Sonic Frontiers - Teaser Trailer

[Blue Blood]

2 hours ago, Shaddy Zaphod said:

Interestingly, your skepticism about the cyberspace levels is substantiated by this guy from the July leak, who claims there weren't any when he played.

I've seen that one too, but not the original thread that it came from. And I barely know how to navigate 4Chan, so I don't know who or what they're referring to when they say "there were no levels, just an overworld". If the game has been tested several time over a number of months or even years, it stand to reason that game would have changed. SEGA wouldn't show off everything all in one go, because not everything will have existed right from the start and certain aspects would have changed as a result of the testing. I think it sounds like the cyberspace levels could very well exist, but our idea of them at the moment is sketchy at best.

[Iko]

8 hours ago, Sega DogTagz said:

Clearly Sonic wants to be Link.

He turns into wolves, time traveled back and forth a bunch, used a sword that one time and even dressed up in a green tunic for some cosplay.

 

indisputable evidence.

You forgot he played an "ocarina" for the Mystic Melody.

He wants to be like Link but he's already better: Sonic, unlike Link, managed to get the full triforce once, Link rarely does it.

[VO.SUPER]

4 hours ago, Blue Blood said:

I've seen that one too, but not the original thread that it came from. And I barely know how to navigate 4Chan, so I don't know who or what they're referring to when they say "there were no levels, just an overworld". If the game has been tested several time over a number of months or even years, it stand to reason that game would have changed. SEGA wouldn't show off everything all in one go, because not everything will have existed right from the start and certain aspects would have changed as a result of the testing. I think it sounds like the cyberspace levels could very well exist, but our idea of them at the moment is sketchy at best.

If I had to guess the general timeline, Sonic Team were throwing out this demo all throughout 2020 and incrementally adding features to it. Originally you'd get the Emeralds just from killing certain mobs apparently, but the idea was always that there'd be some sort of special stage. That then led to the cyberspace levels being added in the recent demo.

The question is how reflective of the final product this demo is. Is it just some isolated area of the final game, or was it just sort of curated from a bunch of elements in the final game to get the gist of how Sonic played and the gameplay loop?

Because if I took these demos at face value, this sounds an awful lot like Bowser's Fury where you get macguffins to unlock the super macguffin and unlock more of the map. But that is a very short game and may as well be demo sized like this. What stopgaps will there be to prevent you from just getting all the emeralds? Or is it just "get all the emeralds to unlock a new area", then rinse and repeat?

 

[Jango]

I just really hope we get something at E3...

[Soniman]

E3 to me is very unlikely I think Colors Ultimate will be their main e3 game and save Sonic 2022  for a later date like TGS or maybe even June 21st if we're lucky 

[A super No.1 washedupgamer]

It's gonna be colors at e3 all over again then, just like back in 2010.

[Jango]

No fucking way SEGA is that stupid to only show a remaster at E3. Unless Rangers is at a state similar to how Forces was when it was announced. The Hedgehog Engine 2 is done at this point, so no excuses this time. Some game has to be ready to show.

 

[Chili Dawg]

I would love to believe they'll show us more at E3, buuuut the fact they did this stream at all, and showed a teaser has me like... why not just wait till E3 to fully unveil the game? Why bother teasing when the full reveal is so close?

I want to believe we'll know more in the not too distant future, but I'm pretty sure we'll be getting jerked around for another year.

[Thigolf]

Sonic Colors Ultimate is their big 2021 Sonic title. That's the game they will focus on marketing-wise, they probably don't wanna distract from it. I really don't think it's a matter of being able to show, but wanting to show and only keeping one "big" game in their marketing cycle.

My bet is that we won't see/hear from Rangers again until late 2021 at the earliest.

[Sega DogTagz]

I wouldn't go into E3 expecting anything more than a Rangers title-card. And even that may be asking too much.

Sega's marketing and information release history tells us that they will not want to steal focus from Colors and they can use the looming specter of Rangers to make people "tune in" to whatever they have to say in the weeks leading up to the release of that game.

 

The more they withhold of rangers, the more we have to huddle around the social media feeds and other announcement looking for crumbs, and the more exposure Colors gets. We are more or less a captive audience.

