Sega's latest release Sonic Frontiers takes the Sonic the Hedgehog series in a bold new direction with its "open-zone" gameplay. The company took a lot of feedback from focus groups during development, and it intends to continue this trend going forward.
In a few tweets on social media, the game's director Morio Kishimoto mentioned how the team is listening to the feedback about the new entry and said Sonic Team will take this into consideration when it comes to the future of the series. He added that the team still has "a long way to go" and would continue to go to "greater heights" to challenge itself. Here's a rough translation:
Morio Kishimoto (@moq_46): "I got a lot of energy from everyone's comments! I am very honored that so many people enjoyed it! After more than 10 years of trial and error, I was finally able to create this work. Open Zone is full of possibilities. Sonic games become more interesting. We will continue to challenge ourselves to greater heights."
Sega also released a message this week - thanking everyone for the support and for being with Sonic every step of the way.
Have you tried out Sonic Frontiers yet? What would you like to see from the series moving forward? Comment below.
[source twitter.com, via soahcity.com]
Comments 60
Ok, make Sonic fly SEGA I dare you.
Hopefully they really do build on Sonic Frontiers. I’ve been really liking most of what I’ve played, so with enough improvement and refinement, we could have a truly exceptional Sonic game on our hands!
Do it! So much potential in this new direction.
Don't use a generic, last gen looking grassy overworld to try to sell your new game next time.
Removed - trolling/baiting; user is banned
Give Sonic a long break. Do what Nintendo did with Zelda. Go back, and re-examine everything from the beginning.
It's just baffling how a company after all these years, still can't figure out it's star character and what works.
Ah well. Somewhere in a alternate universe Sonic games are hit after hit. I envy those fans.
Hope that means more playable characters next time like Tails and Knuckles who's gameplay style is more built for exploration than Sonic.
Sonic frontiers has a lot of issues and it’s far from perfect, but I’m really enjoying it, the story, the music, the gameplay, it’s all so enjoyable, enjoyable in a way that I’m hooked! All they need to do is improve on it. I think sonic has finally found the right direction,which is something I never thought I’d say!
I've never played a Sonic game, and what I'm getting from the feedback I've seen so far is that there's no good reason to make Frontiers the first one I do play. That's fine - call me when the next one comes out.
With so many games around these days, if not even one person is saying it's the greatest game ever made then it's definitely not worth playing. Sad but true.
@karlhendrikse Why does it need to be the greatest game ever made in order for someone to enjoy it or play it? I’m not trying to convince you or anything, I just wonder why? There’s a lot of good games that aren’t the greatest games ever made or even called such, one that comes to mind is the infamous series.
@Mauzuri Did you find hard mode hard? I have been playing it and I’m on the fourth island, but I still found the bosses pretty easy.
But I think the true final boss was meant to be hard, they just put it behind hard mode for some reason, when they could have kept the normal difficulty, and put it in normal mode.
No spoilers please I have yet to get there.
@karlhendrikse You've set yourself an impossibly high bar then. There can only be "1" greatest, and therefore no game on earth will be "the" greatest. In order for such an achievement, it would require a universal agreement that something is perfect without flaw.
What's the greatest thing ever made to one, is the worst thing on earth to another.
@Mauzuri Maybe it won’t be that bad in the end, I haven’t heard anyone having that hard of a time.
I only had a hard time because I forgot wha the white line means, I still don’t know, but I remembered parrying, the game tells you she. You first unlock the ability that you can do that I believe, so at least they didn’t tell you, but good thing you learned it here because the third bosses uses it a lot.
The type of rock is definitely not for everyone, and the piano music, so I understand.
There are lots of good ideas in this game. I'd say strip out the RPG elements though- no levelling up, no skill trees.
Ive played 5 hours and im still not sure what type of game this is or the direction it's heading... maybe make the objective more clear, and without flashing the objectives on the screen constantly.
make it more sonicy... so far it feels literally like hyrule with some sonic themed mini-games scattered around
Removed - unconstructive; user is banned
I have dabbled in sonic over the years ever since I had sonic 2 on my mega drive, never got properly into any but really really hooked on this. I’ve spent twice as much time on it than god of war in the last few days. I am definitely not saying it is the better game, but it’s so easy to get hooked into doing ‘just one more thing’ that time just disappears
There's a lot of nostalgia surrounding Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 but I think that the only Sonic 3D game that works neatly is Sonic Generations... until now. Sonic Frontiers might not be perfect but everybody but haters agree that the foundations for the series in 3D have been built.
I can't believe they made up a genre called open zone...They clearly want to be like Nintendo inventing the "open air" genre. The whole vibe Sonic Frontiers gives off is so Breath of the Wild it hurts
Those Nintendo's patents are ridiculous. They won't be able to keep those ideas for themselves. Like patenting shooting arrows midair, come on... They can patent everything if they like but they won't achieve anything.
