Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka has revealed that the studio’s past work contributed to Sonic Frontiers’ ‘Open Zone’ gameplay approach – and has expressed an interest in using learnings from the upcoming title to make a new entry in the Sonic Adventure series.
In an interview with IGN, the series producer discusses the inspirations behind Sonic Frontiers, and how Sonic Team referred to its work on Sonic Adventure’s adventure fields to help develop its “open” world design.
“The base of our game is the Sonic 3D Action Adventure game expanded to be a freer game experience, and that’s how we thought up this completely new ‘Open Zone’ game system,” Iizuka said, later explaining:
“In Sonic Adventure we had Adventure Fields, which were smaller open spaces, but even the techniques we used back then are helping us execute well on Sonic Frontiers.” Iizuka coupled this piece of information with a confirmation that he would “like to continue the Sonic Adventure series at some point.”
When will that happen? Iizuka-san isn’t quite sure yet, but it’s definitely on his mind – and his words here are enough to get a certain corner of the Sonic fanbase salivating with anticipation. “So, I haven’t really thought about my next game yet, but I would hope all of the work we put into Sonic Frontiers can be used to make another Sonic Adventure game sometime.”
The confirmation came as Iizuka used the interview to also discuss how Sonic Frontiers, and future projects from Sonic Team, will aim to target two groups of fans; “Sonic fans from 30 years ago are adults now. There are also young fans who may have started with the movies and other content. Going forward, we want the Sonic brand to appeal to both groups of fans across games and other media.”
“As part of that strategy, is our June release of Sonic Origins. It perfectly presents the origins of Sonic in a format for those who grew up with the originals, or for those who are new to the series.”
“Then we plan on releasing titles like Sonic Frontiers as something new, that even our 3D Sonic veterans will find new and exciting. Moving forward, on a title-by-title basis, we will focus on these target audiences and deliver games for those fans.”
You can watch the whole interview, conducted by IGN, below.
I really dont like Izuka to be honest. Every time he gives insights into his process and practices, I get the feeling he is just completely out of touch with what the series needs. He doesnt care about quality or game design. He just wants to throw ideas at a white board. If Sonic Frontiers is supposed to transition somehow into an Adventure game, people are going to be very disappointed. They need to get movement right if they’re going to make an Adventure game. And they haven’t shown they’re capable of that at all.
Iizuka, bro, what does that even mean? Are you going to retcon Heroes and Shadow and the rest of the series and make a new follow-up game set right after SA2? Are you going to ditch the gameplay you’ve shown so far for Frontiers in this hypothetical sequel and go back to finding power-ups to unlock moves, including loads of other playable characters, and having tons of different gameplay styles that might only show up for a single minigame? Are you just gonna make Mike Pollock say “yosh” and have the voice lines all overlap so everyone talks over each other?
I really don’t want to bad talk this game too much before it’s even out, but it is really distressing to me that already the goalposts are being moved to getting hype for the next game when we barely even know how this one plays. And unless in the next trailer they show off Sonic carrying around the Burger Shop Statue or playing the Mystic Melody I don’t think Frontiers has any more similarities to SA1 and 2 than any of the other modern titles after ’06. I mean heck, SA2 didn’t even have Adventure Fields so the open world section being a hub isn’t even a similarity with the Sonic Adventure “series”, it’s just a similarity with Sonic Adventure 1 specifically. This whole idea is nonsense.
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Much as I like a new Adventure game I don’t feel like I can trust Iizuka and ST to handle it properly.
They should atleast remake SA1 & 2 and then see what they can use from the remakes for a SA3.
Iizuka can try to make any kind of Sonic game he likes, but if he calls it Sonic Adventure 3 or 4 or anything along those lines, he will disappoint a lot of people with the finished product. Fans have been dreaming about that title for ages, and I’m afraid any game that comes out with that name may never meet the expectations that have been formed over the years. Better give that game a somewhat more neutral name, even similar to Sonic World Adventure. It doesn’t hurt that it has “Adventure” in the name, it makes it sound cool but it takes away the pressure of having to be just as good or better than the Adventure titles.
I hope Iizuka is not saying he wants to make games that will appeal to both old and new fans at the same time. Every time I hear something like that, we end up with with a mediocre game and, arguably, with an identity crisis – inconsistent tone, inconsistent quality of content, etc.
Before Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice came out, SEGA, kept saying how that game would appeal to everyone, and you probably know the rest of the story.