[VO.SUPER]

Yeah.

I was actually talking to young nephews of mine who never even knew about Sonic Colours, and his attention was basically focused on getting that game. While he was curious about Rangers, his interest was more in the game he never played and looked complete. SEGA I'm sure wants the kids focused entirely on Colours, and the cartoon they'll release, before letting out more hints on Rangers.

Edit: An another reason SEGA wants to focus on Colours.

 

[McGroose]

I think whether or not Sega intends to show Rangers at E3 of this year depends on what month they plan to release the game in 2022. If it's an Q1-Q2 release, then I'd say we can probably expect to see the game there. If it's a Q3-Q4 release, which seems most likely, there's little chance we'll see the game at E3 this year.

[Enesephus]

Man, I can only hope you guys all turn out to be wrong on this, but I have a nasty feeling you wont be. I dunno, one thing that struck me about this Sonic Central is how, unlike the 25th anniversary where they waited until well after E3 to reveal their games, this time they decided to do the reveals just a couple weeks before, including the new game.

While it does seem pretty likely they only teased the new game to get us off their backs and assure us that, yes, they are indeed working on another Sonic game and we can shut up now, they have to know that people will be going into E3 expecting a proper reveal. I mean, I wasn't there, but I'm pretty sure that's how they used to handle the marketing for their games, going back to at least Sonic Unleashed, with a tease or reveal just a few weeks before a full E3 reveal. That said, they were usually revealed with a name and a release window from what I can tell, and with this they gave us a release year so... yeah, it'll probably be a no-show. I'm still hoping they at least acknowledge it by the 23rd, seeing as both this game and Origins might as well not even exist to the Sonic social media right now, but who even knows?

[ChikaBoing]

Thinking about the leaks and how Sonic Team operates here is my speculation how I feel the game is gonna be...

• It won't be an open world where physics matter in a crucial way to progress through the game (like in a lot of fangames). It's just not their thing and they have never done it.
• The combat and puzzles will revolve around Sonic's speed, make it is a sonicy as possible even if it seems not very Sonic like at first - we might get action game like combat with combos and skill trees but be free flowing and fast. Same goes for the puzzles - but I suspect it will be more binary and not very...Monkey Ball like I guess. Again I dont think they will do physics stuff
• Some type of gear movement like in Lost World, but different. I imagine a fast gear to boost around fast, and a gear that is more geared towards combat and puzzles - so you can for example make a Spincycle more easily
• As for the linear/cyberspace levels - I kinda suspect they will be fairly short/simple like Forces. I dunno. Call it a hunch

 

[Endy]

who is to say that sonic's speed can't be in to going anymore to have an affect on the way he is moving on three dimensions

[Roger_van_der_weide]

I'm expecting the "Puzzles" of the game to be just obnoxious Simon Sez things.
That a door won't open or you won't get an item unless you have "The move" and then use "the move".
Kinda like Sonic Shattered Crystals. Oh there's a Tails thing, activate Tails. There's a Sticks thing, activate Sticks. There's a Knuckles thing, activate Knuckles.
No thinking required, just do "the move" that the game tells you too.
I mean, if this is Sonic Team imitating a Zelda game, I'm fully expecting it to be like a dumb Zelda game.

[NoKaine]

I hope the skill system is like Generations and nothing like Secret Rings.

I want to challenge myself by having infinite speed but being a one-hit wonder, not spend hours to start making Sonic go fast.

7 minutes ago, Roger_van_der_weide said:

I'm expecting the "Puzzles" of the game to be just obnoxious Simon Sez things.
That a door won't open or you won't get an item unless you have "The move" and then use "the move".
Kinda like Sonic Shattered Crystals. Oh there's a Tails thing, activate Tails. There's a Sticks thing, activate Sticks. There's a Knuckles thing, activate Knuckles.
No thinking required, just do "the move" that the game tells you too.
I mean, if this is Sonic Team imitating a Zelda game, I'm fully expecting it to be like a dumb Zelda game.

