From start to finish, we were able to maintain a sense of speed with ideal level design for a Sonic game.” In Sonic Frontiers, the Open Zone offers a lot of content already, so raising the difficulty in order to increase the play time was no longer necessary. However, for Sonic games the problem has always been that higher difficulty can get in the way of the game’s sense of speed. It is natural for level-based platformers to become more difficult as you progress. “In previous Sonic titles, we had to gradually make the stages more difficult in order to reach an amount of play time that would satisfy players. “In the Open Zone, the high-speed gameplay can carry players in any direction without the limitations of a stage or course,” Kishimoto said. What should differentiate Sonic Frontiers from such titles is, as always, pure speed.
Mario’s recent 3D endeavors have been more open-ended as well, and Super Mario Odyssey and Bowser's Fury seem to share similarities with the direction that Sonic appears to be taking in Frontiers’ Open Zone concept. Since the Open Zone’s design was based on the concept of a world map, Kishimoto sees Sonic Frontiers as a rival to other platformers such as Mario, Kirby and Donkey Kong rather than other free-roaming experiences. From grind rails to platform objects, loops and so on, the Open Zone is packed with the athletic action we love in Sonic games,” Kishimoto explained. “The Open Zone stands central in Sonic Frontiers’ gameplay, and the game’s levels exist as elements within this area. However, going from Kishimoto’s explanation, Sonic Frontiers’ Open Zone is much more than just a 3D hub world of the likes of Super Mario 64 or Sonic Adventure. Usually, a level-based platformer’s world map is an area from which the player departs to various stages. But how do we evolve a level-based platformer like Sonic into this new Open Zone? That’s what Sonic Frontiers is all about,” said Kishimoto. We wanted to provide a next-gen level-based platforming experience.
A true evolution of this structure is what we see as the essence of Sonic Frontiers’ field. The system has been used by countless platformers since, even to this day. I believe this was the first game to introduce a world map. Kishimoto sees the Open Zone as an evolution of the traditional world map – of course, one that has been tailored to match Sonic’s high-speed gameplay.
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