Takashi Iizuka: Sonic Frontiers Is Sonic's "Next Step For The Next 10 Years"

It's hard to keep a positive outlook when past games also promised "next level" and "a new era" of Sonic titles.

Next ten years…so two more games?

That's both horrifying and mildly interesting.

On one hand, if this game turns out great, we'll get more great Sonic games.

On the other hand, if the game's bad, it'll lead to Sega going down a downward spiral until they start officially licensing ANY Sonic fan games. Yeah that's right, even dating sims.

10 years, 15 years.. none of that matters. Can only make and play one game at a time and hopefully that game is a good one. But here’s a hint: Sonic Mania was good, let’s get that in your 10 year crystal ball

Depending on how the game turns out, which I think it will do great, however, if it does poorly, it’s going to be one rough ten years for are boi, what else is new.

@link12684 It’s so sad that this is so true.

You guys just don't understand it!!!

They got 10 more years of reusing Generations’ levels but blander and blander. We have these glimpses of Sky Sanctuary in this game and these brief glimpses are the same boring rail sections that Forces was in love with so we can take a wild guess about what most of the levels are like, SS was one of the best levels Generations and absolutely antithetical to Force’s pathetic take on boost stages.
@SteamEngenius
Once we understand Iizuka’s vision we will feel ashamed of our words and deeds

@moodycat well, at least they make the 2d ones on the side, so even if this game sucks, we got origins!

Still don’t know how they jacked up the 2d stages so bad in forces.

I would actually say we're entering the 4th generation. With Sonic Chronicles being the last game in the 2nd and Sonic Unleashed being the first game in the 3rd.

I'll believe that when I see it as everyone knows the next Sonic game will probably be completely different from the last because SEGA seemingly needs to reinvent the wheel for no apparent reason with every release, even when certain formats are extremely well received. Why we never got Sonic Generations 2 and all probably never get Sonic Mania 2 baffles me, as does the decision to seemingly kill the Sega All-star Racing series and make Team Sonic Racing instead.

I get that SEGA wants to innovate but they could also give the popular formats room to breathe with more follow ups and not be so all over the place. Innovation is important but quality and familiarity matter too.

Predicting an average review score of 67

They're really trying to kill this series off for some reason, huh? Sonic is Sega's money maker. Sega is a washed up company this generation and needs sonic. They shouldn't play around like that.

"We know we’re showing fans something new that maybe doesn’t make sense to them yet" so... Why show it? They are saying this is going to be great and innovative but it doesn't seem they can prove it... Games are not made of words. This actually makes me angry and sad, because even if I try to remain positive, I have a really bad feeling about this game. And I can't really understand why.
I mean, it's not like sonic team has ever (in the last year's at least) demonstrated to be so innovative. They try and fail more often than not. To me, the last good Sonic 3D has been Adventures on Dreamcast.

@SalvorHardin
Actually not forces rails grinding as rail hazards are returning. One of the clips shows spikes that need to be jump past.

more like sonic has taken his LAST STEP!

@cammers1995
Not really, from what demo players are saying Sonic Frontiers will be really good.

@HotGoomba Dream Daddy & Knuckles

Sega says fans don't understand well why don't you show us more footage then how about releasing a demo too because so far from trailers and IGN footage just looks like someone modded Sonic in open world it doesn't fit and I'm worried i don't want it to suck or be another Sonic 06 disaster.

The marketing team did so poorly on this showcasing.

So come about the second or third game when open world sonic lesson have been learnt and developers got to real grips with it, we could have the perfect open world sonic game.

@Ooyah I've seen a few "open zone" fan games that look better than this so far. But time will tell.

@moodycat it was also perfect in the Dreamcast era

So many smart asses here who think they know better. Just wait for the release and let's see, how it works out.

A lot of commotion for nothing right now, if you ask me. I’ll just wait out the release of the game before I put any of this into perspective. I for one am glad they’re mixing it up at all, the boost formula just really wasn’t doing much for me anymore and the level design got worse and worse, so maybe a new focus leads to something better. We’ll see how it ends up going.

Well, I guess I'm never playing another 3D Sonic game again. Thanks Sega.

Sonic had over 20 games in his first ten years.
Crazy levels of experimentation.
Were they all good games?
Perhaps not.

But now we get Unreal Engine open world for a whole decade?
'kay

I’m actually looking forward to this!

So, good luck Sega. I fear this will NOT work. Imagine an open world Mario game with epic music and super realistic graphics. Does not fit!

Breath of the wild didn't need explaining, you saw it and you knew it was about exploration. anything you didn't understand, you were excited to wait to find out when you played the game.

This sonic game on the other hand, we understand it looks mediocre and fear it will be worse to play.

ps I really hate boost rails, they scream ''we don't know how to implement sonics speed and movement in a 3d space, here are some rails.''

