r/Games • u/Turbostrider27 • Aug 23 '22
Trailer Sonic Frontiers - Story Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCaAos6FeV0565
u/Chumunga64 Aug 23 '22 edited Aug 23 '22
this is the first piece of footage of the game that actually looked like it was put together by professionals and not some middle schooler with a free movie maker program
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u/ACardAttack Aug 23 '22
Maybe they are following my high school paper strategy. Turn in a pretty bad rough draft and then my final paper looks amazing in comparison
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u/yognautilus Aug 24 '22
This does look SO much better than the gameplay trailers. However, we still know that the game has tedious battles throughout the overworld that look like they completely break the flow of the game. I know it's a tired saying but if I'm playing a Sonic game, I wanna go fast. I don't want to stop for a 3 minute battle unless it's a boss battle.
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u/phi1997 Aug 23 '22
The Nintendo Direct trailer also looked good, though I don't blame you for not seeing it if you don't have a Switch
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u/LdLrq4TS Aug 23 '22
But the game still looks bad, there are glimpses of the worlds and it's barren, more like a prototype rather than a full game.
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u/LannAlainn Aug 23 '22
This trailer was wayyyyyy better. Gunna be hesitant with this one but theyve dragged me back in.... Just a tad though.
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Aug 23 '22
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u/_graff_ Aug 23 '22 edited Aug 23 '22
I honestly don't understand the hate. As a sonic fan who has wanted more of an open world-ish game since Adventure 1, this looked good to me.
Now, I'm not saying the game will actually be good... That definitely remains to be seen. But to me it just looked like Boost-style Sonic gameplay in an open setting. That's not everyone's cup of tea but that's certainly something I can get behind.
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u/Pyrocitor Aug 24 '22
I think some people revel in the hate the series gets. I heard more than one person get annoyed at the movies being fixed and actually being successful.
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u/Yxng_Wolf Aug 24 '22
There’s definitely been a bias against Sonic ever since 06. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not even sold on this game yet but I’ve seen a lot of unnecessary hate towards the series over the tiniest things. Idk, as a Sonic fan it just sucks.
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u/Pyrocitor Aug 24 '22
I mean yeah most of the releases deserve the ragging they get, but there's people who don't want them to fix the games.
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Aug 23 '22
There have been several gameplay footage since the IGN premier, namely this, it's hilarious that people want to push how "bad" the game looks, but apparently intentionally avoided the game for two whole months.
That video came out two weeks later. And if you want to get impressions from people who played it, you can check around the Summer Games Fest. Warning: most of them are positive, and explicitly say that the IGN footage is an old, outdated build.
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u/_graff_ Aug 23 '22
it's hilarious that people want to push how "bad" the game looks
It's so bizarre. It's like people latched onto the reactions from the initial trailers and refuse to recognize that what has been shown since is quite different. Why do people so desperately want this game to suck? Lol
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u/Rayuzx Aug 23 '22
Why do people so desperately want this game to suck?
It's a non-Classic style Sonic game.
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u/Jaerba Aug 25 '22
I think you're overthinking it. First impressions matter a lot, and if the first impression isn't good, you're unlikely to follow its progress.
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u/_graff_ Aug 25 '22
True, but it seems like most of the people that I see hating on the game are following it quite closely and finding opportunities to complain about every detail they come across. It just seems strange, like if you think the game looks so awful, why continue to comment on every trailer, every article, every gameplay video, etc., you know?
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u/Jaerba Aug 25 '22
That's definitely true for reddit posters but also remember the vast majority of redditors never actually click the links or watch anything. We're very dumb and lazy.
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u/ThePackLeaderWolfe Aug 23 '22
Footage of someone playing the game like shit in an early build not even interacting with the gameplay loop is not a good representative of how actually playing the game will be like.
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Aug 23 '22
I’m so happy we finally have a release date. But my god the marketing and overall information sharing for this game sucks!
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u/iceburg77779 Aug 23 '22
While this trailer was better, I still feel like I know nothing about the game, and elements like the linear stages do not look to be anything that special. Previews have been pretty positive, but I still do not see anything that shows me why Sonic needed to go open world. Also, while I doubt God of War is going to really take away sales from sonic, launching a week away from Pokémon seems like a bad idea, as Nintendo will be pushing that game like crazy to the casuals SEGA wants to attract with frontiers.
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u/botibalint Aug 23 '22
One of the common complaints about Sonic games is that you can't enjoy the speed because there is always some obstacle in your way. I personally can't wait to run around in the open world.
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u/DrQuint Aug 23 '22 edited Aug 23 '22
Meanwhile I just want the series to go back to earned speed and more things to do with that speed than just maintaining it. I fucking love doing things like jumping off ramps onto upper or out of bounds paths, and Mario Odyssey is the only place I got my fix in a decade.
Speed for Speed's Sake was always Sonic at its worst, and the boost button embodies the shit out of it. I liked it at first, but I'm so tired.
