Sonic Frontiers leaks thread | Untagged OST and story spoilers

[Rychu]

Decided to go for 100% map and challenge completion and clean up any of the side stuff with Amy/Tails/Knuckles.

So there's these things called Egg Memos that you can get from fishing, and they seem to fill in Eggman's side of the story. Has some neat tidbits in it, I can't remember the last time South and West Side Island were explicitly named in series. (Sonic the Fighters for the former, I think?)


Only thing of note is that

Spoiler: Post credits

Eggman manages to preserve a bit of Sage

Click to shrink...

Well they said there will be no paid DLC for Frontiers so that is probably a tease for a sequel of Frontiers otherwise there's no reason to show something like that.

If you have beaten the game, can you answer:
1. Is there a fifth cyberspace theme even for maybe the final cyberspace stage or just one stage in the fifth island or something?
2. What themes are the other two islands if the first three are: grass, desert and volcano? Is there snow island, ice island, water island, futuristic island, etc?

 

[Deleted member 34949]

Found out that doing all the challenges on an island unlocks fast travel between entrances to cyberspace stages; Might be a good thing to do those first on any given island.

Well they said there will be no paid DLC for Frontiers so that is probably a tease for a sequel of Frontiers otherwise there's no reason to show something like that.

If you have beaten the game, can you answer:
1. Is there a fifth cyberspace theme even for maybe the final cyberspace stage or just one stage in the fifth island or something?
2. What themes are the other two islands if the first three are: grass, desert and volcano? Is there snow island, ice island, water island, futuristic island, etc?

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

1. There's just the four cyberspace themes we've seen in trailers. Islands 1, 2, 3 and 5 have cyberspace stages; 4 is a 100% story oriented island.
2. Last two islands are honestly just grassy plains like Island 1.

 

[That1GoodHunter]

Are there any general impressions about the game, not really from a fan of the IP perspective, but more in general?

Open world design, performance, controls, puzzles, how well the combat holds up, overall quality, etc.

 

[The Deleter]

Spoiler

1. There's just the four cyberspace themes we've seen in trailers. Islands 1, 2, 3 and 5 have cyberspace stages; 4 is a 100% story oriented island.
2. Last two islands are honestly just grassy plains like Island 1.

Click to shrink...

Dammit I had the monkey side eye meme queued up and everything

Spoiler

Rip, at least the ruins they seem to be adding to the map will make up for the repetition in a way? Hopefully at least

 

[thatJohann]

I'm more excited for this than for god of war

 

[Deleted member 34949]

Might do a pic dump of the Egg Memos tonight or tomorrow morning, there's a lot of story stuff in there that isn't clarified in the main story cutscenes.

 

[Rychu]

Found out that doing all the challenges on an island unlocks fast travel between entrances to cyberspace stages; Might be a good thing to do those first on any given island.

Spoiler

1. There's just the four cyberspace themes we've seen in trailers. Islands 1, 2, 3 and 5 have cyberspace stages; 4 is a 100% story oriented island.
2. Last two islands are honestly just grassy plains like Island 1.

Click to shrink...

Found out that doing all the challenges on an island unlocks fast travel between entrances to cyberspace stages; Might be a good thing to do those first on any given island.

Spoiler

1. There's just the four cyberspace themes we've seen in trailers. Islands 1, 2, 3 and 5 have cyberspace stages; 4 is a 100% story oriented island.
2. Last two islands are honestly just grassy plains like Island 1.

Click to shrink...

I cannot believe this is what they came up with in five years. People seem to enjoy the game so I'm still going to buy it but yikes. Might as well not have had island 4 or 5 if that's the case.

 

[Deleted member 34949]

I cannot believe this is what they came up with in five years. People seem to enjoy the game so I'm still going to buy it but yikes. Might as well not have had island 4 or 5 if that's the case.

Click to shrink...

Feels like a lot of the dev time went into the first three islands. The last island is at least a fully featured island like the first three, even if it's not all that visually distinct from the first one.

