Sonic Frontiers’ Combat Was Inspired By the Sonic Movie

ign.com:

With its freely explorable Open Zone, Sonic Frontiers appears to be the Blue Blur’s most ambitious entry in a long time. As can be seen in our exclusive first look, there seems to be more to the battle system than previous entries – and when seeking a combat system that matches Sonic’s characteristics and gameplay, Sonic Team took inspiration from a surprising source – the first Sonic the Hedgehog movie.

“In previous titles, we never really put a high emphasis on combat," director Morio Kishimoto told IGN. "This time we implemented a more fleshed-out combat system, because we felt it was necessary to have more elements to enjoy within the Open Zone.”

“There are plenty of action games with combat out there, but for this game we put an emphasis on making these battles feel like a true Sonic experience,” Kishimoto continued.

“The first [Sonic the Hedgehog] movie really caught me by surprise. We have been focusing on how Sonic is supposed to run, jump and fight within our games, but the movie showed us an entirely new approach. They came up with a great interpretation of Sonic, which became a huge inspiration for Sonic Frontiers’ development,” said Kishimoto.

Kishimoto told IGN that it was the game’s combat system that was directly influenced by the movie in particular: “The direction we took for combat was inspired by the movie. After watching it, I came up with a vision for the game’s combat.”

Kishimoto went on to say that Sonic Frontiers also has other references to the movie, which he personally asked his staff to put in the game.

“It’s great to have a positive rivalry like that,” said Kishimoto. “Like, if the movies do one thing, we would want to counter that with our next game, and vice versa.”

It's a case of art imitating