Sonic Frontiers - Teaser Trailer

[Blue Blood]

Just now, Soniman said:

I never thought it was the boost it always looked like an entirely new gimmick to me which is what I figured they were showing off because...well that's what you wanna show off for any teaser end not just have Sonic do the standard boost and that's it. Definitely got a electronic/digital vibe from it myself.

I didn't think it was the boost either, because the digital effect was focused on so much. It was clearly showcasing a new mechanic. However, the point at which Sonic disappears looked like him accelerating at first, but it's not the case. He doesn't change speed and instead just seems to warp whilst still leaving behind that digital trail.

[McGroose]

Glad to see that the general consensus of this game seems to be excitement and genuine enthusiasm in Sega for trying to be bold and broaden their horizons with Sonic despite still thinking they will still fuck up the game regardless.

[Wraith]

I know they're going to fuck it up, but I like plenty of fucked up Sonic games. I don't like any of the boring ones.

[Sega DogTagz]

I too will take the Rangers leak info for all its worth. Too many coincidences to ignore there.

 

Over the last day or so, I have put a lot of thought into the SpinCycle in particular. Utilizing Sonic's contrail for attacking purposes is a surprisingly refreshing and novel addition to Sonic's combat repertoire. I haven't been as impressed with a combat mechanic for Modern Sonic since the small epiphany someone the Colors Team had when they utilized the Quick Step as a road rage side-smash in a few levels way-back when.

It checks all the boxes. You don't have to slow down to fight enemies (in fact you might have to speed up), it can scale to target large groups or singular targets and its completely user controlled as opposed to automated. Furthermore, it is a very Sonic-ish move in essence. Ignoring the digital aspect of it, Sonic should be a symphony of destruction when he circles his foes.

Its got me thinking about what else we could utilize it for. What if, aside from BoTW, this game took some cues from Okami? You could pop up into an overhead veiw and use the SpinCycle to draw different runes onto the earth and produce different effects. Change the environment, attack baddies, whatever. That would be a slick double implementation of the same mechanic. And you don't have to stop there. Sonic's contrail could be repurposed again for puzzles. Complete the circuit, connect-the-dots, any kind of challenge where you would need to "draw" can work here.

 

Thats some extremely versatile ways you can utilize a single unlock-able ability. If they put this kind of love, care and attn to something like this, I'm stoked to see what Sonic's base moveset and other unlocks will look like.

[Drunk Michael Myers]

My biggest concern for this game is if Sonic Team will utilize the SSD of PS5 and Series X or constrain the game to fit it to the Switch instead of making a seperate version for last generation like with Unleashed on Wii/PS2...that would be so sad...

[Kellan]

Speaking of Breath of the Wild, that game had an interesting way of populating its world. Instead of individually creating each individual NPC, they instead made their NPCs out of, get this, Miis.

Nintendo modified their Mii system so that they looked like Hylians, instead of their usual cartoony selves. Once modders figured this out, they were even able to upload existing Miis into the game and get a Hylian NPC.

That’s Matt from Wii Sports.

Anyway, the point of all this is that Sonic Team could conceivably do the same thing, considering they have a fancy Sonic Forces OC creator just begging to be used.

[VO.SUPER]

4 minutes ago, Drunk Michael Myers said:

My biggest concern for this game is if Sonic Team will utilize the SSD of PS5 and Series X or constrain the game to fit it to the Switch instead of making a seperate version for last generation like with Unleashed on Wii/PS2...that would be so sad...

This was never gonna take advantage of the PS5 or SeriesX. This game has been in development since 2017 (maybe even late '16) most likely, dev kits for the PS5 as far as we know didn't start becoming a thing proper until late 2018- early 2019.

This was always going to be the game that primarily existed as a swansong for previous hardware. Especially while it's so hard to obtain PS5s and Series X.

[Red Hot Jack]

Boost or not, it's something built upon that, an evolution maybe that makes him spin into hyperspace, I'm all for it, I know I said I didn't want it in any more games but if its twisted, why not? The reason I'm still wondering if it's an actual old styled boost is because the leak mentions Unleashed/Generations style stages, but again, that could be just a way of meaning traditional zones and acts.

[Iko]

6 hours ago, Jango said:

I wonder if the idea of making an open world Sonic game came to ST after the attention Project Hero was getting:

 

A bit off topic but I'm glad that someone finally realized that walljump doesn't fit Sonic and that wallrun is a better option.