 

[Rychu]

Feels like a lot of the dev time went into the first three islands. The last island is at least a fully featured island like the first three, even if it's not all that visually distinct from the first one.

Click to shrink...

If they are going to aim for something this ambitious that takes this much development time and work (something like 5 open world islands) then they need to increase staff count. And again Iizuka said the next mainline Sonic game "will probably take as long as Frontiers did" so they are probably not slowing down the ambition. Which is fine, but hire the people for this.

Sonic Frontiers was made by 60 people. Breath of the Wild was made by almost 400 people. Even look at Super Mario Odyssey, which had 16 unique themed kingdoms and that had over 300 people.

 

[The Deleter]

Found out that doing all the challenges on an island unlocks fast travel between entrances to cyberspace stages; Might be a good thing to do those first on any given island.

Spoiler

1. There's just the four cyberspace themes we've seen in trailers. Islands 1, 2, 3 and 5 have cyberspace stages; 4 is a 100% story oriented island.
2. Last two islands are honestly just grassy plains like Island 1.

Click to shrink...

Someone else is unlocking the map as they play through the game as well, and posted this image about the unexplored back half of Kronos. Would it happen to line up with how the fourth or fifth islands are laid out?

Spoiler

 

[Viale]

Sonic Frontiers was made by 60 people. Breath of the Wild was made by almost 400 people. Even look at Super Mario Odyssey, which had 16 unique themed kingdoms and that had over 300 people.

Click to shrink...

Damn, I didn't realize they had so little staff going on for it. Even if it doesn't quite hit it consistently throughout, I gotta say I'm happy that they really tried experimenting with the formula this go around. I just hope they take the lessons forward cause I think there's good ideas in this to bring to the sequel.

 

[Jahranimo]

Sonic Frontiers was made by 60 people. Breath of the Wild was made by almost 400 people. Even look at Super Mario Odyssey, which had 16 unique themed kingdoms and that had over 300 people.

Click to shrink...

Damn that's so small...for a Sega studio I think.

 

[nintendoman58]

Spoiler: ending

So you fight the fourth titan, and it isn't really too different from the other titan fights in terms of scale and such. It's actually pretty easy. The story repeatedly signposts that beating the titans is going to lead to some catastrophic event, which turns out to be the thing that killed the Koko back in the day being freed and wanting to drag everything into cyberspace. Super Sonic flies into space alongside Sage (who commandeers the last titan) for what looks to be a final boss fight... and it's just a QTE sequence. A quick one, at that. Sage sacrifices herself, monster neutralized, day is saved, eggman is super depressed about sage

It's just so hilariously abrupt compared to the build up. Said final threat even gets a boss intro like every other major fight in the game, but then just goes to the QTE. Really makes me wonder if the budget just ran out or something

On the upside, the titan fights are jank, but super flashy. The ending of the third titan fight is the most over the top shit I've seen in the series.

Click to shrink...

Aw man, that's a real shame.

Spoiler: Final Boss Question

Is it at least a cool QTE sequence with good music and action?

Oh, and one other question: Is Super Sonic playable in normal gameplay after you beat the game?

 

[Deleted member 34949]

Someone else is unlocking the map as they play through the game as well, and posted this image about the unexplored back half of Kronos. Would it happen to line up with how the fourth or fifth islands are laid out?

Spoiler

Click to shrink...

That center part of the top half is where the game automatically sends Sonic for the titan fight. Everything to the immediate left or right can't be explored, and you can't go back to the boss arena once it's done.

I just have two more islands left to do, and I'll have 100% challenge completion. Doubt there's anything behind it, but we'll see, I suppose.

 

[The Deleter]

That center part of the top half is where the game automatically sends Sonic for the titan fight. Everything to the immediate left or right can't be explored, and you can't go back to the boss arena once it's done.

I just have two more islands left to do, and I'll have 100% challenge completion. Doubt there's anything behind it, but we'll see, I suppose.

Click to shrink...

