Takashi Iizuka talks more details about Sonic Frontiers in interview with IGN
As the month long IGN First event takes place, more announcements and details related to Sonic’s next main game, Sonic Frontiers, have been announced.
This time, an interview was made with Sonic Studio Creative Officer, Takashi Iizuka. The Sonic series veteran has relayed some features of the “open zone” game and what gamers can expect from it.
Sonic Frontiers, and the inspiration for it
After working on Sonic Forces, Iizuka felt that the team was somewhat restricted by the linearity Sonic games usually present, and wanted this time to do something that gave the player more freedom.
Iizuka stated that there was “little room for evolution on a traditional 3D Sonic game”, and felt that the team would only be able to make games that players have already seen before.
When talking about the story for the upcoming game, Iizuka said that they usually are about “something bad has happened, fix it!”, but this time, the game is about a mystery that Sonic and the player will solve together.
The soundtrack for Frontiers has less focus on upbeat tracks that match a given stage. It’s focused on creating a mysterious feeling surrounding the islands.
While Frontiers will be focused on an open zone adventure, Iizuka has reassured fans of traditional linear 3D Sonic games that the new game will have content made for these players as well.
Balancing open-zone and traditional levels
When asked about having open-zone and traditional levels on the same game, Iizuka had the following to say:
Fans of traditional modern Sonic 3D action should enjoy these. They’ll be able to use the techniques and actions they’ve learned to beat them. By merging these open zones and traditional 3D action stages into the same islands, players will be able to enjoy a broad variety of 3D action than before.
Sonic Adventure series and connections to Sonic Frontiers
Iizuka commented that Frontiers had some resemblance to Sonic Adventure, in the way how Adventure had smaller open spaces known as Adventure Fields. The team has used what they learned with those areas in the first Adventure title, and applied it to some level in Sonic Frontiers.
While Iizuka made clear that while he doesn’t know what the next game will be about, he expressed a desire to return to return to the Sonic Adventure series.
The Creative Officer expressed that it would be “nice”, if the team uses what they learned on Frontiers for a new Sonic Adventure installment.
Sonic Frontiers is expected to be released Holiday 2022 for current and next-generation PlayStation and Xbox platforms, Nintendo Switch, and on PC via Epic Games Store and Steam.
