New Sonic Frontiers Gameplay Lets The Blue Blur Show Off His Combat Skills

Has potential!

That looks laughably bad. I really had high hopes for this one. lol

It looks really dull if I'm being honest

...I really don't know what to think of this. The combat looks fine...I suppose? I was already put off by who was helming the writing, but NOW I'm even more put off by the gameplay, which looks directionless, and that's not a good thing. If we get an actual trailer, instead of these snippets, I might be a little less uneased by the whole thing.

I hope the next showcase can give us some context, story, reason for fighting things, and explain the items you get. That’s what I want to see most right now, as with a gameplay approach that’s much different from the boost and classic games, just showing gameplay doesn’t tell the whole story anymore

I still wanna try out this game but it's not an early purchase for me

Well, I actually enjoyed this.
I'm sure there will be a proper explanation to why is Sonic in this island. And I don't get the negativity around this. These are justs gameplay clips, I'm sure the game won't be just running around breaking robots and stuff.

That description alone would fit Breathe of the wild, if you take away all the core desing about it.

So I'm not worry about Sonic, I bet this will turn out just fine.

Looks so odd.

Cartoon Sonic in a 'realistic' landscape just doesn't do it for me.

The actual land looks fine if they'd take Sonic out and make it a different game.

Yikes now that's some janky animation, this hardly feels like Sonic attacking. It feels like piloting a lifeless husk that looks like sonic kinda twitching around to attack

@luxoricious The problem is the way the gameplay is presented. It's just nothing but awkwardly cut together snippets of game with no real commentary, and because of that, it makes the game look confused and directionless. If we got an ACTUAL trailer, where all the main gameplay elements were shown off, there wouldn't be as many complaints.

This has gone into my "absolutely no way" pile. It's just a Sonic mod slapped on some open world tech demo. It's boring, slow, and has none of the character and charm of the franchise.

Some of the attacks are quite cool, but personally I still find the combat animations pretty stiff to say the least.

Most if not all of the team clearly wanted to work on BOTW 2 or Xenoblade 3. And despite working for Sega they kept dreaming the dream, built a very Nintendo-open world level with Unity and just added ramps to towers and Sonic stuff like rings to please their superiors. At least that is my headcanon how the trailer was made.

I hope this isn't the kind of music that will be playing all the time. I can see this fitting more of a dramatic cut scene but not actual gameplay.

I might be in the minority here but I think it's looking better.

What they should've done was come out with a real trailer with other characters and story, THEN these gameplay trailers.

Unless they're important robots (save for that Xenoblade-esque thing), why do they feel like Sonic's fighting bosses?

At 2:16, the way some Rings fly after Sonic loses them makes me think it's some kind of glitch.

I'm not one to complain about Sonic games, but this display makes me think the playtesters had difficulties playing the game. It's noticeable when Sonic falls off the arm of that Xenoblade thing.

The first two enemies took way too many hits to defeat. Hit sponge enemies are annoying, especially if they are the main enemy

That music is fine, but sonic has some really great music so I was hoping for something a little more upbeat than this. Honestly from everything I’ve seen so far it doesn’t feel as upbeat as a sonic game should be

Um isn’t there supposed to oh I don’t know ACTUAL SPEED IN THE DANG GAME???
(Though I do admit to liking sonic rise of lyric so I guess I can’t complain. :/)

This is so laughably dull and bland. Sonic looks really out of place in this game and it literally looks like one of those Unreal Engine "Sega hire this man" tech demos.

The enemies are super generic and uninteresting and the combat looks like Sonic 06 levels of terrible. HP sponge enemies and the way Sonic just.....levitates.....after connecting with an enemy is such 06 jankiness.

Also, the music is just so forgettable sounding. Sonic music is memorable and typically upbeat. This whole GAME just shouldn't be Sonic. The repetitive piano music, the environment and setting, the combat, etc, is NOT what Sonic should be. None of this is particularly good. It all just looks really generic.

Still looks like a tech demo to me, fighting was ok but... still not the game they could make in 2022.

I like what I see so far. I think the people who are negative about it are just tired of Sega and their past sonic unmet promises.

this looks awesome but they shouldn't have used the color palette so directly from BotW (or maybe even more muted?). Sonic games are usually super colorful and vibrant. they gotta stick to that.

I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing more in a Sonic game than spending two minutes fighting every grunt level enemy I encounter

@Fizza You never played Sonic Adventure?

The boss isn't bad, but other then that it doesn't look that great combat wise.

And I agree that the enemies take waaaay to long to defeat.

Looks cool! I'm excited!

I am really not feeling it yet. I am unsure why. It feels empty to me.

@Fizza ok. During Sonic Adventure, you play as more than Sonic and Tails. Actually, I don’t remember if you got to play as Tails. But you played with Amy, Knuckles and some cat dude who liked to fish. But if their included, why wouldn’t Tails, right? 😂 It’s been fifteen years since I’ve played it. Moving on from my bad memory! 😂 I remember the gameplay slowing down, not only with the other playable characters, but with Sonic, as well. He had to move through a beach resort. Ride trains. When you played as Knuckles, it was very heavy on exploration. But his abilities made it fun. The cat dude went FISHING, for Pete sakes! 😂 I don’t remember what it was like to play with Amy.

