The open zone approach sounds like it attempts to combine the best of both segmented levels and an open world, possibly for the best.Īs an aside, a Youtuber I enjoy watching, Bickuribox12, has been uploading a couple of videos on Frontiers opinions and speculation and he's also optimistic about the game, though he's tempering his expectations, such that he'd be happy with a 7/10 (which I think I also would be happy with, though this looks a bit better than that to me).Ĭheck him out, he's pretty funny and chill, and does really solid Sonic (and Realm of the Mad God) videos. Not every game has to be definitively and strictly "open world" to "feel good" - it's just one method of designing a game, with upsides and downsides. While some people may think that "open world Sonic" would be the future of the series, I think it's fine to try different things when it comes to game design. I'm in the same boat - looking forward to playing it and it's cool to hear that the developers have such high confidence in their product. Iizuka wants you to look forward to the long awaited masterpiece by Sonic Team: Sonic Frontiers. A few other bits here and there like Kishimoto thinking about how to add his own hidden meanings and Japanese/Asian flavour to the Japanese script. That's about the broad strokes from what I can see. Kishimoto implies that Iizuka fought with an increasingly frustrated upper management to ensure they had the time to pursue this approach. It meant the game took some time to take shape, but he wasn't worried because as things developed, they received more and more positive feedback. Iizuka once again states his confidence due to the extensive public play testing, carried out every few months from the start of the project. Adjusting each part and making sure there are plenty of surprises for the player to discover. From there was the issue of trying to balance the platform elements with the combat, figuring out how to prevent fighting enemies from becoming too monotonous. Originally the game was going to be fully open world, but this was received quite poorly in early testing, so that was a big part of the trial and error iteration the project went through, leading to the 'Open Zone' idea. No tweaks or progression will change the 'Sonic' feel there. He did not however want to compromise on the Cyberspace controls. The divide between 'Sonic' game players and regular action game players was one that he felt he couldn't completely satisfy in the end, leading to the alternate control modes (and the more precise sliders). The control sliders were brought up, and Kishimoto admitted he was concerned about how to go about it. The degree of freedom in the game kept expanding over time that according to them, you don't even need to play Cyberspace levels to progress. Being able to play at your own pace and exchange information is a key point in reaching this demographic in their opinion. Their freedom of approach with regards to progression reflects this. Kishimoto wants this to be the 3rd evolution of Sonic, and a big part of that is recapturing the Japanese/Asian audience. Some points reiterated from other interviews. Also sorry if it's wordy or doesn't make sense as I'm a bit tired today. I'll write a summary but don't take every word at complete face value. Here's a much more substantial interview from 4Gamer, featuring both Kishimoto and Iizuka.
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