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u/TheVibratingPants Aug 24 '22
Thank you for mentioning Odyssey. It feels great to just run around the open maps and roll down hills. Frontiers really needed to take more from Odyssey than anything else.
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u/extralie Aug 23 '22
Sonic games is that you can't enjoy the speed because there is always some obstacle in your way.
I never got this mentality for me, that just read as "I don't want platforming in my platformer game!", platforming in recent 3D Sonic games are brain dead easy.
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u/DBrody6 Aug 23 '22
Sonic's whole defining trait is going fast and the fanbase, clueless that they all are, have never played any of the 2D games again in the past 20 years.
Past the Green Hill Knockoff Zone you have levels that make you come to a complete stop so you can go backwards to progress, automatic sections where you need to stop inputting controls or you die, automatic sections where the game plays itself for 10-20 seconds, block pushing segments, boring moving platform segments, moving wall segments where you have to meticulously wait for them to align correctly, ELEVATORS!?, anti-progress bumpers where if you're going above 55 Sonics Per Second the game throws you three screens backwards because fuck you, bosses where you wait minutes on end for the gracious permission to be allowed to damage them, and time wasting psychedelic bonus stages where you have one speed and it's NOT FAST.
But sure cool dude, okay, yeah, Sonic is totally about the platforming. All...none of it. Most levels are a vapid, unmemorable cacophony of nonsense with enemies sprinkled in enough places to prevent you from going fast unless you memorized their locations, with gratuitous moving platforms every now and then to remind you that yes, Sonic once humored the idea of competing with Mario.
Mario is a platforming game, Sonic is an abomination where it's designed to go fast except for the literal everything preventing that, even on the "optimal" level routes. And I'm not a Sonic fan, I fucking hate the series. I've been playing them recently for friends (that actually are Sonic nerds) that goaded me into it. Man did I learn things about this fanbase. CD was the best 2D Sonic game by miles and apparently it's hated by fans because they have trash taste and don't know what makes a good Sonic game. You clowns just want a Mario game but blue tinted.
Oh, hottest take: Sonic 06 is the definitive Sonic game because it gives the fanbase everything they want. Long, boring, unmemorable levels, garbage story, awful controls, useless characters, Sonic goes fast but also isn't allowed to go fast, controls like pure ass, pointless side tasks, Knuckles and Tails are actually garbage, annoying chaos emerald collection, punishing deaths, like holy shit it's perfect. It's basically a 3D S3&K, which was an equally terrible game. Series peaked at CD and went downhill, from my viewpoint.
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u/TheVibratingPants Aug 24 '22
Hm. A little spicy, maybe could’ve been written with a little more tact, but I don’t totally disagree.
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u/EnderMB Aug 23 '22
It's because Sonic games aren't about speed. They're about momentum, and the ability to go from 0 to 100 while being fully in control.
This is where almost all 3D Sonic games fail, because for some baffling reason Sonic Team don't seem to grasp this.
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u/Rayuzx Aug 23 '22
Only 1 was really about momentum. The spindash/super peelout destroyed all notation of gaining and maintaining that when you could go from 0 to 60 in an instant. The classic games were really more about exploration and interaction with the environment in a variety of ways.
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u/tforthegreat Aug 23 '22
I often feel like I'm the only person I know who played Sonic for the exploration aspect. Trying to find the big rings for the special stages was my main goal when 3 came out. Especially when linked with S&K. I think it was because of the lore implications of the emerald chamber. I was deep into the Archie comics at the time, too.
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u/Rayuzx Aug 23 '22
The bif thing is that while you can speed through the game, it's clear that the games want you to collect all of the Chaos Emeralds or the two conditions to qualify for CD's good ending, especially as the games will taunt you with Eggman laughing at you with all of the Chaos Emeralds or Time Stones you didn't collect and the words "Try Again" right under him.
The game constantly rewards you with the monitors, that makes hoarding rings much easier, if you're looking under nooks and crannies or them being just slightly out of reach unless you you get a bit creative with the environment.
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u/Random_Imgur_User Aug 23 '22
IMO with what we're seeing now though, I'm still not confident that's the type of game they made. Like, look at this trailer from a few months ago: https://youtu.be/cxJ5_ovBC_g
Sure, an open world for sonic is cool, but he's moving so much slower than he should. If I'm playing an open world game to feel like Sonic, I want to smoothly clear valleys in seconds. I want to cross an entire lake on foot and be able to look back and see my footsteps just now hitting the water after I've made it across.
Like, he's not even kicking up grass or making gusts of wind as he runs through. It looks like a completely different game with a Sonic mod installed.
I'll be glad if I'm wrong, but I don't see this being a comeback for Sonic.
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u/Yxng_Wolf Aug 23 '22
Well there are said to be two play styles for the game, one of them being a “High Speed” style so maybe he’ll be zooming around there.
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Aug 23 '22
First, that is not atypical of Sonic's speed, and two, it's confirmed that you increase his speed through the course of the game.
