How Sonic Frontiers Came to Be an 'Open-Zone' Game | IGN First

ign.com:

The Sonic series is no stranger to large departures from established formulas, and Sonic Frontiers is shaping up to be one of the biggest departures the blue hedgehog has seen yet. It takes the one-of-a-kind high speed 3D action and adapts it to fit a non-linear open world, or as Sonic Team themselves refer to it: an Open Zone. To break down the origin of this decision to break new ground with the 3D Sonic series, I talked with Sonic Team Creative Officer Takashi Iizuka, who not only explained the origin of the Open Zone design, but also spoke about the decision to merge old and new styles of Sonic gameplay in Sonic Frontiers.

IGN: When did you first get the idea to make an open zone focused Sonic game? Was this something that you brainstormed as an idea before the development of Sonic Frontiers?

Iizuka-san: After completing Sonic Forces, we were brainstorming on what to do next. We realized there's little room for evolution with a traditional 3D Sonic game. We'd only be able to make something that fans have seen before. That's why at the very start, we discussed as a team how to change this linear style of gameplay.

IGN: Did you look to any other Open World games as inspiriation when it came to designing Sonic Frontiers' Open Zone gameplay?

Iizuka-san: As I just mentioned, this game began with us asking how to give more freedom to linear Sonic games. Its origin is in a different place from open-world action-adventure games. This new "open zone" game system is our way of giving as much freedom as possible to a Sonic 3D action game.

Open world games like Zelda or other AAA games fundamentally have RPG or adventure worlds. For Sonic, the core here is a 3D action game. Our basic idea was to have that take place in an open