The majority of puzzles in BOTW are incredibly simple (put a rock in this suspicious place, put some apples in the basket, use your runes) if they're not in the shrines and honestly its puzzle-solving aspect (and dungeon design) is the weakest part of the game, so puzzles weren't ever going to be outstanding. You can't make an open world game with in-depth puzzles, and if the "shrines" are going to be traditional levels, then puzzles will probably be massively downplayed.

The puzzles in the Zelda level in Lost World were simple but intuitive mini-challenges based on the gameplay (like using parkour or rewarding exploration). If it's like that, the puzzles will be fine.

[ChikaBoing]

6 minutes ago, Roger_van_der_weide said:

I'm expecting the "Puzzles" of the game to be just obnoxious Simon Sez things.
That a door won't open or you won't get an item unless you have "The move" and then use "the move".
Kinda like Sonic Shattered Crystals. Oh there's a Tails thing, activate Tails. There's a Sticks thing, activate Sticks. There's a Knuckles thing, activate Knuckles.
No thinking required, just do "the move" that the game tells you too.
I mean, if this is Sonic Team imitating a Zelda game, I'm fully expecting it to be like a dumb Zelda game.

Yeah, I guess that is how it's gonna be.

Most we can hope for is that it will be fun move around. That's crucial in an open world game.

With combat moves and stuff there is potential for having a ton of satisfying animations.

[NoKaine]

The best I expect of the puzzles is some degree of freedom in solving it. If there's going to be a skill tree with different abilities, giving Sonic a varied moveset would make the puzzles feel rewarding even if they're simple. I do not at all expect a physics system on the level of Breath of the Wild, but just something akin to "you can use a boost, or you can launch yourself off a ramp, or use an enemy as leverage" deal.

The worst is that there are puzzles that will absolutely require very specific abilities to use and reject any reasonable alternative. 

Since the game will also unlikely to be as open as Breath of the Wild, I do expect "you must have this power to proceed" moments but hopefully they will be kept to story progression, not gameplay.

[A_W]

15 minutes ago, NoKaine said:

being a one-hit wonder

This actually raises a very interesting question: how will rings and damage work in this game? I think there's basically two routes they could take: either you have a life bar that's healed with rings and don't drop any of 'em when you're hit, like the Werehog; or they'll take a cue from some of the mobile games and have it work traditionally, but also add places where you can 'bank' your rings and keep them safe. Or maybe they'll combine the two and make you lose more health if hit without rings, like the mechs from Adventure 2.

[Iko]

About puzzles, the leaker said they are not set in shrines but spread around the map in the overworld, so maybe there are more ways to complete them (by taking advantage of the surrounding environment).

By the way, something similar to Breath of the Wild shrines already existed in Sonic many years before, the Gaia Temple rooms in the Wii version of Unleashed:

I expect puzzles to be like these ones, hopefully they won't be about pushing massive fruits or snowballs like in Lost World 3DS.

[Shiny Gems]

15 hours ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

I wouldnt jump there either. The leader didn't seem like much of a Sonic fan. They may not know the nuanced differences between the physics of each game. 

Exactly. Forces, in terms of Sonic's gameplay, while level design is different, still uses the boost, so it is possible he could have been grouping Unleashed with Forces inaccurately. I would not be surprised if the level design and physics and all would be different from Sonic Unleashed, and in between those, staff have left Sonic Team and Sega, so there may be notable differences here.

[UpCDownCLeftCRightC]

Am I the only one that thinks we might be getting some info at E3 or whatever the big upcoming thing is sonic is supposed to attend? 

 

I just don't think colors ultimate is a big enough entry to hype up at E3. Mainly because it's just not a new game. I could understand if it was a hotly anticipated thing like FF7 but most people weren't asking for it and didn't see it coming, though obviously many people will be happy to have it.

I doubt it would be an information blowout if the game is more than a year away but there might be a more substantive trailer.

 

 

[Kuzu]

Would be nice to at least get some gameplay on this. ,

 

But given that E3 is in less than two weeks, I doubt Sega could have another trailer to drop on us, even though I really want them too. 

[Razule]

It's probably still a year off, but they must have something presentable by E3, right?