So basically Sonic Frontiers will be the only Sonic game before 2032? I can't help but think we're heading for another Halo Infinite trainwreck.

I kinda feel like Sonic Team keep missing the wood for the trees. They can't just take Breath of the Wild or Mario Odyssey and slot Sonic into it.

An open world Sonic game needs to be about navigation: getting from point A to point B via rails, jumps and loops whilst looking good doing it.

They should have taken Sunset Overdrive as their starting point.

How about they come back in 10 years?

I’ve got a feeling that this will be a big mistake, hope I’m wrong but I’m really not convinced they are going down the right route. Especially with how well mania and generations were received, there’s still a lot of fans and love for the older style 2d.

Please understand. You don't understand!

at this point im done with the press talk about how grand the game is gonna be. they should put their money where their mouth is and just show a proper trailer/introduction already

Historically Sonic is a platformer, and most platformers are made up of stages that can take minutes or even seconds to get through. There have been some Sonic games of wildly varying quality in 3D, but up until now they've followed that basic formula of easily digestible bits.

Sonic Frontiers draws comparisons to Zelda: BotW with its visuals, but I suspect that Sega intends for these "open zones" to play more akin to the likes of Super Mario Odyssey. Both IPs are platformers, but Sonic is built around speed, not precision. The main reason some of his 3D forays didn't work is because the mechanics simply didn't mesh; he's always been more suited to a 2D environment where you aren't constantly missing rings or other items by accidentally running past them.

Which leads me to the most concerning point by Iizuka: Frontiers is some "next level leap" for Sonic for the "next 10 years" (inferring this is a specific direction that Sega intends to go with him going forward), and it will take even non-completists around 20-30 hours to complete it. Breaking down what that infers, is that really going to fit for Sonic? Do fans want to race around mostly empty vistas while listening to "chill", understated music and employ "combat" that's suddenly more involved than spin-jumping onto enemies, for dozens of hours no less? Consider the effect of Super Mario 64; after its release it wasn't until Super Mario Bros. Wii THIRTEEN YEARS LATER that Mario saw another console 2D game, and guess what? A lot of fans still loved those 2D iterations. It wasn't that they hated the 3D Marios, it was that suddenly Nintendo...and the entire industry for the most part...decided that 3D was "the future" (i.e. where the $$$ was at), and left them behind, cold turkey.

Of course all of that happened because Super Mario 64 was a roaring SUCCESS, but Sega's making these bold statements without Frontiers having proven a thing yet. But let's say for the sake of argument that Frontiers is a mega-hit. Are Sonic fans who've loved the 2D and even 3D approaches as they've been up till now going to embrace possibly not seeing them again for 10 more years (inevitable remakes aside)? After Sega's remarks about fans "not understanding", why does it come off as telling them what they're getting instead of giving them what they WANT, especially when considering this is where they say they're going with the IP for the next decade?

Food for thought, Sonic fans: Sega did exactly what I'm talking about to all of their fans of their other classic IPs (most of their amazing RPGs haven't seen a new installment in more than two decades). Would you really put it past a company with such a well-documented (three decades and counting) record of self-destructive corporate decisions to leave YOU and your preferences for the Sonic franchise behind to go where they perceive the grass to be greener?

Look, maybe the final product of Sonic Frontiers will blow fans away and truly introduce the generational leap forward that Sega's touting...but what if it doesn't? What if the entire concept, which they're hyping as the franchise's new direction, crashes and burns? Where does that leave Sonic, let alone Sega as a corporation who's seen their presence in the industry decline to the point of having to sell off entire divisions just to stay afloat?

There's ENORMOUS risk here for a company that's essentially placed so many of its eggs into a single basket in order to AVOID risk.

@AtlanteanMan
A lot of valid questions and thoughts that can be summarised in: we’ll see how it does. Besides, with Sega going forward with splitting Classic Sonic and Modern Sonic as two different gameplay styles, I think this would be the style they think modern sonic should go in, and classic can still do his own thing.
The boost gameplay was around for ages, I think it’s alright that they’re trying something different and hoping for it to pop off. If it doesn’t, they can rewrite their course. One statement doesn’t put an entire plan in stone.

I’ll give you one thing, SEGA does make a lot of weird decsions with Sonic, but a little overdramatic imo. Interesting read nevertheless, you could put this on an anti-sonic frontiers rebellion page and it’d look fitting.

@RubyCarbuncle
No reason not to be positive with so many wildly differing opinions and footage going around. Some love what they’re seeing, some despise it, what else is new here? Same with pokemon, the complaints are valid but legends arceus has restored my hope quite successfully for the future. This looks promising too, why not give it a chance before flaming it into oblivion?

