Sonic Frontiers' director Morio Kishimoto has said in a recenttweetthat he considers the recently released game a “global playtest” for the future of theSonicfranchise. He acknowledged that there are some underachieving or imperfect aspects of the final product, and the opinions of the fans and critics will be held as a priority in dealing with these shortcomings and the series' direction going forward.
In a recent tweet, Kishimoto said, “we are checking the opinions of the critics and everyone” and ended the tweet by saying that the team “still have a long way to go, and we take this seriously as a global playtest”.
The playtest refers primarily to the open zone concept, a first for the series and for platformers in general. In an interview withIGN, the director described his new creation as an open-world made playable. That’s why the cyberspace levels took a backdrop in this game to leave more space for introducing playable gimmicks to this new open world exclusive to Sonic Frontiers. Kishimoto has also clarified toVenturebeatthat Sonic Frontiers is the future of the series, and later entries for the next 10 years will revolve around perfecting the formula of the open zone and pushing it toward new grounds with the help of the Sonic community.
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To capture the feeling of a desolate Island full of mystery and intrigue, Sound Director Tomoya Ohtani shared the style he used in bringing this theme to life, using “Shimmering” sounds recorded with live instruments. The background music on the secondAres Island, for example, included the “Santur,” an Iranian percussion instrument, the “Duduk,” an Armenian folk instrument, the Indian “tabla,” the French “Cajuns”, and the Greek “Jura”. So the open zone experience allows for a variety of musical themes depending on the location and the theme of each part of the Starfall Islands, the main archipelago of the game setting.
According toproducer lizuka, Sonic Frontiers does not only aim at transcending the previous Sonic titles but tackling the problems of modern open-world games, such as slow and sluggish movements. The engine — which he labeled the Hedgehog engine — is also crafted from scratch to support creating multiple directions and ways to tackle each Area, instead of just the scripted route present in most open-world games.
The Sonic Team have created many new things because they believe this is the best formula for the future of Sonic, and now they will keep perfecting their formula to provide even more exhilarating and enjoyable experiences for fans around the world.
NEXT:Sonic Frontiers “Isn’t Similar” To Breath Of The Wild, Says Sonic Team Head
