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How Sonic Frontiers Brings Sonic Into An Open World – Developer Interview | Summer Game Fest 2022



We sat down with Takashi Iizuka, Creative Officer at Sonic Team, to discuss the Sonic Frontiers demo, the new direction for the franchise, its open world inspirations and, most importantly, find out exactly how fast Sonic can go.

In this Summer…

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37 Comments

  1. Automation is a huge issue for this game so far, for all Iizuka talks about giving player choice on how they traverse the world, the controls get yanked from you and it becomes a quick time event.

    If you want to give the player choice on how to traverse the world, then the design of the world needs to embrace player control to fulfill that need.
    Such as building up speed using the world around you, or using the boost of speed from a homing attack to reach another rail.
    What is the point of having a boost button when the automation sections traverse you at that speed anyways, it just degrades it of any purpose besides from running around in this giant world.
    Same goes for bosses? Why can't we make the use of Sonic's physics to climb up the titans rather than use automation?
    And when have we seen a structure that requires actual platforming in this game?

    I feel SEGA is using automation as a crutch to make the game look fast and fluid. Which is a real shame since fan games like Sonic Utopia never needed automation to be fun.

  2. GameSpot saved this game and gave me a reason to look forward to this game and be hyped. IGN did a terrible job and the build they’re showing off must be an early version cause IGN and GameSpot footage is night and day

  3. a thing i am sure tho … this game would be so good with spindash and super peel out with the boost (like the IDW comics)
    would make his movement way cooler
    But aside that, i'd Say all this gameplay and izuka work gives too much confidence

  4. The fact that it sounds like there are multiple ways to get the items you need means it is going to be very fun to route speedruns in this game

  5. Sonic storytelling, at least in the 2000s was not really comedic, but it shouldn’t be super dark, I think Adventure 2 and Unleashed struck a perfect balance, where the focus are the characters and how the bounce off each other, Sonic Heroes is a great example of this, where the plot is basically a bunch of friends going on an adventure, heck even the second movie is a good example. What I’m saying is the point shouldn’t be about telling jokes (even though there is definitely room for them) but the characters.

  6. Sonic storytelling, at least in the 2000s was not really comedic, but it shouldn’t be super dark, I think Adventure 2 and Unleashed struck a perfect balance, where the focus are the characters and how the bounce off each other, Sonic Heroes is a great example of this, where the plot is basically a bunch of friends going on an adventure, heck even the second movie is a good example. What I’m saying is the point shouldn’t be about telling jokes (even though there is definitely room for them) but the characters.

  7. This demo footage looks amazing, why wasn't this shown first. It's fast fluid and manages to show off the beauty of the island without slowing down and looking around

  8. The gameplay here is much better than what IGN showed off.From this gameplay It looks like Sega is actually putting the effort and the budget Sonic deserves into this game. Also I noticed something I hope stays true in the final version, and that is that they finally removed the lock-on reticle for the homing attack. I have always hated that they added that thing since Unleashed.

  9. Sonic storytelling, at least in the 2000s was not really comedic, but it shouldn’t be super dark, I think Adventure 2 and Unleashed struck a perfect balance, where the focus are the characters and how the bounce off each other, Sonic Heroes is a great example of this, where the plot is basically a bunch of friends going on an adventure, heck even the second movie is a good example. What I’m saying is the point shouldn’t be about telling jokes (even though there is definitely room for them) but the characters.

  10. Sonic storytelling, at least in the 2000s was not really comedic, but it shouldn’t be super dark, I think Adventure 2 and Unleashed struck a perfect balance, where the focus are the characters and how the bounce off each other, Sonic Heroes is a great example of this, where the plot is basically a bunch of friends going on an adventure, heck even the second movie is a good example. What I’m saying is the point shouldn’t be about telling jokes (even though there is definitely room for them) but the characters.

  11. honestly the only thing i really don’t like is the real world environment, if it was all cartoony and saturated like the classic games but still open world it would look phenomenal

  12. Married to IGN, but seeing GameSpot on the side. Let's hope they don't find out about each other.

  13. Now why didn't we get a gameplay showcase with this build?! The lighting and framerate is so much better, and the gameplay just looks more fluid. I'm still really hoping momentum plays a role in traversing the environment, but based on the overall positive feedback it's been getting because some technical hiccups, I'm tepidly excited for this one.

  14. Cool interview. With Iizuka does he understand English and choose to speak Japanese? Just he speaks as soon as the interviewer asks the question.

  15. There were a couple of oddball expressions in there ("Sonic is supposed to be funny" – No, he's supposed to be cool and heroic with a little bit of snarkiness; "You never could upgrade his Attack and Defense" – you could in Sonic Unleashed) and depending on how many interviews Jordan did in the past, he might've been really nervous, but generally a fun little interview even if the focus of the questions was a bit… I don't know, generic? Only talking about the development of the game at the end and otherwise focusing on stuff that in general aren't really "burning" questions, I think.

    Also, it wouldn't have hurt to credit the translator in the end card. Maybe next time! =D

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