Takashi Iizuka Reveals Hopes of Using Sonic Frontiers Work Towards Future Sonic Adventure Sequel

[TSS Classic Comment Bot]

Posted By: Brock

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.

[Scritch the Cat]

To repeat what I've said in the main Frontiers thread, this feels backwards.  Sonic Team should have tried to make another game that is fully 3D but smaller scale, like the Adventure series, before they tried to make a 3D game that has an enormous "open zone".  It's been an open question whether Hedgehog Engine 2 can easily run something that isn't structured like a Boost game, and if they insisted on keeping that engine when deciding to make nonlinear games, verifying it even works on smaller nonlinear games should have been self-evident as the first step.  If I hadn't seen footage of Sonic Frontiers yet, I'd probably salute Iizuka for wanting to make Sonic games less linear again, but as I have seen it, it's obvious to me that the reason Iizuka chose this sort of game to do first is because he wants to mooch off the success of Breath of the Wild, and it's pretty obvious Hedgehog Engine 2 can't run that type of game without pop-in and slowdown.  It doesn't help that they're trying to do photorealism at the same time.

Not for the first time, it feels like this company just chooses to lunge for shiny opportunities on the spur of a moment, without thinking of the bigger picture or how it'll affect them in the long run.

[TSS Classic Comment Bot]

Posted By: Metal

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.

[light-gaia]

55 minutes ago, Zoomzeta said:

Isn't it a bit premature to say that? He's not outright confirming that they are working on an Adventure 3. Just that he hopes that Frontiers could be the foundation for such a title to be made. 

I'm already seeing people getting hyped for the next Sonic game thinking it'll be Adventure 3 and getting upset at Iizuka if it does not happen.

[Badnik Mechanic]

2 hours ago, light-gaia said:

Nope, Sega decided to make Sonic Heroes because they weren't confident enough that Sonic Adventure 3 would have mainstream appeal 

Shadow the Hedgehog was never meant to be Sonic Adventure 3 either.

That's not quite true.

Heroes did have the SA3 title. Iizuka himself confirmed it to 1up.com many many years ago. It was only changed due to... more or less what you said. But according to Mr I. It did indeed have that title.

Shadow was literally announced as Sonic Adventure 3. You can even find traces of it online to this day.

 

Even TSS originally had the announcement article as "Sonic Adventure 3: Shadow of a Hedgehog - the n00bs wanted it! Now we've got it!" 

[phobs]

Outside of the massive bombshell that was dropped on us today, here are my thoughts on the interview: I think it was really-really good. Both IGN journalist's video and Iizuka s narration provide a lot of context to previous gameplay videos. Now after watching the interview, I better understand where the team was coming from and why certain decisions were made. Super curious about the final implementation (in Frontiers not Adventure 3 lol), hopefully we will actually get public demo sometime.

[KHCast]

46 minutes ago, Zadent said:

So I don’t think missing momentum based physics and it being like Frontiers with the Boost is “missing the whole point of what people want out of an Adventure game.”

I mean from a gameplay perspective, yes it would most definitely be missing the whole point of what most people think when they think sonic adventure gameplay. If it’s just gonna be boost, solo sonic, with absolutely no momentum focused gameplay, I don’t see what’s unfair about finding that a problem slapping the sonic adventure title on that when it ultimately is probably be more comparable to boost sonic games more than SA outside possibly story 

[Jay_Senju]

God I already see clickbait sa3 thumbnails on YouTube lol.

[Zadent]

8 minutes ago, KHCast said:

I mean from a gameplay perspective, yes it would most definitely be missing the whole point of what most people think when they think sonic adventure gameplay. If it’s just gonna be boost, solo sonic, with absolutely no momentum focused gameplay, I don’t see what’s unfair about finding that a problem slapping the sonic adventure title on that when it ultimately is probably be more comparable to boost sonic games more than SA outside possibly story 

Perhaps, at least to you and others. But that’s what I mean. Not everyone talks about gameplay, specifically momentum, when talking about Sonic Adventure and going back to that style, from the discussions I’ve seen. It’s always about the characters, the stories, and the varied styles. Heck, that’s a good chunk of why Sonic 06 is given the title SA3 by groups of people.

Adventure is a wide net. SA1 and 2 have wide differences in areas. And as such, sweeping claims like “missing the whole point of people wanting Adventure back”, imo, aren’t the best claims to make.

[BubbleButt TV]

2 hours ago, BubbleButt TV said:

I am not looking forward to all the "SONIC ADVENTURE 3 CONFIRMED??? " click-baity videos sonictubers are going to put out

i am going to go crazy that is not even remotely what Iizuka said or meant ... 

[The Deleter]

18 minutes ago, KHCast said:

I mean from a gameplay perspective, yes it would most definitely be missing the whole point of what most people think when they think sonic adventure gameplay. If it’s just gonna be boost, solo sonic, with absolutely no momentum focused gameplay, I don’t see what’s unfair about finding that a problem slapping the sonic adventure title on that when it ultimately is probably be more comparable to boost sonic games more than SA outside possibly story 

I don't think rolling is as centric to the Sonic Adventure experience as the fanbase wants to believe. They definitely want it to be, it's the closest thing they have to working rolling physics, but... replace it with a vulnerable boost that accelerates down hills, and I don't think anyone but those hung up on rolling will notice.

