Megathread Sonic Frontiers (2022) | MT | General Discussion (DO NOT discuss leaks here please)

[DaBigJ]

1 hour ago, Duelistic Nature said:

Interesting. What would you consider engaging combat then? I'm not here to psycho-analyse everything you say, but I am genuinely curious what you'd consider engaging combat for a Sonic game, a franchise, I feel, is designed around speed.

Something like Sonic Heroes? Maybe something like '06? Maybe sonic battle? Or sonic and the black knight although there wasn't much flavour other than buzzsawing through hordes of enemies.

I would say a mix of Battle and 06, to be honest, though I would also kinda prefer how Sonic enemies are regularly as an option for smaller enemies. It doesn't really seem that easy to incorporate compelling combat in a Sonic game, so giving a definitive answer isn't easy, but that's what I think would work.

1 hour ago, Duelistic Nature said:

Does the open world feel empty? Or is the regular green field/ forest view bland and seen a few too many times? Maybe it's also the underlying music in the trailer that sells the island off as being empty?

It does feel empty, but I think my biggest issue is the overall artstyle.

Now, I get what they're going for. It's supposed to be a different world compared to other Sonic games, but in my opinion it doesn't work, and I think it's because it's not stylized enough. I'm not against Sonic in being more realistic areas compared to the usual Green Hills or Chemical Plants, the Sonic Adventure games did that wonderfully, but they knew to stylize the realistic worlds so it's not jarring.

Then you have Frontiers, where there's BOTW esq lands...with Sonic sticking out like a sore thumb. It's like a paradox, if that makes sense, a very cartoony hedgehog in a realistic environment. 

If they want to keep the environment the same, then I think they should've tweaked Sonic a bit to feel less jarring and out of place. Maybe give him some light fur texturing? I don't know, it's hard for me explain, but I feel like the current direction clashes too much for my taste. It reminds me of...Sonic 2006 in some aspects, artistically speaking.

[Duelistic Nature]

1 hour ago, Jake_LeOFFICIAL said:

If they want to keep the environment the same, then I think they should've tweaked Sonic a bit to feel less jarring and out of place. Maybe give him some light fur texturing? I don't know, it's hard for me explain, but I feel like the current direction clashes too much for my taste. It reminds me of...Sonic 2006 in some aspects, artistically speaking.

hahaha, I was about to suggest that the style looks somewhat similar to '06's which does credit to how far ahead the game was in fidelity. Granted in Sonic 2006 the brights of colors (blue, yellow, red) clashed pretty hard in the city and forest zones. They got a lot more justice in the snow and crisis city with all the volcanic tinting (red's, oranges and browns). Though if I may once again (and I swear it's becoming a recurring theme for me...) refer to looking at images from Sonic and the Black Knight (pay particular attention to the color palette in the Gawain fight (knuckles fight @ 7:55)).

There are less deeply saturated colors used, but it's not like Sonic and co feel like they are sticking out like a sore thumb.

Quick edit: I just rewatched some Frontiers gameplay footage from the trailers to make sure I'm not memorizing poorly and on the sunny shots Sonic doesn't stick out that badly. in the rainy shots, it becomes worse though and he almost starts to glow.

[FlameStream]

I think it works and prefer that more down-to-earth approach. But at the same time, I never associated Sonic's world to vibrant colours and extravagant geography. It's become divisive enough that it's a matter of opinion now.

[ZinogreVolt]

Looks like the original picture really was in the incorrect color format. The colors in this version seem much closer to what the actual game is like.

 

 

[SSF1991]

On 8/2/2022 at 9:05 AM, Jake_LeOFFICIAL said:

Well, the entirety of the combat, for one. Nothing looks engaging, and the fact they seem to be doing everything they can to make it optional doesn't spark much hope. Why even have combat if there's no real point?

Because that's how open-world games work.

Even though Sonic Team really wants us to call this "open-zone" for some reason, the way you progress in Sonic Frontiers is exactly like one of the key aspects to many open-world games. Open-world games are typically non-linear with story progression.

If the player doesn't want to engage in combat, they don't have to. If the player doesn't want to do any Cyberspace levels, they don't have to. If the player doesn't want to do any mini-games or side quests, they don't have to. If you'd rather buy the necessary items from shops, you can do that. You can even change things up if you want. If you want to engage in combat more after you got a Chaos Emerald or 2 from trying out the Cyberspace levels, you can. And vice versa. No single option is required. As long as you get the Chaos Emeralds, the game will not care how you did so.

The point to combat is the same reason that the Cyberspace levels are there. And the mini-games. And the side-quests. And the shops. And the many different collectibles. And, possibly, the many different sliders too. It's to give the player options. An open-zone/world game wouldn't feel so open if things were too linear and the player didn't really have much to do.

[The Famous Sonic]

I've just went through all the old Sonic Forces trailers on the Sonic YouTube channel and we didn't get a release date for the game until nearly the end of September 2017 which was the story trailer. So that means we should be seeing Cyberspace gameplay this month and then a story trailer and a release date next month. 

[DaBigJ]

But we've already seen Cyberspace gameplay

In the Frontiers Nintendo Direct Trailer

[Duelistic Nature]

How much cyberspace did we really see though? Maybe... 6 seconds of it? 