More specifically, it's about a decade that I'm suggesting that 3D Sonic should get a wallrun move, I even suggested it to the team who was developing Sonic Freerunner (an old BlitzSonic fangame), but they didn't like the idea; a few weeks after, Sonic Lost World was announced and it featured parkour, by the way.

Even a few weeks ago I was discussing wallrun in this forum, in a thread about implementing parkour in boost gameplay...

I'm glad that this fangame will finally show to the world that wallrunning as 3D Sonic can work.

Back to Rangers, I was thinking that having free roaming sandbox stages (or open world in this case apparently) with portals to a virtual dimension that lead to more traditional linear levels made of blocks of land in a void space makes me think of Super Mario Sunshine and those "mystery of" levels.

The "cyberspace" theme was used in just a few games in the past... aside of the Sonic Simulator, there were Techno Base and Cyber Track from the Advance games, one arena in Sonic Battle, maybe something else that I'm forgetting of, but not much; it's still a pretty unexplored theme despite all the focus on technology the series always had.

[antinomicTune]

1 hour ago, Iko said:

The "cyberspace" theme was used in just a few games in the past... aside of the Sonic Simulator, there were Techno Base and Cyber Track from the Advance games, one arena in Sonic Battle, maybe something else that I'm forgetting of, but not much; it's still a pretty unexplored theme despite all the focus on technology the series always had.

There was Mad Matrix and Digital Circuit from Shadow the Hedgehog too, as well as Babylon Guardian and Digital Dimension from Sonic Riders, although those last two were more of a holodeck situation. I agree that it's definitely an underutilized theme though, and I'm interested to see Ranger's take on it.

[NoKaine]

If the game is inspired by Breath of the Wild, then the cyberspace levels would definitely be like the Shrines--small, hyper-focused levels that reward the player for exploring by giving them a break in the gameplay.

[Spooky Mulder]

2 hours ago, Wraith said:

I know they're going to fuck it up, but I like plenty of fucked up Sonic games. I don't like any of the boring ones.

Can't agree with this enough.

I've replayed Sonic 06 too many times just for some fun and laughs. When I still had a Wii U, I'd pick up SLW occasionally to play around with the mechanics. Heck, I've even willingly replayed werehog stages just for some nostalgia then swore I'd never do this again only to find myself firing it up again anyway.

I've never replayed Sonic Forces even though there's nothing really offensive about it.

[Iko]

27 minutes ago, antinomicTune said:

There was Mad Matrix and Digital Circuit from Shadow the Hedgehog too, as well as Babylon Guardian and Digital Dimension from Sonic Riders, although those last two were more of a holodeck situation. I agree that it's definitely an underutilized theme though, and I'm interested to see Ranger's take on it.

Regarding Shadow the Hedgehog, I noticed one thing...

"Cyberspace"

Is this consistency, or coincidence? I mean it's a pretty generic name.

[antinomicTune]

8 minutes ago, Iko said:

Regarding Shadow the Hedgehog, I noticed one thing...

[image]

"Cyberspace"

Is this consistency, or coincidence? I mean it's a pretty generic name.

Given the recent history of the franchise, I'd personally expect coincidence. They haven't cared about consistency game-to-game much at all since Unleashed, and even before that they didn't care that much (see: the moon in every game after SA2).

Plus, we have to consider that our source on the term cyberspace is the leaks describing the linear levels as taking place in such. They might've just been using that very generic trope-y name as a means of description of the aesthetic, whatever space the levels take place in might be called something different in the actual game.

[Blue Blood]

3 minutes ago, Spooky Mulder said:

Can't agree with this enough.

I've replayed Sonic 06 too many times just for some fun and laughs. When I still had a Wii U, I'd pick up SLW occasionally to play around with the mechanics. Heck, I've even willingly replayed werehog stages just for some nostalgia then swore I'd never do this again only to find myself firing it up again anyway.

I've never replayed Sonic Forces even though there's nothing really offensive about it.

Sonic Forces is so mediocre its offensive. It's offensive to me as a long time fan, but otherwise it's just kind of... well, I can't speak too ill of when when looking at it objective. It's boring, it's too easy, it's not at all engaging, it's sloppy, it's not got great visuals, it's not got a great soundtrack, but for most people I'd say it's probably fine. I hate it on a personal level and I find it boring to play. But I can't rightly say that it's as awful as I find it to be. Know what I mean?