 

edit:

O h

 

[Zoomzeta]

40 minutes ago, light-gaia said:

I'm already seeing people getting hyped for the next Sonic game thinking it'll be Adventure 3 and getting upset at Iizuka if it does not happen.

Inevitable sadly

[DaBigJ]

9 minutes ago, BubbleButt TV said:

i am going to go crazy that is not even remotely what Iizuka said or meant ... 

>premydaremy

Immediately irrelevant and doesn't deserve attention. He's a blatant clickbaiter that needs to make his videos attention grabby to make up for lack of likability 

[KHCast]

Can I just say I find it fucking hilarious how SA3 actually now seems more likely to happen than the Sonic Adventure remakes that seemed to be in the works (before getting canned) going by what insiders suggest. Woulda thought they’d have tested things out with those before plunging into the big 3 lol

[DaBigJ]

So, uh, here's just a bit more context

So it wasn't just randomly brought up just because Iizuka wanted to...it was just because he was asked.

[KHCast]

Oh now see that makes a lot more sense. So pretty much business as usual then is my guess, it wasn’t even  a intended carrot on a stick thing like I had assumed at first lol. He literally was just responding to a question, and probably wouldn’t have brought it up had he not been asked 

[PaddyFancy]

2 hours ago, Zadent said:

Adventure is a wide net. SA1 and 2 have wide differences in areas. And as such, sweeping claims like “missing the whole point of people wanting Adventure back”, imo, aren’t the best claims to make.

There you go. The first two games are different from each other in certain areas. Biggest difference to me is the lack of open world "Adventure Field" in SA2. Goes from stage to stage. Some people like it, some people don't.

Naming a game Sonic Adventure 3 would have worked if it was the very next game after Adventure 2. Twentysomething years later, after games like 06 and Unleashed that had open worlds, having a name like that feels a bit...arbitrary? Clickbaity? Try to fool all those people that its the real Sonic Adventure 3 when its just another 3D Sonic game like Adventure 2, Heroes, Unleashed or Lost World. Its just a name. Sonic Frontiers might as well be called Sonic Adventure 10.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

1 hour ago, Jake_LeOFFICIAL said:

So, uh, here's just a bit more context

So it wasn't just randomly brought up just because Iizuka wanted to...it was just because he was asked.

So, the fanbase who got angry at Iizuka, were once again, jumping the gun. No surprise there.

[DaBigJ]

5 minutes ago, Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon said:

So, the fanbase who got angry at Iizuka, were once again, jumping the gun. Bo surprise there.

I don't recall anyone else beyond people on here getting upset, nor did I see anyone (but me I guess) jump the gun but...okay.

[Shiny Gems]

5 minutes ago, Jake_LeOFFICIAL said:

I don't recall anyone else beyond people on here getting upset, nor did I see anyone (but me I guess) jump the gun but...okay.

Well, I certainly did not jump the gun. I personally am not that interested in Sonic Adventure 3 happening anytime soon.

Still, Sonic Adventure 3 does seem like serious business.

[light-gaia]

I think Sonic Adventure 3 or Sonic Adventure remakes are inevitable. The demand is too high to be ignored. It's probably going to be even higher after the next Sonic movie, with Shadow playing a major role. The chance of the next mainline Sonic games trying to appeal to Adventure fans is totally plausible.

Edited June 10, 2022 by light-gaia
Grammar checking

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I once said they’d never make a Sonic 4–you can imagine the shock a few years down the line when they did just that.

I’ve learned not to put everything off the table these days, but I had a feeling Frontiers was a test-bed for something more, so I wouldn’t be surprised if an official SA3 is finally made after so long. Frontiers looks like the perfect test-bed for them to try it out.

[VO.SUPER]

1 hour ago, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

I once said they’d never make a Sonic 4–you can imagine the shock a few years down the line when they did just that.

I’ve learned not to put everything off the table these days, but I had a feeling Frontiers was a test-bed for something more, so I wouldn’t be surprised if an official SA3 is finally made after so long. Frontiers looks like the perfect test-bed for them to try it out.

I mean. If we're being technical, they never made "Sonic 4" until Mania, seeing as "Sonic 4" was "Sonic the Portable" for a good deal of its development. 

[batson]

What the hell would "Sonic Adventure 3" even mean anyway? Especially if it's fundamentally built on Frontiers, which is an entirely different beast from the first two Adventure games. For real, what would mark Sonic Adventure 3 as Sonic Adventure 3 other than the name?

The only thing I can think of that I think realistically would be a given if they chose to slap that name of a new Sonic game would be that it would contain more playable characters than merely Sonic himself. I have to imagine that even Sonic Team would have enough common sense to realize that you can't try to appeal to Adventure nostalgia and still make the game solo Sonic...

But yeah, other than that I don't think Sonic Adventure 3 means anything. Again, this is especially true if it uses Frontiers as a base.

[TSS Classic Comment Bot]

Posted By: Shard the Angel

Sonic Adventure 3 confirmed for the 35th Anniversary