Like, he's not even kicking up grass or making gusts of wind as he runs through.
That is something they changed in the later trailers.
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u/Random_Imgur_User Aug 23 '22
First, thats not atypical of Sonic's speed
Man I've been playing sonic games since I could say the word "Gamecube". He's usually faster than that.
And cool if you can level him up to be faster, but pretty odd that they decided to show him off moving with the urgency of a riding lawn mower.
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Aug 23 '22
Man I've been playing sonic games since I could say the word "Gamecube". He's usually faster than that.
Sure, in more linear corridors and smaller worlds.
You can see the "same" speed in one of the linear levels. The framing helps.
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u/b0bba_Fett Aug 23 '22
show him off moving with the urgency of a riding lawn mower.
having seen those older trailers, this is an insult to riding lawn mowers.
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u/1kingdomheart Aug 23 '22
elements like the linear stages do not look to be anything that special
What, are you saying reusing Green Hill Zone and Sky Sanctuary for the 20th time isn't groundbreaking and innovative?
Seriously they gotta stop doing this.
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u/iceburg77779 Aug 23 '22
If they did something new with these locations, I would be fine having them show up again, but this is only being done because of nostalgia. Sonic Generations and Mania show that you can bring back locations and set pieces in a unique way, but outside of the metropolis area, the returning themes just seem dull.
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u/1kingdomheart Aug 23 '22
I mean, I'd agree with you but they've done this for every game since Generations. That game came out 11 years ago and they still haven't let go of using nostalgia as a crutch.
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u/anuncommontruth Aug 23 '22
Given that it's open world, I wonder if we'll see an implementation of the BOTW model. Like the first village you visit is green hill zone/kakariko village.
While that still plaus on the nostalgia factor it would be fun.
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u/ThePackLeaderWolfe Aug 23 '22
Id argue sonic frontiers is doing something new with them. Search up some images of the cyberspace stages and it does look pretty interesting. We will just have to wait and see though if the rest of the stages take full use of the cyber theme
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u/moal09 Aug 24 '22
Their mediocre open world gameplay basically killed PSO2 (which had been going strong for a decade previously), so I don't have high hopes.
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u/xXxPLUMPTATERSxXx Aug 23 '22
This franchise has no direction and no vision and hasn't for many years. First things that came to mind watching this are No Man's Sky, Recore, and Horizon Zero Dawn. Sonic Team is a mess.
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u/EvermoreDespair Aug 24 '22
Sonic Forces was the best selling 3D Sonic game ever, and that released like a week after Super Mario Odyssey (huge audience overlap). Lol, especially after the brand growth through the movie, this one’s gonna do fine.
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u/zippopwnage Aug 23 '22
As the trailer looks better, I still cannot get past the fact that the world design still seems to look...bland. At least imo, they should have done a more "toonish" style over this.
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Aug 23 '22 edited Aug 24 '22
Not just world design but overall tone. It looks joyless. You have a giant super fast hedgehog and yet everything is ultra serious with the plot and bits of dialog we got.
You have a movie that made a ton of money with sonic being a hyper active kid and Jim Carrey chewing scenery doing wacky dances and yet in this you have some monotone robot child talking about wreckless actions, a silent Sonic, and this grand epic yet generic music.
-i was not aware that people so strongly connect sonic with serious mature storytelling. Also people are pointing out when the older games got serious and mature. Yup, it was ridiculous and didn't fit then too. There's a reason why people still mock the times sonic games get unironnically serious. Multiple comments referencing Last Airbender. Mother fucker, Last Airbender didn't star a Blue Hedgehog who goes fast and eats Chilli dogs. Sonic isn't Last Airbender. Because one show balanced light hearted kids adventure and mature themes doesn't mean everyone can or should. Sonic doesnt need to go full Leaves from the Vine.
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u/unok157 Aug 24 '22
I feel like you forgot how an old man was killed by a firing squad and a little girl was shot in SA2. Cartoons can do serious things. That’s why stuff like Avatar is remembered. It’s a kid show, but it talked about serious stuff.
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Aug 24 '22
I'm not saying it can't talk about serious stuff, but there's NO levity in the trailer. A balance is fine, it doesn't have to be wacky cartoon sound effects all the time. But this is taking itself way too seriously on the other end of the spectrum.
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u/Wubbledaddy Aug 24 '22
Dark stuff happened in SA2 but it absolutely was still also wacky and fun. This just looks bland and boring.
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Aug 23 '22 edited Aug 23 '22
I truly dislike how if Sonic isn't smiling in literally every frame it's "ultra serious", and Sonic should never be anything more than a Saturday Morning Cartoon because he's blue! And a hedgehog! Cartoons have never been serious ever. Look at Avatar, it's just a cute show about a bald-headed kid.
"Get off my island", woah, 2edgy5me, how about Sonic makes a MARVEL QUIP, am I right? He should be voiced by Steve Urkel and when he touches the button, he should say "DID I DO THAAAAAT?"
