Following the unfulfilling story of Sonic Forces in 2017, many had been involved concerning the route of future narratives. When Sonic Frontiers was first introduced, followers had been pleased to be taught that longtime Sonic the Hedgehog comics author Ian Flynn joined Sonic Crew in writing the recreation. Flynn has been a distinguished author throughout each the long-running Archie Comics and IDW Publishing runs of the Sonic the Hedgehog series, with tons of of credit to his identify. Nevertheless, becoming a member of Sonic Crew for a mainline entry is new territory.
"Ian has been working as a comic writer for a long time, so I was very familiar with his work, but after reading the IDW comics, I was even more impressed with his talent," Sonic Crew inventive officer Takashi Iizuka says. "That's why I wanted to ask him to work on the story for the game as well. He knows the characters well, so he brought a great improvement to the characters' emotions and dialogue."
Flynn's longevity with the franchise, having contributed closely to each comedian series and even writing a few episodes of the favored Sonic Increase cartoon, impressed Sega, and some years after IDW picked up the rights to the franchise, he was invited to contribute to the narrative of Sonic Frontiers. "I'm a career Sonic nerd, so I wanted to weave some of the series' legacy into the story," Flynn says. "I wanted to advance the characters' personal stories, even if just by a little bit. I also wanted to bring some interconnectivity to the previous games. There isn't anything that will be too dense for new fans to wade through, but just enough for long-term fans to appreciate."
Throughout my hands-on time with Sonic Frontiers, I witness a few of Flynn's handiwork in that regard. As you are operating by the open zone of Sonic Frontiers, Sonic will make small feedback to himself. Since Sonic Frontiers' story takes place on the newest level of the Sonic timeline because it exists presently – after the occasions of Sonic Forces and Crew Sonic Racing – all earlier titles are truthful recreation. In a single voice line, the Blue Blur wonders if Kronos Island would make location for a Chao Backyard. We all know there are not any Chao Gardens in Sonic Frontiers, however small strains like that add to the general connectivity of Frontiers to the remainder of the Sonic the Hedgehog timeline. "Those are things Ian put in for the fans," Iizuka says. "Including references to other games makes it clear that the Sonic Frontiers story isn't a standalone world, but a part of the long history of Sonic."
Whereas Sonic Forces and Generations additionally referenced a number of different Sonic video games, Frontiers appears to be like to take action with a lighter contact. Gamers should not anticipate a wide selection of character cameos or acquainted boss battles as was seen in these video games. Sure, Eggman is within the recreation, as are a small handful of Sonic's associates, however the cast of characters is trimmed down considerably from some current video games. "The story begins as Sonic, Amy, and Tails visit undeveloped Kronos Island and are separated by a mysterious phenomenon," Iizuka says. "Sonic sets out alone to find his missing friends, but this is an undeveloped land that no one has visited before, so we won't be seeing a huge cast of characters."
These acquainted faces – Eggman, Amy, Tails, and Large, to call a couple of – had been hand-selected by Sonic Crew after which handed over to Flynn to additional flesh out the characters and their arcs. Whereas not everybody's favourite characters seem in Sonic Frontiers, Flynn hints that we'd get deeper cuts talked about. "As you're running around, listen to what Sonic says to himself," he says. "You might hear some names dropped that'll surprise you."
Regardless of Sonic Crew largely calling the pictures, Flynn was nonetheless capable of have some main say within the overarching narrative. "It was during that time when Ian Flynn presented some ideas for bringing different characters into the story," director Morio Kishimoto says. "We had the development team think about how it could get integrated into the new open-zone format, which then prompted Ian Flynn to present even more new ideas to us, and through that cooperative back and forth, we settled on the characters that would appear in the game."
Sonic Crew has remained largely mysterious about the way in which the narrative performs out in Frontiers. Sonic, Tails, and Amy arrive following the readings of the Chaos Emeralds, however whereas I performed for greater than three hours, I nonetheless have little thought of what is going on on with the characters, the islands, or the creatures that inhabit them. This seems to be very a lot by design. "Eggman arrives on the island just before [Sonic, Tails, and Amy], but goes missing after that," Iizuka says. "The island appears to be uninhabited, but there are mysterious lifeforms made of stone called Koco. Sonic's missing friends, the undeveloped island with ancient ruins, the strange lifeforms – all of these mysteries wait for the player to unravel them as they explore the world of Sonic Frontiers."
One character that has a very mysterious presence throughout my playthrough of the primary few hours is Eggman. Sonic's most iconic adversary seems within the first cutscene, will get absorbed into Cyber Area, and I do not see him once more till some time later in one other cutscene the place he is making an attempt to flee from the digital jail. Out within the open zone, I come upon some Eggman tech, which even confuses Sonic. I do not know what function the mischievous mustachioed man performs in Sonic Frontiers, however Sonic Crew guarantees it is a distinguished one.
"Featuring Eggman in the story was something we decided on from the early stages of things," Kishimoto says. "We wanted Eggman to be an extremely important key figure in this story for it to be successful; we didn't want him to just be the bad guy in our 'good guys versus bad guys' scenario. We wanted to portray him as a flesh and blood human being in the story."
Whereas Flynn is well-versed within the comic-writing course of, Sega has a much bigger hand in creating the story of Sonic Frontiers than it does within the creation of the comics. In truth, when Flynn writes a Sonic the Hedgehog comedian for IDW, he handles pitching the premise, characters, setting, and plot beats himself. Then, as soon as these parts are permitted, he goes page-by-page and creates a script. That is sometimes the final he sees of the work till it arrives on retailer cabinets. For Sonic Frontiers, Flynn continues to be closely concerned, however the course of is drastically totally different.
"With Sonic Frontiers, Sega provided the plot beats, settings, and characters, so my job was mainly to fill in the details," Flynn says. "I was able to bring some ideas to the table, but this was more of a collaborative effort. As the game developed, new content and revised approaches were needed, so I was involved for much longer than a comic project."
In accordance with director Kishimoto, the storytelling of Sonic Frontiers takes a more critical tone, hoping to transcend that "good guys versus bad guys" situation he referred to that's current in most video games within the style. "We needed something dramatic to set that serious tone and foreshadow things to ponder while playing the game," he says. "On the surface, our story is something that can be easily enjoyed, but we also wanted to challenge ourselves to create a drama that would also be enjoyable if thought about at a deeper level. This is a rare type of experience in the stage-clear action game genre, but it was also important for us to integrate it in as we felt it was of critical importance to this open-zone format."
Flynn echoes Kishimoto's evaluation of the story. "I'd say it's a more somber story overall," Flynn says. "It's about self-reflection and choosing how to move forward. And Sonic, being Sonic, is a positive reinforcement and the force for change that everyone needs. I hope everyone enjoys what we've put together."
Sonic Frontiers involves PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Change, and PC later this 12 months. For more on Sonic Frontiers, you'll want to click on on the banner under to go to our unique protection hub.
