontiers. I have a lot of faith in Flynn to deliver the best Sonic story in quite some time.

[McGroose]

On the bright side, I can at least look forward to the mods that replace Sonic with Knuckles in the PC version of Frontiers 

Might take a while with all the animation rigging they'll have to do but I'm sure it'll happen eventually

[StaticMania]

If nothing else, Knuckles would make sense as an alternative playable character...

He doesn't have stretchy arms or anything, but he would excel in combat styled gameplay...

[MGA_Gamer]

16 minutes ago, Scritch the Cat said:

On the other hand, though, getting little tastes of what has been mostly lost is just upsetting if we don't get more.  I know that the point of this short was to get me excited to play Sonic Frontiers, and I guess I'm interested to see the origins of the Emeralds explored more, but far more than that this short made me wish Knuckles was playable in Sonic Frontiers and makes me resent that he's just going to be one of several people to rescue.

I know many would opine that I am beating a dead horse about the lack of other playable characters in the Sonic series, but to blunt, this is what SEGA deserves.  I'm not pretending they owe anyone anything but if they're going to keep bombarding us with reminders of the Adventure era then they should expect people who are into that to scrutinize them more and look for an in.  It's exactly the same situation with momentum physics; when they shove Classic Sonic, the character, and Green Hill Zone motifs into almost everything, they deserve the more refined glare of Classic Sonic fans who want to be given some substance to go with that style.

Frankly, I'm dismayed that Tails, Knuckles and Amy are not playable in this game. I really wish Sega would just give them a more active role, like in the comics and cartoons, instead of just relegating them to "Dumbasses in distress".

Common Sega, there is so much untapped potential in these characters. Use them!

[Nintendoga]

Incredible. It's so refreshing to see more of Knuckles' character beyond "dumb strong guy".  Honestly just give me a whole game with this dude.

[expansivelovestories]

3 minutes ago, MGA_Gamer said:

Frankly, I'm dismayed that Tails, Knuckles and Amy are not playable in this game. I really wish Sega would just give them a more active role, like in the comics and cartoons, instead of just relegating them to "Dumbasses in distress".

Common Sega, there is so much untapped potential in these characters. Use them!

I think there could be some aspect that we don't know about yet,

The island zones as we see them for Sonic in the main game, they just wouldn't work well with the other characters: but after the islands are saved maybe something about them will change that would fit with the now-rescued characters gameplay styles?? 

 

[MGA_Gamer]

6 minutes ago, expansivelovestories said:

I think there could be some aspect that we don't know about yet,

The island zones as we see them for Sonic in the main game, they just wouldn't work well with the other characters: but after the islands are saved maybe something about them will change that would fit with the now-rescued characters gameplay styles?? 

I admire your optimism, and I really want that to be true.

But realistically, I'm not sure that will happen, sadly.

It's a shame too. For too long these characters have been living in Sonic's shadow in the games and it feels disrespectful to their legacys.

It's not really fair, is it?

[expansivelovestories]

30 minutes ago, MGA_Gamer said:

I admire your optimism, and I really want that to be true.

But realistically, I'm not sure that will happen, sadly.

It's a shame too. For too long these characters have been living in Sonic's shadow in the games and it feels disrespectful to their legacys.

It's not really fair, is it?

  Yes, i think my optimism has two root causes,

Frontiers needs some kind of post-game,

and it would be weird for the prologue comic and animation to show Amy, Knuckles and Tails (especially Tails where he is seen doing something i don't think we have seen before, like a martial arts chop with his tails!!) combatting enemies and not have them eventually be playable!! 

[GentlemanX]

Wonderful short, really loved the overall atmosphere and tone of "you're on the verge of learning more". As others have said, it's a great hook. If we really are going to learn the history of the Chaos Emeralds and possibly elements of echidna culture like Sky Sanctuary and the teleporters then I can appreciate how restrained the marketing for the game's story has been - it's marketing for the benefit of the established fanbase rather than using it as a gimmicky selling point.

