Game news Sonic Frontier: Open world, game history, puzzles… producer Takashi Iizuka confides!
While Sonic Frontier is expected for the end of the year on all platforms at the moment, the IGN site team was able to speak with Takashi Iizuka, producer of the game and historic member of the Sonic Team. The opportunity to learn more about what this new adventure of the hedgehog has in store for us, but also to understand the direction undertaken by the staff of SEGA. For the first time, Sonic will evolve in an open world and the first presentations did not reassure everyone.
Sonic freer than ever!
For eleven minutes, Takashi Iizuka, producer of Sonic Frontiers, confides in IGN on the reasons that led the team to choose an open world. For its 31st year of existence, the famous character of Naoto Oshima will embark on a brand new challenge! For a long time, the spiky hero has long been limited to two types of formulas: a retro Sonic moving through 2D environments and a more modern looking Sonic affiliated with 3D levels. For Sonic Frontier, Takashi Iizuka and his team wanted to challenge themselves to make a 3D action game with more freedom.
After completing Sonic Forces, we were thinking about what to do next. We realized that a traditional 3D Sonic game offered little room for evolution. We could only do things that fans have seen before. That’s why from the beginning we discussed within the team how to change this style of linear gameplay.
It is therefore from this basis of reflection, especially since the first adventures of Sonic in 3D were quite open, that they imagined this very vast world capable of surprising the fans of the first hour.
Not a copy of Zelda
Compared to open-world adventure games, Takashi Iizuka made a point of making a distinction:
Open-world games like Zelda and other AAAs have successful adventure or RPG universes. For Sonic, the heart is a 3D action game. The basic idea was that this action takes place in an open space. What sets Sonic Frontier apart is this different approach to the open world.
Loopings, bumpers, vertical towers, rails… Sonic Frontier promises to reuse all the clichés of the series in a boosted and much more bucolic action game than one might have imagined at the start. In this title, players will thus find a mix between open areas filled with secrets and discoveries and the more traditional action phases of Sonic 3D. Exploration will be at the heart of the experience and the developers promise many surprises during the wanderings of the players. Open world requires, it will also be a question of puzzles to unlock areas and thus progress. From its concept to its artistic direction, everything has been done so that Sonic Frontier is different and surprising, hence this more realistic universe and subject to a scenario that goes far beyond “ Something bad happened, you have to fix it! “. So far, players have only been able to experience short footage of Sonic Frontier, but there’s a good chance the game will be talked about long before release and after. It will be interesting to see how SEGA negotiates this new turn.
Sonic Frontier is expected for the end of the year on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and PC consoles.
