10 Things to Know Before Playing Sonic Frontiers

10 Things to Know Before Playing Sonic Frontiers

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today, we’re taking a look at 10 Things to Know Before Playing “Sonic Frontiers”!

For this list, we’ll be going over some important details you should probably consider before buying “Sonic Frontiers”. What are you excited or concerned about with the game? Let us know down in the comments.

Story

Most of the Sonic games typically have something to do with Doctor Eggman and his devious tricks, but so far, we have seen no sign of maniacal mad man. Although, we wouldn’t be surprised if he is the one who ignites the events that will unfold. Sonic and friends have fallen through a wormhole and are transported to a mysterious world called Starfall Islands. If he is to get back home, he will have to explore this new land and retrieve the Chaos Emeralds. SEGA has been rather tight-lipped about any more story details outside of this general synopsis, yet we wouldn’t be surprised if some familiar faces pop up later.

A New Call to Adventure

Not to regurgitate the fact, but “Sonic Frontiers” is the first open-world game for the franchise, a bold leap for Sonic Team considering their questionable output over the last decade or so. However, the team is making sure not to fall into the same trappings as other, more mediocre open world games have. From the footage we’ve seen so far, Starfall Islands is being designed under the mindset of a normal “Sonic” game but in the structure of a playground. You can run around wide environments, chain together maneuvers and tricks, and yes, go fast. The real question is how big of a checklist are we gonna be put through, and will the side missions and collectibles be fun enough to make us want to play til completion?

Combat

The open world aspect is not the only massive change here. Whereas previous “Sonic” games have kept combat simple with spin dashes, homing attacks, and the like, “Sonic Frontiers” is aiming to implement a more complex combat system. Sonic can still hone in on enemies, but now, he does have to do some actual fighting with punches and kicks. In addition to the new Cyloop ability (which will have different effects depending on the situation), you will be able to unlock new moves for Sonic in a skill tree and give him abilities like making tornadoes or kick-based projectiles.

Hollywood Influence

If you’re wondering why Sonic is getting such a drastic overhaul in his action, well, you're not alone. We were wondering the same thing. The inspiration came from a rather unexpected place - the live-action “Sonic the Hedgehog” movies. When speaking to IGN in June 2022, director Morio Kishimoto explained how the first movie “showed us an entirely new approach…After watching it, I came up with a vision for the game’s combat.” Kishimoto went so far as to request that the staff put in some Easter eggs from the movies in “Frontiers”. So, if the combat turns out to be as incredible as it looks, we have Hollywood to thank.
Sonic Frontiers’ Combat Was Inspired By the Sonic Movie - IGN

Difficulty

Another strange feature in “Frontiers” is that SEGA, Kishimoto in particular, keeps referring to its level design as “Open Zone”. In his words from the aforementioned IGN interview, “In the Open Zone, the high-speed gameplay can carry players in any direction without the limitations of a stage or course”. Kishimoto has contrasted this to previous Sonic games, which were super linear and took the player in a specific sequence of stages. He further elaborates that because of how much there will be in “Sonic Frontiers”, “raising the difficulty in order to increase the play time was no longer necessary. From start to finish, we were able to maintain a sense of speed with ideal level design for a Sonic game.”
Sega Explains What Sonic Frontiers’ 'Open Zone' Structure Actually Means - IGN

Exploration

Going off of that previous Kishimoto quote, it does look as if maintaining the player’s speed was a priority for “Sonic Frontiers”. From what we’ve seen so far, Starfall Islands comes with a plethora of rails to grind, walls to climb, zippers to push you through valleys, and plenty of springs to launch you to new heights. It certainly looks like a playground made for Sonic, and as you traverse, you’ll encounter a vast array of enemies that will test your newfound skills as well as items that will increase your offense and defense capabilities. Again, we have to wonder how big of a checklist “Sonic Frontiers” will have for side missions and collectibles and how quickly monotony might set in for some.

Thanks For the Memories

Speaking of monotony, you have probably seen a nontroversy crop up on social media in recent months. From the less than five minutes worth of trailers SEGA has put out since “Frontiers” was teased, some folks have made comparison videos claiming that Sonic Team is reusing levels from previous games. What’s being scrutinized is footage of the game’s “Cyberspace levels”, portals scattered around Starfall Islands that will transport Sonic to familiar locations. It's safe to say that these Cyberspace levels have been put in as a way to pay homage to Sonic games of the past. So regardless of which games you have or haven’t played, there might be a special surprise in for you.

Him Again…

As mentioned earlier, we’re expecting to see a few familiar faces throughout “Sonic Frontiers”. We already know that Tails and Amy are somewhere in the Starfall Islands, but there is another ally - the big oaf known as Big the Cat. Images and videos recorded at Gamescom 2022 show players meeting Big the Cat and taking part in fishing. From what little we’ve seen, it’s safe to assume that Big will serve as the host of one of the game's side missions and task the player to slow their roll for a minute and enjoy some fishing. We’re just hoping it won’t be as grueling as it was in “Sonic Adventure”.

For the Longest Time

Given that Kishimoto and SEGA have been touting “Sonic Frontiers” as a massive game, it begs the question just how massive we are talking, especially since we live in an age where more folks are asking for shorter games. Referring to the IGN interview once more, Kishimoto has given a rough estimate. For those who wanna finish the story and maybe do a little bit of everything (or whatever “the average player” is defined as by Kishimoto; he didn’t elaborate), “Sonic Frontiers” will take between twenty and thirty hours to finish. Completionists, on the other hand, will spend about double that time.

Launch

“Sonic Frontiers” was originally slated for 2021, but in order to maintain the game’s quality, SEGA delayed it to 2022. Here we are now, and at the time of writing, “Sonic Frontiers” has yet to go gold (or at least publicly announce going gold). Nevertheless, the November 8, 2022 release date is quickly approaching. If the game still holds your interest after watching this, or if you’re going to mull it over until launch, “Sonic Frontiers” will be available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series XS, Nintendo Switch, and Windows PC. It is worth noting that if you want to experience the game at higher frame rates, then you’ll probably want the PC, PS5, or XS versions.