Still not sold on Mitchell's Knuckles, but it is much improved since TSR. Japanese version was great to hear Canna shine as Knuckles again though (Assume it's still him? His voice sounds deeper in Knuckles monologue than he used to possibly due to direction or his age, but definitely sounded like him during the action scenes with his usual sounds when Knuckles punches). My favorite moment is probably the ending with the fight with some good weight to the impacts on the robots. Overall, this is just a great short and it's a shame that these still have to be limited to game tie-ins. Really wish Sega would invest in direct to videos in this style like what DC has invested in cultivating over the years. There's no reason this team and the studios they've worked with can't create some great original material that could be profitable for Sega in itself rather than just marketing. I'll take the marketing, but I really just want to buy the animation on blu-ray.

[Dr. Detective]

Yeah, this truly is some excellent, phenomenal stuff. It's probably my new favorite of these shorts. The style, the atmosphere, the music, and the bits of dialogue with all the special, careful attention to detail is all breathtaking. It's dripping with talent and genuine, heartfelt care for what's being focused on. This was true of all the other shorts too but this one feels on another level, simply because it best emulates what I'd like the most out of an action, animated cartoon for the series and one of the folks behind the writing of this one is actually connected to the video game it's attached to. 

It does continue to shine a light on just how much potential and power there is behind this series, it's world, and it's characters. Each month that's gone by this year, either it be through the IDW comics, the movie, what I've seen of Prime, or stuff like this I've grown more and more convinced that the solution to what ailed them back in the 2000s wasn't to ostracize what they created but to mold it into something that could actually live up to how great it could be. 

When we're finally able to play as Knuckles or Tails again, sometime in 2050, perhaps we'll finally regain a chance to capitalize on this even further. Game Knuckles hasn't looked this cool in ages and it's almost sad how this doubles as an advert to experience him as a playable character again; an experience that still doesn't exist after all these years later. 

This does feel like a very special time in the Sonic series. Regardless of how I'll feel about Frontiers in the end, the push to do something genuinely special feels real in a way where it didn't in Forces. I'll at least be able to appreciate the attempt in the end and no matter what, success or fail, I want to support heading further into this general direction. Forces may have syphoned away my ability to be blindly enthusiastic but it's nice feeling more optimistic than not for the future.

[Iko]

I loved it, especially all the lore fanservice and the focus on Chao.

The fight scene was also great, very nice to see such an high quality short to promote this game.

I'm honestly hyped by the new informations about the lore that this game will contain... it finally feels like the universe is expanding and it's not just the usual random unrelated story like we got in the last decade and so. I can't wait to know more about this ancient civilization, and I wonder if it has some connections with Emerl/the gizoids too, along with the ruins on the other islands from the classic games (and maybe that weird purple orb from Episode Metal too). Isn't South Island another "floating island" too? (it floats on the sea's surface instead of in the sky but still). And how are the Chao and the Koco connected, if they are?

This is very interesting, I'm happy that after many years they finally found a way to get my attention again.

[Razule]

This is it. We will be able to play as the other characters in the 2025 - 2026 game

[Scritch the Cat]

48 minutes ago, GentlemanX said:

If we really are going to learn the history of the Chaos Emeralds and possibly elements of echidna culture like Sky Sanctuary and the teleporters then I can appreciate how restrained the marketing for the game's story has been - it's marketing for the benefit of the established fanbase rather than using it as a gimmicky selling point.

Counterpoint: I would have been instantly more interested in this game if its marketing had led with more of that.  It wouldn't even have had to be the focus of the marketing; it should just have existed.  I don't want the twists spoiled for me, but there's much more luster in this game's world when I know it actually has any damn thing to do with Sonic, something we would not have been able to guess from undescribed visuals alone.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

2 hours ago, Kuzu said:

It does kind of suck to see Knuckles be cool, but not actually be able to use him.

At this rate, I won't be surprised if they pull an Episode Shadow and actually do have him playable.

[Wraith]

I'm actually okay with the other characters not being playable, but if that's the plan more sequences in the games like this is a must. If the workload for alternate campaigns is too large, find other ways to shout them out from Sonic's POV.

[Kuzu]

7 minutes ago, Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon said:

At this rate, I won't be surprised if they pull an Episode Shadow and actually do have him playable.

Well Episode Shadow was released before the game was out. 

Id love to be wrong though. But if this is all we get, I'll take it.

 

This is next best thing to being playable.