Nintendo direct mini partner showcase 0:49 - 0:56

[DaBigJ]

oh he meant extended gameplay 

my bad

[Graystripe2000]

4 hours ago, The Famous Sonic said:

I've just went through all the old Sonic Forces trailers on the Sonic YouTube channel and we didn't get a release date for the game until nearly the end of September 2017 which was the story trailer. So that means we should be seeing Cyberspace gameplay this month and then a story trailer and a release date next month. 

Actually, the release date for Forces was revealed in August. 
https://www.noobfeed.com/news/4758/sonic-forces-bonus-edition-and-release-date-revealed

[DaBigJ]

"More soon", eh? 

[Jango]

More cool renders or more Frontiers in general?

[The Famous Sonic]

14 hours ago, Graystripe2000 said:

Actually, the release date for Forces was revealed in August. 
https://www.noobfeed.com/news/4758/sonic-forces-bonus-edition-and-release-date-revealed

That means we should be getting a Frontiers release date this month. If we don't then that means something has gone wrong. 

[Badnik Mechanic]

Cross posting from the spoiler topic because I know not everyone reads there and I thought I'd posted in the only frontiers mega thread...

 

 

Hello members of The Sonic Stadium message board.

I will be going to EGX to play frontiers next month. And I intend to film the gameplay.

Just one problem. I do not have someone to hold my camera.

Whilst I could take a tripod with me. These are large and heavy and... ... no.

So if anyone is going to EGX on the Thursday or Friday and has an early entry ticket. Who doesn't mind holding my camera whilst I play frontiers for a bit. Please let me know so we can arrange something.

[The Famous Sonic]

2 hours ago, Badnik Mechanic said:

Cross posting from the spoiler topic because I know not everyone reads there and I thought I'd posted in the only frontiers mega thread...

Hello members of The Sonic Stadium message board.

I will be going to EGX to play frontiers next month. And I intend to film the gameplay.

Just one problem. I do not have someone to hold my camera.

Whilst I could take a tripod with me. These are large and heavy and... ... no.

So if anyone is going to EGX on the Thursday or Friday and has an early entry ticket. Who doesn't mind holding my camera whilst I play frontiers for a bit. Please let me know so we can arrange something.

Hopefully they won't hire bouncers like at Summer Game Fest. 

[Cosmos Rogue]

Quote

Yes, this is real Sonic Frontiers art.

It's so good that they had to clarify that they made it themselves.

[DaBigJ]

7 hours ago, The Famous Sonic said:

That means we should be getting a Frontiers release date this month. If we don't then that means something has gone wrong. 

Or

Y'know

Different games have different marketing cycles?

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

56 minutes ago, Cosmos Rogue said:

It's so good that they had to clarify that they made it themselves.

That might say more about the fanbase, than it does for them.

[PSI Wind]

6 hours ago, The Famous Sonic said:

Hopefully they won't hire bouncers like at Summer Game Fest. 

This is the first public demo iirc. They won't 

[Duelistic Nature]

I just came to a bit of a funny realization that Open Zone looks and sounds a lot like Super Mario 64's/ Super Mario Sunshine's way of going about a large hub. Just instead of a castle it's more an opened up island to give more running freedom.

The paintings being the cyberspace portals since you can do a lot of challenges in them. Like the numbered stars each going about the level slightly differently.

I think that's maybe a bit of a better comparison rather than Breath of the Wild or some other openworld game. Sure the scope of the island might look similar, but I don't know. We'll just have to wait and see for more reveal trailers.

[Cosmos Rogue]

Sega/Sonic Team's inability to clearly communicate what "open zone" means is in my mind probably the biggest failure of Frontiers' marketing so far. The use of the word "open" has resulted in people making a lot of assumptions about the game being open world, and the media has propagated those ideas by continuing to refer to Frontiers as an open world title even as Iizuka and Kishimoto insist otherwise. Players have expectations for what an open world game should be like. Even if Frontiers turns out to be a good game on its own merits, if it doesn't meet those expectations then there is a real risk of a negative response from players simply because it's not what they expected and wanted the game to be.

(Alternatively, the media continue to refer to the game as open world because they have actually played it, it meets their expectations of what an open world game is, and "open zone" is just a bullshit buzz term the marketing team came up with.)

All that said, Sega and Sonic Team have placed the open zone front and center in their marketing, so I think it's going to be a more substantial part of the game than an oversized hub world.

[Kuzu]

4 hours ago, Cosmos Rogue said:

(Alternatively, the media continue to refer to the game as open world because they have actually played it, it meets their expectations of what an open world game is, and "open zone" is just a bullshit buzz term the marketing team came up with.)

This is probably the more reasonably assumption based on what we've seen about the game so far. Everything we've seen is tick for tack common in other mainstream open world games, but obviously they're not going to just say "yea we deliberately copied what's popular" so they have to sell it as being something else entirely. There's a reason so many people are making superficial comparisons to Breath of the Wild.

If Sega or Iizuka really want to sell this game as being different, then they should perhaps focus on the things that set it apart from other open-world games.

[Cosmos Rogue]

@Kuzu I mean, yeah, the boring answer is probably correct, but I'm thinking back to that last(?) interview with Iizuka that we got. When he was asked what Sonic Team learned from other open world games all he would say is that Frontiers isn't an open world game. Not "Frontiers isn't an open world game, but we did learn blah blah blah which was helpful with developing the open zone". It was an unusually terse response from him in that interview.

[SanPolo4389]

Seems we're getting more news on Frontiers at gamescom.

[DaBigJ]

I don't really expect anything that we haven't already seen, but I'd like to be surprised