Oh 👀

Well in that case I can spoil-confirm one bit of content behind there, which we've been speculating on for a bit lol, ever since footage of the area where big the cat's portal was dropped online:

Spoiler

A "giant" cyberspace portal, pretty deep inland in the area to the left of the boss arena. Idk whether that's something that would have shown up on the other islands or not.

 

[Dooble]

If they are going to aim for something this ambitious that takes this much development time and work (something like 5 open world islands) then they need to increase staff count. And again Iizuka said the next mainline Sonic game "will probably take as long as Frontiers did" so they are probably not slowing down the ambition. Which is fine, but hire the people for this.

Sonic Frontiers was made by 60 people. Breath of the Wild was made by almost 400 people. Even look at Super Mario Odyssey, which had 16 unique themed kingdoms and that had over 300 people.

Click to shrink...

Eh, what? The core devopment staff of those Nintendo games is nowhere near that high. I've seen this claim, and neither Mario or Sonic games went over the 100 people mark. They are comparable in staff count.

I truly don't know what is going at Sonic Team to make so little assets in such a long time. Colors and Gens were made in such short turnaround time and had the same amount of people working on it as Frontiers and they managed to do so much more.

 

[Deleted member 34949]

Did all the island challenges, doesn't seem to unlock or open up anything. Completion picture below:

Spoiler

So yeah, I think I'm pretty much finished playing. There's the Platinum I guess, but that's just a bunch of stat grinding and fishing. Speaking of, I'll leave y'all with some of the joke items you can fish out:

Spoiler

 

[Jahranimo]

Can you drop dash in the cyberspace levels or is that only for the islands?

 

[Deleted member 34949]

Can you drop dash in the cyberspace levels or is that only for the islands?

Click to shrink...

Works in cyberspace levels, but you're better served doing literally any other action.

 

[The Deleter]

Did all the island challenges, doesn't seem to unlock or open up anything. Completion picture below:

Spoiler

So yeah, I think I'm pretty much finished playing. There's the Platinum I guess, but that's just a bunch of stat grinding and fishing.

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

Wait that's it? No unlocks of that entire section of the island or anything??? What the

Speaking of, I'll leave y'all with some of the joke items you can fish out:

Spoiler

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

The alligator is killing me lmao, just an entire realistically textured gator sitting right next to Sonic and Big like it's no big deal

 

[Zoid]

Do we know if there are any other playable characters?

 

[Rocky Road]

Heya, I'm playing the game right now and I'm trying to complete the first island as much as I can before advancing. I'm mostly avoiding story spoilers so I sorta hurriedly rushed down to the post field to ask something here for those that have played. What do the question mark puzzles with the little poles and moon symbol on them mean? They're the only puzzles I can't solve. They're marked "M-014" and "M-015"

 

[B. Spaceman]

Apparently the Switch version is competent?

 

[Vidiot]

Honestly if they plan on this being the way Sonic's future games are they have to give it the budget it needs. The back half of the game is sounding super disappointing. Still the same level themes, the same ISLAND themes, lackluster ending, no post game.

Either spend the money to make a game that doesn't feel so budget constrained or stick to good linear levels. I mean it's a huge step up from Forces, which was made from the change found in the couch at Sega's break room, but it still comes off feeling rather "budget" with all the reuse.

Still looks fun and I'll still get it but the leftover unrevealed content has left me really underwhelmed. It's been too damn long since a Sonic game has felt completely new.

 

[OaklandKao]

Apparently the Switch version is competent?

Click to shrink...

It was competent with Sonic Forces too.

Makes me think these were made for the Switch and just enhanced for next gen.

 

[PennyPasta]

Apparently the Switch version is competent?

Click to shrink...

i've messed around with it and i'm just going to say it's probably the least ideal way to experience the game between the low resolution (especially in handheld) and frame dips.

probably fine for kids and those who have no other way of playing though.

 

[Viale]

Apparently the Switch version is competent?

Click to shrink...

