Sonic Frontiers Leaks & Spoilers Thread - PLEASE READ OP

[Razule]

Just now, Iko said:

 

This means very little, since most of what the rumor said (about Frontiers and Origins) has been revealed already... but at least, with the movie skins being fake, we can safely say that the boom skins rumor from some days ago can also go into the trash. The suspect was there already, but now it's more or less confirmed.

Guy announced it was all BS yesterday.

[ZinogreVolt]

 

Easter Eggs in some Cyberspace levels and rare events in the open zone (maybe like the shooting stars in Breath of the Wild?). Curious about the nature of both of these things.

 

[Cosmos Rogue]

The observant Sonic fan may notice a familiar checkerboard pattern in some of the cyberspace levels.

[McGroose]

Does reusing level design count as an easter egg

[PSI Wind]

If I had to guess, there's no demo because of the fiasco we've had with previous demos regarding leaks.

[Sega DogTagz]

I don't think you can call it an Easter Egg if your tripping over them every time you take a step. One or two sequences a level would have been more than enough to get the desired "Ah-Ha" effect. We've been already doing it with 1/2 a second of footage.

 

Then again, this is Sonic Team, so going overboard with Eggs is kinda on brand.

[Celestia]

7 hours ago, PSI Wind said:

If I had to guess, there's no demo because of the fiasco we've had with previous demos regarding leaks.

Yeah, the Gamecom exploit/glitch/whatever was great for us information starved people but they probably weren't happy about it one bit, lol.

I 100% agree with the points made in favour of a demo, it just doesn't seem likely given how development seems to be going (we've already heard they're working long nights, and I imagine focus is on polishing stuff at this point) and how the game is structured. Add on "we've already seen a demo of this game result in fans seeing more than what we intended" on top of that and it makes sense that even if there were plans to have a downloadable demo (I doubt it) they'd immediately get thrown out.

[A super No.1 washedupgamer]

1 hour ago, Celestia said:

Yeah, the Gamecom exploit/glitch/whatever was great for us information starved people but they probably weren't happy about it one bit, lol.

I 100% agree with the points made in favour of a demo, it just doesn't seem likely given how development seems to be going (we've already heard they're working long nights, and I imagine focus is on polishing stuff at this point) and how the game is structured. Add on "we've already seen a demo of this game result in fans seeing more than what we intended" on top of that and it makes sense that even if there were plans to have a downloadable demo (I doubt it) they'd immediately get thrown out.

Then there's the risk of someone data mining the entire game and leaking it online. They might've took that into consideration as well.

[Ratcicle King]

4 hours ago, A super No.1 washedupgamer said:

Then there's the risk of someone data mining the entire game and leaking it online. They might've took that into consideration as well.

Especially since they REALLY are selling this game on the mystery and plot, so they can't risk things getting spoiled too early. 

[PSI Wind]

Yeah thats what I meant. Remember when the Generations demo leaked the entire game basically?

[Zoomzeta]

3 hours ago, PSI Wind said:

Yeah thats what I meant. Remember when the Generations demo leaked the entire game basically?

Question. Is it too difficult to just remove most of a game's content and only leave the part used for demos? 

[Jango]

4 hours ago, PSI Wind said:

Yeah thats what I meant. Remember when the Generations demo leaked the entire game basically?

I will never forget this day.

[Blue Blood]

15 hours ago, Zoomzeta said:

Question. Is it too difficult to just remove most of a game's content and only leave the part used for demos? 

SEGA left basically everything in the Generations demo, including even basic things like loading screens/title cards for every level. It would be very easy to delete or blank-out assets like those.

But they also left in obscure text strings that mentioned levels, missions and other details. Getting rid of every text string that references parts of the game absent from the demo is very difficult and time consuming to do. Even Sonic Origins has text strings relating to a still-unannounced feature in Frontiers.

And that's on top of that's, there'sthe fact that demos are themselves not that easy to make because they require entirely separate builds. It's a lot of additional manpower and resources for a free product that doesn't effectively translate to actual sales. Back in the hey day off the 360 and PS3, demos were everywhere. But companies have since realised that they're just not worth it in most cases.

Demos shown at events and to the press might be several months older even though more up to date trailers and screenshots have been released online. With demos at events, it's very easy for SEGA to control what people have access too. It doesn't matter how unstable the game is or what data is included because people will only be able to play the game for a limited time and won't be able to datamine it. One old build can be used for a long time if it represents a build thats somewhat indicative of the final game. But if either the public or private Gamescom demo got into the hands of people outside the event, ensuring would be free for the picking. 

[Zoomzeta]

11 hours ago, Blue Blood said:

SEGA left basically everything in the Generations demo, including even basic things like loading screens/title cards for every level. It would be very easy to delete or blank-out assets like those.

But they also left in obscure text strings that mentioned levels, missions and other details. Getting rid of every text string that references parts of the game absent from the demo is very difficult and time consuming to do. Even Sonic Origins has text strings relating to a still-unannounced feature in Frontiers.