Congratulations once again for showing why nowadays, buying games at launch is a bad idea, why pay more for a game that is incomplete if they are going to fix it later and also sell it for lower?
As for the sequel, Sonic Frontiers is yet another divisive Sonic game, so the sequel should please those who liked it and those who didn't, get the things that worked and make them better, get the things that didn't work and fix them, get the things that were always bad ideas and throw them away, that's how a good sequel is made, but no, get ready for once again, Sonic Team starting the next Sonic game from scratch.
@victordamazio Let’s hope there smart enough not to do that, please my god don’t do it!
A developer with any sense and logic about them would've commissioned sequels to Sonic Generations and Sonic Mania given how those games were unanimously praised and sold so well
And give us a handheld Sonic collection with the Sonic Rush, Sonic Advance games and others too!
In that case, make a game that is fun. I didn't play Frontiers, but from what I saw in die videos, you are doing the same boring stuff as usual. Running through Green Hill again, use the homing attack to go over bottomless pits, running through Chemical plant again, use boost pads and springs to get somewhere, running through Sky Sanctuary again, grinding on rails, etc. in a very uninspired, boring, lifeless world. I really can not see how this is for many people a 9/10 game.
@LXP8
Why is that so hard to believe? How many games in Sonic’s franchise, that the levels were called “zones”? ( Green zone, second zone, whatever zone, etc).
So the fact that this is an “open world” game, and words coupled together for its literal meaning; not sure why that’s A - surprising, B - how that’s a “rip-off” of Zelda, when you look at it for what it really is.
This might be one of my first Xbox Series X games. Can not wait to play it for myself. There is an easy way to show developers we like their games. By playing them.
I wish you good luck and everything you need to reach higher heights Sonic Team and Sega.
Not a fan of "open zone", I find it overwhelming, repetitive and generic, but since SA3 or a Heroes successor is impossible at this point, I'm hoping the next Mania endeavor tackles the Advance series instead of trying to make "Sonic 5".
And maybe add more than 4 zones this time.
Fronters was great to me but you have to be resistant to so many annoyances. One reviewer said you can either give this game a 1 or a 10 and both ratings are understandable. That fits it pretty well.
“We are checking out the opinions of the critics and players. As you have pointed out, there are still areas where we are not quite there yet, and we will take this seriously like a global playtest.”
I haven't purchased or played the game, I'm just enjoying the discourse.
Is he talking about building on an updating the current game? Or is he talking about the next game they need to fix what's broken in the first game first.
Final boss has a QTE that, if you fail, means you have to play it again from scratch. Given it takes about 7 minutes to beat.... meh.
I failed the QTE by button mashing (which your meant to do on other QTE prompts but not this one) 3 times. When I finally saw the credits I was not s happy camper. Quite a bit of swearing...
But overall game was a load of fun to play. Peaked early on with the run up to the first boss - about 5 hours of truly excellent game there. Just a bit more polish on the ending next time please
I'm really enjoying this game in the meantime. But I'm glad I bought it for PS5 and not Switch.
I'd much rather they simply take Sonic off the board for awhile to give some of their other franchises a chance. Sega didn't become arguably the top company in the entire industry because of any single IP (in fact the Genesis was doing very favorably against the SNES sales-wise before Sonic ever came on the scene), and focusing so much on a single IP since leaving console manufacturing two decades ago certainly hasn't prevented them from plummeting to a has been status who are having to sell off entire divisions to stay afloat and who can't even get that IP completely right anymore.
@AtlanteanMan Other IP from Sega got a chance. Shenmue, Monkey Ball, Streets of Rage, Panzar Dragoon, Yakuza. Sure Sega didn't bring them back and they've been hit and miss sucess wise. But we haven't gotten an original sonic game since 2017, 2018 if we count Team Sonic Racing.
@Vexx234 I think they've gone back to the well enough. Just go with this direction and tweak it. Make the open world look like a SONIC GAME with more cohesive platforming elements (vines instead of rails in verdant areas, mushrooms instead of bounce pads, etc etc), fix the camera, and create new spaces for the cyberspace levels. That's it. Just iterate and refine what is here.
...also make it so none of his friends are there and no one speaks.
@RareFan it's the same reason WWE and Fifa sells. People are big fans of things. The WWE games have been complete garbage forever, but hey...character intros and quotes are accurate to the thing! I like the thing!
@Mauzuri you CAN do that in BotW, if you want. I didn't do that. But hey, whatever floats your boat bro.
@GinMiguel Most of those were outsourced to third parties or required Kickstarters to exist (Shenmue 3). There are literally dozens of other excellent IPs including Sega's once unparalleled Arcade coin-ops as well as their incredible RPGs which haven't seen an entry, remake, or compilation in years or decades.