Looks incredibly janky and repetitive.

Sonic Team just don't get it. They have changed everything about Sonic to make him fit into this world rather than make an open world fit around Sonic.

When i first saw that this game might be open world i knew it could end up being boring.

They should've taken SA2 and improved upon it, tight fun stages and great music, maybe make it just a bit less linear and they would have had a winner.

@outsider83 Tails did have his own segments, they were like Sonic's, only you are not as fast, and there are some short flight aspects. Sometimes, you were literally doing the levels following Sonic. Amy did have her own sections as well. 3 short levels. Hard to define it....but slow platforming with her big hammer, being chased by a robot, and you were defending a bird. Van guard type role.

My only hope left is that they are pulling another Sonic movie publicity stunt. Intentionally showing junkiness for people to notice and complain. Then delay the game and fix it.

@Madao
Sega isn’t that humble they’d never do what Paramount did, it’s like when they delayed Sonic 4 and led people to think they’d fix the physics when all they did was replace two terrible levels. The fanbase is already actively bargaining away all the complaints they have convinced the final build won’t look and play anything like because REASONS.

This looks even worse than the exploration. Enemies are bland looking, take way too many hits to go down, the combat looks janky, and I have a feeling there's not going to be many enemy types, since they keep showcasing the same encounters over and over in a row.

@outsider83 ? You defeat the enemies in Sonic Adventure in one hit.

Clearly inspired by Breath of the Wild, when they SHOULD have been inspired by Super Mario Odyssey. Sandbox levels with a high level of exploration, and 2D segments that play like the old games. Create a sort of hub world where you can interact with the other characters, spend coins on upgrades, etc. Then jump into worlds with distinct designs (think of the variety in 2D Sonic levels).

I mean, it was right there. They could've nearly copied Odyssey and it would've been just fine I think.

It feels empty and without soul. Too pity because it had actually a potential.

The sequel of this, will be "Sonic of Colossus" and he will fight only gigantic bosses with super realistic graphics!

This looks abysmal

Looks really empty I am concerned about it looking at that short clip just looks really bland and underwhelming I seriously hope final product is good and won't be another Sonic 06 so far not impressed with this.

The aesthetic is all over the place. Realistic environments with a bright blue hedgehog. They should have gone full sonic with chequered mountains et al. And kept that style. It's weird.

Why does it take such a tediously long time to take down most of the enemies?!

It looks like Sonic should be in an Arwing fighting these bots. Shoehorned is the word that comes to mind here..

This game is going to get ripped apart when it launches. I'm going to guess 75 on metacritic, and that's me being generous.

Looks about as empty as Breath of the wild. They probably shouldn't have tried to copy that part.

I will pass... Not what i expected from hipe that sega made...

@RupeeClock That is what I noticed. Why fight anything? There is ample space to avoid EVERYTHING.

I’m still going to get this, I think there is still hope, every gameplay showcase we have seen has only focused on one thing, running and now combat, there are more enemy’s compared to the last gameplay video we saw, which had none. Plus this video looks better then the last one in my opinion.

I think they might just be showing off specific stuff, even so, the combat does look pretty stiff, so I hope it’s just the guy just showing off the moves more then more or less playing the game, and not how it would play, play, or maybe upgrades as others have said.

Also, You guys remember that scene in the first incredibles movie? With dash running away from the one blade ship?
I kinda want combat to be like that, speed oriented, gives you a reason to run a round the world, now I’m not saying all enemy’s should be like this, but I feel enemy’s that just show up out of no where and require you to stop moving might break your flow.

Sorry for the long post lol.

Yeah, no. This looks laughably bad.
The world is completely empty and its desaturated, dead color palette doesn't help.
Those random gray shrapnels in the sky that are cosplaying as platforming gameplay are embarrassing.

And what they call "Combat" here seems to be a mixture of Heroes and 06...make of that what you will.

I genuinely feel sorry for SEGA. This makes Balan Wonderword look finished and competent.

I heard that the guy playing it, said he saw some things he wasn’t allowed to record, so that might be the reason for the stiffness, maybe there is a boost mechanic that he can’t show off, or moves, but from what it sounds, if they had to adjust there gameplay to accommodate what they could show.

Still don’t understand why the guy doesn’t boost, it would make the game look a lot more interesting, presentation matters!

Which gives me hope, and it just sounds like the gameplay is serves just to show you the core way it works. I hope.
Don’t quote me on that till I find the actually link to that.

@Fizza I agree, it’s sonic, You should be able to get things done fast!

And bullet sponge enemy’s are just no fun, in any game.

This just helps convince me Sonic shouldn't be open-world. Shame, since it looks like a lot of work has gone into this.

It's like SEGA have taken the breath of the wild environment, added some weird enemies which look like they could be from Bayonetta or Nier, and then just dumped Sonic in to the world. This game could actually work if it was a new IP, but Sonic just feels so out of place.