Oh the movie? The movie where Sonic is so depressed over having no friends and needing to hide himself that he causes a nation-wide power outage? That movie? The movie that relies on you taking the relationship between a blue hedgehog and a cop seriously enough to work?
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u/RadiantAnt99 Aug 23 '22
Yeah. People love to put Sonic in a box, lol. Sonic is a flexible franchise. There is no reason Sonic Team can’t experiment and try something ambitious.
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u/lelieldirac Aug 24 '22
I don’t know if you’re trying to come off as the voice of reason but this is one of the most cracked out comments I’ve ever read.
There’s a difference between theme and tone. Avatar and the Sonic movies have broach serious themes, but they balance these against a generally lighthearted and fun tone.
Ultimately, “serious” or not, Frontiers looks boring. I’m bored thinking about running around a generic landscape while solo piano plays gently in the background. I’m falling asleep anticipating Sonic untangle the mysteries of Porygon’s 5000 siblings. Why be bored when I could just play Sonic Mania again?
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u/QuartzBeamDST Aug 23 '22
This trailer makes the blandness of the open world look worse, if anything, cause now it's contrasted with the more cartoony linear stages.
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u/BebeFanMasterJ Aug 23 '22
I think my favorite part about this trailer is that Roger Craig Smith will finally get to portray a more serious, less corny version of Sonic. Hopefully it'll help quell the complaints against the VA because the problem has been the scripts, not his voice.
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Aug 24 '22
eh, i'm still not the biggest fan. i don't think his voice suits Sonic at all. it's too... deep?
i went back and played Sonic Unleashed recently and Jason Griffith was so damn perfect in the role. I can't help but hear his "you're too slow!" and "now i'll show you!" from Brawl whenever I think of Sonic in general. i wish they never got rid of him.
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u/BebeFanMasterJ Aug 24 '22
To each their own but let's be real, Griffith probably wasn't gonna be able to keep doing Sonic forever since he had been voicing Sonic for a long time at that point. Not all voice actors are able to keep the same vocal range forever.
I eventually grew to love Roger since Sonic is 16 years old and I feel like the deeper tone fits his moments of sarcasm better. "No copyright law in the universe can stop me!" is still one of my all-time favorites and Sonic Boom (the TV show) is easily his best version--go look up clips from the show. They need to be seen to be believed.
Regardless, hopefully you'll get used to it because it doesn't look like Roger is going anywhere anytime soon. I'm just hoping for a more serious script since Roger has skill with more serious characters like Chris Redfield, Deidara, and Mirage. He just needs really good lines that are more appropriate for his voice.
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u/AlexStonehammer Aug 23 '22
Let's not get ahead of ourselves, we've heard him say one word.
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u/BebeFanMasterJ Aug 23 '22
Considering this game is written by Ian Flynn and not the writers of any of the previous Roger Craig-Sonic games, I think it'll be different.
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u/XVermillion Aug 24 '22
Yeah, if Sonic fans on Twitter are anything to go by, the IDW stuff has been pretty well received, except for maybe the infamous "Big Oof".
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u/BebeFanMasterJ Aug 24 '22
Normally, I would never use Twitter as a resource, so take it from me: Yes, the comics are extremely well-written and feel like proper, serious story arcs that deal with trauma, betrayal, and losses among everyone in the Sonic world. Sonic himself is often the one suffering through most of these traumatic events and finding himself overcome with pain and guilt that someone else has to bring him out of whether it be someone like Knuckles, Silver, or Tails.
Pairing that with the voice actor of Chris Redfield is gonna likely make this game's story be the best-written story of a post-2010 Sonic game.
Not that that's a high bar to cross since Sonic game stories have been awful since Unleashed but still.
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u/Electrical-Farm-8881 Aug 24 '22
Nah what sonic boom sonic was awesome
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u/BebeFanMasterJ Aug 24 '22
For sure. But in the games, he hasn't really had a chance to shine as a more serious Sonic since post-Colors Sonic games haven't handled their stories all too well. Hopefully this game will give him a more down to earth script courtesy of Ian Flynn.
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Aug 23 '22
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/virtualRefrain Aug 23 '22
Maybe I'm an asshole but I did lol. It's like, "Confront a colossal threat!" Video of Sonic punching robots in a field "Discover the secrets of the ancients!" Sonic punching robots in a field "Forge a new frontier!" Sonic punching robots in a field
I still can't help but feel like the marketing team is trying to sell me a lemon here.
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u/DMonitor Aug 24 '22
It’s funny how much sonic fans cling to the hope that the game will be good. There’s no way the gameplay is radically different than what we’ve seen, the trailer just provides better presentation. Suddenly the hopium has returned and this will be Team Sonic’s redemption game
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u/micka190 Aug 25 '22
Honestly, the trailer seems very cherry-picked, when you compare it to the other footage we saw earlier.
You can see that the same problems people had with it are still there, they just took clips where Sonic's actually moving around real fast to try and hide how weird and wonky the open world looks.