And that's on top of that's, there'sthe fact that demos are themselves not that easy to make because they require entirely separate builds. It's a lot of additional manpower and resources for a free product that doesn't effectively translate to actual sales. Back in the hey day off the 360 and PS3, demos were everywhere. But companies have since realised that they're just not worth it in most cases.

Demos shown at events and to the press might be several months older even though more up to date trailers and screenshots have been released online. With demos at events, it's very easy for SEGA to control what people have access too. It doesn't matter how unstable the game is or what data is included because people will only be able to play the game for a limited time and won't be able to datamine it. One old build can be used for a long time if it represents a build thats somewhat indicative of the final game. But if either the public or private Gamescom demo got into the hands of people outside the event, ensuring would be free for the picking. 

All right. I see now. 

[Scritch the Cat]

Is there any evidence of other playable characters yet?

[Cosmos Rogue]

1 minute ago, Scritch the Cat said:

Is there any evidence of other playable characters yet?

No, and this Eurogamer article/interview with Iizuka suggests there won't be.

Quote

A quick note on characters: Will Shadow be in the game? "No." Will we always play as Sonic? "Yes, you will play as Sonic."

 

[MGA_Gamer]

19 minutes ago, Cosmos Rogue said:

No, and this Eurogamer article/interview with Iizuka suggests there won't be.

That doesn't necessarily de-confirm that other characters will be playable. That being said, I think its almost certain that it will be Sonic-only this time (At least until we get post-release DLC).

[Zaysho]

On 9/2/2022 at 5:20 PM, Cosmos Rogue said:

No, and this Eurogamer article/interview with Iizuka suggests there won't be.

I'm honestly more surprised by the hard "No" about Shadow appearing than I am about if other characters will be playable lol

I wouldn't be too surprised if a potential DLC campaign adds another character (be it Shadow, or Tails/Knuckles/Amy) but I don't really expect it at this point.

[McGroose]

Considering that we know that Big the Cat of all characters is in the game, it really makes me wonder how extensive the plot of saving the characters will be. Wasn't it confirmed by someone getting rather far into the demo that Tails, Amy, and Knuckles are rescued on the first island? Are more characters going to be rescued on other islands? It seems strange if Shadow would not be included in the game, if that's not the case. You might not have to rescue him, but if a bunch of other characters are going to be in the game, then not including Shadow is really questionable considering his popularity.

Games like Sonic Unleashed not having Shadow were understandable since they only had Sonic, Tails, Amy and characters exclusive to that game. But imagine if a game like Generations didn't have Shadow, that would be really odd.

This is all going on the assumption that you save a bunch of characters and not just the three previously mentioned ones. If saving the cast is something exclusive to the early game, then that makes some sense not to have Shadow involved. 

[Diogenes]

26 minutes ago, McGroose said:

Wasn't it confirmed by someone getting rather far into the demo that Tails, Amy, and Knuckles are rescued on the first island?

For a certain definition of "rescued". Amy's still all hologram-y after being freed from that pod, and IIRC there's a screenshot of her still in that state on the second island. Presumably you'll spend most of the game working to get them fully disentangled from cyberspace.

[light-gaia]

5 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

For a certain definition of "rescued". Amy's still all hologram-y after being freed from that pod, and IIRC there's a screenshot of her still in that state on the second island. Presumably you'll spend most of the game working to get them fully disentangled from cyberspace.

The screenshot is from the first Island

[Diogenes]

Ah, my bad, the color threw me off.

I still expect you won't fully free them until at least late into the game, though.

[Ratcicle King]

Given their memories are collectibles, I doubt all of a character's memories are spread through only the island they're being kept on, as such you're probably expected to have an X number of memories to unlock endgame, either as a requirement for it to unlock (tying their complete rescue with whatever happens at the end), or endgame begins once you save all your friends by reaching the minimum necessary to fully save them.

 

That said I kinda hope they interact with Sonic through cyberspace, so that the dialogue we hear while Sonic travels through the islands isn't just him talking to himself.

[KingMario05]

7 hours ago, Diogenes said:

For a certain definition of "rescued". Amy's still all hologram-y after being freed from that pod, and IIRC there's a screenshot of her still in that state on the second island. Presumably you'll spend most of the game working to get them fully disentangled from cyberspace.

...meaning they'll never be playable, unless Sega decides to "gift" us with paid DLC. God damn it, NOT AGAIN! Yes, I know, I'm an idiot for holding out hope... but come on. It's been SIXTEEN FUCKING YEARS since 06, and 8 since Boom RoL. I think the stench has worn off by now...

[DaBigJ]

The sooner you accept that other playable characters aren't a big focus for SEGA, the sooner you'll be numb to it. 

It's not even really that big of a deal, to be honest...is it disappointing? Yeah, but it's not really worth getting mad about.