Sonic Team Leader Discusses Open-Zone Gameplay, Tone, Inspiration of Sonic Frontiers

gamerant.com:

After months of teasing from Sega, the company is finally giving fans a look at the next upcoming title in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, Sonic Frontiers. It has been billed as the series' take on an open-world setting and gameplay, similar to other franchises that have made the leap in genre, such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The team behind Sonic Frontiers is dedicating an entire month to showing off chunks of the game, which feature a variety of gameplay elements, including its combat, exploration, puzzle-solving, and more.

The first look at the game was shown through a sneak peek trailer for Sonic Frontiers, which showed off some of the aforementioned elements. More trailers and gameplay previews have been gradually shown throughout June via IGN First, with each video focusing on a different aspect. Sega's own Sonic Central event even showed off a clip of a boss battle in Sonic Frontiers, along with confirmation that an animated short will take place before the events of the game.

Sonic Frontiers Shows Boss Battle, Confirms Animated Short

A recent interview from IGN with Sonic Team's Creative Officer, Takashi Iizuka, reveals even more details about how Sonic Frontiers' open-zone gameplay came to be. According to Iizuka, he and the team realized after the completion of Sonic Forces, that there was «little room for evolution» in regard to a traditional 3D Sonic game. This inspired them to change up the linear style of gameplay fans have gotten used to. As a result, he notes that Sonic Frontiers gives more freedom for fans to explore in a 3D Sonic game, with action as its main focus when approaching this open-world design.

Iizuka states that this game will allow the player to enjoy a mix of open-world and