[Scritch the Cat]

2 hours ago, MGA_Gamer said:

Frankly, I'm dismayed that Tails, Knuckles and Amy are not playable in this game. I really wish Sega would just give them a more active role, like in the comics and cartoons, instead of just relegating them to "Dumbasses in distress".

Common Sega, there is so much untapped potential in these characters. Use them!

This really would be the proper time and format to bring them back to playable roles.

For better or worse, SEGA has either never understood why a segment of this fandom didn't like playing as other characters, or pretended they never understood it: It's almost entirely related to the sense of padding and dilution the extra characters added.  It was pretty obvious SEGA didn't pick up on that nuance the moment we saw the Werehog, and even past then, every new mainline Sonic game has still come with its own brand of padding and dilution, which, to be fair, might be at least somewhat needed when there's only so much you can practically do during boost gameplay, but that, too, is their fault for focusing so hard on boost.

With so little changing about the core issue of reckless experimentation and gimmicks that characterized the Adventure era, we've reached a point where SEGA's new solution to this all is just to throw caution to the wind and shove all manner of ideas into their newest Sonic game, with the new crutch that players can pick and choose what bits they do and don't play of it.  Now we've got boosting, we've got (not necessarily good) platforming, we've got puzzles, we've got combat against enemies with heaps of HP, and most tellingly, we've even got fishing.  They're very clearly not pitching this game at the same sort of finicky Sonic fan they pitched Sonic 4, Episode I at, because this is the most padded and diluted Sonic gameplay has ever been.  As such, having additional characters who specialize in different parts of that gameplay would manage to move those characters from their earlier sense of being a burden, to one of being an asset.  Sonic and Shadow could be the go-to choices for getting through terrain quickly, Tails and Knuckles could be easier but also slower ways to get around vertical terrain, Knuckles and maybe even Big and Omega could be good choices for slashing enemy HP faster, Big could have better yields when fishing, and then someone like Amy could be some happy medium...and as a bonus, they could all still be as optional as the individual gameplay styles themselves.

The one thing in this game that extra characters would undermine, is that it's also an RPG.  A big part of this game's gameplay loop is, by all appearances, grinding so you can beef up Sonic's own abilities to take on these disparate challenges.  Having other characters who are better at those things by default would both lessen the need for such things, and feel like a burden if you had to level them up, too, especially if you had to level them up individually, though that one can easily be remedied by good game design.

Still, if things feel too grindy in Frontiers, I'd venture to say that having other characters to specialize in those things would be a lesser evil to a good portion of the players.  I won't pretend I'm objective here, but I would venture to say that.

[Jango]

Now you can play as Knuckles. That's all I need.

Btw, I hope they don't pull a Jak 3 in the end.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

13 minutes ago, Jango said:

Btw, I hope they don't pull a Jak 3 in the end.

Do I want to know the context?

[StaticMania]

2 hours ago, Iko said:

I can't wait to know more about this ancient civilization, and I wonder if it has some connections with Emerl/the gizoids too...

A bit of world building aside...any connections like this wouldn't be expanding the Universe, more so condensing it.

You don't want too many things connected, it feels less real and more so like a crutch.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

56 minutes ago, Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon said:

Do I want to know the context?

Finding out the precursors are the least expected thing you could’ve guessed that was with you all along I’m assuming.

Like finding out the ancients were all blue hedgehogs.

Or not really getting the chance to explore more. It’s a slew of things.

I didn’t have a big problem with it, but man the things they could’ve done after Jak 3, but didn’t…

[Razule]

1 minute ago, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

Like finding out the ancients were all blue hedgehogs.

*All male hedgehogs

I thought Jango meant Knuckles or Sonic going back in time and actually being the creators of the Chaos Emeralds

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Just now, Razule said:

All male hedgehogs

Even dumber. Fuck that mandate.

[FishyFishy]

Probably my favorite short thus far. Everything here was fantastic.

[A super No.1 washedupgamer]

3 hours ago, Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon said:

At this rate, I won't be surprised if they pull an Episode Shadow and actually do have him playable.

Didn't izuka say something like he wanted frontiers to be more like the movie? Knuckles appeared in sonic 2, sonic has some moves from the movie. He punches and kicks, knuckles punches, copy and paste knuckles on the current moveset and there we go. I think It's highly likely now that knuckles may be playable in the future.