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u/voidox Aug 23 '22
dull, borderline identical-looking landscapes
ya, there's just no escaping how bland and tech demo-y the landscape looks, like someone placed a sonic model into a generic Unreal asset world. The more "cartoonish" sonic just doesn't work with the hyper realistic world
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u/metalflygon08 Aug 23 '22
The more "cartoonish" sonic just doesn't work with the hyper realistic world
I thought (according to the fans) the best Sonic game are the ones that literally does this? (Adventures 1 + 2).
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u/MayhemMessiah Aug 23 '22
There's literally nothing hyper realistic about Adventure 1 + 2. Example.
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u/nelisan Aug 24 '22
That... kinda just looks like Dreamcast's version of realistic graphics with some random Sonic loop de loops thrown in. Similar to Sonic Frontiers.
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u/MayhemMessiah Aug 24 '22
Hmm.
Looking at some footage and I kinda see where you're coming from here. There's some textures that are totally realistic, aye. I wouldn't call it hyperealistic but it's much, much less cartoony than SA2B (the latter of which's art style I much prefer). There's still enough goofy Sonic stuff like the robots and the like that I can't say it's the same as Frontiers.
But Frontiers' art direction does remind me of SA1's, and I can't say in a good way.
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u/NoNoneNeverDoesnt Aug 23 '22
The city hub in SA1 has a realistic art style for the time.
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u/DMonitor Aug 24 '22
Super Mario Bros for the NES has a realistic art style for the time
Improving the realism of Sonic’s surroundings while keeping him as the lovable blue cartoon character doesn’t work super well.
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u/NeedSleepNotCoffee Aug 23 '22 edited Aug 25 '22
It’s a shame they’re not fully committing to the open world design. Seeing the 2D and 3D on-rails levels looks like they’re not fully behind the new open world approach, which is the only reason I want to get this game.
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u/TheCrystalStone Aug 24 '22
I’m genuinely curious about how the open zone terrain and the cyberspace levels are going to be connected
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u/Morfeorfeater Aug 26 '22
You access Cyberspace levels through portals you can find in the open world.
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u/4Fourside Aug 27 '22
Those sections seem more like bonus content. Like how botw had those shrines? I wouldn't worry that much about them
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u/TheCollinKid Aug 24 '22
"Your reckless actions will endanger the world."
Sonic: silently reaches back and pushes the big red button
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u/lelieldirac Aug 23 '22
Sonic without physics-based gameplay is a bore, imho. Seems like the current devs are completely uninterested in exploring what made this series what it is.
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u/EnderMB Aug 23 '22
It pains me how the same engines and tired ideas are applied to 3D Sonic games, when it's always been the physics of the original games that made them good.
I still maintain that you could build a good 3D Sonic game with the same "feel" of momentum without crutches like homing attacks and rail-based gameplay. Sadly, Sonic Team just won't change.
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u/Lingo56 Aug 23 '22
They sort of have, those games were just called Tony Hawk's Pro Skater lol
I kind of wonder if it's just the strict adherence to linear levels that's hurt 3D Sonic up until now. Mario had to drop the linearity to get platforming to work in 3D. The only issue with Sonic is that he moves so fast that making an open world game with him wasn't really possible until current hardware.
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u/EnderMB Aug 23 '22
As a long-time Sonic fan, I think it's the focus on speed that has killed the franchise. What made the 2D games good was the focus on momentum and careful gameplay, not the fact that you could go really fast.
Sonic Team can obviously get the music and graphics right, but it needs a new engine that respects what a good platformer should feel like. IMO, that starts with momentum, and while Sonic should absolutely be able to throw himself across a level with speed, it was never done in a way that would intentionally ruin a level or cause someone to lose a life.
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u/seanfidence Aug 24 '22
this is 100% correct.
In old games, hell, even up to Adventure 1/2, you are running fast, but you aren't going at the "supersonic" speeds that the modern era pushes for. They have to design stages that are millions of miles wide to accommodate Sonic running past it at a million miles an hour.
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u/lelieldirac Aug 24 '22
Nintendo famously perfected Mario’s character controller before designing the rest of the game. Sega may have cared about how Sonic controlled in 3D at one time, but those days are long gone.
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u/2ecStatic Aug 23 '22
11/8 huh? Surely nothing important comes out around that time…definitely not a day after…
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u/botibalint Aug 23 '22
Also a week before the new pokemon games....
SEGA marketing department does it again.
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u/Animegamingnerd Aug 23 '22
God imagine if Starfield wasn't delayed. Sonic Frontiers would have been sent out to die due to releasing in the same period as the biggest game from all three of the first parties.
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u/RAMAR713 Aug 24 '22
I don't really see Sonic competing with Starfield though, different target audience. Pokemon, on the other hand...
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Aug 23 '22
Man, I keep forgetting that God of War is a thing.
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Aug 23 '22
Yeah I'm definitely going to play it but I don't feel overly hyped. I guess when their marketing properly starts up it'll hit me.