It's... Fine. Definitely noticeably pretty blurry, and I think if you have access to playing it somewhere else, you should probably take that, but it's not that bad.

 

[B. Spaceman]

i've messed around with it and i'm just going to say it's probably the least ideal way to experience the game between the low resolution (especially in handheld) and frame dips.

probably fine for kids and those who have no other way of playing though.

Click to shrink...

It's... Fine. Definitely noticeably pretty blurry, and I think if you have access to playing it somewhere else, you should probably take that, but it's not that bad.

Click to shrink...

And... that's what I mean by competent. Obviously it's going to be worse than the other versions, but I honestly thought it was going to be a disaster

 

[Jahranimo]

Works in cyberspace levels, but you're better served doing literally any other action.

Click to shrink...

Lol that's funny. Thanks for answering.

 

[Deleted member 34949]

Heya, I'm playing the game right now and I'm trying to complete the first island as much as I can before advancing. I'm mostly avoiding story spoilers so I sorta hurriedly rushed down to the post field to ask something here for those that have played. What do the question mark puzzles with the little poles and moon symbol on them mean? They're the only puzzles I can't solve. They're marked "M-014" and "M-015"

Click to shrink...

You can only do them at night.

 

[Viale]

These fucking bosses man. It's like pure hype just straight injected in my veins.


So fucking good.

 

[Atom]

Did all the island challenges, doesn't seem to unlock or open up anything. Completion picture below:

Spoiler

So yeah, I think I'm pretty much finished playing. There's the Platinum I guess, but that's just a bunch of stat grinding and fishing. Speaking of, I'll leave y'all with some of the joke items you can fish out:

Spoiler

Click to shrink...

That picture of the islands man...it just feels like the budget for new assets ran out half way through. Such a shame.

 

[JurassicJack17]

assorted character interaction/plot/lore pics

Spoiler

Spoiler: Knuckles stuff

Spoiler: Tails stuff

Click to shrink...

Woah, that's actually pretty good. This has definitely raised my interest in the game.

 

[Panicky Duck]

Somebody posted docked footage of the switch version with a framerate counter in the corner.

Spoiler

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjeyPMIU4-E

Performance seems solid enough?

 

[MayorTortimer]

Is there any word on when the reviews for Frontiers will drop?

 

[NovumVeritas]

Is there any word on when the reviews for Frontiers will drop?

Click to shrink...

7th November afaik.

Sonic Frontiers Review Embargo lifts on November 7

https://twitter.com/metacritic/status/1585734329321213952?t=eXwyDPKPakTprWBLHUEsow&s=19 Hoping for the best for Sonic Team. Anyone knows when Sonic games usually lift their embargoes?

www.resetera.com

 

[MayorTortimer]

7th November afaik.

Sonic Frontiers Review Embargo lifts on November 7

https://twitter.com/metacritic/status/1585734329321213952?t=eXwyDPKPakTprWBLHUEsow&s=19 Hoping for the best for Sonic Team. Anyone knows when Sonic games usually lift their embargoes?

www.resetera.com

Click to shrink...

Cool! I just want to hear from a legit source that the game isn't buggy and unplayable hahaha. From reading this thread, it looks like this one is going to be worth picking up (at least as far as my standards go...) I've been itching to play a 3D sonic game for a while, and now my nephew is really into the franchise so I'm excited to play it with him around Christmastime.

 

[NovumVeritas]

Cool! I just want to hear from a legit source that the game isn't buggy and unplayable hahaha. From reading this thread, it looks like this one is going to be worth picking up (at least as far as my standards go...) I've been itching to play a 3D sonic game for a while, and now my nephew is really into the franchise so I'm excited to play it with him around Christmastime.

Click to shrink...

I am hoping the same. It seems the Switch version leaked, so there are spoilers and stuff floating around.
Been also a while I played a 3D Sonic game. I think the last 3D Sonic I've played was Sonic Generations.

 

[B. Spaceman]

Watching videos I always get the same though... Movement doesn't feel right. It looks like it's even hard to go in a straight line

 

[Rocky Road]

You can only do them at night.

