The director of Sonic Frontiers shared his thoughts about ditching the Boost mechanic for the next game. The latest mainline entry in the Sonic franchise had changed quite a bit about the series in both narrative and gameplay. Instead of a linear stage-by-stage adventure, Sonic Frontiers encourages the player to explore a variety of islands and biomes, where he must collect the Chaos Emeralds to take on the islands' bosses, the Titans. A lot of gameplay mechanics from previous titles were refined for this game, including the Boost mechanic.Sonic’s Boost move was first introduced in 2005’s Sonic Rush spin-off, where the move would propel Sonic forward and damage any enemies that he came into contact with. The first mainline title to use this mechanic would be 2008’s Sonic Unleashed, and would become a staple part of Sonic’s gameplay in many titles to follow, with Frontiers having it in both the open-zone islands and linear Cyber Space stages. This mechanic, however, might be removed in the next entry, based on comments from Frontiers’ director, Morio Kishimoto.The director has been responding to many fans’ questions on Twitter in the last few months since the game’s release, either responding to things like critiques about Sonic Frontiers‘ final boss fight, or general questions about the game’s development. One of the questions he was asked was if there was anything that he’d like to iterate on for the Boost gameplay style, to which he replied that for the next game, he’d like to try making a game without the Boost mechanic.
Twitter users then replied to Kishimoto, some in favor of removing the mechanic, while others believed that the Boost worked and needed more fine-tuning to support things like momentum. One of the replies from Kishimoto stated that the team understands the benefits of the Boost move, explaining that he’s experimenting with the gameplay alongside moves like Sonic’s Spin Dash. He also comments he’d like to try making level designs that don’t rely on the mechanic, making them more in the style of the Sonic Adventure series, noting how the duology is “legendary” according to a rough translation.
Sonic Frontiers saw the biggest gameplay shift for the series in years, with the open-zone freedom being praised by many fans and reviewers. There are still quite a number of hurdles that affect certain aspects of the game, which Kishimoto stated he was open to criticism about. He has also stated that Frontiers is the template for the next Sonic games, with him calling this the franchise’s “third-generation” as well. Time will tell if the next Sonic game will be more Adventure-like in the future.
Sonic Frontiers is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
