Sonic Frontiers marks perhaps the biggest shift for Sonic gameplay-wise since the speedy hedgehog made the leap to 3D. For the first time ever, Sonic’s going open-world, offering players untold freedom to run around and go fast at their own pace. There’s a lot of new stuff being added to the usual mix this time around, but while Sega has teased plenty of Sonic Frontiers, many would agree that it has yet to really show how all of these different elements come together to form a cohesive whole.
Luckily, Sega’s addressed that issue with a new overview trailer for Sonic Frontiers. The three-minute video offers a succinct summation of the gameplay that, if not providing anything necessarily new, lays out the gist of what’s been revealed about Frontiers so far in the clearest and most easy-to-understand fashion to date.
Sonic Frontiers will begin with Sonic and his friends Amy and Tails journeying to the mysterious Starfall Islands in search of the Chaos Emeralds, before a portal sucks them into the dimension known as Cyber Space. After managing to escape, Sonic finds himself on Kronos, one of the Starfall Islands, where players will be let loose to experience Frontiers’ “open zone” gameplay as they search for Amy and Tails and uncover the islands’ secrets.
Here, players will be free to explore each island, overcoming platformer obstacles, solving puzzles, tackling side-quests, and fighting bosses as they go. By defeating bosses, players can earn gears used to unlock portals to Cyber Space stages based on levels from classic 2D and 3D Sonic games. Clearing these will reward vault keys that unlock Chaos Emeralds and, by extension, new open zones to discover.
Outside the exploration loop, the video touches upon Sonic Frontiers’ combat. Fighting enemies will be more in-depth than in past games, as Sonic will have a much wider selection of attacks to utilize in addition to dodges, parries, and counters, as well as the new Cyloop ability that lets Sonic attack enemies by tracing a ring of light around them. Frontiers’ combat is designed to provide as much depth as a player wants, as a skill tree will let them unlock and upgrade new abilities if they want more variety, while an auto-combo feature will let them activate combos with a single-button if they want to keep things simple.
Overall, reception to the overview trailer seems to be pretty positive, with the consensus being that it’s definitely an improvement over the somewhat rough-looking gameplay footage that Sega first showed off earlier this summer. Excitement seems to be growing as the big picture becomes clearer and clearer, and although many fans are still worried that Sonic Frontiers is launching too soon, the latest preview seems to be leaving most hopeful that the game will deliver an open-world Sonic adventure that’s memorable for more good reasons than not.
Sonic Frontiers launches on November 8 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
