Sonic Frontiers Dev Responds to Fan Backlash, Describes Open Zone Gameplay

Sonic Frontiers is bringing something different to the 3D Sonic formula. In gameplay shown this month, Sega’s hedgehog completes challenges and grinds up towers in a Breath of the Wild-style experience. However, some fans aren’t yet completely convinced by this open-world approach, and the recent hands-on impressions from the media during Summer Game Fest haven’t helped all that much. Studio Head Takashi Iizuka recently spoke to these concerns.

RELATED: Sonic Frontiers Gameplay Trailer Shows Big Open Zone

In a talk with Video Games Chronicle, Iizuka tried to explain how fans weren’t seeing the bigger picture when it comes to what he calls “open zone” gameplay. In fact, Iizuka went as far as to say that Sonic Frontiers‘ systems don’t exist in other comparable titles and it will instead create a completely new game format. He was not more specific than that, but he said he hopes that Sonic Team can better explain the game before launch and that being able to play it will make all of the difference.

“If people come to Gamescom or Tokyo Game Show, [they can] get that hands-on experience to play the game and understand what the game is,” he said. “Because right now we’re just kind of watching videos of people reacting to what they believe the game to be.”

Some Sonic fans also took to social media to call for the game’s delay after seeing the first gameplay, but Iizuka feels confident about Sonic Frontiers‘ internal testing.

“We have been listening to the comments that come back, but we’ve also been getting a lot of great feedback from people who rate the game and are like, ‘I had a lot of fun playing this game, I’d give it like an 80 or 90 point score out of 100.’”

Some of the complaints also stemmed from its poor technical performance. But Iizuka said that these bugs should be ironed out before launch, as Sonic Team is currently in the “cleaning up” phase of development.

MORE: Sonic Frontiers Bursts Into the Wilds in Extended Gameplay Trailer

For the time being, Sonic Team is still working on the game, which is still scheduled for a 2022 release. But that’s not all that is on Sonic’s horizon. Not only is Sonic Origins close to releasing, but Iizuka also spoke about the possibility of a Sonic Adventure 3 (but the team is not planning on it) in the aforementioned VGC interview.