Just saying there are plenty of other deserving franchises to be reexplored. And done right, some of them, like Shining Force, could see a Renaissance similar to Nintendo's success with Fire Emblem in recent years. At any rate, putting all their eggs in one basket will only continue to result in diminishing returns.
@Mauzuri I completely agree about Breath of the Wild, which I think is the most overrated game ever. I am a huge The Legend of Zelda fan, but if that very game was not called The Legend of Zelda, it would have got 7s at best.
@LikelySatan "Make the open world look like a SONIC GAME with more cohesive platforming elements, vines instead of rails in verdant areas, mushrooms instead of bounce pads, etc, etc, fix the camera, and create new spaces for the cyberspace levels."
I agree completely and that was the first thing I said when the game was shown. Later, the cyberspace levels were shown but the hub world/open zone should still be Sonic, why make a generic land?
Cool listen to the overwhelming feedback about the control problems of cyberspace and make a patch that address them.
@Banjo- lol. Nah man.
@AtlanteanMan I'm just saying, discounting shoddy ports and a spinoff. We haven't had an original game in 5 years. As for other properties, if a game is quality then who cares what if it's outsourced or not Though I hear some of what I mentioned isn't.
So I'm confused. Sega is so proud of the game and the general public seems to agree it's a step in the right direction but Nintendolife hates it? In the voice of Dr. Evil i just gotta say....
Riiiiiiiiiiight. 😕
So much praise for a game that rates 4, 🤔🤔🤔🤔
Yeah contradictory much? Anyone else feel like the Sonic series kinda has alot in common with the fan base that Star wars has. There's a very loud group of fans that swear by the originals and consider everything since to be garbage in both franchises and both have a very toxic group of fan boys and girls who act like each franchise can do no wrong.
What i wanna know is can't we all just agree to disagree without attacking the other person for their opinion?
I once got verbally assaulted for wearing a last Jedi shirt at a subway restaurant and the guy doing it to me was the guy making my sub.
I told him to use his aggressive feelings and let the hate flow through him LOL. 😉
Try fixing it
Seeing gameplay alone for Sonic Frontier just looks so boring and lifeless also repetitive the level designs look uninspiring never understood the high ratings like 9 or 10. But more power to you if you like it I don't since Sega has history for doing bad Sonic games. Maybe next one hopefully we get Sonic adventure 3.
Cyberspace levels in frontiers didn’t bother me because I didn’t play previous sonic games that featured them, so they were quite fun
@WizardJ They're trying to do what Nintendo did for Zelda, but with Sonic. Can you name even one other series where the devs stated it was a new genre beginning with the word "open-"? Even before they came up with "open zone" everyone was saying how it was so similar to BOTW with the lonely world full of ruins, the quiet piano music as you explored it etc. The fact that they tried to emulate Nintendo's genre naming was just made me laugh even more
@Mauzuri To each their own but I enjoyed the more sparse areas of BOTW's world as it gave me areas to travel through on horseback without danger, which allowed me to take in the sights and contemplate the Journey I'd been on so far. I think it's important for adventure games to have stretches of the map like that so that you have areas to rest and take a breath (of the wild)
There is a lot of things that could work for the next game, but one thing that definitely wouldn't work is another solo Sonic game. Sonic Frontiers was an exception because it showed Sonic's friends evolving into better-written characters and becoming their original selves again, but since that process is completed, at least Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy need to be playable.
@Kermit1 why not just make Tails playable instead?
I also think that the next game should balance action stages and open worlds. Instead of making there Cyberspace stages that are hard to find, you should have to get to stages to further progress through the story.
@XxROTSA2xX Do you think that Sonic Frontiers is like a reboot? I'd like the open zone to be more Sonic with the typical animals, robots, music and strong colours. There are many Sonic characters but at least Tail and Knuckles should be playable next time.
@Banjo- Definitely not a reboot. In fact, it's the most "sequel" Sonic game yet, since there were more callbacks than ever before. Some of them were even shown.
EDIT: I agree with you about the "more Sonic" part, but I would like a similar tone to Frontiers. The world should be like that of Sonic Adventure, since the next game will probably show more of the world unlike Frontiers.
@P-Man In almost every interview, Iizuka has said that Frontiers is the beginning of a new era, but I like thinking of it as more of a transitional phase. In that case, hopefully the next game can fully bring Sonic to the next level.
@XxROTSA2xX Thanks.
I thought of a game idea that is Sonic Adventure 3, because the action stages are like the adventure stages, but the open worlds are as important. My idea was that the playable characters are Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, and a new character (I had an idea for this being Sonic's sister, but she was just an OC and hardly anything more). It would show more of the history of Cyberspace and would also connect to echidna lore from SA1 and SA2.
remake sonic advneture 1&2
Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 should be remade because they're rough and also Sonic Heroes because it has very bad camera angles. Another option is to include the best segments as cyberspace levels in the next game, including some Sonic Unleashed daylight segments.
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