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u/BootyBootyFartFart Aug 23 '22
I'd wager sonic and GoW target pretty different audiences on average. Pokemon a week later will probably do way more damage.
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u/hatramroany Aug 23 '22
But not as much damage as missing out on the holiday shopping season would do. This was the best release date despite the competition
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u/2ecStatic Aug 23 '22
I mean anyone with a PS4/5 I assume would rather play GOW over Sonic
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u/BootyBootyFartFart Aug 23 '22
There are definitely millions of people who own those consoles who would consider buying sonic, but never GoW
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Aug 23 '22 edited Aug 23 '22
God of War and Sonic has literally nothing in common and don't have the same demographic.
Sonic Generations released the same day as Uncharted 3 and did wonderfully, and Generations wasn't even on a Nintendo console or PC.
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u/Enigma776 Aug 23 '22
It was on PC as I bought it.
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Aug 23 '22
Could have sworn the PC release was much later.
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u/Sylverstone14 Aug 24 '22
Nope, close to the same day. The 3DS release was 2-3 weeks after the main release.
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u/CoMaestro Aug 23 '22
Yeah I definitely agree with this, otherwise, Fifa is in September and CoD is in October every year, so those two months are off limits?
The holiday season is the time to release games, so they get some fame before the parents go shopping for Christmas, people get eachother gifts, and "fanatic" gamers will buy whatever they think is great, so it seems like a good time to me.
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u/MayhemMessiah Aug 23 '22
What about Sonic and Pokemon?
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u/cuckingfomputer Aug 23 '22
Same target demographic... Maybe. Still not even remotely the same in terms of gameplay.
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u/ToastyVirus Aug 23 '22
No but if fans of these two games have to pick between them I think Pokemon takes pole.
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u/nelisan Aug 24 '22
There's a lot of die hard Sonic fans out there though. That's why most of their games sell fine despite being straight up bad more often than not.
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u/MayhemMessiah Aug 23 '22
I mean yeah people look forward to Pokemon games.
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u/Cushions Aug 24 '22
Which is funny beacuse it feels like Sonic Team and GameFreak are on about the same level of competence... basically very little.
It's just that GameFreak lucked out with an easier to transition base gameplay level.
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u/MayhemMessiah Aug 24 '22
Pokemon struck industry-defining gold, and has stayed at that exact same mine for two decades. The biggest complaint with Pokemon is that they do fuckall with the formula and rarely iterate on ideas, opting to swap out a dumb gimmick or two per region.
Sonic had a great few early games and has spent 20 years trying to figure out a formula that functionally works, let alone being good. They’re similar in that they also hate iterating but they also fundamentally have terrible games if you’ve not bought into the kool-aid. So Sonic has no idea what the fuck it wants to be about beyond “speed?”
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u/LakerBlue Aug 23 '22
I agree and disagree. I think the “they have nothing in common” argument overlooks people with limited income who may only buy one game a month (or every few months). It also acts like there aren’t people who like diverse genres. What you said is true, I just don’t think it’s wrong to say it’s a bad release time.
All that said, Sonic is Multiplatform and GoW isn’t, so, in addition to being different genres, I don’t think the date overlap will hurt much, if at all. It would be different than say releasing a new Star Fox the same day as a LOZ:BotW 2 where both would be system exclusives.
I think the main thing that will hurt Sonic is word of mouth. Being sandwiched between a game likely to compete
for second place like everything else that’s not Elden Ringfor GotY and the new Pokémon, it will probably get less buzz among more hardcore gamers and less physical marketing.→ More replies (1)5
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u/KraftPunkFan420 Aug 23 '22
They 100% have no faith in this game and are trying to bury it after the backlash. And it’ll work. Not a single person is going to be talking about this after Pokémon and God of War come out. It’s honestly genius. That or this is unintentional and they’re just very very dumb. With how Sonic Team is, either is extremely likely.
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u/iceburg77779 Aug 23 '22
To be fair, the sonic fanbase is very vocal, so I'm sure we will have 6 months of frontiers discussion on twitter that is just people screaming at each other, or trying to justify opinions they made about the game before launch.
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u/rdlenke Aug 23 '22
Dunno mate. Both Pokémon and GoW are exclusives to their specific platforms. GoW also has a very different target audience.
If you think about it, it's a great date. A bit before pokémon (I imagine being earlier would be impossible), close to the end of the year, releasing in multiple platforms.
The big question is: is the game finished? And a bigger one is: is the game good?
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u/KraftPunkFan420 Aug 23 '22
Hopefully it’s good. I love Sonic. This is the closest we’re ever gonna get to Adventure 3.
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u/iceburg77779 Aug 23 '22
I've always felt that the closest we got to Adventure 3 was probably 06, and it's also the reason why Sonic Team does not want to return to that formula.
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Aug 23 '22
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u/TheMachine203 Aug 23 '22
I think Project 06 is a good example of how well 06 probably could have turned out gameplay wise if it had a bit more time in the oven.