Click to shrink...

Thanks for the reply! That's the impression I was getting from the logo and was hopping that wasn't the case. I saw that you had beat the game in another Frontiers thread, sorry if it's been asked before (I am averting my eyes from so many spoilers in this thread) but can you adjust time of day after you've beaten the game like in some other open wor- I mean open zone games?

 

[Deleted member 34949]

Thanks for the reply! That's the impression I was getting from the logo and was hopping that wasn't the case. I saw that you had beat the game in another Frontiers thread, sorry if it's been asked before (I am averting my eyes from so many spoilers in this thread) but can you adjust time of day after you've beaten the game like in some other open wor- I mean open zone games?

Click to shrink...

Not that I could figure out, frustratingly enough. Just had to wait for night to fall.

 

[Vidiot]

Man knowing there are only 4 level themes with only one of those being new and only 3 unique islands with the last 2 being exactly the same as the first makes this feel kinda cheap and budget. :/

It does look fun and I'll still pick it up but when the eventual sequel comes along we better not be seeing the same old reused shit again. Knowing what I know about the game now if definitely say it's 7 territory and no higher.

 

[Jahranimo]

Man knowing there are only 4 level themes with only one of those being new and only 3 unique islands with the last 2 being exactly the same as the first makes this feel kinda cheap and budget. :/

It does look fun and I'll still pick it up but when the eventual sequel comes along we better not be seeing the same old reused shit again. Knowing what I know about the game now if definitely say it's 7 territory and no higher.

Click to shrink...

Yup

I thought MC would fall between 72-76 but these impressions cement it.

Still getting it day one on PC though lol, running around the islands still looks like fun to me.

 

[Vidiot]

Yup

I thought MC would fall between 72-76 but these impressions cement it.

Still getting it day one on PC though lol, running around the islands still looks like fun to me.

Click to shrink...

Yeah it definitely still looks fun and I am looking forward to it. It just isn't nearly as much new content as I hoped/expected. They need a bigger budget.

 

[The Deleter]

Idk, if every critic felt the same as Sonic fans, I'd definitely lower my expectations down to a low 7s/mid 6s, but the general critic playerbase has been too unpredectable with this game. Loves the cyberspace while Sonic fans trash them, get excited for the open world in spite of how empty people see it as, apparently some even being blown away with the bosses in some areas. It's just a weird place for the game to be in where the critics are less of a known factor than how fans will take it lol

I can definitely see repetition, jank, and boring environments tanking the game's scores though, if they do become bothered by it. That, and the tone doesn't seem like it's hitting a good balance to really resonate with everyone, either

 

[Japanmanx3]

Thanks for the in-depth details Seven Force .

 

[Dust]

I wanted to be optimistic but my friend (reviewer) says the game completely falls apart later and leaves a sour impression. Not sure what he means cause I don't grill him about details until review can be published. Dunno if this gonna score well now.

 

[Jahranimo]

I wanted to be optimistic but my friend (reviewer) says the game completely falls apart later and leaves a sour impression. Not sure what he means cause I don't grill him about details until review can be published. Dunno if this gonna score well now.

Click to shrink...

Might be something to do with the finale like Seven Force said a page or two back.

 

[RockmanBN]

Some info on why the last islands are the way they are

Spoiler

 

[Viale]

Yup

I thought MC would fall between 72-76 but these impressions cement it.

Still getting it day one on PC though lol, running around the islands still looks like fun to me.

Click to shrink...

I'm really enjoying my time with it. Probably the most fun I've had with a sonic since GameCube days.

It def has some budget issues/jank though. Mid 70s is def about where I'm seeing yeah.




Also, it's amazing seeing so much reference to the past game's stories. Makes the world feel a lot more connected. While I feel the story/characters distinctly take a back seat, it's definitely some of the best character writing/dialogue the series has gotten in a very long time.


Granted, it's still a sonic game, but I'm enjoying how they portray the characters a good deal.