Should've released alongside the 2nd sonic movie

I'm actually excited for a sonic game for the first time since SA2B came out on the Gamecube!

I'm most likely going to buy this one. I haven't bought a Sonic game in forever, most modern Sonic games (since Unleashed started the boost mechanic) just haven't appealed to me.

When all else fails, hit the reboot button!
(Really, I just want Adventure 3, with some Chaotix and Big fishing)
Who needs Sonic and his running?

"Keep tellin' yourself that, darling."

Next ten years...if people eat it and like it. Otherwise its back to the drawing-board. For now I keep a positive vibe: It could be fun, I'll just wait and see. Happy that they try something new with the franchise.

@moodycat "Sonic was perfect in the 2D era"

This right here. There's your problem, transitioning to 3D is no easy task and SEGA screwed it up and has had a lot of difficulty figuring it out since. They had something with Generations, things actually started looking up around that time, but then all of their level designers got poached by Nintendo and when they tried to make Forces (which is basically Generations 2), they mucked it up and Sonic was back to being terrible.

@RubyCarbuncle yeah, mankind is pretty unthankful. We're in such a great time of gaming right now and still, people act so negative.

@RubyCarbuncle People are allowed their opinions, just like you. Sega hasn't done anything to earn faith in this game.

@AtlanteanMan speaking of fantastic rpgs a new phantasy star would be nice.

Next 10-20 years….I’ll be dead by then….

@arrmixer So would (a proper SRPG) Shining Force, Skies of Arcadia, Dragon Force, Panzer Dragoon Saga remake/sequel, Albert Odyssey, etc.. Sadly, we'll be very, very fortunate just to get even one of these ever again given their complete absence for two decades or more by this point.

Sonic went to crap when it went to 3D. Sonic Adventure is a terrible game. It may have a quirky "early-3D" feel to it, but I hated it back then and it's playable with QOL mods on PC. Some people can't see the game past rose-colored nostalgia glasses. The only good 3D Sonic I've played is Generations and Colors. I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I've felt this since I was 10 years old back when the Dreamcast was alive and kicking.

I'm sure there are minor exceptions here and there, but jank camera, crappy controls, terrible combat, awful stories, recycled content, dated visuals, and glitches galore.

The 2D games aren't off the hook either. How many times do they need to be remastered or redone? Just give us a 4K version that runs at 60FPS and call it a day already.

If this is gonna be the "next 10 years" of Sonic games...

Then I have absolutely zero faith in the Sonic IP/franchise as a whole.

Sega of Japan is awful and needs to lose its Sonic IP, as well as NiGHTS and its other IPs to other companies if this is the best they can do because it doesn't impress me at all. They themselves are responsible for how awful Sonic has turned out to be post-Sonic Adventure. It's time for them to be held accountable!

@Nintendo4Sonic I honestly agree that we are in a great time of gaming. I see people complaining all the time about trashy cash grab games running amok, but I feel like there are FAR more quality games that release much more often than the bad ones. It really just depends on your perspective.

@BinaryMessiah
I actually started the Dreamcast version of Sonic Adventure for the very first time just last week, i’ve had loads of fun with every character except Big who is just average. I’d definitely say it holds up over 20 years later, especially when I usually can’t even find enjoyment in playing retro games. I love Sonic Adventure very much, and I have no nostalgia for it at all.
Adventure 2 (Dreamcast) has felt very average except for the story.
Heroes & Shadow feel sloppy to control, while 06 has surpassingly never given me much trouble at all.
Unleashed has been hard to get into because it controls different to Gens/Colours & requires you to find hidden collectable medals to progress. The story is good & the Werehog is fine.
Colours felt very solid throughout, nothing much to say.
Generations modern stages are epic to blast through while Classic stages are just good fun.
Lost World has neat mechanics, but the generic environments get old very quick.
Forces really wasn’t too bad, just seems short and has less control.
-
-
Sonic 1, 2, & CD have only been remastered once. Sonic Origins is bringing them to consoles with fixes & changes, while having a brand new S3&K remaster. Part of Sonic Origins is also having the games run at 4K 60FPS (Xbox, Play Station, & PC).
Classic Mario games have also been re-released a lot, Sonic has more mainly due to being multi-platform.

@P-Man I think this is an incredible good year. The horror genre is having a comeback. Some really good Retro games get sequels after years. Splatoon 3 and Xenoblade Chronicles are coming soon, The Last of Us 1 is getting a remake. I think there's nothing to complain.
But some people are crying if there's a month which doesn't include 3 AAA games.
And honestly, the gaming industry is releasing so many games each year, no one can handle all that. So even if there's a month with not so many games, I get time to complete 1-2 games.

@Nintendo4Sonic I agree, my backlog could always use some work lol.