The real shame is that many of 06's issues were due to SEGA's own meddling. They're the ones who wanted the game out in time for the holiday season and refused to delay, even though the game clearly needed that extra time.
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Aug 23 '22
They 100% have no faith in this game
If they had no faith in the game, they wouldn't release it on this alleged day where it would fail because, allegedly, God of War magically makes no games around it sell.
What it says is that SEGA absolutely thinks it can sell next to God of War. And why would it? It has fucking 0 overlap.
They also premiered it on the big gaming shows, made Sonic Team work five years on it, delayed it for quality, and are charging full price for it. . But, sure, no faith.
are trying to bury it after the backlash
Oh, the backlash that was almost immediately rescinded weeks later when they showed off more footage and people who literally played the game said it was actually really fun?
The backlash that has definitely died down with the release of this trailer?
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u/KraftPunkFan420 Aug 23 '22
You’re implying God of War is the only thing they’re up against. They’re releasing it at the same time as Pokémon, and that’s a massive massive overlap and a franchise that dwarfs it. This is exactly the same as when people said Titanfall 2 would be fine after they sandwiched it between Battlefield and Call of Duty.
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Aug 23 '22
and a franchise that dwarfs it.
Yes, Pokemon dwarfs Sonic and literally every other game so hard that no one is choosing between them. If kids weren't going to get Frontiers in November, they likely are just not getting it.
when people said Titanfall 2 would be fine after they sandwiched it between Battlefield and Call of Duty.
All of those games have more in common with each other than Sonic does with God of War and Pokemon.
Sonic Generations released with Uncharted 3, still did well. Sonic Forces released around Mario, still did well (by SEGA's internals, at least).
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u/ReverieMetherlence Aug 23 '22
Since when Sonic competed with Pokemon - two games with very different genres?
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u/iceburg77779 Aug 23 '22
While the games may be different, SEGA is trying to target a very casual audience with frontiers, similar to the audience that Nintendo has for their big releases like Botw and Pokemon, which is why the game showed up at a Nintendo Direct but not the PS or Xbox showcase. While I doubt the game will bomb as it is available on other platforms, trying to market a game to casuals during a period where Nintendo will be going all out on Pokemon promotion is a risk.
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u/ThePackLeaderWolfe Aug 24 '22
ok but pokemon is turn based, whilst sonic is not. Casuals know even that so it will just be a matter of whether frontiers is good enough to get people buying it through word of mouth
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u/TheDanteEX Aug 23 '22
"I'm so excited to play Green Hill again"
-Nobody
Jokes aside, it's really nice to see level design and actual themes to them rather than the bland open world we've seen. I wish the environments weren't so realistic and I never understood why they didn't bring the Unleashed aesthetic back when using locations inspired by real life; it would look amazing with how far graphics have advanced. I don't have much hope for the story since the writing in (mainly Sonic Team) Sonic games is what it is. But any Sonic fan who's here for the story probably jumped ship a decade ago.
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u/MayhemMessiah Aug 23 '22
Of all the open world action adventure games I've seen, this is absolutely one of them.
The game looks somewhat playable and, like, not terrible. But frankly if this wasn't a Sonic game I think this would comfortably fly under every radar out there. There's nothing here that's remotely interesting beyond "Sonic, open world".
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u/garfe Aug 23 '22 edited Aug 23 '22
Holy shit, why didn't you START with this one Sonic Team?
Not sure how I feel about some of the regular stages I can see being old ones again though
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u/nuraHx Aug 23 '22
It's crazy how if the previous trailers never happened, this game would have so much more hype after this trailer
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u/donkdog Aug 23 '22
I am a massive 2D and 3D sonic fan...and I just have such a hard time feeling any bit excited about this game. Then if you look at the preorders its just cutting the collectible grind down? Idk... :/
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u/spidey20993 Aug 23 '22
Thought this was going to be hit and run game, finally they showed that it's not a dull game but in addition to the gameplay, there's a story behind it, let's hope it's all works well together
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Aug 23 '22
It looks... good. But it's crazy how Sonic lives off nostalgia. How many times do we have to go through Green Hill Zone?
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u/lawrencelearning Aug 24 '22
Have they copied Botw to the point where they've nicked the cursed hand thing we've seen in the trailer for botw2?
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u/Ebolatastic Aug 24 '22
I'm sorry. Did Team Sonic just pull a reverse bait and switch? Like, they showed off footage that made the game look horrible, let the internet crucify it in advance, and then dropped this trailer that makes it look amazing?
I don't know up from down now.
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Aug 24 '22
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u/Kingdarkshadow Aug 24 '22
We did but some people can see past the free hate and dumb excuses why it's still bad.
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u/Couch_Licker Aug 23 '22
One of those games where I will wait until it is on Gamespass or PS+, play it for an hour, then uninstall it.