Based on the leaks, Rangers sounds interesting. There's every potential for it to be a mess and for it be boring even if it's not that bad. But it's caught my attention. Forces only had my attention for the premise that it was set in a world that Eggman had conquered, which ended up being a massive disappointment and was on shaky grounds from the reveal of Classic Sonic anyway (even more so when the Avatar was revealed). This game interests me. That's not a bad way to start.

[Shiny Gems]

I don't know about you guys, but that guy who leaked what he playtested on 4Chan on Sonic Rangers, the open world, cyberspace and all; he said there would be Unleashed/Generations styled levels, right? I hope he does mean that, and did not mean just boost levels like those two games but covering Forces as well, which had different level design. In other words, I hope he knows the difference between Unleashed/Generations and Forces and is not just unintentionally grouping them together because they use the boost gameplay.

[Soniman]

I wonder if this will just be a cleverly designed boost game where the open world is just a means to an end to reach the "main" boost levels and there's not much else to it? That would kinda suck 

[Razule]

9 minutes ago, Soniman said:

I wonder if this will just be a cleverly designed boost game where the open world is just a means to an end to reach the "main" boost levels and there's not much else to it? That would kinda suck 

The tester did say he spent 20 minutes in the open world. I feel like the Boost would've been mentioned more often than as a special stage if they were the main part of the game.

[VO.SUPER]

16 minutes ago, Soniman said:

I wonder if this will just be a cleverly designed boost game where the open world is just a means to an end to reach the "main" boost levels and there's not much else to it? That would kinda suck 

I wouldn't be entirely against that ,if the part you mention about the open world JUST being a means to an end isn't all it is. If it's a way of intergrating the act structures of Sonic boost levels with a more fleshed out hub that has substantial objectives and design behind it, it could work out. But this is a balancing act. If they can have interesting missions and objectives in the main world that can be broken up by the more fast paced special stages maybe it can really work out.

[Diogenes]

12 minutes ago, Soniman said:

I wonder if this will just be a cleverly designed boost game where the open world is just a means to an end to reach the "main" boost levels and there's not much else to it? That would kinda suck 

A big empty open world with a bunch of filler tasks would serve as the padding all boost games seem to need...

[Shiny Gems]

Not sure about tasks. I am not sure if I would want to do tasks in the open world. Maybe if they involve using speed and actual momentum physics, but otherwise, not only could it be boring, but many games have done it before, so it would not be something new. I do love the idea of running fast in the open world, though.

[Wraith]

This has been living in my mind rent free since thursday but nobody has given me an excuse to bring it up yet so I'll just say it. They really decided they were going to take heavy inspiration from an open ended Nintendo game and chose Breath of the Wild and not Mario Odyssey.

 

Like...what the fuck? Seriously. Huh? Did they see Mario roll and have an allergic reaction?

[VO.SUPER]

2 minutes ago, Wraith said:

This has been living in my mind rent free since thursday but nobody has given me an excuse to bring it up yet so I'll just say it. They really decided they were going to take heavy inspiration from an open ended Nintendo game and chose Breath of the Wild and not Mario Odyssey.

 

Like...what the fuck? Seriously. Huh? Did they see Mario roll and have an allergic reaction?

I mean, that is only really what the leaker interprets it as. What with the forest motif and korok-likes. Even still, Breath of the Wild did come out first and shook up its series significantly. Odyssey isn't so structurally different from say Mario 64 aside from the fact you can basically go in absolutely any order of moon collection in levels.

The main thing Odyssey changed up was how Cappy worked as a beautiful extension of Mario's moveset, allowing him more airtime. Then you look at Breath of the Wild which utterly uprooted Zelda, and even brought the concept of open world to its most pure form at the time.

[Soniman]

11 minutes ago, Wraith said:

This has been living in my mind rent free since thursday but nobody has given me an excuse to bring it up yet so I'll just say it. They really decided they were going to take heavy inspiration from an open ended Nintendo game and chose Breath of the Wild and not Mario Odyssey.

 

Like...what the fuck? Seriously. Huh? Did they see Mario roll and have an allergic reaction?

They ripped off Mario once and it didn't work out?

[azoo]

Hey full disclosure if Sonic can't Spindash/roll or boost and it's just combat then this game is going in the dumpster. Like right then and there. Just wanted to say that real quick lmao.