Also, the combat looks so dull, that if I ever do play the game (I doubt I will) I'll just avoid combat at all costs.

The design of these enemies feels bland and not colourful or fun. The big boss you can climb up is cool, but hardly unique for the series to have giant bosses, and this is one of the most boring looking from a design perspective. Looks fun to beat it though

Some of the animations are poor, or flat out wrong (like forward flipping when he should be backflipping, quills moving against the wind/momentum etc).

Main complaint from me is that nothing about this really screams "Sonic game". you could swap him out for another character that moves quickly and it would be the same game.

However, I still think this looks fun and I want to explore the world and feel the story unfolding as to why Sonic is on such a seemingly out of character location, what he has to do, and how he can escape. I don't think the game looks "bad" at all, just a bit generic from an art style perspective, and unpolished in certain areas.

This is just Phantasy Star Online Next Genesis with a Sonic skin.

It would have been useful to have visuals of the gamepad being used... Looks kind of crazy so far.

Not again ...Sonic Team just can't do a single thing right anymore, can they? I think this looks god awful, man ...Why? Mania was awesome, the movies are great, but anything Sega and Sonic Team themselves make is ...not. At least not anymore.

Just my opinion, though. If you think this game will slap, I'm happy for you.

The last few gameplay videos they have shown are getting quite a lot of hate, wouldn't be surprised if this now gets a delay into 2023

Ooof this looks really not great. Clunky. Trying to be something its not. Music makes no sense. There is no energy here and no sonic style.

@HammerKirby yea. I don’t remember any enemies, being that much of a challenge.

@Mana_Knight RIGHT! Thanks for reply! I’m having flashbacks of playing SA, years later. I booted up my Dreamcast and wanted to see how it played. By this time, we were far removed from the DC era. I remember being annoyed by the pace. Moving around in that resort, wasn’t as fun, compared to back in the day.

I guess actually fighting robots is a step up from lines and lines of mooks that did absolutely nothing in Forces, but this is the exact opposite problem.

It looks tedious. If these were one-off mini bosses that's one thing, but random enemy encounters taking over a minute to input the same line of actions? That just sound monotonous.

I'm not a person who cares for sonic and I am not sure how people are excited about this game after watching the last few videos. This most recent video looks so bland. I do get what some said about breath of the wild...but I trust Nintendo far more then I do then the Sonic team. They have a large up hill battle in my eyes. Happy for those that are excited though

@UltimateOtaku91 If it gets delayed I'm pretty sure everyone would be over the moon! Also cool PFP btw.

It's like draw a circle to make them lose guard and then homing attack rapidly. Hopefully this is not all it does in the game.

They lost me with this one. I like the idea of an open world Sonic, but it should have been done as a recreation of retro Sonic level theming.. The combat also breaks the flow and doesn’t feel at all like Sonic.

It reminds me of how they made a sonic game like Super Mario Galaxy on Wii u.

This is Sonic "breath of the wild"

@Danrenfroe2016 Sonic Lost World, yes.

At least on its defense, there's actual platforming and not just run senselessly at full speed.

Okay, so there is more to the combat than just jumps and homing attacks. Can't wait to find out why we're fighting. Also wondering what the enemy variety will be like. Sonics combat looks varied so need but the animations look a bit off, like he loses rings when he hits the ground instead of on contact. Still looks promising and has potential but I'm still not too sure yet.

@HammerGalladeBro I played the demo, and I wanted to like it, but I just could not do it.

the attacks look cool and flashy but doesn't seem like there's much to it. might be fine for clearing a bunch of low hp enemies but the mid level ones are... eh

A towering lonely Colossus in a sparse open world, would Shadow not have been a been a better protagonist!?!

Ugh, the camera is terrible, like it's straight out of a first party Nintendo game!

This will bomb like Sonic’06!

I gotta say, the animations were stiff and the ring collection looked really weird, but as a whole I loved what I saw. I loved the enemies Sonic was fighting, I loved the music playing in ambience, and the environments. I can already tell that the game won't be BOTW level of quality, but for someone like me, I will get alot of enjoyment if the rest of the game is like this.

Needs more Casino Pinball themed zones

Doing the same move 3+ times to defeat one enemy does not look at all fun?! It just looks like Sonic is underpowered the whole time which is going to get old very very quickly in an open world game with many of the same enemy.

No idea why IGN have opened this video with the same enemy twice? It just highlights the problem.

Also, there are multiple times in this trailer when your still doing an attack move but the enemy animation is out of synch. The second enemy restores its round shield/shell whilst you are still finishing an attack for example. Not sure why they are showing this?!

It's a worry... so far, gameplay looks really just OK, and the fact SEGA are OK for IGN to show stuff that doesn't look right suggests there are bigger problems ahead.

They didn't bother to at least add like small things to the sky platforms to make them look connected to the world like Windy Valley or Rail Canyon... It looks utterly dull and I hope it's not gonna end up this much of a slog

tbh i dont really want to attack stuff. i just want to run around and up and off some beautiful areas.