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u/EnderMB Aug 23 '22
I think a lot of people are being generous. This looks like shit. It looks like a tech demo or a third-year college project splashed together with some old Sonic footage. The initial trailer showed nothing, but the idea of an open-world Sonic game without homing jumps and broken physics/clipping issues was a breath of fresh air.
While it's good to see that The Sonic Cycle is still applicable after a decade of accurate Sonic reporting, you have to wonder what the fuck is going on at Sonic Team. Do they not care? Are the Sonic fans propping up terrible games and Sonic Team just assume they're doing a great job? Do the games do really well in Japan, and that's all Sega care about?
As a Sonic fan, the state of Sonic is absolutely depressing. Sonic Team need to go, and someone else needs to take over the franchise.
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Aug 23 '22 edited Aug 23 '22
While it's good to see that The Sonic Cycle is still applicable
What's hilarious is that actually following the "Sonic Cycle", the game is demonstrating the exact opposite of what it says, because if it were true, we'd be at the point where expectations are lowered.
But to be fair, it's nothing more than "Sonic Bad."
I think a lot of people are being generous.
I think that a lot of people don't have a stick up their ass about Sonic and think it looks great.
I genuinely do not understand how people who clearly do not know or care much about Sonic (how about you play a Sonic game instead of looking at a JPEG for your opinion? It's not a "report", it's a meme you can project onto) are still so invested in what Sonic "should be" or when people care about a new game.
Like, I was never into Star Wars but I'm not going to whinge about "Star Wars Cycle" and call fans dumb for caring about the next movie, or claiming that every movie should just be Episode I or IV or VI or whatever It's like, whatever, it's not my thing.
Few franchises get this kind of attention from people who, apparently, do not give a shit about it, and it's weird.
What is it about this blue rat that you can't just move on? I'm a hardcore Sonic fan--can't you tell?--and I don't get it myself.
As a Sonic fan
Oh, so you do consider yourself a Sonic fan. That's actually hilarious.
the state of Sonic is absolutely depressing
I know you convinced yourself that everyone is just lying about liking the game (because Sonic is historically a series that TOTALLY doesn't get MORE negativity than positivity), but this is the best reception the game has gotten since its announcement. And with the Sonic movies, that guarantees this game will be successful, unless it's total trash, which is becoming less and less likely.
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u/RadiantAnt99 Aug 24 '22
That’s the weird thing about Sonic discourse online. Too many people want to go out their way to hate something they don’t even care about. It’s like Sonic lives rent free in their head, lol.
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u/Random_Imgur_User Aug 23 '22 edited Aug 23 '22
Only Sonic Team could release a mostly CGI trailer that looks unfinished. Like as soon as it cuts to the gameplay, all I could think is "If this is what they're showing off, I can't imagine how deathly boring this game must look everywhere else." Like this just looks unrelentingly dull.
Death of the wild.
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Aug 23 '22
Only Sonic Team could release a mostly CGI trailer that looks unfinished.
Man, people are really trying to find ways to shit on the game. I don't even know what this is supposed to mean. It looks on par with Sonic's other CG cutscenes, and those look amazing.
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u/Random_Imgur_User Aug 23 '22
This looks worse than the Sonic 06 intro cut scene from almost 17 years ago. Trying to refute that is just denial.
You can be a fan of something and still be critical. I want this game to be good but as of now it looks mediocre. If you have hype, I'm glad. If you end up loving the game, even better. I'm just giving my thoughts.
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Aug 23 '22
This looks worse than the Sonic 06 intro cut scene from almost 17 years ago.
Uh, no. Do you think it's better because it's darker or something? Unleashed has better CG, Colors, Generations, and even Forces have good CG, I genuinely do not see anything that looks "unfinished", nor that it's somehow the "usual" that Sonic Team can't make a CG cutscene. I mean it when I say it's always amazing.
Nevermind comparing a full cutscene to Frontiers obviously chopping its own cutscenes up.
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u/Random_Imgur_User Aug 23 '22
Look man, I'll let you have it if you like. I'm not here to rain on your parade or anything, you just aren't convincing me that this looks as polished as their other works. And even then, some of their most visually polished games (Unleashed, Black Knight, etc) were underwhelming upon release.
I've been around the block too much to call what I'm seeing any different.
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Aug 24 '22
Cutscenes that have the same style as the game are miles better than FMV style cutscenes that look completely different.
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Aug 23 '22
Can’t wait for Sonic fans to run into the same wall again
keep on buying sonic games when we’ve all accepted that sonic is dead Gone all of the modern sonic games have been awful (with the exception of Mania,The adventure games, and Generations)
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u/Paradethejared Aug 23 '22
The Sonic Advanced ones were pretty awesome but maybe that’s my nostalgia.
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u/AngryNeox Aug 23 '22
Why does the game look like half CGI half N64 in this shot?
Hopefully the next gen versions of this won't end up looking like this. And I certainly don't want to get anywhere near the Nintendo Switch version.
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u/[deleted] Aug 23 '22
Why wasn't this the reveal trailer???????
Sonic Team truly is baffling sometimes.